fablecottage | TDM #3

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!tdm

TDM #3

fable test drive meme #3

// away with the fairies

In your land, there may be stories of the Fae taking people away. Perhaps you haven't heard of the Fae at all, or perhaps you are more familiar with them than others. No matter how well acquainted you are with the Fae, everyone around you has experienced the same fate tonight: Being taken by them. Partially, at least. For they did not want to kidnap anyone from their home and take them away from the life they knew. In a small jar of fairy dust, part of your soul was taken in the night and brought to a magical village by the name of Fable.

On arrival, the Fae release you from the jar before waving their magic wands, and materialise this taken little part of you into a brand new you. From here onwards, your new life begins, shared among all sorts of magical creatures. Here, you will be allowed to grow, thrive and enjoy the bounties provided to you by these mysterious and wonderful creatures. In exchange, they ask for a share of the magical fruit that you grow in your garden, donated to their dragon overseer in exchange for rewards. After a briefing on your new life, you understand things as best as you possibly can. Now, it's time to settle into a brand new cottagecore life.

Welcome to Fable.

// arrival

Now that you are a resident of Fable, you have a brand new cottage, a garden, and a few tools to use! There's not an awful lot in your cottage, though: Just a cardboard box, a lamp, a cassette tape and a single bed. Fear not, though! By participating in friendly tasks, your cottage will look great in no time.

Something sparkly catches your attention before you realise it's a message board, advertising an array of tasks for bonus fruit. Did this thing appear out of nowhere just now? That must be the case, since you can swear it wasn't there a second ago. The board may inspire you to go out there and mingle. It seems that the monthly tasks are geared towards friendliness to welcome this new season!

picnic party

// spring fling

At long last, the snow covering Fable has finally melted! While Spring hasn't made its full appearance yet, there are definitely tell-tale signs of its approach thanks to the greener grass and the days feeling longer. Some of the anthropomorphic animals who live in the neighbouring region of Limerick - such as rabbits, birds, sheep, fawns, mice and squirrels - have gathered in Fable to introduce an incredibly sweet welcome to the warmer weather.

The woodland animals, who work together like you would imagine them doing in a Disney movie, have arranged a picnic! They've got plenty of baskets, cups, blankets, plates and cutlery to give out - not to mention food created by both themselves and their Faerie friends! (They wash their paws, promise.) Just be careful on which you choose to eat, because consuming fairy dust can do strange things to Fable residents.

// let's have a picnic!

There's an incredible flow of magic in the air that fills you with the urge to get out there and enjoy the sun with some company. It's a beautiful day for a picnic! Fable has an assortment of hills and fields to lay down a blanket and relax on. Some of the more quiet spots can found be down by the river or under the willow trees. Inside of the basket gifted to you by the animals, you will find plates, cups, cutlery and freshly picked flowers!

There's plenty of food to go around for all dietary requirements! The animals and fairies have certainly gone all-out - so there's no need to feel guilty for stacking your plate high. The food prepared by the animals cause zero effects, but the food prepared by the Fae is cooked with magic and fairy dust which might cause some interesting changes to happen! Choose wisely!

// springtime celebrations

Across Fable while the weather is beautiful and bright, there are assorted outdoor activities available to participate in, especially while the picnics are on!

Near the areas where people are dining and socialising, there are swinging seats that fit two people, an assortment of musical instruments laid out for people to play, outdoor grills and ovens in case anyone wants to cook or bake some goodies for their picnics, and arts and crafts supplies!

For participating in any of these tasks, you will receive flowers or shrubs for your garden and pieces of outdoor furniture for your cottage! Feel free to leave a comment here to redeem these once you've written 5 tags in your thread! Since our TDMs are considered game canon, if you choose to app, these rewards will cross over with you when you join the game! Woohoo!

If you choose to partake in some Faerie food, you may find yourself feeling quite interesting!

The flower cupcakes look rather nice, don't they? The icing is in the shape of a flower! These sweet treats will make you feel extremely brave and sociable! You can't recall ever wanting to talk and mingle so much!

The flower punch is being served in several flavours, topped off with flowers floating in your drink for decoration. With every sip you take, no matter the flavour, you will want to share happy thoughts and feelings! Be warned, though: If you drink too many glasses, you'll feel a lot of sad feelings come to surface - ones you that might be trying to fend off or forget about. Comfort from another person is the remedy, however!

