Test Drive Meme: August-September 2017

[undergroundmods]

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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 potential players: Looking for an OOC space to brainstorm your AU? Head over to our permanent character workshop post to ask for feedback and share ideas.

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) WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE. Welcome to London! It's time to introduce yourself to your faction, to your fellow supernatural citizens, would-be friends, potential enemies... Will people quake with fear or awe when you enter the room? Or are you some nobody trying to make a name for yourself? Either way, gotta start networking.

2) THE RACE IS ON. The competition within your faction is even worse than the competition outside. That guy over there has turned sucking up to your boss into an art form. What about the woman who works out at 5am every morning and can probably punch through a wall? If you want to climb the ladder, you'd better start working harder.

3) THE WRONG DIRECTION. It's a big city and it's easy to get lost. Normally that's not such a big deal, but this time you've taken a wrong turn and ended up in hostile territory. If you're spotted by the wrong person, you could be in for a seriously bad time. Is there anyone around who can help?

4) NEVER LOSE CONTROL. You had one drink... or two... Maybe it's almost the full moon, or maybe there's some magic in the air messing with your hormones, but you're this close to going all out with your fangs or your claws or your magic. You need to get out of here, fast.

5) SWING IT, SHAKE IT. You've got a disco ball, a killer outfit and music so loud you can feel it pumping through the dance floor. Show the humans how it's done.

6) KARAOKE. It's karaoke night in one of London's favourite supernatural bars and that tone-deaf werewolf is hogging the mike again.

7) RUN AROUND. It seemed simple, right? One errand to run, just one. And yet the world seems to be conspiring against you. Your alarm didn't go off, you missed the bus or train, you got caught in traffic, someone spilled their drink on your brand new leather jacket, you tripped over and literally fell headfirst into a dumpster... Oh, God. Could this day get any worse?

8) CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. Anything goes.

Comments

Eponine Thenardier - Les Miserables - Vampire

[melancolique]

Never Lose Control
It's been just less than 24 hours since Eponine arrived in London. Even that short time, though, is enough for her to work out the faction system that dominates the city.
It's funny, really. She had lived in Paris for nearly the full entirety of her existence, both alive and as a vampire, but it is a city nothing like London with the complicated territory boundaries and politics galore. Montparnasse had warned her, had told her to go to Islington, and so she had. She was surprised, really, that he had bothered. Perhaps he did still care about her, a little bit.
She'd stumbled across the old cemetery in Bunhill Fields: she had no problem with breaking into one of the old mausoleums and making a bed on top of a crumbling coffin shelf. The irony of her resting place didn't cross her mind: hunger pangs instead consumed her and she decided to move on.

London, like Paris, never stops, and it didn't take long for a promising smell to attract Eponine. Sinking back into the shadows, she followed her prey on silent feet, not particularly taking note of where they led her.
She followed for ages, until at last, they stopped. Eponine did too, hesitating in the shadows to compose herself before stepping fully into the street behind her prey.

"Excuse-moi!" she called. "Your coin -" she held a pound coin out to her victim: once they were close enough, she could grab and slam in this quiet street, and disappear into her grave before anybody realised what had happened.


Run Around

So it's one job - one quick job and Eponine had been promised a couple of blood pouches to tide her over the weekend. To Eponine, it seemed a lot. Montparnasse tended to control her blood consumption, to keep her dependant on him. Little and often. Two whole pouches from a blood donor seemed like a lot to her. The shot of fae blood too, would be welcome. She was on a come-down, and her hands were already shaking. She needed her fix.

Eponine would have to hurry, though, if she were to get the promised blood. It was a letter, and she felt for it again, zipped into her jacket pocket as it was. The last thing she needed would be to lose the bloody thing.
She ran, elbowing her way through throngs spilling out of bars and clubs.
The smell, the alcoholic hum that hung in the air, made her salivate: she loved the bitterness of vodka running through a clubber's blood. It took her full determination to keep running.
One throng though, stopped her in her tracks. A fight was going on between two men: a girl stood in tears, as a circle of bodies penned the three in, pushing the men back towards one another when they tried to break free.

"Fucking MOVE!" Eponine grumbled, and began to elbow her way through again, jostling bystanders as she went. "Come on! Idiots. Just MOVE!"

