June-July 2024 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

June-July 2024 TDM

Introduction

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This Test Drive meme is open to all.
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.

Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!


🦊 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.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

Ghost Tours . ★

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.

• 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

Flames to Embers . ★

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. Confessions help 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.

• 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.

Comments

Shoto Todoroki | My Hero Academia | Legend

[icicleinferno]

I. Arrival

[ For as hot as it is, Shoto looks completely comfortable. He is, however, confused as to where he ended up. He chased after a fox, worried that she was in peril or something to that effect and now he’s appeared in the desert.

Where is there a desert? He didn’t see a portal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything does it? Is this the effect of some quirk?

He puts his hands on his hips and looks around, assessing. ]

Hello? Is anyone out there? [ His hero costume is pretty basic, a blue jumpsuit, white boots with light spikes on the bottom of them, as well as a utility belt and a thermoregulating combat vest. ]

II. Embers

[ Embers are nothing to be concerned about for the most part, and the smoke from them doesn’t seem to bother this new arrival, but suddenly some of them flaring into flame makes him react.

Shoto slides his foot back and extends his right hand, smothering the flame with ice. Perfect.

Or...not so perfect. The flame rages, the ice melting away in moments. His eyes widen a bit. ]

Again. [ One more time, ice covers the flame, this time he pushes more of it into the mess, making a decently impressive glacier. Too bad it’s not going to work. ]

III. Wildcard

[ Feel free to choose any prompt you like or come up with! ]

I.

[crystalmaster]

[A biker punk with angel wings and halo comes out from around a rock at the call.]

Hi there. Did you just get here?

[He seems friendly.]

[icicleinferno]

[ There's nothing yet to denote his designation, he's just there...lost in the desert. ]

Yes. I was looking for a fox. It might be injured or lost. Have you seen it?

[crystalmaster]

[Radley has to chuckle inwardly at that. But that's sweet.]

She's fine. She brought me here and others too. I know it sounds crazy, but this is apparently her world.

[icicleinferno]

[ Hmm. Her world? That's interesting, isn't it. Some kind of weird quirk of hers? That could make sense. Here he thought it had been an animal in distress. ]

I'm relieved to know she's not hurt. [ That much is true. ]

Do you know the way back to the main road?

[crystalmaster]

[Radley smiles a bit, but then shakes his head.]

There's not really a main road, exactly, but the only way out I know of is over there.

[He points towards the ghost town.]

There's probably others, but I'd rather just take that path and not wander around a desert.

[icicleinferno]

It looks deserted, like something that might be haunted. [ He pauses a moment. ]

Oh. Is this a bravery trial? I am not afraid of ghosts.

II

[mortal_son]

[ Qualms against using his power generally aside - his power was actually useless against all of these flames. He's not particularly weak to fire, but he's not strong either - and the blazes raging as they catch the place in an inferno, one by one, is far more than he can handle. Pushing memories of childhood firmly aside, he's just focusing on getting people out. (And said memories ... were why he had no idea that the fire couldn't actually harm him. He's not giving the fire the chance.) ]

[ Which is why he was alarmed when someone seemed to just - reach for the flames? ]

Hey, watch - !!!

[ And then extinguish them. Even briefly. Shinjiro's words dry up and he stopped running - when did he start running? He just watched instead as this guy tried building a glacier around the fire instead. ]

Is that gonna hold?

[icicleinferno]

It should hold and smother the flames!

[ Of course it would - if it were normal flames, but frankly Shoto's none the wiser on the fox's tricks and so he assumes the ice has smothered them, until the glacier suddenly disappears crashing in a wave of water. ]

I might have to go bigger.

[mortal_son]

Maybe. Or -

[ He hid his wince, tightening his jaw instead, coming up just behind the stranger. ]

- or there could be some kinda trick to this. How big can you go?

[icicleinferno]

Pretty big. I have a very strong quirk. Although you could be right there's a trick to this. It's not behaving at all like how I would expect fire to behave.

[ Shoto would know a thing or two about fire. ]

[mortal_son]

I only mentioned that 'cause a lot of stuff here aint what it seems.

[ Frowning a little, he looked at the guy a little more closely. Burn on his face - so he's got a pretty intimate experience with fire, maybe? ]

How's it acting different? It's burnin stuff up just like I'd expect it to.

