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

Those really are odds I don't like for anyone involved.

[ Not just because then they wouldn't have anyone to feed on, but also, vampires can be petty sometimes? Not just in the gossip-y way but also in the killing-people-because-they're-bored way.]

It's weird, though, isn't it? I'm surprised the Council hasn't said anything on the change.

[Excuse you, don't call her out like that. Except that usually it's plotting how to kill another vampire because, you know, that's more fun.

Beside the point.]

It's extremely strange. It's not exactly subtle given they seem to be increasing at the same rate each time as if we wouldn't notice? Not that I'm complaining about there being more thrall bait, but still...

[ that sounds like the point?? but also, not something they can solve right now. much more interesting to figure out what the council has up its sleeve on this one. ]

Maybe they figure we won't notice classes getting bigger with all the new youngbloods teaching, too. But it's weird they keep insisting everyone stay here, too, isn't it? I'm not in any rush to go "home" but some of the youngbloods don't seem like teacher-material, really.

[It's no secret her distaste of the Council, unfortunately for everyone involved.]

I would think that the point if it weren't for the ceremony of seeing all the new faces, it's pretty obvious to see how large the groups are getting if they have them all in one spot? [It's so strange to her, because none of it is really adding up to her.]

... It is. I certainly wouldn't be going home, either, not that I have much of one to go back to. But I would prefer doing almost literally anything else other than being stuck here. And excuse you, Edgin, I resemble that remark. [She is not, in fact, at all mad about it.]

So either they didn't think this nefarious plan through in the slightest, or we're really missing something here.

[ it really doesn't add up, but you know, at least they can just stand here and make up nefarious plans to attribute to them! ]

Hey! I didn't mean you. I think you're doing great.

[ Does he even know anything about her classes? Doubtful. ]

What would you do, if you could live out your undeath doing whatever?

I can't really think of any good reason they'd be making the groups consistently larger... Unless the human population has suddenly boomed, but that sounds wrong.

[He has to be kidding her, but clearly he hasn't heard how her classes go.]

I appreciate you trying to save my ego, but you really don't have to. [At least they aren't losing limbs in her classes unlike some others she could name.]

Hmm. You know, that's a good question. Probably explore, for one, since I never got the chance to when I was human. [Hard to when you're poor as dirt and conning people to survive, right?] Maybe eventually find a place I like and settle down and do, I don't know, shows of some kind? I am a charming personality and with my background of trickery, sounds easy enough.

I haven't heard of anything like that...

[ The human population seemed...stable?? But he's been a vampire for 10 years he hasn't really been reading human population statistics. ]

You could do shows here, you know. Accompanied by a handsome man with a lute, perhaps?

I can't say I have, either. Which is why I highly doubt that being the case.

[He still has half the time she has, so he's still somehow closer to knowing what's going on outside than she does. Oops.

Oh.

Oh is he really doing what she thinks he is?]

Mmmm, I don't quite think vampire society is all that interested in my wheeling and dealing, darling. Unfortunately the sleight of hand and the performance art of it all is lost on most of them. [What is essentially magic and trickery to vampires, after all? It's quite sad, if she's honest.]

Though I'm not opposed to the latter part of the sentiment.

Edited (Fingers, pls) 2023-12-17 03:03 (UTC)

You never know! Maybe they'll like the novelty.

[ He misses it sometimes, too. Sleight of hand. Pretending for the con. Theft. ]

This place could use something to liven it up.

[ get it? because they're dead? ]

Considering I'm pretty sure there are a few that would love to have reason to take my head off if I even tried conning someone here... [Well. It's not a great time, she's pretty sure.

Even if that won't really kill her, either.

Vampire bonuses.]

... Actually you did give me a great idea, if you'd like to hear it and potentially play along~

As long as they didn't take your head too far, you'd survive.

[ I mean....this is a #VampireFact, even if it's pretty gross. ]

But I'm listening, go on.

[ he leans in and everything! ]

But it's still painful if they do it, that's the problem. I'm not too keen on that part. [Look, while she might have some masochistic streak in there, getting your head taken off is still not a fun experience even for her.

Well, okay, if he's going to be dramatic about it, she can reciprocate.]

What if, and hear me out, I just did a tiiiiiny bit of cat-burglary. Quite literally, actually. And then just casually made their missing things their holiday presents along with a little extra thing just for good measure?~ [This is horrendous.]

No one's going to suspect a cat of doing anything wrong, especially since even though my form is a wild cat, I can still look enough like your generic housecat.

[ Edgin laughs--cat-burglary. That's a good one actually!

But...there's something she's not saying here...A couple somethings, actually, but he'll take this one at a time. ]

So what's the "little extra thing"?

[Sometimes she can make a joke or two and it not be terrible, thank you!]

Oh, you did catch that. [She merely shrugs in response, immediately trying to downplay it.] Nothing harmful, just giving them something else on top of returning whatever I snag. [You're making her say the quiet part aloud and she hates it, Edgin.]

Okay, setting that aside for a moment...

[ He's not sure he believes her that it's not harmful. ]

What did you need my help with? It sounds like you've got a full plan on your own.

[For once she means it! Just... how do you not lose your reputation when actually being nice for all of two seconds?]

Oh, right, that part.

I could always use a distraction, if you're up for it~ A, say, group distraction of some form would be the easiest way of having freedom to nick some things.

A perfectly timed musical distraction, perhaps?

[ He's...excited?? he hasn't done something like this in so long. But once a thief always a thief and he really actually does want to help. ]

As long as you swear that you're not going to harm anyone with that extra thing, I'll help.

Exactly what I'm talking about.

[Sometimes she misses her thievery days and this is a victimless crime, isn't it?]

I swear I'm not, that was never in the cards to begin with~ It's all just fun and games and totally harmless.

Okay. I'm in then. You just send the word and I'll be there.

[ he holds out his hand to shake! it's a deal! ]

[He's such an absolute doofus, but she didn't expect otherwise.]

Absolutely~

[Handshakes are weird, but if that's how he wants to do it, then she can oblige. Even if her grip might be a little too tight for a simple deal. It's fine, she's fine.]

A deal it is and I'll hold you to that.

[ He has not actually gotten anything out of this deal, but you know, he's happy about it too. Weird handshake and all. ]

It'll be my pleasure. Think about the shows, though. Your talent shouldn't just be hidden.

[ Edgin casts bardic inspiration---or, he would, if he knew how. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme - New Blood

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