TEST DRIVE 01

[modmachine]

Test Drive meme Welcome to the first Test Drive for Hex! Unlike most test drives, the scenarios included here also feature things that you can investigate with mod interaction. If at any point in your test thread, your character(s) want to investigate something further, please put a "HEY MODS" in your subject line to make it easy to find. Don't feel limited to the scenarios presented - make up your own prompts as much as you want! Reserves will open on the 7th and Applications on the 15th. scenario one - the tree In a grassy square in the Central District, wedged in between dorm halls, there is a tree. Far wider than it is tall, its leaves are just beginning to turn from yellow to orange, with a few green stragglers near the top and a growing carpet on the grass beneath it. At one end of the tree's reach, there is a picnic table, the sort with benches built in to either side. Anywhere under the boughs, a distinct ticking, like the sound of a clock, can be heard. Moving about makes it clear that the sound is loudest nearest the trunk. Numerous small gears stick out of twists between branches, though they do not appear to move to the naked eye. Someone has hung a string of orange lights in the branches for Halloween, along with some cotton spiderweb. No matter how closely you look, there doesn't seem to be an end where the lights plug in to anything. Otherwise, there is nothing unusual about the decorations. In the center of the table, half-covered by leaves, there is an iron plaque that has not been particularly well-treated for rust. Some of the writing on it is almost legible. It is chill to the touch. Someone's carved their initials and a date into the end of one bench - scenario two - the wrecking yard Abandoned vehicles are by no means an unusual sight in the Sixth District. Abandoned buses are slightly more unusual. This particular bus has boarded up windows, a black light string hanging over the windshield, and the words HAUNTED HOUSE written along the side, where the old inoffensive public-transit advertisements have been painted over. The front door serves as the entrance; the back leads into the wrecking yard and the haunted "house" proper. A girl in her late teens in slightly unsettling gothic lolita sits in a cheap folding chair around the front of the bus. She doesn't charge admission, though there is a candy bowl labeled for Donations on the card table next to her with a few bills and some change in it, in the center of a group of candles that burn in skull holders. She reminds everyone who passes her to please not touch the actors or props inside. Occasionally, mist from a smoke machine on the other side of the wooden fence billows around her ankles, almost seeming to form caressing fingers running down her legs. Across the street from her, two men sit in a beaten up old pickup truck, the much taller man smoking cigarettes with the windows open. The shorter man fidgets almost uncontrollably, constantly glancing in the direction of the girl and her bus. Their voices aren't loud enough to hear distinctly from the haunted house side of the street, but the woman at the bus entrance shoots them occasional looks none-the-less, alternating between pleased smiles and blank stares. Painted along the sides of the truckbed, in much dirtier letters than those of the haunted house, is the phrase NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH. scenario three - the party downtown In a bar downtown, it's not much different from any other night of clubbing, except that everyone is wearing masks. Ranging from the elegant custom work of a nearby boutique (conveniently open even after sundown tonight, if you need to pick one up) to cheap colored paper held on with elastic handed out at the door of the bar, masks are the must-have accessory tonight. Indeed, many of the parties won't let you in if you don't have one. Those paying careful attention might notice little dots of red on the necks of some of the partiers, especially those who seem a bit pale and have called off drinking for the night. Aside from that, though, it doesn't seem like anyone's really getting hurt; it's just a fun time for everyone. Except for the poor guy who made the mistake of wearing an owl mask and yellow contacts, anyway. Just within hearing range of the beating bass of the clubs, a young woman in a red jacket holds a mask in her hands, turning it over and sometimes holding it to her face to look at in a window reflection. The long face of it calls to mind some kind of black dog, perhaps a Doberman or German Shepherd. She isn't dressed at all for an evening at the clubs, and has a canvas bag slung over her shoulder with the shape of heavy books straining the fabric at the bottom. scenario four - the playground Not everyone seems to be getting into the spirit. A playground near the center of the city has precious few decorations - save for a spiderweb on one of the swingsets that seems to be natural, not man-made. A pumpkin or two have been left near the edges, but they're all smashed, the orange guts running along in a streak that seems to blend into a thin line surrounding the entire perimeter. The see-saw looks like the board's been freshly painted, but otherwise all of the equipment looks almost lonely and old. The rust on the metal stains everything an orange-red, and the slide in particular seems the worst hit. Still, everything is at least standing, and those who attempt to play on it will find it sturdy and warm in the cool night. ... Except for the merry go round. That one seems to be bent, as if someone very heavy sat on the edge. It still turns, but it wobbles dramatically, with horrible squeaking noises. Still, it's usable, for anyone who would like to play.

MADE BY TESSISAMESS

Comments

[modmachine]

There doesn't seem to be anyone around. The center pole looks... like a pole. But it seems that whatever dented the thing also knocked it around a bit, as some of the metal connecting it to the rest of the merry go round is a bit squished.

