ateratooc | TD006

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TD006

Test Drive 006

WELCOME TO ATERAT

Here is our Fifth Test Drive Meme! There are a lot of areas of the city to explore, so please have a look around! In case you need a little help getting started, I've included a few prompts below, or feel free to start your own! Exploration and player initiative are the names of the game here!

Helpful Links to Get Started

Arrival & General Information | Setting & Bestiary | Locales & Businesses | Residences & Housing Info | Rules & FAQ (ask questions here!)

I. Crash Into Me

Not exactly, but close enough. You have just arrived and received a strange satchel from a tiny, strange little man and are left more or less to your own devices (more information on what to expect upon arrival can be found here)! Follow directions to the north and check out the housing, or maybe have a look around the Historium and try to get some information from that giant glowing ball, see what you can waste your meager starter coin on in the Market District, or maybe just meet the neighbors.

II. What Goes Bump in the Night

It looks like Aterat proper has a spirit problem. Maybe you're seeing specters, hearing disembodied voices, your windows rattle when there's no breeze outside. Maybe there are cold spots in your place of business (or your apartment, which is so much worse). Either way, you're 100% convinced you're haunted. Hopefully, someone else believes you, or maybe you're used to feeling crazy.

III. When the Carnival Came to Town?

Take a look at the prompts from our latest event and go to town (or the carnival).

IV. Try the Network

The Tell-Phone allows for text, video, and audio transmissions to everyone else who has one. Give it a whirl!

V. Wildcard

The above prompts are all options, and there's much more to the setting than what they provide. Do your best (or your worst)!

Navigation

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I. Crash into Me

The blossoming pain in his chest faded and he took in breathes, his hand clutched there, where it should have been filling with blood, his blood. His eyes opened slowly, almost distrusting in their perception of light. This was wrong. It was the Dark Hour, not...what, noon? He nearly jumped out of his skin when the little man approached him, too confused the his surroundings to do much more than dumbly take the sack offered to him and nod, blinking after the little man as he wandered off. He took a moment to consider his clothes, jaw clenching for a moment when he noted the blood-crusted hole in his coat over his heart.

"So that happened." Whether he was commenting on his current predicament, where he'd come from previously, or something else entirely was anyone's guess. Even he didn't know for sure. Still frowning, annoyed more than confused, he finally takes a look around, finding a bench nearby to rifle through his bag. "What is this shit?"

III. When the Carnival Came to Town

Curiosity drew him to the carnival as it had so many others, though he kept his hands shoved firmly into the pockets of his coat, his shoulders hunched and his cap pulled low, just to make sure people around him got the idea he wasn't inviting conversation. Not that that seemed to stop most of the people around here. A lot of them were annoyingly friendly.

He found himself near the food stalls for sheer force of habit, and he felt a pang of regret that Akihiko wasn't around to explore the carnival fare with him. Sure, there were festivals in Iwatodai sometimes, but this was like every fun faire any western movie advertised, which struck him as odd, considering they were a little far from Earth at the moment. He wandered the food stalls, taking in the different sights but not purchasing anything until he came to a little food cart that felt a hell of a lot more like home. After getting his little cardboard tray of takoyaki he resumed his wandering, popping a deliciously crispy ball of octopus dough and eyebrows raising as he looked down at the treat in surprised.

"Shit." He hasn't expected them to be good.

IV. Try the Network

[Shinjiro has seen a lot of weird shit. He's even gotten used to it, and the idea that he's not, in fact, dead when he should be, but seriously.]

What's with the giant birds around here?

[That's something like an introduction, right?]

Despite being only 18 years of age, Mitsuru Kirijo had experienced more than most would by the very end of their life. In fact, one could also say that she'd held more responsibility by the age of ten than most people ever would. That aspect of her life was only accounting for the mundane responsibility that came from being a member of the Kirijo family. Add the Dark Hour and Personas to that and, well, it was probably impressive that the weight of responsibility hadn't crushed her. It came close, not that she would ever voice that aloud to others, but it had yet to win out over her. Instead, she tried to use it to her advantage. After all, with all that experience and the weight of all her responsibilities, how could she possibly be surprised by anything?

Turns out there's always a surprise to be found somewhere.

There were several people she never expected to see again. It would be nice if she could claim there was only one, but recent events had made certain the list grew. The young man on a bench complaining about the free things he'd been given happened to be on that list. She blinked several times in a mixture of confusion and perhaps...joy. There were certain sparks of joy hidden behind her mostly emotionless façade, but that would not be noticeable to most people.

