dagung | TDM: April

Test Drive: April

All threads can be considered game canon,

the prompts and test drive itself will be

• Reserves Open Today! If you're interested in securing a spot, put one in! We accept applications without reserves too, of course. Reserves will expire three days before the end of the application period, on the 28th.
• Applications Open The 24th! These will last until the end of the month, the 30th, with the game formally beginning on May 1st. The application page can be found here.
• If you have any questions about the game or the world, please refer to the FAQ page; if you still have questions, feel free to ask them! For questions specific to the test drive, please ask them on the appropriate thread.
• For the purposes of the test drive, your character will have access to all magics taught by the Coven if they're a Witch, and as much of their shifted form as you'd like if they're a Monster. Feel free to play around and experiment with each!
• Test drive threads can be used as samples for your applications!

You feel like you're floating. Around you, colors and sounds and smells swirl as if trapped in a whirlpool, vibrancy and hue ever shifting. The more you watch them, the less solid they are; they only become clear out of the corner of your eye. The area around you begins to feel more solid as well, until your feet are on the ground, the wind brushes playfully against your face -

and you know one thing, and one thing alone: this is a dream, and an incredibly realistic one at that.

The Tea Party

The air turns a sweeter smell, almost like a bakery; the gentle laughter and chatter of living creatures filters in through leaves that brush against you, hanging from winding vines that hang from above. Flowers in shades of orange and red glow faintly among the greenery, their petals curling in shyly once they're paid attention to. As the area comes more into focus, the shadows of insect-winged forms become clearer, flitting about - talking about some kind of party, about a Queen, about the Courts meeting on neutral ground for the first time in a thousand years.

You're not entirely sure what's going on, and it doesn't seem as if anyone's noticed you've arrived - but three different paths unfurl in your mind's eye, vague in shape and meaning.

A Taste of Faeryland...
Following the voices, you find them: smaller-than-average humanoids with thin limbs, a variety of wings (prismatic butterfly, fuzzy moth, delicate bee - all of it), large, glittering compound eyes, antennas fitting their winged insect-type... Those familiar with the tales of the fae might recognize these Monsters as something similar. They greet you as if you were an old friend regardless of your appearance, inviting you to sit down at the table - which seems to go on forever in the large dining hall-esque canopy of nature they have set up, lined with elegant porcelain tableware and shimmering orbs of magic.

The food is similarly endless, ranging from the familiar to the unusual, and careful observation (or just plain digging in) shows the following effects: breakfast foods make you glow and emit colorful sparks, brunch foods get you floating as if filled with bubbles, lunch foods will make you feel as if you've taken part in happy hour, dinner foods will make you insatiably hungry, and dessert will make you feel as if you should simply stay in Faeryland forever... It's possible to mix and match these with effects, but do be careful.

The creatures present speak in high, lilting voices about nothing in particular at all - if asked anything serious, they merely give the character a curious if disproving look and say it's impolite to speak of politics over a meal. Ask something a little more lighthearted though, and they laugh and still... don't quite answer, patting your hand and asking if you'd like an extra slice of buttered bread and jam. The tables aren't exactly the best place for eavesdropping and learning what's going on, it seems - but there are plenty of exits out of the dining hall. Large, beetle-like Fae stand guard at the entrances of various hallways outside of the hall in the castle though, preventing anyone from entering them. When asked, they simply reply these are to private quarters that ordinary guests aren't allowed into and refuse to budge on the matter.

A Coalition of Interests...
The Seelie and the Unseelie Courts of the Fae - whether you know them or not, evidently it's a big deal that they're meeting tonight. Or over several days and nights; the Fae themselves seem to be in a bit of an argument over how long they actually want to stay in the same company as their counterparts, neutral ground of the Dewaint Forest. Regardless, there are no marked differences between the two physically, and they all speak of a singular Queen heading them; behaviorally, though, that's another thing entirely.

Those of the Seelie Court are quicker to engage in conversation and prefer it one-on-one, hardly allowing a word in edgewise and getting irritated when interrupted; their pranks are usually mildly malicious, with spells causing uncontrollable laughter, color changes, and charms to make the charmee fall in love at first sight with whomever they see first peppering their repertoire. Returning to their good graces is fairly easy - the gift of something pretty as an apology tends to work, but each Fae has their own very particular gift they like. If it's messed up even a little bit, they won't accept it, and will merely play another trick upon the giftee.

Those of the Unseelie Court, meanwhile, are a little harder to talk to; they prefer to prank and trick first to test those they might be interested in as a group, not unlike children trying to get the attention of someone they like by pulling their hair. Their pranks usually range from genuine hurt (such as pulling hair, stinging nettles, or simply beating them with bound vines) to curses (losing one's voice, the head of an ass, or full-scale animal transformations). Withstanding these, or standing up to these Fae, earns as much of their ire as it does their respect - the truly respectful human will be subjected to headpats and collars, like a pet.

