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

You and she did. You truly don't remember anything after my father's death?

[ Trevor honest to God right now... ]

There was a lot of black smoke or something that disappeared? I don't know. Pretty sure it's over with.

....Trevor, I'm well past that point in time.

[ Yeah this is sure spiraling into something alright. ]

I'm sorry, what?

I mean precisely what I said and--

[Oh this is genuinely too much. Alucard breathes out, and he looks for a place to sit. There's nothing, so to hell with it. He settles down on the ground.]

Good. I'm from further in time than you. Lovely.

Wait. You mean you went to sleep or something?

[ You know. Curl up in that coffin of his again and take a nap for... however long vampires sleep. ]

No. You...

[Alucard gestures at Trevor, trying to ask him to sit down as well.]

Join me. It'll be a little easier like this.

[ Jesus, is he about to get moody again? He's about to get moody again. Sitting around in the dirt. Probably going to grab a stick and start drawing stuff again. Where's Sypha? She's a lot better with the whole... comforting and consoling thing.

Shit.

He rubs at the back of his neck with a hand and looks toward the sky with closed eyes. This is fine. He can do this. He can... power through feelings and stuff. Yeah. ]

You're not going to get weepy on me, are you?

[ Ok. An attempt was made.

But, he sighs and drops himself down onto the ground near the dhampir, legs crossed and chin dropping to the top of a fist. ]

Sorry. Go on.

Belmont.

[The rebuke is harsher than Alucard intended, the cold, imprevious commanding thing that rose out of the coffin under Gresit. And maybe that's right for what has to come next, as it involves reaching back to discuss the direct aftermath of his father's death.

He lets out a long sigh.]

My father died. Sypha lead us both out into the sunlight, and we...talked. You saw fit to grant me ownership of the Hold, and then you and Sypha went out to...I don't know what you discussed. But she wanted to impart the story of what happened to her people, and for you to go with her.

And so you have.

[ He doesn't really see any reason why Alucard would lie to him about this or even make this shit up as some sort of stupid joke. It's just... too close to home for him to do. So, if he hasn't gone to sleep and woke up in some different year and neither of them are drunk... then he's telling the truth and Trevor has no idea what to make of that. Clearly evidenced with the whole look of what the hell?? that is written all over the hunter's face. ]

So you're not pulling my leg then.

[ He sighs, sort of wishing the dhampir was, shitty as a joke it would be. But with that sigh, he falls back against the dirt, laying there with arms stretched out. ]

Great.

Belmont, you smell awful. I don't even want to touch your leg.

[Alucard knows that being a snarky shit isn't going to help. But it feels better than dealing with anything else. It's terrible, and Alucard is quiet for a few moments after.]

We need to make a plan for what lies ahead.

Fuck you.

[ That's all that's said as he tucks his arms behind his head and he might actually reach out to gently kick Alucard with the heel of his boot. But a plan is probably a good idea considering they're stuck here, from the looks of it. ]

Familiarize ourselves with the land and locals would be a start. Better to know what we're up against here and if there's anything to be up against.

[ Yes. He can come up with plans sometimes. Imagine that. ]

[Alucard doesn't even react to the fuck you. Trevor reeks of death because of the thing he just came from, and the smell? That carries more memories, and it is only the direness of the situation that means Alucard doesn't choke on it.]

Okay. That requires seeing where this path leads. You have the morning star, but nothing else, correct?

That and my sword.

[ Which he leans up a little to look himself over some, even coming to pat his shirt and legs just to be sure he doesn't have a dagger or two tucked somewhere. ]

Not much else to carry on me.

Better prepared than myself then. I'm not even armed.

[He doesn't like it. Alucard crosses his arms, unhappy about that and then his eyes going to Trevor's sword.]

Would you be willing to fix at least that much?

[ You mean he doesn't have that floaty sword that zips around like it has a mind of its own? But, the question makes him blink and he sits up a little more straight. ]

You want to use it?

If you'll allow it.

[Alucard knows that it's asking for a lot. He holds Trevor's eye contact, not flinching.]

[ The reason he carries a sword is because they come in handy for close range combat whereas a whip, be it Vampire Killer or Morning Star, are often better for long range... and you can just do really cool tricks and things with a whip.

But for Alucard to be without a weapon, regardless of the whole vampire stuff he has, he knows how unnerving it can be to feel completely vulnerable and so, staring to the dhampir for a moment longer, he reaches for the hilt of his sword and unsheathes it. ]

You break it or lose it, you owe me a new one.

[ And with that, he flips the thing around with a gentle toss, holding the hilt out for Alucard to take. ]

I understand.

[Alucard can't help but roll his eye at the sword flip, but he takes the sword all the same. It isn't as good at his own, but what is? It'll do. Having it in his hand alone helps.]

Thank you, Belmont.

[ Wow, excuse you. Sorry his sword doesn't fly around? ]

Right. You're... welcome.

[ Why are they awkward together when not being annoying to one another? ]

[Because Sypha's not here.]

...That does demand we keep walking, I suppose.

[Getting up off the ground as well.]

[ Oh, is their little chat done then? Well, fine by him and so, he gets himself up off the ground as well, patting at his legs and behind. Yeah he's already a mess but what else is new? He does, however, come to unbuckle the holster for his sword and holds it out for Alucard to take. ]

Gonna use that nose of yours to lead the way?

[Alucard takes the scabbard as offered. There's a moment's pause on his end as it is afixed to his belt, but once that's settled and the sword is sheathed, he's moving right along.]

I only smell forest, unfortunately.

[ Alright, so. He literally just gave Alucard his sword and yet he already feels a bit weird being without it? Just a bit. It's weird when you're so accustomed to having it right there, ok? But he doesn't really share that little feeling with his buddy here and just follows along, looking around at the mirrors and trees. ]

Not even any animals? Isn't that a bit strange to have a forest without any?

The dryads and the fae here are shifting around us, and they have a nuanced smell that I can notice when they're closer, but there's something blocking my more canine nose. It's like when you're ill and your nose is full of mucus.

[It's the loss of his natural abilities, but Alucard's not completely pieced that together yet. There's concern on his face though as he explains, full of deep concern.]

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