Test Drive Meme #1

[diceofthegods]

Arrival

Broken Palace by Jonathan Eng

0:07 / 1:13

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Click here to listen.

During 2014 Jonathan Eng composed the soundtrack for interactive narrative experience The Sailor’s Dream, consisting of a mix of instrumental tracks and a seven-part musical story told in folk song-form.

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Like all who come through summoning circle, your arrival is heralded by a dream. Waking up is a dizzying, disorienting thing... and possibly made worse by the fact that you aren't alone.

Right after you appear, so does someone else. If you're lucky*, they'll simply blink into existence by your side. If you're not, there's a chance they spawned below or above you. That's one way to make a memorable first impression. Best untangle yourselves and get things figured out.

If you're extremely unlucky*, instead of another person being brought through the summoning circle, it's a monster. The creature bobs, laughs maniacally, and immediately begins to spit flames your way.

Some welcome this is. If you aren't the fighting type, hopefully someone nearby is. Eventually, one of the local Town guards will slay the monster before it - and you - cause too much trouble or fire damage.

Town Tricks

After your unexpected introduction to either your fellow offworlder or monster, you'll be given a proper one from Charlie in Town. He sends you on your way shortly after to get settled in properly and deal with then next offworlder that walks in. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a revolving door right now so he doesn't have time for a more in-depth explanation or to answer too many questions.

Nor does he remember to warn you about The Fae.

Although native to Talahee Forest, which is currently off-limits to offworlders, the surge of magic from the summoning circle has piqued their interest. While the faefolk vary wildly in appearance, the ones scouting are pixies.

These tiny tricksters may be too shy to reveal themselves outright... but that won't stop them from playing pranks on all these fun, new victims. Some examples of what can happen are:

⁂ Your shoestrings are suddenly tied together and make you trip.
⁂ An object you had on your person goes missing... only to be found in an odd place. Repeatedly.
⁂ Create illusions of food and drink that disappear or turn into something else as soon as you try to consume it.
⁂ At night, they'll use dancing lights to lead people astray and turn them around Town.

Thankfully, these Fae mean you no harm. In fact, if you react with hostility they will give you a wide berth and simply find someone more fun to play with.

Rocky Talky

One of the things that was given to you in your welcome pack from Charlie was a summoning-stone. Although it looks like, well, an ordinary stone- It's actually magic! You can look through it and see someone else's face too if you're both viewing your stones at the same time. It can also record your speech and deliver that to someone else in a snap.

One of the other features is that you can scrawl on it. It will turn your writing into legible text that you can send others to read on their stones. Of course, you need to attune yourself to your stone first. To that end, it prompts a small questionnaire:

Name:
Age:
Race:
Favorite soup? Why?:
Is soup something you eat or drink?

The last couple of questions might seem... strange but, surely, it must have a reason for asking. Once you answer the questions and unlock your device, you might pocket it and forget. Unfortunately, your scrawled answers were sent to the entire summoning-stone network throughout Town. Everyone can see what you put and they might even have some thoughts about it.

Registration Questionnaire

<span style="font-family:courier new;"><b>Name:</b> <b>Age:</b> <b>Race:</b> <b>Favorite soup? Why?:</b> <b>Is soup something you eat or drink?</b></span>

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Notes

⁂ Hello and welcome to Children of Bahamut! If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback feel free to comment here!

⁂ For the Arrival prompt, feel free to roll a d20 to see how lucky or unlucky you are.

⁂ The Town Tricks example list for pranks isn't exhaustive. If you have other silly prank ideas in mind, feel free to roll with that and have fun with it! The Fae certainly are.

⁂ There is a correct choice of favorite soup and the moderators will remember your choice/opinions. (We're joking. Mostly.)

⁂ Full Navigation ⁂

Comments

Byleth Eisner | Fire Emblem Three Houses | ota

[perfectteatime]

🫖 Arrival

One moment he's on his way to go fishing at the monastery and the next he's landing face first in a patch of wet moss. This doesn't phase Byleth all too much. His life is a string of absolutely bizarre events happening to and around him for seemingly no reason. Once again, here he is. He stands, pats his clothes down, and sighs. His halfway sleepy gaze landing on the sign that reads 'TOWN'.

