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

[ostavil]

You're not dressed for Wintermute and Willow might be the closest. The relic thing has a map on it but for now, I know where I'm going and I'm not going to get you lost. There's a pub that has great food.

( Bucky gives her a look, evaluating. )

I bet you've never been in a pub before. Am I right?

[marriageable]

[ She doesn’t miss the assessment, and straightens up a little, suddenly overly conscious of herself. Understandably so, in light of how unequipped she is for everything since she got here. It’s also habit; she was the Diamond, after all.

Her jaw shifts. Just refrains from frowning, instead pursing her lips together. ]

I cannot say I have been. Is that a bad thing?

[ostavil]

It's not a bad thing. I was just thinking about your comfort with the setting, that's all.

( Bucky takes her there anyway because it's his favorite place out of everywhere he's been since he's lived here. It's cozy, the food's good, and it's literally named The Prancing Pony. As a Tolkien fan, he can't not love it.

There's an open booth when they get there and he waits for Daphne to sit before he slides into his own seat. He might be pretty far removed from home but he has manners and one of them is letting a lady go first. )

I haven't had anything here that's bad so you can probably just take your pick off the menu and get something good. If you don't like it, we can try something else.

[marriageable]

[ If the duchess wasn’t out of her element before, she certainly is now. She sticks out like a sore thumb. Her eyes are roving over the interior of the ‘Prancing Pony’ the instant they enter and don’t cease until she sits, at which point there’s a thin booklet placed in front of her with titles that must be the names of foods she’s never heard of before.

There’s something called The Baconator and The Holy Crepe. If not for the descriptions, she’d be completely lost. By the time the waiter comes, she’s barely sorted it out and made a decision. ]

The Codfather, please and thank you. Whatever that is.

[ostavil]

Oh, that's a good one. I'll have the same, actually. I'll have a beer and...Daphne, what do you want to drink?

( Maybe he wouldn't normally order a woman's drink for her but Daphne had looked a little shocked at the menu and he doesn't want to put her through the back half of the menu with all the alcohol if she doesn't want anything but water or something. )

The list's on the back half of the menu if you don't know off the top of your head.

[marriageable]

Wine.

[ That’s easy enough to decide upon. She needs wine. Like. Badly. It has been A Day. ]

White, preferably. Or whatever you have available. [ Because frankly she has no clue, and she’s not about to go through that ordeal again.

The waiter does, however, get her winning smile. ]

[ostavil]

( They do, in fact, have white wine and the waiter whisks away to get their drinks and food and leaves them alone at the table again. Bucky gives her a smirk. )

Needing that drink today, Daphne? I can't say I blame you. If I could actually get drunk, I would have had all the beer in this whole bar the first day I got here. You're handling it better than me.

[marriageable]

[ She’s not at all accustomed to this kind of frank manner of speaking, especially about drink. Sure, she’s seen others under the influence, she has indulged herself, and her mother most assuredly had had too much wine before... but those were things she did not discuss with men she met maybe an hour ago.

She can roll with the punches, though. Resilience has been showing itself to be prominent in her person. ]

I don’t know whether to be insulted or take that as a compliment, Mr...? We did not exchange last names.

[ostavil]

It's Barnes. And it's a compliment. You're a lot more calm about this situation than I was when I got here. I was too worried about what I left behind.

( He had chosen to come here like everyone else but he hadn't realized that going back wouldn't be as easy. )

And yours? It'd be good to have the whole name in case I have to look you up later on the relic thing.

[marriageable]

[ There is a long moment before her reply comes, her eyes dropping to the walnut table separating them. Her fingers itch to trace the veins of the tree that was felled to make it. ]

Bridgerton. Daphne Bridgerton.

[ She says it unwavering, but with heaviness in her heart. Simon won’t mind; he never wanted to marry her anyway. ]

[ostavil]

Strong name. Good to meet you, Daphne Bridgerton.

( It isn't lost on him that she looks down at the table before she says it and it feels like it must have been a lot for her to give the name out. Bucky has no idea what that could mean but he also feels like Daphne is entitled to her secrets - god knows he'll be keeping his for the time being. )

There's several different...regions, I guess I would say, so you can get settled into whatever feels good for you. Housing's free so you don't have to worry about paying for it.

[marriageable]

Housing. Yes. [ Repeating. She hadn’t even considered that part. Up to this point, it has been mostly about putting one foot in front of the other. Daphne has never once paid for anything in her life, much less boarding. She herself had been the payment in her marriage; Simon had refused her dowry. ]

And these regions? Might any of them bear likeness to England?

[ostavil]

Hmm. The one we're in right now might count but it's a little like the countryside. It's called the Willows. The other places aren't like England at all but that isn't really a bad thing, necessarily.

( Their drinks come and Bucky lifts his pint glass in a little cheer. )

Where I live is like...I don't know. America, more or less. I can show you how to take the train around to everywhere and you can see for yourself what seems right.

