ateratooc | TD006

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test drive

TD006

Test Drive 006

WELCOME TO ATERAT

Here is our Fifth Test Drive Meme! There are a lot of areas of the city to explore, so please have a look around! In case you need a little help getting started, I've included a few prompts below, or feel free to start your own! Exploration and player initiative are the names of the game here!

Helpful Links to Get Started

Arrival & General Information | Setting & Bestiary | Locales & Businesses | Residences & Housing Info | Rules & FAQ (ask questions here!)

I. Crash Into Me

Not exactly, but close enough. You have just arrived and received a strange satchel from a tiny, strange little man and are left more or less to your own devices (more information on what to expect upon arrival can be found here)! Follow directions to the north and check out the housing, or maybe have a look around the Historium and try to get some information from that giant glowing ball, see what you can waste your meager starter coin on in the Market District, or maybe just meet the neighbors.

II. What Goes Bump in the Night

It looks like Aterat proper has a spirit problem. Maybe you're seeing specters, hearing disembodied voices, your windows rattle when there's no breeze outside. Maybe there are cold spots in your place of business (or your apartment, which is so much worse). Either way, you're 100% convinced you're haunted. Hopefully, someone else believes you, or maybe you're used to feeling crazy.

III. When the Carnival Came to Town?

Take a look at the prompts from our latest event and go to town (or the carnival).

IV. Try the Network

The Tell-Phone allows for text, video, and audio transmissions to everyone else who has one. Give it a whirl!

V. Wildcard

The above prompts are all options, and there's much more to the setting than what they provide. Do your best (or your worst)!

Navigation

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As the days pass, more and more things remind Lyanna of the world she's left behind. She's yet to figure out how she feels about them, however, for while there are things — people — she certainly misses, she's also come to enjoy her second chance at life and her newfound freedom, among others.

But today's reminder is a startling one: lavender eyes. They're bestowed only to a few in the world of her past, and one of them had been someone important to her. She'd been a fool, that much was true, but to say that her heart hadn't surrendered itself to him would be a lie. Why else is she humming his song, even after all this time?

"Can I..." She clears her throat, then calls out once more in a louder, firmer — but not unkind — tone at the childlike stranger in her midst. "Can I help you?"

It wasn't often Drizzt was caught, spying or otherwise. He'd made a habit as a young man once he'd left the lightless world of his birth to observe rather than approach others. Many feared him on appearance alone, and rightly so. His people were evil, thoroughly and unapologetically, and he was certainly an exception. One could take only so much repulsion before learning better of approaching first.

This place had proven a strange bastion in that respect, where people saw him, smiled, and spoke as though things were normal and well. Still, old habits died hard and his first inclination was the avert his eyes when he was noticed. He forced himself to look up, though, to meet her gaze with his own.

"My apologies. Your song sounds like a lament, but it's beautiful."

The expression that appeared on Lyanna's face then hinted that she hadn't even been aware which song she'd been humming. She'd been spending way too much time in her head, it seemed, not that she would readily admit it. She'd chalk it up to this strange place and its strange mix of people and its strange... magic.

"I suppose it is." She'd cried the first time she heard it, after all, not that she would readily admit to that either. "The prince of our kingdom wrote it." Her voice quivered slightly at 'prince,' but she hoped Drizzt wouldn't notice. As cathartic as most ladies found it to speak of their hearts' ills and desires, she was far from prepared to acknowledge her sorrow and grief. Not quite yet.

"You are a connoisseur of music, ser?" She'd thought him a child initially, but he did not hold himself like one or speak like one.

He'd heard similar tunes, played at too many funerals of which fewer still knew of his attendance. He did notice the waver in her voice, but whatever ailment was attached to the word was her private woe. He would not intrude.

That wasn't to say he wouldn't offer what companionship he could to the young woman. He knew solitude was its own sort of torture and he would not wish that on anyone, not even one with whom he was at odds.

"Then he is a talented bard, but no. I have not heard enough music to call myself an expert." He smiled lightly at the joke made at his own expense. "But I do believe I know what I find beautiful, and it is." He inclined his head slightly in greeting. "I am Drizzt Do'Urden."

Hm. Do'Urden was not a House she was familiar with, though it sounded almost Eastern. "Lyanna, of House Stark." She'd briefly considered using an alias, a bastard's name perhaps, but the sight of trees everywhere had stopped her short. They weren't heart trees, but did it matter, in a place as strange as this? Besides, what would she gain from lying?

"I am no expert of music, either." That had been Rhaegar's domain, and she'd been content to be on the receiving end, appreciating the songs he played and wrote for her. The memory also tugged a small smile out of her face, which eventually turned into a grin as she declared, "But I do know a thing or two about horses."

"Well met, Lyanna of House Stark." When he spoke her title, it was with proper respect, unlike the utterance of his own lineage. There was a long and dark history there not meant for pleasant company, and he counted Lyanna among that number.

"Horses are a touch more useful than song, and I know something of them, myself, though I am no breeder." He inclined his head once more, as though this greeting was the truer. "I am a ranger in service of Gwaeron Windstrom, scion of the goddess Mielikki who is Lady of the Wilds."

