dagung | ☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

Test Drive: September

All threads can be considered game canon,

the prompts and test drive itself will be

• The Application Queue is open. Apps can be submitted at any time but will only be processed as space opens up and game plot allows. 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!
• Test drive threads can be used as samples for your applications!

• And finally, since this is part of our event, characters already in-game ARE allowed to top-level on this post.

Mirrorbound who come to the Coven after dark on the 27th, who have volunteered to assist in waking the sleeping citizens of Dorchacht, are ushered into a large room laid with pallets on the floor inside a huge chalk circle. With Nessie are a group of sleepy-eyed Witches in loose robes, their expressions calm and almost dreamy despite the seriousness of the situation. These are the Dreamers, an oft-secluded group of Witches who study Divination and dream magic almost exclusively. They show signs of suffering some of the dangers of dreamwalking - they space out often, or doze off and have to be woken by one of their fellows. Still, they seem to know what they’re doing as they prepare candles and fragrant incense. Magic pulses through the floor, tingling threads of it escaping to reach out harmlessly toward the Mirrorbound who filter in.

Miss Nessie is the one to explain the ritual in a solemn tone as she oversees the final preparations and the other gathered Witches. "You all seem to have an uncanny ability to dreamwalk that we do not fully understand. Normally such a thing is difficult, it is, but the Mirrorbound are capable without even trying." She takes a breath and lets it go, standing straighter, determined. "Hopefully we can trigger that ability tonight. Theoretically, magical energy can be harvested from the dream planes. While you sleep, and dream, we will perform a spell to allow you all to bring back that energy crystallized into a physical form, and that is what we will use to wake the citizens of Dorchacht. The more you can collect, the more people we can help."

Her determination gives way briefly to open worry, and she admits, "We don't know what form this shared dream will take, or what dangers it may hold. With the spell going, any injuries you sustain in the dream will also carry over to your physical body, so be careful, yes? You can still back out, of course, and none will hold it against you. For those who stay, healers will be on-site and monitoring your physical forms."

Those who stay will be given a piece of a very rare lavender mushroom used by the Dreamers called Faecap, which works quickly to induce sleep - and shared dreaming. As they drift off, the sounds of soft chanting fill the large room.

[Due to the untested nature of dreamwalking, IC volunteering isn't necessary to participate in the TDM - your character may simply find themselves in the shared dream when they go to sleep that night, similar to how TDM characters will just find themselves in it.]

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, and a sour wind brushes across your face and through your hair. It seems to claw at your consciousness like chilling, spindly fingers -

and you know one thing, and one thing alone: this is a dream, and an incredibly realistic one at that.

The Nightmarescape

This is Aefenglom, and yet it isn't, at the same time. A large Victorian-styled city of cobblestone streets and close-together buildings, cut through the center by the River Temese. Whether you recognize its specific features and structures or not, you know deep in your bones it isn't meant to look like this. It's subtle at first, but it becomes more and more obvious the longer you walk the cobblestone streets. Everything is... almost gray, desaturated in color. Buildings are crooked, tilting at improbable angles. Clocks are upside-down. Writing is backwards or unrecognizable. The night sky above bears a greenish hue to it, and the stars seem to swim in and out of different formations. The city is also hauntingly empty - except for your fellow dreamers. The space yawns like it wants to be filled with life; it craves, it's hungry for it.

A City Void of Life
It does begin to fill, in time. The longer you're present in the dream, the more things shift and slide. You can feel it drawing from you, your memories, your thoughts and feelings, seeking out your fears and anxieties, your worries and your upsets. It slips right into your cracks and it digs out what it seeks. It turns the shadows of your mind into horrifying possibilities. Twisted features from your life overlay themselves on the empty city of Aefenglom - a single room, a building, a creature, a person. Not quite memories, they're all off in some way, adapting to the dream, warping. Don't get taken in by familiarity: whatever has drawn itself from your head is very, very dangerous. Shadows lurk where they shouldn't, once welcoming rooms close in on and threaten to suffocate you, a friendly creature's teeth and claws become pronounced and vicious, the darkened figure of a loved one watches you with blank eyes and malice in their smile.

Whatever has appeared, it's a manifestation of your nightmares, and it wants to hurt you and the other dreamers around you. Maybe it's a dark what-if that has whispered in your ear at night, a bad end that you feared but never came to fruition, or maybe it's simply just the ugly representation of your greatest fear. Whatever it is, it's out for blood, and it's joined by fragments from the other dreamers. Hopefully you find a friend to help you out. If there was ever a time for a team-up.

It's possible to leave the nightmarescape Aefenglom to try and escape these bad ends and what ifs. Time and space work strangely in this dream, and it's just a few steps to Dorchacht or the Wilde, or a quick tumble to the caverns Underground. Movement seems to be more about intent than direction. But it just gives a new backdrop for your nightmares, because they will follow, they will pursue you doggedly, melding into the scenery.

Face Your Fears
Those who came here on purpose know what the mission is: to collect the crystallized magical energy present in this dreamscape to wake a city cursed to sleep forever. Let the others know, the ones who wound up here on accident, and maybe they can help you - each fragment of a nightmare contains this energy, even theirs, and can be collected and brought back by the dreamers who will wake at the Coven. The energy presents as black orbs, hard and clear like glass, no bigger than large marbles, with images of your terrors dancing deep within them.

Coming by these orbs isn't exactly easy, however. To do so, you have to face manifestations of your worst fears. Defeat them - physically, emotionally, by standing up to them and staring them in the face, there are many ways to banish a nightmare - and they'll condense down into the dark glass pieces. With each defeat, the changes to the landscape sprung out of your head will disappear, and that part of Aefenglom (or Dorchacht, or the Underground, or the Wilde) will right itself, ease back into something normal, the oppressive air fading. The shadows will shorten and color will seep back into that patch of scenery.

And hold tight to those crystals if you dare - other nightmares are drawn to them. These may not even belong to anyone in particular, but to the continent of Geardagas itself: grasping Shades of Monsters and Witches both, with white eyes and blackened skin, who wish to spread their infection; half-burned Dryads screaming for help; gleeful, malicious Fae playing terrible tricks, more twisted and insectoid than the Fae most know; a growing, creeping blackness that can only be the Cwyld itself. Even the land you walk on, or may walk on in the future, has many fears.

It's a good thing some of you have new abilities at hand, and some of you have a few neat changes to help, or perhaps they aren't new at all. Regardless, use your abilities well and work together, it's time to face your fears.

Flitting Shadows
Those who are attuned to their surroundings might notice something off - beyond everything else that is already quite off, that is. The sense of being watched, wherever you go, no matter where you turn, is strong and creeping, until it consumes your consciousness. Always just outside your peripheral vision is a presence, a shadow, lean and cloaked. No matter how quickly you run or how suddenly you turn to catch it, you can never quite get a glimpse of the figure's face, if it even has one. Trying too hard will make you dizzy, nauseous, as it evades and evades and evades. You might not be able to see a face, or much more than the vaguest hint of a shape, but it sees you.

Don't let yourself be distracted from your mission, or from simple survival if you aren't the heroic type. If you linger trying to catch the specter at the edge of your vision, the nightmares will find you, readily and easily, vicious and ready to make you fight for your life. Ignore the sound of wings flapping in the distance, a whisper in an indistinct voice, words you can't hope to understand or even separate from the gnawing paranoia that roars in your ears.

The presence never reveals itself, and never attacks you directly. You get the sense that it's trying to determine what, exactly, you're doing - and that maybe it's trying to sabotage your efforts to collect the hard glass marbles of energy from this plane.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Demon Eyes or no, Alice is perceptive enough to realize that this man's... well, cat-man's words are not idle pleasantries. There are shadows and nightmares and things just beyond perceiving in constant pursuit, after all. Something about his demeanor has Alice believe he isn't the clueless type.

She returns his smile and falls into step with him almost immediately.]

Of course.

[As they walk, she eyes the marble in his hand. No wonder he's so eager to move--she's carrying one herself and knows what it means.]

Have you been able to get a good look at our pursuers, or are they evading your vision as well?

[There's no need to be coy with this. Knowing she's being pursued but being unable to actually see the shadows beyond the edges of her vision is unnerving.]

