memebrook | September 2023 TDM

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test drive

September 2023 TDM

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Who's underprepared?"

...The man standing around in early autumn in wet clothes, probably. That describes both of them but Reyson is wearing more so he has more wet clothes. He shivers slightly - standing around isn't doing him any favors. At least being angry warms him up.

"If it will get you away from this deathtrap, then I will allow it. Come on."

If he turns and starts walking, then he's still in control of the situation.

Only a soft laugh came in response. Was this man, with his delicate build and large wings, unaware of what he looked like? Was he unaware of what the haughty display seemed to be in the eyes of the onlooker?

Siegfried followed without complaint, glad to simply follow the others lead for the moment. Protecting someone smaller felt like a call back to simpler times... When he was a younger man that had just entered the kingdom of Burgundy.

Edited 2023-09-14 12:50 (UTC)

Oh, he's aware. He's very aware. How everyone else sees him is not his problem, is something he has repeatedly told himself over the last several decades.

At this point in time, Reyson lives in the main town in a fairly nice apartment and doesn't much care for it. Cars are there. People are there. The further they get from the woods, haunted as they are, the tenser he gets.

Siegfried grew uneasy as well-- this environment, even after his brief time in the Romanian wilderness outside of Trifas, was strange to him. Trifas, at least, had felt like the wilds of Europe as he knew it; this small town in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America was far removed from any of his lived experience.

Protecting someone without being asked, however, was not.

Noticing the other man's unease, Siegfried positioned himself to act as a human barrier between them and the unnatural world that they walked through.

Quietly, in a tone he hoped only the blond could hear, he spoke up.

"The people of Burgundy called me Siegfried. You aren't the only one who is ill at ease here. But, I can stay with you until it is easier."

Edited 2023-09-14 21:58 (UTC)

All right, that he will accept and even step in closer. Yes, all right, so there are rules for the cars and they should be staying on the roads but tell that to his nerves. The way these things smell isn't natural. Everything around is making some kind of noise and which ones are important is a complete mystery.

"Reyson, of Serenes. I will - accept your kind offer."

He sounds grumpy about needing it, but he might actually need help, like, emotionally. It's been a harrowing day! Besides, as Siegfried says, they are both out of place here, and just because one of them is steadier on his feet at the moment does not mean he requires no support!

He didn't know of a place called 'Serenes'. All he could guess was that it wasn't a place connected with the Earth that he knew, and he knew that ultimately those small details did not matter.

Siegfried knew the cars and the roads-- he just didn't like them. But, it wasn't his place to like them either. It wasn't a part of his role to make those sort of judgements.

"People have relied on my strength for a long time. This isn't a burden. Rather, I'm glad that I could offer, instead of being asked."

Listen just saying the name and having it be acknowledged is comforting at this point.

"Having power comes with an obligation to use that power."

He's close to enough generals and kings to have an opinion on strength - and, of course, having heron magic is also a kind of power.

"I've seen it used for worse purposes than walking someone home."

It still does feel unnecessary but you know what, free will is free will. Reyson is using his free will to glare at a traffic light and some would call that a waste of having eyeballs but it is his right to do it.

It was a sobering exchange-- and a sentiment that he had himself born in silence for so many years. Even after he had finally achieved his goal of marriage with the princess of Burgundy, he had not been freed of that particular weight.

"I've... used it for worse than walking a stranger home."

He admitted, grimly. So many people with wishes that needed fulfilled; bandits that needed defeated, loathsome men who used their strength to assault those weaker than them in need of punishment, dragons that had to be slain--

"It was by the nature of my circumstances and my deeds that I was the strongest man in Burgundy. Who was I to deny others their wishes, when I was the only one who could fulfill them?"

A sigh. It was so many years of unyielding responsibility that he had never voiced before, and never even fully questioned until very recently. He, too, stared up at the stoplights, but his sentiment was almost that of relief.

This was one problem that he wasn't responsible to change.

"It's rather freeing, to walk like this."

"That is a burden for one lone man."

Even Tibarn delegated quite frequently, and indulged in his own wishes as he saw fit. But not all of us can be Tibarn.

"Free of so much weight, what will you do now?"

Not all of us can be Astolfo, either. But, as capricious as the Paladin of Charlemagne was, he had made valid points.

Siegfried didn't just have to accept the way things had always been.

"I... am not sure."

He admitted, musing as he watched the cars idling at the stop light. There was a lot he needed to sort out, both in his brain and in what his capabilities were in this unusual situation. By rights, he shouldn't even be standing at the street corner with Reyson.

