takamagahara | (no subject)

TEST DRIVE # 05

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.

Ugly Underthings

Someone or something has been stealing underwear from various women and men. The weirdest thing about it, though, is the fact that every piece of underwear stolen and strewn about the town is absolutely hideous to look at. Maybe it's just someone with a fetish for ugly underpants? Or maybe it's something else entirely.

Validated Villain

There's talk about some masked ayakashi wandering around, led by a young girl wearing a paper crown and covered in tattoos. In fact, if you look for her hard enough, you might just come across the nora, singing to herself as she plays with the masked wolves. Otherwise, you might just encounter the wolves. It's hard to tell which is worse.

Weeaboo Weirdos

A much larger amount of American tourists are crashing down on Japan now that the summer is near, and a significant number of them are what the people back in their home country would term a 'weeaboo' - 13- to 17-year-olds who are desperate to blend in with Japanese culture and fail miserably at their attempts. You can either make fun of them or help them out, your choice.

Xeroxing Xenophobes

Of course, that means that there are a large number of Japanese locals who are very put off and angry about these Americans. A fact that is becoming all the more prevalent because there is an ayakashi cloning itself and attaching to only Japanese people, turning them against the foreigners and causing a massive amount of hate, which is leading to a lot of shoving, nasty words, and a couple of impromptu, awful haircuts...

Yummy Yakitori

With so much going on, isn't it just nice to sit back, relax, and eat some delicious yakitori? This yakitori might possibly be the best you have ever eaten in your entire life! And that's not at all because it was made by a couple of Far Shore residents who have charmed it with varying results, definitely not. Hopefully the charm doesn't backfire and make you hate all other food!

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

[ Nagi feels out of place in this crowded street, with so many kids his age going back and forth laughing and chatting about random daily things. He's not sure if this is because he's dead (so why should he care?) or if it's because he's always felt this way, even when he was alive. He tentatively makes his way toward the arcade. It's noisy in there, but at least there's just as many machines as there are people, and it feels a little less intense that way.

He pauses in front of one particular game that has a pair of keyboards instead of joysticks. It's some kind of post-apocalypse themed story, where zombies come at you with little floating words above their heads. You type the word as quickly as you can and it destroys the zombie in a hail of bullets. Looks interesting enough. ]

What about this one?

[ Of course his shinki picks the most boring game in the entire place (well, aside from the ones in the very far back with big bright animal faces on them that Gojyo's pretty sure are intended for kids too small to read yet). But that's okay -- a boring game is still a game, and that's why they're here! ]

A typing game? ...Sure, why not. Give it a try!

[ ...Yes, he's smoking in the arcade. It's not like anyone can see him or anything, it's fine. ]

Let's see how many you can blow up!

[ This game is based on the usual shoot'em ups that come equipped with a plastic gun you aim at the screen. Nagi personally thinks it's much more challenging like this, where you have to prioritize which zombies/words to take on first according to difficulty level, proximity, and speed. A gun is just a gun: it's the same result wherever you point and shoot. But this makes it much more nuanced. Besides, he doesn't usually type with his fingers, so it's good practice for hand-eye coordination.

He pauses and stares at Gojyo. Aren't you forgetting something? ]

Do you have any change?

[ Cough it up, boss. This was your idea. ]

Hmmm? [ What did he...? ] Oh! Yeah, right, hold on.

[ Of course he doesn't carry change (at least, not any change that the machines here would take). But there are benefits to being functionally invisible!

There's a couple older teenagers playing a punching game a few machines back, with a row of coins ready to go on the dashboard of the console. Gojyo helps himself to two of them -- the kids never break eye contact with their characters on the screen -- and slaps them down into Nagi's hand. ]

Here. [ And to stave off the anticipated complaining... ] It's just to start okay? I'll go get some change, you just play.

[ Nagi looks down at the change in his hand and then back up. He wonders why Gojyo's acting like that, as though Nagi should somehow feel bad about how the money was acquired. Who cares? Certainly not Nagi. (Moral compass, what?)

Instead, he keeps staring at Gojyo in that sort of deadpan way until he finally says, ]

What about you?

[ Naturally, Nagi expected Gojyo to take the other controller and play with him. Isn't that the point of showing Nagi how to have fun? ]

[ It's only after he's dropped the coins in Nagi's hand that he realizes what a terrible idea that was. Nagi's his shinki, and that means any time he feels wrong about something, Gojyo's gonna feel it too.

But there's no sting. He just stole from a kid to let Nagi play a game, and Nagi doesn't feel guilty or shameful about that? A kid was basically an adult, but still. That doesn't bother Nagi?

Huh. Okay. ]

What about me?

[ Seriously, he has never known anybody, asshole monks included, who objected to having fun nearly as much as his new shinki does! At least Sanzo liked shooting things!

(Maybe he should see if Nagi likes shooting things?) ]

You wanted to play the game, play the game! What's the problem?

[ That's the advantage of having Nagi as a shinki, as Gojyo will probably come to know. He doesn't really feel bad about most things that people would. Maybe he was born this way, or maybe it's just the way he was like in his past life and it's bleeding in to this one. Either way, congratulations, Gojyo. ]

I don't have a problem.

[ He's not the one who wanted to play the game. He just picked it because Gojyo insisted. In a weird sort of way, he's trying to please his god. ]

Aren't you going to play, too?

[ It's like Hakkai and Sanzo hatched a scary little kid, with Hakkai's blank mask over Sanzo's absolute indifference to other people. Not for the first time, Gojyo wonders just why the hell anybody had thought it was a good idea to pair the two of them up. ]

...Sure.

[ Oh, why not? He slaps on an enthused grin and settles in at Nagi's side, hands on the keyboard like he actually has any clue at all what he's doing. ]

Don't cry when I beat your ass though, okay?

... okay. [ Nagi sounds dubious. Whether it's because he's pretty sure he's not the crying type or because he's probably going to beat Gojyo handily, it's hard to say.

The coins float up from his palm and flip vertically before clinking down into the machine, ching ching. The game starts, ominous music of the zombie apocalypse accompanying the grim scene that unfolds before them. It's gross, and bloody, and chillingly real looking. Not bad. ]

You take the zombies on that side, [ he says, as though he's used to these sorts of divide-and-conquer tactics. This game isn't a player one versus player two type of game. At least not in the typical sense. You're both on the same side, battling the same zombies. If you both survive the stage, you get bonus points. Of course, if you kill more zombies than your opponent, you win more points. So you can work together to get that bonus, or ignore each other and just try to kill as many on your own side as you want. Team player, or all for one. Choose your own adventure.

Stage one begins, and the zombies start coming, shuffling across an apocalyptic landscape at a relatively slow speed, with only three to four letter words floating over their heads. Nagi types away with amazing speed, dispatching a slew of them under a hail of bullets. ]