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

adam parrish | raven cycle

[unknowable]

[one: corpse]

[Still blinking some of the sleepiness away, Adam looks around the room. His eyes widen when he see where he is, widen further when he sees the body. For a moment he looks close to panic, but with an effort, he swallows it down, steadies himself, takes a breath.

At first, he spares only a quick glance for the person in the room with him. More important, he thinks, is the body. And it's - well, no one he recognizes, which is good, but the note on it is less good. His face falls as he reads it, as he realizes what exactly they're in for in this prison of a room.

But Adam is a pragmatic boy. He reaches out, plucks the letter opener from the corpse's pocket, careful not to touch the actual body. But is there any point to squeamishness when he already knows what he has to do? What they have to do? Finally, he takes a deep breath and looks at the other person in the room.]

Would you mind trying the door, first? Just in case.

[two: vandalism?]

[Adam does not jump immediately to smashing things. He does, however, eye some rubble nearby and consider just how easily he could get in. But the glass is really very nice-looking, and he doesn't know whether this place has - law enforcement of some kind? Police? Burglar alarms? Whatever.

Better safe than sorry, but he is pretty hungry. He tries the door again, frowning when it doesn't respond, though he didn't really think it would. He leans against the glass, peering inside. Maybe there's a back door? Or a window that could be openable? He's a pretty slender guy, he might be able to wiggle in.

One last glance around, and Adam starts around to the back of the store. Even aliens - or whatever - must have back doors, right?

And if that doesn't work out, there's always the rubble.]

one

[casperdisaster]

[Noah nods numbly at Adam's request. Check the door. He can check the door. He will check the door and he will not freak out. He won't. Freaking out will make things worse.

He needs to stand. Just. Stand and check the door. But he feels frozen in place as he kneels and looks at the corpse. No one he knows either, but it's still a person. Was a person, like how Noah used to be a person then he was just a body too.

Maybe it was never a person though. Maybe it was created dead to be there to torment them. Thats'... that's something that can happen, right? Right? Stiffer than a corpse (ha. ha.) Noah manages to pull himself up to go to the door and tug at it, as hard as he can, even when it becomes clearly futile.] It's not ... maybe if both of us...

[unknowable]

[Adam does not think that both of them will make any difference, but he doesn't say that. It's clear from one glance that Noah is shaky and on the edge of panic, and Adam will do what he can to keep that under control. Even if he's feeling panicky himself, it'll be easier if he needs to stay steady for someone else.

He walks over, tugging at the door with as much strength as he can muster, but it doesn't budge. Of course it doesn't. He lets go, stepping back.]

I don't think it's going to let us out. We'll have to... do what it's asking.

[casperdisaster]

But what if - [Noah legs go of the door, wrapping his arms around himself. He looks over to the body only briefly before looking back to Adam, leaning in close to whisper.] ... What if he's not dead?

[It isn't like Noah knows how to tell. Besides, people had all sorts of states between dead and alive where they last came from.]

[unknowable]

[He looks at Noah, concerned for a moment, both by the thought itself and by Noah's obvious fear. Adam walks back to the body, kneeling down next to it. He steels himself for a moment, then checks - no breathing. No warmth. The limbs are stiff, the eyes blank and glassy.]

He's dead.

[Adam takes out the letter opener. He's going to do what need to be done, even if it is - awful.]

It's the only way out. Um - close your eyes, Noah.

[casperdisaster]

[He should be braver than this. He shouldn't leave Adam to do it by himself. It's going to be awful and messy and Adam will never be able to unsee it, living on with that memory. They were told they'd be returned home without any knowledge of what happened but they aren't home and they can still remember so there's no telling what will happen when they return after all, if they ever do get back to Henrietta.

Noah will still be dead, though. However long he has to remember awful things, it will be shorter than what Adam has, his whole life ahead of him and then whatever comes after.

Noah knows he should volunteer to do it instead, and he opens his mouth to try to, to say something that will make it better or take responsibility and if only he had his knife with him that is still sharp, that could make this faster work.

He closes his eyes like Adam tells him to instead of doing any of these things, because he's an awful coward and a poor friend to rely on.]

[unknowable]

[He doesn't think of Noah as either of those things. He's trying to spare Noah, keep him from having to do this thing. Adam has no doubt that it would weigh more heavily on Noah than on him, Noah who has been dead, who wasn't suited for this sort of thing even before he died, much less after coming back. As a better person, he says, but Adam can't say for sure. He just knows that this is one of the things that he should do. That Noah shouldn't have to.

The letter opener isn't very sharp. It takes force to get through the skin, the flesh of the body. It's disgusting, though the blood has congealed thanks to the length of time the body has been dead. That doesn't make it much less awful. Maybe a little bit more so.

