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

"Hey," Esperanza offered back without a second thought to it. This place is meant to be safe, so she's been told. She does think to question it, but she suppresses those urges down. She's spent too much time lately questioning. This is the first good thing in a long time, she doesn't want to ruin it.

She actually does slow to a stop, though, set on talking to as many people as she can and understanding her new role in this place and the people in it.

Especially the man in the strange red suit. Red wasn't a color she was used to seeing for a suit. She can't help but give him a once over, smiling crookedly at the color of it.

And mentally comparing herself. She feels like the biggest fish out of water here. Like she sticks out like a sore thumb. She's almost positive people could smell the country off of her, despite her recent shower. Despite being away from Consuegra for nearly a year. Once a country girl, always a country girl. And her looks... She wanted to cringe. Her hair was long and the ends slightly frayed from a lack of cutting. She never touched her own hair, she loved her hair, but she had no money for a hair dresser. Her clothes were faded and worn out, despite picking the best ones she had on her. A white, peasant blouse with tan ties at the top, just above her chest and wide sleeves that opened around her arms and were tight again at her wrists. Everything else hung loose over her slender frame, and there was a hole at the bottom on the side. None of her shirts were hole-less. Her jeans were better, less tears but a faded black color. Skinny jeans, which weren't comfortable on the road but they matched the blouse and they'd been what she was wearing when she ran away. She couldn't give up the blouse and shirt. Her shoes were the worst, though. Flip-flops with a cloth over the toes and padded bottoms stolen from a large store.

These were her best clothes, and they paled in comparison to what Josh was wearing. She didn't even have any make-up to wear beyond her basic foundation, which was bordering a shade too light now that she'd tanned on the streets. She shifted almost uncomfortably now, the faded, brown, leather bag settling on her hip as she transferred the weight of her feet.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear to pull her bangs out of her eyes so she could look at Josh, the edge of her birdcage tattoo poking out on her neck.

"I'm Esperanza," she nearly flinched. Why did she introduce herself like that? She always had to qualify with her nickname. Then again, if she started with her nickname she'd have to justify that too. "Espie's okay. Or anything else you want to call me." She shrugged. "I'm not picky," she smiled at him.

"I'm new around here." She beat him to the punch line on that. She just hoped she wasn't keeping him from anything. He looked important...

The tat peeking out from beneath the neckline of her blouse piques his curiosity, but he can tell that she's a bit uncomfortable in his presence so he offers her an easy smile. He's not entirely sure if it's the contrast in their clothing or something else, but he's familiar enough with greenhorns at Rhiannon being a bit unsettled by his presence that he can pick up little tells ( like the way she shifts her weight from one foot to the other, or the fact that she tucked the errant strand behind her ear in a gesture to recompose herself in front of him ) that clue him in on how to move.

"Bienvenida a Falner, Esperanza. Me puedes llamar Josh." He'd picked up on the Spanish in her accent, and he's come a long way from the basics known by a kid who grew up in San Diego. "Did you just get in?" He switches back to English for that last part, in a quiet offering that he's good to speak either language -- whichever makes her comfortable.

Edited 2014-07-27 10:30 (UTC)

There's a notable shift in her mood when he speaks Spanish. His smile helped enough before, but his Spanish puts her far more at ease. She didn't think she'd meet many people who could speak Spanish. Not that English was difficult for her. There were enough English-speaking people in Consuegra that she picked it up, but Barcelona had been the real test of English that had helped her hone it more. So many tourists and immigrants there, most natives spoke English first as well.

"Encantada!" She exclaimed, but slipped back into English.

"I did. Jillian Andrews," she offered the name hoping he recognized it and she wasn't crazy or in the wrong place or had been told something wrong entirely. "Sent me here. I haven't even been inside yet." She glanced at the house, unable to keep a bit of the awe and nerves out of her voice at being in such a nice place.

"Right, you're the kid Jill picked up in Europe." He's saying that with a sheepish laugh as the name clicks into place. The Pride's Artisan had mentioned it in passing in a call -- how she'd run into an Artisan girl while on tour with her girlfriend Mia. The kid had been on the run from some guys who were clearly targeting supes. He'd gone quiet over the line for a bit after hearing that. Supernaturals were a tiny fraction of the world's overall population. Jackasses who targeted them for shits and giggles or outright hostility always earned a spot on his personal shitlist.

Espie's new though, so she wouldn't know all of that, so what she'll pick up instead is the way Josh's body language changes to show that in spite of looking like he should be going somewhere, he's perfectly fine with hanging around -- his shoulders relax, those smiles of his come easy -- because he kind of really is.

