spellgrinders | ( TDM

Entry tags:

!tdm,
npc: brie

( TDM | #1 )

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.

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.

Depending on your situation and ability to acclimate, you may not fully understand what's happening. A dream, a hallucination. But when you feel the trunk of the trees surrounding you, it's oddly...real. The smell is real. The moisture on the ground is real. The small grass snake you find slithering close to your feet seems very real as well.

There are a few other sensations that also begin to feel a little more like reality with every passing second. Like the fact that your intuition is trying to tell you something that doesn't seem plausible. One is more obvious -- you now have a new piece of jewelry inserted snuggly between your collarbones.

Maybe that's when you realize it is real. When you realize that there's no delusion here -- you aren't where you once were. But if that's the case...where are you?

here

its own perils.

After an hour or so of trekking through the forest, you finally come upon a break in the tree line that reveals to you an area that appears to be inhabitable. Your first stop is the large mansion that sits in the valley of the opening...if anyone is here or there's a way to get out of here, the house makes the most sense, right?

There are a variety of rooms in this mansion, and you're free to explore them. You also spy a lot of crates sitting in the middle of the floor in one of the main rooms...are you curious enough to open them?

At this point you notice that you aren't alone -- there are other people in the same boat as you! When they're around you, that signet you feel in your chest tingles slightly. The sensation isn't unpleasant, but instead like a warm tingle is spreading from their neck outward. You instinctively attempt to talk to your fellow kidnapping victims, and that works just fine...but what are all these voices you hear in your head now? Are you crazier than you thought you were?

C ▢ Here's where you can play around with the telepathy mechanic. It's likely your character won't be used to it which can lead to accidental broadcasting. If they happen to tap the signet purposefully or try to pull it out, everyone within a radius of 100 feet will feel a throbbing pain in their head. But your character won't know that, will they?

For those more inclined to adventure, there's also another building to investigate. From the outside, it looks very circular and unidentifiable, but upon entering you'll discover that it's a fully-functioning bath house.

D ▢ Despite containing steamy water and luxury bathing accommodations, the bathhouse is currently being overrun with crabs. The not-so-smart members of this species have fallen into the extremely hot water, flash boiling themselves after being unable to get back out. Others are a little more intelligent but equally aggressive. Characters: watch your toes and be cautious if you really want to take a much-needed bath! They may also want to check twice before using the restroom, otherwise the experience might be more painful than they're used to.

Exploring the mansion and the bathhouse was fun and all, but aside from the crates they didn't prove to be very useful. When you came into the clearing, you also saw a row of very colorful buildings down near the beach. It makes sense that this area may be more beneficial to any escape plans you have, and taking a dip in the ocean might be nice!

It's not until you reach the beach huts that you realize that murky blue color you spied wasn't the ocean. It's outter space. There goes any hopes you had of swimming to safety.

Claim your hut, please!

Even though it turns out the ocean was a lie and you're precariously close to falling off the edge of the world, the area around the huts is decidedly beachy. Sitting on the beach is a lobster trap, though about 10 times the size of any you might have seen before. Inside are more felt sacks, though larger. The weirdest part is that peering through the bars, you notice each has a nametag attached. The reason you know this to be true is because you just spied your own name written on one of the labels.

There's also something else underneath it. The descriptor may not mean much to you yet, but it will soon: it's the title of their newfound magic.

In each felt sack is a sort of starter kit: a set of dated and drapey plainclothes, a bag of dried boar jerky, a leather flask filled with water and a small tube of sunblock (the writing is in a bizarre pictograph language, but the giant picture of the sun on the tube should explain the purpose). There's also a rolled up paper tied with a string that reads as follows: "Welcome. Things will be explained in due time. For now, understand that you have been blessed with a gift of magic. Look into your brain and feel the instinct for both. Practice makes perfect."

F ▢ Here's the official prompt for playing with newfound magic (and telepathy if you want more practice). It's likely characters have already accidentally broadcast their thoughts, utilized the C prompt or used their magic inadvertently, but maybe this new information and small explanation has motivated them to try and see what they're truly capable of. Don't worry. If they're lucky enough to stick around, all will be explained.

...What if you're a wildcard, though? Someone who doesn't play by the rules and follows a different path, no matter what direction the world may be guiding you in? This island is large and contains many areas of interest, from crystal streams to hidden locations. Maybe you want to do something different...so break the mold and explore!

G ▢ 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No?

[...]

I can destroy a rock, but I probably can't destroy somethin' more complex and inscrutable, or, fuck, those weird omnipotent dogs. I definitely cannot fully conceptualize whatever the fuck those are.

[ baffled enough to show some honest confusion. ]

And that's literally all you've come up with?

It isn't a complicated power. [Well.] That obviously is not including the question of epistemology referred to previously.

The most versatile shit is always simplistic at a glance.

[ what the fuck. with heavy reluctance, he takes off the shitty shades that don't even properly fold right and passes them over towards dirk. he's still doing the thing where he. avoids touching dirk. but. ]

You're only lookin' at one angle.

[He didn't expect to get handed the shades, given how Dave was about having them. (And you said he wouldn't get to see Dave's eyes again for ages!) He is a little baffled.]

A little enlightenment wouldn't be unappreciated.

[ yeah well he isn't having dirk try this with shit attached to his face. :/ ]

What can you conceptualize about them, genius?

[ - WAIT SHIT HE BASICALLY JUST MADE FUN OF BRO TO HIS FACE ]

I mean - sorry.

[ fuck ]

[SURPRISE, DAVE, IT'S TIME FOR—

—nothing to happen except Dirk being vaguely baffled. He might've sassed back but then Dave apologized and it distracts him.]

