checkyourself | THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH

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( admin ) test drive meme

THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH - APRIL

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

SO YOU WANT TO JOIN THE CREEPY HOTEL BRIGADE.

Well, welcome potential apper! Here we have the handy dandy test drive meme so you can get a feel for how your character might react to the game setting. This post can also be used to cultivate some of those required sample threads for the application.

Feel free to play any scenario you so please. However please note that TDM threads cannot be used for Activity Checks (for existing players) and will not be considered game canon unless transposed comment for comment into logs in checkingout. We also recommend avoiding playing the initial arrival, so that the intro log doesn't become repetitive and boring for you. Other than that, go wild.

Here's a few additional useful links:

PREMISE | THE HOTEL
TAKEN | RESERVES | APPLICATION

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

No time for losers, because we — have waffles and pancakes and crepes and delicate bowls of ripe bananas and juicy oranges. We have bacon and oatmeal and cereal and milk; we have coffee (that's really hot and will burn you quite spectacularly) and tea (that, on the other hand, is miserably cold and bland). And we have orange juice (that might just kill you)!

Basically, every component one needs to start the day off right. Which is good, because this is the only meal ever served in the hotel. So come one, come all — get it while it's hot and try to pick among seats amidst the crowded circular tables, or stand along the wall. Bemoan the lack of hashbrowns or fight over the last fork. Mix, mingle. Have "fun".

DON'T YOU LOVE MY TASTE IN MUSIC.

What starts as soft, subtle musical notes wafting out of unseen speakers?

Yeah, that quickly manifests into blaring, loud, aggressively high pitched notes — so distorted, and reverberating so magnificently in the main lobby that even those impenetrable windows rattle in their frames.

And what's more, there doesn't seem to be an off switch anywhere in sight. Good luck finding one.

GOING DOWN.

Right by the stairwell in the lobby is an old timey elevator, the sort that really ought to be manned by staff to insure that it's in decent working condition and won't kill you. But it's usually not. And usually doesn't run.

But today, your ears are treated to an oh-so pleasant ding, and the doors will slide open, offering a ride to the floor of your choosing. Finally, no more calf workouts on the stairs, right?

...well, you probably should have taken the stairs, because three seconds in the entire carriage shudders, screeches to a halt, and refuses to move.

Then the lights begin to flicker.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.

Don't see a scenario that appeals to you here? Make up your own. Get crazy with it! Good luck getting outside.

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Option 1

[Alec is used to weird meals. He lives with a warlock who he's had to slowly break of the habit of stealing whatever tasty food or drink that catches his fancy. He's used to food appearing and disappearing and beverages that stay hot or cold for longer than they should.

But this...

He stares morosely at his cup of tea, wishing that the coffee he'd originally gotten was cool enough to drink. He's usually not picky about what he eats but still... Picking up his fork, he pokes at the pancakes in front of him, unsure if he should actually try eating them.]

Option 3

[Why couldn't elevators work properly? Even the one in the Institute worked... most of the time. It was slow and obnoxious but it was functional. Too bad this one wasn't the same.

When the carriage shudders, Alec reaches for the wall to steady himself, staring at the door while he tries not to think of what could happen if the car suddenly drops. At least the breaks seem to be holding. Cursing softly as the lights dim, he moves so that his back is in the corner so he doesn't accidentally step on the other passenger.]

Does this normally happen?

Edited 2015-03-28 03:28 (UTC)

[Zhaneel had no idea how the elevator worked, and had stepped fully into it and hugged the wall almost immediately after. Having come from a world where technology wasn't a thing was bad enough... having been forcibly shape changed from a gryphon to a human had been a whole different problem. It had taken all her focus to find balance long enough to stumble out of her room, golden eyes wide and breaths coming in quick gasps as she tried so hard not to panic.

It had taken her another half hour to shrug into the thigh length oversized tunic she was wearing now, though it hung dangerously off one shoulder as if threatening to slip from her slim for at any moment. Her feet wear bare and her hip length hair hung loose and tangled as she clutched almost desperately at the elevator railing.

