TEST DRIVE ※ 1

[wildestmods]

TEST DRIVE #1

These woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but being lost in them is pretty alarming to most people. Perhaps it's lucky you're hearing what sounds like... a party?

If you follow the sounds through thinning trees, a brick-paved road rises from the ground ahead. Keep going, and you'll find yourself approaching a bustling festival. Small, jaunty, colorful buildings line a way bedecked with flags, banners, and (of course) ever-present vendors.

Good morrow! Dost thou carest for a turkey leg? Some funnel cake? Modestly priced costume jewelry? Come right this way, dear visitor! The faire is here!

First, however, the faeries would like a moment of your time. At one of the entry gates, a spritely, brightly-dressed faerie tells you, "Tickets are long-since sold out, but joy is one currency we accept. So as long as you plan to enjoy yourselves, you may enter with a day pass. However, please read the sign. By entering, it means you agree to the terms."

The faerie points to a large wooden sign with words painted on it. The sign says something to the effect that the summer faeries are not responsible for anything that happens at the faire, and by entering you're agreeing to exempt them from indemnifying you for not offering the same magical protections they offer proper ticket holders in the unlikely event of surprise and disaster, etc etc.

Fortunately, it's actually not that different from a standard legal agreement for some kind of dangerous activity like go-cart racing. Of course faeries would be careful about any legal disclaimers for events.

USEFUL LINKS

Premise/Short Facts | Arrival/Welcome | Setting Background/FAQ


A FAIRE SHAKE

A renaissance faire is in full swing in the woods today, or so it would seem. But no one here is just playing a part: these outsize personalities, bright costumes, and pseudo-Elizabethan voices are perfectly real.

It's the only place you can go for food and appropriate clothing. Also there's magic at your feet, drawing you towards others bound by the Quest magic, making it so all paths seem to lead to the Faire. Even if you don't want to enter, it feels like you have to, like there's something important to find.

a) The Faerie Toll
Some of the faeries are lighthearted and cheerful, with round and heart shaped faces and brightly colored clothes. These summer faeries are willing to part with some faerie coin in exchange for certain actions. Anyone that watches others take them up on their deals can see that the actions are indeed harmless, and there is no catch. Apparently happiness and frivolity really can be exchanged with the faeries here. Ways to earn a small bit of coin: physical comedy, agreeing to a round in the dunk tank (yes they have one), telling the faeries a good joke (but it really has to be a good one, by faerie standards), letting oneself getting pied in the face, and pieing someone you're with in the face, among other things. Silly dances are also in high demand, especially ones with actual rules vs. ones that are made up on the spot, with a clear preference for moves like tiktok dances, the macarena, or the Hustle.

b) New and In Stock

You tried to steal from the faeries instead of paying their toll, or have otherwise misbehaved. The faeries like your moxie, though. They'll let you keep what you took (if you took something), but first you're gonna have to do some time in the stocks.

Will anyone take mercy on you and bust you loose? Does anyone have a tomato? Perhaps you meet someone else while they're suffering a similar punishment in the other stocks across from you. If you didn't actually steal, maybe you got framed. Or you're in the stocks with your "partner in crime" who you were falsely accused of being affiliated.

Fortunately, you won't be in there overly long. Even if you can't escape and no one busts you out, the faeries aren't particularly cruel and the absolute worst you'll get thrown your way by the crowd is a fruit.

If you push, the faeries might also let you out if someone else agrees to be responsible for your good behavior. This could, naturally, lead to both of you doing more time together.

c) I'm Just Here For the Turkey Leg
Wandering lost in the woods is hungry work. Maybe you know better than to eat food offered by faeries, but the humans of the faire should be safe enough, right? Where else are you going to find a whole turkey leg, a funnel cake, or a cold beer around here? The lines can get pretty long though, and sometimes orders get mixed up, or someone swipes what was yours! Maybe they bump into you and spill food down your front. Or perhaps you see someone with no money and decide to offer to share.

Some of the food seems out of this world or is clearly made for a more alien palate (not always in an appetizing way). Most of the food has big enough portions if you're not the only one eating

d) Surely, You Joust
Whether you're just watching, betting on the outcome, or have convinced someone to armor you up and put you on a horse, the jousting tournament is a major event! Will anyone be able to unseat the intimidating Black Knight? Have you started a rivalry with a competitor you just met in a line twenty minutes ago? Are you helping another member of the squad by pumping them up for their match? Or are you just over here to see how many horses you can pet without anyone noticing?