[ he gives her a more genuine, grateful smile as she easily continues along with him. as they continue, g’raha thinks he can be reasonably certain she is not also some kind of nightmare creature.

reasonably.

at the very least, he can let out a small sigh of relief as she lets on that she knows exactly why he’s asked her to walk with him- yes, this was much better than trying to explain or decide if he was simply imagining it all. ]

I’m afraid they have been. It’s an odd feeling, trying to catch even a glance- [ his voice drops as if hoping whatever is following them will not hear, and much like his previous smile he sounds more sincere. ]

When I first noticed and made an attempt, I nearly fell over. [ a small beat. ] And... I regret to admit that is not simply a figure of speech.

[Alice watches the man visibly relax as they walk. Not that he's dropping his guard entirely, but certainly toward her. She finds it easy to mirror his sincerity, even leaning in slightly as his conspiratorial whisperings.

At that last part, she has to stop herself from chuckling at his expense. The thought of him nearly toppling over tickles her for some reason, but she's at least gracious enough to not to let it show. Besides, he's right--stopping to try and stare down the shadows is disorienting.

Unthinkingly, she glances behind them as if something might change and she could see whatever these things are. The barest of shadows flashes across the stone pathway, but nothing more.]

I wonder what their purpose is. The nightmares make themselves known, but these things... they seem to simply follow.

[ he watches as she looks behind them, trying to get a better idea of what it is they're dealing with... and is relieved, if mildly embarrassed, to see that she at least has not been hit with that same wave of dizziness that he was when he first tried. there's a thoughtful nod at her appraisal. ]

Indeed; I admit the simple following seems a touch more ominous than the attacks. [ fear and wonder at the unknown, and all that. he looks down to his hand where he holds the marbles he's collected tightly with a slight frown. ]

I half wondered if it would run in and try and steal these back when I wasn't looking. And while I still don't completely understand the situation, I also can't help feeling that would be best avoided.

[In fairness, Alice's glance was quick enough that it didn't trigger anything but disappointment. She nearly made herself sick trying to stare the shadow down sometime earlier.]

Regardless of what they haven't done so far, it may be better to stick together in case they decide to act. We can watch after each other.

[She holds out a hand.]

My name is Alice. Alice Elliot.

[ the concept of working together is not a foreign one to g'raha at all- only, he has to admit, the idea of being able to work together with someone so openly and honestly again is still a bit of a novelty. so it is with perhaps a little more enthusiasm than their current predicament requires that he takes her offered hand and shakes. ]

G'raha Tia. It is nice to meet you, Alice, although I do wish I could say the same about our other company. [ but he was trying to ignore them. right. ]

I suppose I should mention... They didn't truly start following me until I obtained this. [ he holds up the marble for her to see, although his grip on it remains tight. ]

It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Current circumstances aside, of course.

[When he shows her his marble, she opens her large bible and pulls an identical marble out of a pouch in its spine.]

Clearly it's interested in both of us. Whatever its motives, we need to make sure it doesn't get a hold of these.

[ the knowledge that she has her own odd marble lends credence to the theory, and he acknowledges it with a nod. ]

Agreed. I admit it is a bit strange to worry so about keeping something I know so little about away from a figure I also know very little about, but- [ a small shrug, and an almost bemused smile. ]

It simply feels like the correct thing to do. [ he explains, sounding as though he very much knows how simple a reason that is for anything. ]

I suppose you aren't any more familiar with the place's layout than I am.

[Alice puts her marble back into its hiding place and closes her book, anxious to keep it so exposed for very long.

As he speaks, it becomes clear that she and G'raha are at about the same level of understanding of their current circumstances--brief explanations littered with the stress of the importance of the mission. At least they are in agreement that it's Right to help as much as they can. She can certainly imagine that not everyone pulled here unintentionally has been so cooperative.]

I'm afraid I know little more than you do, including this city's geography. I've met other people who are here by choice, and they've been incredibly helpful in that regard.

[Not that any are around at the moment. That would be too easy.]

I guess our only option is to wander blindly until we come across something.

☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

fitting shadows

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