cosmoooc | TEST DRIVE

Entry tags:

!test drive

TEST DRIVE - Part 3

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Dave, your explanations suck. Explanations generally don't bring up more questions than they provide answers. )

Aight. So mini-me thinks this here's part of the game.

( He looks over his shoulder. Takes in the sight of living, breathing human beings going about their day. Totally nonchalant, not a care in the world. No meteors raining from the sky, no horrible monsters bearing down on them (temple rock says that's coming later, though, so clearly it's not gonna stay this peaceful).

Then he looks down at himself, reaching a hand up to touch a raised shape on his stomach. Unless his stab wound's chosen to scab over in the most unusual way, this here's gotta be the rock Dave mentioned. )

By my estimations, chances of that aren't looking real high.

[god rude he doesn't know how to do this, okay??? his mind's still reeling because how are you here, he doesn't know how to deal with you being here]

Yeah, I dunno. Maybe he just...

[maybe it was just wishful thinking on dirk's part? since dirk knows something bro doesn't. since dirk knows that they fail, that their sessions are both doomed and their players dead.]

You'd have to ask the guy yourself, I guess. He said he wasn't sure, though.

Neither am I.

( a shrug )

I'm just going off a precursory glance here. If that's what he thinks, he's probably got a good reason for thinkin' it.

[Wow. Narcissist. Bro would say that about another iteration of himself, wouldn't he?

But if anyone knows how Dirk operates, it would have to be Bro. So if he says it, it's probably true.]

He's been here a while longer than me. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew something about this place that I didn't.

( Ain't nothing narcissistic about the stone cold truth, lil bro. )

How long?

Um, a couple of months maybe? Not sure. I've been here-- well, the first time I came here was three years ago. For me. For everyone else it was about five months ago. Weird time shit, this place pulls people from all over. Sometimes you get folks who were nabbed from so early they haven't even heard of toilet paper or toilets and you've gotta spend a good half-week holding their hand and teaching them that pooping in the streets is unconscionable behavior.

( Shit. Three years, huh? He's missed three whole birthdays. Got a lot of catching up to do. There's a part of him that's tempted to just reach over and pull at ears, pull at shades, prod at a nose. Give an exaggerated, comical display of checking things out. Maybe not a good thing to embarrass him in public like this, though. Pissing Dave off first thing's not a good way to start a reunion, even if it does make it memorable.

Gotta behave and focus on the important thing first.

So it's possible to leave this place. Given what that giant hunk of rock had told him when he got here, maybe it picks based on which time period is most opportune for what it's trying to achieve. Or maybe it just punishes underachievers by spitting them back out.

He's thinking this is a one-way trip for him, though. )

Yeah? You taking the reins of this operation, bro?

(...

Fuck it. Good behavior's never gotten him anywhere. Dave'll live. Hope you're ready for a hell of a jab attack, dude. )

[Well. His bro would jump to that conclusion, wouldn't he? He's not sure whether to be flattered and feel incredibly pleased with himself, or be aggravated because his bro's thrusting all these expectations on him again and he's sure he'll feel like shit for not living up to them.

Just like old times.]

Wish I could tell you I was, but-- [wait what the fuck oh god

He's putting his arms up in front of him defensively because jesus christ why, please stop. this would be awful enough if they were alone but there are people here and you're making him look like an idiot please stop]

Bro-- Bro, holy shit cut it out that shit ain't cool, man, what are you even doing.

[and speaking of not cool, know what else isn't cool right now? DAVE STRIDER.

look at him open his big dumb mouth and make things worse with his rambly tone that is anything but disaffected. look at what you've done, bro. are you happy with yourself??]

Just checkin' to make sure you didn't go and lose anything while I wasn't around to keep an eye on things.

( He seems satisfied with this much, so he withdraws the attack. Look at how thoughtful he's being, Dave. He stopped when you told him to and everything. )

[Prick.]

Yeah, whatever, missed you too. Do you want to get the lowdown on this place or what.

I think I've more or less gotten the gist of it.

( Given that sorry explanation from earlier, he's almost tempted to say he'd be better off trying to figure things out for himself than attempting to decipher any of your rambling. )

[He raises an eyebrow at that, almost asks, "are you sure?" He manages to stop himself short, though. This is Bro he's talking to. Of course he's sure.]

If you say so.

[HE GUESSES. But... oh, wait. There's something he absolutely needs to tell Bro, isn't there?

Shit. He doesn't really want to approach this topic, but it's better that Bro find out from him now than from someone else later.]

There's something I've gotta tell you, though.

Yeah?

( So just tell him already. No need to lead into it. )

...Yeah.

