folkooc | February 2023 Test Drive Meme

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*tdm

February 2023 Test Drive Meme

FEBRUARY 2023 TDM

INTRODUCTION

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Steve blinked at the woman he didn't recognize. "Um, have we met?"

She didn't look familiar. Steve had been sort of paying attention when he found the camp but the squirrels had quickly herded him away towards the tents for medical attention. Maybe she had seen him but he hadn't seen her?

But then how would she know his name? He hadn't introduced himself to anyone. Unless she overheard him talking with the woodland animals about his hip and other injuries?

Her expression puckered in surprise for a moment, eyes widening until the whites could be see all the way around her gray irises. It wasn't like her to reveal too much surprise, though. And she quickly schooled her features.

Serene and calm. The face of an idol.

The spy she used to be.

"Steve," she said gently, "it's me...Airy. Ariadne?" They'd shared a drink the other day. He'd revealed so much to her, and she'd worked hard to restore his hope for a better future.

"Miss, I think you're confusing me for a different Steve," he said kindly, smiling softly. "I just got here today."

That was a weird sentence to say but it could be true. Maybe she hallucinated it? Those mushrooms in the woods really messed with people's brains. Maybe they made her think that.

"Why don't you tell me about the Steve you know?" he suggested, turning slightly to face her on the log. Steve was careful with his left leg and hip, trying to keep them steady. He did not want one of the nurse animals to make angry noises at him.

Feeling more uneasy than she liked to feel, Ariadne perched herself on the log beside him, leaving enough room between them for what she considered a humanoid's comfort. Alastrians liked touch. Humanoids were weird about it.

Of course, this whole situation was weird.

Keeping her expression and demeanor as even and calm as possible, she still couldn't help it when a little line formed between her eyes. This was Steve. He smelled exactly the same. And even tinier than usual, he had the same sort of...presence.

She couldn't put it into the right words. Not that it mattered so much.

"Steve Rogers," she said slowly. "From a place called Brooklyn. A good man...a...a warrior." It just felt wrong to be spelling Steve's life story out for him. Unless.

Was this a trial? Maybe Thirteen had done something to his mind? It was more than possible, although it felt unnecessarily cruel.

Okay, so those details did match up. He was Steve Rogers from Booklyn. He wouldn't exactly call himself a warrior but he tried his best to be a good man. That was really strange but he couldn't possibly be the only Steve Rogers in Brooklyn. Steve was a pretty common name.

"You're right, I am Steve Rogers," he said with a small nod. "And I was born in Brooklyn. Before coming here I was a pilot with the US Army. Part of the Howling Commandos led by Captain Peggy Carter. Does that sound like the Steve you know?"

If she said yes Steve wasn't sure what he'd do then. Because he was really certain that he'd never met this woman before. She didn't look like anyone from back home who might know him from the old neighborhood. He couldn't place her from anywhere.

Howling Commandos?

Admittedly, that wasn't a name she knew. And she definitely would have remembered it as a group name, because it was a little bit silly. Almost as silly as...

"The Avengers," she said carefully. "Steve told me," because she was beginning to accept the possibility that two people could look and smell so similar, but possibly be different, "that he was a part of a group called the Avengers. That they fought together against invaders. He goes by the name...Captain America."

Also kind of silly. Since 'America' wasn't his family name.

Steve shook his head. "I don't know anything about the Avengers. And there's no Captain America. There is Captain Britain. Or was."

He felt that pang of regret and loss thinking about Peggy pushing back that creature. She didn't have a choice but it was still hard to remember the woman he cared about so much just gone.

"Did your friend tell you what year it was?" He asked, curious. A timeline could really help solve this mystery.

Ariadne shook her head. "I never asked anything about a year." It wouldn't have meant anything to her, anyway. The way her people tracked time was different from the way they did in Steve's world.

And in the thousands of other worlds touched by Thirteen.

...thousands of thousands of millions of worlds. An infinite number. She supposed with that in mind, the probabilities of finding two men named Steve with the same scent and the same kind eyes and the same voice was...well...not probable. But possible.

Ethan and Dean had looked nearly identical. And they couldn't have been more different, could they?

Gods, this was getting more and more interesting. Ariadne scooted a little closer to him, eying his features, trying to decide if he was older or younger than the Steve she knew. "He did once tell me he was over one hundred years old, though," she said. "Something about being frozen in time."

"Uh, well, I'm definitely not a hundred years old." Steve almost leaned back as Ariadne leaned in towards him. He can't help the way he flushed a little being studied like that either. "And I've never been frozen."

He would definitely remember being frozen. That felt like something you wouldn't forget even if you did end up in an entirely new world with weird mind altering mushrooms.

"I think you met a different Steve Rogers," he said after a moment of thought. "Or maybe we just have the same name."

No, it was so much more than a name. But Ariadne decided to keep that to herself for the moment. She was scaring him. And that was the last thing Ariadne wanted to do. Ever. To anyone.

Her mother had been horrifying.

Ariadne was dedicated to being nice. Aggressively nice, but nice nevertheless.

She leaned back.

"Strange things happen all the time around here," she admitted. "There could be all kinds of explanations..."

He was not scared, just confused and a little nervous because a woman was leaning in close to him. Steve was never great with women in his personal space. He didn't have enough practice. At least he hadn't stammered when speaking.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore," he said dryly.

Steve sipped his tea, letting the warmth settle into his skinny bones. "Have you been here long?" he asked, curious about Ariadne more than this possible other Steve Rogers. Steve was still wrapping his mind around that which was difficult and he already had a hard day.

There was a war back home and he was here dealing with mushroom monsters and Disney levels of helpful woodland animals. That was wild.

"Eight months," she replied, suppressing the urge to ask him what Kansas was and how it was connected to the magical Brooklyn she'd heard so much about from...someone who was him but not him. Too much, too fast. And it would be selfish to satisfy her own curiosity, when he was clearly newly-arrived. That meant he needed help. And whatever she could provide, she owed it to him.

Huh. She had a birthday coming up. She would have to remember to ask what kind of sacrifices needed to be made to Thirteen.

But that was for another time.

She shrugged, her long, rope-like braid sliding over her shoulder and falling down her back. "Before that, I was apprenticed to the court translator of Princess Amanda Harkin, first of her name, sovereign of Valeria...which you've probably never heard of, but it's a very important place back home, where I come from."

Eight months. That seemed like such a long time. Everything else she said also ruled out them meeting in Brooklyn or during the war. She was from another world entirely.

Maybe that would've been more of a surprise if he hadn't seen inter-dimensional portals with monsters on the other side. Steve was already sort of aware of other universes. He had never considered it too deeply before. That was for Howard to figure out.

"No, I've never heard of it but it does sound important," he said with a little smile. "You sound important too. What's it been like here?"

Steve was curious about this place. It seemed nice enough even with the dangers.

Ariadne laughed. It was a bright, bell-like laugh without a trace of cruel intention. She wasn't laughing at him. Just laughing. "Important? Me? Oh, not at all."

Both because she genuinely felt insignificant, and because she'd carefully cultivated a life meant to escape attention. Being in Folkmore was still a learning exercise. She was still trying to embrace the idea of having notions and dreams of her own.

And getting better at it, some of the time.

"But being here is something special," she added. Which, in a way, did make her special. "Thirteen...uh...the Fox...who I guess you could call the goddess of this place...she sees potential in everyone. Even if we don't see it in ourselves and, well. I guess I'm learning a lot from being here."

A pause. She leaned in again, this time very gently touching his elbow. "A lot of people have a hard time adjusting. But I think it's so worthwhile. It's like...like an escape from destiny. If you believe in destiny."

"Everyone is important," Steve argued, a little offended on her behalf. She was definitely important even if her world didn't treat her as such. But she did have a nice laugh.

Destiny was a tricky thing. Sometimes Steve did believe in it. Why else would he have survived illness after illness to make it to the war where he could make a difference? Unless he was meant to be there. He was meant to pilot the Hydra Stomper and meant to push back Hitler and Hydra.

Then again, that also meant losing Peggy and all those lives lost in the war were meant to be as well and he didn't like thinking about that. It hurt to think people's only destiny was to die. It was cruel and heartless.

"I got a chance to reach my full potential once," Steve said, thinking about Project Rebirth. "But it wasn't my destiny in the end. It was someone else's and she was great at it too. I don't know if that could happen to me here."

"That's why Thirteen chooses us," Ariadne said. "So something could happen to you here." Although there was more of an element of choice than Ariadne had first realized, upon arriving. You had to choose to change. And whether or not it was in the direction Thirteen nudged you was, ultimately, also up to you.

She didn't much care for the sorting that took place: Legends, Myths, and Familiars.

But she was slowly beginning to appreciate that labels like that weren't necessarily destiny. Not at all.

"It's a lot to take in all at once," she said. "I don't want to scare you or overwhelm you or anything."

"Back home I was fighting these guys called Hydra and they were opening portals to other dimensions," Steve explained with a sardonic smile. "It's really not that weird to think some other being pulled me into a different dimension."

The learning something about himself part and choosing to change was interesting. He was glad this wasn't a realm of grabbing tentacles or evil blood thirsty monsters. There were weird mushroom monsters though.

