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]

( Oh, but for getting an eye from above for what winding course this hedge maze meanders through. He sounds at turns closer, then further away, but the sincerity of his passion for his life's chosen path rings true, regardless. Maryden would enjoy speaking with him, up to the point where they both got competitively creative. Offhand, she muses to him, irreverent: )

And which right muse have you found?

( Cole found his in the same woman who found his endless compassion a kindness she was inspired by: that she loved. In her youth, she'd felt some passion for magic, for her people, for the learnings she undertook in her trainings. Still does, beaten and shaped differently near four decades on. Passion for knowledge, for attempting to understand, for digging into mysteries, for questioning... she supposes that's all remained true.

She shakes her head, the frost edging back in degrees. Closer? Her feet feel less cold, but the fire in her hand might simply be distracting her successfully away from them. Her next turn takes her to a winding curve, which keeps winding, up until it opens into a larger, rounded space, where an empty, dead leaf filled fountain sits, chubby human babies with bird wings perched like crows on the various levels of the empty basins, holding bows and improbably tipped arrows, carved grapes under all their small, baby feet.

It's singularly odd.

She would bet it'd fit right into Orlesian Decor. )

[bardicdisaster]

A witcher. [Jaskier's not at all sheepish about it, but it still manages to sound as though it were a confession. She's not left in the dark for long as to why that tone. It doesn't come because of an assumption she doesn't already know though. Jaskier elaborates too quickly, suggesting that he expects the bafflement or concern or whatever else the shock of it might provoke.] I know, I know. Most would think me mad for it. And perhaps they are right and I am. But the tales I can tell traveling alongside a witcher...

[The curve finally begins to arc in another direction and Jaskier breathes a sigh of relief. Another dead end would be terribly frustrating.]

The man's a hero and no one sees it, but I'll make them. I'll have the whole world finally see him for who he is.

[At least, that's what Jaskier promised he would do. It's still more than a little early to say whether or not he'll succeed on that measure when he's only begun work on his very first song. But it never helps to talk about things in uncertain terms. It just gives naysayers more room to doubt and it allows one to yield to anxiety about failure. Thus, he refuses to speak of it in any other manner. It's absolute certainty or not at all. Any insecurities he might have, Jaskier keeps those to himself as all great entertainers must.]

[Finally, Jaskier finds himself on the other side of the opening. Gawking at the ostentatious fountain that seems a little out of place in all this former greenery, he actually very nearly misses her altogether. But he comes to a stop finally and perks up almost immediately.]

Oh! Hello! You must be my echo.

[maserannas]

( She lets the fire dissipate once she sees him, the lingering frost following further behind retreating in its entirety. Part of her notes that, and nods toward the manipulation behind it: another part of her wonders how to mimic something while not actively monitoring the situation. Or perhaps Thirteen always is. Nothing says the Fox cannot witness it all, or, conversely, that she cares to.

She sketches a bow, something tongue in cheek and perhaps made apparent by the way she smiles, laconic, after. )

And you my bard. Well met, all things considered, Jaskier.

( 'All things considered' given they were wandering a hedge maze with frost nipping after them, under a compulsion that's fully disappeared for her, at least. What she does not know or understand is his particular statement: what a witcher is, that she's expected to have opinions, or to misunderstand such a person's role as villainous rather than heroic. )

You'll have to forgive the differences in worlds that makes culture even more clashing than it is within a shared world, but what exactly is a witcher? And why is he maligned enough that you see his heroism, and others see... nothing? Convenience? Forget-ability when he moved on?

( She stands shorter than he does, ears clearly as pointed, barefoot, and dressed like she was a traveler through any village or town or city, no one important. Which at this point in her life, is theoretically true enough. )

Tell me of this person you're maybe mad to travel with.

[bardicdisaster]

[He nods a little in agreement at the all things considered. This is hardly any sort of ideal condition to meet under even if the frost and chill seem to be easing to something far more tolerable now that they have actually met face-to-face.]

