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June-July 2024 Test Drive Meme
June-July 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: Ghosts, Potential Violence, Potential Death
Summer has hit. It's hot, and nowhere is it hotter than Cruel Summer. Naturally, new Star Children arrive in Cruel Summer with no indication of which direction to go to escape, unless they're so lucky as to arrive near the Selkie River. The water provides a break, and a selkie skin will protect Star Children from the heat. Though beware the cruelty of leaving a selkie without their skin. Along with the heat, Star Children can hear whispers and the echoes of screams throughout Cruel Summer. There's no obvious source of the noises. Not the normal creatures. Not anything anyone can see.
Whether new or old Star Child, anyone lost, overheated, in need of a rest, or anything else will find a friendly spirit will find them in the sands, rock, or shores of Cruel Summer. They'll guide the way toward the huts found in Cruel Summer. These huts have changed; the huts are bigger and grow together, making them one interconnected twisting winding empty town. No one appears to live there. The wooden town is in disrepair, varying from building to building. Even so, they are cool inside, a welcome break from the summer heat.
No matter how one entered, even through the swinging doors to the saloon, that exit disappears behind Star Children. There's no turning back. The only way out is to explore the way through the buildings. This fact continues to be true building to building as exits continue to vanish. The abandoned town isn't as empty as it first seems. As Star Children explore the branching paths through the wooden structures, they see ghosts of spirits going through the paces of their lives. They're familiar to these spaces and interact with missing objects that sometimes shimmer in spirit energy.
Spirit Children may interrupt these routines to try to talk with the ghosts. Some ghostly spirits are friendly. They may interact with Star Children as though they're someone else, someone the spirits used to know. Others, like the bartender, may treat them like a new customer. Other ghosts are determined to stick to their routines and, should Star Children continue to interrupt, will attack those who disturb them.
These spirits may kill Star Children when they attack. Normal weapons won't hurt them. There are revolvers, shotguns, iron pokers, hunting knives, and other plain weapons around to grab in self-defense. Salt bullets and iron will dispel ghosts. These weapons may be grabbed at any time. However, doing so attracts the creatures in Cruel Summer. A blood red worm spitting yellow acid may break through the floor to eat or spray Star Children. An enormous coyote may leap through the window. Whether attracted by the use of weapons or passing by, any dangerous creature found in Cruel Summer seems agitated when they come near these structures and will attack them and anyone inside. They will focus especially on anyone with a stolen selkie skin.
Should Star Children die, whether to ghosts or creatures, they will not immediately return to life.Do not pass go. Instead they will haunt the ghost town for one week in the room where they were killed. Other Star Children may recognize them and work to snap them out of their routines. Yet nothing will free the Star Children's spirits before the week is through. At the end of the week, they'll come to, alive, in their bodies in the room they died in. Best get through and out of the ghost town before dying again!
A constant through these scenes are the spirits' spoons, visible somewhere in each scene. The ghost spoons are whole. Once free of the ghost town, Star Children may choose to travel to the Shattered Spoon Shrine in Never Fade to search for the broken fragments of any of these spoons. They are in such small pieces, however, that no Star Child may feed them enough Lore alone to bring the spirit back. Two or more Star Children may spend time in the Shrine creating and feeding Lore toward the spoons to heal them. It just may be enough to bring someone back.
Summer has hit. It's hot, and nowhere is it hotter than Cruel Summer. Naturally, new Star Children arrive in Cruel Summer with no indication of which direction to go to escape, unless they're so lucky as to arrive near the Selkie River. The water provides a break, and a selkie skin will protect Star Children from the heat. Though beware the cruelty of leaving a selkie without their skin. Along with the heat, Star Children can hear whispers and the echoes of screams throughout Cruel Summer. There's no obvious source of the noises. Not the normal creatures. Not anything anyone can see.
