dagung | ☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

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* tdm

☆ 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

[Alice has seen so many bizarre things in the last year that the combination of metallic and organic only takes her slightly by surprise. She approached because he's the only person in eyesight at the moment, and is clearly not a part of the gloom surround them.

In response to his lean and line of questioning, Alice quickly takes a step back and shakes her head.]

I don't know who Miss Nessie is. I went to sleep in Wales and ended up here. That's all I know.

[When he asks about the scenery, Alice takes a moment to get a good look. The city is no more--the two of them are standing in the middle of a very familiar graveyard.]

This isn't mine, exactly, but I've been here before. It's the graveyard of the soul--of Yuri's soul. This is where I took on the Four Mask Curse in order to save him--a man who is very, very dear to me.

[As if on cue, there's a bit of taunting laughter that can be heard on the far side of the cemetery. Four floating masks guard a sealed mausoleum. Alice shoots them a quick glare, but quickly turns her attention back to the machine-rabbit-person.]

Please, tell me about this Nessie and why we're here.

[Wales... He's never heard of it before. The most reasonable conclusion from that alone has his ears springing upright, but he doesn't comment on his observation right away, opting to listen to the rest of Alice's explanation. She must be a Mirrorbound yet to arrive, and that's exciting!

But at least she clarifies that his is a graveyard — just as he suspected. He gets a better look around, never having been to the graveyard in Aefenglom and never having seen a graveyard before, either. The lack of chill he feels for it is quite evident, replaced instead with an abject curiosity, wandering toward headstones and even reaching out for them while she speaks. But the robotic idol doesn't get a chance to touch anything when he hears laughter, his ears swiveling in response as he turns toward the mausoleum, rather than Alice.

More curiosity in his eye, more dauntlessness, more daring. But instead of rushing for it like he wants (the dreams breed in him even more of a devil-may-care attitude), he fixes his attention loosely upon Alice once more.]

A man who is dear to you, is that right...? [That seems to be the most important part — this Yuri person, he assumes. He breaks into a smile.] Well. Nessie... Nerissa Bell. She's a Witch, the head of Aefenglom's Coven... But a lot of that is going to sound meaningless to you, right now. You'll learn in time, when you arrive! Don't worry about it too much, beautiful.

[Alice has been granted an incredibly helpful guide. Mettaton waves a hand dismissively, leaning toward her again — and glancing to the mausoleum as well.]

By Four Mask Curse, you must mean something having to do with that... And you must be scared of it, somehow. So! [If the rules are to confront nightmares, get glass... Mettaton reaches for Alice's hand without her permission and tries to drag her toward that mausoleum, as helpful as he is. Bold and rash.] Let's go take a look and see what haunts you about this scene! What do you say?

[The answers Alice receives are haphazard, as Mettaton is clearly more interested in her and their surroundings. Although something about his statement catches her attention--when she arrives? Arrives where? And how does he know?

She's about to guess that he's somehow related to the curse and portending her imminent death when he grabs her hand and starts dragging her to confront the masks.]

T-there's no need to do this!

[She really would rather not speak to them. As they approach, it becomes clear why.

The lion-faced gold mask speaks first:]

"Bwa... ha... ha...! Long time no see, little girl."

[Next speaks the mask with a bird's head on the edge of a sword.]

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! I see the boy isn't with you. And who is this new friend? Is this "love" of yours truly so fickle?"

[At that last line, Alice visibly bristles.]

That isn't true and you know it. This is... um...

[She hasn't gotten a name from him, come to think of it.]

This is a person who is helping me.

[She thinks.]

[What a peculiar set of circumstances... Mettaton's ears perform some gymnastics of sorts, rising and swiveling and leaning forward and back, in curiosity and ease, composure and intrigue. He knew something was laughing, but it's almost as though these masks are possessed! No wonder she called it a curse.

But he laughs, still holding Alice's hand and even reaching over to pat it with his other at the accusation of their love affair.]

Oh, my. Love?? Ahaha... Yes. I'm a star, darlings! To be loved is a natural outcome, nothing so unusual. I've an image BEGGING to be adored. Can she be blamed, for loving me...?

[He winks, but it's impossible to tell with his single eye save for the animated tilt of his head.]

However. It's a love quite different from heart she bears for Yuri. That much, I can tell. [And this is more for Alice's sake, indicated by the way he turns to her.] Anyway. I'm Mettaton! And I want to know why this young lady, fears this moment so much... that it'd plague her deep in her nightmares.

