Test Drive Meme #9

[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 May 24th, and apps are open June 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:
I'VE SEEN ENOUGH HENTAI TO KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING
[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 malboro, from the Final Fantasy video game series.

These plant-like monsters are essentially comprised of long, tentacle-esque stalks- sometimes with eyes on the ends- and large, gaping mouths. Their breath can be poisonous and literally make you sick to your stomach, and- just your luck- they're carnivorous. Happy hunting!]


C O M B I N A T I O N

SCENARIO TWO: DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME
[You're so tired- at least you've got a reasonably safe place to rest your head at while you recuperate, right? After all, nothing can go wrong when you're asleep.

Aaand that's where you're mistaken. For this event, all characters who fall asleep will either be Hosts or Visitors in their, or someone else's dreams. All dreams are inflicted by one of the four gods (Hope, Delight, Rage, or Fear), and will have their presence influencing the events within your dreams in order to harvest their desired emotion from you.

The sky is essentially the limit, so long as your dreams correspond with one of the four gods. Happy sleeping!

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


D E L I G H T

SCENARIO THREE: JUST SAY NO
[On your kitchen table the next morning is a blue pill. Just the one pill, along with a glass of what seems to be water. There's a note in elegant script next to the pill that merely says 'TAKE ME'.

If taken, the pill can have a variety of effects. You can hallucinate, you can get uncontrollable giggles, you can feel drunk, you can feel like colors all have textures and shapes and the world is looking at you through a kaleidoscope! The drug can have whatever effect the player desires, as long as it's pleasurable or fun.

So: do you take it? Can you hear someone who already took the drug, stumbling down the street? You, uh, might want to help them, and do be careful. There's no telling what kinds of monsters are still out there.]

Comments

[outwards]

Well, I am saying that I have rarely seen such a fetching mutt as you out in the streets, and no city which I have lived in had a shortage of ones.

[All dogs are her business, clearly.]

[foundafamily]

A mutt?

[Well, that's just pretty damn rude. So what if his mom married an immigrant? ...And how would she even know about that?

He pouts, folding his arms across his chest.]

You'd better be more polite with how you talk to people--somebody might get offended.

[outwards]

[She laughs softly.]

There is no need to be upset, little one. [Considering that she's 6'2, that is true even without Firo being the terrier-mix that she believes she's talking to.] Some of the best and brightest companions that I have had on the hunt were mutts.

[foundafamily]

[Little one? Seriously? Bad enough she's unfairly tall--she doesn't have to rub it in. If she were a man, Firo'd have been tempted to punch her to bring her down to size. With a lady... he's just baffled.

She's probably drunk, he decides. Smiling wryly, he asks:]

Oh, yeah? What kinda hunts, huh?

[outwards]

All kinds, though my most beloved hunts were those of boars. Not only are they fast, but to hunt them is always a matter of setting up high stakes, as they can cause gruesome injury if attacking.

[He seems to relax, so she relaxes a bit, too.]

Have you ever been taken out on a hunt, I wonder?

[foundafamily]

Boars? Like the big pigs?

[His eyes go wide—he’s never seen one, but he’s heard of those things.]

“Gruesome injury” wouldn’t sound like a good selling point to most people, you know. And no, I haven’t. People don’t do stuff like that where I’m from.

[outwards]

Why do they not?

[All else falls away at that revelation. It isn't surprising that there are people and dogs alike who do not and would find no joy in it, but to think of a society where the hunt is not practised is startling.]

[foundafamily]

[He shrugs. Her way of life sounds just as weird to him.]

For starters, it’s a city, so… No pigs anywhere, especially not big angry ones.

People get their food from the store, if they can afford it. Some of ‘em keep chickens behind the tenement, but that’s only the ones who've got the time and money for it. And it’s easy for those to get stolen.

[You know. By hands that might as well be invisible, because Firo certainly has no idea how that could happen…]

[outwards]

Well, they are not within the city walls where I hail from either; will would ride out to the woods to find them.

Though game will be prepared and eaten, and the skins will be used well, I would not say that the primary aim of the hunt is to feed ourselves and to provide for leather; or at least it was never the only one where I grew up and food was plentiful. We simply rejoiced in the thrill of a hunt.

[It was very different later, and there were times when the game that they brought home might be the only food that they would see, because there was ice on all sides and no tree or plant in sight.]

[foundafamily]

[He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow.]

You know, most people wouldn’t admit to enjoyin’ killing that much.

[Not that he’s some bleeding heart—he just finds this a potential opportunity to mess with some weird lady who’s struck up a conversation.]

