( 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

[windeity]

Of course you've already discussed this. [Look at that, he's not talking about his umbrella idea because this is suddenly important.] If we really are stuck here for a while, being able to trade items for food and other necessities is not a bad idea. It's not like we really need money here, so that sounds like the next best option. I have not met anyone else with powers like mine yet, so we could be looking at a huge asset. [He grins.] It's me. I'm the asset.

[But hm.] How would we even know what the limit on this is?

[parodeity]

Obvious answer: we make a bunch of shit and see if we hit a limit.

[ CLEARLY THIS CANNOT GO WRONG. ]

...Startin' with John's still mysterious umbrella idea and maybe my thing?

[grimdeity]

You are at least part of that word. [ /laugh track ]

That's not the worst idea.

[ IT ABSOLUTELY IS? can i write an open letter to the mods of spellbind apologizing please ]

I may have an idea or two myself. I'll need more yarn, either way.

[windeity]

[Wow?? Excuse you, Rose. He shifts to knock his knee into hers but he's also not bothering to correct her because that was kind of a good one. Instead, he claps his hands together.]

Sweet. Dave, draw the lady some more yarn. And give me that umbrella. [Because meanwhile he's reaching behind him under his pile of stupid bullshit and pulling out a crab shell, complete with crab legs.]

[parodeity]

This looks like it's gonna be absolute bullshit.

[ like, dave immediately starts to draw rose some more yarn, handing it over nicely instead of tossing it, BUT THIS SOUNDS LIKE BULLSHIT, JOHN. ]

[grimdeity]

[ squints at the crab. is that a live crab or. ]

Are you trying to make a crab umbrella or an umbrella crab?

[windeity]

[It's definitely a dead crab that no longer has meat in it because John ate it. Sorry, Mr. Krabbs. But anyway he's going to take the umbrella and the shell in his hands even as he's watching his friends work.]

Rose, please. An umbrella crab would not do us any good. [But give him a few moments and soon there is an umbrella-sized crab shell, multiple legs sticking out over the edges. He gives the umbrella a twirl, allowing the legs to swing as an extended combat weapon.

The legs also definitely have the SBAHJ art. But for some reason just the legs?]

[parodeity]

None of us uses umbrellakind.

[ WHY IS THAT HIS ONLY AMUSED OBJECTION? ]

Rose. Can you knit somethin' that makes ocean sounds if you tap it?

[ circling back around to whatever he was on about earlier. ]

[grimdeity]

That is very true. But it is neat, in a... way... Do you need anything to add to your new masterpiece?

[ but also, works to knits a bracelet that when tapped you can hear the roar of the ocean, or as ocean-y as rose can remember such a sound. ]

[windeity]

If our sylladexes don't work, do our specibuses work either? [So. Learn to use umbrellakind, apparently. He looks at his creation before he grins.]

If Dave's getting ocean sounds I want something that makes a sound, too. Something that when you twirl it it'll fend off those boars or something? [Like a bear. Or a kazoo.]

[parodeity]

A foghorn. Also, no one needs you fuckin' around with new weapons, bro, you're gonna hit yourself with a crab leg or somethin'?

[ he's made rose her yarn and john has not asked dave to draw anything else as of yet, so he thinks for a minute before sketching in the sand what becomes a peaches the dog plastic figurine.

stop this. ]

John, can you do this with the bracelet?

[ thanks. ]

[grimdeity]

That's a good question. About the strife decks. Perhaps it doesn't matter.

[ rose will knit a circle that when tapped it makes the noise of someone smashing their hands against piano keys. loudly. take that, boars?

also what the heck dave. ]

[windeity]

[Heheheh. He'll be happy with that once it's finished being knit but instead he's going to hole up the ocean ring and also the dog figure.]

Am I making the dog sound like the ocean...? Is that a thing I'm doing? Also I will not hit myself with a crab leg.

[parodeity]

That is a thing you are doin', yes, if you can?

[ thanks for not explaining, dave. he is hoping (?) it will be a peaches the dog wristband. somehow. ]

Also, I will believe that in a week if you haven't by then.

[grimdeity]

[ just judgment here as she finishes knitting KNITTING TAKES TIME ]

[windeity]

[Rose why.]

I guess I can try it. [He's mostly just staring at the dog though?] But wait why do you want it to sound like the ocean? [John will you please just do the thing?]

[parodeity]

Shenanigans. Can you control how the items meld, or is a crapshoot? If you can control it, I guess do a wristband.

[ THANKS DAVE THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING. ]

...I'll tell you later, dependin'.

[grimdeity]

You could tell us now.

[ SHE"S STILL JUST KNITTING AND JUDGING I'M SORRY ]

[windeity]

I don't think I get to pick exactly how they meld, and if I do I haven't figured that out yet. But I'm with Rose on this one. [Still, he's also taking the bracelet that I assume is done and that Rose is working on the piano one instead and he's focusing. Unfortunately the dog and the bracelet end up merging so that it's still the dog! But now it's covered in yarn and probably sounds like the ocean.]

...oh.

[parodeity]

That works.

[ he'll hold out his hands for the yarn-dog? is it a dog made of yarn or just a plastic dog in a yarn sweater, john. ]

[grimdeity]

[ you assume right bracelets are quicker than squares but she's purposely picking super easy shit. someday she'll knit a squiddle enchanted to speak in the language of the elder gods or some shit. ]

Practice makes perfect, probably.

[ DOG ]

[windeity]

Does that mean I'm making multiple yarn dogs? [He reaches over Rose's head to hand Dave the dog made of yarn. Rose if you haunt their asses with an enchanted squiddle John is going to throw himself into space.] I don't know if there's such a thing as practicing fusing stuff. When I was doing it in Sburb I didn't really know how things would come out either.

[parodeity]

Mad science has to have some kinda secret eventually.

[ he pockets the dog? AND DOESN'T EXPLAIN? ]

Rose, you can always just knit yourself a ring of like...five times as fast knittin', can't you?

[ dave is a cheater. ]

[grimdeity]

Then it wouldn't be mad science.

[ john if you throw yourself into space I think you just get put back?? like mario kart.

rose looks at dave, flatly. ] That would be awfully like using my powers to cheat. I would never want to do that.

[ she does start to knit something small, like a pendant, however, and ]

Could you draw me a necklace-- like a slender chain? I'll put such charms on it. Knit rings are somewhat itchy.

[windeity]

Yeah, I think that's the opposite of what mad science should have, but okay. [He's watching the dog disappear and he's also just turning to stare ahead of them out into space.]

How are you going to keep track of what each charm does? Dave only made one ball of yarn.