agentleooc | test drive 02

Entry tags:

!modpost,
!tdm

test drive 02

I know dust grows even when there is a breeze
Can't move, can't grow When you've fallen on your knees

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HOT UNDER THE COLLARD GREENS
The relationship between the Blood and the landens has never been easy anywhere, least of all Draega, and even less so now that the Strangers have arrived. Between Blood and landen, opinions on the Strangers vary wildly. Some Blood believe the Strangers were landen in their original worlds and thus cannot possibly have anything to offer, but some landens think this means that the Strangers will be more sympathetic to them—or that landens could gain the power of the Blood one day, too. Then there are the landens who think the Strangers have sold their souls to Queen Fayura to gain the Jewels and the Blood who think the Strangers have embraced what it truly means to be Blood. Whatever that means.

Tensions are high, and they're highest on the main street of the Old Town Bazaar, where two restaurants have an on-going feud. The Last Meal is owned by a Blood family, none of whom wear a Jewel darker than Yellow. Across the street from them stands the mockingly named Blood and Breakfast, owned by a landen family.

To say these two hate each other would be something of an understatement.

On this particular morning, Lord Harle, the Yellow Jeweled owner and chef at The Last Meal, comes storming out of his front door. "You've done it now, Laney Cook! Soured all my milk!"

Simultaneously, Laney Cook, who is the owner and chef at Blood and Breakfast, comes stomping out the front door of her establishment, brandishing a wooden spoon like a sword. "Aye, and you've replaced all my sugar with salt, you ripe old bastard!"

Without missing a beat, both turn to you and the Stranger at your side. Wrong place, wrong time, friend. The two chefs decide the two of you can be trusted to help them prove the other party guilty of sabotage because neither of you has a stake in this. And, well, if the Queen brought you here, you should be an independent party. Both Harle and Cook seem to think the Queen is pretty okay.

Truthfully, they're both equally guilty. Lord Harle and Ms Cook have been trying to ruin each other for years, but who knows what you'll find when you go searching for evidence. And even if you find evidence that decides one way or the other, perhaps you'll simply lie and manufacture a solution that suits you—or the Queen who brought you here.

TERRIBLE TWO(HUNDRED)S
You're not entirely sure how this happened, but you're starting to understand why Blood females constantly grumble about the caste of males they call Warlord Princes. Prince Loren has, somehow, managed to maneuver you to the place you're at now: the head of a classroom full of Blood children who all look like they're somewhere between the ages of eight and ten. It's hard to tell, and you're pretty sure one bossy little boy declared he was 203-years-old, so everyone else has to listen to him, thanks.

Regardless of how Loren managed to get you there, there you stand. Fifteen energetic elementary school children all wearing Jewels shriek and shout, using Craft to amplify already shrill voices. One girl floats near the ceiling, her face screwed up in concentration as she clutches a Rose Jewel. Two little boys are taking turns passing their hands through their desks, which strikes you as distinctly unsafe for eight-year-olds to be doing. (You're not wrong.)

At least there are two of you, and you only need to babysit these children for the morning. "They're here for Craft lessons. Surely, you can manage until Lady Sheera arrives," Loren had said before abandoning you to a battlefield full of powerful, pint-sized children.

There's a lesson plan on the teacher's desk, but maybe you should lead with the snacks.

REVENGE, SERVED STINKY
The air is crisp and cool; it's still winter, but it's not as chilly as it has been, and so you're out for a walk. You've made your way north through Old Town and now find yourself meandering down the roads in front of the landen Guild Halls. Even though they're all made of red brick, each building is entirely unique. The Hunter and Crafter Hall, the largest of all the buildings, has more in common with a hunting lodge than the university building it once was. The Elektriline Hall might be the smallest building, but it's covered in neon lights and impossible to ignore.

Equally impossible to ignore is Master Tinker Mari and her collection of landen young adults. They're clustered around a storm drain. When Mari sees you, she detaches herself from the group of landen students and bounds over to you. "Ahhah! Stranger! You have been brought here against your will and are surely sympathetic to our cause!" she exclaims.

That doesn't make you feel too great since, you know, you're aware that the Hunter Guild tried to kill all the Strangers maybe two or three weeks ago. They may have mellowed out, or they may just be biding their time. Thankfully, none of Mari's students bear the markings of a Hunter.

She pulls you to the group. Already, canisters have been lowered into the sewers. A handful of students have clambered down after the canisters. "The Blood wouldn't help us repair the damage in Old Town," she says, rubbing her hands together. "Our people's homes were unlivable. So we're going to make their workplace unbearable." She points at the canisters. "Stink bombs."

