September 2023 TDM

[inkveil]

SEPTEMBER 2023 TDM

You wake up completely alone in an unfamiliar place. The forest around you is awash in the pleasant warmth of late summer. Any time-telling devices have stopped working and nothing looks familiar. But the visitors center has maps and information on the area, and with a bit of looking around you find the name of a nearby town: Ashbrook.

Welcome to Ashbrook's very first TDM. Take a look at our navigation page to get started, or skip right to the prompts below! TDM threads may be kept as game canon.

While Ashbrook is an invite-only game, you do not need an invite to play on the TDM.

Please direct any TDM-specific questions you may have here.

Of Monster and Men

What:

Lost in the woods with friends and 'friends'

When:

Throughout September

Warnings:

Stalking, paranoia, violence, being lost in the woods

---

With summer nearing its end and school already begun, it seems as if every teen's got a story to tell.

One of them that's pretty popular starts off like any other. Couple of kids go into the woods, one of them goes missing, and gets found later on — but they're not right, it's not them; the rest of the story goes as it goes and the group ends up dying or scared half to it by the week's end, tormented by the Goatman. The story has its variations depending on the person telling it. Sometimes there's a creature staring from the treeline; or unexplainable, not quite human voices calling from outside the campfire's light. No matter what the creature is hard to identify, and you can only really catch it by spotting oddities in the way it mimics its victims.

The stories aren't just stories, though. In any other town they might be, but in Ashbrook, they're warnings. You're cutting through the woods after class, or heading back to the car at the end of a camping trip, or maybe you're even a new arrival stumbling your way home. No matter what, there's an odd scent, sharp and metallic, that's following you around. It disappears when you think about it; maybe it's the mind playing its tricks after hearing the stories, or the stress of being somewhere unfamiliar?

But when you glance at your companion they're suddenly gone; look away and back and they're suddenly there again. It can happen a few times and it does. You try not to think about it, but it nags at the back of your mind — how well do you really know the person beside you? Are you sure they're safe? Are you sure they're really them? You decide to press on, sure you're imagining things.

Until you discover the eviscerated body of the person you've been traveling with.

You hear footsteps behind you.

---

TL;DR

• There's a Goatman that's said to roam the woods and slip unnoticed into groups, disguising itself as someone else. You won't ever catch it taking someone, just the mangled corpses it leaves behind.
  
• The Goatman has an acrid scent to it, metallic like blood in the back of your throat, but it doesn't linger enough to tell who it's coming from.
  
• The Goatman can take on the face of anyone at all. Identifying it is tricky, but possible — but it requires you the know the person it replaced well enough to spot the oddities.
  
• The Goatman will also play dead while disguised as a member of a group, in hopes of inspiring paranoia in its victims.
  
• Characters can experience visceral, gruesome deaths in this prompt, due either to the Goatman or to the paranoia of their traveling companions.

Ghost on the Shore

What:

An encounter on a foggy night

When:

Evenings in September

Warnings:

Drowning, compulsive behavior

---

As summer turns to autumn, fog from the rivers rolls steadily over the town in the early evenings, and only dissipates in the morning's rays. Visibility is low, but it's perfect if you want to go for a quiet evening stroll or pre-dawn jog. It's just you out there — you and one other person.

You don't know if they were there a second ago. And maybe it's just the cover of the fog making it hard to see but... they seem familiar. You feel drawn to follow the path they take. No matter how hard you try they don't slow or respond to yelling, and you never catch up. You eventually find yourself at the river's edge, one foot ahead of the other as you've seemingly started to tread the depths of it. You can't see the person you were following but you're certain they've gone into the water. You just need to follow them, and never mind how cold and swift the river runs.

But maybe that didn't happen. Maybe you thought you heard someone calling your name and snapped out of it. Your first instinct may be to get out of there and away from whatever had you hypnotized in the first place, but then you see it: someone else still chasing after a phantom.

If your first instinct isn't to help, as a decent person should, there's something like a soft voice as the wind caresses your ear, pleading for you not to let them near the water, not to let them sink... and you move, for whatever good enough reason your mind conjures, to help those who have yet to wake.

---

TL;DR

• Characters see a familiar face on foggy knights. They're driven to follow them, because who wouldn't want to see an old friend or even enemy?
  
• Unfortunately, characters will never reach that person. They can walk all they want, run or sprint, but the other will remain both unresponsive and just out of reach.
  
• Eventually, the phantom will attempt to lead their victim into the river, where they will likely drown if not rescued.
  
• Characters can be snapped out of this trance by a whisper on the wind they can't quite identify. Those that are will be compelled to seek out and help anyone still in a trance. Just don't wait too long, or you'll find the other party willingly taking a dive six feet under.

Toil and Trouble

What:

It's time to learn magic!

When:

Weekends in September

Warnings:

None

---

A more welcoming rumor is about the Witch of the Woods. The teens describe her as a stern but beautiful woman who's willing to teach anyone who comes seeks her out. Bring her a suitable offering and knock three times on her door in the middle of the night, and she'll answer to teach you what she knows of the supernatural and magic.

... Thankfully, no one has to find out how wrong that is right now. There are flyers, decorated childishly with bat and cauldron stickers, inviting the reader to the "Witch's Retreat". These flyers seem to appear when a Visitor glances away for a second to pick something up, or gently drift down right into their hands. Even the most skeptical, scoff-likely of Visitors will find their interest piqued in the days before it, mind drifting back to the promise of help in their unusual situation.

The retreat itself is headed by a middle-aged woman, who's narrowed gaze inspects the people who've come before she grumbles something under her breath and waves her hand.

"Look in the tree holes for your books and pick a partner to pair with — they aren't the kinds of things you'd want to test on your own. First rule: Always have a third hand. Second: Don't do it in public if you can help it. Final: Don't even try skipping ahead, because they won't answer you."

Whatever that means. It's time to learn magic.

The Witch — if pressed, she'll begrudgingly allow the students to address her as 'Ms. Spinner' — will force characters together with a surprisingly powerful shove of her hand if she passes and you aren't already paired with someone too, so don't think you can get out of this little exercise by going solo! You can't. As far as the promised spirituality goes... listen to the voice within, find your inner peace, and the rest'll come naturally. The Witch isn't too pressed for you whelps to understand off the bat, though she won't leave you out on a limb either.

---

TL;DR

• The characters — Visitors, as they're referred — are able to learn basic level magic with the help of the Witch.
  
• Pair up and practice. This is essential to the process, and the Witch will force unpaired individuals to partner up.
  
• Anything higher level magic won't come to the character; it may feel like there's a kind of blockage, even to those who're used to magic themselves.
  
• The Witch isn't open to questions about the town in particular (are you here to gossip or learn?) and won't answer anything about it, so stay on task if you want answers to your questions.

A Day In The Life

New Visitors may wake up in the woods, but that's not where they're going to be spending all of their time. They have homes, jobs, work, entire lives they need to attend to. They'd better get to it!

A Visitor will be instinctively drawn towards both their home and job; they will always know how to navigate the former, and may find the tasks they perform at the latter suspiciously easy. Outside of that, their life will be incredibly normal for the first few days. No one will acknowledge the strangeness in the woods, and a Visitor's insistence that they're not from around here will be treated like a joke.

And then suddenly it's weird again. They wake up one day and realize they have a different job, perhaps even a different home. They will lose any instinctive understanding they may have had of their old job and gain similar understanding of their new job. Visitors will retain all of their memories of their previous job, but if they bring it up to the townsfolk none of them will have any idea what they're talking about.

---

TL;DR

• This prompt is meant to allow players an opportunity to experiment with the role mechanic, without forcing them to retcon their threads if they receive a markedly different role after applying.
  
• Retconning is, of course, still an option - but if you want to give your character another bit of existential confusion, this is the prompt for you.

OOC Notes

If your character dies... While characters may die during the TDM, these deaths do not count towards a character's death count. If a character dies, they will vanish the instant they lose consciousness. The dead character will reappear safely back at the nearest visitors center, and both they and any witnesses will have only a hazy recollection of the event.

If a character TDMs but doesn't app... You have the option of having your character remember these characters. ICly, characters that TDM but do not apply will simply vanish without a trace under mysterious circumstances.

If you have any questions, please direct them here. Enjoy your new life.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[inkveil]

Please reply to this comment with any questions you have about the TDM!

[arsenist]

hello!! I'm sorry if this is an obvious question but for the witchcraft prompt

1) if a character starts learning, will this prompt be enough for them to lose mastery over their canon power?