( He'll check in with his PA a little later on. Andy knows that if he checks in late to the Towers, he always has good reason and the Card was reliable where it came to fielding things for his boss to an almost ridiculous degree. )

"Jill's a good friend of mine. She's blatema-- I mean, teammates with my kid sister." Thick as thieves, those two: Cindy, Jill. "Do you need to see the Kaiser? I just came from her office. She's a bit busy at the moment, but I can wait with you if you like."

He, Yulia and Stan had each other when they'd arrived in the dead of night back in March of 2063; Espie had clearly arrived all on her own and Josh knows from firsthand experience how life-changing things tended to get from hereon out.

People had already heard about her? Or even just one person? She hadn't expected that. Then again, she didn't really understand how all of this hunter business worked. Jill had seemed to be pretty connected with a lot of resources. Maybe news really did spread fast among them. If Espie really was going to be staying here, she'd probably learn more about it all at some point.

"Yeah, that'd be me," she nodded with a slightly nervous smile. She wondered how much she'd told the others about her.

Then he asked about the Kaiser and her she laughed nervously, even more so. "I'm actually not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Am I supposed to check in with the Kaiser?"

So far, she was positive she was making a great first impression. Except not really. She wished she had powers to rewind time because she was embarrassing herself at this point.

"At some point." It's probably safe to say that since Espie looks like she wasn't given instructions from the get-go, that he can at least give her a brief tour of the grounds that are within walking distance. He says as much, because he gets it: new place, next to zero friends and information within your reach except you didn't know how to go about tapping into those sources.

"Why don't I show you around in the meantime?" He's jerking a thumb in the general direction of the Great Hall. "I was going to get coffee and a bite to eat."

And you look like you could use some meat on your bones, kiddo.

He doesn't give voice to that thought, though, but the concern is there in his eyes.

At some point. Okay, that was good to note. That gave her a little bit of an idea of what she needed to be doing as well, rather than wandering aimlessly forever.

Although she'll have to shelve that thought for later. One, because the Kaiser was busy now anyway and Espie didn't want to make a bad impression on her by barging in at a bad time. And two, because Josh was here and willing to offer her a tour. A very much needed tour, because this place was large and Espie would probably go wandering inside and never find her way back out. She'd almost be like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe she already was... Down the rabbit hole she went.

"Umm, I don't have any money," she smiled sheepishly and patted her very obviously empty pockets. The jeans were tight enough anything in her pockets would have shown clearly. "But I'd love a tour.

This place is kind of huge..." That was an understatement in her mind.

"Food's free at the Great Hall," he says that gently as he makes a wordless offer to take her bag. "And even if it wasn't, I wasn't going to get food for myself without offering to get you some, too."

He hadn't asked her age, but he was fairly sure he could peg her at about the same age if not younger than Eve Brea, one of the girls his blademate Brigade had adopted from a mission way back.

"Let's go?"

Free. It was like a magic word. She concealed her excitement at the thought of free food, but months on the street ( was it almost a year now? she couldn't remember when she left ) had taught her that anything with the word 'free' on it was worth taking. If you didn't need it, you found a use for it somehow. And sometimes, even the things that weren't free could be made free.

Esperanza wasn't about to turn down free food at all. She shook her head briefly at his offer to take her back. It wasn't heavy and she didn't want to see her squalid bag against his prim suit.

"If it's free..." She let the suggestion that she wasn't picky about free things hang in the air. "Lead the way!

Please, lead the way. I might actually get lost in this place; it's like a castle."

Had any of them ever sounded this young? He doesn't think so. It's nice though, seeing the wonder in Espie's eyes and hearing words like 'castle' ( she wasn't too far off, really, the main house itself is huge. )

"Mr. Falner will probably be amused to hear you describe his house like that. But come on, let me go show you around." He'll lead her from the house towards the lawn, because a trip to the estate wasn't quite complete without the mandatory glimpse of Falner's most beloved fixture.

"The estate is more of a small town, if anything." He explains as they walk. "We've got a total of five districts -- North, South, East, West and Central, which is where we are." Espie might note that there are a lot of people in long blue coats walking about, and in the near distance, the distinct sound of children at play. He's also fishing out his Vice phone and bringing up the map of the estate pulled from GeistNET, before handing it over for her to look at.

"My sister and I live in West District, over here," he points it out with a smile. "But before I got initiated as a Keeper of the Vigil, I used to live in the Balamb dorms with a couple of my friends." He's pointing to the spot on the map in the North District right beside the Academy.