[chalicejoker]

Seems to be a simple enough fix, at least to a demon. Hajime will try to pop the metal back into shape--repairing things is a new thing to a Destroyer, but he's grown fond of the small human children who would try to play on this thing--and regardless of whether or not it works, set about looking for the source of this damage. Surely it's left behind other traces of its passing.

[modmachine]

Congratulations, Hajime. You have popped the center pole back. It's still going to squeak a bit because of rust, but at least it's less likely to wobble. ... Unless he takes care of whatever that big dent where a child would sit, too.

Looking around, there doesn't seem to be anything directly related, but the tree closest to the merry go round has a few yellow threads caught in the bark, like someone was leaning up against it.

[chalicejoker]

...yeah, he'll take care of that dent, even as he wonders about his priorities these days.

The threads on the tree catch his attention. He'll tug at one of them. It could be something entirely unrelated, but it's all he's got at the moment.

[modmachine]

We're sure the children will be thankful for your thoughtfulness.

They appear to be from some kind of cheap shirt. The material's rough, some sort of cotton, probably. Or whatever cheap blend people use nowadays. At the very least, it was probably some teenager, judging by the height of where they got caught.

[chalicejoker]

Time to go hunting for teenagers in yellow shirts, then. Teenagers in yellow shirts who are capable of bending the hell out of a metal merry-go-round...Hajime's night just got a bit more interesting. He'll leave the playground, keeping an eye out for anyone wearing yellow.

[modmachine]

Well, there's a bunch of them. Some of them are milling around various stores nearby, a few are wandering down the street, and then there's the ones in cars. None of them look particularly suspicious, but then again it's a fairly wide category.

[chalicejoker]

A normal human visual check isn't really turning up much information, but perhaps if Hajime stretches some more demonic senses...

[modmachine]

He can do that.

But apparently fortune is not with the demon today, because the hiding one got a crit hide roll he can't seem to sense anything unusual right now. No more unusual than the area tends to be, at least.

[chalicejoker]

That's frustrating. Very frustrating. Could it have been another demon? Worse, an angel? He's proud enough to believe that only another demon or an angel would be powerful enough to escape his notice. He's going to try looking again, though this time, it's with a sense that he should find what this is before it finds him.

[modmachine]

... Nope, doesn't feel like a demon or an angel around here. There does seem to be a young man coming out of a coffee shop with a yellow shirt on who's got a little bit of dirt on his pants.

He could just be messy, though.

[chalicejoker]

It's a better lead than anything else he's had yet. Hajime will just follow along for a bit, to see if anything else strange happens.

[modmachine]

The young man is super suspicious. So suspiciously does he drink his coffee and head towards the residential district. That frappe is clearly threatening you, Hajime.

[chalicejoker]

Excellent, he gets to stalk a hipster. There is no enthusiasm at all for the task. He's about to give up and go try to to do something productive for a change, like take out the garbage in his apartment.

[modmachine]

He would be offended by this assessment, but he doesn't know you're there. However, Hajime will be able to spot some paint and metal chips on his pants and a frayed spot on his shirt. The paint is the same color of the merry go round.

[chalicejoker]

Now that is promising. Creeper's gonna creep Hajime's going to continue following the guy, as well as to try to see if he can sense some kind of power here.

[modmachine]

There's definitely something, but it's not giving off something obvious. By all outside appearances, he's a normal human teenager.

But he keeps walking, and as he gets to a less populated area he turns and looks over his shoulder, frowning, before going onwards.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime tries his hardest not to look like a suspicious man in a trenchcoat following the teenager without actually resorting to an Embed or an Exploit. It's fortunate that he's got his human expression carefully schooled into one of boredom and not of the focused suspicion he's actually feeling.

He'll continue following.

[modmachine]

The boy speeds up, heading towards the poorer area of the district. He doesn't look like he belongs there based on his clothes, but he does know that there are people who don't like going there.

If Hajime counts as a 'people'.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime would be fairly offended at not being thought a 'people,' really. He makes sure his expression carries with it a bit of cautious uncertainty as he starts looking back and forth between his phone and the surroundings. He's not following the boy, of course not, he's trying to find some completely unrelated thing. Not a threat.

[modmachine]

Of course. The boy does look nervous, though. He doesn't seem convinced, and he darts into an abandoned building, shoving the door open in a groan of rusted metal. The door closes behind him, and then there's silence.

This is probably not a place hipsters should be, but the hipster's freaked out.

[chalicejoker]

Stupid hipster. Hajime follows, albeit in a much calmer fashion. He is an investigative photojournalist, if anyone comes along asking questions.

Granted, the phone is far less convincing in that regard than his actual camera, but at least it's a decent phone.