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

( he's been amazed by how green things are, and there's something that catches his attention almost every few moments as he finds himself in that wide, floral field. maybe it's a butterfly? brilliant shades of flowers that Caspar can't help but kneel down and pick a few? he remembers that there were plenty of plants that grew in the greenhouse within the monastery's walls, and it does bring back fond memories.

but what's even better than that? the very shaky trotting of a unicorn foal slowly approaching him, and caspar is already ecstatic! so much so that he doesn't even care about the possibility of a very defensive parent, ready to give him a goring.

there is, however, a patch of grass that seems to be bending due to something standing on it. but caspar isn't exactly observant; rather, he's too busy picking up the unicorn like one would hoist up a cat and turns his back to the slowly approaching outline of something unicorn-shaped. )

You'd never steal from a pantry, would you... hm... I should name you.

( though without thinking about it, the noise of someone approaching causes him to turn his head. with a laugh, caspar starts to practice his underhand throwing. )

Catch!

( he's thinking about it. there's enough time to stop him! probably!!! )

II.) the path through

( he's staring into one of the mirrors along the path, having stopped once he thought he saw something familiar into one--- and indeed he did. it's like watching it from a completely different perspective, of someone observing that wasn't himself or the other person that he was speaking to, and his jaw is slightly dropped as he stares unflinchingly into the mirror the entire time. )

W-whoa! Hey, come here!

( he runs over, dragging someone along to stare into it. the scene is clear: a young man (it's him) giving what looks to be some kind of giant stony-hided monster an uppercut so hard that it chips off its chin. he'll watch it again, laughing as it finishes and before it repeats again. )

Wanna see me do it in person?

( though, there's nothing around for him to do it to, and he certainly doesn't want to strike a mirror. caspar hums in thought, looking around... )

... hey, would you be okay if I just... look, I can be gentle! I promise!

III.) Wildcard

( feel free to leave a starter here of some sort, or PM this journal and we can hash out something real quick! )

Edited 2019-09-16 22:56 (UTC)

[ it's been a good few months since he's seen a show of brawn so fierce. even amidst the museum hall of heroic spectacles that was chaldea, flat out uppercutting a giant monster is impressive, he'll admit.

it's just too bad he and ... this type tend to misunderstand each other on a fundamental level. amadeus cracks a shade of smile that seems to have envisioned the end result of such a punch with crystal clarity. is he kidding? ]

You understand what you're asking, don't you...? You'd so willingly lop off a genius' head like that?

I mean, no. Of course not. ( he SAID he'd be gentle! even caspar can be that, if he had to be. come on mozart, you look like you can take at least one before losing all your HP. ) Also, you're a genius? Didn't know.

( like, is there a badge? a special hat? caspar rubs his chin, squinting at mozart with a look. )

I'm sure your head will stay on. You're no monster, right?

[ the overdone stained glass highlights of his multi-layered ensemble seem to want to communicate some kind of status, an exception above all. if you really squint. he likes to show off in all things.

other than that, there's nothing too noticeably special about him aside from the persistent desire not to be punched in any way, shape or form. gentle or not. ]

That's precisely why it wouldn't stay on. [ why are they discussing this again? ] I've a better idea for you. How's this?

[ in these dreams, he's always at the ideal height of his skill. conjuration is something he's neglected in his studies thus far, but here...

with the wave of his baton, a double bass is perfectly replicated before them. it's loud as it hits the ground on its endpin, and amadeus quickly snatches the neck. ] I admit, this will be painful to watch ... but not as painful as getting punched myself. [ are you ready to punch this thing, caspar? you force of destruction, you. ]

( really? seems just like pretty colors. they're certainly eye-catching but the meaning of it is lost on caspar, who honestly thinks the bigger and better the armor, the stronger and therefore smarter they are. alternatively, the loudest--- which is why he does his best to yell out every command when needed. even though it's a dream, and therefore he could probably have whatever he wanted, his lack of imagination probably hurts him a little more than others.

in the future though? it'll rain body parts as he punches his way to happiness. a very simple happiness. )

The... oh, this is like... an instrument, right?

( it takes him a moment because who has time to perform music when there's only time to stuff food down his throat, train as hard as possible, and then slam his head down into his pillow to fall asleep? but he's not that uneducated. )

Wait. Are you saying I can smash this?

( he's as giddy as a kid in a music store with a sledgehammer, i tell you what )

Caspar von Bergliez | Fire Emblem: Three Houses | Undecided

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Outskirts. Caspar No!

caspar... yes!

Caspar always yes!

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