Whether new or old Star Child, anyone lost, overheated, in need of a rest, or anything else will find a friendly spirit will find them in the sands, rock, or shores of Cruel Summer. They'll guide the way toward the huts found in Cruel Summer. These huts have changed; the huts are bigger and grow together, making them one interconnected twisting winding empty town. No one appears to live there. The wooden town is in disrepair, varying from building to building. Even so, they are cool inside, a welcome break from the summer heat.
No matter how one entered, even through the swinging doors to the saloon, that exit disappears behind Star Children. There's no turning back. The only way out is to explore the way through the buildings. This fact continues to be true building to building as exits continue to vanish. The abandoned town isn't as empty as it first seems. As Star Children explore the branching paths through the wooden structures, they see ghosts of spirits going through the paces of their lives. They're familiar to these spaces and interact with missing objects that sometimes shimmer in spirit energy.
Spirit Children may interrupt these routines to try to talk with the ghosts. Some ghostly spirits are friendly. They may interact with Star Children as though they're someone else, someone the spirits used to know. Others, like the bartender, may treat them like a new customer. Other ghosts are determined to stick to their routines and, should Star Children continue to interrupt, will attack those who disturb them.
These spirits may kill Star Children when they attack. Normal weapons won't hurt them. There are revolvers, shotguns, iron pokers, hunting knives, and other plain weapons around to grab in self-defense. Salt bullets and iron will dispel ghosts. These weapons may be grabbed at any time. However, doing so attracts the creatures in Cruel Summer. A blood red worm spitting yellow acid may break through the floor to eat or spray Star Children. An enormous coyote may leap through the window. Whether attracted by the use of weapons or passing by, any dangerous creature found in Cruel Summer seems agitated when they come near these structures and will attack them and anyone inside. They will focus especially on anyone with a stolen selkie skin.
Should Star Children die, whether to ghosts or creatures, they will not immediately return to life.
A constant through these scenes are the spirits' spoons, visible somewhere in each scene. The ghost spoons are whole. Once free of the ghost town, Star Children may choose to travel to the Shattered Spoon Shrine in Never Fade to search for the broken fragments of any of these spoons. They are in such small pieces, however, that no Star Child may feed them enough Lore alone to bring the spirit back. Two or more Star Children may spend time in the Shrine creating and feeding Lore toward the spoons to heal them. It just may be enough to bring someone back.
- Whispers, echoes of screams, etc become common throughout Cruel Summer
- Huts become bigger, interconnected, growing together. Anyone lost, overheated, in need of something in Cruel Summer gets a friendly spirit redirecting them to these buildings
- Buildings will still be in some state of disrepair, but like a whole twisting winding town
- Insides are a cool respite
supernatural ghost spirit air conditioning - Only way out is through, no turning back, as the exits disappear behind you
- Many are friendly, but some are not. One can attempt to talk to them, but how interactive they are varies
- Occasionally other creatures from Cruel Summer may burst in and attack
- If a Star Child dies, rather than return to life immediately, they stay a ghost for about a week, part of the tour
Content Warnings: Fire, Coerced Confessions
Fire! Fire across the realm! For the second half of June, wildfire burns everywhere. While it doesn’t hurt Star Children, it can reduce everything else to ash: homes, businesses, gardens, spirits. The local spirits will be in a panic and beg Star Children for help from small ice mice in Wintermute to fennec foxes in Cruel Summer. How can Star Children help? Confessions. Anything the person they are with doesn’t know. The more earnest and meaningful the better.
When wildfire erupts and spreads, Star Children may stand in or in front of an area they want to protect and confess something to another Star Child who happens to be nearby. Their neighbor? Their partner? A stranger lost in a new land? These confessions simply need to be something the other person doesn’t know to protect structures and spirits. Memories related to the confession will show in the fire. The fire will fuel these memories until they run out of energy, dying down to embers. At least in that place at that time.
Should something start to burn before someone confesses, multiple confessions are necessary to catch the wildfire’s attention and distract it from the fuel source it is feeding on. Two or more Star Children will need to make confessions whose memories are shared in the flames. Water powers can also help quell the flames, but confessions are necessary in the end.
Once July hits, the wildfires are mostly gone, only sparking up here and there on occasion. In their stead are embers. They spark in the air like fireflies and fly around Folkmore, attracted to Star Children. These embers land on Star Children and make them glow. There’s no pain. In fact, the embers provide sparks of insight into memories, situations, and other emotional dilemmas that Star Children haven’t previously understood. Talking the issue over with another Star Children provides further emotional clarity.
Spirits are welcoming to both embers and Star Children. Confessionshelp Folkmore grow as well. Gardens bloom in beautiful displays. Crops grow healthy and joyful. It’s even possible to hear humming from some of the vegetables and fruits. The land grows with the Star Children. Anyone who lacks a green thumb can work their way around that with confessions! Save that dying plant and grow those tomatoes.
One time that a Star Child confesses, either to wildfire or to embers, they will find a jeweled box shaped like a flame. The peak of the flame comes off to reveal the insides. Within, there is an item from home. It may even be a weapon or magical item. Larger more meaningful confessions are more likely to receive weapons. These items may even be larger than should fit in the box or its entrance. Whether the box should only hold a single ring or fill the palm of one’s hand, these items fit. Star Children also can keep the jeweled box, and this one item from home can be stored within the box. Other items too large to fit the box will not enter it. Only the one from the box.
Fire! Fire across the realm! For the second half of June, wildfire burns everywhere. While it doesn’t hurt Star Children, it can reduce everything else to ash: homes, businesses, gardens, spirits. The local spirits will be in a panic and beg Star Children for help from small ice mice in Wintermute to fennec foxes in Cruel Summer. How can Star Children help? Confessions. Anything the person they are with doesn’t know. The more earnest and meaningful the better.
When wildfire erupts and spreads, Star Children may stand in or in front of an area they want to protect and confess something to another Star Child who happens to be nearby. Their neighbor? Their partner? A stranger lost in a new land? These confessions simply need to be something the other person doesn’t know to protect structures and spirits. Memories related to the confession will show in the fire. The fire will fuel these memories until they run out of energy, dying down to embers. At least in that place at that time.
Should something start to burn before someone confesses, multiple confessions are necessary to catch the wildfire’s attention and distract it from the fuel source it is feeding on. Two or more Star Children will need to make confessions whose memories are shared in the flames. Water powers can also help quell the flames, but confessions are necessary in the end.
Once July hits, the wildfires are mostly gone, only sparking up here and there on occasion. In their stead are embers. They spark in the air like fireflies and fly around Folkmore, attracted to Star Children. These embers land on Star Children and make them glow. There’s no pain. In fact, the embers provide sparks of insight into memories, situations, and other emotional dilemmas that Star Children haven’t previously understood. Talking the issue over with another Star Children provides further emotional clarity.
Spirits are welcoming to both embers and Star Children. Confessions
One time that a Star Child confesses, either to wildfire or to embers, they will find a jeweled box shaped like a flame. The peak of the flame comes off to reveal the insides. Within, there is an item from home. It may even be a weapon or magical item. Larger more meaningful confessions are more likely to receive weapons. These items may even be larger than should fit in the box or its entrance. Whether the box should only hold a single ring or fill the palm of one’s hand, these items fit. Star Children also can keep the jeweled box, and this one item from home can be stored within the box. Other items too large to fit the box will not enter it. Only the one from the box.
- Last two weeks of June, wildfire burns across Folkmore. After that, they are rare.
- Confessions can protect or rescue buildings, land areas, and spirits.
- Come July, embers spark across Folkmore like fireflies. They provide insight for Star Children. Talking helps.
- Confessions help the land grow.
- Confessions reveal a jeweled box containing an item from home.
