dankmemes | test drive meme # 35

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 August 25th, and apps are open September 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: GET YOUR RED CAPE READY
[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.

And they sure are big boys. Big and easily angered and ready to run right over you. This time, the Door has brought in Brontos, from the video game Dragon Age.

Brontos are large oxen-like beasts, though more sure-footed due to spending all their time in caves underground. There are domesticated brontos, bred to haul and be ridden and eaten... but these aren't those. These brontos are wild, one and all, and they are skittish and large and perfectly capable of running you over. Maybe just keep your distance.]

SCENARIO TWO: DESERTED
[You're alone. Completely alone, as far as you can tell. Nothing here works - oh, there's food in the stores, sure, but the water's not running, the electricity isn't working. There's not a soul on the streets, where you would normally expect to see at least a few people here and there.

So what will you do? Smash windows and grab food from the stores? (Well, the doors are all unlocked, but hey, who doesn't love smashing windows.) Shout in the streets in hopes someone will hear? Curl into a ball and cry? All valid choices. But then, what will you do when you do find someone, after thinking you were all alone? Someone you like, someone you hate, a complete stranger?

This is a mini version of our Deserted event this month.]

S O R R O W

SCENARIO THREE: ONE MORE CHANCE
[You can't stop thinking about the one who got away. They've been on your mind - well, it feels like forever, but maybe it's only been a few days. A few hours. But you can't stop thinking about them and regretting what could have been.

Maybe it's a failed romance. Maybe a broken friendship. Maybe a family member who walked away - or who you walked away from. Even a business partner who things ended poorly with. Whatever it was, you regret how things went down. If only you had another chance, a chance to fix things!

And then, there they are. The person you've been thinking of. What will you do? Beg forgiveness? Make amends? Run away? Make your decision and take action, because as soon as you do it you might realize it was never that person at all. You might have just poured out your heart and begged forgiveness from a complete stranger.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is that so! How exciting. You'll have to sing one for us sometime.

[Sounds believable enough to Caedra. Whether the enemies she speaks of are orcish or otherwise, the bards of the worlds all do love their war ballads. And the pounding drums and intimidating chants of orc war parties must make for such fine storytelling material. Oh, Caedra believes, all right. She finds the very idea thrilling.]

[ Kettara shifts uneasily. This moment started out as something she understood - a call to action, a call to battle - but now she isn't certain where she stands. Or, even worse, where she ought to. ] Are there any other orcs here? Or is it just me?

[ She hopes desperately that she's not the only one. ]

Just you! This place is absolutely crawling with humans. It's sickening, honestly. There are a few elves, though, and a tiefling. And an ice elemental of some sort. Not much variety otherwise.

[Fine, fine, so she's not just some strange human. Pretending to be didn't last long. She's expecting a return to that question, though - if not human, what is she? Providing a false answer is less suspicious than leaving it a mystery. It's fine, though, she still has a few seconds to think of something good.]

[ Kettara wrinkles her nose. Urg. She's outnumbered. But that does beg a certain question, doesn't it? ]

Why do you look human, if you're not?

[ She's heard of the dragon aspects doing that, choosing bodies to suit their purposes, but Kettara very much doubts a dragon could be trapped anywhere it did not wish to be. ]

Why? Who can say, it wasn't my choice to make. I have to admit it's been useful here, though, with how many humans there are. They probably find it an easier form to comprehend than some of the alternatives I've seen in my people.

[She laughs a little as if picturing their reactions, then shrugs.]

Perhaps it was just the multiverse's idea of a joke. But it works. Humans mean well, but they tend to look unkindly on those who are too different from themselves.

[As an orc would likely be quite aware - but then they are the same, aren't they? Perhaps even less accepting of outside races than humans are. Not that Caedra seeks to point this out.]

[ That's an odd thing to say. Kettara frowns. ]

What do you mean, it wasn't your choice?

[ Something to do with the magic that brought them here? Or something else entirely? ]

Did you choose to be born an orc?

[Caedra raises an eyebrow, but continues to smile benignly otherwise. It just strikes her as a funny sort of question.]

Of course, your parents were both orcs, so it would be expected. I was born from the mesh of the multiverse itself. Perhaps it wanted to know what being human felt like?

[It makes for an easy story to tell, a blend between having chosen her falsehood and mixed it with a dash of mysterious truth. Many of the tanar'ri are directly born from the Abyss itself, after all, even if that isn't the case with her. But she's still far too hesitant to name her race, with so many of the orcish tribes readily worshiping one of the demon lords. There's a very real possibility that the girl would know just how much of a threat she is. But ah, a strange child of the grand universe, placed in a mortal-shaped body, there's a sort of romance to such a tale, isn't there? A fragment of the world, trying to experience its own people through their eyes.]

[ Again, Kettara thinks of the dragon aspects. Time, nature, the multicolored dragon flights. ]

Where I am from, such creatures choose their own form. To blend in, or because a certain body appeals to them.

Ah. Yes, I know of those who can. I am too young to do so, unfortunately. It's a surprisingly difficult thing to learn.

[Yep, don't mind her over here, totally harmless. Completely unable to change her shape should she wish to - though of course she can but when she does, it does only last a short time. She knows that some day the Abyss will change her, but she will have no control then either as to which form she takes. Nor would she seek to - the uncertainty is thrilling.]

[ Kettara nods. She's stil learning, too. ]

Thank you for telling me these things. I'll remember it.

[She's so genuine, so kind about remembering Caedra's half-fabricated tales, that the demon feels intensely awkward for a moment. This was really not how she had expected things to go when she saw an orc. How strange. But she keeps her composure and nods.]

Well - then. Go on. Good luck, as these people say. And should you agree that these false gods deserve to be torn down for what they've done, come find me.

I'm always ready for a fight.

[ Kettara flashes her a smile. She isn't sure where she stands with Caedra, exactly, but she feels better about it than she did at the start. At least she knows someone, now. ]

I just want to make sure it's the right one for me.

Ah. Then when you find the one you're after, kill well.

[A preferred saying of her own people, this time, and she smiles in return. That's more like it.]

test drive meme # 35

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