( TDM | #4 )

[spellbindmods]

IMPORTANT: The weekly update post will go up later than usual tonight to give time for any other barrier quest responses to come in. Nothing major will be affecting how old players respond to newbies on this post, so tag away! Threads here do count for September bonus AC for old players.

TDMs can be used for anyone interested in the game and/or testing out a new muse.

Test Drive samples are encouraged to be used for your application sample, though they are NOT a requirement.

Feel free to use one prompt, multiple prompts or make up your own!

These threads can be considered game canon upon game opening if you so choose.

Telepathy and magic can be used at any point in time on the TDM, from Prompt A to your wildcard prompt. A specific prompt exists, however, that makes sure all characters have an equal chance to use this mechanic within the TDM. You're encouraged to have characters use telepathy and their magic accidentally or even purposefully on any TDM prompt.

If you aren't set on your character's power yet or want to try out a few, you're still able to use the test drive. Maybe your character is a late bloomer and hasn't fully unlocked their intuitive drive yet. In the case of multiple powers, only prompts that contain the power you choose for your application will count as potential game canon threads.

While only one character can be apped or reserved during a cycle, feel free to post with more than one character if you like! This is for those who are uncertain of their first choice or who would like to try out different characters within the setting.

IMPORTANT: This world is low-frequency. No canon powers or abilities are allowed! Also check out the setting information for more info about what the hub island looks like and what can be found there.

You blink and that's all it takes. At first the picture doesn't come in clear, like you're waiting for a screen to fully load -- more aptly, it's like you're waiting for a camera to focus so you can find image clarity. Before you happened to rapidly close your eyes and open them, your life was normal...well, normal for you, anyway. Fighting an alien, making a quesadilla, dying. And then that blurry picture suddenly takes over. There's a lot to take in here -- you feel weird, your surroundings are weird. Everything is just weird. For starters, there's that new piece of jewelry inserted in the space above your chest. That certainly wasn't there before you opened your eyes. A ▢ Your character's first experience here will be waking up in a forest. Specifically, located here. It's up to them to traverse and try to figure out where they are, whether they make it to the beach or the main house area. If this new little signet catches their interest, fiddling with it will result in a bit of a neural vibration in everyone else with telepathy. Nothing painful; it's actually quite pleasant. But if they do decide to play with this new jewelry, they're likely to find some seasoned telepaths (aka old coven members) in their brain space, wondering that's up. A2 ▢ Alternatively, new coven members are notorious for being bad at telepathy from the jump. Their panicked reation to this journey or confused mental state may send out some network messages that maybe they didn't realize they were sending out. Or, maybe what's pushing them over the edge are all the other voices already doing exactly that in their brain. B ▢ Unlike the previous coven members who found themselves on the hub, new recruits won't find as many supplies randomly in the forest they're suddenly in. However, like old coven members, they will come across some wild boars that aren't too happy to see the humans have returned to their stomping ground. Your character may also come across a boar with babies in tow, which means that they're even more likely to be aggressive. If your character has useful magic within them somewhere, now may be a good time to discover how to use it...? C ▢ Whether you've braved a boar encounter or avoided one entirely, there's a lot to do and see in the forest, as well as other areas of the hub! Well, "do" is debatable. But! Coven members before them have discovered some pretty nifty locations that can be stumbled upon, from a phallic fertility shrine to tree homes and passageways.