[outwards]

Well, it is a question of what the killing might be - if it is of those who carry a soul or not. One can hardly compare the slaughter of kin and the hunt of animals.

[She is laughing at that, but there is a sharpness to her words that rings of memories. No threat - this is no situation for such a thing - but the edge is still there.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo holds up his hands.]

Kin? Hold the phone--how'd you get to killin' your family from that?

[He'd hoped that the more they spoke the more he'd understand. But, no, this lady is still pretty bizarre.]

[outwards]

It is the greatest distance from a kill made on the hunt, to slay one who shares one's blood.

[Not necessarily direct family like Firo probably thinks, but still. Elves are all one big family, at least in how they think about it, so every killing of another Elf would be slaying of kin, and that cannot be excused because of the substantially imagined ethical relation.]

[foundafamily]

Just seems like a pretty big leap to me.

[...Which brings him to his main point. He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks up at her.]

You're one weird lady.

[outwards]

[Returning to a grin.]

There have been worse ways in which I have been described. I feel that half of those whom I call family might agree with such a statement.

[foundafamily]

[Well, at least she’s not offended. Firo likes to provoke reactions, but he won’t say no to someone who’s relatively relaxed about it.]

What would the other half say? That you just need to work on your manners?

[Not that he’s too sore about her comments earlier—they just make a good opportunity for teasing.]

[outwards]

That it is great fun to be in my presence, and that many great stories have come out of deeds which I was involved with.

[Granted, half of those were of the kind that gave her mother grey hairs, but it's not like her oldest brother was much better. ...Well, not very much, anyway.]

[foundafamily]

Can’t see how much fun you really are if you don’t get when a person’s makin’ a joke.

[Oh well. He’s too curious to linger on this unfortunate inability to get his humor. He tilts his head to one side as he peers up at her.]

What kinda deeds?

[outwards]

[She thinks on it for a moment - which story to pick? In the end she settles for one from her childhood, because those are the ones that have been retold the most often so she already has a narrative for them.]

When I was a child, I would beg my older cousins to take me out on his hunts, yet I was too young still to accompany them and my parents forbade it besides. Yet one conception day, he gifted me a voucher to take me rabbit hunting, which all considered simple and safe enough for such a child as I was.

Yet when we were out, I saw a rabbit vanishing into a cave and followed it, calling out to Tyelko to follow just ere I found the upper end of a slippery slope, small rocks and rubble making it impossible to stay on your feet. A mountain river ran at the bottom of it, and as I fell and slid down, Tyelko jumped after me and attempt to get us out. We were carried away by the river for what felt like a long time, fighting to not be pulled under, but then it calmed and we came into a wide cave with the most beautiful stones and gems and florescent plants which I have seen. We stayed there for a while, and and found that the water was shallow where the river exited the cave, bringing us soon out into the open again, though we had to crawl the last few metres, and Tyelko, if I recall it rightly, had to pull himself forward on his stomach by the end.

[foundafamily]

[Firo may not find rabbits as exciting as most other puppy dogs would, but even he finds the story pretty neat. Without even thinking about it, he leans in as he listens, nodding attentively ever so often.]

But you both got out? Did you ever get a rabbit?

[outwards]

Yes, we did! We had been in the caves for about a day, so they had already started to search for us and we couldn't try to find rabbits again, but as soon as I got out of house arrest Tyelko took me rabbit hunting again and showed me how to set up slings, and we got three.

[foundafamily]

House arrest?!

[Not quite as cool as actual arrest, but it's something! Firo blinks up at her with a hint of newfound respect.]

Who took you in?

[outwards]

I do not quite recall...

[She frowns faintly and then shakes her head.]

You see, my grandfather was the king at that time and my father his second son. If they wanted to enforce such things, they could issue an official order to all guards in the city that we were to be returned home immediately if found anywhere but there.

[foundafamily]

[Firo raises an eyebrow and laughs. Almost a scoff, kind of.]

So I guess bighsots can waste all the guards on a family squabble, huh?

You're some kinda princess or something?

[Teasingly--she seems all right, so he's not mad:]

You know, that still doesn't mean you can just walk up to people and call 'em mutts, though.

[outwards]

Yes. [She thinks about adding something for a moment, about being too close to the throne, closer than she'd ever have imagined she could come back in Valinor, but then thinks better of it.]

It is nothing bad, though - if you want to call it that, most of my family consists of mutts. My grandmother is from a different people, the Vanyar, and my uncle even married a woman from yet another people, the Teleri.