test drive meme #28

[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. 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: GOT ANY BREATH MINTS?
[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.

It looks like this time the Door is going for a little variety. You get to enjoy a couple kinds of chaos serpents, from the video game Hexen.

Chaos serpents are bipedal reptilian creatures with three horns, in two different colors. They can bite, as with most monsters, but the real threat is their breath weapons. The green ones spit powerful fireballs, while the brown ones spit clouds of poisonous gas. If you're lucky, they'll fight each other instead of you - but who ever gets lucky here?]

L O V E

SCENARIO TWO: ONE MINUTE IN HEAVEN
[Remember that first rush of infatuation, when your heart beats fast and your cheeks get red and you feel like you could do anything - anything - to get your crush's attention? Maybe you don't. Maybe you're too level-headed for that. Well, not anymore.

Now, whenever you meet a new person, you feel one solid minute of the most intense crush you've ever had. Their hair! Those eyes! Those incredibly attractive arm muscles! That tinkling laugh! Maybe you're the type to get nervous, maybe you'll swallow seven packets of hot sauce to show how cool you are, maybe you'll just lay down your very best pickup lines. Maybe more than one of the above - there are so many ways to embarrass yourself in 60 seconds!

But then time's up, and your insta-crush is gone, and now you get to deal with the consequences. What did you say? What did you do? That laugh you thought was beautiful and tinkling turns out to be obnoxious and honking. Also, you're pretty sure you just hit on your neighbor. But hey... maybe they actually are pretty hot, and you just made the first move. It's possible!]

C O N F U S I O N

SCENARIO THREE: THE PITTER PATTER OF LITTLE FEET
[There you were, minding your own business, when you suddenly fell into a deep sleep. Not that you remember that - now all you remember is being a child, as your consciousness has taken the form of your younger self. Here's your opportunity to run around and get into all the trouble you could hope for!

Or maybe you didn't become a child - maybe someone else did. Did some random kid just run up to you, confused and a little scared, or possibly just obnoxious? It'd be nice of you to help them out. Unless you hate kids, and hey, who can blame you? They're loud and somehow their little hands always seem to be sticky. Still. Make sure they don't run straight into the monsters outside the city, all right?

This is a mini version of our Hope of a Child event this month.]

Comments

holy shit SIMON

[igniting]

[Yeah, Aloy... can't tell the difference. This thing is humanoid, but it's also sprinting right towards her, and she's fairly certain most humans don't look like that. Machines, however, do.

Aloy nocks an arrow, draws her bow, and points it directly at Simon, but at least she's giving him a few seconds to announce himself before shooting, right?]

omg..... im glad he is appreciated

[theseuschip]

[ The halt he comes to, when he sees an arrow aimed directly at him, would almost be cartoonish under lighter circumstances. He steps back and holds up his hands in surrender, shoulders raised in a defensive cringe. ] Wait, wait, don’t shoot, I’m just trying to get out of here!

[ the perfectly human-sounding voice is set against a series of primitive motorized clicks as his eyes dart in bewilderment. Simon would never call himself a fan of the WAU’s monsters, but he was coming to at least have a routine with those. He doesn’t have a reference point for DRAGONS AND ARCHERS. ]

he is super appreciated and so is his journal name

[igniting]

[Well that's... weird. Aloy lowers her bow, fingers going automatically to her Focus at the side of her head and... yep. Okay, definitely a machine. An AI, maybe? Aloy hesitates, then tilts her head in the direction of an exit.]

This way, and stay close.

why thank you! i was kinda proud of it

[theseuschip]

[ Oh good. He explained himself well enough, apparently, and Simon’s posture relaxes as she lowers her weapon. He looks around, like a hunted animal, but the lizard creatures seem to have given up chase.

He starts off, tentatively, just behind her, down the path she indicated. When he looks up there’s — a ceiling, or something, but it’s impossibly high. Omicron isn’t even that far below sea level. Is it? ] Are we- on the surface?

[ the surface is supposed to be barren — unlivable. But it’s the only explanation he can come up with. ]

you should be!!

[igniting]

[Aloy hesitates, then nods.]

The surface of whatever planet they've brought us to. Apparently the city was underground, but I arrived after it was moved. You're... new, I'm guessing?

[theseuschip]

[ Unfortunately these statements, while baffling, bear just enough resemblance to Simon’s already-confusing situation to confuse things more. ] I guess, but— [ He casts about for some kind of connecting thread that will stick. ] No, but you— you’re from PATHOS-II, right?

[ She doesn’t look like she is — I mean, she has a bow and arrow — but there’s gotta be something he can grab on to here. That device on her ear looks plausible?? ]

[igniting]

No...

[She has no idea what that is, but it sounds like something from the Metal World.]

Are you an AI?

[theseuschip]

Sort of. I was human, but it’s all data in a robot brain now... so I guess you could call it that.

[ It’s all artificial now, but he tries to mentally outrun that conclusion, not that you can possibly un-know it when you find out you feel like you but there’s really nothing left of you. ]

aloy is being rude i apologize lmfao

[igniting]

Oh.

[That's something she's never heard of before, and there's open curiosity on her face. Not very tactful, but sometimes she just can't help it.]

How? Did you... convert your thoughts into data? Some sort of program?

no she’s doing great with this mechanical manchild

[theseuschip]

Brain scan. It made a whole... digital copy of my brain, but I don’t know much about the technology.

[ Simon’s eyes shift away from her, and he hopes that’s a sufficient explanation. He’ll soliloquy all day about his robot dysphoria to anybody who will listen, but conversations that feel like they could creep into the car accident and brain damage territory make him antsy. They always did. ]

LMFAO MECHANICAL MANCHILD

[igniting]

[Well, that makes some sense to Aloy, at least. She nods, humming thoughtfully to herself.]

Where are you from? You mentioned... PATHOS-II?

[theseuschip]

Toronto, but PATHOS-II is where I woke up. It’s this ruined research facility at the bottom of the ocean, where my scan sat around until I got put into this.

[ That she doesn’t know this doesn’t make sense, but for now Simon has given in to mental fatigue. They’re headed to some kind of exit, and he’s not sure he can deal with unraveling yet another ‘figuring out where the hell I woke up’ mystery if he doesn’t really, really have to, especially when the last one led to ‘surprise!! You’re dead and so is everything else’. He does stare at their surroundings a lot, though. It’s not the kind of environment he really wanted to see, but after all that, this is like watching out of pitch-dark into a really bright room. ]

[igniting]

[The bottom of the ocean. God, that sounds incredible, but Aloy has no idea where Toronto or PATHOS-II is. Maybe they're not even from similar worlds.]

This is Hadriel. It's... a different world than the one you're from. What was your planet called?

[theseuschip]

[ what the fuck ]

...Earth...?

[ but then his uncertain tone turns frazzled and frustrated — ] Look, whatever this is, I can’t even — I can’t handle trying to figure out another new fucking place I woke up in, I was already in the middle of doing that, and I’m kind of leaving somebody in limbo right now if I stay here. Where are we even going?

[ It’s not that Simon likes being in a post-apocalyptic shithole, but he promised Catherine he’d help her and now she’s stuck in the PATHOS-II mainframe, probably wondering if one of the monsters got him. Also he’s a big baby. ]

[igniting]

[Aloy slows and then stops, turning to him, voice gentler when she responds.]

I'm just trying to get you away from the arena. It's safer out here. I know all of this is... overwhelming, but I'll try to answer whatever questions you have. I'm from Earth, too, but... It might not be the same one.

[theseuschip]

[ Simon doesn’t have the presence of mind to thank her for her kindness, but he nods — an overwhelmed I don’t know how much of this I’m absorbing but I’m listening nod, but all the same — ] Like different dimensions? There’s nobody on Earth. Almost nobody. [ It’s to no practical effect, but the sound of rapid breathing accompanies the voice coming out of the speaker. ] I have to go back, I left my friend plugged into a computer.

[ It’s not the most cohesive set of statements. Also the last thing totally makes sense in context. kind of ]

[igniting]

Okay, slow down. There's no one left on Earth? Why not?

[theseuschip]

A comet took out everything. The whole surface is toxic, only the ocean survived. PATHOS-II used to be for research, but... now it’s where the only humans left are, and most of them are dead too.

[ Or mostly dead. Or better off dead. ]

[igniting]

Ah.

[Aloy sighs, slinging her bow back over her shoulder and studying him.]

What's your name? I'm Aloy.

[theseuschip]

Simon.

[ a beat ]

Thanks for not shooting an arrow at my head, by the way.

[ This is a sincere and 85% serious statement. When you can’t deal with life, deflect. ]

[igniting]

[She smiles a little.]

I'm sorry I almost shot you at all. I didn't realize you were a person.

[theseuschip]

[ The ease with which she calls Simon a person when he himself feels like the jury’s still out on that classification most of the time makes him tilt his head in surprise and pause briefly. But anyway. ]

Don’t worry about it. I’ve dealt with worse, from things... way less reasonable.

[igniting]

[Aloy's definition of a person has certainly expanded quite a bit in the last few months, maybe luckily for Simon.]

Have you? What sort of things?

[theseuschip]

Monsters and insane robots, mostly. PATHOS-II is full of them. Even the fish are hostile and mutated.

[ The fish mostly leave him alone. But the documents the crew left behind tell a hell of a story about it. ]

[igniting]

Insane robots? Insane in what way? Were they... Acting erratically? Attacking you?