folkmeme | June-July 2025 Test Drive Meme

Entry tags:

*tdm

June-July 2025 Test Drive Meme

June-July 2025 TDM

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 a canon item from home, 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]

Pirates of the Loreibbean . ★

Content Warnings:

Old wood creaks and groans, barely audible over a howl of wind. Wet droplets of rain hit faces and soak into clothing. Clouds overhead are a murky gray, blocking out the sun. Though summer weather is often somewhat temperamental, a true storm has now hit. Both newly arrived Star Children and veterans may find themselves in the midst of this situation quite abruptly, standing on the unsteady deck of an old, grand ship. Those who run to the nearest rail and peer overboard may be shocked to discover a stark absence of water below. Instead, the view just goes down… and down… The land of Folkmore lies far below, as this ship is flying through the storm, its sails struggling to hold under the force of whipping winds. There is no captain, there is no helmsman- there is no crew at all to be found, only fellow Star Children. And yet… the ship is still moving full speed ahead through the storm, as if it has a destination in mind.

A resounding boom echoes, and those with a keen gaze may just spot something whizzing past, missing the ship by a hair. Was that… a cannonball?

Just like that, a second vessel weaves its way out of a deck of gray clouds, pulling up side by side to the ship the Star Children are on. Lightning flashes, illuminating a whole bunch of sneers across the way, along with some eye patches, bandanas and goggles. Sky pirates are attacking! It's clear from their animalistic features that they're local spirits, but they're hardly as benevolent as those typically seen in Folkmore.

Ready yourselves, Star Children!

Those who wish to return fire will find several cannons lined along the ship's deck, ready to be used. These don't work just like any old artillery, though. In place of those unwieldy metal balls, one must load magic into these cannons. Lore, to be precise! It even says so on a small metal plaque, attached near the firing mechanism: "Connection is one's true ammunition." Find a fellow Star Child and start chatting! The more meaningful the conversation, the grander the magic ball one may blast at the pirates with the cannons.

Unfortunately, the cannons alone are not enough to fight off the pirates, as several of them swing their way aboard with ropes. (Or just fly, if they're bird spirits.) Star Children can head down into the armory below deck to grab a weapon. Yes, even weapons from home (or items that can be improvised weapons) are available, and may be kept after the fight is over. Star Children capable of flight may even be daring enough to make their way to the enemy's ship and deal some real damage over there.

The ship continues to shake and creak and bob in the storm, which may complicate the fight, but not all is lost. There, in the distance, up ahead… A beacon of light flickers, struggling to be seen through the thick clouds. What is that?

Star Children (new and old) find themselves aboard a grand wooden ship, flying through a storm. Yes, literally flying!
Sky pirates attack! They're just the local spirits, but a rowdy bunch nonetheless.
Use conversation to load up a cannon with Lore energy, then blast it at the pirate ship.
Alternatively, grab a weapon (possibly from home) from your ship's armory and start swashbuckling.
Star Children can keep one (1) weapon/item from home and other basic weapons.

So Said the Lighthouse Keeper. ★

Content Warnings:

Other Star Children, both new and old, may find themselves drawn to the floating island of Never Fade. Up here, in the clouds, the storm rages just as fierce, and the native spirits all share the same worry: the lighthouse is broken. Indeed, up on the highest hill of Never Fade stands a towering white spire, its beacon dimmed. 'A ship is coming in at any moment', the spirits all whisper. 'And there's reports of pirates in the area, too. What will we do?'

The goats which are quite common in Never Fade join forces to guide Star Children up the hill towards the lighthouse. And if not guiding, then dragging, chompers clenched around the fabric of sleeves or pant legs as they pull. The rain does not slow, but the wind thankfully blows uphill. Best to just go along with it, so you can go take shelter from the storm inside the enormous spire building, because the goats won't leave you alone otherwise.

Just outside the lighthouse stands a very curious cat. It's so large, it's almost the size of a pony, and its fur is black. No, white. … No, it's black, isn't it? (It really depends on what mood it's in.) Karma the cat peers up at any approaching Star Children with knowing eyes. It dashes inside the lighthouse for a second, then reappears with an envelope in its mouth, holding it out for the newcomer to take. Careful- the paper might get wet in the rain! Come stand under the awning or inside the house as you read:

"The lighthouse keeper is on vacation. Please help! The beacon needs to be charged. We need positive energy to power the light, and negative energy to rotate the lens. Be nice or be mean, both are good! :)"

Are you up for the task, Star Children? Then stay in the lighthouse's near vicinity, or go right on up to the beacon, and do as Karma asked: Either compliment your fellows, or insult them. Share fond memories with one another, or commiserate on how terrible this situation is. Both pleasant conversation and nasty confrontation will do the job. Before long, the light springs to life and the great glass lens begins to rotate around it, a majestic beam of light revolving outward from the spire, piercing the dark clouds.

