fellmemes | Test Drive #1

Welcome to the August test drive—our first in

fellden! We're so excited to have you with us.

A few things of note:

✦ Test drive threads can be considered game-canon if you choose. They're essentially in a shared dreamscape and take place between your character leaving their world, and arriving in the audience hall with their faction leader.
✦ Reserves are open and will continue to be until 11:59 PM UTC on Tuesday, August 20th; they are not necessary to apply! They're valid for the first four days of the application cycle.
✦ Applications will open at 12:01 AM UTC on the 21st, and remain open until 11:59 PM UTC on the 27th. The IC & OOC intro logs will be posted two days later.
✦ Questions? We have a FAQ that's chock full of good information! If they are test drive specific, we have a top level thread below that allows for OOC questions to be posted.
✦ The network is available to use! No matter where your character is, their compass either arrived on their person or available in the Gods Wood. Please feel free to include a network post in your top-levels! Once opened, the compass will display instructions on use, such as using voice-commands to activate it. (Apologies for missing including this on the initial test drive!)

All set?

Perfect! Welcome to Fellden.

AS THE MOON RISES.
You’ll find yourself just outside the Temple doors, which will be locked if you try to open them. A little rude, keeping you out after bringing you all this way. The thing is, you can hear a lot of commotion in the distance, and smoke rising from the center of a district; you may want to check that out. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!

Except the smoke is not at all something to be concerned over. Instead, people are gathered near a large bonfire in the decorated city square, drinking and carousing, singing songs of celebration; Moon saviors have arrived! War winners! The residents of the city laugh and sing and dance in pairs throughout the square, grateful for those who have come to aid them. Their merriment doesn’t dwindle as the sun begins to set on the horizon, twin moons rising in its place.

When you (and other new arrivals) are finally noticed by the revelers, do not expect to be left alone! Flower crowns will be deposited upon your heads, food and drink placed into your hands, while live musicians play loud enough for the dead to hear. You’ll be invited to dance, to drinking games, and offered food and flowers and other items of value. Some may cry when they look into your face, thanking you for becoming their champions during this long and exhaustive war.

Hopefully you’re here to enjoy the festivities. Sneaking off is just fine, too, but don’t expect to be let go of quietly; the people of the Moon Temple are so happy to see you! Enjoy the celebration while it lasts long into the night.

THE SETTING STARS.
Unlike the Temple, your arrival to the Court of Stars is met with a rather somber greeting, however expressions are relieved, despite any emotional guard that may be up.

A gathering of knights, weary from a skirmish along the border they're returning from, pat you on the back and lead you through an open air courtyard. All the gathered people of the Emperor's Court look up from their tasks, giving the passing Otherworlders a knowing nod. There's gratitude in their eyes, but that's all the welcome you'll receive: your presence is appreciated, but growing an attachment is another heartache for those that care so deeply for their faction fellows. The silence is broken when a high-ranking member of the guard gives the proclamation: "Our heroes have arrived! Court defenders, world travelers! Help has come from the far lands to aid us in our battles for our Emperor, for all of Fellden!"

From there, the few knights that have not yet departed will lead you through the Court's castle, a brief tour of the most important areas (dining hall, housing wing, guard barracks, and the throne room) is given before they instruct you to rest, because the real excitement begins when the sun falls behind the horizon.

Left to drift, you can explore the castle, or venture out to the surrounding city as it prepares for the celebration the Starfolk have in store for the returned soldiers and, now, the new arrivals. You'll be invited to the party that spreads across the entire Court city, drawn into large circle dances, and will find that the locals become more at ease and welcoming the longer you spend with them.

WELCOME TO THE GODS WOOD.
Between one blink and the next, your eyesight has seemingly been stolen from you. Or, perhaps it’s more likely that something is covering your eyes? Yes, that’s definitely a blindfold tied around the back of your head, although quite the mystery as to how it came to be there. You vaguely remember a wolf that may or may not have spoken to you, but the blindfold is certainly a new addition to the situation.

Once removed, you’ll find yourself in the thick of the woods, with no path or directional indicators in sight. The moon is obscured by the tree line, and the stars above do nothing to light your path; seems like removing the blindfold wasn’t as helpful as you may have thought. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, it’s obvious that you are not alone in this; other people are removing their blindfolds just as you are, staring blearily into the dark of the forest with a similar lack of understanding to how they came to be here.

Thankfully, you’ll find some nearby travel packs with self-lighting torches, a few rations, and your faction-provided communicator. The compass, unfortunately, remains broken, which means you’ll have to find your way out of the woods without it. Hopefully your sense of direction is passable!

Whether you team up with others, or go your separate way is entirely up to you, but you must find your way out, and the fog rolling in is not going to be of any assistance. This is a Dropping, and the Gods Wood is not kind to loiterers.

DRAWN TO THE COASTLINE.
Needing an escape from the hectic energy that greeted you in your faction, an empathetic bystander pointed you in the direction of a nearby transport mirror, which you either stepped into without stating a destination, or didn't give one with enough clarity for the mirror to understand. Spitting you out on the beach just outside Kyst, it doesn't seem keen to let you back the way you came; temperamental teleportation magic.

