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Test-Drive Meme

TEST-DRIVE MEME

Maybe you've considered appping a new character but you're not sure how well they would adjust to the in-game scenario? Well, here's a chance to give it a try!

• Post with a character journal you'd like to voicetest or you've considered apping to Ruby City. Feel free to play them as newcomers or as if they've been here for a while - the setting is your own choice.

•Respond to other threads with new characters or with characters who are already in the game.

• Explore different interactions, find castmates, develop possible CR - anything you want, as long as you have fun!

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[In one moment there are cold, clammy hands grasping his arms and shoulders and legs and mercilessly pulling him underwater and his lungs are burning, he needs to breathe, just one more lungful of oxygen, just one more...

...and then he is free.

The hands are gone, the water is gone and he, clothes still soaking wet and dripping the cursed lake's vile water, is laying on the floor of the train's compartment. Not that he is aware of his changed surroundings as he gasps for air and shakes and gasps some more and finally curls up into a shivering ball as he tries to block out the certain death that should have been.

The awareness that he isn't dead sinks in slowly and leaves him a sceptic.

He is just contemplating what the metaphor of trains says about the afterlife when the train stops and the doors open to reveal an abandoned railway station.

Regulus stumbles outside, quite glad to be free of confined, cave-like spaces, and sinks to his knees on the platform. He is unaware when his fingers find the watch during his search for his wand and activate it.]

Bloody hell... [He is shaken by another fit of coughing. Turns out being dead is far less romantic than it's made out to be. Funny, that's something it has in common with dying a hero's death.] What happened to the white light at the end of the tunnel?

[A slight teenage girl has wandered over to you, Regulus, and sticks out a friendly hand to help you up, should you choose to take it.]

Another zombie, are we? Or nearly so?

[Regulus stares blankly at the girl's hand, then at her face and finally at her hand again. The words sink in slowly and so does the realization that she is trying to help.]

Not a... I hope not. [He accepts the helping hand gratefully.]

Not yet, at least.

[After helping him up, she makes a face and wipes her hand on her thigh.] I should have brought a towel, too. Exactly where were you before the train?

[He blinks, quite taken aback by the shocking bluntness of the girl.] I was... [He hesitates. If he is alive... Well, he doesn't know what will happen if he is alive. He hadn't planned further than stealing the horcrux.] I was drowning.

[Don't worry, she's always this way. Sometimes just a little more verbose.]

Then I suppose it's lucky you're here, is it not?

I am Rose Lalonde. You are?

Regulus Black. It's a pleasure. [The polite words come automatically, he doesn't have to think about them. But Regulus is slowly coming back to himself and starting to take in his surroundings.

He frowns as he looks around.] I take it I'm no longer in... Where I was.

[At the mention of his name, Rose's cool expression of nonchalance and general aloofness disappears into shock for a brief moment.]

Regulus Arcturus Black? Brother to Sirius? The one who managed to steal Voldemort's locket horcrux?

[Some severe eyebrow-raising going on here, pointing to the fact that she doesn't really believe that, as Rose wonders why this guy chooses to adopt the name of a fairly obscure Harry Potter character.]

[He doesn't recognize the voice at first. The voice sounds different and it's been years since he's heard Regulus anywhere outside of tortured dreams. But at the second sentence, he knows who it is even before his eyes fall on the watch and his chest seems too tight suddenly, throat painfully constricted.

His lips move, but without a sound and then he puts the watch down, hands trembling as they tighten into fists.

Regulus.

All he knows is that he died, that he thought better of his choices and suffered the consequences. All he knows is that his brother was too weak to find the right way sooner and that he hasn't managed, no, hasn't bothered to help.

Sirius feels guilt for many things and this one not least of all.

Now he doesn't even think before apparating to the platform. Staring at his brother, he feels lost. He wants to hug him, such a strange urge for their family and all they have been through, but the urge is there. He wants to hold him and pretend that they are children again, before Hogwarts, before houses, before the war.

Another lifetime, so far away it almost seems to be made up.]

Regulus...

[His voice is soft when he speaks, sounding foreign to his own ears. His throat is still too tight, keeping him from saying anything else and he holds his wand, but keeps his hand by his side.

Oh, he wants to hug him, but there are paranoia, guilt and uncertainty, all working together to keep him from it.]

[He had heard Sirius' voice whispering his name in so many ways from angry to wistful to pleading over the last two years, but most of these instances had only existed in his dreams... and every now and then, his awake mind playing tricks on him.

It takes Regulus no time at all to identify the voice as his brother's, yet it takes far longer for the realization to sink in that it belongs to the pair of feet standing right in front of him. Longer yet to raise his weary head to gaze at the face the feet belong to, to realize it is his brother's.

Sirius is truly here.

This realization is more shocking yet than the realization that he isn't dead. He is still debating on that but if Sirius is here he can't be dead, can he, for Sirius wouldn't die. Sirius is lucky like no one else, he is untouchable. The fates love him like they have never loved Regulus or any other Black.]

You look old.

[He tries to chuckle, but the sound refuses to come out properly.]

[If Sirius knew that Regulus thinks of him as lucky... he might have laughed, truly, laughed the way he had when he was arrested. Lucky. He had never felt very lucky, not about his birthright, not about much of anything. He had been lucky, of course, about many things, but those he had often taken for granted, until almost all had been stripped for him.

