dankmemes | test drive meme #21

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!test drive

test drive meme #21

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 June 24th, and apps are open July 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: A LITTLE FRENZIED
[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.

Do you hear something weird? Some kind of strange, constant humming? Hopefully by now you know enough to know that it's probably not nothing, and maybe you should run. If you don't, well- the Door has brought in some Winter Lanterns, from the Bloodborne video game.

Winter Lanterns are rather hideous creatures that hum constantly and glow orange when they detect someone's presence. They can grab you with their tentacles and take a nice bite out of you, which is super fun, or they can mess you up just by looking at you too long. Yep, hanging out in the gaze of a Winter Lantern for too long will end with you being afflicted by Frenzy - blood shooting out all over the place. Not great for the health, really, so maybe don't get into a staring contest. Maybe just run.]

S O R R O W / L O V E

SCENARIO TWO: HAUNTED
[You thought you might never see them again, but now they're here. That person you loved - that person you miss terribly. Except that you seem to be the only person who can see them, and you also seem to be getting steadily weaker.

So that's what it comes down to, then. This ghost that's haunting you will take your life so it can live, even if it doesn't mean to. Do you have the ability to stop them? You'll have to kill them to do it, and you love them so much. Now's the time to make your choice - but be careful. They're strong enough to be visible now, and one of your friends or even a passing stranger might have something to say about your decision.

This is a mini version of our Ghosts That You Know event this month!]

T R A N Q U I L I T Y

SCENARIO THREE: SLEEPING SICKNESS
[For some reason you can't quite put your finger on, you're tired. Like really tired. Like slurring your words, stumbling over your own feet, nodding off if you stop for a second tired. You can't seem to get enough rest no matter what you try - because it's always a light sleep. The slightest sound or movement will wake you up, leaving you just as tired and irritable as before.

What are you going to do? Try to find a quiet place to nap? Good luck. It seems like a lot of other people have the same idea as you - it might be hard to find a truly empty place. Or maybe you just can't take it anymore, and you're going to lay down and take a nap right in the middle of the street. Or maybe you actually feel fine, but everyone around you is falling asleep - and they glare at you when you make the slightest sound.

Maybe you should wake them up? Sleeping in the middle of the street isn't exactly safe. But then, maybe you just want to join them and argue over who gets the most comfortable bit of road.]

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"That's nowhere near the same situation." Lance informs her, and as for the fishing technique, "No, because I'm really not sure eating whatever lives in this lake is a great idea." And he could've come up with this fishing tactic on his own, so there.

But really, none of that is all that important compared to the rest, and he gives a long sigh as he lies down on his back, unbothered by how dirty it'll probably make his hoodie and hair. "Thanks." He finally says, a bit dryly, at her decision to indulge talking to him even though he's a figment of her imagination. "But let's go with the coma dream theory for a minute; these sorts of dreams are ways for your subconscious to sort out information and process experiences while your body is recovering, correct?"

He has a point here, fingers laced together over his stomach while he seemingly ponders the cave ceiling far above them, one knee drawn up and rocking side to side idly. He's not agitated at all by this conversation; of course not.

"You're right. It isn't. This is much safer than..." Give her a second, she's tired. "Performing on a highwire." This time her pause is deliberate. "You're jealous. Your logic on the fish in the lake is deeply flawed. If everyone had believed the same about any number of odd-looking sea creatures, seafood wouldn't be what it is today."

It's true, though. All of that is light conversation, trivial, casual. Possibly even funny. (She can never be sure what other people find funny versus what she does.) She doesn't get to comment on the dirt he's getting on his clothes and hair before he asks his question, lucky for him. (Spoilers: she would say he's doing his immune system some good by exposing himself to new organisms.)

"That is a common theory, yes." She turns onto her back and swivels her head to look at him. "Are you suggesting that my subconscious has created this scenario for my benefit?"

It's an interesting theory. Too psychological -- being in an underground city when she has been buried alive is cruel, she thinks -- but interesting nonetheless. Time to see what coma-Sweets thinks.

"Why do you assume I'm jealous?" Lance asks, vaguely irritated by this insinuation, and sure maybe she assumes that because he's often insecure and competitive ~~and jealous~~ but that's not a really good reason. "And sure, there's a lot of seafood that was discovered to be edible, but there was a lot that isn't too."

He looks over at her at her question, shrugging a little while still lying on the ground, before turning his attention back toward the cave ceiling. "Something like that. More that these sorts of dreams probably have a purpose; it did for Booth, right? And if there is something that you're supposed to do in order to wake up, there are also probably things you shouldn't do." Like dying. What if you die in the dream and you die in real life?

He definitely hasn't already put thought into this.

Edited 2017-06-21 00:07 (UTC)

"Because you're often insecure and competitive due to your age and post-adolescent looks compared to Booth and my colleagues at the Jeffersonian." 'Duh' -- that's... the right word, right? She thinks she remembers hearing it on that documentary about the Guido tribe.

"A purpose." She frowns, her gaze unfocused. "Well, we are buried alive, in a manner of speaking. These 'gods' are emotional archetypes. Sorrow is the most rational because our society argues that the real world is... cruel. Harsh. The time of dreams and happiness -- Delight -- is childish, it dies very young.

"Love is completely irrational, and therefore is not corporeal. Confusion is... frustrating." No one likes being confused. "Hope and Fear go hand in hand, but then, so do Hope and Sorrow. As for the people here..." Forgive her a long, long yawn. "Why don't you tell me? You're the psychologist, or the part of my brain where I store your psychological diatribes."

Wow he's just getting more and more offended, or would be if it were worth the effort with how tired he feels. "Okay, if you're going to try to psychoanalyze me, you're going to have to do better than that. My looks and age really aren't that big of a problem anymore." Still a problem, but not the primary reasons for his insecurity, which... He's not going to get into, so he's not sure why he's arguing.

He listens to her analysis of the gods and the emotions that go with, and hey, that's not too bad. Not quite what he was getting at, and the mention about being buried alive doesn't go unnoticed, although he lets out a long sigh at her last part. He's already decided to let her come to her own conclusions regarding whether this is a dream or not--he did, after all, although that had been more based on his intuition than anything else so who knows how it'll go with Brennan--but it's definitely getting annoying to be treated like a figment of her imagination.

Still, he considers her question, letting his eyes fall closed as he does. "The people here are varied and represent the good and the bad in various levels and forms, just like in life. Some are good people, some are not; all are more complex than any one emotion given form." And so more unpredictable, and just as benevolent or dangerous.

And she has noooo idea she's offending him, oops. To the point where she doesn't even bother with keeping that part of the conversation going.

"Yes, I agree. They represent so much and in such variety that they even exhibit clearly fantastical traits such as magic or non-human forms. It would seem the purpose is to make me understand that everyone is different and not all people who are different are dangerous, but I already know both of those things."

That suits him well enough, so no complaints there.

"Maybe it's less to realize it, and more to handle actually dealing with the social interaction. Or there's a completely different lesson to learn." Lance believes this place is real, at this point, but he's still holding out a faint glimmer of hope that it really is a coma dream, and he's thought about what it might be that he's supposed to accomplish here himself. He's torn between two very different ideas, but then again neither could be right; somehow he thinks it'd be something difficult to figure out.

"But whatever it might be, I don't think putting yourself in danger--let alone dying--is going to be conducive to accomplishing it." So don't take the risk, please, no matter how curious you are.

"That doesn't make sense. My social skills may still be lacking, but they have improved greatly over the past few years."

Well, perhaps not greatly, but they've still improved.

"Dying could be the point. I was a fugitive not long ago. I did it for Christine, so--" So she would never know a life without her mother. "So we could be a family once my name was cleared. If I surrender here and allow myself to die, to face my fear of abandoning Christine, then perhaps... perhaps I will wake up."

Edited (what even was that random quotation mark) 2017-06-21 01:50 (UTC)

"No, they definitely have." He's quick to reassure her of that, because she really had made strides. "I didn't mean it quite like that."

But he's too tired to try to explain what he did exactly mean, letting out a long breath before responding to the rest of what she said. Sure, part of him is a little impressed at her attempt at analysis--for someone who hates psychology, it's not too bad--but he really wants to discourage this idea. "Or dying could prompt your subconscious to process the death as being real." If that makes any sense. He's not sure; he's too tired to tell, and really just wants to keep Brennan from willingly seeking out some sort of horrible fate.

She would like to know how he meant it, but she would also like to sleep for longer than an hour at a time.

"I've never heard or read about a case of someone thinking or believing themselves to death." And she isn't a fan of this whole trend of thinking yourself to good health. It leaves room to blame ill people for their diseases, and that isn't how anything works.

But back to this conversation.

"I don't want to die, Sweets. Not in reality. This is not... some fantasy of suicide. I want to live. I love my family. I want to be with Booth and Christine and my dad and brother and friends. I want to be with them enough that I would try even the most absurd experiment to wake up."

