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dankmemes2018-05-21 10:08 am
hadrielmods) wrote in dankmemes2018-05-21 10:08 am
Entry tags:
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!
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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?]
no subject
But you are familiar with the different...tricks that happen? What the gods do to us? [She knew what happened when she arrived and had heard a few stories, but nothing to give her a clear picture.] I can imagine, but is it ever really safe to let your guard down?
[She accepted his hand, carefully arranging her skirts around her once they found a place to sit.]
Not as other ladies might. I lived by the sea and our flowers were wild.
no subject
A few. I don't take kindly to their approach to abducting unsuspecting people and using them as a food source, but from what I understand they have very little options.
[He still thought it was rather poor to just take people and hold them hostage. He himself had done it, sure, but he had tried other solutions first.]
You have to choose where and who to let your guard down too. Like anywhere, there is always the chance that something may cause you harm. Is it safe? No. But you can't stand at the ready without needing sleep and rest to refresh yourself. Every knight and soldier knows that. I think it's just finding out who to trust and who will protect you when you need it.
[He missed having that. The safety of knowing that his uncle, or Morgan or others were just beyond reach, that he could lean on them if he needed.]
It sounds lovely. Were your flowers anything like this?
no subject
I can't imagine anyone is happy about their source of food or being chosen as it.
[Her father had been a hostage for a time, now it seemed that she was to follow his example.]
Would you say there are those here that you would willingly trust if you needed rest or to lower your guard? You're braver than I am, if you do. I don't know if this place would allow very much trust.
[But she is cynical and accepts that about herself. How could she not be?]
Some. These are more cultivated. Ours could be counted as weeds. Our Keep was crumbling and worn. We didn't have the resources or time to tend gardens, so our flowers were overgrown.
no subject
No one is, and no one should be.
[If they had asked, it might have been a different story. But that hadn't asked. There had been no diplomatic overtures, just immediate need.]
Not yet, not entirely. But there are some who, perhaps, I might be able to in the future. You have to start somewhere my lady, or you will be very tired indeed.
[She was far too cynical for one so young.But both their worlds had stripped the naiveté out of them, and now they knew there were things far crueler.]
I don't know much about flowers, but aren't weeds just plants which someone has deemed unwanted? It sounds to me like perhaps yours weren't weeds at all.
no subject
[She could assume for herself that it was her poor luck, accompanying the lost of her husband and her realization of her mother's involvement. Why not be taken by the gods as some sort of sacrifice? Was that not what her mother intended? Making her a sacrifice for her mother's ambitions?
She pulled a nearby flower, tugging off the petals as she forced away her frustrations. He didn't deserve her irritation.]
I'm already tired, my lord. I hope that I find some who I can trust as you have.
[But she isn't sure and she doesn't want to consider it very much yet. It only made her head spin and make her feel so small compared against the world.]
You have a pretty way of putting things. Most wouldn't give weeds such a poetic description.
no subject
I was told they don't have control over it. I'm not entirely sure how true that is, however. I think it's most likely opportunity. They are taking advantage of the situation.
[It was so tempting just to reach out with his mind, take control and calm her, as had been so often done to him. Kelson found it soothing, letting someone else hold control for a little while, finding peace that had often been so fleeting, and he missed it here. But he didn't reach out. It was so tempting though.]
I think that describes a lot of things, my lady. Weeds, or people. What someone deems abhorrent another deems sacred.
[He had spent most of the last four years he was king trying to convince his subjects of that, that an entire race of people was not damned because ignorant people feared or did not understand. Weeds. He did not consider them weeds and he most certainly did not consider half of his heritage to be a weed as well. Yes, it was rather personal.]
no subject
[Fear would find her simple to use. She already felt a great deal of trepidation for this world, as well as her own. After Robb's death, she knew she was more paranoid and broken. That sort of mind would be easy to play with, especially for a god.]
They would keep us as we are then, flawed and lost. It would make it easier for them feed from us.
[An ability like would be a godsend (so to speak.) To simply be calm again, soothed away from the troubling realities she had come to accept. Though next to what the gods were doing, it would be met with initial suspicion.]
