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geistnet) wrote in
wakingthedead2014-05-20 03:01 pm
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Entry tags:
testdrive | welcome to the new age.
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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.
5. Just as planned. ♥
"Jill?"
"Are there any reports of operatives on engagements in the area today, Mia?"
Mia Castro blinks at her question, but doesn't hesitate to reach into her coat for her phone. Her girlfriend doesn't respond, not until she's checked in with LogosNET.
"No..." Mia frowns when she notices the look on Jill's face. She can see, perhaps, exactly what her girlfriend's thinking. "Want me to go with you?"
"Follow some distance away from me instead? I'll take point. Maybe you can round up whoever's willing from the Eaters." Jill doesn't want to ask for too much: they've all had a long day on the road.
"All right."
With a smile and a kiss to Mia's cheek, Jill's turning back towards her Rookwraith and starting the bike back up. The tugs are getting more insistent now, and she's getting flashes of possible locations, of a not-quite-paper dog protecting its master from people who don't want to do her any good. Hopefully she'll get there in time.
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She really wished she still had that blade.
Esperanza wasn't a fighter. She was always more of a flight girl. But when backed into a corner, anyone would follow their flight instinct rather than be hurt. Esperanza didn't like to the think the worst of the world, but drunk men with a homeless girl no one would miss? She knew those stories and she fought hard not to be one of those stories.
The men fought harder.
The one chasing her was at her heels and the other one had kicked the dog, a whine breaking loose that almost made Esperanza pause. Had the dog followed her from before? Was he watching her? How had he ended up here? If he was protecting her she couldn't let it get hurt for her, either.
She didn't have to think about it too hard.
She saw the light in the street, an approaching vehicle. Not a car, just a single light. A motorcycle? Didn't matter. Espie dropped her back and waved an arm as she ran into the street, both hands up and a silent prayer the biker didn't run her over.
"Hey!" She yelled in Spanish. "Help! Please!" She begged, hoping the person on the bike would be a better person than the men following her.
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Jill pulls to a stop right beside the girl, effectively placing her between the drunken men who were hot on her heels. She takes her helmet off, and after smiling briefly at the girl, she's turning her gaze first towards the dog (good sketch, that one, but it's been damaged), then the men.
"What's going on here?"
Her tone is almost lethally quiet, and her Spanish is perfect (something that the locals must find odd, given the fact that - with her blond hair and blue eyes - she is obviously not from around here). She is hoping that they'll recognize the coat she is wearing (brown, styled in precisely the way that singles her out as a Midnight Rider and Keeper of the Vigil), and the fact that she's on a bike that only hunters are licensed to have. At least three of the men immediately look nervous and start back off, but their leader is frowning and sizing her up.
"Nothing you should bother yourself with, senorita. That girl just took something from us, is all."
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She couldn't spare much more attention to the dog. The man had been more angered at her cursing, taking a step forward as if to approach her. It wasn't the smartest idea to insult someone who already wanted to kill you, but weakness was worse. Weakness ate you up on these streets. And she wasn't going down today.
Espie glanced back at the girl now. It was striking how white she looked considering how well she spoke Spanish. It wasn't even that she spoke it so well, but that she spoke it perfectly. Like born to it. But she didn't look anything like the normal culture out here, either. Not like she was raised in it.
"I didn't take anything," Esperanza pleaded with the girl. "I didn't do anything! I was trying to go and they chased me."
"That a load of shit, poonta," the man started again. "You kicked me for no reason-"
"Because you're a fucking saint," she yelled back at him, baring teeth like she might bite. She would if it came down to it.
"Just give us the girl and we'll be on your way," the man tried on Jillian again. The others seemed wary of this deal, one even tried to call his friend back, but she had kicked this one. And the dog had bit. He wasn't walking away with nothing.
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"Why should I, sir?"
One could feel the way acid dripped from the way she said 'sir'. It was enough to make the man take a step back. He looked like he was about to speak when Jill lifted a hand and cut him off.
"You just lied to me back there, about the girl taking something. If you really didn't have any ill intent, when she kicked you because she was clearly frightened, you wouldn't be chasing after her like this." She tilts her head and narrows her eyes. "That now leaves me with a rather important question that I want you all to answer: why exactly are you and your friends so tetchy and ready to chase down somebody who hurts you?"
The rest of the posse were looking even more nervous now. "C'mon, man," he pleaded, tugging at the arm of the other. "She's a fucking hunter. Let's get out of here."
The man scowled at Jill, spat right in front of her feet, and stalked off. The rest slunk after him like whipped animals.
That left Jill with the girl and the dog, who was now padding over to the girl and looking up with pleading eyes as if it was wondering if she was okay.
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It was like a weight off her chest. Espie let out a heavy sigh and relaxed her stance. All her anger and tension rolled off her and she felt tired and soft instead suddenly.
The dog was at her feet now and Espie couldn't help a tired smile as she knelt down.
"And where did you come from? Your master's got to be far from here," she told the dog, reaching out to pet it and being overly pleased that it was still alive.
Espie glanced up at the woman finally. The hunter. She vaguely recognized that term, but talk of anything supernatural related had been off-limits in her home unless it was talk about how they were messing up the world. She was important, though. Everything about those men, her clothes, and her general air said as much. Someone who was naturally strong and didn't have to force it like Espie did. Espie admired her already.
"Thank you," she told her with a gentle nod. "And I'm sorry I dragged you into that. They were drunk and stupid, they weren't going to let up." Not unless she had somehow gotten away, which had been Plan A until the girl on the bike had arrived.
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"Situation's clear down here, Mia. Can you do me a favor and flag the guys? Sending their files and locations over to you now... they have records with the local government. Falls in our purview too: they've targeted supes."
And their latest victim could have been the girl that she's with now. Jill glances over and smiles.
"You're welcome. And they really weren't, from what I can tell." The contacts are working yet again on her end, giving her a basic file on the girl in front of her and a single red flag from Spanish Social Services. A missing persons case.
She'll deal with that later. Jill extends her hand in her direction.
"I confess: I already know your name because of our network. Esperanza, right? I'm Jillian Andrews."
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Men chasing her? That wasn't too new. Not real frequent, she was usually smarter than that, but sometimes it happened. Other kids or other homeless people trying to start fights. It wasn't impossible.
What felt impossible was all the sensory information she was taking in now. The things that Jill said. The way the dog felt. He wasn't soft. He was smooth and fragile. She looked closer and his side seemed punctured, but there was no blood. Almost like a hole into nothing.
Esperanza swallowed and pulled her hand away slowly, setting it in her lap and looking up at Jillian.
"Yeah," she answered. "Esperanza. Espie's fine.
I'm sorry, but... I don't think I understand what's happening here, Jillian. What do you mean they weren't drunk?" She swallowed over the next part she didn't say out loud. That they were targeting supes too. "Usually people don't get that angry over something so small unless they're drunk. Or high as a kite."
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Jill grimaced, and decided to change the subject. Esperanza had a lot of questions, and it wouldn't do for them to sit right in the middle of the street and talk it out.
"Um... why don't we go somewhere and talk properly? We can bring your friend."
Said friend was now fervently licking Esperanza's chin, wondering, innocently, why its mistress wasn't petting it anymore.
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"Uh, sure," Esperanza agreed, looking at Jill. Jill wasn't dangerous to her. She knew that. Jill was a hunter. Esperanza didn't know much about them, but she knew they weren't the bad guys, no matter what her parents said. And anyone that made those men afraid was good in her books.
"Just... let me gather my stuff," she told her, getting up off the ground and walking back around the bike to her things on the ground. She gathered the bag and pushed her pens and pencils that had fallen out back inside. She slung it over her shoulder before she turned.
Then something struck her and she frowned.
"I don't think he'll fit on the bike, though..."
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Jillian said that gently, as her eyes drifted down to Esperanza's sketch book.
"You drew him, right?"
Things were about to get very strange for this girl, but Jill saw no point in holding back on it. As things stood, she knew she could handle it, and Esperanza seemed like she'd be able to take it too.
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She wondered now if she was about understand.
Esperanza took her sketchbook in both hands, flipping open to the drawing of the dog she had done.
"Yeah," She answered, her voice a bit softer now. "I was drawing him when I heard the men in the building."
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She's about to say more, though, when she's spotting its "injury".
"Oh, hold on..."
Jill trailed off as she stepped off of her bike and moved towards the dog. She patted the creature's head, and moved her hand over the hole that the man's kick had created. It vanished instantly.
"There. That should do it."
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The dog was in front of Espie, nudging at her hand again and looking as pleased and excited as it did before. Maybe even more so now that it was better.
"How..." She started. Then she shook her head. There was no use asking. She was certain she was going to find out eventually. And if not, she was going to make sure she asked later.
First things first. "How do I tell it to go back? Just... say go back?" She tried holding the sketchbook open at it. She didn't even know how she'd summoned it.
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"You know how, when you sketch, you kind of imagine the way it'd be if it were a living creature? Willing any of your drawings back is like reverse engineering that process. Returning them to their state before they were anything alive."
She could do it for Esperanza, but this was her creation. And she did have to learn.
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Just think backwards. Will it to not be so alive. Maybe asleep? Or resting? She took a deep breath and focused. Trying to imagine the dog returning to being a drawing. A being at rest and all lines and edges and graphite. She took a deep breath.
It seemed to take forever, but finally something happened. She felt it prickling at her skin, the way the dog shifted and moved until it was at her book again. Then it was on her book. In her book.
And there it was. Her drawing back to being nothing but a drawing.
"Dios mio. I've been drugged, haven't I? I'm hallucinating right now." That was the only possibility. It was more real to her than believing she was one of the supernaturals she had heard so much about.
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Jill was beside her now, and right about ready to put her arm around Esperanza's shoulders --
-- okay, no. She was going to do that. Coming to terms with what one can do was almost always frightening.
"You're an Artisan like me. The creations we make can come to life."
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She still appreciated the near gesture.
But she was stuck on that thought. That not only was she an artist, but she was an artisan. She'd never even heard of that before. She touched her book carefully. All the notebooks she left behind too... All that art meant something.
Would continue to mean something.
"Can you teach me more?" Esperanza looked into Jill's eyes now, a fire in her own.
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She meant every single word. She knew what it was like, she felt, to be in Esperanza's position. The girl had a rare gift, and nobody had the right to take that away from her. Besides, Netsach - the conspiracy that had helped Jill out in the first place - was a home to the lost of the Darkness and Light before anything else.
She planned on doing everything in her power to make sure that Esperanza was going to be fine.
"Shall we?"
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She'd cross that bridge when she got to it. The pros outweighed the cons too much right now. She was being offered answers ( and food! ), and she wasn't about to let the opportunity pass her by.
Esperanza slung her bag over bother her shoulders after slipping her sketchbook inside properly, then climbed onto the bike after Jill.
"We most definitely shall," she answered with a full grin.
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The next time she spoke was when they were both at a stoplight.
"I'll need to introduce myself in full. I'm Jillian Andrews, a First Circle Hunter of Netsach, Sworn Wolfheart of Zangyaku, and a Senior Myrmidon of the Midnight Riders. Have you heard of those conspiracies before?"