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Entry tags:
September 2022 Test Drive Meme
SEPTEMBER 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: mood-altering substances.
What a Wonderful Harvest
"TRICK."
"TREAT."
What a Wonderful Harvest
It's harvest season in Folkmore. Apples, squash, potatoes, onions, peaches, sweet corn... all manner of crops are ready to be gathered, and golden fields fall willingly before the scythe. The air has a chill to it that you can mostly ignore in the sun but runs deep when you stand in the shadows.
After arrival you will find yourself out in said fields, maybe a little disoriented but not in any danger. It's peaceful.
In the farmlands you might be able to hear music floating on the wind. Follow it, or just wander by accident, and you'll find yourself coming upon what looks like some kind of costume party: people dressed up in cloth and vegetables - mostly gourds as masks - are singing and dancing around an enormous pole surmounted by the biggest Jack-O-Lantern you've ever seen.
The pumpkin people seem shy, but they won't turn you away if you wish to join their celebration - there are other Star Children like yourself here, and you might feel a little more comfortable with them. At least you can see their real faces. You can drink some apple cider and carve some pumpkins yourself if you like, or help out by husking some corn.
At some point, you will become aware of the fact that the dancers have stopped, and the object they've been dancing around has moved. The Jack-O-Lantern is looking at you.
The pumpkin king leans down, eternally smiling.
"Trick or treat?" he asks you in a deep voice. You'll have to pick one!
"TRICK."
The partygoers all watch you carefully. The lord of the harvest appears to think for a moment, then nods his massive head. One of the veggie dancers approaches you with a tray upon which are five cups of cider.
"Pick your poison," you're told, and you can only hope it's not literal!
Four of the cups of cider will have no effect whatsoever. But the fifth?
That fifth cup of cider makes you feel more social. Less reserved. Downright friendly, even. You want to talk and joke with people even if that isn't normally something you'd do. You might even join the vegetable dancers for a spin, and drag someone else along with you! Your judgment isn't quite impaired, but your inhibitions are definitely lowered. Might be a quick way to make some new friends, though!
"TREAT."
You are offered a large basket, held so that you cannot see inside. After some fumbling, you pull something out. What is it? It's an envelope. Or a cassette tape. Or a photograph. It might be the mixed tape you created for your high school crush, the poem you wrote about your broken heart, the letter you never mailed to your estranged father. It's something personal that is connected to someone from home somehow. As you hold it in your hands, you will feel an irresistible urge to explain it to the person next to you no matter how embarrassing or painful it might be. You can only hope that they aren't a colossal dick about it.
Content Warnings: aggressive dogs, decapitated spectres, potential violence.
GET AHEAD
GET AHEAD
The sun sets earlier and earlier every day, but that doesn't mean there's suddenly nothing to do! The warm lights of homes all over Folkmore welcome people inside for parties. Of course, the Spirit People of Folkmore are rarely humanoid, so you may find yourself at a dance for frogs or a cocktail party for round fuzzy critters with giant eyes. Regardless of what kind of creatures you wind up partying with, they are excellent hosts!
When food has been had and drinks are flowing, someone suggests a time honoured tradition: the telling of ghost stories.
The guests take turns, spinning tales both familiar and not. One such tale is that of the Horseman and his Hounds.
This, the storyteller insists, is a true tale, and is as follows:
Folkmore is home to many Spirit People, and many other creatures besides. While most of these wish only to live their lives, there are certain powers that Thirteen leaves to their own devices, no doubt for reasons all her own. When the autumn harvests come and the leaves burn with colour and fall to the ground, the dominant spirit of lonely places is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. Some versions of the story claim the horseman's head is carried before him on the pommel of his saddle, while others say instead the spirit carries a lit Jack-O-Lantern in place of it... and wishes to find a more suitable replacement. No matter the variation, the rest of the legend is the same: in autumn, on lonely roads, unlucky travelers will hear the baying of hounds. Moments later they will see the Horseman upon his stallion, and then the unholy troop will pursue the hapless travelers across hill and valley.
Some tales are told of Star Children fighting off the spectral hounds and challenging the Horseman to a fight, with varying levels of success. All are in agreement, however, that the sure method of survival is to escape over running water. Easy enough in some parts of Folkmore... less so if you happen to be caught out in the desert of Cruel Summer.
All parties must end, and this one does too, which means you now have to make your way home. Not that you're scared or anything, but maybe it's wise to walk with someone else tonight...
