spellgrinders | ( TDM

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( TDM | #2 )

IMPORTANT: This TDM takes place on the current world the coven is part of. Please read the linked Google Doc about the world AND be aware that the world is high-frequency, meaning canon magic and powers can be used.

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.

WORLD ONE: AIMINTAS

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...

Some of you might open your eyes to find yourself wandering around a sandy area, outside of a large stone house. There's a large glimmering caravan floating around outside, which might intrigue you. There's also a lot of supplies, food, clothing...all just laying around outside. It's worth investigating, right?

Other new potential coven members will find themselves in a completely different part of town. These lucky individuals will have suddenly appeared in the marketplace area of Aimintas, surrounded by walking lizard beings that suddenly turn and take an immediate interest in this stranger.

The setting found in Aimintas is pretty expansive, so you have a lot of room to wander around. Here are a few things that might catch your eye if you're really committed to wandering around.

GAME NAVIGATION

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[the array of fantastical magical creatures is impressive, and a story wouldn't exactly be out of place with so many curious eyes on them. but putting the onus of creating some form of entertainment on one person alone seems like too much to bear, and she can't help but wanting to confirm that it's alright.]

Are you sure that you don't mind? Perhaps someplace quieter would be better for a story.

[Riku happens to overhear the conversation and casually inserts himself into it. He's already heard a few stories about the Uvis and had a similar question himself, one that he answered himself by looking around.]

They don't seem to have much here to defend themselves with. Their weapons are mostly knives and clubs, things that can easily be made but are not the most effective. Why they don't use their technology to make better weapons is something you'll have to ask them.

[Oh.

Oh, great.

Put a fork in him, he's done, he's never getting out of this one if this is the help the universe chooses to send to him.]

Uh.

[Sounding a little like he meant to speak in an undertone, then just didn't bother,] Lady, I got no clue.

[ Guess who likes his picture books too? This kid! When he sees Pica so immersed in that book with such a happy illustration. But there's something about this that's a little sad? Gokotai doesn't say anything about that, instead offering her one of the books he has in his arms. ]

Here! When you're done with that one.

[ She probably will recognize the book having the same style and size as the one she has, just a different color for the cover. ]

You seem to really like the pictures, and this one is the second in the series. It's a cute story!

[ katsuhira merely turns to blink at her owlishly, hand still burning up. ]

It does? Um.

[ yeaaaah, can't feel the burn. it does look painful, but it's not like there's anything he can do about it right now. ]

[Things Will has going for him: he is not a king. She watches him, but chooses to oblige. Perhaps he could not kill her. Even so, he is a man, and she is wary of how he may watch her. She would rather tell a story than be threatened by the gaze men often set on her.]

Very well. Because you are well-learned in the stories of Greece, I will instead tell you a story from Persia. In these stories, the gryphon is thought of as the creature called the Simurgh.

It is told, O playwright, that the advisor to Nowzar and great hero, Saam, who had chosen not to be king, was with his wife when she was giving birth. So it was that Saam saw his son as he was born, and saw him for his strangeness, in the deep pallor of his skin, the redness of his eyes, and the whiteness of his hair. These were the colors of the great and terrible demon, and so Saam was convinced his son was the child of demons, and named him Zal for his appearance. Saam knew he could not raise this boy, yet he could not kill him, so he took the infant to the mountain Alborz, the highest peak in the nation. Though the infant cried as he climbed, and climbed as he left, Saam left Zal there, forsaking his own son.

Yet the child's cries were heard by the tender-hearted Simurgh, who made Alborz her home. The Simurgh rescued the child, bringing him to her nest of monstrously large children. These chicks were as Zal's siblings, and the Simurgh his mother. Though they were great and he small, they were careful of him, and under their love he grew strong and wise. Yet the time came when he became a man, and yearned to meet those who were like him. The Simurgh grieved for parting with her beloved son, but in her wisdom, she understood that this was what he needed. To him she said, before he parted, "Take these three feathers of mine with you, s that you will always live under my protection, since I brought you up beneath my wings with my own children. If any trouble comes to you, if there is talk of good and ill, throw one of my feathers into the fire, and my glory will at once appear to you."

Upon returning to his kingdom, Zal met the beautiful Rudabeh, descendant of the demon king Zahhak, whose shoulders bore snakes that devoured his innocent people. Though she came from a demon's line, he was a king, and worthy. More than that, Zal and Rudabeh were in love. So they consulted the priests, who looked to the horoscopes, and prophesied of the child to come: a hero famed for all eternity, stronger than all before, who serves his nation well. No eagle would outsoar him, and no lord would be his equal; with his sword he will make the air weep, and his food will be roasted wild creatures spitted on a tree. Prompt in his monarch's service, bold in battle, their child would become Persia's protector and greatest warrior.

