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

[outermirrors]

She's trying not to be off put by the fact that he apparently finds his hair a hundred times more appealing than making eye contact. That's kind of rude kid. At least act like your interested in why someone you clearly don't know seems to know you by name (even if it's the least commonly used one) and by sight here.

She shifts her bag to her other hand. What made her ask that in the first place. On the one hand she did give Mello her word not to bring up what she saw in his dreams. On the other hand it was the only way to explain to Near how she even had any idea who he might be. Which admittedly was very little, but when did that ever get in the way of her doing anything or saying anything?

Ai shrugs and settles on the only answer she can that isn't her outright blabbing, "Mello."

[solvethepuzzle]

Eye contact is overrated. He's interested, certainly. Very interested, hence why he's engaging the topic at all. Nobody he doesn't recognize should be able to identify him on sight.

The hairtwirling stops for just a second when she explains her reasoning, but he still doesn't bother to look up. Mello. He's here? If anyone could give out information on Near, it would be him. But the question remains as to why he would do that. Why mention him, describe him? He would have to have been here for a while in order to have anyone he might even consider telling. Why this girl? What reasoning is behind this?

"And he spoke of me to you? You must know each other well for that."

He does not believe that Mello would bring him up casually. There has to be a reason, a purpose behind this girl knowing who he is.

[outermirrors]

Eye contact is respectful. It's also a quick and somewhat reliable way to get a bead on people. But since Near is refusing to cooperate, she settled for a disapproving frown as she tosses her hair back over her shoulder.

"I wouldn't say that exactly." She ventures after a beat. Simple fact was she and Mello trusted each other about as much as a fish trusted a shark. The dreamsharing just made trust irrelevant. One hosted and one visited; she just happened to visit his subconscious a lot.

"Events here didn't leave him a lot of options." Can't hide what Near looks like in a dream where you're blowing a hold in the boys head.

[solvethepuzzle]

Well, he's never worried about being respectful, and why would he want to let just anyone get a bead on him? That would be ridiculous. Mostly, though, it's that it simply doesn't occur to him to look people in the eye in general. Not deliberate rudeness or even an attempt to keep his face hidden. Just. Whatever. A disapproving frown isn't going to bother him, especially when he can't even see it.

"What events were these?"

Ones out of Mello's control, obviously enough. Caused by an outside influence. Forced his hand, or revealed something without his consent. Near's bet leans on something supernatural, but he doesn't know that for sure yet. The girl's answer is too vague. He wants details.

[outermirrors]

Well it reads as general rudeness and she ends up tapping her foot out of annoyance because seriously kid, this looking at anything but her thing is getting old rather quickly. Apparently Mello's dreams didn't share that part of Near's disposition with her.

"I had the unfortunate pleasure of taking a tour of his subconscious a handful of times thanks to Fear wanting to give everyone nightmares. Not that he succeeded in some cases..."

All of the above if her answer is anything to go by. She walked into his dreams and saw way more than he ever wanted. Ai crosses her arms and leans down a bit studying the boy.

"I guess it was more wish fulfillment than real the one I saw him blow your brains out in." She hasn't realized dead people could arrive here yet since her best friend from home is very much alive at the moment she left.

[solvethepuzzle]

She's just going to have to deal with it, unfortunately. Being rude doesn't bother him in the slightest. He catches the foot-tapping, recognizes it as a gesture of irritation. Still. Not a big deal. He's not going to lose patience over something so minor as that.

"That does sound unfortunate. You had no nightmares yourself?"

The idea that Mello would shoot him in a dream should be more disturbing than it actually is. Although that doesn't seem like something that would have been brought about by fear on Mello's part . . . and she'd used the word 'fear' as if it were a name, which is interesting. One of the entities that draws people here? And is able to give dreams and allow others to enter them . . .

... Shit.

The hairtwirling stops again, and remains at a halt this time. That dream he'd had, a scene from childhood, and the presence of an older person that he hadn't even questioned in the context of it all. He hadn't looked up in the dream (because that's just not how he works), but he remembers the voice. Mello is here and he was in that dream as an observer and later participant. And Near had said things that he would never say so clearly, with so little room to consider them lies. He'd all-but handed Mello a weapon against him.

There is still some room, though. He can still obscure the meaning of a few things, perhaps. It depends on what Mello has made of it all, what he can pass off and what he will be forced to admit. But he won't be able to learn what Mello thinks unless they speak.

"That sounds more like something generated by anger than fear. Another of our hosts?" Giving voice to his preliminary deduction that anyone here must have been drawn in by a personification of some emotion. And his tone of voice has yet to change despite the colourful way the girl has chosen to describe his dream-murder at Mello's hand.

That dream isn't the troublesome one. His own is.

[outermirrors]

She is dealing with it. She just doesn't like that his social grace is low enough to not realize how rude it is. And she was so sure Mello had the lowest social grace score possible. Thank you Near for proving her wrong in five minutes or less. She may have to worry for her sanity now and in the future.

"No I got luck and only visited a few. Nothing but good things on my end." If he bothered to look up he's notice a particularly please smile on her face as she speaks. Clearly something in one of those was dreams had been enjoyable to her.

Her head tilting in response to him stopping with the hair twirling. If she had to guess he just realized something. She isn't about to try and guess what. It wasn't like Mello's dreams had provided any insight into Near's character beyond stillness. A lot of stillness, does the boy ever more or is he constantly sedentary?

"Not a bad guess. Anger, Fear, Hope, and Delight. They're all our hosts and each influenced our dreams to have tones along the themes of their names." She pauses a moment, "Not everyone had dreams influenced by all four of the gods though."

She only had hope and delight dreams. Mello had everything but delight from what she could tell. The whole thing was messy and complicated.

"What about you? Have any strange dreams lately?"

[solvethepuzzle]

Near may be the champion of lacking social graces. At least he isn't hostile? Surely that much counts for something.

The four names slide neatly into his memory without him having to make a note to keep them in mind. Those are the influences -- he instinctively does not think of them as gods -- that he has to deal with now. This is . . . well, it's not fine, but knowing what to expect on some level is helpful. He will mentally review all of the information he's been given once he is in a more secure location.

"That's fortunate for you." No, he still isn't looking up, so her smile goes unseen. "I just realized I haven't asked your name. I'm sorry."

His bland, even tone leaves a lot of ambiguity as to whether he's truly sorry or not. And it remains the same when he next speaks:

"No, just a rather unpleasantly exciting arrival." A lie -- that he's had one and the nature of it is not for her to know without having visited it -- but absolutely nothing has changed about his demeanour. "I do not suppose Mello has told you where he can be found?"

Yes, he is asking to see someone he has been informed has murdered him in a Rage dream. A reunion is in order for multiple reasons.

[outermirrors]

The lack of hostility does count for something. There's only so many guns waved in her face Ai can take before she flips.

She doesn't really think of them as gods, but it is what they call themselves and there is a certain amount of otherness to them. If they could touch their dreams why not be capable of doing anything else? As for a more secure location... Near's going to have to venture outside again for that. Most secure place she's found so far is the Spires.

"It was," she agrees. Now he's worried about her name? She laughs a little and shrugs. "Ebihara Ai." She would it was pleasant to meet him if she was sure it wouldn't partially be a lie.

She snorts, exciting arrivals aren't terribly rare from what she's experienced. try waking up and having to run from literal fire flies sometime Near, that'll really get the blood bounding. She exhales softly as part of her answer to his question at first. Of course he would ask for Mello's location. She isn't even surprised given how much Near figured into the dreams she watched.

"We aren't what you'd call friendly. But I could help you look for him. Or you could try the network."

[solvethepuzzle]

He's already come from a year and a half of being toyed with by supernatural beings of some power and even those he'd refused to see as gods. These beings will not be exempt from that, no matter what they call themselves. He will need to study them, certainly. But that is not his immediate concern.

Oh, come now, there's nothing wrong with a few half-truths here and there. However, given that social niceties are obviously lost on him, he takes no offense that she doesn't say that it's nice to meet him. Frankly, he does not expect it is for most people.

"I'd presumed not, but the question was necessary." He'd honestly doubted Mello would make his location so readily known, especially to someone who may have acquired an uncomfortable amount of knowledge about him in general. On the other hand, he could certainly imagine him wanting to know where where she resides under these circumstances. But to Near, that's irrelevant; she's just a source.

"Wandering is useless when more efficient methods are available, but I appreciate the offer, Miss Ebihara." A polite form of address, at odds with his casual rudeness. Network . . . With nothing extra going on in his head, that only leaves a few options. He pulls out an old, worn satchel that has been half-tucked behind him this whole time, fishes his hand through it, past the toys and the card decks before grazing over something else. As nothing he is unfamiliar with should be in here, this is probably what he is looking for, and he pulls out what proves to be a cell phone. "I see they provide easy access. How generous of them."

[outermirrors]

Ah see until she got here she didn't even know that her closest friend spent the majority of a year diving into TVs to fight monsters. She tried not to think too much about the group of people he spent so much time with it helped her not think he had people he liked better. When in doubt avoid the question right?

She supposes not, they were better than being flat out cruel anyway. She's already met Mello, meeting him hasn't been any worse than that so far.

"You actually bother with double checking your assumptions?" There's disbelief tinging her voice. Mello didn't bother with that sort of thing, as far as she could tell he made up his mind and that was pretty much it. Which was probably why she butted heads with him so much. But she has done a fairly decent job of keeping Mello from knowing where she's staying.

"The bar might be the best place to start, he had me meet him there once." A smile spreading across her lips and coloring her tone to have someone actually pay attention to how it was appropriate to address someone they weren't familiar with. "It's a basic cell phone app, shouldn't be too hard to navigate."