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

Book notices Nana even quicker than he would spot anyone else, because she is doubly different. He hopes he can hide his quick shock, because how young is she? River-young, younger.

And they brought her here along with everyone else?

Book internally damns his own wish, to see if he could figure out what the underside of this deal was. Because he's found it.

To the girl, he keeps a smile. "It's.. bigger than any city I've been in a long while. And cleaner than that place." Focus on the positive.

"My name is Shepherd Book."

Book's judgement on her age completely flies over Nana's head. Instead, she matches his smile with one of her own, keeping her mood light and calm.

Though Book? That's an interesting name. She can't help but look a little surprised before she pushes that surprise back. "It's nice to meet you...Mr. Book?" said with a little confusion. Nothing there is obviously a first name in Nana's mind, so she's taking a guess. "I'm Nana Daiba. Feel free to call me Nana, though! Or you can call me Banana. It's kind of a nickname back home."

She offers Book a hand to shake before continuing on with the conversation. "The place that I'm from is just about as clean as this place. I don't know if it's bigger or not, though!"

Book smiles quickly at her use of his name, she guessed correctly. He nods in encouragement. "Nana. That's a lovely name." He gently takes her hand to shake.

"Banana," A cute nickname, but also a curious one. "It's so hard to get the right place for those to grow. Where is home for you, then?" Curious.

Book shifts over and gestures to the bench beside him, it's a rather nice spot with just enough shade to cool the air. "I'm starting to understand that we're very very far from my own home."

"They don't actually grow where I'm from," Nana admits. "My friends just gave me that nickname for other reasons."

There's a fondness in her tone when she talks. This is a girl who adores her friendships and thinks highly of them. But Book asked her a question, so Nana doesn't linger too long before answering.

"And I'm from Japan! Have you ever been there?" Because with a name like Shepard Book, she's assuming this guy's a foreigner.

Her tone makes Book smile, there is a fondness, an innocent youthful energy that Book has too often seen crushed out of the young men and women of where he lives.

"Japan..." the word comes out with a touch of reverence, and confusion, like he is talking about a far off mythical land.

"Do you- you don't mean." He blinks. "Not one of the colonies, you mean Japan. From the Earth-" That was. But he has the presence of mind to cut his thought short there. He leans back a little to get a fuller look at Nana.

This...is unexpected. Nana frowns a little as she watches Book, taking in his reaction. Because of course it would be from Earth. Where else would it be?

When she speaks, it's with slight hesitation. "Do you mean that there's a Japan that's not from Earth?"

“Of a sort,” Book admits. If Nana is from Earth, her people haven’t had to flee to the stars (..yet?). “I suppose I’ve come from a very different place and time than you.”

How to put it? “Where I’m from, people have scattered all through the universe. When people left for the stars, naturally, most people banded together. And there was a lot of cultural blending. But once people settled, a few colonies have named themselves for places on Earth, to try to reclaim a piece of their former home. New Tokyo, and the like.”

Scattered through the universe? Leaving for the stars? Honestly, that's a lot more confusing than Nana wants to admit. Sure, she's acted in a few plays involving space travel, but actually meeting someone who's done it is a whole different story!

She should ask Junna about this sort of thing, Nana thinks, before realizing that she can't do that, Junna isn't here. There's a momentary pause while Nana berates herself for thinking that and tries to push through to continue the conversation.

"Are you from one of those colonies? I'm sorry if this is rude, I've just never met someone from space before."

Book immediately nods, but internally, he is doing math. If she has no idea about the Verse, then she has to be from...

five hundred?

Yes, five hundred years in his past.

So, he tries to make it sound as wonderful as possible. "I am. The world I was on just before this, well, it was a new colony, so living was rough. Haven." A small smile. "Perhaps named for a hope of what it could be. We are still building it up. But the people are very close, because of that."

He leans in a little bit, and his eyes light up. "But. Earth. What is it even like? We have the stories, but.." He gestures with a hand to finish his sentence. How true are any of them?

It does all sound interesting and wonderful to Nana. She's never even thought about people living in space so the idea that there's someone here who it's actually happened to? That's exciting.

However, it's only fair to answer his questions. "I don't know how well I'll be able to answer your questions," Nana says, with a sheepish smile. "What's a historical story to you is just every day life to me. But I can try. What do you want to know about Earth?"

Test Drive #1

Re: 2

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As I had to go verify the answer to that question

one trip to the fandom wiki later...

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