( 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

[annoyings]

[ sitting up with leo basically in his lap, izumi's ready to scold him for knocking him over--seriously, his uniform's covered in dirt and he's all muddy--but then leo goes and says that.

he blinks, brows furrowing, and stares at him, not removing his hands from his chest. ] Wait. What?

[ that's...crazy. he literally just saw leo. izumi reaches a hand up and pokes him between the eyebrows, once, twice, three times. ] Are you forgetting things again? Aaah, how annoying.

[eccitato]

Umuuu - [ The noise is immediate, when Sena pokes at him. Leo swats his hand away, releasing him if only to do it, before he reaches again, tugs at the uniform. ]

No, no, I've been - I've been remembering everything I can, but not this! This one is real, it is. [ It's just that he doesn't know how to tell him that, how to prove it. But it's as he's thinking that he realizes that he has some kind of evidence of it, so he makes a show of snapping his mouth closed and straightening up where he's seated.

His thoughts are loud and clear, regardless. ] I promise, I promise, Sena, I'm telling you the truth!

[annoyings]

[ okay, sena is a perfectly normal human being, which is why when leo straightens up and starts acting weird, his reaction is normal, but when his voice suddenly sounds off in his head, izumi's eyes go round. ]

What the fuck? [ nice. eloquent. he reaches up and touches his temple, staring at leo like he has, actually, completely and utterly lost it. or maybe sena has?! ] Quit--cut that out, what the hell!

[ unfortunately, his first thought is something along the lines of "leokun is actually an alien", and he's going to slap himself for even thinking something so stupid ]

[eccitato]

[ Ah, there's his potty mouth. Leo harrumphs softly, before reaching up to grab his face in both hands, squeezing his cheeks. ] I'm not an alien!

[ Well technically he's not. Terezi did call him one, but, regardless..! He's not one, not to Sena, or so he hopes, and he's just. Going to continue giving him evidence of this entire situation. Which is really easy, now that he thinks about it.

The coven has a lot of things in common. Leo snatches his hands off Sena's face, reaching to undo his telltale hoodie so he can pull down the shirt collar beneath it and show him the stone. ] You should have one, too, if you can hear me, okay? Okay!

[ ... he's reaching to start undoing your buttons, Sena. Better stop him. ]

[annoyings]

Ughhh-- [ almost immediately, he reaches up to snatch leo's cheeks in retaliation, pulling them. ] My face is worth a million dollars, ou-sa-ma, you better let go-

[ but, he doesn't really get much of a chance to finish his sentence, because leo's suddenly got a stone in his chest, or something? sena's left baffled, hands hovering near leo's face. ] Wh--hey, hey, hey!

[ the problem is that he doesn't really seem to mind all that much at first. they've always been close, it's not that weird, but his propriety takes hold and he grabs leo's wrists to pull his hands away. ] Back off, stupid king! Don't just undress me, are you Naru-kun now?!

[ but he got enough of them undone that he can probably see just the edge of the stone in his chest. ]

[eccitato]

[ There's an offended thought of "I would never hurt Sena's beautiful face!" in response to that comment, but he doesn't outright voice it, because he knows that he'll hear it anyways. He's adapted pretty well to this whole process, even if some of it is a front. Some of it always is.

Right now, though, he's focused on the fact that he needs to get Sena the evidence that he needs to know that he's not misremembering things, not making them up, that it's not just an inspiration-fueled ramble that he's set himself out on. But he does stop when Sena grabs his wrists, pouting at him all the more. ] I'm just showing you, don't be so stubborn, Sena! So bullheaded! Obstinate!

[ sigh, why are you both like this. But he sees the edge of it, and he goes - ] Ah! See!! There it is, that!

[annoyings]

Haa~aa? I'm obstinate, you're obstinate! You could've just asked, stupid ousama!

[ they're locked like that for a second, sena holding leo's wrists like he's a wild animal (this is a valid assessment), and its only the second part that gets him to look down. ] There's nothing there, that's the only reason I'm doing this.

[ so, he goes to unbutton the next button, and then the next, pulling his shirt open...and sure enough, there's a little stone, nestled in his chest. ] ...what the hell?

[eccitato]

You're stupid! [ oh my god

But there's no accusation of Sena not listening to him, because, eventually, he would have. He would've listened to Leo and done as he asked, if he did it, after enough complaints at him. Because that's just who Sena Izumi is, and that's just who Tsukinaga Leo is.

He wiggles his fingers when Sena grasps his wrists like that, and then just drops his hands down into his lap to wait patiently for him to see the stone. ] Told you so. Everybody in the coven's got one.

[annoyings]

[ luckily, any of izumi's crankiness isn't directed at leo, at least not right now. he's much more distracted by this fucking stone in his chest. he didn't feel anything, he didn't see anything happen, he just--]

Where the hell did this come from!? [ --explodes. and immediately, his hand goes to it, to start to pull it out, finding it unmoving. ] Who the hell thinks they can just mark someone up like that--I can't have something like this on me! You let someone do it to you too?!

[ sena machine broke ]

[eccitato]

[ Leo is utterly patient, as Sena has his breakdown. This is a rare and elusive state of being, as he just - hangs out there in his lap, no big deal. It's not the first time that he's been in this position, given how Knights acts, so he can wait, and he's comfortable there.

Even as he freaks out.

Reaching out, he covers Sena's hands, before curling his fingers around his, pulling them into his chest so that he can get his attention. He's real, he's solid, he's there, and he will be Sena's king if he needs him to be. ]

Sena, Sena, hey. There wasn't any "letting," you know? It happens when they take us, so that we can talk the way we do and use magic, okay? [ He squeezes tight, clutching their hands close to his heart. ] But they're not giving us any answers about anything, and stuff happens to people here, so we need them, to keep us safe. So I'll keep you safe while you're here, I'll make sure you're happy and safe and not alone ever again.

[annoyings]

What the hell are you talking about. [ though sena doesn't yank his hands away, he looks like a trapped animal, just for a second, panic rising in his throat. there are only a few things about izumi sena that are really good, and his model's body, the one he worked so hard for, is one of them. having some stone put in the middle of his chest ruins that.

it wasn't a question. there are a lot of things to unpack here. magic sticks out, but for the first time in a while, izumi's looking to leo for an answer. for something.

i'll make sure you're happy and safe and not alone. it twinges something in his chest, too, conjuring up images of leo on stage during the checkmate live, laughing and telling sena he'd practically give him the moon and the stars. ]