April-May 2024 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

April-May 2024 TDM

Introduction

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This Test Drive meme is open to all.
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 and work like "mini-events". For new players and characters, you can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Current players are also allowed to have in-game characters post to the TDM so long as they mark their top levels ‘Current Character.’

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

Playing and interacting with the 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 always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!


🦊 New Star Children meet the Fox still in their worlds, and she brings them into the new realm of Folkmore. As you follow her, your body begins to change and new characteristics emerge. These may stay for a while, or perhaps they will hide away after. And during all of this, the Fox explains to you where you will be going: to Folkmore.

and then... you fall like a shooting star, falling to the land in a burst of starlight.


🦊 Experienced Star Children are already familiar with this time of the month. There are shooting stars all across the sky, and some fall to the land, which means the Fox has brought new arrivals. These newly arrived Star Children will face some tests, but Thirteen wants the more seasoned residents to participate as well.

Perhaps you follow the falling stars on your own, or perhaps the Fox simply teleports you there, but it appears you too will be part of this.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

Lost & Found . ★

Content Warnings: Forced Relocation, Forced Sharing, Potential Violence & Harm

New Star Children arrive in Wintermute. Not at the hot springs, the school, or anywhere else near civilization. They arrive in the middle of white, snowy nowhere. The good news is that Wintermute is no longer dark twenty-four seven. There is enough light to avoid crevasses, blocked up wells, and other dangerous features of the landscape. Further, no one is expected to figure out how to get out of there on their own.

Usually Thoth finds the lost travelers in the cold expanse of Wintermute. However, she's busy exploring the multiverse for new and interesting ideas for technology. Not to fret! She hasn't abandoned ye who've entered here. There's a new emergency lost and found network:

The Wandering Dog food carts are now open twenty-four seven! The dogs work in shifts, but the food remains as delicious as ever. When a Star Child gets lost in Wintermute, another Star Child will happen to be buying food from a Wandering Dog somewhere in Folkmore. One such lucky unlucky Star Child gets transported to the School of Thoth. Specifically, to where the mechanical sled dogs hang out. They receive a warm winter coat over whatever they were wearing and another one on hand for whoever they are rescuing. Then it's off across the snow! Don't worry, non-mushing experts, the dogs know what they're doing and lead the sled right to the designated lost Star Child.

The rescuee gets to lay in the sled for the ride back, wrapped up warm and cozy in their new winter coat (it may be spring, but it's always cold in Wintermute). The sled dogs bring Star Children back to the hot springs, so that they can warm up even more. Alternatively, Star Children can explore the Cutting Edge, the School of Thoth, or something else in Wintermute. However, the Star Children cannot part ways or leave Wintermute immediately.

The sled dogs, yes the whole team, will stay with the pair to enforce this. They may surround the pair like a pack, cuddle pile on top of them, or lay around the edges of a hot spring. No matter how long it takes to realize the dogs are doing this and that there's a reason for it, Star Children will eventually find instructions in one of the dogs' collars: Share something that other people have refused to listen to you about. Everyone ought to be listened to.

Only once both Star Children have shared something with each other will the dogs let them part ways and see, perhaps, the rest of Folkmore.

On the walk to Akhlut Station, Star Children will see plain weapons sticking out of the snow: swords, guns, knives. These are simple, non-magical practical weapons. Experienced Star Children may know to suspect such free offerings, but nothing immediately happens upon picking one up. However, once on the train, the train will be attacked by frost spirits. These icy spirits must either be hacked to pieces until they can no longer reform or melted with fire. Innocent passengers who didn't pick up a weapon may be forced to get involved, but the frost spirits will be most focused on those who picked up weapons.

• New Star Children arrive in remote areas of Wintermute.
• Star Children buying food from The Wandering Dog get teleported to the School of Thoth to rescue people with a team of sled dogs.
• Star Children get amazing new winter coats!
• Star Children cannot part ways until they share something others have refused to listen to! The dogs enforce this.
• Simple, non-magical weapons stick out of the snow on the way to the train station.
• Anyone who picks up one of those weapons will see their train get attacked by frost spirits.

