undyingcourt | Test Drive Meme

Entry tags:

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

DEC TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to the Undying Court Test Drive Meme! This post will allow players to test drive their AU characters in the setting, as well as meet fresh faces or even connect with those they have preexisting CR with. As with anything involved in the setting, this post will likely contain: violence, enthrallment, torture, and sexual content.

Regarding continuity, all TDM threads can be taken as in-game canon if desired. Please keep in mind that the game proper will begin in mid December, in the Winter Season, so Students/Novices should create their prompts under the assumption that the TDM takes place during the season prior to the one they will be apping as. This means that students planning to app as first season novices will be visiting Castle Courtsheart prior to their Beginning. In other words, if you plan to app a student as a second season, the TDM will take place during their first, and so on.

Feel free to brush up on the Premise, Vampire Powers, and head over to the FAQ/Game Info page if you have any questions!

Make sure you are aware of the Rules when posting your top-level. (Content warnings are always welcome!)
Please format your Top-level in this format: Character Name (AU Name if different) | Canon | Teacher/Student | Court
As a reminder, a Test Drive sample is required in order to app.
If you have any questions specific to the TDM, ask them in the Questions thread below!

Top-Level Directory:

Chat with NPC: Revar
Ace Attorney - Apollo Justice (Student)
Alice in the Country of Hearts - Alice Liddell (Student)
Attack On Titan - Erwin Smith (Teacher)
Baldur's Gate 3 - Astarion (Teacher)
Baldur's Gate 3 - Halsin (Teacher)
Baldur's Gate 3 - Raphael (Teacher)
Batman - Bruce Wayne (Teacher)
Bridgerton (Netflix) - Anthony Bridgerton (Student)
Castlevania - Soma Cruz (Student)
Castlevania: Nocturne - Maria Renard (Student)
Cosmo Warrior Zero - Harlock (Student)
Critical Role - Percy DeRolo (Teacher)
Daria - Daria Morgendorffer (Teacher)
Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha XIV (Student)
Dragon Age - Fenris (Teacher)
D&D: Honor Amongst Thieves - Edgin Darvis (Teacher)
D&D: Honor Amongst Thieves - Xenk Yendar (Teacher)
Ensemble STars!! - Mayoi Ayase (Student)
Fate/Zero - Kariya Matou (Kariya Makiri) (Student)
FE: Three Houses - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Student)
FE: Three Houses - Hilda Goneril (Student)
FE: Three Houses - Lorenz Hellman Gloucester (Student)
FE: Three Houses - Marianne von Edmund (Student)
FE: Three Houses - Sylvain Gautier (Student)
Final Fantasy XIV - Estinien Varlineau (Teacher)
Frozen - Prince Hans (Student)
Genshin Impact - Diluc Ragnvindr (Teacher)
Genshin Impact - Tighnari (Teacher)
Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name - Conrad Achenleck (Teacher)
Hannibal (NBC) - Will Graham (Teacher)
Jujutsu Kaisen - Gojo Satoru (Teacher)
Jujutsu Kaisen - Toji Zen'in (Teacher)
Lucifer (Netflix) - Lucifer Morningstar (Teacher)
MCU - Loki Laufeyson (Teacher)
Original - Aurinn Laurentius (Student)
Original - Bellatrix Bakhar (Student)
Original - Christine Delacroix (Teacher)
Original - Hanako 'Rosalina' Nurumi (Teacher)
Original - Jisu (Eden Woods) (Student)
Original - Karma D'Auvergn (Teacher)
Our Flag Means Death - Edward Teach (Teacher)
Our Flag Means Death - Izzy Hands (Student)
Persona 3 Portable - Kotone Shiomi (Student)
Persona 5 R - Goro Akechi (Student)
Persona 5 - Haru Okumura (Student)
Persona 5 - Ren Amamiya (Student)
Pride and Prejudice - Elizabeth Bennet (Student)
Return to Labrynth - Sarah Williams (Teacher)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Snow White (Student)
Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard (Teacher)
Star Trek: AOS - James T. Kirk (Student)
Star Wars - Darth Vader (Teacher)
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - Trilla Suduri (Student)
The Adventure Zone: Balance - Kravitz (Teacher)
The Adventure Zone: Balance - Lydia (Teacher)
The Adventure Zone: Graduation - Fitzroy Maplecourt (Student)

NEW ARRIVALS

New arrivals will be starting their first season in the winter, but they're welcomed to the castle early, under the watchful eyes of the Silver Court. Upon arrival, they will be shown to a room by a human whose eyes glow softly from within, with vacant smiles. Thralls. There, the human thralls will draw them a bath and bring them new clothes to wear to their first meeting. These are rich, expensive things made of high quality fabric. Whether it's a silk dress and a heavy velvet cowl, or a fine pants and a vest made from a brocade, the servants will provide. The new initiate's old clothes will be burned after, in a symbol of the life they are leaving behind. If they are hungry, they will be provided food. If they need anything at all, they need only ask their new servants.