Not that it matters. Ultimately you and your companion will find yourself on a lonely stretch of road somewhere, and just as you've managed to convince yourselves that nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen you hear it.
The Hounds.
Turn and you'll see them, dark and sleek, and beyond them their infernal master. Atop a gleaming black stallion, the Horseman is gigantic in height and muffled in a cloak.
Whether you run or stand and fight is entirely up to you. As if to make it more of a fair fight, there are weapons hidden off the road - stumble into a ditch and you might find a rifle or a sword. The Hounds have very sharp teeth but they themselves cannot be injured - if struck they simply turn to black smoke and vanish. The Horseman cannot be killed - he has no head! - but if you fight him to a standstill he will reward you with the gift of something from your homeworld. This can be a weapon or magical item.
If you manage to cross a stream or a river, the spectres will vanish with howling and laughter.
ODDS BODKINS
You're likely to be shaken up after your encounter, so it's relief when you see that there's a bonfire lit not far past the water you've crossed. Perched all around it are a bunch of different owls, many wearing hats. They all swivel their heads to look at you before they hoot and gesture for you to come near. There, set up to one side of the bonfire, is a long low table laden with drinks in many different colours and little cakes and cookies. You always thought owls ate mice, but whooo's to say? Hoo? Get it? On another low table are supplies for patching people up in case your fight with the Horseman got a little intense! The owls don't have hands, but maybe there's a kind stranger nearby who'd be willing to help you? Or maybe you just want to talk to someone who has their head on right!
II
... Well, until she was pulled away from the outskirts. She makes a surprised sound, something like a trill as her clawed feet stumble a bit. A fluster pops up quickly on her cheeks and along the length of her ears but she does laugh a little once actually encouraged to dance.
"You sure? I'm still getting used to this." Mostly the feet, somewhat the tail that undulates behind her. She still trips over it now and then, though she's getting better.
no subject
"Sure! Stand up straighter? Like y'r weightless! Not used to steppin' 'round on tiptoes?" he asks casually as he tries to help her gain her balance. "Cute cluster of scales on y'r cheeks, they look like freckles~" he cheers again, before turning back to their dance.
"It's an easy dance, an' we'll go step by step, alright? Tail lower to the ground. Right-handed or left-handed?" There's easy chatter on his lips as he helps the young woman into the first few steps. They truly are easy, something more akin to children's dances, spinning around one another. He's well used to it, not even glancing down to their feet as he guides her, with little words and gentle pressure to help her know which foot to move, and in which direction.
"Right, left, right. And spin!~ Watch the tail! Low to the ground!" he reminds her, "I'm not gonna move so you're safe. No steppin' on it!" he promises, with mischief and a grin on his lips. It seems strangely belated when he adds a cheery "I'm Esteban, by the way! It's nice to meetcha!~"
no subject
She follows his instructions as best she can. She does know to move her tail at the very least even if the thing seems to have a mind of it's own sometimes. Spin, watch the tail, low to the ground! She tries to make the tip coil in on itself against the ground just to sort of tuck it out of the way.
Madeline huffs out a laugh, "I'm not used to stepping on these feet period to be perfectly honest. Or with the tail either." She's getting there though slowly but surely, the bare few lessons she had on switching guises and dealing with a tail before she ended up being approached by that fox having to suffice for now.
"Ah, I'm Madeline."
no subject
"Step, step, all the way around!" Still with his instructions, Esteban guides her through the dance until they complete the loop, and adds a nod as they are settled face to face, the same way that they'd started. "An' now we loop again!" Normally, it would be the reverse, but he'll let her get used to it first, especially with her new limbs.
"How 'bout the wings? 're you used to them yet?" he asks casually, and this time, there's no official words to move her feet, though he's still nudging her into the same paths again, guiding her with a gentle hand despite his clumsy height.
no subject
Madeline has been so caught up in the dance and just how much she really was enjoying it that she'd forgotten her wings entirely. She glances back over her shoulder now in evident surprise and said wings flare out a little before she quickly reigns them back in. A flush runs the length of her ears as she laughs.
"Mm, not as much. I've only actually seen them once or twice so far."
It's probably the fact that she's relaxed that's led to them popping out in the first place. If she concentrates she could cloak them again but well she doesn't have the steps down that pat yet.
no subject
"New thing around here?" He prods lightly, an eyebrow raised over curious blue eyes. "Or new thing about today? Didja get tricked by the weird pumpkin with the face? Is that what's in his tricked cups?" Wait-- is the transformation permanent?
