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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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[She didn't want Ruby to feel like she was imposing...which was funny considering Ruby was the one to drag her over here. Carmen can't deny that the cookies smell amazing now that she's closer.]
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[She looks back to the stand and holds up a hand with two fingers raised.]
Two please!
[And just like that two plates with a few cookies each float down into her hands. She'll quickly offer one of them up to Carmen.]
Here you are!
Oh right! I never introduced myself, I'm Ruby!
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Thank you, Ruby. It's nice to meet you. My name's Carmen.
[With introductions out of the way, Carmen picked up her own cookie and took a bite. Ruby hadn't been exaggerating that they were delicious. The cookie was that perfect texture between soft and crunchy, the chocolate pieces inside still gooey from being in the oven (which was surprising since they'd had to have been on that tray for awhile, right?).]
Mmm. Okay, those are definitely going to be hard to beat.
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[She actually waits to see Carmen's reaction to the cookies before she dives in. When her new friend seems about as pleased as Ruby could hope for she quickly brings up a cookie to her mouth. She has to savor the taste for a moment because gosh, they are exactly as she remembered her mom making them. She chews slowly for a moment and thinks of all the times she had been playing with her sister and a fresh batch of these were waiting when they got home.
Until that came to a stop when her mom passed.
She had to fight back a tear as she thought back on how long it had been since then. Heck it had been well over a year since she had last been home at all.]
Oh gosh... these are so good.
[Okay. Take a deep breath. Stay strong.
She looks over to Carmen and manages a quirky grin.]
They are, but if we're lucky we'll be able to find a close second.
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Well, I don't know about that...but I bet if we can find a place with ice cream or milk shakes those would go pretty well as a follow up.
[Can't be a classic like milk and cookies right? Or, in this case, ice cream and cookies. Carmen's already scoping out the area to see if she sees anything promising in that department. She gently nudges Ruby and points to a floating tray of chocolate, strawberry, banana, and vanilla milkshakes about 20 feet away and steadily moving further away to boot.]
There.
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Milkshakes? Where!?
[She glances around but doesn't see them right off the bat until she gets that helpful nudge from Carmen.]
Oh!
[She then glances over to Carmen and smirks playfully.]
How about a race?
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You're on. Ready...?
[She's already plotting out the quickest path, she's tempted to rush off then but figures making a good first impression means not cheating. Instead she gives Ruby about a second to reply before shouting.]
GO!
[And taking off without confirming if Ruby is following.]
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When Carmen shouts go Ruby prepares to zip forward in a flurry of rose petals right over to those milkshakes. Except there's a problem with that plan, she doesn't have her semblance here.
Ruby forgot she doesn't have her semblance here.
So without any sort of super speed she starts off at an awkward hop and quickly starts to panic as Carmen starts off ahead of her.]
Wha-!? Oh snap!
[She manages to recover into a decent paced run but her first goal is to catch up before she can put her eye on the prize.]
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Carmen reaches the milkshakes and beams brightly, getting the moving invisible servant to stop before turning back to Ruby as she comes up from behind.]
Looks like I won this time. What flavor do you want?
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Needless to say she has some difficulty closing the distance between her and Carmen much less actually finding a way to pass her.
She comes skidding to a halt a few seconds after makes it milkshakes.
There's a snap of a finger and a brief moment of frustration, but she let's it pass.]
Haaaaa, Yeah. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.
[She glances up at the milkshakes.]
Ooooh~! Let's go with Strawberry!
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Good race though. Definitely well earned.
[She sips from the milkshake. It's definitely a good taste to balance the cookie.]
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Yeah! It's been awhile since I came in second place. You're pretty quick!
[Gracious in defeat, she sips the milkshake]
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[It's said casually, but Carmen regrets it pretty quickly. She's not quite certain yet how 'open' she wants to be about what she did for a living. She knows on some level that it's probably going to have to come up eventually, but until she has a better idea of what she's involved herself in it seems imperative to play things a little more cautiously.
She takes another bite from her cookie.]
Good combination of treats. You have good taste, Ruby.
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[Ruby is far too invested in cookies and milkshake to notice any sort of body language that Carmen may have said more than she meant.
The mention of treats is enough to get her to look back up.]
Hey, the milkshakes were your idea. Give yourself some credit too!
[She holds up her milkshake to clink against Carmen's]
Cheers!
