Test Drive Meme #27

[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 December 25th, and apps are open January 1st. Please remember that there is an app cap of 20 apps.

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: DON'T FEED THE WILDLIFE
[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.

This time, the monsters are very large and very scary, with the crocodiles from Lake Placid, a 1999 movie that was about... well, giant crocodiles.

These critters are massive, measuring over 20 feet in length and full of raw power. They're capable of taking down bears, eating full cows, and decapitating unsuspecting victims. Despite their size, they are quite fast and could definitely take someone by surprise with their quick movement. Look out for those formerly-still ponds, they back a serious bite...]

A L L

SCENARIO TWO: SHINING, SHIMMERING, SPLASHING
[Everyone's gotta drink sometimes and when you're in a new environment, that dehydration is kicking in double. Unfortunately, the water in Hadriel right now is... tainted. Nothing about it tastes particularly off, but one drink of it and you'll find yourself with strange and unusual powers. These abilities aren't necessarily gamechangers, and they aren't the full power, but they're definitely there at your fingertips.

Give your friends nightmares, give your enemies a super strong punch to the jaw- the sky is the limit, but be careful for when it wears off and those you've affected seek their revenge with their own water-powered abilities. Maybe you should find the memory erasing pond...

This is a mini event, based off of our shining, shimmering, splashing event going on this month!]

S O R R O W

SCENARIO THREE: HAIR OF THE DOG
[Were you partying last night, or are the gods just exceptionally cruel? Either way, you have what seems to be a killer hangover. Stomachaches, headaches, and general feeling like the undead- it's all happening and you're feeling the worst of it.

You're welcome to try and attempt your own hangover cures, but little seems to alleviate this. It just takes time, and maybe a friend or two to rub your back and make some food for you- that is, if you can keep it down. Or maybe your friends are in the same boat as you are and you need to commiserate. Either way, you're in for a hell of a day.

Maybe just take it easy for awhile.]

Comments

[ascertaining]

Well. There may be a fairly decent reason for some staring going on right now, mightn't there? Granted, L has never exactly been adept at keeping to social norms. He knows them well enough; he just doesn't have time for them.

But that's not the cause of this particular staring contest. No, L is just trying to reconcile what he's seeing with the world as he knows it. Hmm. Shouldn't the past stay in the past? It definitely should. It's not a dream though -- if only because he doesn't sleep long enough to have this much of a dream.

Hm.

"I wonder if that's potable. Though... I guess you'll find out now one way or another." And so will L, by observing the unplanned experiment -- unplanned, but not an un-useful one.

HA! RNG gave me Hope. This ought to be fun.

[gaslightsandtreachery]

Beyond's eyes narrow at L. Those memories of his last stay here rushing back to him. And the final battle back in their homeworld. How did he lose to this man, knowing everything Mello told him? He knew the details of his loss, he should have had the upper hand when he went back. And yet, he still played right into this detective's hand, as if he knew nothing of it at all.

He still lost, to Misora and L simultaneously. Despite everything, everything that happened in Hadriel before.

"So you've come back after all, L." His voice is bitter, sharp. A blend of mixed feelings from having killed the man before him, in rage and euphoria, and having himself be defeated by the man before him.

And he turns his gaze to the pool before him, if only for a moment, to ponder L's query. But his eyes do return to L just as quickly, as though unwilling to keep his eyes off the detective.

"Now, why is that? Are you afraid, L? To test it yourself. You seem just as cowardly as you did the day of our battle. I suppose that comes as no surprise."

Still, that water theory should have an answer soon enough, shouldn't it? Just like L to observe from afar, as he knew of the man back in his homeworld.

[ascertaining]

So you've come back is an interesting start, as information goes. L doesn't react to the words, no more than usual, a faint shrug of already slouched shoulders as if it's not really an interesting enough path of dialogue to follow. Except it is. 'Come back' implies his presence... here? In this place? L has no memory of it. But words mean what they mean. Is it possible he's been here and forgotten it? Either that or Beyond is in the midst of some sort of delusion. Also not impossible.

Not enough information. It was frustrating to start with and now potentially dangerous given the man in front of him.

