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Entry tags:
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.
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
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.
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.
Althea Brooks | Original Character
[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
[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.]
TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN
She's definitely eyeing him, looking from the blood, to the... thing in his hand, then to his face. Absolutely nothing about him inspired confidence, or relief, but...
It was the old adage of the devil you do, versus the devil you don't, right? At least this was someone she could see, who maybe... was only store brand crazy, and not Goatman story crazy?
She lowered her hands marginally, but still held them close to her front, as if unsure what to do with them.]
...What are you holding?
[Because clearly that was the important question. Not.]
I SAID, GOATMAN, 'CAUSE YOU GOT A NEW FACE idk im sleepy ok
So he trots in closer and holds it out, though if she attempts to touch it (unlikely), he'll pull it away.] Liver! Human. Showing some signs of being fatty, but it would've been easily undone with a change in lifestyle~ He was an older man, and we weren't actually friends, but he thought we were ☆
[He was friends with the Kanou of before, which is a funny thing to hear about as the Kanou of now. At least that guy knew he liked doughnuts, gave him some for lunch today. What a nice guy...]
Pity we lost him, but he kept coming and going from Kanou-san's si~de, so what could I do for him?
AND YOU STOLE. IT. FROM. THAT. OLD GUY. (it's okay, this made me smile X] )
She's certainly NOT going to touch it, and even tenses up as the blonde comes near, but she tries not to move too much in case that upsets him. And... yeah, her morbid curiousity does win out enough for her to glance closer at the organ, but she quickly looks back at the man's face as he speaks.]
He... thought you were? Did you work together or something?
[Really, she knew she shouldn't be asking questions like that: who knew what would set him off? But she needed any information she could get, frankly, and if he was someone who had been dragged here like herself, there might be more of a chance to team up with him in some way.
Hopefully.]
Coming and going from... so there really is something out here. Why would he split up with you?
DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN IT'S FUN TO STAY HERE PLEASE STOOOP RUNNING AWAY
A☆ny☆way☆
[The metal tang's getting strong again. Probably because Kanou reeks of blood and offal himself, and he's easily tracked down with how jauntily he's blabbering away; at least he has the presence of mind to not waste time when they could just. Leave the fucking forest.]
Don't leave my side like he did or you'll end up dead. Then I'll have two livers. One for each hand. Don't want that before you can give me something more useful.
NO PLEASE IT'S FINE YOU GOTTA STOOOP RUNNNING AWAA-AYYYYYYY
Though she had no proof whatever version of him that was here before wasn't similar, but still.]
No, I just woke here, but now I get what you mean.
[The smell getting stronger took a moment for Althea to register, until the scientist man continued speaking; she'd been so distracted by this man smelling of blood that she forgot that was one of the warning signs.]
..Right. Why were you two in here anyway?
[She didn't know how to respond to the last half of his comment, and she sure wasn't letting this man out of her sight, so it was time for the next best thing: distractions!]
YOU CAN GET YOURSELF ATE, NOT IN THE WAY TO ENJOY, YOU CAN HANG OUT WITH ALL THE BOYS (cryptids)
[He snags her hand in his free, still bloodied hand, and yanks her along. It's hard to remember which way is what, but it is what it is; if they get caught, they get caught. Not the end he wants, but better than the end he thought he was going to have, that's for sure.] Don't let go. If I feel you let go even a little, then I'm going to run-run-ruuuu~n ☆ Without you! Leaving you for dead! Fufu~
As for why...He said it was a shortcut. Cut, yes, short, mmmmmmmmmm...Debatable! Don't you think? Don't you think? Why are you here? Are you a monster already?
I'll be honest, i didn't expect this to last as long as it did, we deserve a medal that was glorious
[But that train of thought, as well as figuring out whether that's what he meant or not, is very swiftly derailed when he grabs her hand and starts yanking her along. Immediately, there's shock at being touched in general, let alone her hand: that's never happened before! It's followed swiftly by panic, an anxiety over her electricity and hurting others that really only makes things worse when it flairs up, that almost makes her yank her hand away before his words sink in.