Later that night they are taken to a grand hall, with high arched ceilings and candles burning in chandeliers. There are figures painted overhead, beautiful and entwined. Some have their eyes are colored to match the courts, others are gracefully placed in their death, with blood dripping from necks and wrists.

Balconies line the hall behind a forest of pillars, and vampires all watch as the group walk through (some more hungrily than others).

"Welcome to your first undying season, initiates," a pale, silver-haired vampire calls. They have silver eyes are clad in silver robes, but command the attention of everyone in attendance. They have a beauty that seems neither male nor female. They are standing at the center of a wide semi-circle of other vampires, "As the Silver Court's acting voice at this end of the Autumn season, allow me to introduce you to the Houses that will be your new homes."

The vampire, Revar, gives the newcomers an overview of all of the courts—Blue, Red, Gold, Silver, and Black—and then invites those already claimed by their Courts to join the vampires who will be their Makers.

Revar offers the Foundlings who are left a gentle, knowing smile, and then allows them to be chosen. They are like the last sheep left at the auction, and the vampires who take them may not be the enthused about it. Nevertheless, Revar waits patiently until all have found a maker.

Now that they are paired up it is expected—indeed, required—that the initiate drink from their maker. That is their Beginning. Only once they have truly begun can they can be considered novices.

AUTUMN NOX

Silver Court is in season and for the Autumn Nox it holds a large symposium, inviting all the best vampire minds from around lands nearby and far. The whole castle is abuzz with new activity. The stables are packed full of horses, carriages litter the grounds, but somehow the castle has enough rooms to house all the new arrivals.

Novices will find that some of these vampires have not seen a human-novice in a very, very long time. These vampires might see the human-novices more like specimens, curious about their every move. They won't bite, but novices may find themselves observed as they wander the castle and its grounds.

The symposium itself is open to anyone at the castle. Scholars can present on any topic at all. Novices will find that these range from the incredibly mundane (you've always wanted to attend a history of bottom-feeding river fish, haven't you?) to the truly fascinating (new insights into how vampire hearts work) to the downright strange (the symposium has a range of lectures very close to dawn about the sharing of vampire...fluids). Seasoned novices with their own Autumn classes to attend are expected to keep up with their studies, but some teachers may let them out of a session to attend the lectures and workshops of the symposium.

The Silver Court vampires are incredibly busy between running the symposium and trying to help the new novices get settled in. They may need some volunteers to lend a hand with setting up rooms or helping scholars find their way around. In fact, volunteers might find themselves leading scholars down to the second kitchen for a bite to eat, a strong reminder that even these demure learners are still monsters who must drink blood.

PUMPKINS-GONE-WILD

The symposium isn't all that the autumn season brings. The Silver Court’s talents are on display in other ways—sometimes not in ways another had particularly hoped. An overly zealous youngblood in the Silver Court tried to grow a few extra pumpkins for the occasion and ended up with a few too many! The pumpkin vines break out of the green house and start sprouting pumpkins everywhere. These are no ordinary pumpkins, they will sprout and grow and become fully formed in the course of a night. Better keep an eye out for those vines or else your room might become full of pumpkins! Luckily, the pumpkins aren’t rotting any time soon (they’ll last until winter, or so the Silver Court vampires are saying), but it can be pretty inconvenient for them to grow everywhere. Start cutting those vines to pieces, and hope they don’t try to entangle you in the process.

LIBRARY CLEAN-UP

Meanwhile, with all the scholars in town are making a mess of the library, much to the Silver Court vampire’s dismay. Books are being checked out and not checked back in, passed around from scholar to scholar. You might find those lost books just about anywhere. Who was reading in a tree? Anyone who collects the books and returns them to the library is sure to get a little bit of favor with the librarians, and it’s never a bad thing to have a bit of an in with a Court. If you’re worried about failing Silver Court, it’s time to get searching! Although how you’re going to convince a 300 year old vampire that time is not fake and that deadlines are real (and in fact were two days ago) is anyone’s guess.

