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

[wipedclean]

[The soldier is a little bemused at the way Steve is clearly trying to help him up, but he stands regardless, the sense in the smaller man's logic brings him back to himself enough that he starts to think tactically about places to take cover.

More importantly, something seems to wake up in the soldier's head. A strange yet astonishingly familiar need to protect, not just anyone, but Steve in particular. Steve, he knows, can throw a decent right hook, but only one, and after that he leaves himself wide open for retaliation and from then on out he's pretty much doomed.

How he knows this he's not really sure, but if anything, it means that Steve needs the soldier's help if he's going to survive in this place.

Luckily, he may have passed a good place to camp out while he was scoping out the city.]

Come on.

[He starts leading the way.]

[prespangled]

Where are we going?

[But Steve quickly decides that it doesn't matter. Bucky suddenly seems to have a purpose, and that's good enough for him, better than the confused man on his knees. Steve doesn't know who gave him that purpose, or why, that he's shifted into soldier mode. The same mode that was supposed to kill him.

He hurries after him, not asking him any more questions or even to slow down when each of Bucky's strides equals two steps for him. Steve occasionally glances back over his shoulder for trouble, determined to have Bucky's back.]

[wipedclean]

Found a building. Unused. Good cover for now.

[He keeps an eye out for danger as they walk, and keeps track of Steve's footsteps behind him. He doesn't slow his pace. Something tells him that Ste wouldn't appreciate it.

The building isn't far. They get there in a couple of minutes, and the soldier breaks the door open quickly and efficiently, going inside first to make sure it's as clear now as it was when he first found it. It is. He motions Steve inside.]

[prespangled]

[He wouldn't. Steve doesn't like feeling like he's being patronized or treated special, because he's not. And these aren't even the familiar streets of Brooklyn. They can't afford to give it less than 110%.

He tries not to frown too disapprovingly as Bucky breaks into the building, because things are sorta desperate right now. If Steve ever finds out who owns it, maybe he can just offer to fix the door or something. For now he just steps in after him, grateful to have four solid walls around them.

Steve sits, easing himself down on the floor before he looks up at Bucky.]

How long did you say you'd been here?

[wipedclean]

I didn't.

[He closes the door and drags a heavy piece of furniture in front of it to keep invaders out. He turns to look down at Steve, then sinks down onto the floor next to him.]

I was just brought here.

[prespangled]

What?

[Steve jerks his head up at that, confusion giving him that little wrinkle in his brow that's always been there. He's still looking at Bucky as he thinks. He knows this man is Bucky, he knows it. And he knows that Bucky isn't pulling his leg either. But...]

How is that you've changed so much? The last time I saw you... [Steve trails off, his lips a thin line before he finally spits the words out.] You didn't look like this.

[wipedclean]

[His brow knits together in confusion. He doesn't know what's happening, he doesn't know how to explain to Steve what happened to him because he doesn't know what happened to him.]

I don't... remember.

[prespangled]

[He's telling the truth. Steve can see it in his quiet frustration, his loss for words. How ever confusing it is for Steve, it has to be about a million times worse for his friend.]

Doesn't matter. [He shrugs his thin shoulders.] You probably wouldn't have recognized me the next time you saw me either.

[If the procedure didn't kill him, but Steve decides to keep that to himself.]

[wipedclean]

[He looks Steve over for a long moment before he questions that response.]

Why?

[prespangled]

I joined the army and went though basic training.

[And that's enough to transform any man, isn't it? Steve drops his gaze, and he could leave it at that. He could. But maybe it's better for him to tell Bucky about it now than risk him finding out after he gets some of his memories back.]

There was this serum - a program. I was chosen for it. To become a super soldier, fight against Hitler and win the war.

[Steve looks up at that and frowns.]

I guess that sounds a little ridiculous to you.

[wipedclean]

[He shakes his head.]

It's not. I was... it was much later. I...

[He's struggling to put it all together.]

I was sent to kill you.

[prespangled]

[It's been a crazy day - if it's even daytime at all. But of all the things that Steve has seen and experiened, what Bucky tells him is the craziest of all.]

Me? Wait, so the procedure works? [Steve suddenly wishes he could go back and complete it, or that he'd at least done it before coming here. He can't even imagine what he truly becomes, he just knows it was supposed to make him stronger.] Who sent you? And you - Bucky, you're my best friend. Why'd they think that you would kill me in the first place?

