villagememes | test drive

Entry tags:

!tdm

test drive — winter

WINTER TEST DRIVE
Welcome to the test drive and thank you for your interest in The Village. This test drive is not game canon but will allow players the opportunity to experiment with game mechanics, the setting, and the flexibility of choice allowed by this game. The following prompts are examples of typical situations characters might face in the game. At least one thread from the TDM is required as part of the game's application process.

The setting details and locations are still being unveiled in the game, so prospective players are welcome to play with established locations or create their own within the general setting of Mathias.

( Recommended listening: ♫ )

INTO THE ENDLESS
Winter has arrived in Mathias. Snow falls steadily, big puffy flakes that pile up quickly in drifts as the wind blows them around town. The trees in the forest are covered in it, the branches bending under the weight and shaking when the piles fall from them to the forest floor. The roofs of buildings become solid white and drifts form in doorways as the wind tries to rush inside anywhere it can.

New arrivals wake in the forest, with its winding paths twisting back on themselves as they branch in either direction. It isn't safe to stray from the path, there is a menacing fog that waits just a few yards inward in any direction, but for now, there is nothing impeding movement along those snow-covered paths that cut through the trees. Continue stumbling in one direction and you'll reach the small town, coming out near the mishmash of quaint houses that nestle beside crumbling ruins that used to be homes. But choose the other and you'll seem to stumble on forever, huddling against the wind until there seems to be a clearing up ahead—

And then nothing. The earth opens up before you in a ravine so deep that the bottom cannot be seen. The other side can be seen, tantalizingly out of reach, and there is the sense that safety is just beyond, if only you could get there. But with that sensation is also the knowledge that if you stay here, you will die. The edge seems unsteady, like getting too close would set it crumbling and send you tumbling into that dark endless nothing that waits below...

BODIES WITHOUT SOULS
Benedict Books is nestled quaintly on the square surrounding Mathias's Town Hall, a thick layer of dirt covering the front windows. Looking through those windows provides a much different view than looking directly into the shop through the doorway — vague shapes and forms of figures seem to be inside, though no details can be determined through the streaks of grime. Flickers that resemble flashlights can be seen passing along the windows from time to time, and on occasion there is even a muffled tapping sound that comes from behind the glass, as if someone is trying to get your attention. The same distorted figures can be seen looking through the windows from the inside outward, but moving from one side or the other reveals... nothing. There is nothing there, and perhaps it is all in your imagination.

A portrait hangs at the front of the store to illustrate the namesake of the little shop... that may, in fact, not be so little. Dust covers everything in sight and detritus litters the wooden floor, as if someone left the door open and allowed half the forest inside.

The books are mostly familiar titles from the 1990s and earlier, but close examination will reveal that key details seem to have been changed. They fill shelves in neat lines along the walls and rows in between, the building almost seeming to stretch on forever until, finally, a small office can be seen tucked away in the back. A glance back toward the front door gives the impression that the room isn't that big, after all. Strange that you previously thought so.

Prying the door open is the only way to get inside the small office; the hinges have rusted and are caked with dirt and grime. Search as you might, there are no interesting bits of information to be found here beyond a few inventory lists on the little desk. There is, however, a green and gold safe in the corner that, no matter how many times one turns the dial, simply clicks and clicks. Scratches around the safe indicate that someone tried to get in at one point, though there's no indication as to whether they succeeded.

THE END APPROACHES
Standing at the center of Mathias, the town hall is a modest two-story building that would be welcoming if not for the faded sign, chipped paint, and deafening silence within its empty halls. It's a typical government building, with a reception desk at the front and rows of identical offices within, the names half faded from each door. But what catches the attention is a large bulletin board on the main wall beside the reception desk, once meant to hold flyers or announcements for the community.

What it holds now is decidedly different. Tacked onto the board are scraps of paper covered in an assortment of handwriting styles — requests for supplies should anyone find them, pieces of information shared in the hopes of someone understanding the strange symbols and mathematical equations, notes about those missing or recently deceased. And over the center of the board, tacked on top of other papers, is a map discolored with age. Mathias Township can be read in the corner, a stretch of forest displayed beneath it, but everything else has been smeared to illegibility with red... ink? Upon close examination, a keen eye will realize that the ink is actually blood, though whether it is human is unknown. And scrawled across that forest, nearly covering the illustration of a clearing and a large house within, are the words

he is coming
A number of tarnished metal pushpins are scattered around the edges of the board, waiting for future messages to be shared, and a stack of pristine white paper and pile of cheap ballpoint pens rest on one of three chairs beside the board. The chairs are clearly meant for those waiting for meetings and are covered in the same layer of grime as everything else in the building — everything except the pens, paper, and bulletin board.

navigation | faq | locations | setting | mod contact

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ooc: canon point is late S5, just before the musical episode. ]

The Endless

[ Her first thought is that George Ball is after her again, until she remembers she already gave him what he wanted, and he's not the type to waste his time. Alice sighs shakily as panic loosens its hold on her. It's certainly some kind of spell, or a world yanking her in, or someone who remembers her as a niffin— something or someone malicious, who pulled her into this foggy, snowy forest.

Getting to her feet, Alice dusts the snow off her clothes. There's a path, and anything beyond it just gets foggier, until it's so thick she can't see her hand in front of her face. (Yes, she tried it, and about faced and got back to the path.) Okay then. She'll stick to the path. She might be feeling like she should just quit everything altogether, but she's not willing to let herself get killed (again). She won't just throw away her life, Quentin's last gift to her.

The chasm reminds her of the endless well on the mountain of ghosts, and so it doesn't scare her. Most people aren't afraid of heights so much as they are of falling, and that's the primal fear that snakes down Alice's spine. She steps back from the edge and thinks about levitating herself to the other side. Could she do it? Would her right hand be able to steer magic correctly, stabilizing it for the duration of the crossing? It's more likely to make the spell launch her up into the air and fall to her death one way or another, and given this is a new world, it's not worth the risk.

She tries (and fails) to cast something with her right hand— a little ball of light. It comes out like a bright, brief flare that feels hot against her palm. She shakes out her hand, then flexes and clenches her fingers. A new, nervous habit she's picked up, courtesy of the Couple. ]

Shit. [ Muttered, under her breath.

After a moment, she sighs. ] Okay. Backtrack and take the other path.

[ And damn if this doesn't feel like some fucked up fairy tale. ]

Bodies w/o souls

[ How could anyone expect Alice to not spend time in a bookstore?

The selection is frustrating, but at least it gives her some information about what year it is or may be. The inventory lists in the back office helpful in that regard, but otherwise this proves a largely useless endeavor.

Until she sees the safe.

With a new goal, she forgets about the lights and the tapping in the windows. This right here, it's actually achievable. She tries several different spells to try and unlock it, and then goes and sits at the desk, grabs a pen and paper, and starts to work on probability problems. There are only a finite amount of possibilities for the combination. Easy stuff, if time consuming.

Eventually, she needs light, so she works with what's in the office and manages to get a little fire going in a mug. It's warm, and the glow casts dancing shadows on the walls. The light spills out into the store. ]

The End Is Near af

[ The bulletin board couldn't be more unsettling if it tried. Blood, a cryptic, threatening message— a warning?

By this point, frustrated with her lack of success at finding anything out so far, Alice is glad to find some stray math problems to puzzle out. Taking some pen and paper and one of the equations on the board, she sits down at the reception desk and starts to solve it. What a nerd.

When she's done, she pins the equation and the solution on the board. ]

Hope that helps someone. And whoever's blood this is, I hope you're okay.

Wildcard

[ hmu,

punnyinpink or pm or just reply here ]

"Nobody knows whose blood it is," a man's voice says from behind her as he emerges from the offices just past reception. "But the people here before us - if there ever were people here before us - seem to be long gone."

Edited 2020-11-21 20:15 (UTC)

"Figures."

Alice purses her lips and scowls at the bulletin board a while longer, and then turns to the man.

"What do we know about the town so far?"

"We know that people brought here come from all different times and places. Possibly from different worlds. We know that either the town's population disappeared, or else we're being painted a narrative to that effect. The areas we can access have expanded more than once. And there are no weapons, drugs or alcohol, except for a handful of aspirin, cigarettes at the General Store and the moonshine that the cowboys make."

He shrugged.

"Anything else you want to know?"

She files all of that away to process later, though ID she's honest, she's processing some of it in the background.

"Two things. One, who are you? Two, cowboys?"

Does that mean there are horses and/or a farm, because... that'd be really nice.

“My name’s Malcolm Bright. I’m a criminal profiler from New York. There are two cowboys here. You’ll know them by their hats. One is a deputy US Marshal named Raylan and one is a frontier doctor named Henry, but we call him Doc. If you need a drink bad enough to not mind a bouquet that hints at drain cleaner and gasoline, they brew it in a bathtub on Philips Street. Just knock on the door at 1306.”

Alice Quinn | The Magicians | will match format

End is Near af

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

the endless.

no subject

no subject

in which alice does not make a pun on how literal a dead end it is

it's real bookstore hours

no subject

no subject

no subject

➝ the end is near af.

no subject

no subject

no subject

end is near

no subject

no subject

no subject

Endless; holds u closer tiny dancer

;;

Bodies w/o souls