test drive meme #14

[hadrielmods]

Welcome to Hadriel's test drive, and thank you again for your interest in the game! As always, our reserves page is here, and our applications page is here! Reserves open November 24th, and apps are open December 1st. Please remember that starting in December, there is an app cap of 20 apps.

Two quick points here as well:

1. Any thread made in Hadriel's test drive will be accepted as the sole Action Log sample in the application.
2. All threads made in the test drive can be considered game canon, either through handwaving or through a shared mental experience while coming through the Door!

Test drives will be broken up into specific god mini-events, during which your characters can see how well they fare under the watchful eye of one of the gods. Choose wisely or just simply pick 'em all, and have fun!

F E A R

SCENARIO ONE: HOW SAUCY
[The Door brings in all that is chaotic and evil in the world. This may include you, may include the person next to you... and may include the monster behind you.

Watch out as you explore the streets of Hadriel, because you're not alone, and there's always something lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect chance to destroy you for your vegetarian ways. This time, the Door has brought in a large group of Killer Tomatoes, from the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes movie.

While it is not immediately clear how these odd creatures can kill you, rest assured that you should be quaking in your boots. They can bite with their weird little tomato mouths, they can roll after you surprisingly fast, and they can even explode! Truly terrifying. But if you manage to defeat some of these agents of terror and chaos, you could make some mean salsa.]

D R A G O N A G E

SCENARIO TWO: VACATION IN THEDAS
[While you're exploring the city, perhaps you'll run into another creature that's slipped through a rift and is exploring along with you - or perhaps hunting would be a better term. Yes, Hadriel is teeming with demons straight from Thedas.

Perhaps you'll run into a desire demon, who will offer you your deepest wish - in exchange for your body and soul, of course. Perhaps you'll find a pride demon, who will play upon your strengths and weaknesses until you give in to them. Or maybe it'll be a despair demon, there to crush all your hopes and dreams.

Or maybe, if you're very lucky, you'll just find a nug.

This is a mini version of our Fadeout event this month!]

C O N F U S I O N

SCENARIO THREE: SWEDISH MANUFACTURING
[You're in luck! You know that thing you've always wanted? Doesn't matter what it is - a cool weapon, a nice dress, a well-made bedstand, a rare magical invention. Whatever it is, you just managed to find it! Whoa!

Or, well, you managed to find a box with a picture of the item on it. When you open the box, you find all the necessary components for making that item, along with illustrated instructions for putting it together. There's no written instructions, just pictures, but you're smart, you can figure it out! And it'll look just like the photo on the box. You're sure of it.

Better get building! Okay, the instructions don't entirely make sense - did you screw that part in upside down? Wait, are these pages out of order? Maybe you can ask that person nearby for help, or maybe you'll just sink into the depths of confusion and despair. But keep trying! Just think of what you'll get if you succeed!]

Comments

kelly maxwell | ash vs evil dead

[puppetfight]

(one)

[Kelly has seen some weird shit— like, she almost got her ass beat by a puppet a couple days ago, a tiny lecherous man made of demonic energy and felt. At this point she’s a little disappointed in herself to find out that she’s still capable of being weirded out by anything. Being weirded out doesn’t mean she’s ineffective, though. It just means that she’s too baffled to come up with a really cool line while she brings the beatdown.]

Prepare tomato your maker, motherfucker!

[Wow. Wow, that was… it was awful. Which she realizes, wincing as she squashes the life out of the last little monster and starts picking bits of tomato off her boot.]


(three)

[IKEA does flamethrowers now. Nice. Not nice: much like her experiences building a desk (and a chair, and a bookcase) in her first apartment, this isn’t going too hot. Kelly looks like she’s about two seconds from using the ignition fluid included in the box to set fire to the whole goddamn setup.]

Screw this— why don’t I just beat monsters to death with the wrench, huh? [The tiny, useless wrench.]

Izabel | Saga

[sunsetsitter]

[What's more frustrating than dealing with nonsensical pictograms meant to make a rocket ship you've always wanted?

