dankmemes | Test Drive Meme #10

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!test drive

Test Drive Meme #10

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 June 24th, and apps are open July 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: UNBEARABLE
[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 several bereskarn, from the Dragon Age video game series.

While they were once normal bears, these hideous creatures have been corrupted by the Blight into something terrible. They are larger than normal bears and have bone spikes jutting out through their skin, which leaves them with constantly bleeding wounds. They are easily enraged, and will attack fiercely if agitated. Have fun!]

SCENARIO TWO: CLAMOROUS CAVES
[Wow, it sure is weirdly foggy out, considering there's no weather in Hadriel. The sun's dim, the light's strange, and hey - is that an air raid siren? Oh shit.

Welcome to Silent Hill, Hadriel edition. When the siren sounds, the city changes into a twisted, darker version of itself, teeming with monsters and looking like something straight out of your nightmares. And if you're really unlucky, there might be a monster lurking in there just for you, your own personal demon ready to hunt you down. Let's hope you can stay alive until the city changes back!

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

R A G E

SCENARIO THREE: NO FLAMES PLZ
[This morning you woke up to a letter on your doorstep, addressed to you. Curious, since there's no mail delivery in Hadriel. Upon opening it, you discovered a carefully written letter containing a brutal takedown of something that means a lot to you. Something you really care about

Maybe they're trashing your favorite sports team. Maybe they're calling your hometown a trash pit full of hipsters. Maybe they're saying your boyfriend has weird hair. Or maybe it's worse than that - maybe they're saying that everything you've been working for is a complete waste of time, and you're an idiot for trying. Whatever it is, it's calculated just right to piss you off, and piss you off real bad. And hey. That letter's signed.

Maybe somebody will come by and talk you down - or maybe the person who comes by is the one who's name is on that letter, even if it might not quite be in their handwriting. What're you gonna do? Fight them? Lay an elaborate trap? Try not to let it get to you and talk it out like adults? Yeah right. Time for a reckoning.]

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[This kid. What a jokester. Smiles and sunshine, even if the world's crumbling. That smile of his is the way it always is, may as well be locked into place, but there's a tightening of the corners.

But they change the subject, and he lets them.]

Beats me. Maybe Rage figured you'd be a good candidate.

[It certainly wasn't Hope that brought them here. Fear, maybe. Delight?

Yeah, okay. He's not going there.]

[Chara could make a game out of trying to make Sans change his expression. If the child had to be honest there was that temptation to try fighting him again, if they hadn't wanted to see what lay ahead.]

Rage? We are to play another game with emotions?

[Curious. Very curious.]

The gods here're all based on 'em. Think there's just the main four now.

[Yeah, yeah. He could probably go off on some kind of theological tangent, but the fact of the matter is that they're here, and they're here to stay, regardless of how staunchly one chooses not to believe in them.]

Hope, Fear, Rage, and Delight. They do what they want with us, mostly.

[Yeah, three guesses as to who's responsible for this little foggy horrorshow, and the first two don't count.]

Gods. I see.

[That suggests power and from what Chara already understood, they couldn't Reset the way they used to. It was a much different game with different rules.Interesting.

And no, they didn't need too many guesses for who was responsible for the fog. But a grinding session on these dust monsters from Chara's own mind got old. Even killing a forgettable skeleton droned on. There wasn't any LOVE to be found.]

I will have to Continue then. What will you do, Sans?

[Something, for a change?]

[Easy a resolution as any. Not like the place ever gave any of them a choice in the matter. He could hope, he supposes, but hoping isn't exactly his specialty. Not much out there is.]

Why you asking me, kid?

[Now that's a question to ponder. The point from which they've sprung. Sans tips his head to one side idly, firing the question off vaguely into a point somewhere beyond Chara's shoulder.]

What's the last thing you remember, anyway?

Curiosity.

[Aside from the Undying, you were the only one who posed such a challenge. And if they wanted to Continue, it would be in their better interests to know what you were doing.

Chara's smile stretches as they recall the memory. It's an extremely simple answer and there's no reading in between the lines that needed to be done.]

I remember you and death. Then finally dust. Such a long time.

[Chara was LV 20 now. Aren't you proud?]

[Ah.

Right.

So they'd be the same one, then. Or an iteration so close to the one he faced that there may as well be no difference.

He'd ask what comes after, but that's a real no-brainer. Heh heh heh. Yeah. No. There's not a lot of options as to what someone or something like them would do once there's nothing left to the world. Empty, dusty, and lifeless.]

Yeah. Must've been.

[The lights in his eyes almost dim at the memory. Almost.

But not quite.]

Hey. You hear the one about the kid who destroyed the world?

[*But nobody came

Because there wasn't anybody left. Well, save Asgore...and Flowey. But that was that and it's not like it mattered at that point. They didn't have much choice beyond this point. It was the end.

But Chara was more interested in this.]

I have not. What happened to the child?

Well, I'd tell you the punchline, but there'd be no point.

[Because the world is broken.

Get it?

Yeah, he'll be here all night. It's a real riot out there. Almost offhand, he segues into what he's been dancing around since approaching them in the first place.]

You know there's nothing for you here, right? Different universe. Different rules.

[It does make Chara laugh a little. You're so funny mister comedian.]

Yet I have been brought here. I was called.

[They're not making a speech but stating a fact. Clearly someone wanted them here.]

And as I have said, I will Continue until I am returned to that world.

[That's all.]

Who d'you think called you, kid? Me? The gods? I'd trust 'em about as far as a couple snails could throw them.

[It's not quite a huff of laughter, but it's certainly a noise: a dry, ironic, completely unnecessary exhalation. Don't make him laugh.]

You think there's LOVE for you here?

[Chara decides to give Sans that. What these Gods were planning may be something completely different than what they had in mind.]

Perhaps. There is something I can do here, even if it does not involve LOVE. There are many people here. I can ask for help. They could be my partners.

Edited 2016-06-22 01:23 (UTC)

[Yep, nope, he's suddenly super glad that he's the only other one here from their world because this? This is exactly what had him concerned enough to get off his damn coccyx and do something about it for once.]

Aw, gee. It dust be my birthday.

[There's no glow, no glare, no spike of blue. That's hardly necessary. Besides, they both know how that would end, and you know how he hates tautology.]

Well, you know me, kiddo. I'm not always of the mind that the worst person can change.

I know. You said it many times. A shame your optimism had to lose their head.

[Get it? See, they can do more than creepy smiles as jokes too.]

But. But you are capable of letting this go. You do not have to stop me. What do you say?

[Because this world isn't bound by some pre-rendered script. There's no act to follow, Sans isn't require to be the That One Boss for anyone. As much as Chara would like to fight him again, Sans could just walk away and do nothing. Again.]

I'm thinkin' that I'm feelin' pretty bone tired, kid.

[He sighs, which is in and of itself a fairly pointless maneuver for a creature lacking both lungs and a throat. But it's the principle of what he's trying to communicate, that's the important thing.

God, Papyrus. Still cuts him to the core. It shouldn't really, that's ill-advised. But he can never stop his brother's death, never even avenge it. He just makes it happen. Catalyzes it. Again and again.

Ontology's really a fickle little bastard, huh?

Don't "have" to stop them. Can't anyway, though. He might have a better chance here, in a different universe, but a kid like them still might have that infinitary advantage, exploitation of remembering tricks that he's done a thousand times, even for him it's still the very first. So to speak.]

And I think I've got reason to believe that there's ways this place'll keep you in check.

[After the eleventh time it was pretty mutual that it was pointless to keep counting. But Chara kept learning. How to dodge, to not to get suckered by offers of friendship and so on. Perhaps it was frustration on their partner's part that helped them through. Nevertheless, they knew.]