He's not at all familiar with the surroundings and it's not the right climate to even be near the monastery.

So a Tuesday, then.

🫖 Rocky Talky


Name: Byleth Eisner
Age: 27
Race: It's complicated.
Favorite soup? Why?:

Spring: A light onion soup with cheese and crusty bread. Onions taste the best in spring.

Summer: Tomato bisque. Not too heavy but offers good flavor and pairs well with a variety of things.

Fall: Any kind of pumpkin soup or stew. Obvious reasons. Pumpkin.

Winter: Cream based potato soup. It's sticking and warming, leaves you feeling full longer.

Is soup something you eat or drink? Wholly dependent on the kind of soup. For thicker soups with large chunks of meat and vegetables, that is an eating soup. Smooth bisques or broth based soups? That's a drinking soup. This will be on the test.

Rocky Talky o/!

[lucere]

I dare say we have similar tastes. This amuses me to no end.

[It's nice to talk to someone who enjoys a well-balanced meal. As much as he adores his son, Noctis' eating habits have always given him headaches. That boy dislikes anything that appears to be healthy. If it has a hint of green or looks vaguely like a vegetable, it must go.]

Autumn might be my favorite season simply because pumpkins are in season. But have you tried butternut squash soup before? It's delicious and vaguely reminiscent of pumpkin soup.

\o/!

[perfectteatime]

Always nice to meet someone who can appreciate the finer points of food.

Pumpkin is such a unique flavor. It really does mark the season boldly. I have not tried butternut squash, but you have piqued my interest.

*hugs!*

[lucere]

Pumpkin's savory yet sweet flavor is unmistakably associated with autumn. It is not available during the summer months, and it usually runs out shortly before winter arrives. With pumpkins, apples of every variety, raspberries, and rutabagas, there are endless autumn-themed dishes to enjoy.

I have a recipe for butternut squash soup that you might enjoy. It's a simple dish to prepare because it mostly consists of butter, cream, potatoes, and thinly sliced carrots and celery. Unfortunately, I do not have measurements, but do not use more than a tablespoon of butter.

This is one of my favorites but my son dislikes it all the same.

<33333333333

[perfectteatime]

I couldn't have said it better myself. [ A fellow food enthusiast? Yes. Perfection. ]

It sounds delicious, I certainly won't turn down the chance to try it. Perhaps you could show me how to make it?

Your son, hmm? Well, we can't all have good taste unfortunately. I'm no stranger to fussy eaters.

[lucere]

[Oh, he is definitely a foodie. Only second to his close friend Weskham. Regis enjoys trying new dishes, especially since the best way to learn about a culture is through their food. It's one of the rare luxuries that he truly enjoys.]

It would be my honour! I have not had a chance to cook in years. I wasn't usually allowed in the kitchens, but no one is here to stop me.

Yes, my dearest son. Even though he's older now, I couldn't get him to eat his vegetables very often. It's a miracle he grew at all.

text. @ofnoconsequence

[fatedfinality]

'It's complicated.'?
Come now, you can't write that and provide nothing else.

[perfectteatime]

Well I mean... it's kind of a long story. But I guess I'm kind of partially what one might call a homunculus?

[fatedfinality]

Partially a homunculus?
In my experience, you either are or you aren't.
Which would you say is the case?

[ Since what Byleth believes about himself is more telling than what he actually is, in Ardyn's opinion. ]

[perfectteatime]

The facts themselves do not spare the simple understanding that my existence is unnatural.

However, I was raised by my human father, as human, despite my nature. Human or homunculus. I am neither. I am both. I am a mortal and what some could consider a demi god.

Most of all, I am simply me.

I have given up on the fools errand of categorizing myself.

[fatedfinality]

[ Unnatural, he says, and Ardyn feels... strange about that.

He feels even stranger about Byleth declaring himself to simply be himself. If only it could be that simple, hm? ]

Perhaps that's for the best.
I always found labels and categories a bit too restrictive myself. [ Like 'evil' or 'asshole.' He is those things, of course, but also so much more! ]

And so who are you, exactly?

Text

[zodiheart]

Should your preferred soup of the season be out of reach due to a lack of ingredient, what would you desire as a secondary favorite?

[perfectteatime]

Fish head stew.

