January 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

JANUARY 2023 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]

beautiful sunshine ray

Content Warnings: mood altering substances.

hot chocolate

The weather across Folkmore is universally chill: Wintermute is frozen, Willow covered in snowdrifts, Epiphany a mess of slush, Cruel Summer dangerously cold at night, and Exile wrapped in a numbing fog. You wouldn't know it, but things are at least a little nicer than they have been - with the exception of Wintermute, you at least are not likely to freeze to death just by wandering around.

Or so you'll discover eventually. Right now? Well, you just got here! One minute you’re falling through the sky, and the next you’re in the middle of an ice fort. The walls are chiseled with care, rising up about seven feet high. Skinny windows are cut in the ice at regular intervals. There is no roof, and above you the sky is a cold, clear blue only marred by the occasional fluffy white cloud. Set inside the fort is a hot chocolate bar staffed entirely by white rabbits. They are the size of regular rabbits, but they don't seem to have any issue standing on their hind legs and using their little paws to pour drinks from large red cannisters into red paper cups.

By request, they will also drop a marshmallow into your cup. You have your choice of colours, and each one will have a different effect:


Pink: Causes you to feel bold and confident!
Blue: Grants you a mild sense of euphoria!
Yellow: Makes you feel quite flirty!
White: Nothing. It's a marshmallow.

winter games

Outside of the ice fort, you will find yourself among gently rolling hills covered in snow. It's perfect for packing... which you may very well find out when you're hit with a snowball. Who threw that? Who cares! The very instant you're struck you have the irresistible urge to get in on a no-holds-barred snowball fight! You might wind up throwing snowballs at other Star Children, or maybe you team up with another person to take out anyone else you see. Or maybe instead you see that there are toboggans and crazy carpets at the tops of some of these hills and you decide to take a ride with someone instead. There are snow angels and snowmen to make, too!

No matter what you decide to do, the moment you are hit with a snowball you just want to engage in light hearted fun and what some might call childish behaviour. You might be a little embarrassed later, but right now you're not concerned at all! And really, this is a great way to maybe make some new friends.

beautiful moonlight shine

Content Warnings: potential monster fights.

sing your life

Maybe you stay out having fun in the snow just a little too long, or maybe you've wandered to an entirely different part of Folkmore. However it happens, the sun has set and a brilliant sliver of moon has risen instead.

Folkmore is home to many Star Children, but it is also home to many spirits. As you move through the night, you realise that you can see some of these in your peripheral vision: pale, insubstantial things that inhabit the natural world. The idea might be creepy, but these spirits are all singing and the sound of it makes you feel safe. When you encounter another Star Child, you are happy to have them with you, happy to share this sense of comfort. You feel like you could walk forever under the new moon and have no harm ever befall you again.

...until it stops.

The sudden stillness falls like a blow, only to broken by the sound of an awful lot of snow hitting the ground - a loud thwump. When you turn to find he source of the noise, you will find one or more vaguely humanoid snow creatures ponderously headed your way!

You can fight them, of course. They are a little slow, but they are aggressive and have an annoying habit of reforming. You will notice that there are weapons hidden here and there - normal, unenchanted swords or guns or spears. You can find these and use them to smash the snow monsters apart until they stop trying to reform.

Or you may realise that these creatures only showed up when the other spirits stopped singing. What does that mean?

Weaponized karaoke!

When you sing, the monsters retreat. A duet will encourage them to do so even quicker. And when they are finally gone, you will find that they have left behind a sturdy wooden chest, inside of which is one item from home for each of you.

poetry in lights

In your travels at night, at some point you will find that you can see warm lights up ahead. Once you get close enough, you can see that the light comes from red lanterns hung everywhere. There are Star Children and even some spirits present, many of them moon gazing.

There is a kiosk set up, manned by black rabbits. If you have been injured in your fight with the snow monsters or some other way, they will patch you up with basic first aid at once.

The rabbits are also handing out sparklers. People are drawing shapes in the air with them, laughing and having a great time.

When a sparkler is put into your hand all you really want to do is trace words against the velvet night sky. What words? You are compelled to spell out something from the heart: it can be a deep hurt, or a secret hope. Something intensely personal that you may not otherwise share, now written in light visible to all.

Maybe you feel the urge to explain, or defend. Or maybe you want to ask someone else about their own words hanging there in the air like a neon sign.

What a way to get to know someone.

Comments

[bocchitime]

Ryo's reaction hits her like a freight train - and for a moment, she's frozen in place with her arms extended. Offering a hug was the wrong thing to do - she should have known that, obviously. Bad call on her part.

Then, she unfreezes. And without a word, Bocchi lets her arms drop and then she just... lowers herself onto the snow-covered ground and curls up into a ball. She's been isekai'd into a fantasy world for a whole month and the first thing she does upon reuniting with her peer is embarrass herself. Classic bocchi move.

"S-sorry for being so presumptuous... I've been here a month, I-I thought maybe you missed me."