No Dumb Ideas . ★

Content Warnings: Potential Forced Participation, Potential Harm

Thoth has been listening to any and all ideas people have had around science in the last few months. Whether they were shower thoughts or a discussion between scientific colleagues or anywhere in between, she's made her list and built every one as an experiment. On a human scale. A human test subject scale. Because every idea has merit. That's right: Thoth believes in you.

Posters saying Thoth Needs You! go up around Folkmore. They offer a reward for participating in an experiment. Simply tear off a piece of paper from the bottom of the poster, and at some point in the future, you're in. Now, there might be a little hiccup here or there. These posters are experimental too! So some Star Children who don't tear off a slip might get pulled into an experiment as well. (Who said Thirteen ought to recruit for her trials? Thoth listened… or she tried.) Oh well, at least it's all in the name of science!

Perhaps Star Children need to sing Baby It's Cold Outside to convince the other to stay (it really will be cold outside). Perhaps they have a choice of spinners, buttons, levers, or other devices to interact with. Perhaps they make their way through a maze. Perhaps they try a new contraption. Perhaps they even recognize their own idea come to life! There's a multitude of new tech to try, and it has not been safety tested.

Nothing will explode. Probably. Maybe. Okay, some experiments are definitely going to have explosions. How about pressing that button anyway and finding out if it's this one?

Once Star Children survive the experiment—and they will, Thoth may be a loose cannon of a scientist, but she's ensured that much—they will emerge from one of the School of Thoth's laboratories. Togo, the grey wolf mascot, waits on the other side with an item for each test subject: an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item.

No one is left to the cold to fend for themselves. One of the nearby classrooms has been set up as a first aid center. Dog spirits of all sizes, from the smallest Maltipoo spirit to the largest Great Dane spirit, staff a healing clinic and will treat any injuries Star Children received in the experiments (or already sported). They offer hot lemonade—lemon juice, molasses, and hot water—to everyone to warm their soul. Injured Star Children can find a corner to rest by themselves or company with which to discuss their experiments.

• Thoth has built experiments to bring Star Children’s ideas to life.
• Pick a paper tab off a Thoth Needs You! poster to participate. Or don’t. A mishap may bring Star Children there regardless.
• Do science! Be a human experiment! Maybe experience explosions!
• Togo, the Thoth mascot, will have an item from home for every Star Child who participates.
• Dog spirits man (dog?) a first aid center in a nearby classroom.

Comments

[unrival]

Ohh... that's wonderful. [She can't help but light up a little. What a charming dream!] You'd fit right in on the Boiling Isles. Lots of people have features like that, so just about everyone who knows how to sew needs that kind of skill!

[Hardly any humans in the Demon Realm, so catering only to them would put someone out of business real fast.]

[ruevealing]

Ah!

[!!!]

I had wondered if the Luz you named was the same one I know from here in Folkmore. That must mean you know my son, Hunter.

[unrival]

[Her eyes grow so wide at first-]

Luz! You know Luz? She's here!?

[And then wider still.]

...Hunter? Your son!?

[ruevealing]

[Now that is a very gay reaction. Rue likes it.]

Yes and yes! She has not been around for very long, but we have met quite a few times! From my understanding, her and Hunter knew one another back home as well.

[and just a touch more proud, their tone all parental fondness]

He is mine, yes. I adopted him here. I have been his mother for some time now.

[unrival]

[It's a little gay yeah.]

I-I have to go find her!

[She stands up!

....And then sits right the heck back down when the frigid air touches her soaked body. Cold cold cold cold- (and unbeknownst to her, several of the dogs guarding the perimeter stand up when she does, ready to stop an escape attempt.)]

U-um... maybe you... should tell me more, first...

[ruevealing]

[Rue refrains from outright laughing at her, even though that was very darling to watch.]

Of course! What is it that you might like to know?

