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

An eternally boring Tuesday, if one was being honest. Which is precisely why there's a little bit of noise of weight moving around on top of the very festive umbrella for but a moment.

A moment that ends when there's a cat with a very distinctive choker/collar around the neck hanging down from the edge of the umbrella to just sort of stare at him for a brief moment.

"How long do you think they're going to keep this up?" Well, so much for the illusion of that just being someone's pet, not that anyone that knows her doesn't know of her shenanigans by this point.

"As long as they're told, probably. Most novices are so desperate to please," Satoru shrugs, leaning back into his chair with a dismissive little sound.

He hasn't yet taken a novice of his own, even with twenty years of being a vampire. He's just the most picky person on the planet, and also so internally, intensely lonely that he can't fathom the idea of actually forging a maker bond -- not that'll ever admit that second thing. So many of them are just... blindly obedient, and therefore boring. Or too weak for his tastes. Or not funny enough.

Entertaining to annoy, though!

He reaches up, and pokes Lydia's feline nose, beaming. "If you're bored, you could pretend to be a werewolf, and freak them out. Or some weird tree climbing goblin."

"Mm... You're not wrong about that, it's kind of sad." She returns, turning her attention towards where a few of them are running around attempting to destroy the pumpkins and vines. Not that she cares, Silver started this mess to begin with and she won't be upset if they're upset about people dealing with their fuckup.

It's not as if she'd really taken one either, not until... recently. And even then it was absolutely and completely on a whim more than her going in with intentions of doing such. Something about the situation feeling way too familiar for her to not get involved.

Too bad she doesn't get to mull over any of this as she's poked and is immediately trying to bite at the offending finger. While this form is small, it's certainly still a wild cat and a dangerous proposition to be bitten by those teeth.

"I'm pretty sure that the whole "werewolf" thing requires being a canine. Though I'm certain most of them are going to find out to keep an eye on high spots if they don't want to be caught doing something another." Whether for good or bad or just for her own amusement.

Satoru draws his hand back before he can get nipped, grinning. "We could attach some fake fur and a tail, you'd be the very picture of a... smaller than usual werewolf," he proclaims. "Better you than me. I could never pull that off."

Birds, sadly, are even less canine than felines. He does delight in making the newbies think he's some kind of horrible omen, though.

Finding fake fur and a tail would require moving, though, and Satoru's not in much of a mood to do that, so he flops back on his chair, hands folded under his head as he watches the novices work. Lydia's not wrong; it is kind of sad to watch them all scrambling and eager to obey. Where's their spirit of rebellion?

"So what are you going to be teaching next season?" he asks idly, watching the path of one particularly clumsy newbie. He's got an armful of pumpkins and they're about to go tumbling at any second. It's riveting.

Boo, it's not like they don't heal or anything, a little biting won't kill him. Probably. "I think I can do better than that, actually. Though it requires being in a high spot and them not seeing me before I enact my plan." Mostly just scare the ever-loving hell out of them by jumping on them from above. It's not like she weighs much like this, not even ten pounds. But the sudden feeling of any weight on a person is bound to scare them.

Perhaps they'll find it later once they realize it's pretty impossible to actually become a thrall unless you really are just that bad at life and classes. Or if they ended up with a maker not worth their weight in salt.

"Mmm, that's a good question, isn't it?" She hasn't entirely settled on it, herself, though she's finally hopping down properly from the umbrella only to plop herself into his lap instead. At least she's an actual cat doing this this time. "I suppose it depends on our numbers for what seasons we have, I don't really think they'd appreciate me, say, teaching a class about high-level intrigue when we have a bunch of first seasons."

"Why not? Throwing novices into the deep end is good for them," Satoru says airily. "It builds character."

Because no person, alive or dead, can resist the urge to Pat The Cat, Satoru does so, his hand sweeping over the sleek fluff over her back, a contemplative repetitive action that helps settle his wayward thoughts. He has not successfully resisted that urge for like twenty years now. He thinks his favorite thing about her shapeshifted form is her little rounded ears. They're so cute!

"I'll probably just be doing my usual," he hums thoughtfully. His usual being classes on hand to hand combat (in which students usually lose a limb or two every season), mind control (in which he delights in teaching them weird shit), the occasional bit of Court history, and lessons on how to be cool. "Maybe I'll even find some students I like in the new season. Weirder things have happened."

"Do you want to listen to the Council bitching about it? I don't." She would rather deal with them as little as possible if it were up to her, because they are still, in fact, enemy number one in her book. Not even in a "would be fun to harass" way, which is how you know you've truly made her shitlist.

Is it somewhat demeaning to be pet like this? Eh, probably, but it's attention and quite frankly it feels good. She also has no business being this fluffy, but it doesn't matter when she's pushing her back into it with what is a momentary bit of a purr. Twenty years or whatever and she still isn't against the idea and there's still only a few select people she'll let see any of that kind of vulnerability.

His usual is always... still something compared to most. Especially when she's faintly curious about how much he's going to make the healers hate him this time around. "So what's the bets on how many are going to get hurt this time?" Best believe she means the combat classes, it's something her Court is technically known for, but it's not like she ever really cared much for it herself.

"Weirder things have happened, I found one of my own and I still don't know how I managed that even now." That poor novice is going to really find out if this was a good or bad idea. "I suppose some people might have lost a bet on how long it would take me~"

Does Satoru want to listen to the Council bitching about it? No, of course not. But can he? Yes, absolutely. One thing that very few people know about Gojo Satoru is that he's an extraordinarily patient man when he wants to be, and is excellent at dealing with political bullshit.

"Define 'hurt'," he chuckles. He encourages the students to go absolutely apeshit on each other as part of their training, no holding back. It does result in some big injuries sometimes. The odd bruise is the least of their worries. "The Silver Court healers already hate me, I'm gonna go for a home run this year."

Satoru also doesn't know how Lydia managed to find a novice, but he thinks it's adorable. Maybe the novice will bring out of a new side of her. Or maybe she'll just get worse, who knows!

"Aww, Lydia and her little vampire baby," he coos, grinning, idly toying with one of Lydia's ears. "How are they? Already shaping them into a rapscallion, or are they rebelling against you like all good novices should?"

Would explain more how he deals with Gold Courts nonsense while she can't stand more than five minutes of it, if even that long. Political bullshit was never her forte and unless she has a reason to care, you can bet that she's zoned out.

"You already know I hear all about the bullshit you do when I go annoy one of my favorite toys." Of course she has some amusement in most of the Courts at this point, it wouldn't be fun or useful to hear the gossip otherwise. Especially if it's said to her while they're upset. "Given it's you, though, I think we're talking limb loss or perhaps broken bones. The big injuries they'll whine the most about." It's not as if they can't heal such things quickly, but it's supposedly a pain in the ass to put limbs back together from what she's heard.

If only she knew, though she's almost certain she will not be getting any better due to it. There's some things that just will never change.

So much for relaxing and accepting pets as she's lazily swatting at him, a bit of claw, but nothing that will actually cause anything more than scrapes at a surface level. "Shut up." Though she's quick to settle back down, rolling her eyes in turn. "This one is... different. Has quite a bit of potential and from what I've gained so far, quite willing to go as far as she needs to go in order to get what she wants. You better believe I'm curious about where she'll go~"

"Aww, poor baby, having to put up with stories of the nasty Gold Court mean man," Satoru coos again, chuckling. "And yes, limb loss. Just because weapons are a Red Court thing, doesn't mean you can't take a limb off with your bare hands if you're strong enough. And some of those novices are definitely strong enough!"

It's fine, they all get reattached eventually!

Her swipe catches him this time, leaving a red mark down the back of his hand, and Satoru clicks his tongue with an admonishing tch, curling his hand into a playful claw and menacing it at her.

"That does sound interesting," he admits thoughtfully. "Relentless and full of potential. What does she want?"

"You're being rather rude to one of my Silver toys, as much as I like people being rough with me, that one I'd prefer to not be riled up." Is she going to name names? Absolutely not, it's none of his business and he's probably seen her usual toy targets anyway when she finds someone amusing she'll usually be draped over them somehow and it's always pretty obvious. "Seen any new ones you think will accomplish that deed this time?"

She'd like to have a heads up on when to avoid going to certain places and for how long, thank you very much.

If he were anyone else she'd probably bite at his hand just to prove a point. But, fortunately, it is him and she's just batting at his hand instead with a very not clawed paw this time. In fact, she's going to just roll over onto her back to do so, can't be mad at her when she's being cute.

"That is the question, isn't it? She says she wants to be able to forge her own path and to not be pushed to the side anymore and given what I have seen so far, she has quite the potential to do just that. Just needs a bit of a... push to understand the best directions for that." And who better than someone that trades in manipulation and conning people in a myriad of ways?

Satoru doesn't apologize, he just curls a grin under his sunglasses. He does have a pretty good idea of who she's talking about, and maybe he'll be nicer next time. Or maybe he'll be more annoying. It depends. "Mm, too early too tell. But there's always at least one in every class that turns into a rage monster and rips someone's limb off. Sometimes it's exactly who you think it'll be, and sometimes it's the most unassuming nerd."

Lydia rolls onto her back, and Satoru amuses himself with batting right back at her -- for not being too big, her paws are stronger than they look. It's all that tree climbing.

"Ah, the classic independence story," he sighs. Maybe her new novice came from a big family, or maybe just one where she got forced into a very specific path. Satoru could empathize if he'd had any feelings as a child, but he suspects he didn't, or buried them too deep to feel them -- he remembers just sort of distantly accepting everything. Good for Lydia's novice, to want her own path. He angles a grin down at Lydia, poking at her fluffy belly. "And what sort of direction might be best for her, do you think?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

Pumpkiiiins now that I've decided

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