ateratooc | test drive meme: spring

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test drive meme: spring

Test Drive Meme: Spring。

WELCOME TO ATERAT

All prompts are optional but can also be used as game canon if you and the other agrees. In addition, current players are welcome to use any of the prompts provided here for interactions within the game setting. The prompts below act as little mini events for current or new players to interact with for the duration of the Test Drive (a new Test Drive will go up in March).

You’re not required to use any of the prompts provided here, of course, and are more than welcome to go your own way (we even encourage it)! The setting itself centers around character exploration and is designed to allow you to do whatever you’d like with it. As such, you can refer to the links below for more ideas!

Arrival & General Information | Setting | Locations & Employment | Residences & Housing Info | Rules & FAQ

I. One Man's Trash。

As spring descends on Aterat, bringing with it increased rains as well as longer days, natives and newcomers alike being to partake in a new tradition (that has been around forever, didn't you know). On many stoops in various areas of the city, people are setting up shop, selling things they have laying around to the highest bidder (or the lowest, some of these things really need to go). You're welcome to set up shop as well if you have anything laying around collecting dust.

Spring is a time of renewal, and that goes for your spaces as well. Or maybe you're in the market for something yourself. These objects may be old to some, but they're new to you, and there's absolutely no way any of the locals would be trying to foist cursed or somehow haunted objects on you, would there? Absolutely not! That would be bad form!

Only they could, or you could, if you end up with something cursed, haunted, or otherwise undesirable. It can be harmful, comedic, or anything in between!

II. All the World's a Stage。

As spring renews the city and its environs, shaking off the chill and frost of winter and making way for new life, Aterat seems to have received some new and mischievous visitors. Unseen unless they desire otherwise, the faeries are nonetheless here for their own entertainment, though those who are sensitive to magic may sense something is amiss when they're around. They do appear to you briefly, standing barely a foot high, wings a flutter as they hand you an object.

It could be anything: a cane, a top hat, a wooden sword, a single red rose; but it represents something and it fills the recipient with the desire to make that representation a reality. A sword could fill you with righteous fury and a need to defeat evil-doers in the name of chivalry and goodness while a rose could overwhelm you with passion. Whatever the case may be, you're compelled to fulfill your new calling with whoever may have the fortune (or misfortune) of being nearby. Put on a good show for the faeries and you may be rewarded! Fail to entertain, and you may, for a few hours at least, be turned into an attractive topiary bush. You'll be aware of your surroundings, but no one else will be the wiser, unless they're psychic of course. Don't worry, though. It'll wear off!

What reward might they bestow on those who amuse? Why not turning them into a shrubbery, of course!

III. Invasive Species。

As the months turn warmer, all the plants spring back to health from their long winter slumber. Towering trees begin to sprout new leaves, flower beds begin to sprout perennials from their slumbering blubs, and creeping vines have begun to curl their ways up every trellis, brick facade, and waiting window shutter they can find.

Only the city isn't known for its creeping vines, is it? And these look strange, with pulsing blue veins throughout a green too vibrant to be natural. Along with the vines, large buds can be found in backyards, side plots, or green houses throughout the city. They're roughly two feet tall and seem to grow from the vines. Other than being massive, though, they don't appear to do anything, though anyone curious enough to cut one open will find something horrifying: a growing, leafy, humanoid body, fully grown but quite dead.

Hopefully nothing will be too angry about that, right?

IV. Tell Phone or Wildcard。

You were given a fancy Tell Phone upon arrival, and a solid option is always reaching out to anyone else who might also call this place a home away from home over the network. Alternately, you're welcome to play with any bit of the setting in whatever way you'd like! Feel free to use the Questions thread below if you have any before you get rolling, and remember, we're all here to have fun and be weird!

(Being weird is optional, but really, live a little!)

navigation。

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[ The shops on stoops were certainly new to Mitsuru and something new here was certainly worth an investigation. Strangely, it seemed as though the owners of these new little pop up shops seemed all too eager for the arrival of a potential customer. Suspiciously eager in fact. Misturu was not a particularly trusting young woman. A cascade of events in her life had pushed her in that direction and her time in Aterat had not particularly softened that distrust. In some ways it had only served to encourage her hesitation with all the strange things that tended to pop up at unexpected times.

