test drive meme #1

[historiadores]

TDM #1

LA LLEGADA

The Museum of Art and History is the largest and oldest in Llave, and contains a grand collection spanning from the time the first humans landed on its shores to the modern day. The building encircles an open courtyard where an art installation sits amidst many of the plants important to the settlers of Llave. Behind the museum is a wide, shallow field of hard-packed dirt lined by large stones, the petroglyphs on their surface worn by time—the earliest known playing field in all of the Caribbean. And further out are the areas where excavations are ongoing, uncovering the pottery, jewelry and artifacts of the ancestors.

After awakening, things move quickly. The museum is closed, and the characters ushered into the courtyard to wait. Any needing emergency medical attention are kept in one of the air conditioned galleries until the paramedics arrive. A group of women with a military bearing take charge of the situation; identified as the Bajari Bara, they question the healthy and able. They cede authority only to the Prime Minister when she arrives. Two more of their group flank the nation's leader, though they step aside when she begins to walk among the new arrivals to speak with them.

Each side has many questions and few answers. Characters are informed they are in Llave. It's October 2020. And efforts will be made to return them to their homes. But how they came to be here and why remain mysteries…as does how they’ll find their way back.

A hurricane shelter nearby is activated for use by the recent arrivals. There, characters are provided with food and clothing, a cot and other basic supplies. No one is allowed out, but through the windows they can see the lush green of the their surroundings. At night, coquí sing them to sleep. Those taken to a hospital will remain there until they are discharged. Each patient is allowed one visitor to stay with them overnight.

Over the next several days, all characters undergo physical and mental evaluations; are provided with their first immunizations; have the next legal steps explained to them; and are taught about Llave. Every character, regardless of age, has a caseworker who checks in with them daily. None have been arrested, they are assured. But they must also complete the quarantine process. To enforce quarantine, at both the hospital and the shelter, the Bajari Bara guard every entrance and exit.

Welcome to Llave.

EL AREYTO

As luck would have it, around the time quarantine ends, all of Llave is in the midst of celebration. Today is the Day of Heroes, celebrated every last weekend in October, which this year happens to fall on the eve of All Saints’ Day. So when the new arrivals venture out for the first time, Nona, the capital, welcomes them with color and music.

The people of Llave have a special love for music and dance, and it shows. All day, groups gather to play, and many more to dance. The songs center around heroes of Llave with the chief of these being Nuna, a beloved figure who is said to have led her people here to freedom. Those performing wear traditional clothes: guayaberas, long circle skirts, palm hats and headwraps, all brightly colored.

From early morning, artisans have set up under tents tables laden with goods. Clothing, jewelry, musical instruments, paintings, and more made from leather and wood, seashells and fish scales, aluminum and copper. Many create right at the table. Most popular are those working on cemís: sculptural objects, said to house the spirits of ancestors. Many carry them as amulets especially on this the eve to the days of the dead.

The food is equally rich and one of the cooks takes an interest in the new arrivals. Those who eat his food find their mood changing depending on what they ate. The tostones he prepared while speaking of his childhood home in Santa Cecilia bring on feelings of joy and contentment. The alcapurrias fried while arguing with a customer about last night’s wrestling match cause those who eat them to feel irritated. And the casabe, a flatbread made of cassava, that he explains he learned to make from his wife who passed, induces a profound nostalgia for lost loves. His wife, recognizable from the photo he keeps on the wall, sits beside those most affected and comforts them until the melancholy passes.

More dead can be found. An old man in a fine guayabera recalls composing the lyrics to a particular song. He points out the man playing the congas and proudly says his great-grandson will soon outplay him. When characters look back to the old man, he’s gone. Those with a sense for it will recognize many dead walking among the living. These next few days honor and celebrate the departed, and the dead have seized the rare opportunity to join the festivities once more.

For those who prefer the sea, the impossibly blue waters of the Caribbean are just a short walk away. Cobblestone and concrete paths line La Bahía de Nona. On one of the larger rock outcroppings jutting into the bay sits a silver-white dog. If called, he will trot over. Up close, one can see his color is due to the sand and salt that has collected on its coat. Though he allows himself to be petted, he does not step off the rocks. A passerby comments that the dog has been waiting for his master to return. How long? The man shrugs. When he was a boy, the dog was keeping watch; now he’s forty-three, and the dog is still there.