There's another Stranger in the group, and you make eye contact over the top of the storm drain. Are you of the same mind as each other? As Mari? The choice is yours: agree to Mari's plan and fill the buildings of the Ebon Council with untenable stench or try to convince them there's a better way.

AIR TIME
Whether you catch the news on a Far-caster in the city or you're spinning the dial on your own device, you'll hear…

etiquette with evandra and aren
[Evandra's voice is a little bit rough and a little bit husky, the kind of voice that gives bad ideas to young men and headaches to fathers.] Today we're talking about everyone's favorite subject.

[Aren's voice is chipper and bright. He sounds more like an eager boy than the full-grown man he is.] Food?

[A laugh from Evandra.] No, Lord Aren. Sex and flirting. Culturally, the Blood don't consider it rude to flirt quite blatantly with each other, even when one or both of the parties is married. Isn't that right?

[Aren:] That's exactly it, Evandra. Older males allow young witches to flirt because it's understood that the male isn't interested or available. He becomes a safe partner for her to practice on, and his approval lets her know what is and isn't acceptable.

[Evandra:] What does it mean if a married male or witch flirts with you?

[Aren:] Casual flirting means that witch or male thinks you're safe. It's their way of telling you they feel comfortable around you. Of course, it's always acceptable to ask them to step back! [He laughs.] As we all know, just because you can flirt with a Warlord Prince's lady doesn't mean you should!

[Evandra:] Let's take a look at casual flirtation between different Blood castes…

the weather
[A soft-spoken man's voice rumbles out of the Far-caster. He's pleasant to listen to, with a soothing cadence to his voice.] Warmer temperatures will see melting snow over the next week. Be careful around the Heartsblood River, as the heavy snows will result in flooding along the banks. Need flood insurance? The Transport Guild is looking to expand into…

the news
…amusing to hear that Grand Master Niall blames the Blood for the fires in Old Town. It is my understanding that members of the Blood, these so-called Strangers, went out of their way to rescue both Blood and landen during the fires set by the Grand Master's Hunter Guild. [The man speaking has a slow, clipped cadence to his voice. It's very posh and polished.]

[Another voice, presumably an interviewer:] The Council counts the Strangers as Blood, Lord Grejor?

[Grejor:] What else can they be? They wear the Jewels, therefore they are among our number. [He laughs, and the sound is cold.] The Council is pleased to welcome our new brothers and sisters.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A: hot under the collard greens]

[Ren is the type to get lost at the best of times, so if he's supposed to be helping out here, he figures he should probably familiarise himself with the city a bit. His jewel is stowed out of sight for the moment - even if he were the type to wear that sort of thing on his sleeve, he's not in an elevated enough position for it to exactly be a good idea. While he's certainly not counting on that hiding to last, he'd at least prefer it to not be on the table while he's trying to dig himself into the city a little.

The sound of an argument breaks him from his thoughts briefly, and he comes back to attention(...ish, since Ren's not terribly attentive to most things at a glance) to the sight of two storeholders arguing in the middle of the street. It's kind of funny, but he hides that reaction for the moment, especially once the two chefs turn to him and whoever's unlucky enough to have been walking by him and decide they're getting recruited to resolve this spat.

With a somewhat airy smile, he looks over to the other Stranger and speaks in a light, somewhat absent tone.] Oh, I guess they're probably going to keep arguing if we leave...it might be fun to help out, right?

--

[B: revenge served stinky]

[The guild houses are interesting landmarks in this part of the city, and it doesn't take Ren long to gravitate to the area when he needs to find his way back somewhere. He isn't quite expecting to be flagged down by what appears to be one of the guildmasters, though - he's heard about what happened with the Hunter Guild, but this band looks a little wrong to be that kind of group. In that knowledge, Ren does end up wafting over to the storm drain with them to see exactly what's going on.

He's hard-pressed not to laugh a little when he does. It's pretty cliched, true...but it also sounds a lot like the Council deserves it after what happened, and there are far worse ways these people could be choosing to retaliate for that kind of callousness. One hand curled in front of his mouth as if he's thinking, Ren tilts his head innocently towards whoever's eye he's met across the drain.]

Mmm, what do you think? It does sound like they were a little rude to these people...

[He's not well-established enough yet to take the diplomatic option himself, so he's fine with the non-diplomatic option for now. That said, his tone is one of innocence, as if he's concerned about taking even petty revenge like this, even if honestly he'd be doing at least the same thing in their position.]

