May 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

MAY 2022 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]

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

[kyley_b]

[Kyle's health is... fair. He's never had the world's strongest immune system. His mood is of course confused and frightened, although there's a sense that if pushed he'll fight over flight.]

It's Kyle. Uhm. Yours?

And if we have to play this shit out in order to escape, you're gonna wind up eating someone.

[obeir]

[ There's a moment of hesitation before K answers: ] I don't have one.

[ Androids of his generation are rarely given names. And his handler has never been the sentimental sort; to her, he's a tool to be used. ]

KD6-3.7. My serial number. [ A beat. ] K, that's what I'm usually called. [ And it's how he thinks of himself, so good enough. He finally steps closer, hoping this doesn't come down to a fight. Considering he's... unable to harm humans. Assuming his programming is still functioning as intended. It's hard to tell. ]

Maybe it would be enough just wearing something of your grandmother's? [ He sounds hopeful despite knowing that isn't where the story ends. ]

[kyley_b]

What? [Fear is abandoned in place of curiosity. A serial number? This is a robot wolf?! That's insane, who makes a robot wolf?

...who grafts extra asses onto animals? Right. Mad scientists.]

I mean, it's worth a shot. You wanna walk with me to grandma's, then? Presumably we just keep following the path.

Ugh, I hope we get to pick which version of this story it is.

[obeir]

[ K detects the emotional shift as filtered through scent, his ears involuntarily perking up in response. Mutually curious. Then he closes the remaining distance between them, willing to accompany Kyle. ]

Sure. Let's go. [ He casts an anxious look toward the woods surrounding them, ears folding back slightly. ] And let me know if you see a huntsman, please. [ Because he has no idea whether he'll be able to hear or smell them ahead of time; he's still getting used to being a wolf with different heightened senses than he normally has. ]

How many versions are there?

[kyley_b]

Yeah, I will.

[He ambles along beside K (who he is thinking of as RoboWolf) already more than half way to just accepting the situation. Kyle is nothing if not adaptable to weird.]

Uhm, I think at least three? I'm pretty sure most fairy tales at least have one super unfriendly German version, and then a slightly less horrible French one, and then an American one that's been Disney-fied. But I'm not a children's lit expert.

I know modern films have werewolf versions, so I guess we didn't get that at least?

[obeir]

Thank you.

[ RoboWolf is a cool nickname so this is acceptable. He sticks relatively close to Kyle as they walk without crowding him. ]

Hard to say. I don't normally look like this... but I don't think there's such a thing as werewolf androids, either.

[ How could there be. Androids are immune to human diseases and infection. At least traditional, non-magical ones... Huh. Is he a werewolf now? Does that mean he'll be able to change back, at least? ]

Which version of the story do you think you're most likely to get? Because I'm pretty sure this is your story that we're in, not mine.

cw: fat phobic language

[kyley_b]

[Kyle makes a face.] If this is personalized, then I'll get the version written by a fat piece of shit from fourth grade.

But otherwise probably the one where Grandma and Red survive. Which doesn't bode well for you.

[obeir]

[ K walks in silence for several moments, considering their options. His options. ]

And what do you think'll happen if I don't just let the huntsman kill me? [ Because he isn't sure he trusts the fox about death not being permanent. ] If he's human, I'm not sure whether I'll actually be able to fight back because of my programming, but...

[ But he'd really rather not die. Though what if that means they're stuck in the story indefinitely? Ugh. ]

[kyley_b]

I dunno, dude. Maybe we can like... spin it. Modernise it, you know? The wolf learns a valuable lesson about friendship or some shit.

You can't hurt humans? Wow. Asimov was right.

[obeir]

[ The mention of Asimov has K's ears perking up in obvious interest. ]

The fictional Laws of Robotics? You're familiar with them? [ That's something, at least. ] They were incorporated into actual robotics where I'm from. [ So Asimov was, indeed, right.

But more importantly: ] ...You'd want to be my friend? [ He sounds surprised. ]

[kyley_b]

[Kyle laughs and nods.] Yeah. I like scifi shit.

Well. Sure. Why not?

[obeir]

[ His tail starts wagging seemingly of its own accord; he hadn't consciously meant to. The involuntary body language is taking some getting used to. It's also kind of... embarrassing? It's safer being able to conceal his true feelings. ]

Never really had a friend before. [ And certainly not a human one. This is incredible. He should probably be more suspicious of the easy acceptance, but Kyle really hasn't given him any reason to be. ] —Oh. I guess we're fictional where you're from? Androids.

[kyley_b]

[What a good doggo! Kyle has to resist the urge to pet him.]

Really? Because you're an android?

Uhh, not quite, no. Just not common.

[obeir]

Yes. To humans I'm property. [ Considered about on par with an animate object and no better. ] And other androids keep their distance because of my job. [ And he can hardly blame them for it. If he ever received orders to retire them, he wouldn't be capable of disobeying, regardless of his own feelings. ] So you... you're my first friend.

Have you known other androids?

[kyley_b]

That's pretty bullshit. What's your job?

[Kyle has to think about that one.] Uhhh, maybe? I knew a sentient ad, once. I thought she liked me.

[Up ahead, a quaint little cottage can just be seen between the trees.]

[obeir]

They send me to handle other androids that have gone rogue. Job like this doesn't exactly endear me to any of them.

[ Sentient ad... I thought she liked me... he thinks of his AI companion with a pang. ] Did you like her...? [ Just asking for Reasons. That's the important question here.

The closer they come to the little cottage, the quieter the woods become; after a certain point, the sound of birdsong has stopped entirely.

A voice that's familiar to Kyle seems to quietly and eerily echo from all around them, taunting: "Kaaaaahl... Kaaaaahl..."