If you eventually make it out of the forest and aren't devoured by a boar, you'll eventually come upon your new base camp. Someone (Genette) will be there with your introductory letter and a brief description of magic you now have. If you didn't discover it earlier...surprise! One thing of comfort might be that you aren't alone in this journey. There are other coven members here, fresh back from a journey to another world. If your character wants to get the lay of the land or understand what's going on a little better, they may want to hit up some of these folk for information. There's a large, gold, floating caravan hanging around next to a bonfire, and there's a back gate open that reveals something of a space pocket containing lots of different things. Luckily for new characters, the Palai from the previous world didn't want them to go hungry...which also means they'll be inundated with shrimp to eat. Hopefully they like shellfish! D ▢ Many of the old bloods in the coven can be found hanging around this area. Of course, a few of them have gone off on their own to do whatever it is they do, but since they just got back this is a good place to hang out if a new character wants to see a familiar face, ask questions or steal someone's belongings. You never know! E ▢ This will also be the place where they're given their first provisions. In a woven knapsack, they'll find a bag of cooked shrimp, a set of clothes (you pick the style) that may not fit, a toothbrush, and three other random objects -- dealer's choice! It's very likely that your character got something useful in there, but it's also likely you got something that your character would never use in a million years, or that doesn't fit. Time to start trading! F ▢ Finally, there's always the chance for your character to explore the big mansion next to the beach area. Actually, they may be asked to lend a hand. Everyone is tasked with unloading supplies from the caravan to the front foyer of the mansion, and there are quite a few trips to be mad. Or, alternatively, your character can slack off and play in the game room that they have. How good is your character at pool?

If you're much more of a loner and don't want to follow the flow of things, there are of course other locations that you should probably check out. Travel to your heart's content and find something new...but there are two other points of interest you may want to discover. G ▢ There's that bathhouse that's nearby, for starters. Your character won't encounter any snapping crabs, like last time, though the water for some reason isn't as hot as it once was. Whatever was previously heating the bathhouse seems to have died out, so there aren't any steamy, comfortable pools to take a dip in. There are, however, acrid waters with pond scum floating on the surface. The showers also spew out a greenish liquid, so any hope your character had at having a relaxing bath is gone. However, the lack of heat and many closed off rooms can make for some nice alone time. H ▢ Your character may want to claim a beach house while they're at it. Some characters have disappeared from the coven over time, and some of these few may have left their belongings before departing. This makes it hard to tell what huts are free and which need to be cleared out. Might as well play roulette and see if you picked one that doesn't have an owner or not. (For the sake of the prompt, you might want to choose the former, just saying). I ▢ Wildcard prompt. Go nuts and utilize your own creativity within the setting. This can mean striking out on your own or utilizing a certain location in a different way. The world is your oyster!

GAME NAVIGATION

Comments

[equivalence]

[Alphonse knows him way too well, and is right to avoid that word, and keep Edward from launching off into a complete dismissal of magical nonsense. Even so, there's a skeptical furrow to his brow as Al speaks.

Edward follows along, listening. Ability. That...

Well. When Al demonstrates, Edward only stares. He walks up to the tree and pokes a finger at it.]

How? This isn't alchemy. [That much is plainly clear.]

[alphonse]

I have no idea.

[And he sounds more than a little frustrated by that fact. The rest of the coven is so accepting of magic, so unbothered by not knowing the rules of how it actually works. It's been driving Al up the wall, and he can't help venting a little to the one person he knows will understand.]

Everyone keeps calling it magic, like that makes it okay for nothing to make any sense!

[Before he can go too far down that road, he shakes his head to stave off the rant.]

But... I have seen them do some incredible things, sometimes because of where they came from and sometimes because of Qri. If you're here, you must have some weird power too.

[equivalence]

[Everything has to have rules. People an all things whatever they want, that doesn't change the facts that physics, chemistry, alchemy, all work a same way, are all bound by specific natural, universal laws!

...so Ed feels you, Alphonse. Boy does he.]

There's no such thing as magic. Not like that.

[Reflexive. But not without rules, without frameworks and-- okay. No focus.]

What me? Oh no. No thank you. [EXCEPT. RIGHT. In his flight from the boar it'd been pushed to the back of his mind for worrying about later. It's not later.] I had trouble transmuting before. Nothing happened.

[alphonse]

[Al hesitates. Taking Ed to the edge of the island is a detour from heading back to camp, but if he were in his brother's place it's absolutely something he'd need to see for himself right away. (He did see it for himself right away, and he can still hardly believe his eyes.)]

Alchemy isn't going to work here. The others will tell you it's because of the world's frequency, but that's because they don't understand the difference between alchemy and magic.

[Another sore point, from the way he says it.]