UNETHICAL EXPRIMENTS

[CW: Torture, experiments]

Those who venture towards the basement might hear something a little different than normal. The thralls who spend their time down there are normally quiet, commanded to keep silent and pleasant for the vampires they serve. But with the arrival of the new scholars comes disquieting, inhuman screams from the darker reaches of the basement. Novices trying to catch a glimpse will be chased away, but teachers might be invited to watch as these vampires experiment on one another, all in the name of science. What’s a little torture, when you’re undying?

Thanks for joining us for our first TDM! For any questions regarding the TDM prompts, please comment in the thread below. For general game questions, please check the FAQ/Game Info. Remember that the game proper will begin mid December, in the Winter Season, so Students/Novices should create their prompts under the assumption that the TDM takes place during the season prior to the one they will be apping as.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When in lecture mode Will was pretty conscious of making sure there were opportunities for people to ask him questions. Once the lecture was over, he tended to revert back to his awkwardturtleinhisshell persona. Conrad received a quick glance, before the teacher looked down at the small handful of notes he'd brought, and when he spoke it was down towards the desk.

"Thank you," he said softly to acknowledge the compliment even if it made his skin crawl. He recognized that his aversion to small talk was his problem, not Conrad's. He did shoot the man a quick side glance when Conrad continued and one corner of his mouth quirked upwards.

"Is that a polite way of saying; 'too much shock value'?"

Conrad can be a little awkward, himself. And too often in social situations, he's not quite sure what to do with his hands. So he twines his fingers for a moment before stopping himself and crossing his arms across his chest.

"Well, no..." Conrad corrects him quickly but then continues after thinking about it for another second or two. "I mean. Maybe? I don't know. Perhaps I should just say you were very thorough. I just never even thought much on doing the whole... creeping, and pouncing thing." He was supposed to be seductive and beguiling, after all. Or that was what he was taught. It sounded simple enough, being a bloodthirsty stalker, but it'd also take some finesse and practice. Not that Conrad would want to get his meals that way, but still... The idea tumbled around in his head.

"Hunting is an unpredictable art," Will said with a small nod. "We might be the predators, but the dance is dictated by the prey. You have to be prepared to match their lead."

Sometimes that meant beguiling, and coaxing. Sometimes it meant hiding in the shadows and pouncing.

Eyes that never could decide if they were blue, green or grey, settled for a long ninety seconds on Conrad's face, before Will looked back down at his papers.

"You like to gently request, from a cooperative thrall." His words start out as a statement, but at the very end he remembers to change his tone to that of a question. For the sake of politeness.

"Hmm-mm, sure, I suppose it is," he says with a nod as if he really knows what he's talking about. "It makes sense to go with whatever is easiest, anyway..."

Speaking of, was it that obvious that Conrad took the easy way out when it came to feeding himself? Conrad doesn't match Will's gaze for long, he dips his chin a bit to glance down at his chest and he lightly shifts where he stands. It's not like Conrad is ashamed, exactly, but maybe it's a tad embarrassing if he has to admit he never hunts.

"Yes. It's convenient. It saves time when there's always work to be done." He pauses then, looking back to Will curiously. "You don't? Make requests, I mean...?" What does he do, then? It's a rather personal question for one vampire to ask another, but Will did bring it up. And Conrad has always assumed the teachers just snacked on the thralls, they're there and willing.

Will's eyebrows lifted a little as he was given reason to suspect that Conrad had never heard, even the whispers, about Will's first years as a novice. At this point Will simply assumed everybody knew, or at least believed they knew, about his body count.

Setting aside his initial surprise he sidestepped the question. "The thralls rarely make me ask," was the response he gave. Honest, but not a real answer to Conrad's question; if Conrad realized the fact. Except Will immediately turned back to questions of his own, as a way to avoid any further pokes into his habits.

"Do you not practice though?" He glanced up quickly, expression genuinely curious. "If you have the thralls to help satisfy the acute ache of hunger, why not practice Red Court techniques, when you don't absolutely have to achieve a result?"

Conrad isn't one to pay too much attention to rumors or gossip or whatever. Plus he has his own issues to deal with. He'd heard some tall tales about him, like he must have cheated or bribed someone to get in the Red Court, as he knew all to well that there were other vampires of his type who didn't think he belonged where he is now.

He doesn't realize that he's even caught Will off guard and doesn't really mind his non-answer. "They are pretty eager to give themselves up..." The thralls, that is. Conrad has to assume that's what Will is alluding to.

