Test Drive Meme #7

[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 March 25th, and apps are open April 1st.

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: HOW UNUSUAL
[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.

Watch out as you explore the streets of Hadriel, because you're not alone, and there's always something on the rooftops watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to separate you from your group and tear you into pieces. This time, the Door has brought in a few Rodents Of Unusual Size, from the film/book Princess Bride.

These large creatures are about the size of a large dog and can be stoked into a frenzy once they smell blood. They typically hide in the shadows and wait for an opportune moment to leap out of the dark and strike at you. Though they can sometimes look like overlarge puppets, take no doubt that these monsters are very much alive, and they love the taste of flesh.]

H O P E
SCENARIO TWO: MIRROR, MIRROR
[While exploring, you might be surprised to come across a pristine mirror in this underground city. It could be lying in your path, it could have been dropped into your bag by a mysterious someone, or it could find you some other way, but it will be there. This is no ordinary mirror, however- upon looking inside of it, the glass will show you a vision of a future that you hope for more than anything.

Regardless of what you want, the mirror shows visions that you believe are possible so that you can adequately hope for it- whether or not they actually are isn't really anyone's concern. Feel free to hide in a corner and stare for hours, throw it away, or try to peek at as many other mirrors as you want- we won't stop you!

This is a mini version of our Hopeful Future event this month!]


R A G E

SCENARIO THREE: PAY 2 WIN
[How cool are carnival booths? Super cool, right? And luckily, the grand prize in this one is something you've always wanted. It could be a briefcase of enough money to make all your troubles go away, that sacred amulet you've been questing after, or something a little less concrete- the approval of someone you want to like you, a curse upon someone you don't like, general freedom... the choices are endless.

And all you have to do to win it is play a game or two.

Something strange seems to be happening, though. Each time you finish a round of the game, the prize requirements just get a little higher, just stretch a little more out of reach. Play again, we're sure you'll get it this time! No? Well, you've definitely got it next time.

Get fed up and smash the booth for the prize? Well buddy, now you're disqualified, and tampering with the booth sets that thing you want most up in flames. Sorry, bud. Better luck next time! And look, there's another booth right behind you...]

Comments

[liquid_serpent]

Friendship is pain? What sort of man was this? Liquid guessed he might be some sort of sadist perhaps. Not so unlike Ocelot or even himself. Yet, the axe slicing down next to him caused him to jump out of the way.

"Careful where you're swinging that!" He saw where the blade ended up and frowned. This guy wasn't mucking around. Perhaps he was just an axe-wielding mad man. "I'm guessing you're some sort of warrior."

[fleshing]

Tell him you're a friend, whispers that quiet tone again, and Krieg's one visible eye twitches.

"They cut open my liver to share the toasty hatred!"

...Close enough.

Translation: some sort of warrior, yes. Emphasis on "some sort".

He retrieves his axe, yanking it out from the rat's corpse with a delightfully squishy pop and swinging it about a few times in evident pleasure.

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid had no idea what the man was saying and found it increasingly frustrating to try and form any kind of conversation with him. Mindless brute.

"Did they indeed? I think you're trying to tell me they wanted to eat you. Yes, they attacked me too." He narrowed his eyes at the hulk of a man and decided it would probably be best not to antagonise him.

"What's your name? Do you have one?"

[fleshing]

Could you at least try to make a little sense? the voice is fuming, but Krieg gives his head a fierce shake and disregards it.

"I'm the pain of a thousand craggy Kriegs cracking catatonic catastrophe!" Thunk. There goes another rat, cleaved nearly in two from the force of that strike. The bitemarks itch and bleed, but pain is life and there's no part of him that doesn't hurt anyhow.

Krieg. Just say our name is Krieg. Can't you do that?

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid just stared at the man and frowned. What the hell? Did this man not even know how to string a proper sentence together? It seemed not. Perhaps, this was normal in his world.

"My name is Liquid Snake and you'd do well to remember that." He shoved a gloved hand out to the man and hoped he'd shake it instead of chopping it off with his axe. Liquid wasn't usually one to shake stranger's hands but they were all alone in a strange place being attacked. Gaining allies was a must.

[fleshing]

Krieg makes a feral, delighted sound and claps one beefy hand to Liquid's for the briefest moment before letting go, and waving his axe over his head in acknowledgement.

"Keep it flowing!"

Jeezus, sighs the stupid little mind-voice, and Krieg brings his free hand up sharply to thump it against the side of his gourd.

"QUIET!" he bellows roughly, to apparently no one in particular.

[liquid_serpent]

"Ok....." Liquid doesn't even know what to think when the huge man smashed himself against the head with his own hand. Was he delirious? Or was this normal for him? Liquid just stood unsure what to say about that.

"Why are you hitting yourself? Are you quite well?"

[fleshing]

"I'm not the one with the medical degree!" Krieg snarls, and hefts his axe up in both hands. "Get up, get up! We've got spines to snap!"

