dagung | 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

[A shrug.]

I'd at least try and find the guy. If this isn't death, and something happened on Gaia for you to get here- it must've affected other people too. Like me. I'm proof of that.

[As his arms rise, he stares at that- outright- wondering how to even approach that. ...Wait. The guy that killed him was his brother? That made things different. It's one thing to be picked off by a SOLDIER. It's another to be killed by immediate family. He eyes him- for a long moment- before turning his eyes away.

It's none of his business.
He's uneasy about it. Very uneasy. But it's not his place to say anything about that. ...There is something he can say, though.]

I don't think this place is what happens when you die.
...I got tossed into the Lifestream [Twice. In the Northern Cave when it collapsed, but that... he's not going to say that.] in Mideel. It's different. ...Really different.

[It's crowded, for a start. And it's noisy. It's all the voices of all the dead in the world, screaming, crying, lamenting. And... there's no pain there. No aches. No sensation. It's a pulse. With more of yourself slipping away at each burst...

The question breaks him out of his thoughts, and his shoulders rise and fall, quickly- in a shrug. Family? No. But...]

Yeah. And I owe them too much to wind up here.
Who was your brother?

[ Tell him who they are, brother. Tell him so he can take them from you. At least... that's what part of him whispers across the erratic zigzagging of his mind. Is that what he wants? Or is that what he wants? A presence forever out of his reach. All his desires, his ambitions, his insanity... embedded into his very being. It's liable to make a person mad! If he was a person. Is that what he is? Someone tell him because he doesn't know anymore. Not that he ever knew to begin with. Forever feeling like something is just missing.

But the Lifestream and being tossed into it... so similar. But he jumped into it himself. For Mother. He needed that part of Her. For him. He knows all about floating through that colourful pulse. And like it, he can take pain away... or give it right back to you. He looks to his gloved hand at the thought before the question is asked regarding his big brother and, slowly, he smiles as he looks ahead. ]

That's the funny part.

[ And he even chuckles a bit to himself before amusement slips away and is replaced with a cold deafening silence. ]

I'm standing right beside him, brother.

[This? This is where Kadaj gets stared at, and it's not nicely. There's weird people, reasons for caution, almost everywhere he's been. Whether it's the black-cloaked men his group had erroneously pursued across the world, any of the leches in the slums of Midgar, even oddballs in most of the towns of the world, they're there. Kadaj, though Cloud doesn't even know his name, at this point, is about on par with any of those just through that one statement.

And Cloud's reaction is signalled only by that single, flat look, and a step to the side, away. The distance between them now is only say, half a foot, but it's something experience has taught him well enough to maintain.

It's... strange, really. Or perhaps ironic, that Cloud, the one who was always unconsciously strange, in words, actions, the one who went through the motions of being entirely normal but couldn't help but being strangely, unconsciously weird, would react like this. But he's a far cry from Kadaj. Very far.]

You got the wrong guy. I wasn't in SOLDIER, and I never had a brother.

[His voice is monotone, and he comes to a stop.]

Where're you from?

[ Let's be fair. Between the two of them, Kadaj is definitely the more chaotic and unhinged one. Dear big brother has his own dissociative moments, doesn't he? But Kadaj... oh he sometimes just slips into the very chaos and insanity that he once did, too. It's just so fun being a fragment of someone else!

So when Cloud steps away a bit, when he comes to stop and protest that he's not who he's being told he is... that he was never a SOLDIER, Kadaj stops with him and can only stare to him in silence, eyes piercing him like daggers.

He doesn't remember... of course he wouldn't. Who would ever remember someone so incomplete as him? Who would want to?! The thought turns a cold stare into an amused one and the silver-haired youth can only just laugh then as he spins around. ]

Do you hear that, world?! Big brother Cloud doesn't remember me! [ And that's when the cold returns and he glares to the spiky-haired blond. ] Or maybe he doesn't want to.

[ He wants to reach out- reach back for his twin blade and strike at him for being so difficult like always. But with only one single step forward, strands of silver fall in front of his face and he curiously looks the blond over again. He noticed it before, how he isn't wearing what he remembers him in. When he held him in his defeat. When he held him as he died. ]

But you're different. [ He smiles, bitterly. ] And I don't mean in the way you're so much more complete than me! [ Straightening up, he steps back and stares to Cloud long and hard. Trying to... understand. ] You're not how I remember you. Something's changed.

[ And then a thought touches him and he smiles again, feeling amused. ]

Or maybe it's that you haven't changed.

[Far more. Regardless of their similarities, they're very different. Kadaj is a situation worse than his lowest point. Worse even, than what'd become of Sephiroth after his death. And of course, he can't understand it. It'll be years before he can.

That's not to say the similarities escape him. Like this, he's reminded of the Sephiroths that he chased around the world. His eyes are hard as Kadaj spins around; the amusement in his eyes noted. The youth practically screams his next statement and the way his gaze goes from almost joyful to murderous in an instant. Just like his.]

But even then...
So much is still off.]

Like I said, we're not related. You're way off.

[Completeness, though...
He steps back again. Was this guy one of the people Hojo had collected after Nibelheim went up in flames? Or was he something else?]

...You're from Nibelheim, aren't you.

[ The only thing way off is all of this between them here in this world they've found themselves in. Cloud doesn't know him and Kadaj can't exactly pinpoint why that is. The memories Cloud offered him in regards to his doings prior to arriving here are... not helpful to him. He's a remnant, isn't he, brother? What good is he or how much can he know apart from that which he has given him? Chaos and rage and hatred for so many things. Thank you, Sephiroth! Truly you've made his short little life so full of meaning! So when Cloud attempts to refute their relationship to one another, Kadaj can only laugh. He doesn't understand. ]

But we are, brother. So much more than you even know.

[ That laughter and smile quickly slip away from his face and he points a finger out at the spiky-haired blond in an accusatory manner. Eyes dark. Filled with a cold rage that hisses throughout his entire being. ]

You called me a remnant. I called you brother. You held me as I died in your arms.

[ And his expression softens then. A sadness he didn't even know he could feel or have. ]

You killed me.

[ But he laughs then and spins around, taking a few heavy steps forward as he does. Mother favors him, he always favored Cloud. Who favors him? What family does he even have for himself? Loz. Yazoo. They're dead, too? They're... dead, too. ]

But now I'm here... and so are you. A reunion... another reunion! [ He laughs a little to himself at the thought, turning on a heel to smile back to the blond. ] But you're different, brother. You look to me as I look to everyone else here! [ Confused. Unsure. A lack of recognition. ] Maybe the Lifestream brought us back together for a reason here. Or is it all Mother's doing?

TDM: January

this is amazing, no pressure but i hope you app! kadaj would be wonderfullll

do you really want this "little brother" tho, cloud??

He doesn't, but I do. And that's all that matters!

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