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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
Healing wouldn't be remiss if you have some to offer. [His smile is polite as he declines the sandwich with a gesture. This place is still foreign and the people here more so, he's cautious.]
Are trials common place?
no subject
He lets go and settles. He has a bite of the sandwich before he continues.] Arch fey with a side of personal things shoved in. Did you see weapons sticking out of the ground anywhere? That’s usually the most straight forward thing here.
no subject
Still, the closure of wounds is a relief.] I did-- yes, there were a number of weapons sticking out of the snow. Though, they are not... ah, within my particular skill set.
[Thus why he didn't take one and left them alone.]
no subject
[He takes another bite of the sandwich adds,] In lull periods as new ‘star children’ arrive, the trials are small. Not that we’ve had the kind that really get you up close and personal with your own garbage in a while.
[He can’t tell if that’s good or bad. Vax shakes his head.] I can tell you time and space are flexible here. We all come in from different timeframes. Someone I know is from thirty years after the events I’m living through now but we’re both from the same place.
no subject
Is that so? [He looks into the fire in thought, mind a whirl again.] I find that not too surprising.. Time is both nebulous and unforgiving, even across planes it is not always consistent -- the creature that led us here must be immensely powerful to achieve that.
no subject
Not that I ever want to go there again unless I have to. [He settles and his wings change, the black draining away and replaced by the colors of the sunset. They cast the light of that time of day about them. He studies Essek’s face and adds,]
Note of warning. Some of these trials strip power away. Magic or otherwise. I had the senses of a human in one trial. Deathwalker’s ward here was just armor. So, like you said. She is immensely powerful.
no subject
So.. she can manipulate the weave, [Essek isn't too surprised to hear it, but he folds his hands in thought at that,] then I will have to... ah, explore options outside of spellcraft.
[There's a nod of thanks for the information.]
I find it disconcerting to hear that even senses can be altered. [This man seems to talk about things in ways that seems familiar to Essek, he wonders if there is similarities in their home planes.]
no subject
[Wait. He pauses and his brow furrows. He never thought to ask this of Caleb. They tend to have serious conversations about life, fate, the weight of their burdens.]
…that reminds me. What kind of spell or magic would make an entire realm alter their forms? Like the side of a house acting like a snake and trying to choke you. Or say you step out into said fog and it turns you into a size changing red dragon?
no subject
[Essek considers the question carefully -- of course his mind can easily pick out the schools of magic, but for them to be powerful enough to alter entire realms. There were magics that could create pockets, demi planes, but this sounds beyond those capabilities. Nor would those magics allow the creator to alter them at will.]
If we are speaking of magics that alter the actual form, then that would fall within transmutation-- if the altering was more of perception than not actual physicality, that would be within the school of illusion. Both can be incredibly powerful, but to alter an entire realm.. that would be power only found pre-Calamity or within the hands of the gods.
no subject
His thoughts derail. Vax accepts a drink from a squirrel and wraps his hands around it.] Pre-calamity. You’re from Exandria.
[He takes a sip of his drink and says,] Vax’ildan of Tal’dorei. And yeah, it has started feeling like god levels of magic. It has a similiar feel but it feels like the gods care more.
no subject
Essek Thelyss, Xhorhas. [A nod in greeting.] Depends on the Deity. [Like The Luxon, who does not speak or show any sign of existence outside of the beacons and blind faith.]
But you speak of the Fox as if she doesn't care, yet also compared her to an Arch Fey. So, a capricious being with a lack of empathy for her chosen? [Sounds unpleasant.]
no subject
Things we see as unacceptable, isn’t to them. Her view is just as different. To us, putting us in a trial that strips us of power and is easy or harder based on if we trust her or not?
[He looks at Essek again.] I know a wizard who is really sore about it and I don’t blame him. The gods are distant, keeping their hands off things until we reach for them, but they wouldn’t do that. And that’s one example of many.
no subject
While his face remains thoughtful, his eyes grow sad with the thought of the distance that is now between him and those he's come to care for.]
The Betrayers might be of a similar mindset, though I was under the impression the Fox was.. ah, perhaps more neutral in her goal. [A pause.] Not that it denotes her as being incapable of cruelty, just that her motives might be less.. ah, cruelty for cruelty's sake.
[He waves his hand almost dismissively.] I speak with only a day's experience, doubtless you are much more versed in her views and capacity for empathy.
no subject
She has a goal but I don’t know what it is. [Much like fey, having their goals but they don’t agree with others.] She has other parts of her that have their own personalities.
Unlike our gods. [As if talking to the gods is a day to day thing. It is for him…was.] Bit harder to pin down what she wants. This is my observations. You might want to ask the wizard as well. [A pause,] His name is Caleb.
no subject
Listening carefully, he mentally notes things -- multiple personalities? unknown goal, more obscure than their own pantheon -- but all that comes to a standstill at the mention of the wizard being Caleb.]
Caleb Widogast? He's also here? [He looks conflicted, but mostly hopeful -- whatever mask he wore has melted in the face of one of his dearest friends being here.]
no subject
[Dragons are scaly cats. They truly are.] Anyway, yes, he's here. He's been here for some time. We're staying in the same place.