dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #8

Entry tags:

!test drive

Test Drive Meme #8

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 April 24th, and apps are open May 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: DEAD FLESH BUFFET
[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 lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect chance to swarm around you and chow down. This time, the Door has brought in a group of rotfiends, from the video game The Witcher.

These unpleasant-looking creatures are necrophages, meaning they feed on the flesh of the dead, and if that flesh is in short supply they are happy to add to it. Normally found in groups, they are fast and difficult to corner. What's more, when on the verge of death, they have an annoying tendency to explode into a flammable cloud of poisonous toxins. You left your torch at home, right?]

R A G E
SCENARIO TWO: MMM WHATCHA SAY
[There you were, just walking along the street, minding your own business like a good underground hell-city citizen, when all of a sudden you saw someone. It was like love at first sight - if by 'love' you mean 'deep burning hatred'. You've never wanted to kill someone so much, and why? Well, you're not really sure, but there's probably a reason! You'll just have to figure it out. Or not. Who needs a reason for murder, anyway?

Or maybe you're the one someone else has targeted. Maybe you know they're after you and you're desperately trying to watch your back. Why do they hate you? You don't even know them. Or maybe you do, maybe they're your best friend. Either way, this is a super awkward situation, and someone might end up dead. Hopefully not you!

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

H O P E

SCENARIO THREE: SCRATCH OFF
[This morning, you received a scratch ticket in the mail (who knew Hadriel even had mail?), addressed to you. The instructions are clear enough - scratch off three matching icons, and you win a prize! Sure, okay. But here's the grand prize: a one-way ticket home.

Unfortunately, try as you might, you aren't gonna win that one, but keep hoping! And hey, just think of all the other GREAT PRIZES you could win: an inflatable duck, a plastic ring to give your sweetheart, an empty can of Red Bull, a cell phone charm shaped like a strange green creature with a boner.

So what if you didn't win that ticket home? You got something almost as good: a shitty prize! Thanks, Hope!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

fear.

... This place is bullshit.

There are more than enough horrors in the human world to contend with; why would you ever consider coming to a place populated with monsters that look like they came straight out of one of Matt's stupid video games. Well - no one consulted Mello on this (incredibly inconvenient) relocation, did they, because if they had, he would've said as much (obviously).

So this is a fine mess. There's no telling how many of these creatures are milling about, and Mello may have a pistol on him, but (unlike Matt's stupid video game) what he doesn't have is unlimited ammo. This metal pipe he's managed to pry off some building somewhere will just have to do for fending off anything that gets too close (for now), but - help would probably not go amiss at the juncture, even if Mello isn't the sort to ask for it outright.

rage.

This place. Is. Bullshit.

Murder always needs a reason, even if it's simply I wanted to. Mello's never traded in wanton destruction, though - his brand of destruction is always focused, full of purpose. An extreme method put toward a very specific end.

He does recognize, vaguely, that this current impulse to kill is different, but it's a fleeting thought, quickly buried in the back of his mind as he stalks through the streets of the underground city. He's a fair shot, but replacement ammunition is in short supply, so getting close to his target is the best laid plan before him.

He's focused, attention resting solely on the task at hand. It doesn't occur to Mello that someone else may be targeting him, too.

hope.

THIS PLACE IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT.

If the wrapper to a bar of chocolate is the best you can do as far as prizes go, the least you could do is make sure there's still chocolate inside. Mello crumples the paper in one gloved fist and tosses it over his shoulder before storming off in a sulky huff.

And where did that paper end up landing? Right on Cardia's head.

She squeaks in surprise as she sees the paper bounce off her shoulder next then to the ground below. Curiously, she picks it up and turns to the closest being in the area, which happens to be the grumpy man.

"Excuse me, did you drop this?"

... You know, he almost doesn't bother stopping. Grumpy is exactly what Mello is right now, and he could've sworn he was alone. The fact that this girl managed to sneak up on him is unsettling, and he can't disregard that.

So he stops, and turns on his heel to face her. "I wouldn't say dropped, exactly." In a sense, yes - he did drop it, but on purpose, not accidentally, as (he assumes) is implied in her question.

