Test Drive Meme 2.

[awashmods]

These are the mem’ries that last. These are the mem’ries that will never pass. And time waits for no one. It’s gone in a flash. And only the mem’ries will last.

Prompt 1: he forest looms, uninviting and full of menace, an unwelcoming place for sure. Time to go explore! It isn't as though there's anywhere else to go, now that you've looked around the Town. The trees whack at you with branches that have far too much mobility for normal trees, strange and mutated animals watch from the shadows and boughs, and there’s the constant, constant sense of being watched -- But eventually, nonetheless, you’ll come across a small house in the forest. It sticks out like a sore thumb, bright and colorful, which is probably the first warning that something is way off, and it’s...covered in candy. It’s a candy house! It looks delicious. (It’s empty, too, not a single soul in it, without even furniture, but everything is otherwise edible and utterly delicious.) But if you eat the candy? You’re going to have a terrible, overwhelming urge to do one of two things: Fight the first person you see Kiss the first person you see Unfortunate. Prompt 2: he problem with a Town like this is that now that color is starting to return, bit by bit? You never really know when color’s going to come back -- or disappear. Maybe you’ve made a delightful, delicious sandwich from handmade bread and tomatoes and deer meat, all of which have color now… and then suddenly, when taking a bite, you get only the taste of ash and bread and tomato as the deer meat loses color. Also, someone probably died for that color to fade away. Alarming! Or maybe you’re walking along when suddenly your makeshift clothing is a hideous mix-match of colors; it had seemed fine when it was all grey and colorless! Or perhaps, even worse, you’re walking out of a house when suddenly, the flowerbed in front of it has full color, bright and maybe a little blinding after so much monochrome. Damn those color mechanics. Prompt 3: he quest seems simple, on the Quest Post: Quest 33: Feed the Cockatrice. Requirements: 2 of any color Key word, of course, is seems. First, you have to find the cockatrice. Maybe grab someone to drag into the woods with you, since there needs to be at least two of you. Time to stomp through the woods in search of the elusive cockatrice. Of course, once you find it, the quest...looks a bit harder. The monster hisses, ready to turn anyone who approaches to stone, as cockatrice tend to do. What do you even feed that thing? How will you get it to take it without getting stoned up? There are so many questions. At least the stone will wear off...eventually… if you’re unlucky enough to get petrified. Prompt 4: ut hey, you did it! You fed the cockatrice, it seemed satisfied, and now you can go fetch your reward from your home. It must be something amazing, with the work that you put in. The only change in your home, though, is what looks like a...picture book. It's got a colorful cover (in your character's color shade), and has their name on the cover, so it definitely belongs to them. And when they flip it open, it's clearly full of pictures scribbled in, as if drawn in scribbly crayon. Unlike the rest of the Town, this book is fully colorful, every shade of the rainbow in those crayon strokes... which depict, page by page, your character's worst moments in their life. Every single last horrific experience or tragic moment -- it's all there, in colorful, cute children's drawings. Congratulations! Extra: Got something in mind? Want to play with the setting more? The sky's the limit, so feel free and make up your own prompts to play with! Welcome to Awash's second Test Drive Meme! Please check out the FAQ and rules as you test your characters out. The setting is yours to play with, so be creative and have a good time with it! Important dates to remember are May 1st, 9 PM EST, when Reserves will open, and May 7th, 9 PM EST when Applications will open. Keep an eye out for it! As a side note, TDM threads are not canon, so please feel free to assume established CR for the sake of the TDM if it will make threading or showing off your character's voice easier. If you have any questions about the TDM, feel free to ask us here. If there are any other questions, you can catch us via PM, the FAQ or the contact page. Thank you for your interest in Awash!

Comments

annabeth chase | riordan mythos

[athenite]

[ annabeth can be found constantly in jeans; sneakers; a neon orange camp half-blood t-shirt; and a necklace with ten clay beads, a coral pendant, and a gold ring hung on it. her hair is either down or up but is consistently curly, and her eyes are ~intense stormy gray~ thanks canon for that. ]

i. suspicious house candy

[ annabeth doesn't eat the candy. because...why? no? that's dumb? she's well known for not being a complete moron? it's like her calling card. she's reckless sometimes, yes, and she's curious about it...but eating a candy house in the middle of the woods isn't really tempting so much as it is kind of insulting.

accordingly she'll be standing there with her hands on her hips staring at you in patent disbelief if you try any of the candy. ]

Seriously?

[ spoiler alert: if you try to fight her or kiss her, the result will be the same. annabeth chase is pretty much always ready to rumble.

if you don't try the obviously suspect candy, she'll just have her arms crossed as she eyes the house. ]

This has to be the most obvious trap I've seen in...a week. [ look........... ]

iii. questing is second nature here

Okay, usually the best way to deal with a cockatrice is a reflective surface - but that's to trick it into killing itself. I suppose killing it would not qualify as feeding it, so we're going to have to get creative.

