( 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

Dirk Strider | Homestuck

[splinten]

[a part 1; he didn't sign up for this]

[This is not where a person expects to wake up when they just walked themselves into a bunch of bad jpeg artefacts. Dirk looks around, irritated and confused, and still stuck in his Godtier PJs. He reaches for his sword and. Oh. It's in his hand.

What the fuck where is his sylladex. He jumps. WHAT THE FUCK WHERE IS HIS FLIGHT.]

This is the worst goddamned dream bubble I've ever—

[It's muttered under his breath. Sword in hand, he sets off. If he sees anyone he doesn't know, he'll say,] Wait, who are you?

[a part 2; this is fine]

[If there's one thing he can handle, it's boar fighting. When they round on him, he shifts into a defensive position. He attacks one and gets it to back off, and then another comes in. Dirk steps to the side—

And he moves fast enough to dodge but not apparently the way he expected. He stops and stares in incredulity.]

Flashsteppin'? I flashstepped as a fuckin' baby, you're kiddin' me?

[He's so baffled he may need help vs boars]

[F: DESTROYA DESTROYA DESTR—]

[He stares at the card. Behind his shades, his brows are creased.]

Cool. More destruction powers, but with fuckin' philosophy. Awesome.

[He glances at a rock, and it cracks and then shatters into nothing under his glare.]

Guess it works.

[G: Attempting to DRAW HIS SWORD like an idiot]

[More important than any of this, Dirk doesn't have a strifedeck. Which means he has to figure out how to draw his sword.
He needs to figure out where to put his sword.

Haphazardly, he is like. Trying to gesture putting it on one side of his hip. But wait. What side. How does he do this? What the fuck?

He is so damn confused Help Him.]

F

[torching]

[ cool shades, bro. what's even cooler is what you just did. ]

You're an earth bender?

[ there's gotta be other benders around here, right... ]

[splinten]

[what]

No. [He wants to ask what an earth bender is, but also: it feels kinda self-explanatory?]

The thing with my nametag said I can destroy things.

[torching]

What? But how?

[ there had to be some kind of bending behind it, right? unless this new magic the card was talking about...isn't...bending at all? ]

[splinten]

By 'fully conceptualizing' it. Given the epistemological implications, that indicates that there are limitations on its function based on how broadly or narrowly 'conceptualization' is defined.

[Mako didn't ask for that]

a part 1 i guess???

[parodeity]

[ well. dave isn't recognizable from behind probably for someone who never saw him in his godtier clothes in person when he pulled up the stupid hood to sort of feel better about the fact he Cannot Find His Fucking Shades, and the voice is just a shade familiar but different enough he turns at "who are you" with an automatic flippantly unhelpful remark: ]

Shaggy 2 Cape, who the fuck are - [ haha nvm he doesn't need to finish the question. sans shades there's a minute widening of his eyes before dave proves at least he does have a solid poker face even without the shades as he tamps that down and goes for neutral calm (BUT AGAIN: GIVE THEM BACK). ] Oh. Hey, Bro.

[ this is the quietest bluescreen of death and he glances around again while tugging off the hood in quiet irritation that it looks really fucking stupid but was his best defense but he can't look really fucking stupid in front of bro.

where is everyone else why does he have no cavalry.

ROSE WAS ON BRO DUTY THAT WAS THE DEAL though that may be void now but it should not be? ]

[splinten]

[He turns at the voice because it's familiar it's the voice he grew up listening to over and over it's—

It's Dave. It's Dave.]

So this is a dream bubble. I wasn't sure I was gonna actually die.

[There's like. A hint of relief in his relaxing shoulders. Because being alive forever while everyone else was dead is sort of suboptimal.

Wait, shit. This is how he has to meet his alternate universe brother for the first time. Dave called him. Bro? He should do that in return.]

Hey, Bro. Uh. Nice afterlife we have here. [He. Thinks?

Also Dave stop worrying about looking stupid, Dirk is in pantaloons]

Don't we normally keep powers in dream bubbles?

[parodeity]

[







ok not sure how to take being called bro so let's just ignore it and roll with it and focus on the immediate weirdness that isn't...bro weirdness.

he squints at dirk's shades, but not because of who they remind him of; it's the reflection, and while he might reach out to snatch them off dirk's face if he were at all comfortable with the guy, dave isn't.

he's equally thrown by the like, questions. why is bro asking questions. so there's a moment of silence and narrowed eyes and focus on the shades before dave comes out with: ]

My eyes ain't dead. [ he can see the red in the reflection. hm. HE...can't check dirk's because that would involve asking bro to remove his shades. ] So imma go out on a limb and say it ain't a dream bubble. I can't hack it like I can those, anyway, so that was kinda obvious. But also maybe not the afterlife. Or not the right one.

[ great. cool. this is information! we're cooking with fire now. ]

[splinten]

[Oh yeah, dead eyes.]

Could you check mine?

[Just in case. He lifts his shades up for Dave to see. Please tell him if he's dead.

Also enjoy your alternate universe Bro's bright orange eyes. If Dave can manage to actually interpret them, he'll find they're a little unsure and confused, kinda down. But also... like. Expressive? Dirk's eyes have expressions.

Try not to faint, Dave. At the moment Dirk is worried about the way Dave is acting but isn't sure how to talk about it so. He'll focus on the situation and try from there.]