Even those not interested in the competition might want to give it a whirl. There are different rewards for unseating certain levels of competitors like food supplies, flasks of boozeahol, small bags of silver or gold, and weapons of moderate quality, like swords, knives, or bows.

For those that don't own their own armor and lances, some light armor and lances are on loan but the armor is all dinged up and the lances are easily broken, putting someone using them at a disadvantage.

e) Everyone's a Comedian
You (and maybe your threadmate) are being teased by a pair of funnymen doing a bit, be they jesters, Punch and Judy style puppets, or a pair of washing well wenches. The audience is delighted, but are you? What are you both going to do?

f) Wares, If You Have Coin
You're here! You have some gold! Time to get yourself some "period appropriate" (for varying values of both words) gear. Have you found a shopping buddy? What if you resell some goods you just picked up at a slight markup? Are you suspicious of the quality of a vendor's goods? Maybe this item over here is the last of its kind, and you and this stranger want it!

g) Stop! Thief!
Someone picked your pocket or snatched something out of your hands! It might even be your thread partner. Do you give chase? If your threadmate isn't the thief, are they helping you chase the thief down or getting in your way?

h) Archery Range
Are you taking the chance to start learning a new skill on the practice targets? If it's any incentive, several fair maidens and handsome young fellows are hanging about, flirting with the best shots. If you're already good, you might be competing in the archery competition for a prize! The targets are close enough you can make conversation with the person one target over.

i) Fortune Told
A stubborn young blonde woman in a long purple robe with a pointed hat - one that looks more than a little bit witchy - is determined to read your fortune for you. Loudly. Whether you like it or not. She has to demonstrate her skills to drum up business, you see! Now please hold your hand still, she just needs to get a good look at your fate line...

(Note: Players will have to npc the fortuneteller says in their thread and can go absolutely wildly wrong. However, sometimes the fortuneteller suddenly gets more intense and guesses a few things closer to the truth...)

j) Out of Water
You draw attention to yourself with your behavior, or by how strange your manner of dress is (according to the faire folk, anyway.) Perhaps you have a still-functioning small electronic like a smartphone that's unlike anything they've ever seen. People are starting to give you the stink eye or ask you invasive questions. Will your threadmate help you out?

k) Bargaining With the Fae
There are some faeries here that are different from the sunny, cheerful summer faeries running the fair. These are the winter faeries, more ethereal and elegant, more immaculately dressed in finery that's a little too fancy for the event. Despite their beauty - or maybe because of it - these faeries are...colder. Many of them are busying themselves with maintaining magical lanterns around the edges of the faire. If asked, they tell your character they're handling security and to bug off.

But some of them maintain stands in shadier-looking areas of the faire. They're willing to offer more in exchange for greater payment. Warm, durable clothing to cut through the slight chill that comes at evening and night time. Swords made of much stronger metals than can be found elsewhere, of better make, with edges that take forever to dull. Bows with strings that rarely ever break.

Their deals are definitely backhanded though. For payment, they might say something like "we could really use your view on something, just a half hour of your time" and instead of having you participate in conversation where your insight is welcome, you lose your ability to see for a half hour.

These effects are unpleasant but usually temporary, lasting no longer than a half hour or so - but it's not like they'll tell you that. And if you try to go back to the stall afterwards to confront them, they'll have mysteriously disappeared. You'll at least get to keep whatever your bought and it will be of good quality, but the joke is definitely on you.

l) Wild Card!
You can make up anything your character might reasonably see at a normal Renaissance Faire, or place an encounter in the woods nearby! Go wild!

OOC DETAILS
❧ This counts as a plot and is part of game canon! This means that new players aren't the only ones that can make top-levels. Current characters can be thrown in like it's any other plot or event. The default for threads is that they're game canon if all characters involved are apped in or already in game, but prospective players may opt out and consider a thread non-canon if they're not happy with it.

❧ Feel free to play around with powers. If your character has powers from canon you want to play around with, go for it. If you'd like to test out possibilities for game powers, also go for it. Feel free to change it up from thread to thread if you need to. If you want to keep a thread as canon this can be handwaved as the magic making characters' powers shift a few times before settling.

❧ Potential players may use test drive threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, and in quality and length (200 words). If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.

❧ Players can count TDMs towards AC, with the same AC rules as any other threads.

