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

[itsnotaonesie]

[Judge away nerd. Little Peter's just going to rolls his eyes because teenager, but he doesn't spend much time on having a teenager moment because, y'know, mature discussion time and all that. And also this guy isn't really giving him a chance to make any smartass teenager comments anyway, so it kind of works out.]

I-- it's 2018. Or, it was. I've been here a few months, but someone told me once that time back home stops while we're here. I have no way to verify that, though? It doesn't really sound like, possible.

[webshoots]

How would they know? [ uttered at the same time as peter says he has no way to verify the claim, so it's followed up by a nod. it's an — interesting claim, at any rate. could be that they return to the exact moment they leave — it happened to him the last time. side thought: did he ever find out what happened to that version of strange? ] I— knew a guy who knows something about magic portals. By all accounts, they're pretty tricky, but if you get them right, you can, uh, go back to where you started from. If you get them wrong, you can ... get lost in time. [ or your nose can end up where it's not supposed to be. ] Or outside of time.

[ plausible, right? and not a total lie — he does know a guy, and no-one can deny that new york has some freaky shit going on. ]

—You're about... [ mumble. ] ten years ahead of me. We could be from the same New York, but I don't know if we'll have the same point of references.

[itsnotaonesie]

[You know what, this doesn't even sound weird. Portal wizard? Totally normal. Time travel? Sure, why not.]

Yiiiikes, good to know. I won't be jumping through any more magic portals any time soon. ...Although those portals were less like, time travel and more just moving from one place to another, and I didn't lose any limbs or grow another head or anything so I'm probably good.

[They did make for a pretty dope fight. Who is Peter kidding, he'd totally jump into another portal.]

We could just... toss out New York stuff and see what we recognize? I mean I was like seven in 2008, so not... Too sure how much that'll help.

[webshoots]

About ten years, Peter. More like twelveish, so you'd have been ...five. [ god, that makes him feel old. the thought is reflected in his expression. he's just not going to linger on that thought. ] Oh! What school do you go to? I'm ninety-percent sure Mr. Myers has discovered the secret to eternal life (it's misery, by the way), so he could still be teaching—.

[ wait, back up. ] Why would you lose or grow limbs? Why are you making travelling through portals a habit? They're dangerous. [ he studies peter for a moment — they're (probably) from different worlds, so there may be nothing in it, nothing dangerous about mysticism or portals or any of it, but habit is habit and peter is just a child. ] Is that a thing where you're from?

[itsnotaonesie]

Close enough. Uh, I went to Midtown. [there could have been a mr. myers?? but Peter doesn't really stop to think about it. There's way weirder stuff to talk about.]

I did it one time, that doesn't make it a habit. [Good to know that it's dangerous though? I mean it's a little late for that warning now, but if he ever has to hop through a portal again he'll be ready. I mean, that won't stop him from yoloing his ass into a portal. But still.] It's a... thing? But not not like, a normal thing. It was just this one wizard guy. Dr. Strange? ...I still don't think that's his real name, but I guess if you're gonna be just, totally weird, you might as well own it.

[webshoots]

What? [ peter doesn't mean for the word to come out as sharply as it does, and he's aware, acutely, of the tight feeling in his chest that doesn't quite go away when he breathes. (in for a count of three, out for a count of three.) later, he'll tell himself he's just off his game because ending up on a strange world when you haven't recently spent any time with — well, any of the avengers is a valid reaction. still, n...ice? to know that strange is still going strong over a decade in the future. in some timeline.

(could this be a mysterio thing? he hasn't seen the guy in a while. other option: clone thing, but please, god, please don't let this be a clone thing.)

eventually, he'll twig that peter said he went to midtown, but for the moment, he's hung up on peter knowing strange. ] It's [ peter runs a hand through his hair, attention shifting pointedly away from peter. look at that little dumpling go, isn't it fascinating. ] his real name.

[itsnotaonesie]

[while big Pete stares at that dump, little Pete is pointedly staring right at him. At the very least this confirms that they come from similar worlds which is... Nice-ish? Maybe? He doesn't feel like this guy is going to be completely weirded out by all the off the wall weirdness he says, which is a nice change of pace from how these kinds of conversation usually go.

