May 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

MAY 2022 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]

A PLACE IN THIS WORLD

Content Warnings: Possible insanity via cuts by thorns. Temporary nullification of abilities.

DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS

The world comes into focus in one sharp, overwhelming rush. You are laying on the ground surrounded by staggering walls of flowers of all types and colors. Their sweet scent fills the air and the sky above is clear, blue, beautiful, and endless. It would be easy to be lulled into a quiet nap in such a peaceful place. You can even hear a soft, disembodied voice singing songs from some unknown place all around you. After some time, this siren song creates an intense yearning that will eventually bring you to your feet and pull you forward. You are filled with the urge to find someone important. You may know who or you might just have some aimless, faceless person at the forefront of your mind.

All you know is that when you finally find them, you'll know. Is it love? Is it a friend you have always needed? The perfect enemy? Only time will tell, but for now, you must find them. The flower maze is dense and for now, it doesn't seem like flying out and above them is an option. If you try, you just wind up vaulted back into the maze. Nope! This trial is about using other means of exploration. Maybe you can destroy the flowers, but you will find that this flower field is apparently endless. If you get cut by thorns along the way, you will become increasingly hectic about finding this mystery person. Some have been thrown into insane desperation just looking for their People among the flowers.

But once you finally find them, you're both filled with relief and the flowers around you blossom wider. You can then treat the flower maze like a solvable puzzle and get your way out of it. However, some people spend a bit more time in the maze since once you do find your person or people, you will be stricken with the urge to talk to them, to "open up" about your yearning to find them...even if you've never met them before!

OUT OF THE WOODS

Just outside of the flower maze is a little festival set up just on the edge of Willow and partway into Epiphany! Little stalls of food and drinks have been set up - and we mean little! The good folk who set up these stalls are magical cats standing upright and wearing clothes like little people! All the stalls are cat-sized and so are the dishes and food - which means most of the people walking through will likely be quite a bit bigger! That's okay, the cat folk seem happy to serve you bigger or multiple helpings of their yummy soups and bread. None of them seem able to really communicate with the new arrivals, but that's okay, their cute meows are fun to listen to anyway.

The music is a bit more pronounced here and a handful of cat couples are dancing around. Don't be surprised if they encourage you to join in the dancing! Maybe you didn't actually find someone in the flower maze - if not, the cat folk will encourage you to dance with another new arrival to get to know them! Because apparently dancing with someone you don't know is a good formal introduction? Ah well. Sometimes it's just the idea that counts.

There will also be some supplies to help patch people up who have gotten a lot of cuts from the flower maze. Some of the bouts of insanity are probably still going a bit hectic, so you might want to lay down in the recovery area until you feel a bit more stable. Talking to people apparently helps with the stability, so maybe strike up a conversation with a fellow newbie?

ENCHANTED

Content Warnings: Optional selective amensia and/or altered sense of self, possible monster/creature violence, temporary enchantments, forced relocations.

LONG STORY SHORT

You're in a very unusual, specific outfit and in a place you might have seen once or twice in a storybook or in the imagination of your childhood. For some, you might pick up on what's happening immediately. For others, you might be so immersed in the role that you don't realize it - but you're featuring in a classic fairy tale. Maybe it's Sleeping Beauty or Little Red Riding Hood or Tale of the White Snake or The Mirror of Matsuyama. Either way, you're the main character or the main antagonist and it looks like you're going to have to play out the story with whoever you're stuck with!

The other person in the trial can either match up to the other side of the story or just arrive as themselves and have to play along. Trying to just abandon the trial is quite literally impossible! You're stuck in the weird woods or high tower and trying to "leave" just results in you going in repeated cycles until you wind up where you started. You have a role to fill and you might as well get used to playing roles in Folkmore! It's time to understand how these trials work. What lesson are you supposed to take away?

If you're grumbling about it or are left confused, don't worry! Thirteen will appear to those struggling and explain the situation: "You need to play out the story! C'mon. Everyone knows this story...Right? Well, whatever, it's obvious! If you play your part, I promise I'll give you something you want." Can you really trust a fox though? Especially the fox who brought you here? She laughs before you can really pester her for more information and vanishes in a burst of red dust. Foxes really are mischievous, aren't they...At least most fairy tales are incredibly short, basic, and straightforward so most people should be able to figure it out!

In theory.

DAYLIGHT

At least the Fox wasn't lying. When you complete the task of the story, the fairy tale world will melt into one of the settings in Folkmore and you will be brought back into the current reality. You will be left in the weird clothes, but fear not! A mystery trunk has appeared in front of you and whoever you completed the trial with. Inside the trunk, you will find some of your canon clothes and a few canon items. Nearby, there will be some weapons sticking out of the ground: basic swords, guns, shields, etc. These items might not be enchanted, but at least you have something to work with!

Better yet, you don't necessarily have to complete the Long Story Short prompt to find these trunks either! They seem to be dotted around Folkmore and you might find them just by virtue of exploration! The trunks seem to mysteriously know who is opening them so you won't find someone else's stuff by accident, but you might have to fight over who gets the sword in the stone...

