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

[integrous]

[ Thankfully the shaking of hands is a lot more familiar to her. It's why Asahi seems to have much less trouble with extending her hand in turn to grab his and give it a shake, her grip pretty firm. ]

Flynn. [ She repeats, apparently not even bothering with his last name. Asahi isn't nearly formal enough for it, and though she finds it a little hard to guess Flynn's exact age, especially at their current sizes, he looks older than her.. but only by a little bit.

He's still at the age where it wouldn't have been impossible for him to have an Iris back in her world, which makes her comfortable enough in not being all formal with him. ]

So I take it you don't usually.. uh.

[ Asahi glances upwards, only to be met by the sight of the at-their-size huge leaves still hovering over them, not a single inch of the sky visible. ]

.. you know. Wrestle with birds in the air while being all tiny..?

[ Because this sure is not usual for her, let her tell you! She's not sure how to feel about being a tiny fairy person here, and it makes the wings this story put on her backs vibrate a little with antsiness. ]

[thinkfirst]

Not remotely, and I sincerely hope it doesn't become routine! That was a little more excitement than I was looking for. At least you aren't trying to marry me.

[ The wings are sort of cute, now that they're not falling to their deaths. Flynn still doesn't know the ending of this story, but he knows enough of it to know that he's meant to stick with the person with the wings, particularly after being rescued like that. ]

[integrous]

Marrying you?!

[ Asahi was trying to calm down there for a moment.

Emphasis on was. Past tense. Because it seems like the girl's fluster is firing up all over again now. Does she ever run out of energy for that? Who knows, but said energy doesn't seem to quite be at its end yet over here.. ]

W-Wait, where would that be coming from?! Do people just randomly try to marry you? I mean, you're not bad-looking, but wouldn't people first have to know if you're even their type?! [ This is clearly a very important matter.

Or maybe Asahi just instantly flusters at the m-word at all times. Who knows. ]

[thinkfirst]

I think it's the story!

[ Flynn fills in quickly, equally-flushed by her assumptions. He waves his hands in front of himself, sheepish. ]

I am by no means constantly besieged by marriage proposals, it was just that toad and that one mole...! It would help if I knew what story we were trapped in. I think you're in it as well, unless you're usually this size.

[integrous]

[ Look at Flynn. Flustered at the idea of getting marriage proposals from random people, but apparently it's totally fine when it's a toad or a mole...

Though the unfortunate news is that Asahi also doesn't seem to have any idea what he's talking about. When he mentions which story they could be in, the girl just.. blinks.

Blankly.

Apparently it's a story she's never heard of before either. ]

No, of course I'm not usually this size! I didn't even know what was going on.. One moment I was just walking around, and then the next moment I was tiny like this, and you were in trouble! [ And she didn't even have to think about flying in to help save him.

Though that makes this moment here the first moment she's really thought about any of this. ]

But you're saying there's a story here.. that we have to finish?

[ Apparently someone here didn't get the fox rundown after being dumped straight into the action. ]

[thinkfirst]

Unfortunately, yes.

[ and the rules of the story are as opaque as we the players want them to be any good fairytale. Flynn grimaces and finally starts to shift to his feet, offering Asahi a hand as well. It's a little awkward because he is fully in his underwear, the dress a shredded scrap stuck up on the flowers above, but he isn't just going to leave her there. ]

It should be easier now that we're not in imminent danger.

[ Actually, as soon as they really clasp hands for a moment, the story will count as finished, since Asahi is the prince here and otherwise she really would have to ask Flynn to marry her to finish. ]

[integrous]

[ For a moment it seems like it might not finish.

Because Asahi doesn't quite realise it's the hand holding that might do it, and with the way Flynn is currently looking, she's.. a little reluctant to actually reach out and grasp that hand. She has trouble innocently holding hands with strangers under the best of circumstances, after all. And this is.. far from the best.

But something seems to convince her to do it anyway. Maybe it's feeling so lost about this entire situation, and wanting something to - quite literally - hold onto.

Whatever it is, it gets her to reach back for that hand, until she's holding it - and that breaks the spell. Their surroundings seem to fade, or perhaps it's just the fact that the two of them are actually growing in size, Asahi losing her fairy wings in the process.

But what she gains - or rather, lets out during the process - is a yelp. Even by the time they're fully grown again, Asahi still glances around them, paranoid, like something might jump out of the shadows any minute now. ]

W-Wait, was that it?! I-Is everything back to normal now?! [ She doesn't trust it!! ]

[thinkfirst]

It— [ is extremely disorienting to suddenly shift like that, to feel your bones crack and grow longer, to watch the world shoot down, and Flynn is glad he's holding onto Asahi because he might have fallen over, otherwise. As a bonus, when he blinks, he's clothed again, wearing the uniform-and-armor combination he arrived in.

Flynn twists, looking around themselves as well, catching a flash of feathers out of the corner of his eyes.

...he still has wings. Little white ones, feathered and useless. ]

...it is mostly back to normal. I think. Do you feel alright?

[integrous]

No!

[ She definitely hasn't noticed Flynn's mini-wings yet. Asahi seems way too freaked out in this moment to pay attention to such little things. Not after she just went through what was quite possibly the strangest experience in her entire life.

.. perhaps right after the act that brought her from her own home to this place in the first place, anyway. ]

How would I feel alright after that?! [ It's easy to mistake her tone for her being angry, but it's just that she's upset in a startled sort of way. She's been too thrown off to be able to calm down so easily, and her voice shakes with emotion. ] You almost got eaten! We almost died!

[thinkfirst]

But we're okay!

[ Flynn is, perhaps, a little too forward-thinking: now that the adrenaline and fear and surprise has leached from his body he's thinking only of their next steps, of getting them back to civilization, or whatever passes for it here.

At least he turns back to her, his eyes wide and beseeching. ]

We're alright. We weren't eaten, and we didn't die, and now we need to find... hopefully someone else. I won't leave you here. I swear it.

[integrous]

What?! Do you think I'm afraid of--

[ -- being left alone?!

Asahi can't even force the words out of her mouth, because halfway through that question, the volume of her voice still raised and all, she realised that it's right.

She is afraid of being left alone right now. She's afraid of a lot of things, and the emotions swirl around in her head, brewing like a storm.

There's a moment of eye contact when he turns to look at her, and Flynn might be able to spot a hint of tears in Asahi's eyes before the girl quickly looks away, as if she's trying to hide those. ]

I-Idiot. [ That's a scolding with absolutely zero energy behind it, like it's easier to flip this in such a way rather than focus on any of her upset feelings. ] You shouldn't be so okay with stuff like this happening to you.

[thinkfirst]

It was better than having an assassin sent after me, so it really wasn't that bad!

[ Flynn that is not helpful! Regardless, he's not really thinking about that and whether it's helpful to say things like that, because she's clearly upset and he has to do something about that. What would help right now? A return to normalcy, perhaps, or at the very least, leaving the scene of all this—

Ah. Flynn straightens up and promptly offers a hand. ]

Asahi, please come with me. We should find a safe place to sit down.

[integrous]

[ Better than an assassin sent after him?!

Asahi is definitely about to throw another fit over that statement, but then he's offering his hand, and without thinking she's already reaching back out to grab it.

It's an action she might regret in a moment, but right now it just allows him to pull her along easily if he wishes to do so - to take her to said safe place.

Even though Asahi herself is still just squeaking out a: ]

W-What? Why?!

[ It's probably to just drag her along than convince her, especially since she still seems half-confused about pretty much all of this.. ]

[thinkfirst]

Well, it's better to get out of the way before anything else happens.

[ Flynn is, luckily, pretty adept at cheerfully and politely bullying people into doing what he wants, so Asahi is absolutely getting firmly-but-pleasantly escorted out of the hydrangea patch and in the direction of the smell of food. They're heading back toward the little cat village. ]

I would feel terrible if just standing around here got us dragged into something else.

[integrous]

.. hey.

[ She's definitely being escorted along without trouble. Even as Asahi speaks up now, she's still not resisting - and they're actually making pretty good distance here, getting closer and closer to where the cats are handing out food and talking to people.. ]

You.. What kind of life have you lived..?

[ Maybe that's what she really wanted to say there, even though she wasn't able to squeak out much more than those general questions a moment ago. ]

Did so much weird stuff really happen to you here? And now there's more super weird stuff happening here, so it's all totally normal to you..? For me it feels like way too much.. [ And yet Flynn seems to handle it so easily.

Something in the girl's tone indicates that it truly is too much for her. She sounds kind of hopeless, like she doesn't know how to handle even a part of what they just went through. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Flynn glances back at her, worry flashing through him for a brief moment. Is he pushing too hard...? But no, not at the moment: he just needs to get her to a safe place and let her sit down, and maybe then everything will feel less awful. ]

Don't get me wrong, being turned into a tiny version of myself is anything but normal—oh!

[ There, on the outskirts of the little cat festival, is a tiny little bench. Flynn speeds up, leading Asahi over to it. ]

Please, sit down. Let me get you some tea—I think we could both use it, after that.

[integrous]

[ Asahi does sit down.

Or perhaps, more accurately - she flops down onto the bench like a fish. At least she's still sitting upright, but the way she just moves to sit down is so energy less.. she's letting herself drop onto the bench, like she's completely given up.

She glances up at Flynn's face. ]

.. you're really just going to get tea for us? [ When she continues to speak, her gaze seems to lower, flickering to something that seems to be almost behind Flynn's back. ] You won't just run off and leave me here?

[ At least it sounds more worried than truly accusatory in any way.. Though that might be a side effect of how rattled Asahi still feels after all that. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ It's hard to miss that worry. And how can he blame her? If Flynn really let himself stop and think about everything they just went through—everything since they got here, really—he isn't sure he'd really be able to piece through it. Of course she's frightened.

Flynn's face goes soft and very grave. He presses that same fist to his heart, a salute worn into his bones. ]

I will do everything in my power to return to you with tea in hand.

[ A silly promise, maybe, to make so gravely, but he certainly means it. ]

[integrous]

Oh..

[ It seems that the seriousness he uses to make that promise catches the girl a little off guard. Maybe in a good way, since it seems to erase any and all future doubts and protests. Maybe just for the moment, or maybe for longer.. but it does make her go quiet, nodding instead of questioning his promise. ]

Okay then. [ Surely she would've been able to see it if he joking while making such a solemn protest, anyway. ] I'll wait here for you then. I won't go anywhere.

[ Because if he's actually going out of his way to promise her that, just to make her feel a little bit better, then this is the least she could say in return, Asahi thinks. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ And Flynn, because he is Flynn and because he means everything he says, keeps that promise. He goes on a confusing quest amid the cats, gathers up a tiny little tray and a tiny little teapot and tiny cups and even some extremely small scones to bring back to Asahi after about 15 minutes. He has already poured her a cup, and sinks down with the tray and a quiet smile.

Sure, there's chaos and tiny cats around them, but at least they have this. ]

I take it that none of this is anything like normal for you?

[ Carefully, between two pinched fingers, he offers her the tiny teacup. ]

Nothing was, um, correctly-sized. Perhaps this would have been better if we were still tiny.

[integrous]

[ There's definitely a confused stare on her end at the size of that teacup. But Asahi decides to not throw a fuss about it, since it's decidedly not the guy's fault that this place has to be weird even about silly things like serving tea.

So she instead just takes the teacup without a word about its size. It's a bit of an awkward hold, pinched between two fingers, but she's trying her best here. ]

.. definitely not. [ She slowly answers. ] Changing sizes, or suddenly having to fight things..

[ Like that bird they were dealing with while tiny. ]

That's something they only really do in stories where I come from. I'm just a regular high schooler, you know? It makes me feel super out of place. [ Especially since Flynn seems to be much more used to strange things, given his reaction to all of this.

Or maybe the guy is just a master of zen. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ No wonder she's so frightened. Flynn thinks it would be pretty terrifying if he'd never gone outside the barrier, never joined the knights, was simply a student and was shoved into a situation like this one.

Near their bench, a cat meows excitedly to someone else, someone their size, sitting there looking nearly as put-out as Asahi. Flynn watches them for a moment and then says, careful, ]

Well, look around us. Aren't we all out of place? Even the drinkware is too small. You're not alone in that, at least.

[integrous]

[ When Flynn says that, Asahi does just that. She pauses for a moment, looking around them. Staring at the other people, just as trapped here as them, and then at the cat people wandering around among them.

.. at least things aren't dangerous in any way in the present moment, huh.

It makes her breathe in and out, trying to calm herself down a little. Asahi knows she isn't good at it, but she at least makes an attempt. It's not like she wants to whine too much to poor Flynn here either, after all. Especially when the guy seems to be trying to help her so earnestly. ]

Are you saying I should be glad I'm not a cat person?

[ It's said a little mumbly, but it's meant as a joke. As a way to try and lighten the current conversation and mood on her end, to show that she's willing to try and make things a little better somehow too. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Even that little attempt at a joke makes Flynn smile. It's progress, at least: she's breathing, they're still, and nothing is attacking them. They're getting somewhere. ]

It does seem like it would make basic tasks very difficult. I think I would miss my thumbs.