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! |
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That is to say, the world doesn't stop, but Prompto's understanding of it screeches to a shuddering halt. He's been very much not thinking about Noct, which means, really, he's been thinking about Noct all the time. How sick with worry he is. How awful he feels about how Ardyn used him like that. How hopelessly he misses him. How he doesn't know how he can survive like this, torn from Noct's side.
Prompto turns, and no sound comes out as he mouths Noct's name.]
...
[And then he sucks in a breath and barrels at him full tilt, book dropping out forgotten somewhere on the road.]
NOCT!
[WHAMMO]
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Oh.
In the scant few seconds Noctis has to process that yes, Prompto is really here, and yes, Prompto isn't a callous figment of his imagination, and yes, he really is running at him full tilt and it's probably a little too late to get out of the way (not that he wants to), Noctis is hit by a mack truck of boundless energy and unbridled enthusiasm. It's Prompto, very much alive and unhurt, and unfortunately the forward momentum sends them both pitching back onto the relatively forgiving shrub, Noctis stifling a grunt as he catches him.
He feels real, too, and the relief that is set alight in his heart is indescribable. For the past week or so, he'd laboured under the worry that something might have happened to him or Gladio -- Ignis hadn't told him much about either one of them when it came to updates, and seeing him here brings with it a measure of reassurance that he's fine and in one piece. ]
Hey --
[ He's hugging him right back, squeezing tighter than he ought -- don't call that out, he'll deny it to his dying breath -- and he manages a strained: ]
Y'came from Altissia too?
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What? Altissia?
[Prompto pops back up, brows drawn together.]
Why would we go back there? I don't even remember leaving you, dude...
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Having Prompto here, however... having him here puts his mind at ease, just a little; although it's relatively short-lived in the face of Prompto's comments. ]
Go back...? [ Leaving him? His brows knit in a confused frown. ] Weren't we all there?
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[Like the answers might be written on Noct's face somewhere, Prompto studies him carefully, bewildered and increasingly worried. He sits up to let Noct sit up, too, offering a hand to pull on as necessary.]
Right? [After a beat, he lowers his voice carefully.] Buddy, do you have amnesia?
[Could the Crystal have done something like that? Did it hurt him after all?]
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Does he?
Wait, no -- what is going on? Prompto doesn't look like he's joking, and this doesn't feel like the lead-in to some sort of prank, and at this point Noctis would go for the whole prank thing anytime. Worried means bad news. ]
What? No. What do you mean -- [ No, nope. Try again. ] Where were you last at?
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Tentatively, like he wasn't paying attention in class, he offers a question-flavored answer.]
Gralea...?
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What about it?
[ They're going to sort out Altissia first, right? And then --
-- and then it comes to him, and Noctis stiffens, something cold curling in the pit of his stomach. ]
Why are you in Gralea -- no, how long ago was Altissia for you?
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I--I don't know, we were there for a while, you know? In Altissia, I mean. And... what do you mean, how long ago was it "for me?" Noct, what's going on, you were there, too, we were finally all together again...
[If it's not amnesia, then the next video game trope must be... Prompto covers his face with both hands and takes a deep breath through them.]
Am I lost in time and space?!
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[ Is Prompto having a crisis right now? Oddly enough, it puts things into perspective for Noctis -- funny thing about friends, when one of them is having a meltdown, the other usually has to step up to be the voice of reason, or something like that.
And right now, weirdly enough, Noctis is the voice of reason. ]
It's all right.
[ It's not, not for him. But whatever. Prompto's taking it way harder than he is, and Noctis doesn't get why, which worries him. ] It's just -- this place is weird. People ending up coming here from different times. I uh -- came in before the ceremony. Ignis came in on that day itself.
[ And all the problems that ensued that he's still trying to sort out. ]
You're not lost, okay, buddy? I've got you right here.
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The ceremony?
[Oh, no. His heart falls from his chest to his stomach. No, into his boot. It lies there, limp and tender and ready for the squashing, because The Ceremony means one thing.
Lady Lunafreya.]
N...no, it's been weeks since then. Um, for me.
[He curls his fingers in but doesn't move his hands from his face, peering over his knuckles at Noct with deepest, awfullest sadness.]
...Did Ignis tell you what happened...?
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Noctis doesn't hide emotions as well as he likes to think he does, and the deep, awful sadness in Prompto's eyes tells him all that he needs to know -- that Ignis isn't lying (of course he isn't, Ignis never lies, not to him), that what he's dreaded and denied had truly happened, and he finds that he cannot quite manage to look him in the eye anymore.