Still, there wasn't a reason to be outright rude to those that offered her a chance to look over their wares. Their wares that seemed to all be...rather old looking. ]

Antiques perhaps?

[ She picked up a rather lovely looking rustic bracelet made of some sort of metal that had been worn down over the years. There were runes etched into it that she didn't recognize and a beautiful red stone in it. ]

How much for this?

[ The local answered with a very clipped 'take it, it looks great on you!', much to Mitsuru's confusion. ]

...If you're certain, you have my utmost gratitude. [ She bowed her head before turning to walk off, clasping the bracelet on while pondering why someone might have seemed so eager to get rid of something like this. It was certainly old, something that had seen better days, but all it really needed was some cleaning up and polishing. She turned it around on her hand and then went to take it off to get a better look at the runes only to realize...

she couldn't get it off.

That might explain the desire to get rid of it so quickly. Her eyes narrowed into a stormy anger. ]

Seriously now...

Edited 2024-03-02 09:41 (UTC)

[ It wasn't unheard of for Shinjiro to frequent the market. He was always on the lookout for fresh ingredients, especially if they were ones he'd never used before. Today found him off the beaten path, though, cutting through a neighborhood on the way back to the south gate that would take him back to the hunting lodge, when the set up gave him pause. We're these garage sales?

He started looking over one hutch, then the next. It sure did look like people were selling their priceless heirlooms, and they sure were trying to get his attention with all the desperation of someone holding a hand grenade. ]

I ain't interested.

[ Shoulders slumped, hands shoved into the pockets of his pea coat, he avoided further attention just by glaring at callers as he passed their homes. He only looked up at the familiar sound of Mitsuru's voice, frowning in concern as she tugged at the bracelet she wore. ]

Need a hand?

[ Waver was often suspicious of ‘old shit being sold cheaply or given away for free.’ Sometimes people just wanted to declutter their houses and knew they couldn’t sell something like a hideous lamp they couldn’t even remember why they bought. Other times… it was a little different. Rare, but different.

Not that it stopped him from picking up a few things and depositing them in the imaginary space in one of his pockets for analysis later. He gets bored, and Lord El-Melloi II had acquired a rather sizable reputation (and horrible nicknames) for analyzing and figuring out how magical items worked. Everyone had their hobbies and hyper-fixations… Besides that, better someone with knowledge picks up items with ‘special qualities’ for safer storage than people who don’t know what they’ve got.

Mitsuru’s narrow-eyed gaze at what looks like an old bracelet around her wrist gets him to pause, lowering his cigar and raising an eyebrow. ]

Everything alright there, Mitsuru?

Yes. Everything's...fine. [ As she spoke the words she folded her arms across her chest as if that could somehow hide the bracelet. Of course, it couldn't but that was certainly not going to stop Mitsuru from giving it her best attempt. The other thing that she couldn't seem to stop was the small blush that had appeared on her face out of embarrassment of the situation. It was her own fault, she couldn't ask someone else for their assistance with it. Not when she had been directly responsible.

However....she did have a considerable amount of experience with how poorly taking something on yourself could go. Particularly something of this nature. Still, her own pride and shame threatened to fully win out. She shifted the weight of one foot to the other. ]

Have you noticed anything strange with the items they're giving away? [ That wasn't a suspicious comment was it? ]

[ At the sound of Shinjiro's voice Mitsuru stiffened considerably. Of course the absolute last person she wanted to involve in some mistake of her own making was him. After so much time together in this place, time that had given them a chance to talk in depth about so many things, she'd softened quite a bit around him. There had always been a softness in her smiles with him or when speaking about him, but before there'd also been a certain hesitation. A formality that came from a place of guilt mixed with a sense of loss and perhaps a bit of betrayal. It was complicated.

Time and actually speaking had a miraculous way of changing such complicated feelings. There were lingering ones that still dug deep, as well as new confusing emotions that had grown, but they had come a long way.

