October 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

OCTOBER 2022 TDM

INTRODUCTION

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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.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

SHINING

Content Warnings: Possible insanity via freezing. Temporary nullification of abilities.

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.

HIGH STRANGENESS

Content Warnings: Monster sighting, optional violence.

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!

Comments

[maserannas]

That second name is familiar, but in a distant sense. Carver was what... a warden, she remembers, from the Free Marches. Related to Hawke, wasn't he? She heard of another one who worked in the kitchens, son of a butcher, though he baked at Skyhold. Varric is immediate and arresting, and that has her full attention.

It's been enough of a day that she has to squint at the human female, wondering what thingy she intended. "Oh, is that—the relic? You press twice here, then it brings up... yes, that new information. Then you slide here to go between making a still photograph or a moving photograph." Demonstrating, she then indicates the central tab on the lower portion of the relic. "Press this to take a still, or to start a moving. Press it again to end a moving photograph. Also, wait, you know Varric? Are you from Kirkwall?"

To have been taught much by Varric, it's her presumption. He'd been busy in his time with the Inquisition, then gone once Corypheus was destroyed, as made sense. The Hanged Man even sounded familiar... some bar? In Kirkwall, right, she'd read that in one of Varric's novels in the Hard in Hightown series.

[toomuchinfo]

He sure was a Warden! All grown up and seemingly...happy as one.

She'd still told him to get as far away from Corypheus as she possibly could, though. Stroud had told her that the Wardens were being fucked with and if there was one thing she hated, it was the only family she had left being fucked with.

And Hawke is waving the relic around as though it somehow was wind-powered. But then she listens intently to the instructions. "Ooooh. It's like magic, without the Templars! Okay, I need a picture of me from the shoulders up with the mice all with me. Shoulders up only, I wanna really get one over on Carver, not scar him for life. And of course I know Varric, he's a good buddy of mine. Wrote a book about me and everything. I've heard it was very popular!"

Because she herself was ridiculously popular with people who weren't Templars, high dragons, or random mooks on the Wounded Coast. Or Qunari. Or random bandits who all seemed to have a death wish. Yes, let's run towards the bitchy mage and her friends, all of whom were armed to the teeth! Brilliant plan!

But, wait..."How do you know Varric? And Kirkwall?"

[maserannas]

As a mage who has practised magic most her life without the threat of Templars immediately breathing down her neck, she snorts in a softer manner, but doesn't contend it. It is magic of a sort: technology and magic needn't be very far apart, after all.

Varric being an irrepresible writer about the lives of many of his friends, and even herself in some near future, might not be an immediate clue, but the bombastic nature is inclining her toward certain thoughts.

Right before she's surprised into raised eyebrows and a short laugh. "Kirkwall is one of the major city-states of the Free Marches, and a recovered trade capitol under Varric's rebuilding. I'd be more surprised to run into even Ferelden's not familiar with the name and less than pleasant reputation from the last two decades or so, it's only begun recovering in the last handful of years."

As far as Varric, she leans back, signaling toward a group of mice as they cavort back from wherever they'd delivered some unidentified object or another. In their multitudes of colours, they come prancing closer, eyes dark and knowing in a way no mouse truly looked unless demonically possessed.

Thank everything that's not the case here, by and large. Spirit Folk weren't quite the spirits she knew, and not quite the demons either, though they might have aspects of either one in their own manners.

"Varric and I shared imprisonment at the same hands at one point, then ended up working for them for a while." Glory be to recalling exactly how the 'Herald of Andraste' had been brought into what would become the Inquisition, and why Cassandra, harsh and a hopeful, dear believer in her Maker and just causes, could manage to find the strength to do as she did.

[toomuchinfo]

Like Bianca! No one could ever deny that Bianca was a marvelous invention. Although, she's pretty sure Seb annoyed Varric (again) when he offered to check Bianca's cocking ring and she's also well aware of how dirty that sounded when taken out of context. Maker's balls, even in context it sounded dirty.

Laughing to hide real pain! That was generally how she lived her life, she'd screwed up so many times that if she actually stopped to think about the entire list, she'd be scarred for life. Beyond what she already was. But she'd loved her friends, all of them. Including Anders, which was probably why he tricked her so easily.