Dealing with nonsensical pictograms meant to make a rocket ship you've always wanted and not being able to turn the page. Or put it together. Or even open the dang box.

Izabel knows putting it together is a moot point, what with the cave ceiling looming above her and all, and hey, she's been all over the galaxy! But hot damn, does she want this rocket. She needs this rocket. Imperiously, she points her ghostly pink finger at the box and commands,] Open!

[Nothing happens.]

Oh, come on. Please?

[Nope.]

This bites. You know that, right?

[The box totally knows.]

Give in to your new pink overlords!

[Someone help her. Or maybe the box.]

[fracturedbeauty]

[Yukari can be heard humming as he wanders down the paths. Curiously amused, he hears someone give the command to open. Then pleading, then frustration. He can't resist as he calmly walks over to the source, checking in on the circumstances.

He admits, "Pink Overlords," is definitely new, and amusing.]

My, my, well what have we here?

[He calmly, cooly walks up to the girl, as if taking a sweet, Sunday afternoon stroll.]

I'm fairly certain that is not the way to open a box, Pink-chan.

[A hint of a delighted smirk in his tone.]

[sunsetsitter]

[Playing it cool, huh? Izabel can dig it. She abandons her box to instead raise an eyebrow at this dude, mentally readjusting to the use of honorifics. Been a bit since she heard those...]

Yeah, well. It's about all I've got right now, what with the whole being a ghost and all -- [She gestures down to where her legs should be, but where her intestines dangle freely instead. Totally forgot to mention that very important detail in that starter, what the heck is wrong with me...] Why not give it a shot, am I right? Didn't hurt to try.

Well, except my pride. That's totally wounded now that some gentleman or whatever has seen me chatting up a box.

[fracturedbeauty]

[Luckily, he's already seen some strange, inexplicable things, such as the Green King. Seeing death and dismemberment won't really faze Yukari. You're good, friend.

Yukari tsks under a chuckle.]

So is it you can't touch matter?

[He kneels down to look closer at the box, seeing the pictograms.]

What will you do with a rocket, if you can't touch it properly?

[Not that it's any of his business, and he won't really care if she chooses not to answer. But, being a little curious is interesting.]

[sunsetsitter]

[She props her chin up on her palms while she watches him in a convincing mime of having a desk to sulk on.]

Such is life. Afterlife.

[Since she was missing her awesome ladybug ring from the last interdimensional city she'd been stuck in... Back to floating through things full-time.]

Look at how pretty it is and dream, probably. Or hitch a ride with some other poor bastards trapped down here if they're stupid enough to try and crash through the ceiling. You know, the usual.

[fracturedbeauty]

[Beauty, hmm? That's something he can get behind.]

It would be rather unfortunate to see someone demolish it by trying to break free.

[ He sits himself delicately on the floor and removes his coat, placing it beside him as he rolls up his sleeves. He props the box before him and opens it, looking at the pieces within.]

But wouldn't you be able to leave on your own accord, Pink-chan? If you can pass through matter, you might be able to see bigger and more beautiful rockets, right?

[He looks at the manual as he talks, putting some of the pieces together.]

[sunsetsitter]

[Her eyes scan through the pieces, and she helpfully points out a few whenever Yukari pauses too long for her liking. Whether it's correct or not is a mystery... Her people grow rocketships, they don't build them. This has a million pieces, too, heck.]

Oh, you'd think. My spirit's been bound to this cave. Bummer, huh? Kinda expected it. Better than a watch, at least.

[Not as nice as a little girl. That sure had been a nice place to tie her soul. Man, she hopes Hazel's doing okay... But she doesn't let it show, keeping her usual smile in place and her eyes focused.]

I've seen some nice rockets in my time, though, don't worry. Literal rockets, not euphemistic ones, for the record.

[fracturedbeauty]

[Yukari accepts any advice she has to offer with ease. This manual is a little hard to follow, and he's not exactly an engineer. Not that he couldn't be, he just isn't. If she knows better than he does, he certainly has no problems following such instruction.]

Is there a way to change that? Being bound to a specific place?

