wakingthedead | testdrive | welcome to the new age.

Entry tags:

testdrive | welcome to the new age.

testdrive meme.

1. First Day At Falner
You have just arrived at Falner Estate, a sprawling, beautiful, 400-hectare co-located space between Britain, Germany, and the Philippines, and the main base of Netsach. The flora and fauna in the area gives both a sense of familiarity as it looks at first glance like things you’ll find on Earth, and a weird sense of otherworldliness. Given the size of the place, the Estate is less of a compound and more like a town unto itself. The older buildings within the estate are gothic in their construction, and clear throwbacks to 19th Century Europe. The newer facilities, however, sport cutting edge contemporary designs that were clearly inspired by Fourth World architecture and technology.

If you want a better idea on what can be found on the estate, you can refer to this link.

2. A Day On The Job
You are pushing papers at Methuselah, doing research at the Arcanum, or going out on patrol -- whatever it is that you're doing, it's just another day for you as a Hunter of the Vigil.

3. Let's Head Down to Haven
Find yourself itching for a night out on the town? Why not head over to Haven, the classy nightclub that looks like a large, monolithic black building with no visible windows from the outside and the name of the club emblazoned in bold, white letters on one side.

Haven is located in Makati City, and is open to the public (especially the local supernatural community), but you might want to prepare yourself to wait in line for a very, very long time – unless you’re a Hunter, of course.

Falner’s Maenad Division holds office on top of Haven, as does Ordo Daywalker. Some of Haven’s staff also live above the night club.

4. The Awakening
Want to tag out your character's origin story? Set the stage and let's see where things go.

5. Choose Your Own Adventure
If none of the suggested premises hit the mark, feel free to set things up and let's do a tag round.

Instructions for the Testdrive:
1. Specify your chosen scenario number on the subject line.
2. Should you wish to tag with a specific character already established within Waking the Dead, indicate who. The current list of available NPCs can be found over here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's a man out of place, that is for certain. What anyone is doing by the edge of this damnable lake is questionable now. Anri knows what he's doing here, but what about you Red Suit? He breathes out into the cold, like his lungs are still new, cold and fluttering in his chest. He kicks back a little makes more space between the two of them, as little as it is, it's a comfort, it's control. Not a lot of control, but enough to make him feel like he has a grasp on something.

I was dead. I swear I was dead. I saw it, everything. I saw it.

There are a lot of words that want to tumble out of his mouth like lake water, near black and frigid. He feels them all jumbled in the back of his throat as he tries to make some kind of noise. It goes from terrifying because how did the man get there to embarrassing because say something, damn you. He just swallows, lifting up his soaked sleeve to wipe at his mouth and nose like it will help at all. Maybe it does, maybe it's all in his head.

"Nice suit."

That's dumb, you're dumb.

But it's the only thing he can manage as he starts to slowly get to his feet, legs shifting under him. There's a heavy weight to living now, he feels it in his bones, something that wasn't there before. There's a price to pay and he's already started accruing the debt on this loan. Ishak, Ishak, Ishak. His eyes flick over to the lake briefly. There is no sign of him. He doubts he'd see any bit of him until the spring might decide to relinquish his bloated, cold body from the ice. He looks back at the blonde man, too clean-cut.

"Blanket'd be good... Inside." Cold. Coat. You are alive.

"Come with me, then."

Gabriel stands and turns away, as if there wasn't a boy struggling under the weight of a small breakdown/the shock of coming back from a death by drowning/waterlogged clothes/a geist crawling around in his brain. He's always been a strong believer in teaching another to swim partially by tossing them into the pool.

At least he doesn't toss them off in the deep end/ That would be a technique favored by some of his siblings.

"We'll go to my car."

Anri likes it better this way. The man turns his back and expects him to follow. He can feel his clothes stiffening in the cold, so he moves forward a few steps, the crunch of snow beneath his boots. It's almost like he took an accidental dump in the lake all on his own. He can pretend for a little while longer that none of this has happened, think that he's staving off the shock that's already settled in the marrow of his bones.

"Where're we going?"

He wraps his arms around himself, stopping briefly. He knows he doesn't exactly have anywhere to go anymore. He's died... (has he really?) What do I have left to lose?

"The parking lot past these woods - you're familiar, no doubt - and then we will go to a place that is warm, and is equipped to feed you well."

