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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.
no subject
For a while.
At some point it won't be enough to play the Benny Hill theme over a montage of his escapades through one building after another — spatially none of this makes sense — even Nightwing gets tired eventually. Getting tired means he's more likely to slip up. But this can't go on forever... can it?
He's almost too caught up in the loop to realize that the figure at the bottom of the stairs isn't transparent. In fact she's very solid, and unlike the ghosts she sees him, and, well, she doesn't seem too happy about that. Fair enough. At this point he's just grateful to see another living person, especially one who might have a better understanding of what's going on here.
Stephanie, of all people. Yeah, yeah, something something, gift horse, he's not complaining. ]
It's not too late to turn around and pretend that you didn't see me. [ He offers wryly, because what else can he do at this point, especially since he can fire off quips while he's dodging and sliding. If anything it's integral to the process. ] You know how to get out of this place?
no subject
[Despite her best intentions, she hadn't anticipated 'shifting houses forming a weird labyrinth' and left her ball of yarn at home.]
But let's try to shake the angry ghost and then we can worry about the exit.
[Sometimes 'run away' is a valid strategy, even for someone as stubborn as she is.]
Oh, and if you see a weapon lying around, it's probably gonna make things worse, so you might wanna hold off on picking it up.
[Lessons she learned the hard way.]
no subject
[ Dick could make some sassy comment about her crashing in here with no plan, no idea of what she's getting herself into, or who she was even going to bump into, but also consider: it wouldn't help their current situation and he's done the same damn thing himself too many times to count. It wouldn't be fair to get on her case over it, especially since she is helping, it seems like a safe bet that she's had some experience with this kind of thing.
They need to move? He can move, and he expects that she'll be able to keep up.
It's almost kind of fun, in the way an obstacle course would be, with different rooms practically flying by as he dodges both physical hurdles and the intangible presence of more ghosts, the fewer of those that they piss off the easier it'll be to at least get to a spot where they can catch their breath, if not find the real exit, whatever that looks like. ]
Make things worse how?
[ He's seen a few, it didn't occur to him to pick them up since he doubted they would work on the spirits anyway. ]
no subject
It isn't Dick's fault, but she knows Bruce and knows that he's absolutely not going to handle a version of his dead kid showing up.
They have to get out of here first, though.]
Last time I picked up a weapon, I had to fight a Jabberwock.
[The ghosts are annoying, but monsters lurk in Cruel Summer and she doesn't want anything worse showing up.]
There's a trick to these things, but usually Thirteen tells us what it is, or the spirits will help. I haven't figured this one out yet.
no subject
[ Going by fairy tale and ghost story logic he can see how weapons would agitate the spirits even more, and at least a good number of them aren't actively hostile, some of them were even willing to talk to him, but the sooner they get out of here the better. As interesting as it might be to see what they have to say, his detective instincts are always piqued by a mystery, there are much bigger things going on that he needs to figure out before he gets fixated on specifics.
There is so much he doesn't know. ]
Thirteen... that's the fox, right? [ This would be actual fun if they were running across rooftops, these spaces feel cramped, at least when it comes to racing through them. He has slowed down very slightly, since the cleaver-wielding lady seems to have lost interest in chasing after him, and sacrificing some speed for increased stealth seems like a good choice. ] I'm noticing a lot of spoons, I don't know if that's a hint or if they're connected to the ghosts.
[ He has one too, tucked away with the Relic, there has to be some significance whether or not it'll help them get out of here. ]
no subject
[Without an immediate specter looming after them, Steph slows down as well, not wanting to annoy another ghost into giving chase. She's not too worried just yet; there's no immediate danger aside from the ghosts, and even if they spend a while in here, she knows that time is weird during these sort of situations. They'll probably come out only a few minutes after they went in.]
They might be... [After a second of decision-making, she slows down further, so she can take in their surroundings better and search for a spoon. She trusts that Dick is paying enough attention to her to notice.] Slow down a sec, 'wing. I'm gonna try something when we see the next one. Maybe I can give them some Lore.
no subject
The next door opens into a bar, where a ghostly bartender is drifting between a scattering of equally ghostly patrons. He stops several yards away, tilting his head toward Steph and raising an eyebrow. ]
Have at it, I'll watch your back. [ The spirits in this room seem pretty stationary but better safe than sorry. ] I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly how this works.
