Test Drive Meme #3

[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.

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!

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: GIMME A HUG
[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 on the rooftops watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to separate you from your group and tear you into pieces. This time, the Door has brought in a large slithering beast for you meet.

This Titanoboa is not the friendliest of snakes. Over fifty feet long, it requires quite a lot of meals in order to keep going, and it seems to be most interested in making you one of them. A giant anaconda, this is a constrictor rather than a venomous snake - but don't worry. It's got teeth, too, in case it needs to do a touch of nibbling. We're sure you'll get along just fine.]


SCENARIO TWO: THE DOCTOR IS IN
[You awaken on an operating table. How did you get here? What's going on? You don't remember checking into a hospital or seeing a doctor, and when you try to get up you quickly discover that your hands and legs are secured tightly to the table, the straps digging into your skin.

Next to the table is a tray of gleaming steel surgical instruments, their sharp blades glittering as the overhead light flickers. They seem to be the only clean thing in the room, as you begin to realize that the walls of this operating room are moldy and stained, and there's something dripping from the ceiling. This may not be a legitimate hospital at all.

There are footsteps outside the door. It could be a friend - or not. Will you call for help? Try to free yourself? Lay back and wait for the doctor to arrive?]


H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: HOPESGIVING
[You find yourself in a kitschy, brightly lit, utterly pleasant gift shop. Lining the shelves are all manner of stuffed animals, inspirational figurines, greeting cards, and delightful ornaments. Some even look familiar, like something you might have seen before.

The door isn't locked. You can just leave, if you want. But on a pedestal where the registers should be is a globe of glittering light, and within it, a picture of the person you care for most in the world. Carved on the pedestal are the words Bring someone hope, and you will bring them happiness.

Of course, you aren't alone in there. Will you find something on the shelves to show to your companion, something that might bring them hope? Or maybe you brought something from home. Or maybe you don't care at all, and just want to smash everything in there. It's all up to you.

This is a simplified version of this month's Hope event.]

Comments

Harry Dresden | The Dresden Files

[underwforwizard]

II

[The first thing Harry notices as he begins to come around is the throbbing in his head. That's not unusual for Harry. At this point headaches and concussions are a staple of his life. No, what's unusual is everything else.

Warning bells sound in his head even as his eyes reorient themselves. His instincts know something's wrong and Harry knows to trust his instincts. He tries to move but feels the leather straps biting into his skin. Harry strains against them taking a moment to test his bonds. Strength alone won't get him out of here.

His head twists around as he searches for another angle of escape. Everything he sees he doesn't like. The room itself conjures up one too many bad memories and the surgical tools nearby do little to ease his mind.

But there is one good thing to all of this. At least he isn't being held with thorn manacles.]

Getting a real Hannibal Lector vibe from this place.

III

[It probably says something about Harry that he feels instantly paranoid the moment he finds himself in the gift shop. Then again, when you suddenly find yourself magically transported into an overly cheery gift shop it's hard not feeling paranoid.

Harry eyes the stuffed animals carefully as he passes them. Honestly he half expects them to start growing fangs and spring to life at any moment. That's probably a sign he needs to take a vacation, but there's no rest for the wicked and especially no rest for a wizard living in Chicago.

When he notices the pedestal it quickly grabs his attention, the globe especially. In it he sees a picture of not one person but many. Thomas, Murphy, Molly, Mouse and Mister, the Carpenters, all the people he's come to love as friends and family. The tension in his shoulders begins to disappear and the inscription brings an honest smile to his face.]

Starting to wonder if Mr. Sunshine is behind this.

[He looks around the gift shop again.]

Still, feels like there's a lot easier way to get the message across.

II

[amos_moses]

Dripping walls and dank rooms and grimy leather straps were, unfortunately, not unfamiliar to Amos. He'd managed to get himself loose with a lot of scraped skin and a strained joint of two, and was creeping down the dark halls with every sense on high alert. Not knowing who might have captured him was not unusual, given he was a yakuza errand-runner, a spy, a thief, and an assassin in turns. Being all alone in an abandoned place, though, that was unusual...

