![[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.
no subject
Different. "The only way to get an adult soldier is to deal with them growing to adulthood," is the quiet response. "I'm at least of age to be useful now."
He could wish for better, wish he had a normal family and a normal life but that wasn't possible. The only one who might extend anything like love to him is apparently the alien of his parents, and with her came the attempted annihilation of the planet. It's a nice thought, but it's.. inaccurate. What would he do with those kinds of attachments? It would get in the way. It's already gotten in the way. He can't afford those weaknesses.
Choosing wither or not to answer takes time. It's not comfortable to discuss, even knowing that other planets had vastly different ideas of what counted as monstrous and what did not. Meanwhile, a touch of lore is added, and from the bowl and spoon drawn a strangely ephemeral looking .. dog biscuit. It's not meant for flesh and blood creatures, but the countless other forms of life in Folkmore.
"Humans, partly. And a creature that invaded my planet thousands of years ago, decimating all life she encountered. What she didn't eat she corrupted. The .. survivors managed to imprison her in stone and stasis. Fifteen years or so ago she was rediscovered." And thus began the Jenova Project, of which he is apparently not the only surviving engineered child. "I've inherited some of her strength and powers." More than he knows, but he can't see beyond the physical. "I imagine the others will have too."
no subject
A claim that requires he listen and think rather than give into fury over an evil he's encountered before. (Funny, that--that he's done no more than set foot in another new world and found the child of someone's hubristic project to make a weapon. Though Tabris at least had not been as...outwardly at peace with it.) The shrike breathes out through his fangs in a low hiss. "The world has need of much more than soldiers; it does not require them purpose-built. You are owed better."
...Ohhh, now what is this? Iskierka leans forward, extending a little talon to reach for the dog biscuit. This time, her claws don't pass through it; she gives a triumphant little chortle. Food! At last!
"Is this why you are saying you should not be a Legend? Because you are part-monster?" It isn't, actually, horrible reasoning from Illarion's perspective--a monstrous nature could indeed make one more of a danger to others--but it seems incomplete, coming from someone who would rescue a total and potentially dangerous stranger from the desert before even exchanging names.
no subject
Acceptance would make the next decade or so more bearable.
The bit of food is surrendered easily to the little avian, and he sits back on his heels, wet feathers ruffled up to make use of the bitterly dry heat of the desert even this close to water. He'd need to do some thorough preening later, but for now it'd do. "..Among other things. I am ..." He pauses, thinking.
It has the air to it of trying to figure out how to translate something over into something others might understand than melancholy. "The people who created me have set me up as a ... false hero. Given me accolades I haven't earned. Outright made up a lot of them. To them and their subjects I'm 'a hero'. But I'm no such thing. And then here, wings mean Legend, and Legends are heros.. I think it's Thirteen's little joke."
Or a reminder that he couldn't shake off Shinra that easily. "I don't mind the feathers, they're .. hm, comfortable enough." And familiar in a way he didn't understand. "But the status is meaningless."
no subject
"Mmm. So all your altruism, plucking strangers out of the desert--this is suspect to you, because you were made to inhabit a story of your own heroism?" That also something he can understand. Also disagree with--but understand.
Iskierka plucks up the biscuit gleefully and shoves it sideways in her beak. Not even any attempt to peck it into smaller pieces like a real bird might--it just goes right down the hatch like a crane with a frog. Gulp.
no subject
Civilization has expectations, and while they could be selfishly ignored it wasn't generally done.
The way the biscuit is horked down is watched with an unblinking gaze. That.. huh. He didn't realize birds could do that, but maybe he shouldn't be basing his assumptions on birds if it's a spirit. "..Do you want another one?"
no subject
"What is making a hero to you, then?"
An endless supply of biscuits, Iskierka would answer that one, if she could string the thought together. She goggles at the young man at the question, then bobs her head enthusiastically. Yes!! Yes please!!
"...and," Illarion continues, with another twitch of a smile for his Omen's behavior, "how is it you are making food for her?"
no subject
There is no room in Sephiroth's life for heros. None of them actually are. Least of all himself, shining paragon of combat prowess in wars he's never actually fought in yet.
