spellgrinders | ( TDM

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

Sometimes.

[ Well, he's not wrong. He just hasn't really been on the cooking scene for that long, and most of Sojior's recipes have included apples or chocolate. Crab is - well, an "acquired taste" he supposes. He watches the sword with interest, his gaze affixed to that rather than Minato. Huh.... ]

Maybe if you're feeling crabby.

[ Now is not the time for bad jokes -- ]

[ Why.

The sword sword drops and scrapes the ground with a brief screech before Minato pulls it up again. There was one person in his life who would casually drop puns into his speech like that, and Minato would very much like to dunk Akira into the boiling water for reminding him.

That's not fair, though, and Akira isn't Ikutsuki, so Minato resumes his crab corralling. ]

...I can't cook at all, so I was hoping to curry favor with somebody who can.

[ He hates this. ]

[ Listen. They're great.

Akira cracks a grin, sitting down on the safest edge of the bath he can find that isn't swimming, or crawling, with crabs. He tosses Minato an impressed stare moments after. ]

I used to work at a beef-bowl shop - I think I can manage something. [ a beat. ] If I didn't share, that'd be shellfish of me, anyway.

[ NO. ]

[ He hates this so much.

Minato will bat away any crabs that get too close to them, channeling his irritation into that sword, because this guy apparently likes puns and now Minato is doomed to communicate with him in puns, that's what his life as a social linker has taught him. ]

Are you shore? I'd appreciate that. Don't have the money to eat out here, so I'm pinching pennies.

[ Or whatever the yen equivalent of that idiom is. Why this. ]

[ While Akira is by all means a social chameleon, too, he figures communicating in puns is just as good of a way to initiate a human relationship as any other.

All you have to do is stop, Minato, and he'll stop. All's fair. ]

Yeah. It's fine. [ a small nod. ] Promise I'm not fishing for compliments.

[ Akira nudges his foot closer to one of the crabs. Just to watch it scurry away and then come close again, as if it can't make up its mind. ]

[ There's no longer a voice in his head telling him he's doing a good job making friends, or to go apologize right now if he wants to mend a relationship, so he will never stop, not unless he gets distracted and forgets, like he almost does now as he watches Akira tease that crab. He'd help out, at the risk of slicing off Akira's toes, but... maybe it's worth the risk. ]

Think you can crab that one? Or keep that up and bait it towards the kitchens.

Hm....

[ Akira trails off, watching the crab with interest. He still hasn't really figured out what power he's supposed to have, what this place truly has in store for him, and without a useful persona to zap it, he's at a bit of a loss. Still... Still, Akira is persistent and determined as always and he begins nudging the crab in a singular direction.

It's strangely working. Okay then??? ]

Got it. Let's go before anyone asks "water" we doing.

[ What are they doing... Everybody in the bathhouse is probably thinking it if they don't voice it out loud, Akira teasing the crab close inch by inch, Minato just sort of standing guard with his sword, also inching along on the back end. Like this, they scuttle their way out of the bathhouse and into the rest of the mansion.

There's a kitchen somewhere... ] Left. [ he thinks, guiding them around a corner. Akira can be Leader; playing navigator can be fun. ]

[ someone please stop them???? ]

[ he turns left, gently nudging the crab along with a bit more force this time. it has to make a turn, after all!! ]

Crab cakes or bisque, do you think? [ he doesn't know how to make either so really he's just saying whatever comes to mind about crabs. ]

Uh.

[ He has no idea what bisque is, and he's never had crab cake before, but he likes cake? ]

Cake.

[ It'll be fine. They can just cook it and pat it down to a vaguely cake shaped mound, same thing. ]

[ smack it with your sword, senpai -- ]

Okay.

[ what do you even put into crab cake? breadcrumbs??? then what? how do you cook the crab? do you steam it? ]

...Maybe I'll just carry him and let him pinch me.

...That sounds painful. Here.

[ He shrugs off his uniform jacket and tosses it over the crab, whereupon its claws immediately clamp down on the fabric of this vicious predator. On hindsight, they could have done this at the beginning, but now it can be safely carried into the kitchen, more or less.

He solved this problem. Akira gets the harder task of killing and cooking the thing. ]

[ it shouldn't be that difficult!!! maybe.

either way, akira is going to nod, thankful that minato has taken the dubious task of carrying the critter to the kitchen. he figures he might just dump it in boiling water when they get there, add some salt, and see what happens next. getting the meat out of the shell is going to be a feat, but then again, what hasn't been lately? ]

I hope there's not food already in there.

[ flatly. that'd be disappointing. ]

[ If there were food already in the kitchen, Minato might just forego crab and settle for cold, who-knows-how-long-it's-been-sitting-here leftovers.

But alas, they arrive at an empty kitchen, where Minato turns his jacket back inside out to dump the crab out into the sink. Its legs clatter against the smooth sides of the sink, unable to get a good grasp on anything to climb out, and the faucet splutters out cloudy water when Minato turns it on to give the crab some semblance of the comforts of home before it meets its end.

This is so domestic. He wishes they could just agi it and be done with it. ]

( TDM | #1 )

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