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seasonsgreetings2024-10-18 10:32 am
seasonsmods) wrote in seasonsgreetings2024-10-18 10:32 am
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Test Drive Meme #11
Test Drive Meme #11
LOGS | NETWORK | OOC | MEMES | NAVIGATION
You arrive in an unknown space, dressed in white clothes (player choice what kind of clothes, as long as they cover everything). Whatever was happening to you before no longer happens. It's like everything was put on a pause and you were transferred away from the situation without you realizing it happened.
The space that you find yourself in is one of these four options:
An empty landscape filled with snow and ice, almost like a blank canvas.
A field with cherry blossom trees and spring flowers.
A sunny beach near an ocean that seems never ending.
A quiet forest with falling autumn leaves.
All of the spaces seem to continue endlessly. No matter where or how far you walk it almost seems like you're not moving at all. There are no animals here - just those who happened to wake up there at the same time, in the same place. Everyone is wearing the same kind of plain, white clothes.
Despite the possible rollercoaster of emotions you might be feeling, the place somehow feels familiar. Like somehow you belong there.
And it looks like you're not alone.
After half an hour has passed the surroundings change as everyone is teleported into a room with all the other new arrivals, no matter what space they woke up in. It's a large place with plenty of seats to sit in and beverages to enjoy. Medical attention is offered to those who need it and the doctors here are very prepared for any challenging situations.
Here, in this room, everyone gets an answer to where they are and why. A hologram of a man appears at the center of the room, waiting to be heard. He brings a message on behalf of the leaders of Ellipsa (someone near the hologram mumbles that Olwen still hadn't sent them a new message, even if he talked about updating it).
The Message [ Click to Expand ]
Hello, my name is Olwen. I'm one of the leaders of Ellipsa as it currently is. I'm also one of the four who summoned you here.
Our world is in trouble and we need your help. I apologize for tearing you away from your world and forcing you to come here but I hope you understand. The magic we used doesn't let us ask in advance, nor does it let us choose who we bring here.
This world is composed of four Seasonal Segments. All of them represent one of the seasons. They were the places we used to get our resources from, but now they're dangerous places no one should go into unless they have the power to fight back. All of them have their own sets of powerful monsters and natural catastrophes.
We used to have plenty of people here who could control the powers of the four Seasons. We called them Seasonal Power Holders. Unfortunately, due to a tragedy you can read about later, we lost almost all of them. Now only four of us remain and the world is in chaos. We have done our best to protect the world, but we need more power holders to do that.
That's where you come in.
All of you have been assigned to one of the seasons. Whatever space you were in just now is what season you represent. You will learn different skills based on the season and those skills are going to help you save this world.
These powers don't interfere with your own natural powers. They use a new energy that has formed inside of you. It's harmless to your health, but it's vital to your seasonal powers. Your own powers should still work, even if the dark energy outside the city might interfere with them.
Unfortunately bringing you here wasn't as simple as it sounds. We couldn't do anything about how to keep you anchored to this world other than making a simple spell that helps with it. That is, you need to touch someone else who is not from this world ideally at least once a day. It will help you stay in control of your powers and boost your magical energy. If you don't, the consequences aren't very good. But as long as you hold someone's hand or give someone a handshake, you should be fine.
That's all I have to say about the situation. The staff of the Research Center will give you more information about housing and other necessary things. I will, however, promise that you will be sent home once the situation becomes better. That's the least we can do.
The hologram can be viewed in private in a separate room later, should someone wish to look at it again. For now, the staff of the Research Center hands everyone their new smartphones with their small flower lucky charms (the flower is anything the player decides). They're also told that the building next door is where everyone can find a room assigned to them with some of their belongings there and possibly even any animal companions. Those concerned about their mount-sizes companions are welcomed to the stables downstairs to see if their friends are there. The mounts are allowed to stay there until you find a place more suitable for them.
In the Arrival's hall there are also several stands with information pamphlets.
First type of stand is for the local Guilds and about the benefits or joining one.
Second type of stands is for the Welcome Center that aim to show otherworlders what the world is like and help guide people in the beginning of the journey and helps in getting settled into the new world. They even have people to help if you're unfamiliar with the new phones.
Once you get your smartphone and necessary information, you're urged to go out and find your apartment. After that whatever you want to do is up to you.
Part 3
The building next door is where everyone can find their new apartments. As you enter, you're told by a friendly native that for the first two months you can live anywhere rent-free and five meals a day are paid for you. After that they get a monthly payment that helps with some of their living expenses, but otherwise they have to have a job to support themselves.
