Test Drive Meme

[melodiesmods]

Reservations will open on July 18th at 00:00 GMT and close on July 24th at 23:59 GMT
Applications will open on July 25th at 00:00 GMT and close on July 31st at 23:59 GMT
The game will open on August 3rd.

— Reply with a character you wish to test in the Melodies of Life's setting.
— Feel free to use one of the prompt below or make one of your own!
— Tag around! This is a panfandom RP, so don't hesitate to tag both castmates and non-castmates.
— Most importantly, have fun!

1/ Welcome to the world of Crystallis! You have seen reality shatter and collapse around you, in the depths of the void you found a Crystal and now you are in the city of Aqures Ixen, surrounded by Moogles and people as lost and confused as you are. On the bright side, everyone thinks you're a hero! On the downside, they expect you to save the world. Maybe their expectations are a bit too much. Thankfully, you're not abandoned to your fate as a Moogle explains to you everything you need to know. Maybe it's time to get to know your companions in misfortune. 2/ Do you like your new life? No? Well, either way, you better get used to it, to your new powers, to your new house, to the ball of fur that follows your every steps—Who knows, maybe you'll even make some friends here. Besides, even if everyone expects you to save the world, fighting isn't the only way to do so. Maybe you could open a shop to help and properly equip your friends who are actually eager to fight. Maybe you could try and gather people who think diplomacy can stop war, you could even start your own researches on the Crystals— Or you could make sure your house is the prettiest in all of Aqures Ixen. Anything is possible. 3/ Ukulele de Chocobo Upon arrival, your Moogle gave you a map of Crystallis. This world may be a bit big for you to explore, so why not go to the Chocobo Farm and ask for a Chocobo? These big birds can't fly, but they're much more efficient than horses when it comes to travelling. Maybe it's your first time riding a Chocobo; it might be a good idea to have someone with you in case something goes wrong. Or maybe the old man at the farm didn't have any Chocobos left and gave you some Chocobo-Bait© so you can go and capture your own. 4/ A thing called Mognet Hopefully you weren't used to Internet and cellphones back home. Otherwise, you might be a tiny bit confused when your Moogle returns to you with a stack of letters. Or maybe someone else's Moogle is coming to you with a voice message it learnt by heart and is now going to recite to you with a lot of Kupo. That's how the "network" works here. 5/ I believe I can fly~ You are on an Airship! Airships regularly depart from Aqures Ixen and stop by most major cities in the world, so they're the perfect means of transportation for you to go and explore this world. You can go anywhere in a matter of hours — One can only hope you don’t have motion sickness. 6/ Exploration Enough expository banter. Now is the time to explore. Maybe rather than spending most of your time in Aqures Ixen, you'd rather spend it living in Balicea, or betting on Chocobo Races in Trano Golsaucia. Or maybe you'd rather go and explore some ancient ruins that may hold some precious information. With Airships and Chocobos at your disposal, you can go nearly anywhere that isn't under imperial control; unless you have a death wish of course. 7/ Random Encounter You were minding your own business walking around, and suddenly monsters attacked you! Time to put to use the skills you've learned with your Jobs! Alternatively, maybe this encounter isn't random at all, and you have been sent on a mission to kick some imperial asses in the war confronting the Heran Empire and the Republic of Esdham. Good luck! 8/ Getting Jobs is hard It all started when you asked Jessie to give you a new Job. What could and should have been a formality, quickly turned into a trial. All you wanted was a Job, and here you are in the wild, hunting for a Malboro Vine. Or maybe you are in some ancient and decrepit ruins looking for an artifact. Or yet again, maybe she simply asked you to assist her in her researches on the Crystals. Getting new Jobs is not easy. Consider yourself happy though, at least you don't have to do that alone. 9/ The world is subject to unrelenting pain and suffering… This is why you should play a game. After all, there are things a lot more important than saving the world: Blitzball is one of them. Triple Triad is another. Why don't you take a break and do something different for once; anyone wanting to play Blitzball is given a special potion allowing them to breath underwater, whereas someone who wants to play Triple Triad should have no difficulties finding veterans more than happy to get rid of their low level cards. 10/ Wild Card Don't like the options offered here? Go crazy and choose what you want to do in this world!