Under this auspicious sign, they were wed. Yet when the child was to be born, the labour was too great and terrible, and Rudabeh could not bring the child through, for he was too large and strong. Rudabeh fainted in her labour, and so Zal came to her, and wept in despair, sick at heart and with tears in his eyes at the prospect that he would love the woman he loved.

Then, he remembered the gift from that surrogate, the greatest and most wise of the birds. He brought the feather to the brazier that warmed the chamber, and threw it into the flames. Immediately, the air darkened, and the Simurgh appeared like pearls raining down from a dark cloud.

The Simurgh said to him, "Why are you sad, why are the lion's eyes wet with tears? A cub eager for fame will be born to you from this silver cypress; he will master all the beasts of earth and air, and terrify leopards, dragons and demons. On the battlefield, his voice will make the hardened hearts of warriors quake. When he throws his spear, it will soar at such lengths that miles will not be enough to count it. For so great a hero, his labour, too, will be anguished, and so he must be brought forth."

And so the Simurgh instructed Zal on what to do, calling for a man well-versed in spells and a glittering knife. The great, wise bird instructed Rudabeh to drink until she could not feel pain, and for Zal to turn away to not witness this. The child must be removed from her abdomen, and when it was set free, he must sew up the cut, and mix a salve of the Simurgh's instruction into the wound to see it healed. Finally, he must take a feather from the Simurgh and hold it to her body, for its shadow would give her strength.

Zal did as the wise bird told him, and both mother and child were saved. When at last Rudabeh came too, and looked upon her great child, she saw how she had escaped peril and pain. In Farsi, to escape is rastam, so she named the child Rostam, who would be the greatest of all heroes. And to this child was given the Simurgh's protection, for the clan of Zal was now, too, her clan.

[ Okay. She hasn't seen a phone THIS OLD in a while, too. His puzzlement is completely understandable and calling it "this thing" is appropriate. People actually made phone calls back then.

PHONE CALLS!!! ]

I don't know. Can you even take pictures with it?

[ Hold on, she's grabbing it again and attempting to navigate by touching the screen.

Nothing is happening. ]

Are they trying to sell a broken one?

[ N O........ ]

-D-

[ Man, talk about culture shock. The amphibian-people are honestly the least confusing part of this for Kosuzu - as far as she can figure, she's just ended up in some kind of youkai city. But the sky-ocean? The technology? The architecture? The pants on women? It's too much to take in at once, and she needs an anchor. ]

Aaaah! I've seen one of these before!

[ Kosuzu grabs something off of a table of for-sale items - a dusty mobile phone, something along the lines of the old Nokia brick. Then, to whoever's wandering past, a sudden question. ]

Excuse me! This is a 'phone', right? Do you know what it's supposed to do?

-G-

[ AND WITH THIS, ALL SERIOUS CONCERNS ARE FORGOTTEN. Kosuzu, once finding the library, resigns herself to spending the rest of the day there. Maybe more.

Thus, over the course of the following afternoon and evening, there's a human girl at a table in the library, as stacks of books gradually pile up all around her. Regardless of how obtuse and impenetrable the languages of the books might be, she gives them the same rushed skim of the early chapters before moving on to the next. This is the kind of situation that her ability was made for. ]

How long do we get to stay in this world again? It's going to take so long to figure out which books I need to take with me when we leave...

[ Even aside from her usual bibliophile tendencies, the prospect of finding something new helped to briefly temper the crawling sense that her old book collection was gone. ]

-H-

[ Surprise me! Or hit me up at

ProfessorProf! ]

Edited 2017-07-23 04:25 (UTC)

A little girl? Do you mean a little sister of sorts?

[ camilla's much more interested in this cute weird little nerd than she was a few moments ago. ]

I never would have guessed, since you're just a baby yourself.

[She has two options; one involves taking out her own weapons and engaging with him, but it'd go against the reason she approached in the first place. She just saw a young boy by himself and was Concerned.

So instead, she raises her hands to show she's unarmed, offering a smile.]

It's alright, dear. I'm not dangerous.

[Judas you shy baby. Caster observes this, as well as his frustration. She does not know if he is one to be afraid of. Quietly, she speaks to him, asking,]

Forgive me... Are you one who understands how to use computers?

[... Huh, he hadn't noticed the island. He stares up at its shadow above the seemingly endless water. An island floating in infinite ocean... Nostalgia for a life that wasn't his rises within him for a moment.

Anf then there's that smile! Something about it makes him feel... really happy, in a bittersweet way. It's infectious, though, and he finds himself beaming back even as he answers her question in utter bafflement.]