As the largest trade city in all of Fellden, there is no shortage of things to do here! Shopping with what coin was hoisted upon you before your departure, mapping out the city itself to memorize the in's and out's, enjoying a drink on the house at a local tavern where you can get into a mean game of cards with some faction soldiers, or even meeting someone else that seems to have stumbled into this world just as you did. Perhaps you're more keen to the outdoors, rather than the bustle of a large city, wandering away from the city just far enough to find a stretch of pristine beach and inviting crystal clear waters of the ocean; the salty air fills your lungs while the rays of the midday sun are almost blinding against the swath of bright white sand that meets the crashing waves.

Regardless of what you decide to do, or where you end up, you're in the closest thing to No Man's Land you can get; enjoy your time fraternizing with the enemy, make some new friends in this neutral land, or stick with those from your own faction to get a lay of the land.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Among the crowd was a very unusual girl -- long pointy foxlike ears, long sweeping hair, and wide sleeves that give the impression of wings. She'd be very graceful and elegant if she weren't on one knee, propping herself up with an arm and breathing hard like she'd just run a marathon in the mountains.

"Bloody... thought I'd be able to do something, but the ether here... There's something wrong with it."

"Easy, now." Ashe's voice isn't gentle, but it is firm and a point to focus on. "Just keep on breathing and when you can, tell me what you were trying to do." Because it sounds like this strange girl had a plan that backfired somehow. It's possible she still might have some tricks up her sleeve, and they can use that to their advantage, but first Ashe needs to get on the same page as her.

"What I was trying to --" A brief spurt of anger gave her a little strength to glare, but she relaxed almost immediately, and definitely sheepishly. "Right. You've got no idea what Blades are, do you."

Her fingers tightened against the ground, and -- no. Not going to get up quite yet.

"I need ether for strength. There's enough here, but I can't get it properly. It's just a drop or two."

"Not a clue." The girl's got a fire to her, that's for sure. It reminds Ashe a bit of when she was young, but that doesn't mean she'll be sympathetic if the girl carries on. Thankfully, she immediately looks embarrassed and Ashe lets it go.

"Physical strength isn't everything. If you can't tap into it right now, best to let it go 'til you can look into it later. For now, we need to find our way outta here. Let's get these packs and see what supplies we got."

"Right. Yeah. Physical strength isn't everything except when it comes to moving." For as faelike and ethereal as she might look, she sure had one heck of a deep accented voice.

Still, she pushed herself to her feet, and the motion shone a little light over their surroundings -- light coming from blue jewels around her outfit and on the sides of her legs. Not much, but something maybe.

"Come on," she muttered to herself. "Just like the Spirit Crucible, and not getting any worse than this."

Meanwhile, Ashe grabs a bag and starts sorting through it. She does listen to what the girl says, trying to have it make sense in her head. Apparently this ether thing isn't like the ether she's heard of. It must make it easily for the girl to function normally. But at least she's gotten to her feet.

"Got some food in here, torches, and a compass." She sits back on her heels and holds the compass out, frowning.

"The hell? Needle's dancing all over the place."

Nia glanced up from her attempts to rally herself, curiosity managing to win out over the lack of energy making her feel like lead weight.

"They have compasses here? How does that even work?"

If the land just... stayed still, what did they even need a compass for? Everything was right where it was, all the time, no need for calculating trajectories and velocities.

"That's the thing: it isn't working. It's supposed to show magnetic north, but it won't stop moving." Shaking her head, she closes the compass and puts it back before picking up a torch. Her plan is to grab her lighter, but instead the thing ignites on its own, causing her to jerk her body back from it as she holds it away.

"Whoa, now! How'd it do that?"

"Magnetic north?" Nia barely had time to question that before the torch went off, startling her so that she threw up a hand and backed up a couple of steps. Right now, her inability to tap the local ether was a blessing, since it stopped her from just snuffing out the thing.

Tch. "How does anything work around here?" she said, extra sharp so she could pretend like she hadn't just jumped. "Everything's weird."

Part of her wants to toss the damn thing aside, because she's sure the answer is magic related, but the thought of showing how magic freaks her out is enough to make her hand tighten around it instead. She's going to be calm and collected about this. Being new to this world and group of people, Ashe is very image conscious. She wants to portray herself a certain way, so she's not going to linger on stupid magical torches.

"You got that right. But it's lit, so let's get moving."

Image-conscious. Nia understood that really well, so the next question she had to ask only came after a moment of grinding her teeth and futilely wishing she had another choice.

"Hold on. D'you know any Arts?" Then, realizing that where the woman came from, they might not call them that, she quickly amended, "I mean, are you any good with a sword?"

"Swords? Nah. I use a gun." A rifle, to be exact. And she's always been a big fan of dynamite.

"What about you?"

"That's complicated."

Only on a crazy weird world would it be complicated, but it sounds like all the Architect's bloody inadvertent creations out there were crazy and weird for sure.

Shaking her head, Nia held out her hand. On her palm, a soft blue light shaped into a crystal. From that crystal grew a sword hilt, with vines curling up and past it, and then from that hilt grew a blue blade.

"Sort of I use this," she said, looking down at it -- and then up at Ashe, taking a step over to hold up the Catalyst Scimitar with enough room on the hilt for another hand to grip it. "But if we're serious, I give power to whoever uses this. That's why I asked."

Test Drive #1

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