folkooc | 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're quick, human. It's very impressive.

[Mitsuko stays behind her wall and quickly grabs two more snowballs. She holds them steady, not making a break for it. She looks up at the sky, waiting.

Her helmet isn't bothering making snowballs; it just scoops up the snow and flies after Marc. Mitsuko watches for it to appear in the sky, and she waits. The helmet dumps snow on Marc in a rush of slush. Either he gets hit, or he dodges left or right. And that's when she'll strike with two more snowballs.]

[And this is how all hell breaks loose. Marc finishes his two snowballs right when the helmet looms over him. He doesn't have time left to throw, so he dodges, trying to keep a good hold on the balls with one arm. The slushy snowfall misses, but now that he's out in the open, Mitsuko's snowball hits him in the back of the neck instead.

Then something happens that's so unexpected and new, he's unable to grasp it. Where first there was a grown human man, now a black cat lands sprawled out in the snow. It lies perfectly still and disoriented.

Congrats on witnessing Marc's first Familiar transformation!]

[She throws. The snowball lands. But before Mitsuko can even fathom throwing another snowball, her opponent is gone, replaced with something fluffy.]

Eh?!

[Mitsuko stares blankly at Marc for a long moment. Even her helmet stops from gathering ammo and hangs by her head, almost like it's staring. There's a pause...]

What? You're not a human?! Are you... Are you a cat-shaped alien?!

[... Look, she's actually met a cat-shaped alien. She's never met a shapeshifting human!]

[Marc startles out of something like a daze when she speaks. Something's wrong... Did he black out? Why does his body feel so strange? Why is he so close to the ground? What- Not human?

His gaze flicks to the pair of furry paws in front of him. They move when he tries to move his arms. No-]

What the hell?!

[Thaaat is still a very deep voice coming out of this cat. The mixture of panic and horror causes his fur to stand on end, his tail in particular growing extra bushy.]

[Mitsuko stops her snowball assault and signals to her helmet. The helmet releases its payload and floats back over to her side. Mitsuko stands up and trudges through the snow to the cat.]

Are you okay? I didn't think I hit you that hard.

[He scrambles up into a standing position- even tries to stand on his hind legs, but his balance is off and he lands back on all fours immediately. The cold of the snow tingles the pads below his paws and it is the weirdest sensation he's ever felt.]

No I'm not okay! I'm a cat! Why the hell am I a cat?!

[Right. So this isn't normal. She should have guessed that.]

Why would I know?

[Seeing Marc in the cold is so sad, though. He looks like a drowned kitten. Without thinking about it, the woman kneels down and gently scoops Marc up in her giant hands.]

Whoah- No no no no-

[There's nothing he can do to stop her. Her fingers are already settled below his belly, lifting him up from the ground, his legs dangling helplessly in mid-air. The average cat could still wriggle his way out of the hold, but he's got no experience with wriggling and he's too stunned to try.]

[Mitsuko pulls herself up to her full height, bringing Marc right up to her chest. She looks down at the poor cat in her arms and brushes the snow off his fur.]

There. At least now you're going to be less cold and wet.

Calm down. Then we can figure out why you transformed.

[Calm down? He's a cat. His paws manage a sad sort of doggy(!)paddle.]

I don't need to know why! I need to know how to change back...!

Okay. Then calm down so we can figure out how to change you back. Creating a fuss won't help, you know.

[She pats him on the back.] Maybe if I pelt you with another snowball, it will trigger something.

[Bwegghh he's being petted. That feels weird through the fur. He has fur now, good god.]

Oy! What happens when you hit a cat with a snowball? That can't be safe!

[She only meant to pat his back to reassure him. However, Marc is remarkably soft... Now she can't help but pet him properly...]

You tell me. I'm trying to come up with ideas to fix you. Are you sure this isn't some sort of hidden ability?

[His paws wiggle in mid-air again, his tail flicking.]

Hidden ability? I'm human, not a damned Animorph! [Unless? -No, that's stupid.] ...What did that Fox say about Familiars?

Familiars? The emotionally neutral one? I was told that I was a Myth, so I wasn't as informed about Familiars. Only that they-

[Mitsuko pauses, eyes wide with realisation.] They can alter their form to any animal. I'm guessing you must have subconsciously chosen to become a cat.

Why would I subconsciously choose to be a cat? Cats are useless!

[Most pets are useless, in his opinion, but at least a big dog would've been better where that's concerned.]

Harsh. Most creatures have their uses.

[Mitsuko doesn't sound at all serious though, clearly teasing the man.] Can you subconsciously choose to no longer be a cat? Or actively, for that matter?

[Oh sure, cats can catch mice, but that's not really a priority in his life. Or ever will be.]

I dunno? How do you choose not to be a cat when you didn't choose to be one in the first place?

How about not trying to prove a negative? Choose to be a human may be easier than not being a cat. Does it look like I know how to change my size? [She laughs at that]

January 2023 Test Drive Meme

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