Those who wait around will see it: that great big wooden ship which comes flying towards Never Fade's docks to make port there. … Is that a hole in its side? And a cutlass sticking out of the mast? Confusion may make way for relief, as all the Star Children aboard disembark, surely bursting with a great tale to tell. Elated spirits bring out the hot soup, bread and all other hearty comfort foods to celebrate the successful arrival. Time to celebrate! Or raid the armory for a free weapon from home, if you haven't gotten one yet- with an emphasis on one, because Karma the cat will attack anyone who got greedy, be it now or during the earlier voyage.

Star Children who weren't taken to the ship may instead have been drawn to Never Fade, where the storm rages just as fiercely.
Goats guide Star Children towards the lighthouse, which is broken. Karma the cat awaits them there.
In order to get the lighthouse beacon working again, it must be charged with both positive and negative energy. Engage in either pleasant or hostile conversation with a fellow Star Child to help out!
Once the lighthouse is up and running, the ship from the first prompt will dock at Never Fade, uniting all the Star Children for a great celebration.
The ship's armory is still available for a free weapon (possibly from home), but anyone who got greedy and tried to take more than one will be confronted by Karma. Literally. (And lose the additional items).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Leo listens to that, glancing between Bitty Raphael and the light, seeing a little flicker of light but nothing solid.

"Wait, you have a pet tortoise?" That's. Very weird, but still the most Raphael thing that could've come out of this guy's mouth. His own big brother would kill for that. He makes a mental note to be a cat around his big brother again for a while.

Focus. Time and place.

"Wait you were in space?"

The flicker of light makes him perk up, since it seems to have been doing...something. This is odd to think about, given that he's just talking about Chompy, but he adores his pet and it's definitely a positive feeling.

"Tortoise or turtle, yeah - he's kind of from space so the whole classification is kind of..." he makes a vague hand wave at it. "So either works, really. He's still smiling at the thought of the little magenta cutie though.

The next question makes him look back to Leo though, nodding. "Yeah. After the Kraang crap, we had to deal with other problems trying to destroy earth."

Oh that-

Raphael may not be able to see it, but he can probably sense how tense Leonardo suddenly gets hearing that.

"I told them- I told them we'd have to worry about that. I knew it." He'd warned both his brother and Rue that he'd started thinking ahead to what comes next. What next big thing comes after the Kraang. He's been on edge about the possibility for so long now and had started to relax.

He can't now.

"Wild. Very cool, as long as you didn't catch any space diseases."

The tension changes near immediately with when he mentions the other threats that they had to deal with over the years. He tenses himself, obviously having touched a nerve here, and listens to what Leo's talking about.

"About space threats?" he asks, glancing Leo's way. The smile's dropped now, thoughts of his pet pushed back as the conversation goes serious. "Man, there's always something back home - not sure if it's the same for you guys but... I dunno what it is about Earth getting things wanting to destroy it and everything but it's not like the humans can fight it without our help."

"Yeah. We already knocked out the Kraang from our world, and I kept telling them we need to keep an eye out for whatever's next because something will come and they said I was being paranoid and I should relax but I can't-"

Right, he's ranting. Though the negative energy seems to be feeding in just as well. There's another little flicker in the corner of Leo's eyes from the beacon and he sighs. Rubs his face and bald head. "It's been kinda nonstop the last couple of years back home until the. World hopping crap started."

The rant coming from Leo makes a good amount of sense, given that they had to deal with the Kraang too. Raph might not know the extent of it, as they're different worlds and different enemies, but it's also not surprising that a Leonardo would be stressing about it. His brother did the same thing when he was injured and needed to rest, pushing himself too hard.

He closes his eyes, thinking about it again. There was always something. He knew this well enough - something bad lurking around the corner. Once the Kraang was gone, it was the Triceratons and space and everything else--then the Shredder again and---

He lets a breath he doesn't realize he's holding out quickly. Don't think about that right now.

"I get it, man. I really do. The problem with being on edge all the time is that you're just going to make yourself crazier waiting for something to happen so you'll either snap before it happens and won't be prepared or...well, have a break down." He usually doesn't talk that much about this crap, but given that it's obvious that THIS Leo is having the same problems that HIS did, it comes out anyway.

"...sometimes ya just gotta rest. Recharge. And ya gotta let yourself do it even when ya don't want to. Or else everything just breaks."

"I'm not having a breakdown," he's quick to point that out. He'd tried talking with Casey and Rue and Peter about it all, and all it'd done is make them worry more. So he just lets it out other ways. And tries to focus on what's in front of him, which ends up making everyone think he's hiding things.

It's all a mess and he'd rather just be home but what can he do? Donnie's plan didn't work (and maybe it would have if Donnie had told them about it and let them help) and just made everyone more wary of them here and there.

Deep breath. He lets his head fall back and shoulders slump. "I'd love to just rest and recharge. There are so many telenovelas I wanna catch up on and games I gotta beat April in. Just need stuff here to stop dragging me out like this."

Oh that's way too familiar. He knows he probably sounds like his father right now, but this Leo, who isn't his actual brother, is wound so tightly that it's going to happen. The crash will be epic and not something that he wants to see again.

"Maybe not yet, but if you keep that up, you're gonna crash and burn."

The slump is another sign that this Leo's going to break at some point and while he doesn't expect him to just open up to him, being another version of a brother from another family and world, he can't just let it go.

