folkooc | January 2023 Test Drive Meme

Entry tags:

*tdm

January 2023 Test Drive Meme

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You know I'll always sing for you. You need only ask," he promises, rubbing his hand over Louis' back. "Oh, Louis. I never apologized for hiding away for so long. But I'm back now. And we're here, together, even if this place is strange."

"You never needed to apologize for that," Louis says, shaking his head as he pulls back to look Lestat in the eyes. There's a small line between his brows, a thin but serious furrow of worry.

"I knew you would find me when you finally decided that you wished to see me. I longed to talk to you, to see your face, but..." He hesitates, his voice soft. His fingers move restlessly in Lestat's hair, and his gaze drops to one side, guilt tugging at his chest. "To be honest, I couldn't convince myself that I deserved it. Not if you weren't ready."

And then just as soon as Louis thought that they would finally have time, he'd found himself in Folkmore by himself instead. Will this reunion be the one that actually lasts?

"Oh, Louis," Lestat sighs, stroking his fingers over Louis' cheeks tenderly. "Please don't blame yourself. You deserve so much more than the state I was in.

But we have time now, don't we? Strange as it is. We can have all the time in the world. I don't want to leave your side, now that we're here, together." He takes Louis' face in his hand and gives him a soft, tender kiss.

"Where are you? I'll live wherever you are. Or you can come with my in the place that I've found."

"You want to live with me again?" Louis's eyes widen, surprise written across his expressive face. Night Island was one thing, but that had been all of them living together, with their own separate quarters. He hadn't actually allowed himself to consider what living with only Lestat might be like, afraid that Lestat wouldn't want to, afraid that things would go terribly wrong again...

But his heart does an eager, anxious gallop in his chest.

"Do you really mean that?"

"I can think of no place I would rather be than at your side." He's terrified to ask it. Afraid that Louis will say no. Afraid that after a few years, they'll start fighting again, perhaps. That it will turn out poorly.

But the thought of living close to Louis, but not with him -- well, that bothers him even more.

Louis's surprise softens into a quiet smile, and he turns his face toward Lestat's palm to press a kiss to the center.

"Have you seen the burrows in Lapine? They're quaint little cottages set into the hillside. That's where I've been staying. Some of the interior rooms have no windows, which naturally appealed to me."

His smile curls up at the corner. "It's incredibly rural. I think you would find it much too quiet for your tastes. But my home is your home, of course." A flutter of shyness; he ducks his head slightly. "I'm sure you've found something more 'you,' as they say."

"I... have, yes," he answers, diplomatically. They're certainly not to his taste, but they are absolutely to Louis' taste. "I've settled myself in one of the apartments in Epiphany?" Lestat offers up. Hoping that perhaps Louis might like living there, potentially.

Louis perks up, immediately curious. He hears the implied question in Lestat's voice and nods in answer to it.

"Will you take me there? I want to see it." It isn't Yes, Lestat, of course I want to live with you, but that feels more or less inevitable. He can't imagine what might cause him to decline, after everything. "I've visited Epiphany. It's a lovely town."

"I would absolutely love to show you. Shall we go to the train station?" He links his arm with Louis' and kisses his cheek. And then simply... stays there. Nose to Louis' cheek. Breathing in the familiar scent of him.

"I'm so glad you're here with me."

Swept away in the romance of the moment, rendered temporarily breathless, all Louis can do is turn his face so that their lips brush. The snowflakes in Lestat's hair are cool against his cheeks, and that tiny detail alone is so lovely that it makes him want to weep.

"I'll go anywhere with you."

Lestat smiles against Louis' mouth. Happy that he kissed him, in Louisiana. Happy that they're kissing now. Thrilling in these soft touches.

"Lead the way? Perhaps you can get me one of those delightful flower crowns."

"You'll look like a fairy prince." Louis smiles and runs his fingers through Lestat's hair one last time, giving his horns a brief caress before carefully and affectionately tucking his curls around to hide them as well as he can.

With his hand in Lestat's, he leads them across the snow toward the lights in the distance.

"I was beginning to wonder... oh, but it's embarrassing. I thought about asking whether the Fox could bring someone here if I just paid enough for it."

He appreciates the careful arrangement of his hair more than he can say. Louis helping him hide his horns is such a sweet gesture.

As they walk together and Louis reveals what he'd thought of doing, Lestat's tail goes around his waist to pull him closer. "You thought of paying to have me here?"

Their hips bump together, and Louis lets out a quiet laugh of surprise. His free hand lifts to stroke the tail; it's a strange gesture, but not as strange as it perhaps ought to be. In spite of the obvious demonic associations, Louis can't bring himself to see it that way. Or perhaps it's only that it's Lestat, and Louis has already embraced his own personal devil.

"Yes," he says, soft but with no hesitation. "And then I thought of how cruel it would be, and how selfish, and how I had no right to drag you here against your will simply because I was lonely. And so I didn't ask."

A light squeeze of Lestat's hand.

"But I wanted to, all the same."

"I am touched, however, that you would be willing to be social enough to earn enough money to bring me here," he teases gently. He's glad he never did; he wouldn't have wanted to resent Louis for dragging him here.

"Now you don't have to wish for me, any longer."

"Imagine. I might have had to host a party." His lips twitch into a half-smile. "Without you. Would you ever have forgiven me?"

"Oh!" Lestat fakes a gasp and a pouting face, pressing his free hand to his chest. "I would have been devastated to know you'd had a party without me. I might have wept to have not been included."

Louis laughs at Lestat's theatrics, bumping their shoulders together gently. Oh, he'd missed this. In spite of everything, no one makes him smile like Lestat.

"If it helps, I would have been thinking of you the entire time."

"No, I would have been terribly disappointed to have been left out. Best you waited, really."

He glances over at his companion, thoughtfully. "Would you want to have a party of some sort, now that we're both here? We could invite the friends you've made."

Louis blinks, slightly surprised by the question. But he doesn't say no. Another time, he might have simply refused... but after months of Lestat locked away in his rooms, hardly speaking to anyone, Louis is just grateful to hear Lestat suggest something that sounds like himself.

"I don't know a great many people just yet," Louis says. "But... it wouldn't be such a terrible way to meet new acquaintances, would it? In fact, it would be the prudent thing to do, given the currency here."

"Perhaps not a party just yet, then. Maybe after we've been here for a while, and have met more people. I haven't met anyone I would consider a friend just yet.

Well -- perhaps one. An intriguing young woman by the name of Wednesday."

"Really? What do you find so intriguing about her?"

They're on the outskirts of the market now, warmly lit stalls in view. No one bats an eye at the two of them holding hands, and so Louis isn't inclined to stop.

He doesn't want to say how much he's reminded of Claudia, or of Nicki. There's no point in needlessly upsetting Louis, not when they're getting on so well.

"She and I have similar viewpoints on things. We had a most interesting conversation on whether or not those who were... perhaps more than human ought to hide away or be able to live peacefully among normies, as she called them."

"Normies?" Louis repeats the word, amused and delighted by the vernacular. "I can guess well enough what that means, but..."

He pauses, a bit more serious. "Is she more than human herself? Does she know what you are?"

"She does," Lestat says slowly. "But I only revealed myself to her because she revealed herself to me, first. In her world, those that are more than human are referred to as outcasts. Fitting, I suppose."

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