dankmemes | 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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I didn't attack anyone," Wash assures her, "he attacked me. If you've got people like that on your guard you should be vetting them better."

He also can't imagine Sharkface being a part of a protection squad for civilians like this. If he is, great, but...

"This city. I'm guessing we're stuck somehow? How was I even brought here?" He hasn't ruled out the possibility he's dead, to be honest.

That will have to be determined. Maketh knows all too well the chaos interpersonal problems can cause. She's no longer in a position to force everyone to behave in public. Though she has authority, it's far more limited than what she was afforded on Lothal. And there are rules she must follow.

"Does he have a name?"

But, thankfully, there an easy way to determine whether or not it's one of her Guards.

She tips her head to the side.

"Through a device called the Door. As far as we've been able to tell, it can reach into other dimensions and pull people in. Most alive. Some after death."

She smiles, not gently.

"It's not the afterlife, if that's what you're thinking. Though you wouldn't be the first to raise the question."

"I don't know his real name. He calls himself Sharkface -- we have a history." Might as well go for full disclosure. "I don't think he'll attack me again anytime soon but I can't make any promises if he does. I've had to take him out before."

Which is why he thinks this is some kind of hell. Her explanation about the door and assertion that it isn't, in fact, the afterlife, just serves to make him more confused.

"A trans-dimensional portal? That's a first. You said pull people in, there's no way to go back through? I was kind of in the middle of something."

"I'm sorry, Sharkface?"

What. What is that.

Maketh frowns. It sounds like a code name, a designation applied to an operative when personal details are detrimental to the mission. Even if it does seem like a rather silly one.

"No one on the Guard is using that designation," Maketh says slowly. "But there is a man who wears armor similar to yours. Ephemera."

Not someone she knows especially well, or that she trusts. But capable fighters are few and far between, and this needs to be handled properly.

"I will deal with this," she decides, nodding. Carefully. "Hmm, yes. Occasionally people get pulled back, though we haven't been able to determine how or why. And I assure you, sir, you are not the only one with unfinished business here. This is not the sort of place one stays in willingly."

"Ephemera..." Wash rolls the name around in his head. He'll remember it, at least. "If his armor's black and red, that's him. He used to paint shark teeth on the helmet but didn't have that here."

She'll deal with it, huh? Wash wants to ask how, wants to learn more about Sharkface's motivations here, but honestly, it can wait.

"So there's really no way out?"

Sounds like one of her men, then. Ephemera. The quiet one. He rarely speaks, but he turns in his reports on time and fights better than some. Maketh doesn't relish the thought of dealing with this. Interpersonal problems are difficult and messy, resisting clean fixes. But she can't have people killing each other and possibly hurting civilians in the process. It runs counter to her design. "No. Not even by dying. The gods don't allow it."

She thins her mouth.

"You'll meet them soon enough."

"Gods. So... lunatics with some kind of power at their disposal?" Because who else would go around calling themselves gods?

Maketh snorts. "They have power we cannot match. Perhaps that makes them gods. Either way, they're a serious threat."

"Can I ask what kind of power?" It sounds like they can raise the dead, which is just. Well. It's ridiculous but the aliens can do it apparently so.

"We're not certain of the full extent. It's likely they're holding things back." Maketh rocks back on her heels. "They can create illusions, change the environment to suit their whims, and temporarily grant abilities to individuals who please them. Healing and the like. And access our memories. You'll find very little is secret from them."

"Hm. I've encountered beings sort of like that before, in the Covenant. But they prefer to kill humans than to screw with them like this." A threat indeed. "No one's tried to eliminate them?"

"Really. And you managed to kill them?"

How interesting.

Maketh just gives him a look.

"Of course we've tried. Our efforts have been unsuccessful."

"It was a long war, but they die like anything else."

If it bleeds, you can kill it, Wash thinks, and wonders if these beings do. Everything dies, it must be possible.

"What have you tried so far?"

So they were physical beings. Maketh considers this. It's possible that the gods do have bodies and they've just been hiding. "We've tried pulling them out into the open, bombing their temples, summoning allies. Other measures have been implemented, though it will be some time until we see resources."

The weapon that Hux is building with her, for instance.

"They don't bleed. We know that they die, that they can hurt. It's a matter of determining how."

Test Drive Meme #22

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject