( 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

[oneandmikleonly]

[shivers a bit at the response from his own signet, folding his arms, but doesn't protest it]

Er, that's just how it is. Humans can't see seraphs normally. Some of my other abilities have been blocked, too, so it's probably related...

[it's weird to think of not being noticed as an 'ability,' since it's usually more of an inconvenience than anything, but logically, it lines up.]

[windeity]

[Whoops. Sorry buddy. John's hand hovers just over his signet and at least saying that allows him to stop before he continues touching it. Not being seen sounds like some supernatural-y kind of shenanigans and he actually looks more curious about the prospect.]

Are seraphs like ghosts then? [He's seen enough ghosts by now to know they are visible in certain places, but logically speaking people do not normally see ghosts.] What other abilities were taken from you? [A pause.] All of mine are missing, too. Including some that shouldn't even be considered an ability, just fact.

[oneandmikleonly]

[shivers a tiny bit, almost imperceptibly]

...kind of? I mean, I'm not going to walk through walls anytime soon, or attack people, but seraphim are sometimes called spirits, I guess.

[exhales; it's odd to talk to humans and not have them understand the term, but it hasn't prompted any hostility from anyone so far. strange...]

Okay, so--it's not just me, right? I can't use any spells. I can't even call a weapon to hand. Is that how it's like for you -- was that why you were waving your arms?

[windeity]

Oh. [Give him a moment because he's busy sorting through what he knows of ghosts and of sprites and how these things all work out.] Invisibly supernatural then. Usually we can't talk to our ghosts either outside of the dream bubbles.

[But that's not important.] But yes! It has been really inconvenient that none of my original powers seem to work here? [He glances down at his hand.] Usually it's not that hard anymore but it's like something on this planet is stopping everything from working. [He turns to gesture to the large hammer in the sand.] Normally I do not have to carry my weapons around but my sylladex is broken too, I think. I keep meeting others who're having the same problem.

[oneandmikleonly]

Dream...bubbles...?

[perhaps fortunately, he gets a bit distracted by the rest so poor John doesn't have to start explaining Homestuck]

So, something's trapped us, sealed our abilities to escape or fight or even store things -- my staff's still where it's supposed to be, it's just stuck there -- and there's no way off this space island. I tried going off the side for a moment with someone earlier; it doesn't go well.

I don't suppose anyone you met has an inkling as to why?

[windeity]

[He fixates on the most important piece, at least.]

Yeah, that sounds about right. [This is great.] What do you mean you tried going off of the side…how? I can't even fly anymore. At least I have access to the Vrillyhoo but I can't grab anything else yet.

[There's a roll of his eyes upward like it'll help him think.] Not even close. Everyone else I have spoken to asks the same question. "Have you met anyone who knows why." So I guess the answer is no.

[oneandmikleonly]

[he looks kind of embarrassed, covering his mouth briefly before answering]

We got some bedsheets out of the houses and made a rope, but the cliff crumbled under us too. We just...drifted off once we fell; we couldn't control it. Something pulled us back before we got very far, though; I'm not sure what.

Hopefully someone announces why we're here, or someone finds something, then. I suppose we'll have to keep searching in the meantime.

[windeity]

That's...actually not a bad idea. [Don't repeat that idea, John.] Drifting like you were suspended? Almost sounds like the planet has its own gravitational pull with different limits.

Searching isn't a bad idea even if we do not know what we're searching for. But if I could get an answer about our powers that would help. [A pause.] Did you see that they gave us new ones instead?