[Probably not, but he's not going to claim to know much about ghosts, considering he's still among the living himself.]

How long have you been a ghost, Pink-chan? [He puzzles over a couple pieces in his hands, wondering how they could possibly belong on a rocket.] You must have been an astronaut or a mechanical engineer.

[So he guesses, for all he knows, she could have died before those dreams were realised.]

David Shepherd | Kings

[reges]

A. Nugs, tho;

[ Things David Shepherd was expecting, upon being dragged out of the back door of Shiloh's capital building by armed guards, after hearing traitor screeched at him by a disgraced King he'd once served with every fibre of his soul: a firing squad, a piano wire, a quick, sharp blade pulled wordlessly across his sacrificial throat.

Things David Shepherd wasn't expecting etc, etc, yada, yada: a naked gopher staring at him like it's trying to decide if he's it's long lost mother. ]

Um.

[ Um?? Upon closer inspection, the gopher is showing up along side a new gladiator arena that David definitely hadn't seen in construction in the last several months he's spent day in and day out around Unity Hall, nor any of the other deeply confused looking people surrounding him. He's figuring calling out this next question is a leap, but hey, may as well give it a shot: ] Did someone lose their... really big hamster?

B. IKEA Hell;

[ a piano.

there's a lot of things david knows how to fix - cars, watches, tractors, really old TVs with rabbit ear antennas. he even has the touch of music in his ear to tune one of these things, but to assemble a grand piano entirely from scratch - polished planks of wood, ivory keys and thin wire? it's asking a bit much, and yet, here he is, lost inside some fantastical cave, in a fantastical city, apparently ruled by beings most call gods here, forgotten by the world he'd once given everything to better, so why the freaking hell not, huh? sure. let's sit here, in the middle of the goddamned street, and waste hours and hours trying to slap a bunch of junk into a beautiful musical instrument.

what better does he have to do with his life, anyway, aside from try to find a hole to crawl through, back to his world, and face his falsified execution?

David's always found both more joy and more sanity in working with his hands, besides. The world makes so much more sense when it's just gears and cogs and levers and pulleys. The simple physics of nature, all of creation at it's most basic, unstraying from exactly the divine design meant for it. Maybe, on a better day, maybe some months before now, he'd have chosen Shiloh and all it's promise over something as futile as trying to create a piano out of all this crap, but today? Today, David's happy to forget Shiloh, and forget it's King, and all the King's royal family, ever existed. Just wood, and keys, and wire. And, unfortunately, a distinct lack of any kind of tools to put them together with. Hm. ]

Yours didn't come with pliers, did it? [ David's leaning a bit to the side to ask the closest person with a similar looking box, the coat of his military uniform tossed aside, shirt untucked, tie removed and stuffed in a pocket. He isn't Captain Shepherd, right now. Just David. David, without any freaking tools. ] Or any kind of... remotely useful anything?

C. Wildcard;

[[ hit me with ya best shoooot ]]

A!!

[benumbing]

[There are plenty of things here that Jack would call complicated. There's the humble lifestyle, opening a tin can for dinner without being entirely sure of its contents. There's the monsters who seem to want to eat and possess people in equal measure. There's the gods, brought back one by one, some claiming innocence and even a desire to help the cave dwellers. Jack knows how he feels about all of these things.

He doesn't know how he feels about seeing David Shepherd. The gods might just grow fat on his emotions alone, because there isn't a single one that Jack hasn't felt towards this man at one time or another. Even now, they wrestle inside of him, anger to sadness to hope. Once, Jack swore that he was truly David's friend, the first of his kind. Does it still hold true after all that happened? Can it?

What will you do next?

Jack watches to see, because he's always been unpredictable to him. He keeps his distance, ignoring the other people that the Door has so mercilessly pulled through. (Or is it really an act of mercy? For him, it was.) He watches David watching the nug, almost amused at how his concern isn't for himself. Typical. Instead, it's for the creature and the person kind enough to look past the thing's appearance and actually care for it.

It takes Jack a moment to realize the lightness of his pack, that it's his nug that's been drawn to David.]

