thetube | Test Drive Meme: Feb/March 2016

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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.)

Here are some prompts to inspire you:

1) COMMON PEOPLE. What do normal Londoners do every day anyway? Sometimes you just want to blend in with everyone else. Make friends with humans. Talk about the weather. Go on, try it.

2) PENTHOUSE SUITE. But wait. Maybe you want to see how the other half live. The elite of the elite. You've been lucky enough to be asked to a meeting, or a luncheon, or a date. Find out what the most powerful people in London are really like.

3) GET OUT YOU FILTH. Supernatural prejudice is a regrettable fact of life in London. It doesn't matter what you are, there's someone out there who hates you because of it. They'll shun you, heckle you, even hunt you down and kill you. Of course, you're probably not immune to a few prejudices yourself.

4) SPEED DATING. Oh god. Why did you sign up to this. You should have known it was a bad idea when someone mentioned it was supernatural speed dating. Help.

5) THE REAL UNDERGROUND. Down in the darkest corners of the Tube, there are supernatural vagrants of all kinds, especially vampires. That friendly busker may well be a fae. That girl waiting for the next train is a ghost. Once you've seen it, you can't escape from it.

6) IN THE SUPERMARKET. On the other hand, you never know what you might find just walking around your local supermarket. You haven't forgotten how to do normal things like groceries, right?

7) A CURSED EXISTENCE. Maybe you literally are cursed. Maybe you just feel like it sometimes. There are things you can't do, weaknesses that normal humans aren't subject to, but they make everyday life in London that little bit more difficult. Try not to get too mad about it.

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

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[It's a half-second half-glance. And a whiff of person and perfume carried across the street. But Illya has survived as long as he has because of his instincts. Which is why he notices.

And in a few seconds, he's sure.

There's so much to tell her, and most of it he's now magically bound from communicating. So, instead, he settles for following her into the coffee shop.]

On this.

[He says it and offers his card when the batista requests payment.

For Gaby, he has a slight smile. Suitable to a stranger. After all, she might be here for a mission he doesn't know about. ]

Perhaps you will join me for coffee?

[ It is the footsteps that alert her (she blames the coffee shop for not catching a scent of him before)... and the voice that makes the corner of her mouth tilt up in one of her genuine smiles, not one of those she gives for strangers and targets.

The sunglasses hide her eyes when she turns to look up at him. ]

It's a dangerous habit, inviting strange girls for coffee. How do I know... [ She pulls her sunglasses down just enough to be able to look over them. ] ... you're not trying to drug me? Or me you.

[ No thank you, sir, which means she has no cover to maintain, no reason to pretend -- aside from, of course, her own entertainment. She purses her lips and flicks her glasses back up, hiding her smile as she sashays past him to walk to one of the empty tables at the far back of the cafe, solitary enough that they can speak freely.

... well, as freely as anyone ever can, in London. ]

Unless you think this young man is in on such a thing -- [The batista smiles nervously, not sure if he should laugh or protest] -- then we should be fine. I do not touch yours, you do not touch mine.

[He waits a few moments after she walks away, getting his own cup. Thrn, he sits across from her.

His posture changes quickly, loosens and relaxes as much as possible. His training makes it hard to really be at ease, especially with everything else on his mind. Everything he can't say.

So, he starts with a hint of sentiment.]

It's good to see you.

[ Her only response to that is a light laugh, amused as she glances back to the poor man behind the counter before walking away. She's already sitting, stirring a spoon in her coffee as he sits down -- and just as his posture relaxes, Gaby takes her sunglasses and sets them on the table. No need for them here.

She takes a moment to simply look at him; her last mission away from London lasted longer than the others, and she dislikes the way something military still lingers in his posture, dislikes everything that's happened that she has no clue about.

The way her expression softens a little says more than any reciprocating response ever could. ]

You caught me early. I would have come to see you... later. [ "Later" meaning "once she managed to sweet-talk it out of Waverly or someone else where exactly Illya was" -- she'd known him to be here, of course, but the details of that... well. Not crucial information for her to know, apparently. ]

[Illya offered a smile, small as it was. It was, perhaps, something innate in being a werewolf near a shapeshifter. It was one of the things he liked about UNCLE, as opposed to the FSB. He wasn’t expected to be a soldier (assassin, more accurately) who sometimes spied.

He was... something else.]

I did not even know you'd be here.

[But he doesn't blame her, his voice says plainly. For whatever reason, Waverly has him investigating independently. So he wasn't told. She probably wasn’t either.]

Are you in town long?

[ His ignorance over her being in the country doesn't surprise her -- if anything, she'd expected it. She had meant to use it to ambush him later on... but oh well, this does just as well. In the end, she's just glad to see him. ]

That isn't surprising. [ They both know how Waverly gets with information. ] I thought of sending an advance warning, but I lost my phone in Dubai. [ Read: her phone went through an... accident. ]

I hope so. Long enough to... maybe rent an apartment in Hillingdon. [ She trusts Illya to read between the lines, to hear what she doesn't say: that she's here because of the Hillingdon Clan. (Waverly hasn't given her an order not to speak of this to the other members of UNCLE, and so she sees no reason to hide it from him. She had enough of that already before their little unit was even formed.) ]

How about you? I knew you're here, but... you haven't kept in touch. [ I haven't managed to get any good information about what you're doing here, she means, though the words are true -- she tried to get word to him before being sent off to Dubai, but maybe that never reached him. ]

A quiet neighbourhood, I think.

[He hasn't had any trouble with the group so far, at least. The hunters seem primarily concerned in their own affairs. Better than others he's been dealing with.]

I work near Westminster. I meant to write, of course, but there's been little time.

[And he doesn't know how much of what he sends is read. Not that anything he might say to her couldn't be known by Waverly, but he prefers to know how compromised his communications are by what agencies before he really uses them.

If she doesn't already know about the Night Council, she'll learn soon enough and connect those dots. He can't act against them, and he can't tell her why, but that covers two aspects of London movements between them.]

If you have difficulty finding an apartment [integrating into the 'clan,' as they called themselves] a colleague of mine lives near there. Perhaps he can help.

Is it? Hm.

[ Her hum is contemplative, questioning and dismissive at once -- later, she'll have to ask him what exactly he means by that. Waverly wouldn't ask her to investigate them if there wasn't something... unless there was something else going on.

She raises her eyebrow at his mention of Westminster. ]

Westminster? That must be interesting. [ Another wordless invitation for him to tell her what he's really doing... though doing so here would probably be unwise. At least she knows roughly where to find him, now. ] It's alright. I'm sure you've been busy.

[ Her tone is quiet, sincerity bleeding into it -- she knows why he hasn't been in contact with her, of course, but that doesn't stop her from wishing he'd managed to get around Waverly somehow, anyway.

(Not that she hadn't done the same.) ]

A colleague? I'll keep that in mind. [ A slight pause, and her nonchalant expression takes on some of that mischievous edge, her eyes sparkling. ] But before I find an apartment... you're really sending me to a hotel, to stay all by myself?

I assumed you would eventually invite yourself.

[It's friendly, though, the way he says it. And there's a hint of teasing to it. Warmer, certainly, than he usually sounds.

Having someone sharing space is strange when it's not someone also part of the military or the like. Gaby is... very much not that. And Rome was odd for him. But, in a way, he's missed that touch around.

Something... more human... than he's used to.]

I work a lot. A form of law enforcement here. [It's public record, really.] But you are welcome if you'd like.

[And there is a small smile. One that's meant.]

You could have spared me the trouble.

[ If he knew she'd do it anyway. But her tone is light, too, joking -- and though she rarely smiles at anyone, not genuinely, Illya has always been the exception.. and so he is now, too. ]

Law enforcement... something that suits you well, I'm sure. [ She takes another sip of her coffee, spins the cup when she sets it down. ]

Thank you. [ The smile stays, mirroring his -- meant, just like the thank-you. ] I'll be working, as well, so I won't freeload on you.

And deprive you the fun of asking?

[He offers it with a slight bit more of a smile. After all, she wouldn't have liked being invited. Asking for herself... That was far more her style.

He took a sip of the coffee he had and gave a nod.]

I will be curious to hear about Hillingdon. I haven't had much to do with them yet.

How considerate of you.

[ Of course, he's right -- not that she's admitting to it. Staying with him on her own terms, that's what she can allow... having him invite her would have defeated the purpose. She wouldn't say it, but she's glad he knows her well enough to know that.

She hums, glancing around and making sure there's no one else in hearing range; and even then, she lowers her voice. ]

You'll have to wait a while... I'm to establish a motive first. The Redbright Institute hired me to teach physics. [ Her official reason for being here. ]

But I'm afraid the views of the Institute won't be some I agree with, eventually. [ Now he knows the entirety of her undercover plan here; told immediately like this, as though to show him she doesn't intend to hide anything from him. Not anymore. ]

[Illya gives a small nod. She has a plan, and it's not a surprise to him. All of them like plans. They just act and react in different ways, so it can look to others like they don't. Which is for the best, really.]

The Institute is... a good school. I do security some nights for them.

[But the only thing he would praise was it as an educational institution. Everything else... Well. He had his own opinions, and those were always played close to the chest.]

[ He doesn't have to say more for her to hear the underlying but, the fact that he very carefully only speaks of the Institute as a school, nothing more. It's a relief, in a strange way -- if he'd been on the Institute's side, agreed with their ideals, methods... her eventual "betrayal" would have meant an uneven ground with him, too.

She's glad to avoid that. ]

Then it won't be a bad place to teach at. [ Not that she is particularly teacher material. ]

Security? I'm sure you excel at that. [ Her words are smooth, light-- perhaps a humorous accusation of sorts, a throw-back to the way they met.

She downs the rest of her drink, sets the cup on the table. ] Shall we? [ She'd like to see where she is to stay, and she doesn't know what kind of schedule he might have for the rest of the day. ]

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Test Drive Meme: Feb/March 2016

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