A Treacherous Adventure...
As beautiful as it is outside of the main dining hall and newly-grown castle (just for the momentous occasion itself, going by the rumors!), Faeryland as a whole is mired in danger. The wrong step sends one tumbling down a rabbit hole full of interesting sights, landing in a wide field of drooping flowers that snore softly and scream bloodcurdling loud when awoken. No matter how long one walks, discovering both familiar and unfamiliar sights, never ends in finding the castle again. In fact, it's much easier to find yourself accidentally going deeper into the woods. The exceptionally tall trees of the Dewaint Forest show hints of decay and rot, the smell of the dead barely covered by the flowers desperately growing across the blackened bodies of Fae and other animals that wandered too close to the growing infection in the area.

What look like corpses will tremble and rise when they sense someone is close by - their eyes and mouth are pure white, contrasting with the darkness around them, and throughout the shell are cracks of a similarly pulsing whiteness; it smells magical, it feels incredibly heavy and overpowering, and it might just be too powerful for those most sensitive to the corruption and to magic. The shadowy creatures' wings are larger than normal and monstrous, with their bodies held up by the dew-crying flowers that simultaneously hold them back yet sneak their roots closer to grab those who awakened them and drag them closer. Where the monster begins and ends with the corrupted nature it's made its bed in isn't completely clear, but one thing is: it's very, very hungry.

Thankfully, it's a good thing some of you have new abilities at hand, and some of you have a few neat changes to help. Teaming up makes things go quicker, and once defeated, these creatures bleed white magic and disappear in ashy smoke, shell breaking off in bits to reveal a dried-up corpse of a Fae. Nothing else remains, not even a hint to their identity, and the more of these monstrously-turned Monsters characters meet, the bigger and more terrifying they get.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( he's pretty sure that in all his life, mika has never been quite so relieved to see one of his classmates. sure, the brash attitude is a little much — even mika himself shrinks back a little as koga swats away the fae who are hassling him, but the comfort of a familiar face is more than enough to outweigh that. not that there's much comfort being offered. as soon as the word "die" passes koga's lips, mika's already bristling with an uncertain anxiety and prickling fear running down his spine again. )

Die?! Nnah... I though maybe if I took just one bite, they might be satisfied with that an' leave me alone, but...

( as you can probably guess, it didn't really work out as he'd hoped. )

Ah, wait a minute. What are you doin' here anyway?

Hah?! The hell ya mean what am I doin' here?! Ya want me to leave you with these weird bugs?! I'm gettin' you outta here, obviously!

[ sure, sure, it's not like 2-b is exactly the closest class in terms of classmate affinity, but what kind of person would koga be if he just left a familiar face be attacked by all those bug-people? besides, he'd only hear an annoying earful from some people if he didn't do anything about it, is all. it doesn't mean anything.

he clicks his tongue in annoyance at the way vines seem to wrap around kagehira's ankles, but ripping on them thankfully seems to prove itself a fair easier job than he had assumed - either because koga is naturally stronger than his classmate, or whatever other reason that surely has nothing to do about this place. ]

Figured a weaklin' like ya wouldn't have been able to free yourself. Now get up and get the hell outta here! This place is freakin' the hell outta me, I wanna leave already!

( brash, but not unkind. like an emotional rollercoaster, mika lets relief seep into his posture again when koga says he'll get mika out and — honestly, he really did not expect that to go as easily as it did. considering he'd tried with all of his might to pull at those roots and they hadn't so much as budged; somewhere in the background, the fae responsible boo and caw at the accomplishment, but mika's expression brightens. )

Thank ya kindly. I'll definitely repay ya for this somehow, Oogami-kun.

( even if this is just a dream, and you are just a dreamed-up oogami-kun. tapping his feet on the ground lightly in turn to get some circulation back into them, mika points to indicate one of the many hallways he happened to be standing near. )

A lotta people were goin' this way, I wonder if that's the way outta here?

Yeah yeah, repay me by gettin' outta this place alive, 'kay.

[ because he couldn't care less whether this weird kid repays him or not. it's just the right thing to do. if something happened to him because koga decided to ignore mika and leave him to his devices, how would he ever manage to sleep at night? hell, even leon would be disappointed in him. ]

Hmmm? I dunno, but it's better than nothin'. You good? Can you walk? [ because yes, koga will drop you over his shoulder and carry you out of this place if it means actually getting something done, mika. he is no madara, but such a skinny boy with no muscles couldn't be heavy weight. ]

If we can't find an exit I'll force one of these annoyin' bugs to tell me where the hell it is. I ain't gonna stay in this place.

Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. ( to demonstrate, he shakes his legs out a little and taps the tips of his shoes against the ground, making sure that his feet haven't fallen asleep or anything like that while he was stuck waiting around. looking to koga though, his expression does become uncertain, lips pulling into a grimace hearing that kind of plan. )

Nnah, I wouldn't try messin' with 'em if I were you... It's them that got me stuck, ya know, they seem to be doin' all kinds of tricks an' all to people. Probably it's best to just stay away from 'em from now on, if we can.

( at the very least, this is his most preferred option. not to mention that their words made mika's head feel like it was spinning when he tried to have a conversation with them; not only changing topics, but saying things that made no sense at all to him, it was hard for him to keep up or get anything right out of these strange little creatures. based on that, mika feels he has good reason to think they'd give bad directions, and so shakes his head to dismiss the thought. )

Let's try lookin' around for a li'l while first. It can't be that hard to get outta here.

TDM: April

!!

2-b 5ever!!!

thats us!! now i wish i made the prompt 2b instead

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