DECEMBER TEST DRIVE

[nukeoleptic]

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

• Got a character you're thinking of reserving/apping this round? PUT THEM HERE! • Threads here can count as your third person sample! • Comment with your character's name and canon! • This is open to everyone! Also, test drivers can tag other test drivers. :) • Make up your own scenario or have them walk into all the doors or leave it blank for others to do it for you! Reserves are here, and open on November 24th at 12:01AM CST. Application information (including the list of pending apps) is here, and they open on December 1st at 12:01AM CST. OPTIONAL SCENARIO: After your character receives his or her bracelet and the run-down from the faceless maids in the castle, they walk out to find the city blanketed with snow and in the middle of what seems to be a snowball war organized by the Native children! Be careful on your way to your Welcome House: snowballs are flying, and these groups of giggling kids don't seem to care who gets caught in the crossfire. Make sure to have fun, and as always, feel free to hit the mods or players up with any questions you might have! ♥

Comments

[tonsofpun]

[Every time the march of the confused new people begins, Ellie saddles up the horse and spends all day riding around the castle grounds. She's not the praying sort, but she always hopes she'll find someone. Joel is the one who always comes to mind, the only one she can really be hopeful about, but more and more she's found that death and distance doesn't stop people from coming to Asgard.

So he hopes.

She hopes for a lot of people.

Today, she's brought as many spare gunnysacks as she could find in the citadel. They're not great as coats, but they'll keep out the worst of the chill until she can get people into the warm. The natives are eager enough to help, thank goodness.

When she spots the woman, she's standing at Callus' head, holding onto his bridle and handing a gunnysack to a very confused teenager -- and she doesn't immediately recognize her.]

Hey, you need a bla-

[The sack slips from her hand, and she gives a hasty grab for it, managing to avoid dumping it in the snow. She feels like she's seen a ghost.]

Tess?

Holy shit, Tess?!

[unsparing]

[Tess hears the horse's hooves against the packed snow crunching before she sees and even hears the girl. Although she doesn't immediately recognize Ellie by the voice alone, hearing the beginnings of her - was it an offer? - is enough to draw her attention completely forward.

And then she hears her name-- her name.]

...Ellie?

[This has gotta mean the girl didn't make it, she's dead, the infection had somehow gotten through the immunity in her system, gotten to her. Christ, there goes the only known possible cure for mankind. That means they had failed Marlene, everyone.]

Je-Jesus Christ--

[As cold as she's feeling, as frozen as her skin is right now, she doesn't move forward. If Ellie is looking at her like she's seen a ghost then Tess is mirroring the expression.]

--Joel?

[The name comes out on a croak, the hands curled over her biceps dig her dirty nails into her skin already thinking the worst.]

[tonsofpun]

[The happiness slips away as she realizes what Tess must be seeing, must be thinking. They're all dead. All of them. That her death was for nothing at all. Ellie shakes her head firmly and moves forward, flopping one of the sacks over Tess's shoulders. It's nice and warm from being laid across the horse.]

Fuck -- yeah, we're fine. We got away.

It's a really long fucking story.

[unsparing]

[Try as she might to stop the shaking that's now begun, the moment the sack is pulled around her Tess is breathing out a 'thanks' as she reaches with trembling fingers to grab it. She hunches her shoulders to pull it in closer so she's completely covered, her eyes not once leaving the young girl.]

Y-you got away?

[Damn this cold and making her stutter from the chattering.]

[tonsofpun]

Yeah. You -- you distracted them.

[The guilt is incredible. She could never justify leaving Tess behind, as fucked-up as the situation was, even if they felt terrible. Because they were there because of her. Tess died because she was keeping Ellie safe. If they hadn't been on the mission in the first place, none of it would have played out like that.

But it's never been something that she and Joel talked about.]

Like I said, it's a long fucking story. Here, let's -- let's go someplace warm first. I'll tell you everything.

[unsparing]

[Of course she distracted them. She remembers this even if death has made her mind vaguely hazy. What other choice does she have than to believe this girl and listen to this long story of hers?]

That'd be real nice.

[Whenever Ellie starts heading out to lead the way, Tess will follow.]

I'll be right behind you.

[tonsofpun]

You wanna ride?

[Ellie gestures to the huge, dark-brown horse, who noses curiously at her ponytail before reaching out to snuffle at Tess herself.]

Callus can carry us both, we'll be a lot warmer.