He pulls away, because Prompto is an open book, and speaking of open books, this isn't one he wants (or is ready) to talk about. ]
I'm gonna fix it.
[ He says simply, abruptly. Now that he knows what's going to happen, he can stop it, right? He can stop all of this from happening. He turns away, and heads to pick up the book he'd seen him drop earlier, fighting to ignore the sinking feeling in his chest. ]
What'd you bring with you?
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[Oh crap, oh no, if Noct's from way back in Altissia, Prompto can't let him see that book. With a noise like a cat whose tail just got slammed in a door, Prompto darts past Noct to grab the book and scoop it haphazardly back into his arms, folding pages in on themselves unfortunately as he snaps it closed and hides it behind his back. The cover's yellow, naturally.]
Well, this, this is nothing, haha, just something I picked up here. But I've got my weapons and stuff, and my clothes, and... not much else, really.
[This laugh is totally not nervous!]
If I'd known we were vacationing in another dimension, I would've packed better.
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Noctis is startled enough to let Prompto grab the book away from him, and by gods he hasn't actually believed that he's capable of moving that quickly up until now. And so the book is inadvertently surrendered to him, with Noctis none the wiser to its contents, except the fact that it's a blinding shade of yellow.
But it's a distraction; it pulls him away from the mess that is Noctis' way of handling things, and he makes a soft noise at that quip, like it could be something resembling wry amusement. There is so much he wants to ask, so much he needs to know, but he settles on one burning question: ]
Did Ignis turn out okay? Gladio? You?
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[If so, then Noct should know, right? If he came here from the day of the ceremony. There's no missing it, even weeks later, even after Fociaugh Hollow, how absolutely not okay Ignis is.
It doesn't occur to him that Ignis might not have seen what happened all the way through to the end.]
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[ But that's as far as it went. Noctis looks back at him, searching, curious -- with a little more than dread curling in the pit of his stomach. If there's something wrong with him, them, he has to fix it.
He has to. ]
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[For someone who kept a secret for twenty entire years, Prompto sucks at this game.]
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[ And frantic, and panicked and anxious but that was mostly it. Noctis frowns at him, trying to figure out if Prompto's hiding something -- he is, isn't he? Why else would Prompto ask him that? ]
Buddy, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?
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Gladio and I were fine. Ignis, he--he got hurt, but he pulled through, too. You too, you took forever to wake up after facing down Leviathan, man, but you--you were okay.
[The storybook's going to rip if he twists at it any tighter.]
And we all headed up to Gralea to get the Crystal back. That's as far as I remember.
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It'll be okay. ]
So you were on your way there before this place snagged you. [ Yeah, he's got that. It's weird, it's really, really weird, but he gets it -- it takes some getting used to, but once you get used to occasionally talking furniture and strange people coming in from vastly different worlds, you can adapt to just about anything. His gaze flickers to the book, however -- childishly yellow with scribbles on it. ]
You picked that up? What's in it?
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Oh, pfft, nothing. [Nope, nope, nope. Where's the nearest combustible trash receptacle?] Seriously, just garbage, I was on my way to take care of it right now. You know me, always... doing my best for the environment.
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You're not. Not really.
[ Noctis says blandly, staring right at him. Prompto is clutching the book so tightly, and it's completely not garbage. ]
What's wrong?
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[He's fucking terrible at this, and now he's stuck. He's stuck because he doesn't want to lie to Noct, but if he comes clean he has to explain everything, and if he explains everything, Noct will be upset and angry and there's nothing they can do about it, not here. There'd be no point in telling him except to make him miserable.
But at the same time, he remembers the anguish in Noct's voice when they found the first Royal Arm. 'Why didn't he tell me that? Why did he stand there smiling as I left?'
Maybe, if he just. Says what he can, Prompto can salvage this.]
It's, um.
[Finally, he holds the book up so Noct can make out his name on the cover, though his hands remain clamped unhappily on the pages and spine.]
It's a picture book I found in the house they gave me. The drawings inside, they're about things that happened in my life--but only the bad stuff. You know, like... you know.
[Even before Altissia, enough happened that Noct should have an idea why Prompto doesn't want to share. Hearing the reports on Insomnia's fall. Jared--and poor Talcott. Prompto shakes his head and looks up, holding it tightly once more against his front.]
I have my camera, I can remember the stuff I want to remember. I don't need this stupid book. So I'm gonna burn it before anyone else can see it.
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