"Okay, so clearly you're from Thedas. Cool, I thought I might be the only one and that would be shitty 'cause no one would get how weird everything always was. And it kills in a good way that Varric's the Viscount now, responsibility other than holding court at The Hanged Man! Though, I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed there and made people come to him. But he's smart, probably the smartest person I've ever met, I'm glad to hear he's doing a good job. Though, I wonder if he's going to keep ignoring Sebastian's letters. Maybe if I send mine along with his, Varric will be stuck having to open the letters." Because it's upsetting that her best friend doesn't like her fiancé so much. But too bad for Varric, she was still insisting that he stand in for her as family since she couldn't be sure Carver would make it.

Demonically possessed mice wouldn't be the strangest thing she'd ever encountered. Not by half. "Hey. Mousies. If I ask for a drink, would you promise to not poison it?"

Having no demons would be the greatest thing Hawke could imagine. That, and no stupid bandits.

It doesn't take long to put the pieces together. "So you're the Inquisitor? Or a Inquisitor from a Thedas? Out of curiosity, how many of us are there here? You know. Those from Thedas. I'm Hawke. Sarajane Hawke."

[maserannas]

"Oh, no, don't worry, there's... well, you make a full handful of us, I think. Maybe more? It's not as if I've met all the Star Children who've been pulled here, or asked about Thedas on the relic."

She's not inclined to, either, beyond her one curiosity regarding races on other worlds. No one from Thedas responded there, that she recalls.

"I'm Inquisitor Lavellan. There's two of us here," she says, because that's become an entirely reasonable thing to say. "And while I've never met a Sarajane Hawke, I'm going to bet you're the eldest Hawke sibling."

Because she doesn't think the younger sister was ever described, even when alive, as acting remotely like this. Instead, it reads as much more... well, Marian Hawke. Much like with her and Elera, however, different persons of different worlds, different chances for who each had been.

"The Champion of Kirkwall?"

The mice, who stared at Sarajane with wide, dark eyes, eventually chime musically, then dart off in an excited tumble. If they bring a drink, it probably will still end up being tea, but they do seem excited about not poisoning Sarajane!

[toomuchinfo]

"A full handful? Of great and important people in Thedas? Though, seriously, I'm okay with a peaceful life, assuming I don't fuck that up, too. I know there are still people in Starkhaven who really don't want their prince to marry a lifelong apostate. And it might not hurt to ask, we could all get together and have--does this place have a bar? It better have a bar."

Hawke wanted to know as much as she possibly could, in an attempt to never be duped again.

And she tilted her head to one side slightly. "Two Inquisitor Lavellans? How does that work? Are the two of you cousins or sisters?" Weird quirks of fate, sure, but nothing really explained the why of it. "...sure am. Are there two of me, too?"

Maybe in some other world, some other her had managed to save both Carver and Bethany. She'll never forget not being able to save Bethany herself. Could never figure out a way where she could have done it, not after that ogre. Her mom and Carver didn't have to blame her for Bethany's death, she did enough of that all by herself.

"No one's except Varric's called me that in a long time. Not without at least a little sarcasm in there somewhere. But, uh...I'm not sure how to bring this up, but the Inquisitor I dealt with was Trevelyan. Lila. Nice kid. Sooo, I guess I'll just charge head-first into the weird," she said with a shrug.

And she pointed at the retreating mice. "That was cute. Wasn't that cute? I mean, normally I think of mice, I think of Uncle Galmen's place, but these ones aren't like his at all. His were kinda dumb, they never went after the giant cheese wheel which was just sitting there."

[maserannas]

She's so used to hearing no familiar names, that it gives her pause to hear a newly familiar one from Sarajane.

"Lila's here, actually, if you want to speak with her. You'll be able to track her down." Ellana shook her head, sighing out as she worked on slowly stretching out her legs underwater. Curling her toes, then pointing them up, rolling an ankle, stretching a calf: all the heated water makes the aches gentle and soothe in a deeply enjoyable way.

"Not sure if mice love cheese anymore than easier foods to carry, but yes, those ones are cute. I assume decently smart, too, considering their teamwork." Ellana glances after them with a turn of her head, then smiles. The Spirit Folk truly do remain odd, but not unwelcomingly so. "You won't find any human-like Spirit Folk that aren't secretly Thirteen in her roles as instructors or help, for the most part. Everyone's forms are more animal, or stranger still."

The only ones who looked humanish were all Star Children otherwise, from what she's encountered so far. She blinks, mind leaping back to what else had been said.

"Ah, not two of you here, no, but I'll presume myself and Elera know two other individuals family-named Hawke. It seems to be the way things go." The particular stretch and weave she's seen in the pattern of these different Thedas's.

[toomuchinfo]

She's not quite sure what she said, but she figures maybe it was wrong? After all, her love life was kind of a contentious one with pretty much all of her friends.

So it's a genuine surprise when she finds out Lila's here. "Really. Huh. That's weird. Not a bad thing, but weird. Bonding through Wardens going crazy followed by the Fade makes things weird by default. Add in fucking Corypheus and it's like, wow, friends forever!"

"Awww! Look at 'em! Using teamwork and everything. I never thought I'd say this, but I wish I'd been leading mice. They'd probably argue way less." And/or not blow up a Chantry. She'd take what she could get. "Sooooo. Thirteen's, like, everywhere? The mice are secretly Thirteen and she's getting a good look at me naked? 'Cause I'm not sure I'm okay with that."

Sarajane at least looked perfectly human. If it wasn't for the weird, small and coiled black horns peeking out of her hair. Or the claws where her fingernails used to be. At least the claws were black, she'd save a fortune on nail treatments.

"Elera? She's the other Lavellan here and wow, that sounds strange. Do the two of you get along at least? And...other Hawkes, too. It's probably asking too much that one of them managed to save Carver and Bethany." And she looks sad for a brief moment.

[maserannas]

Ellana more had no real stakes or understandings of even the love life of the Hawke she knew; as far as she was concerned, more happiness to all those who managed to keep loved ones in their lives, and who also didn't have to worry about betrayals and other such nonsense. More than the smaller, domestic ways, like she'd thought her own life was facing until the depths of it paced ahead of her not so long ago.

"To be fair," she says, offering a lazy smile, "From the moment of the Breach onward, with the amount of nonsense happening, Corypheus finally being squashed and prevented from leaping bodies was almost anticlimactic, but still incredibly satisfying." He deserved worse, if there was such a thing, but apparently even the void was a place things could come back from.

She has many, many questions about the tenants of the stories of her faith, these days.

Ellana's eyes open again, and she shifts, turning to watch the direction the mice disappeared in again.

"I don't know... generally, I think the Spirit Folk are themselves. Thirteen allows them in her realm, and they stay for as long as they like, then move on. Or that's what I've heard from the ones I've chatted with at the markets."

She shoots Sarajane a crooked smile, vaguely apologetic.

"Can't be sure of it, of course. She can definitely hear or see whatever she feels like, but I don't think she finds us all that fascinating all the time. Thankfully." Now, fascinating at specific times? She suspects that's a yes, for better and worse.

The question about Sarajane's family, on the other hand, gives her pause. She shakes her head, slowly. "I do, with Elera, but as far as the Hawke I know... she never mentioned a Bethany. Carver is alive, and with the wardens, she mentioned that." Bethany hadn't made it to the sea for the voyage to Kirkwall. There was nothing pleasant in having to admit as much to a woman that there were parts of her family that hadn't been saved in Ellana's world, either. "I can't speak for Elera. There's some world out there where it must be the case, but it wasn't mine. My condolences."

[toomuchinfo]

Her relationship with Seb was comfortable and a comfort both, he was so kind and understanding. And he knew her faults and loved her anyway. Add in being willing to stand up to his nobles and say yes, he loved and was going to marry an apostate mage and she couldn't help counting herself lucky.

"Seriously? Now I'm sad that I didn't get to see it, if only to point and laugh at him when he got squished. Maybe mock him a little, too, just for fun," Hawke said with a laugh.

She knew Seb was fully devoted to Andraste, but Hawke had her doubts. It was one of those 'agree to disagree' things.

"So if they're not Thirteen, I want the mice to stick around for a long time. I've never heard of happy, friendly, singing mice before and how does this thing work to take video," she said waving her relic. "Carver's never gonna believe this and I want more evidence so I can gloat."

"Good. 'Cause I'm not really into the idea of being watched all the time. Not anymore. I'm even having a problem with some of the time, but that's probably a me thing." Definitely a her thing.

"...oh. Yeah. Carver's a Grey Warden for me, too. I guess it's asking too much that Bethany survived. She's--she was the kindest and bravest in her own way person I've ever known. And I'd say that even if I wasn't her big sister." Who failed Bethany entirely. And so did another Hawke. It wasn't fair.