Damn it. [He grits his teeth and forces himself forward. Jack is not kind. That thing is as ugly as sin, and it's another mouth to feed, but he'll be damned if he loses it to David Shepherd of all people. He makes sure he has control before he speaks, as steeled as if he was facing the firing squad himself.] Hamster, really? I would expect a farm boy to know better.

[reges]

[ David isn't even half as surprised to see Jack and Jack is to see him, after all, it'd only been a minute or so ago that they'd both been dragged out of Unity Hall, proclaimed traitors, and assumedly headed to vastly different punishments. Jack, after all, even if he's crossed Silas, is still the King's son, and more so, the Queen's son. If David's learned much of anything in Shiloh, one of the glaringly obvious pieces of wisdom should be that Rose Benjamin is not nearly so delicate and passive as she'd like to be presented.

And yet, here he is, crown prince Jack Benjamin marching lazily towards him with the typical dour face he wears away from cameras and journalists, apparently having undergone a very speedy wardrobe change at some point between Silas's court and wherever the hell the are now. Speaking of, ]

Jack? What-- [ Wait, Jack's talking about something, maybe he should listen to Jack talking, it might be important--

Nope, nevermind, definitely nothing important. David's eyes squint, and a kneejerk response comes tumbling out of his mouth, in the way they tend to do, most especially when he's had about enough with trying to juggle correctness and propriety. ]

I'd expect an educated politician to know nobody raises hairless gophers on Gilboan farms. [ that's something you'd look to a petting zoo for, Jack, have you been out of Shiloh ever? And the issue is still there with the whole being hairless thing, really, who hated this creature so much? Either way, that's not the issue at hand, despite David's auto-fire wry commentary. Bad habits die hard, etc etc. Point being-- ]

Jack, what is this?

[benumbing]

[Jack looks like he's ready for another mission to Gath, dressed in drab colors, a pack on his back. His boots are scuffed, and look like they might be half a size too small for his feet. He looks more like the soldier than the polished prince flaunted in front of the cameras and the public. It's probably for the best. They are most definitely at war here.

He thought he'd at least made peace with himself. But Shepherd appears and a new battle rages.]

Having never set foot on one, I wouldn't. [Jack stays where the bullshit is more metaphorical than literal. He shoots David a fleeting smile. It's not especially friendly, it's more the way an animal's mouth stretches when it's about to show teeth, but decides not to at the last second.] It's called a nug.

[This bitch is being deliberately obtuse, because he knows that David's not really asking about the animal. Jack lets one strap of his backpack slide down his shoulder, scooping it up before it really can switch allegiance.] I would say that you're standing in my grave, but it's actually a better afterlife than I could hope for. [He'd certainly thought that at first, and in short order he decided that he'd rather die in this cave than go back to the life had left. Jack looks at him for another long moment, feeling some strange longing that he pushes aside. But his surprise has faded, and with it Jack's edges are just a little less sharp.] Welcome to Hadriel, Shepherd.

[reges]

[ Being obtuse for the sake of spite is something David's come to expect from Jack, but now he's watches his superior, and future sovereign (well, maybe) stuff the ugly critter into his bag with brows gradually arching higher and higher up his forehead. ] Your nug?

[ endearing as it might have eventually gotten to be in all its bizarreness, the nug looked like something entirely too hideous for Jack Benjamin to ever associate himself with, let alone claim as his own. Then again, David's started to learn that trying to predict the whims of Gilboa's prince is an exercise in futility. In the end, Jack will be what Jack will be, and you either accept it or get run over. Either way, the entire train of thought is abruptly derailed when Jack breathes the word grave, followed directly by afterlife, and the color drains from David's features. Of course, he says it in a way that'd negate the statement one might take as Jack being currently dead, but the fact he's talking about himself as if he's already well on his way is enough to have David's blood run cold. ]

Silas, he didn't-- [ Just shoot his son in the middle of the palace halls? Who can even say what Silas is willing and ready to do, now, but even that seems beyond thought. But Jack's right here, living and breathing, so that can't be possible, can it? ] You weren't the one on trial, Jack.