"Is it that constant? I know this isn't home but there's gotta be something here that you can just like, go and unplug from everything for awhile."

"Like clockwork every month, or every other month just about," well now they're back on safe topics. This is safe. Easier.

"But I help run an arcade," that his friend Gojo left behind, "and there're rage rooms you can go to and hanging out with the fam is always a good time. The other week we were watching Raph throw cars in a junk yard for fun." The way he says it, it sounds like it actually was fun, a real bright spot of everyone together just... goofing off. Like the old days, before the Foot and Shredder, before the Kraang.

"Plenty to do."

This just makes him consider what they're apparently supposed to be doing here, which is helping out because some cat left a note. He hmms a little, listening and nodding along.

"Sounds like there's plenty of stuff to do then. Even things that would be fun to do," he remarks, because while he's not from this family set, Leo talking about his own just hanging out is clearly something he enjoys doing.

"So why don't you let yourself relax when you can?"

Slam dunking that right back into the thing Leo's trying to avoid.

"I try to but this place doesn't let me do it for more than a couple of days it feels like."

This Raphael... seems a little more emotionally competent than his own big brother. Leo can tell he's trying to weasel the conversation back to what Leo's trying to not think much about.

"What about you? What do you and your brothers do for fun?"

"It can't be ALL the time, can it?" he asks, making a face. Just another place to be on edge all the time? No wonder this Leo's wound so tight.

Oh he's definitely steering it back that way, though he notes the way Leo deflects.

"Besides the usual training?" He considers that, wondering about it. "Usually try to game when we can. Mikey boards everywhere he can. Read."

What if he just slides right past that redirection and into the better topic. "Oooh games and boarding, okay. Good start, similarities there for sure."

He's curious about this other universe him, but he'll work his way there. "Wait you guys train?"

"Nice deflection," he says, spotting it but shrugging. He doesn't know this Leo well enough to keep badgering him for it. It's not his problem to face.

The training question makes him raise a brow. "Yes? Daily. If not more." He is always working out. That much won't change. "Don't you?"

"I would never," he states simply. He would and will continue to do so. But the mention of training daily ....eugh.

"I spend most of my daily training trying to talk my way out of it." That's its own sort of training, in a way. Mental training. Vocal training. Talking-his-way-out-of-things training.

"Uh huh." This is the face of a turtle who does not believe you for a second on that one.

"I'm sure that goes over real well with Sensei." There's NO way that Splinter allows that to happen. Right?

"He's....." Okay well now it's awkward.

"Dad's a little laid back about it." That's probably the kindest way to say it. He loves their dad, dearly, and after everything he understands why he made the choices he made. Leo still feels a little bad about that night they talked back to him about the lack of training.

"Raph's been more the training guy after we got older."

That's...not what he expected at all. It obviously shows on his face because since when was Sensei laid back about ANYTHING?

"...what? Really?" That doesn't sound like his father at all. Granted this isn't HIS father and there's real differences, but Splinter has always been about them being ninjas first and foremost.

"I mean, that tracks - I'm usually training more than the rest of the bros but we ALL train otherwise."

"Yeah, we all kinda do our own thing until something happens and we work on it. But uuusually we're doing whatever," it's easy enough to explain. Man, all Raphs are Raphs huh? Kinda interesting to think about.

But 'laid back' is about the kindest way to say 'Splinter is a couch potato who watches tv and movies all day and night once they got old enough to look after themselves'. He loves his dad. Splinter is Leo's whole world sometimes. But. He's gotta be honest about it too. And Splinter has gotten more proactive in their lives since the Shredder.

"You can't train all the time right?"

"Huh. I mean, I get that, but we all train together to make sure the skills stay sharp. There's way too many things out there that need us to be at our best so we can deal with it."

After all, his father beat that into their heads. It was just natural to do now.

"Well no, there's still pinball and games to play once and awhile, but I still train."

"Oh, pinball's great. Video games and comics are a better way to pass the time though. And boarding, but that's not something everyone can really do on the first try."

Leave it to Leo to ignore the conversation about training and enemies in wait and focus more on distractions. Unfortunately, he can tell just from this short back-and-forth that this Raph is a lot sharper than his own older brother. He'll have to be careful with this one.

"Sounds like you guys do more gaming than trainin' then."

Definitely going to have to be careful with this one, Leon~

He sure is. Not his favorite thing, but what is these days? He looks at the light of the lantern just flickering like it's barely able to light at all.

"Yeah, we do. We still buckle down when we need to, but life's too short, y'know?"

Raph follows Leo's line of sight and frowns at the light, because really it's kind of working but...also not? This place was weird.

"S'long as you get the job done then how you get there isn't that important."

"Exactly! That's what I keep sayin', but then Raph comes hassling us about training more when we don't really need it, obviously."

Leo sighs, staring at the light. They need different stories. "So one time we found out April got a job working as a PA on this kid's show that has a talking puppet Raph is terrified of, so we got her to bring it to the lair and scare him with it. It was great."

And wouldn't you know.. the light flickers a little brightly. Even if. That may not be the best story to tell this Raph.

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