--

[C: air time - etiquette]

[It's at least cute that this world still has radio shows, and some...apparently rather interesting radio shows at that. Ren stumbles across the lengthy discussion on social flirtation while adjusting his own Far-caster, and it doesn't take him long to hop onto the text function to see how well that works.]

so they were talking on the radio about flirting being important in the society here...is that something i should be practicing...? unless the other strangers haven't been doing that sort of thing

can someone tell me more? i'm confused now :c

[Spoilers: he is mostly going to be trying not to laugh behind the figurative keyboard for this entire conversation, but it's probably fine.]

--

[D: wildcard]

[[Feel free to hit me up for other stuff at

reviseleviathan!]]

[Two incredibly loud people ordering him to do different things? A fellow Stranger who seems willing to play along? This truly is Lalli's Nightmare Scenario™, which is why he huffs out a sigh as he glances over at his apparent partner. Does this sound fun—]

No. This is stupid.

[But with the number of people sticking around to see how this all turns out, running away isn't really an option... and there might just be a bit of free food waiting for him at the end of this, so! After a moment of clear hesitation, he points over to Blood and Breakfast.]

...I'll go there.

[And he's just going to, you know, set right off toward it, because teamwork? What is that? Feel free to tag along...]

[Oh good, a grumpy person. Ren's favourite (to mess around with). He keeps his innocent smile in place as he wanders after Lalli, somehow keeping up despite the rather lazy manner of his movements.]

Hmm, sometimes people have to do stupid things for good reasons, right? But I'll help you, otherwise you might get grumpier...

[And potentially make things worse, but he tries not to be that observant on first meeting someone. Or tries not to look it, at least.

He blinks at the facade of Blood and Breakfast as they approach, tilting his head as if clearly the signs of guilt here should be obvious.] Well, I guess at least nobody's being really obvious about it.

[Grumpy? He's not grumpy, thank you, which is why he... shoots this person a decidedly grumpy look back over his shoulder. This is not his ideal day, okay! Hmph!

But even though he's very much in favor of staying silent for the remainder of this little detective adventure—well. That last sentence is said almost like he knows what's going on here? And Lalli would really, really, really like to wash his hands of this whole thing as quickly as possible, so...]

Hrmh. [That's it! That's all he's got. No, no—as he opens the front door, he turns around to fully face his co-detective.] If you know something, then just say it.

[And Laney Cook is suddenly right there in the doorway, nosily (nervously??) peeking her head around the corner. Spill it!]

[That is just about the opposite of the impression Ren was intending to give off, so it nets Lalli a confused blink and then a wave over his shoulder to Laney Cook, as if he doesn't know why she just showed up out of nowhere.] No...? I was saying at least nobody has something on their front door or something that makes it really obvious. Because we would've seen it by now if they did.

[His tone is absent and innocent, with the implication that he had actually thought seeing something before they even went into either restaurant was possible, or even likely. He's just being cryptic for the sake of being silly, apparently.

For the moment, at least. He might pick a few more impressions up later once they get deeper in, but how much he shares depends a bit on how Lalli handles it, too.]

[Lalli hears "nobody's being really obvious" and assumes that maybe, possibly, this other person has picked up on a subtle clue that he, himself, has missed. Tracking trolls? Easy. Understanding people? So, so hard, which is why this casual attitude is really throwing Lalli for a loop here. He looks over at the, uh, door he's standing beside, brow furrowing as he seriously studies it.]

...Ah.

[He Doesn't Get It, but forget the dining area - he brushes past a somewhat relieved Laney Cook as he makes his way back to the kitchen. The container of sugar-or-salt is still sitting out in the open; he zips right over to it, blinking down at the pile for a moment—there's so much!—before taking a pinch and placing it right on his tongue.

...Oh! Gross!!

See that grimace, my dude, as he waves you over to come check out his amazing find? Lalli Hotakainen: Ace Detective.]

[Ren follows after Lalli with a somewhat meandering gait, looking around them curiously as they enter the restaurant. He hasn't really gone anywhere like this in this world yet, so he's taking the opportunity to check it all out while he's here.

Until he spots Lalli's reaction to that...white powdery something out of the corner of his eye, and wanders over to look at it himself.]

Is that salt...? [It seems weird for Lalli to have reacted like that if it was sugar.] Or did you accidentally eat some poison that just looks like it?

[Clearly, another valid explanation for his reacting like that to it. His tone is surprisingly carefree about that suggestion, though.]

[ having literally zero experience with flirting (did hanging out with kariya for more than five minutes count as 'experience'? maybe, actually), parado is only listening to the far-caster programming to pass the time. the text post that pops up after is far more interesting - a new addition to the strangers? one who communicates like a modern human. nice. ]

dont gotta do it if you dont wanna. pretty sure a lot of the blood arent sure how to deal with us, so maybe if you try they might think its funny or weird? or maybe theyll get super into it. who know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

aaand unless youre really observant you might accidentally flirt with a landen and that could turn out suuuper awkward.

