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

fear!!

[whichend]

[ Monsters are common in this place, and Arya has grown skilled at handling them since she arrived in this cave. She's fought large bears, jelly-like monsters, and even helped with a hunting expedition in the caves. She should know, by now, what to do with these tentacled creatures.

But being pursued by one such creature is someone much stranger: a girl who looks too much like Sansa Stark to be possible. But Sansa Stark is dead, and besides, no one has no sisters. Arya should not recognize this girl.

It's easier to focus on the monster than on the apparition that is more likely a lie than anything else. When she speaks to Arya, Arya replies: ]

I shall not.

[ Then she draws Needle, and plunges it into the center of the beast. Arya is sprayed with putrid, sticky blood, but she doesn't care. She turns to face the other girl. ]

Are you hurt?

[alayne]

[ the girl who is no one is correct, of course. sansa stark had died long ago, have you not heard? mayhaps she threw herself into the ocean, mayhaps she died of her grief, from the implications of her stupidity but surely, she is dead. silly little girls do not last long in a world of monsters.

the ones here are ugly and frightening, the ones who killed sansa stark were beautiful and donned in silks and gold but they were monsters all the same.

alayne stone thinks little of it. what business does she have considering highborn girls who are long gone?

sansa stark would know this girl thought had had not seen her in years for wolves always know their pack, their kin, even after years of separation, even after they have changes names and colors.

has she heard, she wonders, that they changed sansa's colors, they did, from grey to red, they made her a lioness, can a wolf become a lion?

but alayne stone, much like the girl who is no one, has no sisters and a girl who might be the long lost lady stark must be foreign to her, she must.

still, she does wish to ask - ]

No.

[ not yet, she wants to say for surely they are coming. the girl is covered in blood and alayne wants to retch but she won't, not here and not now, now while they are still alive. ]

Where can we go?

[whichend]

[ Once the girl affirms that she is not hurt, Arya turns and begins to lead her away from the scene. It's easier to look at the road to come than to look at a girl's sister. Arya has no sisters -- she barely has this name, a title that does not quite fit, no matter how many people use it. Names, once taken, are difficult to take back. It has been months, and now, it is obvious that Arya has made very little progress on being a proper person again, rather than a faceless child. ]

I have a house here.

[ Arya replies, leading the other girl through the twisted streets of Hadriel. One foot after another. Arya does not let go of a dripping Needle. She grips it tighter when she hears his voice in her mind: how did a girl come to be surrounded by Arya Stark's things?

Arya says little after that -- further proof that she is not Arya Stark. Arya Stark was talkative, and made friends easily, even with strangers. This Arya is distant. Even so, Arya still leads the girl to her home, and gestures at a table. The kitchen is full of all sorts of strange devices, and the walls are charred. There was a fire here, a while ago. Arya sets some bread and salt on the table. ]

You ought to eat.

[alayne]

[ sansa stark had seen this sword. it is as familiar and as strange as the girl who wields it. arya stark had brought it to winterfell from king's landing, her lord father had allowed it. sansa had mocked her and her sister called her stupid.

she was right, sansa stark was a stupid little girl with pretty, shallow dreams that shattered to pretty, choking dust.

alayne stone knows better.

sansa stark, foolish as she was, would have made faces at the food offered to her, would have missed her roasted duck and lemon cakes but alayne stone is not a highborn lady with pretty gowns that glitter in the sun. she is a baseborn girl from the vale and she cuts into the bread, covers it in salt and eats a small portion.

alayne stone still has sansa's pristine manner of handling food but not her arrogance. ]

thank you.

[ she wants to ask, she ought to ask. ]

Will they come inside?

[whichend]

[ It would be easier if the girl was rude. If she ate with her mouth open. Anything. The girl eats like Sansa Stark, speaks like Sansa Stark, and apart from the hair, is as beautiful as Arya's sister -- no, not her sister, she has none -- was.

Was. If Arya can remember the was, she'll be fine. She busies herself with getting the blood off her hands and sword. ]

They may.

[ Arya has always been blunt, and even now, she hasn't changed in that way. ]

But you needn't worry about the monsters in this place. I can handle them. The gods are more dangerous.

