( TDM #9 | FAUX 4TH WALL LOG )

[spellbindmods]

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. For this app round, you can utilize both a linked sample OR a written sample!

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 game-given 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 Shehui.

IMPORTANT: This TDM should be treated like a 4th wall of sorts. While the threads can be considered canon, it can be a character free for all -- you're allowed to toss in any character, duplicate or AU that you'd like for a surreal experience.

IMPORTANT AGAIN AND NEW: This is post, while an OOC TDM, does count as a log! Any threads on this post can be used as activity outside of AC bonus and considered game canon if you do so wish.

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. For some of you, the shock is a bit more sudden. You've packed up your belongings and you've been escorted through the city into a building similar to the one utilized during the jailbreak -- down a pothole-like door that's extremely similar to the other one you might have been familiar with during that same incident. There's a long tunnel with no windows that you travel through, slowly but surely. It's dimly lit, and you can see others in front of you -- don't worry about any repercussions for cutting in line. You eventually get to a closed door and your monitor escort opens the large turnstile for you, gesturing for you to continue onward. The walk won't be much longer, they reassure you, but they won't be traveling with you from here. After a fifteen minute walk, you'll reach another door, though this one is much more manageable when it comes to opening it on your own. Once you step through, things are certainly...different. A ▢ As soon as you step outside, a sort of blackness hits you. It's hard to describe -- it feels more like everything around you, even the people, become a void. The blackness is a concept, not a color. Then something comes into focus...it's something you recognize? Or maybe something that you're unfamiliar with altogether. There's a person there, or maybe you're alone for now. For a few minutes you're in a classroom, but then it's a clearing. This entire experience, no matter what it looks like, leaves a strange taste in your mouth...it's like the one you may have found in your mouth once you discovered that magic you were told about for the first time. That isn't to say these voids are endless. In reality, the space around you is tainted, but you still exist on this plane -- the outside of Shehui. Things feel very real, but once you force yourself to move outside of these spaces, you mind your shoes are firmly planted in grass that is inches long, potentially surrounded by other people with no idea what's going on; they too have just escaped their own little void. From here you can feel it near to you -- you can sense the magic that's seeping out of somewhere, and you can even see it if you squint. The air around it shimmers with a certain sparkle. It's, again, hard to accurately put into words. But you can see these voids once you really focus on them. However, you can't see the people who happen to be trapped inside. B ▢ Once you reach these safe havens of non-magic, raw and in its purest form, you'll find yourself in a reality that is somewhat...overgrown. There aren't any buildings outside of the giant dome structure of Shehui in the background, as far as you can see. There are trees and plains, grassy fields and the occasional oddly-colored deer. If you look hard enough, you can find a small pond here or there. Just watch out. Magic can leak into that water, and that means... C ▢ ...ingesting that contaminated substance carries that magic with you. Absorbing this magic directly into your body creates that void, except it's contained within you. Once you do, you carry around whatever you might see or hear with you. This might create a comical scenario, like you're ordering from an invisible pizza man. It may also trap you in something more sinister. This magic can use your mind against itself. Whatever is in that void, which can last for hours, is up to you...whether you can control it or not.

[ OOC: For this TDM, characters testing in can create their own scenarios and interact with characters in very bizarre and imaginative ways. Want your character to be the judge in a murder trial, roping in other characters as defendant and accuser? Or maybe you'd like to do something different with your character -- age them up, give them different powers? Anything can happen in these voids of concentrated magic, and that also means anyone can appear. Your creativity can create any situation you'd like to put your character in, and these situations can also pull in other characters. Everyone is there, after all! Characters can also take a break and do some minor exploration -- though more info will come out about the setting and potential in a later post, don't worry. For ingested magic, the character will be in a scenario like the one mentioned above, except it won't be a potentially public experience. For instance, your character can project a horrible experience into the void in Prompt A, but in Prompt C? That horrible experience would be stuck in their own mind...speaking on the negative end of the spectrum, anyway!

GAME NAVIGATION

Comments

You Watanabe | Love Live! Sunshine!! | Testing

[ayes]

[A]

[It's strange.

You had thought she'd been in Uchiura, stepping out the door of her house, swimsuit under her shirt and shorts, heading for the shore to do some swimming. But the world around her-- sky, sea, sand-- flickers. It fades.

