test drive meme # 41

[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 February 22nd, and apps are open March 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: JUST A SNACK
[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.

Or monsters, as the case may be. It seems like the Door has decided to grace Hadriel with a small invasion of Fallen Angels, from the mobile game Food Fantasy. You might run into a Hamstero or a Forker, a Fanged Snail or a Purple Dumpling. Actually they're mostly... kind of cute.

But still dangerous, so watch your back! These Fallen Angels can really hurt. They go down pretty easy, but there are a lot of them, and they're happy to hit you with claws and teeth and whatever other weapons they have. Sadly, they will not let you hug them.

L O V E

SCENARIO TWO: SOULMATES
[You look down, and all of a sudden you see something new: a name on your wrist, inscribed as if it's always been there. Maybe you recognize the name, maybe you don't - maybe you're happy to see it, or not at all. But it's there, and you can't wash it off, and you kind of want to know what's up with it.

So why not go looking for whoever the name belongs to? There aren't too many folks in the city, they can't be that hard to find. And when you do find them, prepare for the best new friend/lover/family member you've ever met. You'll get along like a house on fire - until the name on your wrist fades away.

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

H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: SCRATCH-OFF
[In your hand there's a ticket. Scratch off the boxes, see if you win - it's a pretty straightforward concept. But the prize is the one thing you want most in the world, and if you can just scratch off the right boxes, maybe you'll get it!

The other prizes are... less enticing. Do you really need a whole turkey, or a new dishwasher, or a lifetime supply of hair removal strips? Maybe you do. But it's that big prize, that golden ticket, that you're hoping for. So scratch away, or find a buddy to help you choose the boxes, or find someone else with a ticket to compare yours to.

Let's just hope you don't run into someone who actually has won the prize... because after all, what's stopping you from just taking it?]

Comments

Rey | Star Wars

[garbagepilot]

[one]

[In all likelihood, the strange creature at Rey's feet wouldn't have given her pause on a different day. They aren't inherently more alien than most of the creatures living on Jakku, no stranger than the myriad of species who visited Niima Outpost or filled up Maz's cantina.

Really, they're pretty normal when aliens are just as common as humans. In space, not much can be a surprise.

But the creatures Rey had been surrounded by just seconds before stumbling through this odd door were small and feathery, tiny and harmless and, honestly, too stupid to do much damage. They were an odd species, certainly, but one Rey found cute. She didn't particularly mind the porg infestation slowly spreading through the Falcon.

So that's why she's startled when she looks down and sees-]

Eugh!

[Instinct takes over and yes, she did just punt a weird snail monster on sight.

She looks pretty pleased by the distance she got on that kick, too.]

[two]

[When the name on her arm shows up, Rey doesn't quite realize that's what it is. It really could be anything, because again, space. There are all kinds of names.

Hers is spelled with an E. Names can be odd.

But it won't come off no matter how she rubs or scratches, ever present and a mystery, and an annoying one. Why is there a name on her?

Who would be so presumptuous they would mark a stranger like that?

Eventually she decides the only thing to do is track this person down and demand answers, so don't mind her scowl when she reaches out, grabs an arm without looking at who it's attached to, and says-]

Is this you?

[wildcard!]
(I'm up for pretty much anything! If something doesn't fit for the above prompts toss anything my way and we can roll with it, or hit me up on plurk @blahblahren and we can plot a thing out!)

one

[shipyards]

[Much like Rey, Han has a pretty identical reaction to the same creatures. It's nothing new to see different species and as long as no one messes with him, he won't mess with them. Which they seem to not understand.

But before he has much time to react, there's a small creature flying past his face, and he has to duck out of the way.]

--Woah. Watch it. [There is a person here, thanks.]

[garbagepilot]

[There is a moment where she looks appropriately sheepish for the near-miss, but is it her fault he was in the way of her attempt at self preservation? Nope.]

Sorry, next time I'll let it chew my boots off.

[shipyards]

[His grin is apparent. She's fiesty, but that doesn't mean he's just going to let that go.]

How about not punting it across the room with other people around? [He raises his brows before another one tries to bare its teeth before he's backhanding it and making it fall off the table.]

We should probably get out of here. [Because whatever they are, they aren't stopping.]

Where'd they even come from?

