dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #31

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!test drive

Test Drive Meme #31

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 April 24th, and apps are open May 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: WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE
[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.

Even if the monster looks cuddly.

Direwolves are not quite what you medieval fantasy folks might think they are- they're untameable and almost the size of a bear. While usually a predator like the direwolf might wait for the opportune moment to strike, these beasts hunt in packs and are very, very hungry. You won't be able to tame them, and any attempts may result in a couple of missing fingers.]

S O R R O W

SCENARIO TWO: REGRETFULLY YOURS
[Have you ever done something you regret? A thought or an action you've performed that you look back on and wished you hadn't? Even if it's something outside of your control, something you couldn't have known, if there's something rattling around in that brain of yours, it's coming out in full force right now, leaving you guilt-ridden and prepared to confess all your sins to the nearest bystander.

But what if confessing isn't enough? You need to show them how sorry you are in any attempt at redemption you can muster. Work as hard as you can and maybe someone will forgive you. Work even harder and maybe someday you can forgive yourself.

This is a mini version of our Tears of Joy event this month.]

R A G E

SCENARIO THREE: TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
[The goal is simple: stay together in this room and use the supplies provided to build the best tower you can. You've got matchsticks, popsicle sticks, Q-tips, four different kinds of glue, and various little wheels and doodads. The team with the best tower at the end of the exercise gets a wish granted! That isn't so bad, is it?

Except your teammate is insufferable. Everything from their ideas, to their building strategy, down to their accent is absolutely intolerable to you. How can you be expected to work with such a difficult partner? If you leave the room your tower is forfeit, but who can expect you to stay in these conditions?

Careful- they're just as fed up with you as you are with them. Can the two of you overcome your mutual disdain to build this arts and crafts masterpiece, or will it be a race to the door?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

FEAR

[Okay so Cecil? Cecil is a lot of things. Radio talk show host, occasional cat photographer, really bad at keeping a secret...

Nothing on the list of things he's good at involves fighting dire wolves. He's uh... he's not made for that, usually.

So right now, Cecil is backed into a corner, armed with a less than threatening office stapler because... well shit, that's kind of all he had on him at the time, any port in a storm right.

HELP.]

SORROW

Can we talk?

I just need a second to talk. Excuse me, if I may have just one moment, I'm- I really need to get a few things off my chest, I promise in the grand scheme of things it won't be a very long time.

Your average person will experience a grand total of eight hundred and seventy six thousand hours of life, give or take occasional temporal disturbances and minor acts of time travel, I'm only asking for one or two?

[The rescue comes in the form of a tall, bespectacled young man with a dagger in each hand. Daggers which appear to be very much on fire. It's expected of the Guard to run in to assist the newcomers as they arrive, and while most of them can usually help themselves, some of them...

Well, some of them can't.]

Are you hurt? [He calls back over his shoulder, putting himself between the man and the wolves. For now, they're wary enough of the fire to hold back, though they don't appear to be giving up.]

Stay close to me, I'll get you out.

[Yeah some of them have the office stapler which, while it's good for pretending to 'shoot' at Steve Carlsburg, is a lot less fun and useful when faced with a giant wolf.

At least someone here has a useful weapon!]

Oh! No, not yet- Not here, we're all hurt in some way, on some le- Oh you mean just here.

No. I'm fine.

[A lot calmer too now that he's not being personally menaced by a wolf.]

[The man coming to Cecil's rescue does give something of a baffled look over his shoulder as he starts to speak, though his attention is quickly drawn back to the wolves as they begin deciding whether or not the risk of being burned is worth the meal they might get as a result.

At least the corner means Ignis doesn't have to watch their backs, too.]

Good.

[One of the wolves lurches forwards and Ignis does the same, the same power that infuses the daggers working to speed his steps. A dagger is plunged into the back of the wolf's skull, but it doesn't drop immediately, provoking a disgruntled sigh.]

... These things are inconvenient.

[Don't worry: It gets weirder!]

I tried asking them politely if I could get some space, but I don't think they're well versed in interpersonal skills.

[THEY ARE WOLVES, CECIL]

THe local dire wolf relational seminars here don't seem well funded.

[THIS IS NOT HELPING, CECIL]

Oh! Have you tried stabbing an eye?

Perhaps you'd like to take over?

[Ignis shoots back crisply. He does, though, heed the well-intentioned advice and a cacophony of yelps and growls rises up as one of the wolves retreats with one empty eye socket streaming blood.]

Start moving to your left. Watch your back.

[Certainly, Ianchus has time for someone who's asking so plaintively. Part of it is because he loves to help, part of it is because it helps him forget his own problems. And his heart always does break a little when someone is so sad. He has to keep himself from reaching out to touch Cecil's arm.]

With that many, you may have one or two, or even three. Of course we can talk.

Edited 2018-04-22 16:32 (UTC)

[It's okay, Cecil is just physical and just socially off enough to do that for him, reaching out to rest a hand on Ianchu's shoulder.]

I don't- I never thought of myself as a bad person, mistakes are par for the course, of course. We all make mistakes, and an important part life is learning to forgive yourself for those mistakes and-

I'm rambling. Am I rambling? I'm rambling.

Maybe...

... I've made a mistake.

[Ah, he knows that feeling all too well. And there's a runner of discomfort because this could get too close to home, but he shoves that away.]

And what would that mistake be?

[His voice is soft, comforting, ready to listen.

I may have... I think I may have ruined everything.

[Shitty secret keeper, good job, Cecil]

Nightvale- Everyone. I... Time, the past, present and future, is an interesting thing. It's of course entirely possibly to alter the future by interfering with the past, I'm sure you know. Maybe?

Anyone might forget that the accepted reality of their present is easily altered if one... little thing is changed in the past. That nothing, not even time, is set in stone.

So they might... Accidentally... Reveal a secret revolution that, in the past, saved your entire town from a face worse than death, to the very organization that had taken over your town to begin with, if you were speaking to them from the present to the past, due to the fact that this has already come to pass for you, but has not come to pass for the past.

Over a radio signal.

[Yes that makes perfect sense, Cecil.]

... I've made a massively destrucive paradoxical mistake and I'm not entirely sure that it's forgivable.

[Ianchus doesn't know what a radio is, nor is he too keen on quantum physics. But he knows of revolutions. And of regret, and of guilt, and of responsibility and longing for home. And of the ways the past affects the present, even if what Cecil is saying sounds all too much like a fantasy.
And,
Oh no.
He understands this all too well.

He makes his own move now, putting both hands on Cecil's shoulders, trying to provide comfort, and a solid presenc.]

You did not know of this before, yes? It wasn't out of spite. It was a mistake. Yes?

No! Of course not, we'd already won! I had no idea I was going to be having a conversation with the past that day, the wiring in the station was a bit shoddy after the battle and it kept short circuiting.

If I'd known-

He sounds exactly the same several months ago as he does presently, you understand, I thought I was talking to him in the present!

I'd never ruin Nightvale out of spite, my friends, my family is there! My city is my responsibility! All of our responsibilities, and I've... I've ruined it.

[He doesn't know what to do, this is far too much. Loss, guilt, love...the regret is emanating off the man, and though Cecil is spilling words, Ianchus has none because he understands that there are some things that just can't be fixed.

So he does what he can, the only thing he can think of (Cecil hasn't come off as the type that's averse to touch) and he moves forward and lets the hands on Cecil's shoulders wrap around the man instead, in a gentle but firm hug.

Might as well try.]

And Carlos is still back there and... we were all doing so well, and everything was just starting to improve again and... What if they're-

What if we- Because of me-

[Oh. Oh a hug.

Cecil is considerably warmer than one might expect out of your average human, a strange, internal thrum of energy distantly tangible. He's not going to turn down a hug, gracious no.

But even as he wraps his arms around the other man to return it he's still going to say-]

I'm sorry.

[He absolutely did not expect the odd warmth and energy coming from the man, and Ianchus has embraced a lot of people. Still, he doesn't let go, and he feels encouraged that his gesture is returned.]

I can't...

[His voice is soft, but at least he's close to Cecil's ear.]

I can't tell you that it's alright. I don't know whether it's alright, I don't even understand but...but whatever happened, it wasn't out of spite. It wasn't something you ever wished for. There's that at least, right?

[It's a small comfort. Maybe no comfort. But it's all he can think of. At least this man can grasp onto that, right?]

Edited 2018-04-22 22:04 (UTC)

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softlyspeaks - 2018-04-23 01:51 (UTC) - Expand

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vocarrah - 2018-04-23 03:32 (UTC) - Expand

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softlyspeaks - 2018-04-25 16:53 (UTC) - Expand

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vocarrah - 2018-04-26 02:42 (UTC) - Expand

[Jane was brought up short by this request. she'd been ~~wallowing in~~ avoiding thinking of her own problems ever since this outbreak of sadness started. she hadn't even realized that maybe other people were feeling the same way]

Yeah, I guess I got a moment.

[then she takes a moment to think through the rest of what he's said]

Did you say temporal disturbances or minor acts of time travel?

Well yes. There's always extenuating circumstances regarding the passage of time.

[Hey, distractions are good, distractions are okay, he'll take this]

That doesn't make any sense. I thought time was time?

[yes, she'll take a distraction. anything but worrying over the failure of her relationship with Dan over and over and over again]

Time is time! Like a river, flowing in one direction, and most of the time, all of us are caught in its ever progressing, totally overwhelming current towards the inevitable waterfall of mortality.

Only sometimes, you buy a canoe and row up stream for a bit! Or get out and take a trip down to the end and see how you'll hit the waterfall.

Sometimes, you were never in the river to begin with!

[Like Cecil]

I mean it really all depends upon your interpretation of time, I've always found it to be entirely subjective.

[Jane furrows her brow a little. most of this has gone over her head. she never went to college, going straight into stripping after high school, but she's read some books ~~okay, the backs of books~~ like "A Brief History of Time," and this seems even beyond that]

How can time be subjective. I mean, you're born, you live, and you die. Those are all things people go through, no matter who they are.

Oh of course, you're born, you live, you die.

But lets not forget living, being born, and dying! Or dying, being immediately reborn, living, and ascending into godhood, being born and living but then forgetting to die, being born and living and then playing an eternal game of hide and seek with the ever present looming specter that is death, being born and then just not dying at all due to your integral place in the constant mechanisms of the universe, and then being caught in the eternal time loop that is the DMV.

I've met several people whom have forgotten they were supposed to die.

[not dying. forgetting that they were supposed to die. it all sounds unreal to Jane. this guy has got to be putting her on somehow. she's not really supposed to believe that some people forgot their way into immortality, is she? ~~she might be. this place is weird~~]

I haven't met anyone like that. How do you forget you're supposed to die?

Well, a bit like forgetting you had to pay rent that month. Or forgetting to go to the doctors.

People forget things all the time, I can't tell you why, exactly. I'd imagine because they didn't really want to in the first place.

Then I'm never gonna die. Not going to get older, either. I'll just forget. Is that how it works?

[Temporal disturbances and time travel sounds uncomfortably like a thing someone with power over Tethers would have a hand in, even if there has been no public record of a Tetherer using their Nature for such a thing.

But it's close enough to bring to mind the Tetherer, which brings to mind the Separator, which brings to mind Vida Veisi, and Avisheh gives an exaaaaaaaaaggerated sigh.]

One or two hours is a lot of patience to ask for from a stranger, but -- [and she smirks] -- I like your disregard for courtesy. Makes me all nostalgic.

You have me. I'm all ears.

[She gestures with her arms wide open.]

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Test Drive Meme #31

Cecil Palmer | WTNV

Fear

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Cecil you're hitting SO CLOSE TO HOME right now you have no idea

HES SORRYYYYY

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sorrow