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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.
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Things Yuri could never do. The lightness he feels thinking about Flynn fades when he remembers exactly what he was doing when the fox came to him. He was leaving the inn in Dahngrest, setting out to do something unthinkable, to solve the unthinkable. The fox took him, then, and he watched himself continue to the bridge, to where he was going to take a man's life.
He feels guilty, guilty that he was going to do it. Guilty that he doesn't feel remorse, not really. It had to be done, and he wasn't going to ask anyone else to do that, not when he could. But even thinking about it makes him sick, that that's what it all came to, to protect people, the people that Flynn was trying to protect.
He doesn't think that Flynn failed. The Empire did. The Empire failed Flynn, failed the people of Capua Nor, failed its own stated ideals.
Yuri doesn't answer Flynn, instead staring into the sky, hating that he's relieved, that this version of him didn't have to do it, that he didn't have to take a life. He doesn't know what that means about the him he saw walking to the bridge, the version of him who was going to do it, who was ready, who knew that what Karol said was true: someone needed to do something. ]
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[ Flynn says quietly, half to the wind and half to himself. Yuri is silent beside him, probably dealing with the weight of his own future just as much as Flynn is. It's kind of nice that he's taking it seriously, not just blowing it off.
Not that Yuri ever really did. Flynn is sure of that. He pretends not to care, pretends nothing matters and that people can think whatever they want about him, but Flynn knows how much he thinks about these things. He knows that Yuri wants a better world. He wants so badly to give Yuri a reason to believe that one is coming, but he can't do that as things are right now. ]
To change how things were going. It's clear that everything we were trying to do wasn't working.
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Voice rough, he manages to say: ] Yeah. Yeah, we can... do better.
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He'd told Flynn not to throw away everything he'd worked for. Not to stoop to Ragou's level, no matter how much anger simmered in him.
I'll do things my own way.
He'd left before Flynn could ask what he meant. Flynn had thought, maybe, that he knew. It was cowardly of him not to ask, to let Yuri walk away like that. ]
Do you think we'll be able to take what we learn back with us?
[ He can't be that cowardly again. If they're here to learn, then asking the things that scare him, hearing the answers he doesn't want, that's what Flynn has to improve first. He'd tried to ask the Fox and had gotten something sort of noncommittal in response, which was a little alarming. Vague answers are never the harbringer of anything good. ]
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[ Yuri's tail lashes underneath him, thwapping into Flynn's thigh. He glares up at the sky again ]
We have shit to do back home. Hell, I finally had the damn blastia. Someone has to get it home.
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[ Why try to become better if not to return and make better choices?
Yuri's tail hits Flynn's thigh again and this time, Flynn's hand comes down, trapping the tip, wondering if Yuri will notice. ]
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This does roll him half onto Flynn, which leads him to punch Flynn in the chest again ]
Man, stop it!
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[ He doesn't deserve to be punched about this, Yuri, rude!! Naturally, Flynn immediately tries to twist out from underneath him, shoving his shoulder right into Yuri's as he does. ]
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[ Well, now Flynn is starting shit, and Yuri pushes himself up to throw himself at Flynn, intent to wrestle him back to the ground. He reaches back to pinch one of Flynn's wings ]
You like that?
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[ That was certainly a yelp but it wasn't exactly a yelp of... pain? Because it didn't hurt, exactly. Well, it did, but it also felt sort of—well, it felt, and Flynn is wildly embarrassed now and extremely red and attacks Yuri with a renewed fury, going for the tail to try and distract from whatever that just was. ]
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1 / there is simply no way to know
2 / how can i, a little guy
3 / be expected to know these things??
[ —and reaches up at the same time on instinct alone. His fingers collide with fur and he lets out a surprised yelp of his own, tumbling back into the grass with the cat still clinging to his chest, puffed-up and attached by the claws. ]
4 / okay it's 4
It can't be. But... ]
...did you just turn into a cat?
oh wow 1/
But then the pain is gone and strong hands are in his fur and Flynn is staring at him and his voice sounds sharp and clear and Yuri tries to step back, but his claws are stuck and ]
2/ how could anyone have suspected
He pulls his hands (paws?!) back away from Flynn, trying to get them out of his shirt, but he doesn't know how they work, and it's a lot of tugging and pulling and he has paws what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck ]
3/ i for one had no idea
He tries to find his tongue, but it feels weird in his mouth, behind weird, sharp teeth and different lips and he lifts a
handpaw to try and touch his face, but that doesn't do anything because his paws are covered in fur, but his paw does touch a whisker and that feels weird and he lets out a low whine because he doesn't know what's happening. He doesn't know what's happening and now he's a fucking cat ]4/4 that mine would also be 4
Fuck, what the fuck, fuck fuck. [ He says, but out loud, Flynn can only hear: ] Meow, mrow, mow, meow.
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You really are a cat!
[ This time, he has the grace not to immediately reach for Yuri, though literally everything in him wants to do it. He has to press his hands into the grass to stop from grabbing for him when he gets closer. Yuri hates being touched out of nowhere, and he's clearly upset right now, if all the meowing is any indication.
Flynn should probably stop smiling. ]
You're okay, you're just smaller. Can you... understand me, still? Or change back?
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Don't you think I would turn back if I could?! [ He says, but, again, only meows come out. And, to be fair, he hasn't exactly calmed down enough to try. There has to be a way. It can't be a one-way thing, right? He can't have to marry someone like Flynn did, that makes no sense, but he also doesn't know any stories about people who turn into cats.
Maybe this is how that cat village happened. Maybe he is stuck, maybe he is one of them now. He lets out a low yowl, pacing again, trying to think ]
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There's only one thing to do, and that's settle into the grass and hold a hand out for Yuri when he comes close again. ]
We'll figure this out, alright? You helped me turn back, we can figure out how to turn you back, but panicking isn't going to fix anything. I won't leave you like this even though you're very cute.
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He takes a deep breath, and lets it out as a huff, sitting in front of Flynn. He stares up at Flynn, his tail curling around his paws, but the tip still flicking. He has to figure out how to get back ]
I can't believe I'm a fucking cat.
[ But that doesn't matter. What matters is figuring out how to change back. He changed into a cat when Flynn grabbed his tail. It lashes more against the ground. Maybe if he does that again, he'll be back?
He gets up again and turns around, offering Flynn his tail ]
Grab it.
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It's just that Flynn has no idea what that thing might be. ]
This would be a lot easier if you could talk.
[ Does he. Want Flynn to...
Slowly, Flynn reaches out, unsure but unwilling to do nothing, and...
scratches at the spot at the base of his tail that most cats seem to really like. ]
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but is weird. That's fucking weird, and Yuri twists around and bats at Flynn's hand with claws outstretched ]
Not what I meant! Fuck.
[ It certainly would be easier if Flynn could understand him, but that isn't the life they're living right now. ]
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