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

"Nearly all of them. I am the first child born free in generations." She could put this more gently or in less harsh tones. She doesn't want to. It's a very present issue, a very important issue, and it should upset people.

Toby nods gravely. "I hope so."

It would be really nice if she doesn't have to worry about a whole extra alien species complicating her peoples' situation, but she should probably find out more anyway. "So Gems are like humans, then - in conflict with each other, oppressing each other? Are you facing other Gems?"

That's some heavy shit, and he'll probably ask about the details a bit later, if there's a change. At this moment, this is all a bit overwhelming.

"Well... Gem society is set up so that everybody has a job, and they're not allowed to do anything that isn't that job. If they try to make their own decision, they'll get punished, or destroyed..."

"They spend all their time attacking and colonizing other planets... but, my mom didn't believe in that, so she decided to fight back."

Her canon's thesis is 'war fucks people up' and Toby's probably the most well-adjusted child soldier present in it, but there's no escape from heaviness.

She rumbles an acknowledgement of such a stratified society being harsh and unpleasant, then realizes that humans probably don't usually react that way, at least, the few she's had any real interaction with don't. "It must have been difficult."

Steven doesn't actually find the rumbling very strang - it kind of reminds him of when Lion expresses disapproval of something, which is reasonably often. Still, there are so many absurd things going on right now it's hard to know how to press forward.

"I don't really expect you to know, but: you don't happen to know where we are, do you?"

Not far off, most of the flowers have fallen from screaming to just kind of giggling and muttering. That's a relief.

"No. I can't even tell if this is still Earth. Gravity seems to be the same, but I've only ever been in part of what you call California. We are not there." Can gravity vary on a planet? The only people she could've asked who'd immediately understand the question wouldn't know, she's pretty sure.

"Earth probably doesn't have native plants with voices, or trees that dislike being climbed." You can see all the marks left where her claws and blades bit into the pale bark. They've oozed copious dark sap, though by now it's stopped flowing. "I don't think it usually features small humans with insect attributes, either."

"I met some moss that liked to swallow people and rose vines that tried to grab you, but none of them actually talked to me..." he agrees, hesitantly. Also, he's not sure Toby is familiar with the same sorts of things as him, anyway.

"But I guess it could happen. The faeries are completely new, though..." He fidgets, his antenna and wings flexing. It makes him self conscious.

"...I don't usually have the insect parts, either!"

Toby considers for a moment, her beaky face not hugely readable - between her deep set eyes and the heavy horn-bearing ridges above them it's easy to interpret her face as frowning all the time, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

She puts her hands together. They're long and narrow with a total of four digits on each hand, each finger large around but relatively skinny. The blades on her arms are folded down, out of the way, but it's clear that grabbing incautiously at her arm is a bad idea.

"There is no reason why this should happen," she says, and spreads her hands a few inches apart, keeping them parallel. There's a little light in the space between, coming from something like a tiny coal fringed with a small wavering flame.

Steven, of course, has no context for this. He sees her suddenly decide to make a flame between her hands, but as far as he knows, her species can just do that normally and she's trying to show him something else.

He stares for a few moments longer, and then tilts his head.

"Why? What is it?" he asks.

"There is no reason," she repeats, patiently, "why this should happen. I can't just do this, and no one that I know can do this." As the one Seer in a growing colony she's had to stop and explain things that seem obvious to her many times.

She presses her hands together, and when she draws them apart again the tiny bit of fire is gone. "I don't know, but it's new. Something about this place, I have to think."

Oh, okay. So it's not normal.

"It's kind of the opposite, for me! Normally I have a bunch of powers, but none of them have been working right at all." He flexes his wings uncertainly. "I guess having wings is kind of like a new power, but I'm not very good at using them..."

The other Hork-Bajir consider Toby to have powers of foresight and comprehension, but they're not inexplicable, they're how her brain is wired differently so she's better at pattern-recognition and reasoning. Being the Seer has made her life difficult and it's not going to get any better, but the idea of losing that functioning somehow is disquieting.

Toby gets to her feet using her hands and tail, a bit clumsy on the ground. "I wouldn't think you could fly with those, but the logic may be different here. What about the antennae? They're sensory in insects, I think."

TDM: April

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