TEST DRIVE MEME #5

[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 January 25th, and apps are open February 1st.

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: HERE KITTY KITTY
[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.

Watch out as you explore the streets of Hadriel, because you're not alone, and there's always something on the rooftops watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to separate you from your group and tear you into pieces. This time, the Door has brought in coeurls, from the video game Final Fantasy X for you meet.

These cat-like monsters can use elemental magic to attack, as well as their teeth and claws. When injured, they can cast a spell that will drain energy from their attacker and give it to them - and they are even able to temporarily petrify you. So if you decide to fight, let's hope you can finish them off quick!]


SCENARIO TWO: BURIED ALIVE
[What a wonderful day to find yourself - or a friend, or a stranger - buried six feet under. Covered in thick earth, the sturdy oak walls of the coffin trapping you in darkness, all alone. Not a soul to hear any cries of help.

Either you're in a coffin yourself, trapped, hoping for rescue, or you've got a GPS, a set of coordinates, and a shovel. Will you try to claw your way out of your possible grave, using only your bare hands and pure terror? Or will you be the one digging, hoping that down below is someone you love, waiting for you to unearth them?

Just don't take too long. Their air - your air - could run out at any moment.

This is a mini version of our Buried Alive event this month!]


R A G E

SCENARIO THREE: PET PEEVED
[Everything seems to be going just wrong enough to drive you right up the wall. Maybe your shoes keep coming untied, or you slammed your finger in the door while you were leaving the house. Maybe your friend keeps using the wrong form of 'your/you're' when they text you. Maybe that guy in the shop with you won't get off his damn phone.

Whatever it is, your day has been full of tiny annoyances, enough to leave you on edge and just about ready to explode. They're such little things, nothing that should inspire so much anger, but one after another - well, shouldn't anyone understand why you're mad?

And then someone else comes along, perfectly primed to push your buttons. Maybe they keep pronouncing your name wrong, or they won't stop staring at your scar, or they have hair just the right color to remind you of your last ex. You're already primed for a fight, and they seem just as pissed as you. What will you do?]

Comments

ciri | the witcher

[ichaer]

scenario one

[ as if she could ignore the threat of a monster lurking in this unknown place.

it's not a monster that she has ever seen or one that she can clearly remember. no matter, ciri responds to its low growl and draws her sword from its sheathe on her back. its runes glow a pale greenish-white as she slips into a familiar stance, blade pointed at the beast. since it was anunfamiliar creature, she had to watch and learn its movements quick if she wanted to keep this battle in her favor. she was a witcher, it was her job to destroy monsters like this and hopefully protect whoever else might stumble into its path. there's a twitch of movement from the beast and ciri moves as ice erupt under her feet. magic, she thinks. perhaps this would be worth the effort.

her movements are graceful, precise and she closes the distance between them quickly while dodging the magical attacks thrown her way. once in striking range, there is a falter in her movement as she raises her sword and comes up short. there's a burn in the air and something crackles, causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end. in a flash of green-white light, she vanishes from sight as lightning strikes down where she once stood. a second later, she reappears at its other side, bringing her blade up in an upward motion to cut through its eye before vanishing again and reappearing at its back, sinking her blade into its spine. ]

You'll have to do better than that.

scenario two

[ as a witcher, digging up a body was never a good thing and usually came about in the form of a contract after something bad had already occurred. striga, wraith, ghouls, vampires and rotfiends were but a small number of beastss that appeared near the buried dead. this time, she was not hunting down some monsters but rather trying to save someone that had been cruelly buried alive under the heavy soil.

it sickens her to think that someone would do something like this. her anger boils inside but she continues to dig, hoping to reach whomever these coordinates represented before they ran out of oxygen or the dirt crushed them.

finally, a coffin comes into view and ciri breathes a tired sigh of relief. of course, there was the chance that this could all just be some trick. there could be something much worse waiting to be unleashed. whatever the case, she is ready and brushes some more dirt away and knocks atop the lid. still, if it was someone she should at least try and give them some hope. who knows what must have been going through their minds this entire time while trapped in that thing... ]

Hang on if you can hear me! I'll have this blasted thing open soon.

2

[leashed]

[Romulus isn't afraid of many things. To say that he's afraid of small spaces would even be an oversimplification. He isn't afraid of them and he's not afraid now, but he's uncomfortable. He's capable of a great many things, and while he's used to feeling powerful, being stripped of that power doesn't bother him as much as the confinement does. He still has his firearm, strapped against his leg, but he's sure that it would do more harm than good in here.

It would seem that there's nothing for him to do but wait, see if he's rescued. He manages calm for the rest of his time spent underground, though the unease and thought of death wears at the edges of his thoughts. If he isn't saved, then he'll die- from starvation or thirst, if nothing else.

Still, the situation offers a small release from his personal responsibility. Rome is nothing if he's not a brutal realist, and the idea that he can do nothing is a strangely comforting one. He'll be rescued, or he'll die. Those are the only outcomes.

The knock startles him from his hours of stillness, and he tilts his head up, trying to listen for her words, muffled as they are through the wood. In response, he knocks against the wood from his own side, the urge to move overwhelming him.

A rescue, rather than a death. He can't say he's not grateful for that, at least.]

I'm here! I'm alive- please, hurry!

[It's the desperation in his hoarse words that surprises him more than anything. Maybe this captivity had been worse than he thought.]

[ichaer]

[ the returned knock and voice gets another sigh out of her. of course, not because someone has actually been instead this damned thing for however many hours but because they are alive. ciri had taken on many contracts that had ended in tragedy and with monsters already lurking about, she had imagined much worse.

either way, now wasn't the time to stand around and think of how things could be worse.

she reaches down, drawing her dagger and working it under the lid of the coffin. ]

Watch yourself!

[ it's her only warning before pushing it in more, enough to give her some leverage to pry it upwards. just enough to get her fingers under and getting something of a grip. it's a tough process but she finally pulls the lid up, ripping it away from the coffin and moving it aside.

there's no monster in the coffin. not one she can tell by first glance but she doubts this is any sort of higher vampire but the rules of new worlds did not always follow her own. yet, she offers a hand a lopsided grin on her dirt smudged face. ]

Let's get you out of this literal hole in the ground, shall we?

[leashed]

[Rome isn't entirely sure what he's supposed to be watching, but when her dagger carves down under the lip of the lid, he can see it silhouetted in the lazy beams of light that appear as a result and shifts away from it, just in case.

The lid is thrown open a moment later. He squints against the sudden light, shifting to take her arm and sit up. Not dead and not an obvious sort of monster, though he wouldn't be sure where lycanthropy would really rest on her scale of judgement when it comes to that sort of thing. Romulus doesn't return her smile, but he doesn't look at her with any degree of harshness either as he slowly moves to stand on shaky legs.]

Thank you.

[His tone is polite, maybe a little clipped. It takes him another few moments to inspect the area around him, marvel a little at how deep the hole actually is, how much she'd had to have dug to save him, and he feels a sudden surge of gratitude.]

Did you dig all of this?

[ichaer]

[ lycanthropes were always such a... delicate matter, ciri found. whether werewolves, werebears or even werecats. she has fought against many but has met many more who went through great lengths to protect others from themselves. which was honestly difficult enough when you have been transformed into a creature that combines the worst traits from both aspects of themselves. a wolf's desire to hunt and kill along with man's cruelty and intelligence.

it's what made fighting them so difficult but she'd sort it all out at some point. monsters, cursed or not, would not follow the same sort of familiar rules she was used to playing by.

perhaps that was for the best too. it decreased the chances of an ulfhedinn making an unwanted appearance. ]

You're welcome, I was just glad I could help.

[ she responds, adjusting her stance once he's up on his feet to pull herself up and out of the hole. she hadn't even been buried alive but had spent more than enough time there for a lifetime. the question gets him a curious look but she nods, rubbing the back of her hand against her cheek. ]

I certainly wasn't expecting the workout but I couldn't risk being wrong by thinking this all some sort of terrible lie to get my guard down. So, I began to dig and now I'm glad I didn't listen to my paranoid worries.

[leashed]

[It takes him a moment before he feels together enough to pull himself up out of the hole, and even then, Rome is surprised at how shaky he is. Enough time without food and water, confined to a small space- that would probably do it. He turns back when he's done, crouching on the edge of the hole to stare inside the coffin where he'd spent the majority of the past day or so. Now that he's out, it doesn't quite seem real.

Still, after a moment, Romulus moves to stand, stretching out his legs a little with a sigh. He doesn't blame her for being paranoid, either- it would definitely be a thought that would cross his mind as well.

Ultimately, he's just thankful. He's not sure how to convey that properly, but he tries.]

I'm glad you didn't, either.

[There's a pause, before he extends his hand- albeit slowly, as if gauging the social implications of the gesture midway. She did just save his life and dig him out of a premature grave, but that doesn't make this any less of an introduction, does it?]

Romulus Hart. Lieutenant in the lycan division of Frankfurt. [Though, there's a not insignificant pause at the end of that, when he begins to fully take in his surroundings- the cave ceiling, the dilapidated buildings around them...] -though it seems that we aren't anywhere near there now.

[ichaer]

[ she remains seated at the edge of the hole for the time being, idly glancing over her gloved hands and thankful for them after all this time spent with a shovel in hand. it's then she catches his movement, glancing over and reaching out without much pause.

she's never been terribly social herself, taking far too much after her adopted father and his ways. still, she was a princess. still is, technically. some of the things taught to her by her grandmother still hold true. ]

Perhaps not though I am unfamiliar with such a city. [ still... lycan, huh. ] You're... a solider then?

[ for a short moment, she considers giving a fake name as she had during her times with the rats. back then, she had been falka but... ]

Ciri, a witcher. [ ah, right. ] It's a term back home for a professional monster hunter.