[ Arya finally looks the other girl in the eye, her expression serious and solemn. ]

But there is no avoiding the tricks they play.

[alayne]

The city has its own gods?

[ an odd thought. the seven did not help sansa stark or her lady mother and the old gods could not see into the south, could not help lady sansa's lord father when the boy king has taken his head.

and now the boy king is dead and sansa's stark kin is gone except for the girl who hosts alayne under her roof ]

What manner of tricks?

[ she looks, all of the sudden, younger than she feels. this feels like a tale of horror, the scary kinds old nan would tell them that would frighten sansa for days ]

[whichend]

It does. Of hope, fear, rage, and delight.

[ Arya makes a face. They're not proper gods, not like the old gods or the Many-Faced God. They're...sillier. But in some ways, more dangerous. ]

Tricks to make us feel the emotion that they rule. Fear has buried people. Rage has incited murder, and delight, drunkeness.

[ Arya bites her lip, remembering Sansa in Hope's mirror. ]

Tricks like you.

[ Because how could this girl be smthinh but? She isn't real. She's an illusion, another one of Hope's games. ]

[alayne]

I am not a trick.

[ said in a haughty sort of manner that will remind a girl of sansa stark once more. she has been the pawn of outer forces for far too long, for too many long days and hopeless nights. if she is to be one here so be it but not as a trick, not to the girl. ]

I am Alayne Stone.

[ and then, carefully, she supplies her with a part of the story ]

A baseborn girl from the Vale.

[whichend]

Then why --

[ Arya swallows, steels herself. She is going to say a name. She digs her nails into the palm of her hand. It's all she can do not to chew her lip. Or flee. ]

-- Why do you speak with Sansa Stark's voice?

[ Arya's voice raises, and when it does, it quavers. ]

Why do you wear Sansa Stark's face?

[alayne]

You speak of a name that must not be spoken of.

[ alayne says but gently. this is an odd dance they are dancing. a girl knows alayne stone is sansa stark, sansa knows a girl's name but unlike her dreams ( there were many ), they do not weep and fall into each other's arms.

have we been burned too many times to think of embraces? she thinks. what has happened to arya stark since she had ran away from king's landing? silly sansa stark thought her dead, thought her gone. like rickon and bran and robb and - ]

Sansa Stark was a foolish girl from the North.

[ a silly girl with silly dreams ]

And some would pay a high price for her head. Alayne Stone came in her place, to protect her.

[whichend]

[ Arya shakes her head, disbelieving. Her own name was taken from her, but that was fine. That did not matter, because Arya Stark was the youngest daughter, worth the least, a poor choice for a wife and a poor lady besides. Sansa Stark was the proper lady. She was a princess, she was a queen. Hers is a name that ought not to be sacrificed.

Arya may have lost much, but she hasn't lost her stubbornness. ]

I don't care. I'll speak it again. I'll shout it, if I must.

[ Arya grips the table. She's trembling. ]

Sansa Stark was a beautiful girl from the North. She could sing and dance and sew. Everyone loved her because she was perfect. And I will not let her die, no matter the price.

[alayne]

You are kind to speak of her so.

[ far too kind, moreso than sansa would deserve. the silly girl had been naught but cruel to her sister, after all and alayne stone has no sisters but she thinks that were she to have a sister, she would have been kinder than silly sansa stark. ]

All they ever saw in her was a hopeless fool. A silly girl with silly dreams that were broken to pieces. Sansa Stark should never have left Winterfell.

[whichend]

They liked that she was foolish.

[ Arya says, quietly, because that comment is far less kind. But it's also true. Sansa was a lady in the way that Arya could never be. She was loved. And Arya was jealous for it. ]

But Sansa Stark ought to have some dreams. Her sister cannot have any, but Sansa was made for dreams in ways that Arya was not.

[ There. Both names. ]

[alayne]

She has none. All her dreams were stupid, they took them all. Joffrey and the Queen - they showed her the true nature of the world. She should have listened.

[ her hands tremble, her voice does too ]

She should have listened to her sister who knew better.