February 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

FEBRUARY 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]

SPRING BREAKS LOOSE

Content Warnings: extreme weather

the time is near

The earth is awakening.

You are aware of this fact before consciousness truly returns. One minute you were a falling star but as your body reforms you can sense the freshness of spring just around the corner. In your minds eye you can see circling birds in the sky, feel the first warm breeze of the season, and hear icicles melting into crystal puddles.

But something isn't right.

The moment you are truly awake you find yourself in what could generously be described as a shack built in the snowy wasteland of Wintermute. You and another Star Child are at least being kept warm by an electric heater, but there really isn't much in the way of amenities otherwise. More disturbingly, the entire shack has a deeply oppressive aura to it, encouraging the pair of you to leave as soon as you can.

But where can you possibly go?

Stepping outside reveals the answer, as parked not far from the shed is a dogsled, complete with warm winter gear to protect you from the cold.

The dogs themselves are the real marvels; not flesh and blood, the sled dogs are in fact automatons. The winter sun reflects off of their silver and copper bodies and the steady tick of their inner workings breaks the chilly silence. Each dog has a key sticking out of its back, turning slowly.

The oppressive sense you felt in the shack continues to grow. Your thoughts begin to turn negative: sad, paranoid, fearful. It is quite unbearable... until your eye falls on a delicate splash of purple against the snow.

Close to the dogsled, a single crocus pokes out of the ground.

The very sight of it calms you down. Picking it will make you feel happy, and you will find yourself blurting out the first pleasant memory that comes to mind.

The robodogs bark, delighted, encouraging you to climb aboard the sled and look for more of those flowers!

Every crocus you collect will make you feel positive emotions and the urge to share good personal moments with your companion. The more you find, the happier you will be... and you might get quite close to a total stranger as a result as well!

in from the snow

While you are out and about, you'll want to keep an eye on your team of dogs - they can and will lose power after a point. Your job as a good dog driver is to keep them wound up! Yes, you'll have to stop and physically wind the dogs back up when they lose steam.

You are likely to discover weapons jutting up from the snow. These are all unenchanted items, basic swords, guns, shields, etc., but the second you pull them from the snow the weather will take a turn for the worse. You may even be subject to a sudden avalanche! Hopefully you got the dogs wound up enough that they can get you out of there without any damage!

Eventually the dogs will choose to take you to Akhlut Station in Wintermute where you can catch the train somewhere a little warmer.

BUT SO DOES FEAR

Content Warnings: Fungus, spores, live burial, mental confusion and hallucinations.

putting roots in my dreamland

Willow is definitely warmer than Wintermute. The tail end of winter means that while much of the farmland is still blanketed in snow, the more wooded areas have large clear patches beneath the conifers. The ground here is damp and rich smelling. Poking out of the soil are tiny white mushrooms. These fungi glisten wetly, strangely compelling in their little rings of earth. You just want to take a closer look... maybe have a seat under the conifers and listen to the snow melt...

The mushrooms enchant anyone who gets close to them into simply staying put. They cloud the mind, leaving you in a dimly pleasant haze, while your body sinks slowly into the earth. The longer you stay, the more you sink - maybe a passerby can come and pull you out! If you don't wind up suffocated by dirt you will find that your head clears on its own once night falls. You will probably still need a hand pulling yourself out of the ground, but at least now you know what's going on.

The woods at night are not still - there are mice and owls and the usual nocturnal critters. There is also something else, something that moves slowly beneath the trees checking the mushroom traps. About eight feet tall, this lanky creature resembles a human skeleton held together by muscles and tendons of moss and fungus. Its head is a huge mushroom cap, underneath from which glitter a pair of bright blue eyes. If it finds any unfortunates stuck in the traps without anyone to help them, it will push their heads beneath the soil and hold them there until they die.

The sight of this creature inspires feelings of disorientation and hopelessness. These feelings are lessened when you are in close physical proximity with another Star Child, so it is to your advantage to stick together. The mushroom creature's objective remains the same: to feed the living earth with your body.

The creature is not particularly tough - its flesh is soft and gives way easily. You can defeat it easily with weapons or even your fists provided you can get close enough without succumbing to the disorientation and hopeless feelings. Oh, and you may not want to hit it on the head...

The mushroom cap, when struck, showers spores everywhere. These spores burn if they land on your skin, and if they get in your eyes they cause vivid hallucinations of ghostly figures reaching for you, trying to immobilize you. These hallucinations are so real that it is likely you will act as if they are real, standing still as if you are restrained.

If you defeat the mushroom creature, it will dissolve into the ground and leave in its place a wooden chest. Inside each of you will find some canon clothes and/or an item from your homeworlds.

coast is clear

Not far from the forest treeline, a bonfire burns merrily in the center of a circle of light green tents. The tents are kept warm by portable heaters, with some containing food and drink, and others offering small packs of seeds as gifts. These seeds are for common earth flowers and vegetables. One of the tents provides first aid supplies, in case you got roughed up fighting a giant mushroom or something.

The tents are staffed by squirrels and chipmunks. Just plain old ordinary squirrels and chipmunks. They don't speak - only chitter and occasionally screech - but they will help as best as their tiny paws allow.

This is a good time to recover, and also to talk to any other Star Children you may see.

Comments

[pursuitofcappiness]

"About six months," he responds. "Sorry you got shot." He remembers that day pretty well, but for him, the shooting didn't start until he was out of the chamber. He supposes in Steve's timeline, the shooting started before.

"It's weird here, but when you go home, it's like you never left. So I think of this place as a vacation."

[mightysmall]

"There's a war on. People get shot." Steve never expected it to happen in America to him but that's the truth. He knew what Rebirth could lead to. "It's fine. I can walk again and Howard built me the Hydra Stomper so I can fight so it's just another ache to live with."

Yes, he does treat his bad hip and side like it's asthma. That's how Steve copes with it. Just another illness in a long line of chronic illnesses. Not going to slow him down at all.

"Interesting vacation spot," he drawls sarcastically. "Not sure I would've picked one with mushroom monsters and getting buried alive. But the views aren't bad."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Things just got weirder in the future, Steve. You think robots and Red Skull was the weirdest part of it, but after I woke up we got alien invasions, robot invasions, hell. Apparently there's wizards now, and they've been there all along, cleaning up magic mess in the background."

Yep, this is why they should be sitting down. Which is great when they happen across the diner, and Steve finds them a booth.

"Try a milkshake. The fries are pretty good, too."

[mightysmall]

Steve is relieved to sit down and take some of the strain off his hip and side. Yeah, he's going to have to take it easy for a few days. "Hydra wasn't opening portals to other dimensions in your world, huh? Because wizards and aliens really doesn't seem that strange after seeing tentacles come from a tear in reality."

It's part of why Steve can handle talking to, essentially, himself. He's very familiar with weird stuff happening around him. He also spent a lot of time with Howard Stark who's a whole different level of weird on his own.

He gets a strawberry milkshake and large fry. "Even this isn't all that weird." He gestures between the two of them. "I mean, it's weird that you've met me before but I don't remember it. That's the part that's weird. Not that there's a universe where I do get the serum."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Nope," he responds easily. "I think probably they haven't discovered the technology back on my world. That might've been the difference. Shooting didn't start until after I took the serum."

But then Steve brings up another point. "Well, that's why I wanted you to sit down. The fox brings in people from all worlds, but also, all parts of their timeline. And when you go back, you don't remember it. So I don't know if you were the previous Steve I knew that got pulled, or if you're just another one who lived his whole life. 'Cause sometimes the divergence is minor."

"And then, sometimes, you get a totally different person. I'll have to introduce you to Tony, he's Howard's kid. Built himself a suit a lot like yours. Except at some point there were two of 'em together at once, and one of them had blue eyes and one of them had brown - they didn't look alike but I guess you could think they were brothers. Both of them built a suit and joined a team called the Avengers, and each of those Avengers teams has a Steve Rogers." He pauses to make sure the other one's following, as he places his order.

[mightysmall]

"I guess I'm not?" It sounds like he's not from the way Steve talks. He wonders where the other version of himself is from and how different their universes are. The small version of himself that this version of Steve met before. Wow, this is getting confusing quickly just because of all the names.

The part that gets Steve eyebrows jumping up in surprise is that Howard Stark had a kid. A suit of armor, sure, whatever, he's got one of those but a kid?

"Howard had a kid?" Steve had seen Howard accidentally electrocute himself working on some project and also passed out at his workbench from inventing. It's hard to imagine Howard with a kid that he's responsible for. Or a woman who would marry him.

Maybe it was because he's handsome and rich?

"I guess I know what I'm doing after the war," he says after letting that all digest for a moment. "Unless that Avengers business is only in the future. I guess it must be if it's got Howard's kid."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Wow, that was the most surprising thing? Well, he can't help but to huff out a laugh. "Yeah, he has a kid. Name's Tony. Do us both a favor and don't mention Howard. They never got along." He's learned that lesson a little late.

"Don't think you're gonna join the Avengers, pal. It doesn't get formed until 2012, coincidentally, that's when I woke up out of the ice." He already knows nothing happened to this Steve's Bucky, so he doesn't ask. But he thinks that Steve should know. "You'll probably found SHIELD instead. It's an organization, works with the government to protect people. But somehow it gets infiltrated by HYDRA. If you see Project Paperclip, forget it. Convince them not to go through with it."

[mightysmall]

Steve frowns a little. Howard didn't get along with his own kid? He got along with Howard most of the time, especially when they stuck to talking about the Hydra Stomper. "It's gonna be kind of hard to do that if he asks me about the war and what I did."

Because a lot of it was spending time with Howard to learn how to pilot and maintain the flying suit of armor he wore into battle.

2012 felt like an impossible year to him. That's how far into the future things went. "Not a bad way to spend my time after the war. I do want to keep helping people. Fighting bullies, you know?"

He nods about the paperclip business. If he can keep Hydra gone for good, Steve's going to do it.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I do know," he says. And he does know that Steve will try his best in any case. The waiter comes over with their order, and big Steve digs in, dipping some of his fries in his shake.