[garbagepilot]

[Well. That's certainly a way to deal with something with teeth big enough to take off an entire arm without any effort, and Rey can't help the quirk of her own amused grin pulling at the corner of her mouth. She has a soft heart when it's called for, has been known to feed giant trash monsters once she realized they were grumpy because they were hungry, but she has little sympathy for creatures with a mindless urge to attack.

Which these seem to be, if the way one of those snails is inching towards them is any indication.]

Does that even matter? They're here now, and they don't seem to want to make friends.

[But it's easy enough to push the snail back a foot or so with her staff, so... maybe not so dangerous after all.]

At this rate we could just walk away and be fine...

one

[therewillbeorder]

[The only thing Hux was focused on that day was the cold. It seemed to be particularly worse today and he was pre-occupied with trying to find his gloves which seemed to have gotten lost in a pocket of his brown coat. The last thing he expected- or wanted, even - was a fanged snail flying through the air towards him. It hit his head hard, right on the spot the hilt of Anakin's lightsaber had hit him earlier.

The spot was still a bit sensitive and he let out a few creative curses unbefitting of a First Order officer as he shook it off and slammed his foot down on the creature angrily. It gave a satisfying crunch and he narrowed his eyes as he looked around to see where the offending creature had come from. He wouldn't put such a childish prank above Poe Dameron but he didn't see the pilot anywhere in sight, unfortunately.]

[garbagepilot]

[First Snoke makes him faceplant, then Anakin takes a shot, and now a snail. Your face is very unlucky, General Hugs.

The reaction is telling, though, a life snuffed out without a second thought despite the creature showing little signs of being a threat after it's unexpected flight. And yet he kills it, and Rey makes no attempt to hide that it was her, that she's staring after her poor soccer ball and right at Hux with an expression that says that display was incredibly unimpressive.]

Was that really necessary?

[therewillbeorder]

Why wouldn't it be?

[He wiped the slime and remains of the snail off his boot against the ground with a wrinkle of his nose before looking at her. He didn't recognize her- he had never seen the scavenger girl Ren had been defeated by but she looked as if she wasn't that familiar with civilization.]

Let me guess- you have a fondness for these disgusting things?

[garbagepilot]

[Yeah, that's. That's definitely gross, and her nose wrinkles a little as she watches the long stripe of snail guts that his foot paints across the ground.]

Not really, but I don't have a fondness for mindlessly killing, either.

two

[fitshaced]

[Some would likely argue that it's impossible to run into someone with worse manners than him. And yet, it appears Trevor's managed to do exactly that because even he wouldn't go around grabbing strangers and barking questions at them like that. Then again, if she hadn't grabbed his arm, he probably would have been just as content to continue along and ignore her question as minding his own business usually works more in his favor.]

[He looks at her face first before cocking his head and taking a look at her wrist.]

Hm... Nope, still no idea how to read. [He lies casually and with a shrug before taking his arm back with a tug.] Guess we'll never know if it is or not. One of life's little mysteries, eh?

[Sorry, Rey. He can't help himself.]

[garbagepilot]

[Some things, though, are things that she doesn't pick up on. Sometimes jokes or sarcasm go over her head, and when he says he can't read she has no reason not to believe him. The attitude is less than desirable, but she's put up with worse and if it's really his name on her she has a right to know.]

Tell me your name, then.

[She has no reason to just give him the name on her arm, not wanting to give up whatever shred of control of this situation she may have. If they match, she can decide how to proceed going forward.]

[fitshaced]

[Trevor can almost see it sailing straight over Rey's head and hear the little woosh on the non-existent wind. His eyebrows rise in surprise, which could be easily misconstrued as a response to her persistence rather than just how quickly his claim at not being able to read flew past her. He was expecting shit back or aggravation and instead, he got a sincere missing his bullshit.]

[In a split second, he debates just telling her (which would not even be on the table if her concern wasn't anything less than having a name tattooed on her because he's quite content with being nobody for as long as humanly possible) versus continuing to give her bullshit and see how long it takes for her to pick up on it.]

You're not asking me because you're secretly covering up for the fact you can't read, are you? [He shakes his head, holding up a hand.] No, don't answer. Your secret is safe with me.

Trevor Belmont of House Belmont. And you are?

one

[bythehand]

[ And somewhere, somehow, Finn senses a disturbance...

No, wait. No, that's definitely just him seeing a snail fly off into the relative-distance in real life, which is one part disturbing (because of the flying pointing snail) and two parts impressive (because of the air it gets).

