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

[twilight_sword]

[He hasn't yet made any effort to move from her side, to walk away, because even if everything in him is telling him that he ought to he can't deny that this kind of quiet exchange is something that he has missed and wanted from her for a long time. Dainsleif has not forgotten the smiling, talkative young woman who loved inteyvat flowers.

His eyes lower to his own cup in turn, a soft frown furrowing his brow. The chill that had struck him on sudden realisation of her proximity is gone, replaced instead with a hollow kind of feeling that he can't quite put a name to except that it makes the centre of his chest ache.]

My cough? [Dainsleif murmurs, glancing her way again. He scans her profile, curious, like he's trying to make sense of what's happening.]

... Lumine, I need you to explain. [Because he feels like he missed a step somewhere, and now every one he takes after it feels unsteady. There is something here that he isn't grasping correctly.] Will you do that for me?

[unalign]

[ and he still hasn't walked away.

lumine idly wonders if he's waiting for her to walk away instead. ah, that would be fitting, wouldn't it, and would be very much in character to the role she's being made to play in this world. after all, aether's back turned towards her is still a vivid memory in her head, an image that's carved itself permanently at the back of her mind.

but she wants to petulantly argue that she was there first, and he wasn't there when she first sat down at the bar.

at his request, she presses her lips together. she wishes she has an explanation to this. a nightmare, an illusion, a parallel world—perhaps she's still stuck in the irminsul, still asleep. still dreaming.

none of those make sense, not with what she clearly remembers. ]

... I can't promise anything. Even I ...

[ don't know anything, remains unspoken. ]

[twilight_sword]

[The window of opportunity for what he had expected to happen here has come and gone. They aren't going to fight, because if they were they would be doing it already. The Abyss Order isn't here, because he would know if it was. It's just her, and everything she has done so far has been entirely at odds with his expectations. Enough to keep him there, enough to make him want to understand, suddenly clinging to old memories when she truly did care.]

I won't ask you to promise anything.

[He just... wants...

Something isn't right. There's a piece of the puzzle that he can't see, obscuring the whole of the bigger picture. Frustrating.

He rubs his thumb along the edge of his cup then lifts it to take a sip.]

Just... try your best.

[unalign]

[ try her best. she almost snorts at that.

if only it's as simple as that, though she supposes that she's been trying her best since the time she's sat down in this chair. trying her best to make sense of her circumstances, trying her best to understand everyone's lack of memories of her. trying her best feels like the only thing she can do at the moment.

still, she gives him a slight nod despite keeping her gaze on her cup, unwilling to look anywhere else. if this will continue, then she'd rather she doesn't get her hopes up for even some kind of respite.

worse comes to worst, dainsleif will be the one to get her off this seat and force her to walk away. ]

[twilight_sword]

[She falls quiet, and so does he. At first he's expectant of some kind of response, for her to tell him why she's suddenly acting so differently or to at least give him a clue, but the silence stretches on and Dainsleif pulls all of his focus to the warmth tingling against his palms from the heat of the cup.

It's conflicting. He should hate this, but he doesn't. She should... shouldn't she? But instead it just seems that she's... sad. He can read that much from her.]

Not even a word for me? [Another glance goes her way, that bright red eye almost shining behind the shadow cast by the mask.] I can see that this doesn't make sense to either of us. I'm trying to understand why, but I need your help.

[unalign]

I ...

[ lumine opens her mouth to respond before she closes it right away, pressing her lips tightly together.

honestly, what kind of help does she need from her? she may have agreed to try her best, but there's only so much she can do when she's only just arrived, when she barely has her bearings together.

those feelings of frustration that have always welled up within her whenever someone would ask her to run a stupid errand are slowly filling her up once more, only stymied by the dig of her nails in her palms. she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to stitch together words.

words that should hopefully make sense even if they won't later on. ]

... Who is your Traveler, Dain? The person who paid you 500 Mora to travel with them.

[twilight_sword]

[The words don't make sense right away. Dainsleif stares at her for a moment, almost irritated by the question, but he does keep his tone level when he answers.]

Aether. Your brother.

[But doesn't she know that? He's sure there is something she isn't telling him that would make it all make sense, though he can't for the life of him think what that might be. Is she from an earlier time, perhaps? A time when they were still close? But then, no... because then how would she know about the "Traveller"...

And how did she know about the 500 mora?]

Why are you asking me that?

