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

[vibing]

[ Yuri turns back to him and stares at him impassively. ]

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 ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Flynn is not exactly a cat expert but he is sort of a Yuri expert and it's very clear that Yuri can in fact understand him and is very upset. Which is fair. Flynn was also very upset when he'd turned tiny earlier today.

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.

[vibing]

[ Yuri isn't panicking. Yuri doesn't panic. But he is on edge and freaking out and he pads over to Flynn with another growl, not aimed at Flynn, but at everything that's happening.

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.

[thinkfirst]

[ This gets weirder and weirder. Flynn stares blankly down at him for a solid ten seconds, uncomprehending. Yuri is... waving his tail, looking over his shoulder pointedly like he expects Flynn to do something.

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. ]

[vibing]

[ That is not what he meant at all, but he can't stop it right away because it feels really good. His tail goes up of its own accord, claws digging into the soft earth and damn, that feels really good--

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. ]

[thinkfirst]

Ow—Yuri! I'm trying, here!

[ Mean! Yuri definitely drew blood, and Flynn lifts his hand to his mouth to suck it off, glaring down at his cattified best friend. Obviously he doesn't want to be pet, but him getting angry isn't helping anything, and getting angry was what did this in the first place.

Before he can think better of it (and before Yuri can really pinpoint what he's doing, hopefully) he reaches down with both hands to scoop Yuri right up off the ground. ]

[vibing]

[ Yuri lets out a yelp when he does, and grabs onto him-- but he grabs on with claws, clinging to Flynn's arm because wow the ground is far away now. He sure is small like this. He's small, and he doesn't want to be, and suddenly the black house cat Flynn is holding turns into a panther, as big as Flynn himself is, if not bigger, and the pair of them tumble to the ground under Yuri's new weight ]

[thinkfirst]

[ A little undignified, maybe, for Flynn to yelp as he goes slamming back into the grass but in his defense, Yuri just turned into a giant cat and that's kind of alarming. He goes from having his hands under Yuri's furry armpits to having his arms wrapped around a massive panther torso and he sort of... freezes like that. ]

[vibing]

[ Yuri stares down at him, hot breath spilling over Flynn's face, his paws heavy on Flynn's shoulders-- hold on, paws? Those are way bigger paws. Yuri blinks at them, and makes a sound of confusion before stepping back off of Flynn, half rolling onto his back to get a better look at himself. Still a cat, but-- not? Different? So he changed, but not back to himself.

He groans and his lashes into the grass ]

[thinkfirst]

You're a... lion?

[ No, that's not right. Flynn should probably know better than to shuffle after Yuri on his knees, or to reach out to smooth a hand down the muscular edge of his shoulder, furry and warm, but he sure does do that. ]

That's progress! You changed into this, so you must be able to change back. What were you doing?