souljammed | APRIL TEST DRIVE MEME

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APRIL TEST DRIVE MEME

Test Drive Meme

Prompts

Arrival: So you've just arrived in Nyoi-Cho. Congratulations! You must be so excited about having your wish granted. Or maybe you're upset that the result wasn't quite what you expected? If that's the case, then that's too bad! There are no take backs and no redoes, so you're stuck with what you have! Maybe you should have been more careful about how you worded that wish...

Oh well. There's no use in dwelling on it. You're a magi now, and that means adjusting to a whole new lifestyle! Maybe one of the townspeople can help you out.

Only... they're acting a bit strangely, aren't they? They're all too happy to show you around, but there's something unsettling about the way they're behaving. Almost cheerfully dissonant. Any questions about the history of the town are met with blank stares and brief silence, before they plaster a smile onto their faces and change the subject. Any attempts to tell them about your duties as a magi or anything else that relates to the magical will get similar reactions.

Isn't there anyone normal here that you can talk to at all?

Home Improvement: The houses that the magi are given access to really are something, aren't they? There's almost no limit to what they can do! Why don't you create the house of your dreams, or maybe recreate and relive your favorite childhood scenes? Invite some spectators over to marvel!

A Corrupted Soul Gem: You neglected to take care of your soul gem, and now you don't feel quite yourself anymore. You feel like you're losing your sense of self - all you seem to be able to focus on is your old regrets and past failures. What's happening to you?

A Day in the Life: Everyday hero by day, magician by night! You've got a busy day ahead of you and no time to waste! Maybe it's school, or maybe it's work, maybe it's both! Being magical doesn't make you exempt from paying those shopping bills!

May Day: Uh-oh. This magical girl stuff looked easier on TV. You're in some serious trouble! Or maybe you see someone else who is! It's time to pull up your socks and show them what you have. Be the hero you've always wanted to be, or give in and be that damsel in distress. There's no shame in needing a little help now and then.

A Successful Mission: Congratulations! You met up with your first Nightmare, and you fought valiantly. You even mastered that tricky power of yours! What sort of power did you get? Is it a useful one, or is it not so useful? Maybe you've mastered it beautifully, and now you're showing off to all of your friends. Maybe you're having a hard time keeping it under wraps, and now you're wreaking havoc across the town without meaning to!

A Dreadful Nightmare: You had an absolutely horrid day. As you drift off to sleep, your mind dwells on all the injustices you've had to endure. In response, your bed swallows you up, and your room shifts into a horrific Nightmarescape. What sort of Nightmare are you? What kind of Nightmarescape do you create? Hopefully your fellow magi can stop you before you cause too much damage!

Wildcard: Feel free to use any information from the FAQ or the World Info page to make your own prompt!

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[chaos has seen, wielded, built, and experienced weird weapons before, so a crossbow that fires what look like large marbles is not enough to immediately throw him off. Given that he, himself, doesn't seem to be using a weapon at all, maybe that's par for the course. But for someone not using a weapon, he sure seems to be doing a lot of damage to these things - and if you watch him long enough, it becomes plain why. He's not actually touching anything - or, more to the point, nothing's touching him. Compact bolts of haze seem to be lashing out every time he moves his hands, feet, and just about any other striking point on his body. Where they land, devastation follows.]

[On second examination, however, there's something distinctly odd going on here. For someone so good at dealing out punishment, he doesn't look at all happy to be doing it. In fact, his expression is decidedly sad - and moreso with every blow he lands.]

Poor lost souls...

[Considering how bored he is of this battle, it doesn't take Wamuu long to focus on the magi who has come to fight next to him. This shift in focus doesn't affect his aim as another steel ball is sent flying. It cuts through at least half a dozen familiars before ricocheting off a rock and taking down another three.

Wamuu wants to be impressed by how well the magi next to him is fighting, but instead of feeling that, an odd feeling of jealousy flutters in his chest. How is it right this...child...has so much power when he has been stripped of his own? The feeling shifts toward anger when he hears the other magi's words causing his answer to almost come out as a snarl.]

