rubycity_ooc | August Test Drive!

Entry tags:

August Test Drive!

Thinking of apping a character but not sure they'll fit in the city walls?

Have no fear, a meme for you is here.

Directions:

Use an RNG to choose a location and prompt, or wait for someone else to tag.

Post with your character with their name and canon on top!

If you'd like, leave contact info for people to get in contact for plotting and other such shenans.

Tag around! Make friends. Don't be afraid to chat OOC while tagging.

Locations

1.TRAIN STATION - The place where everyone gets dumped off at. Your first view of Ruby City, complete with informational posters telling you all about where you've ended up.
2. THE BEACH - Lovely year-round, though in the winter months, you're probably not likely to dip your toes in.
3. THE BLACK STALLION - A rather quaint bar. Supposedly, the burgers are great, but you don't see anyone immediately who's willing to serve you. Maybe you're meant to get it yourself.
4. THE OBELISK - The tall monolith in the center of the city marks the gathering place of many events, though right now it seems to be cold and dark.
5. THE CLOCKTOWER - Offering an impressive view of the city, several residents come here to clear their heads, if they don't mind braving the narrow staircase.
6. THE COFFEE JOINT - the front windows are warm and welcoming, and it seems there's always someone friendly enough to fix you a cup when you wander through.
7. THE CATACOMBS - Intrepid, aren't you? Those weird holes may beg exploring, but go too deep and you're going to be in a lot of trouble, considering the viciousness of the creatures held within.
8. THE CITY STREETS - All told, Ruby City is a lovely place, once you get past the fact that several of the buildings look derelict and on the verge of falling down. There's no harm in doing a little sightseeing.
9. THE PARK - You thought it'd be a lovely stroll, but the park is anything but friendly, if those approaching wolf-like creatures are any indication.
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like what we've come up with? Feel like picking your own place? There's a whole host of lovely locations to choose from in the City.

Scenarios

1. NEW ARRIVAL - Step off that train, walk down the street. People usually latch on to newcomers to try and help them out. Even if you look shy, the other residents probably won't be!
2. WATCH TALK - Feeling lost? Disoriented? Don't worry, everyone feels that way on their first day. Fortunately - if the signs at the station are to believed - the watch in your pocket can be used to talk to whoever else might be here.
3. BAD WEATHER - Aw, man. Whether it's snow, or rain, or just plain cold, today was definitely the wrong day to get dumped off in a City in the middle of nowhere.
4. A RUN-IN - Maybe you weren't watching. Maybe they weren't. Either way, you just bumped into someone. Perhaps apologies are in order?
5. HELP, IT HURTS - Clumsy, aren't you? Perhaps wherever the train brought you from wasn't so friendly, or you just tripped and twisted your ankle. Either way, you're in a bit of pain. Hopefully someone will notice your booboos and help patch you up.
6. HUNGRY - It isn't very obvious sometimes that restaurants are what they are, especially in a place like Ruby City. Where can a person go to get a bite to eat around here?
7. MISTAKEN IDENTITY - Hey, there's someone you know! --Or maybe not.
8. BEING FOLLOWED - Maybe you're just being paranoid, or maybe you've got a reason to be afraid. Whatever it is, it feels like there's eyes on you...
9. CURRENT EVENTS - None at the moment, but feel free to look through our event tag!
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like any of these ideas? Feel free to come up with your own!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

T...This can't be...just what sort of trickery is this?

[There's a British-sounding man built like an absolute giant standing baffled at the train station. He must have just stepped off.]

There's no way. If I was just in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, how could I go from a ship to a train without remembering a thing?! Not only that, how have my wounds healed so swiftly without the use of Hamon?

[Especially with the circumstances he was in - oh good god, no.]

Erina...Erina!

[Whereas before he was just warily glancing around, now he's actively searching for something, anything to take him back to that hell his honeymoon had become. In spite of his frantic shouting, Jonathan doesn't seem to have noticed the person that's approached him in his panic.]

Where is she? No matter what this place is, an illusion or a dream, I have to return and save Erina!

Edited 2015-08-02 19:35 (UTC)

1. TRAIN STATION

[The last thing he wants right now, frankly, is to be traveling again, and yet here he is on a train.

It doesn't feel right. He's alone here; the car is deserted and a desolate plain is skimming by at high speeds outside the window he's sitting next to, and he doesn't know how he got here or where he's going but he knows full well that this is wrong. He's not supposed to be traveling alone; he hasn't in the past fifty days, and even at death-whittled numbers, it's still wrong to be going on his own, wherever this is.

There ought to be someone across from him, and chatter in the next seats over; there ought to be an old man laughing and a younger one complaining, and a third one exasperated with all of them, and there ought to be cherries left sitting on his plate that he's not going to eat because they're someone else's favorite.