A word of caution to those who grab the weapons...You will immediately be tested on how good you are with them. As soon as you have pulled them out of the ground, the ground will begin trembling and a serpent-like creature will form out of the ground. If you're in Wintermute, you have a sizeable icy creature to deal with. If you're in Cruel Summer, meet the fire-breathing snakey nightmare that's going to try and roast you alive. Don't think Epiphany or Willow will have gentler creatures! They might be covered in moss or flowers but they will hit just as hard. You have to defeat the angry creature - or try running for your life. They are relatively easy to beat and people without powers can manage if they are highly skilled or...really lucky...Or if someone far more capable finds them! Good luck. As a pro-tip, maybe don't pull weird swords out of the ground in the future.

Comments

we love 2 suffer

[eatingcurses]

Getou knows some of the future, thanks to chance encounters with people from home that he had never known while he was still alive, back in Noctium. He doesn't have all the pieces, and he can't do anything with them, but he's aware of the fate of his body. He can blame Gojo for it later, maybe. It isn't as if he's never harboured anger at Gojo and the other sorcerers.

Later. Someday. If it matters.

He stops moving and he swears time stops right along with him. There's so much unsaid between them, a decade of being trapped in a war that Getou started, but that their world created for them. Maybe there's some sick satisfaction, seeing Gojo's face like that, filled with actual emotion instead of his aloof bullshit.

But one of those flooding emotions is relief, and that's what makes its way onto Getou's face. He isn't really unreadable like Gojo, of course, but a lot of what he shows to other people is just a lie. He never made a habit of lying to Gojo, though. He never needed to, not really. They were the strongest, the most capable, with no one else in the entire world on their level as far as Getou was concerned. That was still true even if they were enemies, even if Gojo was literally untouchable now.

He forces himself to move, to take one step and then another. He stops short of reaching for Gojo, but gods how he wants to.

"Satoru. I was looking for you," he says. "But I'm not sure you're real."

[bareskin]

Getou looks different than the last time Gojo had seen him. No blood. No life whispering out of him. His entire body was pulled taut like a bow, ready to snap at the slightest give, his hands hovering on either side of him. He was on the defense, but not from a physical fight.

Then Getou speaks. Words that he has gone over and over again in his head, any reference to returning that longing that still plagued Gojo. He wanted to reach out to Getou just as desperately as Getou wanted to reach out to him. Even the flowers didn't need to trick him into that desire.

It was a natural want, one he's struggled with for so long now that he had forgotten how sharp it actually was. The flowers just make it worse.

"I can't say I know any more than you," Gojo admits, soft, "You look like a figment of my imagination." He always has. Especially after he left. Left to seek power elsewhere, but more importantly, left Gojo.

He reaches out to Getou, lowering that infinite wall between him and everything else. His fingers slide over Getou's cheek before his palm comes to settle there. Getou was warmer than the last time he touched him. He felt real.

He felt alive.

"You had died."

[eatingcurses]

Getou, too, has buried his desire, covered it in anger and let it burn. He had wanted to save the sorcerers' world from ungrateful regular people and their curses. He didn't want to keep watching people he cared about die, though he always figured Gojo would outlive everyone else.

Getou closes his eyes for a second when Gojo touches him, really touches him, without the barrier between them. He can tell when it lowers, and it's almost thrilling that after all this time, he's still one of the only people alive or otherwise that Gojo will let inside that wall. As it should be, really.

He moves to rest a hand on Gojo's waist, but his fingers tangle in the fabric with something he refuses to call desperation.

"I did die," he says. He's become a liar, a man who says things that other people want or need to hear because it will get him what he wants. He doesn't need to lie to Gojo; even without those eyes, he'd see right through it anyway.

"A lot happened after that that doesn't make sense."

[bareskin]

It was too good to be true. That's all Gojo could think as his hand shifted from Getou's cheek to slide through some of his hair. It felt the same as the last time he had touched it - though that had been years ago. Still soft. He curls some of that hair around his finger, relishing in the silky familiarity almost as much as he relished in the hand on his waist.

He slides a nail over his hair, and he winds up curling around Getou. His hand slides up under Getou's hair to rest against the back of his head and he presses his face against his shoulder. Why did you turn your back on me? On us?

The question doesn't make it out. He's just soaking in the thrumming vibration of Getou speaking. He keeps his head down and doesn't trust himself just yet. These flowers were pulling things out of him that he had preferred to stay buried. It hadn't just been about finding Getou, but speaking to him.

"A lot happened before that that doesn't make sense either," Gojo claims. He pulls his head upright again, keeping their faces near, his gaze on Getou, unblinking and unwavering.

"I don't understand why you left me."

sorry I just write 80000 words a tag

[eatingcurses]

Getou's other arm comes up without thought, hand sliding up Gojo's neck to card into his hair. The years and the violence between them and it's still the same in the end. Getou would be unlikely to let anyone touch him like this with so little said (Noctium's annoying influence aside), but Gojo isn't just anyone. And just anyone doesn't get to touch Gojo in return.