The two of them are just about to round the edge of the manor in sight of the Main Garden -- or, as most hunters who lived on the estate referred to it: Falner Lawn. It's pretty early in the day, and the sounds of kids screaming, squealing and laughing are getting louder with each step.

Also, yes, Espie: that is one huge, red dragon dozing in the middle of the lawn ( and clearly getting crawled on by aforementioned children. )

Edited 2014-07-28 06:08 (UTC)

Small town. That seemed more accurate. She takes the phone from him and looks at the map, twirling it a bit to look more at it. The estate was so large, it needed a map. Espie wondered if it was like Consuegra almost. It seemed close to it. Consuegra was a bit bigger, but the feel of this place was like her home. It filled her with a longing she hadn't expressed in so long.

She's busy looking through it and listening to Josh explain it all as they walk. Which is also difficult as she tries to look around at the same time. She has a knack for remembering things, though. And knowing this map and laying eyes on landmarks should help her orient herself better. It may take a week or so to get it all down, but once she did she'd never forget.

"How long have you been here?" She asks him now. She hadn't even thought about what it might have been like when he joined. She felt like an outsider, maybe she wasn't the only one? Maybe everyone had been an outsider at some point?

It's just as she looks up that they round the edge of the manor. The garden is beautiful as it is, and Espie has always had an appreciation for nature. Nature scenes were some of her favorites to draw.

Then she stops, dead in her tracks with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open slightly.

"That's...

Dios mío... Is that a real dragon?"

It's undoubtedly the best thing he's seen in the few minutes that he's spent in Espie's company. He smiles down at her and takes the sight of her in: mouth agape, eyes wide.

"Yup." That's a hand on your shoulder now, sweetheart. "That's Father Aidan."

Simple as that. Yup. It's a dragon. She's staring at an honest to god dragon. She doesn't know whether to be scared ( although, she thinks not since there are children scrambling all over the dragon ) or whether to be in awe. It's mostly awe. There's an itching in her hands to grab her sketchbook and draw this sight, to preserve it perfectly. She could work on sketches from memory some, but there were somethings she never got right, even with how perfect her memory was. Some things that she needed to be looking at in person to get exactly right. Like the light in the dragon's eyes or the general mood of the lawn and the children with the dragon at it's center.

Father Aidan. What a shame he had that asshole's name.

That memory tempers her excitement a smidgen, hardly at all but enough she can finally tear her eyes away to look at Josh who's hand is on her shoulder. It's such a kind gesture. Her usual instinct was to pull away from others' touch. But something about all of this told her those instincts weren't necessary here. Not today.

Instead she smiled gently at Josh, happiness reaching her eyes.

"This place is amazing," she said, genuine in her appreciation of it all. "Is he... here a lot? I want to find him later."

How are you honestly such a precious child?

"Everyday." He's not even going to hide that you've pretty much charmed him with your doe-eyed awe. "He'd like to meet you, but then again, it's Father Aidan, so he always enjoys meeting people."

He'll steer you gently down the path that'll head straight for the Mess. "Let's get you fed."

A dragon who likes people and wants to meet them. If anyone can cleanse that name of the stain it left on her memory, it was no doubt a real life dragon could.

She steals one last look at the dragon before letting Josh lead her off. She doesn't want to admit it, but the idea of a free meal is even more appetizing than a dragon right now.

"So, I never got that answer," she turns back to Josh once she looks away from the dragon. "How long have you been here? There looks to be a lot of kids here..." Did people live their entire lives as a part of this place? Born here? Grown here? Live here always?

Not that she could really complain about her childhood. It had all been wonderful at the time. It's only the knowledge of the lies that made her look back on it with pain and sorrow.

"Well," Josh lets out a breath as he thinks on that. "Most of the kids in Falner grow up because their families are hunting families. Some were transferred here because they were related to a 'Special Case', like yourself, for example or because they needed somewhere safe to stay."

He's glancing around just to see if Father Aidan's morning companion happens to be nearby, but Cisco Montelibano-Profaci doesn't appear to be on the lawn at the moment. "I was going to point out one of the Inquisitors that I know, but looks like Ma'am Cisco isn't around."

He offers a sheepish shrug. "She's Changing Breed -- a shapeshifter. My blademate Kaz considers her as family. Her kids, who are Reynardi like herself, grew up here."

They're halfway close to the side entrance of the Hall at this point. "I got brought in March of 2063." So really, not too long ago, considering. He shrugs and steps aside to let her walk in first. "You could say I was a little bit like yourself."

Edited 2014-07-28 07:54 (UTC)

"No way," she blurts out with a laugh at that last part. She had been taking all of that in, about how some were born and raised here and some were brought here. Like herself. Like himself apparently.

But that last line was a little too much to swallow. Somehow, even the dragon was easier to take.

"You're so..." She gestures to all of him now with her hand. "Clean. And proper. And well-adjusted. And cool." She shakes her head. "I can't picture you being anything like me. No matter how hard I try."

Okay, now he's going to blush because he's never been the type to really seek out compliments and telling him that he's put together and cool is reverting him to the reason why his blade is sometimes referred to ( affectionately ) as the War Puppies.

"Hey, come on." Is that a faint flush up the back of his neck? Yeah. Pretty much. "I sweat it's just the suit. It's gotta be the suit."

Yeah, he's going to have to... shed his coat. At least when they sit down, which is why he's leading her over to one of the empty tables closest to where the food's been laid out ( the usual table that he and the other Hounds used to occupy is taken anyway. )

There, shrugging off that coat and draping it on the back of his chair now. "For real: I was a runaway from San Diego. Hiking up all the way to Vancouver was no piece of cake." Three months. That was the rough estimate of how long it had taken him to get to the Roots. "You could say I've just had more time to get myself together."

A lot more time, let's be truthful here.

It was a lot the suit, if she was being honest. It was a strange color, but he made it look flawless on him. Coupled with how he seemed so much at home with all of this... that didn't help. Maybe some day she would be just as used to it.

How cool would that be? For this to really be her life?

She took a seat at the table he'd led her too, slinging her backpack onto the back of the chair before she got comfortable. Josh took his jacket off now and she wondered if that was because of what she'd said. She had seen that slight flush. Had she embarrassed him? Was he capable of being embarrassed? She grinned as he tried to make her feel more comfortable.

"For real?" She echoed as he explained a little more. "A runaway and now like this..." She sighed a little dreamily.

"I used to kind of dream my life would turn out great," she shrugged. "I'm a runaway, too. Kind of thought I messed my whole life up, though. I dreamed I'd make it famous as an artist or something and my days on the street would be a cool story I told at gallery openings someday, but that was mostly comfort talk. I kind of thought I'd just always be on the streets." Already that was changing. But that didn't guarantee she'd be as successful as Josh.

He's making a face at you, but the smile's still there. "I kind of suck at lying and I don't like it anyway, so." It's clearly habit the way he fishes out his cigarette case and the gunmetal-gray Zippo that looks like it's seen better days. "But yes. I'm not sure how young you are, but for awhile back there America wasn't exactly the safest place for supernaturals like us. Did you ever catch any news about Taskforce Valkyrie before it got reformed?"

It's still a work-in-progress, truth be told, but the people in charge now have their hearts in the right place.

"Anyway," he goes on, as he toys with that lighter. "I hightailed it out of there because I figured that it would be safer for my sister Cindy and my dad if I kept as far from them as possible." It's the bare bones of his story, but he won't overload you with information. It'll give you both something to talk about next time.

"Hid out in Canada for about six years before I found myself flown over here." He slips out a stick. "Hey, would it be okay with you if I smoked? I'm going to get coffee in a bit, but I'll sit here and watch your stuff while you go hit the buffet."

Edited 2014-07-28 09:21 (UTC)

"It's fine, yeah," she brushed that off easily enough. Smoking wasn't a big thing to her. She never did it herself, mostly because some things were still so ingrained in her she couldn't get past them no matter how much she rebelled against her parents. But she was also used to smoking from others and it never bothered her. Personal decisions and personal lives.

"Just... don't go anywhere," she added, like he might somehow disappear. She liked Josh already. He had intimidated her a lot, but now he was more inspiring. A runaway like her and doing so well for himself. They had different reasons for it, sure, but it all surmounted to the same.

Still, the food was calling to her and it was hard to keep her eyes off it. She jumped up and was at the buffet fairly quickly, getting food and trying not to be embarrassing by hoarding it. She grabbed some fruits and bacon ( god above, she loved bacon ) and a bagel with some cream cheese. A lot of all those things, actually. As much as fit on her plate.

She returned to her seat with all of it and a carefully balanced cup of orange juice.

"Mmmm," she hummed, eyes rolling closed as she took a bite of the bagel. "I don't know about a lot about supernatural stuff, actually," she went back to the topic before. "My parents hated that sort of thing and tried to keep us away from it. It was a bad influence. So if it was ever talked about it was always bad."

She wondered, not for the first time, if her parents hated her for what she was. If they had known and harbored hatred all those years.

He feels the tug at the corner of his mouth when he notes the amount of food she's piled on her plate ( and that bacon deserves a special note, all on it's own ) because he was watching her move around and he's pretty certain now that it's not just the clothes that's making her appear waifish.

He welcomes her back with a smile and makes a point to exhale away from where she's eating. He listens when she goes on to tell him about her parents and at the mention of how they believed anything relating to the supernatural was bad, he hides the frown that's settling on his mouth by taking another drag.

It's a reality, that not everyone will be as lucky as he was, with a Deadwalker father who had just been happy to see his son alive and healthy again. Whose first thought at the idea that the wife who had left them all so many years before was coming home, had been to hunt up his best suit so that he could look presentable to the love of his life; someone that Josh clearly took after because Angela Brennan had decided to leave her family for the same reason: she was a Technomancer, staying with them wasn't safe.

He's speaks to her in Spanish when he finally replies: "You never have to worry about asking questions with us, Espie. And I know this is a bit too soon for me to say, but if your parents couldn't see what a gift they had in someone like you -- it's their loss. And I'm sorry for them."

He's switching back to Englush shortly after. "Artisans are incredibly rare. One of the things I used to tease Jill about when we were the new kids on the block was that she was a pretty hot commodity." You'll be able to pick up that he thinks incredibly well of Jillian Andrews. Like a sister to him, that one.

Edited 2014-07-29 05:10 (UTC)

He had her attention when he slipped back into Spanish, and when he said what he did...

There was a moment when her smile faltered, her face falling slightly at the weight of the words. She didn't know what the truth was. She had never gone back to ask. All the evidence, though, pointed to her being a disappointment to her family for what she was. 'An abomination in the Lord's eyes' as they would say.

She swallowed hard and looked back at her food, her smile a little softer now.

"Es lo que hay," she answered him. The only answer she really did have for the situation. There was no use dwelling on what was and couldn't be changed. And even if there were answers, she didn't think she wanted them. She had the chance to go home and get answers many times, but had intentionally passed them up.

She was moving forward, instead.

Her smile became a little more genuine as he talked about artisans and what he had called Jill. "She was really nice. I'm glad she was the one that found me. Especially if artisans are so rare."

She ate some of her fruit, talking between grapes. "So, what are you?"

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, one Hikaru Shinta had walked into the Great Hall. He was fresh from doing his usual morning rituals (a quick meal on his own, coffee, cigarettes, sword forms in the Shatterdome, initial checks on the networks, Zangyaku Leader Things), and was therefore dressed down in an old pair of fatigues, combat boots, and a black tank top.

That didn't used to be his "casual" getup, by the way. What was that again, LaRue? "Too many layers"?

And since we're on the topic of Joshua LaRue, it didn't take all that long for Hikaru to pick up the familiar scent of his boyfriend, and the sound of his voice. That kind of happens when you're not quite human, and it most definitely happens when you're not quite human and very in love with somebody.

Please excuse him then, Esperanza, as Hikaru sidles over right at that moment, drapes his arms over Josh's shoulders (he has nice tattoos on his arms, by the way), and greets him, not with words, but with a good, solid kiss on the mouth.

Then the words come.

"Good morning, love." Then he notices Josh's company and smiles. "Hi there. You must be new."

"Hey," -- what was that about looking cool and put together, Espie? Because right now Josh has the goofiest smile on his face as he's looking over at Hikaru. Ever hear that saying about sunflowers and the sun? That's a pretty accurate analogy right there.

He's snapping back to attention though, when the Blade King turns his attention to you. "Hikaru, be nice. Espie, this is Hikaru Shinta." He's not going to mention the part about him being the Blade King of Zangyaku or one of the Malice Kings just yet. Don't want to overwhelm the kid on her first day. "She just arrived this morning. Jill sent her over."

He will, however, teasingly say: "Oh, you better tell Aidan that he's got another fan."

Sorry he's not more sorry, sweetheart. He couldn't resist.

testdrive | welcome to the new age.

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cry what are floating timelines

you made it work, though!!

/)_(\ ESPIE PLS HOW R U ADORABLE

SHE'S JUST BEING HONEST

Re: SHE'S JUST BEING HONEST

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Hi there. owo JOSH YOU CAN TAG IN NOW.

#JUSTASPLANNED

Y'ALL ARE SNEAKY AND GREAT

it's only because we love you. o3o

huehuehuehue

ilu both <33

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