"I'm handling it pretty well, I think." Steve didn't feel like he was on the verge of a panic attack or freaking out over it. Yes, it was really weird but things had been really weird since Project Rebirth. "I would feel better if I had the Hydra Stomper with me though."

Hydra? Had Steve--the other Steve--mentioned them before? He'd talked about a great many battles, most notably with Loki, which still didn't quite make sense to her. She would have to go back over some of their conversations again sometime.

Or just flat out ask him. Steve--the other Steve, again--was usually pretty forthcoming about his past.

For now, she tilted her head to one side, like a little bird. "What's a Hydra Stomper, exactly?"

Obviously something for...stomping Hydra? She had a feeling there was more nuance to it.

"Oh, it's a flying suit of armor that I pilot," Steve explained with a little bit of pride. The Hydra Stomper wasn't his creation but it was his suit and he really loved flying and fighting in it. "A friend built it for me so I could help the war effort."

It was the only way he could fight. A guy like him with all his health problems would have never made it in the Army. Project Rebirth and staying connected to that had given him the chance he needed to fight back.

"But it didn't come with me when I ended up here." That much was obvious even though he was still in his flight suit.

Sounded a bit like the sort of armor Tony talked about. Coming from Valeria, Ariadne knew a lot about armor, but had never seen any capable of flight before. In her experience, it was usually the people, not the weaponry, that could do that.

It sounded like Steve--this Steve--sort of missed it, though. And that she could fully appreciate.

Folkmore had given her back her wings. Perhaps it would do something similar for him.

"Thirteen may grant it to you as a gift," she said. "She's been known to do that, on occasion."

"I'd settle for a cane to help me walk around," he said with a little chuckle. "Do I need a flying suit of armor here?"

It was hard to believe a world with helpful forest animals was that dangerous. Steve really can't stop thinking about Disney and how this whole thing feels like something that studio would put together as a movie. A talking fox as the lead made sense.

"I mean there was a mushroom monster in the woods that I had to get away from but I didn't really see anything else that dangerous." Steve points his thumb over his shoulder towards the woods that he'd come from.

Ariadne--Disney princess that she could be--barely heard any talk of the mushroom, this time. She wasn't much of a medic, but when he mentioned the need of a cane, her eyes were drawn to the way his legs were positioned, and the fact that he was clearly favoring one side over the other.

Immediately, she sprang up into action, trotting over to a couple of nearby trees, examining their branches.

He wasn't as tall as Steve--the other Steve; oh, this was going to get irritating--so she eyed him a couple of times over, before selecting a bare branch that looked like the right size. Gently, she touched the tree, pressing her palm to the bark. "I'm sorry," she whispered to the trunk.

Her fingers twitched at her sides for a moment, before her black talons slowly slid out. Across the darkness, there was the sound of metal against metal. Like a sword being drawn from its sheath. And they were a foot long before they stopped growing. With a practiced motion, she swung, slicing off the branch in a clean cut. It fell at her feet and her talons withdrew immediately, so she could pick it up. "This might help," she said.

She turned slowly back to Steve, a little nervous that she might have just ruined the beginnings of a friendship by scaring him.

Those were really long nails. Steve's eyebrows jumped up as Ariadne went from a pleasant woman to a woman with swords for fingernails.

He figured out that she intended to make him a cane of some sort the second she got up. She seemed like the kind of person who wanted to be helpful. What Steve didn't expect was the giant claws she grew. Talons? Swords? He didn't know how to think of them but they were definitely really long and really sharp.

"Is that a thing you can do because of this place?" he asked slowly as he watched her come back with the branch.

It was a pretty good compromise on a proper cane. He wouldn't need it all the time but it should help him until his hip stopped hurting.

Well, he hadn't started screaming. Or demanded her head on a platter. But somehow, Ariadne had doubted he would. Even if he wasn't Steve--the first one, again--he was still Steve. So...a good person.

Thirteen liked him so much, she'd taken him twice, after all.

Still, she was cautious as she approached, careful to draw her shoulders in, make her steps timid and as unthreatening as possible.

Living openly was still something new to her.

"Um, no," she admitted, setting the branch down within his reach, before quickly stepping back, to assure him that she wasn't about to attack or anything. "No, that's something I've always been able to do. My kind has been able to do."

"Oh." Steve took the branch. "I guess that'll teach me to assume everyone's human around here."

If it was something she could do at home then it was natural. Kind of like his blond hair and asthma. There's nothing to be scared of because she wouldn't use them against him. She was nice and he had no reason to be afraid.

He smiled to reassure her. "You can sit down. Unless you're going to cut another branch?"

Steve didn't think she would need to. This one seemed sturdy. He was going to modify it slightly just to make it more comfortable to use but otherwise it should work for him.

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