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Entry tags:
October 2022 Test Drive Meme
OCTOBER 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: Possible insanity via freezing. Temporary nullification of abilities.
COLD AS YOU
KEEP YOUR BRITTLE HEART WARM
COLD AS YOU
You were falling...
The world snaps into place all at once; you are laying on the ground, surrounded on all sides by towering bushes that stretch up towards a beautiful sunset sky. The bushes were clearly flowered at one point, but now the flowers have died and all that remains are browning leaves that are beginning to fall. On the chill air you can sometimes hear the sound of music, too faint to completely determine.
As you stand, you are filled with an intense desire to find someone. You might have an idea of who, but chances are you do not - you just know that somewhere ahead of you is someone that you need to reach. Whether they are friend or lover or enemy remains to be seen.
You wander the maze. If you're the impatient type and you have the ability, you might try to fly out but you will simply be vaulted right back down if you do. Something clearly expects you to play by rules which were never actually explained. As you move through the twisting passages of nature, you will notice that there is a frost creeping along the branches on either side of you. This frost brings a deep chill with it, and it encourages you to move faster, to find that nameless person now now now! If you take a very long time to wander the maze you may very well be on the verge of freezing and half mad with the desire to find someone. If you try to force your way through the bushes, the frost will crawl over your limbs and inspire both the freezing and near madness at once.
When you find your Person, the cold evaporates. The air suddenly feels merely crisp, and the leaves on the bushes seem more vibrant. The two of you now can focus on finding the way out - so much easier now - but any sense of urgency will have passed and you may just walk for hours, talking and sharing things about yourselves.
It is possible to solve the maze alone, but it is much easier (and more pleasant!) with someone else.
KEEP YOUR BRITTLE HEART WARM
When you exit the hedge maze you will find a stunning display of lights: hundreds of candles and lanterns decorate the ground and hang from trees, illuminating a clear path over a gently sloping hill. When you crest the hill you can look down and see a beautiful hot spring sprawled out below. It too is lit up by hundreds of lights, all of them glowing under the late autumn sky as it darkens towards night. There are changing rooms where you can stash your clothes (yes, there are bathing suits for the very shy) and bathing stations to ensure that you are clean before entering.
The water of the springs soothes madness and heals physical injuries or any frostbite that may have been sustained in the maze. It also relaxes you, making you perhaps more likely to open up to anybody else present.
The hot spring is staffed by many mice. They don't speak, but they squeak to one another in such a way that it sounds like they are singing - high lilting chants that seem to promise that everything will be okay. They are happy enough to band together to bring you towels or hot tea. The spring is open 24/7, always with lights to fight the cold and darkness of winter.
Content Warnings: Monster sighting, optional violence.
GLITCH
BAD OMEN
GLITCH
Folkmore has trains and of course the cat bus, but it also has roads, mostly utilized by horses and bicycles. Maybe you're looking for the convivence store, or maybe you just like walking. However it happens, you find yourself on a lonely road at dusk. It is unusually quiet, almost as if the world is holding its breath.
Suddenly you hear the sound of wings. A man-sized creature soars above you, something with huge red glowing eyes. It drops something at your feet: a walkie-talkie. The creature lands some distance away, staring at you, and a thought arises unbidden in your mind:
Help them.
The walkie crackles and you can hear someone speaking, asking if anyone is there. It is another Star Child, brought into this trial as well. They are in danger somewhere nearby; maybe stuck on the edge of a cliff, or trapped on a rope bridge - whatever it is, they need someone else to help them get to safety. If they have any powers, they have been temporarily nullified, but if the rescuer has powers they remain intact. That's where you come in! Using the walkie you must communicate with one another so that the rescuer can reach the person in trouble in time!
But what if you don't make it in time? Or decide that you're not the hero type? Well. The rescue-ee will suffer a terrible fate... for a few seconds. Then the entire world fuzzes and resets, but this time the roles have been reversed. Both parties will remember what has already happened, so if you just ran off into the woods with no intent of helping the first time you miiiight get your just desserts! This process will repeat over and over, people switching sides every time, until someone is finally rescued or the sun rises. Whichever comes first!
If you do succeed at a rescue, you will hear the rustle of huge wings once more. This time you don't see the mysterious creature, but you will find a mystery trunk. Inside you will each find some of your canon clothes and a canon item. Looks like teamwork is rewarded! Nearby, there will also be some unenchanted weapons sticking out of the ground: basic swords, guns, shields, etc.
BAD OMEN
You don't necessarily have to have completed the rescue trial to get some goodies, though! Those aforementioned weapons are scattered all over Folkmore. But if you just go to grab any of them you'd better be prepared to fight; after all, nothing comes for free!
As soon as you have pulled a weapon out of the ground, a tall, man in a black suit and hat will appear from seemingly nowhere and attack you. He has no weapons but he is extremely strong. He's also just really creepy - his face looks like it might be fake, somehow. The only way he can be killed is with a wound to the heart - any other supposedly mortal injury will result in another man in black appearing. It is possible for someone with no combat training to beat these creatures, but they really might appreciate a little help from someone with more experience!
