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ABRAXAS MODS ([personal profile] abraxasmods) wrote in [community profile] abraxasooc2021-05-20 09:20 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to the very first test drive meme for Abraxas! This meme is run a little bit differently than most in that you'll be asked to choose one of the two different arrival scenarios below for your character to take. If you have any questions about this mechanic or anything else related to the TDM, please take a look at the questions below or ask one of your own here. For general game questions please still use the FAQ.

Arrival

You awaken suspended in the abyss, silent darkness stretching out in all directions. If you try to yell, you'll find that the sound doesn't carry. If you try to move, you'll find it's impossible to tell whether or not you're actually getting anywhere. If you reach for an item you were carrying last time you remember being awake, your hand will only touch bare skin.

You're naked and floating helplessly through the void, and what little air you have in your lungs is running out.

There's a pinprick of light that almost looks like a faraway star but as it grows it becomes clear that it's actually quite close. Through the opening you can see a bright room, but it's hard to make out any individual objects, as if you're looking from beneath rippling water.

A hand plunges through and you realize water is just what it is. Whether you take hold of the hand or not it will grab you and yank you up through the surface, lifting you out until you're sprawled on solid ground. Once you catch your breath, you can get a better look at the surroundings: tall trees and even taller stone pillars surround the platform you're laying on. Behind you is an ornate fountain, the base of which is so deep and so dark you might be compelled to scramble away from it lest it suck you back in to that endless abyss. Ahead of you are the walls of a large castle with several tall towers reaching up towards the sky.

If you had any powers, they feel unusually weak. Attempts to use magic or enhanced strength or powers of any sort fizzle out without any effect, but they don't feel completely gone, either.

Set into an indent on a marble slab behind the fountain is a card baring the image of one of the arcana.

An apprentice mage - the one whose hand lifted you out of the fountain - brushes the water off on their robes and runs back to join a group of three others, who all stare intently at a mage with highly decorated robes and a large, heavy book. He peers up at you for a moment and starts flipping through the book.

"I beg your pardon," he says, so absorbed in the pages of the book that he doesn't bother to look up, "I am Ambrose Rhett, the High Mage of the Kingdom of Thorne. One of my apprentices will explain everything in a moment, but please refrain from yelling and thrashing about until then. You're quite alright, and screaming gives me a hell of a headache."

Regardless of your response, he keeps flipping through the heavy tome, until he stops on one specific page, stares at it for a moment, and then exclaims:

"Aha!"

Scenario One: Welcome to Thorne

Ambrose's expression brightens, eyes twinkling with delight. He waves one of the apprentices over with a fine silk tunic, pants, and some basic sandals and with a wave of his hand they reshape to fit you perfectly.

"Success! It's a success!" he exclaims, slamming the book shut and scurrying towards you.

Now that he's not hunching over the book, he doesn't seem quite so stuffy and inapproachable. The apprentices all seem quite relieved at his jovial outburst, and the one that handed you the tunic stops to take the tarot card down from the marble slab. If you show any curiosity about the card, they'll let you take a longer look, but won't let you touch it.

"Please, come with me, you're an honored guest here," he says, motioning for you to follow him towards the castle, "As promised, my pupils will explain your current situation. And, ah - if you had any magic of your own, or other special abilities you can't access right now, fear not, they'll return within the week. The summoning takes a lot out of you."

One of the apprentices steps forward and rattles on and on about the castle, Thorne itself, the names of a bunch of royals and nobles, and of course, your reason for being here. The Kingdom and the world itself is in great peril, and tales of your exploits have reached far and wide across universes. If asked about these exploits, the apprentice will simply smile and shrug. The High Mage was happy to see you and that's good enough.

Once inside the castle you're taken to the North Wing, which has been set up as living quarters for you and your fellow newcomers. There are four people to a room, but each generously-sized bed has opaque curtains that can be drawn around it. You can meet your roommates here and discuss your shared situation (everyone appears to have arrived within the last few days), or you can wander around and meet the others.