For a few moments she didn't approach, even though she knew he'd more than likely notice her eventually. There wasn't a crowd currently that she could blend in with and, even if there had been, her attire and bright hair stood out in a crowd. Mitsuru stood out in a crowd. She always had. It all came down to how she carried herself: proud, poised, and as if nothing in the world could possibly rattle her. If only they had seen her just a short time ago when everything had really fallen apart. They'd know the truth of it then.

After a few seconds she steeled herself to approach him. It shouldn't be possible. Not with what had happened. It just shouldn't be possible. Yet, none of this should be possible. Perhaps it's all just a dream. If so then what would the harm be in saying something?

"A welcome package our hosts graciously gifted to us upon our kidnapping. You might make them angry implying it's shit." Even though it certainly was.

Llewellyn loved a good carnival, even if this one was rather… strange to him. Not because of the entertainment or setup, those were normal enough. It just struck him as odd when things pulled into town as though that was an easy thing to do in this world, when there seemed to be invisible blocks that kept them all rather contained.

But it wasn’t as though he was immune to distraction, especially when there was food to be sampled. The man’s diet consisted of street food back in his world, not particularly healthy, but it wasn’t like Llewellyn tended to think about that when he was choosing his next meal. He jogged in the mornings, and he never really sat down for long. It was fine!

There was such a variety to choose from, though, that even he was having a hard time deciding what to try next. The man was compiling a mental list of what was the best that he could show Rhy the next time his husband had a day off, when he heard a rather interesting reaction to some food from a young man who’d just left behind the takoyaki stand behind. Llewellyn actually did know a little about food from Japan, but takoyaki was from a little after his time.

“Am… I correct in assuming that you mean they’re good?” Forgive the rather abrupt interruption, Shinjiro, the man sometimes forgot his manners. Especially in settings like this, where food was involved. Llewellyn was guessing ‘Shit’ meant good in this case, since his expression indicated it, but he had been wrong before. The dog at his heels, a young wrinkly thing, seemed just as curious about what the food was.

Edited 2022-04-17 14:27 (UTC)

Mono had developed the bad habit of following new comers around the city. It wasn’t hard to tell. If he saw Raimon around with those welcome bags like the one he’d been given, it meant someone had arrived. At first, he followed people to see if there was anything to worry about. If they’d ‘change’ when you least expected it, looking normal only to actually be something quite dangerous like in his world. These days, though, the kid had at least realized that wasn’t normal. Sure, there were one or two people he couldn’t quite ignore the anxious feeling he got when he saw them at a distance that sent him in another direction, but for the most part, he just followed because he was curious.

Plus, this world was weird, and he felt rather encouraged to help if people looked confused.

Shinjiro looked confused. Like… Super confused. Mono wasn’t sure why, but it was more than the usual confusion of suddenly being in a weird place. So… Shadow mode activated, and he pulled the brim of his newsboy hat low over his dark eyes and began following him around. At least he meant to as he crept around the bench Shinjiro had eventually sat down on. The question over the bag he was digging through made Mono straightened slightly. “That’s your key and money stuff they give you so you don’t gotta sleep in an alley and can buy food.”

Not since shortly after he and Akihiko had met Mitsuru, been pulled into the web of intrique and slight insanity that was the life of a Persona User, had Shinjiro ever needed to look up to know who approached him whenever the footsteps sounded like hers. Mitsuru carried herself with purpose, drive, and determination, but there was also a bit of uncertainty there, hidden deep under all her poise and grace. Very deep, but it was there. She was the perfect precision of an ice sculpture and he was a battering ram. It made them work well together, especially with Aki around to take the heat and the brunt of Shadow attacks. How could he not recognize the final point of their triangle?

Or have thought he wouldn't have to face them again after all the decisions he'd made. He'd never really had to deal with what Mitsuru might think of his drug use, his attempts to suppress the chaotic power of Castor when he was uncertain he could do it himself; the drugs that were killing him as surely as the bullet he'd taken for Ken. He hadn't had to worry about facing the lecture at that little choice, either. Except now, fate had evidently decided not only did he not deserve whatever rest waiting him in the afterlife, he needed a stern talking to, also. Mitsuru was pretty damned good at those.

He opened the pamphlet that came with his 'Tell Phone' and didn't look up as he responded. "Not this shit." And with his free hand, he gestured around the square. "That shit." He couldn't deny her using a curse, even if it was mocking him, made a smile tug at the corner of his mouth, though. Maybe he and Aki wore off on her more than he'd thought.

He made a motion of stretching his neck to hide that little smirk before looking up. "They got you too, huh?"

