MARCH TEST DRIVE

[rubycitymods]

Welcome to the Ruby City Test Drive!

The rules are simple:

• Pick your prompts and post your character, making sure to include the character's name and canon in the subject line.


• Tag around, making sure to follow the game rules. If you're not sure about something, don't be shy - check with the other player!


• We recommend staying away from "I just arrived" prompts. Instead, write your test drive threads as though your character has been in the city a while and is responding to our periodic events, especially if you're going to use your test drive threads as application samples. This will give mods a better understanding of your character, as well as make more dynamic prompts for other players to respond to.


• This one's obvious, but just in case you forgot: have fun!

KEEP RUBY CITY WEIRD

ONE ► You've been here a few weeks now, and things haven't gotten any more logical. You're on your weekly run to the grocery store and, for the umpteenth time, you notice something . . . not quite right. Maybe there's some unusual food on the shelves, something you don't know how to identify or would never have considered eating back home; edible chalk or an entire refrigerator full of ostrich eggs are more likely than you think! Or maybe it's something even stranger than that. Was that janitor's closet always there--and if it wasn't, do you really want to investigate? Have there always been seven aisles, because you really think you remember six last week . . . Whatever the weirdness this week, you're going to have to find a way to deal with it, whether that's by confronting it directly, asking another shopper for help, or turning to the network in dismay.

TWO ► While there are some reasonably fun places to hang out in Ruby City, the catacombs don't fall into that category. They're dark and miserable and terrifying, seemingly designed to trap you and draw you in, maybe even alive. The walls shift in an ever-changing maze, leading you further and further in, coaxing you towards any number of pitfalls. How long have you even been in here? Hope you brought a light, although it won't help much against the ghosts. Maybe you have a friend (or an enemy) with you; if not, you can try calling for help on the network, but let's be realistic: this isn't the kind of place that gets great reception.

THREE ► You've found an abandoned house. Again. This is a fairly frequent occurrence, given the city's eerie emptiness and tiny population. On a whim, or maybe even by accident, you enter the house and find the detritus of the previous owners. Pictures in frames of smiling friends, notes written from one person to another covered with inscrutable inside jokes, even a place on the wall where the former occupant used to hang their watch when they went to bed. Do you feel like an invader, or do you consider this place yours for the exploring? Either way, there's a lot to think about, or a lot to steal. If you're alone, you can philosophize on the network; if you brought a friend, you can philosophize in person or just get to looting.

MONSTERS ALL AROUND

FOUR ► In your time in Ruby City so far, you've seen plenty of monsters already. Honesty, you can't get away from the ghosts. This is a new one, though: there are a bunch of thestrals around this month, and while they're largely shy of people, anyone who heads into the forest is likely to come across them. If you've ever experienced someone's death before, you'll be able to see them in all their skeletal winged horse-y glory, witness them peering at you with their shining white eyes and considering you with a bit of mistrust. If you haven't experienced a death, congratulations, you just ran into an invisible dead horse. On the plus side, they're not violent; they just want to hang out being death omens, but they're scary enough to look at that you might ask for advice, either from a companion or the network at large.

FIVE ► Here you are, minding your own business, taking a walk in the park. Just like any other day, right? Wrong. So wrong. All of a sudden you hear growling from behind you, low and hungry; you turn around to see--something very ugly, half-man half-wolf, all excited to eat you. And the best part? There's a group of them. Maybe you call out for help. Maybe you holler and run away, or try to climb a tree. Or maybe you make a Blair Witch-style network video, the better to strike fear into the hearts of your neighbors. Either way, you better find a way to get away, or you're lunch.

SIX ► You totally have a clean conscience. Absolutely. 100%. You've never done anything wrong in your life; we know this, and we love you. So then why are you seeing the Adh Seid? Every night at midnight, a beautiful woman enters your home to remind you of all the awful things you've done in your life. You could set a clock by her, she's so persistent, and you can't figure out any way to get rid of her. How do you cope with this? You can ask someone, but that would mean admitting your guilty conscience. Or you could just vaguepost. Everybody loves a vaguepost.

