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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.
Dee Reynolds | It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Myth | Current Character
A. Sweet Dee Watches the World Burn
[Some people might choose to do everything within their power to help put out the fires threatening to swallow up homes and bring harm to Folkmore's population. They'd hear the desperate cries for help and confess their worst secrets if it meant saving others.
Dee Reynolds is not one of them.
She won't do it. She refuses to do it. Dee's spent years keeping all her secrets and sins buried deep, has spent years numbing herself to her own monstrous actions, and to the actions of others. She's worked hard to try and create a (false) version of herself, in Folkmore, who is normal and kind, and whatever else she believes people want her to be. And Thirteen is trying so goddamn hard to ruin this for her. So. Goddamn. Hard.
A huddled family of tiny bird people -- the largest bird's wings spread out to protect the other three -- foolishly approach Dee, begging her to confess and save their home.]
Save it yourself! [She screams at them, furiously thrusting her finger at the burning building beside her.] I'm not doing shit, you goddamn assholes!
[One of the critters dares to speak to her again, his voice low and trembling. He tells her all she has to do is make one confession and they'll be grateful, and Dee responds as any normal person would: by snatching up a broken piece of wood and swinging it at them. Thankfully, the blow doesn't connect, but it does force them all to stumble backward and scatter, screeching in horror.]
That goddamn bitch can burn this entire fucking place down, for all I care. Maybe if no one confesses, she'll finally figure out she can't force people to do things they don't want to do!
[If you don't catch her at this moment, you might catch her later, sitting on a smooth, grey rock with one leg crossed over the other. She's watching a building burn and... filing her claws. Wow.
And she does not look like she gives a shit at all.]
Move along, dick. I don't want to hear your sob story. Okay?
B. Sweet Dee Commits Theft
[Still refusing to confess, Sweet Dee purposely walks through flames, ignores cries for help, and actively bullies anyone who tries pushing her to confess. Dee has a real chip on her shoulder about the whole confession thing; she doesn't like being forced to do things, and by refusing to help, she thinks she's making a point.
She walks straight into someone's shop -- one that's only just starting to burn -- and then steps back out wearing a silver bracelet on her wrist and a necklace around her neck. Then she steps into another store -- one which has not yet begun to burn -- and comes out holding two bottles of tequila.
...Yep. She sure is robbing businesses, and quite nonchalantly too.]
Quick. Grab stuff before they get ruined by the fire. [She grins like this is a perfectly normal thing to do while people's livelihoods are destroyed all around her.] There's so much good booze in there.
C. ...And Arson
[Alternatively, you might find her... lighting a match and dropping it at the foot of a tall oak tree. As she tosses it, she takes a few steps back and throws both hands in the air, as though she's challenging the tree itself to a fight.]
You want fire, you bitch? Have some fucking fire!
B, here we gooooo
Just what Dee needed -- a guy in a fuckin costume and with some kind of device messing with his voice.]
You don't have to help. But don't make it worse. Put it back.
lmao this is going to be a disaster
And... God, she doesn't know whether to laugh or be afraid of this costumed fellow with his weird voice and his... hat. What in the holy cartoon fuckery...?! Is this Thirteen's hired goon? Does she have hired goons? Goddamnit, she doesn't know.]
Not a chance, Inspector Gadget. [Her eyebrows knit together, and she stares at him, bemused, lips pursed together.] This place is gonna burn to the ground anyway. Now, do you have a bottle opener, or...?
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This stuff pays for itself if you ask the owner how their day was. Why bother stealing it?
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[She speaks as though this is the most plainly obvious thing in the world.]
It's just gonna get all burned up anyway, so why does it matter?
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[The place is burning down around them, but the masked man is still holding them in this conversation, accusing Dee of being weird.]
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Most people would talk to the duck. [She tries imitating his voice, and then scoffs, looking the guy up and down.] Well, I guess I'm just not like other people.
[With a smug look on her face, she reaches over and grabs a third bottle, and is now awkwardly holding two by their necks.]
A
With that in mind, he dragged Dee forward with the Force, clearly having had enough of her shit. You know how he'd been fairly affable the other times they'd talked? Not right now. Now, Maul seemed just as intimidating and murderous as his appearance would suggest.]
You may seem scary to them. But trust me when I say I can be much scarier to you than you can be to anyone else here. So you're going to help out here one way or another to put out this fire. Do you understand?
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Go to Hell, dick! [She hissed, knowing it was a mistake. Was she afraid? Sure. But she was also furious -- at the situation, at the assholes trying to force confessions out of her.]
You're really going to let that bitch coerce us all into confessing?! Are you serious?!
[She yelled, punctuating her sentence with a disgusted, unfriendly laugh.]
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You can start confessing now or later but you'll be minus a few body parts by then. The choice is yours but I'm not losing my home because of you.
