Test Drive Meme 010

[sinfulmods]

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 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 chruning 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 at the Tower that spills out its doors in welcome, by someone who calls themselves the Emperor. Obviously, that's weird, 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 it's 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 choice of 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. Wild Card: Choose your own adventure in the game's setting!

Comments

Quentin Coldwater | The Magicians

[filloryfan]

Arrival

"No no no..." Quentin muttered to himself, as he checked all over and all through his messenger bag and darted his eyes around the City. "This is definitely not 1942. Fuck." Great. They'd messed up again and now Jules was gone, and there was no way he'd make it to Fillory.

He rubbed his face, brushed his hair back behind his ear, and sighed deeply. He'd just...have to figure out where he was. And try again from here.


Party Hard

Why had he come here? Really, what did he think he was going to manage at this party? Maybe he just expected to drink, and that- that he was managing. He stood in a corner and rolled a coin in his fingers, occasionally watching the proceedings, but mostly just wishing he was back home.

He was at least dressed up fairly nice, looking far more put together than he actually felt. If only he wasn't hunching his shoulders and leaning against the wall, someone might actually think he'd wanted to talk to people.


Trouble

"Look man, you've got to leave me alone, okay?" One of the locals was very curious about the book he'd been reading, and everyone else that was nearby had mysteriously vacated the area. Quentin was not very optimistic about his chances here.

"Look," he repeated, speaking more quietly so the guy would have to stop tugging on the book to hear. "I'm a trained Magician and I know battle magic, so how about you just-" And the tugging resumed.

Unfortunately, battle magic (and most magic, really) required the use of his hands, and he wasn't going to let go of the book to do it. So Quentin could be found ineffectively kicking at the young local guy who had somehow grown as fixated with his book as he was.

Trouble

[asksalotofquestions]

The man suddenly let go of the book as a big wad of his hair was tugged backwards with invisible force. It threw him off balance and when Julia let him go he fell backwards onto the pavement.

She wasn't intending to look like a badass, it just kind of came naturally at this point. Personal hygene hadn't been a big priority recently and cigarettes just make you look badass.

She put her two hands together and did another series of gestures, and the ground started to rumble and crack below the group accosting Quentin. When she was sure that they were getting the hint that she was causing it, she dropped the spell and gestured at them dismissively.

"Shoo."

She took a drag from her cigarette, not quite looking at Quentin. She didn't know exactly what to say to him.

[filloryfan]

"Whoa," said Quentin, eyes wide as he stared at Julia. She definitely was giving off the badass vibes. "Thanks, Jules."

And okay, maybe there was more to say than that, so after he was done being surprised, he pulled himself together. "So you made it here, too? How long have you been here? Did you make it-"

'to Fillory' was what he was going to say, but he realized the problem as soon as he thought about it. Julia clearly wasn't from the future, from the time when they had worked out at least some of their differences and were working together to find their childhood dream. This was going to be way more awkward than that.

He paused as he tried to think of a better question. He eventually settled on something far more general. "Are you- have you been okay?"

[asksalotofquestions]

Things fall apart so quickly. She'd had tunnel vision in that room. That was why she'd taken the dagger, she only had one thing in mind and everything else just fell away.

And she wasn't even sorry she'd taken the dagger, she'd do it again. But now she was here, and The Beast was gone and her plan ruined, and Quentin was here so she was confronted with the fallout of her decisions, again.

"You don't remember." Fuck time shit.

[filloryfan]

Quentin's eyes narrowed as he realized he didn't have it right, that Jules might be the one from the future, and what did that mean? He shook his head, trying to clear it.

"Okay," he said, raising one hand up, as if it would actually help him sort this out. "Okay- last thing I remember...we were about to use that Let's-Kill-Hitler time machine to take us to 1942, so we could sneak into Fillory after Jane. Is that...does any of that sound familiar to you?"

Fuck time shit, indeed.

[asksalotofquestions]

Fuck, this all seemed so small, now. Fillory, everything. Unimportant. She had no idea how much she should actually blame that stupid Satyr for taking the block away. She'd been happy moments before that, like really happy. She could be looking at Q right now and be excited to see him, explore this new place together without feeling like a complete failure.

But instead, she was faced with the concept of explaining to him how badly shit went down in the very near future for him, and how it was her doing. And she didn't have... whatever it was she needed to do that.

"Yeah. Everything goes just how we planned, Q."

[filloryfan]

Her statement didn't ring true. There was way too many warning signs for him to believe that it all went great and everything was fine. But there was something that pushed to the front of his mind before he really had the chance to pick it apart.

