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

[wonderland_vogue]

[It's easy to mistake her for someone else when she's not actively causing some brand of chaos or tormenting some poor student. In fact, she's actually being questionably productive and calm.]

Come on now, darling, you and I both know that's impossible. [And there she is pulling out the pet names that mostly mean she's not taking whoever she's talking to seriously.] It's not as if anyone else in this place dresses as brightly or in the colors I do on a daily basis.

[... Oh. Oh he's being snarky. Well now, that's actually a little more interesting and she's looking up properly, a brow raising.]

There are two and only two things I will ever accept being called a nerd over and it's not a damn thing any of these people are talking about. And what those are, well, you'll just have to figure that out.

[beigeacademia]

[Elias stands there and kind of just takes the patronising retort, not really reacting to the pet name. It's whatever, this whole thing is fundamentally quite petty and even though he will snap like a dog that's been stepped on unfairly he'll also move on very quickly.

Lydia finally makes eye contact, though, which is as much of a success as it is shooting himself in the foot. Now he has to continue the conversation why did he do this.

Elias frowns, his gaze sliding deliberately towards the paper she's working on.]

Fashion?

[The hint's right there?]

[wonderland_vogue]

[Of course it's absolutely and completely petty, it tends to be one of her many brands she defaults to. And, really, while she doesn't tend to care about some petty argument or something similar later down the line, she does are in the moment.

Ah, so he can use some deductive reasoning and he actually gets a small bark of a laugh from her.]

At least you can see the obvious, but that would be one of them. Good luck ever figuring out the other~ [Could be many a thing with how she acts and she's not about to give him any kind of hint.] Why do you like all of these lectures, anyway? It's just people with too much time on their hands blowing smoke out their asses and trying to inflate their own egos.

[beigeacademia]

…sure, [Elias replies in the tone of someone who's not going to do that, he's not about to stalk her around the castle trying to figure out her other interest. That's weird. Lydia can keep her secrets for all he cares, it's good enough for him that she just has the passions.]

Eh, I just like talking about new things.

[He moves past Lydia to sink languidly into the next seat, and pulls out a waterskin (bloodskin?) to pour himself a drink.]

It's always the same here. But out there are creatures never seen before and places without any vampires or humans- only bottom-dwelling river fish. That's more enjoyable for me to think about than the same basic healing class I've been teaching for however many years.

[wonderland_vogue]

[She'll keep her air of mystery, then. Not that it ever mattered in the first place, given this conversation probably should have never happened to begin with. She keeps a close eye on him as he moves, humming briefly to herself once he sits.]

I don't know, I've seen enough before I got here to think that it's not really worth it. If you want that misery, be my guest, I'm content not thinking about it. [A rare bit of sincerity and her not jumping down his throat, though her attention shifts somewhat to his drink before she shakes her head.]

It's only boring if you make it boring, you're in charge of your own fate and destiny when it comes to your amusement. Or that's how I see it, anyway. [It would certainly explain why she's an agent of chaos at the drop of a hat.] Same reason Red and Blue try to do the whole... party thing, you never know what's going to end up happening at a party.

[beigeacademia]

You think the fish are also miserable?

[It’s partly a side-eye, but partly a genuine reluctance to accept Lydia’s suggestion; let him have this fantasy, man. Elias takes a swig of blood, then sits back, leaning into a stereotypical Vampire Brooding Pose as he swirls his goblet listlessly.]

Eh… partying doesn’t do it for me. [he’s serious.] You got any other suggestions?

[wonderland_vogue]

[No, never, be miserable like the rest of them. Though she squints at him for a brief moment at that question. Weird thing to latch onto, but fine, she can roll with it.]

If you want to be barely sentient, then go for it? I don't think most fish have long enough memory to really be miserable.

[Of course partying doesn't do it for him, she kind of figured by this point. But she huffs and shifts to lean back in her chair.]

Parties don't have to be your former balls or absolute raging chaos, you know. There's more chill ones that are just time to be comfortable around people you like with food and drinks and just conversation. Not much of my scene, but it works for some people. It's the whole social aspect of it, you know?

[beigeacademia]

Are there parties like that? I haven't seen too many… [he trails off, as a thought occurs to him.] … that's what the Symposium is, no? A nerd's party.

[The talks are entertainment, they socialise after, it's got the same catering as everywhere else in the castle (humans).]

So in a way, I am partying.

[He's “partying” in a very loser-like manner but it's fine, that's why he's in Silver Court.]

[wonderland_vogue]

[... Oh.

Oh, well. Okay, she opens her mouth for a moment as if to speak but then shuts it again and purses her lips. He's not wrong and she actually kind of hates this fact. It would also explain why she detests this time of the year.]

I hate that you're actually right. Not what I had been thinking of, but you're right.

[beigeacademia]

[Elias lets out a snicker, clearly chuffed that he's managed to surprise a Red like this.]

As it turns out I'm a party animal!

[He does a little dance. It's really just grooving with his arms and wriggling his body.]

[wonderland_vogue]

[He better savor it while he can because she's not letting him do that again, thank you very much.]

... Don't. You're making me embarrassed for you and there's no one else in here at the moment, oh my god.

[beigeacademia]

[That's why he's boogie-ing. He knows it's a rare victory! It feels very gratifying.]

It's not that bad, [Elias lies, because he's learnt from none other than the Red Court itself that if you bluff something enough it becomes “true”.] -this may be shocking to you, but I passed Revelry classes.

[wonderland_vogue]

[If you're trying to bluff to someone that isn't part of Red Court, probably.]

And it's still an absolute wonder that you managed to do that much when you're this much of an absolute nerd. Good grief.

if you've got nothing else you wanna explore we can wrap up this thread maybe!

[beigeacademia]

[:3c]

I thought so too, but thanks to the grace of the Founders, I pulled off a minor miracle and am here with you today.

It is what it is.

[At this point Elias kind of runs out of steam. He sits back and begins drinking his cup of blood again, chilling out.]