EL TRAVIESO

Or perhaps the characters were more distracted by how clean the water was, how clear. Enough so that the sight of a bottle bobbing in the waves seems offensively out of place. Anyone who chooses to snag it out of the water will find it’s a corked bottle of rum, apparently empty.

From a nearby restaurant, someone yells and waves their hands—too late. By uncorking it, they have freed the bacoo. Immediately, everyone backs away. Two cross themselves.

Only one stays long enough to warn, “You have to trick it back into the bottle. It likes milk and bananas. Don’t ask it for anything.”

Turn around, and the bacoo is there.

Short and rugged with large eyes, long arms and legs, covered in unkempt hair and its fingers and toes ending in claws, the bacoo is a strange little creature. Stranger still, it can grant any wish—so long as it is kept appeased with a steady diet of milk and bananas.

A hungry bacoo will pelt walls with stones, move objects, keep its owner up at night, and otherwise wreak havoc until it is fed. A shapeshifter, they can be difficult to locate, much less trap. And a starving bacoo will turn vicious and its pranks malicious.

Best find a way to trick it into the bottle. Fast.

---

OOC NOTES

This TDM covers from mid-to-end of October. The first prompt lasts approximately two weeks; the second, a day. For now, all characters are restricted to Nona. Any attempting to leave will be gently, but firmly escorted back.

The TDM will also double as the first IC post of the game. Threads between any two or more characters who were all apped and approved will be considered game canon. As such, actions characters take in this TDM will impact the game once it opens. How characters behave will shape the inhabitants’ first impressions of them. Make it count.

Questions regarding this TDM can be asked below, while questions regarding the game at large should be directed to the FAQ.

Thank you for your interest and we hope to have you join!

NAVIGATION • IC COMM • OOC COMM • MEME COMM

Comments

hades / lore olympus.

[aionc]

LA LLEGADA.

[ his appearnce causes a stir, understandably so as he hadn't even a moment to adopt a more human friendly form, so when hades arrives it is in all his tall, blue skinned glory. there is barely a moment to chat his breath before he is hurried to the hospital, worried questions fired this way and that. human beings don't have blue skin, after all, which is great cause for concern.

concern hades becomes fed up with incredibly fast.

thus is the god of the dead no longer confined to the hospital room given to him, choosing rather to exit both it and the hospital at large by use of his powers. they have already seen him what harm is there with the use of his godly powers to free him from this gods be damned hospital─ which is to say there is a tall, blue-skinned man in a very nice suit popping in and out of existence in an attempt to flee the hospital and its staff.

for the record, he is sorry for any heart attacks this exit strategy may or may not cause. ]

EL AREYTO.

[ frankly all of this has been somewhat overwhelming, though he would be hard pressed to admit it. stranded in a version of the human world that sits on par with olympus and the underworld, unable to return to the underworld, to his home, his dogs, to kore. recieving no signl, or connection, regardless how many times he attempted to get in contact with any member of his family or staff.

it's... yeah, it's been a lot.

so when he spots the silver-white dog out by the bay he goes to join it, sitting down on the rocks with a heavy exhale, hands burying themselves in strands of silver-white hair. ]

Sweet Zeus, how did I get myself into this?

[ someone help this poor, lost, two thousand plus year old god. ]

WILDCARD.

[ what is says on the tin yo. ]

ok I lied I had to hit this up first

[inkings]

Zeus is a lot of things. ‘Sweet’ isn’t one.

