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

[spktr]

[They will soon discover how different their pasts are, despite sharing names and other familiar similarities, and Steven is wondering if it's because he and "his" Marc are from an earlier timeline. Perhaps these are people they simply haven't met yet, people who they'll come to know better in the future. This Marc explained he's been Moon Knight for a long time, that he's been working with his Steven for at least ten years now, whereas this Steven has only known Marc a little over a year. Consciously, anyway.

So when Marc lists out certain names like they should be familiar to Steven, he feels a strange pang of guilt in not knowing any of them. He knew Layla though. That further tests part of his early theory here. Steven's expression is pinched with mild confusion but then he's looking up at Marc again, seeing that steely stare, wondering what the other is hoping to get from him.

He's probably going to disappoint a lot.]

Morpheus. [He repeats quietly, more to himself, wracking his brain for any lingering knowledge. Maybe that's someone Marc would know - someone he kept Steven in the dark about.] Can't say the name sounds familiar, but that certainly doesn't sound like a good time.

[To put it mildly. Steven frowns, looking ahead of them as if afraid someone will overhear, before he adds:] The only one manipulating and disorienting us was Khonshu. At least, for the little time I knew him. Thankfully he isn't here. I hope to never see that old bird ever again.

[vestments]

( it's less that there's no recognition to 'morpheus' that prompts the shift in marc's demeanour, and more the fact that there's nothing, not a single thing, to the mention of marlene or peter. his gaze on steven is lingering, palpable. briefly, he does wonder how marc-steven-jake became moon knight if not for the alraunes, if not for marc's conscience making itself known for an old man in selima. it sits, unsaid and uncomfortable, in the air between them, and remains unsaid and uncomfortable, before— )

It wasn't, ( he answers, attention shifting to the sight of kuma lisa in the distance. a little pointedly, a little petulantly, he adds— ) None of what we do is a 'good time'.

( he doesn't say, because of the differences that have become evident, that he's never been sure whether khonshu is or isn't present, never quite been convinced as to how far he can trust his perception, how much of what he's done has been khonshu and how much of it has been madness. the number of times he'd stood in front of that statue, hoping that this time it'd answer him, give him direction—.

the number of times he's regretted it since.

blunt and harsh, without glancing at steven, he rebuffs steven's hope with a: )

He's in prison. Asgard. Moon Knight's an apostate.

[spktr]

Of course, though helping people is always a plus. [Steven says it with such conviction, you'd think he'd been Moon Knight longer than a couple days in his timeline. He's used his suit here to help people too, though it thankfully hasn't been needed too often. He'd rather that be the case.

Strangely enough, it's a comfort to realize that Marc recognizes Khonshu's name as well, even though it naturally worries him to know he's been looming over this Marc Spector as well.

The mention of prison and Asgard is surprising though, eyebrows raised with interest. "Apostate" is even more notable.]

Asgard? For how long? [He lets out a quiet breath, a little overwhelmed with information to parse through later.] All this makes me wonder if these are things we haven't experienced yet or if our worlds are simply that different.

[vestments]

( the glance this time is sharper, though it's not really got anything to do with steven. it's his words, that "helping people is a plus". he's not wrong, but it's a simplification of it. it is about helping people, in whatever way he can manage, but that's not all it's about. that's not all it's been about. it'd be a lot simpler if it was. moon knight—

moon knight has done good, that's the point of him, but marc? what has marc done? it's a not-quite-mirror of a conversation he'd had with andrea once, one he doesn't care to repeat in the middle of god knows where. )

They're different. ( decisive, like there's no question about it. that's almost where he leaves it, where he'd prefer to leave it, but it's not that simple. he knows steven will ask why, will ask what he means by that, what makes him so certain and so, as if to pre-empt any of those questions, marc asks one of his own— )

What do you know about why Marc Spector became Moon Knight? ( is that quite the right question? he's not sure it is. he thinks the more accurate question is 'what do you know about why marc died?', but based off their conversation about layla, based off steven's own self-admitted defensiveness , marc doesn't think it's the right question for steven. )

[spktr]

I know the story, though I wasn't there to see it myself. He'd know best.