[unrival]

[She should probably be asking about the world in general next - she really does have plenty - but the idea of Hunter, Hunter being adopted, is... wow.

....

No, no! It's none of her business! Actual questions first. She is being responsible.]

What are the trials like? Is it dangerous? ...Is Luz okay?

[ruevealing]

[and she gets right into it. oh boy.]

Well - [Rue settles back into the water, trying to even think of how best to describe the variety of trials they have been put through these last eight months.]

Each one is very different. Some have put us into physical danger, others are a test of mental fortitude, and some seem to be simply excuses for fun.

[unrival]

[She's a studious child, she must LEARN.]

That is a wide range... [Kind of hard to prepare for that, hmm.] I guess I'll have to be flexible.

[You can practically hear the gears turning.]

Do you know what abomination slime is?

[ruevealing]

[brilliant girl!!!]

Flexibility does seem to be a trait that Thirteen would like us all to have in common.

[Going from a jaunty little trip to Tides to a Fae Slaughter sure has kept everyone on their toes.]

I have not! Is it some type of Jell-O?

[unrival]

[Oh well, it was worth a shot.]

I don't know what "jello" is. This is a special kind of slime in the Demon Realm. Abomination witches can control it. If this place is dangerous, I'll need to find some. [Hmm, hmm.] That would have been my next question...

[She'll have to think of something else, then.]

[ruevealing]

Oh! [That sounds absolutely nothing like jello!!]

You are a witch then, like Hunter?

[unrival]

Oh, yes. [She lifts her hands to touch lightly at her pointed ears.] See? Witch.

[ruevealing]

I see! Are there any other identifying features? It is a fairly common trait among the fae to have pointed ears as well.

[unrival]

Well... outwardly, probably not. We have a bile sac attached to our hearts that lets us use natural magic, so seeing how we cast it might be the way to tell. We use spell circles.

[She raises her hand and draws a small magenta circle in the air, and it manifests into a little ball of light that floats above the bath.]

[ruevealing]

[Witch biology lesson! A bile sac sounds absolutely horrifying and Rue is here for it.]

How fascinating! I had no idea! For myself and other fae, our magic comes straight from the Feywild, our home realm, which means it is possible to disconnect a fae completely from the source of their magic. How convenient to always have that source within reach.

[unrival]

[Like many things on the Boiling Isles, horrifying is so very normal.

And she blinks at them for that one.]

Fae... as in fairy?

[They sure don't look like one!]

[ruevealing]

[Rue has learned long learned that! They used to spend so many hours listening to Eda tell tales of the Boiling Isles, what a frightening place.]

Oh yes, forgive me. I am of the fae realm, a faerie. I know, an owlbear fae sounds utterly ridiculous, but it is the truth.

[unrival]

[Pardon her while she mentally tries to reconcile the concept of them being a fairy, knowing what fairies are in the Boiling Isle...]

I... think fairies mean something different where I'm from.

[Rue definitely would not fit in a pie.]

[ruevealing]

[Realization in 3, 2, 1...]

Oh no! Hunter mentioned them before to me! That fairies of your world are quite bug-like and are baked into pies, yes? I assure you, I would not fit in a pie tin.

[unrival]

Yes, exactly! [Thanks Hunter, for making it easier! That's new.] They're pests, they'll steal your skin and teeth if you're not careful. But they make delicious pies.

[ruevealing]

Your skin too! [teeth?? can't relate] How dreadful. But no, the fae that I know of are nothing like that. Neither are the other faeries native to Folkmore.

[unrival]

I guess that makes sense. I don't think Hunter would like a mother who'd steal his teeth.

[Then again, Belos. Maybe Hunter's a bad example for this one.]

[ruevealing]

[Oh, it's so bad but Rue giggles there, sliding deeper into the hot spring]

How terrible! I would never do such a thing. Especially not to my darling boy.

[unrival]

[D-darling boy...

Okay, she was trying not to pry into their business, but... she has to ask.]

So Hunter really is, um... a good guy, huh?