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

The sensation is familiar enough, though the context is different. This time, importantly, Steven is ready for the experience - he knows what weird dream time feels like, and he's going to make the best of it. His dream body is reflecting his real-life changes, mostly in the form of pale, glittery scales around his neck and back, and two little pink dots that may be the beginnings of antenna.

He wanders around for a decent while, listening to the cries in the distance. He'd like to find them, if only so he can ask some questions, but he finds something else first. It's a skeleton.

He yelps, mostly out of surprise, and because skeletons usually aren't a good thing, exactly. It'd be cool if he could have wings again, like he did before, but that's apparently not happening this time.

With his focus divided between following the sound of those distant cries, and keeping his balance with these weird dog feet, Papyrus almost misses that there's someone else on the path. The sudden yelp grabs his attention, at least enough for him to look over and offer a quick wave... and then double take at the sight of Steven.

"Oh! Hey! Hello, you kind of look like a human," he tells Steven, a little surprised but mostly enthusiastic. "Of course, a dream of the surface would have humans in it... humans I don't even recognize. Wow! This is so authentic."

With his extensive experience of meeting exactly one (1) human so far, and and looking through some of the resources Toriel's recommended to him, he's come to recognize the signs. The little pink dots on this one's forehead are odd, but might be some kind of decoration. Like face paint. Or pimples?

"I hope you're not suffering from acne, because... I don't have any face creams with me." Papyrus glances around their surroundings, wondering if even more dream humans will materialize with a yelp while they talk. "But, it's good to meet you! I'm Papyrus."

Oh wow okay then this is totally different than he was expecting. Steven slowly relaxes, it becoming obvious that Papyrus isn't any kind of scary creature and is apparently just a friendly person. How strange.

"Acne?" he asks. and then touches his forehead, remembering. He makes a face. He hadn't gotten far enough into puberty to get much acne. "Oh right... no, not exactly."

Is this guy a skeleton normally or is that part of the weird stuff?

"I'm Steven! Are you usually a skeleton?"

Edited 2019-05-22 04:10 (UTC)

So far Steven is more talkative than what he was expecting, but that's fine. Monsters come in all different shapes, it stands to reason that humans have a lot of variety to them, too. Maybe some of them are even terrible enough to deserve the kinds of things Undyne's planning for them all... But that's a thought for another day entirely.

"Of course!" Papyrus affirms, shifting a hand on his hip to better pose. His battle body's been retired, since frightening humans is no longer part of the goal, but his scarf can billow heroically nonetheless. Or, it would if there was more of a breeze.

"I'm always a skeleton, and always have been."

He glances down at his feet. Oh, right. and glares at the somewhat zombified paws like they've offended him.

"Usually. This dream has other ideas, it would seem."

So talking skeletons are just a thing, then. He can accept that, as vaguely daunting it is to process. He's sure he'll get over it quickly enough - Papyrus is clearly very animated.

"Yeah, that's kind of a thing that happens, here," he says. "I think we're all just dreaming again. This happened to me before, only that time I had wings..."

He looks around, cautious but interested.

"I think these dreams are probably important, though. Something... kinda weird is going on."

There's a lot of details to Steven's words that Papyrus doesn't quite have the context to follow, but he nods solemnly along with it.

"'A thing that happens here'," he echoes, with a glance back down the path towards where he first came to in this dream.

He'd started moving pretty quickly, searching for the distant, still-crying voice... But there had been a cave at his back. It had seemed awfully cool and wet, and not at all familiar looking, but comforting somehow. Homey, somehow.

"Is this... an actual place? The real surface? I know I'm good at dreaming, but dreaming of a real place I've never been...?? That's a new accomplishment!"

It's enough that he's excited, flustered, or somehow both.

"It might be..." Steven says, starting to feel kind of bad about his diagnosis for the whole situation. "I think it's all part of this world called Geargadas."

"I had a dream like this a few weeks ago, and a few days later I ended up getting teleported there. None of us have figured out how to get home yet... and now it looks like it might be happening again."

Which is probably a bad thing?

Papyrus listens carefully, continuing to play along. The story for this dream is very different than any of his usual ones. Small strange humanish children giving warning of unlikely things to come...

"So... it's not a dream of the surface... but more like a dinner invitation, in dream form."

Well, that's not nearly as impressive an accomplishment. It sounds almost the opposite; entirely the work of others.

