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

after the storm ✨

[dreamfyres]

It could be hours, or perhaps days that have passed since she awoke here, in this strange world away from her world—if she was ever asleep. Helaena could not say; she has never been one much for time management nor tracking. Not infrequently does time fail to run linear for her.

She's been on her own, she knows that much, and it has not always been entirely unpleasant. Despite her aversion to people and her awe at the many things she does not fully understand, she has managed. Even tried to help rearrange the world around her, torn apart by a storm she just narrowly missed.

Is it luck that leads her to find her? Or is it the fox? She supposes it must be the latter. Either way, she knows this face, that flame of hair.

"Mother."

Her voice is softer than soft, a calm in the storm. Betraying nothing, though her breath has caught in her throat and her feet have frozen to the ground.

[alovelyvoice]

Soft as Helaena may have spoken, Alicent hears it clearly and immediately, immediately stands up straight, stock still as well for a moment. Something in her is briefly convinced that if she moves, her daughter will disappear. Every face she has come across so far has been unfamiliar - friendly enough, but entirely unknown to her, and now here is her daughter. Thus far, she's been content enough to wonder if this is real or not, it has not been a question with any emotional weight to it, but now...

If she is imagining this, her daughter in a place that thus far seems safer, calmer, more friendly, it is going to break her further. "Helaena... sweetling. Are you real?"

[dreamfyres]

What a loaded question. She has asked herself that a hundred times over before. Is she real? Is any of this real? Only a dozen of those times have been since she arrived in Folkmore. More frequently has she asked it in the throes of nightmares, of the things she seemingly sees that others cannot.

Her eyes, pale lavender under threads of silvery lashes, blink very slowly. She lowers them to her hands, her feet. Pats at her dress, flutters them over the sleeves of her arms. If Alicent was in doubt that this was her daughter, then perhaps her response will settle that thought.

Cautiously, she announces: "I think so."

[alovelyvoice]

Yes, her response makes it very clear that this is indeed her daughter. It is in fact so quintessentially Helaena, and such a blessed relief, that it simultaneously makes Alicent laugh a little and go teary-eyed.

It also brings to mind a number of follow up questions (did you get here the same way I did? how long have you been here? what is the last thing you remember?), but she finds she does not want to actually ask anything that will bring up the world they came from, not yet. What she does want, and does allow herself to do, is to rush forward and wrap her daughter up in a hug. "Oh, I am so glad to see you."

[dreamfyres]

If Helaena has gained anything from coming here thus far, it is not an easiness with sudden human touch. She foresees this happening before it does — her mother's quick embrace — but she still goes stick-still within her closed arms. The immediate response she'd have at practically any given time. Helaena, however, allows it; it is like she might do the same thing if she saw her small daughter here.

A moment too long to be read as anything but discomfort, but she does go lax, leaning her own weight against her mother. She is glad to see her as well... in part.

Another part of her is, insidiously, disappointed. Helaena has only ever lived in her mother's shadow, under her yawning wing.

For just a moment, she had existed outside of it.

[alovelyvoice]

That long moment never really gets less heartbreaking, but still, it is soothing to feel the warmth and weight of her daughter against her. Ideally, she would stay like this much longer than she does, but there is some part of her that is aware she is being selfish every time she hugs her daughter, and so she releases her after another moment.

"Were you here for the storm?"

[dreamfyres]

When it seems reasonable to pry herself away, she does just that, carefully extracting herself free. It’s a charitable attempt to not hurt her mother’s feelings, however much it works. They have both been trying to understand each other of late.

She looks past her when she poses that question, shaking her head.

“After… We walked for a long time. The fox and I. Hot and hotter, cold and colder. Blistering sunshine and raging storms. There was a rainbow at the end— shimmering—“ she wavers, blinking away the memory, and her gaze comes into sharp focus.

“And then I was a star. And so were you.”

[alovelyvoice]

It does work, enough to balance out the withdrawal, at least. It has been some time since Alicent could scoff at or disregard that type of charity, and likely she never would have from her daughter.

There's something distinctly disquieting about having that walk described by someone else, although Alicent cannot think why it bothers her. It should be, at least to some degree, be comforting, that she did was not alone in that experience. "Well. If you went through that as well, I suppose I did not imagine it. I was not sure if it was real."

[dreamfyres]

“I did,” she repeats, nodding, new firmness punctuating her tone. She isn’t crazy; neither is her mother. At least not in this regard. All of that described had passed. The snow crunching beneath her bare toes, sand squishing between them. Helaena can confidently say that much.

With a flickering look about them, almost timidly, she volunteers in her soft voice: “There is a place nearby. They call it a... a canteen, I think.” Pale eyebrows knit together, unsure, but it is as good an offering for shelter as she can give. Her mother is not one for nature, as far as she has ever known her, or to not have people waiting upon her hand and foot. Neither is she, for that matter. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen so much greenery and clean air in her life.