Half the point of grabbing a mace from the armory and heading to the arena was to see if any familiar faces came in with the new crowd. The other half was providing backup in case anyone got overrun by sort-of-cute sort-of-giant monsters in the middle of their arrival crisis. When he tracks the trajectory back towards the general source, he's not so much surprised that Rey is responsible for doing something impressive as he is surprised that Rey is actually here to do something cool like kick big mollusks around. There's a subtle difference between hoping someone shows up and acknowledging that they possibly might.

He's not always very good at the hoping. Acknowledging is more his speed.

Finn stops in place to stare at her for a solid three seconds. When she doesn't evaporate into thin air like a mirage, he proceeds with his usual course of action, arguably one of the things he's best at: ]

Rey!

[ That's right. Dramatically throwing his weapon to the side and running towards his friends, yelling their own names at them. YEET. ]

[garbagepilot]

[He's lucky, because she shares that character trait with him.]

Finn!

[She doesn't throw her staff down, though. She holds onto it tightly as she breaks into her own run, batting aside the small creatures in the way when they get to close, but all of her attention is focused on the man in front of her.

She saw him just seconds ago, and she knows this shouldn't feel like such a dire, important reunion. She knows that she had found him, him and the scattered members of the Resistance, and that she had stowed them all safely on the Falcon to fly them to safety.

She knows all this, and yet this place is not the Falcon, nothing makes sense, but Finn is here. Whatever has happened Finn is here and as she reaches him she waists no time in throwing her arms around him, careful not to smack him with her staff.]

[bythehand]

[ Oh good, they're riding the same brainwave. It's been too long. At least a few months by his reckoning, which is practically a lifetime in Star Wars years.

He always misses Rey when she's not around. That never changes. She's Rey.

So Finn goes into this hug with equal enthusiasm, because even while he knows it's bad for anybody to turn up and get stuck here with the rest of them, it's undeniably more than a little bit of a relief to even see her again. He'd been really banking on it when he and Poe finally got a road out of Riverview; stepping into Hadriel instead shoved all those prospective reunions onto a back burner. ]

Are you okay? Are you hurt?

one (would help if i specified...)

[webshoots]

[ it's not the weirdest occurrence peter's ever encountered, or even top five. that's not, of course, to say it's not weird, but there's definitely a few things higher up on the list. his first thoughts are to wonder where he is (quite frankly: no clue), to wonder how he got there (there are a few options, if he's honest), and finally, who brought him here (again: several options, but none that he'd been immediately dealing with.)

the first thing he notices, of course, is the low grade tingling of his spider-sense that he's learnt not to ignore over the years — low grade can very quickly turn into medium followed swiftly by oh god. there's a moment where peter thinks that the creatures are cute — they're fuzzy (some of them) and really, kind of adorable, and peter thinks that if he were a lesser man (or a greater man, he's undecided), he'd probably want to see if they're as soft as they look.

—and then it happens. he ducks (it's instinct), and he turns quickly towards the source of the flying sn...ail? ] —Woah. [ there's more, he notes, and a — girl. person. someone. a beat. ] Nice kick. Solid eight out of ten. Not quite goldenballs [ slight wave of his hand; dismissive. ] — follow through — but.

nahhh I would have figured it out

[garbagepilot]

[She is definitely a girl person, and also a someone, and when she realizes that he's grading her assault on enormous snails by assigning it a score, she looks a little perplexed.

And then she huffs out a small laugh, shakes her head, and gestures at the approaching monsters with a wave of her hand.]

If you think you can do better there's plenty around.

[webshoots]

[ peter thinks that he can do better, but there's a beat of silence where he wonders if he should. here, he's peter parker, some-time science teacher and he looks the part — if he was in the red and blue, the question wouldn't be a question, but he's not and—

—they're approaching. his gaze shifts from rey to the snails and back again; they're not very fast (they are snails), and the corners of peter's lips quirk upwards into a smile and a light shrug: maybe, maybe not. ] I was always picked last in P.E. [ it's only partially meant as an explanation, and his attention shifts back to the snails for a moment, studying them. it's hard to feel intensely panicked about something that's moving forward so slowly: he's aware that it's a wave, but it's a very anti-climatic wave and he wonders if he'll feel differently once they're a little closer. should he go out and meet them? give them a fighting chance? they're definitely a threat. ] I feel kind of weird about hurting them — like I'm kicking my niece's pet, or something. [ a breath of a pause; an added mumble — ] I don't have a niece, by the way.

