dankmemes | test drive meme #13

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 September 24th, and apps are open October 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: DON'T LOOK AT ME
[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 hop right on you and chow down. This time, the Door has brought in several Boos, from the Mario video game series.

These monsters can be menacing, but are also incredibly shy. When looking directly at them, they will cover their faces and fade into the background- however, when turning away from them, they advance on you until they're in the perfect spot to take a nice big bite. The only way to defeat them is to escape this part of the level- that is, run madly away and try to keep up eye contact while you do so. They may look cartoonish, but those ghost teeth can be sharp!]

SCENARIO TWO: YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU
[Hadriel is home to many things- temples, irate gods, angry citizens and... well, zombies, apparently. Beware as they start to walk/stagger/generally kind of shuffle around the streets of the city, since where there's one or two, there's usually a hundred more just waiting for the right moment to strike.

Zombies attack Hadriel by the dozen for this prompt, and nowhere in the city is technically safe from them! While they're not necessarily fast or intelligent, they have an advantage on you in that they have a lot more friends and they can't feel pain. So saddle up, bunker down, and try to survive the infestation!

This is a mini version of our Dead Men Walking event this month!]

R A G E

SCENARIO THREE: CAPTURE THE FLAG
[Hey, what's Hadriel without a few mind-numbingly stupid games to forget the fact that you're in a murdercave that routinely tries to scare the crap out of you while also maybe killing you every once in awhile? You're not quite sure who came up with this particular mind-numbingly stupid game, but you seem to be playing, so get your running shoes on and grab that inhaler!

This is a game of Capture the Flag, and thanks to Rage, you're really starting to feel that competitive spirit. You're going to win- you have to. So what if you incur a few fouls along the way?

There's a red team and a blue team for this prompt, with both teams trying to protect their corresponding flags. Try to strategize to take the other team's precious flag, chase someone from the opposing team down, or just go all out and full body tackle that poor guy who got a little too close to your territory- it's all on you!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. i can't believe i managed to wax rhapsodic about a fucking mario monster
note: this prompt contains oblique spoilers for The Witch, and there'll probably be more explicit mentions of the events near the end of the movie in future tags, so if you don't want that let me know in your subject header and i'll avoid spoilers.

[ There's a girl in the Colosseum! She's got fresh blood on her face and hands, spattered down the front of her unmistakably archaic dress and the apron attached to it, and a billhook in one fist, and she is staring at a Boo with the wide-set, unblinking gaze of a person who has recently Seen Some Shit. Her accent sounds strange, clearly British but with a pronunciation alien to any modern dialect, when she speaks quietly to herself. ]

What manner of creature...?

[ But does it matter, really? Regardless of the category, it is a devil for certain, because Thomasin knows where she is now. She is exactly where she belongs, damned soul that she is. She is in Hell. This is not how she has imagined it in her nightmares, nor how Father described it in his fiery readings of the Word, but is it not another sign of human folly to assume that the true torments of the pit would be revealed to any man in their lifetime?

She moves forward with slow, unsteady footsteps, watching the imp cover its face and knowing not what she will do or say when she reaches it. Her entire mind is fixed on what she thinks is the reality of her situation, of what she's just done and what horrors she has yet to face in consequence, and she doesn't notice even the slightest indication of any other monsters in the area. Of course there is one, it's flying at her back, and by the looks of her she's not durable enough to just walk off a bite -- bloody or not. Please... save her traumatized Puritan ass... or at least yell at her to run or something, that works too. ]

ii. no john thou art the demons

[ At this point, Thomasin has somehow managed to get the intro speech about what's going on and at least semi-accepted the concept that she has not, in fact, been cast into the deepest pits of Hell as punishment for her sins, so the desperate will to survive that's powered her through all the other horrors inflicted upon the farm has sparked back to life! On the other hand, there are now revenants on the loose, and all that separates them from her is a billhook, prayer to a God she no longer believes will hear her, and the upper body strength of a 16-year-old girl. It's a real benefits tradeoff.

She retreats to one of the houses, which initially she can't even identify as such -- the spires are vertiginous and far too terrifying to a girl for whom even the city streets of the 1630s are but a child's memory. It is not an operational house, which is probably good, because as soon as she gets her bearings inside the strange mound-shaped cottage she immediately starts moving its contents around. It seems the dead are not particularly quick, nor intelligent, but they make up for that in sheer force of numbers. The only way to avoid being overtaken, as unpleasantly reminiscent of her last terrible night in the stables as it is, is to barricade herself in. She can't find any boards, nor hammer and nails -- what she would give now for that stock of useless wood she had screamed at Father over -- but she does have her billhook, and she's busying herself moving furniture in front of windows and -- when the strange organic-looking material is thin enough to manage it -- hacking at pieces so she can maneuver it more easily. There used to be end tables in this house, freakish-looking and battered though they were. There are no end tables anymore. RIP.

She's finished blocking off the door to the deck and has started trying to find objects to place in front of the odd circular windows (this one shattered, making it the obvious priority) when Thomasin notices someone in the street she can only assume is among the living. Whether they're fleeing in terror, alone, or kicking zombie ass, the point is that they are a fellow survivor, beset by the same demons as her. She cannot simply close the door to such a person. I mean, she can, and she strongly considers it, but in the end the added manpower the two of them might have together, and her unacknowledged but crushing loneliness, outweigh self-preservation. ]

Speak, if thou livest! [ she shouts, dropping the table leg to brandish her weapon with both hands -- she knows making noise will alert the dead, if they're present in this scenario, but to open the door and make her voice heard would be more foolish still. ]

iii. wildcard

[ just hit me up, or pm the journal if you'd like to run something by me first! it's party time. ]

Edited 2016-09-20 20:03 (UTC)

[Ovelia has managed to keep ahead of the horde by virtue of her cleric magicks, but the charm will not last long. The voice, coming from one of the derelict buildings, is a godsend.]

Yes, I live! Where are you? Have you shelter?

[She hurries to the side of the street from which the call came, scanning the houses for a sign of one that might contain an ally.]

[ She shifts the billhook back to one hand so she can thrust one arm out and wave in signal. Her face comes into at least some measure of view, big-eyed and pale, when she leans forward to shout. ]

Hither! I'll unbar the door for thee.

[ That will be the crucial moment -- when she is letting down her own defenses and the girl at the door, no longer a moving target, is most vulnerable to the dead's predations. ]

Wast thou followed?

[Ovelia makes haste to the door.]

Yes, they are not far behind.

[She glances back anxiously at the shuffling monsters that are slowly pursuing her. Her dress and cloak will offer her little protection if they close the distance between them. Her voice shakes a little as she speaks up.]

Please, you must hurry.

[ So. Preston doesn't know what the hell these things are, but he's learned already - from the nice ghost teeth sized bite on his shoulder (which would have probably been worse if not for the fact that he wears a lot of layers, and the strap of his pack) that looking away is what sets them off.

Whatever they are, they're a pain in the ass. ]

Hey! Get behind something!

[ They don't die if they're shot, but they don't seem to like it - right now if he can so much as distract it enough for it to lose sight of it's prey, and have it come after him instead, that would do. There's a bang, stream of red light as he fires the laser musket, aiming for the little white ghost blob. ]

test drive meme #13

thomasin | the witch

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