dankmemes | test drive meme #20

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!test drive

test drive meme #20

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 May 25th, and apps are open June 1st. Please remember that 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: BURN BABY BURN
[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.

Or that... bonfire behind you? That's sure what it looks like, but if you get a little closer - which you probably shouldn't - you'll see a face in those flames This time, the Door has brought in some Doomers, from the Baten Kaitos video game.

Doomers are creatures made of flame that sure would like it if you were on fire too. It works for them, right? What do you mean you don't want to be engulfed in flames? These Doomers will send clouds of sparks in the direction of anyone that might be a threat (or anyone they don't like), searing them with the heat and trying to catch them on fire. Hot damn!]

SCENARIO TWO: IT'S JUST A CAT
[Why does it always have to be like this? There you were, going about your day, when you turned a corner and something jumped out at you. Maybe a monster with sharp teeth and claws, maybe a snake striking at your feet, maybe just a terrifying dark shape - whatever it was, it scared the shit out of you.

And then it disappeared in a puff of brightly-colored smoke and glitter, because that's just how Hadriel rolls. Awesome. And maybe if it just happened once it would be a big deal, but it's happening all the time. Practically every other corner you turn, half the doors you open, even just when you look over your shoulder. Careful about getting too jumpy, though - what are you gonna do if your friend taps you on the shoulder and you freak out? How embarrassing.

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

H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: I LIKE YOUR HAIR
[Everything seems normal today. No monsters, no weird shapes jumping out at you. Maybe it'll just be a normal day. Maybe it'll even be nice. No - it'll definitely be nice.

How can we be sure of that? Easy! Every time you touch someone today - whether it's an accidental bump or an intentional touch - you'll blurt out a genuine compliment. If you don't know them well, it could be something as simple as saying they look nice today, or that their eyes are a lovely shade of green. If you do know them, it'll be more specific. Maybe you're impressed by their work ethic, or you love the sound of their singing voice. Maybe you actually hate them but you really appreciate the way they always remember to put the toilet seat down (because that's the only good thing about them).

Whatever it is, you'll find yourself saying it out loud. Don't worry - nothing too personal will be blurted out, and you can stop yourself if you really want to. But isn't it great to be nice to people for once?]

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[The surrealism of the situation just keeps climbing higher by the moment. He can't say he's ever engaged in conversation with a Big Daddy, or really anyone down in Rapture, even those who've done nothing but help him. There's never been much of a need for it.

Until now, evidently.

The Daddy grunts a wordless inquisition. He eyes it warily, unwilling to look away. It could be a trick, a trap, anything. He can't be certain if he's indicating there's something wrong, or worse.

If anything goes wrong, he has his plasmids. He has his arsenal. He can manage it, he's certain. He takes a step back, and another, before turning to glance behind him, eyes raking the surrounding area. But nothing else leaps out from the dark to menace him.]

[ Alright, cool. The situation is still tense, to be sure, although making sure there's nothing creeping around the corner goes a long way toward easing his nerves. There is absolutely no way he's getting any closer until Jack turns back around. He isn't going to pick a fight with this man, especially not unintentionally. It's a very safe bet to assume Jack is as armed as he is, and Delta has no idea what kind of plasmids he's packing. ]
[ This very well might be a result of what's going on, come to think of it. There's been enough things popping out at him on the way here to where this can't be an isolated incident-- or if it is, Hadriel just has a particular sense of humor that likes to torment people. Could be that that's what's gotten Jack so on edge. It would make sense. ]

[ There's no solid way to tell what's been getting at the man all day, so Delta will assume it hasn't been fun. He can't think of anything to do to help that, as much as it would likely aid in smoothing things over. He waits in place, but he gives another quiet hum of approval at the all-clear; the less things around to stress the both out, the better. ]

[It's not much, but it's something. A slight gesture of faith that the Big Daddy doesn't charge him as soon as he turns his back, when Jack's gaze swings back to scrutinize the tin Daddy.

He's different from the others. Not simply in his means in communicating, but in his efforts to do as such. In his lack of a Little Sister, and his ability to open the scope of his concern beyond them, at least to a limited extent.

What is this?]

Where's your Sister?

