Test Drive Meme #22

[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 July 25th, and apps are open August 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: THE WRONG KIND OF SCARY
[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.

There's an odd shuffling to your right and to your left. Do you know what that is? Maybe not, but at least nobody else does either. You might peek at an eye stalk or a stinger, you might catch a glimpse of something that can maybe pass for fingers... or maybe it just has a mouth on its butt because its creator was feeling particularly sadistic that day. That's right, you're looking at the creatures from Spore, EA's infamous alien creation game with the most awkward alien creator imaginable.

These particular Spore creatures are the carnivorous kind, the kind who seek out and eat other creatures so that they can instantly procreate to pass on their victim's genetic code and make their species even more wild. You might not want to stick around and watch the mating process. I promise it's just as weird as you think.]

T R A N Q U I L I T Y / C O N F U S I O N

SCENARIO TWO: STEPFORD SUNDAY
[You wake up one lovely weekend morning to the sounds of birds chirping outside and sun streaming through your window. What a wonderful day to be perfectly normal and happy in the suburbs! Your family is all around you, like a Norman Rockwell painting, happy to go about their average day in their average life in their average city.

So what if your sister is an archdemon? Or your father is somehow a dragon? It's just the way that things have always been... isn't it?

The perceptive of you may begin to see cracks in the veneer, may begin to wonder why everything seems to be so perfect... and as the truth begins to unfold, it paints a much darker picture than the one you're seeing. Are you sure you don't want to stay, just a little while longer?

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

R A G E / D E L I G H T

SCENARIO THREE: CAKE WARS
[There are plenty of ways in this world to rouse your competitive spirit. Many of them involve athletics- few involve such beautiful edible artistry as this.

That's right, you're in a cake baking competition, and no matter how competitive you normally are, thanks to Rage's influence, you want to win. Competitors can be in teams of two or alone, and they have until morning to bake their cakes to the fullest and bring it to Delight's temple for judging.

So what kind of cake baker are you? Do you revel in your artistry? Do you measure everything and carefully prepare each icing tip? Or do you know that you suck at cooking and decide to use the opportunity to sabotage your opponent's cake instead? Nothing is off limits, and all's fair in cake and war, after all!]

Comments

[hot_mes]

Heh. Magic. [don't mind him, he used to even think of powers like his own as magic and sniff at them. He mostly keeps that to himself, though there's a wry look in his eye all the same.] Actually, an alarm sounds pretty useful. Illusions, though...hm. Interesting. Much better than actually trying to slip in and poison the others.

[he would never do that! maybe]

[ghostlocked]

[He doesn't like that tone, but he'll let it slide for now. They're like, 95% on the same page. He doesn't want to ruin it.]

Was that your plan sans magic?

[He's not judging. The thought crossed his mind, too.]

[hot_mes]

Poison isn't necessary if a dash of pepper or tabasco sauce would do the same trick.

[matter-of-fact about it. Really, no need to go to extremes when a simpler solution is at hand]

My ability can do more than just switch things around, but if I needed to use it to get you close enough to sabotage the others, that's one way. Illusions, provided they can be set off from a distance, would be far easier yet.

[ghostlocked]

[Harlan laughs.] Okay, fair. We should do that anyway. It'll be funny.

[He empties the rest of the bag of chips into his mouth.] I can fuck up one, maybe two cakes from a distance. I don't have enough juice to do that on loop forever though, and my easier spell has a range of like, eh, ten, maybe fifteen feet. That illusion'll last an hour, so maybe I can sneak it in before judging.

[hot_mes]

[he wags a finger smartly] So it does have limitations. Good to know. If there are more competitors than that, we'll have to employ every trick in the proverbial book.

It's a good start to a plan. If there's anything else you can do without drawing down too much power, now's the time to add it in. [surprisingly, he knows exactly what it's like to drain yourself too much and not be able to use it at a crucial time. All. Too. Well.]

[ghostlocked]

Good call. Hm. [He folds up the empty bag neatly as he runs through his spell list in his head.] I can teleport, but I'm not sure what good that'll do in and of itself. I could also rot someone's cake, though that would take some energy.

[Oh! He has an idea.] I could crank up the temps in everyone else's ovens. I can do that as many times as I want, pretty much.

[hot_mes]

[grins like a naughty kid] Perfect. I think you should. Whether burnt, contaminated, or under your power, as long as every other cake is terrible we don't even need to swap ours for the best one. Though, doing that would be a useful last resort in case one escapes our plan and shows up looking perfect.

[he glances sideways at the oven] ...not that I think ours is terrible, but like you say. We're both bad at baking. Why take chances?

[ghostlocked]

I'm on it. [He hops off of the counter. He's gonna pick up some more chocolate while he's at it, too.

He's tempted to point out that he could be good at baking if he wanted to be, but he doesn't, so the point is moot... but it's not like he has great evidence to back that up. He's lowkey afraid of what they've got cooking in that oven. Law's right, though. It barely matters.]

I could always illusion up our cake, too. Hey, why don't we split the workload? I'll take this side and fuck with the ovens, you take the other and, I don't know, swap out the salt and sugar or something.

[hot_mes]

Don't tell me what to do. [it's almost out of reflex. At the same time, Law turns and heads the opposite way] Fine. I'll do what I can to mess up the ingredients.

[ghostlocked]

Just a suggestion, man. Relax.

[Don't worry, Harlan understands that impulse. But still, shut up and listen to him. He gives Law a thumbs up and heads off to his side of the competition. The lap doesn't take him long--all he has to do is sneakily crank up a few knobs here and there, and boom, sabotage complete. He heads back to their station with a fresh bag of chocolate chips once he's done.]

[hot_mes]

[NO YOU. Law grumps under his breath as he do but still makes the rounds, relying entirely on his ability to yank away bowls and swap ingredients wherever he goes. He's subtle about it, putting on the appearance of just scoping everybody else out and comparing their skills to his, and the first team to cry loudly about their batter tasting wrong brings a cool smirk to his lips.

When he gets back, he just gives his unexpected partner a raised eyebrow.]

Really? You haven't had enough of those yet?

[ghostlocked]

[wtf get off his dick????]

There's no such thing as enough chocolate. [And he's not sharing this time. That's what Law gets for being a smartass.] How'd the sabotage go?

[hot_mes]

[that's okay he doesn't want any, so nyeah]

Fine. I changed some ingredients around and stole others. It's still possible one or two might recover or make the best of it, but at least we have far fewer rivals now.

[which reminds him, there's still a canister of baking powder and a vial of vanilla extract in his pocket. Those don't need to live there, but he'll make a point of hiding them under the counter anyway.]

Some of the others are working on decorations. Do we need those too?

[ghostlocked]

Nice. And the rest of the competition should have burnt cakes. We got this in the bag.

[Good question, though. Harlan glances around the room at the few other groups doing some shit with piping bags.]

Hm. Guess we should. We could fuck it up on purpose if we're still going with the cake trading plan.

[hot_mes]

It takes more effort to fuck it up on purpose. [really, he knows nothing of icing and flowers and fondant, left to Law he'll fuck it up no matter what] It should at least look like a cake before we swap it out.

...no flowers, though. Flowers are boring.

[ghostlocked]

[Harlan squints at Law. That sounds like the opposite of true, but he's getting a little bored. May as well spice it up with some attempted decorating.]

Alright, sure. Let's do, uh... [What goes on a cake besides flowers?] Shit, I don't know. We can draw animals or something. Do we have to make our own icing?

[hot_mes]

Hearts. [what? WHAT? He has a thing, okay.] I...don't know, honestly.

[step one, check everywhere for something that might be icing first. Cabinets, fridge, oven. Oh, the cake smells actually edible, not bad. No icing in there though. He got a recipe for cake, nobody said anything about a recipe for decorating it!]

[ghostlocked]

[Harlan laughs.] Hearts. Sure.

[This icing situation is a problem, though. Harlan doesn't have the slightest clue for how to make icing.]

Hm. It's probably just like, eggs and sugar or something, and then we mix it up. It doesn't have to taste good as long as it looks passable.

[hot_mes]

Eggs? [as he straightens up from the fridge with a carton of cream, like that's going to help. Dubious. Eggs doesn't sound right but Law has so little baking experience that he's willing to go with it.]

...you're right, as long as it looks like icing then the taste doesn't matter. Give it a shot. [while he fishes out clean bowls - look, he's helping!]

[ghostlocked]

Unless you got a better idea.

[Once again, Harlan doesn't appreciate being told what to do!!! ...But messing around with a mixer does seem pretty fun. He plugs it in and then starts dumping stuff into the bowl.

Half a bag of sugar and, like, twenty eggs should probably do it. Cracking eggs is fun, too.]

Oh, I bet we need butter. That's a thing, right? Buttercream?

[hot_mes]

[Law looks toward him with the slow dawning realization that that actually makes sense. Some part of him has to wonder if he's losing his mind or Harlan is actually good at this.]

Buttercream... [well, he's still got the cream, so...here. In case that's part of it. Back into the fridge for the butter, which is quite cold and hard so good luck with that in the mixer, Harlan]

[ghostlocked]

[IN GOES THE CREAM. That sounds like the next logical step. Good call, Law. The butter is going to pose some problems, though. Harlan unwraps it and dumps it into a smaller bowl.]

Nuke this. I'll get started with the other stuff.

[And he will, once he can figure out this mix--OH THERE IT GOES and now he's covered in a smattering of maybe-icing ingredients. Awesome.

Take two, but on a lower setting...]

[hot_mes]

[Do what with it now? The problem with that direction, they don't exactly have microwaves on pirate ships. Law just stares at Harlan's back, having no idea what that means. But he's not going to admit it and look like an idiot.]

Well. That's...

[It takes him a minute, but he can infer from the explosion of ingredients that maybe the butter should be softer before it goes in. Hmm. Well, the oven is already hot, maybe if he sticks it in there for a few seconds...]

[ghostlocked]

[Harlan is busy doing icing stuff and doesn't realize that Law is befuddled over the "nuke it" thing. When he has everything all mixed, he glances over at the microwave, which doesn't have butter in it, and then at Law, who isn't holding any butter... What the hell?]

Dude, what are you doing?

[hot_mes]

Melting the butter. [duh?

although he did not consider that he put a conductive metal bowl in a hot oven so. It's very melted and he reaches in to quickly grab it before it burns. Wait, better grab a towel first, he very nearly burned his precious surgeon's hands like an idiot.]

Well. That. Sort of worked.