Test Drive Meme: November 2015

[undergroundmods]

"" (Watch on YouTube)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Welcome to the Underground test drive meme! This is where you can try out the AU version of your character, start some potential CR and get a feel for the world of the game. Choose your character's species, read up on the available factions and you're ready to go. Put your character's name in your subject line when you post, tag out, and have fun!

Note to current players: Activity in this meme counts as game canon! So you can use it for activity check. If you end up playing anything that you can't or don't want to use as game canon, it's fine to ignore it. (In that case you shouldn't submit it for activity check.)

Here are some prompts to inspire you:

1) GHOST TOWN. (31st October) Ghosts, it's your chance to shine! Whether you want to or not, actually. Even humans are more sensitive to ghostly activity tonight, so be careful where you choose to make your haunts.

2) BEHIND THE VEIL. (31st October) Even the faintest disturbance of magic could disrupt the veil between worlds tonight. Will you stumble into the Other Realm? Or will they find you? It's all blurring into one...

3) SAMHAIN. (31st October) Known to the public as Halloween and to witches as Samhain, tonight is the night when all manner of supernatural creatures come out to play and the humans will be none the wiser. Of course, if you're a witch, tonight is much more serious business. The veil between the worlds is thin, and magic can easily reach through the cracks.

4) FANCY DRESS. Or you could dress up and go to a Halloween party, where you can revel in what you are without suspicion. Just make sure you stain your costume with fake blood, not actual blood, mm'kay?

5) ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK. There's something behind you...

6) HOUSE OF HORRORS. Okay, whose stupid idea was it to venture into a haunted house tonight? Really, you're every horror movie trope waiting to happen. Hope you brought a comfortable sleeping bag.

7) BONFIRE NIGHT. (5th November) Remember, remember, the 5th of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. Bonfire Night is a long-standing tradition in the UK, commemorating that time back in 1605 when Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. (They failed.) Tonight, light a bonfire, set off some fireworks and watch your guy burn. Lovely, isn't it?

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

Comments

I feel like I'm doing this too late to use any of the Halloween or Guy Fawkes prompts...

[smugfox]

8) The weather was getting cold and this was England, so it being rainy was kind of a given. Not the nicest weather to stroll about in, but here Reynard was anyway. He stepped under the ledge of a building for a few moments, shaking himself off on instinct. The gesture got him regarded with a strange look by a passing old couple and so he caught himself. Right, no fur at the moment.

Instead he had a worn leather jacket, jeans and a pair of boots that had seen better days. He needed new clothes, but up here wasn't the place to get them. The means to buy them, however, that was a different matter. Sure, he was a thief, but there were the right times and places to steal and that was something much easier done up here than anywhere else.

With that conclusion in mind he started walking again, only to stumble over his own feet - just a bit and ever so artfully - and walk into the person coming towards him. His hand worked quickly, but so did his instincts and he decided not to risk it.

"Oh, do excuse me. Here, I almost made you lose something."

He held his hand out, showing the item he'd just attempted to steal and smiling with all the open innocence he could muster. Which was really quite a lot when compared to how innocent he actually was, which would be not at all.


[ooc: Reynard is an outcast fae who has been around for about a millenia and is the same character from all those lovely folk tales about cunning foxes, so if there is any chance of your character recognizing him by appearance or reputation, go ahead and assume. Same for actually having met him before, he gets around.

My prompt is generic, because I couldn't think of anything better, but I'm open to literally anything, anywhere, he has a bit of a habit to just show up wherever, so feel free to even just drop me a location and I can write up a personal starter just for your lovely self.]

[knightscode]

Lancelot is out of uniform, dressed in a plain grey v-neck sweater and faded jeans as he walks his dog in the fading evening light. Reynard can probably feel the Seelie magic radiating from Lancelot, but Lancelot himself can't sense a thing. Even the dog at his feet has better senses for magic than Lancelot does.

It's a shame she can't tell him anything, therefore.

Reynard bumps into him and Lancelot grabs out to steady him with alarming good reflexes, blinks at the man then down at the phone he's holding out.

"Oh! Thank you, good thing it didn't hit the ground. Are you all right?"

He squints questioningly at Reynard, even while Lily shies back a few steps. She's used the feeling of Lancelot's magic, but this one... is a little different.

[smugfox]

"I'll live," Reynard assured him, patting Lancelot's chest for reassurance and because he could, "Although it'd have hurt less if you didn't insist on quite this much muscle, but I'm sure at other times it works in your favour." Mostly topless, he'd like to imagine. And so he imagined.