[ kind of an overexcitable pain actually. like a child on sugar. and that was without the little tidbit coming out that she is his niece by way of hades.

mal steps onto the rocks, glaring at the sun. the isle was hell, but she at least never risked burning just by standing outside. she slathered herself in sunblock prior to leaving the shelter and currently holds a very purple, clearly handmade parasol with her. after a moment where she debates whether to be nice at all, she shifts it so hades and the dog also fall under the shade.

following a brief (very brief) meeting (immediately after which she turned around and walked away) she hasn’t sought him out. enough to deal with trying to keep nico in his bed with the iv in his arm. enough to deal with trying to wrap her head around coming from a mother who never loved her and a dad who abandoned her to a brother who follows her around like a puppy and a dad who apparently doesn’t know either of them and claims the very concept as impossible.

enough to deal with knowing things were finally starting to fall into place.

the sunlight glints off of her engagement ring. ]

i knew you would

[aionc]

It's a figure out speech.

[ the reply comes out annoyed and exhausted all at once, grip tightening around strands of hair he almost wishes he could just rip out. only after it's said does he notice her presence, hands fall from his hair as he looks up at mal and her clearly handmade parasol. hades hadn't expected to see her again, not after the way she left, so surprise makes itself painfully known on his expression.

oh, there had been time to come to terms with the island (not that he has just yet) but there certainly hasn't been enough time to come to terms with the apparent children he has. children, two of them. hilarious considering he can't have children like his brothers, yet here they are proving that unrefutable fact wrong. what is he supposed to do with this? how is he supposed to deal with this? his examples of parenthood haven't exactly been good ones and he is by no means even prepared for such a thing, let alone capable of taking on such responsibility. ]

But you are right, he is an ass at the best of times.

[ the follow-up is awkward and hades shifts a little closer to the dog as if making space for mal to join them. it's only in doing that he spies the ring, sunlight glinting off just so, eyebrows raising in silent question. ]

...Not that is any way to talk about your uncle? [ smooth. ]

you know nothing jon snow

[inkings]

You called him that, not me.

[ surprising herself, mal sits. the parasol she leaves in the air; it floats without visible means of support, keeping them in the shade.

she did away with the leather bike riding outfit of her arrival. too hot for this weather. instead, she is wearing a purple maxi dress she fished out of the clothing bin, which she promptly mal-ified. she cut the sleeves and reshaped them to something resembling wings. the skirt is artfully spattered with streaks of paint. when she leans forward in her attempt to get comfortable, the double dragon symbol she painted on the back is visible.

dragons prove a common motif. from her necklace hangs a gold one. even her ring is a dragon shaped band, the beast curling around an extremely rare purple diamond. she fiddles idly with it before letting her hands rest on her lap with a sigh. ]

So, [ this isn't awkward, ] what's with the dog?

i know allllll

[aionc]

[ yes, not awkward at all.

as she sits down hades reaches over to give the dog a gentle scratch behind the ears, as if the creature is enough to alleviate the heavy air that sits around them. it isn't, of course, but he finds comfort in its presence despite the sorrowful vigil it holds. ]

I'm not sure. [ he glances back at mal, so adorned in dragons, absurdly colorful against the rocks. ] He is waiting for something or someone.

these LIES

[inkings]

Huh. Didn't think I'd identify with a dog today.

[ despite the words, she holds out her hand carefully. the dog sniffs her fingers and licks them. the rough pad of his tongue feels ticklish. she smiles faintly. ]

el areyto

[bananaclip]

[ She'd noticed him when she had been in the hospital, for as brief as his time there had been; she approaches now, holding a parasol she has obtained to keep the bright Caribbean sun from burning her to a crisp. She's curious about his appearance, of course, but there's more to it than that. ]

Hello.

[ A simple greeting. She's not sure what to say beyond that, until then: ]

Do you want some shade?

[aionc]

[ the greeting is enough to snap hades from the slowly forming whirlpool of thoughts, drag him back to the here and now. his head snaps up, eyes flashing a sharp red momentarily before relaxing with a half-hearted smile. ]

Ah, no. I am alright, thank you.

[ absently he reaches for the dog beside him, scratching the animal behind the ears. ]

I don't burn.

[bananaclip]

[ She shrugs. ]

Even so, I thought it might be nice to have a little shade for a bit.

But this being the case...

[ She tips her parasol back toward her back and sits down nearby, on the other side of the dog. ]

He looks a little worse for wear, doesn't he?

[aionc]

I do appreciate the thought.

