TEST DRIVE MEME 002

[rubimods]

⚰︎ ⍢ ⌲ ⍚ TEST DRIVE MEME:

Welcome to RUBILYKSKOYE — a dark, horror-smut game where player choices will drive a mod-run storyline about the world and its NPCs. This test drive meme provides a medley of prompts evoking the game's general tone.

THESE THREADS CAN BE GAME CANON if both players are accepted into the game and agree to it. However, if players who'd prefer to start fresh are welcome to reuse these prompts in their own personal logs upon acceptance into the communities. Note: the universal test drive arrival prompt will not be repeated on the coming event log, but players are welcome to reuse the prompt.

CONTENT WARNINGS for this game include: monsters, body horror, dub-con, non-con, religion, blood/violence, and marking/branding, loss of autonomy/self, and mental influences. This log additionally has warnings for: nudity, spiders, character death, and references to children in proximity to sexual situations.

If you have QUESTIONS about the test drive prompts, please ask HERE. Questions about the game itself or the general setting should be directed to the FAQ.

FAQ ✧ SETTING ✧ CALENDAR ✧ RESERVES ✧ APPLICATIONS

IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE

The chirping of partridges in the treetops rouses you. Light barely filters through the canopy, just enough to suggest daylight. By the time it reaches the forest floor, the light has taken on a sickly green. You lie amongst the frost-covered mosses and ferns, the frozen soil cold and just a little damp on your bare skin.

Wherever you were before this moment, whatever you were doing or wearing, when you awaken in this forest, you find yourself naked and helpless as the day you were born. As you sit up and get your bearings, aside from a brief wave of disoriented nausea, you seem to be no worse for wear than you last remember.

You seem to be alone. The gnarled oaks and moss suggest no sign of civilization or sentient life. Just flickers of movement from curious squirrels or brave lizards emerging from a temporary retreat from the wintry weather. With your feet under you, and you'll find the wood is filled with berry bushes and nut trees, though much of the fruit has been picked clean. The freshwater stream that runs north-south, populated by both poisonous toads and delicious crawdads, is running actively again as the weather warms back up from the recent snowstorm.

As you explore, you may run into others with stories just like yours. Some may have already formed clumsy nudist groups, others may still be processing their confusion, with no memory of how they got here. Now is a good time to overcome any hang-ups you have about modesty; it's going to be a long hike, and the weather isn't quite amenable to your lack of.

Turn your back to the darker, shadowy parts of the forest and eventually the glow of manmade lights and the curve of a dirt road may come into view. At the edge of the wood, you'll find a town surrounded by a fifty-foot wall of beige stone. The only entrance is an iron gate positioned on the southern edge. When you arrive, the gate is already open, welcoming people inside.

This quaint, historic town of five-thousand has cobbled street and signs lit by gas lamp. Wooden shutters protect otherwise open-air windows on the buildings, which are all under three stories with gabled roofs. A number of businesses hug the main street — a clockmaker, a cobbler, a grocer — while residential homes sprawl outwards towards the wall. At the far end of the main street, visible about a mile to the north now that the trees and the enormous wall is out of the way, sits a castle with three towers.

When you enter, the streets are full of people, but despite any efforts on your part to hide or make excuses, they don't seem offended by your nakedness. Even families with children don't gawk or look twice. Those determined to find proper clothing regardless will find that modern clothing stores aren't available — the closest this town has is a tailor's shop and a stand in the central marketplace selling scarves and blankets.

breaking and entering

If you intend to have your character break into someone's house or yard to steal some of their clean laundry, please review the info about game laws on the FAQ and give the mods a heads up HERE.

SETTING: CRIME

Fortunately, the people of the town are very generous! Anyone who ask the locals will be directed to the boarding house for both clothes and a place to stay. Accessible through an embellished iron garden gate and obscured by hanging plants, trees, and vines, beyond an overgrown yard in the residential sprawl of the town is a bright-red door, which opens to a spacious cottage of several stories. Parts of the house still bear the dust of disuse, gathered on various furnishings — bedding, sofas, curtains, wooden tables. However, it's already full of people! Anyone who's already appeared in the village just as you did today lives here. Once inside, you may notice patchwork repairs have been made, and some scorch marks still linger from a recent fire, and some furniture is still lying around in splinters.

