cityofsin_ooc | > TEST DRIVE 015

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!test drive

> TEST DRIVE 015

Test Drive Meme

Considering apping to the City of Sin, but unsure of who to bring or if they'll fit? Feel free to give the setting a test drive here! These are a perfect way of getting your playing sample done for the application.

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→ Comment with the character you'd like to test drive in the setting, with name and canon in the subject line
→ Choose a scenario or create your own!
→ Tag around!

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. A New Arrival: Hello, New Person! You seem to have found yourself on a sidewalk in the City of Sin with nothing but the clothes on your back and a stomach churning feeling of being displaced. Thankfully, the streets are full of people - Watch out that you don't get mugged!

02. Demonic Presences: You were just minding your own business, weren't you? But that's always when bad things seem to happen, and the City of Sin isn't really that friendly. Whatever bar or street you're hanging out in suddenly go dim, filling the area with an unnerving feeling as the shadows on the walls jump out into reality. We suggest you phone a friend for help, or maybe try running?

03. Party Hard: You've been invited to a massive, elegant party in the Tower District that spills out its doors in welcome. Obviously, this whole thing is weird and you don't know who your hosts are, but maybe you can get some free drinks and food out of it! This place might not be so bad.

04. Prominence: The City of Sin influences its population on a weekly basis. Too bad you came right smack dab in the middle of a heavy Prominence. Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, or Pride: choose your sin and be wicked.

05. Trouble: Not everyone is sunshine and roses here. Some people are violent and cruel, raised in the sludge of a sinful city. And they like to pick on people they think can't fight back. Are you that person? Or are you the Hero who can't stand to watch? Worse yet, could you be the person doing the instigating? Villian.

06. Carnival: The City has carnivals or festivals now and then; you're lucky to catch one! With its open booths filled with cork gun games and funnel cakes, how can someone not have any fun! Go win your darling a stuffed animal, or meet someone new on the spinning cup ride. You might even see someone you know being talked into sitting in the Dunk Tank.

07. Network: There's a network device in your pocket - or at least a familiar object that seems to work in mysterious ways. Perhaps you can take to that and ask for a bit of help? Or maybe you'd prefer to have a little fun with all of this. Surely someone will reply.

08. Wild Card:Choose your own adventure in the game's setting!

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Once upon a time, bars were not where Airy spent her free time. To start, she worked in the bar below the brothel and she also hadn't been a very big drinker. Over the last couple of weeks that had all changed. When she wasn't working she made her way to the bar and tried to find a drink that she hadn't tried before. It was part experimentation and part trying to get really drunk before going home that night.

Tonight she was wearing a red, back and silver dress that manged to be both sexy and cute. She was smiling though the expression didn't reach her eyes and she was sitting alone. In front of her was a martini with a dark liquid inside of it. Tonight she had tried a Manhattan. It was good but it needed more cherries.

Her head turned when Cassidy walked in and since she was already two drinks in she stared without realizing how rude that was. "Hey." She spoke from three stools down from where he had slunk against the bar. "Why cheap whiskey? My not Medium whiskey or semi-cheap whiskey." She wasn't sure if that was a thing.

It was a fair question. Cassidy rarely went directly to the worst his money could buy. But he only had so much on him — and he couldn’t get ahold of Seamus. His cell phone had no reception, and the one he’d found when he’d woken up had a weirdly limited interface. Those little oddities were the only reason he was even considering being concerned by his situation.

Maybe when he didn’t feel so tired.

The bottle was set down in front of him, along with a glass, which Cassidy took to be rather optimistic on the bartender’s part.

“Quantity over quality, love.” He reached up to start unscrewing the little spout from the bottle’s mouth.

Edited 2018-07-17 23:04 (UTC)

Airy couldn't chase away the smile that shapped the lovely curve of her lips. "Is that a fancy way of saying that you don't have a lot of money?" She lifted her drink, pressing the room of glass against her lips before taking a healthy sip.

She lapped into silence for a moment before looking back at Cassidy. He looked like he had plenty to say and she liked his accent.

"Hey, if I buy you nicer stuff will you keep me company? Sitting here by myself isn't as entertaining as sitting here with company."

He didn't bother to answer the first question, except with a small twitch of his upper lip while he finished opening up the bottle. He was just about to lift it to his lips when she spoke up again.

For the first time, he looked at her for more than a second. With her dress, and her easy willingness to talk to a man in his current state, he might have assumed she was a working girl. Only they weren't normally the ones offering to buy the drinks.

He wasn't in the mood to be making any new friends at the moment.

He also could use the money. And a higher quality liquor would at least make drowning his sorrows a more pleasant experience.

Cassidy set the bottle back down, and gestured for the bartender to take it back.

"Knock yourself out."

