dagung | TDM: May

Entry tags:

* tdm

TDM: May

Test Drive: May

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 on up June 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!
• While current players won't be allowed to post top levels on the test drive itself, feel free to reference or play with the dreams in-game.
• 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 Eternal Fall

The smell of autumn leaves surrounds you, a myriad of colors sparkling into existence at the same time. Despite the warmth and light, the air feels heavy and stiff, as if on razor's edge. The forest is eerily silent - not a bird, bug, or rodent dares to stir - and when you do hear something, it's the high-pitched crying, whining, weeping, sobbing, howling sounds of something far off. The tunnel of bent branches invites you further with an unpleasant compulsion; though fighting it and turning around finds you in front of a chilly, damp cave alight with the faint, cool glow of bubbling fountains and streams.

The Compulsion
Unable to sway yourself from the call of the forest - or maybe you're simply curious as to where it leads - your feet pull you further and further into the autumnal tunnel. The cry from before grows more distant, but in return, the air weighs even heavier on your shoulders than before. The branches hang lower and lower as well, as if pushed by gravity, until their leaves smack your face, twigs offering small cuts from the thorns protruding from their bark.

But you can't stop. Not now. The end of the tunnel seems so close; but it's seemed that way for a while now, you suppose, and you've already come this far - you might as well stay the course, wherever it might lead.

The further you go, the brighter everything becomes, and you realize it's the leaves surrounding you; they've begun to glow, encouraged by the sunlight streaming in from above, and the wind begins to whisper in your ear. At first, it's only encouraging things, or silly facts - harmless words, but as the foliage begins to shimmer and reflect your image, the wind's words turn colder. Within those reflections on the autumn tunnel, you begin to see your worst moments - morally, ethically, emotionally. The things you don't want anyone else to know, that you'd feel ashamed or struck for anyone - especially those close to you - to see. The wind becomes louder as the scenes play out one right after another, boldly declaring your true feelings as they were in that moment, good or bad.

Worst of all - you still can't bring yourself to turn back, even as your mind begins to free itself from the tunnel's compulsion. Maybe someone else can help out, if they're not too taken by their own memories, or maybe the shock of sharing such private secrets will jolt you and anyone else back to reality. Either way, it's that, or staying stuck watching your worst memories play on repeat for what feels like the rest of your life.

The Cry
While not compelled by any means, you still feel a curious draw down the path in front of you; as you follow the leaf tunnel, with others or alone, you find another, less-traveled path. Following it reveals a large pond colored orange and gold by the reflection of the area it's in, sunlight and shadows playing on its surface. At a glance, it seems to be rather shallow, but that's hardly the truth.

You realize, after a moment, that the crying has continued, evidently coming from the water. Looking closer, the culprit is an infected Merrow, who - upon begin seen - shrieks and dives for whoever's looking at it with the clear intent to drag them down beneath the water. Its claws are extra sharp, its teeth similar to a shark in number and shape, and its scales have turned a pale black; an oil-like substance flows from beneath them and from its gums as well, shimmering the same way gasoline does in the light, and its eyes are the tell-tale white of a Shade.

It isn't impossible to fight it to get away, especially as some of you have new abilities at hand, and some of you have a few neat changes to help that along. Once distance is successfully put between you and the infected Merrow, it howls in a wet, warbly voice, visibly frustrated. Unlike ordinary Merrows, who can walk on land and have legs as long as they stay dry, this Merrow can't seem leave its pond at all, and electricity sparks from it like little static shocks in its irritation. It does dive back under once it realizes it can't reach you, resurfacing as your character's most important person in an attempt to lure them back. The expressions are far too real, too genuine; even those aware it's a Merrow might be fooled. While its voice isn't a perfect mimicry, the song it begins to sing has with it notes of yearning and beckoning to join it, join your beloved person, in the water.

The Cave
Pulling yourself from curiosity or compulsion, the cave behind you - in front of you, if you've turned around - gives off an oddly pure feeling. Like an oasis in a desert, it feels refreshing and calm; incredibly safe, compared to the eerie call of the forest it's in. Within the cave are pools of water that glow and glimmer from the magic runes found around them. The runes shift similar to a mirage whenever you try to focus on them; and try as you might, you can't glimpse what they say exactly.

It isn't so hard to figure out though, as the pools of water surrounded by them have a pleasingly cold temperature, while those without them are near scalding. A few of the latter have runes around them, but they're not glowing like the rest - feeding a little magic into them changes this immediately, and steam rises in a sudden blast as the water cools rapidly. The opposite can be done for the colder pools too - taking their magic somehow or ruining the runes will make them bubble and boil as they surge in temperature.

But that isn't all the cave has to offer. Moving further inward, you get the feeling you're going down - beneath the ground and the enchanting forest. Eventually, the cave widens out to a massive underground lake, multiple waterfalls pouring into it; despite their number and size, the room is completely silent. All tunnels seem to lead to this one room, with a few of them looking more man-made than natural. Traversing other tunnels leads you into a maze that only ever brings you to the lake, or to the cave's entrance, no matter how many different paths you take.

Something different happens eventually though; signs of life begin to appear, or at least signs that life once lived there. Leather pouches rotted by the dampness of the cave hang on sharp nails beaten into the cave walls, with boots in similar condition strewn here and there. Torn, soaking clothing lays in piles in the tunnels, and candles burnt down to their wick's end stand in shelves carved from the navy blue and black stone. There's broken toys and books too waterlogged to read, instruments with snapped strings or clogged holes, and - most peculiarly - smooth, round devices that heavily resemble large pocketwatches or hand mirrors. They refuse to turn on though, either due to age or due to the wetness of the air.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. Purifying Flame (Possible CW for death by fire)

[Chandra had made many bad decisions in her life, but strolling down some forest path hadn't seemed like one of them. The crush of trees all around her, the closeness of the forest, that didn't bother her. It reminded her in some ways of the Ulvenwald, with it's bright leaves and the pleasant smell of unmarred wilderness, but blessedly devoid of the cursed, scrabbling things that dwelt there now. It barely even registered that the branches were closing in around her until a long thorn scratched down her freckled cheek, prompting her to slap a gloved hand over it.]

Ow.

[But she didn't stop, she just hunched down and looked at whoever was traveling with her, continuing down the path until the voices began. That slowed her, but didn't quite stop her. Quizzically, she looks at her companion, stranger or no.]

Are you hearing that, too?

II. From the Dark Meanders

[The sound of a crying child is something that can tug at the heart's strings, and Chandra's are no different. She shoots her companion a determined look and turns down a side passage.]

Let's check that out.

[The waterlogged forest is annoying, but she presses on with no hint of caution, ignoring the squelch of her boots in the soggy earth in her haste to reach the pond and the source of that cry. Hopefully whoever she's with follows...]

III. Shimmering Grotto

[It's curiosity that draws Chandra into the caves, her yearning for new experiences and adventure not something easily satiated or soured. Marching along water-slick stone, she pauses momentarily at the mouth of the cavern of rune-enchanted pools, taking them in. With a laugh, she steps inside and makes her way to one, dipping her hand into the pure, clean water.]

Some sort of bathing cavern, maybe?

[For whom, though? Elves? More of those dreadful Merrow?

Shaking her head, she sips at the cool water, tasting it before speaking.]

Ever seen a place like this before?

IV. Wildcard

[If there's another scenario or idea you have, please don't hesitate to pm me at

intercession or leave me a starter!

Edited 2019-05-17 22:02 (UTC)

I hear something...

[Her current companion's a stranger, and a somewhat strange one at that - a living skeleton. He's closer to a werewolf's skeleton, with claws and canine legs and hints of a muzzle to his face, but conversational enough to prove he's no ordinary zombie, at least. Papyrus pauses and dallies behind her a little, looking back and forth on the path.]

Before I heard crying, but now I hear whispers. Do you think they stopped crying?

[Yeah. He is strange. Really strange. But honestly, when you travel with a Necromancer nothing skeletal is really that out there.

She does still give him a quizzical look, though, before shaking that off.]

I doubt it. In a place like this?

[She keeps walking, though...]

...We're close to the end. Maybe we'll find out once we get out of here.

Well...

[Papyrus wavers, then hurries to keep up with her. He can't deny the heavy air, or the way the branches feel almost deliberate about reaching down to scratch at them. But the rest of it?]

This seems like a nice place to me. A little quiet, but beautiful! Not a place for crying at all.

Something terrible must have happened, for so much crying...

You're right.

[He is, of course. There's something wrong here, and each step makes that more and more clear. The air grows more heavy, stifling somehow, and carries with it the scent of cinders. There's a faint whiff of something familiar, but it's not enough to place it...]

...I don't like the way this is going. Are you...smelling that?

[Can he even smell?]

[He can, but he's several paces back, at something of a delay for noticing any of the changes Chandra catches. So he shakes his head with a slight rattling, looking out to the branches.]

The leaves? It's smelled like leaves this whole time. And I think they're glowing...

[There's little flickers of light that don't match up with the behavior of the sunbeams, anyway.]

Chandra Nalaar | Magic: the Gathering | Witch

Purifying Flame

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II

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III

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iii

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II dream team time right? hahaha

Something like that.

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