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acatalepsy_ooc2019-03-24 04:24 pm
acatamods) wrote in acatalepsy_ooc2019-03-24 04:24 pm
Entry tags:
TDM # 6
 test drive meme #6 It happens in the blink of an eye. One moment, you are home. Perhaps you are with your family, perhaps you are at work. It's a completely normal day . . . and then, suddenly, your stomach drops. You are overcome with a sudden sense of vertigo. You cannot see up, or down, or where you are. You fall flat on your face. It takes a few seconds for you to gain composure and catch your breath. You are surrounded by ancient stone buildings, with carvings you do not recognize etched into the stone. There's a sense of nausea, overwhelming and sudden, when you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore. . . . or maybe you are. It seems oddly like a state fair, except a bit more mystical, and a bit more . . . well, touched by faerie-magic..  THE TEMPLE OF BEGINNINGS. Welcome to the "Home Base" of Astoria's Circle. What the actual name of the base is called is lost to the ages, and there's no sense of where you could find it, unless you started asking around. At any rate, this is a central hub of the Circle, a place of powerful magic and mysterious energy. It is a scattering of ancient stone buildings and for the most part, it looks abandoned . . . except for what seems to be a few items, some rooms taken, items moved or organized, even a small garden planted. These are just the smallest hints that there are people here that have been here before you arrived. Overall, it's fairly beautiful. However, it is definitely not modern. Upon exploration, you find that the buildings are kept up by some kind of magic. Some of the rooms have items, things from other Circle members already settled, and others appear to be unclaimed. Pick your rooms, explore the grounds, see the beauty and wonder all around you in such a magical place. Once you're done with that, though, get ready -- there's a carnival in town. FEAST FOR THE PEOPLE.  An array of familiar scents welcomes you — it reminds you so terribly of your roots. Perhaps it’s the clam chowder your grandmother used to make, or the distinct smell of your least favorite kind of enchanted crabapple pie traveling through the air. Regardless, it leads you to a variety of food stands, each and everyone being manned by one of the unseen servants.And lo and behold, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for: food from the very place you’ve come from. The plates and portions are . . . er, floating in air due to how unseen the servants are, but when you reach forward to have a bite, you are promptly stopped. It seems as though the servants are asking for something in exchange. A sign floats up before you… “The food is free ♥ But first, find someone and show them… Your best smile! A flower! Spring is abound ♥ A neat trick using the power I gave you~” You’d best get on it — of course, you could try to simply steal if you’re hungry enough, but well...we’ll see how well that goes over. Ironically enough, the foods you may not be especially partial to will be offered to you without any trouble. Huh. TEN TICKETS GETS A PENCIL.  There are a large variety of other stalls too. While the food definitely follows you wherever you go, there are small booths set up with games. Anything from a ring toss, target practice, games of strength or games of balance have been constructed and set up all around this patch of grass. You might notice a game from home, no matter how specific or seemingly out of place it appears to be in this festival. You’re here to have fun! And maybe the person standing next to you does too. Will you challenge them? Or let them go ahead? Besides, don’t you want those prizes? There is a wide selection of "stuffed animals" made out of grass and flowers to be won, but it all comes down to you. These prizes won't wilt or die, either! How lovely. Additionally, some of the booths give you out some arbitrary amount of tickets, regardless of how well you do. If you win, you seem to get . . . less tickets? But if you lose, you get the lot. Astoria doesn't seem to really get the point of carnival games. There is a booth to turn in said tickets, though! Ten tickets will get you a bright pink pencil. Fifty tickets will get you a kazoo that makes you irresistibly happy for thirty minutes at a time. A hundred tickets will get you a massive stuffed puppy made out of flowers. And two hundred tickets will get you a tiara made out of flowers. . . . these gifts seem to be Astoria-centric, but you'll surely like them, right? LOVE IS IN THE AIR.  