Test Drive Meme #6

[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 February 23rd, and apps are open March 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: BLOBBED
[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 several Blobs, from the similarly titled 1988 movie, The Blob for you meet.

These gelatinous creatures have no weak spots or brains that can be sliced or crushed to kill them. Instead, their only goal is to absorb and dissolve its prey so that it can grow larger. Think that its, er, blob-like form makes it easy to avoid? Think again- it moves faster than one might expect, as shown in its canon 'kill' video here (with a healthy cw warning for gore and 80's movie effects).]

R A G E
SCENARIO TWO: WENDIGONE
[Hey, that snack you found? It might taste a little too familiar. At least you don't have time to worry about accidental cannibalism too much though, because you've now become host to a vengeful wendigo spirit! The transformation will be sped up for the purposes of this test drive, though you can post at whichever point in the change you desire. Want to tear people to shreds? Go for it. Want to try to clutch onto the last few pieces of your humanity? Be our guest!

On the flipside, as someone who is unaffected, you may be trying to arm yourself and take these wendigos head-on... or, you may be trying to figure out a way you can save them, which would involve somehow trapping them on Hope's altar. Think you can handle that?

This is a mini version of our Who What Where Wendigo event this month!]


H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: CARNATION DAY
[You know those moments in high school that everyone used to dread? Where everyone would spend a week or so with the opportunity to buy a carnation or two for someone they like, only for carnation day to come along and dash any hopes and dreams you had of getting a flower from that special someone?

Well, here's your chance to relive that day- but, you know, hopefully make it end a little happier.

In this prompt, some characters will emerge through the Door- or wake up, or just suddenly appear- with carnations clutched in their hands. These flowers can be any color of your choosing, and all have tags on them. They can be addressed to you or to someone else, and in that FROM category? Well, from your secret admirer, of course- or any other character who may or may not have sent it! Here's to hoping they're a good one!]

Comments

[caerulea]

[ He heads off in another direction while she keeps the door still, but not for a second does he think it's to abandon her. They've always watched out for each other, for better or worse. At least now wasn't one of those worse times.

Sure enough, the shelves scrape against the floor as he drags it forward. The food clanks loudly against the floor, warring with the banging and squelching Blue can hear from the other side. She waits as long as she can, teeth grit in concentration, until he's close enough that there's only a split second from when she's gone that the shelves aren't there. She helps shove the thing back into the door and finally lets out a breath and relaxes only so much once they seem to be safe.

Ish. Still ish.

She steps away from the door and looks to Adam finally. She watches him strangely as he starts rattling through the information for her. She's grateful, but... ]

How long have you been here? [ She asks him bluntly. He's too knowledgeable. He speaks from a place of experience. His eyes are too weary. It's like he's done this over and over again. Her heart still pounds in her ears and he calmly lays it all out for her like it's to be expected. ]

I just saw you yesterday in De Chima. But you know this place already. You've been here for awhile, haven't you? How long? [ Time could get weird for the imPorts too, that wasn't complete news. But it made her stomach tighten to think of them all here for so long. ]

[unknowable]

[His brow furrows. Her questions are straightforward, but - Adam doesn't know what to think. Seeing Blue again wasn't uncomplicated to begin with, not when it means she's stuck here and in danger like the rest of them, but this is something else.]

De Chima? I've never heard of it. Did you mean Henrietta?

[Because he knows that time works strangely, he knows that when people come here from home it's like it was just yesterday. She could easily remember seeing him, when for him it's been months. But - De Chima? He pauses, tries to place the name to a memory, but there's nothing. He's never even heard it before.

Adam doesn't know what to make of it, and that makes him uneasy. The gloppy banging against the door doesn't help, either, even if it seems to be weakening in intensity as the creature realizes it can't get through.]

I've been here close to six months.

[And he thinks about others he's talked to, others who had been to other places before. It's a leap to think that Blue would have been, but - it's not impossible, is it? Not when it happened to him, and Ronan, and Noah.]

Were you somewhere before this?

[caerulea]

I know the difference between De Chima and Henrietta. [ Blue snaps when he asks. For a moment, her relief is outweighed by the question itself. The implication that she can't tell the difference between the town she's spent almost all of the seventeen years of her life in and any other city or town anywhere else.

She bites back that frustration as much as she can. That's not important right now. The beast slamming itself against the door is more important. Where she is is more important. What's happening is more important.

