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

[It's nice to know what she's working with on one hand, but as far as she knows all those powers are gone so the fucks she gives are few and far between.]

Well, I will say that when it comes to powers and shit, you usually have to take some bad with the good. But I'd be pissed if I had a lot of powers and then had to follow stupid ass rules to use 'em.

"I suppose, but in the end, none of that matters now, correct? They're gone, right?" [And oh how he hated that fact. This was a torture to him already. No, he needed to shift his thoughts, lest this process just spiral him downwards and make him do something foolish. He would not let himself be like them. He would not let anyone see just what all of this was doing to him, especially not anyone in authority.]

"But I don't believe I caught your name." [Might as well get that step over with.

That's what I gathered. But magic shit isn't my specialty. No one else has ever come here with outside powers before, so it's a little touch and go with how it all works to me.

[Ugh, she hates the name question. Why can't everything just be 'hey you' and facial recognition for life.]

It's Brie. And, uh, you are?

"Oh? Now you have my attention." [Joshua was definitely hearing this right. There had before been a pre-established pattern of people here having no abilities, and yet with them, such a thing broke. So it clearly had nothing to do with their abilities that brought them here.

"And it's Joshua."

Okay then Josh [if you hate that, cool story bro], what exactly piqued your interest?

"You said everyone else brought here, including yourself, lacked pre-existing powers. But yet we break this trend. Is there anything else that we contradict regarding the previous pattern of people arriving here?" [He figured that even if she didn't have magic knowledge, she had at least some pattern recognition skills.]

Uhhh well there's like 50 of you running around and that's pretty abnormal. [She's not going to be forced to remember all these names, she refuses.]

Other than that there's only been two people here before and I'm one of them, so it's hard to gauge a pattern that's barely even there.

"So it's not a change in a pattern, but a sudden influx. You said you've been at this for three years... do you have any reasons why we would all be called here in such a large group?" [He guessed "no" but there was no harm in trying. He was already beginning to formulate theories about his, but he didn't have enough data to go off of. And from the looks of it, neither did she.]

Sort of? [Better than no.] I get all my information secondhand, just like you guys will. I'm sure there'll be a big to-do about it tonight so you can be better informed.

"I feel sorry for everyone who will be there that can't filter out telepathy yet." [And by sorry he more meant "yeah it'll be interesting to watch how they react" than any genuine sympathy.]

Trust me, been there and done that. [There was an accidental stabbing.] If you can do it then kudos, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to break up a few fights over this.

"If I was a part of that group, then I would have phrased that differently. While O have very limited experience with telepathy, it is enough to let me shield my thoughts from being read and to push away the thoughts of others."

Lucky you, then. I've got plenty of experience and I still can't block all these freakshows out.

"well, when you have to deal with an emo kid trying to read your mind after you murdered said emo kid then you have to get very good at this sort of thing." [Yeah he's not providing any more details on that incident. Sorry Brie.]

I don't know what an 'emo kid' is, but I get the picture. Just trying to block out one telepath took a while for me, so having to handle trying to tune out a hoard of 'em is gonna take a bit.

[He giggles. Yeah he totally understood that but at the same time, that just meant this evening was gong to be rather interesting.] "Oh I'm sure it does."

( TDM | #1 )

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