Now however there was a clear stiffness in her smile. Something forced that was mixed with a hint of a blush on her face. ]

Shinjiro, ah, no. [ She folded her hands over her chest tightly. ] Everything's fine. [ Ah, she should have known better than to not be honest with asking for help. ]

[ Sometimes, Mitsuru reminded Waver a little of the way he was at her age. They were still very different (he would say Mitsuru had a better head on her shoulder’s than he had at that point), but the fact that she was clearly hiding something with the intent to deal with it on her own was familiar enough that it simply gets a raise of his eyebrow. ]

Is that so…

[ The tone implies a ‘I know that’s not true,’ because he does. He’s just glad that, suspicious as her next comment was, she was still going to talk about it in her own way. It also confirms what he suspected and is at least a topic he can discuss. ]

Other than the fact that some people have very poor taste in home decor? [ That’s a joke. Delivered a bit dry, but a rare joke, nonetheless. ] A lot of them seem to be more than they seem to be trying to get rid of things they don’t know what to do with or know are best not kept. I’ve picked up a couple of things to analyze already that are either cursed or charmed in ways that aren’t ideal to have around the house.

Am I right to guess that you’ve noticed something strange yourself?

[ No, Waver doesn’t really beat around the bush. ]

It is. [ It was said with the utmost confidence of someone with zero confidence that it was actually so. There were a lot of things that Mitsuru was talented with, lying was not one of them. She kept her arms as tightly folded as she could as she did her best to look entirely unbothered. Sadly, there was little success in that, and instead she looked rather uncomfortable. ]

I try to not judge another's taste, I have to admit I have very little experience with that myself. Back home we had decorators to do such things. [ And she simply accepted whatever design choices they had made. ]

Cursed or charmed? [ She didn't sound particularly surprised by that, in fact she looked a bit relieved. At least that gave some sort of explanation to what had happened to her. ]

I believe I might have come across something like that.

[ The lack of confidence behind her comment is unsurprising. It really does amaze him sometimes how horrible people are at lying around him. Though that also might be because of his overly observant nature and less to do with the person, but internally he still can’t help but think she could stand to learn a little about how to mask the truth when it suited her.

Not in these situations, of course. Not noticing there was something wrong in this case would end more poorly than an awkward conversation she hoped to avoid about some awkward topic. The parroted response gets a small nod, digging into a breast pocket that was deeper than it looked and retrieving a pocket watch. ] Mhm, this, for example, seems to have been cursed to make the holder lose track of time. A perception spell, I presume to stall someone or ensure at the very least that they lingered longer somewhere than they intended.

[ Dropping it back in the pocket, he seems rather unbothered by it. He had already got the trigger worked out, and the pocket space was slightly alternate to their own. ]

Fascinating, but troubling if the wrong person picked it up.

[ And so he fixed Mitsuru with a look again, a barely contained ’Might have? You don’t say. on the tip of his tongue but withheld for the moment. ]

And what might that something have been?

[ Mitsuru listened with a keen and very obvious (perhaps too vested even) interest in his explanation of the watch. ]

How strange. [ She tilted her head before he dropped it back into his pocket, as though she expected to see something about it that might let her see something unique about it. ] It seems perfectly ordinary in apparency. Though, perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising. I do wonder what precisely it originally had been used for.

[ She paused for just a second and cast her eyes down before unfolding her arms to show the bracelet. ]

This. I passed by someone rather adamant on giving it away. They were convinced it would compliment my appearance. It...seemed rude to not take it with how insistent they were. Now...well, it seems as though it's stuck.

[ Waver’s guess on the subject of the watch was someone who was up to no good, but it could have been used just as easily by someone with less unfortunate motives. A spell like that depended on the situation and perhaps the person’s own morals. He could think of a few situations where it would be useful in buying time, though. The watch, though, is only an example. Something to get her attention and perhaps ease her into talking about whatever she was hiding herself.

It wasn’t like he didn’t get how embarrassing or frustrating it could be to have one pulled over on you, but hiding it would get her nowhere.

When she finally unfolded her arm to show off the bracelet, he felt some relief that he wasn’t going to need to push her to do so. Leaning forward to get a better look at it, he traced the runes carved into it lightly. He wasn’t the expert on runes, really. That was a certain troublemaker by the name of Touko Aozaki. He knew enough, though, and with a little reference, he could probably work out what was what. The gemstone was probably tied in as well.

