dagung | ☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

Entry tags:

* tdm

☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

Test Drive: September

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 27th.
• Applications Open The 24th! These will last until the end of the month, the 30th, with the intro log going on up October 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 Wilde

For once, the forest that comes to view isn’t flecked with autumnal colors, with leaves that fall without the touch of wind. Each branch blossoms with life, flowers of all shades dotting their surfaces as spring rears its head, and you’re tugged from the edge, through a worn path, and deeper than ever before. The gentle laughter and chatter of living creatures filters in through petals that you brush past, hanging from flowering vines winding downward like delicate curtains.

There’s something new to this though, eyes that see and a growing excitement among the forests’ inhabitants: You’re more known to them than you might guess, it would seem.

Outskirts
The meadow where you find yourself is fresh and green, an explosion of color and the sweet scents of flowers and rain. Wildflowers dot the grass, all beginning to open, in sprays of purple and pink and orange. To one end, the stream flows clear over smooth river rocks into a small pond dotted with vibrant blue fish and turtle-shelled ducks floating without a care in the world. To the other, the forest begins with tall, white-barked trees and saplings in various stages of new growth, pushing out tender green leaves. It's pleasant, but strange, because... There is next to no sign of the Cwyld here in this idyllic patch of the Wilde, no blackened foliage or shadows hiding white-eyed Cwyldtid.

The wildlife seem similarly unaffected, even thriving - watch out for the mama petalwolves with their brilliantly-colored floral coverings. Most of them camouflaging themselves in the thickets of wildflowers are followed by bushy, green-leafed cubs, and they're widely known to be aggressive when threatened.

The most inspiring sight, however, is one not seen in the Wilde of Geardagas for many years, due to the wide spread of the Cwyld. A silvery, equine creature emerges from the treeline, trotting slowly toward the pond on iridescent hooves. A single white horn protrudes from its head, and its mane shimmers pearlescent in the morning sunlight. Following it is a smaller, clumsier unicorn with a gold-tinged coat, happy to be out and about. Unicorns are known to be exceedingly rare - to spot a foal in the Wilde is unheard of. You're all very lucky to see the way the forest is healing.

While some may know that the Coven itself has a unicorn in its stables, this wild one is unused to the hands of humans and may hold her ground in protection of her baby, threatening with her horn and performing small feats of magic to that end -- illusion and physical enhancements are its more core offensives, though it can do healing and shields on the other side. The foal, for the most part, doesn’t seem to have a lick of self-preservation (perhaps it’s been living in safety for too long) and won’t mind bounding up to something, or someone, new and interesting, nickering in asking to play.

The Path Through
Onward and inward, traveler. The healing forest is vast, but a particular route is clearly outlined to lead toward something. As you head past the treeline, more saplings of varying heights and ages shoot forth from the ground between the large-trunked trees that survived. Warm sunlight dapples the ground in an irregular pattern of light and shade, and shines off a series of mirrors, each about the size of a large hardcover book, hanging from the tree trunks to either side to form a path.

No two mirrors are alike. Similar to the mirrors within the Looking-Glass House, each is framed in different decorations and different materials, with different engravings or embossings, but unlike the Looking-Glass House, all the mirrors' decorations are visible to passersby. They're well-cared for out here, polished to a shine and picked clean of leaf-litter and outdoor debris; distant, happy voices reveal that the area is far from abandoned.

Each of these mirrors is placed in honor of a Mirrorbound, and all contain an enchantment that, when the surface of the glass is touched, causes it to display short, silent 'moving pictures' of that Mirrorbound's heroic deeds, in Aefenglom, in Dorchacht, or maybe even from the character's home, whatever they may have done to earn this high regard. Whether the retellings are true to life, or completely dramatized, it's clear that much care was put into remembering their individual stories and personalizing the frames of their mirrors.

The path between the mirrors serves the dual purpose of memorializing, and leading the way deeper into the forest...

Within the Wilde
... Where the sound of creatures grow louder and more plentiful, shaping into actual words as characters step into a clearing, more familiar to those who’d dreamed the first dream than most: There may be no long tables set up with food and drink, but the sight of Fae flitting about and gossiping is certainly something all its own. They, along with Dryads, seem to be plentiful in comparison to the waking world, and once they’ve taken notice of the new faces... immediately begin to ask questions. From whence did they come? Were they filled with new magic power, or had they already begun to change? It’s exciting -- they haven’t had new connections to the world in some time, most of the old Bound having returned beyond their glass some time ago, and while it could mean there was trouble on the horizon they don’t seem too bothered by that fact. “Most” returned, it’s said, because there’s plenty of creatures who claim to have been descended from those who helped to restore the balance of the world, proudly claiming so to any who spend half a minute with them.

While they can be spoken to in a sense, characters won’t get anything too crazy out of them -- they’re willing to speak on present happenings (or what’d be present for characters in game) and how that played out, such as how Dorchacht was far more free than it had been centuries hence in example. Anything more pressing, such as how it may have come about, is unable to be understood despite everything else being able to. They tease new dreamers that those of old were brought here, as far as the stories go, to help cleanse the world and return it to what it once was, and joke that they’d better prepare for the same trouble -- what a laugh, their Wilde as it is now, desecrated once more.

