( TDM | #2 )

[spellbindmods]

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? A ▢ Your character has found themselves arriving right outside the coven's new digs in Aimintas, and there's a lot of confusing stuff to look at. Th ocean in the sky, that floating caravan...your character probably can't get to that ocean, so they may want to examine the caravan. If they touch it, they'll immediately regret that decision -- the caravan has its own defense mechanism, and you can pick one or the other: - A1: Once your character touches the caravan, they can't remove their appendage from it. Kick it? Their foot is stuck. Touch it? Their hand is stuck. Lick it? Their tongue is stuck. They'll remain like this for 15 minutes without magical intervention. - A2: Your character's hand doesn't stay for long, but the caravan holds onto that hand for five seconds while giving your character a pretty excruciating burn. Medic! B ▢ Maybe they're smart and they don't touch the caravan. Let's go through all of this cool stuff on the ground! It might be sort of obvious that it belongs to someone -- a lot of someone's -- but your character is thirsty, confused...maybe there's some water or answers in this pile. And maybe there's also someone who catches your character going through their shit.

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. C ▢ The Palai are very interested in the new coven members, and a new humanoid person -- or anyone that doesn't look like them -- will immediately catch their attention. They'll immediately find your character worth of their undivided attention, talking to them about coven-related things...pretty confusing right? If you need help with the short lizard folk, maybe someone will eventually arrive to help you out. On the other hand, you might learn something interesting talking to them. A friend might join in either way! D ▢ Once you break free of the Palai, you'll find that this marketplace is pretty interesting. It's a mixture of primitive and semi-modern technology...or is it totally unfamiliar to you? Never seen a cellphone before? Unfamiliar with the concept of women wearing pants? There's certainly something to see that'll interest your character here. E ▢ Finally, you might be hungry and thirsty after suddenly appearing. The Palai are masters of making food, including a new concoction of theirs that they're trying out in honor of all the new people. It's a sort of bottled fruit juice that has been energized by the Eltos. It's essentially the first Aimintas Red Bull, except on acid. The drink immediately makes anyone who drinks it extremely giddy, hyper and they may potentially hallucinate. It doesn't seem to bother the Palai's biology, but everyone else...oops!

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. F ▢ A house near the marketplace is incredibly special to the Palai people. Characters who wander near here will find a group of Palai who are even more excited about their new visitors: baby Palai. Some are still in eggs and kept inside, but the juvenile Palai are about two feet tall, rowdy and want to play with these new, bipedal creatures. Some of them still crawl around on all fours and are more lizard-like than others. Hope you're good with kids! G ▢ The Palai have constructed a large library in the middle of town. If you wander in here, you'll find a myriad of books in a strange language. The Palai are a rather visual people, though, so many include pictures and illustrations. They also have a collection of computers here that connect to the Aimintas internet, as well as visual media stations that can play videos -- though they're really just powered tablets that play video files. Time to get a little taste of the Palai culture. H ▢ 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

[deem]

[One day, Julius might understand the weight that comes with being (apparently) human in the eyes of a YoRHa android. Or any android from his era, for that matter.

Which might come sooner than one might expect, considering that question]

...I guess you'd say I came from the Bunker. [Not that it's accessible anymore] Unless you're asking where I was manufactured.

[There is that, after all]

[bulletbiter]

[ Wait.

Manufactured? ]

Come again?

[ Manufactured? Well, this youth is either mistaken, or an actual non-human. Machine. Robot. It's enough to make Julius pause and turn around. ]

[deem]

[Stumbles to a halt when Julius pauses and turns his way]

Well, I was stationed at the Bunker [until...recently...] but there aren't manufacturing facilities there.

[Other orbital facilities handled that, and 9S is nothing if not keen on details]

[bulletbiter]

[ What is a 'Bunker' because he's pretty sure it means something different to the boy than to him. ]

You... are not human?

[ This is a Surprise. ]

[deem]

Of course I'm not.

[He answers with the ready ease of someone for whom this reality is elementary. Someone like him couldn't be human, and it's a flattering though terribly wrong thing to be taken for one. His programmed unworthiness assures this strange mixture of emotion within him]

Just like any other android, I'm modeled after mankind, that's all.

[Though he wonders if he really needs to clarify this to a human. Surely Julius already knows...]

[bulletbiter]

[ Androids are, for the most part, fictional in his world. But given all the strangeness that had elapsed since he had come here, there's a certain level of suspension of disbelief that is needed.

He'll need a few moments to process it, as the implications click into place... and then reminders of what 9S could possibly fall into. ]

Can I ask who made you? [ What were you made for? Though such a question does not sit well with him to ask ]

[deem]

Who...?

[9S echoes the word dubiously. Considering the expense that went into manufacturing YoRHa units, it is perhaps unsurprising that the system is automated. Overseen, to be certain, but he has no one maker]

Mankind first developed androids. Now, I suppose we manufacture one another...

