thecrossinglogs | TEST DRIVE #3

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!tdm

TEST DRIVE #3

TDM #3

Welcome to The Marsh, wayward souls.
It's good to see you again.

The TDM is game canon and will be active MAY—JUL. For further details about the setting, please reference our current setting page. All the information there is fair game for this TDM.

arrival

— TANGLED BELOW ( NEW CHARACTERS ONLY )
CW: trapped underwater, drowning
Your journey begins as it has for all of those before you: in The River.

The water is lukewarm, and murky with dirt and vegetation. The surface isn't far away— but it might be hard to tell what direction you need to go in to reach it. To make matters worse, you are tangled in the plantlife around you, and will need to break free in order to escape The River's grip. There are others here who may be able to help you... but they'll have to find you first.

It's not possible for you to drown here; you may or may not recognize that you don't need to breathe, even down here. But every moment you spend with your head below the surface, you will spend trapped in the memory of your death, as if by a flashback. Depending on what brought you here, it may exacerbate your panic and confusion: maybe it isn't reeds, holding you back - maybe it's an assailant's hands; maybe it's not water clouding your vision, maybe it's something else, claustrophobic, smothering you. Or, maybe it's the dreamy, floaty peace you were expecting when you closed your eyes.

Regardless, you'll need to push through — to even start your journey, let alone finish it.

— BALANCED ABOVE ( EXISTING CHARACTERS ONLY )

You've traveled a long way to get here. Finally, there is a reprieve from the heat and chaotic energy of the Desert: the environment emerging around you is cooler and calmer, if not quieter. There are quite a few creatures populating the Marsh, both fantastical and not. Frogs croak quietly from the reeds; fireflies float along the surface of the water.

Wading around and through the muddy shallows of The River isn't exactly comfortable, so it may be a relief when the group comes across a wooden walkway rising out of the water and leading deeper into the Marsh. The planks creak under your weight, but they hold firm, and draw something like a path through the dense same-ness of the environment.

That path is anything but straightforward, though. And in the seemingly-perpetual dusk around you, it might be easy to get turned around: whether you have to retrace your steps from a dead-end, or lose track of others in the gloom.

You must be tired. But surely it's only a little bit further... right?

a marsh less traveled by

— THE VILLAGE

However much further it is, eventually you reach it: a small village, mainly comprised of wooden, multifamily homes lifted above the water on stilts. (Be careful which ones you choose to rest in, though — some of them might wander off with you still inside!) As with the shelters in previous locations, the homes are decorated as if by many tenants before you, continuously building on top of what was there before, and you may happen upon small items you recognize from home.

Unlike previous shelters, these don't seem like they've been abandoned for long. The items you find might be in better condition than they would have been elsewhere, and there might be newer or more comfortable amenities. Beds with softer sheets and more numerous pillows; pantries stocked with shelf-stable foods; unbroken toys or even board games with all their pieces.

Given the nature of The River here, this is also the closest The Ferryman has kept their vigil to the group's living quarters so far. While they still remain on the outskirts of the village — seemingly as separated as they can manage while still casting the Lantern's light where it needs to be — it's not as much of a trek out to see them. You might even pass them more than once on your regular goings-on during the day.

If you continue following the walkways, out to the edges of the village, you'll find a small pier with a number of rowboats lashed against it. They're small, and maybe a bit dusty or mossy, but they're sturdy, and large enough to accommodate two people at a time. There's no one else here but you — presumably no one will mind if you take one out deeper into the Marsh?

mist of memories

— AND BEYOND

There's plenty to be found, if you venture out: from the burping firedamp, to curious reflections of familiar places, to the choking mists of the mangroves.

Try not to get lost in those mists. It's a disorienting situation on its own, but certainly exacerbated by the wraiths that will follow you in great numbers, their misty forms often camouflaged within the mist itself. It's stressful. That must be why you might feel like you're seeing other ghosts in the mist as well, figurative or literal. Snatches of familiarity, just at the edges of your vision; maybe a face you never thought you'd see again.

It's not all dark and dreary, though. There are patches of brightly colored wildflowers growing throughout the Marsh as well, hidden among the leggy roots of trees and patches of reeds out on the water. In particular, the same bright orange marigolds that dotted the path you traveled in from the Desert also peek out in places throughout the Marsh, usually in clumps of three or four. They almost seem to follow you as you pass — maybe, even, smile knowingly at you. But surely that's a trick of the light?

Harder to ignore are the rarer, but unmistakable, bioluminescent blue flowers scattered among the others. If you touch one, it may have something to whisper to you — but if it's a voice, it's almost too soft to hear, and even if you could, the words themselves are unfamiliar.

But there's no one else here but you. Right?

Image credits: 1, 2 + stock imagery unless otherwise noted

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[fire prompt]
Having found a part of the boardwalk within the village that has a square of bricks with scorch marks and ash, Need has proceeded to collect fuel and build a fire! It's smoky and sullen as little of the fuel is at all dry, but mostly that smoke drifts out over the water.

She may be hardening off some items the size of walnuts, made from clay she dredged up out of the water, shaped, and dried as much as she could. Need just reaches in and out of the flame to place and adjust them, ignoring the unpleasant pressure of fire on her skin. She's used to not being hurt.

[grocery run prompt]
Need comes back from the hertasi settlement with a sack and brings it into the village. "I picked up some rice, a cone of cane sugar and one of cacao, and some fermented feka tea. And fish sauce and a couple other things," she says. "Since I guess we're doing food, now."

[mist prompt]
It troubles Need, the way she feels different during the Crossing. It brings back sensations - feelings, she's realized now, emotions - that have long faded to remnants. She has to get back in touch with the patience of the inanimate. She chooses to do this by standing at the end of a pier, not breathing, not moving at all, for... well, until she's interrupted.

It's also a reason to stare out into the mists with a fixed, unblinking gaze, letting wraiths and less hostile shapes pass in and out of her peripheral vision.

[dianoga prompt]
Dianogas are here to put people into the River who wouldn't normally end up there. Need is in that category. There's an exclamation cut off with a splash as she's plucked, possibly off the pier from the previous prompt, and a moment of struggle before the creature, almost invisible in the silty water, determines she isn't edible and moves on.

Need died as a human long ago, and much more recently 'died' again. Both times were very different, and if she wasn't so practiced in splitting her attention and multitasking she would be transfixed for a good while. As is she's not entirely incapacitated. A wire is crossed and she sees her older death much as she would a stranger's. It fills her with rage. If you come to see or help you'll see her eyes wide open and furious.

[wildcard]
Need can be found just about anywhere, using a flat-bottomed boat and a long pole to navigate the shallow water. If you want to try something else, I'm game!

When Hanako isn’t spending his time exploring the mist-covered walkways, he loiters around the Village, observing what his fellow companions are up to!

The smell of smoke and an open flame have his curiosity peaked, and it isn’t long before the boy settles down nearby, head propped on his arms as he watches her work.

“Good thing it’s so damp here, or else we’d have some more fires~” He chirps happily. Really, them ending up in a marsh (and getting a break from the oppressive heat that was the Desert) was fortunate in several regards.

“What’re you making?”

Need doesn't match his energy, but gives him a lopsided smile. "There are free-erupting fires out there, too. Fortunately not anywhere near the boardwalks."

She reaches into the coals and fishes out a football-shaped bit of clay.

"I'm making bullets," she says, and doesn't think to specify sling bullets. To Need these are just what bullets are and don't need a clarifying term. Other kinds of bullet came far later. "It's harder to find the right kind of stones here."

“There are!” The boy chirps, seemingly not bothered by the discovery of such a dangerous clime. (Mostly because he knows Yashiro is smart enough not to go there. Right? Right???)

“Bullets? What might you launch them with?” It wasn’t that firearms had been completely foreign when Hanako was alive, but considering the fact that he had lived a very short period of time, they weren’t as ‘familiar’ to him. Plus… “I guess the damp might make stones moreso too, huh? We can always explore more! I’m sure there’s lots we haven’t seen yet.”

Need's not worried. Fire's unpleasant and if someone goes out there on a boat they have to worry about it burning, but it doesn't hurt them. It's probably going to be a problem for whoever decides against the toll this time though.

She puts the bullet back into the fire and indicates what looks like not much more than a loop of thin cord at her waist. "I've a sling. It's a good weapon - easy to make, hard to use, the ammunition is usually everywhere, and very effective."

"There is that drier, higher ground on the other side of the fires," she allows. "I've only gone so far, but anything could be out there."

Hanako spies the loop of cord that she motions to, his gaze lighting up.

“Have you tried skipping rocks? I bet they would go pretty far!”

Though that would probably be a waste of ammo too, though like most things he isn’t too concerned about that.

He hums at the mention of her actually wading into the fire (from his perspective). “It might be nice to see what’s beyond that. Would we have to worry about our clothes burning up too~?”

Need shakes her head. "Not with this. You sling bullets, which are round or rounded. You skip flat stones."

"Mine didn't, but leather and wool resist fire. That thistle-haired boy didn't either. If you wanted to make sure you could get your clothes wet. Just don't let your head go under." She raises her heavy eyebrows. Has Hanako found out what happens when someone's ducked in the River here?

“Ooooh…” That might explain why his tended to sink. That and there wasn’t a decent body of water inside the school.

At Need’s explanation, he smiles, carefree again. “That would be problematic! I guess I’d have to dunk my hat too, just in case.” He’s had a really easy time here, so he’s unaware of what happens when one’s head goes under!

She really has to be the responsible party here, Need thinks, though she does rather think being rattled would be good for Hanako. "I'd advise you to take it off to dip it. All the water here is the River, so being fully submerged is pretty unpleasant. If you want to find out, I'd advise you do it when other people are around."

Being the responsible one doesn't mean she has to spell out what flavor of unpleasant it is unasked. Also, she's not sure it's any different from what the River was like in the Desert. She'd never fallen into it there.

Being rattled would probably be a humbling experience for him! Though most things didn’t (seem) to bug Hanako, so finding the right sort of niche to impart a lesson was tricky.

“Ah!” The boy nods, thinking back to his first and only experience in the River: it had been dark and tight, difficult to breathe and the lack of light… well, it had been a new experience for sure. “Noted~ I’ll be sure not to take an unsupervised dips!” After all, there were some scary creatures in the water too!

"I suppose we are!" When Nagito visited the hertasi settlement, he'd been more interested in tools, books, and papers than food, especially since he couldn't be sure the food actually was what it looked like to him. But Need clearly knows what she has, so he finds himself curious. "What's feka tea like?"

Need rummages in the sack and comes out with a handful of black... coins? Thick discs made of compressed tea leaves stamped with a design of tiny fish. She immediately flips one at Nagito, wanting to see if he'll catch it.

"It's a bitter stimulant made from a plant that needs constant heat. The Tayledras or Hawkbrothers, the people most hertasi serve, have sort of greenhouses that can grow it. But they're terribly secretive and don't trade with the outside world, so everywhere else in the region that has any is going to be imported from the far south."

She considers, and brings the other discs to her nose to inhale. It smells much like, well, tea tea, though there's some lingering strange element. "So far south it's usually cut with bitteralm and so on to stretch it. My mercenary captain drinks three quarters bitteralm one quarter feka." Or had. The second Cataclysm hadn't progressed as far as the first but trade routes are still disrupted. "Seem familiar?"

Nagito looks startled when Need throws one at him; it bounces impressively straight up off of his flesh hand, but he manages to fumblingly grab it with both before it hits the ground.

"It could be similar to some kinds of black tea, maybe," Nagito says, his usual thoughtful tone still a little disrupted from his catching attempts. "Is it the kind of stimulant that keeps you awake but usually doesn't do too much damage otherwise? A lot of teas in my world have caffeine, which has those properties."

Reflex test results: inconclusive. However, it was funny.

"Caffeine..." The translation stirs old recollection. Need used to have and use a broader, more technical vocabulary, before the Cataclysm. She let it narrow afterwards, as the world was narrower. "It might have that. People do get anxious and their heart rates spike if they take too much, but it wears off. And it's addictive taken regularly. A mild addiction though. The Tayledras have taboos about that kind of thing so other than the scouts they try to take it rarely."

"Yes, that definitely sounds like caffeine. Maybe the chemicals are similar because the periodic table must overlap at least a bit, and the physics as well...? Ah, but neither of those are things I'm at all talented in. I've just read a bit about them."

He can't give specifics as to why this chemical overlap exists, is what he means. But by now it's probably pretty clear that I've read about them is something that applies to a wide variety of topics. Nagito hoards information, even if he sincerely thinks his intelligence is nothing special.

"In my world, people put caffeine into a lot of things, but tea, coffee, and soda are very popular drinks that all have it. I'm not especially fond of high quantities of caffeine, but I do drink tea."

He also drinks a very strange soda that has sedative qualities, but that's outside the caffeine conversation.

Certain common words Nagito says are charged in his mouth. 'Talented' is one. He really seems to believe that developing any skill or knowledge that isn't directly associated with one's foundational peculiarity, if they have one, is worth little. She's seen that kind of attitude before, naturally, but not applied so broadly and to such an explicit degree.

Need is not sure exactly what he means but she has a general guess. "It's not any odder than humans existing across different worlds. One world's 'human' might be quite strange to another, but they're usually recognizable." Usually.

"You want to make some?"

Nagito considers this for a moment. "It could be interesting to try. And I usually don't mess up tea too badly!"

He's no good at cooking, but tea is simple enough that unless the kettle explodes or the tea bag rips open or the mug shatters in his hands he can usually pull it off. And he might not even have to worry about those things, with his luck gone.

Usually! She doesn't comment on that, she can imagine it going wrong.

"My merc captain - Kerowyn - used to make sun tea on maneuvers. That's where you leave tea and water out in the sun for however many hours and drink it at ambient temperatures. But she didn't ever really have to brew it hot herself. What's the first step?"

Need could certainly work it out on her own but it's better not to take the lead. Also she's not sure if the discs are left intact or have to be crumbled or something. The packed leaves do seem to work their way free of the compressed mass pretty easily.

"Well, these are small enough that you'd just put them right in the infuser to brew them. I've seen larger ones, and there's an entire process for breaking them up, but that's--a little complicated..." Nagito says, laughing in a self-deprecating way that says he would absolutely mess that complicated process up. "I know I put a tea pot away in the kitchen just in case it came in handy..."

Nagito doesn't actually take that long to find it--he's got kitchen organization down pat as long as he doesn't actually try to cook. "Actually, in my world, they call these tea cakes. But one time I got them confused with cakes you eat alongside tea, and--ah, tea leaves can be kind of hard to chew."

Do not leave Nagito alone in the kitchen.

Need follows. There's something ungainly about her very medieval-seeming presence in a modern-style kitchen, especially since in an enclosed space the faint scorched odor that clings to her is more evident. She also tends to end up in the way, no matter how many times she moves.

"I see," she says, currently half blocking the sink and looking, not even at it, at the cabinets. "Was that luck, carelessness, does luck cause carelessness?"

When Tarma and Kethry had had that Lurchan talisman they'd been able to mitigate some of the effects by being absolutely exacting in checking and re-checking everything but there had been a few times when they'd spontaneously forgotten or assumed something, Need remembers.

Sunny doesn’t like going outside as much. Not since his confrontation(?) with Kel but… the other had mentioned seeing a familiar shape in the mist? And Sunny thought, maybe, it was alright to just take a peek…?

Until he sees Need (well, he sort of unintentionally gets startled by how still she is standing, but when his heartbeat calms down, he realizes he recognizes her, which helps).

Is she lost? Not physically but… somewhere inside? Sunny had experience with that.

He also… didn’t want to startle her (mostly because he’s seen how accurate she is with hitting things with her sling. He doesn’t want a stone between the eyes, nope!).]

…u-um… [Sunny’s voice is small, but hopefully it carries enough in the quiet of the mist.]

She stands like a sentinel, legs apart. There's not a whole lot of wind to stir her hair or move her clothes. Need's very still, especially compared to what's out past her.

There are horses in the mist, a whole herd of half-glimpsed tossing heads, rounded rumps, flowing manes and tails. They're in a variety of colors and patterns, white blazes and dark patches, reds, even a nearly-metallic gold, but more are gray than any others, all moving at a soundless run.

Compared to the desert, the Marsh is muggy, ‘wind’ more of a damp, heavy thing to brush against already humid conditions.

Sunny’s gaze is drawn to what Need is looking at - majestic horses trotting within the mist - and then the teen instantly sits on the ground, pulling out his notebook. If Need pays attention to her own device at some point, she might see the rough outline of the creatures Sunny is drawing within, though they look a bit stylized compared to the realism of the herd in front of them.

Maybe she wanted something to remember them by? Maybe she was just as awed by them as Sunny felt. (It was still uncommon to see such creatures outside of annual parades in Faraway Town, and even then.)

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TEST DRIVE #3

Need | Heralds of Valdemar | OTA

Fire!

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CW: past claustrophobia River arrival mention

grocery run

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Mist

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