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☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER
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aefenglom's test drive! All threads can be considered game canon, should you choose to do so; regardless of if you pick specific threads to remain canon to the game, the prompts and test drive itself will be. This will be touched on later in-game, so it's fairly important to note! Aside from that, here are some quick reminders:• 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.With that taken care of...
• 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. |
the path through
He probably shouldn't judge someone based on the mirrors, since he's already experienced how some of it was exaggerated, but still— ]
Then are you going to explain?
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It was just...a breaking point, [No, that doesn't really seem to justify it either. Her shoulders slump.]
Her and the other girls were very... mean. Cruel. I dealt with it silently and simply did my best to keep my head down, but then... [She looks at the mirror again and twists her fingers around each other again, her voice becoming very quiet]
They killed my friend. And I just...snapped. The mirror... Left out so much context. I look terrible-- It was terrible. I shouldn't have done that, but I was... so angry. [Her voice comes out in a bit of a rush, almost desperate as she tries to explain herself.]
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Honestly?
Atsushi can actually relate to it. ]
It's okay, I shouldn't have assumed. . .
[ Unless she's lying, of course, but he has a feeling that this is the truth. If it were a lie, she would have made the story much simpler, he thinks. After all, they're strangers that barely know each other.
There's not much point, besides trying to gather some sympathy. And even that wouldn't really matter much in the long run. ]
I've. . . [ Should he be honest? ] I've dealt with people who were cruel--
[ People that he's honestly wished about ending their lives personally. ]
And the fact that they killed someone important to you. . .I'm sorry.
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There's nothing to apologize for. It's what anyone would think, looking at that. [She shakes her head.]
I'm sorry too, that you've had to deal with terrible people as well. But it's alright. In the end, I shouldn't have snapped like that. All of us were so young, and pitted against each other. We didn't know any better.
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[ He thinks that it's just outright wrong to make assumptions without knowing anything. It winds up clouding his judgment, even though he naturally has an innate bias towards people who have dealt with bullying. ]
And it's nothing to apologize for, either, on your end. There just are people like that. [ If he sounds a little bitter, that's because he honestly is. ] Regardless of whether they didn't know any better or not, it doesn't mean that they should have done that.
It doesn't make the act any better.
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[Jennifer pauses and smiles faintly, looking almost amused and grateful at him as she continues in a soft voice] But, you're very kind, sir. [For trying to reassure her and all!]
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[ He asks calmly before realizing how sensitive a subject that might be, so he immediately backpedals. ]
Ah-- you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I don't want to force you to. . .
[ Because truthfully, that would be rude of him. And that was never the intention from the very start. Although when she says that he's kind--
He can't help but shake his head. ]
I don't think I'm any kinder than most people. [ Or at least most normal people, he thinks. ] I think anybody else would have said the same when they understand the situation.
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And, maybe something like ‘love’... [She trails off, curling her fingers uncertainly at her mouth. Jennifer glances over again as he speaks, shaking her head.] Some might not have even given me the chance to explain.
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[ Those words slip out so easily under his breath the moment she says 'headmaster'. Honestly, he should have expected better from other places, but she supposes that his orphanage wasn't the only one that dealt with that sort of thing.
So he can relate.
About being an easy target.
And it's enough that he frowns deeply, his two-toned eyes lowering as he recalls the memory. A memory that he wishes he could forget, but is etched so deeply into every inch of his being that it's practically a scar now. ]
Sometimes they want to have an advantage over others. [ He says that so easily, if only because of his own personal experiences. ] They think that if they target the person that was least liked by everyone and couldn't fight back that they wouldn't have any problems... and maybe, if they blamed that person for things that went wrong that they'd be rewarded, in turn.
Sometimes even when you do explain... they don't listen.
[ It's way too familiar of a thing to talk about. And his gaze is downcast as he says every single word, as he tugs at his arm, fingers digging at the skin as if that would possibly calm him down.
It doesn't. ]
I don't know if teaching -- if giving 'love' would have helped, though, but...
[ Maybe it would have made things a little more bearable in that hell. ]
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It’s easier that way, and harder to fight back. So I... simply didn’t. I endured. I was kind and did as I was asked, hoping things would get better. [She trails off and shakes her head, touching at her mirror, over the image of the fleeing girl in red. She means more that this all happened because she’d been loved. That someone had loved her to the point of destruction, but there’s no easy way to explain that.]
But... even despite all of that... I learned important lessons there. I can’t turn back time and undo what’s already been done, but I can take the hard lessons I’ve learned and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other, unsteady as the steps may be...
cw child abuse just in case someone is watching this thread oops
But he didn't get that chance.
Instinctively, when he hears the word 'punished', his hand reaches towards his side, to his ribcage, where his scars are. ]
...
[ He sighs, quiet but listening to the words she says carefully. ]
You're right about that. We can't change the past, as much as we'd like to--
[ He wouldn't even change it with the book if he had the chance to. After all, he learned many things from that. Dazai had told him, too. That because of that hell that he lived in, he was able to be kind. ]
Moving forward is... the important part.
[ Even if it's difficult for him. ]
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She drops her hand from the mirror and turns to face him. They just met, but he seems a kind soul, someone who understands. So she smiles shyly] That’s true. No matter how much we stumble, we have to keep getting back up. So, um...
[She extends her hand] My name is Jennifer. Shall we... make a promise? A promise to keep moving forward, no matter how rough it might get?
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It lifts a rather great weight off of his shoulders, even just for a little bit.
He finally lifts his head, mirroring (ha) her smile with a soft one of his own. She's right about that. They stumble and fall, but they get right back up.
Again, and again, and again.
When he sees her hand extended, he grabs onto it for a firm handshake, along with a kind promise. One that only two people who have been in similar situations can make. ]
Yeah. And I'm... Atsushi. Nakajima Atsushi. [ He isn't really all that attached to his last name, but he finds himself saying it regardless out of habit. ] Let's promise that, then. To move forward and look ahead, no matter what.
[ He will, at the very least try. That's what he's been doing all this time, in spite of the fact that he's still stuck by the past that's haunting him. ]
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And yes, I promise. And I don't break my promises. [She'll keep moving forward, letting time march on, but won't let herself forget again.
She looks curiously around the mirrors] Do you... have one too? [And then, as if realizing what that might sound like, she looks alarmed and waves a hand] N-Not that I'm intending to look, of course! I-I was just... [Curious to know? SHe really didn't have any plans to seek it out herself.]
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[ He dips himself into a polite bow before straightening himself out. He trusts her, after all, even if they've only just met. ]
Well, I do, but some of the stuff in mine is kinda. . . weird?
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...Well, I imagine I can handle a little bit of weirdness. How bad could it be?
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[ He laughs a little sheepishly, to be honest. ]
It's definitely overexaggerated for sure, though. The mirrors.
[ Like they're trying to make light of the situation, or even exaggerate that he's some sort of hero, as far as he's seen in his own. ]
But I can show you.
[ It's only fair, right? He'll lead the way to where he saw his own mirror last and eventually touches it--
He expects the same scene that he saw before, dealing with the Q doll, but to his surprise, he finds the silent scene that plays out to be something completely different.
The setting seems to be a train, and while Atsushi is there, he seems to be caught off guard by something.
Or rather someone.
There's a small girl no older than fourteen in rather formal Japanese wear and while Atsushi sems to be frantically chasing after her, as if trying to help her, he's soon immediately stabbed in the chest by something that was too fast for him to see.
Eventually, he realizes that the girl, holding her cellphone near her ear has something behind her--
The very thing that had hurt him to begin with. A figure, holding what a Japanese katana.
He tries to get back up on his feet, but is soon stabbed yet again. On the floor, he looks at the girl, pleadingly even as blood spills from Atsushi's body. He says something - inaudbile through the mirror and she seems to reply back, her eyes cold as she stares him down. Atsushi's face soon twists into one of shock, trying to get back up onto his feet.
Another explosion happens on the train and Atsushi looks behind him. At the people who seem to be in anguish and pain and absolutely terrified.
He can't get cold feet here.
Atsushi staggers a little, walking closer to the girl and the menacing figure behind her and decides not to fight, but rather put his arms out, a silent gesture. A stupid idea.
Do not pass.
Hurt only me.
He knows that it's probably futile, but he tries to protect the others regardless. But the moment that the figure - that Demon Snow tries to stab Atsushi once again, he's astonished by how his arm is no longer like a human's any longer.
It's a tiger's arm, now.
Unlike the moments before, he manages to dodge the rest of the incoming attacks before Atsushi gets the advantage over the girl, his calw aimed at te girl's throat. He frowns as he talks before she reveals that hidden under her clothes is. . .
. . . a bomb.
Shock fills Atsushi's entire face once again, but it soon fades just as quickly as he takes the remote from her hands and presses the button. However, that only causes the pair to stare at each other in abject horror before the girl pushes him away and decides that the best option is to jump off of the train car.
And she does so, towards the ocean.
Atsushi, however, is stunned into silence for five seconds before he manages to transform his legs into the tiger's to reach her, hising his tiger hand to reach out towards the girl's chest, stripping the bomb away from her and throwing it in the air before holding to her tightly as they land into the ocean, safe and sound as he smiles before he collapses right on the spot.
Meanwhile the real Atsushi-- the one that isn't from the memory seems to laugh a bit sheepishly at the recollection of this particular one. ]
I didn't expect that to show up. . .
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But between the strange woman (??) showing up with the sword, and Atsushi's arm becoming a tiger's, she feels like she's missing too much context to fully grasp what's happening beyond the obvious.]
That girl... Tried to save everyone's lives in the end... [She could grasp that much. She looks quickly to Atsushi, eyeing him as if somehow she would be able to see the wounds, then looks back at the mirror, then backat Atsushi again, brow furrowed in a mix of concern and confusion.]
The-- That was... a tiger's limbs, weren't they...?
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[ Anymore meaning that she's hurt people in the past -- even if it wasn't entirely her fault. He knows that all to well.
But then she mentions the tiger and well.
It's not as if it's really a huge secret. ]
And yeah -- it is. It's actually my. . . ability, normally.
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What.]
Your...ability? You turn into...animals? Or just the tiger? [A pause and she adds, baffled:] How...?
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[ There's a bit of a subtle pause and then— ]
Ah, I honestly couldn't tell you how, though. I just do.
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I'm sorry. It's just so... different from what I know. Even though I've seen it there, it's so hard to wrap my head around. Things like that... simply don't exist where I'm from.
[Not...really. The transformed monsters and creatures she'd fought don't really count when they were all made up in her head, do they??]
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[ Just a select amount. There's a lot of people in Yokohama and even then, ability users are just a small slice of that proverbial cake. ]
But you don't need to apologize. It was weird for me when I first learned about it.
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Does... It doesn't hurt you... Does it?
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