nonotagain | 01. Test Drive Meme

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!tdm

01. Test Drive Meme

TEST DRIVE MEME

Thinking about joining Iterum? Unsure of who to bring or if they'll even fit the setting? Posting here offers you the chance to find out how they'll do while getting the sample for done for their application.

→ Comment down below with the character you'd like to test drive in the setting. Don't forget to add their name and canon in the subject line.
→ Choose a scenario or create your own, and tag around!
→ Test drives will be posted regularly in the months of March, June, September, and December.
→ Threads in the test drive are NOT eligible to use for activity checks, however, you can make them game canon if you wish and both you and your scene partner agree.

Possible Scenarios
Please note that all characters will initially arrive in their assigned housing; they are free to explore the City to their heart's content after that!

01. Arriving: You're pretty sure you knew where you were before you closed your eyes. But somewhere between then and now, you discover that you're definitely not there. In fact, the setting is so unfamiliar to you that it's bordering on unnerving and questions start to stack. Have you been abducted? Did you get drunk and pass out somewhere and not remember? Whatever the case, you need some answers. Or maybe this is familiar and the only thing that doesn't make sense is the layer of dust on everything around you which obviously means some time has passed. How much? No one seems to know. What you do know is that sitting around and waiting for answers is likely not going to happen.

So, you set out and hope to run into someone in the City that looks like they may be in a similar situation. Or, at the very least a person that might be able to provide some explanation. Veteran Chosen, make sure you warn the new people about the Shadows and advise them to steer clear of dark alleys and things that go bump in the night.

02. Party, party!: Now that you've arrived and hopefully settled, it's time to unwind. Inside your welcome basket is an invitation from the Duchess, who has decided to celebrate the growing population of the City with a massive "Welcome to the City" party in the Tower District. Wine spills free, and drugs abound, this is the kinda party that caters to all! The wicked and debauched demons and the good and decent who, if not careful, might end up tainted and corrupted at some point, like everyone else. Even if it's only for one night, why not cut loose and forget about whatever is pressing on your mind?

Nothing to wear? Check your closet, we're sure you'll find something suitable to wear.

03. Prominence: Everyone knows that the City sometimes influences its population on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, you arrived right in the middle of a heavy Prominence. Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, or Pride: choose your sin and get wicked. You'll find it's hard to avoid being sinful, almost as if your basic instincts are taking over.

04. Run!: A lot can go wrong in the City; demon attacks, muggings or there's even danger of being plucked from the streets and forced to partake in the Coliseum's version of Fight Club (if you know, you know). There are plenty of unsavoury types that all Chosen must be aware of. They rule the night, and once the sun goes down it becomes the Sinning Hour. Demons and monsters and humans capable of inciting just as much fear, if not more, come out to play. Mind yourself. It's hardly a tea party out there.

05. Network: Broadcast a video, voice or text message to anyone in your phone's directory. All Chosen have a device that they can use to communicate. Those that are returning will find their phone as it was, though without any contact that was previously in the City that is not currently. For the newly Chosen, a device will be supplied in your welcome basket and will match the type of telecommunications that was being used at the time of their exit.

06. Wild Card: Choose your own adventure in the game's multiple settings!

n a v i g a t i o n

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It's surreal watching Devi dust herself off, and the fact that this seems perfectly normal to her is a bit disorienting. He's seen some Certified Crazy Shit in his time, but this is a little...different, to say the least.

"I think I followed a third of what you just said," he finally musters, but she's not hurt and taking it all very much in stride. It takes some of the tension out of him, tilts the situation toward something more incredulous than threatening.

"I'm Jaeger. Andrew Jaeger." That's the name he's using right now, that he's invested in. So that will do. "You do this often, then?" He gestures toward the Devi-shaped crater, indicating...well, everything.

She takes his lack of understanding in the same stride; she was used to not being followed when she talked. No offense taken. She saw the tension in him but paid it less than a thought - she was used to people being uncomfortable around her too.

"Nice to meet you. I suppose. If you don't feel pissy about being here," she considers the last a little more quietly, like she was talking to herself, but that was ignored in favor of his question.

"Oh this?" She gestures at the ground before kicking off it, like one might jump except that she didn't fall back down and floated smoothly to sit on the air, legs crossed over one another. "Not often often, but often enough. At least three or four times. Seems to be a christening thing each time I visit a world. Don't worry, it'll fix itself." Sharp green eyes turn back to him.

"What about you, you do this often?"

It's still a strange (in more than one way) city and Jaeger hasn't quite found his footing yet. More, he's a man used to responding quickly and decisively to threats, though not blindly. Small favors, he supposes, but at least he's got an open mind when it comes to these things.

So he doesn't panic when Devi settles into midair like it's her favorite chair. Blinks, yes, studies the exact manner of it, but retains all steady reason. They're having a perfectly nice conversation, everything is normal.

"I don't know about 'pissy', but I have quite a few questions about the situation," he admits. "It's not something I've experienced before now, and this place is not any city I'm aware of in my world."

He leans back on his heels to watch her, studying the young woman with a sharp gaze.

"It sounds like you have some experience with the matter, though."

It was always interesting to see how people took her casual use of Ki, and honestly, one of the more Fun things about the abilities she'd honed over the years. Devi didn't miss the questions and confusion of showing up someplace totally new; she much preferred a grand show, a sprinkle of glitter over whatever pile of shit reality she was living in.

Full painted lips curl at the edges. He was well built, maybe a fighter with that confidence and calm, but she could be wrong. Five dollars and a poop cola (yes, that's really the product name) bet on that she wasn't.

"Oh, more than sane people would be comfortable with. My name is Devi D. And yes, just the letter. The trick of it all is goin' with the flow. Don't get caught up on the dumb little shit. Results may vary. Where abouts are we coming from today, Mr Jaeger Andrew Jaeger?" She said it like it was his full name; first, middle, and last. Said it like she was off a 1950's airline a bit.

It would be a fair bet for her to win: he's comfortable with his stance, and the weight behind his height is solid and honed. At the very least, a man used to taking good care of himself no matter how many miles of road he's traveled.

It's also there in his steady gaze, incredulous but not shocked or panicked. He'd moved toward the spectacle, not away from it. A cop or security or a soldier of some sort wouldn't be a terrible guess.

He may or may not be rethinking that choice to investigate the calamity, but he's kind of committed to it now. Alice in Wonderland skates through his mind, Devi's chatter echoing the Cheshire Cat, and he murmurs, "'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad.'"

That might have been terribly rude, but he's still in a bit of a state. More resolutely, he offers, "Just Jaeger is fine."

Then, after a moment of debate, he adds, "I'm originally from Boston. But I was traveling when I...found myself here." He winces, because that's not the entire truth, but he's trying not to think too much about the whole near-shotgun-murder thing.

The street feels colder and more exposed in that moment anyway, and he shakes his head.

There was no stopping the spread of her grin at 'We're all mad here', smile stretching a little further than natural for a human for a half second. Rude? Maybe, but she didn't care and the comparison was one she'd made before. Manners weren't something that Devi much concerned herself with, as long as everyone wasn't disgusting.

But her eyebrows lift in surprise at his answer.

"So regular people traveling, not Traveling traveling, huh. Interesting. Fresh meat for the multiverse, here's to your continued survival and thriving in it. I hope you're ready to see some weird shit; this place and the people in it-" Including her. "Have a Range."

He's glad she appreciates it, and there's the faintest twist of smile at her glee.

He's used to strict propriety, but then something shows up and tries to tear him to shreds and you've gotta kind of learn to deal with that. Usually with the darkest, driest humor imaginable. This place is crazy enough that he feels it creeping up on him, the urge to laugh when anyone else would be biting their fist to hold back the hysterics.

He's already gotten those out of the way. He's pretty sure, at least.