Something about her words caught his attention, though, and he looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "Is House Stark known for its horses, then? You speak such a commonly mundane word with a hint of pride."

Lyanna doesn't curtsy, but she inclines her head respectfully at the introduction. A scion of a goddess? It sounds quite preposterous, yet this world has had plenty of surprises for her in the short time she's been around. Besides, if the North has the Old Gods and the South has the Seven, perhaps there's more than enough room for other deities? Who can really say? No matter, she's not going to deliberately provoke a god-child just because she doesn't believe.

There must really be something special about silver hair and lavender eyes though.

His comment about her House and horses, however, earns him a laugh. It's certainly not unkind, just amused. "No, my lord. My House's symbol is a direwolf. I take pride, however, that I am a far better rider than some of the men in the Realm." And most women, really, especially the southrons who are raised to be courtly and ladylike.

Drizzt raised his hand at the address. "Please, I am no lord, only a humble ranger far from home, and you, a skilled rider with a pleasing voice, just as lost." He'd not heard of a direwolf before, at least not being used in heraldry, but he would never consider himself an expert in the politics of human kingdoms, either. He took pains to be separate from politics in general, really, having had his fill of it in his homeland. Intrigue was the nectar of Drow society.

"Have you been a resident of Aterat long?"

Not a lord. Lyanna looks visibly relieved, strangely enough. "Then I shall call you Drizzt, if you call me Lyanna." Because technically it's Lady Lyanna, to some others even Queen, but she'd rather leave all that behind given the trouble she's already caused back in her world. She doesn't want another war, and certainly not one that's waged on her behalf. Not ever again. "For we are both far from home, and lost."

The horse grunts, seemingly in objection, but she only shakes her head and smiles. "It has not been long since I arrived here. I know my way around now, but there is much I do not understand." Her eyes light up as she's struck by a thought. "Do you have a raven with you, too? It's very strange, for it does not seem to be alive, yet it allows for correspondence." She fishes out her Tell-Phone from a pouch hanging from her belt, and she makes a face at him as if to say that it doesn't look like a bird at all.

He inclined his head in greeting. "Well met, Lyanna." He preferred not to stand on ceremony regardless. Only tyrants demanded subservience without earning the right. Though this Lyanna stood with noble bearing, it was good to learn she did not fall into this category. "Far from home, perhaps, but not lost. It is...an opportunity."

"A raven?" He'd never seen or heard them called such. "A sending mirror?" He nodded, pulling his from a pouch at his belt. "I do, yes."

Opportunity? Well, that was one way to put it. She was still getting used to her newfound freedom, but that and her apparent second chance at life were things she could definitely count as opportunities. There, too, was the prospect of adventure. She hadn't looked too much into it yet, but she had been thinking about procuring a horse and taking on a job that would let her travel and see the world.

"You are in no rush to return home, then?" For he did not count himself as lost. Though her questioning halted for a moment as they turned to discuss their devices. "Well, in Westeros ravens are our means to exchange correspondence, though a sending mirror seems to be a more appropriate name for this..." As if to prove her point, she lifted her Tell-Phone then and looked at her reflection. It was a mirror, that much was true. And she could send messages with it, though she hadn't entirely figured it out. "This is enchanted, is it not?" How else could it send messages?

"I have learned in my time here you will return to the moment of your departure if you leave this place. I trust the man who told me this, and so I see no rush. Granted, the elves see time differently than humans. We age far slower. A year is fleeting." Though he'd seen how quickly men could change in such a time.

"Sending mirrors are uncommon magical instruments in my world, and pigeons are more wildly used, at least on the surface, so I could see a raven being used as such. They are very intelligent birds." He shook his head, though not in denial. "I detect a bit of magic upon them, but it's like none I've ever known."

Lyanna bit the inside of her cheek at that piece of information. Returning to the moment of their departure for her would mean returning to the Tower, to her deathbed. One of her hands unconsciously came to rest on her stomach, and she swallowed uneasily. "If that is the truth, then I would be in no hurry either." She gave Drizzt a tight-lipped smile, hoping he didn't ask any more questions.

Right, sending mirrors. That, along with magic, was a better topic, now more than ever. "I would not be surprised if these were magical. This place seems to be full of magic." As a Northerner she'd been exposed to the craziest tales, and her husband came from a family who once commanded dragons. Between that and finding herself alive and miraculously healed... magical mirrors were so easy to believe in. "It's quite exciting, actually."

He noted her motion, how she placed her hand over her stomach as her thoughts moved over things he couldn’t fathom, but whether the motion was out of pain or protection he couldn’t say. He could only see his words evoked a memory and that was enough to tell him it was powerful. He could see the wish for propriety in her expression also, and he was not foolish enough to ignore it. Instead, he moved on, as was her wish.

“Magic can be exciting, but it is also the most destructive force in existence.” If abused or turned to evil purpose. “I prefer a blade in my hand rather than a word on my lips.”

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TD006

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