[It occurs to him too late that such could be construed as a threat, and he shifts his weight back, the corners of his mouth tightening in preparation for the perceived violent response.]

[ Eleanor. She's...more than his Little Sister, and even if he could speak, Delta wasn't sure he could quite put it into words-- they were family, that much was easy enough to tell. But she wasn't here, and he was glad for that. The question seals the deal, though; Jack is without a doubt from Rapture. It doesn't bring him a sigh of relief. ]
[ He flattens his hand and swipes it sideways, not even bothering to try and shake his head. Vertical motion was a little easier, but that would likely not be all that easy to read. ]

[ Delta's running out of ways to ask the questions he wants answers to without getting his phone out-- he could just grab it, although he's a little concerned that Jack may think he's going for his rivet gun or something similar. If there's going to be any consequences, they were going to happen eventually; getting them out of the way would save him trouble in the long run. Briefly, he holds his hands up again, although he points upward with one to ask for a second of time-- getting the device out of where he's stashed it takes a little longer than that, but he gets a decent hold on it. ]
[ He starts typing, only holding the phone out once he's done. He could've slid it across the floor to get it more in middle ground, but breaking his only consistent means of communication sounded like one hell of a bad idea to him. There's a few hastily-assembled rows of text on the screen, riddled with typos-- Delta tries, but there's only so much proofreading he can do before things start taking altogether far too long. Time very well could be of the essence, and he'd much rather get what he needed to across before anything else happened. ]

i'm notg nna pick a fight with you.was mostly wondering if there was ssomething that would nearby.
whats your nsme?
do you know where youare
[ He stares at Jack, waiting. He could simply ignore the gesture, and the thought's already occurred to Delta midway through the typing; he's banking on the opposite, and he's hoping he won't be proven wrong. ]

[No Sister. He’d assumed as much, when there was nothing scampering at the Daddy’s heels, but that at least confirms that each of them knows where the other came from. No Sister means there’s a much smaller likelihood, at the very least, that the Daddy will take issue with Jack personally unless he makes an attempt to attack him again. The bees are hardly discriminatory, but even then, this one stayed his hand.

He’s…different. In more ways than one.

He’d never had a reason to question that, before. Questioning anything that anyone’s told him is an abyss he finds himself shying away from crossing, the leap of it so inwardly imposing that floundering in ignorance seems infinitely better. To question one aspect of all Atlas has told him would be to question the reliability of Atlas, and the very idea may as well be anathema. He’s helped him. He’s done nothing but help him. Perhaps this is - a special case. An anomaly. An exceptional variable.

That has to be it, yes. In his small crisis of faith and existential scrabbling, Jack unwittingly doesn’t spend nearly as much time wondering what the Daddy could be doing as he, perhaps, should be. But the thing draws out a phone and starts to punch words into it, and he can only be grateful that it didn’t take advantage of Jack’s lapse in thought to punch his drill through his chest with a sucking squelch. He’s gone out that way far too many times for it to be the same shock that it was the first time around, but it’s still - unpleasant. Bleeding out is slow, and the painful process of his organs knitting together can be equally so.

He peers at the typo-laden message. The Daddy doesn’t seem capable of verbal speech, then - presumably nothing more than the whale-like rumbles and yowls the others make.]

I thought I saw something.

[He did, in a way, but it certainly wasn’t a Big Daddy, and most definitely not one capable of communicating - interested in communicating with someone besides his Sister. He has to claw about for his name for a moment, for reasons utterly beyond his comprehension, but he emerges with it with the same sort of relief one might expect from a drowning man bursting to shore.]

…Jack, [he says at last.] I'm...Jack. And I... [He breaks off to peer at the ceiling of rock, distant and gray but utterly unlike the arches of glass and steel he remembers.]

I just know this isn’t Rapture.