2) if the answer to the other is yes, is it possible for them to feel their canon powers weakening and stop mid-lesson?

[tenthousandmiles]

1) is there any way for a character to tell that someone is goatman possessed, if a character is for example very well versed in similar paranormal phenomena in their canon? EDIT: sorry I misread nevermind!!!

2) can the goatman be temporarily appeased with offerings (ie leaving out food or wine etc or burning incense and such) if discovered? or is the only alternative if you can’t fight to run

3) in canon, Ginko has the unique quality of attracting lifeforms called “mushi” which are roughly his universe’s version of cryptids if cryptids were like vital to the ecosystem. I don’t imagine that will be the case with Ashbrook cryptids but out of curiosity will any of them react to him in a unique way?

4) can the witch be asked questions about magic, like what are considered best practices, what are the kinds of things considered taboo/disrespectful to nature/etc?

[draconisrose]

1.) Would someone who can sense magic be able to tell the goatman is not their companion? Or would it be similar to the acrid scent that you can't tell where it's coming from?

2.) Are there any townsfolk at the witch's retreat? In regards to dynamic nerfing does the witch count as a townsperson?

Ford Pines | Gravity Falls

[cryptograms]

(1. visitors center )
[ There's an old man in formal if somewhat worn clothing at the visitors center, and he looks alarmed. Extremely alarmed.

So alarmed, in fact, that when he hears someone moving around behind him he acts without thinking. He whirls around, hand diving into his jacket pocket and re-emerging with what some may recognize as some sort of sci-fi laser pistol. Despite how jumpy he is, his hand is steady and he's clearly quite confident with the weapon in question. ]

Don't move!

(2. ghost on the shore )
[ Ford does not like being tricked into chasing after some phantom like a lost puppy. He likes the compulsion to help others stuck doing the same thing even less, if that's possible.

But the truth is that Ford does have people he's looking for; and many of those people are the sort to go wandering around blindly on a foggy night; and the fog in question makes it very difficult to determine who someone really is at a distance. That combination of factors is enough for him to begrudgingly give into the compulsion to help. Thus, he spends the evening chasing after any still-hypnotized victims he spots.

That's why he goes crashing into the shallows of the river, water soaking the legs of his pants and rushing to fill his boots. It's cold, unpleasantly so, but the chill doesn't slow him down. He grabs hold of the person he's chasing and gives them a firm yank. ]

Wait!

(3. toil and trouble )
[ Ford has had some time to settle into Ashbrook by the time he catches sight of the flyers throughout town. It's a little too good to be true, he thinks. I mean, someone teaching magic? For free? It has to be a trick.

But curiosity has always been a powerful motivator for Ford. Even though he tells himself he should be cautious, he goes.

That's how he finds himself seated across from a complete stranger, directed there by the grumpy Witch overseeing the class. He's already certain that most people in this town can't be trusted, which makes deciding how to proceed pretty easy. He just has to give nothing away, while gathering information at the same time. ]

Do you have any experience with magic?

[ ... Unfortunately for Ford, he is not a subtle person. He tries to go for a casual tone, but ultimately he comes across as a bit too intense and interested in the answer. The especially observant might even catch that Ford is asking the question as someone that does have experience with magic. ]

2

[phototactic]

[ The young man whose arm Ford has taken hold of stares at him blankly through a veil of messy black bangs. He looks down at the hand on his arm, then back up at Ford, and faint resolution washes over his expression.

He pulls back, trying to get away from the stranger. ]

I have to go get my sister. [ He explains, quietly but assuredly. ] Let go.

1;

[uragiri]

[ Dazai looks at Ford, and -- slow enough to pass for cautious, but mostly just coming off as languid -- raises his hands up in the universal pose of surrender, eyebrows raised. He keeps his hands there for approximately two seconds before he's stepping forward, dropping them down and poking curiously at the pistol in complete disregard of Ford's order. ]

Wo~w, do they sell those here? [ Dazai is pretty sure it's not actually a toy even if it kind of looks like one, given that scifi laser pistols don't really exist in his world. Still, it's pretty cool. ]

Ala | OC

[parhellia]

i. pspspsps goatman

98... 99... 100! Ready or not, here I come!

[ Ala's head snaps up from the damp trunk of her counting tree, blinking furiously to rid the dazzle of summer and focus on the rustle of leaves and that weird bloody smell she has a pretty good idea who it belongs to. It's that scent she goes after, stalking through the trees with the silent steps of a wraith and a black hoodie pulled over her head that helps hide her in the shadows.

Not that she needs to be quiet and invisible to sneak up on her first victim.

You come across a young teenage girl half hidden in the bushes, crouched over a mangled body so freshly dead that blood still weeps from its many gapes and gashes as the girl shakes a shoulder or pokes at a cheek or attempts to tickle a side but finding that her fingers slip straight inside its guts instead. ]

Haha, ew, gross! Oh, come on, don't be a sore loser. [ poke poke ] You lost, so you're It now. Get up! [ ... ] Hey, come on... [ ... ] ...


ii. pretty sure this is how it works

[ Think you can escape the river's siren call just by staying away from the river? Maybe drowning would have been better than being anywhere near the foggy downtown stores within sight of a teenage girl with two dozen chip bags in a messy pile at her feet, switchblade in her hand, and bright smile on her face as she goes !!! and advances towards her next victim. ]

Hi! Hello! Please give me all your money!


misc.

[ there were going to be more prompts but I got hungry and am going to go make lunch now, write me a prompt instead or @ me at birdseed thanks ]

( ii. )

[cryptograms]

[ Oh boy. He should have expect some more mundane dangers in this town.

Granted, a teenage girl loaded down with snacks and armed with a knife probably isn't really mundane.

Regardless, Ford doesn't look particularly intimidated by Ala. Only time will tell how much of a mistake that is. ]

Who on earth would walk around with cash at this time of night?

Yoshiki Tsujinaka | The Summer Hikaru Died

[phototactic]

i. of monster and men
[ cw: stalking, paranoia, being lost in the woods ]

[ Yoshiki knows the mountain forest. He knows what sunlight looks like filtered through the leaves overhead, how the sounds of living things reverberate between the trees in the still air, what the forest litter smells like as it ferments in the heat.

Even before everything else starts to happen, he knows this isn't his forest. It was the first thing that made him wake up to his panic after he stumbled out of the empty shelter, blinking in light coming down at the wrong angle.

He needs to get out of this place. That's the first thing. The map posted on the wooden board outside points to a town, so that's where he'll go.

He tries to remember all the things that a person is supposed to do when they're lost. He's already breaking the first rule (stay in one place), but that has to only be for when you don't have a trail to follow. Stay on the path, then. Stay on the path and don't look off of it, no matter what you think you see out of the corner of your eye, no matter what strange stench pricks the back of your sinuses and slides down your throat whenever you begin to forget about it.

Of course he can't even get that right. At the first unexpected sound - a twig snapping, a shoe scuffing - Yoshiki jerks his head up from staring at the dirt in front of his quick-moving feet. He stares at the new person, wide-eyed and afraid. ]

Who're you?

ii. ghost on the shore
[ cw: compulsive behavior ]

[ Kaoru is walking too fast. Yoshiki doesn't know what's gotten into her. Every time he speeds up, she does too, her little legs ticking back and forth to eat up the ground.

As soon as he catches up to her, he's going to make her come home with him. It's not a good idea to be out this late at night, even with him there. (Especially with him there.) She should be in her bed, fast asleep, hidden away from from anything that might be out here.

She definitely shouldn't go into the river at night. It's too cold. She'll be shivering the whole walk back. Yoshiki is already starting to as he takes his first steps into the water, his pajamas bottoms soaking halfway up his shins. The riverbed is soft on his bare feet. He wraps his arms around himself as he wades further. ]

iii. a day in the life
[ cw: sense of unreality ]

[ Every morning, Yoshiki wakes up in his bed. He washes his face and brushes his teeth. He gets dressed, has breakfast at the kitchen table, picks up his backpack, and catches the bus to school.

He doesn't have any trouble in his classes. He participates enough that he doesn't seem like he's not paying attention, but not so much he comes off as a teacher's pet. He turns in all of his homework on time and usually finishes his in-class assignments with a few minutes to spare for checking them over. At lunch, he sits with some other people from photography club. The afternoon is the same as the morning. Once a week, the photography club meets after school.