Logs Community ♦ Mognet Community ♦ OOC Community ♦ Crack Community

Game	Players	World	Other
Premise	Applications	Jobs / Requests	Hospital
Rules	Reservations	Legends	Employment
FAQ	Taken Characters	NPCs / Contact	Races
Locations	Hiatus/Drop	Housing	Mod Contact
Mognet	Player Contact	Bestiary	Credits
Aqures Ixen	Player Plots	Eidolons

Comments

[girlsgottaask]

Nibelheim...

Her eyes narrowed and she let his voice roll through her, listened and tried to catch after sparks that could have been broken memories. He said Nibelheim and there was a taste in the back of her mouth, something like ice, cold and burning at the same time but it wasn't until he said 'mako' that anything shivered through her and it was - anger. Or hate. Something dark that didn't make sense. Something tied up and rolled together, confusing and - guilt. She felt guilt. The fingers of her free hand curved inward. Mako... but she didn't even know what that was, couldn't picture it in her mind, couldn't begin to put a form on it to know why the thought of it did that to her.

It was something. It wasn't much but it was more than she'd had before. Some kind of emotional response to a past she couldn't remember and she wasn't sure she was happy that her first reaction was such a dark, confused one. She'd always just assumed whoever she was now was who she'd always been but, if all her memories were that strong and bitter - she latched on to the next thing anyway, like a metal spike beaten into an endless wall, determined to pull herself further out, further along now that there was something there, even if she wasn't sure what it was.

"Why didn't we talk much? Weren't we friends?"

[liveandforgive]

He knew that memories of Nibelheim would sting if they ever came back to her so abruptly. He could see it in the way that she reacted to them already. But if anything, moving on to the next question instead of dwelling could only do them good now. Cloud didn't have any troubles answering her about how close they were. While they were considered childhood friends (others would say so too...)

"I kept my distance because I thought I was better than the other kids you hung out with, to be honest..." It was kind of hard to explain to someone who knew nothing about what he was talking about, even after the two of them had pieced his memories back together properly. What was he supposed to say? How much could he tell her? At this point nothing was really sacred and he knew that she would have been upset with him if he stopped now. Dropping his gaze from her only briefly as he found the right words, Cloud continued. "When your Mom died, you thought you could meet her again in Mt. Nibel. I followed you when the bridge broke and we fell...but I got blamed for the idea. Your Dad didn't really take well to me after that." His tone wasn't somber, though failing to protect her that one time and nearly losing her in the process had helped to spark his inspiration to join SOLDIER. If he was a hero, maybe he could impress her and save her just in time.

"We were friends, we just weren't as close as some people would think at first."

[girlsgottaask]

If she had known, she could have told him he had saved her just in time... though if she had really known she could have also told him it was never the saving her that impressed her about him. Maybe one day, she'd still be able to, but, in that moment, there were still too many silent spaces inside her, too much she didn't remember, didn't know - but he'd given her a key, was helping her turn a lock, and it was a good start. All ready she felt stronger, more capable of facing whatever was ahead. So she listened intently as he continued, felt the tug of lost loneliness that might have been the echo of a childhood loss but it had no strength, no memory spark behind it to compel her.

"I'm sorry," Sorry he'd been blamed for something that was her fault, sorry, for a reason she couldn't remember that she must have never said anything to fix that as a child. She didn't know if that meant much, now, without her memories to back that but - whether he'd kept his distance or not, he'd apparently followed her somewhere dangerous and taken the blame for it afterward. Her hand gave his a little squeeze, hoping she'd made it up to him, somehow, in whatever memories he had that she didn't share any more. Hoped it wasn't the first time she'd apologized for failing him as a child. "When did we become friends?"