[ Another semi-nod, coupled with a grunt of acknowledgement. Whatever's behind the way he introduces himself catches Delta's curiosity, although he's left to silently theorize about it. ]
[ One close look at Jack tells him all he needs to know-- this is a man who's built for combat, and has undoubtedly seen plenty of it. If he's survived Rapture, that much is a given. It was just about impossible to get out of there unscathed, be it physically or mentally. From the look in his eyes to the way he holds himself, Delta can understand that there's certain similarities to them; he wonders just what it is that Jack's fought through, but he doesn't dream of asking. Let him keep his secrets. For now, they're not what he's worried about-- and so long as they didn't rear their heads while he was around to cause a problem, he could deal with it. ]

good thing it's just 'thougjht''.
gonna go n and say it's nice tomeet you though, even if circumstnces aren't that great.
[ While Hadriel isn't too far off from Rapture, it's...something else, that's for sure. He's fine with that approximation. ]
where were you headed? its not hard to get lsot in here.

[ He's trying to stick to normal enough topics-- nothing to jar Jack any further than he already is, with the added benefit of gauging how the man was faring. Delta gets the feeling that asking outright probably won't get him much of an answer at all, so he'd just have to go about this a different way. ]

[Nice to meet him. And it's nice to meet someone who could, evidently, be considered an ally. The first he's met face to face in what feels like a lifetime, even if that can't possibly be true.]

Looking for a way out.

[Is that foolish of him? Maybe. But he's done what plenty of people would consider impossible before, and he's always succeeded - even if those successes are couched in a great deal of crushing failures. He was working his way out of Rapture; he'll claw his way out of here too. Underwater or underground, it makes no difference.

Does it?]

Do you have a name?

[It feels...odd, asking one of the lumbering, silent things that he's glimpsed, fought, killed, but never conversed with, if he has a name. Do Big Daddies have names? They were people once, weren't they? Do they still remember?

Something about that vein of thought inspires a wave of nausea, and Jack hastens to force it down.

It doesn't matter.]

you're not gonn afind one. good effort though.
best i think we can do is stayalive and hold out for somrthing that isnt' the current mess.

[ Much like Jack, Delta has to pause for a moment when asked his name-- he'd anticipated the tables being turned on him, but that didn't make it any less weird. For the sake of...honestly, himself, he's going to leave off part of his title. He's been called all manner of things, but the closest thing he has to a name these days is the simplest answer. No, he doesn't remember-- whatever he started with ]

just
delta. now we're all properly introduced.

[ He's not too inclined to focus on himself. There's too many holes and gaps, and he's got other things to worry about than trying to force his way through all of that. There's nothing he can do about his own state of being, particularly not now. Delta can't afford to let his mind wander any more than it already has been, and he certainly doesn't want it to. ]
[ There's enough of an identity crisis waiting to happen without both of them thinking too hard about it. Delta shifts in place, breathing a rough sigh. The combination of the filters and his helmet does nothing to make it sound any less awful. ]

wre you wandering alone this whole time?? how have you not run into anyhtinng yet. or have you.

[That elicits a hesitation, albeit an uncertain one. It's difficult to discern tone over text, even more so when the person texting doesn't even have a face to speak of (unless he does have one under that helmet...?), but presumably, it's utterly sincere. Which is not helping the sense of building surrealism over this entire encounter, but he's long since learned that, in Rapture at least, the norm is easily circumvented.

"Delta" is a distant name befitting the man wearing it, and Jack doesn't pry further.]

I keep seeing...things.

[The unmistakable sound of dislodging rock signalling an incoming spider. The peals of sob-laughter that herald a splicer desperate for a fix. The shadow of a woman hunched over a crib, cooing to whatever lay within in a manner that could almost be construed as sane.]

Keep thinking there's something behind me.

[He darts Delta an inquisitive lift of his eyebrows, a tacit question of have you, too?

Or is all that ADAM finally getting to his head in a more direct fashion?]

