October-November 2024 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

October-November 2024 Test Drive

Introduction

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This Test Drive meme is open to all.
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not. All TDMs are game canon and work like "mini-events". For new players and characters, you can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Current players are also allowed to have in-game characters post to the TDM so long as they mark their top levels ‘Current Character.’

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

Playing and interacting with the TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!
🦊 New Star Children meet the Fox still in their worlds, and she brings them into the new realm of Folkmore. As you follow her, your body begins to change and new characteristics emerge. These may stay for a while, or perhaps they will hide away after. And during all of this, the Fox explains to you where you will be going: to Folkmore. 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.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

After the Storm . ★

Content Warnings: Natural Disaster/Natural Disaster Relief

It seems as if the Star Children will be restricted to Amrita Academy forever, when nothing changes at the one month mark. Yet, after another week has stretched endlessly past, a morning dawns to show that the moat of Lorasses has vanished. The way is clear to discover what the chaotic storms have left behind.

Most of Folkmore's resident spirits return. Good thing Catbus is among them because the train is not operating. Debris litters the tracks throughout the land. Someone's going to have to work to clean all of that up before normal schedules can resume... within the first week or so, everyone fervently hopes.

That is far from the only wreckage from those storms. As Star Children have seen, even Amrita Academy hasn't really been spared; between the Lorasses moat and the various structures built to weather the storms, the past weeks have left a mark on the school.

Other regions show clear signs of the warping they have endured similarly.

• Wintermute alternated between blinding light and pitch blackness, with mountains growing and crumbling away alike. Cabins were transformed into igloos.
• Willow experienced all the seasons in a matter of days multiple times, growing crops and new trees, losing old ones, and its buildings weathered as though through decades.
• In Epiphany, the streets ran with water so high it was difficult to walk, and the buildings shifted to reflect related settings.
• Cruel Summer grew hotter and more oppressive, so that survival away from the Selkie River was impossible. On the 13th, there was an explosion, and it rained robot parts.
• Exile was swallowed entirely by the Swamp of Sorrows, leaving no dry land.
• Tides filled with water, dark deep water that could not readily be seen through.
• Never Fade became even more purple, with a thick haze that erased visibilty of borders. It also became steeper, so there was no flat ground.

The rest of Willow shows signs of extreme growth and age, as if decades, not weeks, have passed. Epiphany and Tides suffer major flood damage, and Exile is entirely soggy and saturated with a sense of sorrow. Avalanche debris covers Wintermute, and the mountains aren't in the same place. Cruel Summer is even dryer, cracked, and in part of it littered with exploded, partially melted robot parts. Never Fade may be the best off; the ground has leveled off, and only the unsecured outdoor items have crashed around or dropped off the island. In general, all regions show signs of warping.

Talaria has been outright knocked down (once again) and will need to be rebuilt (once again). The contents of Talarian homes have been thriftily saved by Thirteen (yet again). They'll be back as soon as the homes are ready to be redecorated! There's also a new elevator connecting Tides to a platform in the ocean at surface level, making it a little bit easier to get in or out of the neighborhood. Fly, swim, or use a boat from Nereid marina to reach it.

Many of the buildings throughout Folkmore, businesses and residences alike, have been damaged, some past the point of habitability. For better or worse, some residences will wait unclaimed, as their resident spirits have not returned from wherever they went while gone from Folkmore. Newly arriving Star Children (or those interested in relocating) just might find those residences awfully appealing. As with all unoccupied homes in Folkmore, they're free real estate.

Each neighborhood has a new (and structurally-sound) building near its center: a hospitality station of sorts, stocked with basic foods (to suit a variety of dietary needs, relevant to the known local residents), clean water, personal protective equipment, basic tool kits, fresh clothing, and clean linens. For those ill equipped to cook for themselves for whatever reason, there's also a canteen/soup kitchen area. The canteen tends to collect idle spirits and Star Children who might be willing to assist with any cleanup tasks too big or too complex for one person to tackle on their own.

