Test Drive Meme: August 2015

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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.)

For prospective players: Thinking about bringing a character to the game? Feel free to comment to our Potential CR Planning meme for OOC planning and discussion.

Here are some prompts to inspire you:

1) BABY COME BACK. Is there someone you miss? Maybe you've come to visit for the first time in months. Maybe you'll even stay.

2) FULL MOON. (29th August) Uh oh, it's that time of the month. Werewolves, have you been feeling more aggressive lately? A little short of temper? Better start preparing for your monthly transformation and hope that you don't get interrupted. And then there's the morning after, which feels like a massive hangover. Wait, where are your clothes?

3) CARNIVAL. (30th-31st August) It's the August bank holiday weekend and that can only mean one thing: the Notting Hill Carnival! With the sun high in the sky, enjoy the parade, the music and of course the food. Jerk chicken, anyone?

4) SPECIAL EFFECTS. There's nothing like a touch of subtle magic to add to the occasion. Dress up and show off. Mind you, there could be other supernatural types around who see straight through your tricks.

5) PARTY ALL NIGHT. It's not over when the sun goes down. Get yourself to one of the bars or after-parties and keep on partying. Just don't drink too much. You know it makes it harder to control your powers... and your urges.

6) BRAWL. The police work hard to keep London's gangs away from Carnival. When you have supernatural gangs to contend with, their job gets a whole lot harder. Drunk and disorderly or simply looking for an excuse to cause trouble, encounters between rival factions can soon become hostile. Now are you here to cause a fight or to stop it?

7) NIGHT IN JAIL. Oops. What did you do? And who's that with you?

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

Comments

[fatherswatch]

Very innocent or very clever. The two can look very much alike, and he knows it all too well. Still, he lets her talk, only half listening. Like the other American he knows, she says a great deal to convey a simple message. Perhaps that is all part of the 'American way.' Still, he offers a small nod.

Then, she begins her healing. He watches that with careful scrutiny. When she's done, he gives an approving click of his tongue.

"Hopefully I will run into you if injured. Then you can return the favour."

[tearmeanewone]

Elizabeth does talk a lot, it's true. No doubt it comes from talking to no one for a long, long time.

"Of course," she smiles, tucking her newly healed leg to the side and pulling her coat on (just in case they had to make a hasty escape...). She casts a glance at the mess of bloody wire he removed and chews on her lip in thought. "I'm Elizabeth DeWitt. And for better or worse, I end up as a field medic a lot."

She reaches for her bag again and pulls it over, digging through it. She finds a drug store receipt, a pen, and her phone.

"Someday I'll memorize this thing..." she mutters, trying to remember which menu has her number in it.

[fatherswatch]

DeWitt. The name means nothing to him, but it is filed away all the same.

"Are you as good with potions as healing?"

It may well be a stroke of luck for him as well to have run into her and been able to help.

[tearmeanewone]

"Ah... yeah!" Elizabeth says, still wrestling with her phone. "I had this book in my tower on chemistry, I could probably recite that thing backwards and forwards. Once I started my formal training, I realized a lot of it still gelled with a ton of chemical principles and it was like learning a fourth language. I would even say that I improved a lot of the things I've found in my mentor's volumes," she says with a very self-satisfied tone. "Score one for the well-rounded self-education."

[fatherswatch]

"Then perhaps you can help me. Customs and the world today make shipping liquids difficult."

Otherwise, he would simply import what he needed from Russia. As it stood, though, he had to find someone in London to make what he required. This girl, perhaps, was just the person.

"I will pay for materials and labor if you can supply borets-- ah--" He pauses briefly, obviously searching for the word in English. "It is-- for wolves--"

[tearmeanewone]

Ugh, tell her about it-- she'd had to buy new shampoo, new toothpaste, new everything liquid when the TSA had taken it all away. Of course Booker had never flown on a plane in the past fourteen years, of course he'd send her through airport security in a desperate escape run with contraband body wash.

"For wolves?" Elizabeth arches an eyebrow, unfamiliar with 'borets--'. Obviously Kuryakin is unfamiliar with the English word. "What is it supposed to do?" He's a hunter-- it could be some kind of poison he's looking for.

[fatherswatch]

"It--" Usually, his grasp on English is pretty solid, but there were some things he'd never worried about learning. Now, he regrets that. He should have known better, really. "You take it the night of a full moon. Tastes terrible. Bitter."

But there were worse things.

"It makes you calmer. As a wolf. You sleep."

[tearmeanewone]

"Calmer... Oh! Wolfsbane!" Elizabeth seems excited that she's figured it out-- but then the other shoe drops. "...are you a werewolf?"

[fatherswatch]

"Wolfsbane," he repeats. The word may be forgotten once or twice more, but he at least has heard it now.

Then, he nods. "Da."

[tearmeanewone]

"Oh..." Elizabeth looks a little more troubled and she bites her upper lip in thought. "The... theory shouldn't be too hard, but I'll have to practice a few times. I've never made it before, I wouldn't want to give you something that's bitter and does nothing."

[fatherswatch]

"I would appreciate the attempt. Even if it does not work, I take precautions enough. No one would be hurt."

If it did work, all the safety measures in place were useless. Which was how he liked it. If the potion didn't work, then at least only he suffered for it.

