Test Drive Meme #30

[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 March 25th, and apps are open April 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: CHOMP CHOMP
[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.

Or sticking out of that pipe, even. Yes, that's right, the Door seems to have brought in an infestation of piranha plants, which may be familiar to you, since they've been in nearly every Mario game.

Piranha plants are large orb-shaped plants with big ol' teeth, all the better for biting you with. They can't walk around, but their stalks can stretch pretty far, so they'll be perfectly happy to stretch out and bite the heck out of you if you get too close - and some of them are good at hiding. You might not see them until it's too late. Luckily, while the biting is pretty bad, it's just about all they can do. You'll be fine, as long as you keep your distance.]

SCENARIO TWO: THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU
[You've got a scratchy throat, a little cough, a general feeling of awfulness. It sucks being sick, doesn't it? Maybe you can find someone to get you some juice, or hold your hand, or just be sympathetic to how crappy you feel. After all, no one likes being sick. But how can you know that person is actually trying to help you? They have an untrustworthy look in their eye, and you're pretty sure you just heard them mutter something about leaving your body in a ditch.

Or maybe you're the one trying to take care of a sick friend. You have only the best intentions, but they don't seem interested in cooperating at all. In fact, it seems like they think you're trying to hurt them! What the hell? And here you were trying to be a good person for once. Oh shit - did you just sneeze? This isn't going to end well.

This is a mini version of our Flu Season event this month.]

H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: FONDLY YOURS
[When you stepped out of the house this morning, you found a small bouquet of flowers on the doorstep, just waiting for you. They're just the sort you like - your favorite kind, in fact - so they must be meant for you. But who could they be from?

Of course, there must be someone you wish they were from. A lover, a long-term flirtation, your best friend thinking of you. Or maybe you're hoping for something else: an apology from someone who hurt you, or an olive branch from and enemy. Whoever you're hoping they're from, well - the only way to know is ask, right?

Unless you'd rather leave a secret bouquet for them, instead.]

Comments

[lemontree]

What should I call you? 'Should' is a funny word, she thinks, believing firmly that she has earned each of her titles and that they ought to be honored. Of course, as her time in Hadriel has worn on, she's found that there are... more important things. More pressing things.

This stranger may have called her 'my lady,' but there's hardly any indication that any of what she lists about herself might resonate. (She has no experience with Northern accents, considering how refined Sansa Stark speaks, and so she doesn't recognize Jon's.)

"You may call me Daenerys," she replies after a pause, though her own offer doesn't sit quite right. There's another lapse before she adds: "Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen."

Better. No need to mention all the rest, but her name - the one she was born with - will stay.

"And what should I call you, then?"

[northerndragon]

That -- that name -- causes him to stop in his tracks and look at her in surprise. This is Daenerys Targaryen? The Mad King's daughter? The name Stormborn leaves little room for doubt: there is only one Daenerys Stormborn in all the world, only one Targaryen left.

He speaks to her with as much courtesy as he can, under the circumstances, but part of him feels like the ground has fallen out from under his feet. He doesn't know what he was expecting... someone older, maybe, or less pretty, or hot-tempered or imperious... not what seems on first acquaintance to be a subdued, matter-of-fact personality.

"My apologies, Your Grace. I'm Jon Snow. Tyrion Lannister might have mentioned me — he summoned me to meet you at Dragonstone. Just before I found myself here, I was on the road from Winterfell to White Harbor."

She doesn't seem mad herself, or like she's about to turn a dragon on him. He had once wished to bring death and destruction down on the Lannisters, and Daenerys is preparing, now, to do just that, to depose Cersei down in King's Landing. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Well, maybe.

[lemontree]

He knows her, at least by reputation. Jon doesn't seem to bother to mask his (surprised? shocked?) expression as she speaks her name, and she reacts with surprise in turn, stiffening a little. He may mean her harm; she has more than enough enemies, and it seems about time that the Door might bring one through to torment her.

... But, he apologizes, introduces himself, and she releases a held breath. Jon Snow? The name is unfamiliar, but when he mentions 'Winterfell,' she does have to wonder if this is someone that Sansa has mentioned before.

"Tyrion Lannister is my Hand, but he's said nothing of you." There's a faintly stiff pause before she explains: "We have not yet reached Dragonstone and were sailing there when I was brought here. You must be from further in time."