Except for the fact that this guy seems kind of. Bothered? By this? Reactions like that don't usually carry good implications, in Peter's experience.]

...Huh. Mystery solved, I guess. Are-- are you okay?

[webshoots]

[ he's aware that peter is staring at him, and he keeps attention fixed on the dumpling (it's found a friend!) for a few moments longer. (baby)peter has been through a portal with doctor strange. peter has been through a portal with strange. ] Y—es. [ it's fine. fine. if he's rational, this is probably just related to strange and dormammu or whatever that thing had been called. ] Absolutely fine. Just— You ever get a weird sense of déja vu? Portals and the Doc— Doctor Strange generally aren't — a thing anyone should be—.

[ okay, no, nevermind. ] —How do you know him? [ peter thinks of commenting that they're colleagues, but strange is a known associate of the avengers, and that's opening up a conversation he is so not ready to go down. he'll settle for this other, slightly more-enjoyable conversation. ] He's got to be [ okay, so peter was five in 2006— ] ...Thirty years your senior?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Eeeeeh he mostly just jumped though portals to punch the Grimace in the face but hey. Either way, now Peter's less staring at other Peter and more studying him, because this shit is starting to get a little bananas.]

I roll with old guys, what can I say? [Maybe not the right time for jokes??? Yeaaah.] But uhh, that's kind of a long story? I mean, I only knew the guy for like, a day before I ended up here, but it's still... kind of a lot.

[webshoots]

Hey, he's not that old. [ other-peter only knowing strange for a day somehow makes peter feel a little bit better, a little bit more relaxed, and he releases the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. okay. it's just weird. weird (strange, ha), he can cope with.

"i roll with old guys". what does that even mean? or: peter can guess what that means, if strange is (baby)peter's definition of old. ] You... know the other guys he associates with? [ it's a flat question, punctuated by a sharp glance. a beat. ] —I take his photo. Sometimes.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter makes a face that could probably be translated into "no man, that's pretty old", but he's not going to argue. There are better hills to die on than how old counts as being old.]

I didn't know the dude even existed until I met him, so... ehh? [He shrugs, like, what can you do right?] I think Mr. Stark-- Tony Stark knew him... kind of? But even then all he said was "hey here's this wizard", so like, I can't really say just how they were associated?

[webshoots]

[ peter's seen that face before, but he ignores it. (teenagers.) the fact that the kid knows stark is — well, it's something, but if he doesn't know that strange knows the rest of them, then—

—peter's world is a different world, or something drastically changes between 2006 and 2018. peter supposes the difference doesn't really matter. ] Yeah, the Doc likes to do his own thing. [ peter thinks it's a magic thing, and god knows he likes to try and avoid the whole magic thing. and tony is — tony. peter shrugs: it's a broadly similar shrug to (baby)peter's. ] Sounds like we're from close approximations of the same Earth. [ he concedes. ] And you keep some really weird company for a sixteen year old.

[itsnotaonesie]

I'm seventeen.

[Not important. Moving on. There are way more interesting things to discuss right now.]

Even we're not from like, the exact same Earth, it's kind of blowing my mind that you have any idea of what I'm talking about at all.

[He's not gonna elaborate on the rest of that. Not yet, at least.

He'd stopped bothering to keep his powers and junk a secret here a couple months ago, it kind of seemed pointless when damn near everyone has freaky powers and magic. That, and secrets were surprisingly difficult to keep here in general anyway. This new Peter, though, tiny Peter isn't really sure what to make of him yet. He's used to dealing with people who know nothing at all about his world, or even worlds similar to it, so this is kind of throwing him for a loop.]

[webshoots]

[ there's a huff of a laugh: peter knows peter is seventeen (he can do maths, okay), and peter correcting him is refreshingly normal. it's what he would have done when he was peter's age. ] Yeah? [ he's seen his past, his future — or, a future, and this is a touch easier to dissect and deal with than clones, though there's still the question of how and why they're here (he's going to blame strange until he has proof it isn't to do with mysticism now), and more importantly, how to get home. the fact that there are alternate universes interacting in one place is totally new, and he's going to have to think about it a little more to reach a conclusion he's satisfied with.

because even if it's not the worst thing he's dealt with? it's still a lot. there's still a lot to unpack.

