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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.
cw: monster death because??? dirk aint fuckn around via decapitation
(Seriously, Kaneki?)
I'm not a passive class, baby. Sit back and let me take care of it.
(Partly to show off, but also because he was riled up and wanted to take his energy out on this ugly beast of a monster. He's assuming Kaneki isn't exactly one for violence - especially not with that reaction to the monster. Dirk doesn't wait around for Kaneki's response. He rises up, as a Prince is expected to, and it's both metaphorical and literal here. Lifts up off the ground and snaps through the air at the snake.
Ya boi can fly, Kaneki. He also immediately decapitates the shit out of the monster because this is low-level work for a high-level player. His sword is bitching, but it is his soul that is of superior bitchingness. The monster's head is still screeching as it falls apart from the body and comes crashing down to the ground below it.
There's a minimal amount of monster guts on him, but he wipes it off as he floats back down to the ground just a few feet by the monster's head.)
That wasn't even that hard. What the fuck. (Dirk...Don't sound so disappointed...)
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and yet he still is surprised and fearful, because he still has not fully accepted what he is and what he can actually do.
But none of that matters because the whole thing is over very quickly. So quickly that Kaneki is just left staring while holding on to his skirt, unsure what to even say. He stares at Dirk, then back at the snake. Then at Dirk again, and mouth opens. But then it closes once again
Okay, so that is a thing ]
You... can fly? [ what ]
cw: suicidal ideation
(He moves over towards Kaneki after he has cleaned his sword off and slipped it into the sheath around his waist.)
I'm godtier, bro. (Because that means anything to anyone outside of the game. Although the name is kind of self-explanatory, so.)
I can do a bunch of shit. I'm technically immortal too. (He points to the scar around his neck as if to say 'see'? Because, like. It's impressive, right? Granted, he's kind of dead inside about not being able to die but no one actually wants to hear anyone angst over their conflicting sense of mortality and the meaning of life.)
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And apparently immortal???
He looks confused, but his breathing falters a little when he sees the scar. That's... awful... ] Immortal... because your friends kiss you and you come back to life? [ look, kaneki has been trying to pick up on the weird things Dirk has mentioned so far ]
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He shrugs slowly and then wobbles a hand in the air.)
Complicated answer. (How does he simplify this?)
My friends and I played a game that caused an apocalypse. I know, dramatic, whatever. We were basically granted roles based on our shitty personalities. I got Prince of Heart which basically translates to Destroyer of Souls. (Now that he's going, he's slipped into a relatively monotonous voice, like a computer reading off a body of text.)
I can deal with my soul in weird ways and fuck up other people's souls. Then in our game, there's this whole mechanic where if your one body died and someone kissed you, if you had an extra life, it would activate. Then if we died on a specific bed we reached godtier...
(Uggggggh!)
It's really fucking dumb and convoluted. So I'm like, partly immortal because of the game's godtier system but kind of because of my role too. The only way someone who is godtier can die is if it's deemed a 'just death' and I dunno what that fuckin' entails in full, but you get the jist. (Does he????)
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He is trying, but it's obvious he is a bit lost about the whole thing. There is one thing Kaneki does pick up which is "apocalypse" and that is very worrisome, isn't it? ]
Your world was destroyed? [ everyone Dirk loved, too? What does one even say to that?! Kaneki stops, and lowers his head a little ] I'm sorry. I mean-
I don't think anything I say can really make things okay. [ obviously not, and Kaneki doesn't even know what to say exactly, but: ] No one should go through something like that. [ Dirk must feel... awful. The whole thing probably was awful, considering their world was destroyed, and they were dying and coming back to life and... who even makes a game like that?!
it just sounds all so unreal, that if kaneki weren't in a whole new world, dressed as a princess, after being married by a Mouse, he would probably think that Dirk is making fun of him. But it's not a joke, Dirk has that scar on his neck, and he is indeed standing in front of a guy who can fly and just cut a snake's head off ]
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I was actually the last male human on earth? Aliens had taken it over and whatever and I was like...genetically cloned and sent to earth...so...
(Listen.
He fully realizes how batshit wild this sounds and he actually would not blame Kaneki for just peacing the fuck out at this point. Dirk is hyperaware that his general insanity is not exactly hot-gut-magnet material.)
So it's not as bad as it sounds. I was always alone anyway, y'know? Plus I got to meet up with friends from the future and stuff. (That...doesn't make it better, Dirk? But Kaneki trying to comfort him anyway is unexpected and Dirk feels awkward. Compassion? What is that.
He reaches a hand out and gently rests it on Kaneki's head.)
It's okay. Don't look so sad. (Then he moves his hand down to lift up Kaneki's face by the chin and offers him a slight smile.)
That's why I liked kissing you so much though. I only like dudes and you're like, literally the second guy I've got to kiss in a situation that wasn't totally fucked. I mean, okay, yeah, the whole Cinderella thing's fuckin' weird, but otherwise, it was kinda dope. At least neither of us was dying? (Dirk, you're literally making it sound sadder!)
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And he talks about it so nonchalantly, as if it doesn't even matter, even though kaneki would argue that it does because that is not the sort of thing someone can just get over and ignore.
He supposes this place is, then, better than where Dirk is from. Things are not as destroyed, and apparently there are other people around, and that means he won't have to be alone anymore, right? Loneliness is something Kaneki doesn't wish on anyone.
The touch is surprising because Kaneki doesn't think he should be the one being comforted here. But he looks back at Dirk and even manages not to just blush until he is the color of a tomato, and instead Kaneki shakes his head softly ] Then.. that should be done with someone more relevant and that you care for.
Because it will be more meaningful and something you can cherish. Something you can remember with fondness and remember that person with fondness too. [ guess who is a romantic? kaneki is, so so romantic, so so sappy. ]
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But it's Dirk Strider and if he's anything at all? It's intense and inappropriate as hell. It's true enough. His entire personality was defined by his upbringing in isolation. Dude's got the most warped sense of reality ever.
He has no idea how to deal with being around this many other people though. He's pretty grateful for the one-on-one because anything else just kinda frazzles him.
Isn't that an interesting take? He lets go of Kaneki's chin and scoffs lightly, but it's not in a mean way.)
Yeah, I get it. You're a romantic. (He shrugs.) Dunno about you but I'm gonna remember that kiss with plenty of fondness. You're kinda a total babe and a sweetheart.
(Plus. Like.)
I think a kiss with someone you just met can be special. (He adjusts his glasses, a sliver of shyness in the gesture. Not that he'd admit that.)
It doesn't really matter anyway. I'm not exactly dating material. So, I'll take what I can get.
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Sure, it's true he did kiss a rando he just met but. Kaneki understands why, thus he is not crazy nor a freak.
When Ken is called a romantic, he glances to the side, feeling like he will be made fun off because that's something he expects. Dirk doesn't know what's like to be bullied at school, but Kaneki has first-hand experience with it, and a lot of it was because of his personality that included being a romantic (he never found it bad to be one, in all honestly; what is so wrong about feeling deep affection for something or someone?).
In fact, when Dirk calls him a "babe" and a "sweetheart", Kaneki surely doesn't feel like he actually means it because Ken can not conceive that others would find him like that ever. He can not imagine people genuinely liking him and finding him interesting in any way. It's just not a thing that happens to him. ]
I'm sure that's not true. [ about being "dating material" - and yes, kaneki totally just ignored that he was called a babe because he doesn't want to eventually hear Dirk is just making fun of him
kaneki pls] I mean, you are handsome and... those were cool fight moves. And you can fly, it's pretty impressive. [ he says that with a smile, trying to add some fun to an awkward situation, but Kaneki does mean it. ]I'm sure you don't have to just "take what you can get".
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One day he might learn to be a bit more sensitive with teasing Kaneki. Or at the very least learn to clarify when it was well-intended. Maybe not though. Dirk was kind of an emotionally tone-deaf asshole most days. Most of the guys he had met (aka all) had been just as emotionally tone-deaf as he was so he's not used to...softer dudes.
Being a romantic...Well. He is the Prince of Heart. He was a cynical romantic by nature. He wanted to be in love and have weird, incredible sex with some hot guy and live it up. He wanted to be important to someone.
Just growing up figuring you'd never meet anyone, and then having the one shot at romance being obliterated, and then like, no one else who you could date without dabbling into a bit of incest...Yeah. Sometimes survival of the fittest meant learning to let go of what, up until literally thirty minutes ago, was a wild, impossible fantasy.
Dirk watches Kaneki, and picks up on the shy avoidance of the compliment. He also wants to inform Kaneki that no, he's seriously not dating material. He's selfish and jealous and batshit off his rocker.
...But he's already spilled enough beans so he just grins and folds his arms over his chest.)
So then go on a date with me. If I'm so datable. (No one can say Dirk doesn't shoot his shot.)
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How forward can you be, Dirk? And how can he just say these things without even holding back or feeling shy? Kaneki understands the lack of socialization and perhaps despair for a connection, but he can't imagine someone being this blunt and forward.
Cheeks warm up and Kaneki takes a second to react beyond that, and quickly he looks around, unsure of what to say. Take this as a joke, maybe? Perhaps he just wants to prove a point to show that kaneki is wrong, just to say "see, got you"?
But dates are... somewhat a bit of a trigger. Not that Kaneki realizes it and not that he will show reaction, but deep inside his stomach, something twists. Because Kaneki's first and last date ended with him almost eaten by a ghoul; there is certainly some untapped trauma there that kaneki keeps under wraps. he ignores it, though, because what is Kaneki but complete suppression of all the trauma he went through?
Kaneki touches his own chin, a gesture that Dirk might eventually become familiar with, with time. ]
Ah- and where would we go? Walk around the cat festival? [ he says that playfully, with a small amused smile ]
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Thankfully for Kaneki the only sort of eating that Dirk would attempt would be the sexy kind. Not that he's actually planning on Kaneki humoring him or getting laid in the foreseeable future, but, you know, a guy can fantasize.
Kaneki's reaction is ultimately deemed as fucking precious as hell. He had been teasing a bit, not expecting a serious yes or no, and Kaneki's answer fills him up with fluttering delight. Even if it wasn't legit, he didn't care. He was just glad Kaneki didn't throw it in his face or pull some 'no homo' crap card on him.
He gives Kaneki the closest thing to a genuine smile that Dirk had in his arsenal that wasn't cocky or flirty. It's just a simple, pleased look.)
You look like a cat person. Unless I'm totally off base, but who doesn't like a bunch of cute animals walking around? (He's not wrong. But also, like.)
You should probably get changed first. (Into ...like. Clothes and not an unzipped dress. As attractive as it was...)
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For now, Kaneki smiles back and nods, conceding ] I like cats. Although I never had a pet, before. [ so he doesn't know what animal he'd chose as pet. Although he remembers birds, too, because Touka-chan and Hinami-chan adopted a bird. He was cute...
Although when Dirk mentions the clothes, Kaneki gasps. yeah, he kind of forgot about it, a lot was happening! So he quickly turns to the trunk, to fetch his clothing ] Of course...! Give me a second. [ Kaneki's clothes are fairly normal - boring, some would say - but there is also the eyepatch, which Kaneki will put on his left eye. There is a book, as well Kaneki's ghoul mask which Kaneki can't really... hide from Dirk, as much as he'd prefer not to explain what that is. But he will put it in one of his pockets, hoping there won't be much of a fuss about it. ]
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Me neither. These seagulls used to just come in and out of my place at free will but they weren't like...pets.
(Even if they were the only living organisms he had any real attachment to for most of his life.
Out of respect and not wanting to push his luck, Dirk turns away while Kaneki changes. So, he winds up not seeing the ghoul mask (thank god or else he would have HAD to make a gimp joke). He only turns around when he figures Kaneki is done and the shuffling has stopped.)
You good to go, man?
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Kaneki is ready soon enough and smiles when Dirk turns around once again ] Yes. Let's go.
[ he comes closer, to walk besides the other ]
I wonder if this place only has cats as natives. Besides the fox. [ that... damned fox, who forced Kaneki to roleplay as Cinderella... ]