[ it is kind of her, offering shade to a blue-skinned stranger sitting beside an ever-vigilant dog. ]

He does. [ the smile twists into something sadder, brushing some of the sea salt from the creature's back. ] Could do with a good bath, isn't that right?

[bananaclip]

He certainly could. I don't know where he'd get it though...go out in the sea and it's just more of the same.

[ She reaches out now to give the dog the first pat she will decide to give. ]

It's a shame, it doesn't seem to have an owner.

Congrats, it's twins!!!

[lordofdarkness]

[Mal may have won the first round and convinced him to stay on bed rest for a while longer, but it has been a while longer, and if Nico stays here for one more minute, he's going to lose his mind. This time he at least makes sure his sister (sister!) isn't coming to visit (but had left a helpful "Not dead, just escaping" post-it on the bed just in case so at least she won't be worried) when he plans his escape. The plan has gone smoothly so far, said plan mostly being hiding behind walls like a cheesy spy movie character until people go away. It's simple but effective.

Or it is until an entire group of doctors starts down from the other end of the hall that he's in and Nico has about two seconds to figure out a new plan. Thankfully, there's a potted plant a few feet away, and where there are potted plants, there are potted plant shadows.

Nico dives into the shadow.

A moment later he rolls out of a shadow in a completely different hallway, and springs to his feet. It isn't his best landing, but he's had worse. Most importantly, he'd managed to escape the doctors, though there is a very blue man standing in front of him who probably saw the whole spontaneous appearance thing so like. There's that.

He'd assume the mist took care of it except the man is blue so. Probably not human. (Unless he's human and just...blue. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd ever encountered.) Nico dusts himself off awkwardly and fidgets where he stands. Should...should he just go?]

Uh. Could you maybe...not tell anyone you saw me here?

sir, i would like a refund...

[aionc]

[ well, that wasn't the most graceful of landings was it?

he had been about to continue moving when the boy simply appeared out of the shadows, rolling across the floor (and hades' path) with as much grace as a drunk satyr. had been, being the operative words here, as now he simply stands there mist still clinging to his form, eyes raised in obvious question.

human boys don't jump in and out of shadows. ]

Only if you do the same for me.

[ is he going to bargin with a child? yes, yes he is. ]

[lordofdarkness]

[Look! He's tired and maybe a little malnourished!! Not. That he should be in a hospital because he totally shouldn't.

It takes him a second to realize what the man has said and then to digest the information. That could mean he's sneaking out like Nico, but it could also mean he's sneaking in. To see someone hopefully, not for any nefarious purposes. Hopefully. Or he could be trying to break quarantine which makes Nico frown. The caseworker who had explained it to him had made a lot of sense and he's knows enough about disease from listening to Will that it seems like a reasonable step to take.

He should nod and move on and let the blue man be. It's what he wants to do.]

What are you doing? [He hears himself asking, not entirely without suspicion, because he hates making things easy on himself.]

[aionc]

[ as far as human boys go, yes he definitely looks tired and malnourished. maybe a few unfortunate steps to leaving the land of the living if he isn't careful. not that hades is concerned for the boys well being, it's just a simple observation. ]

What am I doing? [ the question is, somehow, absurd and hades almost laughs. ] The same as you, I wager.

[ it would be simple to just go their separate ways, the boy to the shadows and hades to the mist still hovering about his form. he need only take the step. yet they stand at a surprising standstill. ]

Leaving. [ a hand waves about. ] Before the doctors catch wind of my escape.

[lordofdarkness]

[Nico noticeably relaxes, nodding as he does. A shadow curls around his ankle and he waves it away, his eyes narrowing in on the mist around the blue man. Maybe it's a strange thought to have given the shadow travel and all, but he's curious about what this blue man is and how he's doing that. Most of the people he's met here have been human so far with perhaps a few quirks among them, but something about this guy just feels different.]

...what are you?

[Okay, kind of rude, but he's not exactly working at his best here given the situation.]

EL AREYTO.

[deisolate]

[This was...far more than he bargained for when longing to reach the surface. The way the sand feels (which isn't much but it's something), the sound of the water crashing against the shore-- it's almost sensory overload compared to the light of Ixion and the soothing current of the river Styx.]

