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

Julia Wicker ( the Magicians )

[hedgings]

A. FEAR: SHOCKING

[ When was a door not a door? When it was ajar, of course.

Apparently this Door was very ajar. So ajar that worlds spilled into it, saturating the landscape in a mismatch of people who knew nothing about nothing and everything about something else. Julia among them. Julia, who probably knew the least about anything.

But she knew a little. And she had fought hard for that little.

This wasn’t Fillory. She knew that. She didn’t know what this was. That was the nothing. She knew nothing of this land or why it’d pulled her.

A cat approached her. She paused, tilting her head. Then held out her palm. ]

Here kitty, kitty... [ Her voice was soft, almost empty of anything. ]

B. FEAR: SUFFOCATION

[ Do you know what’s hard to do? Perform hand signals when in a box.

There was no room for hand signals. Julia barely had the ability to lift her hands and push against the coffin. She certainly couldn’t move her hands in the complicated ways that indicated what spell she wanted to perform.

If she even knew a spell to unbury herself. How fucked up was that thought? She had to ask herself if anything she knew could dig her up out of the earth. Blast the earth off her? Scrape it away? How did she even begin to parse this situation out well enough to think of a plan?

She didn’t. That was how.

How long had she screamed when she woke up? Seconds? Hours? Days? Fuck. How long had she been buried alive?

Her breathing had levelled off after the hysterics had ended. “Levelled off.” More like she felt like she was suffocating, so her brain finally kicked it’s ass into gear. She calmed herself the fuck down. She was in a box she couldn’t escape from. She was running out of air. She had to be careful with it. So she forced herself to breath as carefully as she could, far from normal but better than before. Her heart still pounded in her ears.

Magic was out. Prying herself out. So what now? Think, Julia, think. This wasn’t how this ended. She would be fucking damned if she died in a fucking box in god only knows where.

She lashed out with her fist, slamming it against the box as she screamed out. ]

Is anyone there? Can anyone here me?!

[ Pound again. ] Get me the fuck out of here!

C. RAGE: PERTURBED

[ The little things didn’t bother Julia often. Why would they? There were so many big things to be bothered by. Things so big they happened without people noticing they happened. Liars and cheats that reshaped the world with a romantic twist to hide the grime underneath. It happened every second of every day-

She was getting away from herself. This was about the little things this time. The big things would always be there. They always were.

No, today it was the little things. The way it rained when she left this morning. The way it stopped just shortly after she left, highlighting that if she’d waited a minute or two she could have escaped the rain. There was a man who stared too long at her ( was there a stain on her shirt? ) she had snarled at. A bird that wouldn’t shut the fuck up.

This day just needed to end.

Finally, the day had gotten too long. Too full of little things that were swelling into a big thing. A rough shoulder jostled her, knocking her off her path. Maybe it was her who’d run into the person? Who knew. She certainly didn’t remember seeing anyone there.

It didn’t matter. Her hands sparked as she turned. ]

Watch where you are going next time. [ She snaps at the person. For all her anger, she looks half calm. Mostly empty.

It’s there, though. Rising to the surface. How easily it calls to her. How readily she answers. ]

B

[bloodfreak]

[It's a graveyard, at least, it might as well be with the piles of freshly turned dirt around him.

He can hear a voice, faint. Screaming.

He turns in a circle, trying desperately to hone in on the source.

Close your eyes. Calm yourself. Listen. He remembers the instructions he'd been given when he'd first awakened. When his sense had overwhelmed him.

There!

He moves quickly toward the source of the sound. It's louder, panicked screaming and a panicked heartbeat.

Without a shovel it takes longer to dig away the dirt.]

I've got you! Just hold on, I'll get you out! [He doesn't know if he can be heard but that doesn't stop him from yelling.]

[hedgings]

[ Julia tried to be conservative with her air. In one hand, she was mentally aware of how much time she potentially had. Some quick mental sizings of her box and she made a rough estimate of the volume of air she might have. The problem(s) with that? They were rough estimates. She didn't know how much she wasted screaming when she first woke up. She didn't know how long she'd been sleeping there. She didn't know how long she'd been awake there.

So her irrational mind said to take those doubts and run with them. Run to the hills and don't stop until your lungs give out. Probably literally.

She managed for an in-between. Screaming punctuated by silence. Because she did have to hope she would be found. Hope was all but dead in her, but the theory of it could her up.

So was that theory fucking with her mind now? Or did she just hear something?

She paused. More something. Scraping? She thought a voice before, but nothing again. It was too soon to yell again, but the scraping continued. ]

Are you there? [ She called finally, mentally cursing herself with every word in the book if she'd wasted air on nothing. Scraping. Scraping. More scraping. Was she losing her mind? Again? ]

[bloodfreak]

[The voice is a little louder now. It spurs Cyril on.]

I'm here! Just hold on. I'll have you out soon. [He responds, yells even. Then adds more quietly,] Soonish. [Even with his enhanced strength and speed he can only dig so fast.

Yet he continues. Hands bloody and raw but that doesn't stop him. They heal almost as quickly as any damage is done, anyway.

Just a few more feet, he tells himself. Certainly she can't be that much deeper.]

[hedgings]

[ This time she was waiting for the response. She'd halted any movement. She'd been as still and as quiet as the dead, waiting.

This time she heard the response. It was still muffle, maybe a little louder than before? Whoever it was, they were getting closer and closer by the second.

She evened out her breathing finally. It was easier knowing someone was close at last. She didn't speak again. She just waited. Patiently. Driving fear from her mind that they'd never reach her in time. ]

[bloodfreak]

[Finding only quiet response sends a jolt of panic through him. But he quickly picks up on her heartbeat, she's still alive. Good.

Before long fingertips hits wood. He scrambles to clear a large enough area before his fingers find purchase on the wood. It comes away easy in his hands although some of the surrounding dirt slips into the new hole.]

Crap, sorry.

[He makes the hole a little bigger, all while trying to keep more dirt from falling in, before reaching for her.]

[hedgings]

[ Her hands go up as soon as the wood comes free. The reaction is instinctive, not intentional. As soon as he pulls it open light floods her little hole in the earth. Not as much as expected, but enough that her adjusted eyes want nothing to do with it.

She sputters dirt off her lips, gasping in deep breaths of fresh air. She throws herself up immediately, her body aching for the freedom of movement.

As she opens her eyes, she finally remembers her hero. Her savior. Her eyes quietly regard him, debating as her mind tries to get back to reality. She takes his hand, climbing from the hole now. She pulls herself out by his hand, stopping at the edge to look back at the coffin. Laughter that is jagged and harsh tears from her throat. She rubs her arms and looks back to him. ]

Thank you. [ There's madness in her small smile. ]

How did you do that? [ She's noted it was quick, yet she sees no shovels. ]

[bloodfreak]

[He starts to ask if she's okay but decides against it, her body language and the laugh are enough of an answer to that.

He's disheveled and covered in dirt. Long hair has fallen free from where it was once pulled back. There's a little bit of blood mixed in with all the dirt yet no injury to be seen. He busies himself with trying to clean up as much as he can before realizing she's staring at him.]

You're welcome. [He looks her over, checking her for any indication of injury, but he doesn't see anything.]

Uh... Let's just say I'm not normal.

A

[quaerit]

[ Gansey doesn't know her. This is a land full of strangers, and stranger things. He still can't get his head around it, how the cave is even holding itself together and where the light is coming from.

The cats are a different matter. They, clearly, are a problem, and there's far more of them than he thought at first. He sees the woman right as she's making a critical mistake, and he doesn't think before pushing her hand aside. ]

No! Don't. They're not what they seem.

[ He looks at her, removing his hand, and then pointedly backing off. ]

Please. Come away from it before it hurts you.

[hedgings]

[ Dangerous? ]

Dangerous like a car? Or dangerous like a pedophile? [ One was an everyday tool. One was a monster in disguise. She'd let him puzzle it out.

The cat reminded her of her one at home. Not an earth-cat. Much too large. A cat-mount she had once had. Thrown her once too. Hurt like a bitch. Cats' other name might as well be roses. Beautiful but prickly as fuck.

This one flicked it's tail. Once. Twice.

Julia sighed, pulling back her sleeves and twisting her fingers into position for a spell. ]

It is going to attack. I suggest you stand behind me.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey stares at her. Who asks questions like that? ]

Dangerous, like a cat that wields sorcery.

[ He points, automatically stepping back. ]

Don't say I didn't warn you.

[ He does not, in fact, stand behind her. While Gansey has no intention of trying to fight spellcrafting demon felines, he's not going to put this woman in between him and said demon cat. He has more mettle in him than that. Instead he steps off to the side, trying to divide its attention between them. ]

Here, Kitty. Leave the lady alone, that's it.

[ He glances up at her. ]

Why aren't you running?

[hedgings]

[ The comparison was apt.

She watches him with wanton curiosity as he steps to the side and calls to the cat. She raises an eyebrow ever so slightly. "The lady."

When it's clear the cat means to take the bait, Julia sighs. She twists her fingers in curved and twisted positions as she let words of another language fall from her lips. Turkish? Maybe? It was hard to tell.

From her hands burst her own kind of fire. A ball of flames that spat at the earth between the cat and the boy. She still looked calmly as she addressed Gansey. ]

I said to get behind me.

Unless you have spells of your own?

[quaerit]

[ That is not what Gansey expected. His head flashes up, his eyes zeroing in on her hands.

Richard Gansey has, by now, seen quite a lot of magic in his life. He has seen it do miraculous things in many different ways. But this? This is different to anything he's ever seen. She's called forth something primal, something immediately visible with no requirement for faith to be involved.

Incredible.

The cat hisses and turns back to her, and at this point he realizes it's still an issue. He drops back, immediately coming behind her. He's not entirely sure, but he doesn't think the code of chivalry applies to witches in the process of saving your life. ]

So sorry. I didn't actually realize there'd be a wall of fire. You might consider warning people first, it only seems polite.

[ But from his tone, it's clear that he's not offended at all. He's more interested than that. Much more interested. ]

That said, do feel free to do it again should the urge occur.

[hedgings]

I told you to get behind me. [ It's a statement of fact. No gloating. No remorse. Listen to her next time.

She lets herself fall between the cat and the boy. The cat is pacing her warily now. It wants nothing to do with that fire, but everything to do with eating them. Yet again, her hand twists in ways they shouldn't, fire strikes between them again. It's meant as a threat this time. ]

Scat! [ She shouts at the thing. She'd like to no more. But not now kitty. She has a mouse to protect. Scat, cat. This time her hands move and the words shift just slightly, a wall of fire coming between them and the cat finally. ]

We should go before it decides. We may not like the decision.

[quaerit]

[ The cat is cold, that’s the problem. It has ice in its veins, and Gansey can see it using that to combat the fire.

It won’t work. Fire will always win that battle, but it’s clear the cat won’t stop trying. It’s equally clear that this woman will fight for as long as it can keep her there, so he turns to scan for shelter.

All he sees is more of those spires. They’re going to have to run. ]

If we can get in there we’ll be safe. How long can you keep the fire going?

[ He’s already backing away, gauging the distance. ]

Can you cage it, to give us time?

a (omg julia)

[closerift]

[ Whatever the coeurl's intention, the beast doesn't last for much longer. An arrow snaps through the air and into the soft neck of the monster which immediately snarls in anger and pain and rounds on its attacker. Cecily Trevelyan, bow drawn, wastes no more time in letting loose another, which cuts again into its throat and sends it spluttering toward her. He doesn't make it very far, choking on blood, and collapses in a slump between Julia and Cecily, eyes wide and wild. ]

They aren't friendly. [ Comes the clipped, almost breathless response. The Inquisitor goes about her business, removing the arrows once she knows the coeurl is dead. ] Not very strong, but fast, and... well, sharp.

[ The claws and the teeth, anyway. Though... as she peeks up at the stranger, someone she recognizes immediately to be new within their cavernous prison, she feels... something. There's something about the other woman and her first thought is mage, though there's no evidence to suggest it. ]

You've just arrived, then? [ Cecily says briskly, replacing the bloodied arrows in their quiver as she straightens up. ]

and suddenly shy!!

[hedgings]

[ Well.

That was sudden.

One second the beast stood before her, the next it was slayed. Rather dramatically so, as well. Julia wipes some of the blood from her cheek as the culprit makes herself evident, though she can't take her eyes off the coeurl. It's not a jarring shock to hear it's not friendly. It's more of a disappointment.

Ah, well.

Her gaze finally reaches the other woman, taking in her demeanor. Her weapon has already shown her skill, a cat slain in two strikes. The second was probably not even necessary. There's skill in this woman's hands. ]

It would seem I have.

[ Her eyes go to the body again. ]

Where is it I have arrived? [ Start slow. This isn't Fillory. No friends to guide her so quickly. ]

pats

[closerift]

Hadriel.

[ No, not Fillory, and not Thedas, either, where the Inquisitor was taken months ago. Cecily takes a deep breath, glad that it's only these strange, fairly-savage cats and not... say, a yeti, who she'd scuffled with a month prior and then twisted her ankle. ]

The quick version is that we've been drawn in by an unknown artifact and are the playthings of some very childish gods... or, so they say. [ That's the story as they tell it, for as much stock as she puts into their answers to her questions (which isn't much). ] As far as I can tell, it began in the autumn and has happened again each month since.

[ Again, she eyes the woman, then adds: ] There may be others here that you recognize, and... if not, I can say from experience that most of your fellow captives are both friendly and willing to help, considering we're all in the same situation.