The island we're on can't produce the right energy because it doesn't look like it's even attached to a planet. It's just floating in the middle of nowhere.

[equivalence]

[Oh... Ed may very well need that detour because there's no way that can be true. He trusts Alphonse, knows his brother isn't trying to pull one over on him.]

How does that even work?

[Islands don't float! Even actual islands don't float in water. That's not how that works! Right? None of this makes sense, and it's starting to get to Edward.] So no alchemy, but still somehow magic.

[He's already running over it in his mind. He needs more information to even begin to make sense of it.] This place is giving me a headache, Al.

[alphonse]

I know what you mean. [Yep, time for a slight change of direction. Might as well let Ed stare into the abyss early on.] I'll show you, but I don't know how much it will actually help.

And the island's not even the weirdest part of all this. Did you get told anything before you ended up in the woods?

[equivalence]

[Bring on the abyss. Edward nods at what Al has to say. Good. He wants to see it, though if Alphonse can't make sense of it, he's reasonably sure he won't be able to either. Not right away.

This all feels like some messed up dream.

He shakes his head at the question.] I was exactly where I was supposed to be then bam, in a forest. Here. What should I Have been told? [Did he miss the orientation meeting?]

[alphonse]

[Al sighs. Ed has probably picked up on some of the details from the things he's said already, but he'd better spell it all out for clarity's sake.]

Well, to start off with, there are people here from all kinds of different worlds. I know that much is true, because I've talked to a lot of them and heard their stories. Some of them are able to do things that would have been impossible back home.

[Compared to all the complaining he's been doing, his voice takes on a distinctly more positive note when talking about the coven at large. They've done a lot to help him and it's clear he thinks pretty highly of them.]

And then there's Qri. [Goodbye, positivity.] She's the witch responsible for kidnapping everyone, and her story is that she's running low on energy and needs us to collect it for her. Supposedly, she's so powerful that everyone's worlds will die off if she doesn't get it.

[No need to point out how terribly shady and convenient that sounds.]

She either can't or won't talk to us, and does her communicating through Brie and Genette, the two people who have been with her longer than anyone. Even they have no proof of anything she says beyond just having faith in her.

[equivalence]

[He's starting to put together a picture of it, from things Alphonse has mentioned, from his own limited experience since he got here -- which in fairness mostly includes running from wild boar and being pissed off at the fact that he can't use his alchemy.

But he's listening closely now, mostly quiet as they walk. For once. It isn't a surprise that Alphonse has made friends -- which is what Edward is getting from that shift in tone. Of course he did. Al's always been the nicer one between them, a million times better with people than Edward will ever be. And despite himself, Edward smiles.

Until the witch gets brought up.]

...so we're here to feed her energy. How exactly do you collect energy? And what the hell does she need it for? [He realizes these may not be questions Al has answers to, so they're mostly rhetorical.] Sounds like crap to me. What do you know about those two, Brie and Genette?

[Always suspicious. But experience has given him nothing but reasons to be.]

[alphonse]

Not that much. Genette's the friendlier one--in fact, you'll probably meet her soon since she likes to try and greet the new arrivals. As suspicious as their story is, I don't get the impression that they're lying.

[But that's only because a liar would come up with something way more convincing.]

They're willing to go along with Qri's plans because they think it's what they have to do to get back home.

As for the energy...

[A bit of digging around in his armor and Al produces the amulet the Palai gave him before they left, a bone-like structure sparking from within its glass case.]

These are what Qri was after in the last world. A lot of us refused to help, but not enough to stop her from getting what she wanted.

[equivalence]

So it's possible they're being used...

[Apparently "so it's possible this is legitimate" is not even a remote possibility in Edward's mind. This Qri got off on the wrong foot and then it kept getting wronger and wronger. Kidnapping him and dropping him here? In a world where he can't use alchemy? And kidnapping his little brother even before that? Not getting on Edward's good side. It's such a small side to begin with.

He shifts in closer to look at what Al's taken out.] What is it?

[alphonse]

[He offers Ed the amulet for closer inspection--the glass around the structure should keep the electricity in check--and falters on how to best explain the saga of the lizard people.]

They're sort of... magic centers. See, there's a race called the Palai, and the ones who are born with these bones have special abilities.

[He shrugs a bit helplessly. It's as ridiculous to say as it is to hear.]

Their enemies the Uvi even hunted them because of it, until one day when the Uvi put too many of these things together and blew themselves up. Qri wanted us to collect the ones they'd taken.

[equivalence]

[So the kidnapping witch also scavenges the body parts of another race. He takes the amulet carefully, holding it up to the light and turning it over to get a better look at it.]

If the people who stole them in the first place blew them up, isn't that risky?

[This Qri person risking people for her own gain? Edward's skepticism is running intensely high right now.] Kind of feels like profiting off a tragedy too.

[The same issue with chasing the Philosopher's Stone, now that they knew...]

[alphonse]

Yeah. The Palai were still getting attacked while we were there, so if she'd told us everything earlier, maybe we could have done more to help them. Or we could've taken the bones from the Uvi and stopped them from getting hurt too. But saving people was never the goal. That's why I can't believe us being here has anything to do with protecting worlds.

[Finally, he stops to gesture up ahead to where the edge of the island meets with the nothingness of open space.]

[equivalence]

[Edwards holds the amulet back up to Alphonse. He frowns at this information. His opinion of Qri is plummeting, and it didn't start out all that high to begin with either.]

Damn it. That really pisses me off. [Taking advantage of a situation like that for nothing but personal gain. Edward would probably rant more if they hadn't just come to the end of the fricken world.

He steps forward, closer, not quite right to the edge.] How the hell...

[He turns back towards Alphonse, pointing.] That shouldn't be possible.

[alphonse]

[Al puts the amulet away and steps a little closer, just in case. (Please don't fall off the world, big bro.)]

If we're both seeing it, then at least we probably haven't gone crazy.

[That's the best he's got.]

[equivalence]

[No promises Al, that edge is calling to him. He does step back after a moment though, putting more distance between him and the nothingness. It's unsettling to look at, to be at the border of something and nothing, that doesn't seem to care what the laws of physics says is possible.

Yeah. Definitely getting a headache.

But Alphonse speaks and something in Ed softens, a tired smile as he walks by, thumping a gloved metal fist against Al's chest plate.]

Probably. Or we've gone nuts together. [Mom'd be proud, right?]

I don't think we're crazy, Al. But I think there's something very wrong going on with all of this. So we're gonna figure it out, right?

[alphonse]

Right.

[Al can't smile back, but something in his voice brightens all the same. Hearing Ed say it like that makes the whole thing seem like less of an uphill battle than it did earlier.]

In the meantime, it isn't all bad. Like I said, the people are really nice. There are a lot of them I want to introduce you to.

[Maybe Ed will see Al's newfound dragon fascination as an upgrade from cats?]

And. [In that borderline devious sort of way that's usually reserved for plotting with his brother.] I think it might be possible to apply magical energy to alchemy. Figuring out what to do about Qri might take some time, but until then, the places she leads us to could be useful.

[equivalence]

[Edward nods in emphasis. They've fought uphill battles before. ...and still are, always are. It may actually be their lot in life in general.

But the blond can't help a laugh.] Yeah, I want to meet your friends, Al. It sounds like we're all in the same boat, right? [So they may as well work together, if they can.

That said. Alphonse Elric. You may not adopt any dragons either. What would they even feed it.

Hold on now.]

...if we can figure it out the basic rules of what they're calling magic... [Because it can't be actual magic, whatever it is has to have its own laws, come from somewhere. They will just have to be careful though. History has proven them both TERRIBLE at that part.]

[alphonse]

As far as I can tell, everyone uses magic as kind of a catchall. Sometimes it's for abilities we don't really understand, like the ones from Qri. And other times I think it's just an issue of terminology. Other worlds have different laws from ours, but it doesn't mean the things they're calling magic can't be explained.

[Or at least that's what he wants to believe, and he hasn't been proven completely wrong yet.]