TEST DRIVE - Part 3

[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.

☆ This post will remain open until it begins to approach 5000 comments! Then a new test-drive post will be made.

☆ 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

Picky Minch | Mother 2: Harmony (Earthbound/Mother 2 AU)

[twentycoolpoints]

A - Farmer's Market

[Markets are pretty cool places. Especially big open ones. Extra-especially ones in places way far away from anywhere he's been before. He's wandering casually from stall to stall, from vendor to vendor, seeing what there is to see.]

Hey, cool!

[There's someone with a table of wooden toy animals, and Picky is reaching in to pick up a cat with a bobbling head and what seem to be jointed legs. He laughs to himself and starts to try to manipulate said joints... only to find out that it wasn't jointed. And he just snapped one of those legs off with a little crack.]

Uh... oh geez... uh...

[And now he is looking desperately around, trying to see if anyone noticed his screw-up.]

B - Two Truths and a Lie

[Let it not be said that Picky turns away from a challenge. Especially a challenge that, if he succeeds at, he'd possibly get something cool for. So what if it's kind of personal? And goofy? He can do goofy. And... and he's getting better at the personal.]

Uh, hey... hey! [He's sticking close to the temple, hoping to maybe pose his questions to a semi-familiar face, or at least someone that's in the same situation and kind of down with it.] I've got a thing I need you to do! I'm gonna say some stuff, and you've got to figure out what's the lie. Okay?

[He stops himself, scratches at his head, and mumbles] ...that made sense, right? [Then he snaps back into the moment, putting on a grin.]

One, I'm really great at making Halloween costumes! Two, I'm a vegetarian. Three, me and my friends stopped a time-travelling bad guy from wrecking a city!

A

[ceasetoexist]

[Oh good God what?

Pokey had been hanging around the marketplace more and more recently, and while he had come to recognize some of the faces there...this is one he had never expected to see. There's no real hesitation for him at being sure who he recognizes is who he thinks it is; as if by instinct, he can tell it's his brother.

He stands gawking in the open for a moment before disappearing a bit more into the crowd, eyes never leaving as he watches his brother play with...wooden animal toys. As if he needed any more confirmation it was his brother.

Well. A version of his brother. He already knows it's not his Picky from Mayfield; even without the age difference, it just doesn't feel like him, isn't him. Is a Picky that's a stranger to him. Pokey thinks for a moment about all the things that could have happened to this Picky in all the time he's grown; he's got to be at least ten years older than when he would have last saw him.

What were those ten years like?

It's a stupid thought, but Pokey can't help but have it all the same. Did the nerd have friends? ...Well. Probably. But did he have anyone to protect him since Pokey was gone? And Pokey knew that he had to have gone; Pokey can't imagine a reality in which he stayed.

Deep down, Pokey knew that he never returned to watch over or get his brother, to even see this Picky. To have cared about him growing up. The coward.

...Pokey thinks of just walking away. Ten years without him in his life, and this Picky looks fine. Looks happy. What could he possibly add to this Picky's life at all?...He'd probably be happier if he didn't even know Pokey was here.

The teenager starts to make plans in his head to leave, to slip away and think of ways to keep Picky from noticing him. ...Really, this plan could go bad super easy the more he thinks about it, but...well. He doesn't want to burden Picky with him, and...

...Aaaaand then Picky is breaking the toy he's playing with. Good job, stupid. Pokey just stares more for a moment before sighing and walking forward to the clerk of that stand.]

Hey.

[He says, putting money down onto the clerk's stand.

Hi Picky. Guess who it is? He may not look like your brother before he ran the fuck off, but at least he doesn't look like the grotesquerie that your brother would become either. This Pokey is maybe two or three years younger than you, still a bit older than when he disappeared, and a lot healthier looking than the monster you last saw, though that's not hard.]

I'm buying the dumb cat toy.

[twentycoolpoints]

[Picky's panic had re-directed itself to trying to maybe get the broken-off leg back into place somehow, and that kept him from seeing just who was coming up alongside him. And maybe if he looked busy and made an effort to try and fix things, he wouldn't get in trouble. Or called on his screw-up. The voice, though, is what sends a paralyzing jolt up his spine. That's Porky.

Teeth clenched, eyes wide under those bangs, he snaps around and stares at Pokey, at even more of a loss now that he's set eyes on him. He's... he looks normal. Not all old and decrepit and blue. No mech ferrying him around. He has no idea what is happening, for he can't possibly process all the implications and possibilities fast enough, but it cannot be good. Can't. Can't possibly.]

W-what?

[For instance, there is absolutely no reason that Porky would ever willingly bu y him a thing if there was not some malicious (or at least greedy) ulterior motive in action. Closing both of his hands around the pieces of the toy, he lifts them up over his head and slightly away from Pokey.]

Like hay you are!

[And then one hand comes back down to rifle in his pants pocket for money of his own. Which there isn't much of, but there is some kind of evil plan to be foiled here. He thinks. Probably.]

I don't know what you're up to but I'm not going to let you do... whatever... whatever it is! I've got this!

[If there is one thing that you can count on Picky to do, it is to throw himself blindly into a situation at full force and top volume.]

[ceasetoexist]

Oh man you got me! You stopped my evil friggin' plan of buying a cat toy! Good job!

[Well. What kind of reaction did he expect? In the end, it's not like Pokey could say Picky was wrong. He doesn't even know what kind of relationship this Picky had with his brother beyond, clearly, not good, which he should have expected as the norm.

Really, Pokey wonders for a moment if he has any right to get angry. He doesn't, he's pretty sure but...it doesn't stop him from getting so.]

I'm trying to help you, idiot! You probably haven't even set your crap up in the Temple so the Treasury would know you're here, have you?

[twentycoolpoints]

Well if it's your plan, it's probably evil!

[It's not a very nice thing to say, but ever since the whole mess in Fiveton, there were no nice words left for his brother. Especially not when he wasn't expecting to see him. And when he didn't look at all right. Or wrong? Was it wrong that he didn't look wrong?

Picky stops rummaging around in his pocket, face falling, then scrunching up in confusion.]

Treasury? What? I've got my stuff set up! What're you... I've got everything under control!

[It is amazing how, toe-to-toe and face-to-face, it's easy to fall back into old conversational patterns.]

[ceasetoexist]

[He deserves that. Deep down, Pokey knows he deserves that, and that Picky deserves to tell him that.

It doesn't stop the brief, very small look of pain on his face. But soon he's at indignation.]

Yeah you're clearly doing great! You've already broken merchandise and don't have the money to pay for it, gee whiz, you've got it all under control.

Did you at least touch the giant gem in the Temple? Did you know you have a room there?

[Come on you little nerd you're older than him now. You have to be better prepared than this.]

[twentycoolpoints]

[There's something funny in Pokey's expression, but there's no time to try and work out what it is. Indignation is way more familiar. And it's something Picky can express right on back.]

I've got the money to pay for it! And it's not... it's not that broken!

[Now's probably a good time to stop holding the toy cat over his head. He looks down at it with considerable regret, and seems about ready to say something sad or sigh, but his brother's not giving him the time for it, really.]

I know, okay? I know! Stop thinking I don't know anything, because I know way more about a lot of things than even you do!

[There's a pause for breath. And then, more quietly,]

....why're you here?

A

[on_vehic_roids]

[Whoop. Well that was something. Moving over to him, Shou tapped the younger teen on the shoulder.] Here, I can repair it.

[twentycoolpoints]

Dwah!

[Picky jolts and pulls the broken toy towards himself defensively.]

It's, it's cool! I've got... I mean...

[And then he leans in, voice hushed so that the vendor doesn't catch what he's doing.]

Y'mean, have you got some glue or something?

[on_vehic_roids]

No but I have something better.

[Clapping his hands quietly, so the vendor didn't notice, Shou recreated the toy.] Swap it out, quick before he notices.

[twentycoolpoints]

[Picky has seen some pretty strange stuff in his time, so he's not too surprised. Surprised enough to lean forward and let his bangs drift back enough to reveal how wide his eyes are, but not surprised enough to shout about it.]

....sure! Got it!

[And then he is snatching the toy from Shou and putting it down right where he'd gotten the original from.

The vendor seems to have noticed nothing. Yay?]

[on_vehic_roids]

[Sheepishly, he flipped the vendor a few coins who seemed to nod.] Lets... move on, before he makes us pay for the whole thing.

[twentycoolpoints]

Right, yeah, right, sure...

[He gives a sheepish grin and a nod to the vendor, then cringes away and turns all the way about, making with that moving on. And kind of presuming that the person that just saved his butt will be coming along.]

Hey, hey? Thanks a bunch.

B

[agent3]

[The unfamiliar boy who's approached Thida with his challenge gets a quiet, thoughtful look. She knows this is a thing that people do here, sometimes, but it's still weird to be bombarded with a guessing game by someone she doesn't know.]

...First one's the lie?

[Doesn't mean she won't play, though.

Re: B

[twentycoolpoints]

What?

[His face falls and he slumps slightly forward.]

How'd you figure it out so fast? No one told you, right?

[And thus goes a very, very short game of two truths and a lie.]

[agent3]

[She shakes her head, though...is he for real? She's pretty good at guessing, then.]

Never met you.

[twentycoolpoints]

But no one's mentioned me, either?

[He casts an anxious look left and right, then makes himself shrug and huff and put his attention back on this funny-haired girl.]

...good guess? Every year I try to make one myself and every year everyone agrees that I did a really cruddy job of it.

[agent3]

[Shakes her head. No one she's met has.]

Why cruddy?

[twentycoolpoints]

Uh... I can't sew and I'm usually pretty broke so... so that makes it hard to turn out a quality costume.

[And then something occurs to him.]

...so you believe I stopped a time-traveling bad guy from wrecking a city?

[alittlemystery]

[Two truths and a lie, huh? Considers what he's been told. looks the kid over...]

Probably the second one?

[twentycoolpoints]

Nope! I'm totally vegetarian. I've gotta make a pot of meatless chili for everyone sometime, for real, yeah...

[He is briefly getting lost in his awesome chili-making plans, because they're really great, but the self-satisfied grinning and nodding and sort of staring off into space only lasts a few moments.]

...So, uh, which one of the other two's a lie?

[alittlemystery]

Considering you're here I'm more able to believe the last one than the first. Everyone has already fought monsters or have been magic space warriors or whatever before they got here.

Unless you're like super normal and if you are I am really sorry about everything that's gonna happen to you.

[twentycoolpoints]

Everyone? Seriously?

[He's not sure if he should feel put out that he's not all that special in comparison, or excited that he is apparently cool enough to be in the Did Super Cool Hero Stuff club. After a little indecisive side-to-side mouth motion, he settles on the latter, smiles, and shrugs.]

No! No, no way, I'm not super normal! I'm just... kinda normal? Only a little normal! I mean, you don't NEED to be a psychic from the future with lasers and missles and stuff to be a hero or anything.

Uh. In my experience.

[alittlemystery]

You'll fit right in then. I didn't have any weird powers or whatever until I got here either. And I kinda forget I have them half the time anyway.

Being smart is way more helpful than having missiles.

[twentycoolpoints]

I don't know. Sometimes having missiles really comes in handy.

So, uh, what is gonna happen to me, anyway? Not that I'm worried or anything, but... it's good to know this stuff.