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Entry tags:
February 2023 Test Drive Meme
FEBRUARY 2023 TDM
INTRODUCTION
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.
Content Warnings: extreme weather
the time is near
in from the snow
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.
Content Warnings: Fungus, spores, live burial, mental confusion and hallucinations.
putting roots in my dreamland
coast is clear
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.
no subject
As Raphael fidgets with the flower in his hand, Michael offers another one from his own small collection, and whether or not Raphael takes it, he starts leading them.]
I'll tell you anything that you want to know. [It's an offer that he hasn't made to anyone before, especially not here, but this is a unique situation. Plus, he's still happy that another archangel is here with him, even if there's a deep trauma weighing on his shoulders. Maybe it's his duty as a not!Brother to help him in some way? Least he can do is reassure him that he won't go on a murderous rampage.]
But um, I guess I should say this now. I'm not... fully myself, if that makes sense. My soul was splintered into three parts long ago. [He throws a slightly self-depreciating smile at him.] I am quite sure I'm the least impressive one.
no subject
The offer of information is slightly overwhelming. Though he has never been afraid of asking questions, he doesn't even know what he should ask. Where would he even begin? Luckily for him Michael says something that draws his attention entirely and he finds himself looking the other angel up and down.]
... You have a soul...
[Ah... so that's what it is.]
How curious. I hadn't even thought to look.
[Raphael himself... does not have one. Not even the faintest whiff of one.]
no subject
Do... you not have one?
[He's unable to stop the shock from reaching his eyes, his face expressive about knowing this tidbit about angels from Raphael's world. So, none of them have souls? Just created bodies from their Father? That's completely possible, but none of them have that bit of them missing.]
...Do none of you have one?
no subject
Only the humans have souls.
[And that had been a part of Lucifer's original problem with them... and something that troubles Raphael greatly with both Heaven and Hell being in such turmoil. He isn't even sure where their souls go when they die anymore, nor why he cares except that he definitely does.]
The Host was made with one purpose - to carry out His Will. We have no souls, and we weren't created with free will. [Clearly, though... free will is something that Raphael currently possesses.]
None of us.
no subject
Father created us to carry out his Will as well, but... he still gave a piece of himself, his power, to all of us.
[Honestly, Michael never thought about the implications of not having a soul, other than the fact that animals and other creatures don't have one. Raphael seems to be just like the other angels he talked to, with emotions and fear and everything, and he hasn't noticed anything too odd other than the the fact that he felt a little strange. However, everyone's felt strange to Michael since coming here, so he placed little importance on that.]
...But you're like me. [In the good way, really!] I mean, being able to make your choices, right?
no subject
It's difficult - of course it is - but aside from sharing a name this Michael does not seem anything like the one he knows. He doesn't look the same, or act the same... and nor does he feel the same.]
I wasn't always this way. [Raphael murmurs in reply.] It was something that started not long before the war with Lucifer. He wasn't the first to start asking questions... he was simply the first to try to do something about it. We didn't all adjust well to being able to make our own decisions.
no subject
If I'm to understand... you didn't start with free will, but you and all of the other angels eventually did? [He wonders how the angels in his world would react if such a change happened. Well, it happened to him, and Michael likes to think he's handled it quite nicely. He was sort of the Worst before the splitting of his soul, so maybe the others would be okay too.
He smiles a little at him, in a manner that hopefully comes off as both supportive and comforting.]
...Well, despite all that, do you like it? Being able to make your own decisions? It's a bit confusing at first.
no subject
The question posed is a difficult one to answer and the response doesn't come immediately. Raphael frowns at the ground in front of their feet.]
I was happier before, but... I also didn't really understand what happiness was. Being able to think for myself has brought me little but trouble. [He shakes his head, still with that softly troubled frown. His attention strays to one of his wrist, the shackle-marks on it, and he rubs his thumb across it distractedly.]
But still, I don't think that I would want to go back to how I was before. How we were before. These were... lessons that we needed to learn. Even if some of us learned them poorly.
no subject
Instead, he continues to smile, even if it's a little more fragile compared to earlier. Not quite less sincere, but just pained thinking about what Raphael has been through.]
Seems like it's been nothing but pain for you. [He folds his arms, almost stopping for a moment as he thinks about this for a bit longer.]
You're away from Earth now. Maybe you can finally enjoy the free will that's been granted to you.
no subject
Well, it seemed like a natural conclusion, given everything else.]
Enjoy it?
[A small frown furrows his brow as the mulls the idea over.]
I've never really been given much opportunity to... aside from my painting.
no subject
[Mostly he doesn't have the patience to paint.]
What I enjoy the most is trying out different types of food and just walking around. It's a new world to explore and there's something exciting about that, even if it's a little scary at times. [He admits that last bit with a small laugh, but there's an open honesty to him as they near the tavern.]
Don't know what's really around the corner here, unlike Earth. I thought I was pretty strong back home, but there are humans with powers and non-humans too. They've been nice though.
no subject
An angel, and yet not quite. Strange.
Having a new world to explore does sound like a nice thing. A new world and the freedom to explore it, to potentially discover new things... it's hard to think of a downside when it's compared to the situation he came out of.]
Creativity was how I first expressed my free will. Michael never approved of it... but it wasn't explicitly against the rules. [He looks wry, just for a moment.] ... I'm still not sure how I ended up here. Thirteen must be powerful indeed...
no subject
[He wants to make a statement that this other version of him sounds dull, but it's more than that, far more painful. Perhaps a joke at this time isn't appropriate, so Michael only sends Raphael that patient and accepting smile. He's never been entirely good at comforting others anyway, having need to distance himself from humans. Oh, he can have a coffee with them or go out dancing, but when it comes to really knowing another person and just being there for them, that hasn't been him.
Hard to get attached to humans when the other parts of your soul have to both greet them in death and judge them.]
I was thinking of starting a bakery here. Maybe we can combine our creative interests and do something together. [Angels should stick together??]
no subject
He isn't expecting what the other angel says next at all and looks at him with a clear expression of surprise, evidently struck into silence by the suggestion. Raphael frowns in confusion.]
A bakery..?
[And then he laughs. It's soft, a little whuff of a sound, but he definitely laughs.]
I've never cooked anything before.