takamagahara | Test Drive #27

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test drive

Test Drive #27

TEST DRIVE # 27

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.

Apparition Apparent

Following the ups and downs of their business after the whole Zodiac affair, the fortune tellers of Ginza have searched for another fad to bring in the customers. The old and cheesy is making a revival, and so the fortune tellers have latched onto seances as the next big thing. Trembling tables, knocks on the wall, creepy voices from beyond the grave- all performance art that people will pay big yen for. Or… is it all performance?

Bead Bustle

At the perpetually bustling intersection of Shibuya, someone’s precious bead bracelet has fallen apart. Answer this sudden but intense prayer to recover all the beads and return them to their owner.
Hope you have a bird-like affinity for small, shiny objects, because they’re certain to be thoroughly scattered under the feet of hundreds of pedestrians.

Cattle Cull

It is part of the cycle of commerce: cattle are bred to become beef. One farmer has been struck with melancholy for the fate of the poor beasts, and has asked for divine intervention in choosing which cattle are to die. Be a cattle whisperer and try to divine which beasts are accepting of their fate? Maybe, if it’s all the same to you, at least try to choose the fatty-looking ones.

Delivery Dash

For some reason, a singing telegram business is getting more orders than their small staff can handle! Good for business, so long as the messages can be delivered on time! Button up into your bellhop uniform of choice and head out in pairs on this urgent task to sing messages of all kinds, from silly to serious, to their unwitting recipients. (Just don’t get shot, ok? That’d be unfortunate.)

Epicurean Epidemic

There has been a rash of ayakashi activity in an affluent region of Tokyo. The victims will, out of envy of those around them, start spending money way above their means in order to enjoy grade-A epicurean delights- everything from entertainment to food. Then once the victim starts getting frustrated with their “sudden” lack of money to keep enjoying said delights, the small worm-like ayakashi feeds off that discontent, copies itself, and splits off onto another human.
On the plus side, the copies seem to like staying near each other. On the negative side, over a dozen people have been infected already. Hope you can find and exterminate them all.

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

A. Apparition Apparent

[ At this point, the newest seance had just ended. At first it was with the customers rushing out, some disgusted but most startled, as the fortune teller follows after with apologies and attempts to quell their worries. Something to get them back. Though it's not long before they're trying to draw in the next set of pedestrians with the newest shtick. Truly the person walking by must be haunted, and it's imperative that they come inside for the ritual to set the spirits at ease.

Chise comes out, wiping the last of something dark and red from her lips with an even darker hand, catching her breath with some fresh air. ]

If this continues, they'll start to swarm. They really don't notice any of this.

B. Cattle Cull
[ The request had really left the redhead flabbergasted, with the request leaving her unable to question or even protest before they had brought the 'divine intervention' into the mass of cattle. For a while, she'd been staring out before going and, instead of inspecting, petting some of the cows. It's the opposite of what they were meant to do, but some had just nudged her and she couldn't help how her hands were already rubbing behind it's ears. ]

I don't know how we're expected to choose...

C. Delivery Dash
[ Well, singing she could certainly do. It turned out that she actually has quite a talent for it! (Mind, she put someone to sleep in finding out.) So in wanting to help her god, Chise thought to take this prayer upon herself. Which meant donning the costume and getting all of 15 minutes to figure out where to go and deliver the message. Which meant running, though it's the very tip of her shoe hitting a slightly raised edge of a cement panel on the sidewalk that has her crashing into the next person. Which knocks off the hat as her hair starts flying loose. ]

Ah- Sorry! Forgive my clumsiness.

[Don't ask how the young boy by her side has ended up tagging along on this expedition- certainly he's not her god- but here he is regardless! And he has an immediate answer to her question.]

The ones that look like they would sell for the most, of course!

[CHILD...]

[ The fact that she could practically see the stars in the boy's eyes is enough to render the redhead speechless for a short time. Until the cow shows some more affection, drawing her out of that and feeling conflicted with the situation. ]

I'm not really sure how I would be able to tell that.

[What? It's the common sense answer, right? Somewhere, a shinki in a business suit is lost amongst other cows, and feels a strange sense of exasperation for a moment.]

[Ebisu, in the meanwhile, pauses at her words.]

Ah.... I guess you have a point. I don't really know anything about cows either...

[It's a little outside his domain.]

The person who made the prayer would know, wouldn't he?

He would, yes.

[ After all, this is his job. That would just be reasonable. ]

I don't think he wants to have too much of a hand in the process or decisions at this point, however. Not with that prayer, or how quickly he passed the responsibility on to whomever showed up to answer it.

Of course. I wouldn't want to distress him... not after the kind of prayer he sent out.

[He loves humans, after all. Even if he's still learning how to truly make them happy... He does want them to be. He raises up one hand.]

But maybe he would have resources in his house, like guides or manuals.

I know he prayed for help, but is it really okay to go into his house?

[ It feels a little like encroaching upon something too personal. Then again, there's something that is keeping this cattle farmer from being able to do the job he's had for a long while. ]

If he's made a prayer, then that's already an invitation into his house for gods, and shinki by extension.

[At least, that's the logic he's going with.]

Well, if that's how it is.