(he'll get to it later.) ] What about Mr. Meat Arms? I really hope you don't call him that, by the way. Also: now we've got the magic portals and this maybe being Doctor Strange's fault out of the way: is there anything else I need to know? And we ought to think of a way to differentiate between the two of us, because us sharing a name [ "is really throwing off my internal monologue"; I need to stop talking to myself in my head— ] could get really confusing. [ beat. ] Are there any other Peters here?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Good luck, buckeroo. Peter's been here five or six months and he still hasn't unpacked this can of worms. But that's probably because he's 17 and also still avoiding unpacking things from back home because y'know, healthy coping methods and all that.]

No, I don't call him that. He didn't even know what a cellphone was when I met him here so, I dunno. Time travel or something. That's another thing the Door does, it can snatch dudes up from the same world, but different times. So that's. A thing. Oh, speaking of cellphones, you should just magically have one on you somewhere because why not at this point, right? Someone's put together a guide for when new people show up which probably explains all this stuff way better than I could. That'll be on the phone.

[Now that the like, important stuff is out of the way, yeah. He's definitely not gonna just call this guy Big Peter and go by Little Peter because that's not cool. So let's just simplify things really good, right?]

We could just go by last names? I'm Peter Parker, you're Peter...?

[He waves a hand toward other peter, gesturing for him to chime in.]

[webshoots]

[ he nods and hunts through his pockets for this mysterious cell phone — aha! — and he's still listening even if it doesn't entirely look like he is whilst he's scrolling through the apps. okay, so it's not the phone he'd had on him when he'd been ...at home, but it's weirdly similar. oddly similar. what are the odds? not-earth and he's been given (question mark) an oddly earth-like phone. he opens his mouth to comment on the fact and maybe say something about phoning home when peter finishes speaking.

oh.

peter stares at him for one moment, then two, then closes his eyes and sighs. it's a deep sigh, a mixture of exasperation and tiredness.

—okay, cool. except really, totally not. ]

—I'm really glad we've had this conversation and established you're probably from an alternate version of my Earth, because I'm really not a fan of the direction it's about to take.

[itsnotaonesie]

[So this just took a turn from a weird conversation straight into a weird but also kind of worrying. So uh, that's fun. Peter crosses his arms and isn't... really sure how to react to that beyond looking even more confused.]

Okay, that's... concerning? Not the weirdest thing anyone's ever said to me, believe it or not, but still definitely up there. Probably in my top five. So uh. Hit me with it, I guess?

[Oooh is he gonna regret saying that? He probably is. He regrets saying most of the stuff he says, why should this be any different?]

[webshoots]

[ peter's face scrunches up into an expression that can only be described as GIGANTIC DOUBT and he holds his hands out towards peter, palms upwards. ] Say you're used to weird things happening on a regular basis, which— [ peter parker. ] —you say you are. Magic portals are pretty up there, right? So you can deal. You've got a pretty good tolerance for weird. [ a pause, and he drops his hands to his sides. ] But then you — not you, by the way — come across a guy and it turns out you share a name, and that's really weird, right?

[ glances up at the sky; doesn't pause. ] Or it would be, except you've encountered something a little like this before, but it was a whole thing with clones, and it was— [ it was just a whole thing. ] —not something you're entirely keen on repeating, but here we are, here you are and—. [ he points at himself. ] Parker. Peter Parker. Please don't freak out. [ does he mean himself or (baby)peter? who knows!

—it's both. the answer is both, but mostly (baby)peter because he's so young. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[He's about to say that this guy isn't the first other Peter he's ever met (that Footloose idiot comes to mind immediately) but then there's the rest of what this dude says and YYEEEAAAhhhhhh wow that's a thing.]

..Okay. I'm not freaking out. Noooot gonna freak out. I got this. [He's not visibly freaking out like, on the outside, anyway. Inside? Well, not a day goes by where he's not freaking out at least a little bit, so that's nothing new.] Think I'm gonna have to come up with a better way of telling us apart, since last names are out now, too. So, you're Kevin, now. Congratulations, Kevin.