There was a joke there, balancing on the tip of Airy's tongue, but she bit it back. Even in her slightly intoxicated state she could tell that something was really bothering Cassidy. Of course, she hadn't even considered that he might be one of the new Chosen.

Airy waved at the bar tender, who was now used to her coming in and getting drunk, and ordered something a little better. It was about two steps up and twice as expensive as what Cassidy had first ordered. "This okay? I generally default to the bar tender when I don't know a lot about the type of liquor and whiskey isn't one of the ones I've learned about yet." She paused and then smiled. "I sometimes work at a bar. When I'm not performing at said bar. I play the violin."

There was a brief pause as Airy took a sip of her drink before she addressed Cassidy again.

"I have the feeling you don't want to talk about what's bugging you but can I ask anyway? I have nothing to do, maybe I can help?"

Cassidy reached over to pick up the bottle, to peruse the label. Not bad. Not top shelf, maybe, but not certainly not shite.

This had to be some kind of scam. Only he couldn’t figure out the game, and now the bottle was in his hands, so he set about uncapping it. As she lifted her drink, he lifted his...

...and kept drinking, swallowing the whiskey in gulps straight through her saying nothing to do, at which point he finally lowered it and swallowed through gritted teeth. There. Now he was feeling something.

"Maybe you can help," he echoed, still trying to puzzle her out.

Nope. Couldn't do it.

"You make this a habit, do you? Offerin' to help strange men who walk into bars lookin' like I do. Shirts covered in blood. That's your thing."

Airy tapped her pointer finger against the rim of her glass as she thoughtfully considered his question. She'd never looked at it like that before but she supposed she's approached people in similar situations before. Maybe it was a habit.

"I don't know." She admitted after a second. "I like helping people but I'm pretty bad at it." Her fingers curled around her drink and she lifted the glass to her lips. The glass emptied and she pushed it towards Cassidy. "Here, let me try some of that too." She can always get more, Money wasn't an issue since Airy saved up and got fairly decent tips.

"I just think that there is too much horrible crap happening in this place. The least I can do is try and make it a little better. Maybe even the scales or something." She kept talking and wasn't really thinking about what she was saying. "The blood was kind of what tipped me off that you might be having a rough time and things have been so crazy around here lately that I figured you could be wrapped up in a mess that isn't really your fault anyway." She lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

"I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt." Plus she had the strength to protect herself if she wanted too. Feeling the need to protect herself was the part that Airy was having issues with.

Cassidy poured about two fingers worth of liquor into her glass when prompted. Whiskey from a martini glass, why not.

There was something in the way she talked about this place and around here and everything that was going on in it — as if this wasn’t just another city where the same old horrible crap was going on as per usual. Things were crazy around here, specifically.

He was going to learn where he’d landed himself sometime, he supposed.

“So maybe you can help me, actually,” he mused, letting his eyes rest on the bottle still in his hand, the way the amber liquid caught the dim light of the bar. “See, ‘cause I remember I had got on a bus to New Orleans, only I can't recall gettin’ off. And this is definitely not New Orleans. Least not any neighborhood I’m familiar with.”

He took another swig out of the bottle — shorter, but still enough to feel it in his teeth.

“It’s not Baton Rouge, is it? I owe a decent chunk of money to a man from Baton Rouge... if he’s still alive.” When had that been, in the eighties? There was a chance the guy was still kicking around.

"Ah. You're new." She took her martini glass of whiskey and took a small sip. It burned but Airy was already a little drunk so see took the sip with reasonable grace and then took another sip. The drink was earthy like wood and smooth and she liked it.

"Okay. Yeah. I can definitely help out. To start, we aren't in New Orleans though I've always wanted to go there." That was a random aside. "Anyway," Airy waved her free hand and turned on her stool so she was finally facing Cassidy. "This is called City of Sin. Take that however you want but there are seven districts, each one is based around the seven deadly sins. Around the city is an ocean, or maybe really big river, on one side and then forest around the rest. If you get to far from the city you'll pass out and wake back up in your apartment. That's where you probably woke up this morning." She took a breath and then continued.

"This place is weird and no, we don't know how we got here. I arrived here a little over half a year ago. It was Christmas when I arrived here and September when I left home so I'm not sure how that works. I was living in New York before I was here." She pointed to the bar as if she meant this exact spot. "So, that's that part. Some of the weird stuff. I'm pretty sure the city is alive and makes us feel... feelings. There are also demons in the forests and sometimes in the city. I don't mean hiding under your bed things or werewolves or vampires or whatever. I mean real demons. They're shadowy and if they touch you they can force their Sin on you or something. I was attacked by a demon of greed once. That sucked. I don't know how to tell them apart but I have heard of a few others."

She had to pause and give herself a moment to breath and take a sip of her whiskey. Her throat was getting dry but she didn't want to leave anything out.

