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

[so_dark_a_road]

He nods and indicates she should walk beside him. The forest floor is leaf-strewn and laced with paths, and not difficult to traverse.

"Yes, and the clinic staff are versed in figuring out what remedies to apply or suggest. If we describe the creatures, they'll figure out what might be needed."

He smiles at her. "It doesn't sound mad to me. I've been in other worlds myself. Who did you meet in that other world you speak of? What were their names?"

[stonebird]

She pulls out a cloth and wipes her blade clean before falling into step beside him. It doesn't seem safe enough to sheathe the weapon yet, so she keeps it at her side, the tip pointed to the ground.

"In order to be versed, they must have encountered our foes before." a fact that she finds chilling rather than comforting, "You have?"

It is nice to know she isn't going mad! Though she is certain she isn't.

"I did more than meet them. You can say they...adopted me." she can't quite meet his gaze, "Maedhros, Maglor, Fingon... Then there were Elves named Erestor, Glorfindel, Echthelion, Elrond, Eärendil, Thranduil, Fingolfin and, of course, the Elven ladies Galadriel and Celebrían."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin has sheathed his own blade, but then, he can pull it out in a hot second. But he approves of her keeping her own sword in her hand. There really is no telling whether or not there are more creatures lurking about.

"Indeed. This is the cave city of Hadriel, a very strange place to live. Creatures of this sort and other sorts live in the walls of the cave, and when they come out, we must fight them. The clinic staff are used to tending to monster-inflicted wounds."

"Elves adopted you?" He looks at her with a smile. "Good heavens, what a list! Quite of few of those are my relatives, and the rest are known to me. I am Curufin, the fifth son of Fëanor. May I know your name? I would be proud to consider you an adopted member of my family. I think you fit right in."

[stonebird]

"So we are in a cave." she isn't comfortable not seeing the sky or feeling a fresh breeze, but she imagines it is worse for the Elves. They are so attuned to...everything.

"I do not like fighting. My..." Atar, "The one I called father taught me to defend myself and he made me this sword."

His reaction coaxes a relieved smile from her in turn. "I have heard your name." from proud, lonely brothers, "I am Sansa Stark. It is a long story, but it begins in another world; in another city. I was left behind when my father and brother disappeared. The Elves of the city took notice of me and kindly offered me company and a new home to call my own."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Maedhros, Maglor, Fingon, and Celebrimbor are here, too," he says. "Whom did you call Atar, in that other world?"

"Pleased to meet you, Sansa Stark! I am sorry that you lost your father and brother. But I am glad that my people stepped up to offer you a home and a family."

[stonebird]

"They are?" she breathes, "They will not remember me, but -" it doesn't matter. She just wants to see them. That had been her dearest wish: to follow them to Arda or wherever they might travel.

"Maedhros is my Atar - as is Fingon. They were residing together when they took me into their home. I did not know what to expect - my experience with men has not been...pleasant."

Outside of her father and her brothers, it has been downright hellish.

"But I was worried and sad and needing a change. They gave me a bedroom of my own and allowed my wolves inside."

[so_dark_a_road]

"They won't, if the Elves here are different Finweans than the ones you knew in that other world. But they'll honor the decisions of their counterparts, I think. And I certainly will."

"Two Atars! That is good. And it is a good combination -- Maedhros and Fingon." Maedhros to provide the fire and Fingon the stability. And both of them, the safety. It seems the poor girl needed that refuge. "You will be safe with us, too," he says, with great gentleness.

"You have wolves? Or had them in that world?" Interesting coincidence. Finweans are not generally very tolerant of wolves, but it seemed that Maedhros and Fingon divined that Sansa's needs were paramount and accommodated to them.

[stonebird]

"Different...? Only in their experiences, perhaps." but not different at their core. Sansa will take time and learn of them again. At least she has a head start this time.

"There was a night... I had a terrible dream and I fell ill from it. Both of them found me, held me and sang for me." she flushes at the memory, smiling up at him, "No one had done that for me since... I lost my parents, my brothers..."

That infinite, protective parental patience is something she took for granted with her father and mother. That was not so with Maedhros and Fingon. She loved them and showed it daily in Ruby City.

"Thank you." she has a feeling Curufin will quickly earn her affection too. The whole Finwean line is remarkable - precious - to her thus far.

"I had a male I took in when he was abandoned...or orphaned. I never learned which. I named him Lord and he was my eyes and ears while I slept alone in my father and brother's absence. He had a wonderfully patient nature." like her sweet Dire-Wolf Lady, "With the aid of Maedhros and Fingon, I let him have more and more freedom in the forest. He found a mate - she was always too wild to approach - but their pups..." she beams suddenly, "I held each one of them. The sweetest of the bunch attached herself to me and I brought her home to live with us permanently. Her name was Jonquil."

[so_dark_a_road]

"In their experiences only, yes. I have met Maglor before in another world, the one I lived in before I came here -- not our original world, but one that resembled Arda. The Maglor I know here in Hadriel is the same, though he doesn't remember our sojourn in Arda Marred, doesn't apparently have that as an experience. And that is all right. I am overjoyed to see him, to share a life with him again."

He can imagine his relatives taking care of Sansa, treating her as though she were a member of their house, loving her and making her feel valued. He knew they would do the same here, and he would join them in that. "Welcome to Hadriel," he said, with a small smile.

"So, you adopted a homeless or orphaned wolf, and he became your family during that time when you had none. That was good of him, and of you, to take him in. And his child. . . Jonquil! What a sweet name for a wolf pup!" He decides immediately to give up his antipathy for wolves. It never made sense anyway. Not all wolves in Arda had been werewolves or belonged to Sauron. The hunting dogs that he and Celegorm had owned or befriended had been wolfhounds, with considerable wolf in their blood. It was the wolf genes that made them what they were.

"It is too bad you do not have Jonquil with you here. There would have been a place for her at our hearth. You will come and stay with us? I am sure the others would agree. But only if you wish. If you would like to have your own place, I am sure there are houses nearby that are not yet occupied."