Choose your own!
Eponine can generally be found skulking about the streets of Islington, window shopping both food (people) and clothes, and simply enjoying her freedom. She's set up her camp in Bunhill Fields, an old graveyard in central Islington, and will be wandering around there too. She is also on the look-out for people dealing the less than savoury items - especially fae blood.

Never Lose Control

[dredefulchilde]

"That's dangerous," says a voice, behind Eponine. Swim away, little fish; Joscelin needs a word with the shark.

"You're not supposed to feed on the unwilling. It's too messy. Jean-Claude won't like it."

[melancolique]

The person Eponine had approached looks up, startled at Joscelin's words. He eyes Eponine, taking in her disheveled appearance and the hungry look in her eyes, before turning away and shouting to Joscelin to be careful.

Eponine watches the man go, sighing resignedly before rounding on Joscelin. The coin is pocketed quickly, lest he attempt to take it from her.
"And what is it to you what I do, Monsieur?" she asks, before laughing contemptuously. "A child as well. I am not afraid of your Jean-Claude."

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin isn't rattled in the least. He cooly appraises the girl, taking in her dirty clothes, her matted hair. He had been this desperate before, many times.

"You ought to be, given that this is his territory and that the Duke of London's writ is law. Here." He hands her a hip flask. It's blood, cold and hours old, but enough to take the edge off. "Drink this and come with me."

[melancolique]

She starts to say that she doesn't care who's law is in rule here, but she stops at the sight of the flask. Even with the lid on, she fancies she can smell it. She half reaches a hand out for it, but she stops herself before she can take it. Her fingers, mere centimetres away, tremble.

"What do you want for it? I've got - I have some coins somewhere." It's better the deal is out in the open now, before he can demand something ridiculous of her. She's learned that lesson once too often with Montparnasse and his friends.

[dredefulchilde]

"Just for you to stop trying to get yourself killed, hunting humans like that," Joss replies, sounding exasperated. Not that he would particularly care if she did get herself killed, but he doesn't want to make trouble for Jean-Claude. "Now are you going to come with me, or are you just going to stand there, gawking?"

[melancolique]

"That's it?" Her fingers close around the neck of the flask, and she wrenches it away from Jos with all of her strength. She guzzles what she can, gulping mouthfuls, barely tasting the thick, bitter liquid in her mouth. It doesn't matter though, does it, what it tastes like. Food is food and Eponine isn't picky.

When she's done - when the flask is empty anyway, she wipes the stray dribble from her chin, and licks the blood from her fingers, sucking earnestly at her skin to make sure every bit is swallowed.

"God, it has been so long. Monsieur - three, four days, maybe? I daren't stop until I reached London, not to feed. He said two nights to walk here, that's all I had. Two nights, from Calais to London. He is a bastard -" she spits hard on the floor. "But so. I daren't stop, and my belly - well, you know how it is. Everything, there is a red, like someone covers my eyes with red chiffon from the shows, and I see only a shadow of the person, and their heart, it boom, boom! in my ears, in my blood, and my body vibrates to them. I had to taste, don't you see? I needed something to fill my belly. But to fancy - a whole flask, and all for me! Well, it will keep me for another day or so at least. And there are rats. Not so good, but it is a bite, no?"

She grins, her eyes losing focus for a moment, as she savours the fullness in her belly. "Where do we go? You say Jean-Claude? You know of him properly?"

[dredefulchilde]

What the hell is the girl going on about? Joscelin is beginning to deeply regret his decision to help her. She's obviously strung out on something more than human blood, and she's babbling at him like he's just become her new best friend. God's wounds. This is going to be a long night.

Unless he just kills her and is done with it, but Jean-Claude wouldn't like that--and he left his stake at home.

"Look--" he cuts her off, trying to stem the flow of words "--just...just come with me. Yes, I know Jean-Claude, but we need to get you cleaned up first. You smell." He sees no reason to be tactful about it. "Then I will introduce you to him and you two can go off and be French together to your heart's content."

[melancolique]

"Well, perhaps you would to, if -" But what is the point in even protesting? She knows she's dirty: it's not like her scruffiness is a choice though, and it's definitely not nice to have it pointed out to her. She hugs her jacket just a little bit closer to her body, as if that will prevent her unpleasant smell from reaching Joscelin's nostrils. It's definitely embarrassing, and Eponine's gaze shifts to the floor, which she scuffs with her battered boot.

