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

[ordinar]

[No, he doesn't appear to be reassured by anything she says, if his distance from the tree is any indication. He stands outside the shadow cast by its canopy, as if this marks the outer ring of a target, with the trunk as the bullseye. As if she couldn't just sling an arrow his way anyway, tree or no tree bracketing him.]

No offense, but how much faith can I have in someone I've just met?

[While she fiddles around with the crossbow, he watches with a wary eye and continues to roll the apple from hand to hand. His eyebrows jump up at her suggestion.]

No way! Can't I just set it on... [His eyes dart around, looking for something to take his place.] ...on a branch or something?

[tripcaster]

Rude.

[ WOW! See if she ever helps you again out of the goodness of her heart. >:T ]

If you want, we can do that, sure. How about...

[ She hums absently while scanning the tree for the perfect spot. Plenty of branches to choose from out in the open for an easy shot, but she has a different plan in mind if he wants his miserly faith fortified for the real deal.

Aloy points at the tree trunk, a bit above where his head would be, but well within reach. ]

There. In that knothole above the first fork, you see it?

[ A tough target to be sure, but that's kind of the point. ]

[ordinar]

[He should show better manners to someone he's meeting for the first time, he knows, but the circumstances of their meeting are...bizarre. He thinks he can be excused for his less than perfectly polished attitude.]

It's rude to aim a crossbow at somebody's head too, you know!

[At least she's agreed to a target that won't place any part of his body in the crossfire. Relieved, Wilhelm returns to the base of the tree.]

Yeah, I see it.

[When the apple is in position, he jogs away — off to the side, at first, but ultimately he decides that the safest place to be is by the girl. He takes his spot five feet to her right, standing with an expectant look on his face and his arms folded over his chest.]

[tripcaster]

Like this whole thing is my idea?

[ C'mon, man. She's not exactly psyched to be standing around in tights and a stupid shirt herself. >:T
Anyway. Once the apple's perched in the knothole and he's safely out of the way, Aloy hefts the ancient weapon up into a firing position and adjusts her aim every so slightly up to compensate for distance. ]

Probably should've asked for a second apple in case we needed it, but too late for that.

[ "THWOCK". Off goes the bolt, zipping right through leaves and twigs alike like butter before striking the apple like a thunderbolt - the force of impact bouncing the fruit off the bark of the tree and sending it tumbling to the grass in a graceful arc of apple bits and shredded peel. Bullseye!

Cue casual gesture at it as if to say "satisfied"? ]

[ordinar]

[Since this little story began, his expression has shifted through various shades of wariness. But as Aloy readies the crossbow with the surety that comes from having a done something hundreds of times, and fires the bolt — his doubt transforms into awe. And when the bolt hits its mark with a loud crack and a fit of apple shrapnel, he startles at the sound, shoulders jumping up toward his ears and hands flailing.

Her performance earns a sincere round of applause.]

That was awesome!

[Now he spares a glance for the apple that he's very glad was nowhere near his head. Its usefulness as a target does seem to have passed... Sheepishly, he pushes a hand through his hair.]

Oh, fuck...do you think we can find another one?

[tripcaster]

[ His reaction gets a faint smile in return - part of her still vaguely discomfited by the praise - cut short by turning her attention back to the bits and pieces of fruit scattered around the tree a moment later.
Back to business. The sooner they get this weird ritualistic act out of the way, the sooner she can get her focus and (much more comfortable!) clothing back. ]

I don't think we were expected to have a practice round in the first place, so... probably not. [ She huffs, setting her foot in the metal loop at the crossbow's mouth to crank the winding mechanism in fits and starts back over the holding pin. ] We won't need another anyway.

[ Phew. Priming this thing is a lot harder than loading a boltcaster. But maybe a few modifications might help? Charger tendons for flexibility, some Longleg shin plates to reinforce the arms...
Well. Assuming machines existed here too. She's getting ahead of herself.

So resting the crossbow over her shoulder, Aloy gestures back at the tree while using the toe of her boot to nudge through apple remains for the biggest surviving chunk she can find.
It'll be fiiiiiine. They've got this! ]

I held up my end of the deal, now it's your turn.

[ordinar]

[It's at this point that Wilhelm realizes...all he's done is ensured that the target sitting on his head is smaller and easier to miss. Regardless of how thoroughly she's proven herself adept with the crossbow, he can't help but think of all the ways this could go horribly wrong. (Is any of this even real? Could he get hurt? This is not the way he wants to find out.) So it's at this point that he also starts chewing at the inside of his cheek.]

Uh, right.

[Except he's not moving. With his feet firmly planted in the grass, he eyes the tree. He tries to slip his hands into his pockets to keep from fidgeting too much, only to remember that he's wearing the weird old-fashioned clothes the story demands.]

Shouldn't there be somebody to watch this happen? A witness? [His eyes return to her after glancing around the field and the surrounding trees.] Otherwise, what's the point?

[He's pretty sure William Tell didn't decide to shoot an apple off his kid's head for fun. It had to have been a punishment or a bet or something.]

[tripcaster]

[ Aloy just gives him a very unimpressed eyebrow raise. If she didn't know any better, all this mumbling might start sounding like an unprepared Nora youth going into the Proving for the first time. ]

Should I come back later? [ Aloy crosses her arms over her chest. ] If you want to stall for another hour or so, I can find something else to do. We'll just stay trapped here until you're ready.

[ Yeah that sounds perfectly reasonable, what could go wrong????

Seriously though. There's few things she hates more than sitting idly when there's work to be done, as illustrated by her scooping up a fair sized chunk of apple with the stem and leaf still attached and moving briskly to the still-impaled tree, presumably to extract the crossbow bolt from the bark. ]