Test Drive Meme #8

[hadrielmods]

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!]

Comments

[foundafamily]

[Firo has met some people from the future, so that pretty much makes sense if he doesn't think too hard about it. Besides, the kid isn't some weird robot or anything, so it's a fair bet that he could be from Firo's world.

Does someone bring him another kid in the future? Firo frowns, wondering how they'd squeeze another into his apartment. At least this one looks pretty small.

Or the kid could totally be messing with him. But he seems earnest--and Firo supposes hearing him out can't hurt either way.]

...All right, shoot. Tell me everything about it.

[muscovy]

[Where do you even begin...

He turns the order over, once, twice, thrice, and a few times more, before he starts. He'll do the short version first, and then maybe they can do the long one after.]

You offered to help me with recovering something that I needed, and then we became friends. And when the ship that we were on was attacked and we got stranded, and my lady aunt was gone, we became better friends and after a while I got to move into the household that you lived in, yes?

And then we all discovered that we would never have to leave each other and liked each other a lot so that is what family, is, yes? [No "until death do us part because. Yeah.] So we became family.

[foundafamily]

[Firo listens as closely as he can--he feels he owes it to this kid to hear him out--but he furrows his brow in confusion. This is all hard to wrap his head around.]

A ship? We got stranded?

[His eyes widen in distress--Wait--!]

What about Ennis and Czes? Are they okay too?

[They're the only 'household' he has, so that must be what the kid's talking about, right?]

[muscovy]

They weren't there and they weren't on the ship, and they were fine the last time that you saw them. [At least by what Firo said, it seemed like that to him.] So they should be fine, yes?

[foundafamily]

They weren't..?

[He scratches his head.]

Okay, you're gonna have to explain this to me slow. What ship? What household?

[muscovy]

The Tranquility. It was very big and in space [he points to the invisible sky above them] and there was a garden inside it. But not very many people, and nobody knew how to steer it.

And I met you there, but I only moved in with you and Rey a few months after it crashed, because you had a treehouse and we're family.

[foundafamily]

[Firo has no idea how he, a city boy to the end, would wind up in a treehouse, but that's not important. The family part is. Perhaps they are family, and he owes it to the kid to really hear him out, though he thinks he'll need some more explanation. Not on the situation, necessarily, but on who he is. Who they are together.]

Sorry, kid, it's just hard to wrap my head around. And space and gardens--it's all--

[Hang on, what? He knows a Rey here. He tilts his head to the side.]

...Rey? She doesn't happen to have scars all over her face, does she?

[muscovy]

Yes, she does. You have seen her here?

[He brightens up, the pasted-on smile turning into a bright, genuine face of joy: Rey is here! Not only Firo, but also Rey, he has a plural of family here!]

...Do you think she remembers? [But he can tell her, too. The important part is that she is here.]

[foundafamily]

...She didn't seem to remember me. Unless I pissed her off and she was just givin' me the cold shoulder.

[He reaches down to try to muss the kid's hair. He knows the news might be disappointing, but it's not like they can't deal with it.]

But, look, we can talk to her about it, okay?

[muscovy]

[He won't shy away from the touch - it is fairly clear that it is a familiar, welcome gesture to him, coming from Firo.]

She can be very silly about having people that care about her, or that she cares about. But that just means that we will talk to her for longer, yes?

[Clearly they're in this together now.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo's not sure what he means by silly, but she is pretty weird. Still, not a bad sort. He smiles and nods.]

Yeah. I've seen her at the bar a lot--wanna go look?

[He tips his head to indicate the direction.]

While we look for her... tell me more about you and me. What kinda stuff did we do together?

[muscovy]

Yes!

[He'll take a step into the direction that Firo indicated and start walking if Firo does.

While they are walking, he tells Firo how they went onto one of the floors that housed Manticores to find items for Muscovy, and how they talked about their families, and finishes with how Firo helped him get better with fighting with knives by both training with him and showing him Firo's own tricks and techniques.]

[foundafamily]

[It all does sound like stuff Firo can see himself doing, though he didn't ask it as a test. It's all strange, but why shouldn't he believe it? Rather, he simply finds no harm in it. It doesn't matter if he can recall them being family or not; if there's a chance it was so, he won't deny a kid his brother.]

Wow. We really got into a lot, huh?

Rage's got lots of knives here--we should practice again sometime.

[muscovy]

[He nods.]

And then another Rey arrived who also didn't have a last name, so Rey adopted your name. And then it made sense that I would adopt the name that she adopted, too, because I lived in her household, yes? So we have the same last name now.

...How much will they want for the knives? [He could let Firo borrow the one that Rey gave to him.]

[foundafamily]

[He blinks at the name revelation. The knives are more cut-and-dried--easy to explain--so he answers that question first.]

We can get 'em for free--they're all just sittin' there.

Are you serious about the name?

[He blinks, touched in spite of himself. There haven't been any other Prochainezos for a long time, and the thought of sharing his last name with people is actually pretty appealing. He tries to hold back a smile.]

So then what's your full name?

[That'd be a good way to confirm. But mostly he just wants to hear it said.]

[muscovy]

Muscovy Maglorion Prochainezo.

[The question makes sense to him, after all he hasn't introduced himself yet, not by his full name.

....Never by his full name, now that he thinks of it.

He should do it more often, it is a very nice, warm feeling, because his last names are what ties him to his two families, while his first one in a way reminds him of his sisters.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo was all set up to expect it, but he still feels a little thrill when he hears it. There can be no denying it now, not that he really wanted to--this is kind of a relief.

He's always kind of wanted a little brother.]

Good name. Mind if I just call you Muscovy? The whole thing's a mouthful.

[muscovy]

[He nods happily.]

It was a bit difficult to decide which one to pick, because no matter which one I picked, everyone from the other cities would have been angry at me for not picking theirs, yes? But Muscovy was the strongest so them being mad would have hurt the worst.

And it is normal that you only use your first name when you're family, so we should do that. [More nodding.]

[foundafamily]

Cities..?

[Why would cities care what a kid calls himself?

He nods along with him.]

Yeah, it is. You can call me Firo, obviously--or what you did before. 'Bro' or whatever. Whatever you want.

[It's not that he'd really like being referred to as someone's bro... except he totally would.]

[muscovy]

[Nodding.] They don't have a name in common, though, so I had to pick, yes? [Names are just necessary to interact with people. And in Eachdraidh and later on the Tranquility, he could not simply use what the people around would call him, because there was no concept for him defined by the locality.]

I have called you Firo. But I could call you big bro. [It's a nice, idea. He likes it.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo can't hide a grin, pleased by this suggestion.]

Like I said, whatever you want. Or both.

[The way the kid explains it, it sounds so damn reasonable. Except for how it makes absolutely no sense.]

Why do the cities matter? I never met anybody named after a city.

[muscovy]

[He nods.]

Big bro Firo?

And I am not called for them, yes? I am all of them, and you would be very angry if New York suddenly called himself [.....cities that he knows in America

....

what has he heard of] Washington, yes?

[foundafamily]

[He smiles.]

Sure.

[Oh. So his new little brother is about as delusional as Isaac and Miria. Firo just stares a moment before deciding to play along.]

I don't think I'd be mad, just confused.

And how's a kid like you a bunch of cities?

[muscovy]

Because I'm not unified yet. But John said that I will be big and strong one day, and then I will be called Russia and have a lot of friends.

He knew because he was from the future, like you, but even further.

[foundafamily]

Unified..? Wait, Russia? That's a country!

[And this kid before him is, obviously, a kid.]