She looks out at the sea she loves, the sea that always gives her comfort. The sand underneath her feet is warm and soft. She curls her toes in it... grass? No, it's just sand. When did she walk down to the beach, anyway?

You's expression is a mix between befuddled and concerned. This is the place she feels most comfortable in the world.

Why does it seem so off?] ...d'you ever feel like, uh, you've come down with a fever even though you feel perfectly fine?

[She said, to the person next to her. You've been standing there the whole time... right?]

[B]

[As it turns out, no, it wasn't real. It wasn't her beloved sea, and You's heart aches at the idea. She's not sure where she is or what's going on, or sure of anything at all, really.

(She hasn't ruled out that she is feverish, and this is all a particularly elaborate hallucination, honestly.)

But there are trees around, and that means things to climb to the top of, to get a better vantage point from. And You has always been the sort of girl to leap into something like that before she thinks it through. Or, as it turns out, before checking her sneakers in this case.

Which is why she's about thirty feet up when her shoe slips off, and with a shout she nearly follows, catching herself on a branch and holding tight... as her sneaker slips to the ground below.

That was close. She's just going to let her heartbeat slow for a bit. Ah crap, her shoe's on the ground now. But what luck-- there's someone!] Hey! --heeeeey!

Can you throw that shoe up here?

B

[courtpainter]

[A rather pretty man dressed in white is the hapless passerby. He looks up at the girl in the tree with mild concern.]

I can...but you'll need both hands free to get down. Are you sure you can put it back on without falling?

[ayes]

[Honestly, until he spoke, You couldn't really tell if that was a man or a woman. Oops.

She sits on one of the thicker branches, enough to comfortably support her weight, and waves down at him.] It's no problem, see? I can just slip it on up here!

[courtpainter]

[He kind of does have the doomed-anime-mom side-ponytail thing going on.

Narsus smiles at her, and bends down to pick up the shoe. The material is unfamiliar, and he takes a moment to examine it and get a feel for the weight before moving closer to the tree, to get a better angle for throwing.]

Here you are, then. [ And he tosses it in a smooth arc, aiming close enough that You should be able to grab it out of the air as it goes by, if she's quick.]

[ayes]

Hup--! [She holds on to a branch with one hand, leaning forward... and snatching the shoe from the air with the other. It's actually pretty impressive.] Thanks a ton! [She then busies herself with pulling her sneaker back on, tying it tight this time, kicking her foot experimentally.] Boy, that's a relief... trying to climb would've been a real pain with just one shoe! Hey, d'you know where we are? I'm gonna try to climb to the top to see if I can see anything!

[courtpainter]

[Clearly she's more capable than her earlier slip made her seem. Actually, she's starting to remind him of someone...]

I'm afraid I have no idea. If you don't mind, I'd actually appreciate a little scouting work.

[ayes]

Sure thing! [Is all she says, because it's all that needs to be said. From down there, he can see her... vanish into the branches and leaves above. It's probably very hard to see her from the ground now, as it's hard for her to scurry up increasingly slim branches. Luckily, she's not heavy, and is in rather good shape. Eventually, she manages to break out of the treetop and--] Uh... I don't know what I'm looking for! There's just kinda... like other trees and stuff! [She calls down.] I think I see a pond?

[courtpainter]

[Narsus frowns a little, and calls up to her in the branches.]

Can you see the edge of the forest, any place that looks like there might be a large clearing or gap in the trees, or rising smoke from anywhere?

[ayes]

[There's a second as she scrambles back to the top.] Yeah-- there's the pond!

Uhhh, I think I see the trees stop a ways in the distance that way. [You, he can't see which way you're pointing.] But that's like... a few kilometers off? Maybe more!

Looks like there's a few meadows, maybe? That could be a... grove-ish thing over there?

b, hello idol friend!!

[idolpedia]

[Dia isn't even going to try and explain anything that's going on right now. Void this, void that, and now an overgrown reality. Cool, everything is cool and Fine.

Until she hears another familiar voice.

She picks up the sneaker, and then looks up.]

You-san?!

I had to come say hi to everyone you have such a good cast

[ayes]

Eh?! [It's hard to see the figure at the bottom of the tree clearly, what with all the branches and stuff in the way, but there's absolutely no mistaking that voice.

Even if Dia hadn't called out to her, that is.

You has to hold on tighter to the branch out of shock.] Dia-san--?!

