Test Drive #1

[felldenmods]

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.

Comments

Moon!

[pauldron]

With all this celebration, there are probably more than a few people who look out of place, but perhaps none who look so aggravated as Lightning. She sits at a table in the corner, avoiding the happy revelry with her arms over her shoulder and her flower crown abandoned on the table, deep red and soft pink roses a little askew.

"They expect us to save them."

She says it without looking up at Bull, her attention focused on the crowd, on a knot of dancing girls giggling in clear joy and relief; whatever's going on here, there's no mistaking the fact that they think they're safe. Maybe they are. She finally turns her head to the voice and--

Wow. She'd thought Snow was big. Her eyes flick up to his horns, the flowers still caught there, then back down to his face. Just when she'd thought she'd seen everything...

"Sounds like they're expecting us to fight in their war."

[aban_aqun]

The look on her face is something Bull's seen a hundred times before and he smiles faintly as she takes him in.

"Yes, it does," he says as he looks out at the celebrating bodies, spinning in dizzy circles, thrilled and relieved and-- It's disconcerting. Bull can't remember how exactly he got here, though he does remember a weird dream. The whole thing sets him on edge, but he remains outwardly relaxed.

"Save them from what, I wonder."

Bull wants to know what's at stake in this war. As familiar as the two moons are, everything else feels strangely foreign with hints of things that call to memory. He can't shake it off.

"What's your name?"

[pauldron]

It's a cacophony all around them. The revelry, the dancers, the smell of food and drink, the music determined to shake dust from the rooftops, the people--

It's all so much there's no way to process it. Her tension is obvious even as she sits back, arms crossed over her chest and fingers tapping at her biceps. She's like a coiled spring, ready to leap up and move at a moment's notice if there's a threat, but there is none.

For a land at war, they sure don't seem too warlike. Her eyes flick to Bull, then dart past him to a knot of laughing young men as they stumble drunkenly through the roads. It's impossible to watch every threat, but she's trying.

"Lightning." Her eyes dart back to him. "Yours?"

[aban_aqun]

Hissrad. He almost says it and he doesn't know why. It's been years since that was his title, since that was who he was. Maybe it's being in a strange place with no memory of arriving. Maybe it's the need to protect himself.

"The Iron Bull," he answers. Lightning is trying to catch every little thing; he can see the way her gaze darts around, the way she moves her head to catch movement. Bull smiles faintly, thinking she's as likely to give herself a headache as she is to catch a threat. For his part, he soaks it in. The young men are drunk, slurring and stumbling and laughing and unfocused. Unfocused is the most important thing. As lively as the party is, no one is staring at them overly much. The lack of stillness is more comforting than off-putting to him.

"Where are you from?"

[pauldron]

That's a title, not a name. Suspicion curls in the half-hollow place in her chest where Odin normally rests, and her focus shifts from the moving parts to her much less mobile table-mate. She eyes him curiously, head cocked to the side; he's hiding something.

But then, so is she. It isn't as if Lightning's any more a real name than "The Iron Bull", after all. Maybe they both have their reasons for hiding who they really are.

"Not from around here."

But aren't they all? This isn't Eden, so why should it be wherever Iron Bull is from? She sighs quietly through her nose and adds,

"I used to live in Bodhum." Her eyes dart back to the crowd, the unfamiliarity of the town enough to keep her ready to spring at any moment. However they got here, wherever here is, there's one thing for certain: It's not Pulse, and it's not Cocoon. She really ought to know better than to make deals with things that weren't human. "Though something tells me you won't find it on any map you can get here."

[aban_aqun]

The names don't strike any memory, no spot on the maps he's memorized over the course of his life. That doesn't make him feel any better.

"I was in a place called Halamshiral." Bull looks toward the two moons in the sky. "But I think I'm far from it now."

He just doesn't know how far. And why is she from a place he's never heard of, one he couldn't even place if he tried? Bull sighs quietly and pulls a mug of something closer. He sniffs it carefully before taking a careful sip.

[pauldron]

"Farther than you think. I've never heard of Halamshiral."

The word twists oddly in her mouth, syllables unfamiliar. It's not Cocoonian; she may not have seen the whole of her world, but she knew the cities. It actually sounds a little Pulsian. Fang would know.

Fang isn't here. Lightning has to settle for her piecemeal information and the looks Bull keeps giving the moons, causing her to lean back in her seat. The celebrating citizens bring more drink, push a mug of something on her, but the moment they've left she sets it on the table. She needs to be sober for this.

"Could be you're not in your world any more."

[aban_aqun]

"Yeah, I've been trying not to think about that possibility," Bull admits. He's encountered time magic and magic that transports people from one place to another with relatively little warning. Who's to say a misstep through an eluvian didn't get him here? But surely he would remember--

Right?

Bull takes a sip from his drink, deciding it probably won't kill him if he drinks it slowly.

[pauldron]

"Think you might have to. And soon."

The memories are fuzzy, dreamlike, but that wolf....it asked a question, and she answered. Did Bull see the same thing? Did he answer it, too? She contemplates asking him, but the twin sources of moonlight glimmer off his horns and their flower crowns and she settles for a sigh. She finally reaches for the mug if only to do something with her hands.

"You can't run from the truth forever."

[aban_aqun]

"Not running from anything," he says. "Just not thinking about it too hard."

To him there's a distinct difference: there is nowhere to run, not even in his mind. But he doesn't have to think deeply yet about how he got here or what these people want from them. It's been a decade or more since he's been in a real war, and even that wasn't a real war.

[pauldron]

Isn't that the same thing? She looks at him over the lip of her mug, pulled back to another time entirely. Not thinking about things, not wanting to deal with them...all that ever did was cause trouble. It was a hard lesson to learn.

I didn't want to think, so I fought instead. As long as I was fighting, nothing else was real.

Given these circumstances, what little they know and how much they don't know, it'd be easy to fall back on that. Too easy.

"It's the same difference in the end. Not facing what's in front of you..." A sigh sends ripples through the drink. "All that does is make things worse."

[aban_aqun]

"No, it isn't. There are ways to face things without thinking about them."

They aren't ideal. Usually they involve a kind of detached cognition or mindless violence or sheer force of will to power through something. Bull shakes his head and looks out at the celebrating crowd.

"Doesn't matter, in the end. I am here now. Thinking about how I got here won't change that."

[pauldron]

It's almost like listening to someone describe her past. The way to deal with things was just to not deal with them, and where did that get her? It almost got her, and an innocent, killed.

None of it's ideal. None of this is ideal.

"No, and it's not going to send us back either. But the longer you don't think about it, the longer you don't face it, the more people get swept along with you."

Experience colors her tone, turning it rueful. With a shake of her head, she finally takes a sip of her drink, all traces of ruefulness vanishing beneath a disgusted grimace, and her throat works visibly to get the mouthful down. She doesn't shudder, but it's a near thing as she sets the mug back on the table. That was. Ugh. As if they didn't have enough to worry about, the drink is terrible too.

"We've got enough problems as it is. Don't need any more of them because someone couldn't keep their head on straight."

[aban_aqun]

A faint smirk tugs his scarred mouth when he hears the regret in her voice. Experience, certainly, but not his. Mindless brutality is Bull's specialty.

"It's not a problem of keeping my head on straight. I'm choosing what to worry about and what to let go. I don't want to consider how the magic that got us here works. Thinking about it will not get me home and I do not have the mind for it, anyway. I'll deal with what's in front of me."