dankmemes | test drive meme #23

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!test drive

test drive meme #23

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 August 25th, and apps are open September 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: SLIPPERY NAKED PEOPLE
[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.

No big deal, but there's a freaky wall-climbing zombie thing stalking you. Maybe you should get inside? Or run. Or just accept death. This time, the Door has brought in some Descendants, from the Uncharted video game.

Descendents are emaciated, man-eating monsters that used to be normal people until affected by a virus - you know how that goes! Terribly, always. They are fast and agile and quite strong, and they will stalk you and crawl up walls and maybe break your neck if they can. Badass.]

S O R R O W / H O P E

SCENARIO TWO: THE FUTURE ISN'T BRIGHT
[You found a mirror. It's your mirror, created just for you, and when you look into it - well. You might not want to look more than once, because it shows an image of the worst possible future you could imagine for yourself. Maybe you're dead. Maybe someone you love it. Maybe you've lost everything. Basically, it sucks.

What are you gonna do? Throw it away? Smash it? Keep looking over and over because you love pain? Or maybe someone else threw theirs away, and you're the one that found it. You really, really want to look. Invasive, maybe, but your curiosity is killing you. Just a peek...

This is a mini version of our Bad End event this month.]

L O V E

SCENARIO THREE: VISIT ME AND EXPLAIN YOUR PASSIONS
[You know that totally inconsequential hobby? The one that you love? Or maybe your favorite TV show or comic book? Wouldn't it be great if you had someone to talk to about it? Someone who would listen patiently while you explain the family tree from that obscure fantasy novel you reread every year?

Well, wait no longer! Your time is now! The moment you make eye contact with someone, you'll know they want to listen to you explain your obsession. They've just been waiting and hoping you'll come along and educate them! So go to town, buddy, tell them all about your waifu.

Or maybe a stranger just walked up to you and started talking about their favorite knitting pattern. That's... cool. Are you gonna interrupt them? Walk away? Get into an argument about how your favorite knitting pattern is so much better? Now's the time to show your passion, or possibly your complete disinterest! Go for it!]

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( 2; sorrow/hope )

[When Carey looks into the mirror, she sees nothing but herself.

...Which is a normal thing to see when you look in a mirror, but of course, this isn't a normal mirror. Strangely, though her reflection mirrors her movements, it looks different, somehow. At first, it's just very uncanny valley, but progresses long enough that she realizes her reflection is aging. In a moment she can tell that her scales are turning silver, her talons yellow, and her face... Tired.

And then the reflection moves on its own. The Carey in the mirror is walking around, sort of hobbling as it does, though the real Carey remains still. She's watching herself cry out for a friend, for her family, her brother, her girlfriend, but receives no response. She's watching herself reach out, with no avail, terrified for the moment when she'll finally—

Carey turns away moments before she sees herself age into dust. She curls up into herself, her tail wrapped over her head, petrified.

It's not real.]

( 1 / 3; feel free to initiate? )

[Magnus happens to have already broken his mirror.

It doesn't much help when everything in town that's even a touch reflective happens to show him rehashes of the same old shit, but it made him feel a little better at the time. Seven years of bad luck or whatever, but he was already unlucky enough to lose his entire body, so what's a few more emotion parasites invoking bad omens in his life?

When he sees Carey, though, that's entirely forgotten. The last time he saw her, he had left her to fend for herself against the invisible invasion (with Killian and Noelle, of course, but not with him, and that was so hard for him to do). But now she's here, and she's fine, he didn't leave her to die like the reflections are hinting and he doesn't think about the reflections anymore.

He just comes barreling at her from behind and grabs onto her, pulling her into a tight hug.]

[Magnus's hug has a different affect than intended. The contact shocks Carey and she forces her way out of his grasp before she can figure out what's going on. She reflexively reaches for her dagger, but cuts herself off when she sees who it is. She's apprehensive.]

Are you real?

[The tears have stopped, but she's still trembling. After what she just saw in that mirror she can't trust her own eyes. Not to mention the last time she she checked, he was dead.]

[God, she looks horrified to see him. And why wouldn't she? Lucretia is from ages before they ever met -- or were supposed to have met. It figures Carey might not even remember that he's still alive.]

