Test Drive Meme - New Blood

[undyingmods]

DEC TEST DRIVE MEME

WELCOME, VAMPIRES!

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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

Comments

Darth Vader | Star Wars | Teacher | Black

[hauntedbyher]

[ New Arrivals ]
[ Vader had, with great reluctance, promised Halsin he would come to the ceremony that evening. "Good for his health," he had claimed, though he doubted that very much. There was no good to be had for his health standing in a dark corner and brooding, eyeing the new batch of novices with something like contempt, not that it could be seen from behind the mask he wore. His legs ached at where they were joined with the metal prosthetics that even allowed him to stand, and the temptation to just drink the pain away with blood wine was strong. ]

[ Instead, as always, he just silently watched, judging those from the Black Court that were taking on novices. There was no way to tell the true potential of a novice until their second season at the very least, and even then, it would take a number of times out on a hunt before Vader would ever even consider someone worth his time. The hunt was what separated the ones that had actual nerve from the ones that were better off sipping their blood from a glass. ]

[ A faint sigh escaped from him as he shifted his weight in an attempt to ease some of the pain, wishing he could just meld into the shadows he loomed in and escape this dreadful party. ]

[ Autumn Classes - for students ]
[ If you're a student of his, you're expected at class, no exceptions. Even if it is the Silver Court running the symposium, he has no patience for those that would skip his classes for something so mundane. ]

[ Classes with Vader take place in the outdoors, regardless of it being a first season class or not. There was no means of learning to hunt from indoors, after all; not everything was a gothic fantasy of slipping in through an unattended window that the Blue Court seemed so dreadfully fond of. ]

[ After classes he can be found still outdoors, tending to the thin blade of his sword as he contemplates over the students he was teaching, almost in a meditative state. Though he can easily be broken out of it when approached, the dark eyes of his mask focusing on anyone that dares to interrupt him. ]

[ Pumpkins Gone Wild ]
[ Vader swears that only the Silver Court could get away with this level of nonsense. ]

[ When he's not terrorizing his students, Vader can be found hacking away at the pumpkin vines, doing his best damage control that he possibly can on his own. It doesn't keep the occasional vine from sneaking up on him and tangling around a limb, but it only seems to bother him when they get around his right arm -- that is his only remaining intact limb, after all. No one could blame him for being a little more vicious with those. ]

[ Anyone that approaches gets the side eye, and if they are unarmed, promptly ignored. Anyone with a weapon gets an extra long glance, before Vader turns his focus back to hacking away at the vines. ]

Your assistance is welcome. I would advise against getting too close.

[ Wildcard ]
[ Feel free to run with any ideas you have! If you want to talk it out, you can PM this journal or poke me at SkylaDoragono. ]

Pumpkins Gone Wild

[captains_hands]

[he's got a sword, yeah, but not a terrible amount of interest]

What's in it for me?

[hauntedbyher]

[ Izzy is treated to another glance from Vader, and though the mask hides his expression, the glare can almost be felt behind the vacant eyes of his mask. ]

Your ability to continue drawing a breath.

[ Yes, that was a threat. ]

[captains_hands]

Ok, go on then. [he shifts his weight, absently resting his wrist against the pommel of his sword] Make me regret it.

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader glared, unamused; difficult students, no matter how old, were not worth his time. He promptly elected to ignore the fool, instead; taming these vines was more important. ]

[captains_hands]

What kind of teacher are you. [other than not a great one. Still it was a bit embarrassing for all the vines to be growing and the pumpkins, of all things, swarming, so Izzy begins to cut them away casually] Why don't we just burn them?

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader let out a small huff, another sharp swing of his sword hacking off a particularly thick branch, a pumpkin landing on the ground with a thud. ]

A fire would be too easy to lose control of, and damage more than just these pumpkins.

[ Obviously. ]

New Arrivals

[wonderland_vogue]

[No one with a sane mind wants to be here as far as she's concerned and it's only at the urging and prodding and one time being dragged that she's ever at this whole... thing... Especially when everyone always looked so gloomy and her bright clothing always being the contrasting figure which isn't great when you don't really want to be there in the first place.

Not that it's changed this go around, either. But being part of Red court does have its advantages, like the fact that she's spotting someone she also knows doesn't want to be here and offering a flask that totally wasn't just in her corset, don't you judge her.]

Drinking is the only way to get through this dreadfully boring pomp and circumstance.