There's also a dining hall stocked with all sorts of fancy food to meet every possible dietary need, and a library filled with epic tales and legends and the history of Thorne. Given that this is the Thorne library, it may be a biased account that makes the Kingdom look a fair bit better than the rest of the world sees them. Last but not least, there's a study hall where a few junior mages (younger and less experienced than the apprentices from earlier) might be willing to teach you some simple elemental magic. Think holding a small flame in the palm of your hand, or blowing a door shut with a gust of wind.

You may also notice that your sign is embroidered on your tunic: the same image you saw on the card from before with the name of the sign itself beneath it. If you ask the castle residents, they'll tell you a little bit about your sign (and will mostly stick to the positives, although some might point out the negatives).

Last (and, if you ask anyone else in the castle, least) there is a worn stone staircase leading underground to the dungeon. You can go there, if you wish, but all powers are restricted in the dungeons and spending too much time with the prisoners will lead to some suspicion being cast upon you. If you ask anyone why the prisoners are being held there, you'll be told that they pose a great threat to the Kingdom (and, by extension, the entire world).

Scenario Two: Imprisoned

The High Mage scowls, grinding his teeth as he slams the book shut. "Another failure!" he barks at the apprentices, "You lot wouldn't know your ass from a hole in the ground, would you?"

All four of them lower their heads, and two of them mumble an apology that Ambrose either doesn't hear or refuses to acknowledge. "Well, don't just stand there," he says, waving a hand in the air, "We've put all this effort into getting this wretched creature, we may as well put it to good use."

One of the apprentices drops a baggy, rough-feeling tunic, a pair of pants, and some worn sandals in your lap and glares down at you until you put them on (if you refuse, they'll tell you they can kick you back down that well if you don't want to cooperate). They're glaring at the High Mage as much as they're glaring at you (when they're sure he isn't looking, anyway). You might catch one of them long enough to ask them why they're so upset with you, but all they'll say is that the High Mage knows something they don't, and he's awfully upset about it.

Once you're fully clothed, another apprentice clamps some heavy iron shackles around your wrists and leads you on. The High Mage is far ahead of you already, muttering some long string of Thornean curses before he stands up straight and pauses, spinning to face you.

"One more thing," he says, holding one hand in the air and chanting something under his breath, "Can't have you getting too troublesome."

If you had powers, the slight connection you still had to them slips away completely and you're left with nothing as the four apprentices drag you towards the castle. They may answer a few of your questions (with some insults and curses peppered in), but they won't tell you anything important.

Once you arrive at the castle you're brought to the dungeons and thrown into a locked cell. There are four people to a cell, and two sets of bunk beds with a thin and lumpy straw mattress. If you're over six feet tall, these beds are going to be awfully uncomfortable. You might as well meet your roommates. Once per day you're dragged out to an enclosed courtyard for one hour of recreation (with some crude weights, benches, and balls lying around but not much else), where you can meet the rest of the prisoners, but you can also talk to your immediate neighbors in the cells on either side and across the hallway. Just don't yell too much or the guards will snap at you to be quiet.

Everyone in the dungeon is fed one meal a day, and for a prison meal it's decent: a bit of meat, a bun, and a salad. It would seem that the Thornean chefs take too much pride in their craft to send bad food to the dungeons. The meals are all served in equal portions, though, so the smaller prisoners may be overfed and the larger ones may be getting hungry. Feel free to fight for food or share with your cellmates.

Crudely embroidered on the back of every prison tunic is the same image that was on your card and the name of the sign beneath it. A guard may explain a bit about the sign, and tell you some negative stereotypes they hold about yours.

You may be blessed with a visit from one of the more welcomed newcomers, and they may sneak you some extra food or a small book to read or they may share some of the information they've gathered. However, rumors travel fast and some people believe the honored guests in the castle above are somehow responsible for the lot of the prisoners below. And although you may hope for kindness, there's nothing stopping them from being cruel to you if they wish. The guards will certainly turn a blind eye if one of them wishes to take out their frustrations on you.




Questions


How do I choose a scenario for my character?
Pick whichever situation appeals to you most. Whether your character is honored or imprisoned has nothing to do with their personal morality, or how highly they regard themselves and their own accomplishments. Anyone can be put into either situation.

