thetube | Test Drive Meme: February/March 2017

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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) SOMETHING NEW. Welcome to London! Spring is approaching but it's still bloody freezing, the wind is howling (are you sure it's the wind?) and your umbrella isn't much use when the rain is driving into you from the side. Maybe the appeal of a new experience is what brought you here. Does the reality match your expectations?

2) RUN THIS SHOW. You are the host of an event designed to showcase the particular skills and power of your people or faction. It can be small scale or ridiculously lavish, but this is your chance to enter the spotlight and show the supernatural community what you're made of.

3) CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. The police are after you. Maybe you did it, maybe you didn't, but they're on to you and now it's your job to make sure the case goes cold. Don't want to leave a supernatural paper trail.

4) WALK ON THE WILD SIDE. London's many parks are a haven for those who like some greenery in their concrete jungles. Popular and peaceful during the day, at night things are different. When the moon is full or the wind blows from a certain direction, the balance of magic can shift and open up ways into the far wilder woods of the Other Realm. Alternatively... you got really really drunk and passed out in a field.

5) BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK. Let's face it: you have a thousand reasons to be paranoid. Maybe the powers that be have it out for you. A werewolf or vampire wants to eat you. You pissed off a shapeshifter just last week. There's a hunter trying to kill you, a witch trying to control you, a fae that wants to kidnap you, a ghost haunting you. Hell, maybe they really are all out to get you. Are you in real trouble this time... or are you scared of your own shadow?

6) FOLLOW THE LEADER. Take your pick: your boss has ordered you to a) threaten an enemy; b) approach a potential ally who might side with you against a common foe; c) dispose of a dead body; d) deal with a spillage at table four. Good luck.

7) GO GO GO. There's nothing like a morning run. Maybe you're training for the London Marathon in April, maybe it's a good way of working out your hunting instincts, maybe you just like to keep in shape. Wait, did that guy deliberately overtake you? Don't get competitive now.

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

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Nancy had seen it all. The girl taking the lipgloss, the angry retail worker. This served as enough of a distraction for Nancy to do what the other girl had failed: steal some lipgloss.

What? just because she had a (now legal) job and a wealthy boyfriend didn't mean she wasn't going to keep her fingers light. and makeup was so expensive! and with all the money she was giving to Fagin still for the boys? Her kleptomania was completely justified.
So using the distraction, Nancy loaded her bag up and made her way out of the store, Nancy wasn't really paying attention to where she was going. Thus her bumping into the very girl that provided her cover.

"shit!" she swore, catching herself before she fell. "Oh! sorry! are you alright?" she turned to the girl now that they were safely away from the store's doors.

"Fine. Just… fine." But Lydia wasn't fine. She'd been accused of stealing for goodness sake. Hurriedly, she pushed her umbrella into her bag, and her gloves back into her pocket.

And then she stopped, and actually looked up. "No, hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just walk into you like that. I'm just having a totally shit day." She sniffed for emphasis. "Such a basic store." The Americanism feels a bit alien on her tongue, and she's not sure why she's used it, except all of the cool Youtube bloggers are using it. And Lydia's cool, right? Right.

Super cool. Don't worry.

Nancy frowns for the girl. "That's awful-" she'd seen part of it, and she feels a slight tug of guilt. That's what spurs her to ask: "D'you want to talk about it? I heard you mention a drink and there's a pub on the corner."

there was a pub on every corner.

"weird offer from a stranger, I know."

"I always say a stranger's a friend you've not met yet," Lydia sniffed again, but brightened up at the prospect of a drink. It was this attitude that had so often led her into trouble, but no matter. It was a girl at least.

True enough, a pub wouldn't be her first choice; she was drawn more by the glitzy bars and clubs that littered the streets, but in a pinch, a pub would do. Lydia grinned and nodded.

"Well, they better have nice wine." She put her arm out for Nancy to link, should she want to.
"I'm Lydia."

A girl in a loving, committed relationship. Plus, if she was right, this other girl was a witch. "That's a good way to put it," she says with a smile and begins to lead the way to the pub. Nancy's more at home in dark seedy bars, though this one is far more generic than that.

"nice t'meet you, Lydia. I'm Nancy." She slides her arm through Lydia's and leads them through the door into the pub. "They should at least have a decent house wine." Nancy, meanwhile, was ordering herself a glass of whiskey.

"House wine?" Lydia wrinkles her pert nose. "I'll have a red. Shiraz. Here -" she hands over her credit card. "It's on me, to make up for mowing you down."

She spots a table with a couple of comfy chairs around it near the centre of the pub. Perfect. She likes to sit somewhere noticeable, just on the off chance of an eligible bachelor wandering in.

"So you're a student too?" Nancy's about her age, right?

"oh you don't have to!" Nancy says but she won't stop Lydia from paying at all. "But thank you."

Nancy takes her seat and looks around. time to make sure she knows where the exits are. Just in case. She didn't think there was any sort of need, but it was an old habit and they died hard.

She tries not to laugh at the question. "me? goodness, no. Couldn't afford it if I tried." She smiles warmly.

"My dad says it's a total waste of money. Lizzie says that too. But who cares? It's what you do after college. Three years of nonstop partying, fit boys and - you never know, do you? I know loads of people who met their soul mate at uni." Lydia gushes, before taking a sip of her wine.

"You could get a loan, you know? You don't need money to go to uni."