[alovelyvoice]

"A canteen? I would like to have at least the opportunity not to be outdoors, even though it is very nice to be in a different environment than the city," Alicent admitted. Very nice, in fact, was an understatement. It felt quite spectacular to be outside of King's Landing. She hasn't even considered such a thing to be possible for years, let alone to have the chance to have her daughter with her.

"There are parts of Oldtown that aren't dissimilar to this." She remarked, vaguely nostalgic. "At least, if I remember it correctly."

[dreamfyres]

She does not tell her to follow. After a moment, she simply turns on her heel and leads the way with a single look over her shoulder.

Helaena is not accustomed to playing leader, certainly not between she and her mother. Even as Queen, she has wanted to call her Your Grace rather than the other way around. She can’t think of a time her mother addressed as so.

She had not taken to queenship like a fish to water. It is ill-fitting on her.

To make it easier, she frames this in her mind as one of the times she was at play as a child, when her mother had time for her. Showing her the butterflies in the gardens, or the termite nests she would find in the Keep’s walls sometimes. Something so small could inflict so much damage.

The storm had done its own harm. There are broken tree limbs scattered everywhere, and she is careful to pick a path around them and back where she had come from.

Helaena had never been to Oldtown, so she would not know, but she’s seen drawings of it. “They call this the Willows,” she murmurs. “There are other regions here. You will remember more soon. What the fox said. I think... I think you may like it here.”

[alovelyvoice]

It does feel a little strange, following. It prods at the part of Alicent that wants to be clearing the way for her daughter, making sure there are no threats or danger ahead, even though she has never actually managed that. Still, she swallows, lifts her skirts, and follows in her daughter's footsteps.

"The Willows. That is a poetic name." Setting aside that strangeness, even setting aside the relief at seeing Helaena at all, Alicent recognizes there is a separate specific gratefulness at having a familiar face with more information about this place. The strangers here seem nice enough, but if she had to rely on them alone, it may well have brought to mind memories of the riot. And of course it meant more, that it was Helaena saying she might like it here. "Have you been to the other regions? Do you like it here?"

[dreamfyres]

She hums her agreement. It is poetical. Beautiful. The light dapples their faces as they pass under a great tree, its leaves the color of Dornish oranges.

As they walk in step with each other, mother and daughter, she considers the question, valid as it is. She has her misgivings — mostly the discomfort of newness. The strangers. Not of any of their doing, but borne from a simple rejection of unknown people. They aren’t the people of King’s Landing, though, that stared at her, reached for her.

And yet.

The shadow of a smile comes to her mouth. “I will.” Somehow, she knows this. It makes it easier.

[alovelyvoice]

There's something striking about this moment. Alicent has walked with her daughter an innumerable amount of times, has asked her plenty of questions in the hopes of gaining some further insight into Helaena. The location should be the only thing that registers as new in this moment, and yet, it is somehow striking in its' entirety. There is something special, significant about it, something Alicent cannot quite put her finger on it. Perhaps she is just being overly sentimental. Perhaps it is just incredible to think there is something she and her daughter will both like.

"I am very glad to hear that, sweetling. Very glad."

[dreamfyres]

Helaena gives a singular nod back. It is strange, perhaps, but that intrinsic knowing has been a feature in Helaena since she was very small. Sometimes she knew things. She never thought very much of it—never really considered it because it was always there, and people usually waved it away.

She thought everybody knew things, but they didn’t share them with her. She was only a princess, a girl.

Now, she wonders if that is not the case.

Her steps slow as they come into view of a building, its walls whitewashed and new. There is a racket being made, what with all the people around it or filing in. Helaena has always had sensitive ears, and a proclivity to veer away from strangers, especially of late, so she stops abruptly. Anxiety mounting, her fingers twisting in her skirts.

“There.”

[alovelyvoice]

Truth be told, the sound and the crowd spikes Alicent's nerve some as well. She can't tell from out here if this building is a tavern, but that's the closest reference Alicent has, and she has not entered one since she traveled to King's Landing as a child.

Even if she were used to them, after the riot... no one here, she reminds herself, has any reason to think ill of or wish harm on her daughter or herself.

Still, it is clear (and unsurprising) that Helaena is feeling a great deal more apprehension.

"We do not have to go in if you do not want to, sweetling," Alicent offers, managing to resist the urge to reach for and still Helaena's hands. They are just women here, it is no great crisis if someone sees. "Or if you're hungry, I can go in and I'm sure someone will explain to me how to use the spoon to purchase food, and I can bring it out."

[dreamfyres]

Helaena, ever empathetic, is even more on edge because of her mother’s nerves. They feed off of each other. She had never been a fan of crowds, owed in no small part to spending the bulk of her life cloistered in the Red Keep. Since she fell into the Willows, she’s oscillated between the desperate wish to be hugged between walls and the breath of relief that is nature.