If you happen to catch Yoshiki gripping the edge of a bathroom sink and staring blankly at his own grey eyes in the mirror during the middle of the school day, or find him sitting on the grass behind Wilton High School looking just as blankly into the forest, it probably doesn't mean anything. You should feel free to say hello to him there, or anywhere else he goes during the day. After all: he belongs here as much as anyone. ]

iv. wildcard
[ PM me or ping me at terriblepurpose to set up a specific starter! ]

iii. aaaaah yoshikiiiii

[modali]

[His daily duties were... familiar, if not a bit strange to experience. New faces, new place, no way out. He thinks it really is the afterlife, but it was kind of nostalgic that he still has the same role here as he had back home. A mayor, a leader-- a failed one, but given a second chance.

He doesn't really know if he's just losing his mind, but familiarity was important, and what better way to get familiar with a strange land than to explore it as best as he can. He can't travel too far, not with his health, but it's fine. He can deal with at least the school and back. Children were the future, even if he's not sure if this place has a future, but he doesn't think too hard on it for now.

He needed the fresh air, and it seemed he wasn't the only one.]

You seem to be fascinated with the forest. Do you mind if I join you...?

Siegfried || Fate/Apocrypha

[lindenhearted]

Ghost on the Shore

The wilderness was an old, familiar friend. It asked nothing of him, and provided everything-- water, sustenance, shelter... And, on occasion, a good fight. People were harder to deal with, but the mantle of being a Hero was hard to just set down. People needed help; and, Siegfried was able to do so.

There were no doubts in his mind when he splashed into the stream, chasing a phantom in the mists. Water rose over his knees and brambles grabbed at the snarls in his hair, drawing his person out to be some wilderness barbarian in the dusk.

The water was cold-- he had felt colder. The sky was darkening-- he had seen darker.

Siegfried plunged onward. That shadow in the twilight was almost familiar, and he wasn't about to give up on it.

... It was his choice.

A Day In The Life

There was a certain novelty in the daily mundane. He would wake up at dawn to go for a run, and then stop down town for a strong coffee and a pastry for breakfast. The exact pastry varies by season and mood; lately, it was corn fritters.

After this, he would go to work for the daily 9-5, with weekends and holidays off.

Evenings and weekends were spent in his modest vegetable garden, where the heirloom squashes were starting to ripen and the zucchinis had taken over. Stray moments, however, had him staring blankly into the woods or water ways. Anyone approaching would be met with a blankly confused expression that quickly turned into a smile:

"I'm sorry, I don't know that came over me..."

Wildcard

Don't see a prompt you like? Make one up here. Hmu at woodrift for comments and plotting.

A Day In The Life

[phototactic]

"Don't worry about it."

The teenage boy looking over Siegfried's fence shrugs loosely, ducking his head to shield his eyes with his baseball cap. He's holding a plastic basket in his arms, its bottom lightly lined with paper towel.

"My..." He glances elsewhere, or at least slightly turns his head. "My folks were wonderin' if you had too many zucchinis again this year."

The light has the golden, timeless quality of late summer evening. Everything looks prettier than real, in that kind of light. Watching all this American sunshine bounce off the windows of all these American houses, Yoshiki can almost convince himself he's an actor in some sort of movie.

nadia vulvokov | russian doll

[ofnewmoon]

i. a day in the life

[ After she gets settled into town, Nadia's routine is fairly simple.

She wakes up at around nine in her old, slightly run-down apartment in the city center. She's already late for work - but that doesn't matter here, just like it didn't matter in New York. She brushes her teeth, ignores her hair, throws on some clothes, and heads down to the store below.

The store that, apparently, she owns.

A busted neon sign reads RADIO HACK, and another one would say OPEN, if Nadia bothered to switch it on. She doesn't, but around ten, she unlocks the door, sits behind the counter with a magazine, and lights a cigarette. The shelves are all in various levels of disorganization, and shoppers can find boomboxes, portable CD players, walkie-talkies, batteries, and more things of that nature. Nadia hasn't really bothered to check what she's supposed to be selling.

She'll smoke her cigarette and read her magazine, utterly disinterested in doing her job. That is, until a customer walks through the door. ]

Oh, shit! A real customer. What d'you want?

ii. ghost on the shore

[ Nadia should be carrying something. An infant? A bag of gold? It's hard to remember.

Or maybe Nadia isn't especially interested in remembering. There's someone out there - someone who should be dead, who Nadia let down, who she'd give anything to talk to, one last time. ]

Ruthie!

[ Water sloshes around Nadia's knees. ]

Look, I know I fucked up, I know - I'm sorry, okay?

[ She wades in deeper. ]

iii. toil and trouble
(cw: referenced drug use)

[ This was a mistake. Whatever help Nadia thought she was going to get, this is certainly not it. All this talk of magic, and there's not even a mushroom in sight. Whatever bizarre New Age retreat Nadia's found herself in, she needs to get out of here, fast.

Unfortunately, she's already been paired up with someone - you - and she's finding that it's remarkably difficult to un-pair herself. Which means it's time to get creative. ]

Hey, [ Nadia whispers, her New York-accented voice gone soft and conspiratorial ] I've got an idea. What d'you say we blow this joint, head to the bar, or the movies, or whatever? Can't be worse than our inner selves, am I right?

[ Like, come on. Nothing is worse than that. ]

wildcard
[ Feel free to toss me your own starter, or hit me up via PM or at moonlanding for plotting! ]

i. a day in the life

[phototactic]

[ The teenage boy Nadia is greeting somehow manages to look even more startled he's here than she is, and he's the one who decided to walk through the front door. He blinks at her for a second before he dips his chin, bangs and the brim of his baseball cap conspiring to hide his eyes. ]

I'm lookin' for a CD player. [ His soft accent is hard to place, but it smacks of rural. ] Kind you carry around.

[ There's crumpled foreign money in his back pocket. He's hoping it's enough. None of the prices around here make any damn sense to him. ]

Althea Brooks | Original Character

[codenametesla]

i. Arrival
[Oh she hates this. Oh, she hates this. No matter how idyllic the setting appeared, it did nothing to assuage her panic at being somewhere unfamiliar, with none of her usual things and no memory as to how she got there.

It did seem to be a building with fliers, information, and maps, however, and that sort of research was at least a distraction from that panic.

And so, others walking in might find her surrounded by spread out maps and pamphlets and all the information she could find, spread out on the ground around her as she tried to make sense of it all.

She did try not to be in the way, but it was getting a little out of hand...]

ii. GOATMAN, THERE'S NO NEED TO FEEL DOWN
[The stories about the 'Goatman' have her... concerned. Almost as much as the general sense of unease and concern she was getting from a town of people who apparently knew her and a home she somehow knew she had that really shouldn't exist. Almost as concerned as the panic freshly building around her electricity seeming to be bled away from her as she wandered into and around the town, like one of her senses was being stripped away.

Almost.

Which is why she's in the woods anyway, searching for a relief from the weird draining feeling, or any explanation as to what was happening. She was too scared to go in too deeply, while she wasn't sure how well she could defend herself, but she had to try something right? Besides, the stories were surely just that: stories.

Right?

The first odd sound or smell or sense is going to have her whipping around towards it, and possibly you, hands up in some sort of defensive posture, and an attempted confident tone as she called out: ] Who's there?!

iii. Toil and trouble
[The promise of help, of any kind, is one that Althea can't even begin to ignore. She's absolutely curious, yes, about this magic itself AND whether it has any connection to her strangly fluctuating abilities, but she also just wants something to hold on to in all this: be it from a mentor or her fellow 'classmates' also checking this out.

Ms. Spinner makes it very clear that she's not in the answering mood, however, which means she's going to have to talk to someone else.

Or get suddenly and rapidly shoved togetherinto someone else by Ms. Spinner herself, when she takes too long.]

Sorry! I'm sorry!

iv. wildcard!
[ooc: feel free to pm me on here or ask for my plurk if you prefer that, and we can do something else! I'm phobic/have ptsd of deep water and drowning, so that one's probably not going to be something i touch, but otherwise I'm pretty flexible!]

I SAID, GOATMAN. cw for human organs being waved about

[vivisectio]

Me ☆

[Which is. Who? Just some guy, covered in blood from the shoulders down pretty much. He's finished playing with the corpse of his work pal, holding a human liver in his hand, and he just smiles at Althea whilst waving said liver rather jauntily at her.]