Tonight, a few of the townspeople will help out with the new arrivals. They stock the kitchen and prepare a communal dinner of parsnips, pheasant, and squash. During dinner, they (and those outsiders who've already begun to settle) sit down at the enormous wooden dining room table and help orient the newcomers and answer their questions.

finding roommates

Don't spend too much time in the dining room going for seconds, though. You'll want to claim a bedroom quickly because each one only has two full-size beds, and there aren't enough spaces for everyone. The last people upstairs will need to double up to squeeze in. Roommates will not be mod-assigned; players should coordinate directly with one another to determine their living arrangements.

Get a good night's rest. By the light of day, locals will help get the new arrivals set up on the coal stove with breakfast. You may notice they're dressed in a way you would almost call normal — at least, in a manner befitting 19th century Eastern Europe. As you find your way around town to get your bearings, folks are eager to help you find a place to apply your skills so you can contribute to your new home.

writer's block?

If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try: naked hiking, acquiring clothing or other inventory items, asking questions at dinner/orientation, or staking your claim on a bedroom!

OFFERINGS FOR ULANTI

The festival starts in the middle of the night, when the sun and the children are safely tucked into bed. The streets come alive with dancing locals, their faces painted red and purple and black and yellow. They all wear revealing clothing that, to your sensibilities, may seem sexually suggestive. Some individuals openly expose their breasts and nipples, while some others may incidentally reveal when they turn around to tend to their errands that their dress is backless — entirely! market stands and kind neighbors will gladly provide clothing befitting the occasion to anyone who asks.

Notably, the locals' choice of clothes reveal a mark on their bodies. An astute person will notice that there are four varieties — and a very astute (thirsty) person might notice that their fellow woodsfolk also have one of these somewhere on their body.

FAQ: CURSE MARKS

In addition to dancing and the lighting of any number of candles, you may stumble upon fighting rings inspired by Terry Silver's basement club, where the locals brawl until they're bloody and unable to move. Elsewhere, amongst the performance of a number of erotic dancers, you might come upon a face you recognize — naked and collared and caged, tongue pressed to the bars to taste anyone who'll stop and give them a little attention.

Temporary night market food stands offer various forms of alcoholic beverages and sweet and savory street food in suggestive shapes — sausages, popsicles, flowering cupcakes. many of them represent hedonistic indulgences and displays of wealth that the town usually does not seem to possess. This bounty, they attribute to the Duchess' patronage — and much of it is dosed with herbs and additives that enhance the sexual appetites and aggression in any who consume them.

Another kind of temporary stand has been erected — while new arrivals may at first mistake these for some kind of bathroom, it becomes apparent upon entry that they are partitioned stalls with gloryholes drilled between them. Some stalls are closed with an anonymous stranger waiting inside for someone to push a part of themselves through the hole to be lavished with mystery touches; others are fully unoccupied, should your character wish to lock themselves in and wait on the small wooden stool for a partner to offer themselves.

Anyone native to Rubilykskoye will take the time to answer questions about the festival of Ulanti, which functions as a way to purge their bad energy ("zadza") and sate their inner beasts ("duchozweirz"). They encourage characters to join the festivities — which range from staged sexual performances to sadism and masochism designed to feed the desire for violence. all appetites are welcome here, and there are only two rules: (1) stay away from the unmarked, which refers to the locals' prepubescent children; (2) hold nothing back.

writer's block?

If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try entering the fighting rings, watching or joining a live sex performance, or eating some aphro food (deliberately or otherwise)!

the fathomless dark of pajak wood

At the outer edges of the forest, shadows grow long and the air grows thick. Though the sun never grows warm red-gold with sunset, the wood darkens. Birdsong is replaced by the click of mandibles and the skitter of many legs. Anyone who ventures out this way will soon find it difficult to see before them, even in the middle of the day — eventually, even the brightest magical light source or darkvision cannot stretch further than a few inches.

