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Entry tags:
May 2022 Test Drive Meme
MAY 2022 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: Possible insanity via cuts by thorns. Temporary nullification of abilities.
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
OUT OF THE WOODS
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?
Content Warnings: Optional selective amensia and/or altered sense of self, possible monster/creature violence, temporary enchantments, forced relocations.
LONG STORY SHORT
DAYLIGHT
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
Really? Because you're an android?
Uhh, not quite, no. Just not common.
no subject
Have you known other androids?
no subject
[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.]
no subject
[ 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
[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
[ ... 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?
no subject
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
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
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
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
[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.
no subject
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. ]
no subject
[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.