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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.
Clarice Fong (Blink) | The Gifted | Familiar
[ Okay, this is nuts. Clarice is slowly (actually immediately) starting to lose her patience with how the walls seem to be disappearing and reappearing around her. It's messing with her head and her abilities as she tries to open a portal to escape. Much like that incident back in Trask Labs, she can't focus. There are too many hallways, too many openings, and they shift constantly and it's fucking irritating.
She scowls when she attempts again, purple and pink light appearing then disappearing. ]
Great, what the hell is happening here? [ And then, she hears laughter and this further drives her up the wall. ] Oh, you think this is funny, huh? Who are you?
FLAMES TO EMBERS
[ A portal made of purple and pink light suddenly opens where your character is standing and out comes a young woman with green eyes and slightly purple hair. ]
Okay, I've escaped - Oh, you have got to be kidding me. [ Clarice groans after seeing another wall of fire before her. She knows what can expel it, having seen someone else do it earlier, and she's not exactly keen on it. Confessions, spilling your guts, stuff like that? Ain't for her, bud.
But if she's going to portal again somewhere and there's another wall of fire, it's going to be endless. So, taking a deep breath, she lets it out with a sigh. ] Alright, alright, you win. [ Another sigh. Here goes. ]
I always run away. I never face my problems head-on because why should I? It's always easier to just portal your way out, anyway. When I was 15, I ran away from a foster home for mutants and when I came back they're - [ Pauses because her voice is starting to crack. Grits her teeth. ] - Fuck, why do I have to do this? [ Closes her eyes, breathes in. And when she's done, her voice is more mellow. ] - They're gone. Pools of blood everywhere. Bullet holes, too.
[ She watches as that memory plays before her on the wall of fire, a single tear cascading down her cheek as she does. And then it's out. ]
OOC
[ only voicetesting but we'll never know! 😉 feel free to hit me up at
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It's been so long since she's seen any of them in a way that wasn't some fucked up trick this place was playing on her. She swallows and her jaw clenches as Clarice confesses. ]
That wasn't your fault. [ It's a miracle she gets those words out. And ridiculous that it's all she can really think of to say. She runs a hand through her hair that's grown out a lot longer than it had been the last time she'd seen her. There's also the addition of her pronghorns that she's suddenly all too aware of. If only she'd been hiding them at the moment. ]
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I could've portalled them out if I didn't run away. [ Regards the horns. ] Guess you're some kind of, what, deer now? Demon? Suits you given how you tore that airplane apart, right? Almost feeding me barbed wires? [ Canon point is immediately after That Incident. ]
[ She heaves out a sigh, hands resting on her waist. ] Can't believe that stupid fox brought you here, too. [ Said more to herself but loud enough for Lorna to hear. ]
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She clenches her jaw at the verbal barbs thrown her way but she doesn't look away. It's deserved. Not that she feels bad about the plane. There are aspects about it she regrets, but the action itself? Someone had to keep him from continuing his plans.
Besides it wasn't even the worst of it. She does however make the horns disappear.]
Myth actually. Fox makes us either Myths, Legends, or familiars. [ she rolls her shoulders into a shrug ] More like the stupid fox brought you. I've been here.... [ damn. How long has she been here...] a few years
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When her horns disappeared, Clarice just arches a brow, listening on to her explanation. Of course, she looks terribly unimpressed by everything, even when Lorna mentioned she had been in this realm for years. ]
Yeah, that stupid fox explained me some things. [ Gives her a once-over. ] You do look old. What are you, a granny now or something? Just concealing those wrinkles like you did with the horns?
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Maybe. I do teach at Baba Yagas sometimes. Got a friend that knows magic too. Maybe I'm learning. [ in more ways than one! Maybe... ]
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Ghost Tours
The voice is off, though, older. He wasn't the one laughing, but he did hold up his hands in apology as he rounded the corner. ]
Sorry to say, cher, I think we got ghosts, least I ain't the only one hearin' things.
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Ghosts? For real? What, you think Casper's just scaring people off now? [ Sorry for her sarcasm. There's no bite to it, though, just her typical quips. ] You been in this stupid place long?
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Just dropped in. [ And that pun gets a smirk. Dropped in, indeed. ] Just in time for the party, looks like. [ He inclines his head. ] Name's Remy. Enchante.
