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

Goro Akechi | Persona 5 Royal | Student | Black

[bleakdecember]

i. New Arrivals

[It wasn't so long ago he was in their place, wide-eyed and eager to become. Maybe he's a little jealous that he can experience that again. But mostly he's happy not to be the freshest meat around anymore, to have climbed a little ways up on the totem pole. He grasps what little power he has with an iron grip.

But he watches the newcomers carefully. Looking for potential threats, the new favorites, who's got who as a Maker. He keeps a particular eye on the Foundlings -- they're in a moment of vulnerability. He could swoop in and be their helpful mentor, a fellow friend in the chaos. If they look promising enough.

From how warm his smile is, you'd think he's in the Red court.]

ii. Autumn Nox

[He's eager to attend all the lectures. Especially the ones about how the vampire body works. You have to know your prey, after all. It's a shame he won't be allowed to view those secretive experiments, because he'd love it.

But this one... Is not so interesting. It's on the history of a particular kind of tree, and its uses. He was hoping there might be some discussion of stakes, but no. As it draws to a close and the lecturer leaves, he stretches.]

They can't all be winners, I suppose.

iii. Library Cleanup

[As far as manual labor to win favors goes, cleaning up a library isn't so bad. He's dutifully set to work helping re-organize the poor lost books, making sure to smile and laugh and make it clear how happy he is to help in whatever way he can.

Will he snatch a wayward book, faster than necessary, from a fellow student, to look like he's doing more work? Absolutely. This is a zero-sum game.]

iv. Wildcard

[Hit me up with anything, or feel free to plot with me at larksong!]

ii

[coolcustomer]

"It wasn't all bad." But then, Haru was actually interested in the main purpose of the lecture, and not just holding out for different information.

"I'm hungry. Want to go pester the kitchen for lunch?"

[bleakdecember]

[He laughs a little. It's not entirely nice.]

Sometime I forget what Court you're in.

[Anyway. He could go for some food, but...]

Everyone else will have the same idea, and we'll be part of a crowd.

[coolcustomer]

Oh, this was less about the Court and more about the plants. [It's just what happens when you finally get to indulge a lifelong interest.]

That's true, I suppose. And I'm guessing you have no interest in being part of a crowd, so we should wait and have privacy instead?

[bleakdecember]

It's good to have hobbies, I suppose.

[Hm, well.] I don't want to seem like I'm simple-minded enough to follow the popular suggestion. Might as well wait, hm?

Though you can go, if you prefer. Not everyone needs to stand out around here.

[coolcustomer]

Plants are interesting. Especially the poisonous ones. [And she'll stand by that until she... maybe past when she dies, considering.]

And what if I'd rather have lunch with a friend?

[bleakdecember]

They do have quite a few uses. [Poison, and all that.

He smiles. It doesn't reach his eyes.]

Oh? And who do you mean?

[coolcustomer]

You, silly. [And if something about that notion feels off, in the back of her mind...

She ignores it.]

[bleakdecember]

[He doesn't mind Haru. Having Gold Court friends seems useful. Even if he's always hesitant to genuinely admit to being friends.]

Are you sure about that? You know what they say. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

[...But he's mainly just joking around, now.]

[coolcustomer]

I'm very sure about that, Goro. [He's one of the best friends she has here. The only one, so far, she feels like opening up to about her father.

Somehow, she thinks he'd understand.]

[bleakdecember]

[He rolls his eyes. The fact he's not fully playing up the pleasant boy act is a good sign.]

You're distracting me. I've already forgotten everything about the... what kind of tree was it?

[coolcustomer]

Silver linden. [Of course Haru knows exactly what it was.]

[bleakdecember]

Of course you know what it is. Why are you in the Gold Court, again?

i.

[onebadapple]

[Speaking of fresh meat, Snow White gives a soft 'ooh!' as she takes in the grand hall. The manor, of course, was quite grandiose, but nothing quite like this. That, and Snow had never seen so many people in her entire life... admittedly, not hard to do considering the life Grimhilde had given her. Still, caught up in everything, she just barely stopped herself from running into Akechi, just stopping short of touching him. The little foundling offered him a warm smile in response to his own.]

Oh, I'm so sorry! I should have been paying better attention!

[bleakdecember]

[He noticed her before she noticed him. But he's a curious sort, especially when it comes to these foundlings. So he had simply stopped and waited to see when he'd noticed.]

It's no worry. [He smiles. He reassures himself that one day, people will be terrified at the thought of crossing his path. He just needs patience.] Your senses aren't as sharp as they will be soon. But, ah, good to practice paying attention! Some people aren't as friendly as I am.

[onebadapple]

Oh, yes! [She laughed.] I suppose that's very true about my senses. It's already so very different since the change. But I will try to do better. And thank you for being so patient with me! I'm so glad to have run, or nearly run, into someone so kind!

[bleakdecember]

[Poor thing. He wonders if she'll last a season. At the same time, he resents these foundlings -- getting through luck what he had to work so hard for.]

Now, now -- what Court are you, again? Some are more forgiving than others.

[onebadapple]

[Snow may just surprise him.]

Oh, Silver! I'm really looking forward to being a part of it. What about you? What Court are you in?

[bleakdecember]

[Ah. That makes sense.]

You're in luck. Your Court's in charge right now.

[He smiles, and pointedly doesn't answer that question.]

[onebadapple]

[If Snow does notice it, she doesn't comment on it.] Oh! Yes, I suppose that is so! I have so many questions! Oh, but Revar is lovely, isn't she? Is that all of this works, every Court has a time in charge?

[bleakdecember]

[Well... he's feeling generous. Might as well have her be indebted to him in the future.]

There's one for very season.

[And yet there's five Courts.]

[onebadapple]

[Snow does the math, and she realizes that that doesn't quite work out. But then she makes a soft hum, wondering if the Courts line up in certain ways. Well, all the same, she is just glad to be here.]

Oh, I see, and what season are you? [She knows she doesn't need to say it's her first, she's well aware it's obvious.]

[bleakdecember]

I'll be second season by the time you're fully integrated.

[Though she was asking something else.]

Ah. My Court doesn't do that whole thing. We leave that to the others.

[onebadapple]

Oh, well, then thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions! Your second season, how exciting!

[Or, she imagines it must be. Then again, Snow White has a cheery disposition about... everything.]

Oh? Well, I'm sure your Court has some wonderful things it does instead. [Does she know what court he's in? No, not a clue, does that change her response? No, not in the slightest.]

iii

[serpendipity]

[ To be fair to Akechi, while faster than necessary, it relatively easy with how Eden was also reading over the books she'd been collecting already. Her hand was still only a couple inches from it. What stops her from reading over the cover was catching the hand in her periphery, having the Silver Court novice looking up at Akechi with a confused look. ]

... Why are you like this?

[ That wasn't what she meant when asking, but that's certainly came out. She could've sworn she'd seen him doing similar at another point. ]