folkooc | August 2022 Test Drive Meme

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Interesting answers he's got there.]

I see, I see, Both worthy causes. Though I'd say one substantially easier to picture than the other... you hail from a dangerous world, then?

I'm not sure that I can confidently say that I have a baseline for what is and isn't dangerous that would let me make a meaningful statement. But Aionios has been at war for a very long time.

[So, people who get to experience lives without the worry of that constant war hanging over their shoulders? He'll count that as beautiful, yeah.]

I see... my condolences, then.

[Having never seen or lived through a war, he can't really comment much on that. He just knows it's an unfortunate circumstance to have to live in. For it to go on so long he doesn't know what isn't dangerous? Sounds like a nightmare.]

[Taion isn't sure how to react to that - the war is a fact of life. He's never encountered someone who wasn't at least aware of it before. What is he supposed to say in reply?

After a long time - long enough that it seems like he might not reply at all - he settles on - ]

Perhaps it's the rareness of such things that makes them move the heart.

It may be so. But times of great trial bring people together as well, don't they? In my recent adventures, I've been deeply moved by the strength of the human heart when we struggle - or humanoid, I should say, as my group is not all human.

[The correction makes Taion raise his eyebrows just a little, curious but not probing for the moment.]

They can. I've seen both wonderful things and terrible ones due to the strength of the heart.

[Tary's usually not self-aware enough to recognize when he might have said the wrong thing, but there've been some developments over the past several months that have made him much better at noticing that other people... like... exist, so after a moment, he offers quietly,]

I hope in the future you experience more of the latter, then. Wonderful things are just that, aren't they?

Let's hope so.

[Deep breath. Okay. Getting back on task.]

So, those photos?

[Oh thank god. The air was stifling just now.]

Ah- yes! Photos! I'm sure we could find a lovely garden around here to take a picture. Flowers, perhaps?

Might be getting to be late in the season, but it's worth a try.

[They'll give it their best, that's for certain.

Taion points in a seemingly random direction.]

I've already been that way, so we can rule that out.

I came from over there- [He points,] so we've eliminated two directions! How useful. Onward to the next one!

[And then he'll pick one of the two directions left and start walking as if he has all the confidence in the world. What a grand new adventure to be had!]

[Sure, that's as good a direction as any as far as Taion is concerned. He follows.]

Thus far it seems to be mostly apple trees in every direction. I've never seen so many.

Truly? It's not so unusual where I was living before I came here. There were a lot of trees back home, too. I hadn't thought about it much.

There's fairly few farms in my world, and they all grow much shorter-lived crops than trees. All the apples I've ever had are wild.

[It'd take a soldier's entire life for an apple tree to come to maturity and bear fruit, after all. They don't have time for that.]

Fascinating. [And unfortunate, really. Fruit trees are so useful, on top of providing the tasties.] In that case, take your time in discovering all that a good tree has to offer! I know a druid who could tell you more. She talks to trees. Even walks through them, sometimes!

[Another mild eyeroll. He's familiar enough with trees. But the rest of the comment gets his curiosity going, instead.]

That sort of thing is possible where you come from? Is it common?

I'm not so sure about common- in all my life, I've only done it a handful of times, and that was only after meeting the lady Keyleth so it all happened within this year. I'm sure most people in my world could go their whole lives without experiencing it.

Well, I don't believe there's anyone on Aionios capable of such a thing, so it's certainly more common for your world than mine.

I suppose I must concede, there. I was amazed when I saw it for the first time myself, but I'd at least heard of it. It was on my adventuring wish list.

That's a thing you have?

[Curious rather than judgemental.]

Of course! An aspiring hero ought to have a list of things to do. Otherwise, what feats will they have to boast about?

[That just gets a confused set of blinks for a brief moment.]

I can't say I've ever heard of someone being an aspiring hero. That's usually something people agree upon after the fact.

That just seems a little short-sighted. Those who people revere as heroes had to have started somewhere.

August 2022 Test Drive Meme

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that icon made me doubletake thanks

lmao sorry not sorry. i added a note to his profile tho fff i expect you'll not be the first

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