"Uhm, sure, practice," he mumbles, obviously not quite liking the idea of that. "I suppose I could? I have always wondered... If I weren't so privileged and had to make it on my own, would I be able to? Or would I just starve? Or maybe some baser instinct would kick in, I don't know." He utters an uncomfortable little half-laugh at that.

Oh Conrad. Please tell us you did not come to Will for comforting assurances?

"Your hunger, and instinct to survive, would kick in. You'd slaughter whoever you could overpower, regardless of what you might otherwise do in your right mind."

This assessment was delivered in a matter of fact tone, the same as Will might give someone instructions on how to brush their teeth. It actually takes a moment before he seems to realize that he may have just been less than kind, and might want to attempt to walk it back a step or two.

"I wouldn't try practicing with the thralls, given their already cooperative natures, but I'm sure you could find youngbloods, or perhaps even a couple older vampires who would be happy to help."

Conrad just looks at him for a moment, maybe a tad disturbed by such a blanket statement. "Oh. Well, I don't- I mean, I'd like to think, otherwise, but..."

He goes back to shuffling his hands and he gives the back of his neck a little rub to stop that from escalating. It's not that Will is being unkind, Conrad just didn't expect him to spell it out quite like that.

"I suppose we all like to think we're special though, hm?" It'd just been something that'd nagged at him, whether or not he could survive like he's supposed to. His mentor no doubt saw that he was trained to be an educator because he'd have some real problems just getting by, otherwise. "I'm not really sure who I'd ask to practice with, but, mm... I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

Those who can do and those who can't teach? Well. Will was kinda the poster child for that old adage himself, though he clung to teaching as a lifeline.

Still. Conrad's obvious ~~crestfallen~~ discomfort was starting to make Will feel like he'd just kicked a puppy. Exhaling a deep breath, he set his hands down on the desk, gave the other vampire a quick -which was for Will meant to be a comforting- glance and then cocked his head to the side.

"Conrad. You know better than to come to me for uplifting words of wisdom, let alone any sort of advice on the art of seduction. I couldn't seduce a houseplant if I was made of sunshine and clear spring water."

Another soft sigh and Will stared out into the classroom for a long moment, before offering.

"Fishing. It's one of my First Season courses and it covers more passive, patient ways to coax prey to you, rather than the violence of stalking and hunting. If you're free the period I teach it next season there may be some techniques there that aren't as," he waves a hand back to where he'd had some brutal images up on a screen.

He's trying to be encouraging. In his own, blunt instrument manner.

Conrad quirks his lips in a slight smile as, well, it's true. He should've known better. It's not like he was looking for inspiring quotes from Will or anything, though. But still... "I, um- Well, fair enough. That's my fault, I suppose. Sorry."

He gives a slight nod at the offer, trying not to look too embarrassed about taking him up on it. "Sure... I'd be happy to sit in and listen. It sounds a lot more interesting than the classes I had to take on that particular subject." It seemed like a more progressive approach, certainly. He still didn't like the term prey, but that was his issue to deal with.

"So. Uhm. Do you have any more lectures on the schedule?" Conrad's not great at making small talk, really, but he figured he'd ask. Maybe change the subject ever so slightly.

"Not until the Winter Season," Will responded to the question, easily moving with the change of subject.

The natural statement in return would be to ask if Conrad was hosting any lectures, but Will was rubbish at the whole social contract, give and take of small talk. He gave that change of a subject all of thirty seconds before he paused in his note shuffling, tilted his head, and lifted his eyes.

This time, his gaze remained on Conrad's face; most people found they liked it better when Will didn't watch them.

"What are you trying to avoid, Conrad?" 'Why are you in my lecture, and lingering?'

It's no surprise that Conrad would be pretty rubbish at giving a lecture and he'll just presume that nobody would think he'd want to give one. But then he wouldn't have thought Will would be the sort to be so proficient at it, so sometimes people can surprise you. But, anyway...

Conrad doesn't necessarily mind that Will is looking directly at him like that, but really he's a little stuck on how to answer him. So it is more or less awkward. "Oh, I- W-well... Erm." He stammers for a moment, wondering perhaps if he's bugging the man.

"I was... Ah. Honestly, I've been avoiding work." That was true. He'd attended a few lectures because he had some time to kill, and then he didn't want to go back to what he was supposed to be doing. Fair enough, right? He shrugs his shoulders. "And I was, um, a little hungry before I came in here, now I'm trying to decide if I'm more or less so." Probably the former, but maybe he'd wait awhile before he got a bite to eat.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject