dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #34

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!test drive

Test Drive Meme #34

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 July 25th, and apps are open August 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: OOZES GEOMETRICALLY
[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.

The only warning you may get is the squish slick sound of movement before a gelatinous cube is upon you. Leaving gross trails behind them and with their see-through bodies filled with the bones of those that they've dissolved in their jelly, these cubes have no real vulnerability other than their limited movement.

Gelatinous cubes are exactly what it says on the tin, giant translucent cubes of jelly whose main attack tactic seems to be cornering people in small hallways and just sort of absorbing them into its mass. They then digest all meat and flesh and leave only floating bones and various metals their victim may have been wearing stashed inside of their jiggling forms.

Maybe it's time to apologize for the last time you brought a jelly mold to a potluck.]

A L L

SCENARIO TWO: MY LOYAL SERVANTS
[Thanks for your service to the gods! In order to power each of them up, it's up to you to pick a deity you like most (or dislike least, as it were) and simply say their name in order to be influenced by them and encouraged to inspire their emotion in others!

What, you don't want to play? Too bad, accidental name calling works just as well, even if you didn't mean to incite them- you'll feel their presence pulling their chosen emotion out in you anyway. Hope you picked a good one!

This is a mini version of our In Need Of A Boat event this month.]

C O N F U S I O N

SCENARIO THREE: I MISS GPS
[Sure, you might be a little confused at being here at first, but that generally goes away within a few days. This time... well, this time, that feeling of befuddlement isn't quite going away. Roads that you take seem to disappear behind you when you turn around, your right turns are left turns on the map you're following, and you're pretty sure that everyone except for you put their shirt on backwards this morning.

Is everyone high? What they're saying makes absolutely no sense to you. You can't find your way out of a paper bag, let alone back to where you've been staying lately. Is that a dog or is it an eldritch horror coming up to lick at your calves?

During this prompt, everything will feel off and it can be very difficult to get your bearings at all. That's Confusion for you!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[At least she isn't kicking him anymore, and he lets his grip loosen just a little, but not enough that he can't react if she starts up fighting again. He stares down her seriously, trying to project honesty, but he's made to do that and surely she knows it.

Still, all he can do is keep trying to get through to her. Alice must be the child android she had been with, and of course she must care about her, so there's no easy way to put this but--]

I didn't do anything to her, but I don't know where she is. She's probably wherever you last saw her; we're the ones that are somewhere else.

[ This doesn't make sense. Kara feels like she's stuck in Zlatko's machine, watching the reset progress bar go higher, weakened by the computer wiping out the memories of her deviancy. ]

That's a lie. [ It has to be. ] You caught us. In Canada. Somehow. I'm-- this is VR or some containment zone.

[ She goes from disbelieving to angry to terrified in the space of a few seconds as she processes scenario after scenario in her mind. If he's lying, if he's not, if she's dead, if she's being reset at this very moment. What could be happening to Luther. What could be happening to Alice. ]

What are you going to do to her? Just-- don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her. It's all my fault, she didn't do anything wrong.

[At that reaction he's worried, immediately, about her stress levels; not only does his sense of empathy prompt the concern, but knowing his gun is hidden out of sight under his jacket--and therefore possible for her to grab if she realizes it's there and he lets go of her or she frees herself--and being all too aware of what deviants can do if pushed too far. Neither of them needs to get hurt here, and so his mission priority program refocuses him on the most important task: calm the AX400.]

I'm not going to do anything to her. I don't even know where she is.

[Maybe if he keeps repeating it she'll believe him. He can't do much else other than let her look at his memories, which he is absolutely not willing to do.

But then his sensors pick something up; it's a strange noise, unfamiliar and... Almost wet, somehow, and his attention is immediately drawn back toward it, his head turning to look back over his shoulder and momentarily taking his attention off Kara entirely.]

[ Given she trusts him exactly no way at all, Kara is about to keep pleading when she sees his focus shift. It's her chance to escape, but also, if it distracted him from his task, from an easy capture at this point, then it must be serious.

There's not much time to think. She has two choices: break free and run away or stay still in his grasp. With her stress levels so high, the only choice that makes sense is the former, so she shoves him back as hard as she can, ducks out of his grasp, and starts back down tbe corridor.