That last statement is coupled with a brief, appraising look in the boy's direction. Gabriel almost wishes that he was wearing his contacts, or his glasses: that would have given him instant information on this child that he has just saved. Then again, talking properly is also acceptable...

"If you are too cold to move properly, I can fix that."

Edited 2014-07-31 13:38 (UTC)

"I can walk," he says, the last word affording him a clip of his tongue in the back from chattering teeth. Moving forward, he forces himself to pick up the pace so that he's not following too far behind now. There are a few questions ramming straight through his head, one after the other. What's a guy like this doing out here? And why is he being so casual about everything?

"Why here? Middle of nowhere..." he says as he finally manages to flank him, just barely. Middle of the night more importantly.

"I was tipped off about what happened to you."

Gabriel slowed down just long enough to withdraw his wallet from his pocket, and flash his badge.

Messer Gabriel Marlowe of the Twilight Network of the Order of the Grateful Dead, Chapter: the United Kingdom. 010 of the Thrones, Herald of Hell's Winter.

Inquisitor [Netsach] / Senior Operative [the Methuselah] / the Rhiannon Group [Senior Agent] / Mortician [Zangyaku]

A Keeper of the Vigil.

"Unfortunately, I only arrived in time to pull you out of the water."

Tipped off...

Anri just furrows his brows a bit, sniffles and reaches up his wet sleeve to wipe at his nose, which just makes it cold and just as wet as before. His arm stop as he begins to lower it to his side again when the badge is flashed before him. His eyes don't want to focus, but he makes out a few of the words and it's enough to make it difficult to come up with a quick response.

If he's alive, why isn't Ishak?

In his head, it'd make sense for him to be. There's another cold chill that works its way up his spine like fingers walking against the bone, every synapse, every nerve.

"Just me? Not my brother too?"

He drowned you, he tells himself scathingly. Why does it matter? But Ishak had told him once that the things he does, he does them out of love. Does it even matter when it becomes this?

"Just you."

He could say things, at that point, about the arrogance of Suicide Cultists and how it was precisely their weakness of will that ensured that the majority of them never became what they so desperately wanted to be, but that wouldn't be very nice.

(Maybe he could say them later.)

"I would think that after what he tried to do to you, you would not be so worried."

So much for being nice.

"He was all I had."

The words fall out of his mouth before he has time to catch them, curb them into something a little more reasonable. It's desperation, it's not common sense. He tried to drown you, he was too far gone. He hadn't thought that Ishak would go and get himself wound up in some damnable religious nonsense that would end them both for the sake of ritualistic what have you.

"Everything."

"Ah."

He drops the topic because he actually gets it on several levels. Some of those levels are uncomfortable.

108 comes to mind, along with the Numbers they had to put down not too long ago. He perishes the thought instantly, especially since he can feel Father stirring in his head.

"What is your name?"

Anri is looking down at his fingers as they walk through the snow, thumb grazing the edges of all his cuticles. It keeps him awake, the sharp picking at his skin because everything is cold and even if he's the most alive he's felt in a long while, he feels as if he cold also sleep forever with the chill in his bones.

"Anri," he mumbles. "Obel."

"I see. Then I wish that we could have met under better circumstances, Mr. Obel."

Gabriel means it, even if his tone is low and almost ineffectual. Perhaps the measure of his care can be seen in the look in his eyes as he turns, once more, towards his young companion.

"Once you have warmed up and eaten something, we can discuss what happened to you."

We can discuss what happened to you.

What did happen to me?

I happened to you.

She doesn't say it, he just feels it, a soft stroke between the eyes like someone settling a beast. His heart is fluttering, racing to pump blood to his fingertips, to every freezing extremity. It slows everything down, the sensation of her, eases him in an oddly cold calm, one that he doesn't mind. He takes a deep breath and and blinks slowly once. Maybe she cares. Maybe she just doesn't want him to pass out from the shock. It's either selfish or kind. He doesn't know.

"The sooner the better," he says, meeting his gaze with a firm resolve. I have a lot of questions. He's not warm, but he definitely feels like he can make it to the car easier than before--stepping quickly now.

The plasm is practically bleeding off of the boy. Understandable: he should be dead, and now the Other in Anri Obel's head is working overtime to sweep away whatever damage she could from her new vessel's system.

"Looks familiar, doesn't it?"

It always does, father.

"Then you are lucky that there is a Maenad-controlled coffee house in this area."

Gabriel says that quietly as the two of them break free of the woods and find themselves both moving towards his car. It's nice and blue and the only vehicle in the area at the moment.

"'Kay."

He's short on words, in favor of keeping his teeth clenched so he doesn't accidentally bite his tongue when they click together.

The lonely look of the car being the only one in the area makes Anri briefly rethink his choices of following a complete stranger, but anything is better than sitting in the snow and freezing to death. She swarms and swells and while he doesn't want to admit it, it feels a little better.

He looks down at the door to the car and wraps his cold fingers lightly around the handle. He won't pull until there's an indication that it's unlocked or he can, but it's nice to move his fingers like this. Even the car is warm in comparison to the rest of him. A warm drink had already sounded good, but warm food might be even better. He doesn't know if it's reasonable to feel so hungry after something like this, but there's a certain comfort that a full stomach brings.

The car alarm goes off with an obedient chirp, and Gabriel slips into the front seat. He turns the engine on immediately, and turns the heater on. He waits for the boy to get in and shut the door before locking up.

"The towel I brought is behind you." He pauses there, and lifts the tumbler sitting on the cup holder up, holding it in Anri's direction. "Have this." It's warm coffee, fresh off the press.

Then Gabriel's pulling out of the parking lot.

The air in the car warms and almost stings, but it's more a blessing, even with the stinging against his skin. He turns around and grabs the towel behind him. He's rubbing his hair dry first when he sees the lip of the tumbler, letting the towel slide down his neck and taking it. Fingers wrapped around it, he nods. "Thanks... a lot. Really."

The car lurches forward easily, but Anri doesn't find himself leaning back easily into the seat, instead glancing out the window at the footprints left in the snow trailing back into the wood towards the lake. He shouldn't dwell on it, he knows that, but he does anyways, fingers drumming against the warm container before he lifts it to his mouth. The coffee goes down easily and the heat it gives radiates from his chest outwards.

Even if the lake water clings to his clothing like an old friend, heavy and dark, he smiles just a little bit, bringing the tumbler down. He's done all of his crying by the shore, why bring it anywhere else? Leave it.

Gabriel is quiet at first, if only because he's focusing on the road for the first five minutes of the trip. Then he's letting the car go on autopilot, and drawing up a light screen in the air in front of him. His fingers fly over the virtual keypad, quick and efficient.

"I will handle things with your government, and with the Methuselah. You will be registered as a Sin-Eater of the Fifth World." He turns his gaze towards the boy. "Is there anything you would like us to pick up for you? I do not think you can stay here anymore."

Official and easy things first. The rest can come once they are both settled.

Anri's brows furrow tightly and his lips thin. He turns to look at him, disregarding the question about his belongings for something more important now. His voice is steady, even, body growing warm again. "So where will I stay?" If not here, then where? He's never been out of his own country, ever, at all. To the sea once, but that's the farthest he's ever gotten.

"The Falner Estate. Supernaturals like yourself are considered 'special cases', and all special cases of the Vigil are brought there."

Gabriel fires off one last message (to Kyoya this time; an apology, a promise to make it up to him), and then speaks again.

"I have already contacted my superiors. I will be your guardian until things have settled down."

That did, of course, mean that he was going to take care of pretty much everything. He didn't mind.

The finality of it hadn't struck him until the last sentence. There were limited choices to be had, and for one thing, Mr. Marlowe was right. Looking out at the areas passing by, trees and soft lights and snow... all of this was best gone from him. There is no home left, just an empty shell, and there's no one left for him here, no family, no anchor to keep him bound here.

"Where's that? The Falner Estate," the quiet note from his voice lifts into curiosity as he inclines his head slightly. Open up, he thinks to himself. Not everyone gets to breathe another breath. Some, but not all.

If he'd been in his right mind, Ishak would have wanted him to move forward. His mother most certainly too.

"The Philippines, Germany, and Britain. It's a co-located space that serves as the headquarters of Netsach."

"The boy is remarkably calm."

We haven't talked about anything difficult yet.

"Fair point."

"You will not need to worry about much of anything for a while," Gabriel added. Admittedly, he was speaking out loud more for himself than for Anri at this point; Father's curiosity was starting to rise to the surface a bit quicker than he had predicted. "The people at Falner will take care of you, and I plan on making myself available until you are settled."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

testdrive | welcome to the new age.

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