Betsy Braddock | Marvel Comics | Myth
B. Flames To Embers
C. Flames To Embers (Confession)
[ she's from somewhere in Remender's Uncanny X-Force. or so not entirely decided. ]
a.
she smiles.]
It's good to meet you. I'm Sansa Stark, and this is Lady. The selkies are lending out their skins for a little while. So long as you bring them back, they'll be all right.
[sansa is actually here to track them if need be, at the behest of the river nymphs. they seem to like her.]
Do you have selkies in your world?
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[ For a number of reasons the idea of taking one, even if it's on loan, doesn't sit too well with her. She wouldn't begrudge another for taking solace in the relief from the heat, but she's confident enough that she'll find a way to survive. ]
In Otherworld all sorts of faeries and spirits exist. On Earth they're mostly only known through myths. [ So, the answer is really a 'yes, but it's complicated' ] I visit a lot of worlds.
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a telepath might notice that sansa's mind is closed completely.]
I've only been to one other world, besides this one and my own. It was an Earth, too. I didn't know they had stories about selkies, there. I suppose some of the sea nymphs are a bit like the merlings we had stories about in Westeros.
Most of the people here are spirits, except for the Star Children.
[her eyes shift from blue to grey, and she frowns a bit.]
There are said to be very dangerous spirits here in Cruel Summer.
[sansa had thought it was her duty to study them a little, but she's been putting it off. the dry heat makes her feel like she's standing too close to a fire, and lady doesn't like it.]
I don't know very much about them.
[something screams distantly...]
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Star Children. [ She semes vaguely amused by the title. ] Because of how we arrive I assume.
[ For a moment she smiles, almost like she likes the idea of dangerous spirits. ] I appreciate the warning. Should we be concerned right now about them?
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b. flames to embers
He'd actually been making his way to the hot springs when the fires erupted. He decided to follow the mice for no other reason than the spirits around here seemed to be more helpful than not. He didn't trust them, but they all had a mutual interest at the moment either way.
Rounding a corner after the little guys, the last person he'd expected to stumble upon was- ]
Bonjour, Miss Braddock. I didn't know you were a fireman-firewoman. Need a hand?
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I'm a woman of many talents, Remy. [ Gambit wasn't needed here. There seems to be little reason to use codenames in a place like this. In response to his question she constricts the forcefields further around the fires. Snuffing them out momentarily.
They'll be back of course. ]
If you have a suggestion, I won't turn it down.
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Reckon you tried the snow, non? No dice?
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I'm not gracing that with an answer. The spirits mentioned a... confession but I could hardly see how that would be affective.
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b
Who immediately tells her to stay out of her way. Honestly, with all the multiple universe shenanigans, Rogue decides it's best to not potentially get in the way of a very powerful telepath and telekinetic mutant. That is, if she's correct in her assumptions.]
Actual fire would've been to easy. [Rogue drawls wryly. It was good to see her, circumstances aside.] It's usually somethin' more here.
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She tossed another pile of snow onto the fire despite the absolute futility of it. ] You say that like you understand this place and what it wants from us.
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Her gaze follows the heave of cold damp onto the flames with a displeased sigh.]
Yeah. Ah've been here quite a few months. It runs on Lore an' magic. So the more you talk and socialize, the more spoons you earn and the better this place does. As you can imagine, Deadpool--not ours--is havin' himself a field day.
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I suppose it could have been worse, you could have said it was our Deadpool and this is all Mojo. [ Which part would be the worst of those two? Their Deadpool or Mojo? Now that's a real question. She pinches the bridge of her nose while still pointlessly flinging snow. At this point it's more as an outlet for budding frustration than an attempt to do much of anything. ] Lore and magic. [ Her mind flits elsewhere for a second, to someone who would absolutely hate hearing about this place, someone she's not going to think about. ]
Are we meant to social the fires out then?
cw: gore and violence. also red skull, so nazis.
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C
She can confess to save people sure, but she can't look at anyone when she does so. Even if this woman is encouraging her to do so.]