He's not wrong, exactly. More rats are coming, evidently attracted to the noisemaker that is Krieg, who's still all worked up into a frenzy with no sign of slowing down just yet.

[liquid_serpent]

"I don't have a medical degree either. It was just a simple statement, since you were hitting yourself in the head." Liquid narrowed his eyes in frustration. Spines to snap? Well, if he wanted help smashing giant rats then he would have it.

"Alright. I'll help you kill these vermin. Just try not to slice me up in the process, ok?" He really didn't want to die by an axe.

[fleshing]

Real good at making friends, sighs the needling voice. Sounds stupid and haggard as ever. Krieg happily disregards it.

"You don't make a meal by killing all the cooks!" he announces cheerfully. And flings his axe straight up into the sky so he can catch it by the handle.

[liquid_serpent]

"That's true." Liquid rolled his eyes then watched the man throw his axe up into the air before catching it again. At least he had skill with his weapon.

"You should have gained a job in the circus."

[fleshing]

"A concerto of meat!" Krieg agrees with a delighted swing of his axe that successfully catches a rat in the face just as it decided to attempt to sneak up on the pair of them.

At least he's good at killing the damn things.

[liquid_serpent]

"If that's what you want." Liquid stepped back once Krieg swung his axe into the nearest rat causing more carnage. The man was a blood-thirsty beast Liquid decided. Skilled in the art of axe-wielding but mad all the same.

"You're skilled with that axe of yours. When did you learn to use it?"

[fleshing]

All in all it's a correct assessment. The parts of him that are still lucid are too far back to be adept at any sort of meaningful communication. But what's that they say about actions speaking louder than words? Yeah, that.

"When they cut the bone and split the marrow and spilled in that vespertine nightmare, they put a femur in my hand and screamed at me, and THERE'S NO ROOM FOR IT ALL, I JUST ATE!"

Somewhere in that rambling diatribe there's a story of a man who's psyche was fragmented beyond repair, but hell if anyone can decode it.

[liquid_serpent]

"Are you telling me that someone or persons operated on you to make you like this?" Liquid stared at the big brute of a man in front of him. Would that explain the need to kill and the strange outbursts of violence?

"I'm a clone, you know. I know how that feels to be experimented on just for other people to gain something out of it."

[fleshing]

Krieg's single visible eye widens subtly, and his head twists down again, eye screwing shut in pain, or frustration, or some other emotion he can't place. Liquid just worked out exactly what he was trying to say. Somehow hearing it admitted out loud is like getting a blade to the sternum all over again.

"They think it's all a game? They think I won't feel?" He thumps a fist against his chest, which hurts, but it's all right. He deserves that. "WE FELT EVERYTHING."

[liquid_serpent]

"I think I'll take that as a yes." Liquid could see and hear the man's pain. He had been abused somehow. That was plain to see. He had a pang of sympathy for the big hulk of a man. People messing around with your body was not right.

"Is there a way you can get back at those who did this to you?" He wasn't sure if that were possible now, since they were both stuck in this place.

[fleshing]

If his mouth were exposed, Liquid would see his broad grin, stretching the limits of how far a row of teeth should be imposed on someone's face.

"We cut off their head and salted the earth," he says, almost delirious in his ecstasy. "Burned them all, burned them, and they cried YOU'RE A CHILD-KILLING PSYCHOPATH!"

The last few words are his best Handsome Jack impression, with limited success.

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid just narrowed his eyes at Krieg's outburst. What the hell had happened to him? What was he like before they experimented on him?

"Were you a different man before they did this to you?" He had to know. Liquid felt sorry for the guy so much. It seemed whoever did this didn't care that they had created a monster.

[fleshing]

That question seems oddly painful for Krieg, his eye shutting tightly, his head twitching uncontrollably, a nervous tic motion of the head to the left.

Uh-oh.

"Nnnrrrgh," he grunts, his free hand going to the side of his head, like it's painful to think about, because it is.

Remember when we were sane?

No no no no no no NO don't think about that don't think about that don't remember don't remember quiet quiet quiet quiet quiet QUIET

"We're - a - MONSTER!" He punctuates each word with the meaty thud of his fist against the side of his own head. "Broke us over and over and we told them no and they ground the CARTILAGE!"

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid watched Krieg's display of anger and couldn't help but smirk a little. It was rather amusing watching the giant hulk of a man shout out that he was a monster. At least he was being honest. Yet, Liquid knew this wasn't always the case. The real monster was the one who made him like this.

"It's alright. Calm down. You're not a monster, otherwise you would have taken my head off long ago. Yet, we're still talking, aren't we? Like civil men." Liquid frowned. As civil as it could get right now. "No. The true monster is the man who made you like this."

[fleshing]

Huh. I guess he gets it.

A faint rush of vindictive glee courses through his veins along with the pulse of adrenaline, and Krieg's head tilts back as he lets his breath out in a long, angry whoosh of sound.

"Taste the violence, feed the hunger," he murmurs, the cadence almost singsong. "Kill the ones who made us."

And only kill the deserving, the voice agrees.