Test Drive for September 2013 Apps

[highseasmods]

Welcome to our first Test Drive for high_seas! Here is where players can test out their characters' voices, try out new muses, and everyone can help each other get some threads for their applications! Feel free to use one of the prompts below, or come up with something on your own! Comment around, have fun, and remember that any CR formed here does not carry over to the game!

See you during the application round!

♦ So you're new to this world and have just woken up in the Town Square. How do you react? What do you do?

♦ You're lost at sea. Maybe you got separated from your crew. Or perhaps you're on an abandoned island. You need help!

♦ "Pirates off the starboard bow!" It's an enemy ship! Attack!!

♦ You and your crew are hanging out on your ship. Just another day at sea!

♦ "LAND, HO!" Hey look, a new island! How about you go explore it? Tell us what you find!

Comments

[hitorabu]

[They'll both need those several meals, most likely. Izaya's done his best to broadcast something of an SOS through his journal, but that's difficult to do when you have nothing to indicate your location besides a vague 'so many days in roughly that direction from X port'. Not to mention that there are several people already who won't care to rescue him.

Kneeling next to the lizard - on the opposite side of Akabayashi; he's definitely keeping an eye on the man - Izaya turns it on its back and makes a deep cut along its neck, then cuts down. He's not exactly an expert butcher, or even a decent cook, but he's used to cutting Shizuo. How hard can this be, really?]

But I was surprised to find Akabayashi-san here. Could it be you've cut your retirement tour short already?

[Still cutting up the lizard, Izaya wonders if they'll have to find a way to preserve it. Would sea water be salt enough to -...?

Ugh, he's bored thinking about it already.]

[littleoldme]

[He'd known the informant was good with a knife and with his mind, but watching him so calmly deal with this situation is interesting anyway. Akabayashi leans on his cane a little, a habit rather than a need, and watches the sharp knife slice through the thick skin of the creature he'd killed by blunt force alone.]

Could be.

[He gives a soft little laugh.]

Could be some old fool went out in a boat alone and sank it, too.

[hitorabu]

Is that what happened?

[Half genuine question; half doubt. It's a likely enough story, but that doesn't mean Izaya will take it at face value.]

It does tend to be safer to travel in groups. But of course Akabayashi-san has his own way of doing things.

[Perhaps there's a compliment in there somewhere, but it's mostly stating a fact for the sake of it. Izaya knows everything one could possibly know about Akabayashi, of course!

Meanwhile, he keeps cutting away, disgust showing briefly in his eyes as the lizard's body shifts slightly, and blood gets on one of Izaya's shoes. A theatrical sigh soon buries all traces of real emotion, however.]

[littleoldme]

[Akabayashi gives a little snort, though it's as much at himself as at Izaya. Some fine pair they are, both on some island talking over a dead lizard instead of meeting up in a park having a nice little business chat. This sure was a long way from Ikebukuro, wasn't it?]

Something like that. Can't say it went too badly; no corpse around here except the one that's going to be our dinner.

[He shrugs his shoulders.]

Figure someone's got to come by eventually, there's so many people searching these waters. Or who knows, maybe I'll just build a nice little shack here, set up a restaurant. I wonder how many ways you can cook one of those critters.

[hitorabu]

Hmm... I'll leave the cooking experiments to you, then.

[Izaya has neither the skill nor the inclination. The more time he spends cutting up the lizard, the less hungry he becomes. It really is back to the caveman days... The lack of technology is bad enough; the lack of convenience stores is an outrage.]

This is just about done... Do you happen to have a lighter, or are we supposed to rub sticks together until we drop?

[He's not childishly whining. He's not childishly whining at all.

All right, he's totally childishly whining. And he really shouldn't show Akabayashi even this much weakness, but he's underfed and slightly dehydrated, not to mention just plain done with being stuck in this world. Even that boring little town he first woke up in seems interesting, compared to this island.]

[littleoldme]

[Akabayashi does not laugh, to his credit. Still, he can't help but think what those in Ikebukuro who seem to follow Izaya so blindly would think to see him like this. He's obviously not doing as well in the situation as Akabayashi himself, and while there's a petty bit of the man that would like to see him starve, it's only a bit.

He gives the young man a long look, as if making it clear he hasn't missed that tone, and then waves his hand back the way he came, before the lizard did such a bad job of sneaking up on him.]

There's some wood back that way, if you'd like to let me take over finishing that off and fetch it. Of course, I'd need to borrow your knife.

[He wouldn't. He has his own knife. He's just seeing if Izaya will leave it with him.]

Of course, old men like me have tricks up our sleeves for these things, don't you worry one bit, boy.

[hitorabu]

[If any of Izaya's followers were here, they wouldn't witness him in this situation at all - because they'd be taking care of all the grunt work for him. That's not to say Izaya doesn't work hard. On the contrary, you could say he works more than anybody else. But it's not this work that he does, or cares about doing. He was never a boyscout, thank you very much.

No, he wouldn't starve. He likes living a little too much for that. But this? This is not the life for him.]

I don't mind finishing here. [Izaya looks up at Akabayashi, and his look says everything - which is probably why he smiles it away and repeats the sentiment in words.] I'm rather attached to my knife. It has a sentimental value.

[If Akabayashi wants to kill him, there's a good chance he'll succeed, knife or no knife, but the switchblade is not only a valuable tool, it's a remnant of normality. Moreover, the technology, simple as it is, isn't largely available here. Izaya isn't giving up the one good thing he has left.

One thing they can agree on, anyway: Izaya is young.]

[littleoldme]

[Akabayashi laughs, because it's nothing he wasn't expecting. A shrug of the shoulders follows, then he simply gives a little tap of the cane against a rock and gestures with it.]

In that case, I'll get the fire started. Perhaps...

[He looks around a little, chooses a nice little spot for it, and then mutters, as if talking to himself.]

Here.

[Now that it's chosen, he disappears for a moment to find the wood, but he doesn't take long about it, as if he's retrieving it from a stack he's already got piled up instead of gathering. He's whistling the whole while, and he never quite goes out of sound range, even when he's out of sight.]

[hitorabu]

[How very considerate of Akabayashi to keep Izaya informed of his position that way. It's charming for about a minute, but then it starts to get on Izaya's nerves. Is Akabayashi mocking him? Is he planning to somehow screw Izaya over by deliberately distracting him with what is supposed to be a helpful sound?

Ah, Izaya really is too irritable. Allies are a good thing. Wouldn't he have felt that way if he'd found anyone else? Akabayashi may be unpleasantly smart, but they have no reason to work against each other in this world. Perhaps Izaya should have eaten something before, after all - and found something to drink, too. He really shouldn't lose his temper; he's not Shizu-chan. The heat is no excuse.]

I never knew that Akabayashi-san was so musically gifted.

[He shouts it out casually when he thinks the man is close enough to hear.]

[littleoldme]

[Akabayashi laughs, then pops back into view, holding an armful of sticks. His cane is held in the crook of an arm, and a waterskin hangs from it. A little shift of the load in his arms sends the cane and its burden down to the ground, and Akabayashi takes a few more steps, then drops the load of wood as well.

He stacks it carefully, then tosses a couple of sticks toward Izaya, without looking.]

Think you can strip the bark off those for me, Mr. Knife Expert?

[He doesn't look up to see if Izaya is following his command as he finishes arranging the rest.]