Thank some dumb gentleman thief for that. Or some gun-happy fighter. Either way, blame them for her being so quiet.

"Do you still want it?" she asks, still holding it up to him. Cardia is still thinking it's an accident and not...well, something that he did while angry.

... Is this a real thing you just said. Are those the actual words Mello just heard coming out of your mouth. He pins a flat stare in her direction, entirely unamused.

"That's OK," he says, flatly, "you can keep it."

Not like she was asked either. She would much rather take the fog blanketed streets of home than this place. At least she knew what to expect when the fog thinned. She couldn't be sure that here she'd turn a corner and not come face to face with one of those creepy monster things.

She's already had a run in and she's still running from the thing (though if she bothered to check over her shoulder she's running for absolutely no reason right now).

And then she rounds a corner right into the back of a pack of the rotting things and a - was that a guy? And should she help when she's clearly unarmed and definitely not someone used to getting into a fight with anyone let alone monsters.

Sorry dude she's kind of useless here and just going to back away slowly.

Mello is no humanitarian - if someone is stupid enough to wander into a firefight without a weapon, he figures they pretty much get what they deserve, for the most part. But these are unusual circumstances, so maybe his sense of compassion is a little more keenly aware that it might be otherwise. After all, he's in this shitty situation too, through no fault of his own, and both laughably outnumbered and outgunned.

This girl is clearly out of her element, that's plain to see from the just the momentary glance he gives her over his shoulder when he senses there's someone else in the immediate vicinity.

This is just not going Mello's way, at all. Maybe the best thing to do at this current juncture is to reset the board.

He takes his attention off the approaching monsters and dashes in her direction instead, grabbing for her shoulder. "Run!"

She's not that stupid. Blond she may be, but she isn't without a self-preservation instinct. And her survival instinct is pretty good thank you very much. She isn't likely to wander into a firefight, except outside of movies she's never seen one, so generally speaking this is not her fault. And she was told to find people not her fault she's too far away at first to see what he was up against.

But oh yes she's probably the most out of her element out of everyone here. Her eyes wide when she spots the creature on the other side of the boy. And oh god what is that smell? Her nose wrinkling in disgust.

She doesn't however need the hand on her shoulder. Ai turns in a sharp pivot and takes off at a run. She doesn't need the prompting, it's easy enough to see that those creatures are bad news. Well now anyway.

"Do you have any suggestions that aren't obvious?"

Mello barely manages to bite back a quip about being less useless, but he figures that probably counts as an obvious suggestion anyway, so he lets the thought pass. "Turn here," he says, pointing to an alleyway at the left, one with a set of outside fire-escape stairs. Those things didn't look like they were well equipped for climbing, so getting to higher ground probably isn't a bad idea. He gives the ladder a hard yank, pulling it down to ground level.

"Climb up," he says, impatient, scanning the alley entrance for signs of monsters.

Well at least he manages to bite that back. Really he's going to boss her around too? Lovely; that's possibly just as bad as saying something obvious. Not that Ai ignores the direction, she turns down the alley and comes to a stop under the fire escape. She gives the rickety old thing a dirty look as it screeches in it's rails.

"Are you crazy it's more likely to give me tetanus than get me to the roof."

... Why does Mello even bother. He levels a dead stare on the girl, obviously annoyed at having his direction questioned.

"And if you stay here, you're more likely to get eaten by monsters. I think your odds of surviving tetanus are a lot better - you can fix tetanus, after all. Can't really say the same about becoming monster food." He gives her a thin, grim smile and gestures for her to climb up the ladder already.

"I haven't been here long enough to conclude this definitively, of course, but I'm pretty sure they don't hand out engraved invitations in this alley."

Ai merely raises an eyebrow at him in return. The way he's looking at her she gets the impression he's used to having his instructions veing followed without question. Unfortunately for him she tends to question most things where people are concerned. They always have so many tricky little motives egging them on.

"I highly doubt you care one way or the other, we just met." But fine she'll climb the stupid mess of rusty metal. She wraps her fingers around a rung and feels the rust crunch under her fingers. Ick.