You pity them?

I do. Born of nothing, they return to it - they have no will of their own. They can never be more than what they are now, without the influence of something or someone else to control them. And so, all they can do is seek to destroy that which they might otherwise desire. If there is anything more worthy of pity, I have not seen it.

[It isn't really that he has a lot of power right now - if anything, he's been stripped of at least 99% of what he originally had. But these Nightmares happen to be really similar to the sort of thing he's been fighting for... quite a long time.]

Why does that idea anger you so much?

Pity is born of the lowest form of human sentimentality.

[It is very clear from the way he says 'human' that Wamuu does not consider himself one even if he has been trapped in a human form. A particularly vicious shot from his crossbow tears through almost a dozen familiars, before actually reaching the Nightmare at the center of them, ripping a hole in its arm. It bellows out and a fresh wave of familiars stream toward them.]

They do not care if you pity them. They are nothing. No warrior worth the title should waste their energy when there are more important things to focus on. It is an insult to those who participate in the fight and to the fight itself.

Human sentimentality has given birth to other things.

[Your personality, Wamuu, is probably the polar opposite of chaos' own. He hasn't stopped moving during this conversation, and everything he 'touches' just... evaporates.]

That they cannot care is why I pity them. And though I have some skill in combat, I would be the last to call myself a warrior, because to do so implies the desire to fight. I fight because I must - not because I want to. Why do you fight?

One more useless than the next.

[The words are heavy with disdain, and, as if he has finally grown tired of this lackluster battle, Wamuu takes aim slightly behind the Nightmare. The resulting ricochet sends the steel ball he has fired through the Nightmare's head, right between its eyes. It falls silently, and as it does, the Nightmarescape also fades around them.

Once it is gone, Wamuu lowers his crossbow and turns a critical look on his fellow magi.]

I fight because it is where I find honor and where my skills are tried the hardest. Battle against worthy opponents brings me joy that I cannot explain to one who does not value battle as you do. I find my home there; I find honor there; I find peace there.

There are other fields where people do battle, but if fighting is not where your strengths lie, then do not sully my home with your presence. Find the battlefield that suits you best instead.

[He might have been the youngest in their trio, but there was a reason that Master Kars and Master AC/DC had graced him with the role of Warrior. Their skills were best used on other battlefields. Fighting is his duty and it is one he cherishes above all others]

In the universe I came from, you might have been a Testament, or perhaps one of the children of the Zohar. You have that kind of strength, and I respect it. But there are other reasons to fight. For the sake of those you love; to prevent war; to save another. I have seen countless souls lost to humanity's tendency for destruction, over countless years. I have seen the birth of weapons capable of destroying entire solar systems, all for the desire of power. And in the end, not one of them could prevent the collapse of a universe... because they were precisely what brought it about.

[You... might wanna rethink the idea that this is a kid you're talking to, Wamuu.]

I chose to fight because I believe in the potential of humanity to go beyond its desire for destruction, and because I want to give them the chance to make their own choices.

[There is a very slight lifting on Wamuu's eyebrow, but that is the only reaction that the magi's words draw from him physically. Another may have found all that chaos has seen amazing or awe-inspiring, but Wamuu sees none of that. Not when he is over 12,000 years old himself and Master Kars is over 100,000; not when his people existed long before humanity did and saw countless species come and go during that time.]

The only names that matter to me are that of Warrior and the name given to the remnants of my people. We three are the Pillar Men. We stand strong holding the greatest knowledge and strength of a race that lived long before humanity began to crawl from the ooze. They are below us and will always be so save for those whose great strength proves to me that they are deserving of my attention. They I will favor and they I will stand beside. No warrior so great as to have matched me requires protection.

You are free to make your choices as am I. I can only hope that the humans you save will be worthy of my attention someday.