"Or... a warning. For an impending alien abduction? I'll wake up back home... and only have a few days... Should I write a will?? Pack some things??? I've never been on involuntary vacation before."

"Yeah... something like that," Steven says, a bit sheepish, mostly because he hates to be the bearer of bad news. "I didn't really remember the dream very well until I ended up stuck here - then I realized that a bunch of the people that arrived with me I'd met before, in the dream!"

He considers it seriously, though. Why not, after all.

"You could try, though! Maybe then it'd at least let your friends know what happened..." He rubs his hair awkwardly. "I still don't know what's going on with mine."

"What??" Papyrus exclaims, even louder and shriller than usual. "But invitations should be memorable!! That's not much of an invitation, if you don't remember. What if you wanted to invite your friends along!"

He could see it now: a sunlit path, golden with the light and the autumn leaves, with an evocative yet ominous catch phrase. Something like... Tired of the Underground? Yearning for Freedom? Too bad! But you can trade your familiar lifelong prison for a dreamworld the likes of which you've never imagined. And bring a friend! Or something more poetic, like: come away oh monster child, to the winds and whisper wailing...

Well, it needs a little workshopping, yet.

"...We should talk to whoever's giving these dreams out," he concludes. "Clearly, they have a lot to learn about friendly abductions. There should at least be refreshments. I'll make sure to tell them so."

Given the terrible memories he'll be reliving and forming... maybe he won't try that hard to remember. But the notion of packing some things for staying somewhere else is easy enough, especially if he has cause to stay in Home for a while.

"That's what I've be saying," Steven agrees, smacking his fist into his palm decisively. "Whoever is causing this dream must be connected! And if we can find out who's responsible, maybe we can talk to them and figure out a way to go home..."

He considers it, and then adds:

"If it helps any, there were refreshments after we got there. In fact, there was a whole party going on..."

Edited 2019-05-26 02:24 (UTC)

From the way Papyrus' jaw shifts as he looks away, that doesn't help very much.

"Why didn't I get a party... I mean, I like the sunlight. But..."

He continues staring off into the woods. Through the hints of wind, and the unsettling lack of rustling in the trees, the distant wails continue to drift their way.

"I haven't seen any refreshments yet! And it sounds like somebody's not having a good time. Maybe this dream isn't an invitation after all."

"Well... I think the party wasn't really for us as it was... despite us..." he says, trying to dig up as many specific details in his memory as he can. "In the last dream, the fae didn't seem to care we were there at all. This one... is different..."

He looks off into the distance, hearing the crying too. It's getting harder and harder to overlook.

"...Do you think we should go try to help?" he asks, cautiously.

Well, that makes it a little less personally disappointing. At least he's not being left out of dream parties for any particular reason. But it also means that whoever's doing the inviting here is really bad at being hosts! No wonder they're hiding, if they can't be bothered to offer anything to their guests, they wouldn't be so convenient as to show themselves.

"In lieu of a party... I think someone should, and I think that we're someones," Papyrus agrees. His eyesockets widen with remembering something embarrassing. "In fact, I, uh, I was on my very way there when we met! Or... trying."

He scowls one more time at the trees, the multitudes hiding the source of the crying, then glances down each direction of the path, back and forth as if to check if anyone else is coming.

"...It's a little tricky to figure out where to go. I keep feeling like I should follow this path, but it doesn't lead that way."

"Hmm..." Steven considers, looking up and down the path. This isn't real life, so maybe they shouldn't be trying to think of it that way. "Well... this is a dream, so... maybe the way we go doesn't have to make sense."

He looks up at Papyrus hopefully.

"Maybe if we just keep moving, we'll think ourselves there!"

"That all stands to reason..." As much as dream logic ever does.

Papyrus nods slowly, and starts walking in the direction he'd been heading originally. It's the direction with the feeling of need to walk that way, which really should have been a clue, shouldn't it? And, of course, they can walk and talk, and change directions if they ever get the feeling somewhere else is the right way to go. It's just a path with trees and sunlight.

"Oh, maybe! Maybe it's an invisible maze," Papyrus guesses, skull whirling with the possibilities of dream puzzles. "One where the sound seems to come from one way... But really! It's somewhere else entirely!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TDM: May

Falling Into Dream

Steven's jumped to the front of the line of people Papyrus meets in this dream

whoops

it's a solid first impression

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject