![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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
Please . . . Don't eat me . . .
[ atsumu miya has been contained ]
no subject
It couldn't be real. But it was.
The little squeak broke her out of her thoughts. 'Don't eat me'..? Natsuhi lifted that large, heavy head. Looking around the area for the source of the voice. Eyes eventually falling on the small form.]
I... [Her voice, it was deeper. With a rumble. But it was her, she could still talk like this.] I'm not going to eat you.
[Under any other circumstance, she'd scoff at their fear. But apparently, she was a bear now? Natsuhi hadn't changed her headache medication recently, but... This all had to be a hallucination caused by her tablets. Wasn't it?
Slowly, she tried to rise. Standing unsteady for a few seconds, then she fell to all fours, taking a few branches with her. Okay... Giving up on getting nearer for now.]
Who are you?
no subject
she’s still there, and still talking to him. atsumu takes it as a sign that he really won’t split his eyes open to be surrounded by teeth, tongue and spit. slowly, the fox rolls from his back to his side, and finding wobbly footing for his paws. ]
I’mmmmm, just . . . Someone, trapped, here . . . Like this . . . Hah.
[ he looks like. a rat. he can feel it with the way he tries to touch his paws to his ears, they’re so long, and drag them down his face . . . his hair . . . ]
You don’t wanna know who I am, uh . . . Miss?
[ is that right? please be right. ]
no subject
Natsuhi gave a small huff of hot air. Her lips unconsciously curling back to show teeth as he kept talking.]
And why wouldn't I want to know? [He'd been lucky? She'd not noticed his unease... Instead, she was suspicious of this cat thing.]
no subject
S'not like anyone's gonna believe me . . . And— this is so embarrassin'—
no subject
As a bear, she gave a small wave. It might have been dismissive if she was human, but bear. So it was just that immense paw waving.]
I don't think believing you will be an issue. Given we're both currently animals.
[Her tone was sharp. Pressing her original question. Was knowing his name really important? Not really, but why was her hiding.]
no subject
begrudgingly, atsumu does begin to speak up. ]
Osaaaa . . . Mmm. [ did he really want to throw his twin brother under a bus? a bear????? no. he clears his throat to make it look like it was just a silly verbal error. believable, with this muzzle and nerves. ] Atsumu. Miya. Ma’am.
no subject
What she didn't understand was that bit of gibberish before he'd given a name. Oh well. She sat, her paws held slightly in front of that fluffy bear tummy.]
I'm Ushiromiya Natsuhi. [Could a bear be noble? She was doing her best to appear that way.] I assume you're...Not normally like this, as well? Hence the appalling language I heard before.
no subject
I'll never curse again, ma'am.
no subject
no subject
[ he doesn't remember what it is. ]
no subject
Then she sighed.]
Are you normally human?
no subject
—Yes! Right! Human!
no subject
And you don't know how to change back, obviously... [Otherwise he wouldn't be like this. But that meant he couldn't help her. It'd be the blind leading the blind at best.] Have you seen anyone else.
no subject
Not yet. There's . . . somethin', though.
[ something's still calling him. ]
no subject
[Slowly, she tried to roll her shoulders. Unsure of the increased weight. Then she shifted, trying to stand on those four paws.] This is strange. [Natsuhi wasn't unsteady. She was too low to the ground to really wobble, but she was slow, trying to learn how her limbs worked.]
no subject
[ she is shifting oh god she’s moving— atsumu flinches, but when it doesn’t seem like she’s decided to chow down on him, his tail twitches uncomfortably. ]
N-no hard feelin’s.
no subject
Regardless, she plodded on. Her sides almost brushing against the plant wall. There wasn't much getting around her, too much bear bulk. Maybe under, but that involves a.getting close b.dodging those heavy paws.]
I'm looking for someone too. [Jessica, Krauss, anyone?]
no subject
looking, or, trying to look over her was fruitless, no matter how much he stretched his neck or stood on his hind legs. how is he going to get going— ]
Right . . . S-so hm. [ a little gesture. ] Maybe we should get goin'—? That way?
no subject
Natsuhi gave a scoff, or a snort. It was meant to be a scoff but...snout. Either way, she kept walking.]
Yes, I intend to find the exit to this maze by the end of the day.
think we can do a wrap here!
and as if his life depended on it (because it kind of did, when you think you're close to being chow), atsumu zooms past her. nyoom! ]
👍 she hath tasted power
...she kinda likes being able to move people.]