Can I try out both scenarios?
You can! But please keep in mind that only the one you eventually choose can be game canon, if you decide to keep any of your TDM threads.

What happens if my character refuses to comply with Ambrose?
Prisoners will be dragged against their will. Honored guests will be forgiven for their moment of panic or anger if they have one, and Ambrose and the apprentice mages will try to calm them and persuade them further. If they put up too much of a fight and/or start actively attacking anyone, Ambrose will warn them once that he's willing to put them back in the well where they came from (see below), and if they continue to fight he will make good on that promise.

My character intends on causing a lot of trouble (destroying parts of the castle, murdering the castle staff, etc.), what would happen to them?
Characters who make too much trouble for the mages and other staff would be thrown back in the well (which will mean drowning in the void, not returning home). Brawling with other PCs and causing minor damage is fine and will be greeted with a cranky attitude (if they are an honored guest) or a punishment like denial of food or temporary solitary confinement (if they are a prisoner), and there will be plenty of opportunity for destruction and murder later, but for now the Thorneans have no desire to keep huge liabilities around.

Ambrose will take it especially personally, as this experiment was his idea and too much trouble would risk the summoning spell being scrapped and potentially result in him being demoted. Rest assured it does not take much for him to throw someone back in the well at this point in time.

Is the power loss for the prisoners permanent?
No, although honored guests will regain their powers first due to the lack of interference from Ambrose, the prisoners will be able to regain theirs soon enough as well.

Can the prisoners talk about anything private, or will they be overheard at all times?
There are guards patrolling the dungeon, but they aren't always within earshot. Most of the attention is being focused on the new guests, so the prisoners will have some opportunities for privacy.

Can my character leave the castle?
For now they will be prevented from leaving the castle, even if they are an honored guest. A bit of a gilded cage, isn't it? They'll also find that any powers they regain cease to work outside of the castle walls (this is also a temporary effect) so flying outside is not an option.

Can my character eventually side against Thorne if I choose to make them an honored guest/can they side with Thorne if I choose to imprison them?
Yes, characters in Scenario 1 will be able to betray Thorne, and characters in Scenario 2 can work themselves into Thorne's good graces.

How much will my choice of scenario affect my character's plot later on?
This choice will have a major impact on gameplay throughout the first few months of the game, and potentially a bit beyond that depending on where our players guide the plot. This decision - and every other major decision you make in game! - will also be used to flavor some mod surprises that will be coming down the line.

Don't get too anxious about this choice, though; this is just one choice you'll get to make in a game that has a lot of them, and every character in both scenarios can work their way towards many, many individual goals and outcomes. You're not locking yourself out of anything in the future via the choice you made on the TDM. It will primarily impact the immediate future with the far-reaching effects being up to each player.

Are TDM threads mandatory for my application?
No, you may use other samples, but we encourage you to post to the TDM and get a feel for this game and its mechanics before you join. If you do not have a TDM thread you will still need to choose one of the two scenarios on your application.

What if I haven't settled on a sign yet?
You can ignore sign-related prompts if you're undecided (or try out different signs in different threads).

Can a put a character on the TDM if their canon is less than 30 days old?
Yes. For this app round, anything that's at least 30 days old when the game opens on June 12th can be applied from.

Do the apprentice mages have names?
Their names are Jeffrey, Grigory, Noelle, and Jolene.


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serpentinthegarden: (Dark ponder)

III. Sharing is Caring

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-21 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
He didn't scramble for the food at meal time and he didn't reach out to take the offered roll now. What did an immortal demon really need with eating anyway? Unless he just wanted to there wasn't a great need for it. If he was still immortal. That whole 'not being able to connect to his natural demonic powers' thing was, several days into his confinement, beginning to worry him.

"They were trying to summon some one else. Beelzebub maybe... They usually ask for Beelzebub. But they must be really bad at it if they are summoning humans."

A beat.

