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April-May 2024 Test Drive Meme
April-May 2024 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 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.
🦊 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.
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 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.
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 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.
no subject
He waves a hand dismissively towards the sled dog that Ryuji is already petting.]
If you like dogs so much, figure out why they won't let us leave, won't you?
no subject
While Ryuji sadly can’t speak to dogs, he does turn to face the little guy, panting and smiling happily from getting pet. None of them seem hostile, which is good. They all have collars, even. Somebody must have trained them very well.] Don’t listen to him, buddy. He wouldn’t know a good boy if it bit him on the… nose… [Trailing off, Ryuji finally notices the note tucked into the dog’s collar. He pulls it out, frowning, eyes desperately scanning the words…
Of course it’s in fucking moon language. Damnit. With a sigh, he reluctantly hands the note to Akechi.] It’s in English. Could you just…
no subject
Akechi tears the note away from Ryuji, huffing out his supreme annoyance.]
I thought that Shujin was supposed to be one of Tokyo's more prestigious schools. What have you been doing these last two years?
[Akechi was able to hold down his third-year studies, his rising celebrity, his work as a detective, and as a hitman, all at once. What's your excuse!!
But he turns his attention down to the paper in hand, finally giving Ryuji a reprieve from his glare, scanning over the note with a press of his lips together.]
Share something that other people have refused to listen to you about. Everyone ought to be listened to. [The note is flipped over, just in case there's further instructions or a different kind of puzzle to solve, but it's otherwise blank. That is all they were given.] What nonsense.
Ask them if they are waiting for us to talk before they release us. [Akechi gestures to the dogs again. Go on, Ryuji, talk to your friends.]
no subject
[Stupid sexy Akechi with his stupid huge brain. English is for chumps, anyway. Only good thing about English class is Ms. Chouno’s immodest neckline.
Ryuji pulls a face as Akechi reads the note out loud, the words having trouble sinking in. Share something that other people have refused to listen to you about…? What’s that supposed to mean? And wait, he has to share something intimate and vulnerable with Goro Akechi? He’d rather drown himself in eggy water! Even the thought makes him bristle. He can’t imagine Akechi feels much different.]
You fuckin’— What, you think the dogs are gonna tell us? Gimme a break. [At least they’re better company than him. Sighing, Ryuji turns to the dog he’s petting.] Or whaddya say, buddy? Hm? You won’t let us go ’til we talk it out, therapy style?
no subject
Spoken like a lowlife with no dreams outside of his own mediocre hometown. Not that I expected anything else from you. Thinking big was never your strong point. Honestly, neither was thinking small.
[Sakamoto would be the one to never once question where his future was headed. He was too much of a follower, always trailing after Joker's heels, yapping like a clingy pet more than an equal.]
I suppose we are stuck in a stalemate then, because I refuse to give in to the fox's perverse mindgames.
[so like, guess they will just die???]
cw: mention of violent death
[Yeah, they’re not getting anywhere like this. What does Akechi know, anyway? Ryuji has dreams. Ambitions. He’s moving away soon, taking an active role in his own life, getting help for his disability. He’s doing stuff! Thinking on his own! He’s gonna be able to take care of his mom soon, provide for himself, for his family.
And what does Akechi have to show for all his accomplishments? A bullet to the fucking brain, that’s what.
… okay, that’s fucked up. He shouldn’t go there. Ryuji feels guilty even having thought it.]
So you’re just gonna sit here, then? [Ryuji blinks, incredulous.] You'd seriously rather turn into a human hoshigaki before you tell me anything? [Sputters, exasperated,] Just— I dunno, just tell me about a bad grade in middle school or whatever, it’s not that deep, dude!
no subject
But in the end, what does anything of their previous lives matter if both of them are trapped here in the fox's realm until they attain these 'full potentials' she wants from them? Akechi's schooling and career and celebrity, Ryuji's rehab and future family, all of it totals out to zero evenly across the board.
They're both lost everything coming here.]
Oh please, I've never gotten a bad grade. [spoken like that's the most obvious answer in the world] If it's not that deep, why don't you start us off then, Sakamoto? I'm all ears.
no subject
[What the hell does Ren even see in this guy, anyway? Why’d he let him into the Phantom Thieves? Why the fuck is this fucking guy so important to Joker, that Maruki made a brand new world where Akechi never died, just so they could spend more time together? He doesn’t get it. From where he’s sitting, Akechi just seems like a pain in the ass.