Don't go much farther if you're squeamish! Something killed my friend, and I just can't figure out what. Not safe for anyone~ Do you want me to walk you home?

[He's not dropping the liver.]

aogu kanou | cell of empireo

[vivisectio]

monster and men - cw for tampering with a body/gore

[If you've been smelling that metallic tang in the air particularly strongly, despite travelling alone tonight, well.

There's a reason for that. Taking that shortcut through the woods was a bad idea, especially when you end up coming across a blood-spattered man, probably the source of the metal-blood smell now that you think about it, squatting beside viscera. He's got one sleeve rolled up, reaching into what might have once been an abdomen, gleaming ribs above and murky organs peeking out from torn skin. Even as he turns to look, Kanou smiles wide, serene, and grabs onto something within.]

Hi~ Kanou-san's just playing with his friend ♡ They were playing tricks on me, so I'm getting my own back after they went and died on me, you know?

[He grabs on harder. Something squelches within. Then he pulls.] You have to be careful about who you tru~st. Maybe we should get guns! [Another pull. Whatever poor organ he's grabbed onto doesn't want to detach without a fight.]

Shore Thing

[Oh. Oh dear. That's his beloved Aso-chan. His beloved Aso-chan, who never chased him down. His beloved Aso-chan who he died for, then lived for. Who couldn't even save him.

Kanou stumbles after the spectre, calling out in alternating adoration and fury. Lilting nicknames, switching into 'come back here, bastard!', but chasing all the while. Aso-chan can't escape his duty this time. Aso-chan has to kill him. Aso-chan has to do the 'right' thing, and Kanou isn't going to forget the debt. Which is why he kicks off his shoes, rolls his pantslegs up, and starts wading in with a look of thunder on his nutty little face, no matter how cold the water is.]

Oi! I gave everything for you, rat! Come back and finish what you started-- [oh wait he has an audience. He plasters a smile back on his face, playfully bonks himself on the head despite being ankle-deep, and sticks his tongue out.] So~rry~ Kanou-san didn't mean to disturb you, but I have personal business with this guinea pig of mine ☆ Isn't it mean of him to run away? Don't you think he's just the worst? Not very heroic at all, even?

Day by day

[Well, whatever. If they're going to insist on using him as fodder for their experiments, well...It was only a matter of time! And he doesn't mind too terribly, bar the fact that he'd rather be on the studying end than the studied. But it's interesting, to get to see the results up close like this! To have his reality so wobbly, to be switched through roles in this little town that only he seems to remember the progression of.

A few days ago, he was a librarian. Now, he's working at the corner store, standing behind the cash register with a cheery smile and a box of doughnuts to get him through the day.]

Hiiiiii~ Hey, hey, guinea pig, fellow guinea pig...What job did you have before? You can tell me, I'm not one of the big bad guys today ☆ I'll give you a discount if you share~

[or we can hash out a wildcard i'm whatever babes let's go]

day by day

[parhellia]

Not for today, huh?

[ So is he a big bad guy on other days, then?? Well... as long as it isn't today, then Ala supposes it's alright to approach the counter, eyeing that box of donut before looking back up at Kanou. She doesn't have much money on her, so even with a discount she doubts she can afford much, but maybe she can get a bite or two of donut out of the deal. ]

But, hm, are you asking about just recently? Or all the jobs I got fired from before?

osamu dazai | bungou stray dogs

[uragiri]

visitors center

[ the thing is... as far as Dazai is concerned, this is all pretty weird. For a lot of reasons. A lot of reasons that he is categorizing in his head as he goes along, looking like none of it is bothering him despite the fact that it's all clearly weird, and the fact that he is, in fact, deeply bothered.

Largely because Dazai -- dressed so nicely and neatly in a normal button down shirt and slacks, not a single bandage to be seen on the smooth, unmarked skin of his arms and neck -- has no idea what the fuck is going on.

So he studies the map in his hands, curiously. ]

Liquor store, liquor store... Aha! [ There it is! He taps the spot on the map, and then starts tracking that spot as he moves his finger to trace how to get there from the visitors center. ]

ghost on the shore
cw: suicidal ideation

[ The thing is, the second Dazai sees the figure in the distance, he knows it's bullshit. Someone dead can't be alive again, except --

well, he doesn't really have anything he can say to prove that, here, so maybe he's wrong. He'd like to be wrong. He follows the figure in the distance, all the way to edge of one of the lower bridges in the city.

It's then that Dazai reels back from the edge, looking politely puzzled. ]

Was this all you were after? I wouldn't say I needed the encouragement...

[ He's addressing nothing but the empty evening air-- and after saying this, he, alarmingly, shoves his hands into his pockets and calmly walks the final step off the edge of the bridge, plummeting into the water. ]

toil and trouble

[ Dazai seems deeply bemused by all of this, but particularly bth the fact that this strange woman stores books inside trees. It seems rather poor, as far as humidity-controlled spaces go, but who is he to critique? It's not like Dazai takes care of his books!

But he pairs up, stepping over to his partner with a smile. ]

Let's see if this works! [ He would be impressed if he could do the slightest bit of magic, what with his ability... but this whole place is weird enough. Who knows? ]

[ ooc: permissions here! feel free to dm this journal for any questions/comments/plots/cool cat gifs/etc. ]

( ghost )

[grantor]

[ Chuuya is a little weirded out the this impulse he has to help people out. He's never been a hugely anti-social sort of guy, but he's never the good Samaritan type, either. The urge to wander around helping people lost in the fog is not a normal one. But he can't really find a reason to ignore it, so he doesn't. Instead he wanders, restless and annoyed by what he perceives as a lack of progress.

Figures something interesting would happen when he finally reached the bridge.

Chuuya slows as he sees the figure at the ledge, and strains to listen when the figure speaks. He steadily draws closer the whole time - and then recognition clicks into place. ]

Dazai--

[ Of course, that's right when Dazai steps off the bridge, which is really just like him. Chuuya rushes forward, throwing himself against but not over the railing. ]

Dazai, you stupid bastard!

Xerxes Break | Pandora Hearts

[payingfordeliverance]

Toil and Trouble

[You see the "witch" coming toward you, or so it appears at first. It's easy to think you're in trouble, given the look on her face. But as it turns out, it isn't you she's aiming for. Instead, she stops underneath a nearby tree, reaches up, and yanks a middle-aged guy with one single visible red eye down by his foot.]

Geh!

[He lands right on his ass, and the witch doesn't even bother to look at him as she stomps off. To his credit, he keeps the open book he's holding held aloft, so that it won't be hurt in the fall. He has that much respect for this whole endeavor, at least. But he's very clearly vexed at having been tossed at a partner, and barely spares a glance towards whoever the witch has thrown him to. RIP everyone else, but Break is different and can do everything all alone by himself all of the time forever.]

Can't a man read about -- [Checks notes.] -- "healing potions" in peace...?

...this is just tea.


A Day in the Life

[Break likes his job, inasmuch as you can like anything when you're depressed and grieving and fairly certain an ill-timed wish on your part has led to your stealing the life of some other version of yourself. Even though all his official IDs and whatnot say "Kevin Regnard" on them for some godforsaken reason, and everyone treats the name "Xerxes" as some amusing artistic eccentricity on his part. The university's drama club does enough shows with historical costuming that he can take comfort in the nostalgia, and being in the costume shop is a welcome bubble of something almost like security in this world full of technology and culture he doesn't understand.

Naturally half the kids who are supposed to be learning the tricks of the trade from him, which he did not know last week, make him crazy, and naturally he's been amusing himself by being even brattier to assert dominance.]

Look, there are all manner of ways to cheat, but under the stage lights it will show if there's no petticoat over the hoop. After all this fuss there's no way the fairy godmother is sending this girl off to the ball with her hoop showing beneath the hem of the gown. Do it properly or I shall damn you to serging stockings and I'll not help you a bit if the nasty thing wants rethreading.

[Why even have brats around if you can't be cantankerous at them?

Outside the shop, however, it's much more difficult to pretend. He wasn't a professional tailor or anything by a long shot in his past life, but he was handy enough with a needle that he can manage to set aside the creepy sensation of knowing how to do this or that without knowing why he knows. When he has to leave, however, it's a different story, and things finally come to a head when he trots off to Joanne Fabrics, marches straight in, and finds himself in exactly the aisle he wants without needing to hunt around as he does everywhere else.

