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

Oh, Hel would like to believe the best about people. They're fascinating, with all of their flaws, scurrying about frantically living their lives. The trouble is, what's running this place isn't people. She's all too familiar with gods and their ways, and like all the gods' gifts, these are just as likely to be a double-edged sword at best, and just a curse at worst. But the only door to the room doesn't open, and the mirrors only work one way, and there seems to be no recourse.

She'd just sit here and wait them out, but she's almost out of cigarettes, and the mortal girl would probably starve after a week.

"Not particularly." Hel steps to the fire and crouches down, holding a hand out curiously. No heat at all. When nothing more happens, she sticks that hand in the flames themselves, curious about what might happen.

What happens is that Chie sits up with a gasp, alarmed, watching wide-eyed as she puts her hand in the fire. "H-hey, what are you doing?!" That's just crazy, no one should be doing that, why would you even.

Hel glances over her shoulder at Chie, hand still in the flames, seemingly unconcerned. After a moment, she pulls her hand out of the flames, rubbing her fingers together and displaying the unharmed appendage. "No heat," she explains, punctuating the words with another drag and a long exhale. "Maybe an illusion. Same with the mirrors." That she's less sure of, but no point in letting the girl know.

"So, Chie," she continues, reading the name off the tag of the nearest gift, "Any idea what's in these?"

Chie breathes out a long sigh of relief. "Sheesh, you scared me! I thought you were really gonna burn yourself." She's not even gonna ask how flames are managing to not burn; sometimes there's just no good answer that makes sense, and questioning it only leads to headaches. Non-burning fire just seems like something that goes under the category of WEIRD MAGIC - WHO KNOWS - IT IS A MYSTERY. Sure, she likes to seek out truth, but if the truth ends up being "powerful beings with an odd sense of humor" - well, Chie's seen enough of that to know the limits on a search for truth.

She's almost ready to question how this woman knows her name when she hasn't given it, but then she spots her name scrawled on two of the boxes under the tree, and that at least makes sense. There's not much about this situation that does, but even a small thing can help.

"No," she says, shaking her head. "I guess maybe we just have to open them if we want to find out?"

Her lips quirk at the corners, a crooked ghost of a smile. Mortals. Always so excitable. "It's only a fire," she says. "It would take more than that to hurt me." Her acceptance of how the situation appears to be is good, though, shows a flexible mind. She'll need that. Especially in a place like this. The girl's answer is just as straightforward, and at it Hel shrugs, standing and brushing invisible dust off the thighs of her leather leggings. "It might be dangerous. Gifts from the gods often are. Are you still willing?" How brave is she? Or, conversely, how foolhardy?

That's a weird response, but OK. If she insists, Chie's not really inclined to argue at this point, because there are much more important things at hand. Like what's in the boxes.

Brave or foolhardy - she's probably a little of both, in all honesty, because she gives a determined nod of her head by way of reply. "I wanna get out of here." Doesn't she? The idea of being locked up in a single room indefinitely doesn't appeal to Chie at all. At this short distance, she studies the boxes named for her; she can only pick one, and it's impossible to tell what's inside of them from how tightly they're wrapped.

Don't think - feel. She stops scrutinizing and goes with her gut instinct, reaching for the package to her right. It's not terribly heavy; she carefully rips open the paper to reveal a plain brown box with a lid. Off comes the lid -

- And Chie screams as she's swarmed by bugs. Grasshoppers.

Being stuck here forever isn't something she'd prefer, no, but she's much more patient (or, perhaps, more bloodyminded and stubborn) than her young companion seems to be. She doesn't like playing anyone's games on their terms. Competitive? Maybe. But she's fine with Chie going first, and can admit to her own curiosity with regards to the boxes.

So she stands just behind Chie, looking over her shoulder as she smokes her cigarette down to the filter, watching her unwrap the package. Insects? She gets only a glimpse before the girl is shrieking, and Hel immediately moves into action, dropping her finished cigarette butt and grabbing the box before more of them can make their way out. She has no qualms about insects, and so simply reaches out, plucking them one by one from the girl and putting them back in the box. Once they're either in the box or gone to find more hospitable territory, she turns her focus to the girl.

"Chie! They're gone. See?"

She must have amazing talent, or patience, or both, because Chie doesn't sit still while the bugs are loose. They're crawling all over her, with their gross little bendy legs and ugh this is a nightmare, how could anyone sit still.

By the time she finally manages to stop screaming and frantically brushing the bugs off her clothes and out of her hair, Chie bursts into tears, hiding her face behind her hands.

Both. Both speed and patience, as she dodges flailing limbs or brushes them aside, removing the creatures without making them touch the girl more than is necessary. She even manages to keep Chie from crushing a few on herself, certain the girl would like that even less. Hel is visibly startled by the appearance of tears, and is uncertain what to do. What should she do? All she can manage is to hold the box closed with one hand, finally setting it down on the fireplace mantel with a candlestick on top to weight it down, before fishing a flask out of her pocket and offering it to the girl.

"Here. This should help settle your nerves."

It's...just about all she's got, honestly.

Chie wipes at her damp eyes with the edge of her sleeve, blinking rapidly as she looks up to see what the other woman offers her. This just doesn't seem like a good idea.

"Wh-what is it?" she asks between gaspy breaths, the last remnants of her terrified sobs.

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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