August Test Drive!

[rubycitymods]

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!

Comments

[lapidarius]

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.]

[starmark]

[And sure enough, with inches to spare, Star Platinum stopped.

(A precise Stand, with immense control, speed, and power — of course he could ask his Stand to stop on a hair's breath like that and of course Star Platinum could, and maybe if it were one of the others it wouldn't have mattered as much, any of the others he could've swung at and not cared so much even if it'd connected, but not Kakyoin. Not Kakyoin.)

An instant later, like a faithful pet, he was back at Jotaro's side, and Jotaro had stopped still too but he couldn't boast quite the same precision or control as his Stand; he was breathing through his gritted teeth and the force of it was faintly audible, and when he did start releasing some of the tension out of his limbs, he seemed to have to do it consciously, like he was too keyed up to let it happen on his own.]

...Sorry.

[Absently, his hand came up to the brim of his hat, yanking it down further over his eyes for lack of anything better to do, or maybe just for the sake of having something to fidget with.]

I had to be sure. Sorry.

[lapidarius]

It's fine. I don't blame you for needing to be absolutely certain.

[He knew damn well his Stand had the precision to stop with much less space than that, and frankly he didn't care. Even if Kakyoin had been hit outright, he would have seen it coming and that would have been enough.]

[Rigid shoulders gradually relaxed, and Kakyoin's own Stand all but dissolved into a thin tendril wrapping around its user's arms like a familiar scarf.]

...You already know, don't you. [Flatly spoken, with an air of resignation. That must have meant it was over--there was no way Jotaro would lose, that had never been more than a distant concern to him.]

[But someone was going to have to tell him what had happened with the clock and the water tower, and selfishly Kakyoin was almost relieved it wouldn't be him.]

[starmark]

[The fiddling with his hat brim abruptly got a lot more deliberate, and if he yanked it any lower it was going to be clipping the end of his nose with how hard he really, really didn't want to be dealing with this right now.]

...That you're dead. They told me.

[Flicking his gaze to the side, he stuffed his hands back into his pockets vaguely irritably.]

So how is this even happening?

[lapidarius]

...I don't know. [Shaking his head, Kakyoin started fidgeting with his sunglasses in a remarkably similar sign of 'this is not a conversation i want to have'.] I woke up on that train the same as anyone else that ends up here.

We--you won, right? [Obviously. There was no other alternative, but-] The clock, did...was he able to tell you what it meant?

[starmark]

...The secret of The World. He told me.

[...Ohhh, boy, and was there going to be a long-ass story behind that one, and everything that'd come of it, wasn't there.]

He's dead. We put him out in the sun and I watched his body turn to dust myself.

[lapidarius]

...

[Quietly, Kakyoin let out a breath he didn't fully know why he'd been holding. Of course he'd won, but there had always been that shred of uncertainty hiding in the back of his mind.]

Good--I mean, I knew that we weren't going to come this far just to lose. But it's nice to finally have confirmation, you know?

[starmark]

...What else do you need to know? Let's just get it out of the way right now.

[Better than leaving business half-finished, and the sooner they got this over with, the sooner they could move on to more important things, like properly reeling from the fact that somehow Kakyoin was here and alive and more significantly not dead, and also maybe that thing about finding the bastard who'd done this and punching them until answers started falling out of their pockets.]

[lapidarius]

...That implies you think there's something I should know, doesn't it? What aren't you telling me?

[Spoken, of course, with an undercurrent of 'if you're dead too you will be choking on emeralds in .02 seconds.']

[starmark]

...Polnareff's alive.

[BECAUSE THAT WAS CLEARLY WHAT HE MEANT. CLEARLY.]

[lapidarius]

While that's good to know, what else aren't you telling me?

[starmark]

...I'm not reciting everything that happened. The point is it's over. There's no way he's coming back.

[Coincidentally, though, his hat was looking slightly more ragged than usual, like it'd taken a beating in battle.

...And possibly stopped a knife while it was at it.]

[lapidarius]

...So look me in the eye and tell me you're alright.

[It was a peculiar talent of Kakyoin's to switch from 'stammering concern' to 'team mom voice' in a matter of seconds.]

[starmark]

We're in the middle of a street. You're really going to do this right now?

[Deflect enough and you will never actually have to give an answer "yes" or "no" either way.]

[lapidarius]

Oh, I am absolutely doing this right now, and don't dodge the question.