[ for a teenager with blond princess curls annabeth sure seems fine with this turn of events? she pulls a new york yankees baseball cap out of her back pocket. ]

First off, we can't meet its gaze...but sneaking up on it and throwing down the food might be our best option? You just cause a distraction and I'll sneak.

iv. this reward is worse than a t-shirt

[ the fun part of being a demigod: there are just so many worst moments to choose from. the one the book is held open to as annabeth more or less storms outside depicts a younger version of herself holding the entire sky on her shoulders.

it actually isn't a metaphor.

she storms with a purpose, generally, and it is straight over to you. ]

Did you get one of these??? [ it's not clear if other people getting terrible picture books would be better or worse, here. ]

v. town hall

[ assuming there have been other meetups, this seems like a good enough place to hang about outside of her own home in flavo. annabeth has a laptop open and is typing away industriously - but the laptop looks a bit higher tech than their assigned laptops, and the keys and readout is all in ancient greek.

probably most people can't read that, although they can see schematics on the screen which look like bridge plans for some reason...

well, some of the bridges from the other month might need fixing still who knows. ]

wildcard

[ or throw whatever at me! you can reach me on plurk at lucylovespluto if you need! ]

iii

[buncho]

[ Did you know, Mafuyu's weakness is pretty, bossy girls with princess hair and for a moment, she looks like she's already been petrified with the cockatrice's stare, before she physically shakes her head to clear it and pumps her fists. ]

I'll distract it! As long as I don't look at its eyes, I'll be fine, right?! So I just gotta blindfold myself and I can fight it!

[athenite]

[ BLINDFOLD YOURSELF...like, that's fine so long as: ]

You're experienced fighting blindfolded? [ she doesn't sound disparaging. if mafuyu says she can fight blindfolded annabeth is just gonna take her at her word here? ]

[buncho]

Nope, but I bet I can do it.

[ She says she can fight blindfolded; will Annabeth just take her word for it? ]

[athenite]

What's your fighting experience?

[ CAN YOU...BACK THAT UP AT ALL saying "i bet i can" is not the same as "i definitely can" at all, mafuyu! ]

[buncho]

Ten years! I beat up my first person when I was six!

[ She says it so proudly, but it wasn't something to be proud of and she was crying the entire time it happened. Annabeth doesn't have to know that. ]

Middle school and high school, there's nobody stronger than me. I can handle it.

V

[embracers]

[Diana's too curious by nature not to go snooping around to see what everyone else is doing (though she'd call it a different name for sure, amazons don't!!! snoop!!!), so here she is doing exactly that. She'd keep her distance, since sometimes you just don't know the kind of people you encounter in a panfandom, but the sight of Annabeth's intense concentration seems familiar (the kind of look Menalippe would have while making yet another Obstacle Course of Doom probably).

The strange device she has on her lap is also quite interesting, and so Diana finds herself moving closer and closer until she's like right behind Annabeth, peering down at her screen like the worst kind of rubbernecker. A rubbernecker dressed in some kind of armored body suit complete with sword and shield, but at least the last two are strapped to her back.]

Is that an artifact native to Greece?

[You don't see many objects outside of pottery and swords and interesting books that are written in Ancient Greek aite]

[athenite]

[ honestly annabeth hadn't expected anyone to recognize the language. accordingly she glances up. it's the daedalus laptop, a delta symbol on the front, and she'd thought it lost forever in tartarus.

luckily (?) it was here when she got here, so that's...

weird. but annabeth's life has been weird since forever. while she wouldn't usually give out what it was to those who couldn't see through the Mist there is 1) no mist as far as she can tell here to see through and 2) everyone knows shit is weird and she hasn't bothered to hide who she is because of it. it just seems a little silly to conceal your demigod status when people are from other worlds, maybe. ]

Sort of. It was created by Daedalus, a son of Athena.

[ she has no idea if the names will mean anything to diana: sometimes people just aren't up to date on their mythology. ]

[embracers]

[look Diana might have made a living out of neglecting her studies and running from her tutors, but that was a hopefully short time of her long life...... What else is there to do on Themyscira besides fight anyway??? Read. It's reading.

Her eyes light up with recognition, though her voice sounds puzzled as she just plops next to Annabeth.]

Daedalus? The one who made the Labyrinth for the Minotaur? [She still sounds intrigued though, looking at the laptop once more.] Although, I do not recall reading about him being a son of Athena. I thought Athena had no children in the myths.

[Though Diana herself knows the myths are really no basis for reality -- Hippolyta had told her about the gods after all, the versions she read were probably only stories. She had not been alive to see them -- they could have done anything.]

[athenite]

Not children as they're usually born. Her children were all born the same way she was - a meeting of the minds. She's still one of the virgin goddesses.