[ More protest made towards universal justice than anything else, at the prospect that Jack, beloved Prince of Shiloh, might be stood right next to him on the firing squad. And yet, and yet, knowing this, Jack had put his neck on the chopping block to save him, when Michelle, of all people, left him there alone. That alone is enough to make his head spin, but add on top of it the fact he's here, now, a place that couldn't have stayed hidden in the packed city, with strange faces all around, and Jack calling it 'Hadriel', which means... what? Eyes lifting, David scans the area again, mind in a mess. ] None of this makes any sense.

[benumbing]

I made a promise to someone that I wouldn't eat it.

[And that's the truth of it. It's like he's been caught doing something shameful. Kindness was never something he could afford, and even months removed from everything, old habits do indeed die hard. Like the way he still winces at his father's name, the way his eyes dart about like he expects the man to come marching into the colosseum amidst thunder and butterflies.]

Maybe not formally. [Even when he should've been. It ended up being a test for him too, and Jack passed it only to fail later. The only thing David was guilty of all along was being a good man in the company of bad ones, an Jack's own desire to be better is the very thing that made him worse.] Is that the last thing you remember?

[He tilts his head, eyes widening again. David is the first that Jack's been reunited with from his world; hopefully he'll be the last. But he has heard from others about people from the same world showing up from different points in time.

Jack takes another step closer, demanding his attention.]

You were brought through the Door, just like we all were. There are gods here, unlike the one that you believed in, the one that my father believed in. Their voices are heard by all when they speak. [Jack pauses there, ending with the worst of it, at least for many.] There's no way out.

[reges]

Your father, calling for our heads. Being cuffed and led out of Unity Hall. Then, this. And your... nug. [ That thing being Jack's new pet isn't going to stop feeling deeply weird any time soon, David's thinking. But, before that, why had Jack made a point to as what he remembers, exactly? Was there supposed to be doubt in that? ] Why?

[ The explanation he gives is something strange and convoluted, and pocked with a kind of bitterness he isn't terribly surprised by, but has yet to hear so outwardly professed from Jack. He's telling him this in past tense, and David's frown, unsure what he's supposed to be taking from that. ]

Believe. What do you mean 'gods'? [ while jack's never struck him as deeply spiritual, he'd thought, given his father, his sister, there was something of it in him. Even so, location doesn't negate faith, nor does betrayal by a single man. God may have brought David through hardship after hardship, but it was Silas that put together a cruel farce just to condemn him. Lies and schemes and people made into simple uses for selfish ends. It's a lot he still has to process - a man he'd once devoted everything of himself to serving, revealed as something ugly and twisted. David's mind is a mess of bitterness, despair and confusion, and he isn't as disappointed in the sentiment of 'there's no way out' than he ought to be. ]

I'll take it over a firing squad. [ David mumbles, wry, as he pulls at his uniform jacket, feeling uncomfortable inside it for the first time since he'd first donned it. If nothing else, this gives time, for the both of them. They're enemies of the state now, as Silas is the state, and while he still doesn't understand what Jack had done for him or why, the fact remains the same that they're in the same point. ] How far are we from Shiloh?

B

[wipedclean]

[He doesn't have a box. If he did, it would probably have a gun in it. But since he doesn't, he's wandering around in his soft, comfy clothes, hair hanging in front of his face, scoping out what other people have in their boxes and if any of it could be useful.

And then there's this guy with a fuckin' piano on his box and Bucky just has to stare in astonishment.]

You don't need a piano.

[Moreover, how would it be possible to build one on your own? Bucky snorts.]

[reges]

[ no, he doesn't need a piano, and no, he isn't entirely sure he's even capable of building on, but it's here, and he's here, and he has nothing better to do, and to be honest, a piano might be nice to have around just for the sake of calming leisure activities. David sighs, lifting his head to say something along those lines to Jack (because that is Jack's voice, he'd know it anywhere).