It's too much. He hasn't been able to process the fact that he is dead, he can breathe and move and see again but there's nothing to look at that makes any real sense, he misses his people so badly and strangers are treating him like an old friend and he has no idea what will happen if he stops playing along. Anyone else who has a particular need to be at a craft store for some reason may find him staring at nothing and visibly disoriented, the puffy-sleeved poet shirt he wears out of spite an indicator that perhaps this man might be in the wrong 90's.]

fire burn and cauldron of bad decisions bubble

[uragiri]

Isn't most witchcraft just folk remedies mixed with lore? [ Dazai offers this completely conversationally, flipping through his own book. It's definitely just tea, but magic tea, probably! Eh, Dazai's seen enough magic swords that he's not too impressed by the idea of magic tea-- which this may or may not be. ]

I know a lot of people who would think tea is healing. [ Not Dazai. Dazai thinks sake is healing. Dazai is currently a man off his leash, committing grave sins against his bank account because there is no one around to stop him. It's going great! You can tell by the fact that he's a man dressed business casual, but covered in bandages, attending a witch meeting. ]

asa mitaka & yoru | chainsaw man

[m67]

OF MONSTER AND MEN (cw: mentions of violence)

[ things were strange as is when asa returned “home” to a fake mother asking her: did something happen? why aren’t you in school? and what are you wearing? there were too many questions from there on out, and most of them all summed up to a devil’s doing. yoru would harumph about it— there wasn’t a devil within their vicinity or out of it, but that had to be wrong or else everything just made even less sense. this was something else. a big, damn mystery at a horrible time.

so, after rummaging quickly through her now preppy ass room, she goes “back” to school, as it were, to piece together the life of an asa she never was, in an upbeat, colorful outfit she’d never wear in her life. through the woods, fake mom told her. it’s still daytime, so it should be fine. just be careful.

asa was reluctant to go through the short cut the woods offered. nothing sounded safe about walking around in the middle of an empty trail full of trees in— whatever it was that she’s wearing. a maniac could kidnap her, or do worse in cold blood. yoru guffaws at her with arrogance. nothing was going to happen to them.

until you show up, and it isn’t really asa who’s taking the wheel here, but: a confident girl that puffs her chest out and looks down upon whoever has joined them, no matter their age or size. she says with a spit: ]

You, there. Take me to school!

[ you can’t just do that, what if their a psycho! ]

Then I’ll kill the fool, fool!

[ ………………………. ]

GHOST ON THE SHORE (cw: drowning)

[ asa sees yuko in the mist. yuko, who ran away. yuko, who never returned her shoes. yuko, who she shared the last real laugh in her chest and made her feel warm and belonging rather than so cold in her loneliness.

asa follows her with yells to pull her attention, and yuko just wades deeper and deeper into water and fog. the girl goes after her, in shorts, converse and all. yoru doesn’t like this. yoru argues for asa to come back—

but asa doesn’t hear her. not over her frantic splashing when she realizes she barely reminds herself how to swim.

it’s you who sees her drowning. ]

TOIL AND TROUBLE

[ magic? a real witch. get real. asa would say that she came due to her skepticism— to prove to a certain someone that this was just some bogus attempt and conning the stupid (and maybe the stupid who believed all this? serves them right to get conned out of there minds). but then she’s forced to partner with you and . . .

asa doesn’t make eye contact. she’s too shy to, staring at her feet and near muttering to try and get the attention of her partner and says: ]

Listen, I don’t . . . Believe in any of this, so.

[ she shrugs. ]

of monster and men

[phototactic]

[ The teenage boy the confident girl is accosting certainly looks like he should be easily intimidated. He doesn't cut an imposing figure when he flinches back from her silently, his bangs swaying in front of his eyes.

But then he just stands there afterward, not leaping to obey, even though he's clearly wearing a school uniform and therefore obviously should know where at least one school is. ]

You want to kill somebody at school?

[ That's sort of what it sounds like from where Yoshiki is standing. ]

angela ☾ library of ruina

[willfulecho]

a. having fun isn't hard (library)

[ sadly, she is not a director of her role's namesake here, but angela finds herself among books anyway. she pulls them from the shelf, stacks of them at a time as she whittles the hours away, and it seems no matter what time one enters the library she has a pile she's working through.

does she sleep? she probably should. she acts like she doesn't, but angela's seeing that this form of hers comes with a hefty burden... the heaviness of sleep and fatigue. she bites back every yawn, eyes squinting in exertion of it, but

well, she's gonna fall asleep sometime, head laid against her arms. any other time she isn't particular talkative, enthralled in whatever book she's got her hand on -- need one for an upcoming essay topic or paper on the wonders of volcanology? sorry. that's hers. ]

b. she's a maneater (ghost on the shore)

... You.

[ she's seen others wander away from the little town they've found themselves in because of phantoms. it's hard not to hear about it either, as gossip and warning goes. but to see the long locks of woman she longed to be, loathed being "daughter" of, grieved and aggrieved by her existence stepping lightly along as anyone else -- angela falls prey to it too.

rationally, angela knows there's no way it leads to anything good. but if there is even the smallest chance... she can't pass it up. this young lady is certainly "hauling ass" as it'd be said, footsteps certain and absolutely bumping into people in her way. manners is not on the list right now. ]

c. do you believe in magic (toil and trouble)

Ridiculous.

[ and yet, she's sitting here pouring over the book anyway -- she'd had a second copy just a moment ago, to see if they were all alike, and had given it back to the witch after confirming their pages the same. the witch, already grumpy by nature, has sent you over to "deal with the young woman talking under her breath" -- if she's here, then she's got to do learning like anyone else. no solo activities.

angela doesn't glance at anyone she's sent over either, just keeps her finger to the text as she reads along the higher spells -- the ingredients are difficult for some, the wording hard to understand in the sense of jargon for others, but the language itself comes ea why is there a shadow over her dim light. her tone is polite despite her short words. ]

Move, if you would. You're blocking what light this place has to offer.

d. misc

[ or write me up something... for roles, she'd love to be a librarian so i'm not letting her be, she gets to be a schoolteacher for various age brackets, retail at the odd shop specializing in turnips, and fisherwoman of the lake. no, she doesn't know how to fish. but it can't be that hard to hook something other than a person. ]

wild card ; fishing for.... people?

[uragiri]

[ The thing is that Dazai is a big fan of large bodies of water. Largely because they present great opportunities to drown himself without anyone noticing! It's just that, despite his best, lofty efforts, his achievements in this area are... somewhat lacking.

It's for this reason that a fish hook finds its way into Dazai's dress pants as he floats along through the water of lake with little more than a ripple where the fishing line disappears. Except that when the line is reeled in, it presents--

A human leg. With pants. And a dress shoe. That, from the weight, appears to be attached to the rest of a particularly lanky human.

Fishing isn't hard at all! ]

Sam Vimes | Discworld

[sir_samuel]

Arrival

His Grace, His Excellency, the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes [1] opens his eyes and finds himself staring at some very unfamiliar treetops. The ground beneath him is hard-packed dirt, and something rocklike is digging into his right shoulderblade. He can hear the sound of buzzing insects and, quite possible, the faint tinkle of a bubbling brook.

Vimes is sure he’s not supposed to be here.

Now, this wouldn’t be the first time he had woken up, flat on his back with no memory of how he got there. But one, that usually involved greasy gutters and a gritty Ankh-Morpork night, and two, that’s not the sort of thing that happens to him anymore, thanks. He shuts his eyes tight, willing this dream—because it has to be a dream, right?—to end.

Why did it have to be a forest? Not that Vimes has anything against fuzzy animals. He just prefers them cooked well-done on a plate with some chips on the side. Not that he minds trees, but he likes them much better after they’ve been turned into useful things like houses, and paper, and crossbows. He just has to hope that if he lies here long enough, it all go away.

A bumblebee lands on his nose.

Vimes sits bolt-upright with a yelp that echoes through the forest. “Who did that?”

[1] Blackboard Monitor if you're feeling cheeky.

Monsters and Men

“The Goatman. So he’s…half goat, half man? Which half is which—no, wait, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”

Regardless of whatever stupid job this place has given him, Sam Vimes will always be a copper, and so when he hears that kids are disappearing, he goes to investigate. So far, this has mostly involved eyeballing surly teens hanging around the Flying Saucer Cafe and trying to get them to tell him what’s going on. They eyeball him right back—that’s the trouble with teens, they’re champion eyeballers—but they’re easily bribable with milkshakes, and that’s how Vimes learns about this mystery creature stalking the woods.

