+ ENTRANCEWAY TEST DRIVE MEME +

[vitaelamorte]

Has this ever happened to you?!

You are a handsome and ambitious producer of creative content in search of new venues to showcase your staggering talents, you are scouting the vastly wide web for new collaborators, you are READY to take the next step on your artistic journey--

--AND WE HAVE JUST THE THING FOR YOU!!!



TEST YOUR SKILLS, TAKE YOUR SALAD, AND BRACE YOURSELF TO LAUGH IN PUBLIC FOR THE VISIONARY, THE INSECTARY, THE COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY EXTRAORDINARY

ENTRANCEWAY
TEST DRIVE MEME

►► Test your shiniest and brand newest muses! Bring an old voice and try Wonderland's setting and population on for size! See how that Mirror personality fits your character! Post a top level comment, tag around in other people's threads, enjoy yourself!

►► Thread out your character's arrival, let our past events inspire your scene, or write up literally any Wonderland-based scenario you feel like trying out!

►► If you want to take it a step further, check our NAVIGATION for all the game info you'll need, and our INPUT & INQUIRIES page for any missing pieces. If that's got you convinced, the pages for RESERVES and APPLICATIONS are right here!

►► Please only note that any threads made as part of the test drive meme are not game canon, and cannot be used for the activity check OR as samples for any future applications. Thank you for understanding!

AND THAT IS ALL, NOW GO PLAY IN THE jam jar SALAD BOWL, AND HAVE FUN!

Comments

[magisterium]

[Perhaps not everyone share his reverence, but surely some do, and Dorian may well be among them. He's one aisle down when he hears Nux's remark; the voice is unfamiliar to him, but the sentiment is one he can appreciate, and he marks his place in his own book with his index finger and tucks it under his arm before taking a few steps backwards, leaning back just enough to peer around the edge of the shelves and offer a careful smile.

The boy he sees is as unfamiliar as his voice, and Dorian isn't even sure he can say what he might be, but whatever the case, he has the mage's attention.]

All this and more, if you could believe it. I'm sure there's something they've missed adding to the collection, but I've yet to be disappointed. I see you've found one of the best things this mansion has to offer.

[He means the library, of course. But also quite possibly him.]

Find what you're looking for?

[kami_crazy]

<sub>[It's not just the paper history that has his attention, of course, but everything. To someone from the wasteland, Nux's unwashed body and self-inflicted scars traversing his lips and chest wouldn't stand out, because he, like most things in that scorching hell, is broken and dirty. But here, everything from the candle sconces down to people's shampooed hair are new and clean, gleaming like diamonds that have caught the light.

Beautiful.]</sub>

More? _{[As a matter of fact, Nux can't believe it. He takes the claim literally and is astonished by it.]} There's more?

<sub>[He'd been distracted by the buckles and decorative pieces on Dorian's robes (a far cry from the used, re-purposed quality of the pants War Boys tended to scrape together for themselves), but he now tears his eyes back up.

He's not shy about sharing his thoughts; a grin splits the remains of sand and chrome spray lingering near his mouth before he remembers the book under his arm, assuming that's what the man with the full head of (shiny) hair is referring to.]</sub>

Oh, this? I didn't mean to find it. It has a thing on it I saw outside. _{[He looks thoughtful then, returning to Dorian's earlier point.]} All these books are grand, but have you seen all the food? You could eat so much you wouldn't be hungry all day. You'd pop.

_{[A full stomach = unquestionably the best thing, short of guzzoline.]}

[magisterium]

There's always more.

[Of just about anything you could think of, really. The world, after all, was a very large place with countless possibilities within it, and this world in particular had already proven itself to be nearly infinite in some ways. More books? Certainly there were more.

He smiles back as he rounds the shelf and straightens up, curious as he looks Nux over, taking in each and every detail and filing them away-- whoever this young man is, he doesn't seem to be hostile, which puts Dorian somewhat at ease.]

I have-- the pantry never seems to run out, although the kitchen could do with its own staff.

[Having to prepare his own meals? Really.]

Is that a concern where you come from? Enough to eat?

[It wasn't until he left Tevinter that he really saw people wanting for much of anything. Tevinter had slaves, but by serving the families that owned them, many of them earned prestige and were able to care for their own families and provide them with comfortable lives. Few went hungry in Tevinter.]

[kami_crazy]

<sub>[Despite having never experienced the likes of his articulate words and eye-catching clothes, so far Dorian hasn't posed anything Nux can't at least somewhat grasp. He's proud of himself for not being completely blown over by the all possibilities this world has dumped in his lap.