[Jokes help him keep the freak outs at bay, it's like a defense mechanism. Give him a second to actually think this over. He takes a deep breath, stares skyward for a second, and then dives right into this wacky bullshit.]

Okay, so, alternate universes. Not weird, I've already kinda figured that was a thing just from like, being here. I can buy that, I'm down with AUs, this is fine. But, okay, how do we know we're not just two dudes that just happen to be named Peter Parker, but otherwise have absolutely nothing to do with each other?

[webshoots]

Because with my luck, that's just not the case. [ a muttered remark, more to himself than to peter and punctuated by a huff that is also not directed at peter. it's followed up by a silence: if peter is anything like him, then he knows he's freaking out, he knows this is one of the last things he wants to deal with. ] —Yeah, okay, fine, it's coincidental that you also happen to know Tony Stark and Stephen Strange. We can go with that. [ a dismissive wave of his hand. ] But I'm not Kevin. I'm older and, Peter, we've established I'm from an earlier point in time. Peter Parker is my name.

[ wait, that was ... maybe a bit harsh. he winces. ]

—I'm sorry. [ it's genuine, and he hesitates before continuing. ] We could ... [ he suspects middle names are out. ] ...My wife calls me Pete. [ unless she's angry. ] You can be Peter, I can be Pete. Simple. [ question mark and a shrug. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

That could still be one big, freaky coincidence! --wait his name is Stephen?

[Stephen the wizard. Not the most wizardy name ever, but sure, that's. Fine, he guesses. ]

I mean, it's fine, whatever. I was gonna argue that I was here first and that makes me the Alpha Peter, but I also don't really care that much so... sure. We'll go with your thing.

[what he wants to do is immediately dive into asking Pete a bunch of questions, because wow buddy is there a lot to unpack here, but the guy did just get here and is obviously having a super weird time of things himself. So instead of being nosy, Peter's just going to stand there and awkwardly stuff his hands into his pockets.

[webshoots]

You don't care that much but you were going to argue that you were the Alpha Peter? You're not a wolf. Are you? Prime Peter would make more... [ sense. but anyway. pete eyes peter expectantly for several moments, waiting for something other than an awkward pocket shove.

it doesn't come. wow, this is definitely awkward. ] So—o, Peter. You tried phoning home on this thing? [ holds up the phone. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter just watches Pete while he breaks down that bad joke, but his answer to the phone thing is immediate because he cannot stand this awkward silence thing. Even though it was kind of his fault in the first place. Shut up.]

Yeah, it doesn't work. Can't make calls outside of the city. It's almost like we're in a different universe or something.

[He catches himself being a little smartass, wincing slightly. Don't mind him, he's just having a teenager moment.]

That was. Mean. Sorry.

[webshoots]

[ peter, you do not get to judge pete for his terrible jokes.

peter cringes a little at that — less for the meanness, because he has definitely heard meaner and that barely registers as anything other than mildly grumpy. Nn— ] —No, I'll give you that one. [ he's still got questions, a lot of them, all about where they are, but there's a large part of him that's wary of asking peter. a lot of it's his age — pete's sure he's capable, particularly if he's been here for months, but he's still young and that's a lot to place on one person.

(it does slot a few other things in place for him, if he's honest.)

his expression shifts into a look that says 'I regret opening my mouth and starting this conversation; let’s go back to just saying we’re two guys that share a name and happen to know some of the same people because I definitely didn’t end up on an obscure planet in between times and universes when I was just seventeen.'

or: it just showcases mild doubt. ngh— settles on: ] Does anyone know what [ whose ] universe we're in?

[itsnotaonesie]

[In all fairness it's not nearly as much as what mini-Peter places on himself, but he's also still in the process of learning just how much of what he can realistically handle. He could take it like a champ, or it could be a total disaster. Sooo yeah big Pete probably made the right call there.]

Oh, jeez. I have no idea how to even like, determine something like that. The gods might know?

[he pauses abruptly. thaaaaat probably sounded absolutely insane, didn't it.] That's. Also a thing. I mean, they're more like aliens, I think? They're the guys that "run" this place, [said complete with air quotes] but they're less like gods and more like freaky... like, emotion vampires. They literally feed off of our emotions, and it's really screwed up.