“No, no, no, wait,” he’s saying. “I’ve heard this one before. There was a story out of Lancre about some farmer’s cows getting maimed by some monster, but it turned out to be nothing.” [2]

“If you don’t believe us, then why don’t you go see for yourself?” says Surly Teen #1.

“Yeah, why are you hanging around us, anyway? You some kind of pervert?” adds his companion.

With a groan, Vimes stands up and stalks to the door. Maybe he will go see for himself.

“Hey, aren’t you going to pay for these!” one of the kids calls after him.

[2] Was it a hoax meant to scare the populace? No, not at all. Francis Chisolm just turned out to be a godsawful butcher.

Monsters and Men

[phototactic]

Teenagers are champion eyeballers, and the one leaning in a blind spot by the door of the Flying Saucer Café is no exception. Even with his baseball cap pulled down and his head canted at an oblique, nonchalant angle, he manages to be in a good position to get a look at the face of the man with so many questions about the rumor in the forest.

It's not really any of his business. He doesn't think he'll be able to warn him away from going into the woods, and Yoshiki doesn't know anything that could help him out. He doesn't think this stranger will be able to help him, either, and even if he was, what's knowing what he looks like going to do for Yoshiki if he's not going to ask him for anything?

Nothing. But here he is all the same, committed to a bad idea before he could think better of it.

He should be able to get away with it. Most adults barely give teenagers a first look, let alone a second one, and the other teens inside probably turned the man off of any looks at all.

Satisfied with his logic, Yoshiki glances, then turns as though he heard someone calling him and is trying to see where they are. Once he's 'spotted' them, he pushes off the wall and starts a casual walk away. It's as easy as that.

Ginko | Mushishi

[tenthousandmiles]

i. get your goat

[Ginko has long since passed the point of finding anything impossible. When he wakes up in an entirely different forest than the one he was walking in the night before, he takes that more or less in its stride. When he winds up in a town with strange rumors of a creature making people disappear, that's practically old hat. The townspeople recognizing him when he's pretty certain he's never been here is a little unsettling, but certainly within the realm of strange things he's heard or seen in the past.

What really gets under his skin is how empty the whole place feels; Ginko doesn't see a single mushi the entire walk into the town, and when he tries to close his second eyelid? The koumyaku isn't there. There's nothing there but darkness. It's ... terrifyingly lonely, for a man who's spent the majority of his life alone, with only the beings with whom he shared the world as company.

But he's not going to find answers doing any kind of panicking, and the presence of strange rumors about the forest is perhaps an ideal starting place. He's not sure if this goatman will reveal itself to individual travelers, though, so if he spots anyone else who's come to the mouth of the woods alone, he'll approach them.]

If you're going looking for the "goatman" as well, it might be beneficial to come up with a pass phrase in case we're separated, even for a moment. Something only the two of us would know.

ii. who you gonna call

[It's a common enough story -- some mushi phenomena or another producing a shade of a loved one, serving either as bait or to drive an individual to distraction. He's seen people taken in by such temptations more times than he can count, which makes it all the more surprising to find himself coming to suddenly feet from the water's edge, having followed after an apparition of Tanyuu hobbling into the river bank, bad leg or otherwise.

He doesn't really need to a compulsion to try to stop others, though, and he's not above just straight up bodily grabbing them to prevent their advance.]

Stop. Whoever you're seeing isn't really there. It's a trick to lure you to the water.

iii. all around me are (un)familiar faces

[He knows the way to a place he's never been. This by itself wouldn't be unheard of; there are many mushi that instinctively know where to go in various stages of their life cycle. It wouldn't even be impossible that he's here because one has latched onto him to complete that journey for it.

But it's what he finds when he investigates the house that fills him with a bone-deep discomfort--the pictures. Everywhere, he sees himself and others he doesn't recognize, an arm across their shoulder or perhaps draped over his own, smiling. A few of them include children, sometimes with other adults present and sometimes without.

Ginko has never had a family. He never can, because of what he is. But he understands immediately what those pictures are supposed to represent, and he does not like the implications. Worse still, he can't think of anything unusual he might have encountered that would've led to this. He's fallen under the sway of mushi without realizing it before, but never quite like this. It's too clean to be an illusion, without any seams in the edges or anything out of place, and if it's real -- then he might have unintentionally stolen someone's life, and left them out in the wilderness to fend for themselves.

He avoids his house, after that, strangely drawn to it or not. But the difficulties of being known in a place he doesn't know don't really stop there; he wanders into a shop for tea and is immediately asked if he'd like his usual, which he of course doesn't know. And when he tries to pay -- well, the shopkeeper is none too pleased with the unfamiliar coins he tries to offer her.

What the hell, is this some kind of joke?]

I'm sorry. I don't have anything else. I'm...not actually from around here.

[That's not funny. If you're too broke to buy something, get the hell out.

Ginko sighs, walking away from the counter as he lets out a puff of smoke; the scent is pleasingly herbal, in comparison to ordinary cigarettes.]

...This is becoming troublesome.

(un)familiar faces ((also OMG YOU DID PUT IN GINKO YESSSSS, I hope this is okay!))

[codenametesla]

[Avoiding the weird yours-but-not-yours home was a theme for Althea as well. She was lucky in that it didn't seem she had anyone else who lived there, or any super close relations, but it was... creepy, seeing pictures of her being chummy with people she didn't know.

Part of her was terrified of running into said people while she was out and about, but she'd so far been lucky. And there were only so many places to go in an unfamiliar town when avoiding home.

Which is how she came to be in the cozy tea shop, overhearing an interaction that immediately piqued her curiousity. Wasn't from here, but the shopkeeper seemed to know him? That meant he was like her, right? Maybe?

Before she had time to talk herself out of it, she was quickly pushing her way forward, setting down enough money for his drink, one for herself, and some sort of bread snack thank goodness the money system here was familiar, and her job seemed to pay well enough, forcing a smile and a laugh.]

Ah, sorry ma'am! We heard a story from another town but the jokes don't seem to really translate, huh?

[She gently elbowed the tall man in the side, hoping her look said 'play along' well enough.]

Dipper Pines | Gravity Falls

[cryptidgrams]

[Ghost on The Shore]

[It's practically embarrassing, how easily and how quickly the illusion works. He's only been desperately tearing the town apart on the brink of hysteria trying to find his sister. He's found no leads, no sign of her, no hint that she exists in this wretched place, that by the time he's come across the river, he's exhausted and emotionally spent.]

[He's telling himself to keep it together, stay strong. Getting upset like a little kid isn't going to help anyone. He just needs to keep looking...]

[So really, the moment he sees even the vaguest outline of person who could resemble Mabel, he's already walking. Hope and terror springing forth in his chest simultaneously.]

Mabel? Mabel!

[What starts as a slow walk turns quickly into a full sprint as a very distressed twelve year old makes a beeline for the river.]


[Toil and Trouble.]

[Dipper's experience with Witch's isn't the most ...positive. However, the promise of learning something makes it impossible for him not to go and at least investigate. It's not like he thinks magic isn't real. It's absolutely real, and he's done some himself more than once. The journals are full of spells and hexes and the like.]

[He's skeptical of how easily this person is just giving up the secrets and willing to teach a bunch of strangers. So ...he is wary of The Witch for the entire time he's there, but he is, if nothing else, a diligent student who is reading and taking notes as if he were working on math homework.]

...So to do this right, we need to carefully ration out the black salt for the circle. It says we'll need some for a later step and it's not advised to take some from the circle, since it compromises the protection of the barrier.

[He looks up at his partner, after jotting that down in a thick worn-looking journal.]

Do you have the candles?


[A Day in the Life.]

...This is the worst.

[A dramatic thing to be spoken by a very short 12-year-old as he stares down the entrance of the elementary school. Not even a middle school!! Some small town K-8th grade elementary school! Jeez.]

It was literally the middle of summer yesterday! And now I have to go back to school!? I have got to get out of here.

Ghost on the Shore

[aria_ardeinae]

[ Reyson has been keeping an eye out for further ghost shenanigans on the grounds that he does not trust this horrible lying thing. True enough, it's after someone else! A child, at that, which is cowardly behavior. Part of him is honestly relieved about the child's voice because the last person was six feet of musclebound hulk and he could probably wrestle this one back to shore (probably. he's met some tough children... this one could be a little barbarian) and another part of him is mad that he's relieved. ]

That's not her! Turn back!