He's still smooth, despite both the dancing and the chatter, his movements confident and fluid. On the third loop, he doesn't repeat the words as much, and gets a bit more enthusiastic when leading her through a spin. His hand tickles against her wings as she turns, a steady point so she knows exactly where he is through the entire pirouette.
"They seem a bit small, so I wouldn't suggest flyin' with them." He pauses. "Did you try?" That came out a little wrong. Curiosity still lingers, and though Esteban knows his own limits, he's pretty sure hearing that from a stranger would immediately send him to the nearest high place to try. He should step off the matter, but that's already a lost cause, since he's too intrigued.
no subject
The laugh she gives is bright. "Oh god no. I'm not about to put my faith in these things! ... No offense to them or anything." They're far too small as he's already noticed and for that matter far too new. She'd only barely been shown how to get them out at all before she ended up following that fox.
As for how new they are though ... well, she supposes here it can't hurt to talk about it? If it would have to begin with. She still didn't know just how much humans did or didn't know about her type and whether it was a good idea to be open or not. The man she had met certainly made it seem like cloaking over who they really were was terribly important.
"No, not new to here. I just -- haha, well, I had a pretty big life revelation back home last night to be blunt with you. I thought I was human but guess what?" She pauses there maybe a second or two before she replies in a droll tone, the cadence of her southern accent in full effect here. "I'm not."
no subject
"Well, y'r doin' great already! See?" He points out, guiding her through a few more steps of the dance. "Y'r a natural!" At dancing or at being non-human, he doesn't specify, but there's mischief in the corner of his eyes, and in the uplift to his smile.
"Y' might wanna check for allergies in a controlled 'nvironment though. D'you have magic?" Eagerness raises his tone a little louder than he'd meant, and he bites it back, not quite embarrassed as he should be, while he rubs a hand through the short hair at the back of his head. It musses the strands into fluffy rumples, before he takes her hand again, and leads her back into their dance. It's wrapping up soon, and he'll have to guide her again in a moment, but for now, he lets his question linger, curiosity still taking him under its wing.
no subject
Oh. Well. That sure hadn't been a topic she had gotten up to with her erstwhile beau at home. She goes through the steps of the dance for a moment as she mulls on that.
"I mean ... I can go from this to what I've heard called a human guise? I'm not really good at doing it yet, it's sort of a struggle but I can do it."
A guise, a glamour -- if he's familiar with magic at all then he probably gets she must have some small amount to be able to do that. And the fact that she'd apparently just inadvertently lived in a guise her whole life might mean she had more than a little tucked away in her somewhere. Madeline though couldn't tell him the first thing on magic other than she had liked fairy tales as a kid.
no subject
"You sh'ld look into it! What kinda lungs you have too!" Hmm. He likes her plenty, but the safe side of caution is probably for the best at the moment. He's not sure what is happening, but he's never been very forthright with this little detail of himself before, and it's not quite about to start now.
"Th' dragons in my world tend t' have magic. Sometimes extra lungs too; for their fire breath. Or gills, but I'm gonna take a guess an' say y' don't have gills," he bets, eyes brightening again, mischief darting across his smile. Her neck is free of them after all.
It's an odd thing to guide a stranger through the process. But those are as many hints as he can think of off the top of his head, and Esteban grins, wide and bright, before he refocuses them both.
"But first-- an' more importantly!" He announces, with the gravity of a Very Important Statement. The uplift to his lips betray him as he grins again. "You sh'ld have fun with it!" A snicker escapes. "An' dance on tip toes. An' try t' jump 's far as you can! Or run 's fast as you can! Tip toes make for faster speeds!" It's all for fun anyways. And if there's any trouble, she should get to learn her own abilities, and how far they can take her. It's great timing that the music swells just then, and Esteban's smile grows wider.
He's still an excellent lead in their dance, even though the pace runs a little faster for a moment. Quick slips of words guide her feet her hands, until there is a final twirl, Esteban's hands dropping at her waist for a moment-- "and hop!" he guides again, and goes to lift her up in the air with the momentum, a quick rise and fall before her toes skitter on the ground again.
The music curls around them in a final dart of steps, and, completed, they stop, facing each other, hands in hands, until Esteban nods brightly again. "Step back, and bow!" he mentions, doing the same on his part.
"Y' did amazing!" He cheers, snickering brightly, before adding a toothy "not too winded?" with a slight slant to his head to imply the soft tease.