Memories lost, she'd only had one thing to cling to in the world she'd known before this one, one thing that she'd found to draw strength from and that had made her whole and the fight worthwhile. It hadn't been some nebulous balance of Chaos verses Cosmos. It had been her teammates. Her friends. Instinctively she reached for the same thing here, the only anchor she knew of to give her purpose.

[liveandforgive]

"It's nothing," he retorted as she apologized. Though if anything it was a reflex response simply due to not wanting an apology. It was to try and jog her memory at best, but acknowledging it before dismissing it was fair enough as is. If anything, despite all their hardships, that accident had helped to motivate him and mold him into the man that she may have remembered fighting alongside one day. When she asked about when they became friends, it was difficult to pinpoint but he knew that a real turning about of their bond together was one of his most precious memories. If she were to remember it, it was one of hers as well. So on that note, as his mako-infused gaze found her ruby-flecked pair, Cloud could picture it perfectly in his mind.

The stars were out and...to be honest? They looked almost the same as they were on that night he made that promise to her.

"When we got closer...was probably that one night I called you out to the well in the middle of town. I didn't know if you were going to come or not, but...you did. That was the night I told you that I was going to leave and join SOLDIER- so that I could get stronger, like Sephiroth." After his last encounter with his nemesis, the name wasn't even spoken with any sense of spite in it anymore. If anything, the name brought about sadness and pity, emotions that followed his hatred of the man that he had finally put away within his memories; hopefully forever. Suddenly Cloud smiled as he remembered this next part, but he wasn't certain how much of it would mean anything to her either.

"Don't know if you'll remember this...but you made me keep a promise to you that night as well. If you were ever in trouble, that I would come and save you when I joined SOLDIER."

It sounded so childlike in hindsight, but that was the beauty of that promise in the end. Children were pure and honest.

"Like a knight in shining armor."

[girlsgottaask]

The name jarred her, would have usually been enough to jar her right out of any chance at memories under normal circumstances. She knew Sephiroth. He'd been the one that Cloud had saved her from, in the shattered worlds that had come before this one. That was a very clear memory. Except -

Except something about Cloud's voice, the way he met her eyes and the look in that blue - it was enough to keep her attention, to keep her listening completely to what he was saying. A night... a well under the stars... For the first time, it was more than a tug, a hollow echo in an empty chamber inside her. A night under the stars... did you imagine the sky? no. You remembered it She shut her eyes because - she could almost see it, almost feel something rough under her legs, night air on her face, almost -

She felt his smile, missed seeing something that precious but she heard it in his voice all the same and her own lips curved in automatic answer but what he said - mentally she strained after it, like a song heard from a passing vehicle, a melody down an alleyway, something important and precious and played over and over inside her until it was a familiar groove down through the very core of her.

promise me! in a bind - comebacktome, don'tforgetme, rememberme. Save me.

"...like a hero, charging in to save the girl..."

Her eyes opened, startled, surprised. She'd never remembered anything. He'd said his name and it had been as close as she'd come before, whispers somewhere in the back of her mind - but. Stars. She remembered stars. And a longing so bad it had burned her. And - hope. Belief. Trust. There was nothing sharp about the memory, it wavered like a reflection in the water but - she recognized it. Knew it was hers.

"My hero will come and rescue me..." it came out of her in surprise. She'd forgotten. How had she forgotten that? A little wondering, she looked up at him, a tiny piece of herself back in place, like a fixed star. "You were my hero. All along, it was you, wasn't it?"

[liveandforgive]

"Well...we're getting somewhere." It wasn't so often that Cloud smiled, but the one that spread across his cheeks was a more genuine one by comparison to before when she quoted herself. The day that he found Tifa at the reactor was both one of the most fulfilling days of his life and one of the most terrifying thanks to everything that they lost together. But he'd made it after all. He came to save her just in time.

"Yeah. Don't ask me how I pulled it off," he lightheartedly joked.