All of the apartments are comfortable, two bedroom apartments with all necessary utilities. They are also completely soundproof. Sometimes the magic system, however, does glitch and you might find yourself rooming with a stranger. This is not the intention and the staff will immediately prepare you your own room if you ask them. But maybe having a roommate isn't all that bad?
In the Arrival's hall there are also several stands with information pamphlets.
First type of stand is for the local Guilds and about the benefits or joining one.
Second type of stands is for the Welcome Center that aim to show otherworlders what the world is like and help guide people in the beginning of the journey and helps in getting settled into the new world. They even have people to help if you're unfamiliar with the new phones.
Once you get your smartphone and necessary information, you're urged to go out and find your apartment. After that whatever you want to do is up to you.
The building next door is where everyone can find their new apartments. As you enter, you're told by a friendly native that for the first two months you can live anywhere rent-free and five meals a day are paid for you. After that they get a monthly payment that helps with some of their living expenses, but otherwise they have to have a job to support themselves.
All of the apartments are comfortable, two bedroom apartments with all necessary utilities. They are also completely soundproof. Sometimes the magic system, however, does glitch and you might find yourself rooming with a stranger. This is not the intention and the staff will immediately prepare you your own room if you ask them. But maybe having a roommate isn't all that bad?
October is once again the start of the nameless festival of honoring the dead, where regular people can join in helping ghosts pass into afterlife. This ritual can only be done at this time of the year, as the air is filled with a mysterious essence that helps with passing on. The scientists have yet to properly determine what the essence truly is, but it seems to concentrate on the park and at least it's not dangerous for the living.
Much like last year, the key is to partner up with someone and hold up a special wreath made of flowers. Once the wreath starts glowing they must release it and let it float upward. During the ascent, the ghost will be visible to everyone, even if just for a moment, before vanishing with the wreath, leaving behind glowing, floating lights in the air.
Another part of the festivities is sending off floating lanterns. These lanterns can be used to pour all thoughts and feelings of someone the person misses and send it to the skies. Legend says that it will eventually reach the person they thought of, alive or dead, eventually on its journey. It's also viewed as a way of lessening one's emotional weight.
Ortherworlders are also encouraged to light special candles. Doing so will grant them a protective spell that will be with them until its spent. All damage they receive will be halved for three hits. This spell can't be stacked, but it can always be redone during the course of the festivities (until late November).
The restaurants in Blossomcrown are also participating in the festivities. They are offering the ghosts a chance to enjoy one final meal before leaving the world. This is only made possible by volunteers.
The food will be provided by the chefs: All the volunteers need to do is let ghosts possess them. They'll be given a magical brooch to hold that will make this happen. Once the ghost has taken over someone's body, they will tell what their favorite food is. It could be just a strawberry cake or something more exotic like haggis.
After they've enjoyed the meal the ghosts usually leave the brooch and the stop possessing the person. However some of them are greedy and will run from the restaurant. It's likely they want to fill their heart's final desire, whatever it may be. It could be singing on a rooftop or even running naked through the marketplace.
During the two months the festivities are happening, the natives will be much more understanding of any weird stunts and crimes the otherworlders do, assuming they're possessed by a peculiar ghost. Unless they see that someone doesn't have a brooch, of course.
Those caught doing dangerous and/or malicious things without being possessed will be put into a pillory for the afternoon, so natives can toss tomatoes at them.
Nightwake has adopted Halloween as an official holiday. The city has been decorated with various spooky things and people dress up in different themed outfits. Even the cat-sized dragons residing in the city have cute accessories like witch hats or devil horns.
The natives are especially proud of the haunted houses they've set up on every district. They fit the theme of the place they're in and some of them even have actual ghosts to set up the mood. Nothing actually dangerous happens in the houses, just some good-willed spooky fun and perfectly cut screams.
Stores are also doing a promotion for boo baskets! Anyone who gathers a basket full of halloween and autumn filled things (clothes, food, decorations, chocolate etc) will get 50% off for their total purchase! The boo baskets themselves are designed as various things, such as pumpkins, bats and different monsters from all around Ellipsa. Anyone is also welcome to design their own basket.
Speaking of baskets, during the festivities everyone will receive a harvest basket on their doorstep. There are those filled with vegetables, some filled with fruit and berries and then a mix of both. Usually all baskets have at least apples, corn, potatoes, pumpkins and squash. The card in the basket says "Please enjoy these, but don't leave them sit in the basket for too long!"
