dankmemes | test drive meme # 38

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 November 24th, and apps are open December 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: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC MOTHERFUCKER
[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.

Of course, a War Unicorn may not seem too lethal, but anyone who's seen Cabin in the Woods knows that they pack a powerful, uh, stab (cw for gore). War Unicorns are mighty beasts, larger than most horses and made of raw muscle. They might seem cute and cuddly in concept, but they're trained to use their horns to blind their opponents before trampling over them with their ironclad hooves and their two thousand pound bulk.

Want to try to bring one down? It's harder than it looks, thanks to their natural magic resistance- many offensive abilities and spells simply don't work on them, and you might piss them off if you try, so be careful...]

C O N F U S I O N

SCENARIO TWO: REMEMBER ME
[It may have just been a brush against the shoulder, a quick handshake, a simple hug- but at the first touch of skin on skin, suddenly you see the other person's memories. This can range anywhere from a recent moment to something traumatic from their past and can be done willingly, if you like.

Of course, once you realize what's going on, you might want to bundle up and avoid contact with everyone- though you might look a little strange, so don't be surprised if someone asks you what you're doing!

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

T R A N Q U I L I T Y

SCENARIO THREE: PASS THE TURKEY
[It's that special time of year again, where you get to hang out with people you only kinda sorta know and catch up with every other month or so and pretend that you're all really close for the sake of food.

Because of course, there's a splendid feast waiting for you- juicy turkey and warm stuffing and your very favorite potato dish! The only downside is that you have to spend your evening with these losers, but we're sure you'll find something to talk about!

Well- maybe not religion, relationships, or politics. How 'bout that weather we're having?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fingon rights himself and turns, looking toward Maedhros with exasperated fondness.

"As this time you've wandered back to me, I'm willing to call us even if you are."

Maedhros' stunned stare is just a bit unnerving, and the prickles it brings to his skin are somehow different than the usual shiver he feels when his cousin's attention is solely on him. Fingon frowns, steps forward, places a hand on his cheek.

"Maitimo? You-" And a suspicion, planted in the back of his mind, begins to sprout. "You know where we are, don't you?"

Maedhros' smile is melancholic at best and remorseful at worst, as he rests his hand over Fingon's, upon his cheek. It took Fingon's death for him to realize one of his greatest regrets: that they had missed so much time together. There was so much he should have said and done differently, and his time with Fingon in his life had been so woefully spent with war and oaths to the long dead on their minds.

"The Halls do look different from how I imagined, but I know that I've died Findekano."

"Ah."

There's a lump in his throat; he swallows hard, forces it down.

"That would be because these aren't the Halls, Maitimo. I'm terribly sorry if the news is disappointing, but it seems Mandos will have to wait for your arrival."

He keeps his voice light, kind, even a bit teasing. No need to worry Maedhros further, not now.

"I presume you'd like to know where you've landed instead?"

Edited 2018-11-24 07:19 (UTC)

Maedhros' fingers tense against Fingon's hand, and the imagine that he had seen mere seconds ago of his own broken, battered body flashed in his memory. It sunk in his stomach like lead.

Without realizing, he began to grip the hand against his cheek. He thought he had escaped this, and suddenly the ever present fear begins to creep back up his spine.

"What? That's not possible. Not even Sauron himself could have--"

He begins, in that moment, to suspect himself trapped. So many centuries since his capture and yet the idea of being trapped again puts the hairs on the back of his neck on end, sends his blood rushing. So long he had thought himself free, and yet...

"Shhh..." Fingon sees the panic in his eyes and presses closer, trying to soothe what he can. And with a skill he rarely uses, he opens his mind to Maedhros' and lets his spirit reach out.

The message he gives is the only one he can: Look at me, here I am. See? I have nothing to hide from you. Nothing will happen to you, not while I am here.

"Don't be afraid, Maitimo," he adds softly. "It only pleases the bastards."

To have another in his mind should, by all reason, set Maedhros off on a straight path into the very recesses of his trauma. Were any other to try such a thing perhaps it might, in spite of every wall and buttress he had built up in his own psyche over the centuries past to prevent such a collapse. Fingon, though, seems to bring with him only peace. Fingon's voice in his head anchors him. An illusion of Fingon would feel different, but this? This is real.

He breaths out through his nose. He furrows his brow and nods, not looking away from Fingon for a second.

"I'm not afraid." A lie he's told to himself many a time, for fear is not becoming in an eldest son, much less the son of a king. At this point, it's really just stubbornness. "And which bastards have trapped us this time? Whose halls have you braved to rescue me from like a damsel, if not the Halls of Mandos?"

"Of course you're not," he agrees, smiling crookedly up at him. Does he believe it? Never. But there are better ways to support his cousin than to start interrogating his defenses.

"Would it surprise you to learn that these are no Halls? The city is called Hadriel, home to parasites who feed on emotions. A petty, self-absorbed bunch- though there are worse about, surprisingly enough."

Does it surprise him? Every single thing about this surprises him. Not being dead, not being in the Halls, having Fingon here with him with neither of the former being true. The only thing that doesn't surprise him is that they are, in fact, captives. That much is, with Fingon's help as an anchor in his reality, painfully clear.

What doesn't surprise him is that once again he has failed.

"These parasites are of Morgoth's bunch I presume. Then we are not only lost but all our deeds have been for nothing."

Fingon shakes his head sharply.

"I doubt they know of Morgoth; I am sure they do not care enough to ask. They are fleeing from an enemy of their own, and those of us here are only of interest to the degree that we can be of use."

test drive meme # 38

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