[ another pause, this one longer. more thoughtful. ] —D'you remember the TY Beanie Baby craze?

two

[democratically]

[In much the same manner, Padmé doesn't understand the appearance of a name written along her wrist. At first she had thought it was a smudge, although in much the same manner, she is unable to remove the mark. Whatever it is, and whatever it means, is beyond Padmé. A brand? But why?

She is in thought, an inquisitively contemplative expression on her face, at least until she is drawn from the reverie when a hand wraps around her arm, tugging. It is a startled blink as those brown eyes turn to the person in question. Padmé doesn't clue in right away what it is that she is talking about, which is why she does politely, albeit a bit firmly, ask.]

Pardon?

yells

[garbagepilot]

[The tone is enough to have Rey letting go quickly enough, a frown on her face as she realizes what a show of poor manners that was. Who goes around grabbing girls, anyway? Not her, not usually, and it's a sign of how out of place she feels here if she's forgetting something like that.]

Sorry.

[It's a little stilted, but honest.]

I just, ah. This name showed up and I don't know what it's for. I don't even know who this is.

(¬‿¬)

[democratically]

[She does at least have the courtesy to remove her grip. It's not that Padmé is one to stand on airs or such, but a simple hello, can you help me, tends to go a long way with her, even if she likely wouldn't be too much help. She's a bit put out by the whole situation of arriving here.

The corner of her mouth curls slightly, one eyebrow quivering upward for a moment. No harm is done though, and Padmé turns her full attention to her, before understanding shifts across her face. Her hand is raised slightly, although only to delicately turn her wrist, showing off the own writing that is etched on her skin.]

Like this?

one

[volitaunt]

[ Poe has been relieved to have something to do, something to... look forward to? At this time of the month. As part of the Guard, he's supposed to help protect newcomers from the monsters that come through the Door alongside them. This is his first time, and he's geared up and ready for giant scorpions or demon things that fight with their tongues or angry exploding trees--

And he gets these things. They're small and aggressive and he can't bring himself to do more than swat them away when they come after him, because... well, they're too much like some of the pet species he's encountered on various planets. And... they're cute. Sure, he'll help take care of them, but not until they've proved themselves a threat to the city somehow. Eating supplies, destroying buildings, he'll be all over pest control then. But going after them because they're upset over being yanked through a door into another universe? That doesn't really seem fair.

Something pointy hits the side of his head, hard, and he yelps, whipping around and raising his gun with the expectation of seeing something larger and more threatening. What he sees is-- ]

...Rey?

[garbagepilot]

[It's not like she's aimed at him, not like it's really her fault that a flying snail hit him, but when she realizes who that is, what's happened, she can almost hear the distressed beeping BB-8 would be issuing if he were here to scold her.

That thought sets her walking forward at once, that instant connection she felt at their first meeting more than enough to make her want to make sure-]

Are you okay?

[And more importantly-]

I wasn't aiming for you, I swear.

[volitaunt]

You care? [ It comes out as sharp as broken glass. Poe lowers his weapon, suddenly back in Leia's quarters, being told by his ally and the most important person in the galaxy to him that he mattered less than a genocidal monster.

Yeah, she's young, maybe he should make allowances. Yeah, it's been more than a year now. But it's almost like the expedition he went on with Nate and the rest has opened up all the wounds he thought were healed.

Maybe, he thinks, that kind of thing just doesn't go away. Maybe it's always waiting for you to step wrong and bring it all back.

He turns away, pointing toward the exit of the coliseum. The little animals around them are starting to group up, and he doesn't like the look of it. ]

This way.

[ He starts walking without seeing if she'll follow. ]

one

[beating_as_one]

((Hope you don't mind the late tag!))

[Undyne sees one of those cute little monsters go sailing over her head and she doesn't know how to react. But she knows one thing - no matter where she is, no matter how strange the monster is, she is a protector of monsters! It's literally her sworn duty!

She turns to Rey, ready to give her a piece of her mind...]

Whoa! That's super uncool! You...

[And then pauses when she actually sees Rey. Rey is a human. An older human, just like one of Alphys' human history books. A real, live human woman.

Her thoughts sway between Must Kill Humans and I'm A Huge Lesbian. A green blush comes to her face and she sticks her hands in her pockets.]

You, uh, shouldn't. Kick monsters around. It's... bad.

[Yeah. She has a way with words, that's for sure.]