Her stomach clenches, alerting her to hunger. It hasn’t been truly whetted since her coming here, scavenging and feeding off what little edible plants she could find. The smell wafting out of the windows and open door is enough to overcome her desire to run away. And she is, in truth, curious to see the inside of the tavern. She never has before.

Her fingers are still tightly curled in her dress, but she shakes her head and takes a steadying breath. “No. I’ll go with you.” She can be brave. It is only a little thing, and she is not in any danger.

[alovelyvoice]

"Well, alright. If you're sure." It doesn't ease all of the concern from Alicent's face - actually, it takes a moment of studying her daughter before it lessens at all, and it takes her two deep breaths of her own before she straightens up her shoulders and slips it behind the mask. She is not going to walk in as Queen, if she can help it, but she is going to borrow from that set of behaviors as necessary.

Is that responsible for why she takes back over the leading position? Perhaps a bit, but mostly it is just a matter of not being sure she will go in unless she goes now. At least perhaps she will be able to get a drink in there, she tells herself, and that will help some.

"Wait." Alicent pauses, a foot or so from the door, and turns back to Helaena, despite her earlier thought. "Before we go in there... do you wish for the people here to know you were queen, back in Westeros?"

[dreamfyres]

That is all the same for Helaena, really. Nature had not gifted her leadership attributes, even less it had her mother, who had the role thrust upon her the moment King Viserys set his sights and legacy upon a teenager. Automatically, second instinct, she shuffles behind her, a duckling under her mother’s wing.

In this, she is accustomed. The familiarity is a comfort.

She stops short when Alicent does. It’s not a question she had thought to consider. Those shackles were liberated her, with or without her consent. She hadn’t come here as Queen. Nobody, not even the fox, had seen her as so.

She doesn’t have to think for very long. No more than a couple of moments.

“No.” Her answer is decisive. She lifts her eyes, half resistance there, should her mother scold her. “I don’t want to be Queen here.” Not here. Not anywhere.

[alovelyvoice]

No scolding will be coming from Alicent on that, nor is there really any surprise. She nods, offering a small smile and reaching out to lightly brush Helaena's elbow. "No, nor do I. If we make introductions, we will leave the titles off."

That settled, she turns and carries on into the building. It is bustling inside, but it's not horribly packed, and there are tables available and room enough to comfortably walk around. That only helps so much with the inherent wrongfootedness Alicent feels, once they're amongst the people. Even in Westeros - well, even more in Westeros, to be honest - she would be uncertain how to behave in this environment. If she were not with her daughter, she isn't sure how much effort she would put in to adjusting.

But she is, and thus she makes for one of those empty tables as if she is comfortable - or at least, as comfortable as she ever is. The next part will be more difficult, at least for her pride, but her pride has taken worse hits then trying to purchase food for the first time in her life.

[dreamfyres]

Her eyes drop to the brief touch, but shockingly, Helaena does not withdraw from it. Instead, she nods in agreement, or perhaps it is more understanding. It is all too easy to fall back into a submissive role here. Her entire life has seen her resigned to it.

She skirts into the tavern after her mother, tailing her closely, head down, eyes avoidant. Somebody with a tray steps between them, just right between her and her destination, and she almost bumps into them. Would have, had she not stopped so quickly. Helaena squeaks aloud, an inhuman noise, startling both herself and the waiter, before she launches around and crashes into the seat beside Alicent. Her heart is racing, her skin feels too tight, stretched taut over muscle and bone.

[alovelyvoice]

Does she get to be happy that Helaena does not pull away, or should she be deeply concerned? Well, for now, she'll be glad, and her regular levels of concerned.

And then Helaena makes that strange sound while they are getting seated, and she becomes deeply concerned anyways, turning in her seat. "What happened? Did someone do something? Tale a deep breath, Helaena."

[dreamfyres]

It takes her a minute to reorient herself, heart pounding in her ears, braid disheveled. Only when it’s pointed out does she realize the noise that emitted from her throat, covering it with one shaky hand.

“No.” The answer, low and delayed. Her hand stays where it sits on her neck, her eyes glazed over. Everything seems blurry around the edges. “The cloven hoof will come, in time.”

She blinks, and the world comes in sharp relief, the air fragrant with food. Her stomach growls.

“It smells nice in here.”

[alovelyvoice]

"No? What cloven hoof, Helaena?" Well, there is confirmation that the odd statements Helaena makes were not caused by something in the Red Keep, specifically. It isn't a surprising revelation, but it is one Alicent had not been wishing for.

She knew before asking that she would not receive any real clarifying answer, so she sighs and moves along.

"It does smell nice in here. Good sign for the food." That does not help particularly with her nerves about using a spoon, of all things, to attempt to purchase two meals. "What would you like to eat? I'm certain they'll have stew, and likely some other meat and potatoes type dish."