[Yes, he's... helping? He just hasn't explained a thing to Alice, facing off against her nightmare with an eagerness to watch this scene unfold like a drama... And hopefully, to see to it that she can confront it, for the sake of Dorchacht's citizens.]

["Peculiar" describes a great many things about Alice Elliot's life. This situation certainly qualifies, as she's currently facing masks representing her lover's vices in the graveyard of his soul while having her hand held and patted by a robotic rabbit that is certain she must adore his very presence.

At least she now knows her companion's name. And he's vouching for her emotional integrity despite having just met her, which is nice.]

Thank you. I'm Alice.

[Before she has a chance to address Mettaton further, the mask that looks like a plank of wood speaks up.]

"Ho...ho...ho! Did she not tell you? The girl has forfeit her life for this boy, and her end is coming soon. She says she doesn't fear us, but perhaps she fears the reaper!"

[Alice takes a half step back and clutches her arms to her chest. There may be a kernel of truth in that assessment, loathe as she is to admit it.]

[Alice extricates her hand on reflex at the accusation, and Mettaton blinks after her, then the masks. He cocks his head.]

The 'reaper'? So you put your life on the line... If that's a metaphor for death, can you really be blamed for being afraid?

['Did she not tell him?' Not like Mettaton gave her much room to explain anything before dragging her off like this! He likes the surprise of it all. It's still something that prompts him to turn back to Alice, gesturing at the masks before the mausoleum with a flourish of his metal arm.]

Well! If it's less the curse, more the 'reaper'... Why don't we face off with that fear of yours? There's so much death all around us. The stage is set! So, Alice, darling... If you're so afraid of that, why forfeit your life? Is it truly because your love for him is stronger than your fears? [He sighs. He has to have a moment of ridiculous, so he says in a lower tone,] A story full of love and tragedy... A classic.

[The masks continue to chuckle at Alice's expense, but for the moment Mettaton has her full attention. He's hit the nail on the head regarding the 'love stronger than fear' bit, for one, but what concerns her more is the implication of his suggestion.]

Y-you mean for me to fight death itself?

[If she has to be honest, she's a bit overwhelmed by all of this. During her waking hours, she's been so worried about Yuri that she hasn't given much thought to the fact that her death is imminent and that's scary. She's made her peace with it--or, at least, she thought she had--and wouldn't do anything differently, but... well, she's only human. Plus, she's scared of what Yuri might do once she's gone.]

If we're going to do that, I think I know where. One of these gravestones probably has my name on it. Let's find it.

[Those tall rabbit ears twitch and swivel, as though pleased that Alice caught his drift. To him, "only human" means she'd be made of... whatever it is that allows a person to fight death, because that's just what humans do, right? They defy expectation.

With a hum, he tacks onto her question,] You know exactly what my angle is. And I have so many of those to speak of...

[...This joke would have worked better if he were presently a rectangle, but Mettaton rolls with it, swooping a hand over the broad, triangular shoulder guards that decorate his shoulders.

So Mettaton follows her words with his gaze, glancing back to the gravestones. With a nod to punctuate her decisiveness, Mettaton flashes her a grin.]

But yes. You're a girl with heart, AND one whose quick thinking! I like it. [He takes a minor hop in the direction of the headstones, eager to get to work on finding the name "Alice."] This boy you forfeit your life for... I hope he's worth a life as bright as yours.

[It's a dream they visit. But... Mettaton gets a feeling this is a nightmare retelling some actual events?! Even so, it's hard to sink in.]

I promise you, he's worth it.

[To her, anyway. Whether or not Mettaton would agree remains to be seen. ~~By all accounts, Yuri's a bit of a hot mess.~~

Honor of her lover spoken for, Alice gets to searching the graveyard for her headstone. Where was it among all of Yuri's demons again...?

It takes her several minutes, but she does find it. It's a small, unassuming stone that reads, simply, "Here lies Alice Elliot." She stands in front of it for a few moments before waving her companion over.]

Here it is.

[She pauses, then staggers and kneels to the ground. It's like back home--she can feel her life and strength fading away as her time runs short. It won't be long before this grave is real.]

Seeing it makes it feel more real, somehow. I... I can't say I like it.

"But it's the fate you chose, little girl."

[From her spot on the ground, Alice startles. The voice came from a floating, disembodied head with many eyes that has appeared nearby. It's smaller than she remembers, but every other detail is the same.]

"Is it death you truly wish to fight, or is it me?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

☆ TDM: SEPTEMBER

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sorry for the super late reply--life hit me in the face the past couple of weeks -_-

nw! i understand... 😅

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