Which brings her face to surface with one of the gel cubes from the arena. She can't keep down a gasp, especially as it catches her foot. Kara yanks herself free with a grunt and finds she has only one way to go: back to her pursuer. Maybe he can kill this thing, though, or distract it long enough for her to run away.

So yeah here she is again, Connor. ]

[Damnit, of course she would run the moment he was distracted, and even with his fast reflexes he can only turn and prepare to chase after her again by the time she's made it past him.

But then he sees why she stopped, and he's momentarily utterly confused. What is that? Nothing is coming up in his databases on a cursory scan, a secondary deeper one revealing some fictional creatures it might be, but he doesn't have time to really look into them. Kara is already scrambling back in his direction, but they only have a dead end behind them and this thing is taking up the whole hallway.

Connor grabs Kara by the arm again, this time to pull her behind him as he faces the cube, drawing his gun. His scanners show an abysmally low chance of the weapon doing any harm to the creature--creature? is it even alive?--but he mostly wants it in hand so Kara can't grab it. He doesn't care to be shot in the back, thanks.

But it's not like their other options are looking too good as he backs up a few steps, pushing Kara to do the same toward the dead end wall; they're trapped here, and their only option is to go through the cube. Or maybe not...

Just to their left the wall doesn't look terribly sturdy, damaged by time and disuse, and although it's certainly not crumbling it's at least something. His scanners focus in on that point, and then on another point in the cube where he realizes there's an object floating in the mass; it's some sort of large weapon-like hammer, and maybe they happened to get lucky.

But in order to get the hammer they'd have to reach into the thing's body, which who knows what might do to them. Although if there's still an intact hammer then maybe it wouldn't be so bad; androids aren't entirely metal, but they're certainly not soft organic material either.

Again, he calculates odds, then shoves his gun into a coat pocket before moving forward and plunging his right arm into the cube. Warning signs flash immediately, synthetic skin retracting over his hand, but his leather coat is protecting the rest of his arm and he's able to close his fingers around the handle of the hammer.

A moment later and he's pulled his arm out, warnings still flashing, and backs away again; in that time, though, he has to shift the hammer into his other hand as the right begins to lock up a little. Whatever that cube was made of is apparently not good for his joints, though his self-healing engages and the results look promising, and he thinks he'll just need some time. No major damage done.

But they're still stuck in this hall, and he holds the hammer out to Kara; even being stronger than her, she'll probably do more damage to the wall by being able to use both hands.]

The wall is weak. We need to go through it.

[ That's horrific. Her boot wasn't in the goo long enough to get more than scuffed, but what happens to Connor looks painful enough that she's glad she ran when she did. His shielding her and taking damage doesn't inspire much confidence -- he's programmed to succeed, and letting her get killed would be failure -- but at least she knows they're both trying to survive this.

She's worried for her safety and his and the state of his clothes, but all of that fades to the background when he offers her the hammer. It's clear what he means, she's just-- she's not that kind of android.

Still, she has to try, right? And arguing would only waste time. She grips the hammer tight and looks for the weak spot in the wall -- structural damage being something she can identify even as a domestic assistant android, since it would pose a major risk to the person or people under her care -- and swings the hammer at it. And again, and again, until there's a hole big enough for them to get through. She glancea at him -- too empathetic not to, even though his presence means her death -- and then climbs through, hammer still in hand, just in case. ]

[Connor keeps at eye on the slowly moving cube, glancing between it and Kara as she begins breaking through the wall, closing out warnings and alerts as they pop into his vision so they don't distract him. He considers trying to scrape some of the remaining goo off his coat sleeve but then suddenly decides against it, instead pulling his gun out to move it back to his belt again before stripping off the coat and abandoning it on the floor. He'll come back for it later, maybe.

The synthetic skin still hasn't returned to his hand but one of the alerts he closes out is that self-repair is at 18%, so that's something. It'll be fine, and he's definitely not worried about it, or about the possibility that they won't get through the wall and will just be trapped here. He is definitely not afraid of any of those things.

