August 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

AUGUST 2022 TDM

INTRODUCTION

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Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.

All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.

Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

Summer Is Over

Content Warnings: snakes, cultists, optional violence.

FALLING DOWN LIKE PIECES INTO PLACE

A breeze with the crisp smell of dying leaves caresses you awake. You sit up to find yourself in the middle of an apple orchard, rows spreading out in all directions. Mouth watering apples hang from the branches, and nobody will stop you from taking one. You can wander the orchard as long as you like, but eventually you will find yourself emerging into the front yard of a little farm. There’s a red barn with perfect white trim set far back, and to one side of the yard is a kiosk modeled to match the barn. This is staffed by a woman who sure looks a lot like the fox that brought you here.

On the side of the kiosk are advertised a few different items: pumpkin spice lattes, hot apple cider, cold alcoholic apple cider, and hot chocolate. The cider, you will be informed, is made on site. (But you have to be of legal age to be given that hard cider!)

There are two other things advertised: APPLE PICKING and a SCAVENGER HUNT.

“You need a buddy for those, though,” the woman running the kiosk will tell you. “Lucky for you there’s plenty of people you can pair up with.”

If you elect to try the scavenger hunt, you and your partner will be handed a piece of paper. On it reads the following:

TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FOLLOWING ON YOUR RELIC! :)

- YOU HOLDING HANDS WHILE YOU GO DOWN A PATH
- FEET WITH AUTUMN LEAVES
- SOMETHING YOU THINK IS TRULY BEAUTIFUL
- A GENUINE SMILE

“When you’re done, bring it back here and show me,” the woman instructs you. “You’ll get a prize if you do.”

It’s an easy enough list, right? Although you have to follow the instructions - you really DO have to find something you genuinely think is beautiful, and that smile can’t be forced! Those might require opening up to your partner a little bit!

If you succeed in the scavenger hunt, you will be gifted with an item from home.


Now, what if you decided to go apple picking?

You will be given a bucket. “Be careful to only pick apples from the trees in the rows,” the kiosk woman tells you with a secret smile. “You don’t want to bother the old trees off the path.”

Yeah. That sure sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it?

If you do stick to the orchard proper, you will be able to pick your fill of apples. All of them are crisp and sweet and delicious. But at some point you will see the other trees.

They’re both huge and old, standing on two sloping hills just past the orchard rows. One of them has apples red as blood, and the other apples gold as the sun. In the shade of these trees are weapons sticking half out of the earth, as if they were carelessly buried many years ago.

If you pick one of the red apples, you will find that you are suddenly besieged with huge snakes. They are as big as anacondas and an inky black that absorbs the light, with eyes the same red as the apples. They aren’t poisonous, but they bite and they crush, so you’ll have to fight them off at least long enough to run like hell!

If you pick the golden apples, a crowd of people will silently begin appearing from the orchard. They are all wearing animal masks… and they are all holding hand scythes. Uh oh. You’ll have to fight them off in order to escape! If you don’t manage that, well, in some places it’s traditional to have a big ol’ sacrificial bonfire…

All the weapons below the trees are non-enchanted items, but you may keep them.

Plaid Shirt Days and Nights

Content Warnings: Optional themes of identity and school trauma.

IMAKEOVER MAKEOVER

Thirteen believes passionately in education. There are, after all, five academies in Folkmore all catering to different types of learning. While these academies are open year round, it becomes apparent if you walk through any of the districts housing shops that back to school is definitely a thing.

A new school year represents a chance to learn more about the world, and about yourself.

Also? It’s a great time for a makeover!

Yes, step into any of the shops selling clothing and accessories anywhere in Folkmore and you will find yourself passionately invested in helping another person discover who it is they want to look like! Do they want to look cool and aloof? Warm and approachable? Are they an e-boy or a cottagcore witch? Punk or prep? You two can figure it out together!

As you shop together you will find it easier and easier to open up to one another, sharing who it is you want to be.

You’ll also be able to score a sweet outfit. Nice.

SAVED BY THE BELL

Wander into any school in Folkmore and you will find a handmade poster instructing all new students and faculty to report to the auditorium. Normal enough, one supposes… but the moment you enter the room you will find reality swims all around you and all of a sudden you’re stuck in a school nightmare!

You know the kind. You’re late for class, no matter how fast you run. You’re in gym class, trying to climb that goddamn rope. You’re getting your books dumped. You’re naked and giving a book report.

These could be memories, but it’s just as likely that they aren’t - you and another person are just trapped in this cliche together. Whichever one of you is in the audience role could maybe help the other one out? Get them some pants or something? Yeah.

Comments

[joidevivre]

And at the word 'overwrite,' Joi can feel what passes for blood run cold. "So, he is a program? And others wanted to alter him to suit their needs rather than his own? Humans, they do that. It's not right."

And Joi searches her memories again. "The hero of the tale was named Arthur. It seems probable that they're related?"

[electricyousei]

"If you wanted to suck the soul out of him yes. He is the AI interface for the ship. Still, I am.... Bad at thinking you need to be flesh to be a person. The thing about the military is they are very conservative in a lot of the ways they view people. He just works with them because I do."

She shakes her head a bit, "It is possible. I didn't read the book though. We didn't have a lot of space for books on the ship."

She shrugs a bit at that.

[joidevivre]

"Ah, I apologize for doing so, I should have known better. I've heard that about the military, though, that they like doing their things their way and don't like things they can't control completely."

And she nods. "I'd imagine not. Joe only had room for one book at a time. He'd buy actual paper books, then resell them when he was finished."

[electricyousei]

Ruri shakes her head, "It is ok. I know I'm the strange one for thinking that way."