I'm totally fine. Is it... weird that I'm here? You're here, aren't you?

[ yikes! that looks painful! he probably shouldn't just leave this guy in the lurch. that's not the type of person jude is, so... ]

Uh... Need some help?

[ jude kneels down next to flynn and motions for the babies to come to him with a little hum, hoping they'll get distracted and respond to it. he reaches out his hand —

and just one of the palai tugging at flynn's hair is now nipping at his pinky finger instead. worse, it looks like flynn is still having trouble with the others. ]

This isn't what I meant...

[ THANKS, RUBY'S UNCLE SHE GUESSES???? THAT'S SUPER HELPFUL AT THIS JUNCTURE!!!! ]

I'm trying not to! [ tug. TUG. tug. ] I didn't even mean to, I wasn't trying to take anything.

[ you try blinking into existence and keeping your balance - wait this is ruby and yang's weird uncle, he probably did that. ]

[ He's no help either. Before the Palai can open its mouth and say anything else about "coven" there's another pop of her gum and ]

How about introductions? [ Alright, SHE'S A LITTLE HELPFUL?? ]

I'm D.Va.

b

[it's a good thing that the house that the coven co-opted is large, sturdy, and has a little bit of space around it, because there's a very large snaky dragon draped over it at the moment. he's overflowing almost waterfall-like to the ground, where he appears to be... bracing his elbows against the sand to give himself enough stability to nose with interest through all your possessions. he's already formed two piles: one for discards, and the other, in a careless loop of his tail, for things he clearly intends to keep. there's a skinny young man with glasses scolding him a bit, but the dragon doesn't appear to be paying much attention yet...

Geir was startled enough by the fizz of magic and the sudden change of scenery, but really, things like this just happen sometimes. the power he felt and will have identified to him later as Qri's is clearly something to be reckoned with, but if the mystery god who brought him here isn't going to come out and talk to him, why should he wait for her to explain herself? and in the meantime, this place seems to be filled with interesting sights and sounds and smells. case in point: look at all this stuff!

whatever Vern says, people wouldn't leave perfectly good stuff laying around if they didn't want someone else to take it for their hoard. that's Geir's story and he's sticking to it.]

f
[later, there's a bit of an eye-catching ruckus at the Palai hatchery, if your character is wandering by. Vern -- the skinny human scrub -- is being swarmed by the juveniles. he's wound up overbalanced and sat down with a couple of them pulling on his arms, a third trying on his glasses (he NEEDS those to SEE) and one of the more lizardlike babies trying to eat his long braid. Geir -- the supremely enormous dragon -- has just finished sticking his head in a window to inspect the eggs, and is now inspecting, well, the hatchlings Vern's holding and the ones crowded around his flanks.

Vern looks and sounds extremely put-upon, already frazzled by a few hours of dealing with strangers and crowds:]

They're--they're so small? What do you even do with strange babies?

[Geir answers, much amused but possibly not very reassuring to passerby:]

Aw, they're so cute! They like you! Do you really want them off? The smaller they are the better they bounce, probably.

[oh god]

((all replies will be separately tagged by both Geir and Vern! two for one character deal))

[ hello fellow silverish haired person what up ]

They don't seem to let monthly attacks get them down in the least...at least, they all seem so happy. But they don't even have, I don't know, Hunters! Not that I can tell, anyway. I suppose it's a cultural difference, but that's too many lives lost that shouldn't have to be.

[While she may have been singing for the palai, Boudica had heard Kotori's singing as she passed by and decided to stay to listen in. She'd never heard a song like this one before, but she still finds herself swaying a little in time with the rhythm she picks up on. Once she's familiar enough with it she even quietly hums along to herself.

And afterwards, she joins in to give Kotori a big round of applause, approaching after her more scaled fans are finished.]

That was wonderful! You're really talented!

[And that lucky individual that she grabs onto is Riku. He'd been attempting to make his escape from his own Palai admirers when he felt someone latch onto his arm and pull him in.

He's unprepared to be in such close proximity to a strange lady and stiffens up under her hold as she calls him darling and effectively blows off the gathering Palai around them.] What are you-[They're suddenly on the move before he can finish his sentence.

When they finally stop and she releases him, he takes a couple steps away, eyeing her like he's afraid she'll grab for him again. But the tenseness in his frame drains a bit as she explains herself.]

Oh. Um...sure. I've noticed how intense they can be. You just surprised me.

Who said anything about trying to take things? Didn't you know that the more you shout about being innocent, the more guilty you actually look?

