( 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

[teratias]

[The worst part of Waver wants to actually learn more. He's always wanted to improve himself as a mage, even if the whole thing's bullshit from a society standpoint. There's a fascination, a drive, a desire to see more and do more. The Truth speaks of familiar principles, but Waver also knows that this isn't his system of magecraft.

He knows that to try and adapt systems requires time and study and all kinds of luxuries that this place doesn't have. And then there's Roy's voice cutting in through all of Waver's thoughts, and he's able to pick up the pace.]

Got it.

[The gap closes quickly. Waver's feet doesn't scuff against anything, he can't clock if his feet are making any sound at all. But he's in front of Roy soon enough.]

[insubordination]

[ the lack of sound is maddening. there's no way for roy to tell where he is aside from the sound of his voice which, thankfully, carries. eventually, the voice does get closer, and roy is about to respond when the truth continues: ]

He's curious, Brigadier General. Are you going to let him learn?

[ it's a sly tone, which roy seems to ignore as he takes half a step forward, his fingers grazing waver's sleeve before he grasps the boy's shoulder. and now, if waver pays attention, roy's eyes seem to be closed. and when he speaks, his tone is low. quiet, and curt, and to the point. ]

This scenario, or whatever Shehui has done, is not real. [ waver is a smart kid, and he knows that waver will know at least that much. that being said: ] But if this operates anything like the Gate in my world, there is only one way out of here, and it's through these doors.

[ assuming, of course, that they'll open. ]

I need you to tell me what the doors look like. In explicit detail. The one directly behind us.

[teratias]

Got it. This thing isn't connected to the Root, so it's probably incompatiable with my magecraft in the end.

[That's a lie to himself. To fend off curiosity, to keep him from going down a bad path. Waver's gotten better at self preservation since the coven, the same lack thereof that made him think the Holy Grail War was a great idea.]

It's the tree of life, a variation of the Sefirot. [However the fuck Jewish mysticism got into Roy's world is a question for another day.] There's two circles, connected by a single line. On each side, there are four branches. The top circle is crowned, the bottom has ten different roots coming out out of it. I'm going to read each one and describe the position based on left or right side. Here we go.

[Waver is nothing if not precise. He has to be, it's his stock and trade, and the way he reads it's more like he's reciting a spell than giving dictation. Either way, his tongue falls into a familiar pattern. It's easy. It's natural. This is where he thrives.]

[insubordination]

[ waver really only needs to tell him the first two pieces before roy understands precisely where he is, and which door he's at. it's drilled into the corners of his mind, what this place looks like, and what secrets it holds. it's something he never wanted, but here he is. again.

but he doesn't interrupt waver, instead absorbing the information. trying to wrap his mind around it, to get a good grasp on where he is in the room, and, more importantly, how to get out.

which involves a little bit of -- well -- truth. ]

This is the Gate.

[ it's said quietly, his hand still on waver's shoulder, to ground himself. ]

You come here after you violate the taboo of alchemy, the one rule any of us have. I've been here once before, not through my own doing. [ it's a long story, but the way roy says it, he wants to make it clear that he has never voluntarily performed that disgusting ritual. ] You're allowed to glimpse the Truth, an impossible store of knowledge, but you always pay a price. Typically, pieces of your body, or abilities you have.

[ he pauses. ]

You're my eyes, until we manage to get out of this mockery. Ignore the thing in the center of the room. Listen to me. Can you do that?

[ the truth, at this point, is silent, but is definitely watching. curious, to see how this plays out. but there's a slow grin emerging, at the notion that roy thinks he can just leave. ]

[teratias]

But to enter this place, you also come in through a gate, correct?

[Waver's fine with Roy leaning on him. With the situation, actually, because it requires being clever rather than just a powerful spellcaster. He has an idea, but he has to make sure it swings.]

We didn't. So there's no reason that we have to exit through the gate too. We're dealing with localized magic, not the real deal.

[insubordination]

[ . . . it's a good point, and roy considers it before he realizes what he's missed. he knows this place is fake, but he's unable to really see where he is. but waver has a good point; this isn't real. there's nothing to say this operates by the same rules.

so he pauses, rolling that idea around in his head, thinking about it, pondering it, testing it out inside his head . . . ]

I'm listening.

[ you're on a roll kid don't stop now. ]

[teratias]

If you walked into this place by accident, you can walk out too. It's stating the obvious, but since that's how I came in, I'm going to guess that's how we get out.

[Waver grins.]

So just hold on and we walk. Otherwise my question is why is this the place of all places? And can the atmosphere be changed at will? What powers this place?

[insubordination]

[ . . . admittedly, in the rush of adrenaline (and, indeed, a little fear) that submerged roy the moment he realized where he was and that he couldn't see, he didn't actively consider that he could just walk out of here. and he mentally kicks himself for a moment, but he soon takes a step once waver does, allowing the teenager to guide him.

the truth, it seems, remains silent as they move, but it definitely watches. and occasionally, the same taunting voice trails past their ears, as they walk. ]

This place is the heart and soul of alchemists, those who seek the Truth. This is the place of all places.

[ but roy, as it seems has been his way, ignores it, instead choosing to answer waver's questions. ]

I don't know why it brought us here. Perhaps whatever controls this place leeches off of our memories. [ roy, indeed, has been here before. ] Or it may be random. This is the second or third scenario I've encountered, one was familiar, one was not. But whatever it is must be powerful, and know more than we think it does.

[ he pauses. ]

This place brings more harm than good. The sooner we leave, the better.

[teratias]

Good thing I think the Truth or the Root's a waste of time, isn't it?

[Waver's response is...cheerful? No. It's angry, but the kind of faux cheery angry that really translates as go fuck yourself. It's foolish to engage with a spectre like this, but Waver wants to throw it off it's game to make sure his insane theory is working.]

Okay, so. While we're walking, let's do an additional experiment. Think of any place else with a strong memory. Literally anywhere else. I'm gonna try too, see if that at least transitions us away from this place.

[Waver keeps walking on and on in the white nothingness, his eyes always ahead. In his own mind, he thinks of London. Of rainy streets, of the Clock Tower library where he spent so much of his time writing his thesis.]