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

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...?

another sad boy appreciator!

[phototactic]

[ Maybe it's not the most civil of him, but Yoshiki's first instinct (even if he'd never say it) is that he does mind. There's a reason he's out here all by himself in the first place.

But looking up at the polite, friendly stranger through his bangs, he can't summon the energy to keep minding too much. He wants to be alone, and he doesn't want to be alone. It's an untenable and familiar state. ]

I don't mind. [ He says, quietly. ] Just thinking.

[ And he does happen to be thinking about forests, so the stranger's not even wrong. ]

sometimes you just appreciate kids with messed up(?) bffs

[modali]

[Well, he probably wouldn't have forced him to accept his company, but he knows what it's like being a teenager once. He gives him a pleasant smile and nods his thanks, careful in trying to crouch down and sit. He probably seems weak for someone his age, but he does his best to sit up with a good posture nonetheless.]

Care to share your thoughts? Perhaps a stranger might be able to help.

[He's not even pretending they're friends.]

I find often voicing them out can be useful.

his bff is very normal for the type of guy he is. probably. maybe.

[phototactic]

[ Compared to Yoshiki's usual experience with adults who think they can talk to him however they feel like, this one's getting off to a decent start. He'd politely ignore the man's frailty even if that wasn't the case, but he might try that little bit harder because of it. Nobody likes being noticed that way.

The guy's even going so far as to ask about Yoshiki's thoughts like he actually thinks he wants to hear them, instead of as a way of hinting that Yoshiki should stop thinking and brighten up. ]

...it's nothing like that. [ He says, draping his arms back over the tops of his bent knees. ] More wondering about forests. What makes them different from one another. Not just the trees, or anything, but...how they feel when you're inside.

definitely. totally normal.

[modali]

How they feel?

[It was a strange thing to hear from someone so young, but then again, he's met quite a few individuals around his age who seem to contemplate such deep thoughts. Perhaps it was his age, but perhaps it was the influence of this place, strange and eerie as it is.]

What do you mean by that?

[phototactic]

[ Yoshiki looks out at the forest again. The border between it and the school grounds is stark, well-kept, and it gives the uncanny impression of an invisible wall the trees are all crowded up against. ]

I mean how...some of them are all inviting, you know? Like they want you to be there. And other ones, they don't mind you coming in, so long as you're respectful. But then there's the ones where you feel like...like you ain't supposed to be there at all. That it's no place for any kind of clean living thing.

[ He hunkers down over his knees, voice dropping. ]

Like something went rotten in them. Something in the shadows between the trees. [ He stops at that, taking a little suck of air in, and then huffs it out. ] Don't know if that makes sense.

[modali]

Hmm...

[He thinks about it for a moment, trying to piece the idea together. It was an unusual sentiment from someone so young, especially because they usually do not concern themselves with such places. The vivid imagery in his words were also a curious thing.]

There is merit to your observation. Since the forest is a living and breathing place, many things do reside in it.

Then, what is the feeling you get looking at this forest?

[phototactic]

[ After saying all that, Yoshiki expected to have it laughed off or brushed aside. He'd been braced for the dismissal, which he would have deserved for rambling on like that in front of a perfect stranger.

He gives the man next to him a softly startled sidelong glance at the question, and he can't stop himself from feeling a little surge of near-relief. ]

Lonely. [ The word slips out in the wake of that feeling, and Yoshiki averts his gaze once more. ] It seems lonely.

[ Which is to say, if he were being more honest, it makes him feel lonely. Embarrassment seeps through him like chill water. He fumbles for a deflection. ]

Do you get a feeling from it?

ii

[wormwithproblems]

[ Nona is already in the water when the boy wades in to join her.

She's decided, without needing to give it much thought, that she loves this river. Minnows dart past her ankles, weeds wrap between her toes, and her two braids float along with the current. It's nice that someone has come to join Nona, even if he does look awfully sad.

Nona swims over to him, and since it's awfully shallow in this part of the river, sits on the riverbed, looks up, and smiles. ]

You don't need to cross your arms like that. The water isn't cold at all, I promise.

[phototactic]

[ Yoshiki's not expecting anyone else to come swimming up, but as soon as this girl does, it seems perfectly natural for her to be here. She sits right on the riverbed like it's the floor of her own bedroom, and when her gaze meets his, he doesn't think there's a single thing strange about that.