[The question is a fair one, though Steven wonders if he's the one who should be answering it. He knows Marc would have a difficult time facing this himself, probably not want to talk about it at all, but it feels more like his story to tell. Steven saw the memory of that moment but it was so long ago by now, and not his own, it's hard to piece together all of the details. Marc doesn't talk about it for obvious reasons.

Even so, he isn't going to brush it aside completely, answering what he can:]

He was betrayed by an old partner at a dig site in Egypt, just barely got away and found Khonshu's temple. [His frown turns into something softer instead, more worried than anything else.] After that, I imagine it was difficult to shake the bloody pigeon. He had such a hold on Marc for so long.

[vestments]

( it's almost an idealised re-telling of marc's own experiences. at times, where the situation has called for it, he's described his death as a disagreement — him with his employer, because that's who raul was, off the back of jean-paul and marc attracting his attention off the back of how efficient and effective they'd been as a duo.

for a time, they — marc and jean-paul, but in retrospect, marc thinks it was probably more him than frenchie — had all been friends. the three of them, and whoever else had tagged along, who'd ended up as part of their crew temporarily, had been a force to be reckoned with. men who'd do anything for the right price, who didn't much care if what they were being asked to do was the right thing or the wrong thing, so long as they got paid for it.

jean-paul had always had more of a conscience than marc. he thinks that's why he'd been a pilot over anything else, distant enough to be able to claim a degree of separation, but not distant enough that he hadn't been able to square up to marc, years later, and tell him that what he was doing as moon knight reminded him of what raul had done in the desert and the jungles. had done with knives and guns and teeth.

he walks without saying anything for one moment, then two, then— ) I was a mercenary. ( it doesn't seem fair to assume that his life is true of the other marc, not when steven's said nothing to imply the similarity. ) It wasn't the first dig Bushman set his sights on, but it was the first one I took issue with. ( it wasn't the first defenceless old man raul had killed, he means. and what he means by that is as far as these things go, it wasn't marc that'd been betrayed.

raul had almost given him a free pass, and marc had thrown that back in his face. it's not that it wasn't worth it — marlene living was worth it, jean-paul escaping was worth it — but as far as tit-for-tat went, marc had deserved what he'd had coming, even if he hadn't wanted it, even if he'd hated every single painful, dreadful moment of crawling through the desert, hot and sticky and bloody.

abruptly, and the point he'd been trying to make more than the how of it all— ) If 'Alraune' doesn't mean anything to you, it's different.

[spktr]

[Funny how they're opening up without the need to put out those fires, even if with some reluctance and hesitation. This is so strange and new but Steven wants to understand this Marc more, wants to know him and his experiences, and he's glad he's been open to talking even this much, even if it's probably uncomfortable.

Steven nods along to what Marc shares, the similarities there stark for him - at least based on what he knows.]

Yes, Marc was too. A mercenary, I mean. I... don't know what his relationship with that man was like, but it was the same name he used. [A pause, and then:] He could share more with you about it, though I doubt he'd want to talk much. You know how it is.

[There's an edge of amusement at the end there - he can't help it. Marc would know because he's Marc. From what he's learned in this short time speaking to the other, he's just as stubborn and difficult as the Marc who Steven has come to know and consider family.

The name shared so sharply with him is, unfortunately, unfamiliar too. These are people who mean something to this Marc, who clearly experienced something so different, a whole other life. Steven isn't trying to imply that they're one in the same at all, though the other seems to be taking it a lot more personally.]

I think we can safely say things are very different overall, mate. I'm not denying that. [And then, softer:] The name doesn't mean anything to me, but it clearly does for you. Perhaps it's one Marc would recognize as well. He kept me in the dark about his life for the majority of mine.