But okay. He doesn’t want to start? Ryuji will pick up the slack.] Fine. I think math should be an elective. People refuse to listen when I tell them, but that’s how I feel. See? Easy. [That is so not what the note asked for…]
no subject
Ryuji's attempt at sharing something manages to get a laugh out of Akechi, a huffing, quiet sound, not the sparkling, melodic laugh of the detective prince, but nothing as maniac as his cackling in the Metaverse either.]
Is that your idea of a loophole? We both know something so inane isn't going to satiate our captor. Try again. Something of value.
no subject
[Yeeeeeah, he’s stalling. He’s definitely looking for loopholes. It sucks being the one to go first, okay? He doesn’t know where the bar is, and he doesn’t want to be the one who sets it!
But at the same time, he knows Akechi's right. Damnit. That’s even worse than having to share secrets and shit with this guy.
Deflating, Ryuji stares at his reflection in the water, turning things over in his brain, trying to decide what he feels comfortable sharing with him, but still falls under the fox’s criteria. He’s still absentmindedly petting the dog, like a fluffy fidget for his nervous fingers.] Um… I, I stopped workin’ hard at school when I joined the track team, 'cause I figured if I went international, I’d have a career all set. I could provide for my family. Then, when Kamoshida broke my leg, I just… never picked it back up. Didn’t feel like it mattered anymore. Just felt sorry for myself instead.
So? That valuable enough?
cw: suicide attempt mention
Not so much Ryuji's part in it - the fact that he was stupid enough to assume his career in sports would take off to such a degree that he dropped all pretense of schooling is the most idiotic thing Akechi's ever heard. To cast off hard work simply because of a whisper of skill? Somehow, Ryuji just keeps looking worse and worse in his eyes.
But to hear point blank that Kamoshida broke his leg? That's something new he never knew. Naturally, Akechi kept up with the news. Even before the Phantom Thieves started their crusade of 'justice', he saw the articles and interviews with that man. Heard about the revolting things he did to his students. About the girl who tried to kill herself because of him.
How the rest of the Thieves didn't want Kamoshida dead still makes no sense to him. If it had been his classmates, if he'd seen such a disgusting abuse of power over children by an adult, he never would have stood for it.
And now knowing he was the one who gutted Ryuji's dreams? It makes even less since why the man is still alive today.]
Hm. [Is all Akechi says for a few long, uncomfortable moments, leaving Ryuji hanging, before he finally speaks up again.]
Don't look at me. I'm not the one judging this.
no subject
It’s not like Ryuji never wanted Kamoshida dead. Ever since that bastard started talking shit about his mom, a part of him knew he’d never be satisfied until the fucker was dead. It’s a part of him he’s terrified of, but a part of him nonetheless. He wanted to hurt him. Still does. Because of Kamoshida, the one thing Ryuji was ever any good at was taken away from him, now only hurting him instead. Because of Kamoshida, his mom blames herself for ruining his life. If it were only up to him, Kamoshida would be dead.
But it’s not all up to him. Kamoshida’s victims all deserve justice, recompense for all the horrors he put them through. They deserve to know that he’ll live to see punishment, that he’ll lay awake at night ravaged by the guilt of what he’d done to them, knowing that it eats him alive. A fraction of the pain they’d all suffered at his hands. That’s justice. That’s what sets Akechi and the Phantom Thieves apart.
Of course, Akechi doesn’t give anything away. He barely even reacts to anything he’d told him. Frustrated, Ryuji groans, smacking his hand into the water.] Come on, dude! Throw me a bone here! What do you think qualifies then, huh? Gimme something, man, anything!
cw: description of suicide
He would be dead and she would continue living.
What greater justice is that?
But Akechi falls quiet as Ryuji whines, a hand reaching up to idly tuck his hair behind his ear, a familiar motion, something to focus on. Sharing anything real has been an impossibility for Akechi for so long. But then he met Ren, and no matter how desperately he wanted to see that boy crushed beneath his heel, he managed to coax more truths out of Akechi than he thought he had left within him.
So when he finally speaks, it is cold and even, but there's just no hiding the emotion that trembles in his eyes.]
My father killed my mother.