[Fuck. Fuck. He doesn't want to tell Bro this. He's pressing the points of his thumbs into his thighs, and every instinct in his body is screaming out for him to flee. He can't... he doesn't know how to do this, doesn't know how Bro will react or think when he hears. He's such a fuckup, god. He never wanted Bro to find out this way. Or at all.

But...

"If your real brother ever comes here, you'd better hope you get to him first."

He has to warn Bro. Has to let him know. Has to own up to this, because he's had it with causing the death of his brothers. Whether it's this one or the other one, he refuses to let anything happen to them because of him again.]

There's... a guy here you need to be on the lookout for. Goes by Kurosaki. Has the air of a complete douche, got a gem in his eye.

[He pulls the collar of his shirt down to reveal his gem.]

This one. He, uh. He knows what you look like. I think, if he bumps into you, he'll probably want to fight you. I don't... really know if he fights fair or not. Wouldn't put it past him to try something dirty, so just. Yeah. Something to watch out for.

( So. He's been here for all of one day, and already there's a guy here with a bone to pick with him. That's gotta be a new record.

He can tell this subject's making Dave really uncomfortable, and he can tell that there's a lot more to this than Dave's letting on. Immediately his mind jumps to the thought that this guy did something to Dave. hurt Dave. wants to hurt him to get at Dave more and the muscles in his arm tense imperceptibly.

Something protective and dangerous flares up in him, and for an instant all he can think to say in reply is, "Where is he. I'll cut him open."

He knows better, though, so he gives himself time to calm down. Lets himself soak in the implications of what Dave's saying. Draws out the silence.

Then he speaks, keeping his voice even and calm. Casual as can be. )

I thought you'd know better than to worry about me.

[Typical Bro. As Dave expected, he isn't taking this seriously at all.]

I-- I know. But we all get nerfed when we get here, and this place rewards everybody with new powers every once in a while. I guess it's to give us an incentive to carry out our missions? But...

[Can Bro even still flashstep? If he can, he could probably still hold his own in a fight. If this place has taken that from him, then...]

He's equipped with these crazy light powers, and...

[He's sorry. He's so sorry, this is all his fault.]

Just. It takes a while to get the hang of this place, so I don't think... I mean, he's kind of a complete prick. He might, um.

[...take advantage of a powerless Bro who's still not familiar with his surroundings.]

He's not worth your time.

( Jesus Christ.

Whoever this fucker is, he's got Dave genuinely scared. What the hell did he do?

Bro should ask. Should make certain of the situation, because his mind's already jumping to the worst conclusions. But Dave's so obviously nervous about approaching him about this topic that he's hesitant to push. )

If he's not worth my time, then he ain't worth your consideration.

( Giving Dave the out. Now's the time to change the topic if Dave doesn't want to discuss this any further. )

[He hesitates.

He couldn't be more grateful for the chance to jump ship from this flaming wreckage of a topic. At the same time, though, he's not sure he can let things drop as they are. Bro still isn't getting it, still isn't taking this seriously.

Maybe it's impossible for him to understand, but Dave's had to watch some iteration of his brother die too many times now. Far, far too many times to be content to let things drop like this.]

You're not gonna go looking for him, are you?

( He clicks his tongue.

Should've taken the out, Dave. )

It's not my style to ignore this type of thing.

[...Yeah. Yeah. That's what he was afraid of.]

He doesn't have to know you're here.

He'd find out sooner or later. I'm not about to spend my days hiding.

...Yeah, I know.

Maybe I could talk it out with him. Sort things out.

[Shun's a stubborn asshole, and he doesn't want to talk to him. He doesn't even want to see him again. But if it has the slightest chance of stopping things from getting physical, he'll do it.]

( There's red-hot anger threatening to boil over and spill from the pits of his stomach again. )

Don't do that.

( If even talking about the guy's taking this much of an emotional toll on Dave, he doesn't want to think about how bad it could get if Dave has to confront the guy face-to-face. )

It's between me and him now. There's no need for you to get involved.

( The way things are, he can just kick the guy's ass and make sure he stays away for good. If Dave involves himself and gets hurt, Bro doesn't think he'll be satisfied to end things with an ass-kicking. )

You said he was a douchebag, yeah? There's no reasoning with those.

[Shit. Shit, shit. Shit. He knows Bro's right. His chances of a successful negotiation with Shun are slim to none. The most he'll get out of it is a hell of a headache and even more anxiety.]

But. It's pretty much impossible for me to not be involved, since I've basically been involved from the get-go. This whole thing is kinda my fault.

( Well.
He'd wanted to avoid pushing the subject before.
He'd given Dave plenty of opportunities to drop the topic.

Dave hadn't taken any of them. There's only one thing to do now. )

Tell me what happened.

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