![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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
The fear and hopelessness strike him hard as the other man ducks around a tree leaving Steve all alone staring down a walking mushroom skeleton. Which doesn't make any sense because mushrooms don't have bones.
He looks around for a moment then picks up a thin stick from the ground. "Hey!" Steve brandishes the stick like a baseball bat. He's never played a game in his life but he's watched enough to know how to hold one. "Over here! You want to put me in the ground? I'm right here."
This isn't the first time he's face down someone bigger and stronger than him. Steve's been there plenty of times. He plants his feet against the urge to run and waits, trusting the other guy to do his part.
no subject
He's starting to think it's actually the mushroom that has the power, so he attacks that too, but it appears to leak out some sort of spore.
"Steve, watch out!" he yells, covering his mouth even though most poisons don't really affect him.
no subject
"Try not to hit the head," he calls out as he walks backwards trying to avoid the cloud of spores that's floating around them. The last thing he needs is to have an attack out here in the middle of the woods being hunted by a monster. "Aim for the legs. We can make a break for it if it can't chase us."
He really wishes his had the Stomper. This fight would be over if he was suited up but he's just got a stick. With the right opening, though, he could go for a kneecap.
no subject
"Sorry!" he yells, covering his mouth with a sleeve.
"Just get outta here!" he tries, as he engages the thing in fighting. It's really not a match for him, but like most Folkmore creatures, it just refuses to stay down. It's worse than they are, in that regard.
no subject
Once the creature is down on the ground Steve runs in. He drives the stick he has between a gap in the roots in the creature's thigh with all the strength he can muster trying to keep it pinned down because while the other guy is doing a great job at punching it this thing refuses to stay down.
The scarf around his mouth does a good job protecting him from the spores. As does staying near the creature's legs. It's really tall compared to Steve. He dodges a kick and scrambles back to find another stick for another weak point.
no subject
He also knows that Steve doesn't want to be condescended to. So he says nothing.
He slams his fists into the mushroom, and though it causes a flurry of spores, eventually, the creature seems to not to want move anymore.
He takes a breath. "So, nice to meet you officially, Steve." He extends a hand. "My name's Steve too."
no subject
How hard could this guy hit?
"Hi Steve." He shakes the guy's hand. "You mind telling me how you know my name?"
He definitely didn't introduce himself after he got pulled out of the ground. Maybe it's the deja vu feeling he gets looking at the guy. The mushroom could have made him forget? This place is strange enough that something like that feels like the truth.
no subject
He'd taken those off of their canvases and stuck them in his pockets, sort of like he'd do in a wallet situation. He'd probably have them put in lockets, if he could.
"Rest of it's kind of a long story." He then has a question for Steve: "You know anything about a HYDRA stomper?" just checking their timelines.
no subject
"You're me. With the serum." Steve takes another second to look him over. It didn't take too much to figure it out. That's why he looked so familiar. He is looking at himself just taller and filled out. Healthy. It's weird but other dimensions exist so clearly there's one where he doesn't get shot and gets the serum.
There's a brief flash of jealousy because Steve's only human but it passes.
"Yeah, I pilot it. Howard Stark made it." He nods at the paintings. That's his mother and that's Peggy. "How do you know so much about me, though? We haven't met before, have we?"
no subject
Unfortunately, there isn't a pizza parlor that makes a decent pie, but it wasn't like he was eating a lot of pizza back home at the point in which he was plucked, anyway.
"I don't know everything, by the way. Just the basics. You can fill me in on the rest."
no subject
His injuries did not like being buried and fighting like that had made them angrier. Steve would need to take it easy for a day or two before he felt one hundred precent again.
"That's still a lot to know when I've just met you." Steve starts walking with... himself, though Steve towers over him. He's limping a little bit but not slowing down too much. "Or do we just share the same life except you got the serum and I didn't? That's ma you've got their in your pocket. And Peggy before the serum."
no subject
He shrugs. "I don't know if it's true or not, but your Peggy might've just wound up in the future. Since her life started following the same trajectory mine did, after our paths diverge."
no subject
He feels a burst of hope with the news that Peggy could have survived. Good. Good. The world needed her. He wouldn't get to see it but that didn't matter. Peggy's more important.
"You also seem pretty familiar with this place. How long have you been here?" He's pretty curious about where he's ended up.
no subject
"It's weird here, but when you go home, it's like you never left. So I think of this place as a vacation."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
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.
no subject
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."
no subject
"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."
no subject
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.
no subject
"But tell me what you think. The shakes here are just like home. Better, even."
no subject
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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
"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.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)