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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
"Exactly! And it was like, oh he doesn't need evidence or stuff like that 'cause he's just that smart. Which is boring, the evidence and detection is what makes a detective story good. And I don't mind gore if it serves the story, but it's used as shock value way too much. It's become a cliche, like jump scares." She had Opinions about movies and what made them bad, good, and so bad it's good. Especially about the latter category.
Considering Lexi's family, it was adapt or be destroyed. She'd love to have her and Cassie's dad be part of their lives again, but not if he couldn't overcome his personal demons. And an apology for robbing the house wouldn't hurt.
Lexi was more concerned about physical threats. She still had her Darkblood, which meant she could warp reality and move things telekinetically and she'd busted her ass trying to perfect those powers. She didn't like using them, but it was a relief to have them.
CW: Mention of disowning
"Yeah, that was just out there. I remember the guy showrunning that version was also doing some of the especially loco Dr. Who stuff." And he nods in complete agreement to the thoughts on gore. "I rarely ever see it used to actually help tell a decent story anymore. My friends watch a lot of horror films and I've seen way more gratuitous gore than I care to remember." And a lot he probably won't forget.
Overcoming personal demons and making apologies are important things.
Radley probably would be too, in general, unless it came to something he actually feared. He wonders if he has any powers in addition to the wings that he hasn't unlocked yet.
CW: Mention of disowning, police, police prejudice, murder in the context of film
"I never could get into Doctor Who. At least not the recent stuff, the old stuff was camp enough and didn't take itself as seriously." She could appreciate camp. What she didn't like was something which seemed to think it was sending A Message of some kind, using the actors as mouthpieces for the showrunner. "Oh, I know. I mean, the original 'Night of the Living Dead?' Woke before woke was a thing since the black guy is the only one who keeps his head together through the whole thing, only for white cops to assume he's a zombie and kill him anyway. Horror's a great way to give social commentary, it doesn't have to be a 24/7 Eli Roth gorefest."
Lexi honestly didn't want to make of her wings. They looked like hawk wings, but she'd never been much of a hunter.
Well, unless she counted the way she came for certain people when she wrote her play.
Re: CW: Mention of abuse, police, police prejudice, murder in the context of film
"The old stuff was better," he agreed. "Camp can be pretty fun." He got annoyed with things that were just preachy messages too. He grimaced at the reminder of the zombie film. "That was depressing as hell. You're right, though, that's a whole other level than buckets of gore through the whole thing. Horror films today never seem to show intelligence like that."
Re: CW: Mention of abuse, police, police prejudice, murder in the context of film
"Right? It's depressing. And it doesn't hurt that a lot of modern horror makes its main characters so annoying that you're actually rooting for Freddy or Jason or Michael Myers." Twenty minutes with jerks. That was the TV Tropes name for it, at least she thought it was.
Re: CW: Mention of abuse, police, police prejudice, murder in the context of film
He laughed. "Maybe that's their intention." He didn't like the thought, but why else would they make the characters so aggravating?
no subject
"It probably is. And if people reacted like normal, sane people there would be no film to begin with," she snorted.
no subject
He laughed. "I wonder if anyone's made a parody horror film like that."
no subject
"They should. I'm sure it would make bank. Especially since Freddy and Jason are doing nothing right now. Probably a Hollywood copyright bullshit battle. But the new Halloween, the one with an old lady Laurie and her daughter and granddaughter, that was really good," she said with assurance. At least Michael Myers was alive and kicking (ass).
no subject
He nodded. "Scotch thought that was pretty cool, bringing back the original character. That doesn't happen much."
no subject
"I know! Usually because the original character dies for real in a sequel, but the Halloween storyline is so fucked, I think Laurie died a couple of times before they brought her back and were like 'no no, this is the canon timeline!'" Canon was a shifty thing anyway, always changing.
no subject
"Ah yeah, that kinda takes the exclusiveness out of it," he said. "But it sure makes it more convenient. Scotch loves when you can find one store's stuff at another store. Of course, his speed is more Toys R Us." A smirk.
