TEST DRIVE

[stigematize]

Maybe you've been here for a while, or maybe you just got here. Either way, you're all in the same situation - you've been turned into a magical gemstone and stranded in a foreign world! And all you've been left with is the clothes on your back, stripped of all powers except one.

Clearly, you’ll just have to make the best of it.

How this works:

☆ This is a test drive for cosmographia, which means you should get a little familiar with the setting and premise.

☆ Otherwise, this is just meant to help you feel out how you may play and serves mainly as a chill interest gathering and get together kind of post! No app necessary, and you don't need to play in this post to apply - or vice versa.

☆ Everybody is welcome! There are no character limitations; pg au oc canon pigeon whatever. Just toss up a topcomment and/or jump any threads that pique your interest.

☆ Rules-wise: Be cool to yourself and others, and keep in mind the other game rules too.

☆ If you do apply to the game and are accepted, and you want to keep the CR, you may so long as what you did isn't setting breaking and everyone involved agrees.


YOUR OPTIONS:

☆ You find yourself in the Heart of a ruined temple. There is a large glowing gem that thrums with some kind of rhythm, and jewels scattered all over the room, kept in strange bubbles. At the very least, touching the large gem will give you a standard info-dump, but some of you might be a little cautious about touching weird luminescent gems. Good thing that there are other people there too!

☆ Or perhaps you already know everything there is to know, and are there in the Heart of the Ruined Temple to greet new arrivals. Or perhaps you simply had business there already, like storing away a corrupted gem from a monster, when someone new seemingly dropped in from no where.

☆ It's Farmer's Market day in the plaza of Waverly Bay! Perhaps you're there perusing the goods and strike up conversation, or accidentally bump into someone and get to know them that way. It's a fairly standard day.

☆ There's an event! You don't really know what else to call them - missions, perhaps? But something in the temple was triggered, and the glowy Heart gem has something new to "tell" you: If you want a new power, you should try telling other people two truths and a lie. Those who you interact with must try and divine the lie from your statements.

You have no idea how something this simple will get you a power, but hey.

Comments

green triangles | that thing what this thing is based on

[kindergartencop]

[Peridot is a lot of things right now. Confused. Isolated. Maybe a little itchy. But primarily she's just very, very, very annoyed. Which is honestly the norm for her, so she holds onto it like a life preserver. Her own irritation isn't the only touchstone for her here, but it's the only one she can reasonably rely on.

Everything about this seems like a pale mockery of familiar things. These Gems aren't the Gems she knows, and the idea of it only makes her madder.

Anybody in the temple will probably notice her slowly circling the Heart, looking it over for cracks or impurities or, hopefully, some kind of access port. Every few rotations, she lets out a vague grunt of frustration and starts circling around the other way.]

[syborg]

[ He doesn't know what the green triangle person's deal is, but it's not like he hasn't seen weirder, so he ignores her constant circling for the moment.

After a few minutes of this, he gets curious enough to look over and ask. ]

Did you lose something? [ Did something roll under the giant gem? Clearly this is the only answer. ]

[kindergartencop]

No.

[The answer comes quickly, and maybe a little too curtly, but there's no such thing as "too curt" as far as she's concerned. Peridot doesn't bother taking her eyes off of the Heart, but she at least stops moving for a second.]

I'm looking for an access point. If you knew what you were doing, you would be helping me.

[The implication here being that he doesn't know, so he can't help. Obviously.]

Re: green triangles | that thing what this thing is based on

[connie_maheswaran]

[It was bound to be that some people here, once Connie lurked, were going to stand out. One of them was this person who was obviously supposed to BE an actual gem, looking at the heart of this place. She had to be cautious, of course: by description, this sounded like the gem that Steven had fought off, the ones that had invaded Beach City on that ship. Best not to scare her off].

You don't look that scared to be here. Is this normal?

[kindergartencop]

[If Peridot could read bracketed text, she'd be insulted by the notion that she could ever possibly be scared of a human. But she can't, so instead she'll bristle and slowly turn to face Connie, a look of indifference and vague disgust coming over her.]

Hardly. If this was "normal", I would already be gone.

[connie_maheswaran]

[Right. She hadn't expected anything less, and this just verified that it, in fact, WAS the Peridot that Steven had told her about. While Connie had at least the assurance that she couldn't directly do anything to them right now, she was less enthused about the idea that Peridot was as stuck here as she was. This meant that the home world gems weren't responsible for this new development at all].

So maybe it did randomly grab people who it thought should be gems, even though you're already one. But why, that's what I don't get. Why here?

[She had to wonder this aloud. She didn't even know if they were on Earth, after all, so some verification would definitely help.]

[kindergartencop]

I don't know, and I don't care.

[It's a little painful, making the admission that she doesn't know something, but it's necessary. All that she's concerned with right now is leaving. There are bigger things at stake right now. Besides, the sooner she gets rid of this garish fake gem in her forehead, the better. It looks like hers, superficially, but the cut is rougher, and the angles are slightly off. It doesn't feel quite right.]

Why don't you figure it out?

[Said with no small amount of venom. Haha, silly humans, of course you can't figure it out.}

[connie_maheswaran]

[WELL. If she was going to be that unhelpful about it. She might as well talk to someone who was new here].

I think I will. If a gem can't figure it out, I'm sure there are plenty of people who'll have found something important by now.

[kindergartencop]

[Oh, you did not just start talking smack about gems. Those are fighting words, young lady. Peridot glances off to the side and rolls her eyes.]

