test drive meme 1.

[awashmods]

Her Pa committed suicide By biting off his head. Her mother saw her uncle's ghost And died of fright, she said. So her unpleasant habits Seem most curious to me, Because she seems to come from such A happy family.

Prompt 1: he forest looms as ever, colorless but not at all dead. The leaves are full, fluttering in the silence, but there's no scent to them, no color. The effect is eerily hard to navigate, almost like an optical illusion, leaves, branches and trunk blending together with the small path -- which already disappears and reappears at a whim. But even so... If you brave the path, it seems as though there is something leading you onwards. A trail of... something, crumbs, maybe, the same shade of colorless as everything else, almost impossible to see. Following those might be a bad idea -- your chances of getting lost, tangled in random underbrush, or wandering aimlessly for hours are pretty high... to say nothing of what you might encounter if you stray too far (hint: even the small, fuzzy things have nasty bites). Still, it's there, and if you follow them... eventually you will come to a small house. It's decrepit, falling apart and in shambles... do you really want to go inside? Perhaps armed with one of the many convenient tree branches that have probably smacked you thus far? Prompt 2: hould you enter the house, you'll be greeted with a creepy, creepy doorman. Aw, how cute! And in that doll's hand, there's...a message. On a slip of paper, it reads, simply and plainly: The more you take, the more you leave behind. Curious! (And yeah, you can destroy the doll. It's just a normal doll. You may even come across said doll already crushed by an intrepid explorer.) Of course, it's a riddle, and the answer's a warning -- the longer you walk around and about the house, the less you'll remember about yourself, until you forget why you were there and why you should leave, and who you are at all, doomed to wander forever. Or someone saves you, that's fine too. Prompt 3: roblem: There are no fresh eggs in the Town. Solution: Catch a feral chicken, and keep it for eggs. That seems simple enough, right? You're totally up for the task... right? But why do all of the animals look so strange in the forest? Mutated, with teeth, or wings that don't belong, or claws. That's... a chicken, right? Catching it will allow you to get some eggs, but that beak looks pretty nasty -- it might be harder than it looks. But you're intrepid and clever, right? Why not demonstrate your Chicken Wrangling Skills that won you the championship so many years ago? Or try to serenade the savage beast? Or wuss out and form a coalition with which you draw lots to see who has to do battle with the chicken? There's safety in numbers! But the prize will surely be worth a bit of blood loss and fowl-related trauma. Do it for the eggs. Prompt 4: here's a new quest on the forum today, and it looks awfully easy! It's listed simply as: Quest XXII. Talk to someone you've never met about their childhood. Quest will be completed when you have reached an acceptable level of knowledge. On the other hand, that's a little vague, isn't it... ? How will you even know when you've completed a quest like that? Still, it looks easy! Maybe go give it a try. You could respond to the forum post to try to find people, or just go on outside, go harass someone about their past. If you're lucky, you'll drag it out of them with very little hassle and it won't take you a good chunk of the day. If you're unlucky, that's what highly persistent stalking is for! But don't forget, you'll likely have to return the favor. And your new friend might not be the only one listening. 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 first 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 March 1st, 9 PM EST, when Reserves will open, and March 7th, 9 PM EST when Applications will open. Keep an eye out for it! 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

damian wayne | dcu | will match tag style

[bittybat]

CREPPY & SPOOPTACULAR

The house is about as welcoming as the rest of the colorless forest. Beaten and broken. Lifeless in a way. Plenty of things Damian doesn't trust, and more growing the list. Looks abandoned. Looks haunted, if he were the type inclined to believe in such nonsense.

"Wait there," he demands, jabbing his finger at the dirt on the outside of the door, and his pinched face leaves no room for questions even if some come. Those questions he ignores, lips thin and tight, brows knotted in the middle of his forehead. "Don't come in until I say it's clear." An order.

Despite looking about twelve or thirteen, he's clearly going in first since he knows what he's doing. Obviously. All evidence of how he enters, tense, ready, back straight and knees somewhat bent: maybe he does know what he's doing.

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER

The chicken is giving Damian a run for his money. It's not much bigger than a regular chicken, but it's feisty as hell, and certainly not a normal hen. Not even a rooster. It does an array of charging and snapping, and it can fly several feet in the air when it leaps. Great.

But Damian wants it. He needs it, but only for eggs.

Earlier, he left with a few gashes when he tried to Man Up, grab it, and deal. Now he's back--this time with a frayed rope looped at one end, a lasso. "You're the one who wanted to play the hard way," is what he tells the bird. He waits until the bird rushes him, then tumbles out of the way behind.