For K's part, he doesn't appear to hear it. His ears remain pointed forward as he walks, tail still faintly wagging back and forth behind him. There's just no hiding how pleased he is to have made a friend. Clearly refusing to eat Kyle was the right decision. ]

cw: dead body

[kyley_b]

Oh. Wow. No, I guess not.

[Kyle smiles.] I did, yeah. So that ended bad for me.

[Finally! Kyle hurries along, picking up his skirts a little. He just wants to see grandma and move on. But then he hears the voice and stops in his tracks.]

...Eric?

[He turns around in a tight circle, eyes wide, trying to look everywhere at once. Nothing. He shakes his head and moves to the cottage door.]

Hello! [Cheerful as he opens up the door and walks in. He gets in a few steps and then stops because... oh. Well.

It's his granny, alright. His granny who's been dead since he was a little boy and whose corpse he once dug up in order to scare some older kids. She's propped up in a rocking chair.]

Uh. Grandma Cleo. Hey. Uh. Hi.

[Luckily she doesn't reply. Kyle sets his basket down on the table.]

Soooooooooooo. Here's uh, stuff from mom...

[He looks over at K.]

I don't suppose you wanna eat her.

cw: dead body ...and probably treating a corpse very disrespectfully

[obeir]

Oh. Why'd it end badly for you?

[ ... That sure is a long-dead corpse propped up in the chair.

Kyle's suggestion is met with another exaggerated nose-wrinkle, but then K actually seems to consider it for a moment, tentatively leaning closer to get a sniff of "grandma". Eugh. But if she's already dead, it's not as though he'd be harming a human if he had a nibble. If she's even really human. And then maybe they'd be freed from the story.

But he's not that desperate yet. ]

Try putting something of hers on me first. That might work. Maybe that... neck ruffle from her gown...?

[ It looks like it might disintegrate at any moment, so shouldn't be difficult to tear off. Good enough. ]

Is this really your grandmother? [ What the fuck. ] And who's Eric?

[kyley_b]

Well, she was just using me to further a plot involving advertising and gentrification.

Oh! Good idea. [Yeah don't just resort to making people eat human flesh, Kyle. Even if it's jerky by now.

He rips the collar off and studies it. He looks around and finds a bonnet-thing beside the bed against one side of the room, so he grabs that too.

Kyle ties the collar around K's neck, and then then starts trying to attach the bonnet to K's head.]

Yeah. Yeah, that's her. She died when I was really little, though. She'd be nothing but dust by now.

Eric...

[That's when the cabin door bangs open and a stocky figure strides through. He's wearing plaid and holding an axe, a smarmy grin plastered on an oddly cherubic face. When he speaks, his voice is a nasal whine.]

The hero of the story, Kahl. Here to slay the wolf and the conniving ginger who conspired with it.

That's not how the story ends, Cartman!

[Cartman shrugs.]

Whatever.

cw: gore, mauling, injured animal

[obeir]

[ A sentient ad using a human is intriguing, but they'll have to come back to that one later. K patiently holds still while he's grannied up, and gives a start at the appearance of the huntsman — the pungent odor of the corpse had masked his scent entirely before now.

K feels an inexorable compulsion, as absolute as if he'd been given a direct order, and he's helpless to resist. Perhaps the Fox knew how to ensure he'd play his role after all. It's as though a switch has been flipped.

A terrible, guttural growl he hadn't realised he was even capable of making is all the warning he gives. Then he's leaping fangs-first at the huntsman, who just manages to bring his axe to bear in time, catching the suddenly feral wolf in the chest with the blade. But K doesn't seem to even feel it as he pulls the now squealing huntsman down and gruesomely mauls him. ]

cw: gore, mauling, injured animal

[kyley_b]

[Kyle stares, frozen, as the wolf begins tearing at his childhood...

Rival? Enemy?

Friend?

Kyle rushes forward and wraps his arms around K's neck, trying to pull him away.]

No! No, stop! Stop it! Cartman?! Oh my god, no!

cw: gore, mauling, injured animal

[obeir]

[ If it were an actual wolf losing its shit, Kyle's intervention probably would've resulted in needing a face transplant. But this is a very focused, unnatural kind of frenzy. As K is restrained, the strange fit of violence that seized him seems to dissipate, his growling gradually ceases, and he releases the huntsman who lies in a growing pool of their combined blood. Possibly still breathing, but it's hard to tell. He's a mess.

In his proper form, an axe to the chest is a survivable wound. As a physically regular wolf, it's... more dicey. Disoriented, K manages to stagger a short distance away before his injuries have him sinking to the floor. He stares at Kyle with a look that's as close to horror as his lupine features allow. ] I didn't...

Something happened. I couldn't stop myself.

cw: gore, mauling, injured animal

[kyley_b]

It's okay. He has the effect on people.

[Kyle yanks his cloak off and presses it to what he judges is the worst of Cartman's wounds, but he really doesn't seem to be breathing. He gives up and staggers over to the wolf.

Kyle strokes Ks fur, eyes blurry with tears.]

You're hurt.

[obeir]

[ With Kyle's decision to try and save Cartman, it seems the trial has finally concluded, and the story is over. The little cottage is beginning to fade away, and Cartman's unmoving body along with it.

K doesn't immediately respond, just tiredly leans his head against Kyle as they're transported back to Folkmore proper. They reappear in the recovery area outside the flower maze, not far from where the little festival of cats is occurring. Still in the Little Red outfit and still a wolf, respectively. ]

And they all lived happily ever after? [ K sounds a bit groggy. He lifts his head to look at their changed surroundings. ]

[kyley_b]

I guess so.

[Kyle, still very much alive thank you, pets K's head.]

You need to get looked at, dude. Stay put, I'm gonna get a cat doctor or whatever.

And thanks. For defending us.