Test Drive Meme # 1

[hadrielmods]

Welcome to Hadriel's very first 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 September 24th, and Apps are open October 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!

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: ANYONE GOT A LIGHT?
[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. In this instance, the door has managed to grab something truly horrific, and it's definitely out for blood (and brains) tonight.

Smokers are enemies in the video game series Left 4 Dead, who use their prehensile tongues to capture unwitting people and either drag them away for consumption or hang them up to strangle them. With all of the activity of characters trying to find out what's going on and where they are, there are more than a few of them, lingering in the shadows and waiting to try strike at anyone who may be lagging behind.]


SCENARIO TWO: YOUR HEART WILL GO ON
[You awaken in a windowless room, the walls strangely curved. The door, when you try it, is quite firmly locked. No amount of force is able to break through, so it seems to be sealed by supernatural means. Next to the door stands a slender pedestal, about as big around as a large man's thigh. At the top of the pedestal is a indentation, as if something were meant to go there.

But you're not alone in this room. There are two things with you: a person and a corpse. Pinned to the body is a note: Place a heart on the pedestal to leave. Tucked neatly into the corpse's pocket is a letter opener, small and not particularly sharp.

Did you have weapons or tools on you before? You don't now. But look at it this way: what better form of bonding is there than helping a friend or stranger dig a heart out of a corpse with nothing but a letter opener and your bare hands?]


H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: HAVE YOU HAD YOUR BREAK-IN TODAY?
[You're standing outside a storefront, colored glass set into intricate designs. It's beautiful, artistic, but more importantly - there's definitely food inside. Good food, too, by the glimpses you can see through the window. In fact - wait a minute - isn't that your favorite dish in there, just waiting for you? You've been searching for food for hours, it seems, and the city is bare. Your tummy is getting awful rumbly. What luck!

You try the door. Cruelly, it is locked. The food taunts you, just out of reach.

The glass is lovely, intricate, but it's just glass. Or maybe you know how to pick locks. Or maybe there's a back way in. Or maybe some passing friend will be able to help you. There's a lot of options here, if what you really want is a mouthful of the finest... whatever it is you like.]

Comments

one.

[survivra]

[ A child alone down here in this darkness, one hand on a small sword she even looks like she knows how to use, and a horde of monsters surrounding her. It's like a beacon for Katsa, who's at Arya's side so quickly it's like she's appeared there, her own sword out and her body angled protectively in front of the child—though she doesn't step in front of Arya and her sword completely. ]

You're armed. Good.

[ She can't quite tell whether Arya is a girl or a boy, though Katsa—also dressed in men's clothing, also with her dark hair cropped to men's length, though her height and body a bit more developed than Arya's to quite cause the same sort of confusion—has a guess. It puts a grim smile on her face, at least, as she turns toward these monsters. ]

How well can you use it?

[whichend]

[ The woman looks like the kind of hero Arya used to love to hear about in stories. Stories of the women-warriors, the ones who held swords instead of roses and were unafraid.

Arya's always wanted to be one of those women. She's come closer, lately, but not in the way she was expecting. She never anticipated the sacrifice. ]

Well enough. I've fought before. [ Killed before, but she's not going to tell that to someone she's just met. ]

[ She gets into a water dancer's stance and stabs the creature, quickly. Swift as a deer. Calm as still water. Fear cuts deeper than swords. ]

[survivra]

[ So she has, Katsa notes with some surprise at the way Arya holds her blade and holds herself—and a little bit of pleasure. Of course, it shouldn't have to fall upon a girl so young to protect herself like this. But that's the way of the world, and if it must be, then she ought to have as much the means to protect herself as anybody else. ]

These things are positively disgusting. At least there's no question on whether we've the luxury of fighting cleanly.

[ She jumps into the crowd of monsters: kicking, slashing, ripping through their number with deadly efficiency. But while she says nothing of it she's doing her best to keep as few as possible from reaching the girl and always keeps Arya in the corner of her vision.

Well. And she does have questions. But right now the concern should be on surviving, and luckily enough, that's the one skill at which Katsa is Graced beyond the rest.

Something slithers out toward Arya's leg, a long tongue ready to trip her, and Katsa throws a dagger from beneath her sleeves before she even has time to think. It pins the tongue right as another one tries to grab Katsa by the neck, and she whirls and stabs it furiously, feeling smoke beginning to claw and itch in her throat. That they're outnumbered so greatly is certainly a disadvantage, especially with Katsa's attention split between herself and Arya, but she can't think about that. She shouts. ]

Stay close to me!

[whichend]

[ There's so many of them. Arya's never seen anything like it. Is this what Jon fights on the Wall? Creatures like these? She's almost glad she never made it to the wall. These are terrifying.

At this point, she's fallen back on instinct and Syrio's words. She has to make sure she is seeing. Not just looking.

And what she sees before her is a woman with far, far more experience than she does. A woman who can keep her alive. The kind of person Arya hoped she'd become.

She does as the woman says, and stays close. Arya aims for their necks. She doesn't know much about these creatures, but anything with its head removed dies all the same. She's able to kill a few of them, and incapacitate some others, but it's difficult. This isn't like a few Knights in a field or a lone assassination job. This is a horde. ]

We need a plan!

[survivra]

[ They’re already in the middle of it all. Just two alone, surrounded and with almost no environment to use but the twisting tunnels, doesn’t make way for much strategy. She glances up, eyes darting to find some sort of route, to count the number left to rush them. Were she alone, she'd simply rush them with little care, but she has to make sure Arya is safe as well. Katsa knows they can get out of this still.

She takes a breath and places a hand on Arya's shoulder, swirling the girl around behind her and sparing a moment in between the lumbering and the smoking and reaching monstrous limbs, and looking her in the eyes. Katsa's are two different colors: blue and green, brighter than most blue or green eyes are, and her gaze is steady. ]

We’re going to run straight through them as fast as we can. We'll not stop to fight except to clear our path. Just use your sword on any that try to grab you and do not leave my side, do you understand?

[ She kicks something away from her, something slimy and reaching, and swears at it loudly. ]

They’re monstrous, but even all of them together aren’t much.

[whichend]

I understand.

[ Arya's grey eyes meet Katsa's blue and green. There's power in the woman's eyes, Arya decides, if that wasn't already obvious by the way the woman fought. Arya is equally as serious. Her childhood ended when her father died, and Arya's got no childlike attitude now. She knows when she needs to do as she's told. She nods. ]

I'll stay with you. We can handle them.