The good news is that they won't mess up your clothes any, as none of these creatures bleed. Because that is totally normal.
Good luck!
James Moriarty (Ruler) | Fate/GO
A. COLD AS YOU
[Someone is stamping through the maze, ever impatient - he's quite a sight for eyes. Not sore eyes, though - the appearance of this young man is ostentatious, to say the least, what with his vivid blue eye makeup surrounding abnormally dark eyes, military-style outfit complete with long blue cloak and shoulder pauldron. His face is pinched, obviously displeased, and with a sweep of his hand, he turns a corner, and points directly at whoever he sees.]
You!
[He is ignoring the sudden change in temperature, his voice still curt, authoritative.]
Come with me posthaste. I won't spend a single moment in this place any longer.
[Follow the....clown man?]
B. HEAL YOUR BRITTLE HEART
[The man known as James Moriarty is...not getting into the hot springs. In fact, he's staying a good few feet away from it, arms folded.]
...This could be a trap.
[He seems dubious, though he keeps casting a glance towards the others inside, in a way that almost seems a little shy.]
It seems too good to be true, yes...?
C. GLITCH
Look. Look. I'm not one you call to help in these circumstances, exactly...
[Says the young man, British accent clear and curt as ever as it crackles through the walkie talkie. Hi.]
But I am one to put my mind forward when needed, so-! Well. Wouldn't happen to have any math equations around there to solve, would you? Most likely not. But seriously...what's going on?
[He is NOT used to playing hero, so....stay with him.]
[Orrr....maybe you're the one calling him? If so, a certain glam rock nerd is reacting with a hissed and very irritable:]
What IS it? Who are you?
WILDCARD
[You can DM me at this journal or hit me up on plurk @ vampirize! Throw any starter you want at this nerd! Also, if you do NOT want Lostbelt 6.5 Traum spoilers, please let me know! Moriarty will likely not talk about what happened there, but just to be safe if you want to avoid all references to it!]
glitch
... no explanations for how any of this technology works, just some stupid assumption we're going to understand it in time? Fen'Harel's knobby kneecaps, how is that supposed to help anything?!
( ... Hello, Moriarity, you may wish to let her know you can hear her now. )
no subject
[What in the world is...WHO in the world is "FEN'HAREL"? Eh. Whatever. He pauses, giving the walkie talkie in his hand for a moment, before speaking up again.]
Give me any sign you can hear me. My voice is coming from this lovely little device. Its called a walkie talkie. I'm throwing in that factoid for free.
no subject
If we're getting down to charging anyone for anything here, I hate to inform you, but right now we're already technically paying each other. Filling a spoon, as it was.
( Filing away the name for the device, and deciding that: )
Walkie-talkie, and here I am standing, talking. I knew I was doing something backward.
( Cliff ledges be like that, sometimes. )
no subject
[He remarks, on the payment statement - you can practically hear the smirk in his voice. But from the sounds of it, this really sounds like she is in some kind of terrible predicament. He muses for a moment.]
Perhaps, perhaps. Now, tell me. Where do you find yourself?
no subject
( Said, dryly, and blithely. )
Over a dry gorge, and with the, ah, rope out of reach. For hauling me up, if it's even attached to anything at the top.
( This is partly mocking the fact she only has one functional arm right now, isn't it. Isn't it, Thirteen. At least she can keep her toe pressing down on the button to make the walkie-talkie work. )
Where that is relative to you, I don't know. Presumably nearby, or else this is mocking both of us more than it needs to.
( And doubtlessly, something Worse Is Lurking. Something worse is often lurking. )
no subject
[The very British form of "COWABUMMER".]
Mm. Well! A gorge, a gorge....I do see something like that closer by. [There is something of the like here - he squints at it. It's not exactly close, but it doesn't exactly matter to him.] I can float over and give you a hand. Describe your surroundings as to be better accurate to your location, could you?
no subject
The rock's striated red and brown here, turning silver toward the gorge bottom. It's largely dry, or else there's a creek hidden under the low-growing scrub, it's hard for me to tell, not enough light to say if anything's glinting down there. I can see... opposite of where I am, forty degrees to my South, a tall tree with a dead crown. It splits near the top, forming a shape like a person spreading their arms overhead, straight out at angles to each other. Directly overhead is more difficult to see, I caught sight of a few thin plant roots, either growing in the cliffside or from the top and breaking free into the air two metres or so from the top. Is any of this helpful?
no subject
[Okay. A lot of information here - but he's starting to put things together. A skip and a jump - and he's off in the air, like he's some kind of. Math pixie. Look, sometimes math (and other things) gives you this kind of power.]
And it is. You have a good eye. [Shape like a person, shape like a person.....okay. There, in the distance.] I think I've spotted your general area. Do give me a moment. Don't fall and crack your skull on me, now.
COLD AS YOU | -POINTS!!??? POINTS!!!- also lmk if jjba spoilers are ok, I'll assume 'nah' by default
'...Well he looks Kinda normal.'