[wipedclean]

[He frowns. He shouldn't say. He really shouldn't. But he can't help but speak to Steve, tell him what he knows.]

I'm not... not... [He shakes his head, frustrated.] Hydra. It's Hydra. I'm Hydra's assassin.

[prespangled]

I thought Hydra was a research division. Science.

[That's what Erskine told him. Because of their connections to the Nazis, Steve knows that they're the bad guys, but he doesn't feel the seething hatred for them yet.

But looking at Bucky, what they've done to him, what they've made him into, it's starting. Steve scoots closer to him to prove the point of what he's about to say.]

You wouldn't kill me. [It's firm, decisive.] I don't care if they gave you a metal brain, you just wouldn't do it.

[He's quiet for a moment, his eyes scanning the man at his side, the power and the danger, the resting potential for violence in him. But when he returns to his face, he can't help smiling a little.]

Did they give you a metal brain? 'Cause, you know, that might be an improvement.

[wipedclean]

[He doesn't know how to explain Hydra, so he just shakes his head. He doesn't remember who they used to be, where they came from. He just knows who they are now, and who he is to them.]

They're more.

[But he doesn't know how to explain further, so he just moves on to the next question, shaking his head again.]

No, just this. [And he holds out his left arm, the metal plates shifting and settling as he adjusts.]

[prespangled]

[It's his first good look at Bucky's arm. He's been so preoccupied with everything else. But even if a lot of things are still a great big question mark, they're safe enough for the time being.

He reaches out to touch it, running his fingers along the smooth metal plates.]

Did it hurt?

[wipedclean]

[A fragment of a memory surfaces: the doctor speaking to him--the procedure has already begun--and looking down to see his metal arm, then grabbing a technician and choking him with it.

He cringes.]

Yes.

[prespangled]

[Steve's frown deepens at that. His eyes travel up Bucky's arm, but he can't see where it joins his shoulder, or the mess of scar tissue there. He can imagine it though.]

I'm gonna make 'em pay. [He doesn't know how or win. All of that's really irrelevant as far as he's concerned. He's going to do it. Steve's fingers travel up a little.] Can you feel that any?

[wipedclean]

[He lets out a soft huff at that, but doesn't speak what he thinks, because for some reason he knows that saying no, you won't, wont' go over well. But as far as he knows, it's truth.

Instead he concentrates on how Steve's slender fingers travel up the metal of his arm. The sensors read the pressure and heat, and his brain interprets it as touch.]

Yes.

[prespangled]

[People have told him that he can't or won't do a lot of things. It hardly even bothers him anymore, he just works that much harder to prove them wrong.]

Your other arm was just fine.

[His hand drops away. He's angry about it, not at Bucky, but on his behalf. Because he hardly seems bothered about it at all.]

I guess you don't remember this, but you were a boxer. Three time champ at the YMCA.

[wipedclean]

[The metal arm is a part of him as much as the rest of his limbs are. It enables him to be a more effective and deadly weapon. It doesn't bother him.

It's fairly clear that Steve's upset about the arm, which confuses the soldier somewhat. He speaks, brings up something, a memory, and the soldier searches for it in his mind to no avail.

He shakes his head slightly.]

No, I don't remember.

[prespangled]

You were really something.

[Steve smiles faintly, but it fades when he thinks he hears something outside. He turns his head in the direction of the door, listening for a few moments. When nothing comes of it, he relaxes again.]

You always said it was a lot like dancing. You liked to do that too.

[wipedclean]

[The soldier hears what Steve hears, even before he hears it, but it's nothing, no threat, so he pays it no mind. He concentrates instead on what Steve's saying, drinking it in like he's been thirsting for it for ages. Which... maybe he has.]

I did?

[prespangled]

And you were just as good at it as you were at boxing.

[He's talking about it like it was so long ago. It sort of feels that way right now. Strange place, strange friend. It does not feel like it's only been a matter of months, weeks since Bucky used to take him along on double-dates like he was his kid brother.]

You were good at everything. Healthy. Strong. I admire you a lot.

[wipedclean]

[At that he stands up and walks over to the wall. He can't look at Steve.]

You shouldn't admire me.

[Not in the present tense, anyway. All these things he's talking about... it's another person, from a long time ago, even if the soldier isn't sure how long it was.]