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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
The famous Traveller, coming to my rescue once again. What can I say? Maybe I just like being your damsel in distress.
[Though he was in far less 'distress' this time, not pretending to be trapped in a cage by brigands who truly believed he would fall for such an easy trap. The smile turns into a grin and Heizou walks over, grasping Aether's forearm and patting his other hand against the back of his friend's elbow.]
Good to see you, partner. You have some impeccable timing. I might have struggled with that fellow without a blade to hand.
no subject
So maybe next time I get a treasure instead of a damsel? Or I might just start charging you. The commission fee to save damsels isn't so cheap.
[He nods, showing that seeing him is also something that's uplifting. He would rather his friends stay in Teyvat, but at least he was there to greet Heizou. He also recalls his first day and encountering monsters. It would've been pretty nice to have a sword and know their weak points.]
Having does really help. [He looks over him; Heizou looks fine overall. He knows worse case, his friend would've figured something out. Only fools would only not look past his sense of humor and not see how intelligent and quick witted Heizou is.] So, decided to follow a fox in your dreams and come here?
no subject
[Heizou laughs though, knowing his friend and partner is not at all serious in his statement. His buoyancy subsides, though, at the question of the fox and his brow furrows, his hand coming up to his mouth as he lapses into thought.]
Yes, something like that. Foxes are common in Inazuma as you know... so dreaming about one isn't too out of the ordinary. [The detective's bright eyes flick over to Aether and he wonders... should he tell him? For a moment his gaze shifts, moves away, darkens almost imperceptibly...
Then he smiles again, all bright and good humour, and that look is gone as swiftly as a small cloud passing across the sun.]
To tell you the truth, I wasn't Inazuma when I had the dream. I was... somewhere else, entirely outside of Teyvat.
no subject
[Having such back and forth banter puts him in a good mood even though a moment ago they were on alert not so long ago. Sometimes it's best just to find a way to laugh at oneself and the situation.]
Somewhere else?
[Of course that surprises him. He looks a bit more serious now, bringing a hand to his chin and thinking about it. He did not discuss being from another world while he was in Teyvat often. Only a handful of the people and friends he's met figured that out, and even fewer did he outright disclose.]
Do you remember how you got sent to this other world?
no subject
[And here, Heizou tells a series of lies. He tells them not because he doesn't trust Aether, but because it suddenly isn't really a conversation he's ready to have just yet. The detective smiles brightly and brings his hand up in one of his signature cheerful little gestures.]
Not really. [Lie #1.] And I wasn't there long enough for it to matter. [Lie #2.] But I think being here might be the far more important thing to focus on right now, don't you? [Lie #3.
His smile is still in place.]
You're going to have to get me up to speed on what's going on here.
no subject
His face does show initial concern, but he lets it go.]
I can't say what's more important, but we're both here and it's easier to focus on this world.
[As for what has happened, there's plenty of things, but most of them are personal. He tries to think what Heizou might find most helpful right now. He remembers having how he arrived and how others did, too.]
This world is called Folkmore. The Fox that came to you in your dream, they're like the Archon of this place you could say. [Usually familiar terminology can be helpful, and Thirteen is like that here.] They're also called Thirteen too. Unlike Inazuma, Thirteen doesn't hesitate to interact with the people of this world. This world is full of people brought by Thirteen, and I haven't met anyone who's native to this place just yet.
no subject
What Aether tells him after that is nothing he doesn't already know, though it's always interesting to get a different perspective on known factors so he doesn't try to interrupt. Instead he nods, considering carefully.]
I think I asked her enough questions to make her head spin while she was leading me here. [Despite being sure it was a dream, or maybe because of that.] But I was more curious about what happens while we're here than how I got here.
no subject
There are things called Trials if you've heard of those, but besides that, I haven't had Thirteen tell me do anything specific but that could change at any moment.
[He's still trying understand the purpose of this place. A nexus world that has a god that brings in others still is strange thing to him. At least in Teyvat, there are writing and ruins. So far, he has little to no puzzle pieces to put together.]
Maybe you'll be the one to uncover more about this place than I have so far. You do have that talent for it, and you know I'll help you out if I can.
no subject
[And the kinds of things that might happen as a result! It's good to be forewarned but truthfully, Heizou has been having a time trying to get his logical mind around it all. When it starts happening he's sure it will make more sense. Hopefully.]
And of course you will! I already know we make a good team.
[For Heizou, who rarely teams up with anyone, that is a high compliment indeed.]
Maybe I'll even get to save you next time. Wouldn't that be something.