I caused my husbands death.
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She knows the conflicting emotions that must linger there all too well.]
A story we share. I hope the fires are satisfied
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Oh come on, how much more can they want from us? [She asks no one in particular just voicing frustration as it feels like surely those should be enough to do it.]
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[ Those who take bargains will always want more. She sighs and her British accent becomes even more clipped as she offers up more. ]
I used my twin to kill my older brother. I wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for him, but it had to be done. I don't regret it. I can't. [ the word can't comes out particularly terse but she offers nothing more there. The memory plays out in the flame, showing her taking control of her twin brother wearing an outfit similar to the one she's currently wearing. He snaps the neck of another man cleanly and then breaks down. That seems to do quite a bit for qwelling things. ]
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B for bobby ❄️
When he approaches Betsy, and was commanded to stay out of her way, he smiles. ]
But I can help. [ And with that, he reaches out his hands and forms an ice wall between him and Betsy and the raging fire. He does note the way she used her telekinesis and nods. ] Nice ability you have there. Are you also a mutant? [ Can't hurt to ask. The worst she can say is no, which isn't unheard of given this place's variety of beings. ]
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I am. Telekinetic and [she switches briefly to speak into his mind: ] telepathic. [ She switches back to speaking aloud. ] Are you a Bobby Drake?
[ Perhaps a weird way to put it, but it seems easiest to just get it all out there quickly. ]
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Yeah, I am. [ Pauses for a bit. ] Does this mean you know me in your world, too? [ She asked, so she really might know a version of him, too. ]
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She extends a hand for a shake and nods. ] We were both X-Men. [ Granted that team is huge and broken up into like fifty sub-teams that change all the time. She knows of other versions too, but that just seems confusing to add in on top of everything. ]
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C
He has plenty of those, at least.]
I was eleven the first time I killed someone.
[Several people, actually, and he's not really sure how many people he killed. It's nowhere near the most personal secret Quattro has to confess, but it's on the list. Still, he gets an odd feeling near this woman, so he has to ask. She feels like a Newtype, and quite a powerful one at that, but he's never been the best at sensing others.]
Forgive me if this is prying or considered rude, but, what are you exactly?
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She gives him pause at his confession and frowns. ]
Eleven seems like a young start.
[ There's no judgement, but a smidgen of sympathy flashes in her eyes. His question though gets a bit of a chuckle. It's direct, but she wouldn't really say it was prying all things considered. Besides, he's being pretty polite with the actual wording of it. She's definitely heard much worse ways to ask; ones that involved a lot of obscenities, fear, and shouting. ]
A mutant with telekinetic and telepathic abilities.
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[Quattro prefers not to speculate on what might have been. Time spent on regrets over the past or worrying about what might happen is time wasted. He adjusts his sunglasses, feeling a little vulnerable and exposed over that admission even if his face is still suitably covered.]
That's very impressive.
[And far beyond what even Lalah could do while she was alive. Telekinesis would have once seemed like a far-fetched dream of what people might be able to do. Quattro's seen enough that he won't definitively say it'll remain beyond the reach of the strongest Newtypes forever, even if he doubts he'll live to see anyone achieve that level of ability.]
Mutant sounds like an even harsher a term than Newtype. It feels a bit too naively optimistic to say I hope humanity handles that better where you're from, so I'll settle for just saying I hope it isn't going any worse than where I'm from.
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Not everyone can say that. [ She concedes. ] I'd ask about how it happened, but that seems rude when we don't know each other. [ Truthfully, the only reason she says it is out of some vague attempt at reassurance someone that she prefers to ask questions rather than simply take the information. It's not entirely the truth, but it does seem more prudent here in this place.
She bristles some at the comment on the word 'mutant' ] I happen to be proud of being a mutant. [ But that bristling quickly changes to a bitter sounding chuckle. ] I can't really comment without knowing how it's going where you're from.
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