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

Long Story Short

[xploud]

[Fun, huh? Perhaps for some, a funny little wolf, in funny little clothes, trying his funny little tricks, would indeed be amusing...but there are darker versions of this story all over. Katsuki didn't want a damn part of this nonsense, but the wily Fox had other plans for him and his insolence. He's been nothing but an aggressive and barking little dog since he arrived, so what better part to play in this story than the main antagonist, hm? But this wolf is not cute, he's not funny, and he's not here to play games.

The little song sung in the woods is all the noise that carries on the wind. Not a sound echoes through the dense foliage otherwise. No rustling of animals, no twitter of birds, not even the hum of a cricket or cicada. It's quiet. Deadly so.

But one thing is for certain...as the story goes, a wolf is on the prowl.]

[violetlies]

[The quiet around him would be unnerving to most, but Kokichi, for one, is used to being constantly paranoid. He walks along, fully expecting something to happen...there's no noise. Just his voice. His lips twitch up into a smile, and he shifts in his shoes before idly twirling around as he continues down the path.]

I know someone's out there.

We're putting this off, but we both know we have to interact at some point...that's the only way I'm getting out of here.

[He feigns an innocent voice, though his expression lets onto his true personality quite easily.]

Do you enjoy a chase, too, Mi-ster Wolf~? Ne?

[He bats his eyelashes, looking around as he pauses for just a moment.]

At least make a noise. If you're going to make me run...I want to be aware of the danger. Let's have fun with this.

[This is what happens when your prey is a rat instead of a rabbit.]K/small>

[xploud]

[Katsuki knows how this story goes, sure. It's too popular a fairy tale not to, even with all the iterations of it. But Katsuki is barely maintaining his sense of self, too, forced into this form by the wily Fox who is punishing his, ah...lack of obedience in the worst way possible. By forcing him into a body that won't obey him. It's man versus beast in his head, and a dark shadow in the woods shifts and moves, a literal growl rumbling past sharp canines.]

If you run, you die.

[It's not a threat, it's a warning. The moment this guy acts like prey, the predatory side of him is going to take over. He hates that. He hates that he can barely hold onto his humanity right now, fighting desperately as long claws dig deep rivets into the ground as a lumbering beast shifts ever closer - towering above Kokichi but still keeping well out of arm's reach.]

You know...how this story goes, aa?

i am. so fucking sorry for him

[violetlies]

[That's when he hears that growling voice, and immediately, there's a shiver up his spine. If you run, you die. Warnings like that only make him want to take off in a sprint, but he doesn't.

And then the wolf shows himself.

Unfortunately, Kokichi's brain goes into chuggachuggachuggachugga AWOOGA. This is exactly what he wanted. It isn't phantom thief and detective, but oh, if that isn't an interesting sight...

He looks up, looking far less startled or scared than he probably SHOULD be.]

Of course I know. Everyone does. I head towards Grandma's house, you meet me there...and then you eat me up. It's a story to be more careful to young girls who don't know not to trust strangers in the forest.

[He's practically bouncing on his feet.]

I'm a bad example, though, that's part of it. Neeheehee...I guess that makes me perfect for my part. I'd say to be gentle with me instead, but I'm not in a position to make any requests.

i could EASILY say the same for mine HAHAHA

[xploud]

[Oh, great, Katsuki gets stuck with the fucking weirdos. There's an exasperated snort that puffs out through his long snout, tail swishing irritably behind him as he sits back on his haunches, massive hands digging deep into the the dirt as his pupils dilate and fix themselves as he attempts to reign in the beast that's tugging violently on the ropes of his control. That fucking Fox...if he's in this form when he finds it...]

Exactly, dumbass - I fucking eat you. Then that American paper towel commercial slides in and cuts me open. [Do you not get where he's going with this? If they don't deviate from the story, or try to improvise, then one of them is going to die. Namely, Katsuki, and like hell is he gonna let that shit happen.] Got any ideas?

[He knows the story, but not exactly how to...'fix it'. He's not creative with this shit, it's so far beyond Katsuki's preferred reading material that he's hit a wall here. All he could do is, uh...make it worse, probably.]