In the void, the air feels heavy, as if it were not air at all but some more solid mass. Almost like liquid-smoke, it presses down upon you. Slowing your movements. Characters who push too far into the void may stop being able to move at all, and find themselves given over to insanity if they collapse, unable to draw themselves out. This is just one of many dangers.

Monsters thrive this far out. Huge, blood-red spiders the size of hunting dogs drop from the treetops. In addition to their venomous bite, which contains a fast-acting paralytic, these creatures are clever: they attempt to use their webbing to entangle any trespassers, binding limbs together or to trees. If you're unfortunate to become fully cocooned, you don't have long before this forest will be the last thing you see.

In addition to the spiders, you may come across the sharp-toothed furred yetis that emerged during the snowstorm, still looking for a meal. Each one hunts alone, a fifteen-foot-tall shambling creature that drips black ooze and super-chills the air around it until your skin feels tight and icy. If it gets the drop on you, you're likely to be its dinner. It has emerged from a long summer hibernation to enjoy the colder weather, and it's starving.

FAQ: DEATH RULES

Those who seem lucky enough not to run afoul of the monsters here are in for a worse fate. The void can play tricks on your senses. As madness sets in and you lose all sense of direction, you may also lose control of your body — what is that steers your hands to turn against your friends? Why does it sound like your own voice whispering?

In the fog, you may also hear the voices of those familiar to you — people you know from the town, or people whom you know with almost perfect certainty aren't here. these figments may recreate unhappy memories or force trespassers to hallucinate their worst nightmares. Nothing is as it seems in the void, and when you swing at these figments, desperate to silence them, it might not be a figment at all, but a friend in the flesh trying to help you. By the time you see their true face, it could be too late to stop yourself.

writer's block?

If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try fighting a monster, hallucinating your worst nightmares, and/or attacking a friend or stranger!

HIDING INSIDE EACH OF US

Uh oh spaghetti-os.

The marks worn by all residents of Rubilykskoye aren't just cool body art, as it turns out. The town is full of rumors, whispered in shadows and over candles of a starving creature hiding in the dark corners of your chest. Feed your inner beast, they say, before it finds a way to feed itself.

FAQ: MONSTER CURSES & TIMELINES

Alas, its emergence is inevitable — sooner or later, the horrible things that happen here pile up and make someone repulsed by the idea of human contact. Someone holds themselves back, bites their tongue, or simply does not believe the stories. Today, for one reason or another, that creature is coming out. Someone hasn't been keeping it sated.

Symptoms escalate over weeks, from monstrous irritability to full-blown body horror transformation, where people physically shed their human forms and evolve into the monsters this place made them. Once a person becomes something more (or less) than human there's only one way to go back — sate the beast.

someone else transforms

The baker, Nile Yoren, is a likable, middle-aged woman who can fill any request — wheat, rye, even nut breads. She boasts that her sourdough starter belonged to her grandmother. Today, when you enter her shop — to help out or to get a muffin or a bag of rolls — something is off. Her smiling face isn't behind the counter.

Around the back wall, you hear the crackling of the oven. But when you call, she doesn't come out. You have to go back and look for her. What you find is not just the oven crackling, but nile herself — twisted into an incandescent monster of human flame, the flickers of dark orange light like a face howling in agony amidst the yellows and reds and whites. Before you can scramble away, the creature lunges at you. Defend yourself or flee, or her inner beast will be feeding itself on you.

(There are other monsters lurking in every townsperson — feel free to invent your own npc monsters and scenarios!)

you waited too long

At first, as you hide yourself from your darker impulses, a subtle itch develops under your skin. An irritability that makes you snap at the person who bumps into you on the stairs because all those fleeting emotions that you've been repressing bubble to the surface. Every dark thought you've had about being here, all the fears of never getting home, of being surrounded by ticking time bombs, the anxiety of wondering who you might hurt or what relationships you might betray by doing what you have to do. The anger. Oh, the anger.

Maybe you shut yourself in your room or run into the woods to hide away, but there's only so much you can do to deny the itch that grows into hunger like a spark catching and growing to wildfire. Someone comes to check on you. That knock on the door or crunch of leaves in the wood that fills you with dread at what you might do and hope that you will be sated.

