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

[beastliness]

( A soft, quiet breath leaves him as she greets him, but none of that tension is soothed. If anything, his shoulders seem to tense further, back straightening. But he stands still, one hand lifted holding the apple. Such a tiny delicate thing already ruined in his hands.

Something dark flashes across his expression at the mention of being friends, and he almost laughs. Almost. )

A soldier of the Empire is no friend of mine. ( There's an icy sharpness to his words, and the way he watches her is not unlike a predator watching it's prey. Waiting for that first hint of movement that tells him to lash out.

The rational part of him hardly wants to bring a conflict from home into this place, weary idea of shedding needless blood in a place with no war. But that lingering madness and bloodlust reminds him that it would be such an easy thing. That she is no different than the empire scum he'd cut down in the past. )

[backstreetbard]

A soldier of--excuse me?

[ Something hot fills her chest; maybe anger or fear, it's hard to tell. She grips her apples tighter, holding them close to her chest, as if they could protect her from him. ]

How could you say that to me after all the battles we fought together? I know you Faerghans never actually gave a damn about me but that's just cruel.

[ That's not entirely true, but if he's going to be petty then she can, too. Without, uh, really thinking the action through, she throws... her apple. Just. Right at him. Then she runs, not up the wide lane between the trees, but dashing through them, around the thick trunks in a zig-zagging pattern in the hopes of evading someone she knows can run faster than her and probably break her in half like a dry twig. ]

[beastliness]

( Why she seems so offended by his words, Dimitri isn't sure. There's a slight tilt of his head as she continues to speak, and the way his expression creases shows that he's... confused by her words. And if it weren't for the genuine sense of what might be anger or fear, he would be ready to lash out for her lies.

But before he gets a chance to respond, there's an apple soaring towards him and then the apples in her arms are on the ground. For a moment he just... stands there, only blinking at the apple bonks him on the head. But he recovers quickly, dropping his own apple on the ground to give chase.

It doesn't take long for her to catch up to her. And when he does, he reaches out, one hand catching her shoulder to jerk her back. He moves in closer, closing his arms around her to hug her back against his chest, using his arms to hug her own against her sides. )

Dorothea, please stop running-!

[backstreetbard]

[ Well, that didn't take long. Dorothea flails in his grip, but he holds her tight. Her attempts to fight against his superior strength must seem pathetic; after a moment, she stops struggling. It would be no good to try and use magic against him now--a spell in close quarters would hurt her as much as it hurt him. ]

Just do it quickly. I can't stand the suspense.

[beastliness]

( As she flails, Dimitri tightens his grip, mindful not to hold her too tightly. As much as he hopes to restrain her, he doesn't have any particular desire to harm her for now. )

I have no intention of harming you. ( He offers carefully once she seems to settle. Slowly, his arms loosen, not enough that she can slip away from him, but to show he has no plans of harming her. )

Please - explain what you said early.

[backstreetbard]

[ The 'please' is what gets her. That's the second time he's said it. Would the snarling madman he's purported to be bother with that sort of politeness? Still, she's not over her anger. ]

Weren't you aware? None of your friends liked me. I thought it was a house leader's job to keep up with that sort of thing. Unless... you shared in their sentiments but were too polite to say anything about it. [ She huffs, but there's genuine upset in her voice. ] Maybe I shouldn't have transferred classes after all.

[beastliness]

( His arms loosen as she continues to speak, and he sets her down carefully onto her feet. She could try to run, he supposes, but by the time she got out of his grip, he's certain he could get ahold of her once more.

His brows furrow as he listens, and there's a slow shake of his head. )
I do not understand. ( He lets go of her fully. ) You were not a member of the Blue Lions. If you were, I would not allow them to voice their disgust or disapproval in such ways to upset you.

( He's not deluded enough to think he could change their minds, let alone Felix or Ingrid. But he would certainly do his best. Stand up for and defend her in the same way he always did Dedue.

But there's a thought that this might be some of trickery on her part, a thought that makes his fingers curl slowly into a fist in lieu of reaching for the dagger there. )

If what you say is true - why would you choose our class over the Black Eagles? 

[backstreetbard]

I was! [ She pushes away from him, not that she thinks it'll help her. ] I transferred because the Professor asked me to join her class. I thought it'd be better to learn from someone like her with practical experience than with Hanneman.

[ That, and maybe someone from the Kingdom who didn't know about her career as a diva might be more willing to see her for her good qualities than her Adrestian classmates.

It'd been worth a shot. ]

I shouldn't have bothered. Felix treated me like something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe. Ingrid wouldn't speak to me after I tried to get her to dress up for a performance one time. In the Eagles I was the only commoner, but in the Lions I was still the odd man out.

Anyway, what does it matter? We're not in Fodlan anymore. Even if I were still with the Eagles, I wouldn't want to fight. I never wanted to fight in the first place.

[beastliness]

( Dimitri is.. out of practice with talking to others. It shows in how uncertainly he stands there as she speaks. Should he try to comfort her? Or would she even want such a thing? As it is, he can't deny he feels a tension that hangs between them, though he isn't sure if that's his own doing give how he'd manhandled her or her own seemingly... difficult feelings towards the Blue Lions.

He breathes out slowly. )

There is no war here. I have no desire to fight with anyone. ( A partial lie. A part of him always lusts for the thrill of a fight.

He hesitates before continuing. ) Though if you will allow it, I hope we can become allies, if not friends.