He tilts his head at the question. "Why would I try it, if you've already tasted it? It'd be a waste of time and effort before I see what the results are. So... Maybe I'm more lazy than cowardly..." But for now he would keep himself as the control group. So far the other man seemed normal. Well. Normal as he ever had been, perhaps. Everything was relative, in the end.

"How did you find your way here?"

L doesn't think the news of death he heard was a lie. But one never knows with certain people.

[gaslightsandtreachery]

Is... L mocking him? He has to suppress the rage that wants to boil to the surface. A bit of a struggle to remain as composed, being in the presence of L. If it were anyone else, it wouldn't be a problem. He wouldn't care at all. But, because it's L. Because he's lost to L, because no one's better than L. Because of the very thing L represents, it has always infuriated Beyond. L was presented as unattainable. And here L was, behaving as though he had no recollection of Beyond's presence from before. The elabourate series of murders that he laid out for the detective to follow and confront him. The biting, faux-compassion he brought with him to Hope's Temple.

Of course he knew everything was an act. L could never be capable of compassion. That was what made him L, able to be cold and calculative. But this. This. But Beyond defeated L here. That is a true insult. Even if he lost in his homeworld, and had to relinquish the alias Rue Ryuzaki, Beyond still had here. Beyond had defeated L in Hadriel first, before he died back in his homeworld. Even if Mello's and L's timelines were different from his, his own timeline justified this experience.

Would L be so fickle as to pretend it never happened? With the way Mello idolized him, he doesn't think so. It might be too far-fetched. After all, L has assuredly claimed other aliases. He should play by those rules better than anyone.

Then what is this reason for this question? What is the testing? He should already know the answer to how Beyond got here. Did their final battle traumatize L? No, that also seems far-fetched. For someone like L to become traumatized, it would take something almost assuredly more than Beyond could give, if it were possible at all.

No. Assuredly it must be something else. But what, he can't quite pinpoint himself. Unless....

He has a theory. Though, if he can be clever enough to get L to answer it properly, that will assuredly be no easy task. He knows that much well enough.

"Oh? Do you not remember? What a pity, I expected better of you. It's the same way that you arrived here, of course."

[ascertaining]

They're dancing. It shouldn't be a surprise. That's the way these things went, a pattern of steps, not quite predtermined, but all following logically and precisely within the rhythm of the situation, enough that if he listened carefully, if eh could pick out the metaphoric tune, he ought to be able to predict which steps would follow next. Or at least have some small pool of possibilities to choose from.

So what does he knew. Beyond has intimated that L himself was here before, and now is poking at him for not remembering it. That seems somewhere more than impossible, but somehow less than entirely likely. He doesn't remember this place, and he recalls no actual gaps of time missing from his life to account for some strange fieldtrip that he's now amnesiac about. So either he has never been here and Beyond is messing with him, or there's something even stranger at play here than what he's used to. Some alternate timeline? Those things should be impossible. But so much should be impossible. Kira's notebook, the Shinigami. Beyond should be dead. But deaths could be faked, with the right planning and forethought even planned believably.

But L has to focus on now. And what he knows here, in this moment.

He knows that Beyond is likely recently arrived as well -- the other man's initial assumption that L has come back and has not already been here, and the fact that he found the other man crouched down drinking from a pool of water don't exactly hint at him having put down roots in the place, at least currently. So he's arrived in the same way that L has. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

"Are you sure of that?" Stalling, mumbled with a vague sort of feigned interest. He's weighing his options; is it worth trying to keep up a pretense of remembering something Beyond is speaking of that he has no knowledge about? It's a lot of effort and difficult terrain at best. Easy to slip. Too easy, and what does he gain even if he keeps up that charade? Little, if anything. No sense playing that game. So he continues, echoing the other man's words to start with, "The same way I arrived. Well, in some broad sense that's probably true, isn't it? How did you find the crocodiles? I didn't really like them, myself. They wouldn't give me time to think..."

L watches Beyond, eyes intent and unwavering. It's the gaze he fixes on most things, though perhaps it's just a bit sharper regarding this particular individual. He knows his nature, after all, beyond even the sliver of doubt that he's known Light''s nature -- though that didn't end exactly as he'd hoped. Ah well.