Said imagination didn't stop him from glancing at the dog for a moment, baring his teeth in what looked like a smile and was more of a gesture that fell flat in his current form. Whatever. More interesting was that magic he felt and recognized all too well, the reason he had decided not to try and get away with the steal.

He finally took his hand off Lancelot's chest. "I didn't hurt you either, I'd assume? I reckon I'd have to charge with a lot more force for that."

[knightscode]

He laughs awkwardly, a little flustered by the way Reynard is touching and complimenting him both, and drops his eyes to Lily. Lily looks up at him and twitches her ears questioningly. Don't look at her, she doesn't know what to do about this either.

"No, I'm fine thank you. I --" He hesitates, gestures vaguely and realises he has no idea where to go with what he was trying to say. Something about muscle, he thought, and about how Reynard would have had to put a lot more force into it. He trails off, shrugs and re-pocket his phone. "I'm fine, I've had worse. Some of it from my friend here."

Lily, the picture of innocence who would never tackle a person, decides since they aren't going anywhere she will sit down to watch the proceedings.

[smugfox]

"Then I'll have to try harder next time, won't I?" There was always something a bit strange about someone with any hint of proper magic wearing quite that open a face. On the other hand, he was clearly associated with the Seelie and so Reynard had once been and that made this a lot less baffling. Some simplicity helped with a proper Seelie mindset.

Dealing with the dog while in this form was awkward. He'd hardly ask what name he'd given to her, animals didn't think like that. Maybe later on he could do this properly, but for now it was just easier to focus on him. "They call me Reynard." He wasn't expecting much in the way of recognition, he seemed young. "What about you?"

[knightscode]

Reynard. It's not a common sort of name, uncommon enough to give him pause, but then neither is his. He lets out another awkward sort of huff of amusement ('next time'? What was that supposed to mean?) and flashes Reynard a smile.

"Lancelot," he offers, one hand dropping to scritch at the dog's fur just under her jaw. She leans into his leg at the touch, eyes closing in pleasure. "And this is Lily," he adds, because whatever Reynard's feelings on animals and names Lancelot always introduces his dog by default. He feels it'd be rude to leave her out.

[smugfox]

"What a pleasure to meet you." There had been a definite pause at his name, hadn't there? Enough to give Reynard that little thrill of possibility. Maybe he was still recognizable enough, even around these parts, to make things a lot more interesting. What he'd need to know was how strong a presence fae really had and, honestly, what better way to get a read of that then with someone so earnest?

"Excuse my insolence, I'd presume you've better things to do than to humour someone who's just not capable of simply walking past you. But if you don't, I'd like to make it up to you. Coffee?" The real challenge would be to make obvious that this something other than a romance movie meet-cute story, without giving away the thoughts he actually had, vague as his plans were as of now. "We could talk about fairy tales."

[knowstheworld]

Childermass had grown up a pickpocket on the streets. He'd known what the other man was doing almost as soon as he'd done it, even if he had been good. Childermass could honestly say that he had barely felt a thing -- wouldn't almost say that he'd felt nothing if he hadn't known what to feel for in the first place. Too bad it's a trick that he's used more than a few times himself.

Well, almost used. He certainly hasn't ever given a man's wallet back once he's stolen it away. He raises his eyebrows, a muscle tensing in his jaw slightly, as if he'd honestly like to give the man a piece of his mind. But then he sees that it isn't his wallet that the man has stolen from within the pocket of his coat. It's his cards. And that puts an entirely different spin on things entirely.

"Forgive me, sir," Childermass growls out, in his usual, rough and drawling Yorkshire fashion. "But liberating valuables from where they'd been safely housed within my own pockets... I am not certain but that may be called thievery in some circles, is it not?"

[smugfox]

"Oh, I am most certain it could be. Although it would definitely be lacking in key components to make things add up quite." Reynard still waited for the cards to be taken back, evidently not very intimidated. "For one thing, these are hardly valuable. To you, perhaps, to me? Not so much. For another, it'd make me a very poor thief indeed if I liberated something only to give it back right away. And I might have on some occasions in my life been very poor and I might possibly be the latter as well, but never ever in conjunction." Quite the contrary, all things considered he thought himself a fairly good thief, at least when he put effort into it.

