dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #32

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!test drive

Test Drive Meme #32

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?]

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[ It is nice, and that's something that can never be taken for granted. Not after what they'd been through.

Almost automatically, he winds an arm around her as she leans on him. The contact, however small, feels like lifting a monumental weight off of his chest. It feels like being able to breathe again. ]

Fancy meeting you here, eh?

[ There's the ghost of a laugh in his throat as he lays his hand on top of hers. ]

Anyone else here or is it just... [ A pause, and a deep inhale. ] Is there a chance?

three.

[Hannibal liked this place, more than most, if he had to choose somewhere here to not mind. Most of the time it was quiet and he was undisturbed here, surrounded by the various fragrances nature here had to offer his sensitive nose.

The boy intruding doesn't go unnoticed, nor does the odd choice of arrangement. He politely keeps any comments to himself until the other addresses him, surprisingly.

Hannibal raises one eyebrow curiously and turns to glance at the blond out of the corner of his eye.]

No, thank you.

[He can't help himself.]

It looks as if you might use some, however?

[ He relaxes only a fraction as she lowers the gun, slowly reaching for his pocket to pull out the picture that he was given when he took this god forsaken job. It looks pretty rough now, creased from being folded repeatedly and singed around the edges. But the sepia image of Elizabeth in her tower is still clear as he holds it out for Maeve to see. ]

Her name is Elizabeth. Her hair's shorter now but otherwise she ain't much changed. As for the rest... it's hard to explain.

[ How do you explain that swigging a drink in a flying city gave you the ability to throw lightning without sounding like a madman? ]

The place I was had these drinks called vigors that give you powers that hardly seem real. They're not unlimited but they can turn the odds in a fight.

[It's... so nice. A little bit of what she'd lost back beside her, and she couldn't be more grateful for it. She shuffles around when he puts his arm around her, making herself comfortable there with the few flowers she's holding left forgotten in her lap.]

I saw... Mm. I saw Glacius, but he doesn't remember anything. [He's still the same, though.]

And Rook. He remembers everything. [Still angry, still rude, still... Rook.] Nobody else. And now you.

[Poison turns her face up and smiles at him again, a little more softly, a little warmer, but with a sadness around the edges.] I just... I want to go home, Matt. I want to go home.

[It's so strange that he doesn't know her. To know he's forgotten her and everything that he went through in that place. She finds she envies that a little - there's a great deal about her time there that she would like to forget about entirely.]

I would. I'd be willing.

[Hadriel might be an easier place so far, but that doesn't mean it's not still difficult in its own way.] Oh, I'm Poison. My name is Poison.

She never had reason to think he'd refuse, and she's still got a hold on him as she darts towards the exit. Her quick steps drag them around one lumbering clown without pause, then another, and she ducks through the archway with every muscle in her legs protesting how fast she's moving.

It doesn't take her long to realise that they aren't being followed out. She swallows and breathes hard, turning on her heel and taking a few steps back.

"Wh... Where are we?"

[She doesn't miss a step. Poison has already realised that these clowns aren't terribly fast, but does that mean she wants to get near one? No, it does not. She hears the girl she nearly took the hat off of following behind her, but doesn't think to look over her shoulder until she's near enough to an exit to be home free.

They're being followed - of course they are - but the lumbering steps won't close the distance between them before they escape.]

Come on!

[Two small felines - one black, one deep red - are peeking out of where her arms are gripped around them. She fixes the other girl with a sharp look.] Keep going!

It sounds similar to the history of my world, but I don't know the word Deryni. What are they? Are they like Targaryens? A family from the East that can control creatures or magic?

[Though she wasn't sure how many would say the Targaryens were despotic as a whole. The Mad King was fearsome and tyrannical, but Joffery had proved to be the same and he was no Dragon. Who could say anymore if a single House was despotic. Cruelty seemed to simply exist in men without boundaries or control.]

I have never seen anyone possess magic before. How can I not view them as something beyond mortal?

[The term was a sharp twist in her gut. Her eyes held on him, guarded and dark. The subject had been approached in veiled terms, she'd even admitted that her husband had been murdered by her family. But hearing someone speak of it, as though they lived in Westeros, it changed her level of comfort.

She was now speaking to someone that wasn't exactly a stranger. He knew her history and what had happened to her husband.]

That is what the smallfolk called it.

[And possibly Joffery, he'd find delight in that.]

No, his murderers have all been rewards. Each person who played a part has been given something.

[Walder Frey would have the Riverlands, the Lannisters would hold the throne and had the Tyrells on their side, and her mother had the Lannister marriages she had wanted. The only one who was responsible that was punished was herself.

She shook her head, glaring at nothing in particular.]

No, not like this. Had he married Roslin Frey, he would still be alive. Whether or not I did anything consciously, I still am the reason he died. My mother was able to spy on him, he lost allies and many of his men. There is no point in saying I am not responsible. I am.

I think anyone who has lived in Westeros can say they have suffered some form of betrayal.

[She didn't know what the Lannisters endured, but there had to be some among them that suffered as well. She couldn't speak on what sort of woman she was or who she was going to become, but she knew that whatever Lannister she married, he would be miserable. Was that not a betrayal by his family.

It didn't take very much else to let Jeyne guess who this woman was. A dominant grandmother and a geared Baratheon wedding, she had to be Margaery Tyrell.]

Did being Queen bring you happiness?

[Her thoughts stumbled, confounded why anyone would invent this twist in her marriage. Did the Lannisters try to hide from Westeros that one of their bannermen turned against them? Was it to spare their pride or help with their plot.

Foreign woman. Was it a slight on her mother's family background?]

Would that I had died at the Red Wedding, my brother was there instead.

[She scrambled in her head to find some detail that might prove her identity, something that she Margaery might know.]

Lady Stark visited Renly Baratheon's camp. When I first met her, it was in the company of Lady Brienne of Tarth. They said that Renly Baratheon was murdered by a shadow, one bearing Lord Stannis' face.

Quite true, but one never quite grows accustomed to it, do they?

[Margaery would like to care little about what happened to the Lannisters. However, Cersei destroyed her entire family and Margaery will have her revenge, even if it's vicariously earned.

that would be correct. she would be pleased to know that her reputation has grown to such a degree]

To a point. Tommen was young and easily influenced. Given time, I could have molded him into a fine king. Unfortunately, his wretched mother had other ideas.

[it's no twist as far as Margaery knows. Robb Stark wed a nobody from somewhere in Essos and it got both of them killed.

no slur on her mother's family background intended]

You mustn't say that. The Red Wedding was a terrible thing.

[she's quite convinced that the girl is Westerosi, but as far as being Robb Stark's bride? that will take a lot of convincing]

...that's true. I had it confirmed by the Maid of Tarth herself and the woman seemed incapable of lying.

Shit!

[Kanji stumbles on the elf just as she's pricked herself on the thorny stem of a flower, Lup cursing and quickly sticking a finger into her mouth, to suck the few drops of blood beginning to bleed out of the tiny cut.

Her sharp eyes slide to the boy when he approaches, her gaze first landing on his face, then quickly moving right to the elaborate bouquet in his hand. An idea quickly forms.]

Gimme your flowers.

Generally it's considered common decency to offer help where it is needed without the expectation of payment or recompense.

[The amount of times people here had asked him that made him realize just how little he really knew about half his heritage.]

I suppose it could be just that, yes. Deryni are a race separate from humans. Really the only difference is the use of magic, and how we react to some....medications. I don't know where we came from though. So much knowledge has been lost. It could have easily been the east or any other direction. But yes, perhaps it was just like that.

[Cruelty existed in both, Kelson would agree. Sometimes madness ran in families, but sometimes madness and cruelty just were. And try as he might, part of him believed that as much as Deryni were persecuted, they did it to themselves.]

Magic is the same as any skill, just like being good with a sword or having a knack for languages. It doesn't make someone special, it's just part of what the can do.

[It wasn't hard to realize Kelson had made a wrong turn.]

I don't know about the smallfolk but I don't think something that horrific should be named like a battle or a great victory. I can imagine who thought of the name. You name things that deserve honor. There was no honor behind that.

[He certainly wasn't naming such things after his own wedding. Red Wedding indeed. The more he learned about her world, the more he disliked it.]

Then I pray they will suffer the consequences in the afterlife, if not before.

[Real world justice was always preferable. Vengeance wasn't the answer but he still found some deaths liberating.]

I shan't argue with you. Guilt and our own views of what is and isn't a sin is individual. I have noticed however that even if certain events had not happened, others were bound to take place. You cannot change individual natures.

Huh? [Kanji glances at the massive bouquet, brow furrowing. Man, does he ever have a face just built for scowling. Even his confusion looks ferocious.]

Nah, man. I'm good. I got it.

[Is that the sound of the implication whooshing right over his head? It very well could be, unless the good doctor is offering to help him with his burden, rather than critiquing his floral choices.]

So... guess ya ain't here for th'flowers? Thought that was kinda the point of this place.

[R U D E]

W-what!? No friggin' way! Get your own damn flowers!!

[He worked hard for these, man. The evidence is right there on his hands; scratches and pricks from thistles and stems. And yet, until just now he seemed... happy?

Tranquil. That's the word.]

( Yep, that's a good idea. Ugh, what does she have in her pockets today? Somehow, Trucy doubts these clowns are going to be bothered by Mr. Hat, even if she stages her own kidnapping again.

Party poppers? Might work, might just make them angrier. She holds onto them, just in case, as she runs, following the other girl towards what looks like an exit. And only once they've both ducked under the door and turned a corner in the labyrinthine space under the Colosseum's seats, does Trucy gasp for breath, hands against her knees.

Party poppers still in hand. )

What was THAT about?

( Seriously, who decided to drop them in the middle of a Nickelwise convention? )

( ... Really?

Rosa just stares at the woman for a long, loooong moment. Funky clothes, no idea how to use a phone...

YOU A MORMON OR SOMETHING?

Reasonable conclusion, right? )

( Brooklyn, except without the need for Rosa to rent out anything under a shell corporation, where anonymity is way easier.

That's a point in Hadriel's favour, she guesses. Not enough to counteract the losing her voice, being trapped in a strange place with nothing to do, but a point nonetheless. )

So I get to eat like Jake.

( Probably worse, actually, because there were takeouts back home. )

If Jake's a frat boy, or extremely afraid of electrical fires, yes.

[Agrees Quentin, with a small smile.]

I've got a bunch of tinned peaches I can share if you want. And I hear there are crops- but I haven't found them yet.

( there's a frown. with no tone to go with the message it just seems very strange and out of place

No. Are there other pages? )

There could be many reasons someone would find themselves here.

[Hannibal turns more fully to get a better look at the other, assessing him for a few silent moments before motioning to the bundle of flowers he's holding.]

Are those for a special occasion? Or a special someone? The type and coloring of a flower can hold great significance in either case.

[ oh whoops. keyleth pauses for a brief moment before running through her assumption that vanessa is simply rejecting the notion of referring to their tenuous powerful allies as gods-- ]

Oh, you know what I mean. A wannabe-- do you prefer lich? I know everyone has different thresholds and terminology and all that...

I don't know what that is.

( lich was unfamiliar, though vanessa certainly had ideas as to what keyleth meant by a wannabe. the silence from vanessa is a little uncomfortable for a few seconds, vanessa trying to sort out her thoughts on the matter )

I used to believe. ( though she had yet to know that this wasn't the same situation ) I owe Him nothing.

( and the thought that vanessa did made her a little angry )

[ keyleth almost jumps to explain what liches are to vanessa, but something stops her. the way the other woman takes time to parse what she does know gives keyleth time to pay attention and listen. instead of talk.

and she realizes... ]

Are you new here? To Hadriel, I mean?

( vanessa tips her head, looking back towards keyleth )

I am.

( it wasn't difficult to figure that out, not with how little vanessa knew about this place, and that would become obvious the more she spoke )

Is that where we are?

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Test Drive Meme #32

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three;

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a million years late

runs at u

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rosa no

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rosa yes

it's all good

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