As claws and fangs and scales and spines and fur grow and your body transforms with a sickening crunch of bones and peeling of skin, so do your appetites. If you won't sate them, you'll lose yourself to your beastly impulses sooner or later, mauling friends and taking your fill. Is it better or worse if only your claws get inside of them?

RULES: CONTENT WARNINGS

Comments

1

[guylining]

[ not cool, not cool, this is not cool. Nate has, in fairness, been in worse situations than this. It's cold and there's entirely too much nature everywhere, and he's irritable, but it could be worse.

It could also be a lot better, in that he could not be naked and muddy when he spills through the trees into the path of a beautiful girl. Who is also naked, but it looks a lot better on her.

He can smell ozone on the air, and also she's doing a swirly stormy thing with the water. He smiles directly at it, and then at her, and pushes his hair out of his eyes. ]

Uh, yep. Yeah, but I dunno if we should eat anything. I don't know where we are.

[ He has suspicions. Fear, maybe. He thinks it's best not to take chances. ]

You eat in some realms, it means you can't leave. Not that it would make an immediate difference, of course.

[erosive]

[ Perhaps she could kill the little tornado. Zoya's used to so many looking at any display of her power with a curled up and fear in their eyes, but he looks like he's peering at something wonderful like a dragon taking flight above his village.

She likes that look. It's a rare sight—and one she's seen in the eyes of a few of the villagers in Ravka at the display of such Grisha power.

Is it so wrong she doesn't clip the swirling water and let the freshwater stream be? She's certain Nikolai would have something to say about that. Looks like Zoya Nazyalensky has a flair for the spotlight, after all. ]

So you'd prefer to starve? [ She cocks her brow, tilting her head slightly.

Although, perhaps he's not wrong… When has Zoya ever been taken to an alternate world where there was food? When she'd been kidnapped into the Fold, there had been nothing to eat. No sense of hunger.

And she was hungry here. ]

[guylining]

[ Nate hadn't been hungry in hell, either. That was a feature of it, a feature of Thorn's realm. No hunger, no tiredness. Nothing. Time didn't pass properly. That was part of the torture, like he wasn't really living.

It's already different here. He's tired from walking. He isn't exactly hungry, but he could eat. It's not the same.

But he also doesn't know what it is, so he's not desperate enough to take chances. Not yet. ]

Be a minute before I'm starving. Drinking's a different story, though. How does the water feel to you?

[ He doesn't mean cold, or wet. He means, how does it feel to her magic. ]

Reckon it's safe to drink?

[erosive]

[ Zoya's not a Tidemaker by any means. Her specialty is air, in the water formed by a storm. But since expanding her abilities, she has a better sense of the world around her.

Even if the water wasn't safe, her holding her palm over the water and giving it a little zap of lightning has to be enough to destroy anything unsafe in the water. ]

It's safe.

[ As far as she can tell. Maybe this realm's water will turn them into fish. ]

You won't get very far if you're dehydrated. There's a town somewhere. There always is.

[guylining]

Yeah, that's the hope. Towns, people. Clothes, even.

[ Even in hell, there'd been cities, or the approximation of them at least. Places where trapped souls would wander confused, thinking they were home, not realising what was happening to them. She's right. There's more than likely something to find.

In the meantime he gets up to come over to the stream, and starts lifting handfuls to drink. Some of it goes over his head, too. It doesn't do a lot for how gross he feels, but it's better. ]

Thanks. I'm Nate. [ Finally, now, he gestures at what she's doing. ] Is it magic, or something else?

[ It looks like magic. Odds seem high, although she could also be some sort of elemental faerie, or an alien, or something. ]

[erosive]

Zoya.

[ Giving him her name gives her the time she needs to think about her answer. 'Magic' isn't the word that they've used to describe their power. It's always been associated with something unwanted.

But that's what it is, isn't it? She's a witch. The Stormwitch. Best to embrace it than run from it. And Zoya doesn't particularly wish to explain Grisha theory, naked and dirty and out of her depth. Sometimes it's just easier to let some people lead. ]

Yes. It's magic.