With a small sigh, he finally spoke. ]

Beyond not being able to remove it, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary? [ Actually, he realized she probably hadn’t if she were focusing on that one aspect. ] Take a moment and observe your surroundings and take stock of how you feel, but ignore the bracelet being stuck for the moment.

[ He frowned at her response. He was the one who hadn't been honest with them, hid things from them including the status of his own health among a lot of other things, but here they'd actually spoken, and they'd gone a long way toward being the friends they used to be, before life had started.

Hell, maybe they were moving toward something more, and he wouldn't complain about that. He didn't have any idea how to get it there, or even what he would do if it ever did.

None of that mattered at the moment, though. ]

Bullshit. What's goin' on?

[ She frowned deeply at his response and let out a tiny, defeated, sigh. It would seem he knew her well enough to tell when she was being less than truthful. Or, perhaps, it was simply that she was utterly terrible at pretending things were alright.

Reluctantly she pulls out arm and shows the bracelet. ]

This won't come off. It...also has something of an unpleasant sensation. [ That was only growing the longer it stayed on her wrist. ]

[ Of course he had to ask another question of her. She had thought she could at least keep that part away from anyone. The fact that it was beginning to sting on her hand was certainly causing her...well, discomfort. Obviously. However, she didn't want to worry anyone even more than she had to.

He'd probably know if she lied though. ]

There's something of an unpleasant feeling to it. [ She conveniently left out that the feeling was growing. In fact, she managed to keep her voice as even as she could. Which was quite impressive given that she was becoming quite focused on the feeling it was creating.

She looked momentarily perplexed by his instructions and gave a nod. ]

Aright. [ She did what he suggested, only to have the unpleasant feeling grow, causing her to wince. ]

[ Ah, yes. Leaving out important details like the feeling was growing and what it specifically felt like. Waver needed more specific details, and he really can’t decide if she was leaving things out on purpose or if she wasn’t sure how to explain it. He hopes it’s the latter… because if it was the former, she’d get a small lecture from the professor later on. ]

Define unpleasant. Is it cold or maybe a hot burning sensation? Any kind of detail on what ‘unpleasant’ feels like could be important.

[ His tone is still a practiced patient if firm.

Waiting for her to tell him more and to follow his instructions, his attention focused on her and the bracelet for any subtle shifts in her demeanor. So he doesn’t miss the wince. ]

Saw that it’s getting worse, isn’t it? We should get to my workshop; I have more materials there to work with.

[ His tone is no-nonsense, and he won’t have anymore of her convenient vagueness. ]

[ She feels just a tiny bit bristly at the fact that he keeps asking when she's clearly trying her best to not involve anyone else in her own mess. It would seem as though he were completely determined to worm things out of her no matter what attempt she made to keep it close to her chest. ]

It started out simply as a tingling. It's now grown to be something more akin to burning. I suppose it might also be pertinent to mention the sensation escalated when I attempted to take it off. Which led me to theorize it was resisting my efforts.

[ Not the thing itself. She wasn't foolish enough to think it had a mind of it's own, but whatever magic had been placed on it seems to react to someone attempt to struggle against it. The more one struggles, the more it appears to strength against the struggle.

She sighs and glances down. ]

I suppose arguing would simply cause us both more wasted time.

[ It was a little bit of both, if he was honest. He didn't know what he was going to do about the bracelet as she revealed her hand to him, but he still gave it a look over as she offered him her arm. ]

What do you mean "unpleasant"?

[ If nothing else, he'd try using his superior strength to break the thing, but that was probably a last resort.

At least at the moment.]

[ Waver seems the least bit concerned with the idea that she might not want to share or get other people involved in this. She could be as bristly and annoyed with that as she wanted. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to people being annoyed with his nosing into things, and frankly, he’d rather get involved than to pretend there wasn’t something wrong. It had nothing to do with how capable she was or wasn’t. He knew she was clever. He also knew that magical items were often complicated and even the cleverest, or most powerful, person could still end up in over their heads.

Because generally curses were tailored to doing damage and being difficult to undo on your own. He had been targeted by them before.

The comment is met with a nod, and a followup request because he had a feeling if he didn’t she might just brush things off to deal with on her own or avoid worrying people.]

Any details relating to changes that have occurred since you put it on or attempted to take it off are pertinent. Same as any changes you note from here on out, you feel something strange or notice something out of place; you say.

[ Taking a couple notes, and copying the runes down in his notebook, he frowned. It was clearly made for discomfort for a start, if it was growing to cause a burning sensation. Maybe it was originally meant as a torture device for someone who’d wronged the target? He just hoped it wasn’t also causing anything worse than that… ]

It would, glad we’re on the same page.

[ Don’t make him worry, Mitsuru. He’s already got an entire classroom of teenagers who give him grey hairs. ]

Ah, well. [ She sighed again, this time perhaps a bit more exasperated than before. She truly wasn't fond of admitting to anything negative happening to herself. This was Shinjiro however and she knew he deserved her honesty. ]

At first it was just a simple stinging, that turned into burning, and that seems to only be increasing in strength.

[ She mulled what he said over in her mind, clearly taking some of what he said as a chastisement of sorts. Whether or not that had been his intention, it was how Mitsuru was going to take it. Of course, she would also take it directly to hear and try to adjust herself in a manner that would lead directly to her not repeating the same sort of mistake.

Look, perhaps she wanted to please him! Maybe that outweighed her desire to handle things by herself. ]

I'm not entirely certain, but I believe that it may get worse the stronger I fight to remove it.

[ That was information that she was giving freely that might help, right? ]

[ His gaze darkened as he stepped closer, probably more in her space than he had been in years, but his focus was one the bracelet. It looked fragile enough. ]

Alright. You want to keep this thing?

[ Her answer would dictate how he went about trying to get it off. ]

[ Sometimes Waver’s tone or demeanor definitely left one feeling like they’d been scolded for something, and there were definitely times that was the case, anyway. Flat (and sometimes Svin when incited by the other teen) was usually the one on the receiving end of that, though. Usually it was deserved, and most often it came from a place of exasperated concern because one of these days someone was going to end up on the receiving end of something they couldn’t come back from.

That wasn’t to say that he meant for his words to be taken that way today, but if it meant she reconsidered her actions and approach to these situations in the future? Then he would be glad for it. Her not hiding curses that would be more quickly dealt with and leaving her alive and unmaimed would please him far more than her suffering in silence and potentially dying for the sake of pride or stubborn will to do everything on her own. So it was, at least in a small part, a win for her to take his words to heart. ]

Sounds like it’s meant to emphasize and prolong suffering as a priority, then. Which at least means we’re probably not dealing with a short time frame for removing it.

[ Hopefully. The more time they had, the less likely it was to have more immediate lethal side-effects, although that wasn’t to say he wanted to dawdle on removing it. It was probably only going to get more uncomfortable as time passed and he didn’t want that for her. ]

Have you noticed anything beyond discomfort and pain? Any fatigue or disorientation.

[ Her expression twists and then she shakes her head. ]

No, it has no value to me. I do...I do believe it's important I get it off sooner rather than later.

What a wonderful priority for something to have. [ Her voice was rather flat, not holding any of the sarcasm that the statement probably should have held. Mitsuru was many things, but proficient in sarcasm was certainly not one of them. She rubbed her wrist and let out a strained sigh. It was probably obvious by just ho strained the sigh was that she was trying desperately to not sigh; or show any sort of signs of how uncomfortable she was with the bracelet. ]

A small comfort there at least.

[ with a slight reluctance she answered his question: ] Yes, though it's only recently started. I feel...not precisely fatigued, but more weak.

There are a lot of messed up people in the world, and you’d be surprised how many mages won’t bat an eye at that kind of thing.

[ He does do sarcasm, but right now he’s just being serious. It’s worth noting, he thinks, given these kinds of things are just getting passed to innocent bystanders now. Waver had a mind to return to the market later and try to figure out who’d pushed this thing off to Mitsuru. Not that he’ll admit that no one needs to know he cares that much… It’s just irresponsible to let something like that go, right? ]

Right… We’ll do something about that when we get to the workshop.

[ Shit. Seemed like he had to worry about that after all… But regardless, he wasn’t going to make her panic about it if he could help it. He just picked up the pace, strides lengthening slightly. ]

Does it seem like it’s getting worse at a particular rate?

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test drive meme: spring

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I. Mitsuru | Persona 3 | OTA

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