May 2022 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

MAY 2022 TDM

INTRODUCTION

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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

Roxy Spaulding| Gen13 | Familiar

[gravity_grrl]

Out of the Woods:

While she might not be used to seeing little adorable magical cats walking around Roxy did have an interdimensional monkey rat creature as a pet back home so this isn't any weirder, it is about 10 x cuter though because OMG KITTIES. She promptly has a seat near some of the food stalls, sipping the soup and nibbling at the bread and giving out chin scritches and pets to any of the cats who want it.

"This is like, the best thing ever." She comments to whoever is nearby.

Long Story Short:
[cw: glass in feet, panic]

Growing up Roxy didn't hear a lot of fairytales, her mother had been too busy working late nights trying to make enough money to support them so there was no time for bedtime stories, but one she did know (thanks to cable) was the Little Mermaid.

The Disney version.

So it comes to a bit of a surprise when instead of a beautiful mermaids tale and clamshell bra Roxy looks exactly the same, except she can't speak and every time she takes a step it feels as if she were walking through glass.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Her scream is silent and her large purple eyes look as if on the verge of panic, for someone who talks as much as she does this is her worst nightmare.

Long Story Short

[kyley_b]

Of the two of them, Roxy gets the worse deal; Kyle wakes up as a prince.

At least, that's what he assumes he is since everyone is calling him 'your highness' and when he asked for waffles for breakfast people busted their ass to bring it to him. He's rather enjoying himself into he's directed into the garden, where he sees a girl with short dark hair staring at him like he's murdered a puppy.

"Uh. Hi?"

[gravity_grrl]

Finally someone arrives to help and in her excitement she forgets for a second about what has happened to her, she takes a couple of steps towards the gangly looking ginger boy and then freezes. Her mouth dropping open as she lets out a long string of silent swears, if this guy is any good at reading lips he's going to be impressed by her colorful language skills.

[kyley_b]

It does not much effort to recognie 'fuck.'

"Okay, whoa, calm down." He takes a few steps closer, his royal cape (why did he have to wear a cape?) fluttering behind him a little.

"It's cool, calm down. Uhm. Can you not speak? Do you know ASL?" He signs 'hello' just in case she can't hear him.

[gravity_grrl]

It's fucking killing her to be standing on her feet now, it feels like pieces of glass are literally being jammed into the soles of her feet and under her toenails so she decides the best way out of this is to not be on them anymore.
She grabs the skinny prince in front of her and proceeds to climb him like a sugar glider climbing a skinny tree, maneuvering herself into his arms with a sigh of relief.

What are my typos oh my god

[kyley_b]

Kyle stares. He stares, and gawps stupidly, and just sort of lets it happen.

"Uh. Okaaaay," he said, trying to hold her up. Manfully.

"Let's just walk over to that bench there..."

He manages to make it to the iron bench below a weeping willow tree and sets her butt down on it.

"It's okay," he soothes.

You're lucky I love you! XD

[gravity_grrl]

Manfully, right...that's exactly how people would describe his awkward shuffle to the bench. When he sets her down she draws her feet up away from the ground as if it were hot lava and gives him a pitiful look.

She makes the gesture of writing something with a pen and looks at him hopefully.

[kyley_b]

"Sorry, I don't have a pen on me," he says, not sure if pens even exist or if it's all quills and shit.

"You can hear me?"

[gravity_grrl]

She gives him a look that seems to say "DUH" and then sighs, and touches her throat and then vigorously shakes her head. Trying to indicate to him that she can hear fine, just not speak.

Out of the Woods

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach is nearby, currently trying to get one of the cats to leave him alone. They look very much like an Oriental Shorthair, with a big long nose and big floppy ears, offering him what looks like a tart of some kind but he's not accepting. He shakes his head for the third time but all that does is make the little kitty start to cry, that yowling meow cats make when they're sad. It makes several other cats start looking over. It's loud enough that Roxy will definitely be able to hear the commotion.

Realizing this will cause far more attention than he wants, Rorschach grabs the tart from the little cat, shoves part of his mask up, and takes a bite. See, he's eating, alright?! This pleases the cat immensely and she immediately perks up, looking much happier, giving him a pat on the knee with her soft little paw. Truth be told, the tart has fruit within, and it's very sweet. That's just to Rorschach's taste given the enormous sweet tooth he has.

[gravity_grrl]

Roxy can't help but turn and look when she hears the tart kitty start to cry as it not only stands out amongst all the joyful celebration sounds but also cats tend to be loud when they want to be, and this one sure is.

She turns and sees a man in a mask shoving a tart into his mouth and she smiles, immediately understanding what happened. The cat pats him on the knee and then comes over to her, meowing happily and offer her a tart as well. She takes it with a little nod and once the cat has moved on she shuffles a bit closer to the man near her.