"I'd recommend that you carry your wallet around more loosely and keep your cards closer to your chest - a piece of advice so good it has literally become proverbial - and then next time you confront me on perceived thievery, it will be much less disappointing for us both."

[knowstheworld]

Childermass shrugs. "Who I am I to know what sort of thief you may or may not be?" he replies. "The truth is there you stand, with an item I know to have rested securely in my pocket before I see it resting in your hand there, sir. If they were not so valuable to me, I would ask whatever possessed you to give yourself away." It is only then that Chilermass takes the cards back from the other man at last, checking to see that they are all accounted for, fingering through them as one reacquaints oneself with a long-lost photograph perhaps, for indeed he has committed the look of every one of them to memory, since even before they were drawn thus.

He glances back at the other man, once he has found himself satisfied. "Suppose in turn I were to keep both more carefully guarded? You would do well yourself to find a better mark to start with, in turn." Childermass can feel something off of him. Magic, although it's taking him a moment to understand just what sort it is. Certainly not a witch, that much is plain at least. Not of Daybreak, at any rate.

[smugfox]

"There are people that set out to do all sorts of senseless tasks throughout the day, from inputting numbers to scanning documents no one cares about to be stored indefinitely, I don't think my briefly borrowing a set of cards only to return it right away is really all that baffling, if you view it in context." Obviously there was magic coming from the man, if the cards and the way he handled them wouldn't have been enough of a hint in and on itself.

"Don't downplay your value such. You don't know what I'm after, you confess as much, having no idea what possessed me to act the way I did. For all you know, there might not be a better mark for me in all the land."

[knowstheworld]

It's true, Childermass is a rather masterful witch, despite the low level of his influence. He tries to keep it that way -- better not alerting Norrell to the idea that his ability might in fact rival the man's himself. So Childermass is not accustomed to being perceived as such. For a moment he is uncertain if that is what this other is getting at. After all, he did go straight into his pocket for his cards. Probably the most powerful item he's got on him, and yet equally utterly mundane in the wrong hands.

So Childermass lofts an eyebrow at this other, an other in more ways in one, from the flavor of the magic coming off of him as it rolls around in Childermass' head, and attempts to get a better sense of him. Who he is, what he might have wanted from him. "I could ask you then," he rumbles. "What did possess you, to reach into my pocket and take hold of my cards? A very odd thing to do, with no reason at all, and thus it is as you say. You must have had one."

[smugfox]

Sometimes it was less a matter of accurate perception and more a matter of implying to perceive even more than he did, since that often got him responses that proved him right. Or wrong, as the case might be. But Reynard also happened to be quite perceptive and had especially keen sense for people who tried to seem different than what they were, simply due to experience.

"The most logical assumption would be that I wasn't after the cards, but your wallet. If I had been after your cards, that would be quite unusual and I would have had to have a very good reason indeed, one that likely wouldn't lead to me just handing them back over right away." He offered a shrug and little else aside from convoluted words that said nothing at all. "One would assume."

[growsowngoats]

He had chosen his victim very poorly indeed, because Siobhan did not carry upon her person even the means to buy herself some new clothes, and it was quite evident that she could use some. Most of what she was wearing was a bit too big for her, gotten from thrift stores and lovingly repaired so she looked like a very cheerful little quilt of a person, all bright colours and smiles.

Her magic felt a bit like that too, warm and welcoming and bright, like the gentle glow of a fireplace on a chilly autumn day.

The item Reynard had gotten hold of was a donut wrapped in some napkins, a snack she was saving for later. She took it back from him with a look on her face that was more disapppointed than anything else.

"And you're not even a little bit sorry."

[smugfox]

Poor choice of victim indeed, always was when he ended up feeling more like he should give them something for charity than take anything away. He waited for her to take the muffin back then held his hands up to show his innocence and to better proclaim his regret. "Don't you say that. I am very sorry indeed and even if I was not and I'd have actually run into you on purpose, I'd at the very least be one sorry bastard."

He tried a winning smile, hoping he'd fare better with that. "Will you find it in your heart to forgive me? Or at least find it in your stomach to let me make it up to you? They are selling something that smells delicious at the stand over there."

[growsowngoats]

"Not if you'll get the money to pay for it from someone else's pocket."

Even if only the mention of free food made her stomach growl. She was used to ignoring that, though. Hunger was such a constant in her life that she sort of just accepted it as the natural state of things.