[icicleinferno]

I'm not really familiar with this place. I lost track of a fox I was chasing and now I'm lost. [ Lost and confused at that. ]

It is burning, but it's not spreading, see? Not really. Not as fast as it should be.

[ Shoto can be oblivious to a lot of things, but staring at his scar makes him a little self conscious. He glances aside, tugging at a strand of hair as if it's going to hide it. ]

II.

[nonbinarystar]

Inanna descends like a shooting star in purple and pink light only to rematerialize into physical shape (and incredible clothes, if they say so themself) next to the new person using ice magic on the flames. Oh, they're new to Inanna certainly. Folkmore is rife with teenagers, so it's fully possible there's some Inanna hasn't met. However, the fact they're trying to fight fire with ice (something completely logical with pokémon) shows they don't know much about how Folkmore works. Ergo, new person.

"That will not work," Inanna says with an apologetic smile. "We have to burn through this fire's magic, and its magic displays memories. If we share something the other doesn't know, it will use some of its fuel."

They give a curtsy, despite the lack of a skirt. "I'm Inanna, the goddess of love, sex, beauty, desire, and war. The whole package, you could say."

Sure enough, the flames show Inanna performing as a god, the whole room filled with pink purple magic. Fortunately the memory is hazy enough that it suggests the sexual details without filling in all the details. Inanna was busy performing, not taking part in them, after all.

[icicleinferno]

Shoto tilts his head slightly as he looks at Inanna with a curious expression. They've come out of nowhere, but that doesn't seem to surprise him. He's used to people coming out of nowhere, and showing various unusual skills.

They catch his attention first, but then the flames do. Shoto stares into them a little wide eyed, with his brow furrowed.

"That's definitely not ordinary fire."

[nonbinarystar]

Inanna nods. "It burned more widely before, so we had to face it time and again," they explain, "That's why I already know of it. Now it is mostly the embers, but it can happen from time to time." That's why they came over after all.

"I am from London, but I've been here a year and a half. Folkmore is an incredible magical place. I've seen all kinds of things, from dragons living under mountains to a floating island surrounded by water you can breath. If you wanted to experience new things, you've come to the right place."

[icicleinferno]

That made enough sense. Shoto pauses a moment before introducing himself. "I'm Shoto Todoroki. My hero name is Shoto."

The flames have him and another teenager dealing with some pocketbook thieves. He's using ice to propel himself while his counterpart is using some kind of explosive propulsion.

"I'm from Musutafu. I don't really know if I wanted to experience new things."

[nonbinarystar]

A hero name, huh? Not entirely like a god name or a pop star name, especially since it's simply a one name version of his full name. Inanna watches the flames and the hero introduction given. Crime fighting stuff, though Inanna can't tell if it's vigilante like some of the superheroes they have in Folkmore. Not that it's possible to be a vigilante in a world without law enforcement.

"Pleasure meeting you, Shoto. If there's one thing you could change about what you were experiencing back home, what would it be?"

Inanna hasn't known anyone who wants everything to stay exactly the same. There's always better or more or something.

[icicleinferno]

"I..." Shoto looks a little flustered by the sudden question because what springs to mind is an intensely personal thing.

He's not one for avoiding questions, but he's trying to think of something.

"...I...don't have an answer for that."

II

[incautiously]

Yeah, it's not that simple, unfortunately. [The voice is coming from behind him and to one side.]

You have to actually confess something to make them stop. Doesn't have to be anything major, but something with meaning is always more effective in these trials.

[icicleinferno]

Usually this works well to stifle the flames... [ This is not how fire behaves. He would know. ]

What am I supposed to confess? I haven't done anything wrong.

[incautiously]

If they were normal flames, it would work. But this is one of the trials so it needs a different sort of approach. [He exhales a breath, eyes the flames.]

It's not about doing wrong, it's more like something you wouldn't tell people normally.

[icicleinferno]

[ Shoto just stares at Haibara a moment before he blinks slightly. ]

If I wouldn't tell people, I probably don't want to talk about it.

[incautiously]

Yeah, that's kind of the point though.

Thirteen wants people to connect and talk about things. Keeping it bottled up won't help you or anyone else.

[icicleinferno]

I don't think connecting with people involves telling them all your secrets. I don't remember reading that on the internet.

[ Keeping things bottled up always ends well. ]