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Clarice. [ Extends a hand. ] Nice to meet you, Remy. You know, when we're not in some freaky place with alleged ghosts. [ Looks around. ] Any ideas on how to get out of this place? I'd normally portal, but this is beyond what I can do.
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ghost tours
( it's a cautionary word that echoes in clarice's head, a soothing tone to it, jean a little too distant to have said it aloud. she'd been searching for anything familiar as she'd walked, changing her direction at the emotional pull. a friend.
her steps are quicker to hurry over, to see what has clarice sounding irritated, and she's quickly scanning to try and find the source of the laughter )
It may be one of the spirits.
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You're the one who talked in my head just now? You some kind of telepath?
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Jean Grey. ( she offers her a hand, a gentle smile, not sure what her name might mean in whichever timeline she was from ) And I am a telepath.
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Right. Jean. [ Shakes that hand. ] Clarice. Would've told you it's nice to meet you, but you know, we're kinda trapped in a freaky hall of some sort.
flames to embers - this won't hurt at all
Circling back, she arrives just in time to catch the word 'mutants' followed by the horrific memory in the flames. Her landing's harder than usual, mostly because her attention's focused on the horrors of the memory. When she speaks, it's heavy with pain and full of low, rough anger.]
Who did it? [Not that she can get revenge on them here.] Who survived?
bring on the tears 😭
Sentinel Services. [ There's a bite to her tone there, as if she said this through gritted teeth. Her next words come out more mellow, though, if not lonelier. ] And no one survived.
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Part of her wants to be able to provide comfort to the other woman, but she's too angry for that.]
Do they pay for it?
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No. [ It was quiet, almost like a murmur, too grief-stricken to even add some bite to it. ] I was too late. I could've - [ She breathes in and tries to keep herself steady. ] I tried going back but I was held in a mutant detention center and I wish I tried to find them sooner.
[ Another confession that Clarice is almost startled to find the memory playing on the wall of fire near them. Her escape from the detention center, her hardships there, how she and John tracked down the foster home. And the fire's gone. ]
2.
sansa turns, lady stands. they both watch this girl and her confession. sansa's face softens, her eyes turning a deeper blue.
it's easy to think up a confession for the fire.]
I ran away too. I'm always leaving people behind. When I escaped from where I was a hostage, I couldn't take my handmaidens. I'm sure the Queen Regent had them killed. She already killed everyone in our old household––she and her terrible son.
[she smiles sympathetically at the girl.]
This is a poor introduction––to me and our world. I'm Sansa Stark of Winterfell, and this city is Tides. It's much nicer than Cruel Summer, where you landed.
[there's a pair of jeweled boxes where the fire used to be. sansa looks down at them.]
These are for us.
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Sorry to hear that, Sansa. It's just easier to leave sometimes. Can't blame you for that. That fucking Queen and her son deserve what's coming to them.
[ There's a bite in her tone because she damn well thinks awful people should deserve awful fates. ]
I'm Clarice. Thanks for the info.
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They did, but she blames me for it. [she offers clarice a weary smile.] I hope the people who murdered your foster family get apprehended.
[vengeance feels hollow to sansa now, as if joffrey's life could begin to make up for the ones he'd taken from her. she just wishes for the violence to end.]
Some people came here before they died in their own worlds. I have been hoping I might see my family again in this place.
[she thinks even the ones that lived would be better off here than on their own.]
It's good to meet you, Clarice.
[she gestures at the other flame box.]
That one must be yours.
[hers has a silver pendant with a powerful shield charm inside. she stares at it a moment before hooking it onto her chatelaine.]
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I hope you see your family again here. This place might be all sorts of kooky, but if it gets you your family, that's good, at least. I don't know about the people who murdered mutants from the foster care getting apprehended, though, since the government's behind it. Just wish they get what's coming to them, too.
[ Pauses for a bit, trying to figure out if it's alright to ask. ] Do you also feel that sometimes? Wanting to take revenge?
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Morgan raised a hand, mist of such a green as to suggest toxicity gathering around it, then vanishing. "It is not in my magicks to control or silence them."
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"Sure. Ghosts and spirits." Her tone suggests she's not really believing the whole schtick. "Can your magic, at least, turn some music up so we won't hear them?"
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"No, it cannot. I'm sure I've of my Sisters could have, but it's not within my talents or training." Morgan is more angry she can't control the spirits. Strange sorcery, too different from her own. "I do believe the more you ignore them, the quieter they become."