As mad as she is that Adam implied she doesn't know the difference between her hometown and another place, she does hear what he has to say about how long he's been here. Six months. Nearly as long as she's been in De Chima. With him.

That takes away the rest of the edge of her frustration. He's not only not heard of De Chima, but he's been here the whole time instead.

She nods her head as she sighs. ] It wasn't anything like this, though. It was like our own Earth, but instead the Cold War never really ended. A bunch of people were pulled into it and there was no Henrietta.

You were there. And Ronan. And Gansey. We all lived in De Chima, Virginia. It was as close to home as we got.

[ She rubs her temple as she tries to focus. ] Where are we now? [ And the question she's afraid of... ] Was I... ever here?

[unknowable]

[He should not smile, and he doesn't. But Adam has missed Blue, very much, and her snapped response is so very much her that it ends up being far more comforting than anything else. It makes him want to smile, despite the monster at the door, despite the unpleasant knowledge that if she's here that means she'll be subject to all the same dangers that they have been.

Instead he just nods. Of course she knows the difference, and he knows that. It's only that he's never heard of De Chima before, and that's unsettling, especially if she's been there - with him? - for however long.

But Adam can't question it, not really. Not when he's been here, and Gansey came and left again and didn't remember anything. Not when he was somewhere else before. Maybe Blue was just - taken in a different direction. Maybe that's how it works sometimes. Maybe Adam and the others were really there, somehow. It's hard to know what's possible and what isn't, anymore.]

I've never heard of it, and I don't remember ever being there. Sorry.

[The thought that he could have been somewhere and not remember it is - well. It wouldn't be the first time, but he doesn't like it. At all.]

This is Hadriel. We don't really know much about it, except that gods live here and sometimes there are monsters. And some strange creatures must have lived here before us - just look at the buildings.

[He gestures around them, though his attention remains firmly fixed on Blue.]

You've never been here. We thought - I thought - you were safe at home. Ronan and Noah have been here since the beginning. Gansey left and then came back.

[ampliat]

[ ... Why is he smiling? The smile makes her frown twist a little in confusion, and ultimately fade into mild annoyance, the flash of frustration having now passed. It's a silly thing to be offended over anyway.

This is a lot, though. The more he talks the more it becomes. She shifts her stance slightly. At least the monster seems to be slowing down outside. Giving up? She hopes so. Being stuck in this room while knowing there's a whole new world to understand makes her a little more on edge than she'd like to be.

Though that's not entirely the reason. The more he talks the more she becomes anxious. Gods and monsters and they've been here since the beginning and never to De Chima and Gansey came and left. No mention of her. This was her first time. Is that reassuring? Maybe. What's not is knowing that she's lost something with four different boys. It's not everything, but it's enough.

And that takes more bite out of her than anything. Her anger fades more to a look that verges on being sad. Before she catches herself and quickly replaces it with something more fierce. That'll do. ]

I was on Earth, but it wasn't our Earth. It was like the fifties never ended, including the part about us being in a cold war with Russia. Except it wasn't so cold anymore... not towards the end.

[ She shakes her head and looks away. ] We were there for months... and you don't remember. Instead you were here for months....

[ She glances up at him. ] Was I ever here?

[unknowable]

[He does catch that moment of sadness, but he knows there's nothing he can do. She has memories of him that he wasn't part of, not really, something she shared with a different Adam. And he didn't have her here at all, none of them did. Just a blank space where she would have been.

Adam understands the sadness, and so he doesn't ask about it, doesn't say anything about it at all. He wouldn't want it brought up if it were him, after all. That kind of thing is private.

He answers Blue's question instead.]

No. It was for the best. This isn't a good place to be.

[Which isn't to say that they didn't miss her - that he didn't miss her. But it was a guilty sort of missing, it was him wishing she were around while also knowing very well that that would be a cruel fate for her, just as it's been cruel to all of them. Not so different than when Gansey wasn't here, when Adam could comfort himself by thinking that Gansey was safe and sound at home. It made the loss easier, sometimes.

What's the tradeoff? Having the people you care about, but putting them in danger? Missing them like a part of yourself, but knowing they're safe? Which is better?

It doesn't matter in the end. Adam never had any control over who ended up here and who was safe anyway. He doesn't even have any control over how he feels about it.]

Was it safe where you were before?