Working with the neighbors has an additional benefit, of course: sooner or later, whether while helping clear the train tracks or fixing up someone's home or business (including a Star Child's own), shifting the debris will reveal a weathered container of some sort, locked up tight, that will only fall open at a touch if and when the right Star Child finds it. There is only one chest per Star Child. Inside, is an item from home, either that of the resident whose house/business it's found in or the one keyed to the lock. It may even be a magical item or weapon.

There's some good news as well, in the midst of all the chaos: most Star Children will find that their homes are wholly unharmed; their pets, companions, Pokémon, etc. are all hale and hearty, having spent the entire time cozily asleep in their boxfoxes — which can be reused if kept, and just as easily abandoned now that they've released their occupants.

• The moat is gone! Freeeeeedom!
• The train is not operating for one week until October 27th due to debris over the tracks.
• Every region of Folkmore shows scars from the past month's extreme disturbances. Things have not reverted to before.
• Most spirits have returned; some remain absent. Claim the free real estate, if quick or bold enough.
• Hospitality stations have appeared in each neighborhood stocked with food, water, clothing, and linens.
• The canteens serve as a social hub and place to ask for/volunteer assistance.
• One time only, cleaning up or moving debris will reveal a container holding an item from home: yours or the person's you're helping.
• Most Star Children's homes will be unharmed; any damage should match the region's damage flavor. The level of destruction is up to you.
• Creatures in boxfoxes are out, fine and dandy! Boxfoxes can be kept/used again.

Dream of the Blue Turtle . ★

Offshore near Agrona Academy, there's something new. Something bewildering, maybe. Something growing. There's also something swimming up to any Star Children near the coast: a very large sea turtle, not willing to come far ashore. She's singing and chirping to get attention, in case being big enough to have a six-foot-long shell isn't quite good enough for some reason. (Or the way she has a blue-green bioluminescent glow when underwater, as becomes quite visible around dusk.)

She's happy to explain that she needs a place to lay her eggs. She doesn't have eggs to lay, just yet, but she wants to have her place all ready anyway. To that end she's busily building a brand-new island not very far from shore. It's just over there, visible once she indicates it with a flipper, barely any higher than the waves cresting around it. Here's the sad part: while she's used a great deal of cleverness in building it, from rocks and sand and bits of broken reef, she's all out of construction materials that she can reach! So she needs help: more construction material for the island.

It seems she's got a very loose definition, though, so pretty much anything that can later be covered in sand or dirt is fair game. Lucky that she wants it now. There's a perfect place to dump all that debris in the ocean recycle all the debris, anything not structurally sound enough for a repair-in-place job. Bigger is probably better, too. Work together with other Star Children to haul up the big stuff. It brings more and more joy to her songs as she finds the exact place for each and every item, making her island grow bigger and bigger.

Anyone who actively participates will be rewarded five (5) spoons by the turtle directly, as a thank you for helping her to keep her eggs safe. (If anyone asks, she'll explain that it's the number of limbs she has, so she thought it was perfect!) In addition, she gives each person a smooth and shiny sea rock that fits in their palm perfectly! If the island gets big enough to be more than a sandbar, anyone who helped with the construction will find it far more welcoming than those who didn't. She isn't expecting to use anything but the beach.

• A large sea turtle—with a 6 foot in diameter shell and about 3 feet tall at the shoulder—starts building an island off Cruel Summer.
• She needs help getting more building supplies. Bring your debris, bigger the better, here!
• All Star Children who help will be rewarded five (5) spoons and a shiny and smooth rock from underwater that fits in their recipients' palms just so.
• Star Children who help find the island more welcoming than those who didn't.

Comments

Nero | Devil May Cry | Legend

[pullit]

(ooc: I am cool with either prose or brackets and happy to match your preference. Please tag as you prefer and I'll follow suit! Also feel free to hit me up for plotting reasons via DM or theggnator!)

A. Arrival

He was about to tell that fox thing "no thanks." There is only so much otherworldly supernatural bullshit one guy can take before he snaps, even a professional devil hunter. And the day after averting the apocalypse that shook his entire world, both literally and figuratively, Nero is 99% of the way there.

