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

[moondregs]

I guess that’s the gist of it. I only know the broad strokes really.

[ Looking deep in thought - which again being a cygnet he just looks cute and not especially perplexed - he tries to remember how the story goes. ]

It’s a Western story. I know it starts off with the character getting teased ... and that it ends with him actually being a swan. But that’s just the passage of time. I can’t just sit around here waiting for a year to pass.

[overnightoaks]

[ "Western story?" Hmm, Junpei is a Japanese name, isn't it? Guess this whatever-this-place-is is taking people from more than just San Dimas... ]

Hm, that does put us in kind of a bind, huh? If I still had that remote control, I could just press fast forward, but...

[ He's really out of ideas. But he doesn't want to freak Junpei out, so he puts on his best "I'm ignoring all my problems so everything's gonna be okay!" smile. ]

I guess we'll just have to gan-batte!

[ And yes, he completely butchers the pronunciation. ]

[moondregs]

[ The awkward attempt earns an unimpressed look from Junpei. But he’s relying on this guy to help him, so he really should behave himself.

Instead, he looks around the scenery to see if anything gives him an idea on what to do.

After a moment he returns his gaze to Henry, and suggests: ]

Insult me.

[overnightoaks]

Huh?

[ Henry generally strives not to insult anyone. He tries to be an open, accepting person, who welcomes people of all walks of life. But... He thinks he gets what Junpei is getting at. In order to progress the story along, they've got to play along. And the "ugly duckling" is supposed to be insulted. ]

Ohhh, alright! You're, uh. You're not a very good looking duck. Your feathers are too... feather-y.

[moondregs]

[ Junpei looks down at his body ... there’s no feathers on him. Only fuzz. When he looks back up at Henry it’s clear he’s annoyed. This guy ... ]

Look I promise I don’t care. Just, honestly try to be as mean as you can be. There’s nothing you could say about me that would really hurt me. They’re just words.

... would it help if I insulted you first?

[overnightoaks]

Aw, geez, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not very good at the whole insult thing. I don't really like to surround myself with bad vibes, you know?

[ If Henry thinks something bad about someone, he keeps it bottled up deep inside until the pressure is more than he can take and it all explodes out from him in a loud, shrill rant. ]

That probably wouldn't hurt, if you don't mind...

[moondregs]

[ It’s not that Junpei likes to be cruel. Indifference was what he wanted to achieve, to not care one way or the other about his fellow human beings. Sure, he can be quite acerbic sometimes, but his overall nature is not one that finds any joy in randomly insulting someone.

But if it’s going to help encourage Henry to do what needs to be done ... he puffs his tiny chest out and lets out a snarl.

Or. What would be a very loud honk if his speech wasn’t being translated: ]

STOP BEING SO WISHY WASHY YOU INSUFFERABLE DORK!

[overnightoaks]

[ Henry's been called much worse than "insufferable dork," but he's trying to get into the spirit of the exercise, so he makes a conscious effort to let the words hurt his ego. ]

You know what's insufferable— you want to know what's really insufferable?! Kids who disrespect their elders! Not only that, y-you're a miserable excuse for a swan! You look bad, you sound bad, and you should FEEL bad!!

[moondregs]

[ Actually, Henry’s performance was quite good as Junpei found himself slightly offended even though he’d asked to be insulted! He’s about to offer a response when an icy wind blows through the area, and he huddles down with a small shiver.

Looking up at the sky he sees it’s now filled with gray clouds. A little twinge of excitement raced through him - he’d been right! That was the key to progressing the story!

Turning his attention to Henry again he encourages him with a nod of his head. ]

... g-good ... that’s good ... keep going!

[overnightoaks]

Don't tell me to keep going!! Don't you tell me what to do!

[ Uh oh. It seems as if the need to tap into his mean, angry side has unlocked something in Henry. Something vicious and feral. ]

If you would listen to your elders instead of telling them what to do or running around punching trees and getting tattoos and stabbing people to unleash horrific eldritch abominations, then maybe you wouldn't be such an ugly fucking duck!

[ Hm... He might not be talking about Junpei anymore... ]

[moondregs]

[ Thankfully by the middle of the rant Junpei gets the idea someone is venting their frustration over someone else. It’s all the same as far as their setting is concerned, though, as snowflakes start to fall from the sky. It starts off very light, but quickly gets heavier.

Right. This is where he needs to ‘hide away’ until spring. Seeing a cluster of reeds at the edge of a pond nearby, he starts to run in their direction to find shelter from the incoming storm. He pops in just as the snow is really starting to collect on the ground, not even stopping to give poor Henry an explanation of why he’s vanishing. ]

[overnightoaks]

[ Henry pants, his breath fogging in the now chilly air. He trails off from his rant right about the time he sees Junpei's little cygnet form plap plap plapping away to hide in the reeds. ]

Hehh— I— Wait, where are you going?

[ It all comes rushing into him, the realization that he lost his temper again. He takes a deep, centering breath, and tries to count to ten, releasing his anger in what might hopefully be a healthier way, before he ventures forth to try to see where Junpei went. ]

Is everything okay? Aww, jeepers creepers, I went too far there, didn't I? I'm sorry about that...

[moondregs]

[ As Henry moves forward, the season continues to progress at a rapid pace. As quickly as it was on the ground the snow begins to melt and also ceases to fall from the sky that is now becoming a bright blue. The air is getting slightly warmer too.

And right about when he reaches the reeds — FWOOM! A figure erupts from them in a puff of white feathers, at first so thick that nobody would be able to see through them.

As they dissipate, floating whimsically to the earth the figure is revealed - it’s a teenage boy with a fringe of hair covering one eye, and dressed in a regal outfit made of gold-accented white feathers. He looks down at his ensemble, at first perplexed ... and then annoyed. ]

Seriously?

[overnightoaks]

[ Feathers explode in Henry's face, some getting into his mouth, and he sputters, coughing them out and rubbing his face. When he finally fixes his glasses back onto his nose, he blinks, staring wide-eyed at the boy now standing before him. ]

Wow, we did it! Now that's, I think, what the kids call a glow up.

[moondregs]

[ Oh. This guy is embarrassing.

But even as he has that thought, there’s a twinge in his heart. The last time he was embarrassed by an adult ... was by his mom. Over dinner. The night before ...

... he shakes away his own internal gray clouds as he steps carefully out of the reeds, his expression softening. ]

Yeah. We did. Thanks ... even though it was weird.

[overnightoaks]

[ He's very embarrassing. 'Cringe,' as you might say. But he doesn't seem to be embarrassed himself, so it's fine. And besides, isn't it a dad's job to embarrass his kids?

He smiles at Junpei and claps a hand on his shoulder. ]

Weird or not, you really came into your own there. I'm real proud of you!