dagung | 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

[Near Curie a figure is far more skeletal than the average ghoul, with only hints of skin or hair in small patches on his spine and limbs. He's standing on the edge of his feet as though he'd gone on tip-toes to see the scenes flickering through the leaves more clearly, but hunching over more and more as he watches. Between that, the hint of a lengthened tailbone, and the claws on hands and feet, he's more like a werewolf's skeleton than a human's.

The scenes playing out around Papyrus are maybe a little more dire than Curie's, though hardly as bad as some of the others wandering through this dreamworld.

Memories of pummeling a human child with bones flung through the air, healing them - and locking them into a shed. Flinching before an armored aquatic monster, wrestling with his conscience as he avoided taking a stand. Ultimately turning his back on the war festering in the caves, and drifting from his almost-friend when he no longer had anything to offer her.

He startles at being addressed, twisting to look at her with wide eyes as memories keep flickering around him in the leaves.]

Huh? What? When did you get... here...?

[Along with the memories drift whispering echoes of his own voice, talking about how this would lead to fame, and fortune, and... it wasn't his fault the human would be killed.]

[Oh, what desiccation. She's seen the effects of radiation on creatures, and the way it effects them, and it's always interesting, but though she's a scientist by nature - and a biologist at that - there's something else that catches her attention. It's like some kind of a holograph, she supposes. A video holo-tape rather than the audio ones that were far more common in her world.

What she sees, though, for the brief glimpses she dares to catch, does make her worry even more about the state of her new friend, but ultimately... they have to get out of here, that much is certain. She's not sure what's going on here, but it's not good.]

I'm sorry... I'm not sure when I got here, either. I just know I started walking and then couldn't stop! But I don't think this place is safe. I think we should leave.

[She can hear the whispers, see the echoes - but she wants to focus on the here and now. They can talk about the rest later, if he wants to divulge. Otherwise, she'd rather just make sure everyone gets home safe.]

I, but...

[Papyrus fidgets his hands together, claws tapping on bone, and slowly turns to the light show around them as if drawn by a magnet. It's morbidly fascinating to see these moments of unhappiness and quandary repeating in the leaves... But embarrassing, all the same, especially when she seems to be a human too.

Well, the friend who wanted to know (my friend, my only friend), says one echo floating by. Her opinion of you is very... murdery.]

If, uh.

[He shakes his head even as he shifts a step or two further up the path, trying to block the scene from her view. The pull's still too strong, he hasn't managed to really turn away or stop watching, but his voice gets more focused.]

If it's the trees doing this, then... There's trees everywhere. Where could we go?

[That lake doesn't seem a better place to be, with the shapeshifter trying to sing people into the water.]

The further along this way we walked, the worse it seemed to get. We should go back...

[She risks a glance up by the trees again, sees a few more of the scenes flash by, partial though they are with him in the way. She admits curiosity - a lot of it, actually, especially with the way he seems - but she'd had emaciated goul-like friends who were murderers. And Hancock had a great sense of humor.]

If we can go back up the trail, that would be the best, I think. [He's still edging further down, though, and that's... that's worrying. Moreso than any of the words coming out of the trees or illusion or... whatever this is, and Curie doesn't understand and doesn't particularly care to, either.] Non- not that way!

[When she calls out Papyrus ducks his head and fidgets more, downright wringing his hands. There's a hint of wind carrying the words around him, not enough to make the hairs on his neck and back wave, but he feels like they are - because they grow a little longer as he gazes at the memories playing out.]

I-I don't know why, but I can't seem to... turn back.

[A couple of times he shifts his weight as if to try to turn on his heel, but the changed shape of his feet startles him out of the motion. Seems like the only way out is to move closer to the leaves along the path, to turn while walking - but that's not appealing.]

I'm... I stopped, this is an improvement, right? [He knows it isn't, really, but it's at least not going further.]

TDM: May

1: The Compulsion

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