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

[oftheisland]

Anne's mouth opens in a soft, sympathetic o. "Oh, I'm – I'm so sorry."

The very last thing she wants is to make her new acquaintance relive a memory which obviously causes so much sorrow. Didn't make it out of the Conclave means almost nothing to Anne: was her sister killed? Left behind? Lost in some other way?

She doesn't know, and she can't ask, not without being unforgivably rude. So it's a relief when the other girl smiles and takes a few steps along the path, allowing Anne to beam back at her and reach out with her hand, trusting. "I'm ready," she laughs. "And since we're taking a stroll, why not stroll over toward that stand over there, the one with the hot cider?"

There's just a suggestion of briskness to the air, enough for the thought of some warm, tart cider to sound just right.

[wewearpink]

She smiles back ruefully. "It's...well, not okay. We were separated when we were kids, I was kinda hoping we could get close again. But, she was mad at me. I was supposed to be the one given to the Chantry, but after my magic manifested, off to the Circle I went! And she was given to the Chantry, instead." She doesn't like the Chantry. Really, really, really doesn't like the Chantry.

But now Leliana was in charge. Leliana was already changing things and Lila had no qualms about turning the Inquisition into her honor guard.

She wondered if the Warden and the Champion felt like this. Kind of at a loss? As in, what now? But Lila pulls herself away from her reverie. "Hot cider? Really? Maker's breath, I could go for that! Let's go, maybe they have pastries, too? One of the only good things about being in Orlais so much, they have great food. I could really go for an almond croissant."

What could she say, she was used to getting used to odd circumstances? Being the Inquisitor, she had to be.

[oftheisland]

"There are so few things more delightful than hot spiced cider on a brisk autumn day," Anne observes, with anticipatory delight. "And doesn't spiced cider just taste like autumn feels? Shall we just take this picture? Oh, doesn't that look sweet?"

For it does, she thinks; their fingers interlaced and the brown path twisting away behind them, buds of purple heather poking up through the carpet of scarlet and gold and russet leaves beneath the trees nearby. "A pastry sounds scrumptious; I wonder if they've any apple fritters."

[wewearpink]

"I know! I'd never had spiced cider until I met the Iron Bull. Qunari as a whole are kind of annoying, but they have good food. And it does, it really does! And autumn is so nice in general, it's just the right balance between hot and cold. I can bring out the furs in the morning and not need them by noon!"

She likes doing things like holding hands. It had been rough before, everyone so much older than she was, but she took a leap of faith and now has the boyfriend of her dreams. Back home. "Doesn't it? But, what's an apple fritter? I'm not sure if I've heard of them before."

[oftheisland]

"If they have them, I insist you try one," Anne says, firmly. "That will get a genuine smile, I've no doubt, for they're perfectly delicious. Not as good as Marilla's plum puffs, of course," she adds, loyal to the core, "but delightful all the same. Pieces of apple, all flavored with cinnamon and cloves and ginger, mixed in with batter and fried into something light and crisp. They just melt in your mouth -- the good ones, anyway."

She turns her bright, curious eyes on her companion. "The Iron Bull? Is that a person?"

[wewearpink]

"I will," Lila says enthusiastically. "And I can smile! Sometimes I do it so much, my cheeks hurt at the end of the day. But I'm on Josie's side, smiles get more than frowns. And then when you use frowns, well, people pay attention. But that sounds amazing, definitely not anything I've had at home, but I recognize the spices! I never had plum puffs, either, but Marilla is a very pretty name."

"Yes, a Qunari. Well, actually a Tal-Vashoth now. He's at least twice as tall as I am, he's got giant horns, he's missing an eye, and you would not believe how muscular he is! Also! He has the worst taste in fashion I've ever seen," said decisively.

Pretty much the entire Inquisition were like family, Lila being the little sister. Even though she got to boss all of them around.