Wonder if this is what Than sees... [A quiet comment to himself, before he hears an all too familiar name.]

Excuse me, sir. [Zagreus nearly hesitates seeing the silver dog but oh what he wouldn't give to see Cerberus right now.] You know of Zeus?

[aionc]

[ the dog's presence is calming, oddly steadying, giving hades a moment of stability in the storm of thoughts and worries coursing through his head. a hand detaches itself from threads of white to rest on the creature's head, scratching softly behind its ears. what a good boy, he thinks, keeping watch for a master that may never come home...

'excuse me, sir.' hades stills, head lifting and turning towards the sound of the voice; a young man, dressed in familiar clothing, head adorned with a redgold laurel─ all things the humans of this world should be sporting. ]

Know of him? [ the smile that comes is wry at best. ] I suppose you could say that. He is family after all.

[deisolate]

Wait. [Wait a minute here. This man doesn't look like anyone he knows.] Family? Really?

[Not that the really knows what the other Olympians look like. Just their voices and he doesn't sound like those he's spoken to. Zagreus looks him over, perplexed and concerned, trying to parse out who this gentleman is.]

I suppose it wouldn't be so far a stretch to say he's part of mine too. [Considering the stories mortals told, no he doesn't think it would be.]

[aionc]

Unfortunately. [ there are days he wishes the opposite, days when zeus is utterly unbearable, but then he remembers what he had done for him. ] More of a pain in my ass than a brother, most days.

[ his gaze narrows, still absently petting the dog, as he starts to process the young man's words. 'I suppose it wouldn't be so far a stretch to say he's part of mine too.' another son? gods, hera will be furious if that is the case, not that she needs another reason to be angry at the king of gods these days. still, it begs the question: ]

What is your name?

[deisolate]

Zagreus. [He doesn't say much more. This man couldn't be his uncle Poseidon.

Names can be powerful things, he's found in his journey through Hades itself. This may be another lesson in power and names, and one he does not wish to trifle with given the other's expression.

What sort of weight would his name carry?]

la llegada

[officedragon]

[The voice behind him is familiar; the words are hissed. If Hades turns, the Goddess of the Crossroads stands behind him, arms crossed and teeth bared.]

Just what do you think you're doing?

[All things considered, Hecate would rather not be here right now. She has better things to do. And so does he and why is he here then? Being that she's the Goddess of Witchcraft, also, she ducks into a room she knows is empty, and beckons him after her. Someone has some explaining to do. It isn't her.]

[aionc]

[ oh there is an all too familiar chill running down his spine before she speaks, alerting him to her presence before he even turns to watch her beckon him towards an empty room. almost immediately hades feels both relieved and impending doom at the same time, obediently following into the room and closing the door behind them. ]

Hecate. [ it isn't his fault, none of this is he swears. ] I was just leaving, you know I don't have fond memories of hospitals.

[officedragon]

[She exhales slowly. Calm, Hecate. Think calm thoughts...the words that follow are dangerously sweet, however.]

I know. I did not mean that. I mean here. Not this hospital. Here. What are you doing here?

[How did you get here, she means. Though, for that matter? Hecate is not honestly certain how she managed to get herself here, either. And that disturbs her. Deeply. But there's no showing that now, whether or not there are others here. Mortals here.]

We can leave this hospital. But not like this. [Though it certainly takes mere moments for her skin to turn to olive from blue and the sclera of her eyes to clear from yellow to white. Easy. It wasn't as if she needed to change much...]

Are they simply going to let us walk out? [Sure, they are what they are, but Hecate can't see the harm in humoring these people.]

[aionc]

[ sweet olympus, why is he in trouble? hecate please, things have been stressful enough as is. he shifts his weight, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks at a spot in the room that is distinctly not her. ]

Here? I have no idea. [ when he looks back at her he can't help but pull a face, watching her form shift to something more human appropriate. ] They have already seen me like this. [ hands wave about his suit. ] I got the impression they're not as surprised by our appearances as they should be.

[ even so he shifts his own form, skin becoming olive and hair brown. ]

They might while we are looking like this.