Yeah. 100% real. Turns out I'm less dead than everyone thought I was.

[His smile is somber -- he knows what she's going through, and now he doesn't even know if she is going to survive her fight against the invisible monsters.

But she's here. That's the main thing. It sucks, but also... he missed her.]

[Carey approaches Magnus, slowly, as if she thinks he might bite. She's deciding whether or not the man in front of her is real. With trepidation, she reaches out to touch his arm. Yeah, he feels pretty real.

So she punches his shoulder. (But only for a few HP.)

After she gets that out of her system, she wraps him up into a proper hug, burying her face in his chest.]

Don't you ever scare me like that again, you big dummy.

[He laughs, recoiling slightly from the punch, but when she finally hugs him, he just smiles fondly, wrapping his arms around her again.]

Sorry, Carey. A lot happened, but... all that would just be an excuse.

[He sighs over her horns.]

I'm just glad you're here. Even if here sucks.

[After a rather tender moment, the hug breaks naturally.]

Here does suck. But I'm glad we found each other.

How long have you been here? [Is this place the reason Taako and Merle showed back up on the moonbase without him?]

Uh...

[He counts on his fingers.]

Four months, I guess. Wow, it's felt, like... a lot longer than that. This kinda stuff never ends, let me warn you now.

Four months? [She's rather taken aback.] But you were only gone for like, a few days! What does time mean here?

[Asking this question, it dawns on her that she and Magnus may have travelled here from different points in time. He very well might be dead if she were to return to her leaving point. But he did seem to acknowledge that he'd been presumed dead...]

When did you come from?

Edited 2017-09-05 00:55 (UTC)

[Hadriel has a lot of things: a total lack of real sunlight, a lake full of mutant sharktopii, and free mopeds for as far as the eye could see to name a few. But one area it was continuously lacking in was racial diversity.

So far in Lup's stay in Hadriel, she's seen a gaggle of elves (including herself and her brother), one dwarf (who just so happened to already have been her friend from before this place), and one assumed dragonborn. Everyone else that she's come across? Human. Humans, humans, humans. And boy, it sure gets old fast.

Which is precisely why the elven woman double takes at the sight of Carey curled up protectively on herself, her path changing from a casual stroll home to making a beeline at the dragonborn instead. Considering all of the chaos that reflections have been causing as of late, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's gotten under the other woman's scales. So Lup does what comes naturally to her. She plucks the mirror up and tosses it over her shoulder, the resulting shattering of glass satisfying in a way that few things really are.] Hail and well met, homie. Your knight in silver pumps just arrived.

[Taako's shoes, natch, but she rocks them harder than he ever could.]

[The sound of glass shattering jolts Carey out of her curled-up formation. She's still jumpy from the trip she just had.

When she looks up she sees... Taako? But not Taako. Still hugging her knees—she's not feeling standing up right now—she squints at the figure before her.]

Uh... Thanks. I guess. [It doesn't come off rude at all; she's simply still shaken from her experience, so she is soft-spoken.] Could you tell me where I am?

[Lup, naturally, doesn't have a clue Carey knows her brother or she might have approached this whole introduction from another angle. But for now, she's just an elven chick helping a cute dragonborn lady out. Non-human girls gotta stick together, right?

If she had any gum, this would be the time that Lup popped it. Instead, she just throws her arms out, gesturing at the city Carey's been so unceremoniously dropped into.]

Welcome to our very own hell cave. This is Hadriel. It majorly sucks and it's run by turbo-liches who want to suck your emotions dry, but we manage.

That, uh, sounds horrible.

[Somehow, there's something about Lup's demeanor that cheers her up. Carey finds the strength in herself to get back on her feet.]

I guess you saw what happened with that mirror, huh. [She rubs at the back of her neck, a little embarrassed.] Is that normal around here?

Basically.

[The longer she stays in Hadriel, the more Lup's determined to blow up the shitty gods who run this place, if only to keep them from tormenting her brother and friends. It still beats the Hunger, though that isn't too difficult to do, but by how much, she isn't sure.