Dude, don't worry about it. I assume that as soon as I understand what you're gettin' at, I'll also understand how entirely warranted that sarcasm was.

[But. What WAS Dave getting at.]

Do you mean, like, how they were made? [Can he make it so they were NEVER MADE? That sounds crazy and weird.]

[ there's still an undercurrent of nerves despite the reassurance, although dave plays it off mostly well. he just makes a note not to be sarcastic at dirk in the future, even though absolutely nothing happened.

(there's a chance this is all a trick. hoping the trick part lasts longer than the punchline is pointless.) ]

I mean, like, fix them.

[He's about to ask how and then he realizes it. They're shitty. They're shitty in a very understandable way to him. They're shitty in the way he has devoted his whole life to studying, a way that he can absolutely fully conceptualize.

And if he can fully conceptualize it, he can destroy it.]

Son of a damn, you're a genius.

[He concentrates on the glasses, and there's that splintering—a breaking down, for a moment he worries he has destroyed the shades, but—

—one pair of shades, sans shittiness, in Dirk's hands.]

It worked.

[The elation is rising in him. It's not a smile but there's a bright pleasant energy. It worked]

Holy fuck, thank you so much Dave. That's fuckin' brilliant.

[And there is the smile, bright on his face as he offers the shades back.]

[

um. he doesn't reach out to take the shades back because he's too busy staring. blankly. that was a lot? dirk just called him a genius and then

smiled

what the fuck ]

[Dave is staring at him. Why is Dave staring at him? The smile drops.

Dave is staring at him because Dave can't believe he is this much of an idiot.]

Sorry.

[For being an idiot]

No, I just never...

[ saw you smile. right. he takes the shades - still not touching - and unfolds them to carefully shove them up his nose.

they look like stiller frames but they're still not. he sighs, quiet.

anyway good thing dirk isn't smiling anymore because dave would ruin that this tag since the next thing he does is hand dirk the apple juice (but that's a proven quantity), pick up his sword, and slice open his right palm.

look ]

[.......

!!!!!!!!]

What the fuck!

[He immediately steps forward to like. yank off his god tier gloves so he can quickly wrap up the wound??? WHAT THE FUCK]

[ NOPE. dave yanks his hand out of the way and looks pretty. calm. about the thing he just did? ]

Nuh-uh. Usin' your magic.

[ lmao there was probably a less drastic way to fucking test this dave ]

[You know what look he has probably never seen on Bro's face? Panic. And it's there. It's blind stupid panic because Dave's hand was cut open and he won't let him close it.]

Holy shit don't do that.

[He is trying to conceptualize the injury but all he can conceptualize is WHAT THE FUCK DAVE]

[ ...

yeah that's super new, really. ]

Calm down. It ain't that deep. [ he is still going to keep his hand out of reach until dirk manages to attempt the thing? because that's helpful?

like if dirk demands he just give him his hand dave will but he wants to see if this can work. ] You've been around swords and shit your whole life, right? You've cut yourself like this before. You know exactly how deep it is, and exactly what a sword wound does.

[That. Is true. It turns the panic down by, like, half.

He has a counter point but he can't articulate it well. He's staring at the injury and it comes out,]

I don't care when it's me.

[However. It is not Dirk. It is Dave.

And therefore he cares.]

[ um. ]

You care when it's me? [ blankly. like this is the weirdest thing dirk could possibly ever say.

what the fuck??????????????????????????? - the only quote from dave strider today tbh

anyway. that's not helpful. ]

...Just conceptualize it.

Yes.

[Dave tells him to focus. So he... has to focus. Okay. Okay, focus, just conceptualize it. He realizes then that's why Dave was saying, "You know exactly how deep it is, and exactly what a sword wound does." It wasn't to calm Dirk's panic. It was to remind him what he needs to do.

He knows what this is. So he can destroy it. He can destroy the cut.

It isn't healing, when it happens. The cut is there and then it seems to almost fracture away. The hand is like it was before it was cut.

Dirk sighs out a relieved breath he didn't know he was holding.]

[ dave, having set down his sword again, prods his right palm with his left hand.

seems fine to him! okay.

he's still sort of internally reeling with shock at the firm yes because that seems...

really weird. and impossible. and weird? but hey. ]

See? Versatile.

[ thanks dave dirk didn't ask you to prove it to him with demonstrations though ]

Goddammit, Dave.

[It isn't angry, just you know that weird tense way when someone MADE YOU TERRIFIED look Dave just died and so did everyone else. Give him a break. He's coming down from it now, though, the adrenaline deciding to chill for later.

Oh hey he's still holding the juice box.]

I could try to fix this.

[If he can unshitty shades, he can probably unshitty the juicebox?]

I didn't think you'd give a fuck.

[ IN HIS DEFENSE?

but he's immediately interested in the juice box being maybe fixed and his attention is diverted. ]

If you can?

I give a fuck. I give more than one fuck. Let the record show that I have a lifetime's supply of fucks to donate to the cause.

[The edge of fear hasn't quite worn off and it's there in his words, but Dave focuses on the juice box so Dirk does too. He was dumb and missed the obvious use of his powers, and then he was dumb and freaked out about the injury. Maybe this can redeem him.

He focuses on it a moment, but it's the same kind of shittiness he grasped before: that unique, Dave's-art shittiness. It is destroyed even more quickly than on the glasses, the concept of it becoming more familiar with use.

He holds a box of True AJ out to Dave.]

[ well. he takes the aj? in the same careful manner he's taken everything else. and this is It, isn't it, this is a thing he has not had for three years and that all of rose's alchemy skills failed and he's been bitching about it for ages.

he doesn't put the straw in the box.

instead, he looks back over at dirk, his face probably even more familiar now with the stiller-shaped frames in place. ]

Why?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject