takamagahara | (no subject)

TEST DRIVE # 09

Whether you're trying to figure out how your character would fare in this setting, trying to get some samples together, or just dipping your toes in the water, you've come to the right place! The Test Drive is here to make your life easy by letting you see what the game is like without actually joining it first. So here is how it works:

1: Post a starter with your character, including whether they are a god or shinki in the subject line.
2: Act like your character is established enough in the setting to allow your thread to go places.
3: Take on any god/shinki of your choosing, as long as they're not already in the game!
4: Comment around to the other people on the meme.
5: Have lots of fun!

To get you started, here are some ideas for thread-starters! Feel free to come up with your own ideas if these don't strike your fancy, though.

Old Officials

There's a business that is desperately wishing the older members of their workforce would bow out. They've been sitting on death's door for so long and are doing little to help the company. The younger managers only want to step up and take their place! Help convince these ancient businessmen to step down.

Peanut Party

A celebration for peanuts is sweeping through the city. Peanut butter, peanut cookies, even just plain peanuts are being sold, thrown, and praised all over. It's your job to help spread the peanut love, either by helping to make the tasty treats or by buying more peanuts from the next town over.

Quiet Quail

Oddly enough, a request has come in from a quail, of all creatures. It thinks very highly of itself and knows that it's super mega important, but it has such a hard time being anything but quiet. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to draw attention to this quail - make it stand out like not other quail has done before.

Roaring Riders

A rowdy motorcycle gang has been plaguing the streets for a few weeks. Every night, at midnight, they make their engines roar out in unison, waking everybody in town. The riders themselves are good guys, they just have this one nasty habit that they refuse to give up because it pays tribute to their patron god. Do you have the heart to get them to quiet down?

Slick Sevens

The newest tourist stop is a large casino. It's said that everyone who enters the casino has their luck stolen from them at the door. That might just be silly superstitions and bad gamblers talking, but there is definitely an ayakashi there who seems to feed on people's luck. Maybe that's what's causing everyone to lose so much.

If you're uncertain about anything, feel free to check out the Premise, Rules, and FAQ posts. And don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have on the FAQ!
When and if you're ready to join the game, check out the Taken Characters before throwing in a Reserve and starting on your Application
Have fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...What's an allergy?

[Look, that theory was introduced a good 40 years or so after he died, he gets a pass on not knowing everything.]

What's...

[Sigh. He's run into a few that don't know things that he does, and the tech here is literal centuries behind what he's used to, so he's gotten over most of his disbelief. Still. He hasn't yet encountered someone who doesn't know what an allergy is.]

It's a severe immune system reaction to something minor, such as foods or medicines. Peanuts are a fairly common allergen and a reaction can cause hives and rash, or even the throat to swell shut.

[Hijikata listens thoughtfully as the man explains, and gives a small nod of thanks at the end of the explanation. Look, he doesn't like having to ask what something obvious and basic is in every other conversation -- he's a clever enough man, and took pride in always being rather on top of things in his mortal life. But there are a lot of concepts he hasn't been exposed to yet because no one had thought of them yet when he was alive, and he's got the grace not to take any frustration about having to ask childishly simple questions all the time out on the people who have the patience to answer them for him.]

Thank you.

[He looks around at the crowd, where no one seems to be choking or anything.]

...These sorts of events are usually fairly universally known within the neighborhood or village that hosts them. I think if someone did have an allergy like that, they'd likely have had plenty of warning to stay home or find something to do in another part of town today.

[He's quiet for a short beat, then adds:]

They all look like they're enjoying themselves.

[Julian is, admittedly, a terrible teacher. He's that kid that always did everything in the group projects just because no one else could do it right.]

You're welcome.

[They do indeed look like they're enjoying themselves. Harmless fun.]

Or, at least they'd know better than to eat anything.

[He glances over at Hijikata.]

If you'd like to join them, we certainly don't have to stand around like wallflowers.

[They've got something in common, then, whether or not they know it. Hijikata is still always about two seconds from telling the whole world to just stop talking, put whatever they're doing down, and let him do it before someone gets goddamn hurt.]

[At that suggestion, he glances around again, feeling... oddly self-conscious.]

