dagung | TDM: January

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* tdm

TDM: January

Test Drive: January

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 28th.
• Applications Open The 24th! These will last until the end of the month, the 31st, with the intro log going up on February 1st. The application page can be found here. As a reminder, this will be our last uncapped application round!
• 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 Prehistoric Wilde

Thick summer heat hangs heavy over the uninfected landscape like a damp blanket, smothering. The jungle around you is thick and wet, full of the sounds of chittering animals and the high-pitched drone of insects. The flora and fauna are like nothing you've ever seen before, large and alien in colors and shapes, though they bear no signs of the Cwyld. Flowers the size of a man's head and brightly colored in rainbow hues curl their tendrils invitingly, and giant mosquitoes buzz through the air seeking a meal. You can barely see the glow of the twin moons through the thick canopy above. There are no signs of civilization - at least, not the civilization most will be used to; only the distant sound of the river, compelling you to follow its winding path. But will you go forward, or will you go back?

Rumble in the Jungle
Making headway through the jungle at night is a chore. The foliage grows thick and the humid heat is oppressive for even those who enjoy the warmth. There are no clear paths here, no easy way through. The canopy of the ancient trees far, far over your head is just as dense, but the faintest moonlight filters through the holes left by the huge leaves in stippling patterns across the musty forest floor. 'Large' seems to be the theme - lining whatever path you pick your way through, there are pitcher plants massive enough to swallow a grown man, with small animals and giant insects being digested down inside the sticky liquid that fills them. The flowers are as big as a man's head, and come in a rainbow of colors, their venomous tendrils curling toward signs of life. The trunks of some of the trees are as thick as houses, and shade the ground beneath them with leaves like umbrellas. The hand-sized mosquitoes thrive in the sticky heat and if not killed first, can make off with a full pint of blood from an unsuspecting person.

At some point in your journey, the ground begins to rumble beneath your feet. The farther you go, the longer you walk, the more signs of life become visible: thick, winding trails of crushed foliage, huge, animalistic footprints in the mud. Luckily, to this world, you are small and insignificant, and may escape the notice of the local Monsters - the massive, prehistoric ancestors of today's Monsters.

They seem like giants, colossal Titanoboa Nagas with hollow fangs like swords, towering Fauns with the lower halves of mammoths, sabertooth Turnskins, pterodactyl Harpies with leathery wings. Even the parts of them that resemble humans (and they have far fewer human-like parts than their modern counterparts) are larger than any actual human being. They operate primarily on instinct, made even stronger by the full moons above, and perceive the strange new creatures as threats - or food.

Sticking to the river seems safest - at least until you run into megalodon Merrow, singing an alien, but alluring, song to draw in prey, or the apex predator of this prehistoric world - Dragons, bigger and scalier than the ones Mirrorbound may know, stopped to drink at the river. All other Monsters flee from the huge reptiles, lest they become food themselves. Luckily you can defend yourself with your new abilities, or your neat changes - you're small, but not totally helpless.

Interesting to note... while all other Monster types are represented, there are no Fae or Chimeras in the Wilde here, and the Vampires are more like huge bat-monsters that traverse the jungle on all fours than humanoid bloodsuckers.

The Natives
Going backward, away from the distant sounds of the sea and against the current of the river, leads you through dense jungle. How long have you traversed the landscape? Hours? Days? Time passes funny in dreams. Eventually the trees thin out, grow taller and less leafy, and the air becomes drier. Instead of loamy soil beneath your feet, you start to feel rocky, harder earth, and spot outcroppings of stone. The sun begins to rise, which makes it easier to spot people on the horizon, a little settlement coming to life in the morning, nestled where the river forks into two.

They're much hardier than the familiar people of Aefenglom, sunburned and dressed in natural, rough fabrics. Their homes, if one can call them that, are shoddy little structures made of sticks and leaves and mud, pressed up against the sturdiness of the stone formations. And, when they spot strangers approaching their village, they scramble for their weapons - crude clubs, stone axes, even just large rocks snatched up off the ground.