But the Fae in particular are tricksy and prefer pranks to actual conversation, picking on anyone in sight to see how true it was that Mirrorbound -- you, apparently -- had powerful magic and amazing abilities as Monsters: Give it a shot, cast a spell or two, show off your more Monstrous talents, they’ll find it a genuine hoot.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. OUTSKIRTS

A. PEBBLES
[ Jusis isn't certain why he started picking up and collecting the pebbles by the stream-shore, but that sure is a thing he's started doing. And he finds it difficult to...stop? Maybe he's under some sort of curse.

Whatever the case, he's entirely focused on his task, counting quietly under his breath. ]

...Three-hundred-twenty-four...

B. UNICORN
[ Jusis Albarea is truly at his happiest when his company is of the equine variety. He's never had anything to do with unicorns before, but they are at their core simply horses...with a bit extra. Accordingly, he's about as calm and content as he ever is around horses, and he doesn't take it badly when the mother unicorn is a little overprotective.

The foal, at least, comes immeiately over and trying to play, and though it takes him a considerable amount of time and calming, Jusis is able to eventually make friends with the mother, as well...

Possibly helped along by his habit of generally having treats for very good horses in his pockets. Don't tell anyone. He's very gently petting the mother's snout as the foal knocks its head up against his stomach as if to check if that will produce more treats. When he notices anyone approaching, no matter who: ]

Gently. You're going to startle her again, and she's just come to believe I mean no harm.

[ ...You had better mean no harm either or he will FIGHT you. ]

II. THE PATH THROUGH

A. SUNSICK
[ All the sunlight from the meadow has given him a headache for some reason, and you can find Jusis resting in the deeper shadows in the woods, possibly leaning up against an unobtrusive tree (maybe frightening you if you didn't happen to see him until the last second when you did). He's got his arms crossed and his eyes shut. Jusis looks genuinely worryingly pale and ill, for all he's attempting to look like he's just taking a breather...

Though if he feels eyes on him, he'll open his instead of just leaning against the tree trying valiantly not to be sick. ]

May I help you?

[ Let's start on the polite offensive. ]

A. HIMSELF
[ But he'll travel a little deeper into the woods after he's rested, so if you'd prefer to cath him after he's finished leaning against a tree looking wan and sick to his stomach, you can find him trying to keep out of the sunlight on the path and accidentally brushing up against his own mirror.

His "heroic deeds" range from fighting monsters and villains to breaking out of his own home to rescue a classmate (ugh) to simply being kind to small children. How truly shocking. ]

B. OTHERS
[ Or perhaps while he's avoiding the light his hand brushes against your mirror. By all means, tell me what he'll see...He's just curious enough to stay and watch, trying to figure out what, precisely, he's seeing. ]

III. WITHIN THE WILDE

[ Whatever "powers" or "magic" he has isn't too clear beyond a headache from the sunlight earlier and strange compulsions - but Jusis does have his blade, and he draws it readily when the Fae start to start shit (which means it's time for them to get hit). ]

I'll caution you to rethink this course of action only once.

[ At least he sounds calm about random dream adventures and odd monstrous folk. But then, Jusis is good at sounding calm even when he's not quite. Help him or hinder him, he's not about to turn down a second blade...or claw, or wand, or whatever the hell you have going for you. Despite all appearances of stand-offishness, he's decent at working as a team. ]

NOTES

[ If none of these prompts work for you and you would like to do something else, please feel free to PM me at this journal or contact me on discord at Maggie#0451 or on plurk at roseburst. You can also add me at either if you'd like to plot or discuss anything, or simply throw me an alternate prompt if you have an idea. ]

[If she'd seen anyone in that state, Towa would have found it cause for worry but this-- is kind of a special case; in which she finds herself gasping quietly under her breath.]

O-oh. Sorry... I didn't mean to bother you. [Yet she's doing so all the same.] It's been quite some time Jusis Albarea.

[But more importantly--]

...you don't look so good. Are you feeling unwell?

[ Oh, it's the student council president. Granted, that isn't true any longer but it's sort of hard to think of Towa and not think that, after everything. At the very least she isn't any sot of threat (to him; he's certain she could be a threat to monsters or uncouth persons if she wanted to be).

However, Towa receives a different sort of polite offensive...that is, he doesn't want to ADMIT to her he feels terribly. ]

I'm just taking a small breather. It's a rather hot day, and I fear I didn't come prepared.

[ He's a problem child, like every single member of Class VII. ]

[It is pretty sunny-- something she hasn't seen much of the last ten days or so. But not so much that she'd think it would be trouble for someone like Jusis who excelled in the riding club. He shouldn't normally have trouble like this. But of course, this isn't "normally", and she's seen these symptoms before.]

I think I understand. Don't worry... there's probably not much you could have done different.

[Still... Jusis... a vampire. That's quite an interesting turn of events.]

...alright. Let me see what I can do to help.

[Evocation is part of her specialty-- so a hat, something small that she's spent enough time around in the tailor shop-- shouldn't be too difficult. She even makes sure it matches his outfit.]

Try this! [Here you go--] It's probably a good idea to not spend too much time out in the sun.

[ SOMEDAY he'll learn vampire stuff. Dramatically. In game. For now, though, he's rather impressed by Towa's new (?) fashion-evoking skills. ]

...That wasn't quartz you just used, was it?

[ He will take the hat, though, since it matches and also maybe it'll help. Also: you just don't say no to Towa. It's illegal. ]

Jusis Albarea | Trails of Cold Steel | Monster (Vampire)

II-A!!!

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sunsick /sad trombone

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II-C

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II-A Himself

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I. B.

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I-A - counting

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i - a

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