[ The Fox explained the basics before he landed here, and he did his best to memorize the whole spiel, and get in a few questions while he had the chance, but she'd been predictably evasive about getting into the details. Honestly he would have been surprised if any god was willing to stick around and give him straightforward answers, regardless of how whimsical and capricious they might be. ]
no subject
[It's a plain statement of fact; Dick is a Bat, at the end of the day and that requires a level of adaptability that most people don't ever need, so Steph has no doubt that he'll wrap his head around the situation soon enough.
Slowing down has the unfortunate side effect of giving her time to think, her focus no longer on navigating the small, enclosed space, and the presence of the ghosts only serves to keep death on the mind.
At least it isn't Jason. For all that this is going to hurt Bruce, Dick is able to be sensible about things. She doesn't know Jason well enough to know how he'd react, but if certainly wouldn't be pretty. Neither Jason or Bruce are known for being calm and reasonable, especially when it comes to family matters and the subject of death.
She's relieved to have a task at hand to keep herself busy for a moment or two, offering a little breathing room while she struggles with how to approach this new situation.
Unfortunately it doesn't result in much breathing room, because the spoon she finds doesn't respond at all to the attempt to share Lore, so all she can do is frown at it for a second before giving up with a sigh.]
No luck.
[She tucks her own spoon away, then scrubs her hands over her face for good measure.
For all that she wants to be frustrated and petty, that isn't fair to Dick.]
Sorry for being a jerk before. I am glad you're here, it's just complicated.
no subject
Let's keep moving, if we don't make any headway soon we can give it another try on a different one. Maybe we're supposed to do it together.
[ He wouldn't have much of this Lore built up yet, but he'll use what little he has to get them out of here. He's not claustrophobic or anything, he just always feels better when he's got clear skies overhead, and there are undoubtedly much more welcoming locales than Cruel Summer. Places where he could get some water, and ideally even a shower, though these buildings are actually almost cold. He definitely noticed a chill when that first spirit swooped nearly through him, so that makes sense.
Steph interrupts his train of thought, and he's already shaking his head before she has a chance to finish. ]
Don't worry about it. I've been tougher than that on you.
[ Now that he's got more perspective on the whole thing it's more obvious than ever that there was a lot that led to his uncharitable comments about her that had very little or nothing to do with her at all. He still thinks it was too dangerous to send her out alone when she didn't have half of the training that the rest of them did, and yes, she was reckless, but haven't they all gone through that? How many times did Bruce tell him to back off only to be impulsively ignored? And Babs...
Yeah. ]
Are we talking more complicated than being abducted by a god?
no subject
Maybe. The good news is that you're building up Lore, so you'll have a little to spare if that is the case.
[It won't be as much Lore as he'd likely build if he was talking to Tim, or Bruce, or Babs. Someone that he's closer with, but it's better than nothing, probably even more so now that she's decided to not being annoyed at him.
It's hardly his fault that there's a version of Bruce here from a deeply fucked up world.]
Yes and no. Once we're out of here, I'll buy you a drink and try to explain what I can.
[She's going to feel incredibly guilty about it, but she thinks it might be.... better, if Dick has some warning. Hopefully Bruce will forgive her.]
no subject
Maybe this is more of a test than it looks from the inside. ]
'I'll explain later' is exactly the kind of thing that someone says before they get kidnapped, but if we've already been kidnapped I don't know what— [ The next door handle he reaches for sticks slightly, and when he gives it a slightly stronger tug the door swings wide open and nearly blinds him with bright sunshine and heat that's just on the other side ] Oh.
[ Right, this again. But rather than a barren, desolated landscape this time there's some kind of town not too far off that's not the dilapidated mess this place has been, he can even spot some train tracks which look promising.
Obviously he'll hold the door and wait for Steph to step out before following. He's seen the way doors have been vanishing behind them. ]
Is that how you got here?