The translation magic works on them, thankfully. Their speech is halted and simple, but they get their point across. Tell them who you are, or they'll beat your brains in. Monsters might get their brains beat in anyway if they aren't careful, even though they're much smaller than the Monsters these humans are used to. And Witches? May the gods help you if you use magic in front of these terrified, unevolved people, lest they mistake you for a Fae (the word is whispered with fear and revulsion in their voices) and swarm you with simple iron tools. If you're an actual Fae, an obvious Fae? They'll whisk their children into their huts protectively and then run you right out of the village. Violently.

The truly observant, or those who can see through illusions, among you may notice something strange, though. Some Fae actually seem to live among them, heavily cloaked in natural illusions, with the primitive humans none the wiser. There are just a few, but all of them look young, twelve or thirteen at the oldest, and they are all scared of their secret coming to light. Fae who get caught tend to be burned at the stake around here.

The Invaders
Perhaps you chose to go forward, with the current and toward the distant sound of ocean waves, where the river pours into the sea. More long-time residents of Aefenglom may notice that the shoreline is familiarly-shaped, but wider, bigger, not yet worn down by thousands of years of erosion. There is no bustling Harbor, only the waves crashing on the rocks, small islands dotting the water near the shore. There is no Bright Wall - there is no city, even, only an expanse of beach transitioning gently into an idyllic grove dotted with gauzy, pointed tents, and a beautiful, gilded ship half sunk into the sandy earth.

It seems safer than the jungle, at first - until you notice all the Fae. They're more insectoid than the ones many are familiar with, with big, glittering eyes and either bright, jewel-toned wings like dragonflies or butterflies, or delicate, leafy wings in greens and browns. They're also taller than modern, lesser Fae, though not by much, and they're thin and angular, standing on spindly limbs that barely seem able to hold them.

Characters receive a warmer welcome here, by the band of true Fae that have made their camp in the grove, though the alien-looking beings have a tendency to treat them like toys, children, or both, cooing over their sizes and their magic.
"Look at the little Monsters! Aren't they cute!"
"We should make some of our own! And oh, the little humans have magic! Delightful!"
It's hard to have a conversation with one - they're condescending at best, and at worst, flit off to another entertainment out of boredom while you're mid-sentence.

And entertainments abound in their camp. They're served and tended to like emperors by collared humans - adults and young adults do the heavy labor, including pulling grand little chariots for transportation, though there are some highly-supervised human children running about fetching drinks and fanning their Fae masters with palm leaves.

Farther out, a large, deep pit has been dug out of the earth, ringed by a waist-high barrier of logs, a few Fae gathering at the barrier and leaning over, talking in conversational, happy voices. Down below, Chimera gladiators fight for their amusement, while the Fae keep up running commentary, discussing each warrior's chances, new breeding prospects, interesting crossbreeds their fellows have come up with ("She's trying an Arachne and a Turnskin together, how delightful!"). Trying to disrupt the proceedings will only result in the Fae turning their magic on you - illusions and curses, nasty little tricks. Sit down, silly little ones! The fight is just getting good! Or maybe... Maybe they'll toss you into the pit to see what your chances are in battle.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It took Leslie a while to figure out that this was a gladiatorial battle. She hasn't even read about such a thing before, and she frankly doesn't understand why anyone would do something like that. Apparently the fae did not appreciate her arguing about it, because guess who else is getting up off her back across from him.]

I -- they want us to fight?

[If you guessed "a child who looks about 10 years old," you were correct!]

[He's read plenty of history books, so he was aware of this existing. Actually having to deal with it? That's a different matter entirely.

The bear ears at the top of his head swivel towards her voice and he freezes up. They threw a kid down here? She doesn't even look like she knows how to fight. And even if she did, there's no way he'd fight her.]

Yeah.

[Is there even anything he can say to reassure her? He's got claws and bear ears and it really looks like that's all he has to work with. He could... maybe climb up the pit if there were hand holds.]

But we don't gotta.

[...Leslie is briefly distracted by the bear ears. Cute.....

Wait serious business.]

Do you think that they'll let us out if we're really boring to watch?

Uh... [He squints up at the fae watching them.] Probably not.

If we want out, we've gotta figure it out for ourselves. What... uh. What can you do?

[Asking a kid that seems wrong, somehow.]

I don't know.

[She raises her hands defensively.]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounds. I...because this is a dream, I can make things happen in it, like magic, but when I did it first, I did it mostly by accident. So I don't know exactly what I can do with it. It might just be based on what I can imagine. So I might be able to do anything. Or maybe I can only freeze things.

[Magic is weird, but dreamlike enough that he can deal with it. At least for now.]

... 'Kay. Got any ideas of how to leave the pit? I might be able to climb out.

[But she's very small and probably doesn't have that type of stamina.]

Um.

[She looks around the hole they're in.]

I could cut a hole in the pit? Oh, but it looks like it's underground. I may have to find a way to follow you up the side. Like....

[Okay, she knows she can do something about ice, so she starts forming an ice pillar beneath her feet that does start to raise her up...but when she gets to about Juza's height, the ice starts rising faster than she does and now her feet are stuck in an ice pillar that is about a foot and a half tall. She is at least able to stop making it grow before it gets any higher.]

That wasn't -- I --

[He hasn't gotten used to this place even a little bit. Seeing magic used like that is still bizarre. He'll cope with it later, right now there's a girl who may or may not be stuck? Ice is bad for prolonged periods of time, right? There's nothing he can really do to warm it up.]

Are you hurt? How are your feet?

I'm...I'm okay. It's a little cold, but -- the only problem is that they're stuck.

[Maybe she can move the ice away from her feet? But she's a little freaked out, so all she ends up doing is that there are now two smaller pillars jutting out at 90 degree angles to the rest of the pillar. She's now in an ice T. ~~Just put a lemon slice on it and serve.~~ She makes an mmmm noise that sounds about halfway between worried and frustrated.]

[He has no idea how to help now. The fae above them are snickering at their antics and he's forcing himself not to flip them off. There's gotta be something.]

Calm down.

[Like that's ever actually helped anybody calm down.] Take a deep breath and uh... think about undoing this? [Even as he says it, he's wincing.]

[That snickering is not helping Leslie calm down, as she's also angry about it even if she doesn't know any rude gestures, but, well, regardless of the actual effectiveness of the words, Leslie will try to calm down if only out of a tendency towards being a people pleaser. Deep breaths....deep breaths........fooooo......

She squeezes her eyes shut and also squeezes her stuffed bunny in her arms, trying to focus. Undoing...undoing....

She's not noticing as she concentrates, but very, very slowly, the holes in the ice that her feet are stuck through widen, as if someone was taking a hole in a rubber sheet and gently pulling it wider.]

[It looks like it's kind of working? Does he keep encouraging her? Should he stay silent? He's not sure which is the better move here. He ends up quiet for a long, awkward time, just watching her slowly undo her own magic.]

... How's it feel?

Huh?

[She'd been so deep in concentrating on magic and ice that she'd kind of forgotten why she was doing it. She lifts a foot experimentally. The hole appears to have gotten bigger all around, as the ice has receded from her foot enough that she doesn't have any problem lifting it, but by the time she raises it enough for her foot to reach the hole at the top, she stops.]

It feels like I could almost pull it out, but it's...a little stuck.....

[Tug tug. Tug tug. Her leg muscles are not made for this.]

[This little girl probably doesn't spend a whole lot of time exercising those particular muscles. Or any muscles. But that's fine. Not everybody needs to get into fights.]

If I break it, you won't get hurt, right?

[That's assuming he doesn't scratch her up with his claws.]

[One day when her pants come in on order, she'll be learning how to swing a wooden sword around! But until then she's 100% skinny nerd material.

She looks down at her feet.]

I don't think so? I've never done anything like this before.

[He'll support her if she wants to fight, but right now she doesn't really have the frame for that sort of thing.]

'Kay.

[With that acknowledgement, he taps his claws on the surface of the ice before hitting it hard enough to crack.]

You good?

[Leslie nearly jumps at the change from tapping to smashing and the loud sound accompanying it, but she manages to keep still until the ice has finished crumbling. Lifting her foot and shaking off the ice chunks, she gets out of the hole to stand on one of the unintentional arms of the T she accidentally made.]

I’m good! ...But now we’re in the same condition we started in.

[He doesn't know exactly how long it'll take if he tries that. If it takes too long, will her gripping stamina run out? What's the best way they can escape the pit?]

... Can you hang onto me if I start climbing up?

Mmm.

[She sounds unsure, but she looks down at the ice that is slowly starting to melt in the heat beneath her feet. She may have never tried clinging onto someone who wasn't also supporting her, but she's certainly much less confident in the magic route than she was a few minutes ago. She looks back up.]

I can try?

'Kay. [He'll turn around and let her grab onto his shoulders. Once she's attached, he'll start climbing up, using his claws to anchor himself as much as he can.]

[Okay, Leslie, time to hold on like your life depends on it, which it probably does, at least within this dreamscape. Not trusting her arm muscles, she clings to his back much like a bear cub, her arms around his neck and her legs around his back. The bunny is squished between her and Juza to keep her hands free.

However, the crowd is less entertained by this. So far, it's just shouting for them to get back down there and fight, but it's a sign that the fae are probably not going to give them handshakes at the top.]

[This isn't too bad. It's kind of like when his little brother used to cling to him like a koala. She seems secure enough.

He ignores the fae's screaming because why should he listen to people who throw little kids into a fight pit?]

[He might want to ignore it a little less when the fae decide that they aren't about to let the show end early when they've got magic to say otherwise.

Suddenly, it looks like the edge of the pit above them has bramble thorns suddenly growing out of the earth into maturity in seconds. As if the brambles were moving towards them, more shoot up from next to the earlier brambles in the direction of the two crawling up the wall.

It takes Leslie a moment to say something, as she's realizing she has no idea how to address him when he didn't give his name.]

...Mister! Above us!

[It's actually all illusions, but it certainly looks real and Leslie has no experience with fae magic to suspect it isn't.]

[There's a low, agressive growl in the back of his throat. While it definitely looks like the rim of the pit is currently being covered in vines and they're trying to stop him, it doesn't actually make him hesitate.

This is nothing more than a challenge and if it was just him he'd take it head on.

But it's not. Leslie is young and just charging directly into thorns is far more dangerous for her than it is for him. He's aware of that.

There's not a lot of time for planning when they're trying to get out fast.]

Can you freeze 'em?

[Because maybe with them stopped they can keep climbing up... which is what he's doing after his brief hesitation.]

[Leslie gulps.]

...Okay!

[Carefully, she lifts one hand away from where she’s still clinging on with her arms. Time to make use of the phrase she unfortunately used the first time she accidentally used this ice magic. Yes, it’s a pun. Yes, it wasn’t on purpose. She doesn’t actually need it here in this dream, like when she tried forming the ice pillar, but this is not the time to experiment. She mutters it, but with her position on his back, he’ll still be able to hear it.]

Give them the slip.

[But she doesn’t want to make Juza slip, so when the cold something jumps from her fingers, the wall in front of them is only lightly frosted over — it’ll be a little chillier, but in terms of digging into the wall, it’s otherwise like it’s not even there. She urges it on so that the frost spreads faster than Juza is climbing and, just before her frost hits the oncoming brambles, it thickens into a sheet of ice, ready to spread over the plants and —

— it continues to only freeze the wall of the pit, finding no purchase on the brambles.]

Huh? That wasn’t —

[With such limited experience in magic, she is thinking she must have made a mistake somewhere as the brambles (illusionary) keep advancing.]

Edited 2020-01-21 18:46 (UTC)

TDM: January

II. because the moment someone says something sounds funny, I am obligated to do it.

thank u

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chronology for Leslie in this dream world is "do I need something from another thread? it happened."

live your best life

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