"But tell me what you think. The shakes here are just like home. Better, even."

[mightysmall]

Steve wraps both his hands around the milkshake before taking the first sip. Yeah, it is just like home. "I can't remember the last time I had ice cream. Rationing."

It must have been months because the sweetness is sharp and more intense than he remembers. They eat okay in the Howlies but it's nothing like this.

"I've missed food that doesn't come from a can," he says with a little chuckle. "Howard sneaks me stuff some times because he's worried about my weight but I usually share it with the guys."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I remember those days. Oh, and now? It's popular to have steaks not done all the way. And runny yolks." Neither of those were allowed, but he's gotta admit that the food's a lot better now.

"You'd love the food in 2012. But... I do miss a lot of the produce. It was a lot better when we were kids." Not really in the thirties, and then there was the war. But, nearly a hundred years later, he thinks, there's a lot that's going well.

[mightysmall]

"It is?" Steve makes a little bit of a face. Runny yolk doesn't sound very good to him. He can't recall a time he's had a steak though. That's never been something he could afford.

"I get the sense I can try some of it here." He gestures to the diner around them. "And given how many people want to tell me about things in the future I bet they'd be willing to make things for me to try if this diner doesn't have them."

People have been incredibly friendly so far.

[pursuitofcappiness]

To his credit, medium chipped steak does sound pretty gross. "Well, I can always order some and you can try a bite of mine. I don't know if this happened to Peggy, but pal, I've gotta eat ten times what you do before I feel full." He typically doesn't because it's not like the Steves don't know what hungry is like, but he can really tuck it away.

"I'm even learning how to cook," he says. "If you don't mind being an experiment. My runny yolks don't turn out so great, but I'm working on it."

[mightysmall]

"She did eat a lot." Steve nods and then pushes a fry against his plate for a moment. "I asked her what it felt like once. She said she didn't feel any different and I guess that would be true for someone who's been healthy their whole life."

Unlike him who's felt perfectly healthy very rarely. It had to be a huge change for the Steve sitting across from him.

"You didn't cook?" Steve tilts his head slightly. "I cooked sometimes when ma worked late at the hospital so she'd have a warm meal when she got home. I can't make anything fancy but I can cook."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I mean, I made enough to get by, but. Natasha said to me once it was awful, so. I feel like there's just higher standards these days, buddy."

He gives a noncommittal shrug. "Anyway, it's not so bad. But there's a lot of new techniques."

[mightysmall]

"Maybe I should sign up for a lesson or two." Steve expects to be living on his own. He'll have to cook for himself and there's no rationing here. If he could cook more than the basics it would be nice.

"I don't want to assume that things are not so bad here just because there's no war," he says carefully. "But they seem to be pretty peaceful."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Well," he starts. "There's definitely. Things. Every month."

He shakes his head. "So. Thirteen's trials. They can get a bit intense. Nothing like war, but, one time I had to escort a six-year-old through a war zone." So, that wasn't exactly ideal.

[mightysmall]

Steve frowns a little at his milkshake. Fighting without the Hydra Stomper is going to be interesting. He's ready to do it but he knows it's going to be harder for him than it might be for most.

"There's a lot of good people here. We'll get through this like the war, together." He nods mostly to himself, a little pep talk that he can do this.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Yeah, we sure will, pal." He gives him a reassuring smile.

"We could help you get your suit back," he says.

[mightysmall]

"Yeah?" Steve looks a little excited. "I can get the Hydra Stomper?"

That would be really helpful if the trials get harder. Fighting a mushroom monster is one thing and he handled it but something bigger? Or something like that on his own?

The Stomper would make things a lot easier on him.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Sure, with enough spoons," Steve says. "I'm not sure how many it is, but we'll get it back for you in no time." He grins.

"But how's it run? Electricity? Gas?"

[mightysmall]

"I don't know if you found it in your universe but it's a relic called the Tesseract," he explains. "It's infinite energy according to Howard but it can also do other things."

Like open portals to other dimensions. Tentacle dimensions. Steve carries just a little guilt over it. Because he was captured Hydra was able to open the portal that Peggy had to sacrifice herself to close.

"Something big like the Stomper would probably cost a lot."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Well that's gonna be a problem, kid, 'cause we don't have one of those here and I think if we did, I'd wanna throw it in the lake with the squid monster."

Because that thing is nothing but trouble, and it hasn't brought them much good. "Plus, Loki's here. That thing shows up, you keep it away from him."

[mightysmall]

"It opened the portal to a squid monster once." Steve sighs heavily thinking of that day. "It can run off electricity. It did for a brief time but nothing we have in the forties can power it for long."

Except the Tesseract.

"Why?" he asks, because while he believes himself, he wants to know the why.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Great. We can talk to Henry. He enchanted my bike to run on compliments." Seriously, that's not an exaggeration or hyperbole.

"Loki's bad news. Tried to get it, nearly destroyed New York in the process with an army of aliens. Except I'm on a team with his big brother. They're more powerful than humans. Even with the serum, Thor beats me handily in a fight."