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

[intheblood]

[ For a moment, he looks very proud of himself, because he knows what handshakes are! So he accepts it with maybe a little too much enthusiasm. ]

It is quite a lot, especially if you're not used to some of the technology or the social standards. [ Case in point: Handshakes. ] I haven't been here very long myself, but this isn't the first time I've traveled to a new realm like this. Perhaps I can help somehow?

[forestwatcher]

[The eager handshake is endearing in its way and Tighnari takes it with a smile, his tail swishing back and forth behind him.]

Hmm, I don't know about that. It isn't the surroundings I'm having trouble with. [Given he lives in a forest, being here is not so strange... at least when it comes to what things look like. He's accustomed to magic as well, so that isn't too peculiar either. Tighnari curls one finger close to his lower lip, his brow furrowing faintly in thought.]

If you could answer questions about the Fox, I would have some things to ask you. But I expect you're as clueless on that topic as I am.

[intheblood]

I might be. But I won't know unless you ask, and if nothing else, it's something to talk about, eh?

[ That and Zagreus really wants to be as helpful as possible. He's hoping he might actually have some solid answers, but even if he doesn't, perhaps he can provide at least a little insight? Some educated theorizing, perhaps? He likes to tout that he doesn't really understand multidimensional travel all too much, and perhaps that's true on the surface.

But he does have a good idea of how whimsical gods can be. ]

Ask away, mate.

[forestwatcher]

[Something to talk about... sure, why not. Even if Zagreus doesn't have any answers the two of them might have some interesting theories to share. Tighnari had had a lot of questions for the fox as they had moved through what he had assumed was a very interesting hallucination, but she had not been very forthcoming with her answers...

Not in a way that he would have liked, anyway.]

Did she find you through a dream, as well? [There is a point to the question, though he assumes he already knows the answer.]

I haven't dreamed since I was a child. I assumed I'd eaten something strange and was having some kind of hallucination.

[intheblood]

It seems that way. I don't sleep much, but I must have dozed off, and that's when I met her.

[ But that much does seem odd to him, too. He doesn't remember being the least bit drowsy. It's not the most unbelievable thing to imagine that she might have enchanted him beforehand, as a means to gaining access to his unconscious mind... ]

In any case, a god who can enter a dream... she may very well be able to induce them as well, even in people not typically visited by dreams.

[forestwatcher]

[It would not be the most unbelievable thing at all. Thirteen clearly has power unlike anything Tighnari is familiar with and though he is curious about that too, he doesn't think he's going to get anywhere with that particular line of enquiry.]

Mm, you may be right. It's her ability to cross between worlds to do so that is the most intriguing. That power alone is... mind-boggling, to be quite frank.

[Enough to give anyone a headache.]

We all seem to arrive here unharmed in any case. I wonder just how far that power stretches.

[intheblood]

I would have said the same thing a year and some past, but... since then, I've also witnessed a young godling who could pull people from their own realms purely by accident, or because they were in a grumpy mood. And there are others still with similar experiences... what I'm saying is that, while it is indeed incredible, it's possibly not as unique as one might think. Perhaps even one of us might rise to that level.

[ That certainly is a goal of his... whether by the graces of this fox, or by his own godly abilities. He doesn't know quite how he'll achieve it, but he wants to be able to relieve those who don't wish to be here of their burden.

He pauses his explanation for a second and looks around. ]

Ah, does this look like enough of a path for that picture?

[forestwatcher]

I don't think that is a level of power that I could ever want for myself, even if it were offered to me.

[Wanting to be able to help people with that kind of power is a noble thing indeed, but Tighnari knows well enough how easily power can corrupt those who hold it... and it isn't a responsibility he would want to find on his shoulders.]

And though lacking in uniqueness as it may be in your own experience, it certainly isn't in mine. Its fascination remains regardless. [That is to say, it still gives him a headache.

Tighnari taps his lower lip thoughtfully.] It looks like enough of a path. Shall we?