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October-November 2024 Test Drive Meme
October-November 2024 Test Drive
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 todump 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.
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
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.
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Of- of course not! ...Is it? I would think that... I would be honored to be friends with two whole generations of incredible fighters!
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Not that she has time to comment on it. There's more important business here. Like proving her point. Minako refuses to lose an argument. Ever. ]
Well, if my mom was here, would you want to be friends with her?
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Oh noooo, Casey. You can't go there. That's a dangerous place to go! In fact, while the other is saying all of that stuff, Minako's face seems to move through an entire range of complicated emotions, before she settles on something that seems half-angry and half-hurt at the same time. ]
You don't have to talk to her about that. [ Minako isn't even looking at the other as she says it - folding her arms across her chest and looking away. ] I don't think she'd have anything to tell you in the first place.
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...O-oh? ...Why is that, if I may ask...?
[Even though she dreads the answer.]
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[ .. It's a rather short answer by Minako standards. Sure, somehow Casey manages to out-dramatic the drama queen over here most of the time, but Minako is a pretty energetic and chatty person.
Most of the time, anyway. Right now her answer is so short, and there's no energy in it at all. The teen doesn't even seem sad or anything, just.. mildly annoyed at best. ]
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[Now she's completely deflated. She's reminded of her own parents, who never seemed to really want anything to do with her, and she feels bad for putting the spotlight with that for Minako.]
I- I'm sorry, Minako. I know what that's like. A-and that's why I intend to be the complete opposite as a mother!
[She spreads her arms out.]
Do you require a hug at this time?? Mine can be quite powerful!
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(And it's not just the hug offer that's doing it, really, even though she doesn't react to that when she speaks up.) ]
Wait-- What do you mean, you know what that's like?
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W-well, to have parents who... wouldn't really speak of you. That's what I'm familiar with. In fact, that was one reason I left home behind to join the Foot Clan!
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Especially when - as her eyes grow wider - she can't help but ask: ]
You could just run away from home?!
[ Girl!! She's so jealous!! You have no idea! ]
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It is one option one can undertake! Although it's mostly applicable if you have somewhere to run to. Thankfully the Foot Clan was welcoming of new recruits, though they were evil!
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[ Unless you count having been to two different worlds at this point - but Minako isn't counting that, because she doesn't want to stick around here! She wants to go home!
So she's losing a bit of energy here, instead looking more sulky again. ]
You were luckier, if you actually had a place to go like that.
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[She bows her head.]
I did not mean to lord my own circumstances over you! I certainly hope that you can forge your own path to freedom. At least... You are here, yes?
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I don't want to stay here though. I want to go back to my own world as soon as possible.
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Really? But this place is great! ...Well aside from the deadly trials and all. You have a whole world here that you're free to explore! Isn't this like a fun and occasionally dangerous vacation from your homeworld?
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On the other hand, they are tied to a secret she can't talk freely about. But it's not like there isn't something else she could focus on in what the other is saying, even if it's less important. ]
... you don't really understand how other people feel, huh?
[ Minako doesn't seem angry as she says it. She doesn't turn her tone cutting, like the question isn't meant to insult Casey.
Instead it almost sounds a little more sad, like Minako is genuinely wondering if that's the case. After all, she's also someone who's used to danger, and who doesn't really mind it on a personal level-- But she can still imagine how most other people wouldn't want to deal with it. How dangerous it is to them. ]
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I... I understand how people feel! Just... not everyone.
[Most of her peers are action-heavy fighters, after all.]
And I guess, not you. I'm sorry! I'm just, I want to help you figure this out, but it keeps proving to be trickier than I anticipated.
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[ She still looks more sad than angry, but-- you know, that might still be bad, especially if Casey is feeling bad about seemingly not being able to understand Minako..
The girl sure does not look happy! ]
After all, who would want to be in this place? Who'd think it's a good place to be?
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M...e? I mean, sure, it's not a perfect place to be! I'm not crazy about how the trials are arranged. Many of them are too invasive or manipulative, and they should reserve the dangerous ones for those of us who know how to defend ourselves and love combat!
... But, y'know, aside from that, it's quite a lovely world full of interesting people. An ideal environment for me as I find a new start! And, well, I guess it also helps that my future son is here. So now I can be here for him and make up for lost time!
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Does that make it worth the way people are tortured here?
[ 'Tortured' is maybe kind of a wild word for a teenage girl who loves to present herself as ditzy to use, but!! You know!! This is serious stuff to her! ]
I can't just look past that and pretend it's not happening all the time.
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Wh-what? No, I don't condone the torture of anyone! I just- I didn't realize it was so bad as to be considered torture. I try to look out for others who are stuck in trials that they are unfit there. I'm not turning a blind eye to any suffering! But I also haven't really noticed anything horrible happening outside of the trials. I have not been aware at all of anything troubling happening during those times!
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[ Sorry, Casey. Minako is a little too attuned to danger and keeping people out of trouble to think about just casual life here outside of that!
It's not even that she's blaming the other. She doesn't think Casey is doing anything wrong here. It's this place that's wrong. That's the feeling that's coming out right now. ]
And just when you think one thing is done, another thing starts all over again. [ Especially when you're Minako "hyper-vigilant" Aino. Batman has nothing on her! ]
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I suppose I am ignorant to how much danger is running rampant in this world. But rest assured! I am a Legend now, learning the way of the Hero, so I shall be ever more vigilant in squashing those threats wherever I may find them! I shall squash them so much, they... they shall be squash soup!
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.. that's all we can do.
[ Minako says. Slowly, maybe a little sadly - especially by her standards. But she still sounds convinced of what she's saying here.
It's the one thing she's trying to do here by this point, after all. Especially with so many people important to her having disappeared. ]
Keep people safe from this place.
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...Indeed. I'd like to think there's ways to influence or change this place for the better as well, but I suppose that is much easier said than done.
[And she balls a fist.]
Regardless, I vow to do all I can to make people's lives here better!
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