A voice. Amos listened, and after a very cautious moment, put his butterfly knife to hand and crept over to open the nearest door.

It opened with a suitably creepy creak and rusty whine, and Amos blinked at the man bound in the same way he'd been earlier.

Amos stood for a moment, uncertain, leaning against the doorframe so he was less of a target. Then he asked, New Orleans accent gone thick in his trepidation, "Guessin' ya ain't behind this, huh?"

Not if he was tied up, too.

[underwforwizard]

The creaking of the rusty door caught his attention. He turned his head expecting to see any one of the handful of people Harry pissed off in his life. Instead he got a total stranger. This guy looked as clueless as Harry felt.

"No, this is all apart of my master plan to tie myself up while people ask me stupid questions." Okay, maybe opening up with the snark wasn't the best way to make a good first impression but Harry's feeling a little stressed here.

Very rarely Harry ever felt this clueless and it wasn't a feeling he particularly enjoyed. Normally he had a good idea of who it was when people tried to kill him in the past.

"Wanna do a guy a favor and undo these straps before parts start falling off? They're a little tight."

[amos_moses]

The snark made Amos grin, a sudden bright expression that put dimples in his cheeks. "Only so long's ya don't go killin' me when I do," he agreed, amiably. A funny guy! Amos liked that.

He still peered cautiously around the room before edging in. For a man wearing steel-toed boots he didn't make much noise, light on his feet. His jeans and dark T-shirt were both faded and mundane, and the camo-patterned canvas jacket he wore was a little big for his short frame. Glancing at Harry as he reached for the first strap, Amos quickly realized the man would dwarf him by at least a foot and a half standing. Amos's Japanese heritage had not granted him a mighty stature, just a total inability to grow good facial hair and the dubious advantage of constantly being aged a decade younger.

"Name's Amos. What's yours, big guy?"

From this side of things, it was easy to work the buckles, though the fresh bruising and newly-scabbed scrapes along his wrists and knuckles showed how hard he'd had it getting loose himself.

[underwforwizard]

Hey the guy didn't walk away. That was good. "I'd cross my heart but I'm a little tied up. You'll just have to trust me."

The first thing Harry noticed about the man was just how quiet he was. Your average Joe wasn't that quiet stomping around in boots like that. Of course that might not mean much besides he was naturally light on his feet. Or maybe he learned it after years of abducting people. There was that good, old paranoia again.

When Harry noticed the scrapes and bruises on Amos' wrist that theory fell burning out of the sky. There's only one way Harry knew that someone could get marks like that. Seems like Harry wasn't the only one that woke up on a table, but Amos here managed to bust himself out on his own. That took determination.

"Call me Harry."

[amos_moses]

"I'd say nice to meet ya, but this place..." Amos worked his way up from Harry's wrists, then down the nearest leg. "Ain't a nice place."

Though Harry was probably an okay guy. Well, at least he'd promised not to kill Amos right off the bat, but as far as Amos was concerned, that made him Good People. Working his way back up Harry's other leg, Amos queried: "Don't s'pose you got a look at the people who left you here? I didn't. Little odd."

He paused to brush some of his hair back behind an ear, multiple studs catching the light. His hair was just above his shoulders, and this gesture had very little effect: it all slid back into his face again.

[underwforwizard]

That's two limbs free and two left to go. Harry almost wishes he could will Amos to move faster with his mind. The close her gets to freedom the antsier her gets. He half expects their captors to burst in at any moment.

"They were smart enough to keep me from seeing their faces, or anything for that matter. Smart enough to grab my gear too."

The moment Amos finishes with the last strap Harry springs off the table and onto his feet. "Still can't figure out how they grabbed me. Last thing I remember was being in my apartment." And that would be a very hard place for someone to break into.

[amos_moses]

Amos was pretty sure he'd been snug in a hotel room, but those were not always the most defensible places anyway. People's apartments tended to be a little more secure. "Not so smart, they didn't turn out my pockets." Which meant he still had his balisong knife, his regular pocket knife, odd change, a stick of chapstick, a lighter, his rosary, and a lot of pocket lint. He vaguely regretted not having put that garrote wire in his back pocket from last time, but, well. He was always wanting what he didn't have.

It didn't smell like demons or incense (which didn't mean demons weren't involved, just that they were of the cleaner sort if they were) or of blood, just mold and damp and disuse. Come to think of it, Harry here smelled a bit like incense himself, but Amos wasn't going to worry about it. It was suspiciously clear of vermin in here, though... Amos had been using his talent to probe for any animal-minds nearby, and hadn't come up with anything close enough to matter. A few rats and roaches at the very edge, far enough away he'd have to really concentrate or be panicking hard to catch their attention. No regular animals still didn't rule out supernatural kinds of creatures, which Amos couldn't speak with or detect.

It was, in all, very unusual, and Amos didn't like it much. Harry looked pretty damn substantial, though, and it was nice to have company.

[underwforwizard]

"For all we know that just means they're not worried about what you're carrying." That doesn't narrow the list down in the slightest though. There's too many suspects and just not enough clues to make anything but a wild guess. All they know is that someone kidnapped them.

Harry looks towards Amos curiously though not suspiciously. "Going to take a wild guess here but something tells me you're not native to Chicago." Especially not with that accent, this guy sounds like he came straight out of the south. That just adds more questions to this mystery.

[amos_moses]

Amos chuckled, grinning. "Naw. New Orleans." Though he hadn't lived there for years. "Wasn't there when they took me, though, so damned if I know where we are." He rolled a shrug and slipped a hand in his pocket, fingering his rosary beads. A thought occurred to him.

"Or maybe they couldn't get into my pocket. Blessed silver." He pulled the rosary with its silver crucifix out to show Harry, then poked it back in his pocket. "But I doubt it. Don't smell enough like that kind of demon in here. Probably just regular people, 'm guessing."

[underwforwizard]

Blessed silver? Those were two words that grabbed Harry's attention. Only one group came to mind that might use something like that. Then again he never heard of the Knights using silver before but it wasn't like he knew everything about them either.

"You don't happen to work with the Knights of the Cross do you?" Harry knew for a fact that this guy wasn't an actual knight. After all he still kept two of the swords in his apartment, but seeing how this guy appeared to be in the know it was possible he worked with them. That might give their captors some knd of motive for capturing them too.

[amos_moses]

'Knights of the Cross' rang no bells, but Amos didn't bother to keep up with every small religious group or cult in the world. It was impossible: there were way too many of them and some only lasted a week at the most.

"Not a religious man," he said instead, rolling a shrug. "Just cautious. Sometimes." Not as often as he should be, at least. He headed for the door, footfalls soft, moving with quiet grace. "I'm thinking there's a way out, somewhere, and I wanna find it. Comin' with?"

[underwforwizard]

Okay. So much for that theory. Now Harry's back to being completely clueless. Amos is right about one thing though. Both of them need to get moving. Standing around in this room all day won't get them anywhere.

Harry looks around the room one last time, hoping that he might find his staff just sitting in the corner somewhere. Of course he's not that lucky. Finally he follows after the other man.

"Yeah yeah I'm coming. Hold your horses."

[amos_moses]

Amos chuckled, even as he poked his head out into the corridor for a look around before stepping out: the last time he'd heard that phrase uttered, it had been by an exasperated Kat, his friend and often-partner in various misadventures. (It had gone something along the lines of 'Amos hold your damn horses...' and 'Hard to when they've got no halter,' and 'You've actually got a horse out there, don't you, you imbecile.') It had taken a good deal of Amos's persuasion to get the horse in question to let them have a ride to the town...animals did not like Kat, possessed by a nekomata and smelling largely of cat, demon, and large predator.

"Speaking of animals, that's what's giving me the willies. Ain't no animals near, not even roaches," he muttered to Harry as they started down the dimly-lit hall. "S'what made me think of demons, animals don't like 'em, or magic. So prolly humans with magic or demon-casting, 'cause animals like the fae-kinds, for the most part."

The silence in his head had been a large part of his panic earlier, the one that had allowed him to escape his bonds. But now he was wide awake and thinking clearly, and all the animal-chatter was just off at a distance, barely within his range.