A second biscuit requires no more Lore than the first had, just as ephemeral. He could keep this up for a very long time, with how few things he bothered to make with it. "This place runs on the energy generated through interaction. The spoon you were given collects it. Using desire, a firm image in the mind and a bowl of water, you can with that spoon make almost anything. If you can't, it's simply because you haven't interacted enough with others first."
The new biscuit is offered. "The ... people of this land are predominantly spirits, and some are as tangible as smoke. The food they prefer is similar. I thought perhaps your little friend .. your, ah, part of you? Would be similar." And it seems if she could eat it, he was right!
no subject
Though as one who has told--and embellished--such stories himself... He understands the younger man's cynicism at the whole concept. (Or perhaps "cynicism" isn't the right word--but it is a breed of self-effacement he's seen often enough. Given tongue to often enough-- anyone would do it; I'm not remarkable.
And well might it be this young man wasn't; but that made the world itself the remarkable place.)
Illarion lets the topic of heroes go--satisfied, for now--and turns both his and Iskierka's attention to the impromptu lesson on spoons, and lore, and summoning. A lesson that, once digested in its implications, gets a low exclamation of awe from him: "Queen and Throne. So no one must ever want for anything here, if they only spend a little time among friends?"
This is Paradise. It must be.
Iskierka takes the second biscuit more demurely than the first, this time bothering to pull it apart into chunks before pecking them up. Almost as if she's embarrassed now of her own lack of manners.
"So it seems she is. I thank you for the thought--she does not need to eat but she likes to, and this is being much less of a waste." It had embarrassed him back in Trench, insofar as he could be--to have an Omen who would use up perfectly good food that a living being actually needed.
no subject
Heroism isn't something that can be put on posters and merchandise.
Was this paradise? Compared to many places, maybe it was. "Not for necessities. Luxuries.. perhaps. The infrastructure here doesn't yet have a lot of avenues for high technology, but food, water, shelter warmth and cooling seem freely available." With such a low cost, for most! "As this certainly lessens any kind of .. impetus to grow, our patron inflicts monthly troubles to make up for it, though most of it seems to be in the sharing dark and uncomfortable things with others. You can track it by calendar, every thirty days precisely, from thirteenth to thirteenth. I have heard these can be ... horrific trials, of unimaginable suffering, but so far I haven't seen that."
Useful information! Things everyone should be warned of ahead of time! "You've.. arrived during wildfires that demand confession of secrets or homes and lives will burn. YOU won't. But the natives will." And they die screaming.
This new more birdlike behavior, or at least what he expects of birdlike behavior, seems just as normal as anything else had been. "Well, no reason to hold back in indulging yourselves here on that front. Can spirits get fat if they eat too much?"
no subject
Or--more likely--if the described trials are anything like what he'd experienced in the Waking World, he'd share them directly as they resided in his memories. Not something he wishes to do--there is still so much he'd wish to remain hidden from others, safely buried--but he'd largely become inured to the threat of it. It would happen if the powers of the world willed it, and he would deal with the aftermath when it did.
He frowns, faintly--partly at that thought, partly at what he's hearing--as the young man delivers his briefing on both the opportunities and terrible risks of Folkmore. It does...certainly affect his own thinking on their patron, even though his walk with her is still recent enough to leave him over-awed. "So her desire to see what it is we may become without constraints--it is only red-taloned Nature she frees us from, hm?"
Though there's sense in that. A little inequity, a little hunger could act as goads to action; crushing poverty and starvation stunted all they touched. But replacing the challenges of the environment with other forms of suffering...he will need to meditate on this at more length. Learn more about the world--see if there's any evidence whatever the Fox was actually achieving her aim, or merely had a taste for torture.
Still and all, it seems he'll need to come up with a proper file of secrets for whenever they're back where these wildfires might be burning. "Deep secrets? Or any secrets? And what is happening, after death here? For the natives, or ourselves?"
