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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
And even though Casey does seem like she could take a hit, it's still a lot to get hit by a table when then fly across the room to smack into the wall. Does Casey even have any special powers? It didn't seem like it, considering how she was trying to fight that ghost-- and if she's just a normal human, she might have gotten injured.
So Minako gasps in shock when she sees all of it happen, quickly running across the room to where Casey landed so she can check up on the other. ]
Hey, are you okay?!
[ Please be okay. Please be okay! Minako can do a lot of things, but healing people sure isn't one of them..! ]
no subject
I'm fine! [She's quick to assure her.] He got a hit in on me, but I've taken much worse. Now, as I was saying, we can take him! [She resumes a fighting stance.] We just have to keep trying harder and adjust our battle plans as need be! He must have some weakness. If not, that would be really lame!
no subject
[ Minako certainly is not a pacifist, after all. She's all up for fighting the bad stuff you come across, rather than ignoring it.
It's just also that she isn't stubborn to a fault when it comes to this. She's already reaching out for the other's hand, trying to latch onto it so she can attempt to drag the other off now Casey is back on her feet again. ]
But when the fighting isn't doing anything, you need to think up a better solution. Like-- [ If she's got the other's hand, she will definitely start to run. ] --getting out of there..!
[ Because-- what's the alternative? Staying and allowing Casey to get her butt kicked while the ghost isn't harmed or stopped at all? Minako refuses to just stand there and watch the other injure herself like that for no reason. ]
no subject
A better solution could also be another plan of attack! ...But fine, if you truly think that a tactical retreat is called for, then it shall be so!
[Casey picks up speed now! Although she's not sure where she's going.]
Have you secured the exit?
[She says, while the ghost prepares another round of random objects to throw at them.]
no subject
But she knows that if she tells Casey that, it's very likely the other is just going to turn back and fight the ghost, which is exactly what she doesn't want. So even though she's lying-- It's fine! She's just lying for Casey's own good when she says: ]
We just have to keep going!
[ Surely an exit will prepare then, right? Because it might not seem like there's much room in here, but suddenly the path ahead of them starts to stretch out. It's like there's an entire corridor of rooms like the one they were just in, and various ghosts in all of them.. Though thankfully none of the other ghosts seem to care as much about them running by as the one that's attempting to chase them. ]
The exit is at the end of this, I'm sure..!
[ JUST KEEP RUNNING, CASEY. No ghost fighting!! None whatsoever!! ]
no subject
[Reluctantly, she rushes forth! But then they reach the corridor, and she sees it's full of those ghosts!
Casey... Casey starts to slow down. And she looks at all of the spectres around them, as if sizing them up.]
Wait, look! There's more ghosts! I have to be able to take at least one of them...!
no subject
[ Please, Casey. You can't fight everything. You literally can't fight everything in this case! Minako would let the other do whatever if she truly stood a chance here, but fighting ghosts you can't touch just sounds like a terrible, terrible idea all around.
Hence why Minako does her best to just continue to tug on the other, trying to get her to come along. ]
You know it's not going to work! They're all ghosts..!
no subject
But there's so many of them! The odds are I have to be able to hurt one of them, right?
[That's how odds work, right? Maybe some indirect attacks will help! She just starts grabbing anything within her reach and starts chucking it towards the ghosts.]
There!! Take that!! Please be hurt by this!
[Now more ghosts are getting agitated and joining in on the chase...]
no subject
She would stop running to try and convey this to the other, but that seems like a bad idea when there's an entire group of ghosts chasing them - so Minako has to keep running, even though something very serious is sneaking into her panicked tone. ]
Hey! Just look at this situation objectively! [ It's not quite anger, but it's closer to it than anything she has said so far. Like a genuine scolding. Who cares that Casey is older than her, you can totally get scolded by a teenager!! ] Do you really think you're making this situation better for us?! Just look how many of them are chasing us now! There will only be more if you keep this up!
no subject
[She responds with a very meek smile. She's having trouble standing her ground now, especially as Minako's arguments get fiercer! As they talk, Casey continues throwing items.]
I can take it! ...But, um... I suppose you have a point... Perhaps we should focus on-
[But then there's a loud noise! It seems one of the items that Casey threw, an iron disc, actually hit a ghost and made it dissipate away. She looks back with widened eyes.]
W-wait! Wait!! I got one!! I could take on the entire world!!
no subject
Wait, what?
Minako definitely doesn't believe that this is just because Casey got stronger in the middle of battle or anything - but there's got to be some reason why one of the ghosts actually disappeared.
You can almost see the cogs in Minako's head turning so hard just by the look on her face. ]
What did you throw at that one?!
no subject
[She flips over to get a closer look at the item in question!]
Ah yes! It was some sort of... iron disc, I believe! Could that be their weakness? ...Discs?
[As she says that, however, more ghosts start to converge around her...!]
no subject
[ It'd be one thing if these people looked like the ghosts of long-dead Olympians who just wanted to fulfill their one last wish--
But they certainly don't. ]
Maybe it's the iron. [ Like the fae? It's been a long time since those were here, but didn't they have a similar weakness? It's kind of strange to think of these ghosts and those things sharing the same weakness, but--
This isn't the time to question stuff like that. ]
Look around if you can find anything else that looks like it's made of iron!
[ Before the ghosts fully surround Casey..! ]
no subject
[She declares that with mad glee! She looks around quickly for other sources of iron - and her eyes settle on a fireplace! She leaps and rolls over, then grabs an iron poker. ...She also grabs a second one, which she throws to Minako.]
Here!! Now, we truly set our incredible battle plan into action! Operation, fight all ghosts!!
[With an intense glee, she starts using the iron poker to slash through the approaching ghosts!]