I'm a little out of practice with fun.

[If he was ever any good at it in the first place.]

[...Then again, he doesn't have a war to fight anymore. The fate of a country and the lives of his men aren't the weight on his heart that they used to be, so is there really any harm in letting himself relax once in a while now?]

Edited 2016-10-05 01:34 (UTC)

All the more reason to practice.

[Humans, most humanoids in fact, do better with downtime--recreation. Ways to engage the imagination in something that is not expected to have a functional output.

Julian plays darts with Miles and participates in historical reenactments in the holosuite, reads books and discusses them with Garak. Obviously he can do neither here, but.]

This might not be your cup of tea, so to speak, but finding something else to occupy your time when we don't have to be 'on duty' is helpful. Relieves stress and all.

[When was the last time he had any time to really be "off duty", before coming here? Truthfully, adjusting to all the extra free time that not trying to single-handedly hold back the tide of history gives him has been one of the more difficult things about getting used to his new life.]

Relieving stress is what these are for.

[He raises the hand with the cigarette in it, but as he takes a drag, he thinks about how he used to spend what free time he did have. With Souji, and that's still an option, but not in the same way as before, not with Souji as a shinki. Playing go, sometimes. Writing his poetry.]

[Mostly, though...]

...I don't mind playing the "wallflower", sometimes. It's not so bad getting to see everyone else having a good time.

[Julian eyes the cigarette--he hadn't wanted to say anything, but well. Now that it's been brought up.]

Speaking of cigarettes, those are absolutely god awful for you. I wasn't going to say anything, because honestly I'm not sure how it works out with...everything.

[He makes a circular waving motion with his hand, meaning...well, gods, shinki, the afterlife, et cetera. He doesn't have enough data to work with.]

People watching is a legitimate hobby, but sometimes it's a good exercise to participate yourself.

Sometimes, I suppose. Anyway, that's the first I've heard of it.

[It would be, because... y'know. The 19th century.]

[He looks at the cigarette for a second, then shrugs and goes on smoking it.]

Wasn't too likely to die an old man, anyway, though. And I don't think it's going to do much to a god.

I don't rightly know. Not enough data to work with. Honestly, I've only met a few who've smoked the things before, they fell out of favor quite a long time ago.

[Oh no, he's about to go off--Julian knows he can be a bit of a motormouth, but he doesn't quite have the self-awareness to realize that when it's actually happening...]

With the, you know--well, okay, you don't--the emphysema, cancer, increased risk of heart disease, stroke, asthma, even blindness...well, it didn't seem quite so worth it to a lot of the population.

[Julian. Julian, that's too much information. Julian stop oh my god you just met the guy.]

[Hijikata does listen, but it just... doesn't seem very important to him. Honestly, he's figured for years that he was going to die with a sword or a bullet in him, so what's the harm in trading a few hypothetical years of organ function later in life for one of the few things that actually helps him let go of his overwhelming amounts of stress?]

I smoked a pipe from the time I was... probably fourteen or fifteen. It never hurt me, or anyone else I knew who smoked.

[Well, that's morbid.]

It's possible that pipe tobacco doesn't have quite the same negative effects.

[Honestly, he hasn't seen much science about it. He wasn't joking when he said almost no one smoked anymore.]

Particulate matter in the lungs is rarely anything but trouble, though.

Hm.

[He tilts his head a little, examining the cigarette.]

It's not the paper that's the problem, is it? I roll these myself, same sort of tobacco I used to use with the pipe. Or as close as I can get here, anyway.

No, not as such. Possibly some of the chemicals that are used in commercially made cigarette papers, that make them burn longer. Most certainly the additives in the tobacco itself. It's frankly disgusting what they once got away with putting in those things.

[Though, he thinks that might be a little later on.]

[The little hum this time is a little more honestly contemplative.]

I'm probably getting something fairly uncut to begin with -- I don't like the smell of most of the modern cigarettes, it doesn't seem quite right somehow. But I'll discuss it with the tobacconist next time I stop in.

[He pauses, then adds:]

Could switch back to the pipe, I suppose. There's got to be somewhere I could buy one.