[ She lets the water drop, the stream returning to itself again. She inhales deeply before releasing it. Zoya regards him with a softly cocked brow. ]

It doesn't disturb you?

[ She's used to it making so many who aren't Grisha uncomfortable. ]

[guylining]

[ Zoya. Unusual name, but it's pretty. She seems to hesitate before she answers, and he wonders if she's reluctant. She's using her power in front of him, but maybe that's just easier than talking about it. Nate's used to witches who value their secrecy.

Generally only from regular humans, though. So he shrugs. ]

Why would it? Takes one to know one.

[ He holds his hand out and pulls a ball of water towards his hand. He closes his fingers and it freezes into an orb that refracts the light inside into rainbows. It's the kind of showboating trick he used to do on stage. It's been a long time. It comes back easier than he would have thought.

With a smile, he lets the orb melt again, and catches the water to pull it through his hair. ]

Oh, that's so much better. Although, chilling it was stupid, it didn't need that. I'm mostly glad I'm not the only one.

Have you met anyone else?

[erosive]

No.

[ Her answer comes absently as she stares at him with some wonderment. He'd effortlessly created the ball and chilled it. That level of control is different to what she's used to seeing from Etherealki. It's not impossible, but not common. She wonders if she'll be able to do it once she gets a handle on manipulating water in the same way a Tidemaker does.

He's the first person she's found here. Perhaps whatever omniscient presence here is ensuring that like calls to like. ]

Although, that was very stupid.

[ Zoya comes back to herself, cocking her brow slightly. There's no bite to her words; she curves the corners of her lips upward. What else did he expect from chilled water? ]

Is that all you can do? Water and ice?

[guylining]

[ Nate looks up, a little surprised by the question. ]

Oh, no. I'm more of your all-purpose witch.

[ It would be rare to find someone who could only work with one element, at least in the circles Nate's used to. Generally speaking, if you can work with one, you can work with the others.

But that's in his world. Maybe magic works differently for her, though. That only occurs to him after he's spoken, and he hesitates a bit. ]

You too, though, yeah? Because I saw you shock the fish.

[ Which is not, strictly speaking, a water power. ]

[erosive]

[ "All-purpose witch." Is that what she is now? Aren't we not all things?

After a noticeable pause: ]

Yes.

[ Zoya doesn't appear completely confident in her answer. After spending so much of her life believing herself to be just one thing, it's taken some time for her to accept that she is an "all-purpose witch". She's not just a Squaller anymore. Air will always be her companion, the element she's most comfortable with, but the world is open to her fingertips now.

She clears her throat, flicking her hair over her shoulder in an attempt to regain some semblance of herself from her brief uncertainty. ]

I am. [ That makes her curious, though. She furrows her brows as she regards him. ] Can you do fire, too?

[guylining]

[ Okay.

So she's a bit quiet, a bit hesitant. Nate hadn't picked that up at first, but he does now. He wonders at it. She'd seemed so confident with the stream, with the fish. Now she looks like she needs to collect herself, which means she was uncollected.

Interesting.

Of course it could just be because they're naked in the woods together and they're basically strangers. But Nate doesn't think it's that. He also doesn't think it's the mutual nudity that's throwing her off. ]

Uh, yeah. 'Course.

[ He holds up his hand, and a little purple flame lights at the top of his index finger. His hands turn and he raises both, making the flames expand and turn orange, and roll into a fireball between his palms. Heat radiates from it, which helps to make up for the cold shower he'd given himself. ]

I'm not that keen on drawing attention. There's animals in this forest. Could be other people, too, who aren't as nice as you are.

Are you okay?

[ She doesn't know him, and might not tell him. But at the very least, he can ask. ]

[erosive]

[ She stares at the fire in his hands, not once looking away. Although she's watched Inferni summon flame with a flick of their own matches, seeing it effortlessly done is still so new. Now that she knows she can do it, she studies the subtle movements of his hand, the way he shifts or doesn't shift, the way his muscles move to support him.

She smiles, either at him calling her "nice" (so many would laugh) or him asking if she's okay. That's not a question she's often on the receiving end of. ]

I am.

[ Despite the uncertainty that lingers (she's still untangling years' worth of education from the mere weeks she's spent with Juris), Zoya feels… good. Like she's on the path she needs to be. There's direction now, one that won't see her fumble too much. ]

You'll need to teach me that, preferably with pants on. I burnt myself the last time, and I'm not fond of it happening again.

[ That Zoya Confidence™ always makes a comeback. ]

[guylining]

She watches his hands the same way he'd study a grimoire. He's had that look many times, but where he'd study with chaotic, intensive energy, she speaks with the confidence of someone used to success. Even while admitting a weakness.

He likes her.

Bold of you to assume there's pants in our future. I really hope so. Shoes would be great too.

[ He brings his hands together, snuffing the little fireball out with a puff of smoke. ]

Do you fancy sticking together for a while? Because there might be a town we can find, and I wouldn't hate company, and I can pay for conversation with fireballs. Plus if something tries to eat us we'll be two against one. Unless there's a pack in which case there's power in numbers, and I promise I'll talk less than this when we're moving.

[erosive]

[ While Zoya had intended to go at it alone (start alone, might as well continue alone), she sees the value in numbers. Having his company doesn't seem so bad—and Genya and Nikolai have taught her the values of being a team player.

Besides, if they stumble upon anyone else, his bedside manner is a little gentler to hers. ]

You can talk, but only if you have something interesting to say.

[ Despite how her words could appear cutting, she softens them with a smile. With a glance around, she tries to listen to the wind, to the movements of the woods itself with her dragon's eye. ]

There doesn't appear to be any noise that way.

[ She nods toward her right. The woods is quiet save for its natural sounds and the two of them. ]

[guylining]

[ Nate smiles. ]

That's a fair deal.

[ He'll go it alone if he has to, but he'd rather not. Witches are contacts he's always going to want. They'll understand where he's coming from better than most, and he won't have to reign in his chaos around them.

He starts to move where she'd pointed. ]

D'you think we should try and follow the river? Towns need water, so if we follow the flow...

I was trying to aim for high ground to see if I could see anything, but I think there's too much tree for that.

[erosive]

[ Glancing up at the canopy, Zoya considers… What? Trying to fly? The last time she tried to fly, she'd almost bungled her arm and gotten attacked by Nikolai. Her hold on air at that height isn't comparable to how she can hold it with her feet on the ground. Granted, she'd been in a rush then, running on pure adrenaline rather than considerate calmness like now. ]

It's a good idea to follow the river for now. When the trees thin out, we can see what we're dealing with.

[ She glances at him and considers briefly saying what she wants to say. ]

I can send you up to look. Unless you're afraid of heights?

[ She can hear Juris now. Why are you afraid to fly, Zoya? But she'd much prefer to take advantage of teamwork. It apparently makes dreams work. ]

[guylining]

[ Afraid of heights? No. Although the thought of being magically lifted above the treeline, while naked, is...

He nods, thoughtful. ]

Yeah, that'll be a sight everyone's dying to see. Okay.

[ He rubs his hands together and turns to her, psyching himself up for it. ]

Okay so like, I'm not normally the subject of spells where there's levitating...uh, okay. Do it, let's see what's out there.

[erosive]

[ She honestly hadn't been expecting that to be his answer.

Arching her brow slightly in surprise, Zoya doesn't try to conceal her expression. She'd anticipated this to be something they do later, perhaps when they discover they've followed the wrong direction of the river—or even the wrong river. But his considering doing so now would save them a lot of time. ]

I'll make sure you're covered.

[ No sensitive, necessary bits will be in danger.

Before she tells him how to stand for her to whisk him up on a gust of air, Zoya moves her hands, creating a thick strip of cloud to form before her. It's pure white, fluffy, and thin, like the length of a rope. She expands it until it's wide enough to cover the swells of his ass and then some, and easily wraps it around his waist. It should feel soft, a little electric, slightly warm like it's been sitting beneath the sun. Thick enough that she can no longer see his hipbones. ]

Comfortable? We don't need you worrying about your vanity while you're up there.

