Test Drive Meme: April/May 2016

[undergroundmods]

"The Jam - Going Underground" (Watch on YouTube)

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 and canon 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) GOING UNDERGROUND. For some people, London is an escape. A place to be anonymous. A place to be themselves. Or a place to hide. Steeped in ancient magic, it attracts supernatural types from all over the world. Of course, that doesn't mean its inhabitants are always friendly to newcomers.

2) CHOOSE YOUR LEADERS. The Night Council election campaign is in full swing and on 5th May the supernatural community votes for its leaders. Visit any supernatural haunt and you'll find people arguing about who to vote for – not to mention the volunteers handing out badges and flyers in an effort to win your support. Try to keep it civil, folks.

3) THE PUBLIC WANTS WHAT THE PUBLIC GETS. (29th April) The Night Council candidates gather in a town hall in Westminster to explain why the supernatural community should vote for them. Traditionally a noisy and raucous event, it's your last opportunity to heckle question the candidates before the election. There are four separate Q&As: first up are the candidates for Shapeshifter/Meta Human representative; then candidates for Witch Representative; then Vice President; then finally the candidates for President will take to the stage. They each make a short speech and then take questions from the audience. Or if you want, you could just turn up for a free meal: in the room next door there's a sandwich buffet plus tea, coffee and fruit juice, so it's a good opportunity to mingle.

4) FIRE FESTIVAL. (1st May) The fire festival of Beltane is a time of celebration for witches, marking the beginning of summer. Come along to the bonfire for music, food and drink, flower crowns and fertility rituals.

5) SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. (1st May) Beltane is also a time when the barrier between the human world and the Other Realm is at its thinnest, making it easy to pass from one realm to the other by chance. You might even have an encounter with the mysterious and mischievous fae.

6) WHAT'S DONE CANNOT BE UNDONE. You've gone too far, done something you know you'll regret. Maybe you ran away, broke a promise, even committed a crime. Maybe you've been supernaturally transformed. Either way, there's no going back.

7) WHAT ANGEL WAKES ME FROM MY FLOWERY BED? Oh, sweet mortal. There's an enchantment on you that makes you suddenly, devastatingly attractive. Especially to more magical types.

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

Comments

8

[freelife]

Evie had been on the roof herself, her own purpose quite similar to Altair's. She liked to be in the sun, and found her life so often took place in the shadows that when she could take the opportunity, she enjoyed traveling by rooftops. Besides, her zipline had only gotten better since Aleck had fixed it for her.

Seeing someone else on the roof, she's naturally curious. Few people were as good at this as he was. So without being bidden, she followed him.

At the offer to race, she returns his grin. "Top of the church." She points to one a few streets away.

When she finds out who she's racing, Evie's going to be furious with herself.

[eagle_eyes]

"You're on." He beams back, setting off across the buildings.

Call him old fashioned, but Altaïr has yet to catch on to the wonders of the portable zipline life, though this will probably be enough to get him to look in to it. He's quick on his feet though, so even if he does have to go down to streetlevel to get across the wider roads it's apt to be a fairly close race.

He won't be upset in the slightest if she wins, in face he'll be more amused than anything.

[freelife]

Evie takes off, moving with assured step. She moves from roof to roof with precision befitting their brotherhood. The wider roads are taken in stride, with a fire of her zipline from her wrist. It's hardly latched itself to the opposite side of the street before she's pushing off.

It doesn't take long, to get to the church, less time still to start to climb, especially aided with her zipline. These old cathedrals had wonderful foot holds, and she's been climbing them for years, and vertical ascension is the best part about her little device.

It's at the top of the bell-tower that she stops, on the small balcony at the top. It's a close race, but the newer tools were a factor. Almost immediately upon getting solid footing, she's pulling her hood down and smiling over at Altair. "You're good." She extends a hand, the gold of her Daylight-and-Assassin ring catching in the light. "Evie Frye."

[eagle_eyes]

"You are too." Altair replied, his own handshake firm. "Alan Thorpe."

It's the name he's been using in the mortal world for a few years now, owning a few things and generally having a bit of a trail of existence. Fae he may be, but he spends enough time on the mortal side that it's worth having an alias to fall back on.

There's more than a hint of gold to his eyes, though it might be a trick of the light. More interesting is the missing finger on his left hand, though it isn't something that's been done for well over 800 years among the Assassins.

"May I look at your zipline creator? I have not seen one in action before."

[freelife]

"Good to meet you, Alan." Once she's let go of his hand, her own returns to the bracer on her left. "It's an update of an old design," she tells him as she unbuckles it. "So I don't need to tell you to be careful."

When she hands it to him, she catches a glimpse of his hand. Odd- she knew her Assassin history well enough to think of it, but what were the chances of meeting an Assassin from over 800 years ago? If anything, it was likely an accident or a birth defect. Still, it gave her a secret thrill, even if she was too polite to mention it.

"You can try it, if you like."

[eagle_eyes]

Altaïr fights back the urge to chuckle at the mention of it being an old design, "I am fairly familiar with other versions of similar." He replied idly, examining the mechanisms with rapt fascination. He's always had an interest in what others did in variation to improve the groundwork he'd laid down.