[girlsgottaask]

She would have smiled anyway, beamed in fact, still somewhere between utterly surprised by the dim memory and utterly ecstatic that it was actually hers, lost for so long and now found again. Cloud's smile though had her own going somehow softer and warmer to match the simplicity of the pure joy she felt. She didn't remember ever having seen him smile before but there was something inside that told her how rare and precious his smiles were. There was no way she wouldn't have smiled back in response to that even without the prompting of her own happiness bubbling up inside her.

"Hm." She agreed it with a nod, feeling lighter inside than she had in a long time. It was only one memory in a sea of darkness but - it was hers. She could follow it now. It made her want to dance. It made her want to hug herself and sit absolutely quiet to savor it. It made her want to share her happiness. "We're getting somewhere." She didn't even try to hold it back when she smiled up at him, quiet whisper of something almost laughing in her throat at his joke, lighthearted teasing back of her own but it didn't mean she didn't believe it as she agreed. "Looks like you're still saving me. Let's just keep doing that and I won't ask how, okay?"

[liveandforgive]

As she smiled, seemingly ecstatic over the nostalgia that gave a more jolly spring to her step, the blond had to wonder if this was similar to how he felt. Piece by piece she had once helped him find himself again, throwing away the facade that molded him into a First Class SOLDIER and returning to the young man that she was proud to call 'messed up'. He confessed he wasn't the most emotional of people when it came to expressing himself, but that made those rare moments that his eyes would light up with happiness or the slight curl of his lips into a smile all the more worthwhile. It typically meant that he couldn't lie...easily at least. When he was happy, he would show it. Right now, he was glad he could possibly return the favor in such a big way over the next couple of years.

"Right."

But he knew that it wasn't over yet, a notion that almost seemed to go hand in hand with the faint nausea in the back of his mind that hadn't quite left yet. If he stayed out here for too long, even with Tifa providing a good distraction, it would catch up to him soon enough. Resting a hand on the brawler's shoulder as a sudden breeze nipped at the two, his cape blowing to the side as Molg finally perched down on his shoulder, the acerbic swordsman offered a change of scenery. "Wanna head back inside?" He didn't wanna say it so bluntly, but he didn't feel like getting sick in front of Tifa after all this time. Whether it was to her room or to his room, it didn't matter so much.

"We'll catch up some more or take it slow for now. Up to you."

[girlsgottaask]

For someone that had been surrounded closely by teammates that she considered friends for her entire short memory, it had been harder than she'd wanted to admit on Tifa winding up in a new world without anyone. She hadn't let it stop her and she'd known she'd make new friends, find new teammates but... it had been lonely, being on her own here. She would have been glad to see Cloud for a lot of reasons that ran the range from simply being a familiar piece of a brutal world she recognized to the deeper, quiet feeling of belonging that seemed to come over her whenever she was near him to the simplicity of the fact that she really had liked him, right from the first moment she'd met him, apparently again, on that rock surrounded by green and threatened by an enemy. And, chances were, she would have tagged along after him whether he'd welcomed her or not in this place, at least unless he'd made it very clear he didn't want her. This was better though, this feeling of being able to meet whatever came ahead next to someone she trusted, someone she wanted to stand next to. So she reached up and laid her hand over his where it rested on her shoulder for a moment. Even through their gloves it was a promise. Together. She didn't have to be alone anymore. Neither one of them did. She gave his hand a squeeze and then let go, turning toward the hatch that would lead below deck.

slowly... little by little... it'll come back...

"If you don't mind, maybe we can check on Red and Cid. That's my mog and chocobo. I left my pack with them and I've got some honey tea in it." The look over her shoulder was still bright, lighter than she'd felt in a long time, but there was a quiet comforting understanding in her eyes too for him. She hadn't forgotten the way he'd looked when she'd first come up. "We can talk about what we're doing here - and maybe some more about what we did before this world if you don't mind." He hadn't been wrong. There was a bounce to her step and it was that same happiness that had her catching his hand to head below and flashing him another smile. "Come on - "