"Don't look up my skirt." She demands it, not that she really thinks he would he doesn't look like he'd let the tiny possibility distract him from staying alive, but she figures she'll say it just in case.

"For the -"

Good job, Ai, this is Mello dragging one gloved hand down his face. You are causing him actual pain; are you happy? "I'm not going to look up your skirt. Get moving." He doesn't wait long to follow after her, still clutching the length of metal pipe in one hand.

Ai just raises a carefully plucked eyebrow at the narrowly cut off oath and smiles at him sweetly. She might actually be trying to cause him pain here. He wasn't exactly nice from the first now was he? She shrugs a shoulder with a tiny sigh and starts climbing.

"Oh by the way engraved invitations really aren't things, they're usually embossed if they're anything more fancy than using calligraphy and expensive stationary."

This girl is going to be nothing but a headache - Mello can already feel it coming on, a throbbing pain directly behind his temple.

"I'm sure they don't hand out invitations of any kind here, except for an invitation to die a horrible bloody death. I'm not especially eager to find out - move."

Was there ever any doubt about that before that moment? She is going to cause a spectacular headache and while it wasn't intentional he can be she will enjoy being the cause. Savor it even given his attitude.

"Tell me to move again and I'm kicking you in the face." But she does climb up the rungs until she comes out on the first landing. Worrying her lower lip she doesn't wait for the scarred jerk to give yet another imperious command and moves toward the stairs to the next floor.

It's a good thing she keeps moving, because Mello is decidedly not amused by her backtalk, gritting his teeth as he continues to climb upward.

"I'm going to say this once and only once," he says as he reaches the landing and grasps for the next set of rungs. "If you try kicking me in the face - no, if you so much as threaten me again, you will regret it." There's a stone-cold seriousness in his tone, a note of danger, something to indicate that he is far from joking. "At the end of the day, it makes no difference to me whether an empty-headed girl like yourself survives being attacked by whatever those monsters are, and if you're so determined to give them all an easy meal, I'm certainly not going to stop you. So you can either listen to what I say and recognize that it's in your best interest to follow my directions, or you can go get yourself killed and stop taking up space. The choice is entirely up to you."

Then he's going to have to settle for not being amused for a long time because there's plenty more where that comes from. There's just something about his general attitude that makes her want to frustrate him.

She stops at the next landing shifting so she's sitting with her legs danging in the opening by the ladder. She's not tired, she wants to be very clear when she answers. Her expression hard as her fingers curl into the grate. "Let's get this very clear, don't boss me I don't threaten you and I won't kick you." She's frowning as she finishes, Ai would love to give him a good swift kick in the pants. He's a jerk of epic proportions.

"I'm normal, not stupid. I have just as much of a survival instinct as you do. And I have more than enough experience to deal with people like you."

Mello is a jerk, but unfortunately, he's also often right, and in his mind, that's the more important thing. What's more, he's not about to be cowed by some teenager who looks like she would rather be at a shopping mall. This guy once scared a shinigami; high school girls are nothing.

He steps in close, right up in her personal space, pipe still held loosely in hand, clanging against the metal of the walkway as he steps forward. "I'd wager you've never met people like me before," he says, punctuating his statement with a thin, grim smile. "And if you had even a shred of survival instinct, you'd still be moving instead of sitting here arguing about how experienced you are."

He's right about that much, she would much rather be trawling the mall than in cave hell. But she doesn't find him altogether that scary. That's either a huge mistake on her part or incredibly brave. At least part of it was her being supremely stupid, but such was the way with teenagers wasn't it.

Oh honey you're going to have to try harder than to intimidate her. She uses the same getting up close and personal tactics herself back home. And the extra height he has on her isn't about to make her cower in fear. "Egotistical jerks are pretty much the same no matter where you're from." Some things just aren't bound to a single world.

Ai sighs heavily, "I wouldn't have to argue if you weren't so set on treating me like I have a brain injury. I don't like you and you clearly don't like me, so why did you bother helping me to start with. You don't seem like someone that would put your neck out like that."

Sticks and stones, Ai; Mello's been called far worse that egotistical jerk. The insult barely makes him blink.

