dankmemes | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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 December 25th, and apps are open January 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, 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: A FACE FIT FOR A MEME
[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 trolls, from the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplay series for you meet.

These trolls have a height of nine feet and weigh up to five hundred pounds. They may be slower and less intelligent than you, but their regenerative abilities make them difficult to kill. Trolls are capable of healing nonfatal damage dealt to them and can use simple tools, like swords and knives- all the better to incapacitate you so they can roast you alive!]

SCENARIO TWO: RED SNOW
[It's cold. A layer of snow envelops the city, turning the caves into a winter wonderland. Feel free to have snowball fights, scrounge for blankets and coats (there's never enough to go around), and make snow angels! It's just like back home during the holidays, isn't it?

That is, if your home had yeti and white walkers roaming around trying to kill you. Be careful when wandering out and about, because they seem to blend in with the snow, and they definitely want a snack.

Or, uh, to raise you from the dead to murder your friends at their behest. Either way, you're dead.

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

H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS
[You're sitting on a couch in a living room. All around you are hints of magic- the mirrors seem to flicker with moving objects and people, the fireplace crackles with light, but no heat. There's a Christmas tree in the corner with soft, glowing lights that are unattached to any sort of wires.

Underneath the tree are four presents- two of them clearly marked for you, two of them clearly marked for the other person in the room with you. Inside one of these gifts is something you badly want- a stack of cash, a magical bow, an out-of-print book- but inside the other is something a little less pleasant. There may be spiders or snakes, or the box may be empty but coated in acid. It could be a wolf in sheep's clothing- wonderful-looking fruits, rotted on the inside- or it could just be a particularly nasty smell.

You can only open one, and there's no way to know which is which. Which gift will you choose?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Noah scrolls through the songs and selects one, glancing up in surprise when Kylo Ren asks for clarification on the dead thing.

Oh right. That's not normal for the vast majority of people.]

Um, yeah. My best friend beat my face in with my skateboard. Seven years ago. Eight now, actually. Counting the time we've been away. Um, I had a body here for a little while? But then that one died too, so... I'm a ghost again.

[He siiiiiggghs. At a glance he looks pretty solid, but Noah's kind of ghost is 'pretty indistinguishable from a normal human aside from the cold as long as shit doesn't get real'. He's a ghost with Special Privileges, it comes from being killed as a human sacrifice to a magical sentient forest.

Long story.]

It sucks but I'm used to being dead more than being alive now.

[Kylo raises an unseen eyebrow at the music. Whatever planet this kid comes from is rather primitive in its musical culture. Focus, Ren, focus. Ghosts are unusual, even for the universe he comes from. To hear tell of a person that's been a ghost multiple times, that's just plain odd.]

I've heard of stranger things in the galaxy before. [Not many, but there's a few tales he could tell.] There's legends of Jedi that could become Force ghosts after death.

Yeah? There's no other ghosts where I come from, not like me. It's pretty lonely.

[But he's got his living friends, and that's okay. Noah looks around at the other packages, he could have sworn there were two with his name on it but the other is now gone. Looks like he was only able to pick one, he shall never know what was in the other.

~~It was scorpions. Lots~~

Noah's careful to avoid the mirrors when he reaches over to the two packages marked for Kylo Ren and pushes them gently towards the other.]

Your turn! I guess you only get to pick one. Maybe it'll be something good!

[Well, someone has to be an optimist, and Noah's awkward but determined smile marks him as one who has decided that it is going to be him.]

[Kylo's hand hovers over both of them. They're both the same size, brightly wrapped, with bows, and a tag addressed to him. He shouldn't be suspicious. After all, the kid got something that wasn't too bad. To hell with it. He finally picks one up and unwraps it, still with his gloves on.

Guess that's that. He's surprised to find an empty box. This must be someone's idea of a joke. He reaches his hands in, just to make sure that there's nothing he could've missed.]

Holy--! [The sizzle of his gloves warns him of what's just happened. The inside of the box was coated with acid and it's now rapidly eating away through the leather covering his hands. He quickly pulls them off in time to save most of his hands, though there's one or two spots that have been touched. The skin immediately blisters, looking an angry red.

Kylo focuses on the pain, channeling it into rage. He turns to look at Noah with murder in his eyes.]

This is your fault.

[Noah gives a little sigh of disappointment when the box is empty. Them's the breaks, but he was still hoping the other guy got something nice. Because that's just kind of the person Noah is, he wants good things for people.

Then the whole acid thing kicks in.]

Oh, fuck!

[While Kylo gets his glove off, Noah grabs for his bag, yanking his full water bottle out of it that he always keeps on him. There might be taps here somewhere but there's not exactly time to find them.

It's a little hard to be a proper coward when he can't see the murder there.

He feels it anyway, the same way Noah just Knows things. The only thing that gets Noah to work through his general fear that permeates every instance of his life is the desire to help other people.]

I'm sorry! I didn't know - you have to wash your hand off, quick!

[What's Kylo Ren going to do anyway, kill him? A different petulant young man who felt he deserved the world beat him to that years ago.]

[Kylo snatches the water away without so much as a word of thanks. He's more concerned with making sure his hands have some skin left attached to them. The water seems to neutralize the acid that worked its way onto his skin, though the damage is already done to at least two sections on his hand. He flexes his hands experimentally, watching the skin and burned sections tighten before he relaxes them again.

He's experienced worse pain than this in his life. It doesn't make it any easier. He's still entirely blaming Noah for this. It makes him feel better than blaming himself for his own bad luck.]

I wonder, can a ghost be strangled?

[There's something in his voice that sounds like he's joking. But the menacing undercurrent manages to negate that. He's mad and there's only one living (undead?) target to take it out on.]

[Noah takes a precautionary step back even with the joking. He looks afraid.

Noah is always afraid. He died with fear staining his heart, it's one of the few things that stayed when flesh and most of what of his personality eroded away with time. Seven years buried under leaves, just several feet away from a common path walked annually.

Noah looks away, eyes hooded and indistinct. Shadowed in a way that shouldn't exactly be possible. He wraps his arms around himself, looking away, looking for an exit.]

I - I'm sorry, I didn't - I mean, they've messed with us before, but I didn't think -

[He can't be. He's dead.

He's still afraid.]

Quiet, boy.

[He reaches his right hand out, curving it into a choking grasp. Pulling on all of his rage and pain to back him up, he calls on the Dark Side of the Force to do his bidding and sends it out towards Noah.

Maybe this won't work. After all, the kid said he was dead. His power is meant to affect the living. Or maybe it will and Kylo will soon have another victim under his (metaphorical) grasp. Either way, at least it'll give him an outlet for his anger.]

[There's a brief moment where Noah does seem to choke. Terrified and powerless and everything Kylo was going for.

Then he's gone.

There's no explosion or poof or smoke or anything. Between one moment and the next, he's there, and then he was never there, a brief shadow on the ground where he was even after Noah was gone.

A few ornaments come off the tree and smash brilliantly into the wall when the shadow fades, CRASH, CRASH, CRASH in quick succession.]

[For a moment, Kylo has Noah right where he wants him. He's pleased and a grim smile appears beneath the mask. Then the ghost disappears and the Force reels back towards his hand like a whip crack. He's left with an empty room.

His anger expelled, Kylo is left with a faint feeling of surprise as the ornaments come crashing down. Well, even if the kid had no spine, that was one way to get away from a murderous knight.]

Neat trick, kid.

[He says this to no one in particular before he exits the room.]

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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