She hadn't expected anyone else to step into the elevator, but had rather sought it out as a sort of cave to hide in. When the doors closed after Alec's arrival, she barely kept from screaming. When the elevator suddenly lurched to a grinding halt, her panic began to kick in wholly and suffocatingly so. Wide, fear filled eyes dart toward Alec as he shifts and speaks, turning his attention to her for the first time.

Is your fellow passenger looking a bit out of sorts, Alec?

She swallows, knuckles white from clutching the elevator bar so tightly and almost savagely shakes her head.]

I... I don't know... [Her voice is tight and strained and she's about ten seconds away from slipping into overwhelmed hysterics.]

[As soon as Alec sees the other passenger's distress, his annoyance disappears. He isn't afraid of enclosed spaces, but he knows that it's a common phobia. And, there might be more to her fear than what most would expect.

Realizing how frightened she'd been when she saw him, he kept his hands away from his body, making it obvious that he didn't mean any harm. Most people didn't give him a second look but if she was some kind of Downworlder, she might think he's going to hurt her.]

It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you.

[He keeps his voice soft and steady like he would while talking to his siblings after they'd had a nightmare.]

We'll figure out how to get out of here and then we'll both be alright.

[It isn't the enclosed spaces, although if she were in her natural form the elevator would feel far more like a cage and be causing a whole different series of problems. Zhaneel's golden eyes aren't human by any degree, not with that color, but they focus on Alec and hold firm there. She is trembling hard enough that her teeth chatter, though it has nothing to do with her state of undress. Her nostrils flare much like a spoked horse as he opens his hands to offer no threat and she makes a choked sound in the back of her throat.]

Where... Where is this? [Her gaze darts around the elevator and back to Alec as he speaks again. She leans back against the wall and her knees finally give out, spilling her in an ungainly heap into the floor of the elevator. She gasps as the hits her bare knees, hands pressed against the metal beneath them.]

I... I don't belong here... [She shudders and hitches a sob, tears spilling unbidden down her cheeks. She lifts one trembling hand to touch her face, pulling it back to stare at it. She has never had tear ducts before and it is... strange.] What has happened to me?

[She has quieted rather abruptly, her voice colored with a mixture of horror and shock. Her golden gaze turns up to Alec once more, locking onto him as a sort of anchor in whatever madness has stolen over her.

How was this done??

[The eyes capture his attention, automatically reminding him of someone else except those eyes are gold-green and like a cat's. Pushing aside the pang that accompanies the thought, he focuses on trying to reassure her. Warlock, maybe, with eyes that color.

Which probably made him being the one stuck in the elevator with her even worse. Hopefully she didn't know the horror stories about his ancestors. When she falls, he automatically reaches for her, then thinks better of it, afraid she might misinterpret the movement and attack.]

I'm not sure where we are. I just arrived.

[Moving slowly, he kneels down beside her, not wanting to frighten her more by towering over her.]

What do you remember? That might help us figure out what happened.

[Reaching out for her hand, he pauses, not touching so that she can decide if she wants to take his hand.]

I promise, I'll do everything I can to help.

[There were more than enough horrors in Zhaneel's own life to distract her from whatever horrid Alec might think would bother her. Her entire life had been in the service of the Sixth Wing of Urtho's army and serving under the Mage of Silence had held its own difficulties and pressures.

When Alec says he doesn't know where they are either, she searches his face for any hint of a lie. However, as he moves to kneel next to her, she believes that he is as lost as she is in this.

She sucks in a steadying breath as he asks what she remembers, her brows drawing together. It's his next words and the gentle, steadying move he makes toward her that draws her attention. His hand is extended toward her, but he maintains a bit of a distance as if letting her decide to accept or not.

She looks from his offered hand to his gaze again before exhaling shakily. She extends her own hand, but pauses just before her fingertips brush his skin, gaze drifting down to study the unfamiliar form of her hand.]

I was flying an obstacle course... [Her hand begins to tremble again as she looks at it and she exhales and shakes her head, hair falling like a curtain around her face. Her gaze darts back to Alec's, fearful and confused and she reaches for his proffered hand with both of her own, grabbing and squeezing it.]