Something in that Prison water, probably. Good thing he's not there now.The second thought of course is that in the middle of this frigid, terribly frigid maze, apparently he- in all his 4'7'', preteen glory- just got picked out by the guy.
...Somehow this is not the first time it's happened, and honestly, he's not sure if that makes this better or not...]
Uhhhhh-
[....It's still a bit anxiety inducing, though.] ...O...kay..?
[nailed it]
I'M OKAY WITH JJBA SPOILERS me nodding in stone ocean and staring into distance
Oh, do be more confident. Chin up! Head up! We're getting out of this mess!
[He says, with a huff, before gesturing to follow.]
Brief me out on the way. What have you seen so far?
lookin at the questions on app like 'most traumatic huh.......................' (ALSO YEAAAAAAH!!!)
R-Right! [So Emporio sputters out without thinking, caught in the energy of the other's orders. He's already following even, with only a slight stumble to his steps.] Uhh-
Mostly just these plants- they don't look like any that grow where I live...but with how cold it is, I don't think that's really too strange...
[wait] ...We just met now though, right..?
[Should he be more worried here? No? He feels like he should be more worried, but somehow in the same thought he can't help but think it's better not to be wandering the maze alone. Not with all this ice at least.]
no subject
Yes, indeed. I don't recognize them either...but that may be a sign that this place is outside of our realm of experience. Clues will fall in place as they should, though... [He gives a sniff.] I'm no detective.
[He pauses to look behind him.]
Yes, we did. What, do you want me to give you a nice little introduction? Very well. You may call me Ruler. And you are?
no subject
...Ah. So. That's what he considered an introduction.................well. Fair enough!] ...Got it. ...Ruler.
[Anything can be a name where he's from, so sure!] Uh- Emporio.
...When you say 'outside our experience'...do you mean that you came from somewhere warmer then?
no subject
[Contemptuous but respectful is the vibe of that statement, though it is paired with a sneer.]
Emporio...very well. [A brief shake of the head.] No. I mean it in more of "we're in a place neither of us seem to be familiar with". And I wouldn't say London is "warm". Neither is the Throne of Heroes. But that's a moot point.
no subject
Alright. London. ...Probably London England? It's the first one he can think of, so.] ...No...I always heard it was more temperate than anything...
[Moot point though.] So, both of us don't know where- or what- this is then. [Just getting that straight. Okay.]
...it at least feels safe somehow...
[He's not really sure why that was the word that came to mind. Safe. Moments ago, when it was much colder, and much more isolated, the maze seemed utterly perilous. Now, he wonders if this is what those 'corn mazes' and 'hedge mazes' were like.] ...There has to be some way out though. Uh...
...What do you mean by 'the Throne of Heroes' though? Is that an organization?
[What do you mean that was also a moot point.]
no subject
[Though it seems to irritate him that he doesn't know. He SHOULD know.]
...Perhaps. It wasn't like that initially.
[Only with meeting this young man did things get warmer, more clear. He wonders why. If they're related...why? Because of the boy? Or the maze?]
Oh, hardly not. It's rather like a filing system of sorts. Rather complicated. It'd go over your head, unless you were a mage. Which it doesn't seem like you are, are you?
no subject
Speaking of things people know, and don't know though-] A filing system? ...I'm not a 'mage', but...if it's like a filing system, then once the basics are laid out, it shouldn't be hard to understand, should it?
[At the very least, it'll make more sense than Stands, not that either knows it.]
no subject
.....Well, if you have half a brain, I suppose. But the intricacies would be lost on you.
no subject
...I don't think there's a lot to do other than that at least.
no subject
Servants are magical beings based on figures of myth, legend, and history. They can be summoned via mana by mages or beings that can wield mana. Servants are summoned directly from the Throne of Heroes. It is a place that exists out of time, rather like...loading data from a hard drive. As I said, the best way to think of it is a filing system.
no subject
[He listens, and blinks.]
...Would it be right to call it...the memory of the world? Or I guess...the memory of the world's people, if it's from those categories?
[Interacting with the memory of a building the way he does, it's an easy guess to make!]
no subject
In a way, both. But generally, Servants are drawn from their power as a figure well-known, whether for good or for bad. In some cases, the mythical understanding of a person supplants their actual person when summoned as a Servant.
If a figure is obscure, it may be harder for them to be "registered", though sometimes the earth itself can summon Servants in something called a "Counterforce". Servants to protect the world when it's in grave danger.
no subject
Like an automatic defense- interesting...
[....That would've been pretty handy, not so long ago. Rather than dwell on that though, he shakes off the brief frown to carry on with a different topic.
Such as the name he received-] You said I could call you 'Ruler'- does the 'Throne' register everyone in categories, then?
no subject
[A bit of a wave, like he's talking to a crowd - if he had his staff, he'd be brandishing it to emphasize the point.]
Servants have True Names. But to hide their identity, and to keep things on a level playing field, we typically go by our Class names.
looks at latest moon cancer like 'shit kiddo wish i knew anymore. moon nonsense???'
fate/go itself going "I DUNNO" (SHRUGS)
the fate/ experience...
(no subject)
(no subject)