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

[He spends a good bit just watching Joshua, like he expects something to suddenly shatter the otherwise calm, helpful atmosphere. It didn't make a lot of sense to him... How could a spirit find a home that wasn't Tuonela and still be was just...some guy? Weird.

At the mention of his lack of powers, he looks off to a pair of scuttling crabs, because nonsense like that isn't as hard to focus on.]

...Okay.

[...Okay yeah that hadn't worked but he wouldn't explain it any further. Not yet.]

"...I suppose I am an anomaly to you." [He'd spent so much time fueling his ego on this too. Having someone to actually be superior to, his usual MO with people, was a comfort in a place where he was far more mortal and far less powerful than he'd like to be, and he was totally losing that. "Still, I can assure you I am still perfectly willing to teach you. That is, if you don't mind learning from a spirit."

[There's a soft grunt of confirmation, since there was no point in denying just how much of an anomaly Joshua really was. The rest he's...quiet about. Those sure are some fascinating crabs, apparently. Wow, look at 'em go.

...Okay, this is getting a little silly. Scratch these distraction crabs.]

I don't know. I...guess not. You helped me.

[And just like that, his doubts are dismissed. Good. He still has something of a grasp on Lalli.]

"Well, why wouldn't I? It's not as if I'm a particularly malicious person." [It was true. This wasn't out of kindness. It was a selfish move. \But it was not a malicious one. He didn't act to harm others, even as Composer. He only did what he needed to in order to achieve his ends. Sometimes those actions could be harsh or cruel, but he had his justifications. That was what he liked to think, anyways.[

...Because that doesn't usually matter.

[Assuming he's right in guessing what malicious means. Once you were dead, it was a lot easier to be consumed by all that negativity around, especially if you'd been around for a while. This guy didn't seem like he was exactly new to this spirit business.]

But... You said you're different. So you probably are.

[well, not different by the standards of the world he came from, but by Lalli's standards he supposed he qualified.]

"I am indeed. Maybe, in the future, I can tell you what makes me so exceptional." [Promising people information was always a good way to entice them in, after all. And Lalli seemed pretty curious, so Joshua was simply at this point waiting for him to take the bait.]

[That's. Kind of creepy, tbh. But he does like to have a good map of the situation so he can get out with as few problems as possible, so information would be ideal. He gives a weak bob of his shoulders that suggests he doesn't have a problem with that arrangement, if it could be called that, and eases himself just a touch closer to Joshua like that's going to help him glean anything before he's ready to tell. This would be so much easier with his usual spirit sense...]

...Do you still have a name?

[Still had a name? So spirits tended to lose their names, it seemed. Well... perhaps he could finally have someone here who would refer to him by title. He had a name, and one which he could definitely remember, but he was not going to pas up an opportunity when he saw one.]

"They call me the Composer." [He smiled at saying that, it was a small smile but for once it was genuine. Just having a higher position than someone, and having him be referred to properly, that was a simple comfort which he would take solace in.]

[Corruption makes you forget.]

...Okay. That's a weird word.

[he has literally never heard of a composer, sorry about your life, man]

[Well Josh doesn't know that, to be fair to him.

"Composer. You know, someone who writes music?" [Joshua just began wondering where this guy was even from where he didn't know what a composer was. I mean hey, to be fair to him, they don't compose much music in post-apocalyptic finland.]

...Why not just call it a writer...

[People sure liked to make things a lot more complicated than they had to be. Especially those old world people...]

"Because music and the written word are two different mediums of which the brain registers differently, and require only partially overlapping skillsets." [Josh put his arm up on the side of the bath and out of the water. He still was questioning where this other man had come from, but he could ask later.]

[mmmm Okay his eyes are glazing over a little and it isn't because of the heat. This is just...not very interesting...and he's pretty sure it could have been said in a shorter, easier way.]

So you...wrote music? Why do you know about brain talking stuff, then?

"You're assuming I learned about that as a human." [Well, he learned of it when he was a human, but he never actually experienced it until he was dead. So really that was only half-true.]

...I guess.

[It made sense that a spirit would have a greater aptitude for that sort of thing.]

...How old are you? As the Composer.

"I forgot that. I was born sometime around the mid-to-late 20th century, but that's only a vague estimate, so don't take it too seriously." [I mean, Josh's canon age is just ??? so really no one can say.]

[Enjoy another confused stare... Lalli never really bothered with the concept of years prior to the outbreak.]

Um.

[Well, at least he can sort of gather something from it...]

So it...has been a while? Probably?

"Yes, it has been." [Such a long while in fact, that what it was like to be human had become a mostly lost experience to him. A thing of memory, and nothing more. He was used to looking down upon people, on judging them from a standpoint they couldn't comprehend. To having, well, power. that was his life, not... well, whatever this was. It was somewhat sad to think about, but also not, because he really didn't want to be human anyways.]

[He nods, and there's a small part of him that wonders if it was an okay thing to ask... But if it hadn't been, then it wouldn't have been answered. He probably would have been smacked upside the head, like every other time he'd screwed up in some lesson or another. Confident in his choices, Lalli eases up with a lean against the side of the bath and closes his eyes, going back to that slow breathing thing. His curiosity is apparently satisfied for the time being.]

[OOC: So, this seems like a good stopping point. Mind just calling things here?]

[whatever works \o/]

( TDM | #1 )

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