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

[fistofvengeance]

He hears her approach before she even speaks, the snow crunching beneath her feet giving her away. Even then, he stiffens considerably when her voice reaches his ears, because now he can no longer fool himself into thinking strangers will just leave him be. And god, he really does need shoes, doesn't he?

His eyes scrunch shut for a split second before he turns to face her. "I'm fine," are the first reflexive words to leave him. "... If you could just tell me where to get shoes, I'll get them myself."

[electricyousei]

She looks up with an emotionless stare, voice still deadpan, "A shoe store."

With that she rummages in her cape and pulls out a pair of Japanese looking toilet slippers, "These may work in a pinch, but there is a fair amount of snow about."

"I can take you to a place you can get better shoes if you want though."

With that she shrugs a bit.

[fistofvengeance]

Oh good, a wiseass. That's just what he needs. ... Who is he kidding- he's up a creek without a paddle here, and his toes are going to get frostbite if this keeps up. He shouldn't be this dismissive of someone trying to help him, deep down he knows that.

There's a few seconds where he looks almost pained about it, then he relents and reaches out with one hand to accept the slippers. "Yeah, okay," he says. A brief pause, and then: "I don't have any money on me, though."

[electricyousei]

To be fair, a dumbass would be a thousand times worse. Imagine the snipe hunt that could end with a declaration of they forgot.

"Generally speaking, they don't mind you taking what you need to survive when you first get here. Or no one minded me doing so."

She looks over Marc, "And you look not only like you just got here, but like you got here from being in a bad place."

[fistofvengeance]

A place that doesn't mind you taking things instead of paying for them? That really just has him even more convinced he's actually dead and in some version of the afterlife. The fox fed him some 'full potential' bullshit, which sounds an awful lot like final judgment. But fine, he'll play along. The slippers are dropped to the ground and his bare feet are wiped clean of snow before he steps into them.

"The place I came from was fine."

Granted, the last thing he remembers is dealing with a cult leader and a vicious Egyptian deity in one fell blow, but that borders on a regular Tuesday for him. If that ended up being the last thing he ever did, at least the world's better off for it.

"So this place is... What?" he asks, because it's becoming clear the answers aren't about to drop out of the sky.

[electricyousei]

Ruri looks up, her expression still emotionless, her voice still deadpan, "A headache."

She looks around and motions to the whole ice fort, "I suspect this is what they think a pleasant winter break is given the ringer they just put the people through here through. From what I understand the Fox that runs this place has thirteen aspects. None of them work the same and they all take turns at making us handle odd problems to.... Bring out our potential."

"Still, I'm not sure I would call the Fox spirits evil or sadistic. More, completely out of touch with humanity. I don't want to say we are basically hive based insects to them, but that is more because I don't have a lot of experience with hive based insects than saying they are looking out for our best interests or anything."

[fistofvengeance]

A headache sounds about right to him. He looks up at the ice fort as well, eyes narrowing into a squint. He's still expecting it to be fake- just some construct his shitty mind came up with to help him cope with whatever it is that's actually going on. Still though, the confirmation that that fox was involved and that talk about potential...

There's a rough shake of the head. "Higher beings have a funny sense of when it's right to meddle with humanity and when to leave them be," he remarks bitterly. "Anyway, I didn't sign up for this whole... full potential thing, so how do I go back?"

[electricyousei]

Ruri shakes her head at that, "If I knew, we wouldn't be having this conversation. They pulled me in the middle of.... A personal project."

She shrugs at that, "Some people vanish, maybe they've hit their potential, maybe they really annoyed the Thirteen, I haven't been here long enough to figure it out. Then again, I'm not sure how giving people minor movie effects unlocks their potential."

[fistofvengeance]

'Vanishing' is not necessarily the same thing as going back, he notes vaguely, but he hopes it is synonymous. He'd rather not entertain alternatives for too long. Vanishing for the sake of vanishing is... Well. His world- his entire universe- can attest to how macabre that is.

There's an awkward shuffle of his feet, as his toes are still prickling with the cold. "Do I even want to know what the hell a 'minor movie effect' is supposed to be?"

[electricyousei]

Ruri holds her hands about 6 inches apart, takes a breath, and purple electricity arcs between them.

"That is a minor movie effect. That's it. That's all it does. I guess it also disrupts the local wifi but that doesn't really help me at all."

[fistofvengeance]

He winces instinctively at the sight of that electricity, taking a single step back with his left foot. The color and the way it moves is just a little too reminiscent to the kind of magic Arthur Harrow could summon. An additional second and a closer look tells him it's not the same thing, though.

"So it's just fancy static electricity, or what?"

[electricyousei]

"It varies from person to person. I think it has to do with my old callsign back in the war. But I hope not, because it was very stupid."

She just shakes her head and sighs at that.

[fistofvengeance]

That brings his thoughts to a screeching halt. Marc was in the Marines, he has more than enough experience with that kind of lingo and that kind of fighting. A call sign during the war, huh?

"You were in the military?" His gaze moves up and down the teenager, and it might be clear from the way his brow raises that he doesn't believe a word of it.

[electricyousei]

"Lt. Commander Ruri Hoshino. Captain of the EDS Nadesico-C, in charge of the Mars to Jove run."

With that she salutes a bit, but continues in her deadpan tone.

"I was engineered to keep the ship's AI from... Deciding it didn't like humans very much, so I was accepted into the military at a younger age than most."

[fistofvengeance]

He doesn't salute back. Regardless of whether that's a real title, he lost his respect for the military years ago. The mention of AI doesn't come as a surprise to him either. If anything it stirs an 'of course someone tried to weaponize AI again' sentiment.

"Right. Sure. Why not?" A few seconds pass before he realizes that was an introduction, first and foremost, so he'll need to return the gesture. "... I'm Marc."

He doesn't like to give his last name too easily. It has associations in certain circles and he can't be too careful.

[electricyousei]

Ruri nods, she's used to dealing with people outside of the norm. Her first ship was crewed by the best in the business despite "personality quirks" so it takes a lot to phase her.

"We should probably head off to get you some appropriate clothes though. Before you start to actually freeze. Though, who knows if the thirteen are making that possible."

[fistofvengeance]

So it's possible to not freeze? God, he really shouldn't be surprised anymore. There's a light shrug of the shoulders, along with a furrow of the brow.

"Lead the way," he says curtly. He has no idea where they're meant to go and while he'd normally figure it out by himself, this feels like a better way to get around for now.