"You are human? I can usually tell."
mytearsaremine: (startled)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-21 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
She sets the roll on his knee. He's way too skinny, he needs to eat. "I mean yeah, I'm human. Aren't you?" There's a brief pause, the: "Wait, Beezlebub. Like, what, from the Bible?" Jolie knows the Bible, among the many other books she's read, has solid chunks of it memorized even.
serpentinthegarden: (Calm plotting)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-21 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
It might actually be wiser to pretend to be human, his mind said only after alluding that he might not have been. It could possibly have given him some kind of advantage...

"Ye-- yeah, no. Not human."

Some how the truth came out anyway.

"I'm a demon... Like from the Bible. The very beginning of the Bible, chapter one."
mytearsaremine: (dubious)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-21 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
She frowns. Then squints at him suspiciously. Then scoots closer to him on her stupid little bunk bed. "You don't seem much like a demon to me. Besides, I thought the snake was some kind of metaphor for temptation and growing up and all that." Look, her family was isolated and somewhat conservative, but not that conservative.
serpentinthegarden: (Long hair deep thoughts)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-21 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Not looking like a demon is the point. One gets tired of being all... long and slithery... Besides, you lot have developed this irrational fear of snakes. I would never get anywhere trying to tempt you if you were too busy screaming, running the other way, or climbing up on chairs and things..."

The nearer she came the easier it would be to see his eyes. Bright golden things with slits for pupils and not a pair of sunglasses around anywhere to shield them. They were the lingering vestige of his demonic heritage that he had never entirely been able to tame.
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-21 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not scared of snakes," Jolie sniffs, and leans over a little more until she can see his eyes. "Holy crap."

She stares for a minute, but given they're all locked up together, she's not going to assume he's some all-powerful monster or anything. Though he, at least, might have some reason to be locked up. "Okay. So tell me why you did it. The whole apple thing. If that was really you."
serpentinthegarden: (You can do proper magic)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-21 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey! She hadn't started climbing the walls or trying to cling to the ceiling so he was coming out ahead on this.

"Orders from head office. They said, go up and cause some trouble. So I found the first thing God said not to do and encouraged Eve to go and do it."

He sniffed, quite proud on himself about that in hindsight. Humans never would have done well all cooped up in that garden anyway!

"Not that she needed too much encouragement. She was already thinking about it before I showed up. I just... gave her a nudge."
mytearsaremine: (hopeful)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-21 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Head office. Head office? "Wait do demons have bureaucracy?" Jolie exclaims. It really shouldn't be a surprise, bureaucracy is definitely hellish, but still. It's kind of hilarious. "You have bosses and supervisors and paperwork and all that?"
serpentinthegarden: (You can do proper magic)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-22 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Ugh! The paperwork!"

Crowley's head rolled so far back it was resting briefly on the stones of their prison wall.

"There is going to be tons of it when I get back from this! In triplicate all because I never mentioned I was leaving Earth!"

There was a demonic bureaucracy and it liked to punish its own with completely useless administrative paper-pushing... which ironically enough Crowley himself had introduced to Hell after he had seen how well the humans had the system working on Earth. Another brilliant scheme which now had backfired on him. His dramatics ended in a glare at the lady who had reminded him of the fate that waited for him back home, assuming they never found out about the misplacing the Anti-Christ slip-up, which would make his punishment all the worse.

"Assuming my whole tempting Eve with the apple past is why I've been thrown down here... What's your story? Who did you hurt to end up in prison?"
mytearsaremine: (nervous)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-22 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
Jolie opens her mouth to angrily say "no one!" but... if this guy (demon) has been put in here because of the whole snake-in-the-garden thing... maybe it's something old. She bites her lip and looks away.

"Probably what I did to my cousin," she says tightly.

Or course, a demon probably kept doing bad things. "But how could they know about that? This isn't even Earth. It's some weird other world. How would they know anything about us?"
serpentinthegarden: (Calm plotting)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-22 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"They had to know something."

Or so he assumed with a light shrug of his shoulders.

"Usually you can't summon a demon unless you know their name." If you were performing a magical ritual anyway, "Or if you knew their cell number..."

He was a very modern demon in some ways.

"They took one look at us and knew we weren't what they were hoping to get."

Crowley looked closer at his bunk mate, until they were almost nose-to-nose, but nothing about her screamed 'evil and beyond redemption'. Could those mages really have known anything about this alluded to incident with her cousin?