You don't know what a witcher is? [Which he doesn't say in any sort of condescending tone so much as one of surprise. Jaskier needs a moment to wrap his head around the idea that they aren't from the same world at all. Especially given that she is so plainly an elf. Then again, the lack of contempt with which she greets him certainly serves as further proof. Few elves that walk among humans do so without suspicion of a human's intentions towards them.] Ah, well, they say they were humans once. Children promised to their guild as repayment for their deeds. They're changed by magic to do what no other human can do and hunt monsters.

Some say they're monsters who hunt monsters because of that. There are all sorts of rumors about how they're little more than the beasts they kill and their bloodlust is hardly sated by the contracts they're given and paid for, or that they'll coldly refuse to lift a finger if there isn't sufficient coin for their service. [Jaskier's expression pinches in obvious disapproval of those rumors. It's only been a day that he's spent with Geralt—and not even a full one—but even in that short amount of time, Jaskier's seen so many of the rumors to be proven false.] Geralt of Rivia has a bit of a worse reputation than the others though for something I'm certain he didn't do.

[In reality, Jaskier isn't as certain as he sounds that there isn't any truth to the story about Geralt. It's just one that has been around since Jaskier was a boy, of course, so there's no telling to what extent it has been exaggerated. So whatever truth used to lie within it has no doubt been obscured and stretched and transformed into a nasty falsehood meant to justify the way he's treated. But he's not what they say he is. He simply isn't.]

So, I mean to set things right.

[Or at least try to. Not that Jaskier's willing to allow any semblance of insecurity to slip through and admit that it's more attempt than guaranteed success.]

[maserannas]

( What fascinates her is hearing another story of what a people, or humanity in specific, has done to achieve results within their ranks... and the cost of it, out the other side, being the othering of those whose excellence was sought after to begin with. Succeeding, and finding fault (and perhaps fear) in the success.

She doesn't know witchers, specifically, and she only knows one Coordinator, being Yzak, but it's an interesting theme to think over nonetheless. The internal divides from what a people has sought for themselves.

That, more than many things, feels so classically people. )

One song and town, village, or city at a time, then? This is something of a detour for you on that road, which is unfortunate. Though most indications are you're still there, at home, you're just also here... part of yourself is, at least. A bit of a divide.

( She waves with her hand, as if dismissing the thought. Monsters and magic changing people and mercenaries and what else? She'll take Jaskier's word on this Geralt because there's no reason not to, and she has no stake in arbitrarily believing witch-humans are any more or less prone to negative traits than anyone else. )

When you speak of monsters, what do you mean? I've handled a few over the years, but more demons than anything else, and the possessed dead.

( Arguably still demons, but also at times simply less. She gestures toward the lip of the empty fountain, if he wants to sit for a moment, since she's taking the time to catch a break before heading back into the maze to find one of its exits. It has to have at least two, and she has no idea if they've even found a centre or simply one more node in a magically-complex creation of the Fox's whim. )

[bardicdisaster]

[Jaskier nods when she asks if it's to be one song at a time seeing as how he really has no other means at his disposal. He's glad that she doesn't really question the likelihood that he'll succeed at it even if the idea of a detour the way she describes it sets him at a mild unease. Jaskier is, after all, not such a fool that he has any delusions that it will be an easy task that he's given to himself, and he hates to be spoken to as though he were. So, he happily accepts the invitation to sit and chat. Even if he perhaps ought to want to continue looking for the exit and there's no reason they cannot walk and talk at the same time, Jaskier finds it he doesn't mind it at all.]

Oh, all manner of beasts, [he says to her question.] Manticores, wyverns, griffins, werewolves, ghouls— The list is endless! But each are creatures that no ordinary man could hope to slay himself. Indeed, were it not for witchers, it's likely that whole villages would cease to be.

[Jaskier speaks of the beasts with a significant amount of unearned confidence. Unlike his newfound companion and muse, Jaskier hardly knows anything when it comes to monsters and it's just as likely any of those creatures either no longer exist or simply never did.]