If I can't figure it out, then I doubt anybody else can.

[And she can figure it out. She just.

Yknow.

Hasn't done it yet.]

[connie_maheswaran]

[So it might have been slightly possible that Connie had been purposely needling Peridot, if for no other reason than the gem was responsible for invading Beach City and giving Steven his black eye, not to mention him almost breaking their friendship].

Oh, I don't know. There are a LOT of people here, not even just humans. Who knows what information they have?

[ohmygah]

[A conclusion.

1) Osaka is surrounded by jewels and bubbles.
2) This green person is sort of diamond shaped, like a jewel.

Therefore, adding together 1 and 2, we can conclude that this green person... is a fashion designer.

Yes, it all makes sense.

Osaka's never met a fashion designer before, but judging by how she's circling the Big-Looking Gem, she must be engrossed in her work. Osaka watches the large woman for a short while before attempting to imitate her pacing around the titular object of note. The green woman seemed like an adult. She must know what to do. It's best to follow her lead.]

[kindergartencop]

[That is an amazing and not at all faulty deduction. Great job, Osaka. A+.

Anyway, most of her focus is on the Heart right now, so she only barely notices the small human circling it alongside her. After two or so laps, it starts to become a curiosity. After three laps, it's a minor nuisance. Then it's an irritant. Finally, after six consecutive laps around the gem, it's become such an issue in her mind that she can't do anything now but address it.

Peridot stops abruptly and turns on her heel, fixing the human spawnling with a glare that could wither houseplants.]

Just what do you think you're doing?

[ohmygah]

H-Huh?

[She certainly wasn't expecting to get called out by the fashion designer. Then again, if television has taught her anything it's that fashion designers are very irritable, prideful perfectionists with a specific system of doing things. Circling around the Big Thing with her probably threw off her groove. Dang. Hopefully the green lady won't get too mad. Maybe she'll understand if Osaka just tells the truth.]

I was just doing what you were doing!

[kindergartencop]

Well... stop it!

[She seriously has no idea what else to say. No matter where she goes, no matter what she does, someone is always getting in her way or running underfoot or screwing something up. Of course that'd be the case here too.

With that she turns to face the big ol' hunk of gem and drops to one knee, bringing her hand (or more accurately her handless fingers) close to its surface. Not close enough to touch it, but close enough.]

You're breaking my concentration. Why don't you go hunt, or gather, or whatever it is you do?

[ohmygah]

Sorry? You just seemed like you knew what ta do.

[She glances around in consideration. She's never really hunted or gathered before. She's not even sure what that entails.]

Like what?

[kindergartencop]

[Oh goddammit, is she still there? Of course she is. Why would't she be? Peridot groans and doesn't bother taking her eyes off of the crystal when she talks.]

I don't care. Just make sure you do it somewhere else.

[no_refunds]

[Vague grunts of frustration? He knows that language.]

Tell me about it. This is way too much weird for one day.

[kindergartencop]

"Weird" is subjective.

[And anybody who's known Peridot for an extended period of time knows that she's not a huge fan of subjectivity. Still, it is a little unsettling, even if she's loath to admit it.]

I prefer "inefficient". Everything here is so primitive.

[She enunciates "primitive" like it's a curse word.]

[no_refunds]

"Primitive"? Well, yeah, I guess you could say that a giant living heart made out of stone is primitive. In a primal existential horror sorta way.

[kindergartencop]

Hardly. It's practically a child's toy.

[Seriously. This is some straight-up stone age garbage from her perspective.

also don't ask how she knows what a child is shh]

[no_refunds]

[...squints at Peridot

...squints at the Heart]


Are we talking about the SAME gigantic evil heart, or..? I.. I feel like I'm missing somethin'.

[kindergartencop]

Of course you would.

[He is a human, after all. He probably understands the mechanisms at play even less than the clods who built this thing.]

I could put together a better database than this in an hour. They didn't even bother giving it a proper access port!

[It can't possibly be something that has no basis in anything she's familiar with.

That's just silly.]

[beyourrock]

[Pearl had woken up nearby, and probably equally as confused as Peridot. She wobbles to her feet, trying to recollect her thoughts as to what happened last.

But she does notice the Heart right behind her, standing on the opposite side in which Peridot is at currently. Pearl stares up at it in awe and even more confusion. She stares at her faint reflection in the Heart's surface and slowly walks around it as well to see the sheer size of it.

Oblivious that she's walking in the opposite direction of the other Gem.

And bumps right into her.]

[kindergartencop]

[Fortunately for the both of them, Peridot's been far too absorbed in her analysis to notice that there's a Crystal Gem up and about.

Unfortunately, she also doesn't notice Pearl until she walks straight into her, the impact knocking her to the ground. It actually takes a second for her to process what just happened, and she lays flat on her back, the world gradually coming back into focus.

Eventually, she groans and rises slowly to her feet, anger replacing confusion. She's all ready to deliver a scathing tirade when she actually gets a look at who just bumped into her and all Peridot can do is jab an accusatory finger at Pearl.]

You!

[beyourrock]

[Pearl falls back as well onto her rear with a small yelp of surprise. She shakes her head, rubbing it as she makes it back up to her feet. She opens her mouth to apologize before her pale blue eyes rest on who exactly it was.

At first a surge of fear washes over her frame, but it is quickly replaced by seething anger as she bristles, her hands in tight fists.]

Peridot! Don't tell me this is your doing! [It could have been, seeing as how Gem technology had advanced so much since she last saw it.]