[ And no, he didn't do this to her, but he wishes he could because it's a tad hilarious watching a Schnee struggle. ]

[He should be feared if you're a Roman!!! (No)

He looks up from the book he has open and offers a hint of a smile. There's no mistaking her ethnic origins, and it's something that eases his nerves a little. Being Judas is less likely to be a problem, so it doesn't need to be at the forefront of his thoughts.]

Yeah, I know how to use one, do you need a hand with it?

[ it's rare that akira is alone, so the fact that this is one of those rare moments isn't lost on him. the weird looks he's getting from the palai feel like they could melt steel. he's sure they don't mean too much harm by it, but it's a tad unnerving. he's never been one to enjoy arbitrary rules and expectations set forth by society in the first place, but this takes it to a whole new level. this place is just weird.

he feels for the guy that's been tangled up in what feels like, at least for him, hour-long-conversations with the locals. ]

You mean the coven?

[ he's trying to figure out whether he sees elize as more of a little sister or almost a daughter (no, he's too young to be a parent) before he processes camilla's presence and jumps up. ]

— I'm not a baby!

[ HE HAS A DEGREE AND EVERYTHING!!!!! ]

Wait — where did you come from?! Sorry, I...

[ he flushes with embarrassment at both his lack of attentiveness and his little temper tantrum. ]

Master, if it pleases you, I would be glad to tell that tale.

[SHE'S GOING WESTERN FOR THIS because i'm running out of stories.]

It is related, O Master, that the king of a distant kingdom had a daughter who became ill. He consulted his prophets, who told him that she would be made well only by eating an apple. The king declared that whoever brought the apple to cure her would have her as his bride. Across the kingdom, many sought to win her hand. Among these was a peasant with three sons: the eldest, Uele, the middle son, Seame, and the youngest, Hans.

First, the peasant sent Uele with a basket of apples. Uele met on the road a little iron man, who asked him what was within the basket. Wary of the stranger's intentions, Uele answered "Frog's legs," and the little man said, "It is so." Uele continued onward, but when he reached the king, his basket did indeed contain frogs' legs. The king sent him away, and so the peasant turned to his second son.

On the road, Seame encountered the little iron man, who asked him what was within the basket. As wary as his elder brother, Seame answered, "Hogs' bristles," and the little man said, "It is so." As before, the son found that the basket contained what he had said on arriving before the king, and was driven back to his home.

The youngest son, Hans, was a fool, and begged to go as well as his brothers. At last, taking pity, the peasant allowed it. When Hans met the iron man, being a fool, he answered honestly, and said the basket contained apples that would cure the princess. The little man said, "It is so," and when Hans reached the castle and gave the apples to the princess, she was cured.

The king, however, refused to let them marry until he had a boat that traveled over dry land and sea. Hans went home and told his father. His father sent Uele to the forest to make such a ship; the iron man came to him and asked what he was making; when Uele said "Wooden bowls" that was what he made. Seame went second, and when asked, he answered that he was making chairs, and as with Uele, somehow he created what he said he would. When at last Hans went to build, he told the iron man that he was making a ship that would travel over land and sea. And so it is what he made.

Yet the king still wished to test Hans, so he set Hans to watch a hundred hares in a meadow all day. Hans did so, not losing any. The king sent a maid to beg one from him, for guests. Hans refused it, but said he would give one to the king's daughter. Then the iron man gave him a whistle that would summon any hare back. Hans gave the king's daughter a hare but then whistled it back.

The king sent Hans to fetch him a feather from the griffin's tail. On the way, a lord of a castle asked him to ask the griffin where was the lost key to his money chest; another lord, how their ill daughter could be cured; a giant, why he had to carry people over a lake. At the griffin's castle, he met the griffin's wife, who warned him that the griffin would eat him, but at night, he could pull out a feather, and then she would get the answers for him.

Hans did as she said, and when he pulled the feather, the griffin woke. The wife told him that a man had been there and gone away, but told her some stories first. She repeated them, and the griffin said that the key was in the wood house, under a log; that a toad had made a nest of the daughter's hair, but she would recover if they took the hair out; that the giant had only to put someone down in the middle of the lake and he would be free. Hans left and told the other lords what he had learned; they gave him rich treasures. When he reached the king, he claimed the griffin had given them. The king set out to get some, but he was the first man to reach the giant, who put him down in the lake, where he drowned.

And so Hans married the princess and became king

[oh no it's a king she fucked]

[While he is quiet in dignity, it is undeniable that this is a king's dignity. She becomes wary. Her instincts battle within her. To address him, or avoid him? she does not wish for harm.

Caster chooses to remain at a careful distance, but attempt to discern what book he reads, and how he interacts with it.]

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( TDM | #2 )

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Kosuzu Motoori | Touhou Project

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Geir & Vern | OCs

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partly stolen from wikipedia because i got tired

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