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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.
osamu dazai | bungou stray dogs
[ 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 )
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!
no subject
He stays above water long enough that he can faintly see the pinprick of red hair up on the bridge-- ]
Chuuya, it's cold! [ He's going to whine about this for the next six years if you don't rescue him. He's not doing the best job at treading water, given how swift the river is running-- and the fact that his fingertips are already turning blue. ]
no subject
God damnit-- don't die on me, asshole!
[ And then he disappears from sight.
A few long moments pass, and then a modestly sized tree crashes into the water a dozen feet downstream from Dazai. Chuuya's ability isn't working consistently here, but apparently it's decided to cooperate with him now. ]
no subject
which is why when he hits the tree, Dazai simply scuttles onto it like a shrimp, and then lays on it, defeated, radiating all the energy of a wet cat.
Then: he sneezes. ]
I want to stress that I would wait until summer to try and jump into a river to die, if the river hadn't been calling to me. This is terrible! [ He's wet! And cold! And WET! ]
no subject
You heard the river talking to you and decided that was a good enough reason to jump in?
[ Which... isn't exactly the weirdest thing Dazai will have done, sure, but it's still enough to annoy the shit out Chuuya. ]
I hope you catch the worst cold of your life.
no subject
[ Which is an important point, even if Dazai scuttles into more of an upright position so he can actually straddle the tree instead of risking falling off at the slightest bump. While Dazai is no stranger to jumping into rivers and other bodies of water -- it's always a decision he makes himself.
It still was, in this case, and that's partially because Dazai made sure of it. Like hell he's letting something else get better at suicide than him! ]
I'm already very cold. I'm very repentant. I would very much like to be in a warm bath right now.
Visitors center!
He wasn't planning to bother the other guy here, content to sit at the table for a bit and try to sort out what little he's found out, but... yeah, don't mind him looking up from the map he's been carefully recreating in his notebook.]
That's the first place you're going?
no subject
If I'm getting started in an unfamiliar place, then the most important thing is getting my bearings straight! And the second most important thing is at least two bottles of sake.
no subject
[Not that he has any right to stop this guy, being both underage and a complete stranger. On the other hand, awful as it may sound, there is something cruelly comforting about knowing that he isn't the only one stuck in this predicament.]
It sounds like you're just as confused as I am. [An astute observation.] If it isn't too weird to ask, if you're heading into the town, would it be okay if I joined you? I don't drink, but I think I have a pretty good sense of direction!
no subject
I don't mind! [ Dazai sounds quite cheerful about this. (It's the promise of alcohol.) ]
Between the two of us, we might figure out where we actually need to be, instead of just where we're going. [ This is a sentence that makes sense mostly to him. ]
no subject
[This guy is so friendly! What a nice person! Not having to go alone is a bit of a relief, even though there's nothing to be afraid of.
Yet.]I've just about finished copying down a map, since I don't want to take any of the ones here if other people need them. You just showed up here too, right? We can't be the only ones.
no subject
But it's best to proceed with the obvious and plan for the extraordinary, which is why Dazai continues to be both complacent and friendly about the entire thing. ]
I was in France, just before this. [ He leaves the "in prison" part out. ]
no subject
[In another world? Hmm. That's probably not something he should so readily admit, huh... Not that it wouldn't be believable, given the circumstances, but still. Better safe than sorry!]
Well, I'm from Japan. But I'm used to speaking English, so I'm glad we can communicate!
[First world trilingual problems: not knowing your default isekai settings have English included.]
no subject
I'm not as used to English... I seem to speak it better than I remember. [ Wow, neat how the isekai came with English! ]
no subject
[Just like 30% of the entire population of Japan, so it's not that much of a coincidence. But hold on, what's this about speaking English better than he can remember? That's worth looking into.]
Hmm... Then let's try it out! Let's try to talk about something difficult in English. Are there any subjects you're good at, uh... [Oh.] Right, sorry! I'm Naito Fuuga. I should have said that earlier!
no subject
... I'm very bad at casual small talk and slang. [ Dazai considers this, and then, with his best attempt at casual American interactions: ]
I'm Dazai Osamu, it's ... cool ... to meet you? [ Please, he speaks like he's from the 1800s even in Japanese half the time. ] ... radical ... ?
[ Despite the fact that his vocabulary is lacking -- the English itself is great. It's possible that his alternate self just also speaks like a Victorian gentleman. ]
no subject
What's up? You seem like a pretty chill guy! [THIS FEELS SO WEIRD.] Are you into classic lit? I really like reading, but I don't know how much I can talk about off of the top of my head.
[Give him a moment to bring a hand to his chin. This isn't going very well, since as much as he can do small talk without issue, trying to use a bunch of slang without reason is difficult. On the other hand, he doesn't know much of it in English and it sounds a little forced as a result, but that's exactly what they're after.]
I think we're on to something! Um, let's see... what's something that would be hard to talk about in English? Japanese history? [Another pause. Hmm...] After the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown, the Meiji Restoration restored the control of the country to the emperor, and Japan underwent rapid development and brought on by the influx of western ideas and technology—
...I really can speak more English! [What's a shogunate?!] You discovered something really, really important, uh... what should I call you?
no subject
I'm a fan of poetry, I suppose, but I don't know that quoting any of it right now would prove very much. I understood everything you said, however, so that gives the entire thing credence.
Oh. I'm Osamu Dazai! I usually work in Yokohama for a detective agency, so all of this is a bit...
no subject
But do you know what's equally hard to digest? That this guy's name is actually Osamu Dazai. Naito was positive that the first time he said it must have been intentional, but even that's surprisingly easy to put aside given the rest of what he's just heard.]
You do?! So do I! In Shibuya, but...!
[Give him just a moment to retrieve a business card from his pocket and offer it out. And sure enough, front and center, it reads Fuuga Detective Agency.]
Does that mean you're a detective too?!
toil and trouble
It's too early to tell, so he'll have to keep an eye on him.
He scoots over if Dazai wants to sit, gives the space next to him a pat.]
Sounds like you're ready for this. What are you going to try to cast first?
no subject
Something with quicker effects would probably be the most ideal, so I was thinking of the "spell to cast flame". [ He considers the book again, eyes flickering as he reads it. ]
I don't know how good my Latin accent is, but maybe it's more the spirit of the thing! [ Dazai categorically does not think it'll work to begin with-- but hey, when in Rome. ]