dankmemes | 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

The last thing the Gray Man expected to see in this place was a familiar face. In fact, he had the sinking feeling he would never see anything familiar ever again. A strange concept for a man who once tried to be nothing and no one. But despite his best efforts, he'd found a place that for some reason felt like home, with a woman and in a house that went against everything he'd built for himself. There'd once been a time when this strange, underground city would have suited him just fine, but over the last few months so much had changed.

If he were to guess at which familiar faces he might see, the youngest Lynch brother would have been nowhere near the list. He still didn't quite understand the boy, having been absent for the full explanation. He didn't need that to know Matt was special. Just seeing the way Ronan reacted to the cherubic boy was enough for him to see that. The way Ronan reacted to his brother.

Nevermind the fact he'd once threatened Matt's safety to get what he needed out of the other Lynch boys and their friends.

"Something that shouldn't exist," he said, watching the creature on the ground. He held his gun low at his side, ready to fire again if it moved. "We should get out of here. Do you have somewhere safe you can go?" Already falling into full protection mode without even thinking about it.

Matthew Lynch was the sort of boy who had grown up being protected, sheltered by his brothers and his home and his own origins. It was only natural for him to fall into that same role now, pressing unknowingly closer to the man who killed his father and giving a shake of his head.

"I don't know where we are," he admitted, his voice low and anxious. "I don't remember how I even got here."

He'd just opened his eyes and found himself underground and sharing this huge, unfamiliar cavern with the rotfiends. It had to be a nightmare, or something. Except Matthew rarely ever had nightmares, and when he did they tended to involve Ronan showing up at the end to fix things, not unfamiliar gray men with guns. Everything felt too tangible to be part of a nightmare, anyway. This place was more like Cabeswater--mysterious, impossible, but still somehow real, and that made the fear more real, too. It settled heavily in his gut at the same time that it drove his heart against his rib cage like a frantic bird.

Protecting the Lynch boys was not something The Gray Man had ever thought his life would come to. Five years chasing the Greywarren to find out it was not only a person, but it had family and friends. Five years intent on finding it and killing anyone who got in his way, all for a dangerous man. And now he was one of those things getting in the way. Protecting not just the Greywarren's family, but a dream thing as well.

"Then we have something in common," he said simply. One moment he'd been in Henrietta, mere hours after getting out of that cave. Then he blinked, and he was somewhere else. Picking himself up off the ground, in yet another cave. But this time the monsters didn't have feathers.

Mysterious and impossible had become an on-going theme in the Gray Man's life, so he took it all in stride. "If we're both here, maybe there's others. Your brother or his friends. Come on." He jerked his head back the way he'd come. There had to be somewhere safe they could go. Someone to help them find answers of what here was or how they got here.

Hearing that the Gray Man also had no idea as to how they'd gotten here made Matthew swallow nervously again. Over the past few months he also had become aware of some mysterious, impossible things--his own mother's fairytale-like origin, the enchanted forest that brought her out of her year long sleep, Ronan being an actual magician who could make dreams real--but none of those things are frightening, and his brother had been there to hold his hand (metaphorically) the entire time.

This was not like that.

"Right, okay," he agreed and made to move in the direction the Gray Man had indicated, ready to follow someone's plan since he didn't have one of his own. But then the meaning of the words really sank in and he paused, mid-step, giving the man a look that contained a hint of caution.

"How do you know my brother?"

There once had been a time where such a question could have been answered with ease. Even with bright, innocent Matthew. He could have lied or side-stepped it. Saying something about having business with their father. But hearing it asked by such a trusting soul caused an uncomfortable twinge in his recently regrown heart. An uncomfortable twist of guilt and regret in the pit of his stomach. At the time, he hadn't known the boys, he'd barely known their father. Just another mark. Another job. But he'd come to know the boys, in a way. He'd come to know their friends, the town they called home. It was all different, now.

After too long of a pause, he finally said, "I am a friend of Blue's. Well, her mother." It was as close to the truth as he was willing to admit at the moment. Maura was why he'd stayed long enough to know any of them, so it was something like the truth.

Matthew just hovered, waiting for the end of the too-long pause, neither moving closer nor further away. The silence would have made either of his brothers suspicious, but he wasn't made of all the same stuff as them. And then--

"Oh." The explanation satisfied him perfectly. He knew Blue from their visits to Cabeswater, of course, and liked her, but they weren't so close that he'd expect to know everyone who knew her, and especially not everyone who knew (or might be dating) her mom. But she and Ronan were close, in that very specific, meaningful way that Ronan let people get close to him.

So the Gray Man's explanation made sense and Matthew relaxed somewhat, as much as he could in an unfamiliar cave infested with flesh-eating creatures.

"Okay," he repeated. "Let's look for him. Maybe he's here, maybe-- he knows what's going on."

Ronan, in Matthew's eyes, often if not always had the answers.

It was better this way. Matthew didn't need to know that the man beside him was the reason for Declan's broken face. For the gun in his car. For Ronan's nightmares. The reason the three of them no longer had a father, couldn't speak to their mother, weren't allowed to return home. Indirectly. Most of it was at Greenmantle's will, or written into Niall's. He was himself only an instrument, or so he kept telling himself. But he couldn't tell Matthew even a word of that. Ronan deserved something unspoiled in his life.

If he'd known Matthew had been there the day he'd taken the puzzle box from The Barns, he would be wondering why the boy didn't recognize him. But even the hitman's keen eyes had missed the boys, distracted by the woman walled up in a room full of strange things. Dream things.

Somehow, he wasn't at all surprised or skeptical over the notion of Ronan possibly being somewhere nearby. The last time he was in a cave, he practically landed on top of Blue, Maura, and a man who had been personally involved with Gansey's king. Who just so happened to be Blue's father. It was hard to be surprised after things like that.

"I doubt he'd be very forthcoming, but yes. Let's try to find him." He jerked his head down the way he'd come, before heading that way.

Test Drive Meme #8

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Please forgive me in advance if I accidentally switch to present tense omg

I probably won't even notice!

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