dagung | ☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

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* 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.

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[Oh, gods.]

Lost? This is not a contest, I fear.

[But all his fussing is for naught. Caspar seems to have befriended this foal, for good or for ill, and the mother seems... undecided, pacing a little, big dark eyes on them both. She snorts warily, and the foal nickers back.]

Pray take care—

[Wait. Why did he turn around? Before he can ask what's going through the man's mind, he finds himself similarly accosted and yelps, trying immediately to pull away. There is, in fact, another apple inside the sash of his robes. But it comes with the flailing of the Exarch. Ineffectual as it is, Caspar will come away victorious and the Exarch, deflated; his natural inclination to avoid hurting people, even those who try to invade his personal space, has made him a playmate for children many a time.]

That-- that was quite uncalled for! You could have simply asked!

[BULLIED. BULLIED!!!!]

You are certainly not wanting for confidence... I fear for your safety should such bravery lead to foolishness!

( ah, well. mission accomplished? he's pretty sure he could've been a little more gentle, especially because this man sounds old. he may not be old. also, caspar's pretty sure he might've accidentally grazed something odd inside those robes? maybe something precious and solid and not skin-like at all? but at least an apple is easy to figure out shape-wise and he's pulled it out without going any further than that. )

You talk a lot. ( and caspar guffaws, smiling cheekily. ) Apple would've rotted away if I didn't do something.

( and he approaches, keeping his hand open as he presents the fruit to the unicorn. surprisingly, her reaction is a quick shake of her head and a quick bump to knock the apple back and toward the exarch. )

H-hey! ( caspar shakes his hand. ) That's rude.

( says the rudest boy )

[He is totally old, sorry Caspar. But you still shouldn't go groping grandpas. What will Edelgard think? Still, it's Caspar's straightforward manner that... nevertheless puts him at ease, because someone like this certainly isn't here to do him or the unicorns harm.]

All the world's a stage, [he quips,] and the people merely actors. Why not put on a performance of a lifetime? We only have the once.

[He lifts his head as the unicorn bumps the apple over Caspar's head and back toward him. The Exarch catches it out of the air with surprising alacrity considering his general... fussy grandpa mien.]

'Tis not poison, I promise you. [He's speaking to the unicorn.] I conjured these when I first awoke as a test of my abilities... though we still slumber in truth.

[He takes a small bite of the apple and swallows so the unicorn knows it's good. Now it's his turn to approach, head bowed low, hand extended with the apple in hand. The mare takes a moment to sniff him all over, nostrils flaring, chasing the weird scent right up his arm and then into his face. The Exarch doesn't breathe or move, he just stares wide-eyed under the hood and waits for his interrogation to be over. She ponders-- then snorts right into his hood, earning a bright noise of protest.

This time, the unicorn takes the apple gracefully into her mouth, but she eyeballs both of them warily. The Exarch wipes his face on his human arm and makes a tasting face.]

... I suppose I deserved that.

Edited 2019-09-20 09:04 (UTC)

Because I don't like acting.

( he's going to grope every grandpa in the world, if he wishes to do so! it's hard for him to see the exarch as a potential enemy, especially when he's so willing to roll with the punches and even go as far as to help feed these two precious animals with food he made himself! which is, by the way, a very odd concept to him. )

Wait. You can just make food? Man, I know some of my former classmates would love to have that kind of power! They'd never complain about having enough resources or anything ever again.

( including himself, but like caspar would actually out himself--- )

Can you magic up some meat? Now that I'm thinking about food, I'm kinda hungry.

( --- mmm. he does laugh at the exarch having to wipe away some of the unicorn spit, fortunate that he doesn't have to get the same treatment. which obviously means, once he's done having a chuckle, caspar gets one long lick from his chin straight up his forehead. )

Ugh! What the... you didn't have to do that?!

( sticky with apple juices, the man sighs and shakes his head while the mare is smug af. )

... so who are you.

Simple and straight to the point. I can respect that.

[He's something of a... natural-born entertainer himself, though he doesn't get to indulge that side of him much anymore. One could say that old age does that to a person.

He shakes his head.] I doubt that any food conjured by magic is very filling. However, if you were to bring me raw meat, I can ensure it will be at least edible.

[Oh my god, Caspar. The Exarch tries very hard not to snort when he spots his companion being licked so enthusiastically, but a laugh breaks through anyway. Fair is fair, sir.

Still amused from earlier, he casually reaches out to pet the foal's neck as he considers how best to answer that question. In true Exarch style it is way too many words.]

I am called the Crystal Exarch for reasons that may be somewhat obvious to you, [he says, lifting his translucent crystal arm just in case this forthright idiot has not noticed.] But you may refer to me however is most convenient for you. 'Tis how I earned the moniker in the first place.

And who might my most adventurous company be?

( hey, if the exarch didn't respect that? caspar could find ways to make the other man respect him. there is more than one way to gain someone's trust, and words are pretty cheap. a show of strength, some kind of fantastic feat that only a blue haired idiot can achieve because of a lack of hesitation? who knows, really.

either way, he's still not happy that he smells like a mixture of apple and saliva (though one might think that unicorn spit might be magical, so maybe he just smells like double apple). )

The Crystal Exarch. ( why does that sound so whimsical, therefore to his ears--- dumb? and he did come to that conclusion after rummaging about in those robes. obviously he's got some parts of him that are crystalline, and that's pretty weird. also, cool. pretty weird and cool. ) Hm... that's a lot of words. How I just call you 'old man' instead? That sound okay with you?

( he feels old. seems old. wordy as heck. kind of like hanneman when he gets too into crests. but caspar doesn't mean it as an insult, keeping his tone light and upbeat. )

I'm Caspar von Bergliez. ( he points at himself with his thumb. ) And I might be the most adventurous person you now know.

[What's that? Making friendship a threat? Totally... totally something he might've done when he was younger, if he had met some mysterious but fun stranger in the wood.

... wait.]

O-old man? [He is all but cracking up at this point, more than he's offended, because he is definitely an old man at this point and he's not afraid to admit it. But it's-- the tone, gods, it really brings him back. Yes indeed, there was definitely a time where he was, in fact, this kind of idiot.] I suppose I cannot stop you. I think you would labor to believe how old I truly am.

[He can't even be offended.]

There is but one who stands out in my mind when I think of that title, but I have ever been fond of incredible stories and legends retold. I would gladly hear your own.

Nothing can stop me. ( especially if he applies his own brand of Logic and Power to it! ) Especially as elderly as you. ( caspar cracks a smile, hands on his waist as he continues to grin at the exarch. there's something about him that's genuinely pleasant, something that he wishes he could cling onto for a longer period of time. it's not that he feels younger around this robed individual, but that having a kind of fatherly(?) figure does give him a reassurance that even if he went too far, someone might reign him in.

somehow. )

Oh? Uh... my own story, ( huh. there are so many, like the time he ate too much food. or the cat stealing food. or, the number of times that he got his ass handed to him and had to get healed. or... )

I don't think I've got any legends to tell. ( openly, because there are even some things that not even caspar and his big dumb mouth can talk about. ) But I'd be happy to make some here... with you!

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☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

THE FAIR EMBELS!!!!!! i love this boy holy shit

i love him too but not as much as my favorite miqo'te

i assume you mean khloe aliapoh

nah, my favorite is x'rhun tia

a solid choice of dadcat

i have an affinity for dadcats

i think i just have an affinity for dads, i played chrom before

oh... chwom