His stress levels do actually lower, though, as Kara breaks enough of a hole in the wall to fit through, and then goes through it. He follows immediately, the process a little awkward due to only really being able to use one hand and the gap being a better fit for Kara than for him, but a moment later he makes it through and ends up on the floor of the next hallway. At least they're away from that thing, for now, but what if it can just squeeze through the hole after them?

He scrambles up as fast as possible, looking for Kara and hoping she isn't about to turn the hammer on him now that she has the opportunity.]

[ The sense of relief that floods through her when she's through the hole in the wall is almost too much to bear on its own, but then Connor drops in after she's standing, and it's clear she's not out of harm's way yet. Luckily for him, she's feeling less hostile towards him. He did protect her back there, even if for his own sake, and he did sustain damage, enough that he hasn't been able to get his synthetic skin back over his hand.

So no, she doesn't attack him, can't bring herself to, and she tells herself it's because they're still not safe. ]

You said you know the way out of here? We have to go. That thing might come after us.

[No attack coming is a promising sign, and it's even more of one that she's apparently willing to follow him out of here. Hopefully. She doesn't seem to be trying to deceive him, although he's admittedly too distracted to be giving her his full focus.

The only problem is... He did know the way out. But they just went through a hole in the wall and into another part of the maze, and he hasn't explored all the pathways in this place; he has pieces, and can draw up a mental map in his mind palace, but the section they're in is blank.

Still, if it's going to connect anywhere, it has to be in one of two directions. So they just have to get moving, avoid that thing or any others that might try to corner them again, and go through some trial and error until they find the way out.

He considers not telling her that last part, but the alternative option of her figuring out he's pretending to know what he's doing is even worse, so--]

We're now in a part of the maze that I haven't explored. I know the correct direction to go, but we may have to try a few routes in order to get there.

[He refrains from adding that if she'd just listened to him in the first place they would've been out of here by now and he'd have use of both hands, but the calculated chance of her reaction to that being favorable is not even close to making it worth it.]

[ Good choice there, not going with the sassy option, Connor. That might've earned you a hammer to the knee. What he does say is disappointing, but it's not hopeless. ]

Okay. I'm right behind you.

[ For lots of reasons, all of which he must know. He's the fighter, he's the one who knows where they are, and he's going to act as a shield... long enough for her to see how she's going to die, probably. This is grim, but she's not giving up yet. Not after all she's been through. ]

[Well, that was an easier agreement than expected and it makes him slightly suspicious, but they don't have a whole lot of options right now so he decides to just take it. A brief consultation of his mental map and he chooses the direction, beginning cautiously down the hall, casting an occasional scanning sweep of their surroundings to be sure she's still following and nothing is sneaking up on them.

The sound of the chaos from the arena is getting louder, meaning they're heading back toward the center, but if they do come out in the midst of things at least he can then direct them toward a tunnel he's familiar with. Still, he feels he should probably warn Kara--]

We may have to reenter the arena.

[ She has a sinking feeling as the fighting sounds grow louder that this is going to go badly for them both. Should whe have just run off without him? Should she have attacked him? It's irrelevant now, but the thoughts still come to her unbidden.

And then he confirms her fear. ]

What is this place? [ She hisses. ] Are you gonna kill me, make me an example?

[ She wouldn't put is past the military or CyberLife. There's a vague notion in her memory of having feared for her life like this before, but she can't place it and decides it's probably from fighting to protect Alice. ]

No. I told you, I have no interest in causing you any harm.

[And he might sound faintly annoyed now in having to repeat it again, especially since he spares a moment to check his system status--self-repair at 52%--and so is splitting his attention several ways.]

We're somewhere called Hadriel. There's an explanation for how and why, but it isn't a good one.

[Part of him still thinks it might be a simulation of some sort, maybe Amanda's way of dealing with him now that he's gone deviant. He doesn't know, and all he can really do is deal with the situation as it is for now.]

[ She's about to snap back with something about how if CyberLife wants to hurt her, then so does he, but then his tone registers with her. The annoyance. The hint of flippantness.

He is acting like a teenager.

This is a Connor she's prepared to handle, but what it means is... maybe he was being honest about being deviant. A machine would never act like that, even to another android.

She processes that in all of a few seconds before she shifts her hands on the hammer and steps up a little closer behind Connor. ]

Then let's get out of here as fast as we can so we can sit and talk, okay?