But if there's one thing Nux has difficulty wrapping his head around, it's the concept of more. Confusion and incomprehension twist his expression.

There's never "more" when it comes to luxuries, it's always "less." Less and less every year. Less safe water, less days where Larry and Barry aren't choking the breath from him. Fail, get less. Disappoint, get less. Any kind of talk about any kind of kitchen with any kind of offerings for a single War Boy who'd traited Immortan Joe flies right over his head, staff to run it or no staff.

So normal is having nothing but what you earn or scrape for that Nux isn't sure what's being asked of him, the way Dorian words it. Like "more," "concern" implies an alternative, that War Boys worry about full bellies. They don't.]</sub>

Too much of anything makes you soft, that's what the Immortan says. _[Said.] He gives enough so you keep living, you take what you want from who you find. If you can stick 'em before they stick you. He never would've given this stuff away for free for just anyone to have unless you were one of his shiny Wives. I bet he didn't even have this much to give. There's nothing like this left.

[magisterium]

There's something to be said for that. I've seen great men ruined by excess.

[It's true anywhere, he imagines, that there can always be too much. Too much wealth, too much power, too much of anything that can change a man from one who once believed in reform, in a better Tevinter into one who cares only for his own gain and what he might earn and change for himself rather than those around him.

There's something odd about the way this boy speaks, about how little room for deviation there seems to be in that world view of his. Like it's fact, ironclad, like he's never known anything else, and Dorian knows there are people like that in Thedas, too, victims of circumstance who never even began to hope for anything better because they didn't think it existed, or if it did, it was beyond their reach.]

Where you're from-- what is it called?

[kami_crazy]

<sub>[Uncertainly, Nux nods along to the man, once again not entirely sure what to think of what Dorian's saying. Great men ruined by having too much? He's seen unworthy men ruined, but in Nux's mind, a great man is great because he can't be ruined. Great leaders can have what they want when they want it--as the victor, they take the spoils. It's nature. Isn't it?

But when he thinks the words over in a more literal sense, and... yeah, yeah! His nods gets more decisive until he's smiling and nodding at the sense it makes. Control access to basic resource, control the people under you. No excess, no weakness. Dorian looks like the type of guy with rich things, he'd know better than Nux.]</sub>

Yeah! Right! Too much of a good thing, like when too much nitro blows out your engine. Gotta keep 'em hungry, gotta keep 'em wanting more, people don't get lazy that way, keeps them working. That sounds like something he'd say, all right.

<sub>[It makes Nux's stomach flutter sadly to think he hadn't done right by the Immortan at the end, the greatest of all men, but he shakes off memory of the Immortan's dismissal (pah, mediocre!) still echoing in his ears.

Doesn't matter anymore, does it? Though this isn't the Valhalla at the end of the road he'd imagined, it's close, real close.]</sub>

Citadel. _{[This answer has no hesitation to it.]} Only place with clean water for miles around.

[magisterium]

He? The Immortan, you mean.

[The way Nux speaks of him has Dorian curious; it seems to be reverent, respectful, but there's something else there as well, isn't there? He can't quite put his finger on it.]

I'm afraid I don't recognize the title. Who is he? [And, more immediately:] I imagine clean water holds a great deal of importance if it's been in short supply. I suppose I'm fortunate to be able to say I've never experienced that.

[Not even during his stay in the barbaric south.]

[kami_crazy]

_{[He nods vigorously. Yes!]}

Immortan Joe! _{[But how to show? How to explain the name and the man attached to it?]} Ah... Uh.

<sub>[Stumped, Nux looks around them, thinking fast. A tangible explanation is better than words, but he has none. What can he do to make a picture of the godlike warlord who'd reigned over the Citadel longer than Nux can remember, the supposedly immortal figure leading the War Boys to their place in Valhalla?

An idea hits him. Except he does have proof! He has himself.]</sub>

--Oh!

_{[Brightening with the realization, he sets his book down, waving both hands to signal he has answer to the question, then turns around, the sweater on his back looking jarringly new and clean in contrast to the shaven head poking out of it. Pulling aside the hood, he reveals the back of his neck and the brand burned into it.]}

I can do you one better, I can show you. You wouldn't know it if you weren't brought up there--this is his mark. He owns it all, he owns everything. It's not so bad if you're in the Citadel. If you're out...

_{[If you're out, you don't share in Citadel's wealth, you find your own water and food, and you probably die as a wanderer or one of the sickly poor. Welcome to an actual barbarian society, Dorian.]}

You must come from a real special place.