What he sees standing there instead freezes the words on his lips. Jack, who he just saw not even a couple hours ago, apparently wearing a wig and how did he even grow his facial hair that quickly? Dressed in a kind of casual get up that Jack Benjamin wouldn't be caught dead in, looking mildly perplexed.

Is this Jack having a mental break or something? Well, he had been under a lot of stress, so... ]

Jack... Are you okay?

[wipedclean]

[He snorts and rolls his eyes.]

I'm not Jack. I'm Bucky. We're from different worlds. I don't know why we look alike.

[He squats down next to the stranger and looks him over.]

You a friend of his?

[reges]

[ Bucky, you'll have to give him some slack on the different worlds thing, he's still trying to adjust to being here at all, plus the shitshow that his life was just before showing up here. David's lips hang parted for a second, eyes squinted, as he tries to understand how that makes any kind of sense.

He's looking at him, and seeing Jack, so answering that last question feels particularly difficult. In the span of 24 hours, Jack Benjamin had both condemned him to death, and saved his life, when the woman he'd have claimed to love left him to die.

It's Complicated. ]

We worked together. [ past tense. David's pretty sure he's been stripped of rank by now. ]

[wipedclean]

[Bucky knows the different worlds thing is hard to grasp, but it's normal to him by now, so he just sits next to David, cross-legged, and pokes at the bits and pieces of the piano surrounding them.

He picks up a wire. It would make a good garrote.]

Military?

[He holds himself like he's military, or at least used to some sort of organization like that.]

[reges]

[ David doesn't look terribly dignified right now, uniform rumbled, jacket tossed to the side, half slouched where he sits cross legged on the ground, with the assembly kit scattered around him. But he does feel more like himself, for the first time in a while. Even if he's no longer welcome at his mother's house, he still thinks fondly on the memories of sitting on the garage floor, tinkering with one thing or another just for fun and curiosity.

There's something soothing in it, thus, why his hands go back to the junk around him, turning them over in his hands like puzzle pieces. David nods, not sure how in depth he'd like to go into his and Jack's relationship, but having no reason to lie regardless. Besides, either this man knows Jack himself, or this is still Jack, having completely gone off his rocker. ]

Right. Military. He's my superior. [ and Jack had certainly made that very clear knowledge to him whenever possible. ]

How do you know him?

B

[unitas]

...Uh, let me check? [ Sharon digs through her box, pulling out a variety of items from screws and bolts to thin rods and nuts. There's so much in the box that she's pretty certain there's no way she'll be capable of putting this together without a detailed Youtube video and her dad, but she wants to try—if only just to help bleed away the time.

At long last, she pulls out a monkey-wrench. It's big, it's bulky, and it's rusted, but it looks like it can still get an IKEA job done and then bash in a skull afterwards (both things that are totally necessary within the cave city of Hadriel). ]

How about a wrench?

[reges]

[ David's brows raise, blinking at the rusty, clunky thing Sharon's offering. Not the best wrench he's ever seen, but it'd get the job done for something, he's sure. Maybe not slapping a piano together, but it's better than nothing. Reaching out, he takes the thing from her hand, tossing it a little in his palm to get the feel of it. ]

Probably can't hurt. Thanks.

[ he's offering her a small smile, genuinely grateful for the assistance, before he goes back to digging through his box, pulling slabs of wood out and lining them up in the arrangement he thinks they're meant to go in. After a moment, he speaks up again, glad for the company who knows absolutely nothing about who he is for the first time in a while. ]

So, what's your mystery box supposed to end up as?

[unitas]

A, uh... [ She lifts the lid of her box, showing off the picture of a metal and wood desk, all modern and sleek. She's needed a place to work, to paint and sketch and plot, and a desk would be an absolute dream, even if she drags it all the way to the Silent Hill zone at the edge of the city. ]

...shitty desk, I guess. [ She looks back into the cardboard container and laughs with a sigh. He seems to think he can put that together and a piano would be such a nice addition to the city, but she? She kind of thinks this is all for naught, especially as she pulls out more of the contents of her box (does a desk really a zig-zag shaped piece of metal). ] I somehow doubt that all the parts are in there and one of our local deities is laughing it up.