A slice of fruit pie still carries that warm feeling over from Winter! With all sorts of fruit flavours to try, there are pie slices for all tastes. Eating one will inspire you to compliment someone! That warmth from within is flowing right out, so much that you can't resist saying all these nice words.

A slice of cake will overwhelm you with the incredible taste of perfectly balanced vanilla extract and lemon zest! It will also make you incredibly affectionate. Depending on how big the slice is that you eat, it might make you feel very affectionate indeed. (Winky emoji.)

flittens

// purrfect gardening

The sunny weather looks so nice and refreshing that you may feel inclined to go out of your cottage and visit your garden. Except ... your garden is looking pretty barren at the moment, isn't it? You have your fruit trees, plenty of soil plots and fresh green grass, but no flowers.

While contemplating how empty your cottage garden is, you notice something appear beside you.

"Mrrrrrrrp?"

Oh. It's a cat. Actually, wait, it's ... several cats?! Where are they all coming from!? All of them have fairy wings in an assortment of different colours, and it looks as though they're very interested in you for some reason. The cats nuzzle your legs and around your ankles, which inadvertently causes the fairy dust in their fur to rub off on you. The shimmering sparkles coming off the kittens may not give you a second thought, until you move one of your feet to notice that there are flowers growing behind you when you walk!

"Mew! Can you make the flowers grow faster, please?" Did that cat just talk?! Actually, if you've been here for a while, this won't be a surprise at all. These purring kitties are all rubbing by your feet still.

"That Winter lasted for too long ... your gardens are so empty! Please grow some flowers for us to play in ... pretty pleeeeeeease?"

Against your better judgement, you decide to listen to the kitties. They are pretty cute and convincing, after all. But whether you know it or not, there are special qualities to these flowers...!

After a briefing from the Flittens, you understand that all of Fable's cat fairy population have been visiting the Fable residents to request big flowering gardens to play in. It's a win/win situation, though - since your garden will no longer be barren and empty!

The flower that grows is one that matches you entirely! Whether it's the colour of the flower, your personality or the flower's meaning - the flower that grows is an essence of who you are.

The Flittens have a very important requirement for you once you have grown flowers in your own garden: They want you to visit your neighbours and grow flowers in their gardens too! According to the Flittens, it's "boring" to play around in the same type of flower. They want big, colourful gardens to frolic and play in!

Flowers grow when you walk around barefoot on grass, or handle soil with your hands. When you feel happy, they will sprout and grow all around you! Maybe even in your hair if you're feeling extra happy.

The second important thing to note about these flowers is that their pollen has magical properties! When you have a neighbour visit and they grow their flowers in your garden, inhaling the pollen of these flowers will heighten your interest in them! Their flowers you grow smell so sweet - the aroma is very inviting! You're curious to learn more about where they're from, who they are, and you may even feel inclined to invite them to dinner or offer them tea from your cottage. The longer you stay in their presence, the stronger the pollen's effect! Just how much are you going to learn about this person?

After 24 hours, the flower growing magic will be over, but you'll wake up the next day with a bright beautiful garden and hopefully a new friend or two...!?

Welcome to Fable's third TDM!
We're excited to have you here, and hope you enjoy the prompts!
To familiarise yourself with the setting, please take a look at the arrivals & premise page!
We would also appreciate it if you could have a look at the rules as well.
As a general note, the TDMs are considered game canon!
Which means all rewards for fruit & furniture can be used in the game if you apply!

New arrivals have a cottage, a network device, the clothes on their back and a single item from home.
To view the locations, NPCs and more information about the game, please visit our full navigation!

If you have any questions that you have not seen answered in the FAQ, please ask in the FAQ post. Thank you!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ilsa, too, finds this all very difficult to fully believe. She's still convinced that this must be some crazy dream that her imagination has conjured up, and that she will awaken in her bed safe and sound just as she left herself... but the longer she stays here, the longer it begins to feel that isn't the case.

And for the first time since they left Eustace's house, she does frown a little.]

I gave the fairies quite the earful when I arrived, but they assured me that this was very real. I was convinced it was just a dream, and then you answered the door...

[There's something of a scoff that escapes from her.]

And now you're about to tell me that you really are from a year in the future. I'm not sure my consciousness could come up with something quite as elaborate as this.

Agreed.

[A small sigh.]

And given what I'm about to tell you, you'll understand more of why I reacted the way I did when I heard you were from the past.

