December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme (Overflow)

[folkie]

December 2023 - January 2024 TDM (Overflow)

Introduction

Original TDM post found here

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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.

and then... you fall like a shooting star, falling to the land in a burst of starlight.


🦊 Experienced Star Children are already familiar with this time of the month. There are shooting stars all across the sky, and some fall to the land, which means the Fox has brought new arrivals. These newly arrived Star Children will face some tests, but Thirteen wants the more seasoned residents to participate as well.

Perhaps you follow the falling stars on your own, or perhaps the Fox simply teleports you there, but it appears you too will be part of this.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

Thirteen Knows What You Did Last Summer . ★

Content Warnings: School Detention, Time Not Passing, Forced Reflection/Confession, Potential Violence

Welcome to detention. Star Children, whether they're new arrivals to Folkmore or old hands, find themselves sitting at two person desks in a library. Perhaps there's only two Star Children, perhaps up to four or five. Regardless, each Star Child has a slip of paper in their hands which spells out why they are in detention, a secret detention slip no one else can read. Which, whew, because the reason any Star Child is in detention is for something they've never been punished for, something they might reasonably have thought they got away with, something they know was wrong.

The door to the library opens, and Kuma Lisa enters. She explains that Star Children will be in detention for four hours, and by the end of detention, they will need to reflect on what they did and express contrition. The headmistress gives no further guidance before leaving and closing the doors behind her.

Four hours is a notable chunk of time, but it's not so long, is it? Surely it's possible to wait it out without making good on the assignment… Or perhaps it's enough to write about it in one of the notebooks on the table in front of each student, without explaining it to another soul. Star Children are welcome to try whatever they want. However, they may notice an oddity with the clock. Namely, no matter how many times the second hand ticks around a circle to mark a whole minute, the minute and hour hands don't progress. It's the same minute over and over and over—

Detention is four hours, but how long four hours takes is entirely up to the Star Children in detention. Read every book in the library. Throw a dance party. Get high. Pull weapons out of the books. All matter of non-magical weapons. Nothing immediately happens upon pulling those weapons—no monsters to make detention less boring. Unless people make progress reflecting on their transgression, communicating about it with another Star Child, and showing penitence for it, time won't pass. Reality warps to stay in the same minute, minute after minute, hour after hour.

What's it going to be? Never ending detention or personal accountability?

However long it takes, it only takes four hours in the realm of Folkmore.

A word of warning to those who grabbed weapons, they will be attacked on their way home after detention. They will be attacked by creatures out of storybooks. Star Children will need to know the literary weaknesses of these creatures, good luck, or the help of someone else coming along who does know their weaknesses. At least there's some excitement in the day after four long long hours.

🦊 Star Children, new and old, in groups of 2-5 are in detention for something they did wrong & haven't been punished for.
🦊 Kuma Lisa explains detention lasts four hours, and people have to express regret for what they did by the end.
🦊 Time doesn't pass unless Star Children make progress toward that assignment.
🦊 It always takes four hours in Folkmore time.
🦊 Star Children who draw weapons from books during detention will be attacked on their way home.

To Prank or to be Pranked . ★

Content Warnings: Theft, Glitter Bombs, Minor Power Nerfing

There's a problem with the nonexistent mail delivery system in Folkmore. Gifts are being delivered to residents' addresses—their correct addresses, even if they live in the woods—but those recipients, written on a fat cream label, cannot pick them up, teleport them, or otherwise move them under their own power. These gifts sit in garish and contrasting colors that make certain to draw attention to themselves. Hello, here they are.

Anyone else can pick these packages up, from the person next door to a stranger walking by. There's so many gifts around it's easy to pick one up, remove the label, and go on one's way. Few people are home all the time, and even if they are, what are they going to do? Pick it up themselves? Ha! It's free real estate. Star Children with abilities to see inside the packages can see something they want badly within as extra motivation to go for it.

When Star Children open their ill gotten gains, these packages explode in a glitter bomb that coats everyone within a ten foot radius. This glitter is impossible to wash out, magic away, or otherwise remove for twenty-four hours. Walk, swim, fly, or otherwise go about with glittery evidence of the crime committed.

Almost always. If it were guaranteed, where would the fun be in that?

The rare fortunate criminal or the original recipient, helped by another Star Child, will receive an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item. Those who receive an item will stop receiving gifts on their doorstep, whether they stole the gift or received it from a package addressed to them. They can keep stealing other people's gifts, but they will only receive a glitter bomb from then on.

Mischievous Star Children can even prank each other by changing the label and redelivering packages to someone else. Should that person get help to bring the gift inside, it still isn't their gift, not really, so it too will explode in glitter.

🦊 Gifts appear outside Star Children's residences, even those without residences.
🦊 Recipients cannot pick up the gift but any other Star Child can.
🦊 Almost all stolen gifts explode in a glitter bomb that leaves glitter for 24 hours.
🦊 Star Children can receive an item from home, even a weapon or magical item.
🦊 Star Children can prank each other by changing the labels/moving the packages.

Comments

[i_am_emmet]

[After a few moments, in a small voice.]

Do you want to live with me again? If you don't, I understand.

[Emmet mentally braced himself for that rejection.]

[offtracks]

I would be happy to share your space! If it is not an imposition, of course!

[Ingo's relieved, though. He wasn't necessarily worried about providing for himself; from what the Vulpix said, it wouldn't be so difficult here. But starting life anew in a new place is always hard. He knows that better than most.]

[i_am_emmet]

[Emmet is so relieved to hear that, and it shows.]

Never would be one, nope. We're a two-car train.

[Emmet not crying challenge: almost failed again.]

[offtracks]

Ah! Yes! A two-car train!

[He recognizes the phrase! He's used it himself, before, but it seems to mean something a little different here. As much as he and Akari have bonded over their unique circumstance, they do not share their lives; they're friends and often spend time together, but they always go their separate ways eventually. There's his Pokemon, and Lady Sneasler and her kits, but Ingo has wished before for a human partner to go home to at the end of the day. Not necessarily a wife or a husband - he supposes he's not against the notion, but romance is never really what he's thinking of. It's just someone to chat by the fire with at night.

Maybe this will be nice.]

Oh! It's leaving.

[Pulled from his thoughts a moment, Ingo turns to watch the train pick up speed as it starts to depart the station. He's a little sorry not to be on it, maybe, but there will be other trains. That's the whole point of trains, surely? For now, maybe it'd be nicer to go see his brother's home.]

[i_am_emmet]

That one isn't heading in the direction we're going, nope.

[Emmet said, still watching Ingo. When he arrived, he just chose a location and said that was it.]

But we can take the one that gets close to Talaria.

[Which...was a tiny house. They would need to find a new place for them obviously.]

[offtracks]

Oh! Is that where you live? Is it very far? What brings you here?

[Does he work in this town and live in another? How large is this place?]

[i_am_emmet]

It had been a long time since I last went to a park, yup.

[Back home, he just didn't have time- or he felt like people were staring at him. Either because everyone knew what happened and they felt either bad for him or whispering under their breaths he was involved... Here, no one knew him.]

Yup, and not that far. It is pretty small though, so we can look for something else once we know where we are better.

[offtracks]

[Ingo shrugs a little and nods. One should not take up more space than they need, but to squeeze into a small home unnecessarily isn't respectful of Palkia's gifts either.]

I have really only just arrived. I have not seen much outside of the gardens and this station!

[i_am_emmet]

I'll show you more, yup. We will need to go see other things to get you clothes and stuff, yup.

[offtracks]

Oh, that is not urgent. It can wait until I've found some employment, at least! Though, I am a bit surprised to find that we need such things in a world such as this.

[Maybe he read into it a little, but it still seems like a sort of spiritual self-improvement journey!]

[i_am_emmet]

I think the currency comes only from talking to folks, yup. Its the spoon thing. The afterlife is pretty good, yup.

[And there we go. Emmet thinks he is dead.]

[offtracks]

...this is not the afterlife.

[It isn't even a question in Ingo's mind, really! He paid attention to the whole onboarding process!]

[i_am_emmet]

[Emmet did not pay much attention to the onboarding at all!]

Yes it is, it's verrry nice, and Vulpixes don't talk, and I get to see you again suddenly.

[Emmet seems pretty chipper at the idea of being dead.]

[offtracks]

The Vulpix specifically said that it was not! Didn't you look and see yourself as you were leaving? A part of us is here, and a part is there - we will still be taking care of everything back home even as we travel!

[He's noticing that, but...maybe Emmet just had some time to get used to the notion? Wrong as it is? If Ingo were to die, he hopes he'd adjust instead of mourning his own life for too long.]

She was clearly not an ordinary Vulpix, in any case. Only one tail, but much too large for a newborn.

[i_am_emmet]

Nope. I was just looking at everything else.

[Emmet did not like the idea there was a him back home. That this all could be some weird dream or something that will mean he will have to go back home.]

[Alone. Suspected.]

She could have lost the others, yup.

[offtracks]

She didn't seem at all unbalanced to me...though I did not have the chance to examine her for scarring.

[That would have seemed especially rude under the circumstances anyway!]

I think she was likely a god, like Palkia or Dialga. We've had a number of them about lately. In any case, she did say that we were not dead!

[i_am_emmet]

So this is a dream?

[Emmet frowned a little.]

[offtracks]

I suppose it is a bit like that? Except that it is also real! But a part of ourselves is still going about our business. So we may do as we like here without concern for that.

[As powerful as the compulsion to follow was, Ingo thinks he still would have been a little more hesitant if he hadn't known that. He has responsibilities!]

[i_am_emmet]

And did the fox say if we were going back?

[offtracks]

I suppose we will at some point! She said that we are meant to reach our full potential, first - it would not do anyone any good if we did, and then just stayed here! After all, surely a part of reaching one's full potential must be helping others do so in turn?

[i_am_emmet]

Nope. I refuse.

[Emmet said lightly. Like he was turning down someone buying him a candy at a checkout.]

[That meant he would lose Ingo again. That would mean he would go back home.]

[offtracks]

...well, I'm sure it will not happen anytime soon.

[If they were as close to their "full potential" as that, what would be the point of bringing them here?]

[i_am_emmet]

I do not want it to be soon or later.

[He said heading to the ticket-seller.]

I'm happy.

[offtracks]

[There’s no reason they couldn't be happy in the real world too! That is, in fact, the ideal state! But Ingo doesn’t really feel comfortable arguing with someone he's only just met, at least not about something like this...he just trails behind Emmet.]

I'm happy, too.

[Though admittedly, he was happier ten seconds ago. Now he’s...a little bit anxious too.]

[i_am_emmet]

Good, I want you happy. Like I would hope that if you ran away to Kalos or Paldea or something without telling anyone if made you happier than if you stayed in Unova, yup.