"Um... people who just show up here. Like us, locals call us the Chosen. We have no idea how to get home but a lot of the Chosen are pretty cool. Steve set up a boarding house for those who don't like where they live and a lot of the Chosen will offer jobs and stuff to help you get on your feet." Also help him get money.

"I think that covers a lot of it. It's a lot. Do you need another bottle of whiskey? I can carry you home or... wherever you want to go."

Oooh. Cassidy was getting it now. He'd gone and sat down at a bar next to a legitimately insane person.

...was his first thought. Then, recent memory chimed in to remind him about angels, Genesis, folks selling their souls, a super-powered cowboy out of hell, and a family of fucked-up voodoo peddlers who ran an underground fighting ring.

Maybe there was something to be said for keeping an open mind, here.

Which didn't make the whole thing sound much less mad. He didn't know which part of it he ought to respond to first — so, to stall, he contemplated the remainder of his whiskey, and the question of a second bottle.

"Well, I won't say no to havin' one in reserve, as long as you're offerin'."

All right. One thing at a time. He could keep the supernatural shite to one side for the moment. There were practical concerns, and two words in particular had stood out among all the nonsense: your apartment.

"So that place I woke up in. You're sayin' it's mine?"

"Yeah." She smiled. "Plus, I don't actually expect you to believe me. I've seen a lot of people come and go. They all handle it differently. I figured offering to supply you with liquor for the night is my way of saying 'welcome to the place that you didn't want to be.'" She sighed, suddenly feeling an uncomfortable weight press against her chest.

Airy turned towards her glass and downed what was left before waving over the bartender. She got another bottle and a proper glass and poured herself another drink before passing the bottle over. She was starting to feel warm and she wondered what would happen if she stood up too fast.

"Yeah. I don't know where but mine was in Shantytown. I don't really live there because there is a very large blood stain on the floor. That's not the only reason but it's one of em." She paused and took a sip. "Steve opened a boarding house for the Chosen who don't want to live in the place they're given. That's where I am now."

Shantytown, sure. That definitely sounded like the sort of place nobody would want to live.

"Well, not to be a brag, but my place is currently bloodstain free, so I think I'll be keepin' it for now."

A little more whiskey gave him a little more time to think through everything she'd said. All the shite about demons and sin and people just showing up here... there was really no way to address any of that, right now, without taking her word on it. Time and experience would prove whether she was telling the truth, and he'd take it as a given for the rest of the conversation.

Which only left the mundane details for topics of interest.

"City of Sin, you said? What sort of a name is that? They might has well have called it Knockoff Vegas."

Airy couldn't stop herself from smiling at him.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did want to brag." Blue eyes glittered with warmth as she once again brought her drink to her lips. Airy was numb to insults or being possibly wounded by anything that Cassidy could have said to her and she liked teasing. It made everything easier, lighter and less severe.

"Yes but that doesn't have a good ring to it."

She paused thoughtfully.

"It could have been called Nexus or Acheron or archaic trespass or just archaic but I think that word loses it's meaning without trespass. I don't actually know."

As she started to list off alternate names, he snuck in some commentary. Nexus -- "Terrible." -- Acheron -- that one got him to pause and consider.

"No, go back to Acheron. That's not a bad name for a place. They should've called it Acheron. 'City of Sin.' God's sakes."

Little pieces of what she'd said kept landing on him, bit by bit. Had there been something in there about not being able to leave...?

"So definitely not in Louisiana, then."

"You like that? Maybe we can tell the Magistrates to change the name. It'd at least sound a little bit mysterious. Though Acheron is the Inferno in Greek Legend and everything here is very biblical."

Airy glanced between Cassidy and her drink before shaking her head. "No. I've actually never been to Louisiana. I've mostly stayed on the east coast. I wanted to travel but... situations changed and I couldn't." At this point Airy was sure that the world sucked a little bit everywhere. Though that might just be her current feelings about her situation and the city.

"Do you like tricks?"

He was probably going to polish off this first bottle, grab what was left of the second, and take off. Look at this city with his eyes a little more open. Wend his way around until the night ended and he could go back to... his place. Huh.

Do you like tricks?

Cassidy had been looking off at an angle, but the question brought his attention back to her. And she was back to trying to help him, or at least make him feel better, which had the unfortunate consequence of reminding Cassidy that he currently felt like shite.

“Not usually.”

Airy held up a finger as if to ask him to hold on and then pointed to the second bottle of whiskey. She used a little push of her abilities and it was floating about six inches above the bar. Cassidy would be able to wave a hand around the bottle and it'd continue to float that.

That is before the bartender comes over and snatched the bottle from the air. He pointed a disapproving finger at Airy. "No. Don't do that again. You got a pass last time." The bartender put the bottle back on the counter while Airy tried and failed to keep herself from smiling.