[A soft inhale, before he continues, as if even speaking it aloud after all this time was difficult still.]
He may not have pushed the razor-blade to her wrists, but it was his fault she took her own life. And not a single person ever believed me. Every foster home I was passed around to, the moment I spoke up about Shido killing my mother, about his association with our family, I was shipped out again, back to the center where they kept us dirty orphans rounded up.
Even then, when he was nowhere near as how powerful he became, his influence was so immense that a mere child couldn't even speak out against him without swift punishment.
no subject
What do you even say? What can you say?
Ryuji never doubted that Masayoshi Shido was a towering piece of shit. An evil, selfish man, who had no scruples about fucking over the innocent if it meant gaining even a modicum of power. Everything he’s ever heard about the man has been infuriating, enough to twist his guts up with rage, fueling his urge to get revenge. To make sure he atones for his sins and never hurts anyone ever again.
But this? It makes all his rage towards Shido feel impotent, childish, useless. This is blood-curdling. This fills him with such a profound sorrow, a desperate hopelessness unlike any he’s ever felt. No one ever believed him. That’s the most awful part. Akechi tried to tell people, to seek justice for the horror he’d survived, and no one listened. It was already too late, he was already all alone, and still…
What do you even fucking say…?]
That’s… [Even in the scalding water, Ryuji shudders, suddenly struck with cold. His throat is burning.] That’s awful.
no subject
As grateful as he is that Joker kept his promise, Masayoshi Shido still deserves to fucking suffer, every single day for the rest of his life.]
Obviously, [Akechi sneers back like he didn't just crack open his ribcage to show Ryuji his faltering heart.]
Now you. Do it right this time.
cw: descriptions of violent domestic abuse, child abuse, alcoholism
But it was all a facade. Window dressing, an attractive coat of paint over the towering walls he’d erected around himself to keep all the pain inside.
It almost makes him angry to think about it. Why didn’t he let anyone in? Why did he have to shoulder it all alone, right until the bitter end? Could he have been saved if someone listened, if someone believed him…? It doesn’t make any fucking sense.
Ryuji doesn’t realize he’s tearing up until he tries to speak, hearing his own voice crack. He muscles through the tears, the lump in his throat, doing as he’s told. Doing it right this time. If anything, this might be the one thing they actually have in common: hating their fathers.]
When my dad wasn’t beating the shit out of me, he was beating the shit out of my mom.
[He can feel his nails digging into his palms, hands knit into fists so tight it makes his arms tremble, muscles alight underneath his skin.] He was a mean drunk. Anything bad that happened in his life was our fault, somehow, and w-we had to pay. I watched him throw my mom against the wall one time, started kickin’ her when she went down. I p-put myself between them so he’d beat me instead. I was seven. [His breath hitches. He can’t look at Akechi anymore.] We did that a lot. Stepped in for each other 'cause we couldn’t stand seein' him beat up the other. Never told each other that, but… we knew.
Then one day, he left. Just like that. Like we didn’t even matter. Mom was in pieces. I… [Ryuji clenches his teeth, unable to continue.]
no subject
Akechi, to his credit - or maybe, to his shame - doesn't have as emotional a reaction as Ryuji does. His lashes do not flutter as he's fighting back tears, nor does he struggle to catch his breath against the furious beating of his heart. Instead, he simply sits there in the steaming pool and listens, arms crossed over his bare chest, as if he's right back in school, listening to a lecture he already knows every word to.
But even as Ryuji glances away, his eyes never once slide away from the other teen's face. Akechi faces him head on, the entire time he speaks, connecting the only way that he knows how.
By hating Ryuji's father too.
At least his mother lives, as haunting an existence as that must be. At least this story didn't end with Ryuji putting her in the ground too. It isn't a happy ending, but it isn't an ending either. There's still time.]
Good. [Finally, Akechi speaks up.] May he never darken her doorway again. Scum of the earth. Violent men with the audacity to bring unwanted children into the world and then punish them for trying to live.
[They all deserve to suffer. For every single one of them, death would be far too easy a sentence.]
Your mother - you have nothing to fear, Sakamoto. She's resilient. She's faced the cruelness of powerful men and survived before. You not being there to protect her is not a death sentence. She will be fine.
[It may be the nicest thing Akechi's ever spoken aloud and meant.]