"I'm used to at least some strange things. I nay have even been the source of them," he admits. "But this is...new. Though I do have to say it's the most polite kidnapping I've ever experienced."

He purses his lips, indicating he's not exactly sold on the benefits of that.

"They do have a very hands off mechanism that almost makes you feel like your plane just landed in the wrong place, don't they. Well." She glances at the dent in the road she put there. "For the most part."

She tilts her head as she continues.

"And have you found your key to your new living quarters? Standard fare to ask, by the way. Get used to that one. Everyone's always terribly curious. Ooh, are the care packages still around?" She didn't expect him to know but it never hurt to ask.

"I may owe someone a thank you, honestly. My arrival was right in the middle of a situation that was going...very badly for me."

A shiver ripples down his spine in spite of the pleasant afternoon. He shakes it off, after a moment, but can't help but scan the street anyway. A brief glance around, before returning his attention fully to the young woman.

"There was a gift basket, yes, with the key to the apartment I woke up in. An invitation to a party, as well, and a suit in my size...remarkably thorough if not exactly full of explanations."

He can deal with a little curiosity. He's got his share himself, and he'll take whatever answers he can get. Anything to understand the situation he's found himself in.

"Oh?" Well wasn't that an interesting answer. Her eyes sharpen a little.

"Explanations are for people that earn them, generally speaking." It wasn't meant to be harsh or elitist but knowledge was granted to people who pushed and fought for it. The good news for Jaeger was that Devi wasn't the kind to withhold information.

"But you're in luck - we've got a general base idea of what it was last time. Remains to be seen if it's the same deal going on here. The Party is for introduction, all of us 'Chosen' to meet each other, and to meet one of the Magistrates. The rest of the box is to set you up and-... you didn't happen to find a little red baggie of dust, did you?"

Also good news for Jaeger: that he's watchful, observant, and willing to dig for what he needs to know. Given some time and a chance to decompress from everything, he's already starting to embrace his persistent ways, and hopefully that means answers.

There's only so much he can take in stride before his restless mind needs more than that. He wants to understand.

He nods slowly. "I noticed it, and the number on the packet, but I left it alone." His lips thin out, pressed together in mild disapproval. "Some of the other things were useful, if a bit...noteworthy. But fitting the circumstances, at least."

Devi makes a face. "Suppose that means that industry is back up and running."

She sighs. They had all worked so hard to interrupt the distribution of the drug. It was dangerous. How it made her feel was dangerous.

"Avoid it unless you want a vice that'll liquify your insides. Anyway. City used to run on us. On our.. trauma, our emotions. Our sins. We'll see if that pans out too. They basically wanted us to go back to a daily life here with random wild shit to make us twist in the wind. Most of the time it's fine.. If you fight.." She looks him up and down again.

"You fight, Jaeger?"

"I'd be more surprised if a city of vices didn't have a thriving drug trade," he comments drily. "I'm perfectly happy to avoid it as much as possible, though it's rather bold of them to just tuck it in with the mixed nuts and pajamas." Almost ridiculous, if you had a sense of humor, but there had also been a gun and an invitation to a brothel. Funny in a very surreal sort of way.

He stands very still under her scrutinizing gaze, allowing her her fill. The weight in his eyes speaks of hard-lived years, calm and steady and just a little empty.

Very gravely, he responds. "I've seen my share, and I'm not quick to turn away. Especially when it means the difference between surviving and the alternative."

She studies him for a long moment, the showmanship air of flippancy ebbed off somewhere between her asking her question and getting the answer. Finally, she nods a little bit.

"Good. That'll get tested, sooner or later. Wild shit. But everything here is bold. It would be just boring otherwise. So-" she continues, tone and energy changing like the sun breaking through the clouds on a stormy day. "Where'd they stick you?"

She should probably check her pockets, which she does, both outside and in, and its 'in' - the inner pocket - where she finds her key. "Well shit."

There's a strange sort of understanding there, the big man recognizing something honed sharp in the flippant young woman. It's a strange experience, seeing those shifts and glimpses between the airy disregard, but Jaeger has some experience with strange minds.