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader eyed the flask for a moment, having a feeling he knew exactly where that thing has been. But giving in to his previous thought takes precedence over questioning how Lydia managed to sneak things around as she did, and he removed the bottom part of his mask before accepting it. ]

Such... ceremony is not worth my time.

[ He took a quick swig of the contents of the flask, before handing it back. ]

[wonderland_vogue]

[At this point if she can't hide it in her cleavage then is it really worth taking with her? Nor does anyone ever really question the kinds of things she's carrying around, especially if it gets her to do something she's supposed to do with as little fuss as possible.]

Join the club. Parties and the like? Absolutely. Ceremonial nonsense like this? I'll pass, actually.

[It's blood wine, surprising absolutely no one. At least she's not going too far with it and just taking a long drink from it herself once he gives it back.]

I don't know if you were around or had to be here for the time someone literally dragged me in here. I'm surprised that didn't get them to leave me alone.

[hauntedbyher]

Hn...

[ Vader replaced the bottom of his mask as spoke. Truth was, he was pretty sure that time was during his own Becoming, back when he went by a different name, but he didn't want to even think of that time. ]

Were there individuals worthy of taking on at this stage, it would be less nonsensical.

[wonderland_vogue]

[Luckily for all parties involved, she doesn't particularly care about anyone's history unless they volunteer it. It's not her business and it's not like it really helps her unless she genuinely gives a damn about someone. Which, really, is quite rare to begin with.]

Picky, are we? You know at some point they're going to harass you to take at least one, just for some sort of quota, I guess. [As if she's taken anyone, herself, but perhaps that's fine given her... tendencies with even people she did like.]

But I feel it, it's not like this is a great judge of someone's character or being able to know anything about them beyond bare base level.

Autumn Classes

[serpendipity]

[ Honestly, the outside classes have been some of Eden's favorites. She wouldn't even dare to miss or be late to one, including the Black Court classes. Some would think 'especially so', but she had genuine equal interest in attending all of the courts' classes. Generally, she was one of the first to arrive to most of these from the group of students.

Though with the symposium going on, and her being a student under the Silver court, she's been recruited to help out a few times too many. Enough so that for the first time, she thought she'd be late, and agreed to help as long as the one asking for assistance wrote and let Vader know about the delay. After this task was complete, the teen did her best to hurry and get to the grounds, absolutely sure she was going to be late. To the point that she didn't bother cleaning off the blood on her clothes and hands (from keeping pressure on one of the injuries.) Even ready with an apology while running up, and not quite with the group. ]

Sorry! One of the scholars went too far with a few of the thralls in their demonstration and they needed help bringing them to get taken care of.

[ She was either exactly on time, or less than a minute after (and technically still on time.) ]

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader was silent for a long moment, his expression unseen behind the mask, but his disapproval could be felt. Then, with a speed too fast to track with an untrained eye, his sword was removed from its sheath, the tip just bare centimeters from her nose. ]

You dare to show up late to my class, and cause a scene while doing so?

[ He doesn't care if it's only a minute; late is late. ]

[serpendipity]

[ Ah, he's upset. It's an understanding before Eden leaned just subtle back on her feet as the teacher shadowstepped. To her credit, she didn't flinch or anything; just that instinctive lean back as if dealing with a snake that had suddenly struck. ]

I'd rather show up late than not at all. I was one of the few that knew how to pack wounds...

[ It was most likely that Darth Vader would be this way regardless, but there's something else that Eden suspected. It's easy to suspect because so many of the teachers and visiting scholars were so aloof to not get to things on time and with consideration for others. So she nodded in understanding that and accepting whatever may come. The one problem was that it was always hard for Eden to stop talking on her own volition. ]

They didn't get to sending the notice, did they? Should I join the others and stop making a scene, or if there something I should do to make up for it? Though I'd rather not miss more of the class... I'm fine with working harder and for longer after...

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader held his sword still, eyeing the girl. She must have been in Silver then, if she was busy packing wounds. For a moment, he was still tempted to leave his mark, to make certain she wouldn't make such a mistake again, but to do so would serve him little good. And... well, he still owed the Silver Court his continued existence. ]

[ With a flick if his wrist, the sword was back in its sheath. ]

Take your place with the others.

[serpendipity]

[ Eden didn't dare to release or act like the tension had been defused. Not with such a strict teacher. So instead she bowed her head. ]

Yes. Thank you, sir.

[ Quietly, she took long strides to join the rest of the students. Running would be improper, or at least felt disrespectful, but she didn't want to take too long with it either. Though something told her that this was going to be a harder class to go through than usual. Not that it was ever easy. ]

new arrivals

[inquisitorium]

[ Trilla paused a moment to gather her courage as she approached the masked man to whom she had been told she would be assigned "if he'll have you; good luck, Foundling." All her struggles; all her striving had been for this moment, and she would not fail now. Not when the man who stands before her is the one she's been waiting her entire life to meet in the flesh -- the one she'd broken her mother's heart to seek in secret and then finally confront her with what she suspected.

She would not tell him, of course. Not until she'd earned his approval; she would not take for granted that a familial bond was worth anything at all, not when her mother had renounced her the instant she'd drawn the white feather with a look of triumph. She would prove herself first, and only when she was certain he would not turn her away would she reveal her prized secret.

His gaze appears to turn her way and she draws herself up straighter, crossing the room in a few swift strides to stand before him. She feels suddenly very small at this proximity, but it no longer matters. This is the moment that will define her future. ]

Hello, Sir.

[ Respectful, but not the form of address that her heart craves; Master, or Father -- but Trilla can be patient. She can, much as it rankles to have to. ]

You must be finding this all terribly dull.

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader hadn't been looking at her per say, but when the young woman starts to approach him, it's clear she has his undivided attention. If she was expecting a reaction other than a long, bored stare from behind his mask, however, then she was about to be sorely disappointed. ]

Indeed.

[ At least she got that much out of him; most people he would have just ignored until they went away. ]

[inquisitorium]

[ Trilla has to tamp down her own frustration at his unreadability; if nothing else she'd like to see his face, read his expressions. His tone gives away little, but she's been told he's not subtle about revealing his annoyance, should it come to that.

Holding herself as still and upright as ever, she continues. ]

You are one of the hunting instructors. I'm told you're one of the best.

[hauntedbyher]

[ He thought for certain that his blunt response would have chased the young woman off, but apparently not. Vader eyed her, judging, trying to understand why she was even bothering him. She couldn't honestly hope that he would be her Maker? Someone would have had to say something to discourage her, right? ]

I am.

[ He paused, debating a moment. He didn't want to engage any more than he already had, but now he was curious. ]

You intend to take Black Court courses?

[inquisitorium]

Of course.

[ Her reply is immediate, unhesitating. That part, at least, requires no finesse. Even if she weren't convinced of her own connection to the Court, she would wish to learn. A young vampire could still become prey to those more powerful, and she intended to not merely survive here, but thrive. Besides, it would be stupid to leave obvious gaps in her knowledge, no matter how difficult the training. ]

It would be foolish to deny myself a complete education, don't you think?

Autumn classes

[unghosting]

[Kevin is a first season student of the Blue Court, and in the Blue Court he shall stay -- underneath his current gloom he has exactly the sort of personality that will never hesitate to enter a room through a window, especially if there is a perfectly good door available. But Vader's class is the one class he never, ever skips. Not because he's especially afraid of the teacher, but because it's one of the only courses he has a genuine interest in.

Enjoyment of, even.

He wants to improve his skills at hunting for very personal reasons. After all, it was his actions as a magnificent, uncatchable serial killer that caught the attention of the vampires in the first place, but he clearly wasn't good enough, given that they had no trouble snatching him up when it suited them. The best way to cope with this having happened is to make sure it never does ever again. But, he genuinely enjoys being outdoors. He enjoys the opportunity to move at his best, and to feel out the way his body is already starting to shift as his maker's blood begins to settle into him. And so, as Vader has no doubt noticed, Kevin arrives at class early and often lingers after, and every single time, he transforms from a restless, prowling caged animal to a graceful young man content to sit and watch the world go by.

He never bothers his teacher once class is dismissed. Generally he finds someplace high to perch, and spends a while observing the nearby goings-on. But he's there often enough that it's pretty obvious that lurking in Vader's presence is deliberate. The vampire's ability to guard his little circle of quiet and calm without even having his face visible is soothing, in all the chaos.]

Re: Autumn classes

[hauntedbyher]

[ Vader was aware of the presence of one of the students lingering after classes, but he paid it no mind. If they were not going to bother him, he wasn't going to go out of his way to bother them. ]

This is pretty much exactly what I expected, thank you

[unghosting]

[Who is Kevin's favorite teacher? people will ask, from time to time. Oh, it's Vader, Kevin will say, and refuse to elaborate.

It's because they have never spoken a single word to one another and probably never will. You don't worry about where you stand with a guy who can't be bothered to give you the time of day unless you annoy him!]