( 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

[remitting]

[ It's only when they start walking that Ada realizes how much this reminds her of Oz. As far back as she can remember, her brother would always lead her by the hand like this, and even after being separated for ten years (well, on her end, at least), it was still a familiar habit for the two of them. Thoughts of her family are heartening, yet at the same time, heart-breaking, because she's certain they'll have noticed her disappearance by now. Just imagining what Oz or her uncle or Gil must be feeling, how worried and upset they must be, makes her want to cry, but she does her best to stay positive. They'll surely find a way to leave, and then she'll be back with them and be able to tell them that she's okay. She has faith in that, and she'll try to hold onto her faith for as long as she can.

Hearing Yuri speaks gets her attention and pulls her out of her musings, except... wait, did Yuri say that? It was her voice, but it didn't sound like she was talking to Ada, or even like it actually came out of her mouth. It sounded... closer, in some way. ]

Um... Miss Yuri? Did you say something just now?

[unendured]

[ Yuri proceeds soundly, careful of their surroundings and noting of any possible threats along the way. She sees no fearsome snakes so at least they're not coming to avenge their friend she had bullied earlier... but then something else grabs at her attention. ]

Hm? No... I didn't say anything.

[ Odd. But perhaps she heard someone—or something—else, and if that's the case she's curious. ]

What did you hear?

[remitting]

[ She didn't? But that's so strange. Ada hesitates, wondering briefly if she was mistaken and it had just been her mind playing some sort of trick on her, but she's never known that to happen to her before. And since Yuri's asking... ]

It was your voice, or, well, I think it was. You were saying it would be fine... and you mentioned something about a mountain.

[unendured]

That's...

[ Concerning? How was she able to hear her thoughts so clearly? It doesn't cause her to stop, much to focused on her goal of getting them both out of the forest, but it does cause her to look over her shoulder with a raised brow.

And then she remembers the signet embedded in her. Free hand reaching up to lightly skim across it. ]

I was thinking about it, yes, but I didn't say it.

[remitting]

[ She goes quiet, unsure of what to say or make of all of this, and she finds herself recalling the unusual feeling she'd noticed when she first found herself here. It had been almost as if there was more that had changed than just her surroundings, but... that just couldn't be. Right? Being taken away to a distant, unknown place was one thing, but telepathy...?

In her confusion, she accidentally sends her thoughts out, too, her bewilderment plain to hear in her 'voice'. ]

I... heard her thoughts? B-but that's impossible, isn't it? I can't read minds...!

[unendured]

[ They arriving at the first bag and Yuri kneels down steadily to retrieve it with one hand, stopping halfway when she hears a voice in her head. It's new, yet familiar, easily distinguishable in comparison to anything she's heard prior and for that very reason she turns slowly to look up at Ada. It's done cautiously, as if expecting something to jump at her, and her hand tightens around the other girl's in some feign hope that it will keep her rooted to reality.

And it does, surprisingly enough, and within these few seconds she finally realizes that she had been holding in a breath.

Ignoring the bag she raises back to her feet, her free hand coming up to brush her fingertips along the shape of the signet embedded in her skin. ] Ada, do you... happen to have something like this? [ She notices that with her dress that it may be impossible to see but it's best to ask. ] Or have you always been able to hear things?

[ Not that she would feel good knowing someone had similar senses as her own. ]