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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!
no subject
Oh, sorry m'lady...
[ What do you say when you're naked and you just splashed a pretty lady who's also naked? ]
Um. Bidet.
no subject
It's...okay? [he sounds genuinely apologetic. something Hawke has no idea how to deal with.
well, he already apologized, so that was a plus. but she still thought that it was unfair that a stranger got to see her naked before Seb did. she'd been trying to get past that Andraste belt buckle for years now]
Is that...Orlesian? It sounds Orlesian.
no subject
Nnnnno, I think it's just polite.
no subject
Oh. Great. I'm really confused now, so what is a bidet? "Sorry" in another language?
no subject
Naw, it's just like how you say hello all fancy-like. Like you go visit a king an' he lets you in his throne room an' you bow an' say "Bidet, your majesty."
no subject
Ohhhh! Gotcha. I got to meet a king once, but it wasn't in his throne room. So that's why I didn't know the word, that makes sense.
Anyway, I'm Hawke. I respond to that, Sarajane, SJ, and 'you apostate bitch' on occasion.
no subject
[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's as good an explanation as any. ]
I'm Grog. Why're people calling you an impostatate bitch, SJ?
no subject
Great to meet you, Grog! And they call me an apostate bitch because I'm a mage outside of the Circle. That, by default makes me an apostate bitch. The fact that I'm an elf-blooded apostate mage who's going to marry the Prince of one of the most powerful Free Cities?
Well, that makes them lean harder on the other parts: elf-blooded? Apostate mage? One by itself is enough to get me completely screwed over by most of Thedas. Add in the second, and you've got someone they all hate. But also someone they all need.
no subject
So... Yer an elf?
[ Yeah, that's about the only part he latched onto. ]
no subject
Not really. The kids of humans and elves where I'm from are supposed to be fully human. It's weird and it makes no sense, but it is what it is.
So, how about yours? Weird, normal, a little of column A and column B?
no subject
[ That's what that's called where he comes from. Three of his best friends are half-elves! ]
Me? I don't have any kids. But if I did, they wouldn't be human or elf. [ A beat. ] Well... I guess if I had a kid with a human or an elf lady, they'd be half...
no subject
[and Malcolm Hawke had originally been from an Alienage, not a Dalish clan. so that made things even more complicated]
I don't have any kids, either. I want to, someday. Lots of kids. Seb and I already agreed on that.
no subject
[ Most of Grog's experience with elves was with Vex and Vax's dickhead of a father, in Syngorn. He knows the twins were mistreated growing up for being half human, so understands where Sarajane is coming from. ]
I dunno if I could handle bein' a dad. 'S a lotta responsibility.
[ He saw what fatherhood did to Scanlan when Kaylie came into his life. If being a father means having to leave Vox Machina, Grog isn't sure he wants to do that. ]
(CW: fantasy racism)
[and she'd give almost anything to have just one more day with them. one more day with them and Bethany, so they could see how well being a Warden suits Carver, how SJ herself is on the verge of marrying a prince...so that her and Carver could have that time. it would be valuable beyond measure]
Yeah, it is. But I've helped save a whole lot of lives. Helped end a whole lot, too. So maybe having kids, raising them to be good people, maybe that will push the coins on the other side of the scale for keeps.
(CW: more fantasy racism)
[ He's fairly sure that Vex and Vax wouldn't be offended about him talking shit about their dad, after the shitty way he treated them their whole lives. ]
(CW: more fantasy racism)
[and she wanted things to be different. she'd wanted a lot of things to be different, but that didn't mean she'd ever get them]
Re: (CW: more fantasy racism)
Tha' doesn't sound right. Why wouldn't elves be people? They're as much people as anyone else. They've got, uhh... thoughts'n'feelings, like other people do.
(CW: more fantasy racism)
(just a blanket CW on this whole thread for lots of fantasy racism)
[ Someone may or may not have trouble telling when someone is not being literal. ]
(just a blanket CW on this whole thread for lots of fantasy racism)
They're all on Thedas. My home continent. It would be a really long trip and between you and me, I think Orlais is a lost cause. There aren't many places where elves of any kind are welcome.
no subject
[ Grog knows his grasp on world geography isn't great, but he has no idea where Thedas is. Oh well. ]
You should come to Tal'Dorei. And tell all the other elves to come, too. You'd all be treated much better there than dumb old Thedas.
no subject
...y'know. It's really nice of you to offer that. No idea if it can happen or not, but. Most people don't make the effort.
no subject
Well, I'm not most people. I'm Grog Strongjaw.
no subject
And that's a good thing, trust me. I'm Hawke. Sarajane Hawke.
no subject
(no subject)