Siegfried shouldn't have been standing at all.

"That is something I will be looking to answer while we're here. What happens after is not anything I'm sure of, either."

The crosswalk man starts beeping. Suspicious. Whose job is it to put that man on the pole and would it not be warmer and more polite to direct the traffic oneself?? He does not care for this light up walking man. He will glare suspiciously at the cars on the side that Sigfreid is not obligingly blocking.

"We both have plenty of questions, then. My duties were not so expansive, but as I can't carry any of them out from here, I must trust that I am not as indispensable as I think myself to be."

Sitting around doing the bare minimum isn't an option for Reyson, he would go stir crazy. Hence the exploration near the haunted river. Ugh. Are they going to send Leanne to talk to the senate? She's too nice. She needs some sort of bodyguard to loom behind her and prompt her to ask Duke so and so why he is being mean and lying about following the restorative policies... that could actually work. She does lay an excellent guilt trip.

"... We should walk across,"

Siegfried prompted quietly, and stepped into the crosswalk. He had not visited any of the cities in Romania-- but, he knew that much about road etiquette.

"this is perhaps an opportunity for the both of us to learn something about ourselves."

He added, thoughtful. Introspection even was not something he had afforded himself.

It was time to change that.

Right, right, walking boldly. The roads are a hideous black blight on a perfectly good landscape. What's wrong with dirt!!

"I suppose there's something to be said for a fresh start and adventure."

That's kind of what Ike was up to, wasn't it? Leaving for parts unknown where nobody knew how many people he'd saved. He sounds dubious but a little hopeful about this. He's had so much adventure... But this is, it seems, lower stakes adventure. A chance to prove himself without family connections.

"A fresh start..."

Siegfried trailed, frowning as they crossed onto the concrete walkway on the other side. He recognized the legacy of the Romans, and was surprised that the same patterns for the roadways had carried over into this unknown part of the world. Did the whole of civilization run on the measurements of an ancient horse-drawn wagon?

"Is a fresh start truly possible?"

He asked. The ghosts of the ancient world that he knew were visible in the architecture of this modern city. The ashes of the empire that had conquered nearly all of Europe and left tracks in far flung, distant islands had reignited. It was visible in the city structure, and in the use of that ancient language on the government buildings.

Was there truly nothing that was new in this era of automatic carriages that were fueled by the liquified remnants of life before humanity even existed?

"I never imagined I would have the opportunity to try."

Edited 2023-09-16 03:29 (UTC)

"This town as a whole defies the limits of imagination."

Reyson doesn't know what Latin is and to be honest barely knows what a carriage is. He is lacking a number of cultural touchstones. His internal monologue will be complaining about roads until further notice. What he is very familiar with is implausible dreams coming true.

"If you wish for anything, the only way to find out if it is possible is to try."

"Hm."

Siegfried looked down, ponderous. Such rights were usually reserved for people that hadn't ripped their own heart out. The memory of that pain still left him choked and breathless-- but, that child deserved a chance to live.

"I suppose it's possible that there's many of us getting second chances right now," he said quietly.

"I wonder why?"

"I'm not - not here, at least. I was going home."

He realizes he sounds pathetic when he says it like that - you know, like he misses his homeland after twenty three years of exile and war - and squares his shoulders, continues leading the way to a place he knows by instinct and shouldn't.

"Like everyone else, all I can do is make the best of what I have at hand."

Siegfried missed his homeland as well, but for a different reason.

"My home hasn't existed as I recall for a thousand years,"

He said quietly, thinking of his son and his wife. Both were long dead, he was sure-- and his heart ached for the struggles he had caused Kriemhild to endure.

"I sealed my own fate in a wilderness far from here, on a different continent... And I suspect a different time. It may not sound like much, but by all rights I should not even be standing until I'm called again."

A sigh. He didn't know how to make an explanation of his circumstances any simpler.

"Perhaps, we should both make the best of what we're given? I have never felt so..." he trailed, glancing at the people around them that were decidedly not even paying attention. "So unnoticed before."

"We have sealed gods in my homeland. Asheruna will only reawaken under specific circumstances, a great war or a thousand years of peace."

Not mentioning that he could conceivably seal someone, it's rude, he certainly would not like it if someone went on about how good they were at shooting things out of the air. He could certainly see this man as some sort of god, taking a good look at him. He's got that sort of larger than life presence that Ashera did. Being mythical doesn't stop you from making stupid choices and walking into rivers, he has no illusions about the powerful.

