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

[quaerit]

[ Adam seems so careful. He's even careful with his eyes, not looking up until he's finished with Gansey's hands. He's good at that, too. Like he's used to patching people up.

Maybe he is. ]

Thank you.

[ Gansey flexes his fingers. This still feels surreal. He can't believe he got these wounds by crawling out of an actual grave. He needs to get his head on straight again, needs to reason this out. He puts his hands down, stands up again.

He can do this. ]

I'm glad you're with them. I'm...assuming I was living there, too, before. [ His eyes search Adam's face, making that into a question even though his tone doesn't sound like it. ] Will you show me? I need to see them.

And then, on the way, if you'd tell me about the monsters? Christ, what sort of hell have we landed in, Parrish.

[ This place sounds like a literal nightmare. He's envisioning Cabeswater's beasts, and Ronan's night horrors all rolled into one. ]

[unknowable]

You were.

[He stands too, not entirely sure why it feels somehow like he's reassuring Gansey by saying that. Or maybe he is sure, and he just doesn't want to think about it. But of course they'd all be living together. Of course he wouldn't flinch from sharing a house with Gansey, after everything, after all this.

Briefly, Adam looks guilty.]

I, ah, went through your room while you were gone. I've got everything still, though, so I'll give it to you when we get there.

[Adam had been frustrated and lonely and at loose ends, unable to disappear like Noah or vent his emotions with fighting and liquor like Ronan. So he'd tried to do useful things instead, and organizing Gansey's room had ended up being one of them. He regrets that now, a little, because it feels so invasive now that Gansey is in front of him. He wouldn't want someone going through his things, after all. Not that he's ever had much to go through.]

I'll tell you everything I know about this place. I'm sorry in advance, none of it is going to be very positive.

[For a moment, he pauses, not sure of what to do. Adam is not good at expressing his emotions in any kind of proper way. He never has been - it's a fundamental skill he never really got a chance to learn. What's the right thing to do? Hug Gansey? But Adam is awful at hugs, that would surely be awkward for the both of them. Pretend he's not simultaneously sad that Gansey is stuck here again and overjoyed that he's back with them? But that might actually be beyond Adam's abilities right now.

So he just - looks at Gansey, summons something like a smile, a little uncertain and a lot worried but genuine.]

I'm not happy you're here, but I'm glad you're with us again.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey watches such vulnerability pass across Adam's face. For a moment, it's jarring. Adam is such a controlled person, and he's careful about what he allows to show. He smiles back, curious, but badly wanting to reassure his friend. ]

I'm glad you did. If there was anything in there that could help you, I'd want you to have it.

[ He's not private when it comes to things. Gansey never has been; he'd have shared everything he ever had with his friends. It was why he'd never thought twice about asking Adam to live with him, never really understanding why there was anything wrong with that.

He puts a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. It's not quite a hug, but it's warm enough to be. ]

I wouldn't have wanted to leave without you. I'm glad that I'm here, if only so that we can all go home together. It's going to be all right, Adam.

[unknowable]

[It's not going to be all right - he just had to dig Gansey out of a grave, and he was in one himself not so long ago - but somehow it's still comforting to hear it said, even as Adam is fully aware it's not true. He'd like to believe it is, and he'd certainly like to keep Gansey from having to experience any of what they've been through.

He's tense - he's pretty much always tense - but he manages to relax just a little under Gansey's touch.]

Come on. I'll show you the house and we'll find the others. Look -

[He tugs his phone out of his pocket, a much nicer smartphone than anything Adam would have been able to afford back home, the kind of thing he would never in a million years allow Gansey to buy for him.]

I'll text them. I think Ronan even reads his texts sometimes, when he gets really bored.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey lifts his eyebrows. Adam has a phone? That's a sight he never thought he'd see. It doesn't exactly seem like the sort of place where you could save up to buy one. ]

Things really have changed. How are you getting reception in an enormous cave?

[ Which, honestly, is the question he should ask after he asks how Adam got such a thing in the first place - but he will never ask that. ]

Getting Ronan to text you back is a whole other kind of miracle.

[ He follows Adam, walking with him, and keeping a little closer to him than he ordinarily would. Gansey is good at burying his fears, but that had been harrowing. He's not very keen to put space between them just now. ]

[unknowable]

As far as I can tell, magic. There's no cell towers here, anyway.

[Though who's to say how the cell network in a cave full of monsters and gods works, anyway? 'Magic' is as good an explanation as any, though Adam guesses there's probably a better one than that. He just has no idea what it is.]

This will blow your mind - once or twice he's even texted me first.

[It sort of blows Adam's mind. But to be totally fair, they were all apart for awhile, with phones the only way to reach each other, and even then Ronan barely used his. But he had to give in to expediency once or twice, no matter the depth of his hatred for phones.

Adam types in something, then puts the phone away again. Even odds on whether or not Ronan reads it, but at least Adam can say he tried.]

Let's get you somewhere safer, all right?

[quaerit]

[ Magic. Gansey looks sharply at Adam, but it’s excitement rather than disbelief in his eyes. Can he believe there’s a form of magic that makes cell phones run? Yes, of course. Why not? He just wants to see it.

He has so many questions.

Some of those questions are less wildly academic, and more along the lines of where he can find a shower. Adam is right. They should get out of here. ]

Okay. Lead the way.

[ He’ll stay pretty close to his friend, even though the city does interest him. ]