He cuts a long slice in the flesh of the corpse, more or less where he thinks the heart is - where he knows it is, Adam is an excellent student and he aced biology. The problem now is the sternum, the ribcage, getting past all that bone. If he focuses on the problem, the sickening feel of human flesh beneath his hands is easier to ignore.]

[casperdisaster]

[Looking at the corpse is was hard to not see his own face on it, to not wonder if Whelk stood over him and wondered if he'd have to - if he'd need pieces of Noah specifically or -

He doesn't want to remember what happened that day, the less he remembers the happier he is.

Eyes closed, he brings his hands up to cover his ears, trying to block out the sound too. It's awful work made harder by the dullness of the blade, but even if he blocks out the sight and sound there's still the smell of blood and gore and Noah tries to swallow and he can taste the blood in his mouth again, but it's just a memory, that's all.

It's still too much. There's thankfully nothing in his stomach to dry heave back up except bile, but he has to suddenly scramble away and to the corner instead as that comes back up. He's not even the one doing the actual awful work, so the sickness continues to be paired with condemning of himself for being useless.]

[fuwatokurage]

[Clear wakes up, blinking slowly behind the large lenses of his gas mask. Soft breaths can be heard through the respirator as he sits up slowly unaware of his surroundings.

He stands slowly, a bit dizzy from the combination of suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar place and the confusion of being in an unfamiliar place. He tries to wrap his brain around the situation, but comes up with absolutely nothing.

He looks over at the living person and is about to greet him with a polite 'hello', but the polite gesture is soon interrupted with a loud shout, yelp, scream...just some sort of noise that erupts from his robotic vocal chords.]

GYAAAAWAAAAAAAAHAAAAAA!

[His knees tremble almost comedically as he points at the corpse.]

Why is that person dead?!

[unknowable]

[At the sound, Adam flinches back. He manages not to jump, but it's a close thing. He wasn't really expecting the gas mask, or to get screamed at like that, and frankly this whole situation is already unsettling.

He calms down quickly enough, though, when it's obvious he's not going to be attacked.]

Uh - I don't know. He was like that when I woke up.

[He looks back at the corpse, swallows hard, looks at Clear again.]

We... need his heart to get out, I guess.

[fuwatokurage]

Eeeeeeeeh?! Why?! I will try the door right now, I will definitely try the door.

[For a robot designed for fighting, he definitely wasn't the type that liked violence. If it was a last resort, then sure, but unnecessary gore wasn't on his list of things to experience in his long, long lifetime.

So he went to the door and turned the knob, then he turned it harder, then as hard as he could, which was pretty damn hard considering his strength. Then he tried shouldering the door to no avail whatsoever. Then he tried kicking the door, kicking the knob, and smacking the knob with his fist. His last attempt was to just cry onto the door pathetically in hopes that something would take pity on him and it would magically open.]

I...*sniff*...I can't get it opeeeeen....

[unknowable]

[If even Clear's tears can't open the door, they're both pretty much screwed. Adam watches him struggle with it, heart sinking as nothing seems to work. At least Clear doesn't seem like a threat - the only thing worse than being stuck in a room with a corpse would be being stuck in a room with a corpse and someone trying to kill him.

He looks down at the body next to him, steels himself. If that's what they have to do to get out, then that's what'll have to be done.]

It's fine. I figured it wouldn't work.

[He fingers the letter opener. He really isn't looking forward to this.]

I'm going to guess you haven't done anything like this before.

[fuwatokurage]

[Clear shakes his head.]

Have you?

[The boy doesn't look unsettling or like he's a bad person, but if the answer was yes then...

That thought made him worry a bit.]

You are very calm in a situation like this one. Are you not scared at all?

[unknowable]

I'm terrified.

[He keeps his voice carefully even when he says that. He's been more frightened - this isn't the scariest thing to Adam - but it's not anything he's comfortable with. Not at all.]

I've never done anything like this before, no. But we have to, if we want to get out, so...

[Awkwardly, Adam shrugs. So he'll do it, because it needs to be done. Even though the thought of it turns his stomach. He holds the letter opener, preparing himself.]

[fuwatokurage]

[Something doesn't settle well with Clear. He feels guilt? Was that what he was feeling? This boy is so calm, but terrified.

No, he can't let him take this on by himself.

He runs his hands through the sides of his hair then steps more towards the body.]

Please allow me to do it. I am scared, too, but I should be able to handle something like this.

And...uuh...I have a mask, so I think that might make things easier for me.

[He steps forward and holds his hands out for the letter opener.]

one

[mintly]

Somehow, I don't think it's going to be that simple.