"I'd imagine that was quite expencive too. Not a lot of forests are still around for turning into paper."

With that she picks up a sword, and staggers a bit as a smallish teen who could get thrown around by the wind, probably should not wield anything that looks like Conan the Barbarian, or even the Librarian, would swing about.

[joidevivre]

"No, I--I should be honest. I'm not human. I used to be a hologram, but then I...died, I suppose. Now I'm a Replicant. Looking human, acting human, but a created being."

"They were mostly second-hand. Or perhaps many more hands than that. There aren't any living trees left, none that I haven't seen in pictures."

Joi looks mildly alarmed, but she knows better than to judge by appearances. After a moment, the alarm turns into curiosity. "Should I choose one as well?"

[electricyousei]

"I'm... I'm Ruri." Ruri doesn't really know how to go into much more. The thing when you start life as an illegal eugenics experiment, that goes into a technological experiment, that goes into slavery, and then the princess of one of the richest nations on Earth, before going back to being the daughter of a street vendor is that there is no sane way to explain it.

"I've known several holographic AI's. Most of them were nice. I'm not sure what a Replicant is. Is it some form of android?"

Dropping the sword and huffing a bit from the exertion she shakes her head, "I just wanted to see if it was real."

[joidevivre]

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ruri." That sounds like a tremendous amount of change, far too much and likely far too quickly. She looks like a teenage girl, but she looks like a grown woman. She has the programming necessary to be a grown woman, but she's so used to serving Joe that the idea of being without him is terrifying. There are too many choices to make and things to possibly be.

"Yes, I suppose so. We do have human flesh and one...one was able to give birth to a child." Which was thrilling to think about when she was a hologram and even more so now.

Joi looks around herself. "I fear this is all too real. Despite how unlike home it is!"

[electricyousei]

"I think only the Jovians have biotech like that. Where I come from, there have been problems with a lot of AI's... Not... Being raised in a way they have the emotional experience not to react poorly to things."

She shakes her head, "Still, that does sound nice. Maybe in a few generations Replicants will be treated just like humans."

"As for the sword. Yes. Very heavy, and it seems sharper than one would expect a sword that was planted in the ground to be."

[joidevivre]

"The Jovians are...not human? But, I understand that all too easily. We're often seen as tools to be used, that we don't have souls. The more I got to know Joe, the more I believed that he did have one."

"I hope so. I won't get to see it, but he will," Joi says with conviction.

And she looks rather worried. "Will we be expected to fight? I have no idea how to do that, it wasn't part of my programming."

[electricyousei]

"No, the Jovians are human. All the planetary colonies are human to some degree. Though Mars and the Jovian Colonies have undergone a lot of nanomachine treatments to live in their respective planets."

She nods a bit, "Souls I don't know. It tends to be a religious idea and I really don't know what to think about it. I just like to think that any sentient should consider others to be family. As for expected to fight. I have no idea. I hope not, or at least, not with this. I'm not trained in it either."

[joidevivre]

"Ah, that makes sense. It's much the same on my Earth's colony worlds. They say they're beautiful."

"I think a certain amount of belief is programmed in. That keeps us from turning on someone who may not...be kind. But older Replicant models, they're killed. They would defend themselves, I know that much for certain."

And Joi looks at the ground littered with weapons of nearly every kind imaginable. Was that a slingshot? "Then I suppose we'll have to hope for the best?"

[electricyousei]

"If they are like the colonies I've been to... Beautiful may be taking it a bit far, but each one is its own place. As for belief...."

She just sighs, as a hint of sadness briefly flashes into her eyes, "I'm finding that I have less and less of that every year. And yes, that was why they tried to overwrite Omoikane. They hurt him and he never forgave them."

Looking over the weapons again she shakes her head, "I guess I'll be looking for tools or staying far in the back lines. As well as hope for the best."

[joidevivre]

"I hope that your colony worlds are kinder than the ones where I'm from are." Built on the backs of countless Replicants. Less than human and more than human, each at the same time.

She can see that flash of bitterness, but chooses discretion. Often, discretion was best. "Kindness is often in short supply, no matter where one comes from. That, I think I am sure of. But, why should he forgive them? I wouldn't.

And Joi sighs. "I was programmed to be a companion, not a fighter. I wouldn't know how to try even if I had to try. But yes. Sometimes, that's all we can do."

[electricyousei]

"Every colony has its own sad tale. But they are what they are now. I can't make humans be any kinder than they are."

She shakes her head, "As for forgiving humanity. The one who ordered him hurt, and tried to have him wiped is dead and gone. People have gone out of their way to apologize for it too. And many people join the military because they are bad at making decisions for themselves."

"I was made to socialize AI's, so... That is kind of where my mind goes. That being said, there is very very little sword fighting in that. Just a lot of making lying humans look foolish."

[joidevivre]

"I don't think anyone can. It's a shame, to have so much potential and use so much of it to crush the potential of others."

Replicants. Who knew what was truly possible. The potential. One of them had been a mother, something thought impossible. "Good." Perhaps not the kindest, but if Luv had been here, Joi wouldn't forgive her. "That seems to be a common enough theme amongst humans, doesn't it?"

And at the notion of making lying humans look foolish, she laughed, bright and merry as bells. "If that's what you're doing, when do you have time to sleep?"

[electricyousei]

"I pick my battles. They gave me the Nadesico so I'd go after my own agenda, instead of getting bored and spending all my time on the internet."

She looks off into the distance, "And then there was also the Demon of Mars incident..."

"Still, it would be nice if everyone encouraged each other to live up to their potential instead of being idiots."