Test Drive Meme

[animusmods]

Test Drive Meme

✭ Reply to this entry with a character you're considering apping into the game. You can include the name of your character and the fandom in your subject line.
✭ Check out our plot guide if you're interested in what's happened thus far!
✭ Comment around to others on the meme, whether you're in the game already or not.
✭ Now you have a sample ready for your application!
✭ So go reserve your character, and apply when apps are open.
✭ Seriously, do it.

To get you started, here are a few optional prompts for you to use if you so wish:

Prompts
1. [Setting: Floor Twenty-Eight] There are musical instruments all around this floor, with a grand organ taking the center stage. It could be a good place to pick up a new skill or two! But wait... what's that? You hear music playing? Well, maybe there's someone already on the floor. Or maybe not... sometimes the instruments play themselves, after all.

2. [Setting: Floor Forty-Five] The walls on this floor are made of glass, which would be nice if there were anything to see. Sadly, there's not much, as the clouds are so thick at this height that you really can't make out if there's anything out there, anything below you, or anything above you. If you hear a skittering sound, that's just the faceless humanoid creatures crawling around on the outside windows. Don't worry, they can't get in... but they will skitter around to watch your every move.

3. [Setting: Floor Eighty-Eight] There's a bar here, and you better hope there's not any alcohol. Most of the time there isn't no matter how hard you look - but sometimes there is, and more often than not even a little bit of it will make you violently sick from alcohol poisoning. But if you're really lucky, you'll just get drunk. There's a pool table in the center of this always-smoky floor, so even if you can't drink you can still act all adult and sophisticated.

4. [Setting: Floor Twenty-Two] Are you a cultured person? Then this is the floor for you. It seems to be an art gallery, and there are paintings from many different worlds on display here - maybe even one or two from yours! But don't get lost, because if you do, you may not like what you see. Paintings of the worst atrocities known to mankind have been known to be on display around here, and if you're really unlucky, you'll stumble across an entire section filled with paintings of the things you fear most.

5. [Setting: Floor Ninety-Four] This is a darkroom, and it's okay if you don't own a camera, because there are a few old-fashioned ones you can borrow to take pictures. Maybe this is a good time to pick one up and try your hand at photography. Or maybe you've turned off the lights, but if that's so, don't look too closely at the shadows. They'll sometimes become humanoid figures that will follow you around, and if you look directly at them they'll possess you, crawling into your throat - you won't be able to leave the floor, and you'll try to kill anyone who enters, but this will only last until you are killed or the lights are turned on.

6. [Setting: Floor Three] A bookworm will feel right at home here, among the towering shelves filled with books of all kinds. You won't find anything about the history of the Tower, though, and you certainly won't find anything about the world you or anyone else here came from, but if you're looking for a tale to read or something to study up on, you're in the right place.

7. [Setting: Anywhere] Uh-oh. That's a monster, or maybe more than one of them. You might be equipped to handle it or you might not. But the question is, what do you do? Do you face it head on... or do you flee? Or maybe the monster has already spotted you, and you're in need of a rescue. That's alright. It happens quite often here.

Comments

[seventhsong]

[No-one could hope to deny that Gilles is enthusiastic, and that really does count for something. It means something, even if that meaning is simple desire to play. All sound is good sound. All music worth hearing.

Perhaps it takes the living embodiment of sound to appreciate something like what this particular man is playing.

Because Lorelei isn't interested in interrupting just yet. Oh sure, there's the desire to see if perhaps this stranger could tackle a piano with the same verve, or a harp, or an oboe.

Only eventually does he move, to approach on quiet footsteps and stand nearby. There's a lot of redheads in this tower, Lorelei may blend in.

He doesn't say a word, he just points, his expression one of subdued, if pleased interest. What is he pointing to? ...The foot pedals. And the myriad little knobs that adorn an organ. Those are part of the instrument, and change the sounds, why not use those too?

But once he makes note of those little knobs and pedals, he seems quite content to step back and away and resume listening, a ghost of a smile on his face.]

[puppy_lancer]

I'm a hero, duh!

[glassceiling]

Will you describe this Diarmuid to me, Claudia? I wish to thank him if I ever encounter him.

