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

Eden didn't realize how open lectures invited so many questions that even she, who was starting their second season, or about to, was understanding things well enough. Not enough to practice, but that was more about preference and personal strengths. So it's also nice to have a bit of a distraction in those times. Smiling wide, Eden accepts the hand with "Eden Woods."

"I'm actually excited for introduction to shapeshifting. Revelry... I don't remember much of," which spoke of her alcohol tolerance, even with a Maker's blood in her system. "Just drinking, drinking games, and I think there was screaming. Which is odd, because I don't recall anything dangerous showing up. I'm still not sure what skill that class was meant to develop or hone."

Apparently Night Terrors aren't scary to Eden when she's drunk.

"Revelry is meant to discover one's tolerance for many things," Loki says, laughing. "I have fond memories of it every time it happens. You wouldn't be the only person who doesn't understand where the screaming is coming from. Usually it's because I've tried something new out on some unsuspecting student."

The Night Terrors have to be practiced on someone, after all.

"So it was just vampires coming in shapeshifted?"

Eden's surprise is mostly because she'd thought that was something that could be remembered. Without any memories of what the night terrors were, or anything else that may have 'slipped in,' so much hadn't made sense. Now she couldn't imagine it as anything worth the screams. "So it sounds like there were more games happening than we knew about. That's kind of fun to know about."

Because people usually thought night terrors and fun mixed well.

"Oh yes, only us," Loki says. "We have to practice somehow. It's all fine once you're on the other side of it, though. Then you know the night terrors aren't real, it's just a bunch of people you know practicing their skills on you."

It sort of ruins the fun of it to know that beforehand, though, which is why Loki likes to keep it secret.

She appreciates being let in on the secret, if only because Eden felt like she'd missed a lot from being... black out drunk. Very active and playful in most of the time, but still in that state too quickly to remember the practicing.

So of course she nods and taps where her heart would be, saying, "I won't spoil the surprise for anyone else. I'm very good at keeping secrets. My grandmother was the person people went to for medical needs, so it was very important I learned to do that."

See, she didn't even spoil a villager's secret for an example, even though no one would probably ever see them, or they'd find out.

"Being a secret keeper is a great responsibility. Less so for Revelry but quite important for medicine," Loki says. He's impressed at this novice's intelligence and her thirst for more knowledge. It is clear that someone (perhaps the grandmother?) instilled a curiosity in her that has carried on after her making.

"Did you help her before you were made into a vampire? Is that why you were drawn to Silver Court?"

"And also keeping surprises," because otherwise it wouldn't stay that way. No one likes a spoiled surprise, as far as the teen could imagine. It's also very easy to figure out things from what Eden's mentioned and implied. Still, she missed that old woman.

"That's right. I'd do the foraging, hunting, and processing everything that was gathered. Aside from that, I only really learned enough to deal with the merchants we sold to," which meant she was probably better at bluffing and haggling than the rest of her personality would let on. "I kept asking questions to the other vampires during the ceremony that one of the Black Court teachers basically dropped me off right at Revar's feet. There's still until my fourth season though, to see if it's truly where I want to keep staying- or, I suppose it's really about where one ends up being most suited based off of the classes?"

The only court she couldn't see herself was Gold.

"It seems you already know where you belong and I imagine Silver Court is happy to have you," Loki says. "But it all depends on what you decide and how you fall by fourth season, yes. You may surprise yourself and end up in my court, after all."

He gives her a grin.

"How is your shapeshifting?"

"And Black Court is even happier not to have me," she says it with a bit of amusement. She's never thought that someone in that court could be so affected by someone having interest in their classes, but... Well, maybe that was just Will Graham. It's true though; where she ended up could surprise everyone. Even her.

"I understand and have the basics down quite well, actually. Yet we're still relatively early in those lessons, and," she pauses to consider how to phrase things without getting her maker in trouble. "I don't think I'll be successful after everything with this symposium, down to getting the visiting scholars back where they belong, is finished. They figured there was an ideal pacing for my receiving blood, but this has caused..."

A delay. It was hard, given Eden's eyes were grey before arriving, but she was probably more behind than most on that front. "I've been practicing as far as I can, though. It feels like it's right there, waiting. I'm curious about what animal I'll end up being."

"Sometimes the animal surprises you," Loki says. "Mine is a black cat, of all things. A large one though, panther-like. Some would say that isn't shocking at all but I imagined I would be a snake first. I always felt as if I had many snake qualities."

He can do a snake now but it wasn't his first shape and it still isn't the one that comes most naturally to him.

Not knowing the teacher very well, she couldn't imagine why a black cat would be surprising, or what snake-like qualities made him think that was going to be his first. Still, the first was said to be the best representation of your true self.

"I kind of hope I'll be a fox," Eden admits, even if it's not the most dangerous. "There were some gorgeous ones in the woods where I lived. Sometimes you could hear them laughing, they're curious and pretty playful, but they're still predators. They'll hunt prey and attack those that seem threatening. Though I doubt anyone would expect me to be anything predatory."

Look, she knows how she comes across. Knew since the first day with the black court warning her away from it all.

"Tricksters. Foxes are funny little creatures but fitting for a shapeshift, I think. Hopefully you'll get what you desire but no matter the outcome, I look forward to helping you find that out. It's always satisfying to help a student discover who they are."

Loki had enjoyed the process for himself, naturally, but it has been more satisfying helping students over the years because they are so delighted about it (usually).

"It seems you have a strong sense of self, though. You'll find your shape easily."

"I guess people learn a lot about themselves with their first shift," she says with a smile, looking forward to that time. Also taking what Loki said as a strong compliment. It would have to make sense in some way for everyone, whatever that first shape is.

"Why did you think you'd be a snake?" Look, they have time, as there was a demonstration of the Gold abilities being used. She'd seen it enough, and could only guess that the teacher was also wanting more about the hows and whys, as the detailed notes indicated.

"I'm a bit of a trickster myself," Loki says. "And I like to skulk around and listen to what's going on before I say anything. I imagine those are snake-like qualities. The panther turned out to be the same thing, truly, but I rather like the color green so I imagined it would always be a snake."

There is a strength and dignity to his primary form that the snake doesn't have, though, even if both are elegant. Loki suspects that's the difference.

"... Ah," was her initial response, which was a little telling. It was mostly the green thing that had her responding that way in the end of it. You could see that there's a moment of 'should I or not' before Eden cleared her throat.

"Green isn't exactly a common snake color. Those are the ones usually in, ah, trees I think? I mean, they can be a lot of different colors, but I usually see different kinds of browns, reds and blacks," though she was also in a specific area of the world and seeing anything past those were uncommon. "Though I suppose with shapeshifting, at some point you can be whatever color you'd like to be? So I suppose that's a little moot."

Yeah. Good job showing even more that you belong in silver. Nerd.

"Arboreal snakes are green, snakes on the ground are brown and red? Interesting. I'm not one for the cataloguing of animals. I suppose that's why I'm not in Silver."

Though he imagines knowing a variety of animals would be useful for shapeshifting, too, and he makes a note to research them. If he's meant to be a snake, he ought to be an accurate one.

"It's more of the trend than a rule," she clarifies a bit better. "Those are the only ones I've seen, because some are a lot more rare or better at hiding. I was told about how they could be a variety of bright colors. Reds, oranges, greens, blues- Some could even be white."

There was probably a bit more about the color variations, but in catching herself, Eden gave a light and short laugh into her smile. "I came from the Old Woods in the south- I think it's also called the Crimson Forest for some?- and most of this is what I learned from my grandmother. It's easy to find a snake, but really hard to find specific ones. That always came down to luck for me."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

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