"Maybe it's something else... Gave off the wrong vibes, had the wrong color hair, eyes too close together, they never really said."
mytearsaremine: (startled)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-22 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not a demon, and they summoned me just fine," Jolie points out. Then she leans back when he gets so up in her space, frowning at him, before continuing. (There is, actually, nothing irredeemable about her. She is kind of sickeningly Good, to the senses of a demon, if he even has any of those right now.) "So maybe it's not like summoning a demon at all. Maybe it's something else. Didn't he have a book? Maybe it said something in there about us."
serpentinthegarden: (I always drive ninety)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-23 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Humans so often felt the same in that regard. They were capable of good or evil and general, unless they really leaned one way hard, they came across as a neutral. Simply human. Of course now there was nothing at all except that she had a cute frown... which was something Crowley had no intention of ever admitting to thinking out loud.

"A book? I... wasn't really paying attention. Anyway books aren't really my thing."

If Azirahale had been there he might have noticed the book, likely even gotten its title if it had looked old and special enough to be of interest to him.

"How would they have filled out a book about us? Do you remember having been followed before you arrived here? Like maybe they sent spies out to gather information on us?"
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-24 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"They'd have a hard time spying on my family. We live out in the middle of nowhere on the PCH, in our own little town, with our own little diner and motel. Anybody new would stick out like crazy." She wrinkles up her nose, turning back to the rest of her meal, but she's still thinking. "Maybe it was with magic. There's aliens and demons, apparently, and summoning wells. So it was probably magic."
serpentinthegarden: (Calm plotting)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-25 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
It would have been difficult to spy on him too Crowley reckoned but for different reasons. He lived in London and which was always busy and where you only saw familiar faces if you traveled in the same areas at the same time each day. Additionally he had been on guard the whole time, watching and waiting for Hell to send it's minions up to collect him. He hadn't seen any spies.

"Maybe it's just a book or it contains that summoning spell which brought us all here. I can't believe I'm about to say this but..." Deep sigh, books were not really his thing, "We should get a look at it once we break out of here."
mytearsaremine: (nervous)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-25 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Need to break out of here, first," Jolie points out, but she looks intrigued. She, on the other hand, is very fond of books. Maybe not as much as certain angels of Crowley's acquaintance might be, but for five years books were her best form of escape. Even better, she's smart enough to know the benefit of learning from them if need be. "And find where they keep it."
serpentinthegarden: (Throne Brooding)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-26 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
That was a very fine point, one that sent Crowley looking back to the iron bars and giving the door a little shake just to test it. The darn thing barely moved. It was a heavy iron thing with an impressively substantial lock.

"That book will be with that one guy, the old one that was shouting at the others. It'll either be in his room or he will be carrying it. I doubt he would just leave something like that laying around. We just need to find out who he is."

A slight frown.

"And sneak up on him. If he can take magic away who knows what else he could do."
mytearsaremine: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-26 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, I don't have magic, so it's just another normal day for me," Jolie says, only a little sarcastically. She rests her head back against the wall, looking at the ceiling. "I'm small and not very strong, though, so I don't know how much help I'll be. I know how to sneak?" She rolls her head to one side to glare at the door. "I really should've learned how to pick locks sometime, huh. Do you know?"
serpentinthegarden: (Snake tattoo)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-26 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Was it a dark mark on his record as a demon that he did not know how to pick a lock? It sounded like the sort of thing a demon should have been good at... But her question left him staring lamely at the lock.

"Don't you need a hairclip for that?"
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2021-05-29 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"Or a wire or a pin or something. I think there's special little things you can get or make or something, but I only read about it in a book, I've never actually like. Tried to learn how to do it." Maybe she could figure it out by guess if she tried it out, but that would require something metal to use, and for the guards to not be hanging around watching for a long time.
serpentinthegarden: (I always drive ninety)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-05-31 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
"You read about it in a book? Sounds like something a friend of mine would have done."

Crowley swayed slightly as he contemplated checking his pockets for some small bit of wire until he remembered that he didn't actually have pockets in this robe.

"Think you could do something with a fork?"