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

[roseofthetyrells]

[Morbid thoughts are unavoidable in Hadriel. even as Margaery can appreciate the beauty of the flowers, she can't help thinking about the gardens of Highgarden, a place she'll never see again, where her grandmother is left with nothing but vengeance as poor company.

she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her reputation proceeded her. her marriage to Renly created quite the stir, but that was nothing compared to the uproar when the Tyrells threw their lot in with the Lannisters and come to their aid at the Battle of the Blackwater. much to the eventual and eternal regret of House Tyrell.

the stranger was pretty and had a sweet face, but one marked by sorrow. she was clearly of noble birth given her dress and bearing and Margaery idly wonders why she's never seen her at court]

Then, I thank you. [she smiles warmly back in hopes that it lifts the girl's spirits] They'll brighten my room nicely.

Safe? [she releases a short, slightly bitter laugh] Between the so-called gods and the demon, is anywhere here truly safe?

[goodandtrue]

[She was poor nobility at best. While the silk of her dress was beautiful, it wasn't as fine as anything that Margaery might have worn in Highgarden or anything seen at court. There was a time she had imagined living similarly to Margaery, marrying a high standing lord (maybe not a king, but someone of great noble birth.) Her mother had filled her head with these ideas, but they had fallen away in the face of love, however, naive that might seem.

The woman was kind and had a tender face, the sort that would naturally draw a broken soul. She had the bearing of someone who could be a safe harbor, gentle and good. There were so few left in the world, Jeyne wondered and worried for this woman. Life was not kind, not to those similar to Margaery.

The smile is soothing, pulling one from Jeyne in return.]

What do you know of the gods and demons? Have they ever shown themselves?

[roseofthetyrells]

[while the Tyrells were the second richest House in all of Westeros and they weren't shy about displaying their wealth and power. never in a threatening way, but one that invited awe and admiration from those who saw. and Margaery had always had a king in her sights. she'd been taught from childhood politics, governance, as well as more . . . sordid things. like judging the kind of woman a man would want and becoming that woman.

she's found it easier to be genuinely kind in Hadriel where she no longer has to worry about her power and status. and she seems to draw those who have had painful pasts. perhaps like cleaves to like?

she's glad to see the young lady smile. it banishes some of the sorrow from her demeanor]

I know their names. Hope, Fear, Love, Sorrow, Rage, Confusion, and Tranquility. We had Delight, but she's been locked away for her betrayal. The so-called gods show themselves from time to time, but usually one has to go to their temples to talk to them.

As for the demon, its name is Caedra. It has eyes that are entirely black and it kills without reason.

[goodandtrue]

[Kindness was such a rare thing and those that offered it seemed to suffer more than the rest. Their motives were abused by others and twisted into something more sinister. Jeyne had assumed her mother meant well when she pushed her daughter to tend to Robb, though in reflecting on it now, it turned her stomach. Had her mother hoped that Robb would take Jeyne into his bed? Had she meant to sell Jeyne, all to advance the Lannister cause? She felt bile rise in her throat, pushed near the edge by the sickeningly sweet smell of the flowers.]

I suppose it is no stranger than Smith, Warrior, Mother, Maiden... [She trailed off.] Delight betrayed someone? What happened? With names like that, I thought that they would be on our side?

As good a reason as any for a demon. Does he show himself as well?

[roseofthetyrells]

[Margaery has come late in life--or rather, in death--to genuine kindness. it's only been since her arrival in Hadriel that she's truly learned what it was to have friends instead of allies, to trust and be trusted in return, to love and to be loved. Margaery would understand Jeyne's concerns about her mother, given that she was raised to be not a queen, but the queen. she'd never questioned her upbringing. she still doesn't in most ways. she ultimately chose her fate, but she can't bring herself to regret it as it's brought her here, to this place, where she's learned and grown so much.

she twitches at the mention of the Seven. it's barely visible, but it's there] Delight betrayed us, the residents of Hadriel to a [oh, dear. how to describe the Null?] to a race of mechanical beings who were willing to kill us all to attain their goal.

She walks among us, unfettered. If you see a short woman with a Dornish complexion and pure black eyes, run.

[goodandtrue]

[Kindness had been her close kept virtue, what she believed in before everything. Kindness given meant kindness returned. However, the sharp reality was that such qualities were not meant to exist in a harsh and unforgiving world, even among family. Her mother's ambition mattered more than her daughter's happiness and well being.

She didn't notice the twitch, but could see Margaery recognized the Seven.]

That doesn't sound like what you would think for delight...unless it is a delight for evil?

Dornish? [She bit her lower lip.] I have never met someone from Dorne before. I lived my life in the Crag until I was wed.

[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?

[goodandtrue]

Betrayal always comes with an insistence that their cause was right. I suppose it takes a great deal of arrogance and conviction to manage something like that.

[Her mother had shown no signs of considering the outcome and what it might mean for her daughter. The Lannisters likely had no qualms about breaking guest rights. It was war, they would insist that and she would have no argument in return.

She didn't understand war, but she understood cruelty.]

You know it? Not many remember us. We are no longer a family of means or standing.

[She met Margaery's eyes with pride. No matter what happened to him, Robb was still the best man she had ever known.]

Robb Stark was my husband. Is my husband.

1/2

[roseofthetyrells]

You speak as one who has had experience with betrayal.

[the Lannisters (or a specific Lannister) had no qualms about destroying the Sept of Baelor with wildfire, killing hundreds in an effort to kill two specific people, Margaery being one of them.

if Cersei Lannister ever arrives in Hadriel, she'd not last more than a minute before Margaery killed her]

Yes, grandmother had me memorize every House in Westeros. Their symbols, their words, and their lords. It was in preparation of making me the best possible candidate to be queen. Then Robert Baratheon went North and chose Sansa Stark, much to her eventual misery.

2/2

[roseofthetyrells]

[and she's taken completely off-guard at the mention of the girl's husband]

--what? You say that Robb Stark was your husband? That can't be. Robb Stark wed a foreign woman supposedly for love, forsaking his alliance with the Freys. His wife died with him at the Red Wedding.

[goodandtrue]

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.

[roseofthetyrells]

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.