dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #8

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!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!]

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Noah didn't even scream when the monster dropped, still too terrified to make a sound. He's got a - not quite a bite out of his arm, but the one he'd raised to pitifully try to protect himself definitely had the beginnings of an attempt at one when the Gray Man had plugged it and knocked it down. It kept thrashing. Noah couldn't look away, transfixed by its death. If anything the gases that made him cough and bring his shirt up to cover his nose and mouth were a blessing, it broke him out of the frozen terror he had been in.

He tries to move away, falls, scrambles back without really getting up, closer to the Gray Man. He's still shaking. His knife is on the ground where he dropped it. He's never any good with it unless someone else needs his help, it seems. Noah was always better at dying if his life was the only one on the line.

He slowly lowered the shirt again, looking up as Gray asks if he's okay. Noah is never really okay.

"... Mister Gray?"

It takes him a moment to find that name, to not find Dean Allen to not find Blue's Mom's Boyfriend.

Of the names Noah had to pick from, that was certainly the most neutral. The safest. One of the options would not have been wise. Not that he would react poorly in a visible way, but it would work its way inside him in a cold and cruel sort of way, an unseen hurt of being forced to recall a past that should now be long dead and behind him. The other would have had quite the opposite effect, filling him with light and warmth of what he hoped to be the future that lay ahead of him. He would not mind at all knowing at least one of Blue's friends thought of him as Mr. Maura Sergeant.

Keeping the creature within his line of sight, The Gray Man, stooped to offer his hand to the fallen boy. Steady and strong still, even as the noxious gas rolled off the thing. "Did it hurt you?" He clarified, since Noah had not actually answered the question. It wasn't that he wasn't surprised to see someone from Henrietta in this cavernous city, but rather it seemed surprisingly fitting. All of the people he'd come to know and had grown close to were capable of so much that he'd once thought impossible, so while it was unexpected it wasn't surprising.

Unexpected but not surprising should have been the city motto for Henrietta, let's be real here.

Noah takes the offered hand - his own is warm and alive, not cold and insubstantial, but he's never certain who knows he was a ghost or not. It's difficult to place liner events sometimes. A lot of the time. He's still a slight thing and accepts the hand up as his legs are a little too shaky to do the work even if they can keep him up once he's gotten there.

"Just - I don't think it's too bad?" Noah says, holding his injured arm to his chest. As long as that thing didn't carry any diseases or poisons in its bite, anyway. He ducks down to grab the knife he dropped. It's a good knife. Noah doesn't hold it properly. "I'll go to the clinic and get it bandaged."

The Gray Man helped the boy to his feet easily, as if he were lifting a kitten from the floor. His hand gripped Noah's until he was certain the other was steady on his feet. And even then, he didn't let go until Noah moved to get the knife. The Gray Man eyed that knife, and the way the other held it. He could already feel the shape of what was to come, once they were to somewhere safe. If these monsters were even mildly common, Noah needed to learn how to at least hold that thing properly or else he would end up more completely dead.

This called into question the current state of the kid. He wasn't alive, far from it. The Gray Man had seen what Noah could do, the things that scared even Blue. Things that were far more powerful than an improperly wielded knife. This also made him question how Noah was so solid and warm to the touch, but he couldn't recall ever having occasion to touch him before. Or any ghost for that matter. But these were questions for another time. Even the strange concept of a ghost needing a bandage can wait.

In the end, all he said was, "Lead the way." He wasn't about to let one of Blue's friends walk the streets alone with such monsters on the loose.

Noah has a sheath for said knife, it takes him a moment to find that as well before he makes sure it's secured. He's aware of his own complete lack of any natural ability - Rook had tried to teach Noah, and Rook very much knew what he was doing, but he was trying to teach color theory to the colorblind, music to the tone deaf. Not impossible, but you'd better strap yourself in for the long haul. He'd done what he could.

He sticks close to Mr. Gray, doesn't question his presence. Noah has no pride. He's a coward, he's aware of that. It makes him feel better to have someone with him, knowing monsters are on the prowl again.

"It's not - not too far. I think." He pauses during the walk, looking left and right, trying to orient himself. Doctor Banner had a lot of signs up, 'CLINIC' in every language he knew, and Latin because Noah knew that one.

"Blue will be happy to see you."

As they walked, the Gray Man quietly appraised the boy beside him, trying to settle in his mind what was different from the Noah he'd seen back home. Home? Strange he should so easily come to think of a town he'd only been in for a few months so completely as home. Rather than dwell on that and the sinking hole it caused inside his chest, he focused on Noah. Because there was something different, subtle and difficult to define. But there was no denying he was indeed different.

Before he could settle on it, they came to the clinic. The numerous languages delighted him in an inexplicable and small way. A tiny pleasure in this strange and unsafe place. Perhaps it came from the number of languages he recognized, if just on sight alone rather than understanding them. Proof that they hadn't fallen too far from the world they knew. Before he'd finished taking them all in, however, Noah said something that knocked everything askew.

"Blue's here?" Shock registered in his tone, if only slightly. The smallest ripple on the surface betraying the sudden surge inside him. Blue in this place, with monsters on the loose. He needed to find her.

Noah looks around for Doctor Banner, but the clinic seems bereft of him at the time being. At least Noah knows where the bandages are and has taken lessons on how to properly apply them. It's awkward with one hand, but at least it also isn't stitches. Noah practically fainted at the very idea of them.

Noah isn't distracted by the light against the surface, he can see what's going on under the water.

"Yeah. She's been staying with us. She's safe. Or was an hour ago when I saw her last. Um, maybe don't tell her mom she's staying with a bunch of boys though."

Noah doesn't want to get her into trouble, and for all he knows Maura Sargent is here too.

[ooc: oh shit I mis-remembered. It was Jesse Dittley that stopped at the farm, not Mr. Gray. Whups. ]

Without word, The Gray Man took the bandages from Noah's hand and started applying them. His hands were firm and sure, knowing exactly what to do. Not from lessons but far too many self applications. At least he didn't need to demonstrate that he also knew how to apply stitches. But he was troubled by the notion that a ghost even needed bandages. Something wasn't right with this.

"Her secret is safe with me," he said with a small smile. "But only if you share yours with me." He smoothed his thumb over the bandage, making sure it was secure. The words were an invitation, not a threat. He wanted to tread carefully as bluntly asking why the boy wasn't dead anymore could be something of a loaded question.

[ooc: Eh, technicalities. NO ONE SAW ANYTHING]

Noah stares at the space the bandages were a moment before but he's too docile a boy to even complain about being taken care of. He likes being noticed and people caring enough to help him, there's no pride to get in the way of that. He's good at holding still while Mr. Gray works.

"I know a lot of secrets," Noah says mildly "I'm not sure which I'd call mine though."

The being alive thing, maybe. Mr. Gray was there when He was hanging out in Blue's front yard with her.

"It's... an effect of this place. I guess. Bodies for everyone."

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Test Drive Meme #8

Fear! /adds Ravens to the pile

All the Ravens!

we flock you see

Now I flail about as I'm only halfway through canon review

you're great!!

As are you!

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