"I should greet you properly first, before we exchange equipment. Safety and peace, Sister." He nods to her ring, pulling his sleeve up enough to get at the buckles of his own hidden blade. It's a simple affair, steel housing around a thin blade with leather straps making up a low profile. He takes it off with practiced ease, offering it to her.

"You can hold on to mine as collateral, hm? You can think of what you would like for winning the race while I try yours."

[freelife]

Evie raises an eyebrow. "To you as well, Brother." Well then. That explained the missing finger. It was an Assassin practice. But did he simply subscribe to the old ways or was he truly that old? She could smell the magic on him, that much was true.

"I think that's a fair exchange." She accepted the blade. So simple in it's design, her own bracers a bit more ornate. Regardless, they both got the job done, and that's what mattered.

"Take your time, I've no idea what I want."

[eagle_eyes]

Altaïr rather hoped they hadn't picked up taking people's fingers off again, he'd be obliged to have a talk at whomever had thought to restart that particular tradition. He'd ended it for a reason.

It takes a few moments to get her bracer to sit comfortably on his arm, over his sleeve this time "I will not take too long, there are other things to take up time after all."

With that he's off, not returning for a good fifteen minutes. Though when he does it's with a wide grin. "I shall have to look in to building one for myself I think, and it's admittedly a bit more fun than you made it look, Evie Frye."

[freelife]

What's fifteen minutes to a vampire, anyway? Evie's content to wait for Altair's return. She stands up from the lean she'd taken against the wall at his return.

"I didn't make it look fun?" He sounds like her brother, and that gets a warm eyebrow raise. "Maybe I'll reconsider my intentions to give you an old one of mine, Alan Thorpe." She smiles through it, holding out his bracer.

[eagle_eyes]

"That's not how winning races works, generally, but if that is what you wanted to do as your prize... who am I to argue with the victor." He shrugged, settling on the lip of the entry and letting his legs swing over empty air as he removed her bracer and returned it.

"Tell me though, how many of us are in the city? I have not been here long and I am still getting the lay of the land and settled in."

[freelife]

"I never said that was what I wanted for my prize. Simply something I can do for a fellow Assassin." She was extremely helpful like that, and her zipline really was fun, okay?

With Altair taking a seat on the lip, Evie follows his motions as soon as she's got her bracer clipped back on. She settles in next to him, looking out over the city. Her city.

"Just the two of us, I'm afraid. I've only really just returned myself. I'm hoping my brother can join us."

[eagle_eyes]

Altaïr hummed at that, happily content to sit and chat as long as she wanted to.

"Two isn't a bad number, all considered. All it can take sometimes is only one of us to shake an entire region. Two or three should your brother arrive?" He let out a low chuckle. "Well. That is nearly an army of us. I heard the Brotherhood had a train here, I wonder if it or other relics have survived."

It was an idle if genuine curiosity, Altaïr had a certain sentimentality towards the history of the Assassins. There was a collection of things in his portion of the Other Side hoarded away, enough to send any historian in to fits of some sort at least.

[freelife]

Oh, her beautiful train hideout. "We did have one of those." Then Jacob just happened to get her destroyed. She was still miffed about that.

"I've been looking into seeing if I can return to old form. Perhaps something a bit more suiting the times, I was thinking." Get them their own tube. It'd be awfully convenient. "I don't suppose you'd have any interest in that?" Best the Assassins of London have a home base.

[eagle_eyes]

"Maybe a bus?" He suggested with a half joking smile, "I was planning on opening a... training center? Gym? Whatever you call them here; with the fighting rings and dummies people use to learn self defense and the like."

It made it a reasonable cover story if he ended up with bruises or injuries from less friendly fights, and practicing in the open was perfectly acceptable within it.

"Unless you think something else would work better? Not a bar though, everyone expects a bar to house something else these days, and I'm a terrible bartender."

[freelife]

She shakes her head. "too unstable. I hate riding atop the double-deckers. I always feel so off-balance." Running on top of trains was something else entirely.

"but a gym- now that I can get behind. I think it's just what we need. No, bars are so pasé." Alan had a decent sense of humor it appeared. "if you need an investor, you can count on my assistance." Like most vampires her age, she had money to burn.

[eagle_eyes]

"Oh, no worry on needing an investor. I have plenty of resources at my disposal, old bloodline. You know how it goes." he smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Though someone to spread the word of it being in existence and a... safe place to get out frustrations in the evening would go a long way, and I would repay you for doing so."

Which is likely far more valuable an offer on her end than it seems.

[freelife]

Old bloodline. "I do." He wasn't a vampire, like her, she knew that. Fae, if her nose was correct. Fae, and older than her, she'd guess. But despite the ambrosia that was fae blood, he was completely safe from her. She had a code of conduct, and would stick to it.

Evie considers his words. "That, I can do." Her mind immediately goes to Natasha. "Given it's just the two of us, I believe a surface invitation is open to the public?" His gym, his rules.