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[She yelped, her words a strange tangle of fear and rage. Her eyes flickered down to the orange blades, and she took a deep, trembling breath.]
And do not blame me for this. I'm not the one burning everything to the ground, okay?!
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Well, go on then.
cw: sex talk i'm so sorry
She crossed her arms tightly against her chest and tapped her foot against the ground. It was hard to focus while some angry alien bastard glowered at you the way Maul did.]
Okay! Uhh...I've banged plenty of dudes, but I've never really enjoyed it? Like, ever. I'm either bored, or repulsed, or both. It's never been fun for me. [She winced. And oh, look! The flames were starting to fade. She pointed to the burning building, the fire becoming less severe.] There! Is that good enough for you?
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B.
What the hell, lady?!
[Two folded white wings are sprouting from his back. Apparently he's a Legend.]
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What?! [She snaps, lowering both arms.] You got a problem, dick?
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Yeah, actually, I do. If you don't wanna help fix this mess, fine, that's your choice. But why actively make it worse for everyone else?
[He's especially upset about a fire, too, because back home, his rival's selfish brother blew up half the town when he couldn't get it for himself.]
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Ohhhh, I'm making it worse by taking things that are going to get all burned up anyway!
[She says, her words high-pitched and mocking.]
You wanna see me actually make it worse, bitch? Do you?
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[He really doesn't want to know what someone like this could do to make it worse, as he's already afraid of what that would entail. Ordinarily he might spend time mocking her, as he tends to do with bullies such as his rival Malcolm, but with everything actively burning, he really doesn't have time for childish nonsense.]
Look, this place is almost ready to go up in flames. I've gotta see if anybody's still in there.
[He heads for the building. He doesn't appear to know that confessions are the way to make things stop.]
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[Dee rolls her eyes and starts walking toward the neighboring store to see if she can scavenge anything else. As she walks, she cracks open one of the tequila bottles and starts drinking it.
Straight from the bottle.
What a charmer.]
Everyone needs to be a goddamn hero.
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C, hello from one bird to another??
[Without fanfare--but with a queasy twist of reality that might hurt to look at, like suddenly realizing there's another dimension of down to fall into--the voice's owner steps out of the tree, or maybe somehow around it, and crushes the match beneath the heel of one steel-toed boot. He's likely no one's idea of a tree spirit--chalk-pale, pointy-eared, dressed in black fatigues and crowned in spiraling horns--and flashes a positively wicked fang-filled smile in Dee's general direction.]
Not that she is an unworthy oak. [He gives the tree a fond, conciliatory pat.] Just unhallowed by her guest.
Amazing
[Dee just looks confused. She looks confused, and perhaps even a little horrified, because a strange person has just emerged from the tree, and he's talking about forest mothers and oaks and...
Dee is going to need more booze.
Her gaze flickers to the right, and then to the left, and then she takes a step back, before turning a full circle and staring and the horned, pointy-eared dude before her.]
I'm... I, uh. Want to talk to Thirteen? [This guy is definitely no Taylor Swift Doppelganger. Is he one of her goons? Goddamnit, she hates this place.]
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But damned if she hasn't handed him a role to play that fits him like a second skin, and it isn't lying to lean into someone's own mistaken assumptions about his authority.
He steps forward as Dee steps back, still smiling. Almost as an afterthought, a feathery saurischian tail whips out of--nowhere, apparently--behind him.]
And what would you say to her?
[His voice is still all wrong, echoing in ways it shouldn't.]
What is so important you set fires for it, hm?
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She still thinks he's some kind of bodyguard -- someone who steps in so Thirteen doesn't have to -- and the regret that she feels makes her stomach feel heavy.]
I would tell her she's an asshole. [She immediately grimaces; she should probably try being more civil in front of someone she thinks is a protector of the Fox.] And that she shouldn't be burning shit to frighten and guilt us into confessing our deepest, darkest secrets.
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I do not think she will come hear this from you. [In his experience, gods--and things like them--responded early or not at all to provocation. And since Thirteen hasn't shown up already...]
But there is justice in your claim. Wherein she is causing the fires to force confessions from you, she is wrong.
[The tricky theological bit, though: Was Thirteen causing all of this deliberately, or merely guilty of creating a world where fires sometimes need heartfelt confessions to put them out?
Not the time to get into that--thus, the careful wording.]
But is this, [he bends to pick up the crushed, spent match; holds it out to her between taloned fingers,] is this better? To hurt something innocent to get her attention?
[And worse: Fail to do so.]
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Her gaze flickers to the tree, to the stranger, to the tree, and back to the stranger again, and she appears confused. Her head tilts to one side, and for a second, she appears lost for words before she hesitantly says:]
It's... It's just a tree.
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