SOMETHING'S HAPPENING

SEVEN ► So . . . you died. How did that feel? Terrible, right? Dying sucks. But coming back is sometimes even worse. Before the vision of Death you've seen (whichever one makes most sense to you, whether that's a big skeletal dude in a black cloak or something else entirely) lets you reenter the land of the living, it tells you that you have to give something up in exchange. That something can be physical, like an item or even a body part, or something less tangible, like a memory or skill. You'll get it back eventually, but for now it's out of your reach. Hard to cope, right? Maybe don't die next time. In the meantime, you're probably going to have to ask for help as you adjust, so make sure to reach out on the network. Unless you're the stoic sort, in which case, never fear: there are enough nosy people in this city that somebody's sure to notice sooner than later.

EIGHT* ► Perhaps you've been recruited by Dil herself, or maybe a friend or stranger has insisted you assist them in the locating and collecting of certain unique items. The exact nature of these items has been kept from you, but you know enough to know that there's something deeply wrong about them--or, at least that's the sense you get from this whole affair. Really, the entire town seems off-kilter, and even a simple mission to retrieve a simple object or two takes a lot of consternation. There's been whispers about a mirror, but you're not entirely sure, yourself.

The seaside sounds like a good place to start, in the closed, off-season stalls and high dunes. Maybe you've been pointed towards the Obelisk, where, even if you don't find whatever it is you're looking for, you're bound to find someone who can help. The library is another place that may be worth looking into--though it's possible the mutable bookshelves and dark rooms are more trouble than they're worth.

NINE** ► Ruby City is not what it was. While as long as you've been here you've known it as a very strange place with long stretches of boredom interrupted by horrifying upheaval, the city it has become now is totally, completely . . . pleasant. Nothing bad ever happens. No one questions anything, because nothing bad ever happens! And if someone asks about a bad thing that may or may not have happened, they are silenced. Quickly. Which didn't bother you until you woke up this morning and suddenly remembered the old city. What do you do? Is the right choice to conform and try to stay safe or fight against this Stepford city? Be careful what you say on the network this time--but who knows, maybe someone around you has woken up just like you have.

________
* This event is based off our February-March 2017 Mirror event.
** This event is based off of our June 2016 Pleasantville event.

Comments

[gravedanger]

[... The people of this city are strange as well. In any other village she's spent time in, the sight of her soul collectors would be cause for alarm, for cries of demon! and witch! and so on. Yet here is a woman, with cropped hair and fitted clothes, offering a greeting of all things before questioning them.

She supposes that's to be expected. She has sensed plenty of demonic presences taking residence within the city, with no evidence of either the humans or the demons feeling uneasy about their cohabitation.

Still, Kikyo steps back as Mal touches down. Not so much out of surprise, but to show she does not appreciate her considerable personal space being breached. The collectors continue their orbits around her, unperturbed.]

They do not disturb you?

[She could just answer the question but also: why would she do that.]

[deshabille]

[Too bad, Kikyo. Mal isn't really good at not being nosy, or not invading personal space. She doesn't approach any further, but she also doesn't step back, and she definitely hasn't picked up on the cue that her closeness is unwanted. It's in part because she doesn't really get human body language yet, and in part because she's not that smart. #truthbombs]

Why would they? They're not the strangest thing I've seen.

[Certainly not as strange as one of the things she's processing right now, which is: this girl has no heartbeat. Mal cocks her head at her, a little birdlike in her curiosity, and then grins with teeth that are a little bit too sharp.]

You're missing something, aren't you? Like: a pulse.

[gravedanger]

[Ah. And there it is.]

Am I.

[She muses lightly, irreverently, but still: she finds it much easier to look at her collectors in that moment, lifting a hand for one to perch upon with insectoid little legs. She spent her life concealing her weaknesses, appearing invincible and unwavering even in those final moments where she was anything but, and old habits are hard to break.

When she feels her mask is securely in place once more, she regards the demonic-but-not woman with a raised eyebrow. She doesn't know what the creature before her is, but it is clearly not human, and so--]

And what concern is it to you?

[deshabille]

[Mal furrows her brow, clearly confused. It wasn't meant to be rude, much less threating. But then, very little of what she says is meant that way. She's just not good at expressing herself, and terrifically nosy.]

I'm curious.

[She doesn't say "just curious". Curiosity is a big deal, to her.]