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

[Punk.

Jerk.

He doesn't know what to do.

His head hurts.

He doesn't know what to do.

Let's hear it for Captain America!]

You were... my commanding officer.

[His mind is grasping for anything that makes sense in the slew of memory fragments, and right now, that's what makes the most sense to him.]

Yeah.

[Steve looks a little troubled by that though. It was Bucky who knew war first, who experienced some of the real hell of it. Steve climbed into a big metal container and came out with a promotion that started out as more of a joke.

But what bothers him most of all is how impersonal it sounds that way. He never thought of Bucky as his subordinate. Pulling rank would never have crossed his mind. Bucky followed him for completely different reasons.

Maybe he should've ordered him to go home.]

But we knew each other a long time before that.

[He's struggling. He's trying to pull his memories into something that makes sense to his current worldviews, and that's what makes the most sense. He's tense, he's trembling a little, he's shaking his head.]

H-handler?

[He shakes his head again, harder, because that makes sense, but it's not right. Not really. It's not fitting the pieces together well enough.]

I don't... I don't understand.

No, I'm not Hydra. We used to fight them together. And then...

[Steve trails off. There's so much he wants to say, but Bucky already looks like he's coming apart at the scenes. He's not in the place for it. He takes a tentative step forward.]

You've been through a lot

[He takes a step back, as the man steps forward, but he's not running away, not yet. A part of him wants to, though he doesn't know this place and doesn't know where he could hide. He doesn't know if this man knows it better than he does, either.]

What do you want?

[It comes out sharply, an edge of fear tinging his voice. How is it that this man can so effectively cause him to... malfunction like this?]

[I don't want anything. Those are the words that spring instantly to him, coming all the way to the tip of his tongue. They stop there. It's not really the truth.]

I wanna help you through this. I want to keep you safe, and others safe. [He takes a deep breath. Steve's emotions are often subtle things, sacrificed for the bigger picture. But right now it feels like he's standing on thin ice that's starting to fracture.] I want my friend back.

[He takes a step forward, hesitantly, then sinks to his knees, unable to bear the weight of his emotions any longer.]

I don't know who that is.

[Whoever this man's friend was, he's not that person anymore. He can't be. He's Hydra's weapon. But he feels torn into pieces.]

But... I knew you.

[He knows that. He's not sure how, he's not sure how it's possible, but whoever this man is, he did know him. It's confusing, it hurts his head, but there's a space for this man in his head apart from target and mission. Something that's there apart from Hydra.

He's never had that before.

Not that he can remember, anyway.

He knows Hydra takes things from him. But it had never seemed important until now, faced with this man.]

I don't... I don't know what to do.

[Steve's afraid to even breathe when Bucky takes that step. He's too afraid that the slightest thing might spook him and send Bucky running. But then he falls to his knees and everything in Steve tells him to go to him. He strains against himself, fighting his own instincts.

He sighs when Bucky says that he knew him. Maybe he doesn't know what he's missing, but he knows that he's missing something. Steve does chance a couple of careful steps then, not enough to close the distance between them. But he is within reach as he crouches, his eyes a little shinier than they normally are. It is a graveyard, the perfect place for ghosts. The problem is that Steve can't punch them away from Bucky.]

A friend of mine once told me that sometimes the best thing is to start over. She was a smart lady. Maybe we should give it a try.

[The soldier stares at him, his eyes shining, stinging a little with tears that want to fall but don't.]

I don't know how.

[All he knows is what Hydra tells him to do. For the first time, that really aches.]

I'm not so great at it either.

[He thought he was getting better, catching up with the world by marking one thing off the list at a time. But he sees Bucky and suddenly he longs for black and white films, a Dodgers baseball game, and so many things that are just gone.

But the most important thing is right in front of him. Captain America might've found his home with the Avengers, but Steve's is wherever Bucky is.]

We can try to figure out how together, if you want to.

[He hesitates.

Teaming up with his target would be violating Hydra's will even more than he is already. He doesn't know if he can do it. If he does, and Hydra comes for him, he'll be severely punished.

But they might not be coming.

And despite all that, he aches to know more about this person, about who he was to this person. And Hydra wouldn't let him.]

Will you... tell me more? About who I was?

If that's what you want.

[Talking about Bucky to anyone has always been hard for him. That's why he hasn't done it much. Talking about Bucky to Bucky is something he never expected to have to do.

But he will if he asks it. And there's one other thing that Steve can promise.]

I'll never lie to you. I know it'll take time for you to believe that, but that's okay.

[It seems like a phenomenally bad idea, for so many reasons.

But there's a part of him that is... drawn to this man. And he knows him. He can't... doesn't want to stay away.

The soldier stares at him for a long moment. The promise... it's true, the soldier doesn't know if he can trust this man. But he seems sincere. And though the soldier is suspicious of his own inner motivations, since he doesn't fully understand them, he can't deny that he's inclined to take comfort in the promise of honesty.]

Then I'll go with you.

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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