[ Whatever's under that helmet is probably not much of a face these days, and it's likely for the best that it stays hidden. Not even Delta himself is entirely sure what he looks like anymore, and he's avoiding that revelation for as long as he possibly can. Because putting uncomfortable truths about yourself off until you die is the best way to deal with them. ]
[ He gives a low hum as he types, mentally wording and rewording his next question. He's pretty sure he knows what Jack's referring to-- while Delta's been arguably far luckier than his new acquaintance when it came to the sudden scares, he's seen a small handful of them during his wandering today. It was a good thing he'd decided to go looking for stragglers, he thinks. Perhaps Jack would've gotten lost and wound up beset by all this for hours on his own-- he suspects that wouldn't be the worst thing the man's dealt with, though. ]

what kind of things ? [ After a moment, he retracts the phone, adding something else to the inquiry before he shows it to Jack again. ] mot just you, id say. don't know if you're that unlkcy. could be wrong
either way there's definitly been Things.
[ Oh, look at that. Things, for emphasis-- being that he's seen altogether too many different attempts at jumpscares to care, they sort of began to run together after a while. He's sort of at a loss of words for how to describe the ones Hadriel's trying to get him with, aside from the fact that they were noticeably more numerous-- and less lethal. That should've been what he led with, shouldn't it. ]
far's i know they can't hurt you
but i wouldnt drop yuor guard so easily. nobody wants to die here. probably.

Splicers.

[As if it needs saying. The shapes of his waking nightmares are easy, and Rapture was eager enough to lend them a tangible form. Anything else is murkier, more distant, difficult to draw into something solid. His mind substitutes what it can't explain with the more immediate.

It's not reassuring, but it's not as unsettling as it has the capacity to be.

He's only seen them. Heard them, fleetingly, before they dissolve into the surrounding grooves and contours of the cave proper. But Things gets a slight lift of his eyes. Delta, it seems, has a sense of humor, albeit a morbid one. You'd be hard-pressed to find any other kind in Rapture.]

I wasn't about to.

[No Vita-Chambers here; if he dies, he'd imagine it would be for real.]

Perfect time for someone to get the drop on someone else. [Cat scare after cat scare, only for the last scare to be something real. Sounds familiar.]

[ Jack's got a point-- this would be the perfect time to get away with murder, even in a literal sense. And with all the tunnels and alleyways to who knows where he's passed by, Delta has to admit that it would be almost too easy to make the evidence disappear, lost in the dark gullet of some forgotten hole. It reminds him of Rapture, and the thought of it's revolting. ]

good news isthst there don't seem to be splicers here. at all. bad news,we're still not safe, on account of there being other things to deal with. not quite a fire an dfrying pan scenario, but not great.
[ There were supplies at least, enough to get by without having to resort to desperate measures. That's a more than welcome change-- he's personally quite alright with never having to guzzle a battered can of beans lifted from a dead splicer again. Fine dining with Delta, everybody. Tune in at eleven for the liquor segment. ]

i'm hoping nobody plans on tsking advantage of what's goin on. there's probably at least one prson. gonna have to keep an eye out for evryone's sake.
[ If he managed to catch this hypothetical scheme in time-- it would be dealt with, whatever it may be. Infighting wasn't going to help any of them stay alive down here, that much was clear. ]

[Not splicers, but other things, just as up front about their capacity for destruction and how badly they want Jack dead, simply because he's there.

So they have to keep themselves safe, and the masses as well. The grander "everybody else" that Jack's been purposefully steering clear from. He's not interacted with sane people capable of speech on a face-to-face basis in some time, and he can't quite tamp down the mental urge to pull away from the promise of ordinary interaction. Breaking that chain, for some reason, feels profoundly unnatural in a way he can't enunciate.]

The things in the caves won't care what we're seeing.

[If they sense a weakness, he wouldn't put it past them to do something about it. Or, should someone unwittingly wander into their domain, so to speak -

It's not a good situation.]

nope
[ It's...brief and to the point. Delta isn't going to sugar-coat things, particularly not when Jack already seems to know what's up. ]
and that's why i'ts not the best idea to be out hwre on your own. don't have t o go group up with everyone lse, but. buddy system your way through this shit if you can.

[ He does his best to fix Jack with a pointed stare; the only thing he can really do to make it clear is lean forward a little and tap his foot. He understands being cautious-- it makes perfect sense, even more so if Jack hasn't been able to get a feel for who he might be dealing with. There's not much he can do aside from strongly caution and hope for the best-- at the end of the day, Delta doesn't want to find the corpse of somebody who went off alone and got mauled. Hell, they might not ever be seen again in that case. ]

you good asidef rom the [ Delta makes a claw gesture in front of him with his free hand, somewhat unenthusiastically swiping it to the side. Cat scare. That's a passable way to get that across, right? ]
if you're not, lemme know. i don't know if i can help with evertyhing. little limited in the grand scope f things
still worth a shot.
[ He's used to lending a hand where he's needed-- he'd be remiss if he didn't at least check. ]

[Buddy system, huh? Not that Jack in any way resembles a helpless little girl with a needle, regardless of the similarities between himself and the Daddy's typical tiny charge - similarities of which Jack is, at the present moment, blissfully unaware.

The funny thing about the diving suit is that it does a good job hammering home Delta's point, regardless of the lack of visible eyes.]

Why are you helping me?

[Bluntly spoken, as direct as the question itself. The heretofore unaddressed elephant in the room, that which he can no longer ignore. Why would someone like him help some random nobody, simply because he happens to be from Rapture? Or...who's been there.

Who's been to Rapture.]

because nobody desrves to die out here. least of all alone.

[ Why indeed? Delta doesn't take the slightest bit of offense at the question. He's seen similar reactions on different faces, in different voices-- from an outside perspective, there's no reason for him to do half of what he did. Even when staring down men who had more than earned their death, he'd stayed his hand. It wasn't always easy-- he'd come close enough with Poole, dangerously so, but it wouldn't have fixed anything. He had to do better than what he's seen. For Eleanor, although she's learned the world enough to make her own choices. It's just as much for his own sake. ]
[ Despite Rapture's best efforts, he's not a monster, hidden under layers of metal and cloth-- at his core, he's still human. Perhaps a little worse for wear, but the same. After so long without a mind or free will to speak of, Delta's left trying to figure things out for his own, a fact of life that's amounted to trying to change what he can for the better. He can't always intervene-- that's simply not realistic. There's things he can do, though, and keeping someone safe is one of them. Jack may be from Rapture, but as far as Delta's concerned, he's not to blame. He's just another lost soul who was left to drown at the bottom of the sea, and he deserves better than that. ]

[ On the outside, all of this is nothing more than an incredibly long pause, the light from his helmet almost flickering yellow as his mind wanders. ]

so
[ Time to get back on track. ]
i get the feeling we'd both prrefr if you didn't die. correct me fi i'm wrong.

[The answer is remarkably simple. Anyone with a conscience would want to keep someone else alive, or help if they could. And for all his ruffled appearance, it's clear Jack can hold his own, and therefore even the more pragmatic do-gooder wouldn't have reason to leave him.

Down in Rapture, Atlas had been the exception to the rule. The one person who gave and continues to give a damn. Everyone else was simply to the point where they no longer could care for anything but feeding their ADAM-fueled haze, or they were Andrew Ryan - Andrew Ryan, who cared only for himself, and for feeding his own self-interest in fending away all that threatened to disrupt his political paradise.

The better question might be Why do you care? Why would a Big Daddy expand the scope of his concern to fit in a man who counts as neither Little nor a Sister, but that question, in the wake of this Daddy's obvious self-awareness, seems particularly blunt, even cruelly so.

He keeps his mouth shut.]

Didn't like dying underwater. I'd rather not die underground too.

that's the spirit.
[ Were capable of doing so, Delta might've chuckled. He can appreciate that survivor's instinct, and it's good to see. If anyone's going to be able to hold their own, it's this guy, with or without the fistful of bees. ]
[ And good job, Jack-- Delta's taken a bit of a shine to you. ]

if you wanna keep that up thoughh we shouldn' stay in one spot for too long. might be somethng making its way back here.
[ Probably was, with his luck in mind. There always was that possibility, and with so many things jumping out at people, there very well may be a handful of monsters who'd been treated to the same experience. ]
you got a destinatin in mind, maybe?

[No destinations in mind, personally. He's still acclimatizing to the fact that his underwater prison has been swapped out for an underground one, which isn't exactly a terrible development; he hasn't seen enough of this place to know if it's better or worse than Rapture.

Or where he should be heading.]

Is there any place I should be?

[He's got no voice on the radio telling him where to go. No one informing him what he should be doing. Without any direction, he can't help but feel -

Directionless.

Like he's drifting.

That's a poor joke.]

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test drive meme #20

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