He's guessing it isn't returning to the ocean as a squid, and realizes he's...strangely going to miss that. It was a soothing state.
"...I am not knowing. I am sure I will find out, the longer we are here." Iskierka is going to eat ALL the spirit food and grow ENORMOUS. (Or so she plans, in that tiny bird brain of hers.)
no subject
For the gregarious, not a problem at all. For people less inclined, either through personal whim or discomfort in such things, it was more of a struggle. "Any secrets will do, though of course more weight is placed on the more uncomfortable ones." Until recently he had few to offer. Now though.. "I am told death is temporary and mildly inconvenient at best, but not experienced it myself." Though something in his tone suggests he fully intended to try it sooner or later. "The natives, and not the 'star children' such as well, stay dead when they die. The fires recently .. killed many."
"..If I may venture an opinion though, these things she puts us through.. is worth it. We can take it with us when we leave. All of it." Not something most places offered, as far as he could tell. "She means it when she says she wants to see the best of us, and is willing to unleash that upon our worlds."
no subject
But now, having been newly handed a different Role as a creature outside the pale--having felt, in a way, the dullest stirring of relief to get another chance at defining himself as a thing beyond community... It almost, almost feels unfair to have that snatched immediately back. Even if there was nothing one could rail at as unfair, in the doings of gods and red-taloned Nature. (Even if he's doing a terrible job in not immediately becoming invested in the lives and well-being of others.)
"The individual is at her greatest as part of a group, mm? I cannot fault her reasoning." He supposes. He'll let the little flutter of resentment in his chest go; it isn't hard, when anything he can feel leaves quickly enough on its own. "Though it is sounding that we have extra responsibility to the natives, if we return from what they do not."
Not new, that, though the Waking World's people had flowed back into their own cycle of reincarnation on death. Slower, but still some assurance mortality was not permanent. Some Sleepers had quailed from killing non-Sleeper beasts, even so.
But-- wait. "Queen and Throne," he murmurs, as the notion of taking all of it back sinks in. That can't be-- "Surely you are meaning our experiences and memories, yes? Or what else might we take back?"
no subject
Homes lost, businesses, forests and so on, but it didn't really matter much if it all returned, things were easy to replace.
There's some details of what could and couldn't return with him that eluded him. "Experiences, memories, powers. Your Role. Not physical objects, but the rest? Interact with people enough and find a teacher to instruct you on how to be a wizard, and you will still be a wizard when you return."
no subject
Though... perhaps he may have a personal reason, now, to want to participate in them more completely. "I could return home with another world's magic," he says, low and soft. "If it can be taught. If there are teachers here."
He has absolutely no reason to think that anyone from the Nine Houses has made it here--though he'll find out within a day that they had--but surely there are other magics, other forms of necromancy or healing that could restore one of the undead-- if not to life, then to some far better state than they existed in on Nephele.
He'll need to find out, soon, and learn if he can learn it. There's someone back home who needs him to know, if it's at all possible. "How difficult is this, finding a teacher?"
no subject
It had endless possibilities, but he hadn't quite found one he wanted yet. Not wanted enough to pursue. He had a lot of power as it was. "The Institute fields powers of the mind, Agrona teaches ones that affect the body. Baba Yaga's are for the ones too dangerous to practice outside her specific arena. And so on. There's plenty of instructors, for everything you could be after. I go to school for aerospace engineering." Which is not a power at all, but it's .. a marker of the range available.
"Thirteen really does seem to want us to succeed, for all that it comes with high prices sometimes."
no subject
How could he not stand in awe of that largesse?
How could he not make use of it?
He shakes his head once, clearing it of those thoughts. Yes, he's fallen into a world of miracles--something out of the Age of Sacrifice (
if only he knew)--but as the young man says, there are prices to pay. Undisclosed dangers in this world. That is what he needs to understand first, before haring off after sundogs and fire-rainbows."But for the prices, hm? Is she asking more than just what she extracts in her trials?"
Then a pause. "Aerospace? Is this possible, flying to the stars, here?"