[ the explanation is given in the nature of a thing someone has explained many times. ]

But yeah, that's Daedalus. He left this to me...although I lost it for a little while there. It's good to have it back, especially since some of the schematics might come in handy for making things better.

v

[tosa]

( Mutsu likes to consider himself a rather brave spirit. It takes a lot to spook him and the things that really strike fear into him are spontaneous flashes of blue coming at him and angry women. The first one really hasn't been a problem here and the second one? Hasn't been much of a problem until now. Even if she's young, the sight of a young woman storming at him triggers his flight response and he's already looking around for a place to run and hide off to. Let's say she manages to catch him off guard so he hasn't figured out his escape plan yet. )

Huh?! ( His voice is high. He feels A Fear.™ He takes one step back and leans away, ) Get a what?

( Is he in trouble? He feels like he's in trouble. He hasn't done anything wrong! Yet! Maybe? Please step back, Annabeth Chase. )

[athenite]

A picture book. [ SHOVING IT IN HIS FACE yeah she isn't stepping back immediately i'm so sorry mutsu...annabeth has canonically greeted someone with a knife to their throat basically while demanding information on her boyfriend? she's 2 intense 2 live.

but at least the generalized glare doesn't seem to be directed at him specifically. maybe. ]

With apparently stories from your life?

[tosa]

( Please don't get in his face. He's been good today and doesn't deserve this. )

Yeah? ( He's answering her question because he knows exactly what she means now but his Pavlovian response to feel fear whenever confronted by an aggressive woman is real and he just sounds... unsure? Yeah??? It's the truth but everything feels like a wrong answer, oops. ) Real bad pictures...? Lots of color?

( Just give him a second to reach into his kimono. Look, he's reaching into his kimono, not for his sword, okay!! No sudden movements! And provided she doesn't jump at his throat, he'll show her his book. It has his name written on it in characters so good luck figuring out how to read 陸奥守吉行. His book also looks noticeably thin. It's definitely lacking in pages compared to certain others. But that's the price he paid for having his traumatic moments limited to a couple of very bad nights and the few days surrounding those moments. )

[athenite]

Did you do one of those "quests"?

[ OBVIOUSLY she just continues with the interrogation, although she's not jumping to attack him or anything. she's apparently just Really Intense about information for the moment.

luckily...? ]

[tosa]

( It's his luckiest day in a while. The only thing that could make this worse is the actual police. )

Yeah, yeah, feeding Onidori. ( Aaaaand there's a beat before he feels like maybe he needs to explain? A P P A R E N T L Y you can't just nickname giant chickens "demon bird" because it's not clear enough. Which really makes him wonder how many bird monsters are running around this place that you actually need to be clear. ) The cockawhat's-it-or-whatever.

... Ya know, if ya just told me what ya wanna know exactly, we could probably cut the whole twenty questions part.

house candy

[observitude]

Just a week?

[The voice from behind Annabeth sounds amused, and the white-haired teen's face matches.]

My, my... How exciting your life must be, to find obvious traps so often. What about well-hidden traps? Do you account for traps so hidden you don't even find them?

[athenite]

I don't usually run across those. If I did, I would be dead.

[ what are non lethal traps. ]

[observitude]

[that's a mood tbh]

You needn't spring a hidden trap to pass by it. Unless your luck is E-rank.

[athenite]

Unfortunately E-rank luck is a demigod trait.

iv!

[prochronistic]

[you ok there annabeth

—but the answer to her question is yes. Yuuri's got a picture book of her own opened up on her lap that she's been idly flipping through - it's packed with pictures, because when your nemesis is a queen dowager with practically limitless power and you're just a concubine, your life has a tendency to just be suffering.

Right now it's open to a page with Yuuri cradling the body of a young boy who's been skinned from the neck down. Yikes!]

...I did. I don't think I appreciate the sense of humor of whoever decided on our rewards.

[athenite]

They're trying to make a show of how much they know about us.

[ she! doesn't! approve!

annabeth looks at the picture in yuuri's book and grimaces, sympathy clear on her features. another hero, then. ]

And none of it the pleasant bits.

v

[hydrokinetics]

[Eventually, a wayward partner returns and finds her hanging out in front of a house in Flavo. He's definitely explored the area by now and appears to be trying to burn off some pent up energy as he stretches his arms over his head and approaches her.

And just. Sort of gracelessly flops on the ground next to her to peer over her shoulder and look at the screen. It's nice to read without the headaches of trying to figure out the words.

...but then he recognizes what he's staring at and he starts a bit.]

You got it back?

[athenite]

[ the number of people annabeth will put up with peering over her shoulder is fairly small, but percy makes the list. so she doesn't complain or do anything other than glance over in acknowledgement before he speaks, industriously keeping up her reading. ]

It was in the house I ended up in. As far as I can tell, it's the real thing - although I'm pretty sure this maybe isn't Tartarus.

[ maybe. ]

[hydrokinetics]

Maybe. [Gods knows where the heck they are...] I wouldn't be too sure though. You're not gonna believe who I found wandering around in the woods.

[athenite]

There are way too many possible guesses here. Someone dead or alive?