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

[runs]

Faster!

Sure, she keeps having to hurry further inside and even just staying on the seat is hard, but she's also sure that the faster it goes the more fun it will be.

[chalicejoker]

"You asked for it." Look, even though the merry-go-round is a little broken right now, Hajime can still turn that thing faster than a human might.

[runs]

She manages to stay on the merry-go-round for two more rounds and then starts slipping, too much of her body off the seat to pull herself back onto it.

Unless Hajime provides some help here, she'll be sent flying.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's going to provide help, albeit help in the form of catching a flying kitten. His reflexes are very good for a human's...and yet he's somehow surprisingly gentle.

[runs]

If she was at home, she would wonder if he has cyberware in him or is an adept, but they don't have that here.

Do they?

She sniffs at the hand that holds her. Maybe there is more information to be had in scent.

[chalicejoker]

Something about him smells a little off. Human for the most part, but there is something weird, possibly vaguely like the cyberware she's thinking of, hanging around him. He doesn't realize he's being sniffed. "You need to be more careful."

[runs]

That's something that people only say when they didn't do the thing themselves.

...Perhaps a higher quality of cyberware? The best that she's ever encountered, at least knowingly and with enough peace to sniff it, was betaware.

She wants to ask about but figures that she really shouldn't do that while her life is literally in his hands. You never know how people react. So she shuffles around a bit, getting ready to jump to the ground.

[chalicejoker]

"You still need to be careful." He sets the kitten down quickly enough, without her needing to jump. It's not that he's afraid of getting scratched, he's afraid of said scratch leading to her figuring out that his blood is a bright, inhuman green because he'd picked up a couple of glitches here and there.

[runs]

She hurries away from him and up a decorative element of the playground that probably pretends to be modern art in the daytime. Not an ideal place, but good enough - at least she's high up enough that their eyes are roughly level and she can survey most of the area. And if she were to not move, she would visually become a part of the weirdly shaped wood, dark form on dark form.

You too.

No matter how good your 'ware is. She tilts her head a bit. What is it?

[chalicejoker]

Well. That right there is an interesting turn of events. It's not one Hajime was expecting. His expression betrays nothing other than mild confusion. Time to see if he can pass as just a normal human. "I don't know what you're talking about."

[runs]

You aren't fully human.

It doesn't seem to be extreme - she has encountered people whose essence has fallen so low that you can barely speak of humans anymore, and that is hard to miss and doesn't require sniffing the person - but clear enough still for her to confidently state it.

[chalicejoker]

"What makes you say that?" He's very good at concealing his surprise. Probably a little too good. He just looks openly confused.

Just a normal human, nothing to see here, nothing to see.

[runs]

You smell like 'ware.

She gives him a long stare.

I'm a CAT. I smell such things.

[chalicejoker]

"...like what?" Well. This is a very unpleasant development. Hajime's trying to brush it off with polite confusion, but this is a potentially dangerous thing the talking cat is touching upon.

...though there was the matter of payment, and he supposes she still owes him something...he can always bargain for silence on the matter, once he figures out what, exactly, she's smelling.

[runs]

Like you have a lot of mechanical parts in you.

Some kind of technology, anyway, though she cannot quite put her finger on what. It's strange and very decidedly not organic.

[chalicejoker]

Well, shit. "I've got a knee replacement. Blew it out playing soccer when I was a teenager." No, he didn't. But he's going to keep right on lying.

[runs]

Your hand smells of mechanics.

She's fairly sure that it isn't only his hand, but it is clearly that too, so even if that wasn't a lie it certainly isn't the full truth.

[chalicejoker]

"...I was working on my motorcycle earlier. Must not have cleaned off as well as I thought." He will keep right on dancing around the issue if he has to.

Unless he decides to cash in on that debt...

[runs]

Could he please stop trying to pretend that the elephant in the room isn't there, that would be great.

Not that she's ever seen an elephant, at least not in real life, but that is precisely the saying that describes this best, in her opinion.

It's not a motorcycle kind of mechanics smell, and it's inside of you. I'm just a kitten, so you can stop lying to me.

[chalicejoker]

"You're just a talking kitten," Hajime points out, crossing his arms. "And I believe there's still the matter of payment for services rendered."

[runs]

Most people can't hear me.

He's going to tell her to stop asking, isn't he. On the one hand, that would be an easy out of all of this. On the other hand...

She would grin if cats did that. Instead, she just stretches slightly.

..."Stop asking" and "don't tell anyone else" are two things. Because she says so.

[chalicejoker]

That's good to know. "Guess I'm not 'most people,' then." Hajime doesn't look quite so amused at the cleverness there as the kitten probably is. "Don't tell anyone else is a very important one..."

[runs]

Then you can pick that one.

It'll just mean that she won't stop asking. Or following him, probably, because he has piqued her interest now and she has no work to do here, or anything else.

[chalicejoker]

"Alright, then." Hajime nods. "And if you do tell...I'll know." He's just going to let that ominously hang.

[runs]

I never break my word.

She sounds as offended as she feels at this. Breaking your word just makes you look unreliable and while she can't get jobs by herself yet, she'd rather establish a good name where she can.

Well, she probably should amend. Unless the other person breaks theirs first. But that is neither here nor there, in her opinion. If someone double-crosses you, it is only in your right to do the same to them and serve the dish with some retribution on top.