[vestments]

( marc wonders what it says of steven and this other marc's relationship, what it says of this other marc in general, that steven suggests — even couched in "doubt he'd want to talk much" — to even try. dying is one of the rare, few topics marc doesn't have an aversion to talking about in general — it happened (once, twice, three times, four—) — but he has no interest in delving into the feelings of it all. the what it means.

and it says enough, too, that steven has no idea as to who or what marc's talking about. there'd never been enough divide, never been enough conscious decision-making between the three of them to keep any of it separate, not really. marlene had been steven's girl, first and foremost. it'd taken a long time for honesty to come forth, for marlene to tolerate moon knight, let alone—

—marc. )

You had your own life.

( steven had his own life, is what he means. )

[spktr]

[Steven nods at the statement because it's true. In retrospect, it may not have been much of a life, but it was his own, even if a lot of his past and memories are all muddled now. He wouldn't trade his relationship with Marc now for anything, though if he could change any of it at all, it would be to have known the truth sooner.]

I did. Had my own flat and job and all in London before realizing Marc was... well, Marc. But now I know the truth and I'm glad for it. It's better not being left in the dark.

[Obviously.

The school is coming up just ahead as they pass through Epiphany, a quaint college town with every ammenity one could think of. He points up toward Kuma Lisa.]

That's the school right there. There's multiple throughout the different parts of Folkmore and they all specialize in different studies. This one is more general education, what you'd find in any typical Earth school, though there's others focusing on things like combat and survival. They're open to anyone if you ever need something.

Now that I think about it, it would be difficult to struggle here. You'd have to actively be trying to make your own life miserable with the day to day.

[Is he... giving Marc a careful side-eye? Maybe.]

[vestments]

( it's better not being left in the dark, steven says, and marc hmms. it may not have been in quite the same way, but leaving steven and jake in the dark has always been his go-to when things are tough. when he feels like he needs control. he's better than he has been, but—. there's room for improvement.

(when is there not?)

marc doesn't turn away from the school to answer steven. he decides he doesn't want to, has had enough of watching his changing expressions, of mapping similarities and differences.

the town and school seem nice enough, but marc's never been one for buildings and history, so—. )

Survival's never been the problem. ( dry and glib because he knows he's not wrong, at least not by a definition of the word, anyway — sure, he's died a handful of times, but it's never stuck and he's always come back, whether he's wanted to or not. ) Used to box. ( "or combat". he does, finally, refocus his attention on steven. ) Marines, mercenary, CIA. I don't think school's going to teach me anything a lifetime of broken bones and chipped teeth hasn't already.

( steven. it's not quite a rebuttal to the look steven gives him, the careful side-eye that is easy to guess at the meaning of. the accusation and expectation that says just what steven thinks of marc, and marc thinks it mirrors just what steven thinks of him. there's shades, too, of "why are you so unhappy, marc?" and it's infuriating. frustrating. why does he think—. )

—Is that what I do, Steven? Make my own life miserable?

( yes.

—but go on, say it. )

[spktr]

Perhaps not, but they're great locations to let off some steam if you need it. I'm sure some others out here would be willing to get punched and kicked and whatnot too, for fun or something.

[This has been a very interesting meeting, not how Steven anticipated his afternoon to go at all, and part of him doesn't want to leave it here, but knows he probably should. For now. It feels like he's at least led Marc to a safe place where he can get the basic necessities and that brings Steven comfort, even if he still has a million questions. This Marc seems fully capable of taking care of himself though and he doesn't want to annoy him more.

He can't help but smile some at the questions. Here, in this moment, he can't help but notice the differences between Marc and the one he knows as well. For all their similarities, the Marc who Steven knows probably would've just accepted that he does indeed make things worse for himself, even if it isn't completely true.]

Seems like you could use a bit of cheer, mate, that's all. Lighten up a bit. [It's his simple advice in the moment at least, gesturing to a nearby storefront where rabbits are currently fixing up clothes on a human-shaped mannequin.] This world certainly doesn't take itself so seriously.