❧ The game is invite-only. Players without invites are allowed to tdm since some of them may know someone in game to ask for one, and since some people enjoy TDMs just for fun in games they don't plan to app into. But an invite is required during the apping process.

❧ The game is at a starting cap at 30 players. Right now the current number of invitees is likely to not exceed the game's 30 slots, but if we go a few over they will still be allowed to app during this first round. Future apps will be rolling apps and will have a wait queue if the cap has been exceeded.

❧ Invites at game start are limited to current and former players of the mods' previous game Piper90 (piper90), former players of the first incarnation of Wilderlands (wilderlands, and people friended to the main mod's plurk. If any of those individuals want to invite someone outside those pools in the first app round, they can request it when the mods make a headcount of potential appers. If the game will be under (or only slightly over) 30 players to start, some extra players may also be invited, but the mods want to limit it to exceed the player cap too much.

❧ The first game round will be apps only, no reserves. Apps open: 10/15/21. Game start: 11/01/21

Comments

[credit_not_blame]

The question gets a bark of laughter out of Stacia.

:No, I'm a big fan of letting other people remove obstacles for me,: she answers. :Knowing how to do things for myself is a good idea, don't get me wrong, but no one can be good at everything. So instead of stressing myself out about that, I like to find people whose skill sets supplement my own. Besides, how am I going to learn to be better at things without teachers?:

[hasapoint]

:Very sensible,: Need says dryly. Her Mindvoice, which sometimes is like the voice of an opinionated old woman and sometimes like the sounds of metal on stone and other metal, has a harsh 'sound' to it. But it also carries flecks of emotion and imagery, often too indistinct and fleeting to parse properly, and those manage to soften the impression when she approves or is amused.

:So, seems I've come with Kero's scabbard and swordbelt.: The imagery there includes a flash of someone else's sight, showing a tall blonde woman in armor with Need at her belt. :They're not exactly parade-clean, I know, but if you don't mind that, I can show you how to buckle these on so you can keep your hands free. Your options are to have me over your back or at your waist. Back looks good and is more out of the way, but it's trickier to draw a sword in a hurry without risking cutting your ear or neck.:

[credit_not_blame]

:I'll worry about parade clean when someone throws me a parade,: Stacia answers. :Though if you don't mind, I'd like to look into doing something about your hilt. The wrapping seems loose, and I wouldn't want to lose my grip on you at an inopportune moment.:

She considers a moment, but only briefly. :I'll go with around my waist for now. I heal fast, but not fast enough to overcome the sheer embarrassment of cutting my own neck.:

[hasapoint]

:Go ahead. Ideally my whole grip should be replaced sooner or later, but that's more of a specialty requirement. I don't think the wood's useless yet, and rewrapping will hold it in place a while longer. You'll be looking for twine at the least, leather strips if you want to replace the ones I've got.: Need doesn't bother insisting on the right names for the Parts Of The Hilt. She's not fussy.

She can generally manage to keep a bearer from slicing themselves up drawing her but it helps if she doesn't have to. :Good. So, while we're looking - care to tell me a bit about yourself?: She hasn't been probing, but she's still been picking up some 'animal' imagery, and there's an interesting sense of buried fury to the girl. Need can relate.

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia isn't sure how much 'tone' Need can pick up from their mind-speech exchange, but she does her level best to project as much 'impish' as possible into her response:

:I can do that. What have you picked up so far?:

It's even technically an answer, if only one that indicates that Stacia is capable of being a little brat.

[hasapoint]

:That you want to test me, minx,: Need grumbles, but can't hide that she's amused. :Fine. I know you don't really need me to defend yourself and you're perfectly confident of your ability to do damage unarmed. You come from somewhere very unlike here with different mores and you wish you were back. You're practical and flexible and inclined to work with people. 'Stacia Novik' isn't your only name, and the other one doesn't fit most customs favored by humans. You've got magic, or some gift in that family, and Mindspeech isn't an unfamiliar concept to you even if my implementation is different. You move in interesting circles, therefore.:

She'd lifted Stacia's last name somewhere in the prior conversation and can feel there's a longer form of it that she hasn't gone looking for. Need can probe into someone deeply but it's more enjoyable to find things out as they arise, it preserves a sense of mystery and engagement. Also. Mind-to-mind ethics, and all that.

