dankmemes | TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Gansey watches Noah with growing curiosity.

This is different. There’s a lot that’s different, and the knife is the least of all of it. He sits, crouching, eyes on his friend’s face while he talks. Noah is so very here. He’s so present, and solid. He’d thrown himself into the cat like there was weight in his body and strength in his arms.

This is the boy who had seemed to fracture a little more with each day at home. The boy who could easily, too easily, blend into the shadows as though he belonged in them. The boy who’s consciousness didn’t always seem quite present. If it hadn’t been for the power of the ley line, Noah wouldn’t have been able to be present at all.

Yet here he is, as solid as Gansey has ever known him. How? ]

Noah, what are you talking about?

[ It’s very gentle, curious instead of accusatory. ]

When did you get someone to teach you? I saw you yesterday, and you had no knife. The third time, Jesus. You’re not violent.

What have I missed?

[While Gansey watches Noah, Noah watches him. There's no sign of recognition, no sour expression at the knife, at the thought of who gave it to Noah and who taught him to use it.

He's not wrong, though, Noah isn't violent. He'd rather run than fight, and if it's his own life on the line and he can't run, he'd rather die than fight. He's good at dying. The only time he can bring himself to raise a hand in defense is for his friends. Ronan and the nightmare creature, Adam and the bear. Now Gansey and the weird cat thing.]

Gansey... Adam, Ronan and I ... we've been away from Henrietta for eight months. We've been here for four of them.

[He remembers what the Technicians in Harborview had said - that when they left there, they'd go home and no time at all would have passed, it would be like they'd never left. It wasn't right, they didn't go home when they left Harborview, the corrupted ley line had seen to that. But Gansey is saying he saw them yesterday, Gansey who clearly has no memory of here or Harborview.]

[ Noah says it so quietly, as though he's delivering terrible news. Eight months. Eight months away from home, and Gansey remembers nothing about it. Every one of them had been there with him. They hadn't been missing. And here they were, in a place so dangerous even Noah had to use a knife. ]

Jesus Christ. Noah, I'm sorry.

[ He puts his hand on Noah's arm, the one that had held the knife. ]

I promise you, I saw you yesterday. All of you, and Blue. [ That she hasn't been here is one small mercy. Yet even as he thinks that, Gansey wonders why it's the case. Why all of them, and not her?

That was wrong. It felt wrong. ]

There must have been something wrong, this can't be a coincidence. It's like time around a ley line. Distorted, chaotic. But you, Noah. You look stronger than you did at home. Where were you before?

[In all honesty it's a relief. Those eight months had done a number on them, on Gansey in particular. Noah would rather they be lost if he gets his friend back like he was before, without all that pain.

Noah's not cold.]

A place called Harborview...

... They gave me a body.

[ He’s warm.

It almost makes Gansey pull his hand away. He’s expecting Noah’s usual chill; he’s never known him warm. Instead, he tightens his hand and then moves it, touching the back of Noah’s hand to make certain.

His eyes lift. ]

You’re alive?

[ Gansey says it so softly. He leans forward, searching Noah’s face and taking hold of his shoulders, and suddenly this is the only thing that matters. Noah, warm and solid. More himself than he’s ever been. A smile tugs at Gansey’s lips. ]

Noah. Jesus Christ, is this real?

[Noah startles as Gansey leans forward and grips his shoulders, eyes widening but staying still. He knows this would be surprising, that this Gansey wasn't the one there when Noah had a panic attack, when he had to cling to everyone just to remind himself he could, that he wouldn't vanish. It's still startling none the less, especially since he's just coming off having a crisis of faith in the being alive and having a stint of being a ghost.]

Yeah. Yes. I mean - yes but no - I've got a living body but I'm not ... like I was before. Before I died.

[ Gansey stares at him.

Noah, living and breathing and solid. He’s wanted that for a long time. Seeming to collect himself, he leans back, and his hand comes up to touch his mouth. His thumb runs absently over his lip while he thinks about what this means, what it might mean for Noah. They’d talked about it once, briefly. ]

You’re yourself, Noah. That’s all you ever have to be.

Is it…? How does it feel?

[They had talked briefly about it. A confession of fears. Life after Glendower, life after death, the fear implicit in both as well as the possibility that there wouldn't be anything at all to be afraid of. Noah sighs, tucking his legs up against his chest and resting his chin on them. He's still quiet as anything, watching Gansey as he works through the mental aerobics of what it means that their dead friend is now somewhat alive.

Gansey is back. Gansey is here. That means everything will be okay somehow. Noah is not sure how, since all it really means is Gansey is in danger again, but he'll bring balance to their shifting orbits that have been thrown askew since he was gone. Gansey will make it better by virtue of being Gansey, like he always has.]

Heavy. Messy.

[It's what Noah told Ronan when he first asked, the 'heavy' part. Messy applies too, though. The basic daily needs as well as the more troubling parts. Now when Noah's upset he actually has to deal with it. That more than anything was what had him longing for the insubstantial being of death again. Always a coward, it was so much easier to just stop being for a while when he got too mad or sad. Actually coping with these things instead, it's awful.]

But I can get drunk again, so that's nice.

[Being blackout drunk is the next best thing to not existing.]

[ Messy. That's not really something Gansey associates with daily life, but he supposes it makes sense. Noah has spent seven years not having to eat, wash, or do any of those things that people do all the time. He supposes that would be messy.

Heavy makes sense from the outset, of course. That goes hand in hand with that solidity that pleases Gansey so much.

He's smiling like a fool. Noah's alive. No longer dead in Gansey's place. No longer fading. No longer spending every day, feeling less and less like himself.

It's less like he's going missing. Less like he'll somehow just be lost. That's a thing Gansey can't bear. He laughs sharply. ]

That must please Ronan. I'm not sure I was the best of company in that regard.

[ He sits back beside Noah, and gently lets their shoulders touch. He's seen horrible things today. Graves and monsters, a world with no sky. It's made anxiety bubble in his chest like a living thing.

But now there's this. There's Noah. That makes everything somehow better. ]

Can I help you? I'd like to. I'd like to make it less...messy, I suppose.

[Gansey's happiness is infectious, it gets an awkward smile from Noah. He's still the Noah they knew, vague and anxious and frightened of everything, not Czerny the boy he was before his life was traded to Gansey. There's probably no getting Czerny back. Noah thinks that's probably for the best.

Noah leans a bit against Gansey. Not a whole lot, and he's still a slight thing even living with the metabolism of a teenager.]

Yeah, sure, you can hold my hair back when I get sick from being hungover. Ronan won't do that. He just laughs at me.

[Noah siiighs dramatically, blowing at one of his bangs.]

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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