Is that you down there?

//// i'm glad!

[idolpedia]

It is me.

[No mistaking that.

She has You's shoe in her hand but, her instinct tells her to tell You to get down from there, and so—]

Will you get down from there? Do you realize how unsafe that is?!

[ayes]

[Oh man. She hadn't realized just how relieving it'd be to see someone she actually knows in this weird world.] I'll be down in just a sec! --can you throw my shoe up here? It's probably gonna be really hard climbing down with just one shoe on!

[idolpedia]

It's coming up now.

[Dia does her best to toss the shoe up to You, it'll be up to her to catch it.]

How long have you been here, You-san?

[ayes]

Hup--! [Holding on a branch with one hand, You leans out as far as she plausibily can-- probably far enough to make Dia get nervous-- to catch it with the other.

She's always been pretty athletic, thankfully. You sits on the larger branch she's been standing on, working her shoe back on her foot.] Uh, I dunno! Like an hour? I wandered around for a bit and didn't see anyone, so I thought I'd try and get a better view!

--okay, I'll be down in a sec!

[idolpedia]

I haven't seen anyone in a while. You are actually the first one I've seen since leaving that city we were in.

[She was too nervous just now, looking away from You.]

At least you are safe.

[ayes]

[You scurries down the tree, probably a little more quickly than would be strictly prudent or safe, but it all works out; she reaches the bottom with little difficulty or hardship.] City? You mean Numazu? [Because Uchiura, as much as she loves it, doesn't really count as a city.] I don't really know where we are, actually. Or how I even got here. Where is this?

a!! ♡

[oceanaria]

...I think I did.

[ The one standing next to You is no one else than Riko herself. She doesn't reply right away—the sight of the sea makes her speechless for a little while. Captivated, she doesn't even realize that someone is here with her.

And then she peeks to the side to see the person. Well, their voice sounded oddly familiar, but she might as well been making it up. ]

You-chan?!

[ayes]

Oh, good... so it's not just me. [She says, something like a sigh of relief in her voice.

This just feels so subtly off in a way she can't quite place.

Then she realizes just who it is that's standing next to her.] --oh, hey! I didn't hear you walk up, Riko-chan.

Sorry, I'm just having a weird day.

[She says, sounding sheepish but otherwise perfectly normal. After all, she has no real reason to suspect that she and Riko aren't actually standing on the Uchiura beach. Why would she think otherwise?]

[oceanaria]

I'm not really sure how I end up here, to be honest. It's okay.

[ That's a weird thing to say, but apparently they're both having a weird day. ]

You-chan...can I pinch you?

[ That's...an even weirder thing to say?! There's no way You would be here, right? She must be an illusion of sorts. That's what Riko chooses to believe, at least for now. ]

[ayes]

[That's a really weird thing to say too, Riko. You walked, duh. How else would you get here? ...why doesn't You remember walking here? What follows is perhaps the oddest thing Riko's said to her yet, though, and You gives her a very confused look.] Uh... yeah, I guess? If you really want to... --I don't really get why, though? What'd I do?

[oceanaria]

[ Riko doesn't explain herself—You standing by her side isn't most likely even real—and pinches her both cheeks right away. ]

You're still here, You-chan.

[ Maybe she should pinch her a little harder? ]

What kind of a dream is this...?

[ayes]

Ow, ow, ow! [That kind of hurts! You squeezes her eyes shut, flailing a little-- she hadn't expected Riko to just go right for the cheeks.] Riko-chan, what gives--! [Eventually, she manages to pull away, rubbing her cheeks.] Jeez, what the heck was that for! Even if it was your dream, why would pinching me do anything? [She keeps rubbing at her cheeks.] ...guess I know I'm not dreaming.

[oceanaria]

[ Now that You mentions it Riko pinches her own cheeks just as hard. It would be easier to do it with her hand, but getting a taste of her own medicine is only fair after what she has done to You.

It's kind of difficult to talk while pinching your own cheeks but it doesn't deter Riko anyway. ]

I haven't been in Uchiura for a while, You-chan. I missed this sight. I missed you.

[ Will she ever stop saying these weird things? Not anytime soon. ]

[ayes]

Uh.

[Okay, this is really odd now.] Hey... did you hit your head or something? You're saying a lotta weird things, Riko-chan.

Of course we're in Uchiura! Where else would we be?