( TDM | #1 )

[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.

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? A ▢ Your character's first experience here will be waking up in a forest. Specifically, located here. It's up to them to traverse and try to figure out where they are, whether they make it to the beach or the main house area. There's also a mysterious trail of soft, felt bags, tied off with thin rope, leading your character to what appears to be a specific destination. These items can be as useful as a granola bar to as seemingly useless as a stapler. Let's just say that some of these mysterious objects are pretty out there. They're free to travel off the beaten path, but that comes with its own perils. Maybe your character has a power that could fend these creatures off...? They aren't exactly happy about sharing their territory.

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? B ▢ Feel free to have your character explore the mansion (the won't find much but you can take some liberties with the TDM), and they're free to open these mysterious crates. In them they'll find edible fruit and bread, modern clothing in a variety of sizes and portable medical kits. Characters who apply using the TDM are free to carry these objects into the game opening. If you want some specifics, there are a few rooms of note: the game room (containing a working pool table, non-electric pinball machines and a card table with supplied chips and multiple decks), the cellar (filled with a variety of liquor and wines, all aged quite well) and a large room upstairs that contains a glass ceiling and a variety of books in a foreign language. One more thing -- if you happen to go rummaging around, you may find tiny pin cameras. They're minuscule...you may not even notice them unless you look hard enough. 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. E ▢ Time to explore the beach huts! Most of them are abandoned, but your characters will notice they seem to be more livable than the mansion somehow. This is in part due to a little note tacked to the door of each beach hut that reports in scrawling script "Claim your hut, please!" Will your character listen or reject the sinking feeling that they may not be leaving anytime soon? Some huts are also bigger than others, and a few even contain small sinks and softer beds. Grab these while they're available! 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

Comments

[parodeity]

[ ...

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.

[splinten]

[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.]

[parodeity]

[ 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.

[splinten]

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.]

[parodeity]

[ 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 ]

[splinten]

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?]

[parodeity]

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?

[splinten]

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.]

[parodeity]

[ 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?

[splinten]

[It's incredibly familiar, like the voice is, familiar but younger, the same but different. He can see the confidence isn't there like it was, the casual ease of a man who knew his place in the world or maybe just a man who knew the place he'd take in death. He can see the uncertainty that he never anticipated when he imagined his brother's face. He can tell there are other things, things in his voice and his posture, things in his heart, that he didn't imagine and doesn't yet know. He is so very familiar, but Dirk wants to know all the ways he is strange.]

It looked like you really wanted AJ.

[




He thought that was the question.]

[parodeity]

No, I mean why the fuck do you care?

[ he absolutely did want the aj that part was like, no questions needed. although why dirk would bother to give him that, or offer dave dirk's shades, or fix dave's shades, or bother to fix up his hand? that's all weird as fuck. questions are needed there, and maybe the one he just asks covers it. ]

You don't know me. And I'm pretty sure you didn't know the other guy, either, if Rose's whole spiel was accurate, which it always is.

[ so

like

what the fuck is going on here, just to clarify??????? ]

[splinten]

[...]

I get the feeling that if I say, you're going to think it's stupid.

[And obviously Dirk cares if Dave thinks he's stupid.]

[parodeity]

[ ok what if he just pulls a play out of bro's playbook and stares at dirk without saying a single word? ]

[splinten]

[IT WILL WORK. Dirk stares back, baffled and unsure and nervous, so very nervous. Fuck.]

You're. An important part of my life. I'm not oblivious that you're a different person from my Bro, there have to be differences on either side of the Scratch, and of course you're at a different point in your life and came through totally different experiences. Just. I've been eager to meet you? I wanted to learn what you were like and, understand what kind of person you are, and like, maybe be. You know.

[Brothers.

He can't say it. He can't, Dave will think it's weird. Dirk is clingy and overbearing enough on a regular basis, this is how he drove off Jake, this is how he drives off everyone. The least he can do is not leap from awkward strangers straight into 'I have been waiting my whole life to be your family.'

Fuck he's hopeless. He has a pretty thorough understanding of how pathetic he is, can he destroy that?]

[parodeity]

[ his expression stays completely neutral because the inside of dave's head is something along the lines of: katlkt4aktja4lktja4tj12415%!%!%%%!#%????????? but thankfully he has a lifetime's experience keeping it off his face.

so.

he gives himself a minute to just breathe and make sure his tone is even and not half as wary as he feels like it should be. ]

...Be what?

[splinten]

You're going to think it's weird.

[And then Dave won't want anything to do with him. Dirk thinks that's fair but just because Dirk thinks he deserves it doesn't mean he actually wants it.]

[parodeity]

[ ok staring silently worked last time let's go for 2 for 2 ]

[splinten]

[And TOUCHDOWN i refuse to get sports metaphors right in Strider tags. Anyway, Dirk breaks after, like. Two minutes.]

You know.

Brothers.

[parodeity]

[ .......................................

okay, yeah, he does think it's weird, but definitely not for the reasons dirk thinks he would think it's weird, probably. ]

I dunno if it's "weird", it's just...hard to process. And incredibly fuckin' jarring.

[splinten]

[Well. Huh. Hm.]

Why?

[parodeity]

[ nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnope. ]

Like I said: you don't actually know me. And I suppose this is not how I thought this would go?

[ he expected more

uh

maybe attacking him? he tried not to think about it, okay. ]

I don't think I ever bothered to think about what kind of relationship you would want. [ bECUASE HE ASSUMED IT WOULD BE "NONE WHATSOEVER" so like, what now. ]

[splinten]

That's true.

[That he doesn't know him. But also. The rest of it?]

You don't, uh. Seem to have considered a relationship between us. Or at least not as much as I did whenever I considered the possibility of us meeting. Were you... not interested in meeting me?

[parodeity]

[ today in questions that are hilarious understatements. ]

...I don't know if "interest" came into it. It was the entire point of goin' to your session, all of us meetin' up and like, somethin' or another about the unfucked battlefield blah blah blah.

[splinten]

Right, we needed you guys to actually finish our session.

[But part of why they played was to meet their ancestors.]

So like... did you not—hm.

[Fuck.]

Was I... someone you didn't want to meet?

[parodeity]

...I don't know you.

[ ergo, CLEARLY HE COULDN'T HAVE AN OPINION.

his opinion was holy fucking shit he never wanted to meet dirk, ever, however that has since ceased to be an option so. ]

Rose thought it would be interestin'.