[sicharia]

You've seen him before. [She smiles a little as she says that, though the expression is a dry one.] Lancer.

[glassceiling]

[Hearing his voice reach these notes, Assassin cannot help but feel that this man is very familiar. She finds herself staring now not at the painting, but at his face.]

And do you too understand war?

[Her voice is much colder now. She knows who he reminds her of. Caster. That insane murderer who Claudia had sent her to track down.]

[monstrueux]

I am a knight. Of course I do...

[I am a knight. The words had come to him unbidden. He looks at the painting sadly now. That memory stirs achingly in his heart, of the cathedral and the golden light of Jeanne's radiance. Ah, it's almost too much to bear!]

I fought for the honor and glory of France, to free her people... For the glory of God...

[monstrueux]

A hero may also be a beast!

[monstrueux]

That cannot be allowed. No one should violate such a beautiful soul!

[Gilles cares little for the safety of others here, but Ryuunosuke's soul is pure and beautiful. The soul of a true artist. It should not be defiled or reduced. What a crime that would be!]

What do you think of it, the sensation of death?

[Something in Ryuunosuke's tone makes him wonder. He isn't generally observant or good at reading others, but Ryuunosuke is different. They are alike in so many ways.]

[glassceiling]

For the Glory of God (Glorified and Exalted be He), or against it? Caster?

[She spits the name out like a curse. She's almost certain this Servant is her Caster. While she has seen his form only in passing, she can well remember his deeds, as told to her by Claudia. This man was a murderer of innocent children.]

[glassceiling]

Oh.

[She frowns, just a little bit.]

From the way you speak about him, it seems like he was willing to speak with you. I do not know if it will be the same with me.

[After all, Claudia had been a harmless woman without her Servant. While Assassin was an enemy Servant, not to mention the one who had slain his Master.]

[monstrueux]

[Gilles misses the hatred in her words, or chooses to ignore it, more interested in his own thoughts, as usual. He still doesn't care about the war at all and doesn't appear to be responding to his class name. He's remembering another time.]

Yes, for his Glory...

I fought for Him, and I was filled with such goodness, I thought my heart would burst--!

[monstrueux]

[Gilles slows in his playing as Lorelei approaches, watching him thoughtfully. That's right... he's familiar enough with pipe organs from his time, although they were much harder to play, back then, especially for a single man.

He responds positively to the suggestion, moving to make use of the pedals and stops, tentatively at first, but then with greater certainty (if not skill) as he begins to grow used to using them. His playing becomes, if anything, to become even more discordant and strange. With much greater speed and strength than an ordinary human, he is capable of a physicality with the instrument that is more than natural.

As he continues to play, to learn how to make the instrument speak, his own voice within the playing, his personal expression, becomes more clear. How he longs to make the world understand. The force of his anguish and the force of his love--they should know it!]

[seventhsong]

[Probably a normal individual would be begging him to stop by now.

This one isn't.

There's something in the music, the noise and the effort, that suggested this strange large-eyed man was trying to get a message across, and Lorelei is not so bad at interpretation of such things.

Gilles is no Phantom of the Opera, but one can't train passion! Besides which, if he wanted the world to know how he felt, sound was the best way to convey this. What else could possibly be better?

For a while, Lorelei says and does nothing, he simply listens. Then, as one or two of the instruments on the floor begin playing of their own accord, the Aggregate simply moves to fetch them, and set them nearby, adding to the already enthusiastically noisy playing. They're quieter than the organ, a subtle backup, that with Lorelei's careful (and unseen) encouragement, are nothing more than an underscore to further build up Gilles' playing.

Somewhere, someone is going to possibly hate Lorelei for not stopping this awful abuse of a perfectly good instrument.]

[sicharia]

[She shakes her head.]

To start, he's not from the same version of the War that we are. And... I've told him of what happened in our War, because it felt dishonest to do otherwise. He was understanding, and I can't imagine his attitude would be any different toward you.

[papillonmagique]

They can through the suggestion box on one of the floors, but other than that, they are only reachable when they allow themselves to be. It is rare to be able to talk to them, let alone see them face to face.

[woodpeckermaruta]

[Ganta's face awkwardly heats at the stranger's words. It actually reminds him of the words spoken by several members of Scar Chain. They had been counting on his skills. The very skills that had done absolutely no good, in the end. Well, in the end he had seen, before appearing in this place.

It leaves him feeling a bit shy, though--well, that's honestly not the biggest feat in the world. Ganta's really just a self-conscious teenager... Deadman, or not.]

Well, I'm... not all that skilled.

[Or brave.

And, he's not going to up and volunteer any information beyond what he's given, so far. Even to those who are quite obviously far from being run-of-the-mill, does he refuse to just up and tell anything. Maybe it has something to do with him being desensitized via imprisonment with the abnormal.

Or it could just be that the kid can shoot things with his blood. That's not a skill that will leave you feeling very slice-of-life.]

[puppy_lancer]

Well, I ain't a beast.

[He stares at Caster and his rather freaky face.]

Are you?

[monstrueux]

I would rather be a beast than a man. Men are faithless and cruel. Animals are God's creatures. Even if they are violent, their intentions are pure!

[pressxtojodie]

[These floors had the most random crap in them. Some of them kinda made sense if you were comparing the Tower to a huge fancy building (the cafeteria, the infirmary, the dorms), but then the themes of the other rooms seemed pretty random. In any case, Aiden came across this floor next and was about to investigate, but...this other guy was here, seemingly enthralled by a French Horn. Aiden stopped and froze, wondering what to do next. Should he hide and wait until he gets a feel for this guy? Uhh...

Cecil was totally free to notice him at any time.]

[OOC: Aiden's a ghost and I'm not sure if Cecil would pick up on this but he's totally free to do so!]

[glassceiling]

You're deluded.

[There is less disgust, and more pity now in her voice. From his acts, she could see that he was evil, but now, from his speech, she can see that he is also mad.]

[A sinner, forever unable to abide by the true word of God (Glorified and Exalted be He) because something has sealed both his eyes and his ears, and yet forever believing he is doing what God (Glorified and Exalted be He) has truly ordained for him. There is no sadder existence.]

[glassceiling]

If he holds the same view toward me as he does you, then it would make him a virtuous man.

[Too virtuous, perhaps, to have been forced into the blasphemy of the Grail War.]

If God (Glorified and Exalted be He) wills it, then I hope the other Servants here will also be like him.

[And she prays that none will be like Gilgamesh.]

[sicharia]

He is. He's a good person.

[The faint bitterness of her smile remains as she says that, though. She remembers him telling her the end of his life as a Servant was crueler than what had happened to him in her own timeline, and that his Master had killed her father-in-law.]

I've found most of them to be agreeable enough. [Regardless of whether or not she likes them on a personal level.] As I've told you, there's no reason for us to fight here, and most seem willing to respect that.

[monstrueux]

No, this truly happened...

[Nothing is more true than that, that moment, when the music played, echoing in the grand space of the cathedral. Never is Gilles less mad than when he thinks of it, and he sighs.

He is fully aware of the fact that he later came to loathe and curse God, but once--once, he was a great man. He had given his support to the church and to holy men. Many may have been his equal, but few had been more devout than Gilles de Rais.

He draws forth a sword, from where it lay hidden beneath his robes. He holds it point down, not an offensive gesture. Like his armor, he doesn't know why he has it here, but he does.]

See, here is the proof of it. I wore this sword then!

[Indeed, there's nothing malevolent about it. If anything, it could be said to be a particularly pure sword, not precisely holy, but unblemished and good. It was never profaned.]

[puppy_lancer]

Ah, and who told you that?

[monstrueux]

[He doesn't understand why this man is helping him, but he's not going to object. The other instruments seem to be playing along with him, and they augment and improve his song. He tries, always, to express himself, to pour out his rage and hatred and joy and exultation. It is true of all his art, and no less so now, when he's trying his hand at music. As he continues to express himself, his mood continues to improve, and his rage gives way to pleasure.

As a child, when he could have learned to play music, he had always chosen warfare, had expressed his feelings physically, yet there is something physical about this as well. Even when joyful, it is music like an act of violence.

Most people would be tired out from this kind of sustained activity, but not Gilles. He could keep this up for quite a while. However, he's starting to grow curious about his benefactor and audience...]