testing_the_box | TEST DRIVE MEME

Starting now, we'll put up a new one of these very month! Feel free to use the current setting of Pandora (Christmas in July) or make up your own! You can also use the following scenarios if you'd prefer:

1. Mushroom Kingdom

Have you ever wanted to be a fairy? Well now you are, even if the answer was no! The City is a big, big place, all of a sudden. Houses are roomy affairs inside giant mushrooms, there are colorful flowers everywhere you look, and the animals are always friendly! Unfortunately, the only food items being sold in the market this month are fruit, fruit, and.... more fruit.

2. School Town

You may be too old to attend the academy, but that doesn't seem to matter; your attendance is mandatory anyway. Or perhaps you're there to teach, because you're the only resident of Pandora that possesses a certain skill. It doesn't matter if it can't be learned; you have to come up with a lesson plan anyway. At least the uniforms aren't some god awful color, right?

3. Zombie Apocalypse.

There's no coming back from death in Pandora, so you'd better do all you can to survive. Three quarters of the city are already infected, and this is the last stand. Are you going to pool your resources and try to make it together, or is it time to stop trusting others and go it alone until the month is over?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It isn't long before Lancer has made his way inside the grocery store. The path he's cleared is large enough for him to carry supplies back outside with him as well as safe enough to ensure that when his party back at the apartment is strong again, he could lead the other scouting few of their number back here for more. It's a good plan, but only for as long as what's left inside the store lasts and he suspects that by now, pickings are slim. Someone had to barricade the windows and doors, after all...

Armed with his lances in case he should stumble upon undead here, Diarmuid flits around the small warehouse of the store, none too surprised to find that there's little that isn't either spoiled or has already been looted. Refrigerators leaking fluid are still in one piece for the most part, but they're no longer keeping anything cold with the power out. Well... 'best to see what's left out on the floor before giving up on this location.

Cautiously he pushes through the doors out into the public area of the grocery store and walks down the first aisle, checking the shelves and spilled over boxes and items littering the floor. He reaches the front of the store just in time to catch through the windows sight of what looks like an abstract painting gone mad off the canvas-- color and shape rioting in the streets, decimating the undead like a frenzy of blades given minds of their own. Lancer can appreciate the strange loveliness of it, but it is not natural and to him, that can only mean one thing--

Magi...!? Without hesitating, Lancer dematerializes into his Spirit Form and shoots back outside to help whoever is controlling the magical liquid. When he takes form again, he races through the parking lot to the street. He raises his own weapons, preparing to attack, but before he can, he spots the magus, and he swears it feels like he's been cut straight through the torso once again. ]

[He's going to die in this ridiculous dream. He can only hope that it isn't true, what they say about dying in dreams. Not that he usually believes in that kind of superstition, but his current situation is enough to make him think the most foolish, desperate thoughts. He's frightened, and he doesn't want to die--not in a dream, and especially not in actuality.

He sends another sheet of mercury slicing through his attackers, following it with a wash of liquid nitrogen. His spelled water is of various colors: scarlet causes one of the zombies to burst into flame, while green knocks it violently back with the force of an explosive into the other zombies approaching behind it.

This action opens a space through which he might try to escape, but he doesn't take the opportunity, as he catches sight of a figure moving toward him, and he freezes. Diarmuid? Now he knows this is a dream, because only in a dream would Diarmuid suddenly appear, dressed so bizarrely and bearing weapons.]

Diarmuid, what are you doing here? It isn't safe! [Obviously it isn't safe, but he's not at his most eloquent or subtle presently. He can only think of getting the other man out of harm's way, his concern for his own safety dwindling.] Get back.

[Because Diarmuid can't defend himself nearly so well as Kayneth. He has no magecraft, and he's not a fighter--regardless of whatever sticks he's carrying at present.]

[ Lancer's blood is already boiling when Kayneth catches sight of him and the shouted command garners an angry growl from deep within his throat. Red drenches his vision as he raises his weapons again, then throws himself into the fray without another coherent thought. He doesn't hesitate for a moment to drive the bladed tip of Gae Buidhe through the first undead he meets and it is only because there is an ample amount of enemies to cut through that he doesn't attack his former Master. Diarmuid channels his rage into his assault-- the anger brought forth from not just seeing the man here, but also from being ordered, as though Kayneth believed himself still possessing the right to dictate his actions, and ordered to restrain himself, no less.

In under half the time it took the magus to destroy a few, Lancer has already dispatched the majority of the horde. He takes out the remaining stragglers with a few more tactical thrusts of both of his spears, then turns away and starts walking back to the grocery store parking lot. He says nothing to Kayneth, unconcerned by what the magus chooses to do now. At one time, he wanted to serve his Master loyally, faithfully, to do what he did not do in life, but Kayneth broke their Contract when he ordered him to kill himself and thus, no longer owes him anything. It's not difficult to turn his back on him without much of a thought spared for his well-being. ]

[Kayneth freezes, because none of what he's seeing makes any sense. Fortunately, his spelled liquids are so effective that they don't stop defending him even when his attention is elsewhere, though their movements are nowhere near as zealous and extravagant as before. He's bewildered; he's never seen Diarmuid so angry before--not that he hasn't seen him angry at all, because Kayneth has a way of making people angry. He's never seen Diarmuid fight, either. Boxing doesn't count, in his opinion. Boxing is nothing compared to using weapons and killing things, especially with such speed and deadly skill. His current actions aren't humanly possible, and Kayneth senses an unusual amount of power emanating from him.

In fact, he doesn't seem like Diarmuid at all, but it must be him. It looks exactly like him. Yes, this has to be a dream. He wishes it didn't feel so real.

When Diarmuid turns away, Kayneth stands motionless for a moment, his waters slowly subsiding, then starts after him.]

Wait--where are you going? How did you do that?

[He's too baffled to sound demanding or arrogant.]

[ The genuine astonishment from Kayneth regarding his abilities is a little too genuine for even Lancer to completely ignore. It tugs at the corners of his mind and causes him to still for a moment. He glances back, but he remains furious enough that he doesn't bother to answer the questions or respond to them at all, really. ]

Don't follow me.

[ It's the only thing he says to the other man before he turns away again and continues walking. ]

Why not? [He raises his eyebrows. Diarmuid's tone is unfamiliar, and his words don't make sense. Even if he's angry, there's no reason for him to be angry at Kayneth.

And Kayneth continues to follow, stubbornly, if without really thinking about it.

It may be a dream, but like anyone in a dream, it's hard for him not to give in to the seeming reality of it. He feels foolish, and he hates feeling foolish, but he's still too frightened and confused by what's happening to sound anything but worried. (He hates that, too.)]

Thank you for--whatever that was, I suppose, but I don't understand why you're acting so oddly. [He hesitates. Usually he'd complain, or even say something cutting, because he's not very good at disputes, but something's very off here. He can't get the incongruent image of Diarmuid angrily slaughtering those creatures out of his head.] What's the matter?

TEST DRIVE MEME

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please don't kill him, he's a dummy ;;

lol He won't. He KINDA WANTS TO, but he won't. ~u~

yay!