test drive meme # 35

[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 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.]

Comments

[theweakhavepurpose]

Little over a month.

[He actually knows down to the day from the hash marks he's keeping by his bed, but he's aware enough to know he sounds like a crazy person if he starts talking about it that precisely.]

I'd say it gets better, but it doesn't.

[oldtonew]

What do you mean?

[ This doesn't seem so bad. The isolation bothers her, Kettara admits, but she's survived harsher places. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

I don't want to be here.

False gods. False ideals.

[He snorts. He's not impressed with this place.]

It's all wrong here. Like Purgatory.

[oldtonew]

What makes them false?

[ Kettara shifts curiously, watching him. She's not sure what purgatory is. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[His brain screeches to a halt. He ... has no idea how to explain this. He's not even really religious. Or he wasn't. Most of what he believes now isn't his own thoughts but Jacob's rattling around in his brain. Pratt has been broken and rewired so many times that some of the connections aren't all there anymore.]

They're ... not really gods. Pretenders. Blasphemers.

[He looks a little lost, like he's expecting someone to helpfully supply him some talking points.]

Using us like livestock.

[oldtonew]

I thought that's what gods did.

[ Orcs don't really have gods like the other races. Even the elements are temperamental and willful - not all-knowing or all powerful. Kettara scratches her head. ]

Why don't you just...not worship them?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Use people like livestock? No no. that's not..

[He trails off because he's so unsure about all this. And making him question the faith that isn't even his is doing odd things to his head right now.]

I don't!

[Angry, as if she accused him of something.]

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara frowns at Pratt. There's an odd, distant look on his face, and she's not sure why he's suddenly angry. Oddly, she thinks of Drek'Thar, the blind farseer and his violent, ever changing tempers. The others say Drek'Thar goes mad, sometimes. ]

Are you well?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Fine. Fine.

[He shakes it off. Shoving all those thoughts aside for him to dwell on later when he's sitting catatonic in his house alone.]

Doesn't matter. What matters is survival, and I'm doing alright there.

[Hence all the soup.]

[oldtonew]

You have food, [ she agrees. That's important. Presumably he's been sleeping somewhere, too. And if they were back home, Kettara thinks she would leave it at that. She doesn't like humans, but this one isn't doing her any harm and there's no Horde to protect. It shouldn't matter what he does. But it's been days since she's been able to have a conversation with anyone at all. Even the elements, once her constant companions, have been strangely mum.

The silence feels dangerous. It gnaws at her.

She shifts her weight, considering, and then decides to go for it. ]

If you let me come, I can protect you.

[ She hates the idea of being alone with only her thoughts to fill the silence. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

To my house?

[He's not sure how he feels about that. Though he was willing to let her help him carry things so she'd know where he lived anyway. As for the protection... He never wants to admit when he's weak, when he needs help, but this place has not exactly been pleasant. And he can't hole up in his house forever as much as he really wants to.

This is not someone who does well being alone with their thoughts.]

Alright, but it's pretty cramped with supplies right now. I don't have shelves.

[And she's substantially bigger than him.]

[oldtonew]

Uh huh.

[ She'd prefer to sleep outside, given the choice, but these are unusual circumstances. And he's not so bad, for a human. He hasn't called her a greenskin, for one. ]

I can be smaller. Do you want to see?

[ She isn't supposed to show off her shaman abilities, but shifting into Ghost Wolf form will save space if his quarters are that tight. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

What? You can be smaller?

[he stares. Is this something where she's going to ask her bones to shrink? What the hell is going on here? He's getting the sense he might be hallucinating giant green women all of the sudden.]

I mean.. yeah I wanna see if you can actually shrink.

[oldtonew]

Like this.

[ Kettara takes a deep breath, holds it, and then exhales slowly. Then she's gone. In her place is a large, misty wolf. The elders disagree about how the first shamans came into this power. Some argue it's an offshoot of druidism, a half-change. Others, like Drek'Thar, said it was a gift from their ancestors in recognition of their respect. Because of their devotion and honor, the dead had given shamans the ability to shift into bodies that contained neither blood nor bone, but rather mist.

Kettara sits on her hind legs, chuffing at Pratt. Look! She's smaller! ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[SCREAM]

What the fuck?!?!

[He nearly runs away because the person in front of him just vanished and turned into a wolf cloud thing. His brain is currently shutting down and rebooting. Give him a second.]

How... what?

[He reaches a hand out hesitantly, more to see if this is real or if he's hallucinating.]

This is Bliss isn't it? I've been dosed and I'm seeing things.

[oldtonew]

[ Oh, no. That was not the result she was aiming for.

Kettara shifts back into her orcish body, frowning. ]

I don't know what Bliss is. You said you wanted to see, so I showed you.

[theweakhavepurpose]

[That is not any less terrifying the second time around. But he does not run away because he's too stunned to do much of anything.]

How are you doing that if it's not a hallucination? I.. how?!

[His small human brain is not comprehending.]

[oldtonew]

I told you. I'm a shaman.

[ Her abilities came from training and devotion years in the making. She doesn't know how to explain that, though.

Kettara stares at him. Then, hesitantly, she reaches out and pokes him in the forehead. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

I don't know what that means!

[He instinctively swats at her hand and jumps back out of reach, ever twitchy in case an attack is coming.]

Hey!

[oldtonew]

You don't listen.

[ Kettara huffs, crossing her arms. ]

Stop being foolish!

[theweakhavepurpose]

I'm listening! Just not to.. water or whatever it is you're talking about.

[He is so confused.]

I'm not! You turned into a wolf!

[oldtonew]

You wanted to see!

[ So she demonstrated. It wasn't even that impressive. The ghost wolf form isn't all that useful. A shaman can use it to travel quickly and remain out of sight, but it dissolves upon taking a single blow. No one can fight like that. It can't even carry an ally to safety.

Kettara growls, looking away. She shouldn't have approached this human at all. ]

No. I'm going now. Are all humans like this?

[ The last part is asked rather abruptly. ]

You're meant to be fearsome warriors.

[theweakhavepurpose]

I wasn't expecting... that!

[He's not sure what he was expecting though after she manifested water out of nothing.

But now she seems pissed and he's not sure why because it seems perfectly reasonable to him to freak out when someone transforms into a cloud right in front of you.]

We're not all soldiers. Only the strong. The weak...

[He doesn't want to think about this right now. Instead he digs through the supplies in front of him to hand her a can of soup. He promised her one and he's not going back on his word.]

Everyone is afraid of what they don't understand.

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara growls again, frustrated. It’s been years since she’s spoken to a human but there are rules. She learned them and now, suddenly, they no longer apply. Pratt doesn’t act like she expects. He hasn’t snarled or insulted her once and startles from tricks that should give no one pause.

And now he’s offering her food.

Kettara accepts the object, staring at him all the while. ]

I’m not afraid. But I don’t understand you at all.

[theweakhavepurpose]

I don't understand you either.

Where I'm from people can't turn into mist. Or make water out of nothing.

[They're not huge or green either, but he's leaving that part out.]