test drive meme # 38

[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 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?]

Comments

[coppercrowned]

[ The idea of Curufin and Celgorm not being attached at the hip is almost foreign. Maedhros would even make a joke about it, were the circumstances not what they were. As things stand though, his focus is very much elsewhere. His focus is on the very real possibility that they have been trapped by the enemy.

And Elrond, and Elros, and there is too much to consider except it sticks in his mind very suddenly that neither Morgoth, nor Sauron, no any beast in Angband would know the name Curvo.

They had been kept far away from Morgoth in their youths in Aman, and for all that Sauron had toyed with his mind in those most terrible of years, he had never been able to recreate details like that. Maedhros is confused, and he can feel the pins and pricks of his condition behind his eyes, but unable to comprehend his own reality he is not. By Maglor's tongue he is able to be certain to some degree that his brother is in fact here in front of him, and not some illusion sent to torment him once again.

The same cannot be said for the rest of it. ]

Kana. If others have come and then vanished, then I do not trust them to have been here at all. Not when we could very well be in some cage of dark devising. If not Sauron, then perhaps the vampire. They feed on emotions, you said?

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor stays very still, but his stance is open and welcoming, for whatever his brother wants of him, his voice the calm tones they learnt in the early days of convalescence.

He can see, now. How broken his beautiful brother is. If only he'd seen it then. He might have been able to stop him, maybe. But he hadn't seen. Had been too consumed by his own problems.

This is his fault, again.

He has to try and fix it. ]

They do. And they might be, perhaps - but I don't think so, Nelyo. It's hard to fool my ears, you know that. They aren't them.

[coppercrowned]

[ For all that his logic believes Maglor entirely, reactionary doubt settles in his stomach and budges not an inch. For not the first time he thinks this, this is how Sauron truly broke him. Not with the horrors he endured, nor the weakness he maintained after the fact in his mental and physical well being. Nor even with the weaknesses inflicted on his honor. To not trust his loved ones entirely? That at once seemed to him entirely foreign and wholly apt.

What of his loyalty? What of his faith in his kin? Sauron truly had poisoned him with such a blow to his character, and with that he must live until his end. Which, it seemed, was not coming as quickly as he had hoped. ]

Then who?

[ Maedhros hesitates, considers for a moment before he lowers his hand and shows his burnt and blistered hand to his brother. ]

Ilk of Morgoth or not, that they have taken me from my death has left none of us safe.

[bythewaves]

I don't know. But they aren't them - that much, I know. And their enemies are worse again.

[ Maglor goes ghost pale when he sees the ruin of Maedhros' hand, and understands the implication ]

It... came with you? [ he says softly, horrified - he had hoped... the Oath lies sleeping in his mind, has done so for centuries, millenia, wrapped about in seasong and Maglor's own music. But it stirs now, interested. ]

But... never mind that, oh Nelyo, your hand! We need to get it treated.

[ Don't think about it he orders himself Don't. There's more urgent things. It can wait. There's no hurry. None at all ]

[coppercrowned]

[ His hand doesn't hurt as much as it should. It hasn't since he dropped the damn Silmaril. On the worst patches of the burn he's lost feeling entirely, though it stings around the blisters and on the edges. He flexes his fingers and winces--that hurts. ]

I have it on my person, though no one but us need know.

[ He doesn't mention Curvo--he isn't quite so sure yet that the Curvo Maglor knows to be there is actually him. He will need to determine that for himself. ]

Unless these new masters [ He says with salt on his tongue ] are listening now, then we are already lost.

[bythewaves]

[ The Oath seems to subside into grumbly sulking and Maglor hurriedly starts thinking about complex arpeggios ]

I don't think they are - they don't pay attention unless they're hungry, or the Null are attacking. But we need to treat your hand - will you let me at least try and numb the pain?

[ here's something odd - Maglor held them too. But his scars are old ]

[coppercrowned]

[ Maedhros doubts. He will continue to doubt until he drives him mad, but it hasn't quite yet. Some would consider throwing himself to his death to be madness, but never had he felt so clearly aware of his circumstances than that.

No. Maedhros is not mad, but the doubt remains. It lingers.

But ignoring his doubt has become instinctual along with favoring his left hand. Speaking of which--he nods. ]

I would like to not lose both hands, if possible. Though you may be once again stuck with an invalid for a short while, if it doesn't heal quickly.

[ You and Fingon. His chest tightens. ]

You mentioned Findekano.

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor waits for his brother, patiently. The Oath is silent again, shushed back to sleep. There is nothing here that needs him to be concerned - the Silmaril is with his brother, and his brother is safe. That's all that matters ]

I know. But I remember the charm for pain you taught me when we were younger, remember? And the sea here is not our ocean. But I have been here long enough to learn it's songs, and for it to get used to me. The salt water wills sting, but it will help the healing.

[ he smiles gently at the look in his brother's eyes ]

Yes. He is here, like you, drawn from the moment of his death.

[ He even manages to say that sentence more-or-less without flinching ]

I can bring you to him, if you like. We all live together. Curvo is drawn from much later, although you may want to scold, when you learn what he has been doing with his death. [ Maglor had - one does not go around Houseless when there are Necromancers around, and he had been both furious and terrified - Curufin had been appropriately apologetic, which is to say, not very sorry about what he'd done, but very sorry to upset his brother ]

[coppercrowned]

[ Maedhros wants to smile, but he can't. He wants to be happy that Maglor is communing again with the ocean, is here with him once again at the end of all things, that Fingon is alive, possibly. He wants to, but all that he can feel if grief.

Grief that Maglor has clearly died as well.

Grief at the reminder of the moment of Fingon's death, and how that had been his fault.

The constant quiet hammering in his head that this is a trap, in spite of Maglor's insistence otherwise. So he can't smile. Instead he just nods. ]

I would like that.

[ That's not necessarily true. The idea of seeing Fingon here, wherever here is, terrifies him. Had this been the Halls as he was expecting he would have been much happier to see him indeed. At the news about Curvo though--he groans. ]

What has he done now?

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor doesn't mind, waiting patiently for his brother - this is little enough, after all. He waited for longer by his brother's bedside, long ago. And that was his fault too. When his brother nods he reaches for his hand, the softly hummed charm that was the first healing song he taught Elrond, long ago .

Eventually, Maedhros will realise what's wrong, that Maglor is far too old, comparatively, that he's frayed around the edges, that he has silver shot through his hair.

Eventually, Maglor will have to explain to his brother what he did. But not yet. Maedhros doesn't need to know, not yet. For now, Maglor focuses on soothing the burns, coaxing them to settle, at least a little. ]

Apparently, [ Maglor says flatly ] spend several centuries running around Houseless. On the plus side, he's saner than I've seen him since we were children.

[coppercrowned]

[ Maedhros will indeed realize eventually, when calm has settled and he can think clearly. At present, Maglor's presence, while a comfort, is a small one. He wants to see Fingon. He can come to some decision about their state once he feels comfortable that both Fingon and Curufin are actually who Maglor believes them to be. He can decide how to feel when he has all of the facts. Then, they can determine a plan of attack.

His pulse is racing, but he is able to release a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding when the pain in his hand begins to subside.

He huffs in response to Maglor's comment on Curufin's sanity. He moves his fingers to test it, and the moment is stiff. ]

I don't blame him for wanting to distance himself from our lot in the Halls, if that's what you mean, though the idea of Tyelkormo allowing him to do so seems unlikely.

[bythewaves]

Oh no. [ Maglor says dryly ] Not in the Halls at all. I would hardly have blamed him either, for that.

Apparently, in his great wisdom [ Can you hear the Sarcasm ] Curufin thought it would be a wonderful idea to refuse the Call of Mandos entirely, and haunt Middle-earth. I assume that Celegorm did not notice in time, as I can scarce think of a worse idea than to wander around without the protection of a body when Sauron and his Necromancers are about, and I'm sure even as mad as he was at the end Tyelko would have agreed.

[ Somehow, he keeps going with the charm through this, at least until Maedhros can move his fingers a bit better ]