test drive meme: pre-game opening #1

[jumpscare]

___test drive meme: dead weight edition. Step 1 → Post with the character and journal you're wanting to play. Leave the message blank with your Character's Name | Character's Canon. Step 2 → Other people respond to your thread! Fight zombies, deal with the "fictional character" news, whatever you please. Step 3 → ??? Step 4 → PROFIT! Step 5 → Spread the word! Bring a friend! Make a random announcement on D_M! Get this post to crack the hundreds! It doesn't matter if you end up apping or not! This is a place of fun and meeting new people before the waiting!

Text somewhat shamelessly stolen from assguardians.

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[servant]

[Sorcery.]

[It's ironic that he's tempted to come to the same conclusion that Uther always did. When all else fails, blame magic. Burn a sorcerer or a witch and it will all go away.]

[But to create another reality? To show him every single moment of his life and dampen his own powers? There isn't a spell out there that powerful. Uther would end up burning down the world in search of a sorcerer that strong.]

[Merlin's spent much of his time since arrival doing one of two things: running or hiding. He doesn't have a sword, and even if he did, he doesn't have the skills of Arthur or a knight, or Morgana for that matter. He'd finally found this building, with walls to put between him and the zombies outside.]

[At least Merlin hopes they're still outside. He hears noises in the room, soft ones and then a thump that has him retreating into the shadows. But not for long. Merlin creeps forward again, his own eyes wide as he studies her.]

Uhm. Sorry, I thought you were one of those...things.

[He doesn't make a move towards the door though, just crouches down where he is, several feet from her.]

Are you hurt?

[justmissed]

I am injured, but it no longer hurts.

[She's grateful for that, really. The gash in her leg from falling against her blade earlier has long since gone numb. She knows that is not a good thing and that there is a risk for infection, but none of the supplies her father taught her to use are here. She would normally rely on what she could find in nature, but there is not a great deal of that within the brick walls they are confined in.

She watches him closely, her face becoming slightly puzzled as she tries to think of a proper word to describe the things that are attacking the city.]

You thought I was one of the undead? I believe that's what they are. Unable to be taken down unless their brain is penetrated. Several cases of the undead appear in Grimm's Fairy Tales, which was published in 1812. They are children's stories, but perhaps there is more truth to them than my father had always implied.

[She rambles on mechanically, unsure of what to say in the situation. So reciting something from her encyclopedia of facts sounds like good conversation filler.]

[servant]

[Merlin knows that's not a good thing either. His time spent living with the court physician of Camelot has taught him that much. He tries to find the would with his eyes, but they flash back up to her face at a single word.]

Fairy? You mean like a Sidhe?

[He shakes his head gently.]

I'm not sure I would trust any stories of theirs.

[justmissed]

Sidhe. [Hanna knows a great deal of things, thanks to her father's teachings, but that word is not one of them. Given the current subject matter, she knows he means it is another word for fairy, so she slowly nods.]

I know not to trust things I am not familiar with, and that I should be reluctant to trust even things that I do. [But still, the undead do appear in one of the stories in her book. They were entirely different than the ones here, but the fact that she knows of them in a story makes it somehow easier on her.]

Trust is relative, yes? It is up to us to trust our own selves enough to adapt or die.

[servant]

What about trusting others? Don't you?

[Merlin has an idea of what she thinks of that, based on what she's already said. And then he thinks of his own secret, how he's shared it with just about no one willingly. He looks down at that.]

I guess trust is a tricky thing.

[He glances back up again, and he knows that the subject makes for bad timing.]

I don't suppose you'd let me take a look at your injury now.

[justmissed]

I have been taught to always gain the advantage. But there is no advantage to be found here. Is there?

[It is a roundabout answer to politely decline actually answering his question, and to avoid saying why she shouldn't allow him to assist her. But the truth is there are no medicines or plants she is used to working with here, not that she can find, and she needs the help.

Besides, her father isn't here to tell her he's disappointed in her. He's dead now, gone so she can make her own choices.

She very reluctantly slides her leg out for him to get a closer look. The wound there is deep and long, but not very wide at all. The sleeve she tore off earlier is tied around the area as a makeshift bandage, one that blood has long since soaked through. Her pant leg can't be rolled up, but as she unties the bandage and removes it, the wound is clearly visible.]

It is a laceration located on, femoral artery unscathed, left untreated for precisely five hours and twenty-two minutes, fourty-six seconds. Bleeding is not yet clotted, but now manageable. Pain level has decreased from a six to a four. [She says this as detached as someone would when reciting history or multiplication tables.]

[servant]

[Merlin shakes his head softly, not because he fully understands, but it's a little hard to look on the bright side of anything at the moment.]

[He scoots closer, glances up at her questioningly while she unties the bandage. Merlin winches at the sight of the wound, reaches one hand forward to touch the skin surrounding it, but is careful to not touch the injury itself.]

Doesn't feel warm. And there aren't any red streaks. Still, I wish we could find some water to clean it with.

[Merlin removes the scarf from around his neck, tears a strip off and offers it to her as a fresh bandage.]

The things you said just now. You sound like a physician.

[justmissed]

[She dryly chuckles at that.] No, not a physician. My father would read to me from his encyclopedias every night before sleeping. It's because of him that I know these things.

[But all it is to her is recited knowledge, things she's heard over and over again for the past fourteen years. Most information she can spout off she doesn't have any practical use for.

She looks up at him, and then over at the offered strip of scarf. She hesitates to take it, because it's such a nice color. But it is only a scarf, and so she carefully takes it from him and moves to wrap and tie it around her leg once again.]

Thank you.

[servant]

Sounds nice.

[Merlin smiles, but there's a bit of sadness to it too. Of course, he had his mother, and he wouldn't trade the nights by the fireplace where she would tell him stories. But a father's presence is something his life had sorely been lacking.]

[He blinks out of his thoughts when she thanks him, and settles back on his heels.]

You're welcome. Uhm. I'm Merlin.