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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.
Ghost Tours
Dusty and thirsty by that point, he looked about for anyone new he had not seen before in this world. He honed in on a nearby woman and came close, seeing if he could sense anything of the Force in her. "Did the fox bring you here?" There was no mistaking his appearance even with his hood perched over his horns. He was a Nightbrother of Dathomir, the pattern of tattoos on his face as easily read by another of his kind as surely as if he had his birthplace written there instead.
Re: Ghost Tours
clothing as distinct as the small marking on her forehead denoting her clan. All she had left of her markings, an incomplete story.
Her eyes immediately take in Maul, his tattoos, and her eyes widened just a bit, mouth moving just slightly in a surprised O, before almost immediately shifting to lifting her chin just a bit, hands clasped lightly in front of her, her mouth carrying a slight half-smile. "Maul of Mother Talzin. I am Morgan, of Mother Selena." Formal. Stiff. It's been so long.
Some part of her, forget hiding as Grievous closed in on her Mother wanted to pitch herself against the Nightbrother, demand rescue.
The part of her that has been alone all these years wanted to reach out and be sure he was actually real.
She compromised, stepping until his space, sure her status as Nightsister would allow it. "I was unaware we had a presence here." Her voice was softer, less sure than her normal tone.
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He looked back up at her and there was a genuinely small happy smile on his face, a rare one as opposed to fang-filled one he often showed when feeling cruel or antagonistic towards people. "It warms my hearts to see another escaped the purge." The fact she knew who he was meant she had to be after that time, for Maul's reputation had only grown infamous once he'd come back to the galaxy at large. Knowing another was alive meant Grievous had not entirely succeeded. Every sister still alive meant his failure grew and he hoped the cyborg abomination fumed in whatever hell he found himself in after death.
"I have good news for you. There is another Nightsister here. Merrin from Mother Talzin's clan. She escaped death as well." The fox had brought three of the Nightkin here to Folkmore now. What did it mean? Thirteen's motivations remained unclear to him.
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Of all the things she thought to expect - not that there had been many since seeing Maul behind her - a smile hadn't been one. She'd learned of Maul's existence only after her own plan had been set and rejected and abandoned by the Mountain Clan had convinced her not to attempt approach.
And Maul is talking, dragging her out of the past. "I have a sister who lives?" This is almost - almost - most important than having a brother who lived instead of equally important. "Where is she? Take me to her." Demand it was, a blend of rule and culture - she didn't mean for it to be, but she couldn't take it back. Still, she could soften the order by placing a hand on his arm, giving it an encouraging squeeze as she might when one of her younger sisters needed comfort.
She needed them to all be in the same room. Needed to not be the only of her kind, even if when the Fox had approached her, they were speeding to the Great Mothers who she saw in her dreams. It was different, somehow.
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He would forgive the imperious way she spoke given the news he'd given her. Had someone told Maul there was another Nightbrother in this place, he would have done the same thing to them. "Alright. I will take you to her. And while we travel, you shall tell me of all that has happened to you." He was curious as to what path this sister had traveled in her life once her clan was gone.
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She truly hadn't meant to snap an order - in her life, she had almost no equals she spoke to more than once a season, if that much since the Empire had fallen. And what she'd been told had rattled her, much more than she wished to let on in public. "How long a journey is it to our sister, to have me summerize thirty years?"
Maul could lead, but she stayed exceptionally close. Almost as she expected him to disappear when she blinked.
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Thirty years. He did the math in his head. She would have been from just a bit after the time he knew Luke to be from. That made her one of the farther down the timeline that he knew about. "I come from a point in time about three years after the war ended and the Empire rose up from the ashes of the Republic. So there is much I still do not know occurred."
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"I was just managing to leave our system then." It had taken time. Time it seemed to miss a sister who also survived. "I attempted to give my mother, my sisters, proper rites but the droids lingered, sweeping for survivors. The Mountain Clan who found me survived, as far as I know. Their Clan Mother demanded I be left behind - a few of us had gone back for weapons, just in case. But we were attacked. She rescued us but banished me." Oddly, even though she still felt abandoned and betrayed, she wasn't angry. She hadn't then either, just lost.
"It was the cyborg. Grievous. He killed my mother." Morgan's voice had notably dropped in volume, the muscles in her jaw clenching.
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"I had no idea there were other survivors," he admitted. He'd only found out about two but two Nightsisters left on their own after the massacre of their people was still two too many for him to be comfortable with. "Had I known, I would have stayed more on Dathomir." The droids would not have stood long against him no matter how many there were, he knew that much. Instead, he'd gone out in search of more power and ways to gain it as he always did.
"Grievous. That abomination," Maul spat out. "I longed to kill him and it troubles me still I was not the one to deliver the killing blow upon him." As usual, Maul wasn't very good at taking revenge for all that the emotion had ruled his life.