[ She wasn't exactly in a place to object from that point. Despite looking like a child, the god seemed to be pretty experienced, and Chise learned not to judge simply based off of apparent ages. ]

I don't have much experience with prayers that involved the follower's home for something involving their job.

Then we can help each other.

[He offers his hand with a smile.]

Honestly, I'm still trying to get more experience as well....

I thought you already were...?

[ She still takes his hand, seeing as the question and them helping one another were two different things. ]

[Mostly he needs help navigating through all these cows... Help.]

Mm, I've been recently reincarnated. I need to learn a lot of things still. Or... Relearning things, I guess?

Ah- So you don't retain anything from before?

[ How sad... Not that she knows why he was reincarnated in the first place. ]

No, nothing. [He tries to squeeze his way underneath a cow head, who sniffs at his hair as he passes.] It's why my shinki are so important.

Because they're your one solid connection between then and now, and they know how to guide you.

[ She's come to understand that the old gods and shinki acted in a divine being and guide kind of way, which was just a little different from the partnership the new gods and shinki have come to get. ]

That's right! The exemplar is especially important for that. They're the ones most likely to know what kind of danger a god might have been in, and so can keep them-

[And then this very informative explanation is interrupted by a cow licking up all the way up the side of his face and into his hair, nearly making him fall over.]

[ It's certainly a good thing they were holding hands. The second after he seemed to be going sideways, though Chise didn't have much physical strength she did her best to counter the force of the cow's lick. It was enough to steady footing, not counter a destined fall. ]

They're really affectionate. I wonder if that's normal for cows raised like this...

[Thank goodness for helpful strangers. Helplessly, Ebisu tries to shove the cow's head away from him. It's.... a struggle.]

I hope it's not because I'm so small...

[He is not a tiny cow. He is not even a tiny human.]

They're like this with me too, however. Being small might not have anything to do with it.

[ Chise, you're pretty small yourself. Ah, but he seems to be having some serious troubles. What can gods do... Oh. Maybe? ]

You could... fly above them?

[Valvatorez nods when Chise speaks, noting the strange coloration of her hand, but initially saying nothing about it. He shifted his weight onto his rear foot, casting his glare at the growing crowd being herded about to inevitably be taken for a ride.]

The nonsense fortune tellers get up to... it used to serve me well. Now, however, this is simply becoming irritating. If it were the old days, I would just scare them all straight and be done with it. Nevertheless, what do you propose we do now?

[Shinki were supposed to be something of a moral compass, after all.]

[ Very few know just how far that discoloration ran, if only because no one had really seen further up than her wrist. That was the nature of how her body was upon arrival, however.

What do they do, though? ]

W-Well, something in their seances is attracting those creatures... The ayakashi, right? If we take that away and get rid of the ones lingering, maybe it'll be safer from now on. Though they seem to be enjoying the amount of business it's bringing in, someone is bound to get hurt.

[ They were lucky she had been in the room to chase away what had come up, even if the customers thought the noise she caused was a spirit- Though it wasn't wholly inaccurate, now was it? ]

[The vampire hummed in agreement to her reply, resting a finger at his chin in thought for a moment.]

Well, the ayakashi are drawn to and feed on negative emotion. These particular seances were built on lies and greed, so that might be part of it. ...But we cannot rule out that maybe one of their instruments might be spiritually attuned somehow either.

[He flicked his cape to the side dramatically.]

This calls for investigation. We should be able to sneak in and observe a seance directly. If we can discover the exact source, we can shut it down all at once... and then deal with the ayakashi. These numbers will not pose a threat, but cannot be ignored.

I was in there before... Though I didn't notice anything in particular, due to being distracted by the ayakashi that were coming in.

[ So she had to admit that if there was an item used in the seance, she didn't have a chance to focus on that. At least the appearance of blight was distinct enough that it was clear she had none on her from the lone encounter. So her staving off the creatures had been successful enough to buy time.

If there was an item as well, and not just the kind of malice brought from greed- ]

Should we be able to tell if there's a particular source, such as some kind of item?

I believe so. Ayakashi probably are drawn to strong sources of energy... or potential targets for it. So if any of them take an interest in something in particular, that will probably be our target. Perhaps the crystal ball itself.

If they're only in it from greed... well, we'll have to deal with the fortune tellers and find a convincing way to make them stop.

[Preferably without having to resort to the old demon ways of scaring the hell out of them. But sometimes fear is an effective teacher.]

[ Oh, those do sound like some ideas. After the first part, it seemed that Chise was mulling over and considering those words. No matter what, the ayakashi had been lured and are in the general area at this point, so they'd have to be dealt with no matter what.

It doesn't quite feel so wrong to do this if it's for the people's safety. ]

If it's the first part that's the issue, I'll get the ball.

[ Valvatorez might have realized a while ago that Chise was exactly the type to come to a decision and just do it. Never mind any other factors, if it seemed to be the right course of action. Which is exactly why she turned and went back into the fortune teller's shop to retrieve it and return outside. ]

If focusing into it draws the ayakashi here, then they could be handled without further problems.

[ Though maybe not right behind the fortune teller, or next to the pedestrians, where they could get hurt. ]

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Test Drive #27

Chise Hatori | Shinki

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