[ Her comment hopefully adds some lightness to the situation. ]

[guylining]

[ oh shit, cloud clothes. That actually feels nice, if a little like he belongs in some retelling of Hercules. ]

Please, I'm so sexy right now. Everyone'll love it.

[ he isn't exactly sure how to stand in a way that's best for this. He sort of imagines that arms out is better, like he's pretending to have wings, so. That's what he does.

Then, just before they do this: ]

Okay okay. So just, try to keep me still, and don't...you know, heights are great, but falling from them would probably be...no, you got this, we got this.

[erosive]

[ Zoya rolls her eyes. ]

I've done this before.

[ Plenty of times. Some people have almost fallen, but she's caught them each and every time. Nikolai plummeting to the ground and her catching him in time comes to mind, but she doesn't think to share that with Nathaniel. It might spook him.

Rolling her shoulders back, Zoya drops onto a knee and holds out her hands, imagining he'd prefer to see some part of her move rather than blindly trust that she can summon air without moving her hands. She holds her palms out. ]

Come on.

[ There's air in front of her, right in front of her palms, like a step of an invisible ladder. It's thick and sturdy, invisible to the naked eye but present if he's to listen in and let himself feel it. ]

[guylining]

[ She's done this before.

Okay. Odds are he can save himself if he falls anyway, right? He can just have a softening spell aimed at the ground, or something. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good failsafe.

He takes a breath, then moves forward. He's tentative, but he puts his foot where she seems to be directing, and it feels solid. Ish. Solid in a way that isn't really, but it feels stable, at least. He steps on with both feet. ]

Okay, I think I'm good. Aim me towards the river, and then like a slow circle?

[erosive]

I got it.

[ She shakes her head but doesn't allow her concentration to break. Zoya's only started learning how to create air, not summon it. While it uses the basic concepts of summoning, becoming one with the world around her is still an overwhelming prospect.

She's initially slow, getting used to his weight on the air disc. But she lifts him up at a slow steady pace, keeping him above the river, watching his balance and keeping any slight shifts in the breeze soft. Up, up, up, toward the thin canopy, the sky's reach.

When he's high enough, she calls up: ]

Can I move you in a slow circle now?

[ The last thing she wants is for her only company to fall to his death from a surprise twist of the air beneath his feet. ]

[guylining]

[ He looks so, so shaky at first, because he's literally trying to balance on a disc of indeterminate size that he can't even see. But after a few seconds, he starts to relax, more obviously trusting Zoya's control, and he starts to look out.

He sees the way the river winds, the way the trees interact. He sees some movement, too. Is that more people, or is it animals? Could be either. Likely not good. ]

Yeah, [ he calls, glancing down towards her. Looking down turns out to be a mistake; it reminds him that he's not standing on anything solid, and so he briefly stumbles again. ]

Fuck! It's okay--

Yes, turn me. We're not alone, there's more people that way. [ He points. ] No town yet, though.

[erosive]

[ She's ready to catch him, to barricade him in a little contraption of air so that he stands in a little funnel. Perhaps that's what she should've done instead. Should've, would've, could've.

Zoya's slow to turn him, not quite sure of how his stomach will fare. She doesn't want to spin him so hard that he can't see. But she moves the disc, easily calling on the air to come and glide along his skin to ensure he turns with it rather than against it—and to hold him upright. It's almost like driving a skiff, although, this time, there's no threat of darkness and volcra. ]

Doesn't matter. [ She calls out. ] If there's movement, we should go to it.

[ Unless, you know, it's movement they shouldn't go toward. ]

[guylining]

[ Okay, this...feels more stable than it has a right to, he thinks. She did say she knew what she was doing.

He keeps looking, and then holds his right hand up in front of his face. He murmurs something soft and Latinate under his breath. Then he just keeps looking, making note of places where there's movement, and then- ]

There!

[ With his other hand, he points out across the forest. ]

I think it's a castle! Or a tower, anyway. Bring me back down!