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Something like that. I take on odd jobs and a lot of them deal with imports and exports of goods. So I guess you could say there's a delivery element involved. I do a lot of traveling and helping out with various charities as well.
[And as a matter of fact none of those were lies. Carmen feels rather pleased with herself, if a little guilty for not being 100% up front. Perhaps when she knows Ruby better she'll be more open about these things. She's gotta figure out how her life of perceived crime is going to be taken first though. She smiles.]
All right then. I have good taste too.
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Part of her kind of wishes she was right on the personal trainer part instead, she was going to have to build up some new speed.]
Oooh, That's so cool! And for charities too! I had a feeling you were good people. Now it's confirmed!
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[She takes a big sip of her milkshake. Yeah, there's no way this is going to come back to bite her in the butt. She'll cross that bridge later. It wasn't like she'd immediately told Player everything from her past and the only reason she'd opened up to Zack and Ivy was because they had wound up on the same job.
Everyone else, well, everyone else wanted her arrested or worse. It was better this way.]
So what do you do Ruby?
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[Ruby smiles brightly when she's asked.]
I'm a Huntress. ...Or at least I was going to school to be one. Now I'm kind of doing the job without the official education. We're kind of like mercenaries I guess, our main job is to protect people from the Creatures of Grimm.
[This is all said very matter of fact. It's definitely nothing out of the ordinary.]
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Well, I always thought field experience was more helpful anyway.
I'll admit though...I don't typically associate mercenaries with a job that involves protecting people.
[Says the thief who steals for good. Or as her dear Player would put it: a white hat hacker.]
How does that work exactly?
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[There's a tilt of her head and a bit of confusion at the next question. Was Carmen's world not under constant attack by monsters?]
So the Creatures of Grimm that I mentioned before. They're kind of a world wide threat where I'm from. So we train Huntsman and Huntresses to fight against them. People that aren't trained might be able to hold their own against small Grimm, but they can get pretty dangerous.
Basically once we graduate we get access to a job board and take on jobs like "search and rescue." or "make sure these people make it from one place to another." Or even just "Take all these toothy monster jerks."
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[It must have been if you had to train an entire group of people to handle them. It definitely sounded like a serious concern and not really something she can relate to. Taking on odd jobs though...that's a little more up her ally.]
Oh, I think I get it now. Is there a reason why police or military don't handle that sort of thing?
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I guess? It's kind of been getting worse lately.
But all four kingdoms in my world have academies that train huntsman and huntresses. ...Well three academies now.
[She decides not to go into detail about the fall of Beacon.]
The police are generally there to handle issues between people, and the last military intervention we had didn't go so well. That and they only look after the larger cities. There are small settlements all over that don't have that kind of protection. That's where we come in. We look after the monsters and anywhere that needs the help.
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Okay, and each Kingdom then has a school so I assume usually the hunters or huntresses trained by that school stick to that kingdom.
[She recalls Ruby mentioning going to a school for awhile and then just now she mentioned that there were 'three academies now.']
Ruby...did something happen to your school? Or did you leave for your own reasons?
[It wasn't impossible. The VILE training academy was just where Carmen had left it and she hadn't technically graduated either. But she had a feeling Ruby might be from the fourth school.]
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You got it! They can go basically anywhere they want after graduation but most do stick around near where they graduated. Travel between kingdoms isn't exactly easy either.
[She made a slight squeak when Carmen asks about her school.]
Y-yeah. My school kind of doesn't exist anymore. It was attacked during a festival. I left to set things right. I've run into the people responsible a few times. They're going to do worse if they get the chance.
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[If travel was dangerous too, then sticking close to a homebase would make sense because at least then you would know the terrain to work with. Carmen felt a little bad for asking, though she hadn't quite anticipated that answer. She'd just put together the fact that Ruby had left her own school and that one of the schools was no longer operating.
Carmen wants to ask more, but it sounds like a rather complicated issue...and a bad one at that.]
I'm sorry to hear that...I don't won't to pry further, it sounds like it's been tough for you though. If you want to talk about it I'll listen...
[By this point Carmen had finished her cookie and was on the dregs of her shake. She looked down at them and then back at Ruby. She figures she'll give the girl an out if she wants to take it.]
Hey, we're at a festival now, right? Let's find something else to check out. I think I saw some games that way.
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want to end here or keep going?