No, I'm not. [And there are those sad eyes again.] My path was set long before life existed. I can only delay my purpose, in the hope that others can find a way to halt the decay of my universe. Even my coming here won't stop it - but maybe, just maybe, I can help to stop this one from falling into the same trap.

You fight so hard for others, yet you will not fight for yourself.

[Wamuu's crossbow vanishes, along with his magi outfit. His magi uniform lingers a little longer since it takes the form of the Warrior Garb he so cherishes, but it soon goes as well. There is no reason to keep it manifest now. He will just have to settle with the 'normal' clothes he has procured no matter how odd they seem to him.]

Have you considered that is why your path has not changed despite your efforts? If not, you should or else this new start will end the same as the others.

I have. And I have tried to fight it - first by divorcing myself from the majority of my power, and again by standing to fight with those who chose to resist fate. I've bought them time to solve the problem - I can only trust that they have enough. By coming here, I hoped to give them more.

[He sighs, and lets his own battle gear - which apparently consists solely of the gems that had adorned his hands and feet - melt away.]

The fact that I still exist is proof that my path has not changed. So long as the universe needs the potential I carry - to wipe it clean, restart it from nothing - I will remain.

[So it is truly only others who can change this man's fate? The concept is a very strange one to Wamuu who has lived his whole life being the author of his own story. He would never be able to trust others to do his fighting for him. Besides, it is not their place to fight for him. He is the only one who should fight his battles.

Wamuu scowls, suddenly feeling that he does not know nearly enough about this man to try and discuss these kinds of things with him. He hates it when people do not give him all the important information about a topic they are talking about. It's time to ask some questions of his own.]

Who are you that you cannot control your own fate and that you hold the power to restart the universe in your hands? Why has such a great responsibility been handed to you?

My most common name is chaos. [He pauses, considering the questions. Really, is there any reason not to lay it all out in the open?]

I am the embodiment of Anima - the collective desire of the lower universe for destruction. I exist to protect the higher realm from the lower, and I was given that purpose by the creator of both - a being you might know as God. I never questioned my purpose, until I met a man who taught me that life has much greater potential than I had ever dreamed possible. He, his followers, and I traveled together for some time, before he was taken and crucified. Even then, I could feel the stirrings of my power awakening - but I chose to suppress it, to divorce myself from it with the help of one of his disciples. To give people the chance to save themselves. Thereafter, I wandered among them, seeing the best and worst of what they could be. Helping those I could, without taking a direct role in events... because I couldn't.

[Wamuu's scowl deepens when he hears the answers to his questions. chaos? How can he be chaos when it is a thing not a person? And what is all this talk of lower and upper realms? Is it anything like the humans who lived in the sunlight and his people who were forced to live in the underground? Humanity was young when Wamuu's people were at their peak, though, and they had no interest in overthrowing a race so young and helpless. Instead, his people were more focused on keeping their numbers strong and finding ways to remove their weaknesses.]

There are no gods. Merely very powerful beings who always have some weakness that leads to their destruction.

[Master Kars had records their people kept of hundreds, if not thousands, of beings who called themselves gods over the years. All of them were long dead and gone by the time Wamuu was old enough to understand what he was reading. The old gods pass away; new gods take their place. It is one of the never-ending cycles of his world.

Something that seems very different than what happens on chaos' own.]

You felt your power awakening once and restrained it. What if you grow strong enough to restrain it forever? Would that not be rewriting your path?

[chaos shrugs at Wamuu's insistence that God doesn't exist. That's not the important thing here, anyway.]

That was a long, long time ago, and I had help. Now, it's all I can do to slow it down - it has a kind of inertia, gathering inevitability as time goes on. If I can gain that kind of strength here, then so be it - but where I came from, it was impossible.

I still do not acknowledge that anything is impossible.

[Wamuu's arms settle loosely over his chest..]

However, if being here is what you need to find the belief in your ability to change, then it is good you are here.

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APRIL TEST DRIVE MEME

JoJo meets Xenosaga... what could possibly go wrong?

Probably everything and it will be glorious! :-D

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