"I don't think he'll want me, Monsieur, not to go off with. Unless..." It occurs to her then what Joscelin might be implying, and she quietens. Of course. How silly of her not to think of that. Why wouldn't Montparnasse set her up for that? It wouldn't be the first, nor the last time, that he played such a trick on her.
She nods at Jocelyn. "As he wishes, I suppose. If there is more blood in the end for me."

Never Lose Control

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy looked back when she heared the voice. Automatically, her hand flew to her purse, her green eyes looking down. She had been quite sure she hadn't dropped anything, but a familiar hunger rose up in her stomach, propelling her forward with her hand outstretched for the coin.

"Shit, yeah, thanks-" she said, smiling at the other girl in the dim light.

Re: Never Lose Control

[melancolique]

As soon as Nancy's hand is close enough, Eponine goes to close her own fist over Nancy's wrist, so that she might pull the girl quickly into the shadows. It's not neat. It's not even particularly efficient, but style has gone completely out of the window in Eponine's desperate hunger.

Perhaps Nancy will notice the moon glinting from Eponine's fangs. Perhaps she's already realised Eponine's intention, before Eponine attempts to press her up against a wall.

"It won't hurt, Madame," Eponine mutters. "It is like a kiss. Just close your eyes and it will be like -" her face is close now.
"I swear, it won't hurt a thing."

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy knows what is happening, as the girl's fingers close around her wrist. Shit, she thinks too late. A small woman, she's easily pressed against the wall. No, she knows what this is. What the girl wants. What Nancy does not want to give her.

"Don't do this," she says, trying to keep her voice even, her heartbeat steady.Maybe Eponine notices the scars on her neck from other fangs before. "I'm- I'm Cooper's girlfriend- you don't want to do this." Calling on Cooper's name, the same way she has on occasion called on Bill's.

"I know magic and I will use it."

[melancolique]

Who the hell is Cooper? The name means nothing to Eponine, and her contemptuous laugh emphasises it.
"Say as you will, Madame, but I am hungry." She runs a finger over Nancy's neck, over the scars there.
"Cooper is a vampire?" she asks, in surprise. But it doesn't matter, not really, does it? She goes to push Nancy's face, to force her to turn her head.

"It is just a little. God, just to taste even a drop - but no! A taste is a tease. It is better to have none than just a taste. But if you die, shall Cooper tell Montparnasse?" A flicker of doubt creeps into her eyes, just for a moment, and she hesitates.

"But I am so hungry, God, I think even a beating will be worth it, and I should do anything to avoid that, you know? It is the worst in the world, for your arse to be so sore you cannot sit, or your stomach that you cannot bend to do even a lace. He is not here besides, not any of them, so why should I fear it? No, it is silly to be afraid, for if it comes, it shall. But I will take it for my God, I think I will go mad without it."

"I am sorry, Madame." She prepares to bite.

[stauncherhearted]

"Cooper'll do worse'n that!" She threatens. "He works for the Night Council- look we're both friends of Jean-Claude. He'd be very upset for either of us to get hurt." So please don't bite her. please.

It's funny, going from a girl six months ago who sold her blood for money and now was asking the vampire not to take it from her.

Eponine moves in closer and at the last moment Nancy says: "I know what it's like- to be hungry and sore. I can take you to someone that you can feed from. Someone willing. Please- I have little brothers that need me."

[melancolique]

It stops her. It's the desperation in Nancy's voice that stops Eponine. The idea of a brother.
Eponine's grip doesn't loosen, but she leans back a little.

"I had a brother, and a sister. I do not know - I did not see them when he -"

There's desperation in her expression, mirroring Nancy's pleas.

"It has been days, Madame. Days. I do not know the length, but you know how it is? When all around you, the world moves and you are a ghost to it? Nothing has felt real, only you. I can feel your blood in your arm, Madame. I can smell - God! I am half crazy for it. Even just a drop - but your brothers."

She closes her eyes, scrunching up her pale face as she fights herself not to give in and just lunge at Nancy.
Slowly, her grip loosens, and she moves back, away from Nancy.

It's the hardest thing she's ever done.

[stauncherhearted]

"Thank you- thank you!" She's thanking the woman, taking a few steps away from the wall, toward the street.