[ He's coming in low, a blurry outline in the fog above the river. ]

Reyson | Fire Emblem 9/10

[aria_ardeinae]

Let's Go Meet The Goatman

All right, the river was terribly disappointing. He has confirmation that he's not alone in being some sort of stranger to this land, but also, he is sorely missing anyone from his own home. So, of course, rumors of a vicious beast who might look like a human at times hit him right in the preconceptions. It is entirely reasonable to think that it might be another laguz. Many of them still don't care for humans and vice versa, he can't think ill of anyone for lashing out when caught far from home. He does feel as though it is his responsibility to broker some sort of peace, before more people get maimed. Out of a grudging sense of responsibility re: his own physical health, he's convinced a fellow visitor to come look with him. Surely this will turn out splendidly.

"...Can you smell that?"

Daily Life

Reyson hates his new job. He does not understand what a computer is but that is all right because, as it so happens, it seems that neither do any of the people who come out of the annoying ringing device at his desk and whine to him about their problems! Sometimes he just starts yelling at these people and some sort of instinct takes over and starts sarcastically asking about root directories and then he understands a little bit about root directories. Sadly, it has nothing to do with actual plant roots. This might be for the best, if he caught people being as irresponsible with trees as they are about password protection he would resort to drastic actions.

He would honestly prefer to abandon this man's life and live in the woods except, as it turns out, the woods are occupied by Goatman, who is very real and a right bastard. So it transpires that The White Prince of Serenes must, eventually, go to the grocery store. He views everything here with a cautious suspicion. He's out of his fancy robes and into suitable modern garb but he's visibly non-human and glaring at the cereal boxes like they have offended him personally. At the moment, he is tilting a box of Fruit Brute back and forth.

"This... does not sound like fruit. Not even dried fruit."

Other

[ Hit me up with any misc. you desire, I can be found at MadarFoxfire for any Ashbrook talk! ]

[phototactic]

There's a man with wings like a Western angel, wearing a mascot shirt, in the cereal aisle.

Yoshiki wants to turn around and leave almost more than anything. He can feel it down in his heels, itching to spin. Unfortunately, a brand of cereal is on the grocery list he was given, and if he walked right out of the cereal aisle only to come back later, what might people think? Would the winged man notice, and realize Yoshiki could see what made him unusual the way no one else seems able to?

So in he goes, one step at a time. He doesn't stare, or do anything else unusual, and when he realizes the cereal he needs is close to where the man is frowning at boxes he makes himself keep walking forward.

"...dried fruit's in another part of the store," he says, quietly, not looking to either side as he checks the list and then the shelf for confirmation he's getting the right kind. "Over by the nuts."

"Hikaru" | The Summer Hikaru Died

[voidhole]

i. of monsters and men

[Kids are drawn to the woods. To the eerieness, to the tales that you can tell in the dark. Some dark tales are folklore, others are warnings.

Heck, maybe most are warnings. After all, stories come from somewhere. Still, Hikaru can't help but play out the role of unconcerned and over eager teen. (Was Hikaru the same? Or did he know what was up in the mountains). The Goatman infiltrates. It creates paranoia. It doesn't have a desire to become, only to be for a short period.

Why?

After the third time, his companion has vanished and reappeared, Hikaru fixes his flashlight up ahead, keeping it straight, not searching, but fixed like a spotlight.

Hey... Why do ya think he does it? The Goatman? When he looks at us... what does he want?

ii. toil and trouble

He isn't sure he has much use for a witch. He doesn't think he's capable of learning magic. And he isn't sure enough of Hikaru remains in this form to do so. But hey! He could meet a witch. Maybe she's something more like him, ugly on the inside and human shaped on the outside.

And yet, when he sees her, he squints, rubs his eyes, and looks at her, then around at his companions. Surely, this is a joke...?]

Hey, hey. Psst. Aren't witches s'pposed to be ugly?

[He asks, loudly, like he doesn't even know what whispering is. Hikaru wasn't good at it so neither is he.

iii. A day in the life.

So the life of a student in Ashbrook is pretty much like the life of a student in rural Japan.

But... that sucks! The teen boy sits on the edge of the curb, face in his hands, trying to make sense of his compulsion to sit at his desk and do homework. He hasn't even done it as himself for a year and he's already over it. At least he can keep it together enough to retain his shape.

He looks up at anyone who pays him any mind, face twisted in agony.]

Please, I don't wanna go t'school. I played hookie once! I could play hookie every day here but... my feet. They just keep goin' towards the school!

iv. wildcard

[phototactic]

[ The sun is setting. The shade between the trees is staining ever deeper black as Yoshiki walks the trail with his head down, seeing them only out of the corner of his eyes.

He never used to be afraid of walking anywhere at night. On clear ones, he liked being out under the stars and moon. When it rained, he'd go out in the late evening under an umbrella to go down to the creek. It was peaceful then, thinking he was alone. Nowadays, he wonders if he ever was.

He knows he's not now. He's trying not to think about it. He's trying so hard he almost misses the scuff of shoes ahead of him, instead of behind, and his eyes flick up reflexively.

It's a silhouette he knows better than his own shadow. The anxiety clinging to him like muggy humidity gives way to a cool, sweet burst of relief. For a suspended, surreal instant, all he feels is gratitude. When he calls out, his voice is low and cracked with it. ]

'Hikaru'?

link 🎭 legend of zelda: majora's mask

[72hr]

1. ghost on the shore

[ Sometimes, the figure is a young girl. Sometime it's a tall, long-nosed man. And sometimes it isn't a figure at all, but a small ball of light, softly glowing a shade of pink that he hasn't seen in months. Years. Maybe even decades. He stopped counting the days since he last heard Navi's voice a very long time ago, and yet, the voice he hears is distinctly her own, even when intermixed with Zelda's gentle encouragement and Ganondorf's guttural taunts. Does it matter which one of them it really is, guiding him through the fog? No. He wants to see them all.

A young boy, very small for his age, reaches the shore of the river and stares across the water at something only he can see. His clothing is dirty, dried leaves and dirt clinging to his simple green cap and tunic. The leather boots he's wearing are so scuffed and creased that it's a wonder they aren't falling apart. ]

I'm coming. I'm coming to save you, Navi!

[ And he plunges into the water, pausing only a moment to gasp at the frigid temperature. There's no way a pipsqueak this size is going to survive the freezing rapids for long — but he seems determined to try. ]

2. toil and trouble

[ Witches, you say? Link loves witches! Well, not all of them. Sometimes witches are your sworn enemy's foster mothers, and sometimes they're two nice old ladies selling potions in the swamp. He's willing to keep an open mind, of course, and his curiosity sets him on the path to dear Ms. Spinner's house.

Fast forward an hour and he's sitting at a table with a single unlit candle and a stranger sitting across from him. ]

So we're just supposed to light this candle with our minds? Who would ever bother learning magic like this when you can just use a match? [ He squints at the wick and frowns. ] I'd rather learn how to shoot fireballs.

3. wildcard

((OR TAG HIM WITH WHATEVER... im trying to get samples done before apps close so any help would be amazing ;u;

2

[codenametesla]

[Magic was... odd. The way it was being described, Althea couldn't help but compare it to her electricity, though the sources of power were wildly different.

Apparently too different, because what seems like it should be an easy task has so far eluded her. And then there's the kid on the other side of the table! What was he even doing there? Did they really start training witches so early, or had he been brought like so many others? How messed up did someone have to be to bring a kid to some weird place against his will in the first place?

Maybe her rambling thoughts were actually why she hadn't made any progress, huh?]

I guess... in case we're ever in a situation with no matches?

[His words brought her back to the present, and his last comment got a chuckle.]

I imagine you're supposed to figure out the small fires before you're able to make the big ones, both as practice and so you can control it.

Eugene A.J Davis | Ghost Hunt (Ghost hunt spoilers)

[thedeadtwinofnarcissus]

A dream within a dream

[Darkness. The darkness was slowly engulfing him. His thoughts, his memories, and everything that shaped his being, was vanishing from his grasp. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on. Who was he? Why was he here? Who is Noll? All these thoughts were slowly slipping away, fading into the unknown. He was so tired.

