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

no brain cells in this tag

[blondshell]

(He wasn't expecting the physical transformation and for Izuku to comment on it!)

Whatever you say, perv. (Except now he's looking down at himself and just kinda...flexes and squeezes his arms towards each other. Ooh. Izuku is right. His chest really is bigger.

...Okay, he's finally thinking back to what he had missed out on.)

We need to get out of this flower bullshit. I need to talk to you anyway.

[defendure]

Noticing you're a giant isn't perverted. [ How can he NOT notice it? He's observant sometimes you know! Although now Katsuki is flexing and hm yeah he'll just kind of look away and around them. ]

I-I was pretty much just taking left turns for a while there...but maybe you should just blast a hole out in one direction.

[blondshell]

(It's on the TIP of his tongue to ask Izuku if he would have pointed out Momo's chest size if she was swapped out with Katsuki. But he decides to drop it mostly because there actually were more pressing things at hand than the sexualized condition of his admittedly bitching tits.)

I can try that, yeah. I was waiting to see when you'd show up. (Obviously. There is no real seeing over the tops of the flowers which he thinks is part of the challenge. He raises his hands and begins to collect energy - but then. Stops, grimacing.)

Damn it. What if there are other people out there though?

[defendure]

[ MOVING ON from Katsuki's hypothetically bitching tits - ]

That's a good point. Ah, do you think you can control the blasts for just the width of a hedge? Or should we try it the slow way?

[ That is, finding their way out. ]

[blondshell]

Yeah, of course, I can fuckin' control that. Do I look like an amateur?

(Psssh. Even with his hands being a bit sore, he ignores that and raises them yet again. Then snaps off some explosions in their immediate vicinity, tearing through a good chunk of flowers in the span of just a second. He moves forward, doing it again, again. He gets a bit bigger in his range each time, but never so big that they would accidentally clip someone in the area.)

Erm...(He lowers his hands when he realizes that the flowers just...kept going.

He had already wanted to talk to Izuku in earnest before arriving in the flowers. But now it felt different. The flowers were swaying him into opening up. He lowers his hands, smoke pouring out of them.)

Can we stop for a second?

[defendure]

Of course we can, Kacchan. Why, are you tired?

[ Izuku is, of course, immediately obliging and worried about Katsuki. He's very easily swayed. ]

[blondshell]

No.

(He is, but that's not why he wanted to stop. He's powered through way worse exhaust than this before. He has to fight down the instinct to feel offended by Izuku fussing over him.

Before he would have just figured it was Izuku looking down on him, thinking him weak. Incapable. He would have snapped out of defensiveness, out of bruised pride.

He clutches his hands into fists, glaring down between them. He didn't realize that this Izuku had already heard his apology before. It's not as though he was aware of everything Izuku had gone through. He has no idea that he doesn't have to go through the motions again.)

I just...(He waivers.) I'm...sorry. (No context, of course. He's trying though.)

[defendure]

[ Yep. Izuku has lived through this before, so he looks mostly baffled, trying to connect the statement to...

What caused it. ]

Uh, for what? [ Blankly. Katsuki hasn't done anything that bad since arriving, has he? ]

[blondshell]

(The flowers, partly.)

...(It was easier in canon mostly because he had been running off the fumes from that sharp adrenaline rush of running after Izuku in the first place. This was...

Izuku standing in front of him in a field of flowers. None of their classmates were around. It was a far more intimate apology.)

You didn't deserve how I treated you all these years. You're...(...He's getting there.) You're stronger than I ever gave you credit for. Better. But even if you weren't, I was fucked up towards you. I always thought you...were looking down on me. So. I'm sorry.

[defendure]

U-um. [ ...He...he knows this already, is the thing... ]

You - don't have to apologize again, Kacchan, I believed you the first time? [ His hand is at the back of his neck, rubbing in slight embarrassment. He's touched, but also SO nervous about this. ]

[blondshell]

Ha?? What do you mean 'first time'?

(He's gaping at Izuku because excuse you?! This is his major character development moment, Izuku! He gradually starts to redden.)

You're saying you've heard this before?!

[defendure]

W-well, you apologized right after you guys found me -

[ And also had a brief battle he will not be bringing up because haha. Yeah. That happened. ]

[blondshell]

Well!

(TURNING RED.)

I don't damn remember that so let me apologize on my own terms!

[defendure]

O-oh, um, okay! I'll be, uh, quiet.

[ ...he makes a "go on" gesture.

Did...did you have more to say, Kacchan? Izuku's waiting. ]

[blondshell]

(...

....

...)

Well, now it seems fuckin' embarrassing. (Don't look at him like that, Izuku, damn it. He rubs at the back of his head, his other hand on his hip. Grumbling. Grumbling.)

I think you're ...stronger than me. And I want to catch up to you. (This was the worst day ever.) But I still think you're a fucking rookie with your quirk and you need to be way more careful. You're getting way too fucking reckless and I can't waste all my time running after you. You need to get it through your thick skull that you're not alone and if I have to remind you of that for the rest of your stupid life, I goddamn will.

[defendure]

I - I don't think I'm stronger than you. More, like, um - equal? Or, well, we each have our strengths and weaknesses...

[ Neither of them is better than the other! In his opinion! ]

[blondshell]

Whatever. That doesn't matter! (It does. It just- isn't his point.)

What I'm trying to say is if you die before we become pros, I'm gonna bring you back and kill you ten times over.

[defendure]

I, um, I'm not sure apologies are supposed to include death threats?

[ Not like he's surprised this one does. But...in general? ]

[blondshell]

Well damn it, I don't know! (He's never done this! And he's ...frazzled! This isn't how he pictured his confession apology?!)

[defendure]

I'm almost positive about it. [ He...

He might be teasing. ]

[blondshell]

()

...

(WOW. He grabs Izuku by the hair, though his grip is decidedly harmless and more for show, and gives him a shake.)

Don't get so fucking uppity!

[defendure]

[ Again, this is not what you're supposed to do when apologizing, Kacchan. Izuku laughs a little, though. ]

I think I'm allowed?

[blondshell]

You're so weird. (He does not refute the statement. He is absolutely allowed.)

[defendure]

Again, I don't think apologies are supposed to include insults, either?

[ Is the apology over? In that case they might be allowed. ]

[blondshell]

I'm giving you an apology, Iz-uku, not a change in personality. (The apology is over!!)