Test Drive Meme #32

[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 May 25th, and apps are open June 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: HONK HONK
[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.

Hope you're not afraid of clowns!

Evil Clowns have been a terror on the imagination of children everywhere, and show up enough times in literature for us to reasonably say that plenty of adults are afraid of them too. While they love to laugh, they often bring themselves joy by murdering others and slicing them up with the sharp knives and other torture devices that they have tucked away in their seventeen pockets.

It's not difficult to outrun them, as they have big, squeaky shoes, but it might be difficult to fight them- these bastards are hardy!]

F E A R

SCENARIO TWO: MISSING SOMETHING?
[You may arrive in Hadriel... well, incomplete. Though some may reassure you that it's temporary, there's still something terrifying in suddenly losing your sight or your hearing... or even you arm!

While this event does not affect memories, it does affect body parts, senses, and potentially powers and abilities. You may find yourself unable to do things you once did, or behave the way you normally do.

This is a mini version of our Senses Fail event this month.]

T R A N Q U I L I T Y

SCENARIO THREE: MAY FLOWERS
[You're in a beautiful garden. The sun is shining, the grass is green, and there are hundreds of thousands of flowers all around you. The temperature is just perfect, and above all else, it's satisfying.

Maybe you should pick some flowers for a friend, or your mother- you did skip mother's day, after all. Luckily, there's a few cutting shears to go around and you're more than welcome to start hacking away at these thistley bushes! Hopefully you know a thing or two about flower arranging- maybe that person over there is more experienced?]

Comments

[possidetur]

( there's zero recognition at the device that maki shows her, and had vanessa been able to speak she may have commented that it seems very small to hold a guide. instead, she saves her writing for actual comments of importance.

Who brought us here? )

[possidetur]

I appreciate the warning.

( vanessa leans in to smell them, making sure not to lean to close )

What will happen if you do get cut?

( she can guess the end result but specifics are different )

[fernbeleafer]

When I was a kid, my dad said a cut from the leaves makes you sleep.

[ but her sigh is again hardly afraid as she produces a small black dagger and quickly clips a bloom before turning to hold it toward her new friend. she smiles as she offers it out. ]

The sleep is dreamless but without treatment, it's a permanent one.

[ a dreamless sleep, though. these days it's something keyleth finds herself wishing for. the same instinct that brings her here every so often, though she'd deny it if her friends asked. ]

[possidetur]

( watching keyleth's actions vanessa takes a step back, cautious over the offering. but then she remembers that it's just a cut from the leaves, not the branch itself.

relenting, vanessa accepts it, keeping her gaze on keyleth )

I assume he also taught you the treatment.

[kingforboth]

I don't think they're gods at all. It doesn't take divinity to abduct people from other locations, it just takes power and resources. I think if they had more control they would have chosen people who were more inclined to assist them. Or perhaps they have some agenda I am unfamiliar with.

[Kelson clearly would have done it differently, if honor wasn't a problem, and he wasn't naive enough to believe everything had an honorable solution. Life didn't work that way, and it certainly didn't work that way for kings. There came times when the safety of your people and your crown came before honor and all it's demands. He hated it.]

It is. Whenever possible.

[Honor had changed his life too. In an action that almost mirrored Jeyne's, Kelson's twitched fingers twitched, twisting the small woman's wedding ring that fit snugly around a pinky, long since washed away from the blood that he couldn't help but still see staining it. Since arriving in Hadriel he'd found similarities he wished he hadn't between their two worlds, commonalities, similar events. Perhaps there wasn't a hell and the priests were wrong. Perhaps they all made their own, the world was suffering enough, and there was no worry of demons in the afterlife.]

And I became a widower.

It's not easy is it?

[They were both much to young for the amount of bloodshed they'd seen or been responsible for. He wouldn't ask if she had found the strength to move on. He hadn't not for a while. Not until he'd brought everyone responsible to justice. And even then, when he had, it had turned out just as poorly. Maybe it was the nature of kings and queens that they did not get to marry for love or even affection, maybe it was simply too much to hope for.]