[weedeater]

Bocchi's reaction to Ryo's reaction shifts the needle back towards 'real Bocchi' and more specifically 'real Bocchi who just made a decision that now makes her want to fade from physical reality'. Seeing it relaxes Ryo, but it makes her sorely miss Nijika again.

One problem. "A month. I just saw you the other day though," she says, confused, as she pads over towards the curled up Bocchi Ball. So whose perception of time is wrong here? Has Bocchi been here a whole month in the span of a day? Some isekai works like that, especially the older, less formulaic stories.

Taking care with her hard-won bass, she squats next to Bocchi, and reaches out to place a hand on her shoulder. "Have you really been here that long? And none of the others are here?"

[bocchitime]

"N-no, i-it's been a month. I-I think there's something weird about time here, I don't know."

After the failed hug offer, she isn't confident enough to give Ryo a firm answer about the nature of reality in folkmore. Whatever meagure stores of confidence she's had in reserve are visibly evaporating from her body as she lies there in the snow. She doesn't flinch away from Ryo's hand when it pats her shoulder, which is a testament in itself to her friendship with the bassist.

"N-no one else that I know. W-when I arrived I almost got eaten by a giant tsuchinoko, and a nice woman took pity on me. I-I've been staying in her spare room ever since."

Just to clear the air of any possibility that Bocchi is a bold survivalist who has been braving this strange world on her own. She's pretty much a hikkikomori here too.

[weedeater]

In a way, that's a good thing, then. Nijika and Kita aren't going to panic about the two of them missing. Her parents, bless their overbearing souls, won't have to live with a daughter who can't be found - they won't blame themselves for giving her a long leash.

Meanwhile, Bocchi, although she's still herself, although she might not be a cool overpowered protagonist, survived almost being eaten by one of her own, and moved in with a stranger. Then she came out here. All on her own.

Their cheery and bright members aren't here, there's no Hiroi to offer her odd wisdom. Her hand wanders to Bocchi's back, rubbing around her shoulders, awkwardly trying to be comforting in everyone's place. "I'm... here now. We're Kessoku Band. Even here, just the two of us. Alright?"

[bocchitime]

Bocchi feels the awkward rub on her shoulder, and looks up at Ryo. They've always gotten along all right as fellow introverts, but rarely is Ryo the one to comfort her when she's freaking out. That's usually Kita and Nijika's department. When Ryo shows her compassion (and she does, despite her cool exterior), it often shows in a different way.

It's strange. Bocchi appreciates this little act of kindness, but in a way it really drives home how far away they are from their home and their friends. It's something Hitori has been trying to avoid thinking about for the past month.

"A-alright."

With that, she picks herself up off the ground and out of the snow, dusting herself off as she does. Ryo shouldn't have to be the brave one here - Bocchi has been in this place long enough that she has resources, that she's met people. She might not be thriving here the way that a lot of people seem to be, but she's at least got enough going for her that she can support her friend right now instead of being the one who needs support.

"A-are you hungry? I've been getting lore by playing my music on the internet, s-so I can get you some food."

[weedeater]

Ryo initiating physical contact is usually part of her idea of a joke - like giving Bocchi scritches as if she's some kind of pet. They're not alone, especially if Bocchi found people willing to give her a place to live, but now she's temporarily back to having one friend, and she doesn't know if Bocchi could call anyone here a friend.

This is gonna be really weird and different.

Ryo lets Bocchi up, and straightens up herself. Good recovery time for Bocchi on this one, she thinks, no matter how awkward her own comfort was... and she meant her words. For herself, too, to anchor her frame of reference to a familiar concept.

"So you can get it like that too," she observes bluntly. It's a fitting way for Bocchi to interact with people, without having to get up in their faces. "Thanks for treating me again. I'll return the favor when I'm set up."

There's literally no limit to what she can waste her lore on. Good luck if you're waiting for that promise to come true.

[bocchitime]

"I-It's kind of how I've been surviving here."

Well, that and Natasha's kindness. Mostly the kindness, if she's being honest - surviving is a lot easier when there's an adult there willing to give you a roof and privacy and leave meals outside your door for you.

"A-ah, did the fox explain that to you? W-we need to talk to people in order to survive here. Food, clothing... everything gets paid for that way."

So basically: It's hell. Bocchi has died and gone to hell, and this is what it's like here. She gives Ryo a very tired expression. "N-no one has figured out a way to get back home yet, either."

[weedeater]

"Yeah, I got that too." And apparently Bocchi hasn't immediately gone broke, despite the fact that she's obviously not thriving under that system either. "I guess playing on a street corner would still work." Assuming there are street corners, but if there's enough civilization for Bocchi to stream, then there's gotta be. She doesn't wanna muscle in on her internet territory.

"But I guess no one's gonna even know we're here, if I didn't notice." Complicated. What if they go back to the moment they left as very different people? "Not that that really helps us here, right now."