dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #22

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!test drive

Test Drive Meme #22

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!]

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One

[One minute, the Green Arrow is hard at work defending Star City from mostly-human evil. The next, he's face-to-face with something even more green than he is, and with far more teeth. The only time he's ever met anything this openly, explicitly non-human, it was a race of evil aliens trying to take over the Earth, so maybe he can be forgiven later for having something of a kneejerk reaction. In the moment, he jerks back and fires two quick arrows into the creature.

Even in his shock, he tries not to hit anything lethal, but the fact is he has no idea. The thing goes down, dead or not, and only then does he take a step back and realize that it's not the only one.]

What the hell?

[His voice is artificially deep and gruff, thanks to his modulator. He notches another arrow and hisses at, apparently, no one:]

Overwatch? Overwatch? Are you there?

Two

[Since arriving in Hadriel fully suited up, he's spent most of his time as the Green Arrow, and almost none of it as Oliver Queen. At least, that was true until the day he woke up and forgot that he ever put on a hood, or ever even had a reason to. Now he's just Oliver, jogging cheerfully home, waving a friendly hello to the neighbors he's had since forever... right?]

Hey! How are--

[He's been through something like this before, though, and it's only a matter of time before reality reasserts itself. Even now, he slows suddenly as an old scar, one he has no reason to have, twinges under his t-shirt.]

--um.

[He blinks, stopping dead.]

I'm-- I'm sorry. How are you...?

[ Have a man entirely encased in titanium armor and heavily armed, but not with arrows. A burst of rifle fire explodes to Oliver's right, taking out another of the supposed alien creatures. That's what Wash thinks they are, anyway. ]

On your left!

[ The man is shooting arrows. Arrows, for gods sake, Wash didn't even know they made those anymore. ]

[This, on the other hand, doesn't faze him at all -- except that he seems to think Wash is somebody else at first.]

Ray?

[Except, he realizes just a second later, that's not the Atom suit. For one thing, the Atom doesn't fire bullets.]

Never mind.

[Grimly, he decides that answer can wait until they're not surrounded by... whatevers. He shoots the third in what looks like the knee, and when that doesn't seem to halt it, he fires another that splits improbably into a kind of bola in midair and wraps around the thing's legs, tripping it mid-charge.]

Washington.

[ He corrects the stranger, stepping closer with curiosity to examine his arrows because that's. Not how arrows are meant to behave. At least they're working -- and this fellow can handle himself with them. Wash switches to his pistol because these creatures go down easy enough, he should spare his rifle ammo. ]

Do you know where we are?

[It takes him a moment, not because he doesn't know the answer, but because he doesn't want to admit to it. He glances around, then glances around again, but--
no, this is definitely not anywhere in Star City.]

...No.

[Which is probably also why his communicator doesn't work. He grits his teeth.]

Are we on Earth-1?

[ Wash hesitates, too, telling himself that this is real, it's real, he's not completely losing it. This is a thing that's happening, this guy is here too. ]

I guess we could be.

[ Because honestly, he has no idea where they are. But Earth-1? ]

What's with the number?

I--

[The question, oddly, throws him -- mostly because he kind of hates this stuff, all the multiple Earths and the aliens and everything. Give him a good old-fashioned criminal to shoot at any day.]

That's what they call the Earth I'm from.

[Each Earth probably calls themselves that, he realizes, but he doesn't care.]

We don't have...

[He nods towards the creatures.]

...these. Not natively.

There's only one Earth where I'm from.

[ And he's never seen it, but this really doesn't seem like anyplace he's ever seen. ]

These aren't aliens I'm familiar with, either.

Edited 2017-08-01 03:42 (UTC)

Assuming they're aliens.

[Not that he knows what else they could be; he's just covering his bases.]

You don't know where we are?

What else would they be?

[ He's seriously asking -- if it's not human, not from Earth, then to Wash it's an alien. They don't seem entirely sentient, either, just mindlessly rushing at the people in the colosseum. Around them others are struggling. ]

I don't. But these people need help.

[Pause. Very reluctant admission:]

I have no idea.

[So, no need to linger on that. He looks around, taking in the rest of the creatures and the people in terror around them. He may not know where they are, or why, or who this guy is, or literally anything else, but he knows what to do in this situation. He nods, reaching for an arrow.]

You coming?

Coming. You take the left flank.

[ He switches to his knives, since these things seem to go down easy and he doesn't want to waste ammo when he doesn't know where more is coming from.

It's worth noting, as they take care of the monsters in the arena, that Wash fights like a beast. Fast and ruthless, every strike aimed to kill. ]

[The Green Arrow definitely notices. There was a time when his own style was very much the same. Now, there's something more restrained about the way he fights: he kills when he has to, but far more often, he shoots to wound or disable. Sometimes he shoots regular arrows, but he's almost as likely to use one of the bolas, or something that looks like a cross between an arrow and a tranq dart. Or even, once, on a very small creature, a blunt-tipped arrow that nearly resembles a boxing glove and knocks it out cold when it hits what looks like its temple.

It's... mostly natural, now, for him to do it this way. Mostly. Kind of. By the time the area is clear, he's gotten hit a couple more times than he really should have been, and he looks sort of tired. But the job is done, the people safe, and that's the most important thing.]

[ Although he noticed his companion was aiming to knock out or disable instead of kill, everything Wash struck at is now dead. His armor is splattered with blood and he shakes some of the excess off his knives before tucking them away again. He'll clean up later.

He offers a bloodstained hand to a woman that's crumpled on the ground, and she cowers in fear of him... that's a response he's never gotten from someone he saved from aliens. With a sigh he backs away, back to Oliver, and notices a few tears in his suit from where he took hits. Nothing bad enough he needs to share his healing unit, but the guy will need patching. ]

Sitrep.

Stand down.

[Maketh says it coolly and as an order, one that will be followed. She's spent more than a year in Hadriel's madness and a lifetime before that staring down the Emperor's pet Jedi killers. This is another day at work and though she has a rifle at her back and a knife at her belt, she doesn't reach for either. She holds herself at attention, watching the man carefully.

Armored. Armed with a bow. Moves like a combat specialist. Sounds like he's got a voice modulator or half-rate implants, one or the other. Bounty hunter, perhaps?]

I promise, you will not find that action useful.

[Oliver hasn't taken an order in years, and even when he did, he was never particularly good at or interested in it. Since putting on the hood, he's been the one in charge, and nothing in Maketh's tone inspires him to change that just yet.

Instead, he turns his bow on her, although his stance is defensive, and the tension in his bowstring loosens very slightly when he realizes she has no weapons drawn. He drops his aim just enough to be plausibly threatening rather than immediately so.]

And why is that?

Edited 2017-08-01 03:29 (UTC)

[Her first thought is: what a primitive weapon. Her second is that primitive weapons can still be used to slaughter with maximum efficiency and she is not wearing body armor. An arrow through her eye - or center mass? - would still put her down.

It would hardly be the first time. And it's far from the red glow of a lightsaber. She tips her head to the side, unconcerned.]

I am not interested in fighting you.

[And even if she were, Maketh knows very well who would win. She doesn't move in with the odds stacked against her.]

There are more pressing concerns. And civilians that need attending to. You seem capable of surviving on your own.

[This is such an obvious truth that he doesn't even bother to agree with it. Yes, he can survive on his own, even in the midst of all this. He nods to the downed creature.]

And those?

[They seem pretty pressing to him.]

An expected threat.

[The monsters can be dealt with. People, she's found, are a touch more difficult.]

I dislike repeating myself and will say this only once. Bring harm to the people under my protection and I will see you broken.

[Not dead, but - perhaps - wishing for it. She says this simply, without bravado. It's just a fact.]

Aid them and they will aid you in turn. We don't have many rules here, but that one is not challenged.

[She tips her head to the side.]

Welcome to Hadriel.

[It's not that he doesn't take the threat seriously. He does. People don't say things like that, in that tone, without meaning it. It's just that so many people have said things like that to him -- often people who have, in fact, hurt him very badly in a variety of ways after saying it -- that he's not going to react to it. He doesn't know her. She doesn't hold anything over him.

Or does she?]

Are you the one who brought me here?

I am not.

[She tips her head to the side.]

I was brought here just as you were. You'll find a phone somewhere on your person. There will be a message that explains things. If you want more information, then you can find me at the Guard post. I'll answer what I can. But I have work to do now. Sometimes people come in injured.

[He shakes his head urgently, even as he starts to search for the phone.]

I don't have time for this. I have people to get back to. I have a city that needs me.

[A city? Maketh thins her mouth.]

You are far from the only one. Nonetheless, we have not found the way out.

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Test Drive Meme #22

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow | Arrow | totally open, will match format

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