Test Drive Meme #34

[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 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!]

Comments

[blazingsword]

[Keith gets enough shit about his hair and has seen enough aliens that all Atem gets is a cursory look. He takes the helmet, though he does frown at the question.]

What doughnut?

[puzzlingly]

... Never mind.

「Don't mind the snort either.」

I meant, what's wrong?

「Can he sit beside him? Eh, not gonna ask, he's just gonna!」

[blazingsword]

[As long as Atem doesn't move to touch Keith he'll probably be okay with the personal space violation otherwise. He's getting better about being around people in general. A few years in near isolation even made him kind of appreciate it.]

I feel like there's this fog over my mind, I can't seem to find my way. Not that I know what way is which here, but... Even the path I literally just took seems like it's changed.

[puzzlingly]

「Why on earth would he touch him, wow. But yeah, that's it, just a little company doesn't hurt anyone, specially if they look so frustrated about things.」

Would you want a tour around? I have to say you might end up a little disappointed. Hadriel can be a lot of things but it's always lacking something.

Who are you anyway?

「Might as well ask.」

[blazingsword]

[Hadriel, is that the name of this place? Keith mouths out the name to himself, but it doesn't ring any bells. He hasn't heard of it before, and he'd hope that he would remember if he's been here before.]

Keith, paladin of Voltron. I don't suppose a man named Shiro showed up here at the same time or any other people who call themselves paladins? They wouldn't all be human.

what a pretty icon dude!

[puzzlingly]

No, haven't heard of anyone going by that name or anyone calling themselves that.

「Sounds important, though. Atem takes a better look at him, his outfit definitely seems out of this world, even by Hadriel's standards.」

When you mean they wouldn't all be human, what else would they be?

it's from the "we're gonna fuck over our animation budget" prettiest scene!

[blazingsword]

[Keith figured they probably weren't here, when no one answered on the comms, but something could have knocked them out. It doesn't hurt to ask.

He still looks a little disappointed before he can stop himself.]

Altean. [Pause, then gestures to his ears.] Think human, then add pointy ears, like an elf. Uh, strange colored eyes, these two colored v-marks on their cheekbones too. We had Galra with us too. They're .. .. ... Purple.

[Look, there's a metric asston of genetic variation between the Galra with the only communal traits being 'bipedal. Mostly purple'.]

👌

[puzzlingly]

「Elf, he knows elves! He also thought they only existed in books (and manga...) and trading cards.」

Purple. 「Color his surprised, pun intended. What can he say, he's a little bias towards purple. The explanation seems to make him smirk, there is much he hasn't seen yet, so much to discover and... too little time. But the disappointment in Keith's features doesn't go ignored, Atem is good at reading people after all, but he keeps that to himself. He might as well know perfectly what the other might be thinking; feeling completely alone without allies, friends of familiar people you know in a rather unknown place at first is always daunting, of course he doesn't know the whole story, but it almost always is, it's nothing new and, unfortunately, he cannot offer any succor to it either.」

Cool. But, no. Haven't seen anyone like that either — though, there are a few elves, dragon looking people, and a lot of monsters that come from the Door every month.

[blazingsword]

[Keith just nods like that's normal. He's met rock people. Some could argue that certain Galra look like dragon people. You see enough aliens you just start accepting that the universe is a strange place and everything exists in some form.]

Have there ever been people that know each other showing up at different times? Or... [He sighs, running a hand through his hair, messing up his mullet a bit as he thinks.] I noticed you didn't mention going home.

[puzzlingly]

Yeah... I've seen people I know coming and going at times, though-- 「This multiverse thing is something sometimes he cannot grasp yet, it's specially difficult on him because...」 sometimes it brings people you know, but it's not... exactly them. 「And yet, they are.」 Parallel universes I think it's the name.

「Look, he's not your techie guy, he's just an ancient dead guy.」

I cannot speak for myself, I haven't been home in a long time. I know a few who left this place and came back; some didn't remember anything, others did, but one thing was sure, none remembered Hadriel while being home. So, it is possible to go home but that's not up to you, at least not yet.

[blazingsword]

[Man, you know what else he's run into already? Parallel universes. Who knew being kidnapped by an alien made robot lion and starting off on a grand adventure through the stars would equip you so well for this kinda situation.]

No one remembered Hadriel? And none of their friends commented on this big span of missing time?

[puzzlingly]

「What a lucky, lucky guy.」

They say it's like no time had passed at all. Not a single second. What happens in Hadriel stays in Hadriel, you could say.

[blazingsword]

... Seriously?

[You have no idea how relieved he is to hear that. That might be the best damn news he's heard all day. So all he's gotta do is survive this and... and no harm, no foul.] Do we age here?

[puzzlingly]

「Oh — that's one awkward question to this guy... but, um, he can answer it anyway. If Keith wishes to see it makes him doubt for a second.」

Yeah, time goes on here. Not so much at home.

[blazingsword]

[??? He's not certain why it would be a strange question, though maybe Atem hasn't been here long enough to find out.]

Good to know. That's nothing new.

[puzzlingly]

「Maybe he can tell him one day! But for now the uncertainty just fades—it's just something he often forgets is a thing.」

Nothing new? You mean you've been in this sort of situation before?

「Okay, Keith suddenly became very interesting.」

[blazingsword]

[Keith nods, standing now, helmet between his hands as he looks up to the sky. He's still speaking to Atem though.]

Had to travel through a quantum abyss recently - they're full of dark stars, time moves differently the closer you are to them. Being right inside of it, well... two years passed for me. I don't think it was even a month for the rest of my team outside of it.

[He sighs.]

Too much atmosphere to see if this planet is in the middle of one, too. Pidge and Hunk would be able to figure it out anyway, I'm sure.

[puzzlingly]

「Ah, Atem listens alright, and he was right, that's interesting and sounds... amazing. It actually makes a lot of sense, even for him. It makes him wonder about Hadriel's nature.

Idly, he tries to remember those names for later.」

Nah, it doesn't work that way. The so-called gods have been teleporting us from planet to planet. Ah... I suppose no one has told you about that?

「About gods, about planets and something about a war?」

[blazingsword]

Teleporting a whole city?

[There's how the Castle of Lions moved, and the Black Lion itself, and various other bending of space and time that Keith has seen, but moving a whole city seems like it would need a huge power expenditure.]

No, no one's told me. How?

[puzzlingly]

「Atem exhales. There is a lot of history to cover, but, fortunately, he can cheat at that. He finally stands too.」

Have you checked your pockets lately?

[blazingsword]

[Keith hasn't, so he does now. And yep, there's the device... thingy... he's never seen before.]

Huh. That's new.

[puzzlingly]

「Good boy.」

Find the guide, it'll tell you everything you need to know.

「Well, not everything, but the important things.」