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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.
sometimes you just appreciate kids with messed up(?) bffs
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.
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.
[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?
no subject
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.
no subject
[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?
no subject
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?
no subject
What makes you think that?
[He leads into that instead, bypassing his own impression. Sinister, cold, something that made him wary. As a leader figure, even if it was just assigned to him, he shouldn't make the younger ones worry about their safety.
Besides, he doesn't know yet if this child was in the same situation as him. Perhaps he was just someone who lived here his whole life.]
no subject
But he doesn't even understand himself these days, if he ever did, and knowing that only makes him feel smaller and farther away. How can he explain what he thinks without telling the truth? How can he make the truth sound true? ]
I don't know. [ He pulls his knees in closer and shakes his head. ] Just a feelin'.
...like I feel like I should know you. [ An apologetic deflection, of the kind that's gotten him pretty far up 'til now. ] Do you know my dad? Mister Tsujinaka? I'm Yoshiki.
no subject
[He asks, and the question catches him off-guard, because most people just address him as one form or another. Assumes that he's been here, living his life like he has always been, even when that wasn't the case. To argue against it was pointless, because no one would believe him, so he had settled on following the routine as though he was truly part of this place.
It was easier to gather information that way.
It also made it easier to spot the anomalies.]
After all, many people here seem... new.
no subject
So they might be in the same situation. That doesn't mean Yoshiki can trust him. He's been getting by under the radar so far, more or less. (The radar of what or who, he doesn't know. He just knows somebody, somewhere, is always paying attention to people who don't act right.) ]
Lot of newcomers in Ashbrook. [ Yoshiki agrees, neutrally. ] And no. He's at the shop. Where he usually is, but if you don't own a restaurant, no reason for you to go there.
Are you new around town?
no subject
[The answer piques his interest. Even if he wasn't new, most people didn't acknowledge new people. It was a sign. Perhaps?]
Most people do not seem to notice the new ones, or perhaps-- they do not realize they are new. It is rather difficult to tell who could be a likeminded individual this way.
Ah, but you already noticed the strangeness of this place, haven't you?
no subject
If I said I had, [ he starts, heart high in his throat, shivering there like a bird held in the hands ] if I said I found a note, and then I woke up someplace I'd never seen before, would you think I was makin' it up?