The smile is an automatic reaction and he chuckles, too, but it doesn't sound much more convincing coming from him. He doesn't have the excuse of having just been short of drowning though. It just seems as if sobs are never far from him these days.]

Thanks. You look like shit.

[And young. So young. Wet as he is, even younger than he actually is. He has only been a boy when he died, Sirius finds himself thinking, and it seems wrong to think of that while looking at Regulus. Alive. Determination forms inside him, not thought out or focused, but nonetheless there. Never again.

Still, he wants to hug him. And still so much between them. In the end he just steps closer and holds his hand out to Regulus to help him up. He tries an easy smile, to avoid raising the pride he knows his brother has because he has the same. At the same time, although he plays it off fairly well in all else, his hand is trembling, ever so slightly.]

Been a while.

[Norman's patrolling the station to look for new arrivals, when the train pulls up like clockwork.

What he doesn't expect is for a soaking wet man to stumble out of the train car and immediately fall to his knees on the platform.]

Christ!

[He runs to the man, dropping to his knees in front of him, looking him over for immediate injury.]

Take it you haven't had a good day, have you. Are you hurt anywhere?

[Overwhelmed as he is by the circumstances of his near-death and miraculous rescue, Regulus submits to the check-up without complaint or struggle.

He shakes his head weakly.] I... don't think so? [He blinks at the stranger, absent-mindedly taking in the Muggle attire yet too fuzzy-brained to act on it quite yet. Not being dead takes priority.] Well, my lungs are burning but I assume that is natural after nearly drowning.

[And shouldn't he be feeling worse? He frowns.]

[It's not so much a checkup as it is just a glance for obvious bleeding or torn clothes.

When he first fails to see anything that could possibly kill the man before he gets help, Norman relaxes a little.

And then tenses again at the remark.]

Nearly drowned, huh? Here, c'mon-- there's a clinic in town, you can get checked up there.

[He's also going to shrug off his jacket and put it around the younger man's shoulders before helping him to his feet, to try to keep some of his body heat in so that he doesn't go into shock.]

[Remus had never had the best of relationships with Regulus... or, well, any of Sirius' family save Andromeda, who he'd only ever met briefly. It wasn't that there was anything particularly wrong with the kid - on the sliding scale of Black Machiavellian ideations he ranked a low three at best - but they'd always been on opposite sides of the fence when it came to most of their opinions.

Having no particular ill will towards Sirius' brother, his first act when the young man stumbles off the train and drops to his knees on the platform is, in fact, not to draw his wand and immediately Petrify him.

Instead, he moves over to him quietly, crouching down beside him with his forearms lightly braced against his knees.]

Hello, Regulus... [A pause.] You're looking well.

[Him. Of all the familiar faces... Well, actually there are plenty of familiar faces Regulus would have liked to see even less, but that doesn't make one of Sirius' precious Gryffindor friends better company.

Regulus watches the man out of the corner of his eyes while he struggles to regain his breath and maybe some of his strength as well. His body isn't burning anymore with the poison, he is vaguely aware of that and it should concern him more, yet there is the new threat of Remus Lupin and... Odd that the man hasn't pulled a wand on him yet but he won't complain.

No, no drawn wand. Such ridiculous stilted politeness is what he gets instead and Regulus can't help it, he has to snort with laughter.] It's funny that you should say that. I would have thought I look like a drowned rat.

Well, I wasn't going to draw attention to that.

[Rude, you know. The wand does come out then, but only for a small flick and a muttered spell that has a large towel appearing in Remus' hand. He does little more than drop it around Regulus' shoulders, but even that is likely more than he expects.

Remus tucks his wand back into his pocket and stands, studying him for a moment. Half drowned, seemingly unarmed and more to the point Regulus Black.. while he might be verbally abrasive, as of the moment he had no reason to harm him physically.

Instead, he offers him a hand.]

Up you get. You'll catch your death.

[Oh, Remus.. you're so funny.]

[Hahaha. Very funny.

The look he sends Remus is freezing, but Regulus happens to be freezing as well and so he isn't about to say no to a towel.

He ignores the offered hand for now, though, giving it a mere disdainful look, though. Regulus busies himself with drying his hair as well as he can with shaking hands. It does little to help with the soaked clothes. It isn't exactly a cold day yet in his wet clothes it might as well be freezing.

His attention returns to Remus, just a sullen peek from the corner of his eyes. He is wary to draw his wand and cast a drying spell, wary that he will be disarmed if he draws attention to his wand. Warier yet that it might not have come along on his miraculous rescue, though he is only half aware yet of this budding fear.]

What does it matter to you if I do?

[It would be a bad idea for Regulus to draw his wand for the same reason Remus decided not to cast a spell on him. A drying spell would have been easier, but it's too direct, and there's so much distrust between them even if they don't quite want each other dead that little gestures were better.. right?

He presses his lips together in a line, just for a moment, letting out a slow breath through his nose. If he has one thing in abundance, it's patience.]

It doesn't particularly matter to me, but Sirius might not be too happy if I leave his little brother out in the cold. Regardless of your opinion of him, and of me, at this point in time neither of us actually want you dead. I'd take advantage, if I were you.

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Test-Drive Meme

TEST-DRIVE MEME

Regulus Black | Harry Potter

is action alright?

of course!

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woooo fourth-walling!

Oh brother, where art thou?

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action!

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