test drive — winter

[villagemod]

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: ♫ )

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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.

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Comments

josh hoberman | the magicians

[hakunamatatas]

( INTO THE ENDLESS )

There’s a hard second where Josh thinks he’s in Fillory. It doesn’t look like Fillory per se, but that land was so vast and twisting and seemingly endless sometimes that he doesn’t discount it out of the realm of possibility.

And then he remembers he’d done no drugs the night before (except weed, which obviously doesn’t count.)

Josh gets up and starts walking, the fog thick and seeming to keep him on a path--he’d fucked around with enough gods and monsters to know to maybe stay away from creepy fog and do what it wants. “Hello?!” he calls out, trying not to let on how nervous it’s making him to be suddenly out in the snow and surrounded by (creepy) fog. Fuck, he just wants his bed.

He rubs his own arms, the cold making everything numb and he tries not to think about how long a person can survive in the snow. He’s walking and thinking and looking to see if anything looks familiar, a sense of dread growing exponentially in his stomach until it reaches something bigger than himself and he see is--

“What the fuck?”

It’s a chasm, but the fear for his own life that he’s immediately overfull of keeps him from dallying here too long. He turns the other way and runs, hoping that the other path is less perilous.

( BODIES WITHOUT SOULS )

Josh breathes a sigh of relief when he catches that there’s a building with lights on, and what looks like shadows moving inside. Finally. He rushes inside, the change in the air warming his face but his heart sinks as he realizes he’s still alone. Or at least, no one’s in the front.

“Anyone here?” He asks, peeking around a shelf. It seems to be deserted and he sighs again, brushing the snow out of his hair and off his shoulders. The shop is smaller than it looks on the outside, so he’s pretty sure there isn’t anyone else here unless they’re hiding (which he wouldn’t even discount because where there’s a creepy town there’s usually creepy people creeping along) so he paces around the shelves, also idly looking to see if there’s anything of use.

He’s humming softly, fingers pausing at a book about making sugar decorations. Not particularly helpful, but the pictures on the cover are a welcome and whimsical distraction to the current variety pack of what the fuck is happening?

He holds onto the book and keeps walking, approaching the door to the office and looking inside. Still no one. Josh frowns and distracts himself with the book once more, mostly in an effort to prolong his stay out of the snow.

( THE END APPROACHES )

...Alright, well that’s not a good sign.

Pointedly, he ignores the ominous blood-ink-whatever, because that’s not a problem for now. The first thing that catches his eye is the map of the town--Mathias, a place he’s never heard of, but between the setup of this seemingly-government building and what else he’s seen in town, he’s getting more and more sure that he’s on Earth.

He’s about to take a picture of it when he realizes that he doesn’t have his phone. Great.

It’s not exactly warm in the building but it’s better than it is outside. Josh isn’t exactly rushing to go back out there, wanting to think through what his next move should be before subjecting himself to more snow. Maybe there’s something here that could be of use.

Josh squints and scratches his head, humming as he looks over the rest of the information that’s readable. It seems like there are at least other people here it’s just a matter of finding them.

He’s reading, and that’s when he sees familiar handwriting--

Eliot

“Oh thank god,” he says to himself, taking a pen and a piece of paper. He tears it in half and writes down the address before writing a note of his own.

( OOC )

canon point is post-s5 as a default, but if you're also magicians and would rather set this during a different point i'm completely flexible, just let me know. i'm super new & getting everything set up so feel free to pm me with questions or anything!