January 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

JANUARY 2023 TDM

INTRODUCTION

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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

[savagegardens]

"Twenty-one. Technically," he says with a crooked smile and a bit of a sly wink. "The higher powers where I'm from don't really want me sharing my actual age. One of those truths they believe people are unwilling or unable to cope with. But between the two of us, I'm closer to two hundred."

[woenesday]

"The higher powers hardly matter here." It wasn't as though they were here. It seemed the only higher Though her expression remains completely neutral at the admission. "People in your world don't know about outcasts then? I imagine that must make things easier."

[savagegardens]

"Outcasts? That's an interesting term for it. I've not heard that before. No, people in my world don't know about outcasts, unless they are one. We're meant to keep secret.

Which begs the question as to how you know about them."

[woenesday]

"We exist openly in my world. Psychics, sirens, werewolves, vampires, and much more all exist." Rather openly in some cases. "Nevermore Academy exists solely for us in a town full of normies who are well aware of what each of us are."

[savagegardens]

"What a novel concept. Existing out in the open. Since we're both outcasts, I might as well tell you that I am a vampire. May I ask -- if it's not too rude of course -- what sort of outcast you are?"

[woenesday]

"It causes more problems than good, but we shouldn't have to hide just to appease the baseless fears of normies." Were the fears entirely baseless? No, not really. But normies could be just as dangerous and psychotic as outcasts could. Everyone had the potential to be a villain, that was what it really boiled down to.

She hesitated just for a second as she judged if she wanted to fully reveal herself or not. He had and he seemed to have a fairly decent perspective on things. "Psychic. To be more precise I'm what we call a Raven. I see visions, but due to my ...disposition I only see darker things in them." She also had absolutely no control over them, but well, that didn't need to be admitted.

[savagegardens]

"It's a difficult life, having to hide in the shadows. Though it appears that here, some... aspects of ourselves are more difficult to hide than most." As if to prove his point, his tail swishes behind him, and he sighs with annoyance. "I still don't know how to control that thing.

But a psychic, how interesting. Sometimes one cannot help but see the darker things in life, I suppose."

[woenesday]

"Is it? I would think it easier than dealing with normies making it their undying mission to rid the world of your kind." But what would she know? There's just a flash of...an emotion that looks almost like envy as she glances at the tail. "There's no reason to hide it." If she had one she wouldn't. Alas, currently she'd only manifested rather disappointing claws that were hidden most of the time.

"Are there psychics in your world as well?"

[savagegardens]

"Perhaps for a psychic, yes. But when one cannot eat, drink, or go out during the daytime, it's a little more difficult to play pretend all the time.

I think there likely are. If vampires -- most of them, at least -- have telepathy, then I see no reason for psychics not to exist, as well."

[woenesday]

"Your vampires are very different than mine." Though her personal opinion would say her vampires sounded quite a bit better than his. "Ours are able to go out in the sun with proper precautions." Large hats and sunglasses.

"I'd caution you in regards to reading my mind." Her eyes narrow as though the statement were at least partially a warning. In the back of her mind she did wonder if perhaps he might be useful to her in that regard then. "Are you talented with that? Telepathy?" If he was perhaps he'd have knowledge on how to control her particular talents.

[savagegardens]

"It would be wonderful, to see the sun again," Lestat sighs wistfully.

The question about his telepathy makes him grimace slightly, "I was never properly taught how to use it. I can hear quite a lot of thoughts at once, at quite a long distance, but it is difficult for me to focus it."

[woenesday]

"Perhaps you can here. This place seems to have no rules. At least none that are familiar or logical." So perhaps the sun wouldn't hurt him here. Maybe Thirteen had accounted for that. It'd be interesting to note.

"Ah, then not much different than my own." Whoops. She hadn't meant to admit she couldn't focus her abilities that well. "Being able to hear that much but not being able to focus it must cause headaches."

[savagegardens]

"I'd rather not tempt fate by trying." Catching fire doesn't seem like an enjoyable way to spend his time.

"I can quiet it to a low grade buzz. Like an obnoxious fly. But you're right, it does do a number on one's head. I'm sorry you have similar troubles."

[woenesday]

"A fair stance to take. There's also the chance you could spend spoons to gain an ability to protect you from it. I have no idea how much that would be though." She doesn't even currently know how much the things she wants would be, let alone an entire ability. "I've been told you can buy anything you can think of." Which seemed like too good of a deal to be true, but so did a lot of this place.

"Don't be sorry. It's not as though it's your fault. Mother said an ancestor of mine would come to teach me how to use it properly but...that didn't quite work out."

[savagegardens]

"My maker simply kept telling me to trust my body, rather than actually teach me anything, which is next to useless." Not that he's bitter about that. Or anything Akasha made him do.

It's fine.

"I'll take your request for what it is, however, and not actively try to read your mind."

[woenesday]

"That sounds like a poor excuse to conceal that they didn't actually want the burden of having to teach you. Which begs the question: why did they turn you then?" It seemed like an entirely idiotic thing to do if they didn't want to at least guide him.

"Reading someone's mind without their permission seems like a large violation of their personal boundaries. I've had enough of people doing that recently. " Did she care about invading other people's boundaries? Not really. Did she care about people invading hers? Yup.

[savagegardens]

"A question I ask myself all too often. Why me? Why choose me?" He sighs and glances somewhere over Wednesday's shoulder, lost in his own thoughts for a long moment.

"I apologize for anything I pick up accidentally. It isn't on purpose, I promise. I won't purposefully go prying."

[woenesday]

"I take it your maker never chose to give you an answer?" She assumes he's asked, honestly she wouldn't be particularly surprised if he'd demanded some sort of answer. It seemed unlikely that he just wondered that to himself for however many years he'd been alive.

"As long as it's not on purpose and you inform me when you pick something up."

[savagegardens]

"I got a lot of grandiose speeches about our higher purpose but nothing that satisfied me." Perhaps, in a way, he was afraid to know the true answer. Didn't want to have his fears confirmed that it was because he was malleable. Gullible, even. Someone she thought she could bend and shape to her will.

"Likewise, I'd like to know if you ever see anything about me."

[woenesday]

"Grandiose speeches aren't meant to satisfy. They're meant to distract the listener while stroking the ego of the one giving them. The only people who give them are those who enjoy the sound of their own voice and assume they're speaking to an idiot that will listen. They usually mistakenly think they're much more clever than they are."

She shifted from one foot to the other, the only tiny sign that she was perhaps a bit uncomfortable admitting the next statement. "If I have a vision you'll know." Not necessarily because she'd tell him immediately, but rather because the process was hard to miss.