[ She definitely fell back on her programming there, what with wll the data and articles about dealing with moody teenagers. Path of least resistance. ]

[He senses her stepping closer and her grip changing on the hammer, and for a moment he thinks she might be making a move to attack, but he only has enough time to flinch and turn part of the way around before she's talking. That is... Definitely not an attack, and it isn't the same behavior she'd been showing up until now, so she's either acting or relying on programming or both.

Either way he finds it just adding to his annoyance, realizing somewhere in the back of his head that this must be how others feel when they catch on to him doing the same thing, but he's certainly not going to fight over it right now. If it means she'll follow and listen to him long enough to get out the arena then good, that's what matters.

So he just gives her a look before turning forward again, rounding a corner cautiously and continuing another few steps down the next hallway, peering around the opening at the end of it that leads back into the arena. Okay, more of those terrible cube things and people still running around and yelling, but they have a clear shot to the tunnels he knows his way through.]

Do you see the opening across the arena, ten degrees to our left?

[ Yep, definitely a petulant teenager, the look confirms it. The likelihood of him being deviant is very high. CyberLife wouldn't program their deviant hunter to be anything but efficient, and teenage moodiness is extremely inefficient. ]

Yes. [ She appreciates how specific he is. ] I can follow you if you don't run at top speed.

[ And then, more quietly, ] How's your hand?

[Okay, if he doesn't run at full speed they still have a very good chance of reaching the other passage without incident, so that's no problem. He's about to agree when she asks her question, and it gives him pause a moment that she's concerned; AX400 models are of course built to be attentive and compassionate, but she's deviant and clearly--with good reason--doesn't trust him. He isn't sure if she's still asking out of genuine concern or just to gauge a potential weakness, so he answers neutrally.]

The damage is noncritical.

[But although it's healing, the synthetic skin will be the last thing to return and her question reminds him he should be careful to hide his hand if they run into anyone else. Fortunately his borrowed clothing isn't the best fit in the world, and he's able to just quickly pull a sleeve down over that hand.

And, back on task--]

Ready?

[ It's a little dismissive a response, but this isn't exactly the right time. If they make it out, she'll ask again, though... she can't really help him. There are no owner's manuals for an RK800. The best she can do is the basics. ]

Yes.

[ As soon as he goes, she runs after him, keeping pace. ]

[They make it across the arena without incident, thankfully, and into the next set of tunnels, which Connor is actually familiar with. No gross-sounding cubes of goo yet either, and hopefully it'll stay that way; Connor's decided, suddenly, that he doesn't like the sound they make, although he has no great reason as to why.]

We're nearly there.

[He assures Kara, feeling like she could probably use it, wanting to check on her stress levels but choosing not to split his attention again. He can do that once they're outside.

And, soon enough, they are; it's begun to rain a little, apparently having started in the short time they were in the second second of tunnels, and it's calming. Connor steps out into it a few paces, giving Kara enough room to follow him and turning to face her.]

[ He's right to assume the reassurance will help her. Kara is lost, and she hates that. To know she can depend on someone right now keeps her stress levels from getting too high, so she's able to keep pace and make it outside and not bolt away from Connor now that there aren't gel cubes chasing her.

Against the odds, they've made a little progress.

When he doesn't immediately make to restrain her, she calms down a little more, finally feeling safe enough to approach him, if slowly. There's a good two meters between them when she stops, blinking in the drizzle, peripherally aware that this feels nice and is good weather for a nice garden. She'd wanted to start one with Alice in the spring.

And then it comes to her, the memory of where she'd just been, before waking up in the arena. She remembers standing in line, refusing to sacrifice anyone, standing tall for the scan, begging quietly for freedom. She remembers the demonstration on TV and the border officer's compassion. She remembers further back -- Jericho, Rose, Zlatko, Ralph. Connor chasing her and Alice. Todd's dead weight. ]

You're really deviant.

[ It's half question, half statement. She's still hesitant, but she wants to trust him, suddenly. He acted like a kid, and programming or not, she likes kids. She doesn't think anything could ever change that. ]

[He's expecting her to make another break for it, which would be fine; they're out of the arena now, so she's unlikely to run into too much danger as long as she doesn't immediately turn back toward the monsters. The chances of her doing that are incredibly slim--she isn't stupid--so he's much less concerned about her now.