Her eyes are beautiful. They're so beautiful they spill over the rest of her sharp little face and make all of it beautiful with them. Looking at her, he wants to believe the water is as warm as the pricked-heart ache in his chest. ]

I'm sorry.

[ He's not sure for what. For still shivering when he obediently drops his arms, maybe. For intruding on a river that he's thinking of as hers without thinking about why. For the whole mess of him standing here in front of her, like he's got any right.

His own grey, dull eyes are hot and sore, all of a sudden. He drops his head and pushes the heels of his hands against them, the horrible bile of shame rising up his throat. ]

I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm cold.

iii

[parhellia]

[ How distracted is he just sitting there staring at the forest... Enough for Ala to sneak up from him from the side and snap a picture of his face? There's no need for the flash to be on in the middle of the afternoon, but the tell-tale snap of the camera gives her away, as does the rustle of grass and her stifled giggle fit as Ala trots up to Yoshiki, holding her camera out proudly for assessment. ]

Look, look, look! How'd it turn out? Silly, huh?

[ Silly, with the glazed look on his face, but also the photo is blurry and out of focus, as is what happens when you're rushed to take a surprise picture of someone before you get noticed and yelled at to stop ]

[phototactic]

[ It's way too late by the time Yoshiki brings his hand up to try to shield his face from capture. Ala will be able to tell he knows that by the instant regret in his eyes at wasting his time trying. He drops his hand with a little sigh as she bounces over, obediently following her instructions to look.

It does look pretty silly. At least with the blur it's harder to see his moles. ]

Yeah. It's silly.

[ So is she, his tone suggests, but in as weak and useless a way as he tried to ward off the picture taking in the first place. Yoshiki is a pretty defenseless person, generally speaking. ]

I don't think we have an assignment for hiding in grass and ambushing people.

[parhellia]

Hehe...

[ She takes the camera back, apparently satisfied with his appraisal. ]

Not for club, but my class had us keep a journal for summer break. Y'know, like, "Things I Did Over the Summer" and I thought I could pad it out with some photos! It was due last week.

[ Please, she can't start out the school year with a big fat zero, she'd be grounded for a month. This way, she can at least get some partial points... ]

[phototactic]

[ That still doesn't sound like a reason to ambush people, but Yoshiki can guess that's a lost argument already.

The idea of turning in a large assignment that late is one that would give him a rash, but it doesn't seem to bother Ala at all. She's carefree like that. ]

...you should take some pictures of things that look like summer. [ He offers, with another tiny sigh. ] Ice cream. A picnic. Sparklers.

[ He probably shouldn't be helping her out with ideas. ]

[parhellia]

Ooh, a picnic...!

[ She wants to have a picnic, but that would require food and basket and large checkered tablecloth to sit on, and also people to eat with. Out of all of those, she has... digging into her pockets... two pieces of hard candy, one of which she holds out to Yoshiki. ]

Two out of four! What do you have on you?

[phototactic]

Right now?

[ She can't possibly be planning on turning this in today, can she? And what does she mean by two out of four? It's only years of deciphering someone else's quick skipping train of thought that lets Yoshiki put together that she's probably talking about things that make up a picnic.

He digs into his own pockets and produces...an even more pitiful haul. There's some lint, a crumpled receipt, and a penny. ]

...not much. [ He admits, which shouldn't be embarrassing, but here he is. ] Maybe...the art room?

[parhellia]

[ Lint and a receipt... can be used as tinder for a campfire, she supposes. And there's not much you can buy with a cent in this economy, but she takes the penny from Yoshiki's hand anyways as if he were offering it to her, because money is money. ]

The art room? For what? Glue isn't actually tasty, you know, I've tried.

i

[protomartyr]

[ This isn't Lottie's forest, either.

Not that the wilderness was ever hers. Some of the other Yellowjackets - the ones who pretend to listen, but only hear what they already want to know - think otherwise, no matter what she tells them. Still, Lottie doesn't need any belonging to know that this place is completely different. It's less wild, for one, and after the biting chill of winter, the heat feels thick and murky.

There's no possible way that Lottie could have just woken up in a completely different forest, which means she isn't really here. That's fine. She'll see what she needs to see, and then she'll wake up.