A part 2

[lunala]

[Moon isn't really sure what he's talking about. She does know he seems to need a hand, though. Or a paw, because here comes Lyro in all his ridiculous werewolf glory.]

Thunder Fang! [The nearest boar to Dirk gets a rather shocking experience. Moon runs over.] Are you okay?

[She's addressing Dirk, not the boar. The boar is not okay.]

[splinten]

[Fuck yes MIDNIGHT LYCANROC IS A BADASS

also: super unexpected. Dirk stares in MORE CONFUSION]

So that was super cool, but also, what.

[he's fine? he's just BAFFLEd this has been a weird day, Moon, and he is looking to your twelve year old self to at LEAST explain pokemon.]

[lunala]

He's a Lycanroc! [Surely that is all the explanation Dirk needs. Lyro, meanwhile, is fighting off any boars that get too close.] Do you not have any Pokemon with you?

DOING THIS BECAUSE YOUR PERMISSIONS SAY 4TH WALL IS OKAY, LET ME KNOW IF NOT

[splinten]

[They didn't have time to release Sun/Moon before the world ended in the Alpha Timeline, which may be one of the greatest tragedies. What a good came.

He does, however, recognize the word "Pokemon."

Holy shit.]

Uh. No. No Pokemon.

[He pauses but. You know what? This is NOT the most stupid experience of his day.]

g

[grimdeity]

[ rose watches dave's bro-- and she's only guessing this is dave's bro, but like. who else is going to run around in stupid pajamas, be blonde, and have sunglasses besides the strider-lalonde quartet. she can see the resemblance, anyway. she watches for a long moment, assessing before approaching. ]

You should sheath it on the hip opposite of your dominant hand. [ she says casually. she has probably read a sword & sorcery novel or two, ok. ] Or, given its length, over the shoulder, perhaps.

[splinten]

[Holy shit it's Rose Lalonde. Dirk's shades hide the widening this time. He should have expected her.]

Cool. Now I just need a sheathe.

[He sounds genuinely irritated by this idea. He doesn't want a sheathe he should have his strifedeck. He throws the katana into the dirt tip-first so it sticks out comfortably; at least it's unbreakable, so he won't have to worry about damaging it.]

Rose, right?

[grimdeity]

[ no one ever expects the spanish inquistition rose lalonde. ]

Hmm. I may know someone who could craft you one.

[ the someone is her, but she's being cagey about it. she doesn't want to throw her new power around too openly just yet, not until it's well-tested anyway. ]

Correct. And you must be Dirk. Did you perish in what some would call "that complete clusterfuck", as well? [ rose doesn't remember seeing him there, if he was, but there was a Lot going on so who even knows. ]

a part 1!!!

[imsorey]

[Sorey looks honestly baffled at the fact that there's another person on this dream mountain. Can other people show up in your dreams like this? All signs point to yes.]

--I'm Sorey. Who're you?

[splinten]

Dirk.

[Sorey looks as confused as Dirk feels, so he assumes that asking about where they are will get nowhere. He tries something else:]

Where were you before this?

[imsorey]

I was...asleep.

[He's hedging his answer a bit, but still tries to answer honestly.]

It's kind of hard to explain, but I definitely wasn't anywhere near a forest. I'm guessing it's the same for you?

A2

[windeity]

[You know who else is having a hard time without his sylladex? This guy. With Vrillyhoo in-hand John's immediately stepping forward and gripping the hammer with both hands before smacking one of the boars right in the face before it can charge at Dirk.]

I don't know what's going on either, but maybe we can figure that out after the boars are gone? [He recognizes him because of course he does, he just saw him, Dave's bro in the funny pants who disappeared into the artifacts before John followed Roxy. He offers no explanation but he does keep his eyes peeled.] They do not seem too happy with us.

[splinten]

[Oh. It's John. The person who saw him drift into nonsense.

Awkward, tbh.]

We're likely invading their territory.

Thanks.

[For keeping him alive.]

[windeity]

[SURPRISE, just what you always wanted right, Dirk? Still, the hammer's weight doesn't seem to bother him for whatever reason and the boars are temporarily dispersed. That's good enough for John, who sort of just shrugs at the thanks.]

Sure. [Anything for his bro's...bro? Man. It sort of bums him out to think about the fact that everyone's dead (thanks to not meeting up with the other two Betas just yet) but he ignores it. Even if he doesn't know him, Dirk is someone he recognizes and that's enough for him right now.] I'm not sure it is really invading when I don't remember how we got here in the first place. Do you? [He's already shifting his weight from foot to foot like he's going to keep walking, but he's also not about to leave Dirk here in case there are more boars lingering around.]

g

[sword_of_swords]

[Finally someone else with a sword. Lloyd can get behind this. Though he quickly becomes confused at to what the hell Dirk is trying to accomplish.]

You need help?

[He can always do like Lloyd and just throw one on each hip, choices are for losers.]

[splinten]

I'm fine.

[He says, having a hard time FIGURING OUT HOW TO DRAW A SWORD

then he realizes Lloyd is an expert because swords and is about to ask for tips on sword drawing before he realizes they're

on two hips. What.]

You use two swords?

[if only Dirk knew that 2x the sword is 2x the power]

[sword_of_swords]

[if only ]

Yeah?

[He looks down to check; since he got here, he's felt like something is missing. Finding both Gagnrad where they belong, he rests a hand on one hilt.]

Is it weird I use two swords?