I don't know if it is as beautiful as that. Some take that philosophy and twist it into something more menacing.
I used to think that way once.
no subject
[Sorrow likewise would and had found it easy to use Kelson. He was prone to bouts of depression and self pity on good days, add a little prodding and he would be positively reduced to tears. It seemed for both of them, as life went on, they became more and more broken. He had been so confident and sure when he had first started as king. But as usual, life had its way.]
Yes. While not the most honorable means, it is a solution for them. Honor does not seem to have been a mitigating factor.
[He would have been happy to use it if he knew how she would have felt. Kelson was not used to having others be so, well, happy about having their mind manipulated. All his squires and scouts and the like knew it was a possibility when serving Kelson, that some thing additional might be required, but others were understandably apprehensive.
Probably because the Church had told them it was the Devil.]
What changed?
[Kelson asked, tilting his head in curiosity.]
no subject
[There was no happiness found in a crown. However short her time as queen had been, she had come to see that it only brought difficulties and sorrow. It had left a wedge between her and Robb, separating them from complete unity, as there was an aspect of his world that she couldn't share. The crown was the third person in her marriage.]
Honor is important to you?
[Despite the painful reminder, it made her smile to hear someone speak that word. It was such a small thing, but it had changed her life.
She lowered her eyes, tearing one of the petals between her fingers.]
I became a widow.
no subject
[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.]
no subject
[Only Robb. However hypocritical that made her, she couldn't acknowledge any other king. Not Joffery with his cruelty, not Stannis with his severity, not Balon with his barbarianism, and not Renly with his arrogance. Only Robb had the qualities of a king and he was killed for it.
Honor was a tricky thing and she had seen it lead to poor results. Had she accepted her loss of virginity and insisted Robb marry Roslin Frey, would he still be alive? Her mother's plans would have failed, but what would have become of her? But Robb held his honor close and she was at least given a few months of happiness.
His revelation had her looking up in surprise, eyes wide but apprehensive.]
No. It isn't easy.
How long were you married?
no subject
[And Kelson had enough of Pretenders. His father held the peace for twenty five years. Kelson was crowned and it set off 2 invasions from neighboring kingdoms, 2 civil wars, 1 religious insurrection and then his cousin tried to seize the crown. All in the last four years. No more Pretenders, kings, queens or 'gods'. Kelson had had it.
Honor was a dangerous thing. It saddened him that it took the death of an innocent girl for him to figure that out. If he had simply marched into Meara like his father and grandfather and great grandfather had done and simply killed the Mearan Pretenders, Sidana like Robb and so many others, might still be alive. But he wanted another way. He wanted people to live.]
Thirty seconds. Maybe a minute.
[He could remember it vividly, his hands tied to hers, their eyes closed in prayer as vows were recited. Sidana tensing and then blood spilling out her neck and then chaos. Kelson was never getting married in that church again. He would always see her body and himself, the bloody altar.]
How long were you married?
no subject
[But there had been some disturbing rumors surrounding Renly's death. Lady Stark had spoken of a shadow with Stannis' face. Had it not been from her goodmother, she might have dismissed it as ramblings brought on by shock. But Lady Stark was a good woman and not one for exaggerations.
In the end, Jeyne knew little of the world and couldn't say anymore what was true and what wasn't. She only knew that magic seemed to exist in this one.]
That short? What happened?
[Though, even in asking, she suspected the answer. Such a short amount of time. It was possible he married her as she was dying, but her recent experiences with weddings made the true reason crystal clear.]
A few months.
no subject
[Now that was a subject close and dear to Kelson's heart. And he believed wholly that power was just that, power, just like fire. You could use it to heat a chill or blind a man.
Kelson kept playing with the ring, probably not realizing he was even doing it. Over the years it had become an almost unconscious habit.]
Her brother slit her throat. She wanted him to walk her down the aisle, I didn't see the harm. He promised to be on his best behavior. I didn't have time to move, I couldn't react, and there was just so much blood. I didn't think he'd hurt his own sister.