That, apparently, includes this stranger. Lottie steps on a twig, and he turns around. Fair enough. That's good awareness. She raises both hands, slowly, in a gesture that's something like surrender. ]

I'm just visiting.

[phototactic]

[ What the girl says doesn't make any sense, but none of this is making any sense. The thread Yoshiki scrabbles for is that she does seem to just be a girl. An American girl, even, which means if she's visiting, she must be visiting from closer than Yoshiki is.

Yoshiki straightens up, swallowing his nervousness and the creeping sense of unnaturalness of all of this. He has to act normal, or she's going to think there's something wrong with him, and then she won't help. ]

I'm sorry. [ He nods to her, modulating his tone back towards calm. ] I think I'm lost.

[ If she knows that, she might forgive him for being rude. ]

Are you staying somewhere near here?

[protomartyr]

[ There's nothing to forgive. He seems a little less frightened, now, so Lottie takes a couple of steps closer and lowers her hands. From here, the stranger can probably tell that she's not in the greatest of shape - Lottie's face is all bruised up, and she doesn't look like she's slept especially well or gotten a good wash of her hair in a while. She might not have been outside in these woods, but she's been outside for a long time.

That doesn't seem to bother her, though. If anything, she seems awfully calm. ]

It's okay. We can find our way. I know how.

[ Lottie closes her eyes. She has to be careful what she listens for, and what she says, but what other way out is there that isn't this? What else does she know how to do?

She opens her eyes. For the briefest of moments, the stranger is gone, but he returns just as quickly. That must be part of the dream, too. ]

This way. [ She starts off down the path. ] My name's Lottie.

[phototactic]

[ Yoshiki's not so good a person that he forgets all of his own troubles when he sees someone else in distress. In fact, it goes to show how selfish he is that his stomach twists unhappily when he gets a closer look at her and realizes she likely needs help more than he does.

The lurching feeling only grows when she closes her eyes and listens for something he doesn't hear. Unseen, he half-raises his hand to reach out to her, and he drops it only just in time before she opens her eyes again. ]

Mine's Yoshiki. [ He says, helplessly, hurrying his steps to catch up to her side. ] You shouldn't...

[ His gaze drops back to the dirt. How does he explain? Does he even know what he should explain? Is she in danger, or is she a danger herself? Why does he always have to be figuring things like this out?

Maybe she's listening for the sounds of people, real flesh and blood ones. Maybe she's just a rough and tumble kind of girl, which is why she looks such a mess. Maybe. ]

...where are you visitin' from?

[protomartyr]

It's nice to meet you, Yoshiki.

[ Lottie smiles, although it doesn't reach her eyes. It's important to be polite to people in dreams. You never know what sent them.

It's also important to be honest, too. Lottie takes some time to think, listening to the sound of the path crunching underfoot. If Lottie listens closely, she can hear the sound of three sets of footsteps. But that can't be right, so she does her best to disregard it. It would be even worse to check with Yoshiki to see if he hears it, too. Even in dreams, she doesn't want to risk his judgment. ]

The woods. It's a little different than this one, though. Further north, in Canada, I think.

[ It's not like she has a map to know for sure. Then again, it doesn't matter. ]

Are these your woods?

[phototactic]

Nice to meet you too.

[ He wishes it was true. It's not her fault that it isn't.

There's a part of him that wants to convince himself that what she means is that this place is close to the border, and she hiked down here somehow. It could be what happened, like the footsteps trailing theirs could be an echo. ]

And no. Not this part of 'em.

[ Of course, his first instinct is to keep on lying. He could call it skirting the truth, but that would just be another lie. ]

Don't take this the wrong way, but...are you okay? You look like- you had an accident, or something?

[protomartyr]

[ Yoshiki's lie makes perfect sense to Lottie. He's not from this part of the woods, because no one is. Perhaps that means he's dreaming, too. Perhaps someone lived in the cabin before the hunter.

An accident. He's perceptive. That's good. And funny, too. Lottie smiles, but doesn't laugh. There's something distant in her eyes. ]

I guess you could say I did. I was in a plane crash. We've been surviving in the wilderness ever since.

[ Lottie tells her story with a mildness that might be unnerving. But what's the point of crying? It happened. Lottie gave herself over to it months ago. ]

I'll be okay. Winter's almost over.

[ She says, despite the summer heat blanketing this particular dream. ]