Yes. There are new rules in place that I have to learn. But I can wait. It took a long time before.

[They weren't quite referring to Sans this time, but their first attempt. The flowers littering the ground here that Chara could still taste and the routes afterwards. "What if I did this?" "What if I did that?" "Can I befriend everyone?"

And then finally, "Can I kill everyone?"]

However, if you wish to rest again, we can continue this later.

[Or you could try to stop them now.]

Well, we both know how I feel about work.

[He shrugs. The kid's perceptive, he'll give them that, but he hasn't got reason to believe that they'll be an unstoppable force of danger here. Not yet. Not a lot of SOULs here, he's found, are susceptible to the kind of weaknesses that monster SOULs are.]

But let's make one thing clear. If Papyrus ever ends up here...

[And there it is. Like a switch has been flipped, the warm smile made ghastly, the lights in the eyesockets a little more direct.

He's not one to drop the façade for just anyone, after all. No reason to trot out the old 8bit. Just a warning. That's all.]

Maybe stay away from him. Someone might get hurt.

[Chara smiles sweetly. A child with a big vocabulary, that's all this kid was. There wasn't a reason for them to completely drop their own act yet either. But they mean everything they say right now, from the bottom of their heart.]

Of course, Sans. I promise.

[Doesn't it fill you with the warm-fuzzies? Doesn't it make you happy?]

[He smiles back. They could be reflections, the way they smile blithely at everything. Two inscrutable things smirking at each other from across a long, golden hallway.

Only now there's only fog, and mist.

And then he hears it.

Oh no.]

alaS.....ppppPOor pAPP PYRUss...

[Sans's smile sets on a cold, hard edge. There it is. His monster. Some sick, twisted commentary on the nature of emotional dependence. Well, good for it. He doesn't care.]

Now'd be a real good time to prove that you're serious about that promise, kid.

[Chara doesn't move for a moment. It's not one of the dust monsters from their own mind so...

Ha.]

I see. So this is your monster. Interesting.

[Their grip doubles on the knife. Reflexes, you understand. But it's better to keep the "promise" going.]

We should leave if it does not attack. I doubt talking will do anything.

It won't. It doesn't do anything.

[He sounds resigned. Witnessed this thing's weirdness too much now to allow himself to be bothered, or so he keeps telling himself. It hasn't done anything adverse, simply...followed, soft and insistent. Occasionally making noises that creep him the hell out.

The symbolism of the thing is not lost on him. Nor is the irony, for that matter.

His eyelights flick to gaze at the parody of his brother's eyesockets for a brief moment, ignoring the empty glare of his own doppelganger's.]

Not worth your time, trust me.

[They watch the monster move, a fusion of both brothers. The other kind of love, or maybe just an overdose,]

I have not forgotten the promise so quickly. I will leave it alone.

[although if in some twist of fate it does attack them then Chara will cut it down. But until then they're content to watch.]

...I feel obliged to suggest we leave. There is little point in staying here.

[Yeah, that's enough of that. No need to draw this out. He'd offer his hand to the kid and let them hitch a ride, but he's not a moron. He'll walk. They can both take the slow path.]

Way ahead of ya.

[Not literally but...you know.]

Do I even wanna know what your nightmares look like?

No.

[That's all Chara will say about it. The flowers can stay in the cracks in the ground and Sans didn't need to know more than that. Hopefully wouldn't learn more than that. The nightmares of a being that pretended to be a human would certainly be something.

They began to walk through the fog, keeping on eye on the brothers fusion and one eye on the real Sans.]

I am assuming there is a safe place.

Edited 2016-06-22 03:25 (UTC)

[Sans nods tiredly.]

Yep. The temples. With one tiny caveat.

[Figures, given the nature of this place. Every favor comes with a price.]

Longer you stay, the more the emotions of the place get to you. So, uh...stay away from the rage temple, huh?

[All right, so that was a tad underhanded. But they did just kill him, so.]

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