[zodiheart]

Does the particular species of fish matter? Or shall any suffice.

[perfectteatime]

All fish is good fish.

[zodiheart]

A true statement. Unless the fish has grown spoiled or otherwise rendered inedible, I suppose.

If the choice of fish does not alter your preferences, is there anything in addition to the dish that heightens the experience for you? Any particular ingredient or flavor that stands above others?

arrival.

[boarishboy]

From across the reaches of time, another is pulled in by the summoning circle soon after Byleth here but from before where they're from. The blond is lucky enough that he doesn't also bring forth a monster with him, but not so lucky that he's oriented correctly when he manifests. Dimitri lurches forward with an undignified squawk of a sound and bowls over the nearest person.

The cape of his uniform ends up also covering his head and obscuring his view briefly. "My apologies," he says, trying to pull back the cloth and untangle himself from whoever he just knocked to the ground with him. "I'm not sure what happened, but I- Professor?"

Oh, that's- Well, it's relieving but also surprising. What just happened? More importantly: where are they?

[perfectteatime]

Byleth moves like one of those punchy balloon toys, wobbling back in to place even at an improbable angle as Dimitri stumbles into him. He stares at the youthful version of the broken man he knows all too well now. He's greeted in the all too fond way that Dimitri still greets him at meetings.

"Hi." Byleth figures that counts as a greeting. But he has a burning question;

"Why are you a baby again?"

[boarishboy]

It does, certainly, count as a greeting. A very Byleth one, at that. He seems the same as Dimitri remembers him, yet-

"Excuse me?" he can't help but question at the man's question. "I'm... not sure what you're asking, professor." He's not a baby by the standard definition, no, but he can gather Byleth simply means 'younger' in this context. Only, he isn't.

Is he?

[perfectteatime]

Byleth continues to appraise him with scrutiny.

"You're younger than usual." He finally says in normal words someone could actually hope to make sense of.

Seeing Dimitri like this again, though, brings about a whole wash of odd emotions. Least of which is a sense of protectiveness. Knowing full well that even young Dimitri had a sense of inexplicable yet inevitable darkness growing within him.

"Are you... are you all right?"

[boarishboy]

That does, in fact, provide a little more context to what Byleth was trying to say. Younger than usual implies that he knows of an older version of Dimitri, which... is unsettling.

"As well as I can be, I suppose," he says, giving a small nod. "Confused, more than anything. We were heading down the Holy Tomb with Rhea and the others. Then, I was here instead."

Rocky Talky

[silver_soldier]

I had never considered dividing favorite soups into seasons. I assumed the question was in regards to an overall universal favorite, but a favorite that changes based on what season it is...that is a unique approach. Do many people think that way?

You are entirely correct about soups in regards to the final question. It's strange more people don't understand this.

[perfectteatime]

To me, soup is almost entirely dependent on the season. You could say the season is part of the seasoning.

I don't know if many do, but me and my father certainly did. It was a tradition.

Some people simply have not had the pleasure to fully understand soup in their life.

[silver_soldier]

An interesting turn of phrase. Sephiroth is going to need to share that one with Angeal. He's sure Angeal will appreciate it.

A family tradition...that sounds nice. As always, Sephiroth feels a stab of envy at the thought. Of having traditions and rituals with family...of having family to have such things with. He doesn't mention this, of course. For one thing, if he always brought it up whenever he was craving something others had in their relatively more normal lives that he hasn't, he'd never talk about anything else. But more than that, it's his own issue. Not something to burden others with. He should just be happy Byleth had something nice like that.

Especially because - while it was some time back that they'd discussed it - he recalls that Byleth has had anything but a normal life in most respects. But at least he'd had this much.

Was it your traditions with your father that helped you come to understand soup so thoroughly? I haven't had such things, but it simply seems...common sense, to me, how soup works. I expect my understanding isn't as deep as yours, as a result.

These men are having a very serious and to some degree philosophical conversation about soup. It feels like this fact should be reiterated for the audience.

[perfectteatime]

It was nice. We had a lot of those small kinds of things we did, now that I think about it.

Maybe it was the traditions or simply the fact that we both loved food.

Lots of things can have unexpected depth when you really look into them. Arteurs are everywhere in every subject, you need only look deep enough to discover people's sincere interests.