[Oh, that's a familiar kaomoji. Ren takes note that the person on the other end is probably more familiar with technology than some others here might be.]

oh, i guess that's true...though maybe if they were a nice enough landen it wouldn't be that awkward?

i'm probably not experienced enough to try it yet. maybe i should take lessons off another stranger :<
do you know anyone good at that sort of thing...?

if you lucked into finding someone nice enough then sure ig. you wanna take your chances, thats on you.

cant really help with that, so~rry. not my line of expertise, but im sure if you ask around youll find someone. maybe even locals could help? sounds like a tutorial sequence is in your future.

[ what a helper he is being today. definitely no social cues missed here, nope. ]

oops, maybe i picked the wrong person to ask, then .o.

[Implying he actually chose who he was asking instead of just broadcasting it to the whole network.]

i think strangers might be better first, maybe...if there's a whole flirting system here, then i think i'd better do the tutorial outside of it before i step into the actual game, right?

[It's not his usual flavour of game, but hey, all kinds of games are good as far as he's concerned.]

like kinda? but then, we are a pretty shallow selection and a whole bunch of strangers probably have nooo idea how to even use this thing properly, so you couldve definitely done worse! three out of five (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

[ that is a good point, though. live tutorials were all well and good, but... in an environment like this, it wouldn't be that as much as throwing someone right into the game.

he takes a few moments to think before replying. ]

maybe i can help actually lol. you ever played a dating sim before?

oh, three out of five is pretty good... 'w'

i've never played a dating sim before, but i know what they are. are we going to pretend date, then...?

[Because pretend dating a stranger is the logical assumption to make out of that question, he feels. Unless someone somehow managed to invent a dating sim on these weird radios.]

see? its a good start. really.

not quite, but also kind of yes? i was just gonna write a prompt, and then some options, and you gotta pick which one you think is the best for the situation! and then i can tell you if youre getting it right or not. thats basically how it works anyway, right?

[ ...it's difficult to tell how sincere that last part is. ]

oh, okay~
i guess that is sort of how it works...or just how conversations work, but i think you have to be more careful with flirting so you don't upset someone .x.
or make them angry if we're talking about stuff here...
so i think it'll work as a tutorial

[Also, it sounds like it'll probably be entertaining and/or hilarious, which is Ren's main priority here.]

right, right

[ you can't see this, of course, but parado is furiously scribbling every generic dating sim archetype he remembers onto some paper right now. ]

okay say youre tryin to charm a younger blood male who has caught your eye in a bakery. youve literally never met this guy before in your life. hes pretty handsome, like generically? with a friendly face. but his expression looks dour, and despite his nice clothes hes checking his wallet or whatever they call em here as if hes penny pinching. how do you wanna start up a conversation?

[ the options take a few moments to come in. it's thinking time allowance. ]

a: throw a casual arm over his shoulder and commiserate about high prices
b: approach cautiously, stand to the side, and wait until he notices you
c: buy something inexpensive from the counter, and offer it to him in order to start a conversation
d: drop all your own coin in his general direction in the hopes it will draw his attention

[This is actually a more involved scenario than he was expecting from a random stranger, but he's more than happy to roll with it. It's more interesting this way.]

hmm...
b is pretty boring and d is too cliched -x-
i guess someone could take both a and c the wrong way but i think c would be best probably?
everyone likes food right :3

[The idea that anything like that might be considered mandatory is probably the stupidest thing I've heard since arriving here.

Might as well just ignore it.

really? they seemed pretty serious about it... .n.
how long ago did you arrive here, then? it sounds like you're pretty sure about it

Fair. There may be way stupider stuff I don't know about.

Doesn't make assuming everyone fits nicely into their heteronormative gender binary any less stupid.

[Ren's not familiar with the specific terms being used here, but it only takes him a few moments to work out what Alex is talking about.]

it is a bit weird that they title everyone here and have a whole system about that, isn't it...
at least they're not doing to us though so we can probably just avoid it \(-o-)/
and you can keep doing you

I'd like to see them try to fit me in their little bubbles. Might be entertaining.

I just feel bad for folks like me who were born here.

[Because for all that she can be a caustic ass sometimes, Alex does care about people]

i think a lot of people will try anyway...so you might as well get some entertainment out of it, right~?

i think at least it's only a thing with the blood and not the landens...
which doesn't really make it any better it just makes it less people -n-

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

test drive 02

Ren Suzugamori | Cardfight!! Vanguard | purple dusk but he's not being v honest about that

collard greens!

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