With wide eyes that made him look five years younger, he asked, "So we really made it? To Fillory? You saw it? What- what was it like?"

Just give him a second to geek out. He'd come around to the important stuff soon enough.

[asksalotofquestions]

Good old Quentin. Always had his priorities straight.

"You remember the Witch and the Fool, right?"

[filloryfan]

"The-" He looked to the side as he thought about it. "Right. The two travelling Magicians that helped Jane out of the snar-"

Realization hit and he tilted his head to the side, a questioning glance being thrown to Julia. The timing of all of it certainly was right. "That was us? Seriously?" He didn't realize he was already grinning.

[asksalotofquestions]

"Then we met the Watcherwoman, aka future Jane Chatwin, who got us to the right time."

Her grin was already diminishing as she got closer to where things went off the rails.

[filloryfan]

"The Watcherwoman was Jane? That's- wha-" He laughed in disbelief as the implications ran through his mind. It made sense, sort of- she'd been something of a threat, but she'd always been a good challenge for Jane. It was someone for Jane to rise up to, someone for her to try and be better than. It had made her stronger. It--

Okay, okay. He took a breath and focused and stopped asking dumb (but interesting!) questions. Julia was not entirely happy to be telling this story. "And things didn't go as well from there? I mean, I know we don't exactly have the best chance in the world here..." He wasn't expecting everything to be great as soon as they made it to Fillory, even if he did love the place.

[asksalotofquestions]

"What went wrong actually happened before Fillory," she said. "A mistake. You know, the kind I've been making since the test."

Mistakes that were kind of Jane's fault. But then if Julia being kicked out of Brakebills is the only thing stopping them all from having been murdered by The Beast...? No, that's all just passing the buck. Jane is why she was kicked out of Brakebills but everything that happened after that was her.

[filloryfan]

He didn't know what she was talking about. They'd talked everything over before they headed to Brakebills. Maybe it was something she did earlier that was coming back to haunt her?

With concerned, confused eyes, he shook his head. "What was it? If it has to do with all the hedge witch stuff, you know I'll help you if I can..." They hadn't really talked about it much, the time they'd been separated and hurting each other. But he did want to her to know he was here for her now.

Where else but a party?

[thegreatestproject]

From somewhere not-too-far-off in the milling crowd, Quentin would hear a very familiar laugh. When he looked, there was Eliot — far more put-together than the disheveled mess he'd been when Quentin had last seen him, laughing it up with a man who appeared to be just around their age. Said conversation partner was ethereally handsome and, if one looked close enough to notice the sharp teeth and fresh-blood-red irises, apparently not quite human. But such details could be easily missed at a distance, especially if one was distracted.

Whatever it was they'd found so hilarious, the laughter took a good few seconds to start dying down. Still grinning and trying to catch his breath, Eliot held up a hand in the universal sign for give me a second.

[filloryfan]

The sight was almost like a dream, and it made Quentin smile. Eliot had been so fucked up back home after everything with Mike. Maybe this place had been good for him. Hell, just getting away from that shitshow with the Beast would at least give them room to breathe.

After about half a minute, Quentin finally abandoned his post at the wall and walked up behind his friend. "So, would it be an insult or a compliment to say this place suits you?" he asked. El had probably spotted him ages ago, but if not, this would be a nice surprise?

[thegreatestproject]

Thank to fashionable lateness, Eliot hadn't yet made a complete circuit of the room, so, no, he hadn't noticed Quentin wallflower-ing. When Quentin was sneaking up behind, he'd just bid a 'catch-you-later' to his sharp-toothed friend and was raising his martini glass to take a drink. When he whirled around at the sound of Quentin's voice, some of the vodka and vermouth splashed over onto his hand.

"Quentin!" The exclamation was followed by a shocked look down at his own hand, a second or two while he considered whether to mourn the loss of alcohol, and the conclusion that just now, there were decidedly more important things going on. Which was a conclusion Eliot never came to lightly.

"Oh my god—" And now he was pulling Q into a one-armed hug. After months of contending with the City relatively on his own, finding footing among a whole new group of people and worrying about the ones he'd left behind, there was no way that wasn't happening. "How long have you been here?"

[filloryfan]

Quentin had no idea how long Eliot had been here, but he seemed settled. It was obviously more than just a week. So yeah, even if they were all sort of feeling weird about each other back home, hugs were definitely happening now. He was smiling by the time he pulled back.

"Like a day," he replied. "I had no idea you were here, or I'd have seen you sooner. I just didn't think anyone else I knew would be here. Don't know why." He looked Eliot up and down. "You look great. Which I know is sort of standard for you, but-" He paused as he realized that lead-up wasn't working, and decided to just ask the question. "You've been here awhile?"

[thegreatestproject]

The compliment prompted an almost sheepish smile. Like oh, you. Go on.

"A while," Eliot echoed, confirming, as he took a glance around the room. "A long... weird while."

He was mentally rifling through all the things he'd thought up to say if someone he knew dropped in. He'd had a lot of time to think about them, and the tone had been constantly been in flux depending on whether he was currently in some sort of active crisis. Now that Quentin was actually here, now that he'd surprised Eliot like this, the talking points were somewhat scattered. It was going to take him a second to gather them up.

"Three months," he specified, looking back at Quentin. "Just a bit over. What are you drinking? Let's get you another one."

His free arm looped again around Quentin's shoulders, but this time it was to lead him toward the bar.

[filloryfan]

Quentin breathed out a quiet sigh on hearing it'd been that long. Yeah, another drink sounded fantastic right about now. He let Eliot lead him to the bar and decided on a cosmopolitan for this particular conversation.

"It's so good to see you, El," he admitted, even if that was obvious. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to find all of you again, even if I did manage to get to Fillory. You guys did make it there, right? Before you got tugged to this place, or whatever happened?"

[thegreatestproject]

Eliot's smile wavered.

"Dunno." He took the opportunity to down the remainder of his drink, since a fresh one was in the making anyway. "Maybe some of them made it to the fountain, but I... woke up here."

He leaned against the bar, taking one more look back at the crowd. "The good news is, time basically stops while we're here, so, while there's no telling when the City will let us go, at least we'll be able to pick up where we left off."

And he wouldn't be mentioning the more depressing implications of that fact, if he could help it. Focusing on the positive, here. Their new drinks arrived, and Eliot held up his to clink it against Quentin's.

"To a vacation from our lives."

[filloryfan]

Quentin's chuckle in response was a little bitter, but he rose his glass and clinked it with Eliot's all the same. After a generous sip, he shook his head. "I really don't know whether I should be mad about it or not, then. But if we really come back the moment we leave, then...okay. Vacation time, I guess."

It was a very abrupt change, but no less so than when he was suddenly tested by Brakebills. "Is this at least a good vacation spot? What've you been up to the last three months of your life here?" He'd like to focus on something other than their impending doom, now that he had the option.

[thegreatestproject]

By the time Eliot was swallowing his first sip of the fresh drink, as Quentin's question landed, he looked a lot more thoughtful.

"So many things." His voice sounded far away as he reminisced, still pondering where to start. There was both good and bad in there, and, well... Quentin was going to have to find out about the bad eventually.

"Including one ill-advised attempt to find out what's actually going on here," he said, with the air of someone peeling off a bandaid. "Day One, I was assailed with people insisting this place wasn't all that bad. And when you've just been kidnapped in the middle of an acid trip, that's the sort of thing that leads you to think Stockholm Syndrome." It really hadn't been an illogical conclusion. He would stand by that until the end.

But as for whether the City was actually all that bad: "The City's its own little free-standing universe. It has its own special ways in which things are balls, but it isn't all balls. At least, not all the unpleasant kind."

[filloryfan]

Quentin's eyebrow shot up not with the people telling Eliot the place wasn't bad, but on that part about the acid trip. So Eliot was that messed up in the Neitherlands? Christ.

But by the time Eliot finishes talking, Quentin's moved on to this world. And the joke on the end got a quiet laugh from him. "It does seem that the general population has taken a liking to you," he said, glancing over at the man (?) Eliot had just been talking to.

[thegreatestproject]

Eliot smiled back at the being Quentin was alluding to.

"That's Lem," he said. "Short for..." Give him a second to nail the pronunciation: "...Lemfuashim. He's some sort of Pain demon, but his family practically disowned him when he wouldn't let up on the concept of consent. We had a pretty good time, once."

Lem had been a one-time thing, and was likely to remain so. But he was nice. Eliot didn't mind stopping for a chat, whenever he saw him around.

"Most of the natives are indifferent to us, at best. A small handful find us fascinating."

[filloryfan]

Quentin's expression went through the gamut of concern and confusion as Eliot talked. He just never expected to hear about a pain demon, followed by 'we had a pretty good time'. "So...all the natives are demons? But they're not attacking us, at least?" Hopefully?

He'd just gotten something to drink, and Quentin already wanted another one. He could tell he was going to get smashed tonight. Why couldn't this new world be a nice, monster-free place for them to get a breather?