But there's not, and he's alone, and if there's one thing that the past fifty days have instilled in him, it's that when inexplicable things happen, it's probably the fault of an enemy Stand — and this is supposed to be over, but apparently it's never going to be over, is it.

What a fucking pain.

Consequently, when they pull into the station and he's compelled out onto the platform proper, he's adopted a stance that all but projects an aura of "don't fuck with me": his shoulders are slightly raised, the collar of his gakuran yanked up high and obscuring the lower half of his face, and his hands are firmly sunken into his pockets as he stalks around examining the informational posters in an attempt to accomplish one of two things.

Either he'll find out more about where he is, or the Stand user will make their move and attack him. And that's fine; either way it'll mean he's one step closer to getting to the bottom of all this.]

2. EN ROUTE TO THE CLOCKTOWER

[He's been watching the face of the clocktower from a distance for what seems like a long time. Maybe it is.

It's stupid to feel...weirdly drawn to it, somehow. He's not here for that kind of sentimental bullshit. And yet it seems like every so often, without meaning to, his gaze goes drifting back there — to the face, to the hands, to check what time it is. It's not the sort of thing he can just leave alone, even if it's the sort of thing he absolutely wants to.

As he weaves his way through the streets, looking for the right sequence of turns that will take him to the clocktower, he seems to have some sort of misty purplish humanoid tagging along with him, sticking close and seemingly acting like a watchdog for his companion's surroundings, while the aforementioned companion just squares his shoulders and walks with deliberate steps toward his goal like he thinks he's some kind of anime protagonist.

What a stupid thought that would be.]

3. POCKETWATCH SHITPOSTING

[Eventually, when Our Hero™ decides to get around to actually trying out his pocketwatch, he sits down and stares at it for a while before eventually settling on a plan of action. He doesn't particularly want to put his face out for everyone to see if he can help it, considering the fact that there's still that Enemy Stand User issue in play, and audio is pretty much out for the same reason.

That leaves text, and so after a while, he settles on a satisfactory test post and types it in, sending it out to the network at large mostly just to see what happens.]

Dolphins have to consciously control their breathing, which means that they can only turn off half their brains when they sleep, or else they'll lose their ability to breathe and drown.

[#NailedIt]

[Kakyoin really hated that clocktower.]

[It wasn't the clocktower's fault that he hated it, and really he knew it was a baseless hatred to have. He didn't like the pocketwatch he carried either, and by now Kakyoin just suspected his whole completely irrational stance was 'fuck clocks in particular'.]

[But he could see it too clearly from Spiral's rooftop (where he was commonly found when he preferred to be left alone) and every so often his wandering through the city led him past it. And on occasions like this, the student in dark sunglasses merely stopped and stared at it in a very similar manner...but he really wasn't seeing it at all. On those occasions, his mind was somewhere very distant from that city and that time.]

[So distant, in fact, that even Kakyoin might not even be aware another Stand user was within his range.]

Edited (i accidentally a word) 2015-08-02 19:53 (UTC)

[Every so often, Kakyoin made a point of wandering past the train station. He hadn't forgotten that Diarmuid's habit of doing the same had been immeasurably helpful in a very confusing and upsetting time, so it felt right for him to do the same.]

[And today it seemed that was a damn good habit to have, as the teenager came across someone that looked...oddly familiar, having one hell of a crisis that he could definitely recognize.]

It's-...no, 'it's fine' is a little inaccurate with all things considered, but please try to stay calm. I can try to explain the situation.

[Jonathan spins around abruptly - and was his hand glowing there, for just a second? - and stares down at the young man in front of him. He's...just a teenager. As marginally comforting as it is to know that there are indeed other people in this place, it's a little much to ask him to calm down right now.]

Please understand. My wife and an orphaned child are in danger, and the man I was raised with...he's planning to do unspeakable things that could jeopardize the entire world. Whatever explanation you have for this, make it a quick one, I implore you. I don't have the luxury of time to waste here.

[Unfortunately for everyone concerned, Kakyoin might not have been paying attention to the possibility of another Stand user in the vicinity, but Jotaro certainly was. It was, of course, a Stand user that was responsible for this. That was the natural explanation.

Hence, defeating the Stand user would make this go away. That was also the natural conclusion.

He didn't run outright, but he certainly stepped up his pace, moving quickly and with more directed purpose until — ]

...What the hell?

[...This...couldn't be right. There was no possible explanation for the person who appeared to be standing there, a short distance away from him, looking up toward the face of the clock —

Well, no. There was one, anyway.

It was one that ended in really pissing Jotaro off — and, well, to say that'd ended badly for the last guy who'd done it was a little bit of an understatement, and he frankly didn't see any point in breaking that streak this time, either.]

[...That glow seemed strangely familiar too. Where had he seen something like that before?]

[Never mind. For now, Kakyoin simply took off his sunglasses and held up his hands to show he wasn't intending to be a threat. It would be a pretty miserable welcome for anyone to immediately get into a fight.]

I understand, honestly. So the first thing you should be aware of is what I'm informed is common knowledge here: if and when one leaves this place, it's to the moment in which they left. Which is to say, time- [That sentence got a split second's hesitation, like he really didn't want to say this.] -...effectively stops, while we're here.

...?

[The sound of someone talking a short distance away managed to start pulling Kakyoin away from his train of thought. Which was good, as it seemed only to travel unpleasant places lately.]

[It took only a second to look over at the source of that voice, and then about five more to process what he was looking at. Because...was he really still alive? (of course he is, he has to be) Did he know what had happened? (from the way he's looking, i have a lot of explaining to do) And most importantly: did they win? (there's no way he would lose.)]

[But all of that and any number of intelligent responses were a little beyond Kakyoin at the moment, and he responded with an astonished:]

Jotaro?!

[...that's not something he's expecting: both the notion of stopped time and the scars running across the boy's eyelids. Young men didn't just get potentially traumatic injuries like that out of no where (trust him, he knows from experience), but he has other things to focus on at the moment.]

So you're saying...while I'm here, nothing will happen?

[It sounds impossible, but...it does get him to relax a little. The boy seems trustworthy, as if Jonathan's ever one to scrutinize, and at least Erina isn't in any more immediate danger than she already is. That doesn't mean he can just sit back and relax, though.]

Just what is this place? Obviously it can't be in the middle of the Atlantic, but are we near Britain? America?

[To his credit, he didn't move much; his expression didn't crack, and he didn't tense or scream or lose his shit in any of the ways that he frankly would've liked to at that moment. The way he did move was almost imperceptible, save to a trained eye — his stance widened just a touch, his face sank a little deeper behind the upturned collar of his coat, and the purple glow that'd been flanking him now manifested fully at his side, a little behind and to his right.

Star Platinum was looking rowdy today, too; more inclined to put his emotions on display than Jotaro, the implicit promise of violence in the Stand's demeanor was probably the one thing that most betrayed just how agitated his user was.]

...I was already going to say you made a mistake, doing whatever you did to bring me here.

[One fist came up out of his coat pocket, and turned into a pointed finger as he stabbed his silent accusation at the young man in his line of sight.]

But showing up looking like that? Now you've really pissed me off.

[Oh, wow. Yuuta jumped when a huge crack of thunder let out. Looking out the train window, he hesitated when the train slowed and stopped. He had no choice to get off then, but it would be just his luck: he didn't have an umbrella or a decent jacket with him.

He quickly darts under some awning.]

What is this place?

Well, that's...another problem. This city's location isn't so easy to pinpoint.

[Satisfied he wasn't about to get punched, Kakyoin lowered his hands and slipped his sunglasses into a pocket.]

There's no simple answer to this, so I'll be direct: It's not really anywhere so much as it just exists. It's more of an alternate world entirely its own as far as I've been told.

Wait, I didn't--

[It was Kakyoin's role from the start to evaluate all possible outcomes and plan strategies to counter them. Hierophant Green was not made for all-out combat like Star Platinum; he suited his user, clever and subtle. He'd had more than enough time to consider 'what if someone I know shows up and doesn't believe I'm who I say I am?' It had happened at least once before, so it wasn't as though that was an unreasonable suspicion.]

[But even so, it was almost funny that Kakyoin had expected this situation to unfold like this almost verbatim. 'Almost' because being punched by Star Platinum was not an experience he wanted to repeat. Hierophant appeared behind him in a flash, Kakyoin raising his own arms in front of him to intercept a potential attack and answering as quickly as he could.]

Jojo, it's really me this time, I can prove it--!

[Luckily, Noriaki Kakyoin always planned ahead.]

[There were two things that stood out immediately about that protest — not enough to make him drop his guard or ease up a single inch with Star Platinum, but enough that at least he was attending to the implications of what was being said rather than just dismissing it as useless deception outright.

He'd called him Jojo. That wasn't conclusive of anything; it was precisely what he'd expect from a good imitation of Kakyoin.

But he'd said this time, and there was something about the combination of that, the defensive pose, and the abrupt appearance of Hierophant Green that all just added up wrong.

Was there such a thing as a Stand powerful enough to put him in a circumstance like this, and imitate Kakyoin, and imitate Hierophant? Maybe.

But there was something in Kakyoin's urgency that just reminded him of the ambulance, and that stupid old man's fucking around, and — ]

...What's the best number car to play as in the racing game, F-Ultra.

[...Kakyoin wouldn't get that wrong, would he.]

You're...serious. An alternate world?!

[This is like something out of a storybook. Just to check, he feels around his neck to make sure he hasn't suffered significant blood loss. All that's left are two dark scars where he was injured before, though Jonathan has yet to notice the tears and bloodstains on the back of his suit where shrapnel used to be.]

This is difficult for me to fully comprehend. If this place exists, for whatever reason, outside the barriers of time and space, how are we standing here instead of where we're supposed to be? All of this should be impossible. Unless...

[He shakes his head, shrugging off the darker thought he just had. Besides, vampires and zombies should be impossible too, dingus.]

I have to get back to Erina. Even if time is stopped, I can't just leave her there alone with Dio!

[And now he's looking around for a train schedule, unaware that the name he just mentioned offhandedly is gonna wreck this kid.]

Edited 2015-08-02 20:38 (UTC)

[Kakyoin lowered his arms slightly once he was sure Star Platinum wasn't gunning for him that exact second, eyes narrowing behind black lenses. Truthfully, he'd come up with a couple different things to say to prove he actually was himself, but this was easier.]

[If asked in exactly those words, then 'Noriaki Kakyoin' would only answer one way:]

...for god's sake, Jojo, it's F-Mega.

[You filthy casual.]

And I always use twenty-eight.

I know. I honestly do understand the problem at hand, but for the momen--

[Kakyoin's sentence was cut off with a choked sound of disbelief. He did look familiar, didn't he? And that peculiar glow of light, hadn't he seen it used by...]

[Shit.]

I'm...sorry, what...did you just say?

[He turns around again in front of the posters. At least he knows the name of this place now. Ruby City. It's deceptively quaint-sounding.]

"I have to get back to my wife."

[Wait. Something's wrong, he can tell by the expression on his face. He looks...terrified, and Jonathan can't help but focus on the wave of sympathy that runs through him.]

Is...something the matter?

[...Okay, that was slightly more credibility, then. Right down to the exasperation.]

How did we meet and what did you give me when we did.

I was sent to kill you.

[Satisfied he could get out of this situation without being pummeled to death, Kakyoin took off his sunglasses and crossed his arms.]

Hierophant cut your leg and knocked you down a flight of stairs, and I handed you a handkerchief with a threat written on it.

N-no, the last part--

[Kakyoin took a deep breath, forcibly maintaining what little composure he had left. He was the clever one of the group more often than not, and it was that which was leading him to a disturbing conclusion. At the moment, he was trying not to be obvious about the fact that he was internally measuring this individual's height against his memory of Dio's...and he was not liking the result.]

You...mentioned a name, just now.

...Tch. You almost had me...but the real Kakyoin would've known what his Hierophant really did to me that day.

[Eyes hard and face impassive, he dashed forward and silently ordered Star Platinum into an attack; as the distance between them closed, the Stand reared back for a mighty hammerpunch, mouth already open with the beginnings of an attack roar escaping.

And Jotaro's, in contrast, was gritted to the point where his teeth were beginning to ache, and there was something like self-loathing twisting in his stomach for pulling this but sorry, I'm sorry, but I have to be sure, so stop me already...

If it really was an imposter, this of all times would be when he would show his true colors and choke.

And if it wasn't...

If it wasn't, then there'd be a lot more to figure out than just how to apologize for the stunt he was pulling right now, wouldn't there be.]

Are you referring to--

...no, you can't be...!

[No. No. No, please, no. He can't--he was supposed to purge his evil from this Earth. How does this young man know his name at all?!]

Tell me. Where you came from, is "February 7th, 1889" in the future or the past?

[He isn't angry with Kakyoin by any means, but his face has become deathly serious, hoping, praying for one option out of the two.]

Edited 2015-08-02 21:06 (UTC)

[Ohhhhh, this was bad on all sides, wasn't it.]

It's--that was nearly a century ago from my perspective. It was January sixteenth, 1988 when I came here.

[Goddammit, he hated being right.]

You're...Jonathan Joestar, aren't you?

Waitshitthisisn'tfunny--!

[What the hell was he doing?! That was exactly what happened, so what was he expecting?! There was no way Kakyoin was going to attack him--no, was that the entire point? It must have been. An imitation would fall for something like that and strike back, but he knew damn well he wasn't an imitation.]

[Instead of ordering Hierophant to attack like instinct screamed at him to do...Kakyoin lowered his arms to his sides, faced both Jotaro and his Stand head-on, and didn't dare flinch.]

[The only thing that would prove who he was would be to do what Kakyoin had been doing all along: trust the first friend he'd ever had.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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August Test Drive!

Jonathan Joestar | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure | 1-1

Jotaro Kujo | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders | SPOILERS LIKELY FOR THE WHOLE SERIES

2 OH BOY SHITS UP THIS WHOLE POST WITH JOJOS

[breathes on]

[laughs menacingly]

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Yuuta Matsukawa | Original Character | 1-3

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