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

Being gregarious and open and charming has served Nina well. She has no idea what to make of her sudden predicament, but she doesn't intend to be caught off balance. She's holding a drink that she's been nursing for a little while when someone approaches her. She offers a sly smile and shrugs one shoulder.

"What gave me away?"

Her gaze flicks over the man that's joined her, appraising and flirtatious.

"I was trying to see if I could learn the steps before I threw myself into it," she admits. "And no one here wants me to start singing."

"You'd be out there, otherwise," Dorian guesses, with a nod toward the dancers. From what he's seen of her, she's been talkative, just as he's been, but has refused dances when offered, just as he has. By his supposing, it's likely for the same reason. He's right, of course; she confirms it, and her addendum makes him laugh.

"Are you picking it up?" He wonders. "I've never been one for group dances, so the intricacies are a bit lost on me."

"I think I am," she says. "I adore group dances. Any dancing, really. I learned court dances but my favorites are reels and mad polkas around the room," she admits.

He's well-groomed and his accent and manner of speaking are polished, educated, precise.

"Want to give it a try? Might as well try to fit in a little."

Zoya always tells her that she is too much: too charming, too effusive, too memorable. But it's worked well for her so far.

Truthfully, he's been thinking about it even before she suggests it. He does like to dance. There's a part of Dorian that hates the idea of doing anything he may not be immediately good at, but it's often overwhelmed by the part of him that's curious, that's taught him that he must first be a beginner at something in order to master it. He does so love to learn new things. And there's not much worry of becoming a spectacle at a party like this. No one much cares whether the steps are perfect when it's all just for fun.

"Surely we can figure it out between the two of us," is his agreement, and he extends a hand to her with a half-bow, courtly as anything. Like an invitation at any of the soirees, ballrooms, and assorted parties he's attended over the years, so entirely out of place at an impromptu street festival as to be playful.

Nina accepts his hand with a flourish of her own: a courtly response to a courtly invitation. “I’m Nina, by the way.”

She smiles brightly and pulls him toward the dancers with her. She’s perfectly content to call the steps as they go: she has a quick mind and a sharp memory for details. It’s what makes her so good at what she does. Nina is fairly nimble, and whenever she misses a step she laughs, encouraging mirth rather than any real embarrassment.

"Dorian," he replies, with little time for a more involved introduction. They dance well together, for all that they've just learned the steps by watching. Nina is helpful, and for the most part he follows her lead, stepping where and when instructed, and only occasionally veering the wrong way. It's easy to laugh at himself in those moments, just as she does. There's no pressure from the dancers around them to get things exactly right either, though before long, he does--no prompting necessary.

They separate more than once, as demanded by the nature of the dance, but are always spun back together eventually. "Where did you learn to dance?" He asks, politely curious as they settle into a comfortable rhythm.

"The Little Palace," she answers with breathless delight. "We were trained in court dancing and etiquette, but my favorite thing to do was sneak off to festivals and fairs to learn the country dances."

The music breaks and Nina catches Dorian's hand to haul them out of the line before they are dragged into another dance. She needs to catch her breath and she wants a drink. She tucks her hair back and smiles at Dorian.

"What about you?"

Merely from Nina's explanation, Dorian has several guesses as to what the Little Palace might be, each significantly different from the others. But she drags him away--forceful, this one--from the dance before he can hazard any of them, and turns the question back on him as they catch their breath.

"I had an instructor," he explains with a bemused smile, "so that by the time I reached an appropriate age, I would be prepared to dazzle my family's allies and enemies alike with my poise and grace at every overwrought gala they saw fit to drag me to."

When he's offered a drink--some sort of berry wine, this time--he passes the first glass off to Nina before taking one for himself. It's sweeter than he'd normally like his wine to be, but he hardly expected to find a familiar vintage.

Nina resists the urge to gulp down her drink - it isn't water, and it will do her no good to get drunk, even if she might play at it. She smiles over at Dorian as she catches her breath.

"Well, I'm terribly dazzled," she quips. "Our instructors just wanted to be sure that we wouldn't embarrass anyone if we were called upon to attend court functions."

She smiles at the memories of voices groaning at the mere mention of etiquette lessons. She ate them up, along with languages and culture and anything else that might allow her to blend in somewhere else. She hadn't meant to be so interested, she hadn't meant to gain all the skills that would make an excellent spy, but there she was. It's what got her out of the Little Palace faster than most.

Test Drive #1

I. The Setting Stars

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