Speaking of earthshaking, he pulls himself out of the crater he made on impact to find himself in the middle of a sunbaked desert that looks like it was the site of a sci fi battlefield. He cannot begin to comprehend the wreckage he's looking at, not in combination with all this other shit, so he files it away in "worry about later" behind figuring out where the hell he is and getting out of the blistering sun. Guy with his complexion burns like a marshmallow in a bonfire out here.

He's been walking for about half an hour, towards what appears to be the walls of a settlement in the distance. If nothing else, he can seek shelter there and try to get his bearings. That's when he notices another person. Way out here? They're either as lost as he is, or they know where they're going on purpose.

"Hey!" he calls out. "You over there!"

If they're friendly, great. If they're not... he can handle it. He's unarmed. But at least he's not unarmed.


B. Community Service

Even lost in another world and way out of his element, Nero's not the type to sit around when there's action to be had. Doubly so if that action is somebody needing help. And it looks like he arrived at a great time for that. The people in Epiphany look like they've been through a lot, and there's loads of cleanup to be done.

"Here, let me help you with that." The young man is deceptively strong, able to lift even unwieldy furniture with surprising deftness. Looked like this person needed the help, too. "Where are we headed?"


C. Community Service But For Turtles

More manual labor. But it's a way to earn his keep, and it helps him stop fretting about being here and not back home, where Kyrie and the kids and, apparently, the entire human plane need him to protect them. But surely they're doing fine without his direct attention. Surely, there haven't been any horrible consequences to the destruction of the Qliphoth, no demons to be culled-

Yeah. See. Lift heavy things and those thoughts go away.

"I can fit more in here," he offers, patting the side of a large wheeled cart already full of debris he collected. "C'mon, let's load it up and save a trip together."

community service-ish.

[devilblooded]

( Clean up's not anything he'd say is on his resume of skills and abilities he has, but. It beats being stuck in the woods of Amrita Academy and it does give him the chance to see more of what all the hubbub of Folkmore and its other areas is all about, so. He's out here in Epiphany. Not looking like the mess he'd been in the weeks he'd spent playing Folkmore's version of Survivor, but pretty put together for a change. Might be a bit of dirt on his coat, shirt, and pants, but. That's what happens when one roughs it up in the wilderness for... however long he'd been out there. Point is, he's not looking like a hot mess right now and that's really all that matters.

He's atop one of the residences — fixing something up that he's pretty sure he has a handle on when he catches sight of a familiar mop of white and gray out of the corner of his eye. It's deja-vu all over again, minus the suddenly being kicked to the face part, but it's enough to have him pause what he's currently tying together and get a better look at who that hair happens to belong to.

Unmistakable, like he thought. )

Well I'll be damned.

( It's muttered to himself — huff on his lips to go with the slow shake of his head. Figures the kid would follow that fox when both he and his old man had told him to stay put in the human realm. Hoo boy, he should really give it to him. Maybe he will. Or maybe that's more his old man's job to do now. Either way, he sets what he's been working on down and presses the heel of his boot against the ledge of the building he's atop, arm draped across his knee as he leans over and watches his dear nephew down below assist someone for a minute.

That's when he laughs to himself and makes sure to say what he says loud enough for the kid to hear: )

I spy with my little eye... something that is... not supposed to be here.

[pullit]

[Talk about unmistakable. No sooner does Nero hear that voice than he goes absolutely rigid, nearly dropping the wrecked bookcase he's carrying. He manages to set it down, gently, before he looks up and spots the familiar, mangy, grinning face of Dante, smiling at him like a cocky asshole from up on a roof.

Uncle Dante, he abruptly reminds himself.]

You're gonna break your neck up there, old man. [The sass is instinctive.] Already get sick of the underworld?

[devilblooded]

( Mr. Sassypants here. If there was ever a doubt this wasn't who it looks like... all flown out the window with that remark. Wave of a hand, he gestures around him. )

Reception there was terrible.

( As if this man uses anything other than a landline, but. Looking back down to Nero then, he raises a brow. )

Why are you here, kid? This look like the human realm to you?

[pullit]

[He's relieved to see Dante, in one piece and out of the underworld. At the same time, he's deeply annoyed. Furious, even. And that remark about the human realm tips the scales in one direction in record time.]

Why don't you come on down so I can ask you the same question?

Community service but for <s>Mizu</s> Turtles

[artofrevenge]

Mizu sorts through debris for any metal of use to her or items that might help forge steel. Oh, anything organic can do, but Mizu knows better than to pick just anything. It's a matter of what feels right. What doesn't, she helps clear away. It works well, and it so happens to help other people too. Everything is cleanup these days.

She looks up at the sound of an offer and stares a moment longer at the man, somewhere between her age and Rin's, that accompanies a cart. He looks similar to someone she knows, but Mizu could be reading Vergil into things. "May I look through it first? I'm a smith, so some of it may serve me well."

[pullit]

What a familiar request. Except this person actually asks nicely and doesn't say shit like "hey asshole, grab that for me or I'll leave you on the side of the road."

"Yeah, sure." He sets down the edge of the large chunk of metal flashing he was in the middle of moving, and down goes the pile of garbage on top of it. "Knock yourself out. What kind of stuff are you looking for?"

[artofrevenge]

All this debris used to be something useful before it turned to garbage. Mizu will collect some from every region, as they were each affected differently. When the time comes, she'll know when to use it. Until then, it will store stably in the cold of Wintermute. She only has to deal with getting it there. A problem with the train down, but there's worse problems to have.

Mizu approaches the wagon and the unstable pile of things inside it. Sometimes it's hard to tell what something once was. She guesses the idiom's meaning, though she won't follow it to the letter. "Metal, mostly. Some wood. Anything of the right quality."

Which possibly sounds presumptuous to a stranger. If it does, not her problem if he thinks she's an asshole. Probably. "We may as well not forget what happened." Mizu pauses. Everyone or nearly everyone was at Amrita Academy. She's come to know most people's faces, if not their names. She doesn't recognize his that way. "Were you here for it?"

[pullit]

He's more inclined to mechanical bits than he is to raw materials, and without a place to call his own or any real purpose for it, he's not found much reason to collect any of it. So the turtle and the smith can divvy it up, for all he cares.

"Nope, I just got here. Sounded like a real shitshow though." It also looks like it was a real shitshow, but Nero's forced to guess what anything looked like before he landed on his face out in the desert. "Do you know if anybody got hurt?"

arrival

[oldbetsy]

Lost is a great way to put it. Helga's set of pink horns make her desperately easy to spot and the way that heart-tipped devil's tail of hers lashes around like an angry cats says everything. She's got her hands forcefully buried in the pockets of her jeans when she turned with a sour look on her face.

"Yeah?"

She doesn't sound near as sour as she looks, just mightily displeased.

[pullit]

Not to make assumptions at first glance, but she does not look like she's out here on purpose.

"Are you okay?" Apart from the trudging through a desert bit, presumably. "You just land here too, or is this your usual jogging route?"

[oldbetsy]

Her shoulders tighten up then like she's on the verge of snapping back some line or other. Then she stops and with a huff of breath a hand rises up to her neck as she gives a dry laugh instead.

"If I jogged this far out of civilized land every day I'd have killer legs by now."

She hitches a thumb back over her shoulder casually.

"Nah I landed face down in the sand out there and now I'm trying to find where I am with about a pound of sand in my shoes."

[pullit]

Aha. Well, nice to know that he's not the only one landing face-first in the sand. Misery loves company and all that.

"Hey, me too. It'd be good for us to stick together." Who knows who or what might be lurking out here? "I thought I saw a settlement on the horizon, so I was gonna head there for some water, if nothing else."

community service

[antimetabole]

"Nero."

Vergil says his son's name neutrally. It's a mask, of course.

He hadn't been making any sort of effort to assist with cleaning up around Epiphany as of yet. Being out here now was more a matter of assessing the extent of the damages as well as carefully surveying for any signs of what it had been like out here a month ago. Vergil's trust in Thirteen's competence is...perhaps a bit strained, to say the least.

Once the moat had dissipated and it was deemed safe to travel again, Vergil made his way to his apartment to assess the damages and make some alterations to it as well given Dante was to stay with him until he decided what he wanted to do. He was fortunate. Despite some of the exterior damages to the building, his specific unit was relatively unharmed. A few things out of place, but nothing that was particularly difficult for him to correct. He gave the Lore summons a try then, seeing if it had truly returned to normal. He was pleased when a serviceable pull-out sofa manifested rather than the odd interpretations that had been persisting over the past few weeks. But more importantly, the success led Vergil to summon the Yamato finally after nearly a year of being without it.

There is little that could possibly compare to possessing his blade again, but hearing his son again pulled at his heart in ways he couldn't possibly begin articulate and he isn't even certain should be possible considering how little connects them beyond blood. But Nero has been on his mind more as of late, and it is no secret to Vergil that the decision to follow the fox spirit was at least partially motivated in wanting to return to his son. Across the street, Vergil came to a stop, nearly frozen to the spot as he stood there in a strange sense of indecision over what to do. Part of him did not want to look, not wanting to be disappointed when he discovered he managed to deceiving himself, but it did not win out in the end. He didn't interrupt, merely watched as Nero helped another and followed along several paces behind to avoid drawing attention to himself right away.

Nero shouldn't be here.

He should be back in the human world where Vergil and Dante left him. He should be among his peers and where he belongs. Not on his own in a place like this. Dante left him with a specific duty to uphold, one that Vergil also intended for Nero. That settled for Vergil alongside whatever other feelings he has at seeing Nero again, but just as the other feelings did not emerge, neither did his disapproval when he finally crossed the street and approached him. He waited until Nero was on his own again. In Vergil's experience, family reunions are often...messy at best, and he doesn't care to involve anyone else.

He does a brief once-over of Nero. It's wholly unnecessary, but some part of Vergil still is struggling to wrap his mind around Nero truly being here and in one piece.

"You look well."

[pullit]

He can't help the way he freezes when he hears that voice. Unmistakable, even after only meeting him twice... make that three times before. He turns slowly to look over his shoulder and there he is, standing across the way.

"Vergil?"

It's difficult to get a read on the man he found out was his father less than a week ago. Who as their first act of "bonding" ran him through with Yamato just prior to Nero piledriving him face-first into the dirt. He has no idea whether to brace for an attack or make a preemptive one of his own.

But then Vergil just stands there, staring, so Nero does too. His brow creases and his fists tighten at his sides, unconsciously.

"The Underworld looks a lot nicer than I pictured," he says, deadpan. "Unless you guys already got sick of it."

[antimetabole]

"Do not presume to lecture me, child," Vergil says quickly, a warning in his tone even if nothing in his posture nor stance changes. "Not when you've chosen disobedience."

And especially not when Vergil and Dante already did their part in the Underworld. The roots were severed, and it was only a matter of survival. Survival and trying to find a way back should circumstances be fortunate enough that a path could open without also heralding calamity for the human world. And if that could not be so... Well, Dante and Vergil would cross those bridges when they got there. There was no sense in concerning themselves too deeply on things that had yet to happen. And so, Folkmore seemed the perfect opportunity for a more peaceful return and one that need not rely so much on luck.

"You were to stay in the human world." He lifts his chin slightly, eyes narrowing as though he can divine the answer to his question before he asks it if he studies Nero closely enough. "Why are you here?"

[pullit]

Oh, okay. It's gonna be like that.

Nero scoffs loudly at the scolding, quickly adopting a confident posture with his arms folded and his boots planted firm. "Neither of you assholes get to tell me what to do," he snaps. "But even pretending you do, I didn't choose to come here."

Not on purpose, anyway. He's realizing he should have better understood the assignment before so readily agreeing with the fox... thing. Alas, Nero is anything but a "look before you leap" type.

"Why are you here? Is Dante here too?" Did you kill him, he manages to refrain from adding.

Arrival

[goldenturtle]

Cale regretted his decision to examine Cruel Summer as soon as he arrived, but he was already there so he figured he may as well continue on instead of wasting his time.

He wanted to know the condition of the ground, wondering if there were any spots that could tolerate rainfall if he were to move more of the excess floodwater this way. The Super Rock would be able to check a wide area for him, meaning it wouldn't take much effort at all...

...but it was too hot. Cale had made a critical error in forgetting that the reason deserts never gave him any problems before was because he had a dragon by his side.

He is taking a much-needed break, seated on the sand with an umbrella stuck into the ground beside him and a bottle of water in one hand. Cale looks a particularly sad sight drenched in sweat and every inch of his skin flushed from the heat.

He's busy talking shit about himself in his mind when he hears something scary (Hey! You over there!), causing him to spit out the sip of water he just drank. Cale quickly turns to look the approaching man with wide eyes.

'Shit! I just want to rest!'

"...H-Hi?"

[pullit]

"Looks like your beach up and left," Nero remarks as he gets closer. Seriously, camping out here with not a drop of water in sight? This guy must really want to work on his tan. He, meanwhile, goes so far as to pull up his hood to try and keep the sun off him.

"You know where the hell we are? I, uh... just dropped in."

[goldenturtle]

"I'm doing an ecological survey," Cale deadpans, though it isn't exactly wrong. He makes no move to leave the shade of his umbrella even as the guy approaches, choosing instead to observe the newcomer with sharp, analyzing eyes.

'He looks similar to that grumpy man with the goat and that drunk ajhussi.'

Cale pulls another bottle of water from his bag, holding it out for the guy to take.

"A desert region of Folkmore named 'Cruel Summer' for obvious reasons," he answers. "If you keep going in the same direction for a bit you'll end up somewhere safe."

It really isn't any of his business what this guy does, but...

Sigh.

Cale sighs and brushes his face with a hand.

"...You should head to the northwest region of Epiphany. You might find familiar faces there."

wildcard

[darksoulwithlight]

[It just so happens, one morning shortly after Nero has taken up residence in Epiphany, while he's relaxing in the early morning in an empty apartment, a little goldfinch happens to fly up onto the open windowsill in the apartment. It sits on the ledge, cocking its head from side to side, before it chooses to flitter inside fully and sit on the top of the fridge.

The bird looks around its surroundings, and then catches sight of Nero sitting on the couch.

Oops.

Not an empty apartment after all.]

[pullit]

[Nero's lounging on the couch, flipping through the pages of a big, thick book that does not at all look his speed. Especially not as he squints and scowls at the words, mouths them repeatedly, and generally seems to be struggling through it.

God damn. Vergil reads this stuff for fun?

He's distracted by the movement of wings, and looks up to see the bird sitting atop the fridge.]

Oh, hey. How'd you get in here? [He tucks a small slip of paper into the book and sets it aside, standing up.] Fresh outta birdseed, buddy... but maybe we've got some bread, if you go back on the windowsill.

[darksoulwithlight]

[Okay, phew. It's not Vergil. Nero's looking pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed, if not a little more scholarly than she's used to seeing him. That's one helluva book he's got on his plate.

Trish ruffles her feathers a little, hops from one foot to another and then scoots a little further forward to the edge of the fridge.

Now how is she going to play this...?]

[pullit]

[Nero moves slowly so as not to startle the bird, trying to plan his movements. First things first, he gives the fridge a wide berth as he goes to the counter to get a slice of bread.]

Here, buddy. Look at this. Over here.

[Then he tries to make an obvious show of setting the bread down on the windowsill.]

Go on. You don't wanna be stuck in here, do you?

A

[ricochetingbullets]

The person Nero spoke to turned, pulling out a handgun as he did so, a fluid movement borne of someone who had been handling weapons for a very long time. But he didn't fire. Dex hadn't just learned how to fire a gun in the years he'd spent handling them, he'd also learned the importance of being safe around them as well.

While he kept the weapon trained on Nero, he didn't fire, instead giving the younger man a onceover before he put the gun back in his holster for the moment. "Yeah?" Dex asked laconically.