In all honesty, Shinjiro was used to people giving him a wide berth. He didn't exactly radiate amiability, and nothing about his frowning glower or narrowed eyes suggested he was open to conversation, so it wasn't expected people would talk to him, even if they did pick him out of a crowd. He was tall for his age, just under 6 feet at the age of 18, and by the time he was finished growing, he would most likely stand a bit over the mark. He was thin and wiry, though the heavy maroon trench coat he wore did something to make his already broad shoulders seem broader, and all in all, he usually cast an intimidating shadow.

And so it took him a minute to realize the excitable man near him was talking to him. He looked over after a moment, brows lowering while he finished chewing and swallowing.

"Yeah." And they were. He hadn't expected a food cart in a fantasy world with weird giant birds and magic to have genuine street takoyaki. He was pleasantly surprised. He looked down at the tray then back to Watts before holding it out, his expression not changing. "Try one." He didn't, however, offer any explanation as to what Watts might actually be trying.

Shinjiro stiffened at the sound of the kid's voice. It wasn't that he was trying to sneak around himself or anything like that. Shinjiro didn't typically try to be quiet when he was making his way around, but the kid was a lot closer than the teen would have anticipated when he spoke. He turned at the sound of the voice, dark eyes moving over the younger boy before cutting back to the bag in his lap.

He nodded once. "Yeah, not what I was talkin' about." He cast his eyes around the small park, up at the alien stars, as if to say, 'something more general than that'. "Nice setup, though." It told the teen they wanted something more than 'go make a world'. It was intentional.

But what?

Llewellyn wasn’t really most people, to be fair. The frowning glower didn’t really do a lot to deter him. He had a friend in this world who was a champion at the expression, after all. Things that warned the man away from people tended to be a little different. So… Instead he waited the Shinjiro to finish what he’d already been eating with a good-natured, very curious expression.

His brows rose a little at the offer. Not everyone was particularly keen on sharing food like he was. So he really hadn’t expected more than a confirmation on whether they were good or not. “Oh? Well- thank you, then.” He commented, taking one to eat himself, not overly concerned with the fact that he didn’t really know what he was eating. Clearly Shinjiro was enjoying it, so why worry about what it actually was until he knew if he liked it or not?

That said, Llewellyn looked pleasantly surprised by the little stuffed nuggets of dough. “Crackerjack-! these are delicious? What are they??” He asked, gesturing at the tray of takoyaki again with an even more curious expression. Sorry about the… old-timey phrases. Man didn’t really swear by most people’s standards. But the point was, he liked the food, and he was absolutely going to have to get more of this.

Mono would have assured the guy there wasn’t any reason to be surprised. He was sneaky, after all. You had to be as sneaky as he was to survive in his world, plus he was getting extra sneaky lessons from someone else. Well, it was mostly climbing lessons, but Mono liked to think the man would help him improve that, too. He was always really good at figuring out where Mono was, after all. He probably had some secrets that could help.

“Oh…” He responded, tone not entirely sure what to make of that. What did the guy mean? Well… Adults were weird. They worried about lots of weird stuff. Even the ones that were normal, regular people.

Still, he remained where he was, arms hanging over the side of the arms of the park bench as he glanced up at the stars. They were pretty great. You almost never saw them in the Pale City, too much cloud cover, rain, and fog. The statement, though, gets a tilt of his head. “Yeah, it’s kinda great, actually. I mean… It’s really weird, but it’s a good weird.” He paused, expression scrunching slightly. “Most of the time. Sometimes there’s bad weird, but only sometimes.”

"So it would seem." For a moment she thought about pointing out that was quite a stupid question to ask. Obviously they had gotten her, she was standing right in front of him. There was no point to pointing that out though and she was oddly tired. Perhaps everything was starting to catch up to her after all. Or perhaps it was just the effect Shinjiro managed to have on her. Not that he only had that effect on her. Even Aki sometimes found himself sighing at the way the other young man handled things. If Aki was here he'd probably be able to handle all this better, but he wasn't. At least not that she had taken note of. She made a mental note to do a more complete scan of this place later.

"It's quite a bit of a step up from Tartarus, wouldn't you say?" As far as different dimensions go, this one looked a lot better than the one they usually stepped into during the Dark Hour at their school. Though, at least there, they understood their goal. This entire thing seemed a bit more...abstract. Mitsuru wasn't particularly great at abstract things. She also wasn't particularly great at social interaction in general and this was...awkward. Why was it so awkward?

I. Crash Into Me

"You can take your bloody satchel and shove it up your--are you even listening? Do not just walk away from me you bloody little..." the woman with the British accent and ridiculous uniform trailed off as the little man simple disappeared as he walked away. Of course he did. Why would she be whisked away to a strange dimension and be given anything more than the bare minimum? That was never how it worked. She heaved a sigh and threw the satchel towards where the direction the little man had come from and decided to simply walk off.

Perhaps that wasn't the best decision to make, there could be something useful in there or something she might end up needing later on. Betsy had never been one to make the best decisions though. No, she trended towards making rash decisions that some might even go so far as to say were the worst decisions she could make. One might say it was something of a talent. Thus, she would choose to leave the satchel on the ground where she'd toss it and would instead make her own way without it.

Hopefully some kind passerby would pick it up and let her know that it might serve her better in her own possession.

III. Carnival Games

Was using your natural born talents really considered cheating? Were her twin here he'd probably say yes, but that was only because he was a sore loser. A very sore loser who clearly wasn't here. Which meant there was absolutely nobody here to stop her from using her abilities at the shooting game. Really, she didn't need to use them to hit every single target. At least she wouldn't have if the proprietor of the booth himself hadn't rigged it. It wasn't until her second miss on a target that she most certainly shouldn't have missed that she arched an eyebrow at the man running the little game.

"Ohhh, tough luck, little lady," he said with a flash of a toothy grin.

"Mm, I suppose I'm a be a bit off my game tonight," she said with her own smile in return. Then, with no further pause, she fired her remaining four shots (with a bit of telekinetic enhancement) into each of the four targets. Every single one of them fell including the one rigged to move right before the game bullet met it.

"How-," the man began in a tone that indicated his irritation.

"It seems my game returned," she said with a smile. "Give my prize to the next person that comes by, whatever they want. I have my trophy already."

The flick of his lighter was the first indication anyone was leaning against one of the columns surrounding the fountain. The trajectory of her throw happened to put the satchel in his direction, and the end of the cigarette he'd just lit flared as he reached out and caught the impromptu projectile with the hand he'd just freed of his lighter. He'd have to ration those cigs unless he could source more, or at least some tobacco. Fucking great.

"I don't think he gives a shit, lady." He comment uttered around his cigarette as he tucked her satchel under his arm. "Don't shoot the messenger."

"Really? I wouldn't have noticed," she said curtly. The fact that some stranger had seen her little outburst was definitely a tad bit embarrassing. Though, the only thing that acknowledged that embarrassment, was her intensely curt tone.

"They never actually give much of a shit." They of course being beings or devices that bring people to places like this. "Don't worry, I'm not in the habit of shooting messengers," then with just the slightest hint of a smile she added: "I prefer swords."

"Nope." No one who threw other people into shitty situations like this one ever did. All you could do was make the most of it. "And I was talkin' about the midget. I was just havin' a smoke before I checked out the dorms."

He did look her over again, though. "That's a nice blade, actually." He nodded before standing away from the column, dangling her satchel from its string in his hand to call attention to it. "You should take your door prize, though. There's some stuff in it you'll find useful." And that was all the warning he gave before he tossed it back to her.

"He was clearly more than just a messenger," she shrugged. Her assumption was that he knew more than he presented to anyone around them. Perhaps that was a bit of paranoia, but a healthy bit of paranoia was always a good thing.

For a second her fingers traced the hilt of her blade. "Mm, probably shouldn't have it out in the open like this." It brought her a bit of comfort though and she could always camouflage if she noticed more people around. She caught it rather easily and sighed.

"It seems a bit odd to trust a gift from strangers so easily. But I suppose they could do whatever they want with us anyway." So did extra caution really bring her anything?

"Probably, and this place is more than it seems too, probably." He rolled his shoulder in a shrug. He wasn't doing anything to hide the twin pistols in shoulder harnesses he was wearing, either. If the locals were offended, it wasn't any skin off his nose.

"Sister, there are guys around here in full plate and carriages with giant birds. I think a cell phone's the least of our concerns." He looked her over again as he approached, finishing his cigarette and tossing the butt without much concern for where it landed. He wasn't too worried about littering.

"You got a team looking for you back home or do you do solo work?"

"More than probably." At least she was speaking to someone that seemed to know what they had been thrown into. That realization gave her a brief pause and she looked him over up and down, as if she were judging his merit. Or how easy he might be to actually talk to openly.

"Reminds me a bit of Otherworld." She muttered. Seems like it'd been an eternity since she had last been to Otherworld, though that was probably a complete over exaggeration.

"I figured." That he was in a similar line of work. It was hard to not notice his own weapons and well, perhaps she'd taken a surface glance. Being the team telepath was a job one rarely broke out of.

"I'm lucky enough to have two teams and do a bit of solo work."

The bag is barely even discarded before there is a rush of wind and a blur of silver, and of course, Tommy holding out the discarded pouch.

"Not gonna lie, might wanna keep this if you wanna have access to your room. And it's got some money, and since people here might be a bit scandalized by the costume, could be useful to at least get pants."

There’s an accident Llewellyn knew very well. Even the words being thrown at a retreating Raimon were… oddly nostalgic. Which was why he came to an abrupt halt as he made his way towards work for the day, shifting the satchel full of papers over his own shoulder and looking awkwardly around the corner with an exaggerated lean. His brows knit with a slightly perplexed expression though, what was she wearing??

Weird things triggered nostalgia sometimes, so he hummed lightly as he watched the woman cast the bag away from her and started walking in the opposite direction. That was… Not a good idea, in Llewellyn’s opinion. Did she not realize that was where all the funds and the key to her apartment were? Then again, not everyone reacted to being dropped into this world particularly well. She might not be thinking rationally or something.

Being a nosey man, and one who tended towards helpful pestering, he wandered over and scooped up the bag, adding it to the same shoulder with his own satchel clumsily, and hurried after to follow. “Uh- Excuse me, miss?”

Thinking rationally was about as accurate of an assessment as one could make about the state that had led to her tossing the pouch. A logical Betsy would have realized she should at least take a look at it's contents. A logical Betsy would have even realized that it would have been beneficial for her to at least play nice with the first person she'd actually met here. Unfortunately, in her current state, she'd been a little less than logical.

Just a little bit though. Luckily by the time the man had approached the storm of her temper had quelled some and she managed to not stare daggers at him. It was certainly an impressive day for her.

"Elizabeth," she said in response to his calling her miss. "Elizabeth Braddock. I don't suppose we could agree to pretend you didn't see that."

The response gets a pause, considering her name for a moment. The introduction was definitely an indicator that she was at least from a more modern time than him (as if the clothing didn’t already). No leading with her surname to go with miss, so he hummed lightly. “Right, uh- Llewellyn Watts-Maresh at your service.” He added with a clumsy tip of his hat with a free hand before he lifted her bag from his shoulder to hand over.

“Well, I would only need to pretend I didn’t see that if someone asked me if I saw it…” Translated to ‘If you don’t bring it up, I won’t.’

… Or he thought she was asking him to not spread the word about the new person who threw away her key and money upon arriving. Hard to say. Either way, he didn’t really have a reason to point it out.

“This all tends to be a lot for mm… people who are new to all this.” So, while he wasn’t sure if she was the first person to react as she had, she probably wouldn’t be the last.

"Thank you," she said as she took the pouch. "I hadn't expected anyone to see that display." And it was just a bit embarrassing that people had. Even more so considering she was fairly certain she vaguely recognized this boy.

"If you think this has a lack of pants, you should have seen the uniform it replaced."

"Otherworld, huh? Capital O?" He couldn't say he'd never heard of the place, but it wasn't as though he'd ever been invited for any of the off-world antics his teammates ever got up to. The human card didn't afford you anything like that.

He scoffed as he reached into his own pocket to pull out the key the midget had given him. "You keep yourself busy, it sounds like. Are they well-paying gigs at least?"

"Llewellyn Watts-Maresh, quite the mouthful. Though, I suppose that's a given for anything with a Welsh leaning," she said with a tiny smile. She took the bag and let out a tiny sigh at it's return. She really should have at least looked it's contents over before using it as a weapon against the little man that didn't seem to care at all.

"New to it?" She let out a bitter chuff, clearly content to take his translation and roll with it. "Oh, I'm hardly new to being whisked off to alternate dimensions. It gets frustrating dull after a while. Especially when it happens in the middle of something much more important than the problems of another world." Did that imply that she didn't particular care about the problems of other realities? Yes. Yes, it most certainly did. At the moment she could actually care less about whatever horrible thing had befallen this place and left it in need of outside help. She wasn't afraid to admit that either.

"Capital O. You might have heard of Avalon in myths and legends, it's a kingdom there." That was about the easiest explanation she could possibly think of to offer about what precisely Otherworld was. It gave a basis that didn't get into the complexities of the Starlight Citadel and being an ancient base between all other realities.

"We're not precisely paid." But they also never hurt for money.

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TD006

Shinjiro Aragaki | Persona 3 FES

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When the Carnival Came to Town

Crash into Me

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Betsy Braddock | Uncanny X-Force

I. Crash Into Me

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I. Crash Into Me

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