undyingcourt | Test Drive Meme

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

[Alice torn a little between relieved and even more irritated at the reaction but since she asked....]

It's very demeaning. And why do they burn the clothes? The dress I had on was almost new. I get the symbolic 'cast off your old life' thing but at least give it away or use the fabric for something.

[She gestures around at her fellow foundlings, most of whom have moved slightly away from her so as not be guilty by association.]

And then they just ask us to stand around in the middle of the room until someone decides whether we'd make a better student or a snack. None of you know anything about us and noone has even asked.

[She is basically venting her frustrations at this point and all filters, common sense, and self preservation are on hold.]

Someone here might have some rare skill or special knowledge but they'll [she waves a hand at the vampires watching from the sidelines.] never know. Because instead of an interview or, heck, even a questionnaire, they go with the awkward zoo approach. I mean, just whose idea was this, anyway?

Symbolism is exactly it, yeah. Though I agree with you on the whole being wasteful thing, I can't say I had anything worth keeping when I got here but it's still pretty disgusting to just... burn it all. [Says the woman dressed to the nines most of the time now, but that's a matter of finally having the ability to do so. And best believe she's notice the others moving away which only furthers her amusement.

This one has a spark and it's honestly amusing to see and a little refreshing.]

Exactly why I come out here like this, I remember this nonsense myself and just standing here waiting until someone took some mercy on me. It's honestly gotten better than it used to be with how many come out here to actually talk to Foundlings, but there's still a ways to go.

[However, she does shrug slowly at the last question, expression relaxed and seemingly unbothered about her venting.]

That comes from vampires far older, far more powerful, and annoyingly in a position of power that we don't have much option but to go along with the ceremonial bullshit. Trust me, I don't like it any better than you do and is the reason I attempted to avoid doing these things the first, oh, ten years or so of being a youngblood?

[A lot of the anger leaves now that she's had the chance to vent and now she just sounds tired.]

Being really old doesn't make your ideas good....

[But she's familiar with idea of overbearing elders who can't be reasoned with. Reminds her of her father...

The mention of waiting for someone to take mercy on her does catch Alice's attention though.]

So... you were a foundling too? Did you... do anything special to find a maker?

[Maybe she can get some advice after all.]

[That sounds about right and exactly what she was expecting, not that she disagreed with her in the slightest.]

You aren't wrong, though there's not much we can do about, unfortunately.

[Ah, she did grab that, good.]

I was. I can't say I did anything particularly special other than ending up lying through my teeth feasibly well enough to catch my maker's attention. I've... grown past that since and have better methods of dealing with people, but showing some skill seems to do the trick.

[She pauses for a moment, tilting her head to regard her a liiiittle closer.]

Or doing what you're doing and showing you aren't going to be a novice so easily kowtoed unlike a good chunk still standing here. What's your name?

[Hmm... skill. Alice can't think of any particular skill she has that would grab someone's attention. She's a quick learner though, and she's willing to work hard. Maybe that's something?]

Alice Liddell. What's yours?

[She does offer a small smile with the introduction. Not easily kowtowed, huh? She's not sure about that. Alice would like to think herself brave, buuut it's more like other emotions just keep pushing fear out of the queue.]

[A skill is a skill and better than just standing there, isn't it? Or, well, that's her opinion on the matter at least.]

Lydia. Part of the Red Court if it... wasn't obvious by my eye color alone. [One of the easy things about telling who is who, even if you do a little blood mixing here and there for funsies. Though she doubts that an of the potential novices here would be familiar with that tell-tale sign.]

Though, admittedly, I am tempted to take you for myself given the rest of these fools are still gawking or seeming to be more keen towards the ones that are pretty much groveling at their feet. Disgusting. [Someone has opinions.]

Or if you'd prefer me to step back and see if someone else is curious enough, I'm fine with that. I'm not the... one really known for taking anyone under my wing, admittedly.

For the record, you will not catch me doing any groveling.

[That is said very flatly. Alice has opinions herself. Beyond that....

The offer comes as a surprise. Red court... Alice only knows that basics about the courts and what little she does know of the Red is not promising. On the other hand, the clock is ticking and she can't be sure she will even get another offer. Also Lydia seems... okay?

Looking around the room... yeah she could probably do worse. Alice takes a deep breath, steeling herself.]

Umm...if you're sure you're okay with it then...I'd appreciate it. I'll work hard to live up to your expectations.

[She says as if she's accepting a job offer and not a vampiric blood contract.]

Oh, I didn't expect for you to. I'd much rather not have someone groveling at my feet to begin with. [... In public. Without prior consent. But that's not the point right now.

At least Lydia mostly is serious when it comes down to her actual business, though perhaps not in the most straight-forward of ways and quite keen to tease and taunt people just for funsies.]

I don't ask for much other than you don't make a fool of yourself~ Red Court has a... reputation, I suppose, but while I have a way of going about things, I really do love seeing where Novices find themselves. Art comes in many forms, after all.

[Reputation, huh?]

I have... heard a few things. But the Red Court's reputation doesn't have anything to worry about from me.

[Which could be either 'I won't do it any harm' or 'I really couldn't make it any worse.'

Alice has also never considered herself particularly artistic but she also hasn't considered herself particularly anything. Guess it's time to start finding herself.]

So... what now? Is there someone we should report to or...?

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

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