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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. |
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My dear friend! How lovely you look in this fair light!
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What a bold thing for a noble knight of Ishgard to say... trying to compliment his way out after being gone for such a long time...
[Her attempt to speak in a formal tone and show him a serious expression is foiled by tears running down her face. In an attempt to hide it, she returns his embrace.]
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[ He laughed all over again as he set her back gently to the ground... only for whatever words he meant to follow to stick in his throat, as he saw her tears. He stared, heart thundering, smile cracking into an expression of utter dismay.
He lifted her cap off at once, and tucked it under his arm, and enfolded her against him with one arm while the backs of his other fingers stroked down her cheek. ]
My darling,
[ His voice was rough on the whisper, ]
My dear darling, I didn't mean to upset you, I shall beg your forgiveness a thousand times... I should have written more, striven harder to answer the call to be at your side... Please, look not so,, my steadfast hero, my bold and enduring light...
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Her faith in the Twelve was never particularly strong - as far as she was concerned, they were the respectable deities of Eorzea, a land she felt strongly about, but they were not Azim and Nhaama, they were not Dawn Father and Dusk Mother. However, seeing Haurchefant again, alive and well makes her scour her memory for every single Halonic prayer of gratitude she has ever heard. She does not know enough. Maybe she should ask Haurchefant to teach her some later.]
You never did anything wrong... You were always by my side, even when nbody else was there... I am the one who should be begging for forgiveness, since I failed to save you on that day...
[She raises her head to look straight at him.]
Is it not ironic? As a white mage, I have saved countless people and yet, I failed to save the one I cared about the most.
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I... don't understand, what do you mean? Did you suffer some dream, some portent of ill fortune? Here; reassure yourself by touch: I am hale and whole, and you have never failed me so.
And even given that, my enduring light... You are a white mage. One of the best in the world. But still... only one woman, who has chosen for the good of the world to shoulder the heavy burdens of its very future. And one woman, no matter how powerful, or prepared, or aided by fellows cunning and stout of heart and great of virtue... will sometimes fail.
Failure is a part of us, part and parcel being mortal and alive in the world. It is suffering which teaches us empathy; struggle which encourages us to reach new strengths. One must sweat to build muscle and study to build magic. Life's failures teach us, always, that there are still new thresholds of greatness which await us.
So... my darling, from bent knee I implore you: demean yourself not, when you fail. When there are those you cannot rescue from the jaws of death, or the pain of injury. Honor the brave dead; for they knew the risks were high, and fought at your side even so, because your cause is just, and valiant, and will return great peace to our fair world. Fight on, always, with that brave and beautiful smile of yours, and let your victories mount ever upward, to honor those who passed. Before you know it, your grand victories and adventures will be as countless as the very stars, and make a tapestry of tales and works warm and wonderful enough to comfort any spirit.
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Calling me one of the best white mages in the world might be an insult to the Padjals... or at least received as one by some of them. Not enough to make them peek out of their beloved forest, of course.
[Alya chuckles. She feels better already. She might have been the revered Warrior of Light but this brave Elezen knight had the mysterious ability to cheer her up anytime and no matter how bad the situation was and wasn't this much more impressive than defeating a primal or two? People really should give Haurchefant the credit he deserves.]
Thank you so much for all these kind words, my dear. I admit I have lost sight of what is truly important, but thanks to you, everything is once again clear to me. You are absolutely right, there are tasks that my power alone will not be enough for. I might never become a white mage as powerful as Kan-E-Senna but I am still going to do my best.