![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
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.
Tenju Yayoi | OC | Legend | TDM
[Of course she's following a fox. She's half-fox herself. Why wouldn't she? But as she does, the world turns, and now she's in some new hellscape.
This is what she gets for wanting to pet a fox, isn't it?
Still, she consults a strange device on her wrist, which projects... a holographic map of the area. Nowhere she knows. Maybe it really is hell- She knows she deserves it. Maybe it was just a sneak attack that sent her here, and now she's just going to stack stones on the shores of the Sanzu River forever now. She approaches the river, staring across it, and...]
... Isn't there supposed to be a light on the other side or something?
ii. ghost tours
[Having eventually been ushered by other spirits to the huts, she's... well, she's still pretty convinced this is the afterlife, honestly. Ghosts and spirits that don't know they're dead, an endless desert, the river... One of the hells was a desert, right? Still, upon entering the hut, she's not exactly pleased when the entrance disappears behind her. She spends a good amount of time futilely kicking at the walls, trying to break them down, but... No good, huh?
So, naturally, she's surprised when her beatings on the walls attracts monsters. As soon as Yayoi starts finding other spirits, a red worm breaks in through the wall, intent on devouring everything around.]
Of course hell would have demons... But no way I'm taking this lying down. Wild Change!
[Her form blurs, and a momentary darkness seems to replace her body with a strange, fox-like armor. She's... striding forward, though, apparently intending to try to protect the spirits from the worm. Do the spirits even need protection?]
iii. flames to embers
[She's staring at the embers burning around her. Emotional clarity is nice and all, but all it does is prove one thing to her.
So, other Star Children will see a girl with red hair and fox ears talking to the spirits. Her tail swishes around behind her in frustration.]
... Listen. It's not a 'confession' if you do it to strangers. If I don't care about anyone's opinions here, then anything I say wouldn't be a 'confession'. If you want it to have meaning, it has to be with someone who you actually care about. Otherwise, it's just one-sidedly dumping your own problems on someone else.
[She looks around, trying to find another Star Child around to provide backup. Please tell her she's not alone in this- She's not telling these confessions anything.]
III
[ Or the wildfires before them, but at least the wildfires don't seem too bad right here, if the spirits are heaving a rational argument with the girl. (humanoid... ish. She's got animal features. Familiar...? No, not necessarily. Looks - a bit younger than him
unless I'm wrong and Yayoi's more around his age of 24 my bad if so- His eyes shift from hazel to green as he studies the situation a moment)But Lex, with a sword on his waist, a backpack on his back (which also has a warhammer on it) and a smile on his lips, comes up on this situation more or less by chance. He'd been avoiding the wildfires, but now it's more embers in most areas, well. That's nicer. Even if that was him -- well, avoiding spirits dying.
Something to consider later. ]
I'd say you've the right of it, but it's also the wrong way to look at it. What the fire's demanding is emotional vulnerability on the part of the speaker. Ideally, to someone who cares or can care, but it's - well. It wasn't picky back then.
no subject
yeah yayoi's 18Who's this guy? Sword, hammer.... A fighter. Backpack- He's prepared. An enemy? No, he wants to help, it seems...]
Yeah, that isn't gonna happen either. Like hell I'm going to dump my shit on someone I've just met. These don't seem like a big problem, anyway.
no subject
[ He says to Yayoi, and then crouches to smile and wave at the spirits around her. These guys were dying a few weeks ago. He... was ignoring that more than he should've, honestly. He thinks back on that anonymous post a few weeks ago too. ]
It's a lot less dangerous looking now, for sure.
no subject
[Well, that has her attention, at least.]
no subject
Lo and behold, a little over a month later, a few weeks ago, wildfires broke out all over the land. Similar to last time, the fires could only be put out with confessions. The embers here are all that's left of the blazes.
[ And are, demonstrably, a lot less dangerous. Probably could still burn things if they got their ... well uh, lack of hands on it. But not killing anyone probably. ]
no subject
... Sounds like those mice are your culprits, if you ask me.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
i
[ Ken doesn't mean to pry, but if this person knows something about their situation, he'd like to learn. ]
no subject
... About the same age as her. Damn.]
Isn't it? That's what people talk about, right? You cross the river and see a light, or whatever. Or are we already on the wrong side?
no subject
Ken blinks. ]
I...don't think that's what's happened, exactly. It seems more like we've traveled to a different world.
[ He...supposes he can't rule out her theory. But it's an awfully drastic conclusion to jump to. He won't fret about the possibility until he has more information. ]
no subject
[She shrugs.]
I dunno, I'm not that smart, but if I follow a god's messenger and then end up at a river... Seems like a pretty obvious conclusion to me.
no subject
[ Is he the one who's mistaken, then? Foxes do have a reputation as....
No, the fact remains, they've insufficient information. They can't give up on being alive just yet! ]
But it's too soon to know for certain. Why don't we investigate this side of the river some more?
[ We're a "we" now, apparently. Ken isn't like Daisuke, who trusts without reservations, but two people in a similar situation working on the same problem seems more practical than two people going it alone. ]
no subject
[Which is why she can act so unbothered by this. She's mad, of course, that she could die without accomplishing her goals, but... After what she did, she can't really say it was undeserved.]
... Sure, but I don't know much about wilderness. I was a city girl.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Arrival
He finds himself on the bank of the river, coming up behind her. ]
Where are you trying to go?
no subject
Dunno. I always assumed you'd just know what to do when you got here, I guess.
Sorry about the wait, I've been sick.
Here? In Folkmore? [ Senku blinks a little bit. ] Not in my experience, but I can help you get around.
all good!
[Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to turn that name over in her mouth. A foreign word...?]
No, I mean... You cross the river, then you either reincarnate or go to hell, right?
no subject
[ It's not an uncommon misconception. ]
no subject
I followed a messenger of the gods and ended up at the Sanzu River. What else could that mean?
(no subject)
i
He lifted his muzzle up and there was water dripping off of the fur there. He took a few steps towards Tenju and spoke.]
A what on the other side?
no subject
She lets out a sigh. This must be one of those demons that torments the children on the riverside, or something. She's not even a little surprised by this beast's appearance, really.]
A light? Flowers? Visions of your loved ones who passed before you? ... Well, not that I have any of those.
no subject
He growled deep in his throat, an angry wolfish sound, and shook his head in response to Tenju’s words.]
I see none of that.
[He sounded almost angry about that fact.]
no subject
[Not that she expected much. Why would she? She's not a good person, she's definitely bound for one hell or another.]
no subject
[It puzzled Chirin to hear a river called that.]
Why would a river need a name? Is the sky and earth to be named next?
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)