"I bet," she says warmly. "Girl like you probably has loads of lads knocking on her door." Lydia is pretty, anyone can see that. "No need to rush." Nancy herself had been pretty much dating since she was far far too young. Her ex-boyfriend had been significantly older than her, and her current one was even older.

Nancy takes a drink of her whiskey, wondering why it's Bill that comes to her mind, not Cooper, at the mention of a soul mate.

she laughs a little. "it's more complicated than that for me, I'm afraid, with or without a loan. But that's a long story." She waves it aside.

That's okay. Lydia's not going to pry. Truth be told, she's not particularly interested. She's not particularly interested in anything much that doesn't directly affect her.

She sips her wine. It's not too bad for a pub. She sips again.

"God, I wish. I live in the bloody sticks - it's practically a farm, can you believe? The only men around are fat old friends of my dad's. When school was in, it was alright. The lads at the boarding school were a bit of alright. Do you have a boyfriend?"

She laughs. "I know the feeling- I grew up in Saffron Hill. for a while it seemed I only had my brothers and family friends." She hates calling Fagin a father.

"you don't seem like a farm sort." which is a complement.

Nancy digs into her purse past stolen cosmetics to pull out an equally stolen phone. A few swipes and clicks and she shows Lydia a picture of her and Cooper. This one was from the train, when he'd officially joined the Night Council. Cooper was the Vampire representative, and in the photo wore a sharp black suit that made him look even more pale.

"That's Cooper. We've been together nine months or so, living together." she's so proud of him.

"God no! I loathe it! I've been dying to come to the city - it's where all the fashionable lot go - the Oxbridge rejects, you know? And God knows I don't want a geek."

She looks with interest at the picture of Cooper. He's a good looking guy, paler than what she'd like, but this shop girl's done well to score a catch like him. Fair play to her.

"Living together? That's a big step! I don't think I'd fancy that, you know? Easy come, easy go, that's my motto." She has no intention of settling down too quickly.

"Don't you miss just having fun?"

she laughs. "I would love to live in the country," she explains. "nice and peaceful. Maybe when I settle down I'll be able to move out there." But her life was in London.

There's another laugh as she works on her drink. "Oh gosh, no- before cooper I was with this one bloke for five years, easy. I thought for sure we'd get married. I've never been one really to just have fun, as you say." She'd been a prostitute. That was enough fun for her.

"now, give me a good party and that's another story."

"There aren't many parties in the countryside. The best I got were a couple of charity balls, and rven then they were full of the old stiffs." Nancy doesn't seem like the ttpe to hanker over the countryside any more than Lydia is.

Lyfia actually tries to work out the maths of Nancy's relationships. Her expression becomes more and more confused, until finally she just blurts out,

"How old are you? I thought you were my age, and if you're loads older, it's really skeevy that you didn't tell me!"

"there will be loads here," she says confidant in her words. "Just you wait." Seriously, the supernatural community had a ball every week it seems.

Nancy winces. "oi! No, I'm twenty. and I have loads of younger friends. it's not skeevy that way." and age really didn't matter to her anyway. Hello, her boyfriend was over 200 years old.

"This is so fab!" Lydia enthuses. "No mother, no classes, just party, shopping and cocktails. Perfect!"

Her grin falls though: "Oh hey! I didn't mean it like that - we're friends, right? But if you've been with this one nine months, and the other one five years, then you were like fourteen. Man, that's young to be in a serious relationship. How could you have fun like that?"

Nancy laughs, taking another drink. "You'll love it, I'm sure." She'd have to introduce her to Caroline, come to think of it. The two would get along famously. Or hate each other completely. But she was always really good at figuring out how well people would interact together.

No, no she wasn't. She was actually the worst at that.

She was younger than fourteen, too. she had been with Bill for five years, but he'd been in prison for some time, time she didn't count towards their five years. But those were awful details she didn't want to go into. She knew how most people felt about things like that.

"We are friends- we are." she assures her. "And I had a lot of fun- Bill was a bit older, so..." she flutters her eyelashes a bit. She'll just leave it at 'a bit older'. No need to get actual ages in there.

"And trust me, I'm having loads of fun with Cooper." Helped, when he had the sex drive of a seventeen-year-old.

"Well, that's alright then!" Lydia grins. "You're better off than me, though. I swear my father thinks I'm a nun or something."

She takes a sip of her wine. "Not any more though. What dearest daddy can't see, his heart won't worry after." Lydia has very little plans of actually studying now she's reached London and freedom. As far as she's concerned, it's party time.

"So what do you do for fun? When you're not hooking up with your Cooper then?"

Nancy beams at her, "Pity my father always thought the opposite." Fagin had been the one to toss her on the streets in the first place. It was only recently she'd managed to get herself a legitimate job, and she was proud of her job. Even if it was technically under the table.

She raises her glass at Lydia's declaration. "That's the way to do it, then." That's how she felt about most things. What people didn't know wouldn't hurt them. It was the difference between lying and never giving the information in the first place.

"Well, I work at a repair shop in Richmond," she says, "I'm in charge of inventory. Other than that, it's a lot of spending time with my brothers and friends. I've got a lot more free-time than I'm used to, right now. I need to get out running more, as well. But what about you? Other than accidentally shoplift."

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Test Drive Meme: February/March 2017

option 2- commence witches with the best taste in men!

but of course!

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