A few days after everyone has received their harvest baskets, something strange starts happening. Vegetables that haven't been eaten or prepared for later somehow start growing at rapid speeds. Most vegetables just grow into the size of middle sized dogs and stop there. Locals suggest carving the pumpkins especially into small houses for Harvest Fairies... or just for decorations. Some pets really, really love pumpkin and might enjoy a small house built for them.
Corn is the worst one to leave in the basket as those grow a full corn maze all around the district they end up growing in (including in the house it started in). It's entirely possible to encounter a corn maze even in the middle of Frostreign. Magical corn doesn't care about the soil it grows in.
It doesn't take long for corn maze turf wars to start happening. Mysterious moving jack o'lantern (creatures with pumpkins as heads on different bodies - including void cats pretending to be jack o'lantern) and very regular seeming scarecrows start fighting over their territory.
The locals try enlisting anyone to stop the fight because jack o'lanterns carry lanterns and try to set the scarecrows on fire - and no one wants the corn maze to go up in flames when some of them connect indoors. The scarecrows in turn use any weapons they might get their hands on - including people and animals.
Of course getting rid of the mazes is also a priority. Fire is a no go, but the farmers are willing to lend their scythes for the occasion.
During October 21st, Nightwake natives are engaging in a weird new tradition. Apparently, while looking at modern holidays, they found a something called a National Throw a Short Person - day. So it's entirely possible to see short people being thrown into different soft mattresses and other surfaces lined up for the occasion.
They're even encouraging people to participate, saying that it seemed like such an important holiday to honor. How they came to that conclusion isn't very clear.
Summary of the prompts [ Click to Expand ]
Arrival• Characters appear in one of the four seasonal spaces, depending on what season they are
• After half an hour they are teleported to the Research Center lobby and given information
• Hologram of Olwen (Winter Guild Leader) plays, explaining the situation
• They're given their smartphone-like device and told about the Starter Apartments next door
• Possibility of finding a roommate!
Hymn for the Missing
Part 1
• Nameless festival of honoring the dead starts and continues until late November
• Flower wreaths are used to help ghosts pass onto afterlife
• Floating lanterns are send to skies with thoughts and emotions of someone missing attached
• Lightning candles will give people a protective spell
Part 2
• Volunteers are asked to let ghosts possess them so they can enjoy one last meal
• This is possible by a magical brooch
• Some ghosts will want to do other things as well and run away
• Those caught doing dangerous and/or malicious things will be caught in the pillory
Pumpkins Scream in the Dead of Nightwake
Part 1
• Halloween is now an official holiday
• Decorations and costumes pop up everywhere
• Every district has a themed haunted house
• People are encouraged to make boo baskets
• Everyone will also receive a harvest basket with an ominous message
Part 2
• Few days after the harvest baskets are received, magic happens
• Vegetables start growing into the sizes of middle sized dogs
• Corn will make full corn mazes everywhere
• Turf Wars start in the corn maze between jack o'lanterns and scarecrows
Part 3
• October 21st is the National Throw a Short Person day
- Ask your questions related to the TDM here.
- The TDM is available only to friends of the mods and their friends. If you want to play in the TDM, please leave a note here to inform us who invited you over. We will get to you as soon as possible.
- Test Drive is open for current characters to make a top level as well. New characters can add TDM on their subject line to indicate they're new!
- Current characters cannot access the starting area again to meet new arrivals. They can, however, be at the Research Center when the newbies are teleported in.
- The TDM is game canon so anything in the TDM can happen for your character(s) in the game as well.
- Smut is not allowed on the TDM. You can play situations leading to it, but if the thread is turning into smut, please move it to a private space such a post in your character's journal, or a locked post in the game's log community if you decide to app!
- Check Locations: City to find more areas to explore inside the city. Every place in the districts are open.
- Similarly, Locations: Segments is useful for outdoors adventures.
- You can find monsters to encounter on Beastiary.
- FAQ has information on characters' smartphones as well as general things about the world that might be handy.
no subject
But not today. All he's said today was the truth. Their truths are often so ugly, so violent. Isn't that how it's always been, even before they knew so much of each other? When he was younger, Eren struggled to accept the truth about Reiner, about himself. He knows better now.
"Kids are like that, and you were under a lot of pressure," he says. There's his anger, hard to hide away under neutrality. There is no neutrality for Eren and there never has been. He hates the whole Warrior program, the push to use Eldians as weapons, to use children, to use Reiner. Of course those kids argued. It wasn't the same sort of camaraderie as in the Scouts, where the stakes were different.
He manages not to go off about it, at least.
"You'll get to tell him someday," he says instead, which may be true and may not. It isn't a lie on purpose. Sometimes you just have to believe things. Eren has to believe he'll get to talk to Armin again before that awful ending in a sea of blood, aside from when he tries to break their hearts. He wants to believe it, even if he knows it can't be true.
He wants better for Reiner now.
They watch the lantern go into the sky with the others. Eren is still holding his.
For a minute he hears another set of words. For a minute (for always), he's fifteen and desperate to think that Reiner doesn't mean what he says. Talk about breaking someone's heart. Some of Liberio was revenge for that moment — not the attack on the city specifically, but the dramatic display in the basement.
No matter what his memory does, though, he isn't fifteen. He's twenty-one, older than he will live to be at home, older than he ever imagined, two years seemingly so long when compared with the end of everything.
"Okay," he says. "Tell me."
no subject
But. Always "but." Still, he justifies it, even if that voice of justification has grown quieter over the past eighteen months.
Eighteen months. A year and a half. That's how long Reiner has been in Ellipsa. That's how long he's been with Eren, though they have never put a label to what they have. Has Eren done so in his mind? Does he call Reiner his, as Reiner calls Eren "my Eren"?
Eren speaks of somedays. Reiner wonders if it's true. He has wasted so much time waiting for the right moment. Trusting that when the time came, he would act. As if he hasn't frozen again and again throughout his life. As if he hasn't fallen short over and over.
He can't depend on tomorrow. Neither of them can. This time of theirs is stolen—and the thought of it running out is terrifying.
Reiner looks Eren in the eyes, staring into that mesmerizing green that draws him in and destroys him. His throat bobs as he swallows, trying to keep a choking sensation at bay. Why was it so much easier to confess his crimes? Why can't he just spit it out?
He's not scared: he's fucking petrified of losing this; of losing Eren.
But he has to do this.
He pushes forward.
"I'm in love with you," he says, quiet enough that only the two of them can hear. "I have been for a while."
no subject
So what are they? If pressed, Eren would say he doesn't know. Is there a word for someone who knows you so well, understands everything you will do and stands by you anyway? What do you call the man who hands you the knife?
There is still no future, he knows. There is only now, only stolen time. He wants to have so much more of it. He will do anything — anything — to keep it, to keep this.
And yet, of all the things he imagines Reiner might say here, he doesn't expect what he hears. He expects something heavy, a confession that will wound. Maybe that's unfair, but those are the kinds of things Eren might come up with. He has admitted so many things to Reiner. He doesn't really expect horrors from Reiner now. Of the two of them, Eren is still worse, and they both know that.
For once, he doesn't know what to say right away. He just stares, wide eyed and unguarded. He almost drops the lanterns he's holding, the world zeroed in on a moment even Eren could not have anticipated.
I'm in love with you.
He opens his mouth.
He almost says is that all? but realises how that will come across enough that he shuts his mouth again before he can. He was expecting the world to shatter. He wasn't expecting it to fall into place.
He forces himself to move, setting the lanterns down to the side of where they're standing. He still needs to deal with them, but they'll be there. Anyway, both of the people those lanterns are for would understand, wouldn't they? Hange would make some joke. He has no idea what his mother would do, but she would want him to be happy, so…
Suddenly, he gets it. Why this, why now. It is precisely because there is no future, no guarantee, nothing promising that tomorrow they'll both wake up in Ellipsa, or at all. Reiner didn't say whatever he needed to Galliard, and now Galliard isn't here.
Eren has thought more than once that he should tell Reiner how he feels before it's too late to do that. He just hasn't, though the reasons are ever complicated.
He turns back to Reiner. Without thinking, he reaches. He'll twine their fingers together like he always does unless Reiner stops him.
"I'm in love with you too," he says, not nearly as quiet. It isn't the outburst of emotion he'd have had as a younger person, but it isn't the monotone he has so much of the time either.
no subject
In another distant time and place, he is on his knees with tears in his eyes, pleading for Eren to kill him. Seeking mercy where there is none.
In this place, not so long ago, he is showing Eren the most fragile parts of himself, tracing a map to the things that would hurt the most. He is giving Eren weapon after weapon, all blades pointed at himself.
Here and now, Reiner has just done the same.
Eren stares up at him, eyes wide and unguarded, so beautiful it makes Reiner's chest ache. (Or maybe his chest aches because his heart is pounding so hard, a thump thump thump thump like Titans charging.) Eren opens his mouth. Closes it. And Reiner knows he fucked this up. He picked the wrong time, or the wrong words, or something.
Should he have stayed silent? No; Eren needed to know. Even if it's Reiner who loves him, Eren needed to know. And now he does.
The cold, familiar shame of rejection begins crawling up Reiner's spine. (He's never enough. Never.) What did he expect? He knew Eren wouldn't feel the same way. He knew the possible consequences. And now, he has to live with them.
Eren moves, setting the lanterns down. The lanterns, for fuck's sake. The lanterns Reiner assumes are for Eren's parents; for the mother that Reiner is responsible for killing. His timing really is horseshit.
He doesn't know what he expects next. But Eren reaching forward, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together, isn't it.
It feels just like it always does: perfect. Eren's fingers sit between Reiner's own as if they were always meant to be there. Too smooth, too hot, utterly perfect.
Then Eren speaks, his voice filled with emotion, and he says the very words that Reiner knows in his heart he won't hear.
I'm in love with you too.
Something shifts inside of Reiner, so powerful it's painful. Like a river finally breaking through a dam, or a bone set into place. Something that was wrong and is finally right.
Reiner releases a shaky breath, not knowing how long he was holding it. He wants to say something. He wants to say everything. He tries, lips parted, his free hand reaching up to caress Eren's cheek, thumb stroking where Titan marks would be.
Before Reiner can manage to form any words, he moves, leaning in to press his lips to Eren's, his kiss saying the words again: I'm in love with you.
sorry i will never recover from them
Their hands are hot where they connect, as always, as it should be.
What do you call the man who hands you the knife? It doesn't matter, if you love him.
Reiner's hand on Eren's face is right, too, tracing lines that aren't there now but will be again and again and again. He will die with those marks, the last traces of a monster. But not here, not today and not any day soon. Today, they are just men. No, maybe today they are something else, something more. They love each other, despite everything that has stood and will stand between and against them (including themselves).
Eren thinks maybe he should say something else, but he's not exactly eloquent. He never has been. He can spew words in a stream when he's riled up, but this kind of emotion is different. It's both strange and familiar at the same time, like finding a picture you'd forgotten about, the memory dredged up with a spark of recognition.
He's already moving to catch Reiner's mouth as Reiner leans towards him. If there is a difference kissing Eren before they said such a thing and after, it is this: there is still passion in him. Sometimes he has kissed Reiner with need or desperation, but this is different. It's still need, demand, because Eren can't be anything but himself. It's just more layered on top of it, the way his mouth opens, the way one hand finds the back of Reiner's neck like a promise, like a brand.
I love you, he thinks. It's no longer a revelation to Eren, if it ever was. But he wasn't expecting it to go both ways either.
For a minute, or two, or six, he forgets where they are. He'll remember when he has to breathe, but this is still important. This is a reminder to keep living, against the odds, for as many days or years or seconds as they can steal.
SAAAAAME
It doesn't feel like an explosion, something that rattles the earth and shifts the foundations. It feels like a piece of a puzzle finally put in place. A zenith reached, a star grasped. Eren kisses him with that passion Reiner is so weak to, the passion that first captured Reiner on a starlit night so many years ago.
He feels like he's finally found something that he's sought for years. He feels like he's come home.
Eren's hand finds the back of Reiner's neck, palm pressed to that most vulnerable part of him. Reiner makes a sound—happy, accepting—and winds his free hand into Eren's hair, keeping him close.
He doesn't want this kiss to end. Not ever. But eventually, his lungs protest loudly enough that he has to draw back, breathing a little hard. Less because he has to catch his breath, and more because of everything else.
"I love you," he says again. Only this time, he's smiling bright as the sun.
no subject
Today. Maybe not next time.
He takes a half-gasped breath when their lips finally part. They were both running out of air. It would be okay to drown, he thinks, but he was never made for drowning. He'll always fight too hard.
He catches Reiner's smile, real and bright. Eren will probably never match that again. His face brightens a little, but it's not quite a real smile. Almost. It's close.
"I love you," he whispers back, like if he says it too much it might lose the weight.
🎁 wrap?
But it's not. It's a moment of peace. A moment where everything suddenly makes sense in the world. Everything is where it's supposed to be.
They are here, together, and that's where they're meant to be.
Reiner leans forward, gently resting his forehead against Eren's. His eyes remain open for a moment, gazing into the green that consumes him, changes him, strips away pretense and demands something genuine from him. In another life, it would be for the worse. Right now, it's for the better.
Right now, Reiner is happy.
He doesn't demand to hear those words again; he doesn't need to. He'll remember Eren saying them for as long as he lives.