[fernbeleafer]

Fortunately, it's a pretty simple compound.

[ she smiles at the memory of her father's deft hands, covered in dirt and smelling of saltwater. ]

I'm Keyleth, by the way. Sorry if I'm intruding on some alone time?

[possidetur]

Vanessa Ives.

( said in a way that implies that it's also good to meet her )

And there's no intrusion. It would be a shame not to share this with someone else.

( since all she's doing is being captivated by the flowers )

[fernbeleafer]

Sometimes I feel like the only one who thinks that way.

[ vanessa's words speak to a part of keyleth that rarely surfaces. she's grateful, and can't help but gush a little. she nods further into the winding paths. ]

You should come in with me. I was going to cultivate some of the rougher patches people have been going through. I'll make lunch and we can hang out and be flower friends!

[possidetur]

( this is the fastest date that she's ever been on. the gesture brings a shallow smile.

i want you to do something that makes you happy, even for a moment.

dr. sewards words echoed in her mind. just because she wasn't at home didn't meant that they couldn't still help )

Alright. Though I warn you that I'm not terribly familiar with flowers.

( liar )

[fernbeleafer]

Oh, that's OK! There's also root and seeds. Berries, maybe!

[ she doesn't give full side-eye, but enough that it might be obvious she isn't buying all of what vanessa's selling. she starts walking inward as a comfortable pace. while keyleth has a goal part of the day of gardening is slowing down. ]

Seems like everyone's sticking to flowers, but I've never gone wrong with a nice little herbal bouquet, you know? Sage and rosemary smell just as good as a rose.

[possidetur]

And do far more to help.

( keyleth was right to call that bullshit quickly. whilst vanessa has never been given a herbal bouquet, though she has also been given few floral ones of late, she can't say that she would be opposed to one )

Is the garden yours?

[strikes_x_twice]

Harry… Lightning nodded to him once for his name. Naturally his own inquisitive nature would soon follow, as it was in her experience in social normalities––and that it was the same here, in this new world, was a welcomed familiarity. He did not disappoint. “Lightning.” She then gave an almost obligatory glance around them before she softly grunted, “hn.” Her eyes lingered on a mess of flowers, pansies, or at least they looked as if they were. She brought her eyes back to Harry and gave a soft sigh. “I know just as much as you, I presume.” She then thought to ask, “when did you come to this… world?” Perhaps he had the advantage of being here longer than her, or perhaps she had that over him.

[luckyblunder]

Lightning! That was rather the exotic name. Harry assumed it was a nickname. Who would name their baby girl Lightning? There were some unique names in the wizarding world but even then, hers took the cake. The name made him crack a small smile, until she asked her question.

Harry looked away, in troubled thought, and he shook his head before meeting Lightning's gaze again. "Just now? I guess? I was, I was with my friends on the school grounds and then... I was here."

The young man reached up and rubbed at the scar on his forehead and there was a twist in his gut. He hoped he wasn't dead, for Ron and Hermione's sake. They had both lost too much already. "You are calling this a world? Like somewhere not Earth?"

[luckyblunder]

"Oh, sure. Yeah, good idea." Harry realized that he had been so bewildered wondering where he was that he neglected the obvious of wandering around to figure that out. All he'd known was that he was in this beautiful and peaceful place and that hadn't been where he'd come from.

Harry moved around the row of flowers between them so that he could step in line with her. "What's your name, miss?"

[strikes_x_twice]

“I know this isn’t where I’m from..” She swallowed and drew in a deep breath to hold for a few seconds before exhaling. “I’ve been here a week. It’s been my experience, thus far, everyone I’ve come across tells me this is not their world—and come to find out, they are not from my world either. So..” She paused as she looked over his young features. “Where are you from? Exactly..”

[possidetur]

She starts to walk once he's with her, her gaze on him to begin with as she leads them from the gardens.

"Vanessa Ives. And yourself?"

Hopefully finding answers would be as simple as just looking around.

[dewitticisms]

[ You have got to be kidding. With his own damn gun? Maeve gets greeted with the most exhausted expression ever to appear on someone's face. Once, just once he'd like to not be hit or threatened by someone he was helping out. Hands go up in the universal sign for don't shoot me in the face. He's seen what that hand cannon can do, he'd rather not be on the receiving end of it. ]

The name's Booker. I'm just trying to find a girl who got kidnapped.

[ Can he call up Ironsides fast enough to block a point blank shot? He really doesn't want to find out. ]

If you can keep control of that trigger finger I can even show you a picture of her.

[fernbeleafer]

Oh gosh no. I mean, I tend to it? But that's just because I don't want to hear about how I owe a god or anything. And I don't want to hear how they're out of juice and need to pull from us.

[ she doesn't fully shudder, but the prospect is certainly unappetizing enough to make her scowl. ]

They find any excuse they can already, you know?

[toight]

[ Jake is used to Rosa being taciturn, it's the norm. But usually she'll at least chime in for a sick burn or to tell him to shut up and now the silence is getting to him. Which unfortunately for everyone involved means he's unintentionally turned the obnoxiousness up to 11. ]

Wanna play charades? I mean you'll definitely have a leg up on me. Or, more accurately, an arm.

[ This is how he's going to die, isn't it? Sure, the report will say the cause of death was being mauled by a bear. But secretly everyone will know the truth. ]

...Please don't kill me.

[stupid_monkey]

The door?

[Now the monkey is even more confused. He looks side to side, and behind himself, but he can't find a door anywhere. He does see another clown coming up from behind, but it's far enough back to not care yet, he had at least a minute before it could reach him. He turns back to Law and tilts his head confusedly. ]

You don't make any sense.

[hot_mes]

[STARES. Get all the power of the Trafalgar Law Stare. Patent pending.]

Never mind. Deal with that later. Clearly you have the rest of this well in hand.

[bodies strewn about tell quite the story, after all]

[roseofthetyrells]

[ambition had been Margaery's driving force, what she got up in the morning to pursue, what she thought about as she went to sleep at night. her ambition (and the High Sparrow's foolishness) led to her ruin. so now she's giving kindness a try. and the ambitions of the parents often come before the wishes of the child, it seems.

yes, she knows them all too well. she's made an effort to forget what she memorized of the Seven Pointed Star, but it's difficult]

Perhaps. I spoke with her after she was captured. She seemed to truly believe that she'd done what was right.

The Crag? Six white seashells on a sand colored field. [she rattles off with the ease of one who has had such things memorized for years] Who is your husband?

[stupid_monkey]

[He smiles widely at that. Beating up attackers at least makes sense. Speaking of attackers, he hears and smells the clown behind him getting closer.]

Yeah, these guys are nothing.

[Staff still over his shoulders, Goku jumps and spins, smacking the incoming clown in the face. He uses the force from that to flip mid-air and kick it in the chest. He lands on his feet, but then drops to his knees and whines.]

Uwah. Fighting them is making me hungry.

[hot_mes]

[that's precisely why he's still standing up there on the rail, just watching. It's fairly clear that he doesn't need to exert himself today, the kid's got everything under control]

Can't help you with that. I'm not a cook. But there's not going to be any food in this arena, you'll have to leave.

[luckyblunder]

Okay. Things were getting weirder by the second. Harry'd had enough of weird for a lifetime, and rather than interesting or exciting it just sounded exhausting right then. Maybe if he hadn't just gone through that terrible battle.

"Uhm. Earth? I mean, I-" Little Whinging wasn't where he was from or what he would have considered his home, even if it was on the tip of his tongue. Harry took a breath. "I live in Scotland, in the UK. That's where I go to school I mean. Or, went to school," to be more exact.

But he was rambling and he knew it. "Sorry. Uhm, where are you from?"