He might be better prepared for this than most, even. There's that moment, then she moves on and he lets her.

"They gave me a key to a place in the Coliseum district," he acknowledges. "It's not what what I'd have chosen, but it's nice enough. For a kidnapping, particularly."

He watches her dig out the key, and dark eyebrows rise in question.

"Mm, Wrath," she comments from her stare down at the keychain. "Same district as you."

Her eyes flit up to him before she glances down to tuck the key back away. She'd have to investigate that later.

"How's that make you feel?"

He nods, as she tucks away the key again. "I've heard that Shantytown is the district that's better avoided. So, small mercies, I suppose."

As to how he actually feels about it? He's still deciding, he thinks.

"I'm not offended. I try to be aware of my faults, at least, though I might be a bit surprised that Pride wasn't my...ah...calling." He frowns thoughtfully.

"But at least Wrath feels familiar. I've been fighting for a long time, and I suppose it's reassuring in a way."

He looks at her, processing it all- what she's asked, what he's said. It feels far less naked talking in the streets than it might have, maybe because of that sharpness, that killer confidence he sees in her.

Like him, maybe, even if in a different way. On a different scale. But there's a sense there that she might actually understand the madness of his existence.

"You could say that." Or you could say it was a great place to have a little fun, flex a muscle or two. She knew it didn't look like she'd be the type but that was also part of the fun.

She doesn't offer any insight into why she's okay with where she's fallen just yet. Facades and masks and the light and show of it all were their own kinds of protection. She also wasn't looking to dance just yet.

"What is it that you're fighting?" There was no 'or am I allowed to ask' - if it was worth fighting for, it was worth saying out loud. Even if that was just survival.

Jaeger hasn't quite gotten to the 'fun' part of things yet. He's still locked in survival mode, with occasional forays into the sheer sense of surreal that comes with the whole thing.

Maybe he'll get there, maybe he won't. It's been sort of a while since "fun" has even occurred to him.

"I spent a long time with people who used magic for their own ends, and didn't care who they hurt," he says finally, bluntly in that rough rasp of a voice. Surprising himself a little with this moment of honesty but hey, who's going to believe hes not crazy anyway? "I broke free of them, but once you're in that sort of life, there's very little way out again. So...that's what I fight."

Survival. Penance. Whatever soul he's got left. Sometimes it seems like a lot and sometimes it's so painfully, trivially small.

Her story was long and full of it's own dramatic complications. She didn't look the gift horse of where she's ended up in its mouth. She also didn't look down on those that were still in the raw and primal survivalism of their stories. Survivalism was a sacrifice of situation that deserved to be honored.

Devi nods.

"Then you'll do just fine here." Her everything lightened oh so slightly. "Not many magicians and anyone who steps too far up into the echelons tend to get what's coming to them. One way or the other." And sometimes that way was Her but she wasn't that kind of person to boast.

"In the meantime, we've got some pretty decent food, some quiet time between the chaos and only the scraps of bullshit that roam in the night to worry about."

Devis demeanor lightens and so does Jaeger's. He feels a bit like he's passed a test, which maybe he has? He's not going to dwell on it but the feeling is there.

"It's an unfortunate aspect of power in many forms," he admits quietly. "It's just even more treacherous when the advantage is secret, unseen by most. Its hard to deal with forces you aren't even aware of." He grimaces, not particularly willing to add that it worked to his advantage, too, sometimes...and even more so in the past.

He liked to think he wasn't that sort of man anymore, but he was also a creature of grim necessities. At least he knew it.

He casts his gaze at the street around them, frowning slightly.

"I'll have to keep that in mind," he says absently. Then brings his thoughts into clearer focus. "I enjoy traveling but this is...not quite in my normal experience. I don't think I'm thinking about local color just yet, but..."

But. If there's no way back. If this is his life now, or Afterlife, or whatever it is.

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01. Test Drive Meme

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i am so sorry about how late this is

No worries!

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