[smugfox]

"I won't get the money from someone else's pocket. Cross my heart!" Given he already had some money from someone else's pocket, that was a statement he could easily make without lying. He'd only pay with money he had already gotten from someone else's pocket.

It was the fae style of honesty. Reynard had heard her stomach growl and he thought that the stomach of someone who seemed as sweet as she did should never be that empty. It wasn't just her appearance that compelled him, he could feel her magic as well, her being, for lack of a better term. Obviously he was very far from a bleeding heart, but when he wanted to be good, he didn't question his intention any more than he did with his bad deeds. "Good enough?"

[growsowngoats]

She tilted her head a little and gave him a thoughtful look. His wish to be nice seemed sincere enough, from what she could pick up on from his emotional landscape. Not that that was ever a reliable way of knowing much about people's intentions, really. People felt an awful lot of things all the time, it was terribly distracting.

Eventually, she just shrugged, and smiled at him.

"It'll do."

[starbuckslord]

Peter had lived on the streets long enough in his use to be aware of someone trying to pickpocket you, but this guy was slicker than almost everyone he had ever confronted in the past; he didn't register that something had been taken, but he did draw back from this man to get a better look at what had almost been lost (and this guy's face).

What met him was a shock in many ways.

He had almost lost a small, intricately designed book with peeling gold and silver leaf on its worn cover. It was a grimoire he'd inherited from his mother and kept on his person at all times; it should have been enchanted to stay on him.

Perhaps just as shocking was the fact that he was staring at an uncanny reflection of himself, unless his eyes were deceiving him.

"I- uh. Thanks." Peter pulled a hand out of his coat and held it out to take hold of the book. His voice, aside from that, would have made him stand out - after all these years, he'd never lost the touch of the Colorado wilderness in his voice.

( ooc; Hope you don't mind a face-twinning witch. If you're up for it, I'd love to toy around with some kind of potential connection here? )

[smugfox]

When one had been around for over a thousand years, shock wasn't something that happened all that often. Especially given Reynard was also fae, used to magic and shenanigans of all sorts.

So the man having a face so very reminiscent of his own didn't interest him overly much. Perhaps it had potential, either if he discovered the reason behind it or once he found a way to make use of it. For now he just withheld the book at least for a few moments longer, leafing through it with vague interest. He could feel the magic coming off it, just as the same hum came from the man who'd lost it.

"Looks precious. Is it?" He finally looked up again, at the same time moving the book just a bit out of reach.

[ooc: Hey! Sorry for the slow reply, this weekend turned out to be from hell. Anyway, I'm not generally a huge fan of face-twin stuff, preferring a 'they might just look similar' approach, but given the nature of the game and Reynard being fae, maybe there's some connection for whatever reason!]

[fatherswatch]

"It is mostly useless." A strange thing to say about a wallet that certainly had credit cards in it, but the words aren't rude. Not... really. "But thank you."

Not that Illya was entirely certain it had been an accident. He had met someone else with very light fingers. However, that man had been mostly interested in things that caught the light. Very like a small bird or rodent or the like. Still, he was new in town, something easily evidenced by his Russian accent. There was no use picking a fight his first week. After all, he still didn't know the city or its players just yet, and he was well aware that many people were not what they seemed, especially in so large a place as London.

[smugfox]

"Useless?" Reynard pulled the wallet back to open it, curiosity now evidently sparked. "That would only be true if it was empty, because wallets are quite useful for holding a variety of things, cards and little trinkets, numbers and other notes. Sometimes even actual money."

Apparently he wasn't too bothered about Ilya's privacy, not now that he actually wanted to find out what made this wallet so useless. "Why do you carry it around if it's of no use?"

[fatherswatch]

Illya arched an eyebrow as the man went through his wallet. As he'd said, he considered it fairly useless. There was no real sense of privacy invasion with it.

The wallet itself contained a few cards, but only those few cards.

"Because it was supposed to be useful. It is not." If only because the cards didn't have the funding they were supposed to. But they were easy enough to cancel if they did get lost.

[smugfox]

"So not only is it a useless wallet, but it's actually a disappointment as well! No wonder you wanted to be rid of it. Here." That said Reynard threw the wallet back at him so he could catch it, idly wondering whether the name on his cards might be real. Might as well find out.

"You're just walking around London, disappointed in your wallet? That seems a sad fate."

[fatherswatch]

Illya moved, catching the wallet immediately before he put it back in his pocket.

"On my way to an appointment," he said, voice almost clipped.