That took a lot of energy to say; she yawns now, and keeps her eyes half open after.

"It'd be kind of hard to prove, wouldn't it?" Lance counters in response, although this sort of thing is really the only area he considers willing oneself to health to be valid; there's a lot of evidence that people in comas do better when they have the support of family and friends, and something to live for. Of course, that's just as hard to prove as the potential of believing oneself to death, and he doubts Brennan will put too much stock in it.

He isn't exactly expecting the rest of what Brennan says, though; the sentiment isn't surprising at all--he knows she loves her family, and wants to be with them--but it's more than he usually hears from her. It also hits him really hard, for reasons he can't explain to her, and he's glad that both of them laying down makes it easy to hide his expression from her just by turning his head a little to the side.

"I know. I'm just asking you to make the more drastic experiments a last resort." He finally says, once he's sure his voice is steady enough not to give anything away.

"Precisely. It's a hypothesis at best. It will never rise to the level of a theory because there is no way to provide truly empirical evidence for that claim." It's no better than so-called psychics and diviners using dreams or crystals or anythibg else to tell of future events, in her mind.

Of course she has no idea of the fate that awaits Sweets. The last she saw of him before waking in this dream was for a case like any other. She trusts him enough to speak her mind (and to touch upon emotions too, a thing she is loath to do with anyone outside her circle of friends) and since she believes this is all in her head anyway, there is no point lying to him, because she would in effecr be lying to herself. Brennan might not like psychology, but she can see the sense in not acknowledging how you feel about things.

"I don't think risking food poisoning is very drastic." She sighs, letting her eyes drift shut. "Uncomfortable, but nothing the body won't fix on its own." Vomiting is far from fun but it sure does the trick. "I am more concerned by this epidemic of sleepiness. Perhaps the air is contaminated." Or perhaps even her brain needs to take a break from this illusion.

Lance sighs, but he doesn't think he's going to be winning this discussion, and he's too tired to bother trying anymore. He's just relieved Brennan seems to have settled on taking no worse a risk than eating the fish, which Lance is still not excited about, but after her previous comments he thinks it might be the best he's going to get.

Besides, maybe she won't catch anything.

He shrugs a little at her last comments, despite still laying on the ground, which makes the gesture look a bit silly. "It's probably an event. I'm not sure which god would benefit from making us tired but unable to actually rest." Seems like it wouldn't help Tranquility much; maybe Rage? But she's not in the city, so who knows.

No. He's not bothering because he knows she's right. Science, 1; psychology, 0.

"An 'event'." That word doesn't sit well with her. Not precise enough. It will do, though. As for these... "gods". Brennan thinks on that for a moment. "Confusion. We are exhausted, but sleep is elusive. That is very confusing."

It's a good thing his delicate ego has gotten very used to just being right with no one else knowing or accepting it.

"That could be. I would've guessed Rage if she were in the city, but she and Delight left for awhile." He supposes Confusion might make sense, though, especially since he's kind of confused about Confusion being in charge of it.

He needs a nap, seriously.

But... he is wrong. :|

"I find it--" Pardon the yawn. "I find it very amusing that Rage and Delight are the ones who have left. It's very obviously a way of... my brain processing the fact that Joy is gone, and she goes with anger." She turns to look at him again and clarifies, "By 'Joy' I mean my birth name, not 'joy' the emotion. It's very clever of me to manifest that thought while comatose. Not surprising, of course."

Suuuuuure.

Lance looks over at her at that, again a little surprised. "That's an interesting analysis." Not a bad one, just more symbolic an interpretation than he was expecting. He'll also just ignore that little not-even-humble brag.

"What do you find interesting about it?"

It's not a brag! :c It really is clever.

"A lot of things, none of which I could properly articulate right now." Considering just thinking is kind of hard at this level of exhaustion, let alone talking about something sensitive.

"But I definitely want to discuss it later. Once this is all over." The sleepiness, he means; this particular line of thinking is something he's very interested in talking with Brennan further on.

On that at least they can agree. "I believe another attempt at sleep is in order. The fish are not gnawing, so there is no point to staying awake."

All of which she says as she shuts her eyes, voice fading away towards the end there. She hopes that this has passed when she wakes up again.

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test drive meme #21

it's unexpectedly useful!

laughs for ten thousand years

don't you mean cries

both tbh don't watch sad shit with me lmao

noted

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cw she mentions suicidal ideation but is not doing it herself

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