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

<3

[metalkinetic]

[ It's not as if it is difficult to tell who the girl is talking about. Erik is well aware that he is in the newspapers often, that his name and his title and his actions are splashed across every news screen, every paper, everything to remind the world of just how dangerous he is. There had never been a moment where he'd been able to slip away - not after Cuba, or the president, or Washington. He was trapped in a cycle of his own making, with the only positive being the impact he had on other people of his own kind.

Mutants seeing another mutant standing proud, standing strong. Maybe they saw him as a villain, but at least he was bold and confident. That, twinned with the image of Raven standing strong, might just have been enough to save a handful of lives. To him it was worth it. ]

That sounds like a smart man. [ Is she going to give him a name, he wonders. It's obvious who he is to people who know his name or his title - he's sitting, moulding and controlling metal with a ridiculous level of strength. Anyone who had heard whispers of the title of Magneto would know him without a shadow of a doubt.

He shrugs, leaning back, grin full of teeth and danger. ] Dangerous, but smart.

[ferrokinetically]

As a kid I would've argued against that until I was blue instead of green. I would've insisted he was an idiot doing more harm than good for us. [ A lot of people she knew would still see it that way. The more she'd pushed into his ideology though, the more she'd understood. There was danger in that understanding, there was no denying that. ]

Anyone fighting for what they think is right can be dangerous. [ She'd become dangerous. Maybe she'd always been dangerous, some had said it was in her blood. Turns out they weren't wrong. She'd repeated similar steps to him, complete with choosing to separate herself from her kid so she could keep fighting.

She folded her hands across her chest as she kept her eyes focused on him. ] He called himself Magneto. Could never decide if it actually sounded better than Erik Lehnsherr or not. Sometimes I felt like it was a bit too obvious of a choice to go the magnet route.

[metalkinetic]

I doubt you'd be the only person in the world thinking the exact same thing. [ He'd heard it from enough of his friends - if he dared call them that - to ever begin to imagine otherwise. What Erik wanted for mutants was simple: the freedom to live, without fear, without danger, without being attacked. If that meant he had to give himself the target on his back, well. It was a sacrifice he was more than willing to pay.

His eyes flick back to her at the reveal of his name. Of course this was where the conversation was going; of course, no matter what world he came to, the name Magneto echoed with meaning. To think, it was a name made up by a group of children messing around with their mutations in a CIA base. Now it struck fear in the world.

It's almost funny. ]

It sounds like it was made up by children. [ He grins, lifting a shoulder into a shrug. ] I certainly didn't create it myself.

[ferrokinetically]

I'm sure I wouldn't, but kids always have the most passion behind finding ways to hate their parents. [ Prior to that there'd been a certain degree of confidence in her tone, almost wavering on arrogance. That sentence was different. A bit of caution seeped into her tone, caution and uncertainty. Was it the right thing to even say anything? The more she studied him the more certain she was he looked a lot like that man that she'd just thought of as her mothers' friend. Wasn't until after her death that she'd learned the truth behind that friend.

She drummed her fingers on her arms as she tried to keep any sort of emotion from her expression. So far she was surprisingly successful with it. ]

Never knew it was made up by children's. Explains a lot. [ A tiny smile managed to overcome her attempts at a blank expression. She couldn't help it, there was something amusing about thinking it'd been the product of kids. ] So that is you?

[metalkinetic]

[ If Erik hadn’t already encountered the fact that he had children in alternate universes - more children than he already knew he had, another beyond his Nina - he might be a little more skeptical. Luckily for Lorna, he’s been given a pretty solid overview about his children and grandchildren and has begun to accept it for whichever other Erik had them. It makes sense, at least, for Lorna to be some Erik’s child.

She has his mutation. He can’t help but feel a little proud.

It’s clear to him as well that they share more than just a mutation. The careful expression, the measured nature of their conversation, gently probing to find out more - it’s clever, and very much in line with what he’d do.

At least he can be a little more relaxed. Maybe. ]

Magneto? It is me. [ Once, he would’ve been tremendously proud of his name, his title. He’s old and tired now, however, and the pain of grief is still aching his bones. ] Erik Lehnsherr. Magneto. They all mean the same thing.

[ferrokinetically]

[ She stiffens and tightens her jaw, cocking her head to the side ever so slightly. There's such a fine line between anger and everything else she's feeling. The weirdest part is probably the simple fact that it's not the rolling storm she'd always expected. After a few seconds she lets out the sigh she hadn't been rolling and when she speaks, she's just a bit quieter. Tiredness wears everyone down eventually. ]

When I was a kid I used to watch the whole world hating you and all I could ever think was that nobody hated you as much as I did. [ He'd left her in a small town where everyone knew she was a freak. Nobody had liked, nobody had wanted to deal with her, and she'd always thought maybe it'd have been different if he'd let me go with him. And then she'd had Dawn and it felt like she'd just suddenly gotten it. She clears her throat and runs a hand through her hair. ]

Even if you're not the same guy--I mean, [ she shrugs ] I don't get how this all works. But I do get it now. Some of it. You were just doing what you thought was right to make a world for our kind. [ It was an apology to someone that probably didn't even get what she was apologizing for. It was probably also the worst attempt at an apology ever. Maybe second worst. She had a knack for sucking at things like that. ]

[metalkinetic]

[ Erik wonders what sort of relationship his alternate self must have with this woman for her to react like this. It isn't clear if they have one at all - and perhaps that means he is from her world, from her universe. He already had one child that he didn't know about, according to Billy, so it wouldn't come as a surprise that there might be another.

Arms crossing over his chest, Erik watches her, lets her talk, and listens in. ] You wouldn't be the first. My reputation is... Significant, for lack of a better word. I've seen their news reports, their stories, what they write about me. Only part of it is true. [ Some aspects are right and fair, but others?

No non-mutant could possibly understand. Shaking his head, he looks away, almost embarrassed by her earnestness. ] If it is any consolation, I didn't know I had other children. I thought I only had one. [ And now he has none. Not that it makes it better. ]

[ferrokinetically]

[ Not having one at all would be an accurate assumption. It was Complicated with a capital C. Though there were certainly times where Lorna felt as though complicated was just the default state of mutant relationships. Not a single one seemed to be mostly functional. It didn't even seem to matter if it was siblings, romantic, or just friendship, they all ended up dysfunctional at some point.

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other in a move that almost betrayed the bit of awkwardness that was creeping up on her. Strangely she almost felt like being angry would have been the easier option. At least better than just not knowing how to feel. ] That's how it always is, isn't it? Only partially true and usually highlighting the parts that make us look the worst. [ Only a hint of bitterness came into her tone there. In the past it'd have been heavier, but now she was just so tired of it all. The feeling made her wonder if this was what he'd ended up feeling eventually too. Had it weighed on him?

She froze for a moment at that and then tried to shrug as nonchalantly as she could. ] He knew. Maybe...we're not from the same place then. [ This was...awkward. ]

[metalkinetic]

[ It's not as if Erik can blame her for her clearly mixed emotions when it comes to him. He's hardly a good man, and if he is her father then he hasn't been present in her life at all. He can't be blamed for that entirely, given the fact that he didn't know, but it likely doesn't ease the hurt, anger or frustration. He knows that all too well.

Whatever she wants from him, he can at least muster some attempt. He thinks he had been a good father, once, even if his little girl had never grown up to be a woman like Lorna is. The thought is a stab to the heart, and he breathes out gently. ] It's what the human reporters do. They can't give us rationality, because then people might start to believe us.

[ Erik shakes his head, letting his eyes stay on her as she quite literally tries to shrug the situation off. Just like him. ]

Maybe. It turns out I have a son in my own world, so anything is possible.

[ferrokinetically]

You're right. I-- [ she almost tells a story of a friend of hers, offers information like she would to a friend (or a real father), but she holds back. They're not that familiar are they? No and she still has pride. Perhaps a bit too much. She's already shown too much of her hand. She shifts, twists her mouth into a wry smile. ] Yeah. Saw that in action recently. Let a human get a good look at what we go through and their attitude changes. [ So it's better if the media keeps them in the negative spotlight. Wouldn't want too many people getting too sympathetic.

She lets out a huff and a nod. ] Quicksilver, right?