dankmemes | test drive meme # 35

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!test drive

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

They should be.

[ Kettara frowns, taking a step forward. There are spells to speak to another being without actually speaking, but that's not what gives her pause. Owns us? ]

Do you fight for a slaver, Deputy Pratt?

[ She has a hand on her axe already. The elements will support her in killing him, if he's done such things. ]

We're not slaves.

[But he looks really unsure about that.]

Yes I... I will train. I will kill. And I will sacrifice in his name. I will cull.. cull the weak and I will...

[He doesn't finish the mantra. There's a moment where he seems to be staring at something that isn't there before he backs up unsteadily, crying out in pain and holding his head with both hands. He mutters a prayer, eyes wide and focused entirely on the floor beneath him. But the way his head is pounding, Jacob's words screaming at him, he's not strong enough to resist. Breathing ragged through clenched teeth he drops to his knees.]

The weak must... must be culled.

[He hasn't forgotten she's there though, and he's struggling to hold onto sanity right now, even as his shoulders heave from the effort.]

No! Don't listen to me. I'm not going to. I won't.

[ It's not a denial. It's a clumsy jumble of words and motion that remind her too much of Drek'thar's fits. How he would be talking of one matter and then seem to catch on something, a word or an implication, and then quite abruptly there would be violence: in word, tone, or action. Sometimes he called the elements and they respected him too much, even in his moments of madness, not to answer.

Kettara flattens her ears. She doesn't like this. She doesn't like comparing a human to Drek'thar, one of their oldest and most venerated shaman. And she doesn't like how little she understands of this moment.

It would be better if they fought, Kettara thinks. Cleaner. But there would be no honor in it.

Instead, she murmurs a prayer to the Spirit of Water. A healing spell glows in her hand and she presses her palm flat against Pratt's head. It won't stop madness. But it can ease the tension, sometimes. If the blood flow moving to his brain is constricted, there can be pain. Other shaman have done it for Kettara in the past, back when she had the nightmares. It feels like something cool and comforting, as if dipping your hand into a steam. And, if she does it correctly, the pain should fade.

That, at least, she can help. ]

Be silent.

[ It works better if he doesn't squirm. ]

[Pratt's been very well trained, he's obedient to his own detriment. He stops talking, stops muttering under his breath and concentrates only on not completely losing himself.

When she presses her hand against his head, it actually helps. His breathing slows and it feels like the hands constricting his brain have released their grip. It's .. soothing. And for a few moments he kneels there, getting himself back under control. But as soon as he's more aware of his surroundings he jerks back, scuttling against the wall and staring at her.]

What did you do to me?

[he doesn't sound accusatory, instead he seems to be scared.]

[ Kettara tips her head to the side. This moment feels strange and fraught to her, tangled with pitfalls she doesn't know to look for. ]

A healing spell. To ease the blood flow in your skull.

[ She makes no move toward him one way or another. She felt the spell working and for a moment his breathing had settled. Now he's got his back against the wall, staring up at her for reasons Kettara does not understand. ]

I won't hurt you. It wouldn't be honorable.

[A.. healing spell. He shouldn't be surprised after the making water out of nothing and turning into a wolf, but he still is. However it's a little dulled by the whole almost having a complete breakdown thing.]

I'd be an easy target right now. You should. You're stronger than me.

[He rubs his head before struggling to his feet. Well this is awkward. ]

I .. I'm sorry, I still don't know what triggers that.

[Well for the most part, he knows one thing that will send him catatonic immediately. But luckily there's almost no chance of that happening here.

But for the other part; Is it talking about Jacob? Is it thinking about the cult? Memories of the Veteran's Center? Admission of weakness? He has no idea. Sometimes he can talk about Jacob and be fine, but other times... well other times it ends up like this. ]

It would dishonor my ancestors, and myself.

[ She says it simply. Strength is important, of course, and a blessing to any soul regardless of their lot in the world, but it is not everything. Kettara is beginning to see this now. It wasn't an easy lesson.

Nor is this, she thinks. Though what the lesson is meant to be, with a human and his strange fits, Kettara cannot guess.

She breathes in, centering herself. She thinks of Drek'thar and some of the other orcs who raised her. ]

I don't know you, human. But my teacher says sometimes, when a battle is not honorable or a great violence is committed without reason, it leaves a wound on the mind and strange things will worry at it.

I don't want to bring you dishonor.

[He frowns, he's weak and pathetic enough that killing him would be beneath her. That's almost impressive. He does seem to be much better now though, losing that haunted look where he doesn't seem to be in the present.]

They sound very wise.

Great violence, yeah.. that's about right. I need to get better at fighting back, but I'm weak. And this place keeps battering at everyone. Keeping us down so we don't resist.

Master Muln is a great shaman.

[ One day she hopes to be just as wise and strong as him. Kettara tips her head to the side, watching Pratt curiously. ]

You have decided to fight? That is good. That is a start.

I've always been fighting.

[He sounds defensive again.]

I'm just not strong enough to win.

[ Kettara frowns at him. He says one thing, then another that seems to contradict it. How strange. ]

There are many ways to win a battle. Perhaps you are trying the wrong way.,

[He's.. never thought of it that way. But maybe she's right, the reason he's a mess is less because he's weak, and more because he's not resisting effectively.]

Maybe. Maybe I am. I don't know how else to fight. Training didn't prep me for the mental part of battles.

[The trauma, the emotional toil, none of that was ever covered in all his police training. Not that it would have adequately prepared him for a brainwashing cult, but it would have been a start.]

The mental part?

[ Kettara blinks, watching him with renewed interest. ]

What do you mean?

The aftermath. How do you deal with seeing your friends die? How do you fight for weeks and then go back to normal? How do you know what's insane while in the heat of a battle?

Why do we expect soldiers to be okay when they come back from battle? Kill people and then go tend their gardens or something. It's not possible.

[ Kettara isn't sure she understands. A battle is simple. You fight and you win, or you die. You fight honorably or you don't. Then, in the aftermath, you celebrate the living and mourn the lost. But she listens, nonetheless, and thinks of the old war. The stories she heard about how things had gone strange under the weight of the Blood Rage. How honor had become a secondary concern, if it had been thought of at all. ]

I don't know.

[ It's admitted quietly. ]

You're meant to honor the fallen by living well. But sometimes they don't die well, and there's no way to avenge them.

[ No way to regain that honor for them. Kettara looks away. ]

Not everyone gets a good death. I -- I'm sure my master will teach me what to do, to fix that.

What makes a death good? They're still dead no matter how they died.

[They may have similar views on some things, but Pratt is convinced that honor in death, nobility of purpose, is foolish. Either live, or die. No one will remember how you died in a few years anyway. Back home he's slowly dying after doing something noble, and no one will ever know.]

Maybe it's me. I'm not cut out to be a soldier. I'm barely passable as a Deputy.

[ Kettara frowns. Surely humans honor their warriors. Surely they honor a good death. ]

A honorable death means you are worth remembering. That you have become more than yourself. We should all strive to die in glorious battle.

You only get remembered if you were famous in life. Or rich. Otherwise no one cares.

There's more to life than fighting.

[Well that feels odd to say, like something he would have said before everything went to shit. Like something the old Pratt would say. Weird.]

But....that cannot be right. Surely even humans honor their warriors?

[ Kettara cannot understand such a thing. Do humans truly not value honor at all? ]

Of course not. But an honorable death in battle is the best death.

Not really. Well we do in theory, but not in practice. Most of our homeless population are Veterans, a lot of them can't even afford medical care, none of them get what they need once they're not in the military anymore.

[Maybe if they did Jacob wouldn't be a raging psychopath now.]

We consider dying in battle a tragedy. Ideally people should die at home in their beds when they're eighty.

[ Kettara takes a step back, eyes narrowed. What he says makes no sense to her at all. ]

I don't understand. How can you bear such shame?

Me? I didn't do it. I voted to give them more funding but people realized it meant higher taxes and lost their shit so it didn't pass.

[ He keeps saying words that she doesn't know as if it changes anything. Kettara shakes her head. ]

You do not wish to die in battle and you will not honor your warriors. What do you honor, if not that?

No one should die in battle because we shouldn't even be fighting. Everyone killing each other isn't normal, that's not how it's supposed to be.

I don't know, you talk about honor as if it's a big important concept, I'm not sure it means the same thing to me as it does to you.

[ Kettara flattens her ears. ]

I suppose it's not. It's said orcs are born into war.

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