rubycity_ooc | April Test Drive

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 ► All you wanted was a picnic. Just a simple picnic! To get out of the city for a while, go to the beach, have a sandwich and a cold soda and work on your tan, or walk on the beach, or splash in the waves. It's not that much to ask. But even at the beach, you aren't safe from beastly shenaniganry--because an enormous tentacle has just emerged from the depths, followed by another and another and another. You'd better drop those shells you're collecting, because here comes the kraken. Will you run and hide, try to help your fellow beachgoers, film it for network notoriety, or just go back to eating your sandwich?

SIX ► Finally! At last! You've gotten settled in your home here in Ruby City, settled enough to start landscaping the garden behind your house. But just as you settle in to start working on the flowers (or vegetables, depending on how practical of a person you are), you hear a rustling in the leaves. When you go to investigate, you find a bunch of tiny creatures with big heads and rough skin, running around your garden and eating your plants! What gives? Well, nothing. These are gnomes, and they just take. You'd better ask somebody for help, or they're going to overrun your garden and your neighbors' gardens.

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** ► Everything's all switched around in Ruby City this week. Maybe you used to have some really amazing superpowers, and now you have someone else's. Maybe you used to have powers, and now you have nothing. Maybe you never had anything, and now you have to get used to superstrength, or pyrokinetics, or suddenly being able to teleport. Either way, trust us, there's a lot to potentially complain about. That's what the network's for, of course--assuming you're not currently causing massive property damage and heart attacks with your learning curve.

________
* This event is based off our February-March 2017 Mirror event.
** This event is based off of our April 2017 powerswap event.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[--Woops, way to make the cat all bristly again, John.] I ain't struggling.

[Whoooooops.] No, I -- I didn't mean to imply you were, I just...

You're just a kid.

[HRMPH. He's kinda scowling now.]

So what?

You shouldn't have to worry about having a job, is what! [He notices his voice raising, and closes his eyes in an attempt to calm down.]

Someone your age, Alexander, should have all the time he wants to ... to study, to read, and learn, and have a childhood.

[Wow, no, how dare this mysterious guy make him think of things he doesn't want to think about. The scowl is disappearing, though, if a bit slowly.]

Yeah, well, some of us can't have that. [Shut up, his voice isn't getting quieter. That's a lie.]

[He wants to reach out and hug him, but considering he has already freaked Alexander out this much, maybe it's best not to.]

I can help.

I don't need help. [Still quiet; but he's kind of curled in on himself.]

But I ain't gonna say no if you want help lookin' around here.

[Of course Alexander would be like this. Always taking on more than he should, trying to prove himself to the world. His ability to focus so firmly on his own goals is something John admires in him. But this Alexander is just a child, and even though it makes sense that he'd be this way, John still hates it. He shouldn't have to be this way, it's totally unfair. John spent his entire life basically doing whatever he wanted, more or less. To be confronted so blatantly with the fact that Alexander didn't have the same opportunities? It's heartbreaking.]

There's a difference in needing help and wanting help, Alexander.

[There's a little huff, but it's half-hearted.] Do you wanna look around or not?

April Test Drive

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