"You know I never would have thought that cats would be good cooks." She says as she bites into her tart.

[moralabsolutism]

He's got all the table manners of a feral cat as he is, or rather he would if that comparison wouldn't be insulting the rather civilized little cats all around them. As it is, Rorschach chomps down on the tart in a manner Miss Manners would definitely disapprove of.

It's not a big piece of food and he's soon done. Once his mouth isn't full of food, he turns his attention towards Roxy. "Strange," Rorschach says, not inclined to be anything resembling chatty at the moment. Eeesh, that is one hell of a voice he has, the single word rasped out like it had been scraped out of a garbage disposal that had some nails being chewed up in it.

[gravity_grrl]

Luckily for Rorschach, Roxy is used to bad table manners so she isn't offended by the way he crams the tart into his face. Nor is she offended by the fact that he isn't very chatty, don't worry about that because she's chatty enough for the two of them.

"Strange, but SO fuckin adorable." She says and points at a fat orange exotic shorthair cat that is eagerly eating a pie. "Just look at that little fat one!"

"I'm Roxy by the way, hi." She says cheerfully and then points at his mask. "What's with the mask? Are you all burned up under it or somethin?"

Out of the Woods--and what a blast from the past, you win forever for playing Gen13!

[desiretoplease]

Misty had never seen adorable magical cats, either, but they were rapidly climbing the ranks of her favorite things ever. Nowhere near as high as Stevie Nicks, but way before the hustle and bustle of New Orleans. She gleefully accepted a small cup of lemon basil sorbet from one of the cats, taking the tiny spoon carefully.

She could've eaten the whole cup in one swallow, but she figured she should do stuff the local way. If that meant eating a tiny cup of lemon basil sorbet with a tiny spoon, Misty would do that.

And she grinned broadly at her companion. "It is, innit? Good food, nice cats, I like this way more than most places I been." And she considered a moment before deciding to go for it. "My name's Misty Day, it's real nice to meet you."

Hahaha thanks XD

[gravity_grrl]

Roxy looks at the pretty blonde who is near her and smiles cheerfully, "I am in total love with that fat little orange cat over there. Look at his little marshmallow paws!"

She points at an orange and white exotic shorthair cat who is trying his best to eat as many tarts as possible, which is a bit hard since he has a flat face and soft round paws. She tilts her head to one side when Misty introduces herself and nods. "I'm Roxy, nice to meet you. Misty Day is real pretty name by the way, sounds like you should be a singer or somethin."

90s comics kids, unite!

[desiretoplease]

Misty smiled back broadly. She'd say this much for everyone here, they were real friendly. And she couldn't not enjoy tea-time with a bunch of walking, all dressed up kitty cats, it was like something in a story her momma would tell her way back when.

And she looked at the cat in question, awwww!ing at him. "Have y'ever seen something so precious? I could stay here for a real long time, couldn't you?" Even with the tiny loaves of bread and lemon basil sorbet. She does blush at Roxy's compliment. "Roxy's pretty, too, sounds tough. But I can't sing, not unless I want the dogs howlin' all over the place. So, where're you from? I'm from Louisiana."

woohoo!

[gravity_grrl]

"Well technically my name is Roxanne but that always just reminds me of the song so I go by Roxy." She explains, her eyes lighting up when Misty mentions that she's from Louisiana.

"Omg! I'm kind of like yer neighbor, I'm originally from Texas! I moved away when I was like sixteen but whatever, isn't there a saying like 'you can take the girl out of the south but not the south out of the girl'?"

[desiretoplease]

"Oh, the, um. I can't remember which band did that one. I don't know much that isn't by Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks is my hero," she says with almost literal stars in her eyes.

And she's thrilled to hear that Roxy was from the South, too. "Absolutely there is! It's real good to know I won't be the only one from the South here. I miss New Orleans already, it was a real long time since I was there."

Out of the Woods

[what_fourth_wall]

((OOC: This is pure crack, don't mind me. Wade has no invitation, but that doesn't seem to stop him from finding and trolling the shit out of people who have given him the time of day in other CRAU))

SHHHHHHHBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!! WHAM!!! THUD!!! TERRIBLE SUPER HERO LANDING!!! Seriously, this is more of a "Hawkeye's life is cursed" landing than a baller Wolverine landing.

"Owwwww," comes his muffled faceplanted into the ground commentary on the whole ordeal. When they said you arrived as a shooting star, apparently for people like him who really weren't supposed to be here (so he thinks, he doesn't exactly have a great self-image), that included the landing. Something most people didn't think about was that a shooting star was so pretty in the sky, but it landed about like you'd expect a fiery rock FALLING FROM SPACE to land. That is to say, much like the fiery rock from space, he lands very, very hard. Splat-hard. Squish-hard. Crunch-hard. In fact, because this is a reply to a prompt and not a starting thread, he kind of skipped the whole maze part by hurtling through it. So he's also pretty torn up by thorns.

But bonus, he's landed right next to the person he would have been desperately seeking out? However, because his face is currently crushed into the ground, he doesn't yet see her. Give his eyes a moment to regenerate. And his neck, so he can turn to look at her. And his everything else, so he can sit up.

Somehow, though, he can still talk. Deadpool, amirite? "Okay. Drugs are bad, kids. Ancients are also bad. Don't take their candy. It leads to following trippy foxes through kaleidoscopic dream space. Fucking interdimensional space man. Foxy Roxy is a metaphorical thing, not a literal thing. I don't want to fuck Disney's Robin Hood. That is a very specific furry community, and I got respect for them, but I think it would weird Rox out if I told her I wanted her, but with fur and a tail."

(Seriously, how do you ramble so much when your everything is broken?)

"Talent. Pure talent."

By this point, he sits up, having regenerated at least that much. Oh. Oh weird. The first thing he sees is tiny cat booths. Some appear to be offering him tea. He shakes his head. If his hallucinations are to offer him anything, it better be extremely hard booze.

But then a fox is actually leaping out of nowhere to attack him and drive him off. Is it the mythical fox of the community, or a real fox, or is he hallucinating Roxy as an actual fox for real this time? If the former, that would only make sense...the Fox of this world was cool with good and evil and neutrality and philosophical questions, but that didn't mean they were into fourth wall breaking assholes that showed up to troll their buds' TDMs for funsies.

"GAH! JESUS!! SUCH SHARP LITTLE TEETH YOU HAVE!!! OW OW OW!!!"

❤️❤️❤️

[gravity_grrl]

It's kind of hard to tell who has landed near her, what with all the dust and rubble he kicks up, but that changes as soon she hears his voice and long ramblings. She pets the head of a scared cat, a tubby little ginger exotic shorthair that is trembling behind her, and then clambers over to where Wade is.

"Hey! Beat it Foxy! The only one allowed to bite my man is me!" She says and shoos away the fox with a quick flick of gravity powers, it scampers away but not before growling at Wade one last time.

"You okay, sweetheart?" She asks as she helps him stand.

[what_fourth_wall]

"Rox? That you? My eyes are still recalibrating. You sound like you, but I also just flew through interdimensional space following a furry philosophy major dressed like a fox and a house cat just offered me tea."

He's standing, but it's very shaky and disturbingly crunchy as broken bones that have yet to knit together are grinding against one another. It's okay though, he's been through this before. Well, the healing part - not the acid trip part. Still, even the acid trip barely phases him because it's just a new layer of insanity.

"I think I prefer the breaks from reality that involve less children's book scenery. This kind of break puts me in a place where I don't feel like I belong..."

[gravity_grrl]

"Yeah it's me, darlin." She says, helping hold him up steadily with her powers while his body sorts itself out. "And don't worry, I had some kitties offer me tea and food too so you're not tripping."

Roxy glances around to see some of the townsfolk cats looking at them curiously but other than that they are leaving them to their business.

"Sorry you had such a rough landing, babe." She says, grimacing a little as Deadpool's body makes all sorts of crickles and and cracks as it heals itself. "I tried hanging onto you as best I could but that last bump was a doozy."

[what_fourth_wall]

"Rox!! Roxy!!," he exclaims as he regains more of his senses and she confirms it. "I followed you all the way here. The Ancient didn't tell me it'd be hard, but I did it. Some fox had you by the hand and was whispering sweet nothings in your ear and I just kept swimming along after you."

He looks around again. The scenery still appears to be the same. This place is so weird. But then, it wasn't much weirder than where they'd come from. After all, creepy clowns and black friday zombies were pretty fucked up. Now, if there was a creepy cat clown...

"You tried to hang on? You knew I was following?" He looks surprised, though he shouldn't be. "I think it was a rough landing because I'm not supposed to be here. I wasn't invited by a mystical fox. I'm a party crasher." He pauses and wibbles a little. "I just had to know you stayed alive, that you didn't go back to where you died. And you are. You're alive."

[gravity_grrl]

"Of course I knew you were following." She says with a smile and gently takes his hand in hers. "I could feel you there with me."

And she could also hear him, both of them yelling out in surprise as they were shuttled from one strange place to another.

"How are you feeling? Still need a moment to get everything in working order?" She asks, still holding onto him so he won't wibble and wobble and fall over.

[what_fourth_wall]

"Oh, that'll be a while," he murmurs. Honestly, he regenerated as fast as the plot demanded he regenerate, but realistically this much damage did take a little bit of time so we're going with that.

Wade looks down at his hand in hers. "You aren't dead," he reiterates, as if to himself, "You get to keep living. I was...I was really worried. You deserve to live a long time."