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

[Thankfully, the guy Allura ends up pointing to is good at improvising, and after the initial habitual hesitation of being pointed out by a woman he doesn't know coming from the industry he comes from, he rushes over, looking for all the world like she's his best friend that he just found again. He'd managed to smooth-talk his way in earlier, and while the natives still look a little doubtful, a few of them ease off a bit when he intervenes.]

That's right! I've been looking for you since I got out of the forest, I was so worried... [Thank god he has acting experience, it makes lying about this sort of thing convincingly a thousand times easier. He even starts looking her over like he's searching for injuries, before giving a perfectly choreographed pleading look to the ones still pointing weapons.] It's okay if she comes in with me, right? I don't know what I'd do if she had to go back out there.

[The sincere-sounding concern in his voice is enough for them to be waved on rather brusquely, and Momo starts gently leading her back the way he came from, bowing his head slightly to the natives.]

Thank you. [He's waiting until they get out of earshot before he asks Allura any other questions.]

[It's a good thing that he's good at fibbing, and it's only luck that the native's attention is drawn to Momo because Allura's poker face could use some improvement. She manages to school her expression when he's looking her over, trying her best to look like someone who had been looking for him. Which is vague concern mixed with a lot of emphatic nodding. Letting him take the reigns as she tried not to ruin it for the both of them.

But it does the trick and they're waved along. At least with a human chaperone, she can be trusted. She's tight-lipped until they move a few feet past the entrance before she risks talking.]

Thank you. [Emphatically. She checks behind her, paranoid that they're being followed, but his fib seems to have worked.] I thought for certain they were going to turn me back out into the forest. They kept insisting I was some kind of... [She drops her voice,] Something called a Fae.

[Momo waves one red-nailed hand at the thanks, glancing back over his shoulder as well just to confirm their privacy before he speaks. You don't avoid scandals where he comes from by being sloppy, so it's very much a force of habit thing to check over his shoulder before he says anything compromising.]

Yeah, I think they're the things living on the beach I came from earlier. They've got human slaves, it's screwed up, so I can't really blame them for being suspicious. [As overall energetic as Momo's manner is, there's a weight to those words that says he's not just throwing something out frivolously. As much as they might feel targeted, if the alternative was having people in this settlement dragged off into slavery, Momo's more than prepared to put up with it.] By the way, before someone catches us out for not knowing each other's names - I'm Momo.

[It'd be a very easy way for their lie to get found out if they thought of something on the spot and then couldn't keep it up.]

[The nails catch her attention, but she doesn't mention them for now, just a splash of color that catches her eyes before they go back to Momo. Her own hands are folded politely in front of her as they're walking.]

Human slaves? That's horrible. [She sounds rightfully disgusted by the concept. No wonder they were so suspicious of her, and she was worried if she would continue to be confused for the same. It's surprising, too. Humans in her universe have not traveled far past their galaxy, save for the five that she knew. But not only do they seem to be native here, but many of the 'outsiders' she's met have been human as well. As far as dreams go, it's curious, to say the least.

With a nod in agreement and in greeting,] My name is Princess Allura. This is the first civilization I've seen since I 'woke up' here. Everything else has been forest and monsters, so far.

[Momo gives a somewhat preoccupied nod at her disgusted reaction, as if he's still thinking about the situation a little, but the distractedness clears up after a moment as if it was never there. It'll probably make them look worse to the locals if they're talking with sour expressions, so he pulls up a light smile when her introduction gives him the opportunity to spin off to a less awful topic.]

Oh, a princess? You're the first one I've met, then. Should I be politer? [He's hardly rude, but he does speak in a very casual manner by his own language's standards.] The forest and monsters are most of it, huh? I've only seen them plus this place and the beach. So I wouldn't say you're missing much unless you're really into walking.

[It's to be expected, with how primitive this place seems to be, but Momo can't help but be curious about that of itself - why this dream?]

[Her expression is always just a little bit intense when she’s feeling serious, and she’s never been particularly great at putting up a mask from how she’s truly feeling. But ‘serious’ seems to pass well enough, especially when Momo is smiling amicably.]

I don’t expect any special treatment, [A small shake her head. Her title was merely symbolic at this point, with her planet and people all but gone, but it was still somewhat sentimental. Her title given to her by her parents the same as the rest of her name.]

It is rather primitive, isn’t it? [Not said with any malice or discontent. It’s just a fact of a life spent visiting many different planets. Some were unpopulated by any sentient species, and others, like this one, were just beginning their first steps into civilization. She looks around, smiling at one of the smaller natives that doesn’t regard her with fear like the older ones,] Do you think the fae’s slaves come from this village?

[Where else would they come from?]

[Momo gives a soft laugh at her confirmation that she doesn't want special treatment, and waves a hand as if to say he won't make a point of it. She has a point about what she says next, though, and he nods in agreement before his expression becomes more serious again at the mention of the slaves.]

I think they do. I've actually... [He looks around again just to double-check there's nobody in earshot before continuing, still in a lower voice.] There's people here who look identical to people I saw in the other camp, but there's something kinda...off about the ones here. I'm not sure how to describe it.

[Momo's observant enough to have caught the edges of the Fae glamour, but he doesn't actually know what it is, so he has no idea how to phrase the discrepancy.]

TDM: January

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