What is a festival without some carnival rides? They’re scattered around the faire grounds at random intervals, and seem familiar enough, if not for the fact they seem to be held together primarily through magic. The ferris wheel is made entirely from giant leaves and vines, but is still running, and absolutely safe. You might want to jump on it to see the entirety of the Temple . . . in the (near-ish) distance, you can see Lake Dona, stretching on for what appears to be miles. You can see the Forest of the Fey, equally massive and sprawling . . . and neither seems to have an end in sight. But hey, at least you got a free carnival ride. Bumper cars? More like bumper logs, floating in a small lake of sorts that (for those who have been in the Circle for some time) definitely wasn’t there before. Crashing into one another is a load of fun, but if you get up-ended, you might wind up being shoved back into the logs unceremoniously by some kelpies. Where in the heck did they come from? (They're harmless, for the most part. Astoria seems to have recruited the more tame ones.) And, even better, the unseen servants are keen to get new people to know one another! Are you in line with someone you know? Or next to a complete stranger? Either way, you’ll get shuffled into the next cart and put on your way. The Tunnel of Roses is a great place to meet someone, right? It's seemingly sprung up out of absolutely nowhere . . . a dark, quiet, romantic ride on a tiny little boat, just big enough for two! You’ve got some...time to break the ice. The ride apparently lasts four hours. COMMUNICATIONS.  Upon arriving, you will notice on whichever is your non-dominant hand, you will have a fairly simply screen. A smart watch, if you will. Upon exploration, you will find that it has a directory of all those here with you at the Temple of Beginnings- names, and access to a direct message to them. The watch also has video, audio, and text capabilities, as well as what looks like a collection of messages sent to everyone who wishes to open them. This is your 'network', and also how Astoria can reach out and communicate with you. There is nothing keeping you from removing and/or losing your watch! But remember that you will not have access to this network without it. OOC: Also feel free to join us and other possible players on our discord server! enjoy! ♥ |
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[He repeats the word, obviously not understanding what he means. He mostly thinks about Pearl in relation to that concept.]
You mean with swords?
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[He pulls out a card from his pocket and shows it to Steven, like that's going to trigger a memory. Duel Monsters was popular all over the world, wasn't it?]
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I have some limited edition Crying Breakfast Friends trading cards, but I've never seen those before. How do you fight people with them? Do you just surrender to whoever wins?
[That sounds like a TV show.]
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(Eventually, Yuya will discover that's the case for basically everyone.)
He lowers the card.] Well, by itself it's just a card. But if you play with a solid vision duel disk, all the effects become real. So... an attack in the game can actually hurt someone.
[Decimate buildings, assault civilians...]
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Huh. He's pretty sure if that were a thing, he would have heard about it. Or, at least, Connie or the Gems would have.]
I don't think we have that where I'm from.
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[It's probably important to specify the planet, when talking to space princes?]
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[Is Maiami a real place? Japan definitely is.]
But... I feel like the Crystal Gems would know if humans could make monsters appear and fight for them? That would be really useful for catching corrupted gems...
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Eh, but if you're from America that's where Duel Monsters started... isn't it really big over there too? [He's pretty sure it is. LDS has schools everywhere, but Yuya also remembers world championship tournaments that were held out there.
Something's still not lining up here. But, more importantly:] What are the Crystal Gems?
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[He goes quiet for a moment, thinking deeply about that. Certain revelations are still heavy on his mind.]
There used to just be four, but now there's probably hundreds of us.
[That's nice, anyway.]
Still, I've never seen anything about Duel Monsters before. I don't go to the city a lot, but I do watch a lot of TV!
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If he's not from the city, maybe they just don't broadcast to his area? Yuya knows some really rural places where modern games and stuff haven't picked up that much.]
Are they hiding being aliens from people?
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[He scratches his chin.]
They don't always interact with humans a lot but... they're just kind of... out there? Most people don't seem that worried about it, probably because they've been around since forever.
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[Their history books would look a lot different and space travel probably less interested in trying to find life out there if it already found them first. Yuya scratches his head.]
Maybe... your Earth and my Earth aren't the same?
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[Because, really, despite the gems mostly keeping to themselves, the most he usually gets from other humans is mild surprise. It's just always sort of been like that, maybe because gems have been on Earth since so long ago...]
Wait... does that mean there are multiple earths?! [Now it is Steven's turn to be mildly surprised!] I think I read a book about that once...
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That makes more sense, if you don't know duel monsters and I don't know gem aliens. So she's taking people from a bunch of different planets entirely...
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[He crosses his arms, leaning back in his seat and looking thoughtful.]
That must be really different. The Gem Homeworld left behind all kinds of stuff after they left. The Crystal Gems spent a whole bunch of time just looking after it all...
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[He props his hand on his chin.] What are the gem aliens like?
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[He lifts his shirt up to show off his pink belly gem. It glimmers.]
I'm half gem and half human. So I can do a lot of gem stuff, but I can do a lot of humans stuff easier than they can, too. [He considers it for a moment.]
Gems live pretty much forever unless something happens to them, and they can be really strong and smart and powerful. But... all of them are made for a specific purpose, and their Homeworld has never been very open to them just doing what they want. For a long time, the Diamonds stopped them from doing all kinds of things, like doing stuff for fun, or from loving who they wanted to.
They kind of feel like they have to be working all the time, because that's what they were made for, y'know? But my mom didn't believe in that, so she went against what she was made for, and convinced other gems to do the same. It caused a big war thousands of years ago, but... I think the Diamond Authority is finally coming around to it.
[Though it took some pretty extreme circumstances to convince them. Steven glances off into the distance, watching the landscape slip by over the ferris wheel railing. It's weird to think that it was less than a week ago that everything changed.]
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Academia was pretty controlling about its students, too. [He nods, understanding that much. He remembers what Sora told him, about how he and Yuzu were his first friends... the way everyone worked only for the Professor's goal and didn't seem to grasp having anything else about themselves. The gems sound way more intense about it, but he can relate.] I'm glad the Diamond Authority is changing their mind. People should have the freedom to be themselves and do what makes them happy, right?
[A pause. Thousands of years, though...] So gems, uh, live a long time?
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They sure do... most of the ones I know are at least a few thousand years old. They don't even think about birthdays anymore.
[He fluffs his hair with his hand idly.]
The Diamonds must be... gosh, I don't know how old. Actually, there's still a lot about the Diamonds I don't know either.
[He crosses his arms, remembering where he is.]
...Though I guess it might be a while before I can find out...
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I can't even imagine living that long. [Do they just never get old... are they like lobsters, constantly regenerating.]
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[But maybe he will? He doesn't actually know how his hybrid genetics will shake out in the long term. He shakes his head a little. He doesn't want to think about it.
So he's going to change the topic.]
Are you... [He looks at Yuya, frowning.] How do you feel about all of this? I mean, this place.
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[He looks back to Steven, brow knit with concern.] Back home my friends and family are going to be worried if I just disappear.
[He can't do that to them, and more selfishly he doesn't want to be separated from them either.]
ALLEGEDLY NOT ACTUALLY A PROBLEM BUT TIME TO FREAK OUT ANYWAY
[Steven's arms fold around his gut, like just the idea of that fills him with anxiety. He hasn't thought too deeply about it thus far, wanting to wait until he has more concrete answers first, but what would they do? What would any of his family do if he just disappeared? What would the Diamonds do?
The shift in his mood is pretty obvious, though he tries to hold it back.]
...I can't. [There is an edge of desperation forming.] I can't do that to them, not right now.
AT LEAST THEY'RE GETTING THIS ALL OUT OF THEIR SYSTEM NOW
He's going to make all of them worry. Yuzu, his parents... and what about the others, the other faces of his soul? Are the three of them left behind sharing a body, and he's here alone? He hasn't heard any of them since arriving.]
I have to back.
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They've been around the ferris wheel a good few times at this point, and Steven realizes he should probably get off soon. He starts to get up.]
...I'm gunna go find Astoria. She's the only one who can do something about this.
[
And then Steven jumps out of the cart expecting to float and actually just plummets to the ground.]