Finally, it's some form of acceptance, even agreement that this was a smart choice. It was an easy way to make sure they didn't get separated, didn't get replaced, and so long as she could keep her emotions in check, things would be fine, surely.
Hell, she even doubled down, strengthening her grip so that he wouldn't think she was letting go. Even as part of her thought him just running now would probably be the smart thing, and would save her a headache, a larger part of her was glad she wasn't facing this alone, weird as her partner was.]
Good. Same to you then, if you let go, or fall behind.
A shortcut? To where? From where? I was here.. testing, something, I guess. And I kind of thought these stories would be fake, so I suppose I was testing that too.
[She's not going to address whether she's a monster or not. Most people wouldn't like her honest answer to that.]
arrival
In any case, he had no choice to figure out the situation first, with or without a friendly face.
At least, from what he can see, with papers spread on the ground, he wasn't the only one.]
It seems you are quite busy there. Might I suggest moving your paperwork indoors? You might lose them should a breeze come forth.
no subject
Oh, well, I didn't want to get in the way, and it's not much so...
[But then she trailed off and looked around her, as if realizing just how spread out it had become for the first time, and her expression shifted a liiiiittle more towards a frown.]
Or... actually, I think you're right.
[She shook her head, offering another smile, this time apologetic, before she started picking up the mess she'd made, though at least she had an idea how to organize them now.]
It would put a dent in things if the wind decided to mess it all up, you're right. Are... you here for one of these or for something else?
no subject
[Looking around, trying to assess his surroundings. He didn't actually know if she was someone who was from here or not, but he couldn't help but want to help. Or at least, offer it.]
If you need some assistance, I'm free to help. What are you looking for, exactly?
no subject
[But his question has her pause her comments and glance back up at him, then glanced through the papers she now had mostly bundled in her hands now.]
Oh, that's okay, I'm just... new, so I figured I'd try to figure out what's around here, places to go, that sort of thing.
[She hoped that sounded natural enough if this person was someone who lived here, but if he'd just arrived, maybe he'd understand. She'd already felt the... strange urging towards where the city was, where she somehow KNEW it was, even though she'd never been there before.
She was delaying going there as long as possible, as a result.]
no subject
[There's a curiosity in his eyes that wasn't quite there earlier, like this piece of information was something that made her stick out far more than anyone else has so far.
That was different from what he's been getting so far.]
... Pardon me, how long ago did you arrive, if you do not mind me asking?
i
Umm, hm...
[ We'll figure that out later. Maybe Ms. Stranger has some money to spare. ]
Hello! You shoulda come during the winter! That's when things are super pretty here!
no subject
Ah... winter? Really? I've always wanted to see some of the winter sights listed in here...
[She pauses, mid-thought, eyes widening as what the stranger said fully clicks.]
Wait, does that mean you're from here? Do you know what's going on?
no subject
[ She's from here, probably, she thinks. The faint hint of familiarity is there, but the sort of familiarity that's like a reoccurring dream in a nightmare world you're all too quick to forget. In either case- ]
What d'you mean "what's going on"? Are you heading towards town? Or- [ she traces her finger along one of the maps ] up into the mountains? I guess trees and dirt are pretty too.
no subject
Oh.. right, sorry. I um... was trying to figure out how to get to town, yes. [The attempted backpedaling was real.] I'm just trying to get the lay of the land, I guess? I'm not from here.. I think.
Um... do you not like the forest and hike trails?
no subject
'course I do! I like listening to the crickets chirping at night, and watching the fireflies zip and zoom, and looking for little crawlies underneath rocks after it rains!
[ Forests are great! It just happens to be mid-afternoon during the summer, with no sign of rainclouds in sight. ]
Mm, maybe it'll be dark enough by the time we reach town. Anyways, are you all set to go? We'll need food and water and a heavy stick!
no subject
Oh, I... uh...
[Sighhhh, okay, restart.]
Okay wait, I... was mostly trying to just figure out what was around here. Any explorations- er, hikes, will have to wait till later? I definitely don't have any of the supplies for that.