[This is what happens when the responsible teammate knows you too well, Jotaro.]

[starmark]

Fine. I'm all right.

[He said, leveling his vaguely irritated gaze at Kakyoin — and to his credit, he wasn't looking away, but that didn't mean he wasn't just doing it out of sheer stubborn will, either.]

I don't have any right to say something like that in front of you, but if that's what you want, then fine.

[lapidarius]

What--what's that supposed to mean? I've been worried out of my damned mind about you since I got here, and I get 'I don't have any right to say that'?! Why, is that just because you think I have it worse or something?

[He couldn't really call that wrong, but something about the concept still managed to get Kakyoin incredibly pissed off.]

I made my choice, and I don't regret it just because things didn't go as planned. I sure as hell didn't fight him just so you could say something ridiculous like that.

[starmark]

...You don't want to ask it any more than I want to tell it. Isn't that right? You've said everything else — "is it over", "are you all right", "what aren't you telling me", but you already know what I'm not telling you is what you don't want to ask, don't you?

[He drew in a slow breath, letting it out again with a hiss.]

You know the secret of The World, and you still won't ask how I beat something like that. And that's what I'm not telling you. So leave it alone.

[lapidarius]

I'm sorry, I was more worried about you than thinking about how the hell you managed that.

[Which, as sarcastic as it came out...actually raised a valid point. He'd never once doubted that Jotaro would do anything but win, and yet...he'd never questioned how.]

[A little more calmly, he continued with:]

Tell me what happened, Jojo. Don't start hiding things from me now, not after all this.

[starmark]

I said no. Now stop pushing it.

[He took another of those long breaths, slower this time, as he jammed his hands deeper into his pockets.]

At least let me get used to the idea that you're even alive first.

[lapidarius]

... [Kakyoin crossed his arms again, making an effort not to push the matter like he wanted to. This wasn't the situation for it, Jotaro was right.]

[But what else was really left to say?]

[starmark]

[It was better this way. They'd have to have that conversation sooner or later; there was no getting around it. But they didn't have to have it now, not like this.

...Funny how just minutes ago he'd thought that getting it all out in the open was what was best, but then when the prospect of actually talking about it arose, it had proved vastly harder than he'd expected.

But this wasn't the time. Not if Kakyoin was going to demand answers to things like "are you all right" and expect honesty out of him, not when he knew full well that he wasn't all right but had absolutely no grounds to complain about it while looking into the eyes of someone who'd died to give him the chance he'd needed to bring an end to everything they'd fought for back home.

To say nothing of the fact that he'd barely even come to terms with Star Platinum's hidden power, much less being able to admit it to the person whose death had been sealed by that same exact power.

No. They'd have that conversation, but not now. Not...not like this.]

...How long have you been here? You said you came in on a train. What do we know about all this?

[lapidarius]

This place is--it's weird. basically, it's a world in itself--there are people here from so many different parallel universes and points in time, it's actually kind of fascinating. For now, there's no readily available way back, which is kind of obvious at this point. As for how long I've been here, let me think...

[He stopped abruptly after doing some quick math in his head; today was the second, and he'd arrived on the fourteenth of June by this city's perception of time.]

[That meant it was...]

-forty-nine. [He pressed a hand to his head--god, had it really been a day short of the entire trip to Cairo? Why did this feel almost longer than even that? Was it because of how desperate he'd been to find a way back, or because of how isolated he'd felt as the only Stand user in the city?]

[Did someone just up and decide fifty days was the equivalent of an eternity now?]

It's been forty-nine days since I got here.

[starmark]

...Forty-nine.

[From the looks of things, the significance wasn't lost on Jotaro, either; it proved to be enough to make him avert his eyes a few seconds before dragging his gaze back again.]

I guess that leaves me to start from "one".

[lapidarius]

[Kakyoin laughed before he could think to stop himself. It came out as a sharp, humorless sound that was cut off as soon as the student realized how unbalanced it made him seem.]

[Was he? Kakyoin wasn't even sure himself. He wanted to think he'd managed to get a better hold on the entire situation in the past week or two, but...he was still a scared teenager that wouldn't dare even admit to being afraid.]

Y--you're right. We can start over and...figure this whole disaster out.

[He couldn't let himself snap, no matter how much pressure he was under. Even if he could never go back home (and it was determination or denial that led him to be adamant that he could), there was no way he could just give in to his own fear and give up.]

...It's good to see you again.