As she is to Margaery, having confirmed the poor woman's own death. All the same, Dany inclines her head slightly, studying Jon from where she stands.

"Why did Tyrion send for you? As an ally, I assume, and another force against Cersei."

Otherwise - well, they hardly have time for distractions, back in their world.

[northerndragon]

He catches the slight stiffness, but it's no surprise that she would be on her guard.

"Further in time..." That doesn't really make sense to him in terms of how it could be. He still understands the words, though, and maybe they mean exactly what they sound like. She remembers less of their world than he does.

"You'll reach Dragonstone. Tyrion sent for me with an eye to an alliance. I'm King in the North, and my family has no love for Cersei. The Lannisters killed my father, they killed my brother..." He shrugs unhappily. It's all there in his name, how he will never be a real Stark, and how there is Stark blood in his veins nonetheless, enough for the Northerners to raise him up to rule them. "My sister Sansa wants to see her fall as much as I do."

This isn't the way he expected to meet Daenerys Stormborn... walking alongside each other in a vast crumbling pit of an arena... and he's not sure it's a propitious meeting. But there's no menace in his manner. They're equals, to his mind, and no matter where they are, he needs her help.

[lemontree]

"I know that it sounds - ridiculous, but you'll see soon enough."

Margaery had come from after her own death, after all, and Sansa claims to have been in another world entirely before this one. What sounded mad before her arrival to Hadriel has become the norm.

"King in the North?" That makes her quirk a brow. "You were made to rule over Winterfell rather than Ned Stark's own blood?"

Because he's a man, she assumes, with a prick of irritation at the usual discriminations of societies in Westeros and Essos both.

"I've spoken with your sister," she confirms, and it returns to her: this is Ned Stark's bastard and Sansa's half-brother. "We have formed an alliance for now, though we're said to not remember the events from within Hadriel once we've been sent home."

Either way, she supposes, she'll come to meet Jon Snow, if what he says is true.

[northerndragon]

And that, in return, makes him bristle a little -- but only a little. "I am Ned Stark's own blood. He was my father."

He isn't very ashamed to be a bastard anymore, but even if he were, he's still very proud of his father -- proud to be his son, and it shows on his face and in the way he straightens his shoulders. You may not have my name, but you have my blood, he'd said, the last time they saw each other. Jon hadn't known then that it would be something to hold on to; he'd expected that he would see his father again, that he might even hear about his mother. But that secret rests now with Ned Stark's bones, and Jon doubts that it matters very much to anyone but him... and even he doesn't wonder as much as he once did.

"Still, you have the right of it: I'm not a Stark. I'm not the Lord of Winterfell. Time was when the King in the North, or the Warden, was also the Lord of Winterfell, but it belongs to my sister now.

"You say that you've spoken with her... she's here?" He nearly asks How?, but remembers: further in time. If that's the case, it may not matter that it's been mere moments since he left Sansa at Winterfell.

He can bristle all he likes, and it remains to be seen whether or not they'll remember this meeting in any way that matters to his cause... it's still better to make an ally of Daenerys Targaryen than have her as an enemy, if what he's heard of her is true. It's pleasing to hear that his sister might have laid the groundwork for such an alliance, in any time or place.

[lemontree]

"I meant no offense. I am new to Westeros, as you know by now, and have only a basic understanding of what the Houses are like."

Some seem more willing to take a woman as a leader, from what Jorah and Tyrion and others have told her. The Starks seem to have elected a bastard as Warden of the North, but Dany has no qualms with it. She has more than enough taint to her own reputation, in the eyes of others, to cast stones upon others for their blood.

"If you are close with Sansa, then I imagine you and will be able to enter into a similar alliance without a problem." So long as he supports her claim, of course, as his sister does. "I look forward to our meeting at Dragonstone and the steps that we will take from there."

Steps toward King's Landing. Toward unseating the Lannisters, first and foremost.

"She is, along with Margaery Tyrell. I will take you to Sansa, if you like."

Dany wouldn't necessarily want to see her own brother, if he arrived in Hadriel, but knows that some have better relationships with their siblings... as the Starks are said to.

"In the meantime, I can answer any other questions you may have. I've been-... stuck here for quite some time."

A prisoner. A captive. It's clear how Dany feels about this, from the way she sets her jaw tight and unhappy.