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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!
no subject
The Emperor I know does that, and people try to kill him all the time, but he comes out the other end just fine. [No judgment, as her Emperor is an Emperor but also a penguin and got actually killed a few times, and might defy logic and reason in general.]
But okay, what makes you think that rejecting their charity isn't more dangerous than playing along until you know what's really going on?
[Serious question, also, she's grabbing a cookie. Not eating it, yet, just...finding the nearest cookie and holding it.]
no subject
I do not fear them, or their power. However, to foolishly consume what they offer without means or testing, allows them to seek purchase in our bodies. Whether it is poisoned, or enchanted, it is difficult to say. I would prefer to... avoid allowing these... [ His mouth twitched, now, about to say something a touch more nasty than what he says, but he reigned himself in: ] gourd-like creatures any opportunity they may wish to take, with their little drinks, or tricks.
Perhaps my version of caution is...unusual, but it served me well, in the past, when I traveled to other realms.
[ No. It actually didn't. It really, really didn't. ]
no subject
[And if she ever regains a music player she'll let Belos have a listen.] But like I said, dramatic's not bad.
no subject
I should think not. Isn't a sense of drama required to be in charge of something? [ He tipped his head, toward the Pumpkin King. ]
I may think this is silly, but that is dramatic, isn't it?
no subject
Decently dramatic, so I guess you're right.
[That said, her tone is clearly saying, "This is an 8 out of 10 in the dramatic scale."]
Thinking about it...people who aren't dramatic don't last long. If you're lucky, people just get bored of your lack of drama and wander off. If not, well, that's when you have enough power that people have to make an effort to get rid of you, and not enough drama that they want to keep you around. At least, that's what I've seen - maybe it's different for you.
no subject
Well. Then there had been the burning. That was righteous, though, not drama. Right? ]
Yes, I suppose you're right. Nobody would sign on with me if I weren't able to catch attention, yes? [ What had he done, when Luz had cracked his mask before the entirety of the Boiling Isles? Ah yes, leaned into it. ]
After all, an Emperor is only as good as the people he serves, and how willing they are to serve, yes?
no subject
And then she's thinking a bit more about it. Actually considering it, not just pretending like she's thinking about it. You can see her weigh the thought in her head.
And then.]
If you say so. [eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh...]
no subject
[ He pointed out, his tone light, but there was an...edge to it. Just barely there. Belos was a great liar -- to be a human amongst witches, one had to be -- but he could tell when he was being led on, and it seeped into his voice. ]
Are you the expert, on your own emperor's people?
no subject
[But.]
They're different from his people, I suppose, but they wouldn't be following him if he can't stand up and take care of things himself if he has to. I don't think anything can kill him for good, but maybe one day something will stick?
no subject
[ Then again, he can maybe (????????) recreate himself from a scrap of goo. Close enough to living through anything. ]
I suppose if he has... fans, you said? [ A pause, for confirmation. ] Then things may get a touch more complicated. I have covens, and coven heads, but I could hardly say that I'm out there making... music, or having fans. [ Belos has...little in the way of creativity, after all. ] I suppose they would be quite different, and I'm not quite sure I envy your emperor.
no subject
[She's laughing. Belos is trying to figure out how a giant penguin manages his empire, and she's laughing.] He's gotten blown up a few times because of his record label. You know, one time he dueled a giant rat in front of a live audience. He rapped and the Rat King tried to swallow him in sand.
[She's joking! Or is she? (She's not, but she's saying it like a joke.)] Would you believe it?
no subject
I'm afraid, I've seen too many odd things to throw it entirely out the window. [ But... ]
I am inclined to say that I think you're pulling my leg.