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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.
no subject
I'm more of a wait-and-see sort of woman. Who knows. This could all be an elaborate fever dream and I'll wake up back in DC.
[Not that she's been prone to strange dreams like this. That was trained out of her a long time ago.]
Natasha.
[It's a name she uses, so that counts.]
no subject
and she cocks her head to one side again] DC? That's been mostly underwater for years.
[Dezba has been. she's seen visions the likes of which no one with as little blood as she has ever seen in sweat lodges, after peyote, in an elder's guest bedroom. those visions all had a ring of truth since they exposed The One to her, set her on a path to find him and protect him, but. she can't say anything. no one would understand. Ajei was very firm on that point]
Natasha. That's a pretty name. [she bows her head, holding onto a royal blue rip-off of a Chuck Taylor with one hand] I'm honored to make your acquaintance.
no subject
And she likes to live.]
Not for me, unless you want to talk about the muck that is corrupt politicians.
[She's pretty sure that there are some Americans who wish DC was underwater because that would solve their issues. She's not sure she disagrees.]
Thanks. And get the cheaper shoes for now. That way if something happens, you'll feel less upset if they get ruined. And you can save up for the more expensive ones.
[It's something she's learned to do since leaving Russia. Being in a world of plenty can be daunting, but freeing.]
no subject
she'll try to enjoy it while she can]
Those we have. The corrupt politicians. [she says in a whisper, looking surreptitiously around to see if anyone else heard, alert as a cat. then slowly relaxing when it seems that no one has]
That's a really good idea. I'll do that. It's...strange to think about having money I can earn by talking. I'll have to talk more.
[she's used to being seen and but not heard when she was trained in her magic]
no subject
They're universal. It doesn't surprise me. [Hopefully, one day the girl would stop being so skittish, but that probably has more to do with where she's from than anything else.]
Time is money. Just think of that. You're being paid for your time.
[Jury's out if its a good payrate though. Nat's leaning more towards no.]
(CW: police state, BDSM)
No. I guess it shouldn't? [criticizing politicians came with a 15 year hard labor prison if convicted. she's going to have to get used to the idea of free speech]
That makes sense. I had a job in Manhattan, but I'm not sorry to leave it. [it had been arranged for her in advance of her arrival.
she was a coat-check girl at a BDSM club inside the gated area. most people paid about as much attention to her as they would to an actual coat hanger, but some were creeps. she'd been told that might happen]
no subject
[She believes it. She's lived it through most of her life. And dealing with Pierce lately just reminded her and the rest of the superheroes that corruption doesn't always look like the Red Skull or Joseph Stalin. Sometimes, it was a 'philanthropist' with ulterior motives.]
Some jobs are ones we do because we have no other choice. Others, we can take pleasure in the completion of it.
[It's not that she enjoyed every facet of being a spy, but each mission was its own challenge. Some were more enjoyable than others, that was definitely true.]
no subject
[and all she can think of is Ajei on her knees in front of the police, her screaming at Dezba to not worry about her, to row her way to Manhattan and leave Ajei behind. she'd sobbed during the entire long boat ride over]
I'd like to find...something I would be pleased about. Though, I'm not sure what kinds of jobs are out there. Something nice?
[she knew that her job back home gave her a lot of insight into what the powerful were up to so that she could better make her choice. to save humanity or destroy it. but she did know whose side she wanted to be on]
no subject
I think I heard there were schools with dorms attached. Maybe you should start there. Learn something new and then try to find a job.
no subject
and, the cat. it's strangely soothing. only the very wealthy could afford pet cats, so to see them out and about as if it were no one's business? it's reassuring]
Schools? Ones where I could learn whatever I please? Not just...what is useful?
[and she can feel the mountain lion within her scream in protest, but she desperately wants to be just another girl. for once]
no subject
I suppose so. You'd have to check to see what they're offering but this isn't your home world, your version of Earth.
[She raises an eyebrow in a bit of a challenge.]
Even if it's not real in the end, you can do what you want. Who will stop you?
no subject
Oh. Thank the Creator. [she breathes out reverently.
and she considers for a moment]
No one, I suppose. Especially since this isn't my Earth. [which is going to take some getting used to]
no subject
Exactly. So, if you want to learn something that might be forbidden where you're from, do it.
[Nat's not really sure if there's more that she wants to learn, but she'll be happy not to have to report to some self-important prick for a while.]
Dear God, I can html! Kind of!
Everything I learned before was so...focused on a singular goal. But there's--there's a great deal more than I want to learn. [she pulls the copy of "Sense and Sensibility" out of her back pocket] Like books. Not books on medicine, but books.
[she'd always felt guilty for envying the few young people she'd met, for their chance to have fun without it being seen as frivolous]
I'm starting to not believe you. ;)
Literature is a good in to find out about a culture's temperature, especially what they allow others to actually read.
[That was always an issue back in the USSR, and even somewhat in the America she's come from.]
/runs screaming into the abyss :O
she saw no problematic aspect there]
We don't read anything. At least most people don't, they don't know how. There are so many things to watch. [quietly] But I don't like them. I'd rather read.
[entirely because the things to watch are rah-rah-rah love the dystopian hellscape you live in, yaaaaaay! they're bad.
she's heard rumors that some pre-isolation movies exist somewhere, but no one she knows is willing to own up to having any since, if caught, that's ten years in a work camp]
no subject
It sounds like they're relying on propaganda to do their brainwashing. I guess they've finally realized that keeping the populace dumb and complacent is easier if they can't read.
[Or rediscovered, considering education was rare for those without money for a long time. It had only been since the 19th and 20th centuries that education was pushed in the Western world on her version of Earth.]
Continue to read. It's the best way to keep your mind sharp so that you can fight back.
no subject
[but the various places she's visited, some had old books about various subjects squirreled away and Ajei told her to read them, so she'd know what had been and what was worth fighting to get back.
earnestly] I am. I know that how things are, they're not how things were. But [she looks troubled] the world needs saved first.
no subject
[That's discomforting.]
What year was it before you left your Earth?
no subject
It was 2599. What year was it for you?