takamagahara | (no subject)

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test drive

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TEST DRIVE # 12

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.

Daring Drinks

A couple of local bars are going out of their way to make new and interesting drinks for their customers to try, in a long-standing war between the two bars. Of course, they're going a little off the rails, so there are some very interesting - and somewhat scary - combinations popping out of the woodworks. And they want everyone passing by to try them.

Electric Eels

An odd ayakashi is causing some of the eels at the local aquarium to become literally electric, causing the eels to shock the other inhabitants in their tanks. This is causing a pretty big uproar and if it isn't fixed soon, someone could die or the aquarium might even just shut down entirely.

Frog Friend

Large frogs are popping up all over the place and following people around. They don't seem malicious in any way, but they are kind of creepy to look at, brightly colored, and leave trails of slippery goo wherever they stand. Oh, and they like to jump at people and knock them over, just for fun.

Gaseous Grandpas

A local home for older men is having a problem with a number of their inhabitants where they literally cannot stop farting and belching. It turns out this is the work of an ayakashi that just thinks farts and burps are funny and knows it's easier to get those sorts of things out of old people. Help the poor old guys out, would you?

Horrifying Hentai

Many known otaku in the area are dealing with a rather terrifying problem - every hentai they watch lately comes into reality very suddenly. Sometimes this means cute, begging girls, sure, but it also means tentacles and aliens and a whole rash of other things too. You'll have to stop the ayakashi that is bringing these 'fantasies' to life in order to save these guys.

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!

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[The bartenders had apparently taken the "hint" of the look Shun had given them that heavily implied they'd be wearing those drinks if they kept trying to offer him any - he's not even old enough, not that they seem to give much of a damn (and not that he does either). So it is that he's standing off to the side for the moment, relatively unmolested and waiting for someone to start throwing punches or look like they're getting towards passing out. He's a lot less sympathetic when it comes to people causing their own problems by taking the offered drinks.

When someone tugs at his coat, though, he looks down, frowning a little at the sight of what appears to be a young girl. He's a little soft on kids, admittedly, but even so, he can't really answer that question until he knows what it is she's asking.]

That depends on what it is.

[Funnily enough, the exact weapons Wendy is trying to use now- the big wide eyes of a young girl, general cute demeanor, and the bow in her hair- are the things she knows aren't having the bartenders take her seriously. Apparently even they draw the line at little kids.]

[And... Wendy knows she's a little kid. At least, that's what her body is, so that has to be right, doesn't it?]

[Yet being dismissed so easily has been bothering her more than she can say, so that's why she's here, beaming up at the older boy with her fingers pressed together at the tips.]

I just wanted to try one of the drinks they're handing out! Could you get one for me? I only want to try a little sip.

[Even if she's only asking to try a small sip, Shun has to look with a rather dry stare between the bartenders and her, before giving her a second, more thorough look-over. Even if he is missing something here - he's met shapeshifters and immortals here already and seen children at war, so this girl somehow being more than she appears isn't out of the question - these particular drinks don't exactly seem like the best idea.]

I doubt most people could even stomach a small sip of whatever the hell it is they're trying to ply off on everyone. Some of them smell like they could peel paint off walls. [But on the other hand, he's also not one to police too hard what people think is a good idea to put in their bodies, and he has no idea what circumstances she might've come from, so...] Have you had drinks like that before? If you know you can handle it, then fine.

[And he'll have an eye on her to see if he can pick any obvious lies about her answer.]

[A visible look of surprise passes over her face when he actually just… agrees, right like that. She thought for sure that she’d have to do a little more convincing, really lay the puppy dog eyes on thick.]

[...Well. If he’s going to be sensible about this, she guesses she can too. Wendy eases up on her act, furrowing her brow slightly while she taps a finger against her cheek thoughtfully.]

Would you believe me if I said I can’t be sure?

[A part of her is fairly certain that, with how he’s being ignored, he’s from the Far Shore too, but, well… Bars make it really easy for wallflowers to just get ignored, especially with all the commotion happening about the new drinks.]

[Years of societal breakdown have given Shun a less than standard viewpoint on drinking laws, and that's ignoring all the other factors that could be in play in a place like this. It'd be one thing if she looked like she was ready to go on a bender, but one sip isn't worth more fuss than the general warning of "are you really sure you want to deal with whatever madness they've created in those glasses".

When she asks that question, he gives a faint, almost amused sound, and the answer he gives doesn't leave much to question regarding which of the Shores he's a resident of.]

There's not much left to disbelieve in a place like this. If I can't be sure a drink would've even existed in your world or time, and some don't have the memories to be sure of it themselves, it's nothing surprising.

[Still, it probably calls for a concession.] I can try for one that doesn't smell like it'd take the head off even an experienced drinker.

[Yep, she thought so. And with that, Wendy smiles again- an actual smile, genuine in all the ways her exaggerated act from before wasn’t. It’s a good thing that this guy is someone from the Far Shore, because she thinks she likes him. Maybe that good first impression will fade over time, but not now.]

You don’t have to worry, it wasn’t like I was going to ask you to get me straight vodka or something! [A light laugh.] I’ll trust that you won’t pick anything that looks too toxic for a person.

[It's not hard these days for Shun to pick an affected smile from a genuine one, and he seems a little surprised by the sudden shift - the reaction is only momentary, though, before it clears back into a more neutral expression. He's getting more used to people having these vastly different initial reactions to him than he was when he got here, when anything that wasn't fear or disgust was still unfamiliar.]

Straight vodka would almost be better than some of these. But I'll see what I can do. [With a short nod that seems to be his stand-in for actually excusing himself with any level of politeness, he disappears into the loose, half-drunken crowd with surprising effectiveness for someone wearing a huge blue trenchcoat. About a minute later, he emerges again, apparently completely unruffled, though he does brush his coat down a bit with one hand as he offers her a glass of something that appears to be blue, green and purple.]

Looks like they went berserk with the flavours more than the alcohol on this one. [Well, smells like, but she probably gets the gist. It's still got a more than present enough alcohol smell to not be dismissed as a half-assed choice.]

[You have to respect a guy who can make it through a throng of people like that and only has to idly dust himself off. Wendy reaches up to accept the drink, raising an eyebrow as she keeps it overhead just to glance over it completely from the bottom up. Hey, it never hurts to look over these things to make sure there’s nothing weird at the bottom, right?]

Hopefully ‘flavor’ isn’t the same thing as ‘booze’ in this case…

[Which warrants the question of what they did put in it, but oh well. There’s only one way to find out. Carefully holding it so that it doesn’t spill everywhere, she takes a small sip, face contorted in clear preparation for the worst… before she blinks and tilts her head to the side.]

...It tastes like candy. A horrific amount of candy that’s probably banned in some countries from the level of sweetness that’s in it, but definitely candy. Are you sure there’s alcohol in it?

[Watching her rather intently as if expecting a stronger averse reaction, Shun's eyes follow the movement of the cup as she sips it, then move to her face to check for too sudden or harsh a change of expression. Luckily, it looks like she's more confused than anything, and he raises an eyebrow himself until she explains and he gives an almost understanding sigh.]

Figures. I know the smell even if I don't drink myself, so if there's not alcohol in it I'd be very surprised. Only so much of that could be the dying fumes of whatever the hell they put in there to make that flavour rather than the alcohol content.

[He'd never thought watching people drink as a coping mechanism would come in handy in this particular way, but obviously he has to reconsider that now.]

Well, if it’s dye, at least the insides of all the people who are going to die from liver poisoning because of this drink will make for interesting autopsies.

[A morbid joke, but, hey, find them where you can, right? Carefully, she puts it on a table that’s nearby.]

I think in this case, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t- if you can’t even tell what kind of alcohol is in a thing, then it’s probably really dangerous. [A beat.] I mean. More dangerous than the kinds of things they’re making to begin with. Do you think someone’s going to end up calling a doctor with the rate things are going?

[If it was a joke about people dying from something other than their own stupid choices, Shun might take exception, but in this case he'll give it all he really gives any other joke, which is a very faint snort. It's...probably meant to sound amused. Maybe. It's hard to tell.

Wendy's definitely right on the more serious remark, though, and he gives a half-shrug at the question.]

If everyone else isn't too drunk or stupid to notice. Putting that much of a mixed drink you don't have any real idea of the contents of in you is asking to at least wake up on the side of a road without any memory of what got you there. Or not wake up at all, depending on your luck.

[As opposed to Wendy's earlier joke, this is an entirely serious comment.]

Well, let’s hope that they just get blackout drunk and make different questionable life choices that aren’t drinking more of these, and just… You know. Losing your pants. Things like that.

[There’s probably going to be a lot of ridiculous stories that will come from tonight, but, oh well. That’s what happens, she supposes. Watching as various people get worried about the things they’re drinking, she taps her foot.]

...Do you think any of the gods are going to get prayers about hangovers in the morning?

[Hey, people pray for all sorts of reasons, right? Sometimes it’s serious, which she can respect: wanting someone to be safe, wanting a business to succeed, things like that. But then, well, there’s plenty of prayers for the more asinine, and she’s pretty sure that they’re going to happen in the morning.]

I wouldn't count on that, but at least if they start losing clothing it's not going to be fatal to anything except their dignity.

[As usual, Shun is probably taking this about a hundred times more seriously than the conversation actually warrants, but he's trying. It's more than he can say for his reactions to a lot of things like this.

Wendy manages to get another faint snort out of him at the question, and he doesn't seem at all unsure when he inclines his head in response.]

Definitely. There'd have to be someone unlucky enough to be a god of that sort of thing, and people will always take the chance to make petty complaints.

[Getting even those small reactions seems to amuse Wendy in turn, simply because he seems like such the serious sort that it’s a welcome change. She’d say that life is too short to be so serious, but… Well. That’s not exactly a concern for the rest of them, although she’s heard that ‘death’ is still a concept in some ways.]

At least it doesn’t sound like something you’ll have to deal with, since you seem so unconcerned.

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