When Carey unfurls to stand, Lup holds out a hand to help her, encouraging her with a curving grin.] Nah, not exactly. The mirrors are a pretty new addition here, but they'll be replaced soon enough with something else. The guys in charge like to keep us on our feet. Watch out for other reflective surfaces though. It's not just the mirrors you'll see shit in.

[Carey accepts Lup's hand on her way up, and finds comfort in it. ... Although when Lup goes on to explain that more bad things are bound to replace these mirrors, she deflates.]

Of course, I should've known. [A sigh.] Of course, after something like that, there's bound to be even worse things...

... But you know what, I'll be ready for that challenge! [She pumps her fists in the air in an attempt at building herself back up again. She hates being down, and she hates it even more when people see her down—but her method of coping with this is to make herself rise again.

After her mini pep rally is over, she extends a hand once again, this time for a shake.] Thanks for the rescue. Carey Fangbattle.

[Once Carey is on her feet and Lup's hand is free, the elf reaches over to playfully punch the dragonborn in the shoulder when she deflates. But before she can even try to encourage the other woman that Hadriel isn't always completely awful, Carey surprises her by quickly taking that task up all on her own, pumping a fist in the air and looking at least hundred times more lively than when Lup had first stumbled upon her.

She reaches out a fist, offering to fist bump Carey in return.] Hell yeah! That's the kind of enthusiasm this chick likes! The name's Lup. [She grins down at Carey, who is so much shorter than her.] Also, fucking rad name. Fangbattle is fresh as hell. Really leaves little to the imagination.

Edited (word flip) 2017-09-02 05:46 (UTC)

Hell yeah, we're going fist bump over handshake! [Carey gladly returns the fist bump.] Nice to meet you, Lup.

[Lup... She knows that name. She's seen the letters burned into the wall of one of the Bureau's common rooms. It was gone a week later. She'd originally thought nothing of it, but now the owner of the name shows up looking exactly like—]

Hey, weird question. You know a guy named Taako?

[Another one, huh? Her brother sure is popular nowadays, isn't he?

Luckily for Carey, Lup's already decided that she likes her or she might not have been as nice.]

Sure do, he's my babiest brother. Don't listen to him when he says he's the older twin. He's deffo wrong. For the record, I'm also the taller and hotter twin too. Feel free to remind him anytime.

[A laugh. It didn't take long at all for Lup to bring her mood back up to par.]

I don't think he'll be too offended if it comes from me. He knows he's not my type. [Wink!]

So, d'you have any advice for a newbie? I think I'm gonna need some.

[And because Lup is absolutely Awful, she can't help but grin and ask back:]

What about me? More your type? [The twins were everyone's type, okay. This is fact.]

Mostly just to find your friends and stick with 'em. Getting through this place is a lot easier with people watching your back. [Saying it aloud makes Lup want to laugh, but it's the truth. Fifty years ago, she never would have guessed she'd have friends she trusted like this and now she has a whole group of people she'd give anything for.] Obvs, if you're a pal of my brother, you're an honorary friend of mine. Stick with us and you'll be fine. Mags, Merle and Lucretia are around too, if you know them.

Easily, [she says, unashamed. She's not hitting on Lup, just being rather blunt about her preferences.

She lights up at the mention of her friends' names.] Magnus is here? [She'd maybe prefer her girlfriend just a little bit over Magnus, but he comes in Very Close second.] And Merle, too! [She loves Merle, but is mostly just including him because she'd feel bad not to.]

You must be pretty close with the Director if you're calling her by name like that.

[Hey, it's good that she knows what she wants! Also, proves how good Carey's taste is to pick Lup over Taako. Perfect choice in this elf's opinion.]

Yep! [It's weird to think of someone knowing her brother and most of her friends but not having any knowledge of Lup herself, but there's nothing to do but shrug that feeling off. She already had to go through that with Magnus. Maybe that will just be the new norm for Lup.] They are both kicking it, as ush, but mostly staying out of trouble. Mostly.

[And there comes reference Lucretia as the Director again. She should have seen this coming.] Yeah, we're besties. I've known her for about half a century now.

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test drive meme #23

carey fangbattle | the adventure zone

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