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☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER
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• 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.With that taken care of...
• 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.
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. |
ii.
When he comes across the Ghost General, limping and alone, he thinks, 'Ah. It must be time for my own nightmares to haunt me.' Because ever since he learned how he will die, his nightmares have centered around Wei Wuxian's loyal general. Thanking the heavens that he has his bow and quiver with him, he sets an arrow to the string and takes aim. His appearance has changed, becoming sharper and more birdlike, but his voice is as clear as ever.
"What do you want?" He calls from a safe distance. "Don't come any closer!"
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He can only stare. Any traces of his magic are gone now, leaving him to stand wearily and pathetically in tattered robes. He isn't going to run. If the man he killed wants to shoot him he'd have every right to.
"Young master...?"
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That's not what he said, exactly, but with his emotions already heightened by the creeping sense of being constantly watched in this nightmare, Jin Zixuan is allowed to be a little on edge, okay?
He pulls the string taught, keen harpy eyes seeing through the darkness the differences in Wen Ning's appearance between the last second and the next. His eyes are clear, he looks tired, sad, confused. All ploys, Jin Zixuan expects, to get him to lower his guard until the Ghost General can get close enough to attack.
"You can't trick me, whatever foul spirit you are," he warns, voice dripping with so much venom you would think he was his naga half brother instead. "I won't hesitate to shoot you through the heart."
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He knows neither Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji would approve of this choice, but neither of them are still with him and he doesn't have the energy for another fight at the moment. "You know... if you shoot, I'll just catch it."
It's a bluff, of course. Wen Ning's senses are dulled here. Normal. He's not a puppet anymore and he's not skilled enough in his new magics to know how to make them work the same way. It's possible he could knock the arrow aside, or perhaps protect himself with a spell, but it's doubtful he'd be able to catch it like before.
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Again, it could be a ploy to get Jin Zixuan to lower his guard. It hasn't yet occurred to him that this Wen Ning before him could be anything other than a trick of dark magic sent to scare him into losing ground. And yet... That line of thinking doesn't have the ring of truth Jin Zixuan has come to rely on. The warning bell in his mind which alerts him to lies is only ringing for the promise to catch the arrow, not for the defeated air that Wen Ning has, kneeling and repentant.
He lowers his bow, squinting in confusion.
"What are you?"
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"I'm... a witch?" He says this as though checking with the other man to make sure he's said it correctly. "I think that's the right word." You were one of two things here, and he was that thing. It's the only term he imagines Jin Zixuan could be looking for when asking that question, and it's all he can offer as a way of saying he isn't some nightmarish illusion. Though if he was, then at least this confrontation might have been simpler to handle for both of them.
"...I like your feathers," he adds as a pathetic sort of addendum.
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He stops his approach, standing over Wen Ning's kneeling form, and issues a stern command. "Stand up." There's no reason for him to stay in the street like this. There are nightmares about, they must be cautious, on their guard.
"When did you arrive? I heard nothing to tell me you were here." Surely someone who knew his fate would have warned him. If not his half brother, then one of his brothers in law.
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"Recently. Everything was already..." he nods to either side of him, "like this. Master Wei and Master Lan... they both told me I was having a nightmare, but. It seems like everyone is." And it doesn't end, even when you capture pieces of it.
"I heard that there were others." He doesn't add it's good to see you alive.
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"Yes." Everyone is here in the nightmare now, well done Wen Ning. Way to figure out the obvious. "I'll let them fill you in on the reasons why. We must go, before more nightmares close in on us."
Go where, he doesn't know. He just knows they're sitting ducks (no pun intended) standing out here in the open.
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This probably isn't the most relieving thing to hear from the man responsible for his death, especially when Jin Zixuan is clearly the one in better shape at the moment, but Wen Ning at least intends to try.
He pats around the front of his robes, at last reaching inside and pulling out an empty pouch. (It's for coins, but why would he ever have any of those?) The orb is placed inside, and after he pulls the top closed he forms a seal over the binding to keep it that way.
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Jin Zixuan stands by and waits (quite impatiently) for Wen Ning to be finished storing his orb in the pouch, then draws an arrow from his quiver and begins to venture forth. The streets of this nightmare city mirror those of the real Aefenglom well enough that Jin Zixuan is certain of his way around. He heads towards the waterfront, down a wide avenue which, in the waking world, would lead to the building Jin Zixuan now calls home. It's as safe a place to take shelter as any, he supposes.
As he walks, he regards Wen Ning out of the corner of his eye. He can't help but be wary around the man. Even without knowing he would be his murderer, how much can he really trust him?
"I suppose it's too early to tell what your magical speciality will be."
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Wen Ning doesn't stay too close to the other man, both for Jin Zixuan's comfort and because his wounded leg is slowing him down. He's determined to not let it be too much of a hindrance, though. He doesn't want to be the one keeping him from going wherever it is he intends to go.
"How does this place decide what we are?" He asks this for the sake of neutral conversation only. Both the animals picked for Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan have been very fitting so far.
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"All I know is," he supplies, gritting his teeth and walking as slow as he can stand to, "when we pass through the mirrors, we are stripped of all the power we once had. Some of us have the potential for magic. Others do not. Those with magic become witches, and train their abilities in the Coven's schools. The rest of us, well." An impatient gesture with his feathered arm. "Monsters and witches must partner together, else they become too unstable."
He can't help but think of A-Ling, gone so long without any witch to bond with. He can't be having it easy right about now.
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It seems odd, from the other man's explanation, that he would be judged to have a potential for magic while Wei Wuxian, the man who created demonic cultivation, would not be. Something about all that seems suspect, and he has to wonder if it has anything to do with his susceptibility to magic in the first place. That's not quite the same.
If he has to partner with a monster... well surely Wei Wuxian would already have Lan Wangji. He wouldn't want to get in the middle of that. Who will he partner with?
He'll have to figure that out later. Right now he's still slowing down Jin Zixuan and that's bothering him. Healing magic is part of a witch's arsenal, isn't it? He hasn't attempted it yet because he hasn't been sure where to start. With this thought, any small plants or grass poking up through the cobblestone begin to shrivel and die as he passes by them, their essence traveling upward to heal his wounded leg in a faint black mist. He doesn't notice for now, but his pace does start to normalize.
"I'm... sorry for all my questions."
cw: dead bodies
Jin Zixuan is not in the habit of looking down at the ground as he walks, especially when he's on the lookout for potential attackers. So the withering plants go unnoticed by him as well. He focuses on getting them back to his residence, figuring it will be a safe place.
"It's... fine. It's understandable for you to be confused, showing up in the middle of things as you have. Normally they give a presentation to teach you everything you need to know." Or at least set you on the beginning of the path. There still had been much that Jin Zixuan had had to figure out for himself.
Finally, they reach their destination-- a fancy looking house in a nicer quarter of the residential district of the Haven. Inside the doors, the foyer is clean and neatly decorated, with the sigils of a lotus and a peony hanging on the wall along with some framed photos. Jin Zixuan busies himself with securing the door, before gesturing for Wen Ning to follow him deeper into the house.
Once they reach the courtyard, dark and shadowed with an empty, haunting fountain positioned in the middle of it, it becomes clear that all is not right in this nightmarish mirror of the place Jin Zixuan and his family call home.
Bodies are strewn about the courtyard, lying motionless on the ground in pools of blood. Even from a distance, it's clear who they are.
Jiang Cheng. Jiang Yanli. Jin Ling.
Jin Zixuan freezes in place, struck dumb by the shock of seeing his loved ones (and Jiang Cheng) so brutally murdered.
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If he'd known the whole family was here, his feet might have combusted of their own accord.
The fluttering feeling in his stomach turns to one of dread as he realizes that this place is still within the realm of nightmares he's been in since his arrival. It's clear even before he sees the bodies, in the way way what should have been a pleasant courtyard has been turned into something shadowed and dreadful.
Finally seeing the bodies only makes it worse. Wen Ning freezes the moment he does, immediately fearful that something he'd done had been responsible even though that wouldn't be possible. Is this real? Is it another nightmare? If these three had faced off against one of the nightmares here would they have been so easily killed?
"Y-young Master Jin?" He says his name to ground both of them, just in case the scene has left the other man too stunned to react. Whatever killed them could still be here.
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He feels a tear hit his cheek. Another one, falling unbidden from his eye. He tries to wipe it away but his talonlike fingers are no good for such things anymore. The best they can do is slowly reach out to close Yanli's unseeing eyes where she lies before him. Clearing his throat, he stands again, paying no mind to the blood now staining the hem of his robes.
"It's not real. They're all fine, wherever they are. It's only..." A deep, steadying breath. "It's not real."
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He didn't wake up here, he walked here. It's not like coming to with his hand covered in blood and the bodies of two important men laying on the ground in front of him.
He can still help here.
"Young Master Jin... We need to dispel this somehow." He just doesn't know what they would fight to bring it to an end.
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That said, he's having a hard time controlling his impotent rage at seeing his loved ones dead on the ground. Whatever nightmare being did this will certainly pay. So, when Wen Ning has the audacity to point out the obvious yet again, Jin Zixuan loses it... Just a little bit.
"Oh really? Well, you're the witch here! What do you propose we do about it!?"
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"If... if I knew what to fight I would fight it." If something could just appear out of the shadows, something solid he could tear into pieces or toss a spell at. He's not a very good witch yet, but he's trying to learn quickly.
"Maybe if we h-had some kind of light... A lantern, a-a..." Looking very uncertain, he draws a small symbol in the air and forms a very tiny ball of flame in his hands. He holds it there, unsure what to do next. Since the next step isn't coming to him, the fire fizzles out and he shakes his nearly burnt palms.
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He spreads his arms, feathers fanning out into wings and takes off into the sky, landing on a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Sure, he could have taken the stairs up here, but... Flying is just better in every way.
From here he can get a sense of the scene as a whole, looking at the placement of the bodies and the pools of blood surrounding them.
"There!" He points, to the other side of the fountain. Someone, or something had stepped through a puddle of blood and left a trail of footprints. "Tracks, leading to the back of the house."
Without another word he takes off again, in a low glide, to land on the other side of the courtyard.
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He can't use any of the abilities he's used to using, which means no flying after the harpy. He'll have to meet up with him on foot. Thankfully he's staying within the yard and not flying off to another house somewhere.
Given that they're still in the dream world, this is almost definitely a trap of some kind - but how else are they going to dispel the dream if they don't fight it?
"I'm coming, young master!" Wen Ning rushes to keep up with the man, knowing he won't wait for him to get there if he finds their enemy quickly. It's only now that he realizes his leg is healed enough to do so, but he doesn't have the time to dwell on it. He attributes it to the dream-like nature of this place.
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Jin Zixuan holds an arm out to stop Wen Ning from blundering any closer. "Stop! Don't move..." He can tell from the way the snake is eyeing him that it is tracking his movement.
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But that doesn't keep him from thinking on what he knows about his magic so far, and what sort of spells he could possibly use to help out here without messing things up more.