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

Satoru doesn't normally involve himself with the newbies much -- what he's interested in, the newbies don't have, so luckily for them, they're generally not within his scope of interest. But he's passing through when he hears one of the new arrivals getting in an argument with a thrall, and despite himself, curiosity catches hold.

"Nope," he says airily. "They're enthralled. Means they only think about whatever their task is, and they'll complete it at all costs."

He eyes the tattered thing that's held between them, frowning in thought. Sometimes the newbies are attached to the things they bring in when they're meant to be burned, and while Satoru normally doesn't give much of a shit, he's feeling magnanimous today. Fuck symbolism, right?

"Let it go. He's allowed to keep his cloak," he tells the thrall, smiling and pleasant, golden eyes mostly hidden by his sunglasses, power saturating his words. The thrall drops it like its molten metal, and scurries off. Satoru cheerfully waves goodbye. "I've never been a fan of symbolism," he confides breezily. "I think they just burn your stuff so you won't be in anything that's not super fancy."

And just like that, the confrontation is over. The cloak falls unfolded as the thrall lets go, and Kevin bundles the sorry thing up in his arms, clasping it close to his chest. The vampire's observation is met with a scoff.

"It's not fit to be worn."

He's well aware of the garment's condition; he didn't want to keep it so he could keep using it. Keeping it stuffed beneath his pillow to clutch onto like some shredded teddy bear will suit the scary serial killer just fine.

The crisis passed, he eyes the other askance, his expression guarded. The thrall listened to this person, so he must be a vampire. Kevin does not expect kindness from vampires to come without some sort of catch.

"Ugh, don't tell me you're already buying into the Obligatory Fancy Clothes Ethos," Satoru groans, clasping a hand over his heart like he's been mortally wounded. "That cloak's fine."

Says the guy in a kimono. In his defense, it's one of his more simple ones, a plain black in defiance of the social mores of typically wearing your Court's color. He just doesn't jive with brocaded coats, okay.

"Anyway, you'll want to keep that hidden, because if any of the other vamps find you with it, you'll probably get taken to the torture basement," he adds airily. "Or, even funnier, I will for letting you get away with it, if you snitch on me."

He slaps a hand down on the newbie's shoulder, and goes to start steering him toward the novice rooms. "Here, let's find your room, I'll give you the grand tour. I watched them being set up earlier, I can even make sure you get a good one!"

Kevin is not averse to being touched, in general. But he's fresh out of a time in his life that was spent on the run from the law, and it ended in vampires far stronger than he violently snatching him up and carrying him off. He just barely manages not to smack Satoru's hand away, but he does hunch defensively beneath it, and plants himself firmly in place rather than going along with him.

"-- why?"

There has to be something in it for this guy. Is he expecting that a favor early on will earn him Kevin's loyalty in whatever stupid court drama passes for politics around here, or...?

The newbie doesn't move, which leaves Satoru awkwardly going to the end of his reach and then losing his hold. He stares at his now-empty hand, baffled, excepting there to still be a shoulder under it.

Ah, it seems this newbie is one of those. The distrusting type. The potentially moody type. The I've had bad shit happen and now I'm going to be all closed off about it type. Hmm.

"Because you seem like the type to not do what you're told, and there needs to be more of that around here," he says, an amused little smile curling at the corner of his lips.

Other people might be trying to gently coax him out of shell or talking softly or asking him what's wrong; Satoru's not that kind of guy. Unfortunately.

"I'm Gojo Satoru," he announces, like he's triumphantly announcing some vitally important news. "I'm a teacher in the Gold Court, I've never taken a novice, and the only reason I'm interested in them is so I can impart my wisdom and hand rear them like little baby kittens. Giving you a good room makes you somewhat more cheerful, which means you might listen to my classes more if you take them."

Kevin is still young and immature enough that being called out for being a brat is a pleasing compliment. He also appreciates the blunt honesty of trying to win people over for selfish reasons. But Gojo is right on target with everything else -- moods, distrust, trauma. So instead of loosening up, Kevin gives Gojo and his grand speech a mighty squint.

It is a very impressive squint, given that he has only one eye visible.

"I am not a kitten," is his eventual solemn answer. The scruffy stray look about him ruins the effect, and will make it even funnier later when his animal form turns out to be the fluffiest white cat with the loudest thunderpurr you've ever seen.

Edited 2023-12-26 01:46 (UTC)

"No? Well, you're a baby something, so what's your preferred baby name?" Satoru asks glibly. "Puppy? Lamb? Calf-- no, those are getting a bit too sent to the slaughterhouse for me. Maybe cub? Gosling?"

If Kevin doesn't choose, Satoru will almost certainly choose for him. He likes having embarrassing nicknames for people.

Since Kevin doesn't seem inclined to go anywhere, Satoru leans one shoulder against the wall, content to wait. He seems the type to be more stubborn than what strictly makes sense, but Satoru's a patient man.

"Caterpillar? Owlet? Any of these ringing your bell?"

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