[Kelson shook his head, still in shock, both furious and saddened still by what had happened.] He killed her rather than see her wed to her mortal enemy. I would have loved her. I would have tried. I like to think she was starting to do the same.
[He took a breath, realizing he had shared more than he had meant too.]
May I ask what happened to your husband?
no subject
[She's intrigued enough to ask and listen, though the subject was unnerving in itself. She couldn't imagine someone having that sort of power and using it as easily as they drew breath. It seemed like something too close to the gods...
...Or the Targaryens, though their only power seemed to be taming dragons once.]
He would kill his own sister? Why? How could someone do that to their family?
[How could her own family do something similar to her? More and more, she could see the similarities between them, betrayed and battered, having lost someone they cared about because of the cruel machinations of others.
Her family may not have slit her throat, but they put a dagger in her back.]
Sometimes people cannot see past their ties to country or king. It only shows them to be cowards though, using such dishonorable means.
[She understood better than he might realize.]
He was attending the wedding of his uncle, hoping to seal an alliance that would bring more men. My husband was previously betrothed to them, the Freys, but he broke his promise to marry me. [Her fault. This was her fault.] He hoped his uncle would pacify them, but the Freys conspired with my husband's enemies.
Despite having guest right, they were killed during the wedding feast. He and my brother.
no subject
[And so, Kelson walked a tightrope, trying to show that Deryni magic need not be feared, and doing his best to try and reverse the laws relegating those of Deryni heritage to death and second class citizenry, while showing that no one, human or Deryni was above the law. It was incredibly difficult, but it could be so much worse he knew.]
Those with magic are not gods. They can easily pretend to be though.
[It had not escaped his notice that most of the miracles prescribed to the saints were easily reproduced by magic....which he knew was dangerously close to heresy.
As he listened to her story, to what happened, the conversation he had with Margaery came to mind. What had she called it? The Red Wedding? He felt his stomach start sinking like hot coals, and sickened, wondered how many other similarities he would find between their two worlds. No one should have to go through what he had. And yet, they had.]
The Red Wedding. [He hated that they had a name for it. What kind of people name something like that? Just call it a horrible tragedy and be done with it.] Margaery told me a little.
The more I hear the more similar I think our worlds are. The wedding was supposed to reunite our two lands once more. It was too easy a solution. Marry the pretty princess of a rival house. I didn't want to have to march into Meara like my father, grandfather and great grandfather had done.
[He supposed violence was all but guaranteed even before then, but Kelson had done everything he could to avoid that solution. Other men would have summoned their army the moment their Bishops waxen head was paraded into Christmas Court. Or at the very least killed the hostages. Not marry one of them.]
Llewell thought he was doing an honorable thing, for the honor of his family, saving his sister from the hands of someone he'd been told was a monster. And it was pride. It's always pride, and the inability to give up old grudges and hopes, to see an old and proud line stand strong enough. Pride gets in the way and they don't see the treason and cowardly, dishonorable actions lurking behind it. It sounds as if the reasons behind your own tragedy were similar. A veil of upholding honor wronged underneath something worse.
[In a small movement, Kelson offers her a hand, disengaging himself from Sidana's ring.]
I hope their murderers were brought to justice, my lady.
[That was all he had, that was all that mattered. Breaking an oath was one thing. Serious in it's own right, but murder during a wedding celebration was unjustified. Kelson only hoped the men responsible were dealt with in the dishonorable manner they deserved.]
Please understand, this was not your fault.
[It felt hypocritical to even say those words out loud, but it was different for him. Sidana's death had been his fault. She had been under his protection and he failed her. It was as much his fault as if he had held the dagger himself. But Jeyne was a lady, she could not have prevented this even if she had known. Those deaths were the fault of those who set it in motion, and those who had stayed silent. He was still looking at you, Margaery.]
In my experience, such events were bound to happen, one way or another. Tensions flair and politics are a dangerous game.
[He was adding the Frey's to his list of people he wanted to 'talk' to if they ever came to Hadriel.]
no subject
[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.
no subject
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.