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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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( Not that all of them were necessarily alive, or freed, or doing much of anything, but she's earned some pessimism on the subject. After all, the Old Gods keep cropping up, why not the magisters credited with bringing the Blights into being?
the elven pantheon wasn't quite as godly or quite as dead as it seemed, lyrium came from titans underground, and she's met so many elves who are so much older than the many human societies she's more and more ready to believe just about everything.
(so when will the other half of what Solas walked with come creeping forward again, or have they not, the whole time? questions, questions. let's stop the veil from crashing down first.) )
He was, through his work with the Fade... creature, Nightmare. A manipulation of the connection the taint creates between all those with it, but on that, you'd know more than I do, I suspect.
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maybe given their ties to Darkspawn, she'd be able to find them and kill them herself? an errand on the way, although she already knew that she'd need to provide an heir. which meant that one of them had to stop being a Grey Warden.
both, if she was being honest. this idea of a false Calling rattled her nerves and she would not be parted from Alistair until they were both old and grey. which meant they would have to become "ordinary" humans once more.
and the notion of all of it makes her blood run cold and her temper run hot. but not directed at this woman, not anymore] I see. We can sense them, but they can sense us as well. If anyone could manipulate the bond between us, the Darkspawn, and tie us in with such a creature, they'd be very dangerous indeed.
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It is... but it's not unmangeable, when one is aware. The problem being that secrets failing to stay secret, or their meanings distorting over time, can lead to the kinds of confusions where ancient corrupted Magisters escape ancient Warden prisons and end up trying to recreate a Tevinter Imperium that never properly could be what it once was.
( are you listening out there, Solas, does this sound at all familiar to you, hoodlum terror. )
The First Warden and the rest are dealing with it in some manner, but I'm not well informed as to their specifics. Not even Hawke of Kirkwall is, from what Viscount Varric last told me.
(CW: mental illness)
[and she fears that the answer is "not very possible," meaning an incredibly powerful Darkspawn/Magister with a poor grasp of sanity was out there somewhere, even during her time]
...Hawke? Varric? May I ask how long has it been between the settling of the Fifth Blight and when you're from?
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( not bothering with the month; that's not what this woman is grappling with. )
The Fifth Blight ended in 9.31 Dragon.
( no comment on retained sanity in very, very old beings. it's a shifting, and at times too personal, mark. )
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...Maker's breath. [in a rush] But at least there's time to plan. Time to prepare. I must return to being my whole self to warn Alistair and the Ferelden Wardens at Vigil's Keep. We must know. We must be taken in confidence.
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( calling it out in words now, but casually, with only the slightest of smiles. )
There's a chance if you remember this, if our worlds follow similar enough trends, that when you speak, they'll listen.
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[she smiles back shyly, feeling like what she'd just said stripped her bare to the bones to the other woman]
They will. They will. I'll...do whatever it takes to make them listen. Even as far as Empress Celene. She called Anora a rose, but I am the thorns.
What precisely must I be wary of? There have to be signs, however small.
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( Said a touch wryly: it's the nature of people being short in memory, and power being longer in reach. )
The particulars, I can try to recall what Alistair and Hawke said, but there weren't many beforehand. Have someone looking for Hawke in Kirkwall? Concerning... it must have been the Warden-Commander in the Free Marches.
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[but the first and foremost thing she needs to do is figure out how she and Alistair can have a baby. not just because she wants to be a mother desperately but because an heir would strengthen Alistair's hold on the throne]
Hawke. Does he or she have a name other than that? Finding a single person in Kirkwall will be as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. And I wonder, should I choose diplomacy first?
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( Her good hand runs over her head, raking against her close-shaved hair. )
Though she'll be easier to find than you think. They fled Ferelden at the start of the Blight, if I understand correctly, so she'd be in Kirkwall already with her surviving family.
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It seems as though there are a terrible amount of variables, even for Thedas. There are...many Earths. You're the first person I've met from another Thedas.
[and the experience has shaken her deeply, even though she's trying to cling to the fact that in her world, her Alistair is safe. and she prays that he may forever be so]
Oh? Where in Ferelden were they from?
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Which actually works. )
A smaller village, but the name eludes me. Closer to Lake Calenhad, but not on the main lake, I think.
( L o t h e r i n g, but really, that's not a detail that was as relevant for her in all she was figureheading over the most recent years. )
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[and her focus shifts] What does she look like? And which kind of power can she wield?
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( it's just a curious question, because she quirks her brows and shakes her head. she doesn't sound offended, or like she's trying to turn it into an argument. mages simply have more to call on and some specific focusses, depending, but Hawke hadn't broken hers down. )
She's tall for a woman, dark hair worn short, tends to give herself a splash of pain across the bridge of her nose in crimson. Never did hear why.
(CW: mental illness)
[she's doing her very best to not blush scarlet. it's much harder here to maintain her mask of calm and competence, which also leads to her being more vulnerable to the demons in her head]
Ah. She sounds quite distinctive. What is she like? As a person.
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I... can only say, in the times we spent together, she was a woman dedicated to family and friends, with a deep sense of duty. And a witty tongue. Varric is who you'd need to speak with, and weigh how much of his word you trust is accurate versus what he speaks as a storyteller does. Hawke wasn't my friend, so much as someone I briefly worked with.
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....ah. Varric. [as dry as a bleached bone] I suppose it's asking far too much for us to hope that a Varric joined us?
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( ... than a Varric with even more of himself distanced from caring at all, and ordering more letters folded into origami canines. )
Sadly, haven't seen any sign of that rogue yet.
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[origami canines are wonderful. though, she doesn't know the reputation of Mabari outside of Ferelden]
Ah. Well, if or when he does arrive, I would very much like to meet him. I need every bit of information about the likely future as I can learn.
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( Not strictly to her benefit, and she knows it; Varric is loyal to Hawke first and longest, and Kirkwall most lasting, but he's also why Kirkwall stands strong again, not ten years out of the chaos that'd seen it as the spark igniting the...
She pauses, then sighs. )
I should probably mention the mage and templar war.
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[there were very few people Mariane considered interesting outside of her Blight companions. but a surface dwarf who considered that role as preferable? Other than Bodhan and Sandal, she's never met such dwarves.
and an expression of alarm] "Yes. Yes, you must!"
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( said with a sigh, and her sidelong glance. )
And acknowledgement that I'm Dalish and heard most things after the fact, and what caused the spillover in my world doesn't mean it's the same final spark to set that whole mess on fire in yours.
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[she's doing her best to not worry her hands together. she thought she'd broken herself of that habit, but apparently not] Yes. Of course. Different origins, different decisions and---and such.
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( a quirk of her brow at the terminology being unfamiliar. )
Different times for every world, yes.
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