[Although they still all acknowledge humanity as their creators, as part and parcel of their design]

[bulletbiter]

[ There's something unsettling about the way 9S says it as if it was normal... which he supposes is normal back home, but. ]

Do you have a job?

[deem]

I'm a Scanner unit.

[Which does answer that question, though perhaps not in the manner that Julius may have expected]

We're um...we're all the same size, you'd know another if you saw one.

[bulletbiter]

[ That's doll levels of creepy, but - he won't judge. ]

What do you do as a Scanner, then?

[deem]

[At least you can't see his doll joints, right?

Because those were a thing in the prototype stage]

Oh, well, mostly recon. Terrain, enemy formations, unit data, that sort of thing.

[Subdued as he might be after so many crushing revelations about his world and even YoRHa itself, his enthusiasm for his work still perks him up enough to be noticeable. He finds fulfillment in his utility, after all. Any android does]

[bulletbiter]

[ He sounds very much like a combat android, which puts him on some level as a soldier. Perhaps they were made in place of human soldiers. ]

Do you have a command officer here?

[ Don't mind the questions, he just wants to sound out what he can say. ]

[deem]

[9S frowns, letting the silence speak for him for several moments]

Command was lost with the Bunker.

[It's shameful to admit, because he could do nothing about it, in the end.

Now it's just him, 4S, and two units so addicted to E-drugs that they're practically gone anyway]

[bulletbiter]

[ He's reminded of what happened to the God Arc Soldiers. ]

I'm sorry. [ And if the Bunker was something made by humanity too, then... ] What will you do now?

[deem]

[It's a good question. One that 9S hasn't really given much conscious thought to, because it's not a simple matter.

Or perhaps, it's too simple]

If there are humans here, then...I'll fight for humanity, with all my strength. [He stands as straight and tall as his small frame allows. In this end, his first thought upon rollout was, in its essence, a directive] That's only to be expected of any YoRHa unit.

[bulletbiter]

[ In a way, 9S reminds him of himself. Fighting for the good of humanity, giving life and limb... and yet, look where it got him? ]

Not all humans are good. Please be careful.

[ His failure will stay with him as long as he breathes. Even now his body remembers, the way his life was burned away by the poison that took hold in his blood. ]

[deem]

Humans warred amongst each other and all, right? I know that much.

[Although it does nothing to lessen the way he feels compelled to look after them. To fight for them.

If he had to choose between two sides, he's not sure what he'd do]

[bulletbiter]

[ It seems like 9S doesn't have a lot of knowledge about how humans operate, which definitely is dangerous. He could get taken advantage of. ]

Some humans are selfish and use others for their own ends. Killing their own kind. [ Or dooming them to a similar fate. It's the same thing. And because he finds 9S easier to talk to, he'll try to invoke some sympathy between their situations:] Before they made androids, they used other humans as soldiers.

[ There is a difference between fighting for one's country and fighting because one was raised for a world-ending scheme. This he now knows. ]

[deem]

I'm aware there weren't always androids...

[Actually, the earliest records 9S is aware of are those regarding Project Gestalt. And those concerned the Devola and Popola models. YoRHa was, by comparison, as short-lived as a wildflower, only a handful of years among so many millennia.

Well before that, he knows, mankind fought among themselves. Before the threat of extinction forced change, 9S has surmised. That looming obstacle seemed to breed coordination, at the least.

Still, this concern from Julius is strange. He knows it for what it is, but not its cause]

Conflict has always existed, hasn't it?

[bulletbiter]

It has.

[ Horrible as it is, it has. Which is why those who can should stand up for others. ]

I don't want you to get hurt, that is all.

[deem]

...You shouldn't worry about me. So long as it's in the service of mankind, it would be an honor to any YoRHa unit.

[Although he...personally hates the idea of 2B coming to harm again, even for their creators.

Having different standards for himself is totally fine and acceptable]

[bulletbiter]

[ It is not. ]

That's... [ he has to scramble for words here ] you deserve your own happiness.

[ 9S has feelings, doesn't he? Does he? Do robots have feelings? ]

[deem]

You'd be surprised how unhappy you are, if your life has no purpose.

[There's a strange, definitive weight about those words, no matter how casually he attempts to deliver them. He's speaking from experience, having lost everything he'd clung to, piece by piece.

To suddenly be greeted with so much of what he had meant to protect is almost like an incredibly merciful dream. Or what he imagines that'd be like]

[bulletbiter]

Not if that's a purpose that you didn't choose for yourself.

[ He's starting to realize that it's probably futile to try to continue, given that he doesn't know much about 9S yet. ]

I'm sorry.

[deem]

I'm sure it must be different for a human.

[And it's...so awkward being apologized to by someone he naturally views as his superior]