As the bartender walked away Airy leaned towards Cassidy and whispered.

"No one seems to like my tricks."

Cassidy leaned on the bar, resting his temple against his fist. His expression didn't change as he watched the bottle rise up over the bar, save for a single eyebrow lifting. He did swipe a hand underneath it, just for kicks, a second before the bartender snatched it away.

He was actually looking at her, then. Okay. She could make things float.

"So are you another witch? Sommat like that?"

Airy looked over at Cassidy with a smile. "No. What does a witch even do?" She waved another hand. "You don't have to answer that. I have weird powers. I'm not allowed to use them here though because there was this thing with these guys and it wasn't really my fault but stuff broke and I wasn't really forgive for it." But she'd technically been the victim so she hadn't been banned from the bar.

"I can show you more!"

Sober Airy wasn't really interested in using her powers to entertain but drunk Airy liked making people smile and Cassidy, while he looked interested, wasn't smiling yet. She had to fix that.

What did a witch even do? Fuck things up for everyone, mainly. But she didn't seem actually interested in the answer, so instead of saying anything, Cassidy took another drink.

And oh, she was really trying to get him to crack a smile. Which was a problem, because Cassidy was very determined to be miserable about his circumstances for at least a little while longer. He patted one hand downward through the air in a placating gesture. "No, no, don't trouble yourself, really—"

Maybe he ought to just take both bottles and go now.

Airy frowned, looking a little dejected. She liked helping people, even if she used it as a tool to distract herself from her own problems. She tried to think of something to create but nothing really came to mind.

"It's not really trouble." She said half heartedly.

"I guess you're done with questions too... huh?" Airy thoughtfully tapped her finger against her glass. "I know where a lot of places are but you seem the wandering around until you find it type." It wasn't clear if she was talking to Cassidy or herself.

"Well, it was nice meeting you anyway. I'm Airy. I don't think I said that or if I did, I forgot."

“You hadn’t.” And he wasn’t going to offer his in return, at least not right now.

“—actually,” he said, then, interrupting himself from standing as a new question, an important question, occurred. “I do have another question. Cause you seem as if you might be a somewhat cool person...” In the giggly club girl sort of way. He wouldn’t be shocked if she had a stash of molly in her purse. “...and I don’t know this town at all, perhaps you can tell me where I can buy some drugs. Opiates, preferably, but I am open to alternatives.”

"Somewhat cool?" She looked at him like he was crazy.

She was definitely not cool.

"Oh. Yeah. I do." A lot of it was through people at work. After Eliot's party, Airy had gotten very interested in drugs. She had a small stash at home but she figures that this guy was thinking of more than her little cash. "I know a place where you can get a few different pills. Weed's pretty easy to come by but I'm not sure about the really hard stuff. I do know a guy that can probably get you everything though. I'd just stay away from Lust though. You don't really come back from that." Airy glanced around and then frowned.

"It'd be easier to just show you but there are a few dealers between the Tower and the Red Light district. It's also expensive."

Her are-you-crazy look earned a very deliberate and maybe too steady poker face back. He'd been trying to compliment her, but he hadn't thought 'somewhat cool' would be an overreach.

"Expensive like what? Expensive like a thousand for a gram of scag? Like nineties prices? What?"

She'd said she didn't know about the harder stuff, though. So maybe he'd better go and just find one of these dealers. Cassidy slapped the bar lightly with one hand, then picked up the first of the whiskey bottles to finish it off. Before putting it to his lips, he said:

"Actually. Never mind. Point me in the right direction; I'll sort it out with the man myself."

"Expensive like, maybe you need more than 50$ to get something good." She exhaled a slow breath and shook her head. He didn't have a job, as far as Airy knew he didn't have a name, but he wanted drugs.

She couldn't really blame him. She'd been more or less doing something similar over the last week or so which was why she even knew where to go.

"Okay. Give me a second." She grabbed a napkin and wrote a name and two streets on it. "This guy hangs out here. He's cool and will help. If you don't have enough money." Assuming he wasn't going to rob a place. "I have some random things at my apartment. Consider it a one time gift offering to someone new who doesn't have a job or hasn't held up the bank at gun point." She looked up at him. "Please don't actually do that. Erik is the chef of police and he's kind of intense. Anyway, if you stop by. I'll give you what I have."

Airy pushed over the napkin before hopping down from her bar stool.

"I'm going to close out anyway. I hope you find what you're looking for." She had a certain amount of money she let herself spend every night so that she can keep up her new self-destructive habits and buying Cassidy whiskey had tapped her out.

/end

riotousjunkie - 2018-07-26 22:18 (UTC) - Expand

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> TEST DRIVE 015

New Arrival - Bar

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