"Let me help you, for your kindness. We're in Islington. Let me see if I can find you a donor, so that you can eat. Poor thing." She knew how awful hunger was, to be on the streets.

"You're new in town, I'll take it?" she had never seen her, after all, and her accent was clearly French.

[melancolique]

"You thank me for not drinking from you?" Eponine laughs, and shakes her head at the absurdity of it all. "You wish to help me? Madame, are you mad?"

She follows Nancy, her hands wrapped around her middle, hugging tight.

"I've been here perhaps a night? I don't know. It all begins to be the same, you know? It is queer when I have not eaten a while." It doesn't help that her last intake of blood was fae either: she'd been off her face on the cargo train from Calais.

"And you? You are from round here, aren't you? I hear it in your voice."

Never Lose Control

[peacefulvamp]

"I do not believe that is my coin," Godric's voice is soft, but still loud enough to be heard. He tilts his head, just slightly, looking at the young one. "But if you have found it, you may as well keep it. A pound will not buy much in this world, but it may be put towards a drink." And then: "have you long arrived from Paris?"

[melancolique]

She has been stalking a vampire?

Eponine's heart sinks as she pockets the coin silently. It is getting worse, her hunger. So desperate that she cannot tell the living from the undead. If Montparnasse were here, if any of the Patron Minette were here, they would laugh at her. How ridiculous, not recognising her own kind.

She licks her lips. "Two nights, three, Monsieur, perhaps. It is a long way to walk from Dover, and I have no protection from the sun." She shrugs, and turns away. His words make her think though.

"You know of me? From Paris? Are you Jean-Claude, Monsieur, or Monsieur Borgia?"

[peacefulvamp]

"I know of the accent," Godric explains. "It betrays your home," though the tone is his own voice makes it clear that it is not a bad thing. "It has been many years since I have been back to France. I once considered it my home." That had been ... well, back when he was human, and perhaps for his first few centuries. He did have a tendency to be contrary when he was younger.

"You walked from Dover?" He sounds vaguely impressed. He did not know many vampires who would risk the walk, without already having secured places to stay when the sun was out.

[melancolique]

"I had no choice." Eponine shrugs. "My master - he says I must do it, and he takes my necklace. It is his punishment, you see? A year here, or I die on the way. I don't think he cares no more. I have screwed with him too much, you see?" She spits on the floor.

"But perhaps you will know him, and say to him now? You won't tell on me, will you? Monsieur, I know you shan't peach on me." She shrugs again.
"If you are from Paris, if it were your home, you shall have heard of my clan? The Patron Minette?"

[peacefulvamp]

"Your creator, he still controls you." Godric understands this, to an extent. He still held sway over his Childe, but then again he did not treat his like this girl's treated her. "Your necklace? Was there significance to it?"

And then, a small laugh. "When I was last in Paris, it did not go by that name, and this... Patron Minette did not exist." When his Master had taken him from Gaul... Well, Godric had yet to return, apart from a brief time near Versailles during the Revolution. Perhaps he should visit again.

[melancolique]

"He shan't let me go so easily. I have a life sentence." Eponine grins, as if the idea doesn't bother her. Truly, she can't let it bother her, or it'd surely drive her mad. It is a bittersweet sentence too: there are times she can honestly say that she truly loves Montparnasse, but there are just as many that he becomes her jailor.

"My necklace is magic. He gives it me - my Parnasse. He gives it me so that I can feel the sun again, but he is cross with me now. There is no sun for me."

She shakes her head. "But of course, Monsieur, you must excuse me, for how silly I am. Of course he is not known as Patron Minette then. They change the name, of course, for they are criminals and villains all, to the humans at least. They hide in the Underworld, M'sieur. Such a gentleman as you should not know such people as me and my Master."

[peacefulvamp]

"Ah," Godric says. Of course, he has heard of such things, but he did not think they were so easily available that this girl's master could have had one. Granted, it was entirely possible he was just thinking down on the man because he was not proving to be a good sire but... Everyone had their hang ups.

"I am no gentleman," he said. "I am simply... long lived."

[melancolique]

"You're a gentleman to me, Monsieur," Eponine replied. She shrugged. "Now, if you are to excuse me. It is nice you want to talk to me, but words do not fill a belly, no?"