She does raise an interesting point, though - he isn't a do-good type, not in the traditional sense. Why is he bothering with this, then?

"Suit yourself," he says, with a light shrug. He hasn't really answered her question, but he doesn't exactly owe her an answer, either, does he. "Just get out of my way."

He's only proving her point.

Ai sputters and doesn't move. For all the venom she'd spewed Mello's way, she doesn't want to be alone. Not here. Not even at home. But he's such a jerk it's making it really difficult for her to stick to the plan to treat people better.

"I didn't say I wanted you to leave. I just asked a question." Don't make her grab and cling, she really doesn't want to cling to him if she can avoid it. She might catch his douchebaggery.

This situation is just increasingly stupid. Mello huffs an exhaled breath and turns to pace back to the opposite side of the railing, leaning back against it in a deceptively lazy posture. Pipe tucked under one arm, he reaches into his inside jacket pocket, produces a bar of chocolate, unwraps the end, and bites off a corner with a satisfying snap. He takes his time chewing, studying the girl with a close eye, and replaces the chocolate inside his jacket pocket.

"I don't really care who you are, or who you think you are," he says, calmly, evenly. "I don't have the time or patience for games. This back and forth act may go over well with the boys back wherever you're from, but I'm not impressed. In case it escaped your notice, we are both in a dangerous situation here." He picks up the length of pipe from under his arm, gives it an experimental twirl in his hand. "Now, I'm not obligated to keep you out of harm's way, but I've chosen to offer my help. You can either accept it or go fend for yourself, but either way, you need to stop wasting my time."

He pulls his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose so he can level a dead serious stare at her over the top of the frames. "Do we have an understanding?"

Well that's refreshing for all of five seconds. Not. She half expected Mello to take off on her. The fact that he didn't is actually a surprise. He was very clear about how little he cared one way or another already. Which is new in it's own way too. As much as she doesn't want him to be, the boy is actually semi interesting (he'd be more interesting if he were just the tiniest bit less of an ass).

Ai merely tilts her head and with a creak from the metal stands and brushes off her skirt. "I'm Ebihara Ai." She says it like she's introducing herself before a new set of classmates, she even gives him a tiny half bow though it's more out of habit than any actual sign of respect or politeness. Her name isn't famous unless you've read the newspapers in the last few years. And even then it would only be her surname. It was a big story the way her father suddenly struck it rich. And something of a coup in her previous town.

But if he's expecting her to be cowed simply because he's staring at her like he could melt her with his thoughts he's really been paying very poor attention. "We do if you're going to at least attempt to remember I have a brain of my own."

"I'll remember it if you act like it, Ebihara." Her name means nothing to him, but he's dealt with enough Japanese to recognize how she introduces herself. Mello pushes his sunglasses back up onto his face and stands up from the railing. "You can call me Mello."

It's not that he particularly cares about custom or social niceties, but if they're going to be stuck together for the time being, he can at least pretend to care, and that pretending-to-care takes the form of a reciprocal introduction. Mello doesn't carry the same weight it used to, with a reputation for being ruthless and determined to reach his goals, despite the odds or costs. He built that name up for himself among the criminal underworld after he ceded the title as the next L to Near and left the House, used it to gain favor with the Mafia, used it to inspire fear in those who opposed him. Now though ... even if he weren't suddenly in some alien world, Kira had his real name, and the reputation he built on Mello got blown to bits with the last explosive he set off in the warehouse hideout back in November.

Not that this girl would know any of that anyway. Mello turns and looks out into the alley over the railing. The monsters haven't followed up after them - that's good. There's a few clustered on the ground beneath them, but either they haven't noticed the fire escape up or simply aren't capable of climbing it. Mello looks up, back to the rest of the fire escape, scanning the side of the building. One more flight up, and there's an open window. He points toward it.

"We can get inside there. They shouldn't be able to follow us."

Test Drive Meme #8

mello | death note | come at me y'all

rude don't litter

mello does what he wants ok >8c

but cute innocent girl-!

but nothing >8[

blond distraction coming through.

s-sobbing

this is going to end terribly

prrrrrrrobably, yep

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