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

[uptightness]

[It is a breath of fresh air, that realization, even though she knows what path lays ahead for him, for all of them. There are nights when she does wonder what might have been, had Sigma been hers, if the AI would have been able to twist her so, and in truth, she can't firmly say that no, she wouldn't have let him get in to her head. She's been a powerhouse in her own way, but also her own worst enemy.

There is no easy answer to any of it, to explaining why it fell, at least not without hashing every single detail. There is no one defining moment that can be looked back upon, unless one wants to go way back, to the death of her mother that broke her father. Otherwise, it had been little chinks here and there, cracks and fissures etching across the surface, small and tiny, unnoticed, until the foundation had come tumbling apart.

Carolina finds her eyes shifting to the note, hesitating. It won't be what he thinks, if she can hazard a guess as to where he is going with it, but without giving so much away, without telling of his own descent in to darkness. Her tongue darts across her lips, mouth feeling dry, and it's akin to navigating across a splintering pane of glass.]

The Great War ended about five years ago.

[Not that Carolina had had any role in that. She'd been... Well, it depended who you asked. Most thought dead, and it was what she had wanted them to think as she had striven to make sense of everything that had happened up to the ship crashing and having her AI torn from her body.]

[bloodbathing]

[ Unaware of the conflict in Carolina's mind, Maine watches her carefully. Waits with bated breath for her answer. He sees her hesitation — eyes darting away; taking a moment to wet her lips — and wonders at its source. Maybe the war is still ongoing. Maybe it's taken a turn and become even worse.

Then Carolina answers, and it's like something cold and hot hits him at the same time. He hears himself inhale sharply. Stares at her in naked astonishment as the words penetrate.

The war is over. The war has been over.

Holy fucking shit.

Whatever questions Maine had — about Carolina's hesitation; about the Project; about how long it's been since she's seen him — vanish in an instant. It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. The war is over. What else could matter?

Slowly, a smile breaks over his face. It's not a simple quirk of his lips or flash of amusement. He straight-up beams at her, broad and open. The war is over, and they won. Had to have. It was a war against their own extermination; if humanity survived, they won.

Several impulses shoot through the giant man at once: to shout out; to throw something; to pull Carolina into a hug. The last is insane enough to focus him, and he settles for scooping up the nearest beverage (was it his? it is now) to raise it in a quick toast. ]

[uptightness]

[That conflict is over. It doesn't mean that more haven't risen in it's like. Like the hydra, it seems that with each conflict that is stopped, two more arise in its place. It's not like everything has just settled and stopped, that the world has turned to sunshine and lollipops. Heck, Carolina wouldn't actually know what to do with herself if that was the case. Even in retirement, with training, she hadn't quite gotten to the Grif level of being able to do nothing all day.

But they did win, at the cost that they won at. Now, at least at the moment, it's back to human against human, conflicts across the galaxy, to innocents paying the prices as they always seem to. Yet, she can't blame him for his reaction, as even if she is a soldier, Carolina has had enough with war. She'll fight for what she believes in, but she is still a fighter, even if the word honourable may well be placed before her.

Freelancer hadn't ended due to any choice of its own. More likely than not, if given the opportunity, they would have continued it. They hadn't been given that chance though, and Carolina would ensure that that empire would remain in rubble. It just meant having to deal with the aftermath, which may well take her to her dying breath. That's her penance, and she's fine with that, less fine with others passing due to their fuck ups.

It is only a small tip of her head that she gives after a moment to his raised glass.]

To endings.

[Nothing sweet about it, but rather just bitter. They'd torn each other apart like rabid dogs, not even understanding as they ripped at each other, what was happening. Of course, it had ended, and that in and of itself is something to breath a little easier over. That, at least, had been taken care of for the time being. What the future held, not even Carolina could say.]