Test Drive Meme #10

[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 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.]

Comments

[benumbing]

[Jack's not sure if he wants to know how it got that chainsaw or not, but he's just as shocked by its appearance as she is. It almost makes things simpler, because now he doesn't see any way that both of them can escape this room. He's faced his own death before, in war and in the likelihood of execution. He's not about to be the kind of disgrace that lets a girl die so that he can live another day.

He counts inside his head. 2...3... The way should be clear for her outside now. If she runs and keeps running, maybe she'll survive. ]

Run, and don't look back. [Jack starts to step forward, and finds that she's already there, making his eyes go wide.] What in the hell are you doing!

[And what in hell is happening? Jack stares at the rabbit, disarmed and frozen right in front of them. Her voice is inside his head, and he understands the only thing that he really needs to: he opens the door just a crack, the bar that he picked up from the floor gripped tightly in his hand.]

Clear!

[He reaches for her hand again, because now they're in this together.]

[lineare]

[ They're in this together, and there is everything compelling about his courage, a roaring lion in the absence of those who would only cut him down and shape him to their own desires. He takes her hand and she runs with him, her heart pounding fiercely.

They have to find shelter and soon, even as she keeps up the barrier around them both. It's not long before they're before an empty old hospital, the ripe smell of rot and blood hanging thickly in the air. But they need cover, and while the rabbit isn't chasing them anymore, they're going to need cover, even if it's most possibly the last thing Jean would want to venture into.

Still, it's quiet, and her words are only in his head: in here.

In there, they can figure out just what to do. ]

[benumbing]

You're sure about this?

[Jack's words are soft but aloud. Still, he has the same thought: they have to take cover, so he doesn't hesitate before leading her inside. The blood and the shadows don't frighten him, he's only wary of what might be hiding in them.

He glances down at the scattered clipboards, skirts around a wheelchair, eyes the elevator like the doors might open for some fresh horror at any moment. She still looks scared when he glances over at her.

Do you read thoughts? Is that what it is?]

[lineare]

[ She takes a deep breath to settle her nerves. That she's blocked from reading the minds of the creatures, from manipulating them or swaying them to her will means a part of her powers have been neutralised -- and Jean is still unsettled by it. She has never been truly comfortable about her gifts all the same, but things are markedly different when they're facing a threat she doesn't know the root of.

He has a tactical mind, Prince Jack, and senses that his kindness is as rare as they come -- not surprising, when he'd been essentially thought that a trait like that is a weakness. ]

Yes. [ And she wonders if he's afraid of that, if he would leave her on her own. A part of her thinks he won't, but one never really does take kindly to someone who knows all your fears, your secrets, your most painful memories. I read thoughts. And I can move things, too.

An understatement, but Jean meets his eyes squarely before she speaks up, low and quiet and honest. ] But I'm not going to hurt you. [ A beat. ] I don't want to hurt anyone.

[ Want and will, she supposes, are two very different things. Just ask En Sabah Nur. ]

[benumbing]

[He's accepting this all too easily, monsters and blood patterns on the floor, a nightmare that they can't seem to wake from. Jack wonders what that really says about him, but he knows.

Somehow, this girl with red hair and strange powers seems like the one who doesn't belong.]

I know. [Jack looks at her, and there's no doubt, no fear. Monsters aren't always ugly. They can be quite pretty sometimes, and she is. But she's not one, he's sure of it. He places a finger to his lips before letting go of her hand. Jack approaches a door cautiously, peeking through the little square of a window before he pushes it open.] This one looks bunny free.

[He smiles darkly at her. Jack, no.]

[lineare]

[ Monsters aren't always ugly, that's right. The prince doesn't fear her at all; not even when she spoke in his head, which is something that usually tends to freak a lot of people out. Even so, she lets him approach the door, understanding his instinct to lead -- after all, he'd been quite good at it back in his world.

Then he talks about it being bunny-free and Jean can't help but make a small sound of amusement despite their dire situation and the darkness that seems to close in all around them. There is the sudden loud pounding on the doors outside, and Jean grimaces. ]

Let's go inside. [ Jean will take on whoever comes for them. The walls inside look like they're rotting and peeling, and the smell of blood is overwhelming, a coppery stench that clings to them dreadfully. She swallows hard, before they hear a rasping, slithering sound not too far from them.

Etched in blood on the walls are the words DARE YOU DARE YOU DOUBLE DARE YOU. ]

Jack, be careful. [ She says quietly, reaching forward to tug on his hand. She has a barrier drawn up around him to keep him safe, but one can't be too careful. ]

[benumbing]

You know my name.

[The amount of surprise in his voice is minimal. She can read his thoughts and e in his head, so of course she probably knows his name. He wonders at the limits of her powers...if she knows everything, the reasons why she would reach for his hand if she did. Jack keeps his eyes forward, seeking out the source of that sound while proceeding with the care that she voices.]

That's hardly fair.

[Jack crouches an picks up a pipe from the floor. It'll do - the dried blood on one end of it says so. And Jack has no qualms with beating something to death.]

Tell me yours.

[lineare]

Jean. Jean Grey.

[ She says quietly, keeping an eye out for whatever seems to be rustling in the dark. But then soon enough they hear it, a groaning half-crying sound, wretched and inhuman, something that was once a man writhes out, legs bound with barbed wire to his head, eyes gouged out and wrapped with more barbed wire. But what makes her choke is the sheer level of hate and cruelty, the sins of this man carved purposefully into his flesh, the fear and the awful act he's committed -- to a little girl, no less.

This is vengeance, and the thing screams with every movement, writhing in so much pain and anguish but all Jean feels is his creator's rage and fear and anger. All she tastes is the bitterness of hatred.

Her hand tightens on Jack's, but she's not afraid. Her eyes are dark. ] He's being punished. Do you want to see why?

[benumbing]

[Maybe there should be more terror, more revulsion at the sight of it. A better man might even feel pity for this thing that was once human, that still suffers. Jack feels slightly detached. Instead he wonders about who could do something like this, the talent they must have for torture. But there's something personal about it too, and it makes sense when she tells him.]

Show me.

[He's rarely shocked when it comes to violence, war has numbed him to that. He still remembers the things that Gath's sons promised to do to him. But it all pales in comparison to what this man has done, and his thoughts of killing it are abandoned. Jack won't be the one to put him out of his misery; let him suffer.]

[lineare]

[ There's everything personal about this, and she issues a quiet apology before she shows him what he asks -- images and feelings; the helpless terror of a lonely little girl assaulted by him, a victim of his perversions.

She shows Jack this man's secrets and how it's not the first time, the bloodthirsty intent of this torture. She lets him feel everything that she does, all secrets stripped bare and exposed before her eyes.

This is her gift and her curse, to know thoughts and secrets and endure everything that the people around her experience. She knows Jack's pain the same way she does Colin's because she feels all of it -- the overwhelming agony of it she hasn't yet learned to shut herself off from. Jack thinks of Gath's sons and she knows it; understands his hate and anger and fear, Jack's sense of justice and his pride.

The thing before them licks his lips and it makes her sick, and Jean finally says. ]

Let's go.