testdrive | welcome to the new age.

[geistnet]

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.

Comments

[anteayer]

He was frowning, now, at Segan's silence, and the discomfort she was showing. Temo's expression, meanwhile, became one of worry as he tried to get a better look at the Technomancer's face.

"You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to", Gray assures her. But he was definitely going to look up what happened at a more convenient time. "It must have been pretty bad down there if a Netsach Inquisitor had to go check it out".

Do you want to make this thread "canon" for the game now that we've started?

[interceptive]

"Oh, it's okay. I don't mind too much."

As things stood, Segan believed that - her own personal discomfort aside - it was important to spread the word. Big Rock wasn't an isolated case from what she had gathered.

"It could have been worse? I mean, I won't say that I wasn't the only one who suffered, but I was their prime target." She pauses there in order to get her cigarettes. "One of the instructors tried to molest me. When I reported it, he used his influence in the school to make my life really difficult since I refused to give in."

Yeah, Sure :)

[anteayer]

Gray's lips twist into a grimace at that, but it was Temo who gave voice to their thoughts on that.

"Que? He really did that?" and then he saw his dragon give a loud snort as he flapped his wings in agitation. "I can't believe it! The nerve of that guy! What the was that culero thinking that he could do that to you? And there were other people who were having similar problems there?"

"And how long did it go in your case?" Gray asks, the slight edge in his tone further hinting what he was thinking on the issue.

Great! Can we set it for the evening of June 11?

[interceptive]

It was kind of nice to actually have people who believed her, for once, and seemed to care about what had happened in Big Rock. Inquisitor Eve Brea had been the first.

"Long enough to make me the only student in Big Rock's entire history to get set back a year." It takes a real act of will to not get angry about it, on Segan's end. "I was in my fifth year when Inquisitor Brea came around."

She pauses there, to light up her cigarette.

"Anyone who tried to help me, students or faculty, ended up suffering for it somehow. Eventually, people just stopped bothering."

Yep! That Works

[anteayer]

"Pendejos malditos..." Gray swears softly as he's shaking his head in disbelief. "Five years... They were able to keep that under wraps from everyone else in all that time?"

No wonder Big Rock was such a big topic these days. Something like this should have been spotted a lot sooner and taken care of right away. He could only imagine just how outraged Inquisitor Brea had been when she was there.

"I hope your old instructor got what was coming for him... as did anyone who helped him screw you over".

Okay, yay!

[interceptive]

"Inquisitor Brea handled things, I think. She didn't give me any details, though."

Segan, however, felt that she did not really have to know unless people wanted to tell her. It did not matter now, especially since she was in a better place now and in the position to go back to reaching for her dream of becoming a part of Taskforce Valkyrie.

XD

[anteayer]

He sees Temo nod thoughtfully at that while settling down. "Well, that's probably good enough for us. Right, Gray?"

"Si" Gray replies, taking a long sip from his drink to help him calm down. "And you're well on your way to becoming a hunter six months from now".

The smile returns, and soon turns into a faint grin that Temo promptly emulated.

"That said, I wish you the best, Miss Brooke. You're going to have a really good time studying at Balamb, even if you're an ASC student".

[interceptive]

"Thanks, I'm pretty sure I will!"

As things stood, Balamb already looked awesome on principle, just like the rest of the Falner Estate. Segan couldn't wait to tell her family about it when they called in next week.

[anteayer]

"So, yeah! Moving back to more interesting things, I think I asked about your hometown, Segan?" Temo asks, wagging his tail happily as the mood lightened up again.

Gray lets him continue with his questioning. A quick check of his phone showed that he still had time to hang around before he had to head home and get some rest for tomorrow.

Hence, he is quickly (but quietly) going through the last of his dinner, washing down the food with more sips of his iced tea as he listened.

[OOC: He's already had a couple of shots earlier, and he's not planning on having more if he wants to wake up fit for patrol xD]

[interceptive]

"Oh, right."

What was there to say about Redtree, really? She loved the place, and for a long time, it had been the expansion of her world. Things were different now, though.

"Redtree's tiny, as in, so tiny that you could pass by every building in it in under an hour, and we only had one stoplight."

[anteayer]

"Uh-huh. Uh-huh." Temo gives two nods to emphasize his reply. "And I'm guessing nothing really interesting happened over there for you? Well, aside from you becoming a Technomancer and all, but that's kind of interesting in a different way".

Hearing the name 'Redtree', though, made Gray blink once. It seemed to ring a bell in his head. And so, he's glancing again at Segan as he tries to recall any time that a town called Redtree had ever been mentioned.

[interceptive]

"Actually, Redtree was way too interesting for a town of its size."

Segan's smiling down at her drink now. It was frightening back then, but at the end of it all, nearly everyone made it out okay.

"Grendal had a Source there." 'Source' being the slang for a reality rip that Grendal's forces used to create in order to summon Wrecks. "My town got attacked every night from the beginning of the Hours of Grendal all the way until 2060."

[anteayer]

If hearing what really went down at Big Tree had been a shock to Gray and Temo, then it paled, now, in comparison to how stunned both of them were as they stared, mouth agape.

Gray is the one who spoke up moments later. "Wait, Grendal?"

Now everything was quickly coming together in his mind: why the town's name was familiar, and what that in turn led to him remembering. He's blinking now a couple of times on top of sharing a brief glance with his dragon.

"I think I did a bit of reading on that before... How a small town worked together with other communities in the area to hold back Grendal's monsters? And all because a retired general led them through it..."

He's trailing off for a moment as the general's name comes to mind, and he's giving Segan a somewhat floored look. "Your dad was that general, right? Mathis Brooke?"

[interceptive]

"Yeah, that's him."

A brilliant smile lights Segan's face up at that point because she is proud of her father, and proud of what they managed to do. They all could have lost so much, but they didn't. And Redtree survived, just like the tribes in the area had, against all odds.

"I'm kind of surprised that you know about it."

She had not thought that word about Redtree had traveled that far down.

Manipulation 2 + Subterfuge 2 (Specialty: Hiding Emotions): 1 4 9 8 4 = 2 Successes

[anteayer]

Gray takes a few seconds to center himself, and he's already putting that mask on his emotions as he gives Segan a shrug.

"Well, I did a lot of reading down at the Arcanum in my spare time... Plus, what went down at your hometown is the kind of news I used to hear over at dinner back in Mexico".

He pauses, then, to take a sip from his iced tea, still calm for all intents and purposes. Deep down, though, he was starting to get a little agitated as he continued speaking.

"My dad's an army general. And he'd always try to keep tabs on news of what was happening abroad, especially when the Darkest Vigil was still raging on".

Temo, meanwhile, could sense his emotions, but he was (thankfully) doing a good job of hiding his own discomfort as he chimed in. "Hey! That's one thing you got in common with him, Segan! Generals for dads! And I'm guessing your dad must be really awesome if he could get your whole town together to beat Grendal! Not that I'm ignoring what Mr. Magallanes has done, but yeah..."

Wits (3) + Empathy (3) = 8, 0 (reroll 6), 0 (reroll 8), 4, 3, 2 = 4 successes.

[interceptive]

Something feels a little bit off in the way that Gray is reacting to her. Segan can't exactly pinpoint why. Was Grendal a bit of a trigger for him? It made sense, if it ever was. Was his father a tick?

While she noticed, however, she decides not to press.

"We all did what we could in Redtree. It was pretty obvious to everyone that not doing your part meant other people getting hurt, so..."

[anteayer]

That earned a somber nod from Gray as he finally calmed down enough to let the mask fall away. Segan didn't need to know how traumatized he had been (and how badly that had affected his parents and siblings) due to what Grendal had done years ago. And the last thing he wanted, right now, was to think about all the people they had killed...

"Well, it all worked out in the end. That's what matters".

And he's taking another sip from his tea as he started to recover. And he's giving Segan that inquisitive look, again, as another question came to mind.

"But I'm guessing that the Wreck attacks had something to do with you becoming a Technomancer?"

[interceptive]

"Yeah, I got my gift under duress."

Not a pleasant memory, that, but because it all worked out in the end, Segan doesn't mind discussing it.

"Some Wrecks managed to get into the town, and were chasing after my brother Felix and I. The car wouldn't start, and I ended up jumpstarting it just by touching it and wishing REALLY hard that we'd get out of the fight alive."

[anteayer]

Huh.

Gray winces nonetheless as he gave another nod. It wasn't as bad as his Awakening had been (ignoring the fact that they awoke to different powers), but he still couldn't help but relate with her, as he would with anyone else whose gifts manifested under similar circumstances.

"So you're the only one who became supernatural? Or did someone else in your family awaken that time?"

[interceptive]

"Well, my father and my sister are both Sleepwalkers. My brothers are about as 'dead' as Deadwalkers come."

Segan, though, speaks of her family with visible fondness. She really, really loves them.

[anteayer]

Temo cocks his head to one side upon hearing that. "And your mom? What about her?"

Gray throws a pointed look to his dragon at that, and he's already thinking that asking that might have been the wrong thing to do.

[interceptive]

Segan notices that, of course, but her smile never wavers. Her eyes, though, are grateful.

"It's okay, Temo." Then, to Gray: "My mother died when I was 12. The water supply got tainted with a strain of Coldshadow, and she wasn't able to fight it off. She was a registered Technomancer, so that must have been where I got my gift from."

This does make her visibly sad, but it's also clear that she's had closure for the issue already, and dealt with her grief.

[anteayer]

And Gray's going to give another understanding nod. Temo, meanwhile, looked very contrite as he curled himself up in his seat, mumbling an apology to Segan nonetheless.

"It probably did", Gray says, before glancing down at his food. "If so, at least some part of her is still with you. And even then, death doesn't really take away the ones we love when we keep them close, in our thoughts and in our hearts".

[interceptive]

"I agree with that. Your relationship with them only really ends when you let it end."

And then Segan's smiling down at Gray's dragon, and reaching out to pet him on the head.

"It's really okay!"

[anteayer]

As he watches, he'll see Temo perk up almost instantly at Segan's touch, before letting out something of a draconic purr as his wings flapped happily. "Okay. If you say so", he says. "You're really nice, Segan. I bet Gray could learn a thing or two from you on loosening up".

"Hm? And what's that supposed to mean?" Gray throws an offended look, now, at his dragon. "I'm only that hard on you when you get carried away with all your talking".

"I don't care. You still act like a jerk sometimes", Temo sticks his tongue out at his partner afterwards.

"Oh, now you're just being overdramatic. Muchas gracias, you useless reptile".

"There, see?" Temo makes a theatrical gesture with his head at him. "Now, you're being a jerk, again".

Gray's only going to shake his head in exasperation. "Whatever you do, don't take his side. He's done this trick plenty of times in the eight years I've had him".

And that - and a lot of other things about Temo - won his siblings, his mother, and even his old man over to his charm.