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"If I would have had any notion someone would have survived, I would not have left until I found them." She would have turned every ruin inside out to find them. As much as knowing another sister survived soothed her like a healing balm to a raw wound, it caused her to feel immense guilt and Morgan wasn't used to that. "I do have some important news, but I believe you deserve to hear it together. It was the mission I was on when I was brought here."
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"You have intrigued me," Maul said. He wondered what she had to tell them both, though considering what the topic of conversation had been thus far, he wondered if it involved revenge upon those that had butchered their people. Grievous and Dooku were dead but others who were just like them would still be active even once the Empire was demolished.
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Tired, overheated, dehydrated- none of those mattered when faced with this. Her smile was not kind, too sharp, too determined, for that. But her eyes sparkled with excitement and even something akin to joy.
Rarely had she ever struggled to keep a secret, and now she wanted to spill it immediately. But she also, selfishly perhaps, wanted to tell her kin together. Let it bond and bind them together.
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The idea that she'd found something beyond all that made him wonder just what it could be and how important it was to the Nightkin as a whole. True, there was only a few of them here, but somehow knowing Morgan had done something big felt almost more important because of that fact rather than less.
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She didn't know what would be waiting after this jump, save Thrawn and the Great Mothers but she trusted the Great Mothers, solely because they were Great Mothers.
Maul's interest in her words, the change in his eyes, softened the sharpness of her smile just a little. "Yes."
"It's the most important work I've done." And they would all benefit from it.
"Tell me of you brother, of this place?" This time it is a question, not a demand. "What else should I know?"
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"This place is not difficult to live in. Softer than some worlds I have been to, including our own galaxy. But there still remains trials and tribulations to go through, deliberately set in our path by the fox. And she makes sure there are consequences for us when we do not follow the rules and play her games." The disdain for the so-called god was clear in his voice. Maul was not happy with her for a variety of reasons.
Then his voice held a fierce note to it, full of pride for being a Nightbrother."But for Nightkin? We can easily weather what Folkmore shall put in our path."
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Typically, when walking Morgan's hands are still, clasped at her body. Walking without the counter balance unnerved many beings who observed it, even if they didn't know why and it made clear her level of control. But despite spending three decades without kin surrounding her, and only being around Nightbrothers who were very young kits or the rare mates with her sisters, walking in step with another slipped on her like well broken in boots. There was a comfort she had distant memories of, and it allowed her move naturally. His discontent was noted, filed away.
"Our strength is why so many view us as a threat." Her pride mirrors his own, she's well aware how they were viewed. "Could that be why she has gathered us here?"
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"Perhaps," Maul offered as a guess. Then he gave a less charitable interpretation of Thirteen's actions. "Or perhaps we are simply entertaining to her." Never let it be said there was ever such a thing as a boring Nightkin.
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"It may be useful for us either way." And she would use anything useful to restore her people.
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“If you have anything powerful from home that you wish to summon, I recommend interacting with others here as much as possible. There is a ritual to bring forth anything you wish but you must gain the magic necessary to summon it by talking to others.” The distaste for such a thing showed in his voice, but Maul had never been the most social person. Even now, it felt like half his interactions ended in threats or violence.
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She let that new information settle, worked it around in her mind for a bit as they walked. "Even magickal ones?" She wanted her spear. Yes she'd offered it to the Mandalorian as payment and she would have given it to him had he looked Tano. That didn't mean she didn't still desire it. But she also desired her bow. And her mother's blades. They were more important.
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He gave her a nod. "Yes. Even magickal ones." While he hadn't had to summon his own lightsaber, getting a lucky break there, he knew such weapons as that were something that could be summoned. If that could be brought here, he doubted there was much that couldn't, not if the person really wanted something no matter how big or complicated.
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"Good. I was forced to leave my mother's weapons behind when I left Dathomir." A lack of planning on her part, a mistake of youth and inexperience, and not one she'd make now - not that she didn't still desire to recover them.
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“Are you able to perform the magick of your Sisters?” Maul asked with great interest.
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"I am. Until recently I wasn't able to do so openly, but I've been freed of such constraints now." Not that it had meant others didn't recognize what she was, unless they were simply too young to ever have heard of the Nightsisters. But Thrawn had known, had understood, and awaited her with their Great Mothers, and there was something of a joy in it, or as close as she had felt since her Mother's death.
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"Sister Merrin is well-practiced in such magick as well and very skilled. I never had the chance to learn." Normally, males wouldn't have been allowed to learn anyway, but given Maul's strong Force sensitivity, he knew his mother would have like to have taught him what she knew. It would have made their clan powerful and strong to have him as such a protector.
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