:And,: she adds, with sympathy and no sense of judgement, :you carry an incredible anger with you that you don't normally let people see. You understand both that it can be a danger and that it's useful, too. So you're a little like me.:

[credit_not_blame]

Ooh, 'minx', Stacia likes that one. She giggles, and listens to Need tell her what she's already picked up.

:That's probably more information than I ought to be sharing without knowing about it,: she answers, more thoughtful than upset. :I don't suppose you have tips on how to keep people with more nefarious intentions out of my head?:

She finds a place to settle in for the conversation ahead.

:Without getting too bogged down in the details, I'm a shape shifter. I can turn into a wolf, and I can turn into an enormous wolf-like monster that walks on two feet. It's an inherited magic, but I'm the only one in my immediate family who can do it. We're meant to defend against things that destroy the world, both physically and spiritually, using magic and tooth and claw. Rage is part of the magic we use, but it can overwhelm us if we're not careful -- or sometimes even if we are.:

She sighs.

:Also, this is the second time I've ended up in a world other than my own, so as much as I'm trying to accept the situation, I am still homesick. But at least there are people here I know, both from home and from the last world I got stuck in.:

[hasapoint]

Reaction noted! Need doesn't like to use peoples' actual names too often, but she also doesn't like her alternatives to cause actual distress.

:Much of it's plain observation and deduction. For example, your clothing alone says you're not from around here, and you're here, if not alone, certainly not with someone right at hand. But you're not looking with urgency for your friends and allies to stick close to, and you aren't avoiding people or trying to find a way to blend in.: Some of it's absolutely skimming surface thoughts, though. :I might advise shielding if whatever you've got allows for it.:

Well, there's a lot of interesting information there. :So you're a kind of Changechild, but more literal than usual. Reliable shapeshifting is a rare gift, in my plane. Usually mages who try to develop it have... difficulties.: Mostly in that there's not enough space in a beast's head for a human mind, and spending more than an hour or so in animal shape at a time has some extremely deleterious effects on mental health.

[credit_not_blame]

:The way mindspeech works for us is either we've entered into a pact with a spirit that allows us to speak mind-to-mind with a small group of other people, or certain others can reach out and we have the choice of listening to what they have to say or not. I haven't encountered thought- or memory-reading before. Which doesn't mean that it can't be done, just that it's not a secret I'm aware of.:

If there is a Gift for that, it's probably not one the spirits teach to Garou. Memories are the duty of the Mokolé, and they're not about to share anything with wolves.

:Reliable shapeshifting isn't particularly common where I'm from, either. I thought it was all made-up stories before it happened to me. I spent the better part of the next day throwing a truly spectacular tantrum as a coping mechanism.:

[hasapoint]

:I see. In my experience people who're Mind-Gifted enough to speak to each other and read thoughts aren't uncommon, but strength and proficiency enough to search memories, or share them, is rare. More usually that level is found in beings who were created specifically to have powerful Gifts.: Like Companions and dyheli - angels in the shapes of horses, and psychic antelopes - and, of course, things like Need herself. :Though frequency of occurrence certainly doesn't stop whole nations from disbelieving in Mind-Gifts altogether, sometimes. So it goes with the more invisible Gifts.:

They have a moment of similar terminology here, she's noticed. Need conceptualizes the Mind-Gifts, the Healing Gift, and the variants of the Mage Gift as each their own thing.

:Oh, I can imagine. It happens when those Mind-Gifted living in those places where their Gifts aren't considered real awaken to them, sometimes. More usually the poor things just think they've run mad. But I would have thought shapeshifting is too tangible to seem a story.:

[credit_not_blame]

:The trick with shapeshifting is that it scares the witnesses so bad that most of them forget what they saw in self-defense.: There's more to it than that, but a history lesson on the Delirium and Terrible Garou Decisions can wait. :Also, we're supposed to keep it secret once we've found out about it. The short version is that it's easier to do our jobs that way, the long version is very long and makes me want to hit people who are long-dead.:

[hasapoint]

:Hmm. I suppose I can understand even without magic coming into it. When something aberrant and upsetting enough happens, often someone just doesn't want to think about it.: She knows the country of Valdemar has a system set up so no one living in its borders can think of magic as being real unless they're actively being threatened by it, and which also sets mages to feeling watched and increasingly agitated until they leave or go mad. That second aspect is the only thing that's kept the country from being taken over by foreign mages. Need disagrees with that whole system, but apparently not to the degree that Stacia does with whatever equivalent her world has.

:Not the most useful impulse, but people are like that.: