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Entry tags:
August 2022 Test Drive Meme
AUGUST 2022 TDM
INTRODUCTION
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.
Content Warnings: snakes, cultists, optional violence.
FALLING DOWN LIKE PIECES INTO PLACE
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.
Content Warnings: Optional themes of identity and school trauma.
IMAKEOVER MAKEOVER
SAVED BY THE BELL
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.
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[ Better be worth the weird effort. She chuckles at his comment and shook her head. ] Nice of you to give her the credit.
[ She nods and starts moving. ] Can't be that hard, can it? [ Though some of the things it's asking for aren't really her cup of tea. ] Lorna. Lorna Dane. Or Polaris.
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[Time will tell anyway. Same glances at the list before holding it out for her to look at.] It doesn't sound too tough. I think we can handle it.
[He looks curious.] Polaris, huh? That some sort of code name? [He has one of those.] If so, Captain America, at your service, I guess.
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She glances at the list quick and quirks an eyebrow at it. ] Not tough, but definitely adding to the weird of [ she waves a hand, causing her bangles to jingle and shake. ] all of this. Never really did shit like this as a kid, but I always thought it'd be more...adventurous? [ maybe she really wasn't missing anything by not having friends as a kid! ]
Mutant name. [ Now he gets a curious look in return. ] Captain America? Seriously?
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Same here. Honestly? Seems kinda like Instagram fodder to me.
[He turns to look at her with a feigned affronted expression.] What? Don't think it suits me? [A smile bleeds through and he shrugs.] But yeah, seriously. It's a new one though. Used to be Falcon.
[And now, because he's too curious not to.] What do you mean mutant?
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She shrugs and feigns an apologetic expression. ] More like I can't believe someone chose that for themselves. What made you give up Falcon? [ Seems like a better choice.... ]
It's what I am. Homo Superior, people born with the X-Gene.
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[He turns over the relic in his hand.] Wonder if this thing does filters.
[Oh well. He shrugs.] I inherited the title. Big shoes to fill, you know? But I'm doing my best. And that's why I gave up Falcon.
[He looks surprised at her answer though. Homo Superior? So like a completely different species of human? That's definitely new.] Huh. Don't think we have those where I'm from. Or maybe we do and I just haven't heard of them yet. Sure as hell didn't know we had wizards until pretty recently.
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She rubbed the back of her neck. ] I get trying to fill big shoes. [ She'd tried in some ways, but it hadn't gone too well on her end. ] What exactly does a Captain America do? [ Color her curious now. ]
Well, as far as I know we don't have wizards. [ She said with a dry chuckle. ] Not that humans know the difference. [ There were definitely some humans that called their abilities magic. ] If your world does have us and you haven't heard about it, that's a good thing.
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[He was there. He was very cool. A lot of excellent flying. But he's considering that.] Not a warm reception where you're from? We don't have Homo Superior, but we have super soldiers and folks with science-created powers and alien demi-gods. There's definitely been some tension because of it.
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Sounds like it involves a lot of quick decision making. [ And hoping you make the right one. ] Damn. Nazis followed by aliens. Impressive. Though if you helped a lot, sounds like you were already on your way to figuring it out. What was the invasion like? [ Aliens are new to her too and she's curious. ]
Nah, more like a North Pole reception. What's caused the tension in your world?
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[He'll leave that to the kids-these-days.]
Chaos. This army just poured out of all these ships. Led by this big purple asshole with a lot of unresolved issues. We were lucky we had as many allies as we did. Managed to get the win, save the world. All that good stuff. [But it had cost them.]
People without powers started to get nervous about the people popping up with powers. There was this incident. Trying to apprehend a seriously bad dude, and one kid on the team tried to user her powers to redirect an explosion this asshole caused -- lost her grip on it at the last minute. A bunch of people died. Now, more would've died if she'd just let the explosion happen right there on the ground, but no one wanted to hear about that. It sort of set off a whole thing. New regulations, mistrust.
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Sounds intense. [ And here she thought her problems were big. Perspective is everything. ] Glad you were able to pull through. I hope you all didn't lose too much for it. [ She knows how much can be lost in a small fight like her own, can't even imagine how much would be at stake with something as big as an alien invasion.
She puts a hand on her hip and scoffs. ] Regulations. Of course. That's where we were at. People without powers decided we were too scary, an incident happened, someone lost control, and suddenly it was illegal for us to exist.
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Sam sobers a bit in the next moment. They did lose a lot for it, but they gained back a lot too.] We paid a cost for it. Some of us are still paying. But I have to believe it was worth it.
[Half a universe coming back from being taken out of existence, that's certainly something, right?
He winces in sympathy.] Our world hasn't gone that far, not yet anyway. I mean look, I get it -- it's intimidating to think about the fact that a girl half my size can fling me across the room with her mind, or some ordinary looking kid could crush my skull with one hand. I'm just a normal guy who happens to be real good with a wing suit. But people are people, powers are not. Some are gonna be perfectly decent. Some are going to be assholes. A few might be heroes and a few might be monsters. Just like any old human being. You can't just label an entire group of people like that. It's some bullshit. Sorry you've got that going on where you're from.
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There's always a cost. [ Her tone is quiet but firm, she's someone that accepted there'd always be a cost to big moves a long time ago. ] I may not get the full extent of the situation, but hard to imagine it wasn't worth it if you saved the world.
[ She meets his eyes for a second, almost like she's trying to size up if he means what he said. After a second she raises a hand and a green mist swirls around it. Strangely it might actually look familiar to him, like a certain witch that used the same mist in red. ] I promise, I won't fling you across the orchard unless you try to take pictures of my feet. I appreciate your honesty though. [ About it being intimidating, that got a lot of respect for her. Too many people were afraid to say it and really, she got it. It was intimidating what some of them could do. ] We'd have a lot less problems if more humans thought like you. We can all be monsters and we can all be heroes, just depends what path life threw us down.
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[But joking aside, Sam looks at the green energy that's currently swirling around her hand.] That girl I mentioned before? What she does looks a lot like that, different color scheme.
[He nods in agreement to what she says. His thoughts go immediately to Karli, a kid trying her best in a shitty as hell situation. Sure she'd made some wrong choices about how to go about it, but she had been thrown down that path and done what she could.]
Yeah, it really does. So, Polaris. What can you do with the light show?
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That so? There's only one other person where I'm from with powers like mine and he didn't have this tell. [ Once upon a time she'd like the difference in their powers, now though, she wasn't entirely sure. Sometimes having such an obvious tell wasn't exactly helpful. ]
Lot of different things. [ The easiest thing to show was that she could lift herself off the ground. Which she did. Without the slightest concern for if other people saw her or not. Lorna had never been one to shy away from using her powers publicly. ] Magnetokinesis. Simple answer? I can create and manipulate magnetic fields. [ She closed her eyes for a moment. ] Anything with any sort of metal in it, I can manipulate it. You'd be surprised how much is around. [ People had to go to great lengths to make sure there wasn't any for her to find. Even then they tended to forget that a lot of people had traces of metal in them. ] Limited cyberpathy, but I mostly only messed with that to fix my grades. [ She gave a little shrug and a smirk. That wasn't entirely true, but it sounded more harmless than using cyberpathy to try to hack into computers of the extremists she'd ended up working with. ]
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[All right. Sam nods to himself.] Okay, that's pretty cool. And remind me to never challenge you to a fight. [Seriously.] Not that I have it here, but when I fly, the wings are metal. So's the shield.
[Odd heavily in favor of the woman who can manipulate anything metal. And he would believe that. Though he wonders if the rules are different for vibranium since it's weird as hell.]
So you've just always been able to do that? You must've been a terrifying toddler.
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[ She shook her head. ] Nah, mutant powers don't trigger until around puberty. I was born with the green hair though, combine that with who my dad was and [ she shrugs ] at least my Aunt was ready for the rough time. I take offense to that though, I was a great toddler. No trouble at all. [ That was a lie. ]
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[Thanks to Bucky and the favor he called in from Wakanda.] But for the time being I'm grounded.
[Which honestly is kind of unfortunate, but he can manage on his feet as well, even if he'll miss the sky. His eyebrows lift at that. Around puberty.] Shit, like puberty isn't enough of a rollercoaster. What timing.
Who was your dad?
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[ She laughs. ] Tell me about it. It's especially rough for the ones with stronger powers that aren't prepared. [ At least her Aunt had known. Not everyone got that much of a warning. Not that she made it easy for her even with preparation.
She rubs the back of her neck. ] Well known mutant where I'm from. Infamous for having a more...extremist view of things.
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[But also, it would be nice to actually be compensated enough to help take care of his sister and nephews a bit more. No need to get into that right now though.
He winces in sympathy.] I can imagine. Awkward voice cracking and zits is hard enough. Never mind superpowers.
[Infamous is a very interesting word.] Huh. That's gotta be some baggage to have to lug around growing up.
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She's not one to want sympathy so she just rolls a shoulder. ] It had it's bright sides. I never had to worry about failing out of school. [ Because she could just change the grades. Bright side. ]
You know, surprisingly the baggage got heavier the older I got.
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[And then he's stopping and staring.] Steve is here? Impressive, yeah, yeah you could say that. Remember I was talking about previous Captain America? The one that fought Nazis and aliens and saved the world a few times? Steve Rogers.
[Which now that he's thinking about it is complicated. Is it old man Steve? Or is there some time travel nonsense going on here? Time travel nonsense is so confusing, but apparently real so it's not like he can be unbelieving.]
And I'd believe it. World gets more complicated as you go. Things are smaller, when you're a kid; they just feel bigger 'cause you're smaller too.
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[ She nods. ] Damn, makes me feel even weirder about how our meeting went. Had no idea I was talking to someone like that. [ That man is extremely humble to say the least. ] Can't say for sure if it's the exact one you know, heard some wonky stories from people about time differences and entire world differences. [ It was weird and she didn't want to fully get his hopes up that it'd be exactly who he expected. ]
True enough. Add to that the fact that as a kid you feel like adults have all the control. As an adult you realize, none of us have any control over anything.
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[One of the best really, and while Lorna says that it may not be the same Steve, and Sam is willing to believe she is right that it's a possibility, he's really hoping it's the Steve he knows. Maybe that's selfish, given the whole snatched to a weird world thing.]
We're all making it up as we go along. [Sam agrees.] Only thing really in our control is our own actions.
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[ They definitely don't in her world. It could use someone like that. ]
Yeah. [ A hint of a frown touches her lips. ] That's true enough.
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