Ah, a question that isn't a question, and one Getou doesn't really want to answer.

Interesting, though.

I don't understand why you left me.

Not a question about his war or attacking the kids or any of that. Gojo doesn't always have the same priorities as everyone else, but that's something they have in common, isn't it?

"Would you have come with me if I asked?"

It isn't an answer. He'd thought about it, vaguely, asking Gojo to come with him. In another life maybe he would have, and they'd have torn the world down together. If Gojo had come, no force on earth would have been able to stand against both of them at once. He'd always known that, just like he'd known that he couldn't go into a fight against Gojo and win. Getou has a god complex, maybe, but he knew that one limit. He'd underestimated Yuuta, but it doesn't really matter now. He's spent enough time removed from their whole shitty world that he isn't torn apart by regret.

Well, not always. There's always this, though, this unfinished thing between them, something he's responsible for ending. It wasn't always easy.

eats up every word like a fine snackie

[bareskin]

There was only so much to discuss the war, the attack, and the shift in personal goals and morals. He knew enough why Getou did what he did. Once upon a time, it had been Gojo without moral guidance. It had been Gojo who would haven't thought twice about slaughtering (relatively) innocent humans that were in the way of a battle. It had once been Getou that told him he needed to spare the innocent, the powerless.

Some part of Gojo understood. Though never quite enough to understand the hate that Getou had come to foster. Then again, the only real hatred Gojo had ever felt had been towards the system in place that failed them. Anything else wasn't worth his trouble. People, sorcerers or otherwise, were too complicated to generalize.

"Maybe," he answers honestly, easing back just a little. His hand trails down Getou's arm, feeling new muscle and shape that hadn't existed when they were younger.

"You were always the one I cared about the most." It's not a confession. Getou knew that already, but it's worth repeating. "I think I would have done anything you asked when I was younger."

Getou had shaped him into the man he was today, but that had been years ago. Who knows what would have happened if Getou had asked him?

"Maybe if..." If they had...

His eyes cut to Getou's.

"If the circumstances had been right, you know I would have." If they were together...if Getou had spoken to him about everything if they had just...

But they hadn't. Things drifted. Getou had taught him how to fall more to the decent side of morality - even if he still struggled with it most days. He tried to live up to it in Getou's honor, even if Getou no longer resembled that person anymore.

"But I suppose the real question is would you have stayed had I asked? Would you have even given me a chance to understand?"

[eatingcurses]

When Gojo's fingers move further down his arm, he repositions so he can slide his own fingers into Gojo's. He doesn't necessarily like admitting that he missed this. It's been years, after all. But Getou has never gotten over a thing in his life, so why shouldn't he still have whatever this is for Gojo?

Gojo's honesty stings more than he expects. Maybe. Maybe if. There was always the possibility. Why hadn't he asked Gojo to come along? Even now, he's not sure himself. He had felt a rift between them, Gojo still getting stronger, untouchable, distant. But that distance is self-imposed; Getou's the one who shut Gojo out, not the other way around.

Getou doesn't care about the difference in morality. Sure, he had wanted to protect the innocent. He still does. He just doesn't see regular humans as innocent, if he ever really did. He had always considered sorcerers above others. Now, he sees regular humans not only as expendable, but as creatures who ought to be snuffed out.

Six months of life after death hasn't changed that too much. If they were in their own world, he'd still hate them. In another, well…it's complicated.

Gojo answered him honestly, so he decides to do the same.

"I don't know," he says. "I never thought about it." It's true; he's self-centred about this whole thing. He thought about what it would be like if he'd asked Gojo to come with him, and how several answers to that question could have gone. He never considered staying, though. Would he have given Gojo a chance or just left anyway? They'll never know. They don't get to go back and redo it. It's some weird miracle they even get now.

"I didn't want to watch anyone else I cared about die," he says.

So the answer had been to stop caring about other people, which is bullshit and he knows it. He's not entirely unaware of how fucked up he became. He's just not really sorry about it.

[bareskin]

Of course, they never got over each other. Neither of them was the sort, in their own ways. Part of the problem was it had never been a clean break. He didn't know why Getou left him, why Getou had forsaken them.

He laughs lightly when Getou claims he never thought about it. That hurts sharply and it brings a distance back between them. Gojo steps away from Getou, easing back into his own sense of comfort. The infinity is back and his hands slide into his pockets as he assumes the stance of a man far more casual and relaxed than Gojo actually was.

He was always rather good at deflection. His gaze wanders from Getou and some small part of him regrets having removed the cloth from around his eyes. But Getou knew what he looked like in every way, so the cagey hurt and iciness there wasn't new. Maybe it had never been this poignant, but that hardly mattered.

His eyes shift back to Getou and he raises his brows, smiling thinly.

"As if anything could ever touch me," he says, his eyes sparkling. "I suppose there are plenty of things we'll never understand then. Ah well. Isn't that life?"

He puts his blindfold back on, tying it neatly behind his head.