I... T-this... This is not who I am... I am not human... I've never worn this form...

[Thankfully, this is something he's had to do before. He'd had to convince Downworlders that he meant them no harm when there were so many stories of Shadowhunters hurting those who were different simply because they existed. But he isn't like that and, honestly, he is one of the ones who is different that some of his kin hated so he could understand her fears.

He can be patient and wait for her to accept that he isn't going to harm her.

The place that they're in, wherever that might be, and whoever brought them there might try to hurt them, but he would do everything he could to keep her safe.]

You were flying...

[At first he assumes a plane then she says 'this form' and his gaze automatically flickers to her shoulder, trying to see her wings. His stomach twists when Alec realizes there's no sign of them. He keeps his expression steady despite the anger that starts to creep through his thoughts when he realizes what might have happened. He's seen transformations before, even ones done against a person's will, but he'd never seen someone so confused and frightened by it.

Gently squeezing her hand, he speaks when he knows his voice will sound calm instead of hinting at the anger he feels toward whoever had hurt her in such a way.]

I'm sorry. If I had magic, I would try to change you back. [Why couldn't Magnus be here? He'd have an idea of what might have caused this.] But I will help you. We'll figure out where we are and how this happened. We'll find someone who can change you back.

[If Zhaneel could read his thoughts, she'd at least try to staunch the confusion, but in the end he is closer to the truth of actuality than he might realize. She was not a Nephilim, nor had she been born even remotely humanoid, but the loss of who and what she was was no less a tragedy for it.

She clutches his hand in both of hers, finding a grounding in both his presense and offer of comfort. Zhaneel was not accustomed to being comforted, having lived the entirety of her life under the abusive treatment of her Wing leader and Wing mates. She'd grown thinking that she was a cull among her kind, misborn and malformed because she had evolved into something new.

When Alec speaks, her attention refocuses on him once more. She is doing her best to calm down, but she's never considered that something like this would be possible. She'd been pulled someplace she knew nothing of, but that was strange and advanced. The feeling of magic had all but been snuffed around her and she'd been ripped from her own body and put into one wholly unfamiliar. In truth, she had no way of knowing that Alec was not one of Ma'ar's Mages or another that was responsible for any of this.

She swallows thickly, hunched into as small a form as she can make herself. She shakes her head at the mention of magic, speaking softly in her lilting tone.]

There doesn't feel to be any magic here... Muted and far away... [And then, because she's panicked and scared, she says the next by mind voice. Unaware she's done so, there's no knowing if he'll hear her or be able to respond.] :: Can't hear anyone... Can't reach Amberdrake or Vikteran or Father... I don't feel their magic anymore... I don't feel the magic of the land...:: [It was something as a species the gryphons were tied to. But this place was like a black hole and there was no trace of its own magic, either.

She had been speaking softly, but her attention holds on Alec.] Do you believe there are others here? Others that appeared in this place? [A fleeting chance that she might see a familiar face?]

[Part of Alec is furious that someone would do such a thing. He's seen horrors before, people twisted into some perversion of themselves and he had raged over that. But those individuals hadn't really known what had happened to them. They hadn't been changed and left to the fear and grief that such a change would cause.

That anger will be dealt with eventually, hopefully aimed at whoever had hurt her, but for now he keeps steady and hides it away. It won't help either one of them now. He has to be supportive and calm for her. If he knew her better, he'd pull her into a hug but that gesture might be dangerous since she might misinterpret his intentions.]

There has to be magic here. How else could they bring us here?

[What she says using her mind voice isn't picked up by Alec. His runes and training usually can keep others out of his thoughts.]

I've seen other people here. Some of them were probably brought here the same way we were. And I'm sure they're going to want to find ways to go home too.

Continued over here!

Edited 2015-04-08 15:44 (UTC)

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THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH - APRIL

Alec Lightwood | The Mortal Instruments - Options 1 and Option 3

Option 3 - Have you ever talked to a gryphon, Alec? How about a panicked gryphon-turned-human?

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Oh, I hope you're considering apping him! I'm canon blind, but he's lovely!!

Thank you! I just put his app in today

8D