"I have only ever been a prince. Even among my own kind, I am used to standing out." He flicks his wings to underline that he can't exactly go incognito under any other circumstance than whatever is going on here. He is only bringing up his royal bloodline because it feels like something that Siegfried here is not going to get weird about.

"I do like being judged on my own merits and not my heritage, but it feels very odd for anyone to simply do that, without having any prior opinion whatsoever."

"I... understand."

It was a heavy sort of understanding, one born of the experiences he had in his own lifetime in the wilderness around the Rhine.

"I am a noble by birth myself, and my wife is sister to the King of Burgundy. Being the subject of opinion is something I've experienced-- from both the circumstances of my life, and the beasts that I've slain."

He glanced over at Reyson, with his large white wings that absolutely were not hidden in the least but also were not the subject of any attention. Idly, he wondered if nobility and royalty among bird people had any similarities to people who spent their entire lives on the ground.

"Speaking plainly... I don't recall the last time I was able to walk the streets unnoticed.

So they have that in common as well. Being in a high position comes with specific burdens - and if it doesn't, then you aren't doing your job right. He goes from sympathetic nodding to narrowing his eyes when Siegfried mentions slaying beasts. That's a loaded phrase to use around a laguz.

"If I wish to pass unremarked upon, I can fly. If I pass too close to the ground, though, I risk attack from those who wish to shoot down an unusual creature."

His voice has gone sharp and clipped. There are a number of reasons that one could go hunting, of course. It's not like he hasn't fought against other laguz, even. He's grown as a person and is willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. But also there's no escape from opinions here, buddy.

"People that hunt for diversion and glory are often the cause of a host of other problems."

He noted that clipped tone and, concerned, felt the need to explain.

"I did no such thing. I had no choice but to fell a great dragon. It wouldn't listen to reason, and it's cursed treasure that was being disputed at the time was driving it mad."

This is a satisfactory explanation and Reyson immediately cools off.

"It's sad that you had to kill it, but I can't fault you. Dragons are stubborn to begin with, and there's no reasoning with a strong curse, either."

He makes another turn on instinct. It looks like plenty of other people live here, there are balconies with chairs and flowerpots.

"I'm well known in Goldoa for my part in a similar tragedy. Their prince had been driven mad, and my sister and I sang him back into his right mind after he had been fatally injured. He was able to bid farewell to his family. If I had been strong enough to face him during the battle itself, it might have been a happier tale... but if I had not been there at all, it would be far worse."

He knows how it is with dragons. Siegfried looks as if he did not need a full army to deal with one. He seems like the type to honorably face a foe on the frontlines.

[He absolutely had faced the dragon alone, and the beast's blood had soaked into his very flesh and left him Changed. No army could fully take him down afterwards, but he had his Responsibilities, and he couldn't abandon them.

Siegfried glanced up at the people on the street and in their balconies, carrying their groceries and watering their plants. It was quaint, almost like--]

I didn't wish to kill Fafnir, but my home in the Rhineland would have been in danger. In the end, the treasure it coveted was left in my care... And I used it to help others, as much as I was able.

[No matter how much he spent, it would never be enough to fully deplete it. Thus was the nature of a cursed legacy.]

It would have been better for everyone if Fafnir's rage could have been soothed by song. Even if you weren't able to do as much as you wanted to, you accomplished a feat that many would never dare to dream.

Such matters sound like a terrible struggle for you... and yet, you still seem like a fine person.

This is all right and proper. It is just to defend one's homeland and noble to use treasure for a good purpose. Reyson is gaining more and more respect for this man the more they speak. So of course he very much likes hearing that the respect is mutual. It's a somber subject so he's not blatantly happy, but he seems to be content, no trace of the earlier ruffling to be found.

"And you, you seem like an good-hearted and honorable man as well as a strong one."

Which in combination would lead to having the need to shoulder the weight of a country with all the conflicting demands of the people, and various deeds to carry out because no other can. It is a difficult path to walk.

"My clan has its own treasures, but our greatest has always been our alliances and friendships with others. I won't discount the struggles we've faced, but it isn't alone that we have weathered them and begun to rebuild."

And Lehran's medallion, the one that holds the goddess at bay - no, fuck that, it's friendship. That medal and its legacy would have killed us all so many times over if not for the friendship, which we found along the way.

September 2023 TDM

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