[tearmeanewone]

"No, I can do it!" she insists, coming up on her knees a little and scooting closer. Elizabeth knows she's intelligent, that she's capable of doing this one thing to help someone else. If she didn't use her powers for good, that made her no better than Comstock's coven. She had to be better.

"Besides..." she frowns and laces her fingers together. "I might be the only one in this city who will want to help." Norrell's rhetoric surrounding other magical beings was becoming commonplace when last Elizabeth was visiting the Circle. Werewolves? If Norrell knew Elizabeth was trying to help one, he'd probably give her a lecture on how dangerous they were, plus a long and storied history of witches killed by werewolves-- accidentally or otherwise.

[fatherswatch]

Illya smiles.

"I'm sure you can."

It isn't patronising, close as it probably comes. There's actual belief in the words, and its tone shows it to be meant more as encouragement. After all, even if her first attempt or two went wrong, he could still handle it. That she is willing to try is enough for him.

But her following statement...

"I know wolves are politically... unpopular? here. But is it-- You think it is truly that bad?"

That just makes getting to work that much more important. If he's going to be fighting an uphill battle, he might as well get started as soon as possible.

[tearmeanewone]

"Well..." Elizabeth shrugs helplessly. "I feel like every time I turn around, my mentor is leading another charge into another territory to drive out some new threat. I've started to assume that he wants no one but certain witches to live in London, and that I'll be trying to keep everyone who gets caught up in these fights alive as long as I'm here." She sighs with a little smile. "He thinks I'm naive. I think he just doesn't want to see that I'm tired of being in the middle of battles.

"But it's not like I have a choice. I need to be taught, and I need the protection and information of a large faction to keep myself safe from that--" she nods to the window again. "So I have to sit through lectures and dinner parties where old men talk about how everyone is awful and they're so perfect. It's hideous."

[fatherswatch]

Illya smiles very faintly, and his pale, sharp eyes meet hers.

It's a lecture, and he knows it. But, well, history likes to forget many things. And she is young. Foolish, in her own way. But so is he in his. So is everyone, ultimately. But...

The least he can do is offer a bit of warning.

He can't change her mind. He can't make her do anything.

But he can say it--

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out," he mutters, uneven though his English may be.

"Because I was not a Socialist."

[tearmeanewone]

"Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."

It does smart, being compared to someone who was allowing the Holocaust to take place. That was probably his intention, and Elizabeth can applaud him for doing it soundly.

"You waiting for me to say I'm just following orders, or is there some kind of alternative you're suggesting?" she asks, a sad smile barely turning up the corners of her mouth. "I'm not a match for him-- magically or politically. No one cares what I say, Mr. Kuryakin. But if I can do something for a few people just trying to live here... maybe I can live with myself."

[fatherswatch]

"I follow orders." Because he isn't perfect. Far from it. He does what he's told and asks as few questions as possible. Because the less he knows, the less he's inclined to consider. He does what he's told is best for his country, and he can only hope that some of what he's told is true.

"But I know what I am."

Which, really, is what matters most to him. He knows exactly what he is-- a dog on a leash. He sits, he stays, he speaks, he kills. It isn't something he's proud of, but it's something he knows.

"As long as you know what you are-- do what you want."

[tearmeanewone]

"But that's the problem," she says, looking down at the faded dust ruffle that ran along the bottom of the bed and pulling her eyebrows together. "I don't know what I am. I'm an American, I'm a witch, I'm a woman but... that doesn't do much to tell me anything."

Then she has a thought that makes her smile and turns her eyes back to the Russian man. "Do you travel a lot? I keep telling myself that once I have my current situation under control, I'll figure everything out while I travel. Best place to find yourself is in places that aren't comfortable, right?"

[fatherswatch]

"I am not the man to ask," he murmurs, shaking his head slightly. This isn't the advice he knows how to dispense. He can tell someone about following a trail. Or losing one. He can describe weapons. He can train a man to fight and another to kill. But this...

"I travel, yes. I know what I am, yes. But is not the same thing."

Explaining what it is... Proves difficult, but he's no stranger to careful thought, so he employs it. The police are still milling around, after all. So, they have time.

"I follow orders. That is why I travel. I am told to. I live where I am told. I do what I am told. When I am done, I wait for next assignment. That is what I am. You--"

He shakes his head again. Talking this much isn't really his forte. Usually because all he's asked is for status updates on a mission or the like.

"You want to be different. Individual. I cannot help with that."

[tearmeanewone]

To a certain extent, yes, that's one way to live and Elizabeth doesn't know enough about him to say whether it's good or bad that he is the way he is. But she does have a feeling about something-- or maybe it's not adding up for her.

"But... no one ordered you to help me, right?"

[fatherswatch]

"No," he admits. "But." Always a caveat. "No one ordered me not to."

If that had been part of his assignment? He might have disliked it, but he would have done it. Walked the other way and tried not to think about it again.

[tearmeanewone]

"Oh, no one ordered you not to help me, I see," she nods, the picture of mock-seriousness, hands folded primly in her lap. That lasts all of twenty seconds before she's smiling again.

[fatherswatch]

Illya meets the smile with a serious expression. He knows he should smile too, give a nod, and let it end there. But that would be unfair.

"And if I was ordered to kill you, I would. And I might be."

[tearmeanewone]

"Yeah?" Elizabeth leans back on her hands, tilting her head. "How would you do it?"

[fatherswatch]

"That depends," he replies. "On where I found you and what was happening."