[unalign]

[ it's complete masochism, asking him that question and hearing him say aether's name instead of hers. but she stamps those feelings down, returning to his issue at hand. and here she thought dain would be a little quicker on the uptake, but she supposes this is a confusing scenario as it is, so she'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

but lumine continues anyway, sighing inwardly and debating against just walking away from this. taking the easy way out isn't going to help. ]

Because that's not ... what I went through.

[ she closes her hands into fists again, nails digging into her palm, before she opens them. ]

Paimon and I traveled with you to retrieve the eye from the first Field Tiller. We went to the ruins underneath Liyue while tracking the Abyss Herald and saw my brother. I bumped into you again in the Chasm where you told me about Khaenri'ah's curse and even met your subordinate.

[ another headshake: ] I'm not who you remember to be.

[twilight_sword]

[There's the missing piece he needs. The one thing that pushes everything into place and makes her reactions to him make sense. Why she doesn't look at him like an enemy, why she's using that nickname, why he can see that tension and sadness in every inch of her while he holds her at arms length. He should have considered it, really. Should have, but these things can be so difficult to see when the situation is something so raw and close to your heart.

And it's hard to believe it, but he does believe her.]

... I see.

[It's better that she's not, he thinks then. It's better, even if for a fleeting moment he was able to see the woman he cared for look at him with the concern and care that he remembered. It's better because... there is enough to contend with here, without the Abyss Order's Princess along with it. Better... but not better for her.

No, he can't even imagine how it must feel for her.]

I'm sorry. [Dainsleif rubs his thumb tiredly beneath his left eye and sighs slowly.] You must feel like you're in a bad dream that you can't wake up from.

[unalign]

[ she snorts wryly, hating the bitter taste left in her mouth that not even the hot chocolate could wash out. the fact that he's apologizing to her doesn't help, either. ]

That's an understatement.

[ a part of her wishes that this is all a dream, that she's still stuck in the irminsul and she's really back in sumeru. but lumine knows herself that that isn't the case here, and she's just being delusional for wanting to believe that. it's not at all like her to wallow in such feelings, after all.

she offers another rabbit a smile as it pushes the jars of marshmallows towards her again, gently rubbing its head and ears with her hand. these creatures, at the very least, are healing her heart little by little. ]

Not that there's anything I can do about it other than move on and continue walking forward. Being upset about it is just going to hold me back.

[twilight_sword]

[They're both still so pragmatic in that way, then. That's no surprise. Aether has always forged on ahead with such strength and fortitude that Dainsleif sometimes finds himself privately impressed by him. With what he knows of Lumine... - not this one, he's quick to remind himself - it isn't surprising to find her possessed of that same drive.]

Being here is all about... reaching our potential, after all. Supposedly. [He sips carefully at the hot chocolate again. The words are slightly dry as they come out, but then they always are with him when it comes to anything to do with Thirteen.]

Though I can't begin to think what she means by this.

[It's just cruel. Though, he has seen her be cruel before. He shakes his head faintly and watches the rabbit that she's petting as it stands there patiently holding its jar of marshmallows.]

There are others from Teyvat here. Have you seen many?

[unalign]

[ reach her potential ... and yet, this world seems to demand her to assume a role that was never hers. is that how she'll reach her potential, to become the abyss leader that everyone seems to expect of her? how frustrating.

at his inquiry, her expression turns blank, her hand momentarily pausing its patting of the rabbit. a moment later, she shrugs her shoulders. ]

Kaeya, Wanderer ...

[ neither of whom remember her as she is. at least wanderer somehow shares memories with her, though just not with "her". ]

They're the only ones I've met so far, other than you.

[twilight_sword]

[He does not need to ask if they knew her or not, and as far as he knows she is in for a good deal more of this kind of pain as she finds more of the people from 'home' here.

Dainsleif has always had a low opinion of Thirteen and the way she conducts herself in almost all respects, how she toys with their lives and emotions as if they are nothing more than playthings to her, and nothing she has done so far has improved his stance. This is just another black mark against her.

A small nod, then his attention is pulled by a small rabbit placing its paw on his knee. It shakes a little container of marshmallows at him.]

They are insistent.

[He sighs and gives the creature a hesitant pat on the head.]

I would have liked to be able to give you better news as far as I'm concerned. [It is what it is, and it's going to take some adjustment in his mind, but it's... fine.] Your brother is here too, though he's the one who walked the same path you did.