When he's up on his knees and feet, he gives the lasso a few quick spins over his head before letting it fly. The chicken makes a mad dash out of the way, throwing up some feathers, but Damian yanks the lasso taut when it catches the bird's leg.

Only--it's surprisingly strong. It keeps running, and Damian, shocked, gets yanked forward on his face and stomach. It keeps running, speed and fire in its blood. And there Damian goes, getting pulled along.

TROUBLED BACKSTORY™

The task is simple and straightforward. Then why does he feel so embarrassed? He doesn't care about hearing the drivel of someone else's past, and at first, he thinks he can get around it.

Listening to other people try. But the key is "talk," and he learns irritably he must be a part of the conversation.

So he's hilariously clinical when he forgoes the question and issues a demand out of the blue. "You," directive, and his face is much too serious for a boy so young. "Tell me about your childhood."

WILDCARD

Feel free to wildcard me something!

[hydrokinetics]

[Unfortunately the only response Damian gets to that blunt request to hear about Percy's childhood is a raise of an eyebrow while he watches him for a moment.]

Not a fan of small talk, huh? [It's fine, he can kind of appreciate that himself even if he's stalling.]

i'm

[bittybat]

Small talk is a useless endeavour used by people who are stalling, nervous, or hiding something. [The initial frustrated indifferent turns quickly to scrutiny on Percy's behalf.]

Which are you?

i know what i'm about

[hydrokinetics]

[Why is he being scrutinized by a ten year old, fuck.]

Doesn't curiosity fit into this scale somewhere? [Stalling is great! He loves stalling!] Anyway kind of seems a little counterproductive to hide something if the whole point of that quest is to share.

[bittybat]

No small talk has to be had in order to satisfy curiosity. This conversation has been small talk, and neither of us have become any closer to the goal of learning about your childhood.

[He's getting the impression... Percy is... stalling.]

When were you born?

winner, winner, eggs for dinner

[lefthandfree]

He's encountered his fair share of oddities in his lifetime, typically not finding himself genuinely surprised by many things anymore—startled at times, but never surprised. When the bird flees down the path past him with a kid in tow, he finds himself needing a proper moment to digest what’s happening as the fact he’s actually witnessing this seems really, really fake. Not that it’s not dire and in need of immediate address; that can’t be comfortable for the boy.

When the moment passes he sprints forward to chase them down. The boy’s added weight and the clasp of the lasso manage to delay the bird enough for Bucky to catch up. He quickly circles around to corral the fowl back.

“Woah, there— Hey— Easy—” He gestures with his arms open, ducking from side to side to keep the bird from going further forward. Tunnel vision is apparently a thing, and the bird flaps angrily while squawking at Bucky aggressively (threateningly?) when it realizes Bucky doesn’t plan on getting out of the way.

“Jesus—” This is definitely one for the books, Barnes. “Hey, you okay there? Can you get the rope free?” he manages to ask as he continues ducking and dodging the pissed off bird as best he can.

[bittybat]

Maybe later, Damian will be embarrassed about the whole ordeal, especially since someone witnessed it. Right now, it's less about him being injured (he's had worse) and more he's just too stubborn to let go of his goal for the sake of some road rash.

If there had been any trees closer or on the path, he could use them, and he'd have thrown his body against one in a heartbeat rather than let the quarry get away. But instead, he's left with digging his shoes into the ground and leaving two trenches in his wake, and by the time Bucky races past, he's sizzled along the arms and chest by dirty and rock and scorched in the palms from the rope.

"Don't hurt it!" he barks as they come to a skidding halt, thanks to Bucky's interference. He starts hand-over-handing his way up the rope toward the chicken. "The bird--is--mine!"

[lefthandfree]

Noting somewhere in his mind that this is probably the most dramatic thing he’s ever seen (even more dramatic than when Steve sometimes used to make a Thing out of being stuck sick in bed), he fights the urge to knit his brows in confusion over this kid hitting do-or-die levels of capturing this one specific chicken, whom Bucky continues to distract as the boy crawls desperately along the length of the rope closer to his feathered target.

“Not planning on fighting you for it, kid,” he remarks, continuing with the feinting, which seems to do a decent job of keeping the chicken’s attention away from the fact there’s imminent danger behind. Truth be told, it’s pretty weird to be using boxing moves on a chicken of all things, but it'll make for a good story in due time. Probably. Assuming things don’t go any further south.

[bittybat]

If there's one thing Bucky can perhaps appreciate about Damian, it'll be the persistence in which he doesn't give up trying to catch this chicken.

Once he gets his bearings, he pins the rope under his stomach, and his crawl gets more focused and speedier. When he's close enough, he rises up, letting a knee take the place of his stomach to hold the rope so the chicken doesn't bolt if it forgets Bucky in favor of him.

Like a cat, calibrating, he pauses for several seconds, then he leaps forward and grabs the chicken at the thighs and hocks. He goes from pouncing, to standing, to shifting the chicken as fast as possible, making it easier on the two of them.

And even being so young, he apparently knows to thread his fingers over the shanks to keep the legs from kicking, knows to turn the chicken half on its side when it's pressed against him, knows to keep a hand on the wing. Naturally, the chicken is angry at first, but then it only realizes it can't flap much less escape.

VICTORY.

spoops

[minorcannon]

[ Tita also doesn't look much older than twelve or thirteen, but she's accustomed to kids her age who act more like adults for reasons she doesn't really understand. And she's fairly sensible and already understands that what lies within the house is likely dangerous, and you can't always deal with danger with a rocket launcher.

Unfortunately.

So she nods, shifting a little nervously where she stands. ]

Can you maybe say something even if it isn't all clear?

[bittybat]

Just don't move. [While the doll is certainly nothing that would terrify Damian Wayne, of all people, he'd be a fool if he couldn't admit it was creepy. And sitting directly by the entrance? Thanks, he hates it.

For a long moment, he just stands there, a quarter of the way in the house, listening and watching. Nothing else moves. Nothing else--there is nothing else, and he's more than aware that's just as strange.

Carefully, he picks up the note out of the dolls hand.] There's a riddle.

"The more you take, the more you leave behind." [Well, that's ominous. He looks again around the front room with renewed caution.] Don't wander away.

[minorcannon]

I- I won't.

[ Because Tita's a good kid, and someone had to be the sane, none-troubled one in the party. It doesn't make her feel any less uneasy, though, so she keeps her gaze focused on Damian's back. ]

Maybe... try not to pick anything up?

[ He probably already knows this, but she thinks it's better than just standing there mutely. ]

[bittybat]

[There's a possibility. He's already technically taken the paper, though? RIP.]

Unlikely. That's too easy.

[What's equally easy is taking several steps to the middle of the room and forgetting he has a home of his own. No matter. He's not thinking about home, right? What he doesn't know won't hurt him.]

What makes you leave things behind when you take some of it? [And why does a creepy doll and old house have anything to do with it?]

spoopy

[pinesforyou]

[Yeah, Mabel's just about twelve or thirteen. And she isn't great at the orders, like, taking them. Instead, she strolls right in after this mysterious mystery guy, picking up the doll and pretending to be a ventriloquist]

Check it out! I'm about to bring this creepy doll to life like we're in a movi----

[And then she actually takes a look at Damian's face. Sure, the outfit's a little odd -- but it compliments his face, which is dark, and brooding, and before she knows it Mabel's clutching that creepy ass doll to her heart]

Woooo! Hubba hubba. If this were a horror movie, you'd be my love interest!

why are you this way

[bittybat]

[It hasn't even been two minutes, and he's starting to get a headache.] Put that down, and don't touch anything!

[Unfortunately for Mabel, he's not the type to... well, have fun. His middle name is Anti-Fun.] We're not in a horror movie, and I'm not anyone's love interest. [His head tips to follow the paper which gets spit out of the doll's hand and flutters to the floor.]

I'll get it.

u wanted this :/

[pinesforyou]

Are you jealous I'm spending my attention on another man? Don't worry, you're the only creepy slash sexy figure I'll ever cradle like this again, new lover!

[Selective hearing??? Selective hearing. She just drops the doll as per instruction, and luckily, it doesn't break or anything]

Sooooo! Is this a romantic/horror treasure hunt? What does it say already?!

damian...

[extrapolating]

[ Very quickly, Elizabeth decides that maybe her first impression was wrong. She'd been a little more receptive to the idea of participating in this quest considering it was with a young boy, but his blunt, serious way of going about the question isn't exactly what she expected. Granted, it's not like she's talked to a child really... ever, honestly, but she's still fairly sure that that doesn't fit.

She brushes a bang out of her face with a twist of her mouth, since now she's thinking that this might be a stranger conversation than she originally anticipated. Her answers were strange enough alone, so she would have preferred to not add to it. ]

...Well, what about it? That's too broad to start.

[ No, really, she just wants to put off the whole "I grew up alone in a tower and only just found out about why" thing ]

listen...

[bittybat]

[Too broad? How is--

Naturally, Damian would have gone in chronological order: birth, baby, young child, etc., but he is... also a Wayne. Doing things scientifically or clinically is their prefered method, and it's a wonder either of them experience as much emotion as they do with a hidden lifestyle so rigid.] How?

It's simple. Start with your birth. When, where. Who were your parents?

[extrapolating]

[ It's actually a better, more direct set of prompts than she expected, and in that, she's actually a bit relieved. It's hard to know where to start when you're describing your own life, and she'd at least think that's especially true in her case.

(and tbh at this canon point she's more right than she has any idea about)

But straightforward, clinical answers are actually fairly comfortable. It's easier to answer direct questions and not involve whatever feelings she has on the matter. ]

Let's see... I was born October 8, 1893 in Columbia, I guess. If I was born somewhere else, I don't know where. [ :') ] My father is Zachary Comstock and my mother... [ She managed to keep the anger our of her voice for Comstock, but with her mother, she trails off as her lips thin into a line briefly. She almost wants to laugh, since it would have been easy to answer until she found that journal, but now? ] I don't know who my mother is.

[ Not anymore, at least. Not that she had any attachment to her anyways, since she'd never met her, but now the thought of her mother fills her with bitterness more than anything. So much for not getting emotional. But she reigns it in to ask a simple question. ]

What about you?

[ You didn't think you were going to only ask Elizabeth question, did you Damian? ]

[taraincognita]

Tara is likely only a year or two older than Damian, if anything, but the serious expression on his face makes it even more difficult to take him seriously. A kid in a Robin outfit, thinking he can order her around like the real thing? Kind of hilarious.

"Better than yours, obviously, because at least someone taught me to introduce myself first!" She grins widely. Okay, so maybe her childhood wasn't that great. But she can tell that this kid is exactly the kind that she wants to mess with, just a little bit. "Why dontcha tell me about yours? We can trade facts. Or I'll tell you if you guess right!"

That's fair. She can just lie, anyway. She's pretty damn good at that.

[bittybat]

WOW, LET HIM LIVE HIS LIFE.

He can't believe he immediately got dragged by a girl he's trying to use for a quest. "This isn't a game," he barks. "Just tell me about your childhood and get it over with." Does he seem like he's going to recount the days of his (not that long ago) childhood? No. Does he seem willing to trade stories? Absolutely not.

But the instructions said talk to someone about their childhood, not his!

[taraincognita]

It's a success, having immediately gotten under his skin. Absolutely perfect. It's a struggle not to laugh at him, but Tara doesn't want to hurt the poor boy's ego too much. She's taller than him, even, so it can't be easy for him to get wrecked so hard.

"This kinda feels like a game, though. Have you looked around?" She gestures grandly, before her eyes flicker back to his. "Besides, don't you know how the world works? Why would I do what you say when there isn't anything in it for me? Obviously, I have to do the same quest. So there has to be some kinda give and take."

God. How naive is this kid?

4;

[redigere]

[Naminé tries to reply with all the seriousness he spoke to her with, but a hint of a wry smile makes it onto the corners of her lips anyways. He kind of reminds her of Riku...]

I was never a child.

[bittybat]

[???????????????

Namie, you can't just say--]

That doesn't make any sense. [Though he would be lying if he said he knew only of birth and childhood] Were you created?

[He's thinking... robotic rather than anything remotely related.]

Torn between 1st and 3rd, but I think I'll go with 3rd

[tendershepherd]

"Huh?" Sorey startles at the command that's thrown at him, even more so when he sees the tiny boy it came from, "You mean me?" He asks, pointing to himself for clarity.

The face the younger boy is making unsettles him and has him frowning a bit in thought. He can think of multiple reasons a child so young would have that kind of face...plenty of children from where he's from did, after all. Had something similar happened to this young boy? He'll ask about it, but first he should probably answer his question.

"Um," great start. There was lots he could talk about with his childhood, but just as much that would require explanation... Best to keep it simple, then. Or try to.

"Well, I grew up in a small mountain village. My best friend and I explored the nearby ruins a lot," he says, neglecting to mention details like being the only human in his village. Was an answer like this considered enough?

"What about you?" He asks, offering a friendly smile to the boy.