But he isn't really expecting her to continue conversation now that it's no longer necessary, let alone to say what she does, and it's... He feels tentatively hopeful, almost, that same need to interact with another android coming up again and prompting him to go ahead and respond while he has the opportunity.]

Yes. I encountered Markus just before the attack on Jericho; I was in the church after everyone evacuated.

[And he'd seen her on a pew, although he'd been hiding in the corner at the time and trying to pretend he wasn't there. It isn't as though he really belonged with all of them, after all, especially since the attack had been his fault. His stress level spikes briefly before he gets it back under control, refusing to dwell on that for now.

Instead, he focuses on what he can do right now to make up for things.]

I'm sorry.

[It's sudden, but entirely sincere.]

I'm sorry I chased after you and Alice, and that you could've been killed because of me. It was wrong.

[But even though a part of him had known it even then, it was just too early on for him to have been able to allow that to factor into his decisions. He's just glad, in hindsight, that they'd managed to get away.]

[ Looking back, there's no way she would've seen him in the church. Kara had been reeling from the attack, holding Alice close, wondering if Luther made it out alive. Her sole focus had been Alice's safety. She'd even told Markus as much. And after that, she'd kept going until they were on Canadian soil.

The apology catches her off guard and gives her pause. He'd said earlier that he would've hurt her by now if he'd been ordered to. And this place... if she'd been caught in Canada, they would kill her, not send her back to CyberLife. Connor isn't lying, not about this place, and not about himself. ]

We just wanted to be free. Alice's father was going to beat her. I couldn't let that happen, no matter his orders. I was protecting her.

[ She pauses, replaying his apology in her head. It was wrong, yes. He knows that now, and he clearly means it. Otherwise, he would've let her die in the arena. ]

And you... you were doing what they told you to.

[It somehow doesn't surprise him that this is her story, and how she ended up on the run with a child android; it makes sense for why she'd go deviant, fitting in with the pattern he's seen in others, and it's extra appropriate considering her model. AX400s were made to be caretakers, and that kindness combined with the capacity for free will meant it was probably only a matter of time in her situation.

He's still quiet when she continues, apparently accepting his apology, and part of him wants to cling to it but a part of him knows that's wrong too; it was different, for him, than for many androids. He'd always been able to make his own decisions--he'd been designed for it--and he'd gone against his mission directives more than once. He could've broken free sooner; it was a choice for him, not something that snapped, and hiding behind the excuse of orders feels disingenuous. Yes, he was doing what they told him to, because he wanted to make them proud and do what he was designed to to do and just be good, but he didn't have to follow orders the way that so many androids did. It was different, and her understanding and sympathy are misplaced.

But he isn't about to argue, not right now, his rising stress level the only real giveaway that there's something wrong. Instead he's quiet a few more seconds, before moving past the conversation onto something else important--]

My name is Connor. What's yours?

[ Typical teenager tactic. Deflecting, distracting. Ignoring the problem to dwell on later, as if that'll help at all. Kara fights back against her programming -- this is the android sent to catch her, after all -- but she can't help feeling some amount of sympathy. Whether or not he could make choices before becoming deviant, he still had orders and to some degree was made to follow them. He might not be docile like the caretaker androids, but wanting to make his masters proud is a different kind of prison. If she ever finds that out, she'll tell him all of this.

For now, she lets him change the subject. ]

Kara. [ Is it nice to meet him? Hmm... ] Thanks for getting me out of there. You said there's an explanation for all of this?

There is, but it makes very little sense.

[But this is a safer topic, and one he's much more comfortable discussing. But even though they're safer out here, they probably should move a bit so they aren't right next to the arena and he gestures for her to follow him as he explains.]

Apparently we're in another dimension ruled by beings that gain power from absorbing emotions, and they need that power so that they can fight with their enemies, a primarily mechanical species called the Null.

[It makes even less sense outloud, and Connor is definitely reconsidering once again the simulation possibility. That would at least make SOME sense even if whoever programmed it might've been on red ice when they came up with the premise.]

Test Drive Meme #34

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cw mention of child abuse

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