[He leans back against the swing, rocking it a little as he look at her.]

Are you ready to hear about it?

If I wasn't, you would tell me anyway.

[It's said with a bit of a crooked, almost sheepish smile before her expression steels again.

Even if she wasn't ready to hear about all these things that supposedly happen in her "future", it would be better to know, wouldn't it? At least that way, the two of them can figure out where to go from here and further look into the why's once they're both on the same page. Being so far out of sync would only slow them down, and they hardly ever are.]

Start from the beginning.

[A small, wry grin in return before he takes a breath and sits back against the swing, rocking it.

Okay, maybe it's not so bad sitting here.

And so, between bites and answering any questions Ilsa might have in-between, Eustace slowly and concisely recounts the gap between their timelines. Of how his reports of all the events were taken and modified or even taken by the higher ups. How while Zeta and Beatrix primarily took care of Cassius, he was left to monitor him to judge whether he would remain a threat to the Sky Realm, and his eventual determination that despite his own personal biases at first, Cassius had begun to change and adapt to the skies.

Then came the point where there was an obvious suspicious shift in HQ. The reports of a dangerous glass crunching woman capable of using wires. The sudden increase and incessant badgering about Cassius. And then it all made clear when a man named Isaac appeared, revealing himself to be a descendant of the moondwellers and ordered to take Cassius back to the moon. He had a small robot named Raybury.

At this point it gets complicated, as there were so many different new players and revelations, and they were all interconnected to make it difficult to pick a starting point. CENTCOM taking Cassius back by force; Ilsa's own part in investigating everything at headquarters and keeping an eye on Cassius until they were able to return; the attack at headquarters using facsimile automagods; Ilsa joining Heisenberg to charge into CENTCOM only for more chaos and revelations to be made once they finally join up.

Grace, another descendant of the moon who furthered the Foe's agenda. It was then revealed that she worked with Heisenberg, who was also part of the Foe. This led to revealing Yatima, an original moondweller that had been supported by Alandus, whose personality and memories are actually within Raybury, hooked up to CENTCOM, the origins of Society, how it was originally created by the moondwellers who had been left in the Sky Realm and they worked to prepare the skydwellers for the inevitable return, knowing how powerful those on the moon were. It explains the high tech used within the organization and the knowledge about their seal weapons.

This leads to a large confrontation against Yatima who had been augmented by automagod technology and they all had to fight. Raybury would take a piece of her core, and due to the heavy injuries sustained by the fight, Cassius needed to return to the moon to be repaired. Isaac and Raybury accompanied him. With Society and all weapon contractors with a bounty on their heads for their weapons, they scattered and laid low until Ronan was able to reorganize and an even greater threat came to be.

Another whirlwind of events as Isaac had sent a distress signal to the Sky Realm, warning of Central Axis on the moon preparing to launch an attack on the Sky Realm as well as Cassius's own life in danger. Two operations were then put in place—first to rescue to Cassius, and second to stop whatever the moon is planning. To do this they needed to build their own ship, which was headed by Mahira, and using the automagods. Vaseraga had Grynoth, Gran took control of Pyet-A, and they had Arianensa from before, but not its core. This would be later discovered to be in Grace's possession, and after several battles, Rhen is able to defeat her before handing the weapon over to Gwynne, a recruit Ilsa chose to be the next contractor and the one for this mission.

In the process they had to fight off Otherworldly Beings who are also involved in this mess, and with their ability to possess the memories of the deceased, they are capable of cloning themselves to appear as other individuals. As he had also had to personally deal with one posing as his younger brother, that was why he had been so hostile to Ilsa earlier.

Eventually they are able to send up a ship with the automagods and the trio remote piloting them back in their headquarters. However it's not so easy as they had to fight against the Omega-3, powerful warriors under Central Axis. In the end, only Cassius was sent to return, but it turns out he was a clone. Isaac, the real Cassius, and Raybury were still on the moon and they worked to to disrupt the launch of the largest automagod the moon has, Diaspora. Originally the size of the moon, only a small fraction was able to be released... But even that was enough to threaten the Sky Realm. With the moon trio left to figure out how to get home on their own, the Society team had to figure out how to counteract Diaspora.

And that led to needing Eustace to awaken Flamek, something he'll admit had been very difficult. He was only able to after finding Heisenberg and learning the truth of what happened to his home town. Once he was able to finally open up and accept the help and trust in others did Flamek finally respond to him.

As Diaspora neared, Ilsa took charge to create a base of operations. However their plans go awry when they see a pod entering the Sky Realm. It has Isaac and Cassius, as Raybury had stayed behind with Yatima whom had managed to be reformed through the same process that made Diaspora and helped launch them off the moon. But attached to it was Dex, the remaining Omega-3 member. The group split off, with Vaseraga staying behind to fight him and protect the base while Gran, Zeta, Beatrix, and Eustace go to where Diaspora is set to land so they can engage. Hearing Ilsa's side having difficulty, Eustace leaves the others to stall Diaspora as he returns to help.

With Vaseraga saved and Dex defeated, Eustace makes his way back in time to finish off Diaspora with Flamek's awakened powers. Thanks to the constant barrage of overheated lightning, it is unable to repair and regenerate until it becomes a molten mess. Soon after Isaac and Cassius make a dramatic landing and Cassius is able to trick Diaspora into thinking the mission is complete and self-destruct.

After that, they spent a long time recovering. Society is still a mess, and the moon is no longer an immediate threat, but now they have Otherworldly Beings to watch for.

And once he's finally finished, whatever food is left has gone cold, the sun once high in the sky now lower as it turns into mid afternoon. He knows Ilsa has a lot more questions aside from the ones he had to answer during it all. And speaking about all of it...

He realizes just how much they had been through.]

[She listens patiently, quietly, and solemnly, and each detail that Eustace adds on top of everything else only makes her more and more certain that this isn't just some dream. No matter how creative or wild one's subconscious is, there is absolutely no way that she could weave such an intricate web of stories. At some point, Ilsa forgets about the last few bites of her burger and the skewer, and instead, she's taken to sipping slowly at her drink until she's reached the bottom. She doesn't interrupt, allowing him to continue as if he were on duty and giving her a full report rather than them casually sitting on a swinging chair sipping fruit punch and eating burgers... While she does sprinkle a few questions, mostly ones out of disbelief, here and there, she saves most of them for the end.

...

.....

After he gives her several minutes to let the information sit and stir.

It's a lot to take in all at once. Just when she thought things were about to get complicated with Cassius' presence back home, things seem to have spiraled a bit. Complicated would be an understatement, to say the least.

She'd been sitting forward, staring at the blades of grass beneath them, elbows propped on her knees, but eventually, she falls back against the chair with a sigh.]

Ah... so...

[She begins, looking over at him with a tired expression. Where to even start!?]

I am at the beginning of this all, aren't I? Cassius' arrival seems to be the thing that toppled the first domino.

[Where to start indeed. And he can't blame her for being so confused, especially as this world proves itself to be more real than not. But to be able to handle hearing all of it as well as he is... That's Ilsa all right. Perhaps it helps that he's at least from the end of everything. If he had been taken while still in the middle of dealing with Diaspora... Needless to say, he wouldn't be as relaxed. Well, as relaxed as he can be at the moment.]

Basically. We were already suspicious of what's been going on, but that was just a prelude to everything once Cassius arrived.

You were especially suspicious.

[At the start, that is. The last memory she has of him before coming here is exactly that—Eustace being his usual cautious self, and while she hasn't let her guard down yet, it's at least a bit of a relief to know that with Cassius, they don't have anything to fear. Now, whether she will take this information back home with her or not is an entirely different story, but she has no room to think about that for now.]

You mentioned that Society is still messy. [That part, specifically, hangs heavy in her heart still, so she pulls that thread a little.] What efforts are being taken to restore it?

Rooting out the other members and factions who were with Heisenberg mainly. It's an entire administration change with the original CENTCOM no longer in existence. Ronan has been doing a lot of the work. There's also the matter of reaching out to the other groups in the other Skydoms.

[A low exhale as all those headaches come back to mind.]

Otherwise we're still carrying out our missions, though we've also been granted extended vacations and leave time. As I said, the moon is no longer an immediate threat, but the Otherworldly Beings are more active than before. The enemy may be different, but the Society's mission to protect the skies remains the same.

[Of course... if not for these moon people, then there always has to be something else, doesn't there?

She does huff out with something of a laugh, though there is some frustration laced into it. Having all of this information and not being able to do anything with it...? It's going to take her a while to finally get over everything she's heard, if she ever does... and there's the very sudden wish to wake herself up from whatever this is and return so that she can help.]

An extended vacation, huh? It sounds nice, but... is anyone taking advantage of it?

Some of it was mandated.

[A wry grin.]

So we were all forced to for a while. Cassius in particular went on to do a tour of ramen stalls....

[And he makes a face.]

He ate so much he was forced on a diet.

Edited 2023-03-21 02:36 (UTC)

[Mandated vacations... She supposes that's the only way to make some of them take those vacations. Especially if everything had been in tatters after all of that, and she's about to say as much when...

...

....?

Ilsa balks at him.]

You mean that he ate so much that he got chubby?

[Uuugggh please don't remind him... He just rubs his temple at the memory.]

Round as the moon... I had nightmares for a while he was so huge...

[...

....

Round as the moon...

Ilsa tries to picture the image in her head, and honestly...? She can't at first, but the longer she stares at Eustace, the clearer it becomes... until it does turn into nightmare fuel.....

.....

But after several moments, Ilsa bursts out into laughter beside him instead. She laughs and laughs and laughs, so much that the swing rocks and she has to set her drink down before she spills it.

Sorry, Eustace. Give her a moment...]

[He's still trying to purge that memory from his brain now that it's resurfaced when he suddenly hears Ilsa laugh. It takes him a little by surprise as he turns to stare at her... And then stare at her even more with how hard she's laughing.

What in the world—]

[Just a little more...

Her laughter does die down eventually into smaller, more winded giggles as she tries to catch her breath, and she wipes a finger against the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes.

It isn't just the image that his explanation conjured, but—]

It was so awful that you had nightmares about it?

[...Just something of a disgruntled look.]

You should have seen him. [Well. She will but that's besides the point.] He was like this—

[Gesturing with his hands just how...rotund Cassius became.]

And it was all from ramen, Ilsa. Ramen. He just kept eating and eating...

[...His memories or his nightmares who's to say.]

[She snorts out loud again, but this time, she lifts her hand to cover her mouth.]

And no one stopped him? You all just let him do that to himself?

[JUST HOW MUCH RAMEN DID THEY LET HIM EAT—]

Isaac and I tried, but by the time I saw him he'd already gained weight.

[Ah. Now he's looking at her with narrowed eyes.]

You didn't help him, either. In fact you and girls were with him for a while and put makeup on him.

[Which, he's not actually going to judge because Cassius seemed to enjoy it as startling as it was to see. But he gained weight under her watch, too!!

With the way he's going about this one would think he was talking about their own child—]

Me!?

[She blinks, eyes wide in alarm, at him and she points to herself with such surprise that it jostles the swing a little.]

I bet it was Hellcat's idea. I find it hard to believe that I would have allowed it to get so far.

[She is the responsible mom!!!]

I don't know since I didn't ask... [Rather, he didn't want to ask...

...]

But he had fun, so it doesn't matter.

Fun... but at his own expense.

[Ilsa shakes her head, the shock of it wearing off and fading into something like amused exasperation.]

I assume that the diet worked, and he's back to his normal self? No longer "round like the moon", as you put it?

[A small exhale as he leans back against the swing heavily, causing it to rock.]

It was partly the diet...but he danced most of it off.

[...

....

This story just keeps getting weirder and weirder. She really should be asking more questions about all of the other things that he told her about, like the collapse of Society and the moon people, but this is just so... strange and riveting. Everything else feels so much like "just another day" compared to this.]

He danced it off...? [She laughs. Again.] Don't tell me you went with him, too...!

Of course not.

[JUST A LOOK BECAUSE ILSA PLEASE...and another sigh as he rubs his brow, trying to remember it all. Why does his memory have to be so good—blessing and curse, really.]

If I recall, there was a ramen stand that he liked but was that risk of going out of business because of some...thing about the owner not creating the right flavor of ramen... Whatever, Cassius and the others pitched into help and they had some stage performance to help advertise.

[And still, weirder and weirder... Is he sure this wasn't all just a part of one of the many nightmares he supposedly had about this?

Ilsa seems satisfied with his answer, however, and leans against the back of the bench, rocking it a little more, and a huff of laughter escapes her before she drowns it in her drink.]

Well, it sounds like I have plenty to look forward to after all that stuff with the moon is over. [Her expression grows somber.] It's too bad it takes so long.

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SPOILERS FOR SOCIETY EVENTS GOD THIS WAS LONG AND ROUGH WHEEZE

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