He's still refusing to believe this is the afterlife. It doesn't quite add up that way. "How are you feeling? Not poisoned? Double-vision? Hallucinations? Of course, if the trouble with the water is a pathogen and not a chemical agent, it won't be an immediate effect, so maybe those questions are premature."

[gaslightsandtreachery]

"What, you mean you aren't certain of it? How very interesting, L, all things considered. Well, then, let me rephrase it as this - How did you arrive? Are you even aware of how you got here?"

There's only one way in here, and one way out, as far as Mello's told him - a Door, that behaves in random patterns of who it draws in and who it releases. Sharon and L were the last two people he was aware of that the Door had taken back and thrown.... wherever else, homeworld or otherwise. And, well, himself. He was returned to his homeworld at the very exact moment as he left, in the middle of his series of murders to defeat L.

He wonders if that applies to everyone who leaves this place. But himself, alone, is not sufficient evidence to where others go when they depart these caves. Or.... wherever they are now. He has no recognition of the scenery around him. He's not entirely certain why the Door drew him back in, either. He wasn't entirely aware such an option existed, though it would make sense to some degree. And... if L can be resurrected from the dead, again, as Mello had told him, then he certainly can be, too.

So much information, not enough data. And it's enough to frustrate Beyond. He would have to do some checking around Hadriel, to see if he could piece any of it together. After he's finished with L.

And, speaking of - that crocodile and poisoning statements. He's not very fond of humouring much of anyone, and certainly not if that someone is L. L is a difficult piece to predict, as complicated as any game of chess ever would be. And he knows these questions are merely to sidetrack. Merely to toy, test, and pressure the opponent into making the first move into the downfall.

But he's already calculating - L didn't put up a very decent fight back in Hope's Temple. In fact, it took a simple slip, and Beyond had that knife, and struck just as rapidly to bring L to his knees. He wonders if it would be so easy a second time. Of course, anyone who chooses to live often will take measures to prevent such an event from more than the one time.

And it raises questions - Did L choose to live back then? Would L choose to live now? He's trying to find the pattern, trying to find the reasoning as to why L is refusing to acknowledge the previous events.

Perhaps he should... test the waters, so to speak. Just a little further.

"Well, perhaps we should find out. How I'm feeling, I mean. After all, motion kicks in the reaction of agents much faster."

And with that, he stands himself up, mocking the image of L's posture as he hunches his shoulders and sticks his hands in his pockets. He takes one step, and then a few more, heading towards L, and his eyes never leave the other man. Watching, anticipating. What would L now do?

[ascertaining]

There is something going on here that L doesn't understand, and that alone is enough to annoy him. To say the least. He's quickly moving past annoyance to actual anger. Someone is messing with him, dragging him to this strange place.

Possibly affecting his memory, or trying to make him think they have. Is that Beyond's game here? A mind game? Well, he wouldn't put it past him, but that doesn't seem correct either. Something about the other man's questions, approach, he's not certain either.

The list of things he knows for certain is distressingly short. With time, he'll put the pieces together. Even blank puzzles can be assembled when you pay attention to how the pieces fit, even if there's no picture to use as a guide. L is silent at the first question, at least at first, quite certain it's bait.

By now he's read the files on the phone he's been given, is still deciding whether or not believe them. They read like some fantasy novel outline. OR science fiction. He's not partial to either. "Aware of the explanation provided." That he's not sure he believes yet; he needs more data to decide that.

As Beyond rises and moves closer, L holds his ground, no real reaction save that he watches the other man with laser-focus. "Why don't you ask what you really want to know." Less question, more statement.

[gaslightsandtreachery]

"What I really want to know?" A few paces closer, traveling at a steady, testing speed. But the question does seem to strike something genuine in Beyond. And a subtle glimpse of something menacing can be caught beneath the surface of his placid front.

"What I really want to know, is why you, L, are now so hesitant. I see a severe lack of the man I met before. And well, now it has left me quite curious. Very curious."

He dares to allow himself within a few feet of L, waiting, observing, and no doubt trying to strip down the man before him to the core he seeks. He wants answers, and he needs to know.

"Tell me, are you dead, L?"

A simple question, and he means it exactly as he states it. He wants to see if the Door can reverse a timeline.