[marriageable]

Perhaps it rains less in those places.

[ Traveling by herself? She’s traveled no more than to the countryside before. Never without an escort. (Insert anxious wine sips here.) ]

As long as it is not the Arctic. [ Not her best joke. She’s trying to abate the fear of living and traveling by herself on top of everything else. ] I have never been on a train before. This is all... very enlightening.

[ostavil]

There's one place that is like the Arctic. It's nice to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. And you've never taken a train before? It's crazy for me to think about because I've been everywhere twice and back again but I guess it must be nice to have a home and know you belong there.

( It's been a long time since he's had that, since before the war, and he's envious of someone who hasn't traveled far enough to never get on a train before. Unless she did it by horse? )

The train's nice. You can get horses, too, if that's more your speed.

[marriageable]

I don’t believe anyone has used a train to travel in London. My brother Anthony would know more about that than I. [ If there had been a passenger train, she would have heard about it because it would be a spectacle, but that doesn’t feel like pertinent information for now.

She takes another sip, and recalls what he said. ]

Do you not have a home in New York? [ As soon as she says it, she realizes how callous it may sound, and winces. ] Forgive me. It’s none of my business.

[ostavil]

I do but I hardly ever get to live in it. I have to travel for my...job, I guess you'd say.

( Is being the Winter Soldier a job? It had been a prison for a long time and then it had been an unwilling sin he had to bear. Now he actually helps people instead of hurting them but the name still carries a lot of weight and most of it bad. His apartment in Brooklyn is the furthest thing from a home there can be. It's thrown together out of spare things just like him. )

My house here just got flattened in a storm so I am truly homeless for right now. I'm rebuilding it.

[marriageable]

[ Daphne nods along, understanding or thinking she does in what way she possibly ever could; her only job in life has been to be a bridal prospect and a wife. She doesn’t think she’s doing particularly good at the latter.

Horror blooms across her face. Her jaw drops, and she has to set down the wine glass before that goes with it. He speaks of it so nonchalantly, she clocks it as some form of coping mechanism.

Unthinking, she reaches out to touch his hand in commiseration. ]

That is — wretched. I’m so sorry.

[ostavil]

( Bucky isn't really used to a lot of people touching him but Daphne's touch doesn't bother him. She seems to have offered it in genuine concern given her eyes and her voice and it feels...good, he guesses, to have someone care. )

It's all right. Manual labor is something I'm extremely good at and I didn't have a lot of things to call my own. I would rather it be me who lost everything than someone who had more to lose.

[marriageable]

[ She doesn’t think much of it, such an expression of compassion comes so easily to her. His dismissal does little to dampen it either, but after a gentle squeeze, she retracts her hand. ]

That is very thoughtful of you. [ Is all she can think to say. She doesn’t know him well enough to tell him she doesn’t think that playing it off as nothing will help, and anyways, the food has come. ]

[ostavil]

Now, if you don't like what you ordered, we can get you something else. I've got the money to spare - even if our money is called lore and you don't earn it the normal way.

( Bucky will eat basically everything but he doesn't know about Daphne, considering where and when she's from. )

[marriageable]

[ Daphne had ordered one of the few items she recognized on the menu, but what is set in front of her doesn’t look a thing like what she expects. If she had expectations to begin with, that was her own mistake to make. She should have left those at the door.

Two hundred years in the future any civilized person would recognize her plate as fish and chips. Daphne, meanwhile? Her flabbers are GASTED.

Baby steps..

She stares at the cutlery next. ]

May I borrow your oyster fork? [ Assuming he has one! Do they have oyster forks at the Prancing Pony? ]

[ostavil]

I don't have an oyster fork. I barely know that one exists, actually, but I can ask for one from the kitchen if you want me to?

( Bucky isn't sure that they'd have one but he'd be willing to pay for one if it made Daphne more comfortable. As it is, he does everything he can to keep a straight face. )

[marriageable]

[ He doesn’t know what an oyster fork is? She stares at him like he’s grown a second head.

Deep breath. You can do this, Daphne. ]

No. It’s perfectly fine. This... will do.

[ With a weak smile, she picks up the only fork that is available and starts very slowly and deliberately cutting up her fish into small mouthfuls. It looks absurd, but this is how she was raised.

Her first bite, it turns out, is not disappointing. She actually looks impressed. ]

[ostavil]

I'm going to venture a guess - and feel free to be offended for me even pointing it out - but I'm guessing since you asked me for an oyster fork, you're pretty rich, aren't you?

( It's a natural enough assumption and it makes him think about the gulf between him and this woman. There was already the time difference, then the fact that he was a mass murderer against his will, and now oyster forks? They're on other sides of the universe, he thinks. Still, Daphne is one of the more interesting people he's met if not only because she was damn tenacious about moving that debris all alone. )