[nonetheless, gansey does try the door, and is unsurprised to find it doesn't budge, no matter how many ways he pushes, pulls, shoves, or bangs on it. he even tries a polite knock. then he goes over and pushes down on the pedestal, lightly at first and then with more force, to see if it's just a weight trigger.

of course, it's not.

he looks at adam, looks at the corpse, and looks back at adam. on one hand, the hallucinations have stopped. on the other, now they have to get to a corpse's heart with a letter opener. situation not quite improved, really.]

This is going to be pretty horrible, isn't it?

[unknowable]

[He is not at all surprised when the door doesn't budge. He also didn't really expect it to, but it would've been worse to not try at all. Exhaust every option before the one that involves cutting a corpse open. Maybe that'll be Adam's new philosophy in life.

He looks down at the corpse. It could be worse. They could have been asked to get a heart from a living person.]

Yeah. It's going to be awful. You don't have to watch.

[Because he doesn't plan to let Gansey get his hands dirty. There's only one letter opener, after all, and there's no point in both of them getting - messy. Besides. It's Gansey.]

[mintly]

[he comes over to where adam is standing over the body, arms folded across his chest in quiet protest.]

Parrish, I'm not a child or made of glass. You don't have to do this on your own. It'll probably take two people anyway. A letter-opener is going to be a tough sell against heart muscle.

[unknowable]

I'm more worried about the ribcage.

[He sighs, running a hand over his face, through his hair. Might as well do it now, since who knows when he'll be able to wash his hands after this?]

I know you aren't, but there's no point in both of us getting covered with gore. Besides, it might have diseases or something.

[And sorry, Gansey. Adam's not letting you put yourself in any danger.]

[mintly]

Go from underneath, not through. That is sure as hell not a power saw, and lungs are pretty squishy, aren't they?

[he points on his own torso, angling his hand to push up under the flare of his ribcage on the same side of his heart.]

We're both going to end up covered in gore, and it's not like either of us are stupid enough to lick off our hands. It's dead, it shouldn't be spraying anything anywhere. I'm not going to just sit and make you do this yourself, Parrish.

[unknowable]

It'll be even messier that way, and hard to maneuver. But I guess we wouldn't have to break through the ribs.

[There's really just no decent solution to carving a heart out of a human body. The mere fact that Adam is pondering this is pretty upsetting all on its own.]

It just doesn't make sense for us both to stick our hands in a dead body. I don't... mind doing it.

[Well, that's just a lie. Of course he minds. But when you've already got dirty hands, something like this should matter less.]

You're not making me do anything.

One

[commoncurtissy]

[Jade is poised by the door, he hasn't spoken yet and he his face is unreadable. With a rather half-assed attempt, he reaches over and just jiggles the door handle.]

Of course, locked.

[He actually turns to face the door now and places a hand over it, he slides his hand down the surface for a moment before facing Adam again.]

Most likely, whatever situation we're in right now, we'll have to do something depraved.

[He shrugs.]

So we might as well try the most obvious option.

[He nears the corpse easily as if he'd been around hundreds. Well, actually, he nears the corpse easily because he has been around hundreds.]

So then, would you like to do the honors or shall I?

[Jade doesn't mind pushing work off onto someone else, he he also knows that human dissection isn't everyone's idea of normalcy, and he would rather not have to watch someone vomit.]

[unknowable]

[Adam frowns, just for a moment. This man doesn't seem to be taking this particularly seriously. Maybe it's the sort of thing he's used to? Or maybe he's just the type who always acts like that. He doesn't know, and now's not really the time to judge. He's at least not surprised that the door is locked.

He very carefully picks up the note along with the letter opener, holding both out.]

Do you... have experience with this kind of thing?

[Adam will absolutely do it if he has to. If it's the only way out. But if Jade has experience with cutting bodies open, or if he's used to it somehow - well, it'd be foolish to not let him do it.]

You're welcome to it, if you want.

[commoncurtissy]

[Jade reaches out and takes the letter opener and the note. His red eyes scan the note quickly. Hopefully the letter does mean the heart of the corpse and not one of them. Even though he's killed in the line of duty, he's not the type to just murder an unarmed teenager without exploring many other options.]

I do have experience with this sort of thing. If you're squeamish, I suggest you turn around and cover your ears.

[He examines the body further, his fingers pressing down onto the skin with precise movements.]

[unknowable]

I wouldn't say I'm squeamish.

[Adam's not the type to let his ego get in the way of doing what needs to be done - if Jade knows what he's doing, Adam will stand back at let him. But his pride pricks a little at the thought that he wouldn't even be able to watch it. Does he really seem that weak? His lips thin just a bit, but he swallows his annoyance.]

But if you're skilled at that sort of thing, go ahead. I don't usually cut open dead bodies.