He laughed. "Oh, so they decided they were doing a multiverse or experimenting with AUs or something?"
no subject
"I think it was more like a wave a magic wand and all of the other movies weren't canon thing. Like Terminator, Terminator 2, and Terminator: Dark Fate." Which was no skin off her nose. Those were the best ones anyway.
no subject
A smile. "Scotch loves the Lego kits. And Mega Construx. He has a room in his house devoted to them."
He laughed at that. "Yeah, companies love to retcon stuff if they think their new timeline is better, like Disney did with all the Star Wars books. I don't know what to think there, as there's things in each timeline I don't like."
(CW: alcohol mentioned)
"Seriously? That's so cool. Which sets does he like best?" She was partial to the medieval stuff, herself.
"I guess the best option is to like what you like and not bother people who like what you don't like. It's a big world, plenty of room for all of them on the internet. Like, I'm not gonna start beef with someone who actually likes the Terminator movies I don't like." And it was so much more headache-free that way. Plus, she didn't like the idea of getting haters on her insta just because she happened to post about thing she loved.
Re: (CW: alcohol mentioned)
And recognition hits.
"Now, Whole Foods I've heard of. There weren't any in my area, though. But yeah, health stores are pretty cool places. The people running them are probably rolling in dough."
He smiles. "Scotch likes anything Star Wars, Mario, Sonic, Pokemon.... Sometimes others too, like motorcycle ones."
A nod. "Oh yeah, of course. I honestly don't know why everyone can't get along. It's so silly to argue about favorite fictional shows or characters."
(CW: alcohol mentioned)
She loves it there. And Aldi's. Cheap and good, her two favorite things when it comes to balancing the household budget.
"Them and the Starbucks guy. I bet they dive into their money like Scrooge McDuck and just kinda swim in it. Though it would be paper bills which won't give them papercuts in unfortunate places, not a giant vault of coins which sounds both cold and uncomfortable." She's maybe been thinking about this too much.
"Those are all great, too, though I've never put together those ones." Okay, other than a Death Star just because she could.
"It's insane! So many fandoms have turned into battlefields where one fan of one thing is yelling about something and an anti-fan is yelling about the same thing." She may have had some heated exchanges about who Buffy should've ended up with as a tween.
Re: (CW: alcohol mentioned)
He laughs at that image. "Yeah, coins are actually pretty heavy. In reality, it'd probably be way too easy to get buried under that many of them."
He looks to her. "Which ones do you like?"
A nod. "I've seen a lot of that going on, unfortunately. Seems like things lose their fun appeal when people get so nasty about them."
no subject
And Lexi's eyes widened. "Exactly! I mean, I've heard stories about people dying of suffocation when they fall into---what d'you call them, the big tower things people put corn in."
"I like the medieval Lord of the Rings-ish stuff. I wouldn't want to be a Disney princess, I'd just want to live like one," she says with a laugh.
"They do. Which I guess is some person's goal, but that's a shitty goal to have," she stated decisively.
no subject
He grimaced. He hadn't heard. "Silos? Yikes. I'm glad I don't have any of those."
A laugh. "Being wealthy isn't as cushy as it's fantasized to be, but there's definitely perks."
And a nod. "No kidding. I gotta wonder what kind of nothing lives they have when that's how they get their kicks."
no subject
"Me too. I'm in California, a suburb of San Francisco. It's...I'd say it's nice, but it's really kind of boring with the exception of everyone I know having some kind of drama." She tried to imagine what life back home would be without drama and was thoroughly confused.
"Like going to a bookstore and being able to buy anything I want?" That was her idea of the good life. That, and having free subscriptions to streaming services.
She laughed. "Imagine staying up 'til two in the morning because someone's wrong on the internet. That's why I like bad movies so much, they're kind of universally funny and no one can really argue with that."
no subject
"I used to live in California," he said. "Wine country. Then I moved to an itty-bitty ghost town in Oregon. Former ghost town, of course. I run the mine and the town diner."
He smiled. "Yeah, that's a big perk."
He laughed. "You've got a point there."
no subject
"I've heard that both California wine country and Oregon are beautiful. But, a former ghost town? Do you mean actual ghosts?" Because nothing was out of the question in worlds like this, she knew that all too well.
Lexi grinned. "Of course I do. I have excellent taste in crappy movies. Steven Seagal is an endless source of hilarity."