Suddenly, something gleamed in the distance. A light? Memories drifted in and out of his mind as he stared at it. Oliver… Noll… Mai…. Those names clung onto his consciousness as he slowly reached out his hand towards the light. Soon, more memories surfaced and wrapped around him, suffocating him as he remembered. Gene… that was his name. Oliver, his brother. And Mai…

Gasping, he struggled against the shadows as he desperately grasped the air. Was he free? Was this the end? Gritting his teeth, his existence becoming more and more solid as he strained towards the light, as it grew brighter and brighter. Gene winced and covered his eyes, as it grew blinding, the last thoughts before the light consumed him were of relief. And of regret. I’m sorry…Noll… Mai...

Gene blearily opened his eyes, squinting against a blue sky. Where… where was he? Gingerly sitting up, he looked around in confusion. The surrounding forest hummed with life, and slightly farther away from him, was a building in a clearing.]

Where?

[When he heard his own rough voice echo through the woods, tears filled his eyes as he choked in surprise. Gasping in air, he clutched at his face desperately, feeling his own skin tug at this face muscles. How?! Did he move on? Was this the afterlife?

As he shakily stood up, he looked at the environment, shivering as all the feelings he never thought he’d experience again rushed through him. As he took one step, his legs collapsed under him, and he fell onto the ground with the loud thud. As his body ached from the fall, more tears started to stream down his face as he took in the feeling of the grass scratching against his face. Soon, he started laughing and crying hysterically, as he laid down face first in the grass.]

I-…I’m out of there! I’m-!

[There, in the middle of the clearing, is a teenager giggling into the ground as he rubs his face into the surrounding dirt.


All I ever wanted

[When Gene was found by the police hours later, he was confused. Strangers he had never met were talking to him like they knew him. They held him so gently as they explained that his friends were dead and that they had been searching for him everywhere. He both recoiled and strained towards the hands that carefully pulled him towards the police car. Everything felt unbearably sharp and dull at the same time. Feeling so overwhelmed, he closed his eyes and leaned against someone and fell into darkness again.

When he heard them tell him he was going home, his traitorous heart hoped to see his family again, but instead met strangers. There was no Luella and Martin there. Instead, Natasha and Henry Davis greeted him with open arms. As they hugged and comforted him, his body shook from despair and exhaustion. This wasn't home. Of course, it wasn't. He was dead. And Noll... He had a brother here. But it wasn't his twin. All the joy he was feeling when he found out he was alive, was snuffed out as he took in everything.

His name was still Gene, but he was the eldest son of a group of doctors who settled here several years ago. This small town was called Ashbrook and he was somehow alive. When he woke up the next day, he half expected it to have been all a dream. But as he found himself still in Gene's room, he concluded it wasn't. The death of his friends gave him a chance to skip school for the day, and Gene soon left his house behind and wandered the streets.

After finding a quiet place to rest, he sat down and buried his head in his knees. This was all too much, and soon he couldn't stop crying. He was alive but alone.]


Smother

[Gene soon found out that he had a part-time job as a waiter and while his teachers and parents were sympathetic of his losses, his boss wasn't. So, to not lose a job along with his friends, he decided to go to his shift.]

Hello, welcome to Bigfoot's Burgers. How can I help you today?

[A tired, pale teenager, waited patiently for your order.]


(((Wildcards? Gene's opt out is here, along with his permissions. Gene is 16-17 here.

Rastaban Aesen | OC

[draconisrose]

((OOC: Rastaban is a life mage and energy vampire. He has a detailed character description on his journal here))

I. Visitor Center

A.)

[A small squirrel with branch-like horns and living plants down his back wandered throughout the visitor center, looking for something. This wasn’t where he was before and the flowers on his back started to wilt with his growing anxiety. If someone approached him, he stood taller and chittered threateningly. Back off! He’s not a poor helpless creature that needs help. He’s fearsome!]

B.)

[Once the squirrel felt relatively safe, he fell asleep. A golden glow wrapped around the squirrel and rose vines grew out of the glow. The squirrel slowly faded into the branching plant of light which grew bigger and wove into the shape of a human. The glow vanished as a sleeping young man materialized from the light.
Rastaban stirred and sat up with a with a grumpy grumble.]

Where are we?

[His memory was always bit fuzzy after he transformed but everything came back to him when he met the eyes of a stranger instead of his friends. His pale green eyes flashed with the same golden light as he glared accusingly at the unfamiliar person in front of him.]

Where are my friends?

[He discreetly reached for the dagger he always kept hidden at his side. He shouldn’t use his magic so soon after he transformed.]

((OOC:If you want to play with Rastaban as squirrel first and choose option A just let me know when you want him to turn back.))


II. Of Monster and Men (cw: potential for energy vampirism with players permission)

[This was the second time Rastaban had been stuck in an unfamiliar place, with no idea how to get back to where he was. Other than the immediate worry that his friends weren’t here with him, the fact that someone with his face lived here bothered him the most. What’s more, this version of him wasn’t born frail like he was, which he was incredibly bitter about.

It was eerie how similar they were. Their situations were completely different and yet the other Rastaban also chose to create a twin sister persona, although his Rasta was considerably different than the one he created. This Rasta wasn’t a polite shield. She was annoyingly popular and did whatever she wanted without caring about the consequences. No one seemed surprised when she wanted to explore the woods, despite the rumors about the Goatman. Rasta was glad at first, until her so-called friend decided to tag along. She tried to talk them out of it but they refused to listen so she reluctantly resigned herself to protecting them and went along with it.

Unfortunately hiking in the woods wasn’t easy with her frail body. She thought she had lost her companion several times now, but they showed up as soon as she noticed them missing, usually with an annoying comment about how Rasta was just pretending to be tired because she was scared.

Her eyes faintly flashed gold from behind her long black hair as she cursed her healthy lookalike while she rested against a tree to catch her breath. Was it too late to drain her “friend” of some life energy instead of trying to hunt down a monster that might not even exist? Her eyes narrowed when her friend suddenly grew quiet.]

Seriously? Again?

[She muttered under her breath before hiding her frustration behind her usual polite tone.]

Come on. Please stop playing around!

[The odd metallic scent and faint hint of magic in the air nagged at her. Her eyes glowed brighter as she quickly stepped away from the tree she was leaning against and tucked her long hair behind her ear, her exhaustion temporarily forgotten as she searched for her companion.]

Jessica?


III. Toil and Trouble

[Rastaban was curious about the magic here. Back home only the mages could use true magic without relying on crystals. He ignored the other visitors and sat down against one of the trees with his new book. It was fascinating. The way magic here used components reminded him of how he used different plants as an herbalist. He was rudely interrupted by the witch nagging him to find a partner.

His eyes faintly flashed gold with a tried glare.]

I don’t need a partner.

[To prove his point he held out his hand and shaped his energy magic into a sapling made of golden light. He channeled some of his life energy into his magic and the sapling started to grow. Instead of the giant majestic tree he was going for he only managed to make a small rose. The glow from his eyes faded with a look of confusion.]

That’s not right.

[The witch merely cackled. You have potential, but I’m not convinced. Without another word she grabbed his arm and shoved him towards another visitor.]

Hey!

[Rastaban didn’t have the energy to fight her after using his magic and he stumbled into his new partner.]


IV. A Day in the Life

Rastaban

[Rastaban hated how he was instinctively drawn to his home and job. He didn’t want anything from his other self who never had to struggle with his health like he had. Still as frustrating as it was, he wasn’t an idiot. He knew nothing about this place. The locals were friendly for now so he should quietly figure out everything he could before they were given a reason to turn against him. Also, he supposed he did need money. As a former noble he had never had a job before. Being an herbalist was more like a hobby that he just happened to be able to profit from.

Being a librarian wasn’t too bad and he was surprisingly good at it. It allowed him to easily slack off and he chose a quiet corner of the library to read in peace. He didn’t even look up from his book on plants when someone asked him where to find something.]

You have eyes. Look for it yourself.

Rasta

[There was an annoying complication with having a secret life as a twin sister. Apparently, she needed a job as well. At least his lookalike seemed to think so. Rasta worked as a barista at the local coffee shop but there was a slight problem with that. She didn’t know anything about coffee. She had always preferred tea herself and unlike his job at the library, her job didn’t come naturally to her. She swallowed her pride and apologized for messing up a customer’s order for what felt like the hundred time today.

There was one thing she didn’t fail at. She was very good at latte art. It was also surprisingly fun and she showed a ghost of a smile as she finished another rose.]


V. Wildcard

[Surprise me with your own starter if you feel like something different! Just let me know if you want Rastaban or Rasta in the subject line. You can plot with me on plurk Nicholaj, Discord@25thNicholaj, or PM, whichever is easiest for you.]