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February-March 2024 Test Drive Meme
February-March 2024 TDM
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.
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.
Content Warnings: Power Nullification, Potential Kidnapping, Potential Animal Spirit Harm
The island of Never Fade can no longer be seen in the sky from elsewhere in Folkmore, enclosed within a large purple tinted cloud. Within that cloud, the island is under water—a dreamy purple underwater that all Star Children can breath in if they breath and function in if they function on electricity, so on and so forth. It causes no more difficulties than reduced visibility and greater effort to walk. It's even possible to swim underneath the island, so long as Star Children make sure to make landfall before they get too exhausted and… well… fall.
Friendnapped
Spread the Love
The island of Never Fade can no longer be seen in the sky from elsewhere in Folkmore, enclosed within a large purple tinted cloud. Within that cloud, the island is under water—a dreamy purple underwater that all Star Children can breath in if they breath and function in if they function on electricity, so on and so forth. It causes no more difficulties than reduced visibility and greater effort to walk. It's even possible to swim underneath the island, so long as Star Children make sure to make landfall before they get too exhausted and… well… fall.
Friendnapped
The purple water has streaks of silver shot throughout it. Beware, these silver streaks neutralize powers, canon and role abilities alike, for at least an hour. A neutralized Legend won't be able to sense others in danger. A neutralized Myth won't sense danger coming. A neutralized Familiar won't be able to shapeshift to help others. That may set of a danger alarm but not any spidey-sense. These silver streaks are harbingers of spirits recently returned to Folkmore thanks to donations at the Shattered Spoon Shrine: lonely sharks.
The source of the silver streaks in the water, these silver gray sharks swim up and gently bite people. These bites make people go instantly limp but otherwise don't do any damage. They won't even break the skin. Once limp, the lonely sharks take theirpreynew best friends down to a cave or grotto off the underside of Never Fade. These caves are full of silver water, saturated by the magic of lonely sharks, and the entrances are covered by a thin silver barrier that prevents Star Children from leaving. That means should a Star Child track down where someone is being kept, should they enter its home, they too will be trapped there.
Being held by the lonely sharks isn't the worst experience. These spirits will try to please their new friends, giving them their favorite foods and perhaps even an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item. Mind, the magic of these items will be neutralized in the shark's cave. It is possible to fight a lonely shark, even to kill one, but that will only be a temporary measure. Star Children will remain trapped and have to wait for the lonely shark to revive—with even more golden cracks than before. In the end, the only way to escape are hugs, cuddles, and other measures of friendship. Once all the golden cracks have thinned and disappeared, Star Children can leave.
Spread the Love
By the time mid-March comes around, most of the lonely sharks have been fully healed and no longer kidnap Star Children. Instead they swim the None of the Above tunnels below the island's surface, where they provide guidance to Star Children who ask them how to get somewhere. If Star Children have nowhere particular in mind, the lonely sharks encourage Star Children to make their way toward the Shattered Spoon Shrine.
The lonely sharks still create silver streaks in the water that neutralize powers, but they will accompany Star Children and warn them of some of the dangers. When voices call their names, the sharks will snuggle up against Star Children to provide comfort. They're devoted to helping Star Children reach the shrine. Once there, they will encourage the Star Children to donate Lore to one of the broken spoons there, each spoon representing spirits who have left, spirits who became shells of themselves from lack of lore, or ghosts.
Star Children who donate Lore will find their companion lonely shark presenting them with an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item. Mind, the magic will be neutralized until the Star Child has spent at least an hour away from the silvery water lonely sharks create. Lonely sharks will happily spend as much time with Star Children as they're willing but will show the way back to the surface either via LIM (Lavender Institute of the Mind) or the None of the Above tunnels.
- Never Fade is underwater within a cloud.
- Silver streaks in the water neutralize powers, both canon and Role based.
- Lonely sharks kidnap Star Children and take them to caves on the underside of Never Fade.
- Star Children who find those caves are trapped too.
- Escape by hugs, cuddles, and being friends.
- By the second month, most lonely sharks are healed and found in the tunnels.
- Lonely sharks guide Star Children to the Shattered Spoon Shrine to donate Lore to help others.
- Either when captive or once donating Lore, lonely sharks will give Star Children an item from home.
Content Warnings: Forced Relocation, Potential Secret Revelation, Potential Coerced Physical Intimacy
With the wide range of Star Children from many different worlds, sharing similarities, it's no surprise when moments of deja vu happen. That sense of the familiar with the new, the sense of something that happened before without quite being able to place it… or perhaps it being impossible. Regardless, when that connective moment happens, the Star Children involved are transported to a windmill home from the Cloud Colonies. They land together on a couch before a large television with all the makings of a movie night. There could be wine and cheese. There could be soda and popcorn. There could be tea or other hot beverages. There's a cozy blanket (only one). The movie has already been selected, and it starts playing.
Headliner
Remake
With the wide range of Star Children from many different worlds, sharing similarities, it's no surprise when moments of deja vu happen. That sense of the familiar with the new, the sense of something that happened before without quite being able to place it… or perhaps it being impossible. Regardless, when that connective moment happens, the Star Children involved are transported to a windmill home from the Cloud Colonies. They land together on a couch before a large television with all the makings of a movie night. There could be wine and cheese. There could be soda and popcorn. There could be tea or other hot beverages. There's a cozy blanket (only one). The movie has already been selected, and it starts playing.
Headliner
The movie is roughly based off one of the Star Children's lives, specifically for the Star Child that experience deja vu and triggered this experience. Regardless of the moment of deja vu, the plot of the movie is based off of some real or potential relationship—romantic or queer platonic—in their life. That Star Child can recognize some similarities immediately. If they had any doubts, they get a text message on their relic as the movie starts:
You need to get closer with your companion(s). You can either talk about what happened (or didn't) or not talk wink wink about it with them. The choice is yours (and theirs)! Have fun!
It's possible to ignore the message, at least for a while. The longer the movie plays, the more apparent it becomes that it's based off that Star Child. The starring character's clothes will change to resemble theirs. The cadence of their voice will shift to imitate theirs. Their facial features will shift. These changes will become more and more heavy handed as the movie goes on until even the most clueless companion will have real trouble not picking up on it. It may get harder and harder to distract them from talking about it! There's no pause button, and the only way to mute the movie is to *ahem* distract themselves from it until it becomes an indistinct background murmur.
Remake
If any Star Children thought this experience might have been a Valentine's Day prank, they'll be poorly mistaken come mid-March when it continues with a twist. The movie less closely resembles any one Star Child's life (whew?)… because it blends the lives of all those present together into a new story. One character is based off each Star Child, and it fits the other Star Child into the role of someone who was or could have been emotionally and/or physically intimate with them. If they had any doubts, each Star child gets a text message on their relic as the movie starts:
You need to get closer with your companion(s). You can either talk about what happened (or didn't) or not talk wink wink about it with them. The choice is yours (and theirs)! Have fun!
Not only does each Star Child have to decide what approach they want to take, but the other Star Child may pick up on what they're putting down! One Star Child may want to talk it out, but the other one desperately doesn't. Oh noes, how shall it be resolved? Well, the longer it takes, the more clearly the film demonstrates one way they could resolve it—a fictionalized ending, happy or sad or bittersweet or anything else, between the characters as they more closely resemble those watching them on the sofa. No one's free until they have a heart to heart or a something to something else. Any physical intimacy can do.
- Experience a moment of deja vu and get transported to a cozy living room in a Cloud Colony windmill.
- For the first month, the 'host' Star Child gets a text letting them know to get intimate—emotionally or physically.
- For the second month, all Star Children get that text.
- For the first month, the movie is based on the 'host' Star Child's experiences, what did or could have happened. As the movie progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that's the case.
- For the second month, the movie is a story blending Star Children's experiences together. That too will become more obvious over time.
- Some form of intimacy is the only way out!
no subject
Formerly. You ought to have said Formerly! Formerly of the Army, formerly of the Prison Guard, as well.
Javert said it so automatically, so thoughtlessly, like a curt and proud slip of his earned title, that it took a moment to sink in: the palpable scrunch around his eye, the pinched, crooked, uncertain frown snagging at the corner of one lip, the tip of an ear flicking almost imperceptibly. He gnawed on the inside of his lower lip and gulped air, steeling himself, and wiped his face clean. Droll once more.
"Be you at ease," he followed up dryly, masking the ache in his breast. The faintest spark alights in his eye, knowing without saying aloud that he suspected and scented Fjord's guardedness masked a wariness of enforcement officials. Javert was an expert at sniffing out the rogues among them, after all; it was like a fifth sense to him, tickling his nose-hairs and setting off a soft beep in the inner reaches of his ears. He drummed his nails upon the end of his cudgel. "Don't you tiptoe around me, will you. I see what you are thinking. I have no such authority here."
So the green fellow would be safe from his sharp command, for now. Until, perhaps, Javert came to learn who the authorities were in that world, along with the rules and laws the governed them.
The shark, meanwhile, rolled fully onto his side, belly exposed, overtly enjoying Javert's firm thumb-strokes across the gills. Javert's brow bounced up his forehead, disappearing beneath his thick black bangs.
"Look at him. The damn creature is like a stray dog," he murmured, attention drawn to the sea predator once more. "Let's put our heads together about this problem, rather. How much of this will it take for him to drop the curtain barring the exit, I wonder?"
/finally emerges from exam hell
The shift in expression that followed Javert's introduction drew Fjord's attention, though he did his best not to linger on it overtly. There was some tension in the man, in his claim of his job and title. Some manner of uncertainty, though the reason behind it was unknown, and there were too many options to begin to guess why on such scant information.
He couldn't help the faint snort of dry grim sort of amusement at Javert's assertion that he be at ease. That he had nothing to worry about, simply because the other had no authority in this place. "Not authority that tends to cause me the most trouble, but it does tend to go hand in hand with..."
A grimace and a shake of his head, wolfish ears lowering ever so slightly as he dismissed the train of thought. If it didn't occur to Javert, if he wasn't from a place where they had orcs and half-orcs, or somehow didn't see them in a lesser light for what they were? Well Fjord wasn't going to be the one to enlighten him on that sort of prejudice without a damn good reason.
He was more than happy to shift attention to the shark, and the puzzle the creature's presence and behavior posed. Watching with a bewildered blink as it rolled right over for Javert's attention, humming consideringly as he kept a hand on the nose to keep it steady, free hand gingerly petting the underside of the jaw.
"Actually... look at that," Attention drawn as his fingers found the cracks in the shark's grey hide, the shining trails of gold. It didn't seem to hurt the shark any to have them touched, the half-orc frowning thoughtfully as he studied them, how they seemed to spiderweb across the creature's skin. "Can't say I've ever seen a shark marked like this before. Scars sure, but not gold marks like this..."
no subject
Javert was wont to call it magic, even as he lived and breathed an excess of magic the moment he stepped off the parapet and followed Thirteen into the Folkmore abyss. Some things would take him time to process and understand to the fullest; magic, fairy-tales made real, his own transfigurations ranked among them. For now, he merely accepted what he observed in front of him.
Which was why the thought of prejudice never crossed his mind, and the glibness and fidgeting translated merely as un-ease, as the mark of a dishonest man. Though if Fjord were to ever discuss his own experiences, he might be surprised to discover that strange old Inspector Javert had more common ground in his background than he might have expected.
He traced his thumb along the gold lines, feeling the fissures in the flesh with a deepening frown.
"We might mend them, with some thread and a needle," he muttered thoughtfully, a hum that more closely resembled a rumbling growl than human speech. "I am no physician, but I've enough experience with rudimentary stitching to make do."
Lord above knew, he sewed up his own knife-wounds from street scuffles often enough. Doctors were not cheap, and he never wanted to waste more time than necessary with tinctures and rest times when he could easily wrap himself with a draught of alcohol, an iodine dip, and a quick self stitching job.
"Do you have any about you? Or spot any around this place."
no subject
Entirely unaware of the assessment Javert had made, he might have been a bit amused at it- he was dishonest in a way, for all it wasn't in the manner the man expected. Any revelations would have to wait though- now that the mood had settled some, and attention was fully on the sharks, Fjord wasn't too keen to have grumpy attention back on him, especially not while they were basically locked in a small space together. Nope, not his idea of a good time.
"I haven't seen any threa-" He was cut off by a sudden flurry of movement as the shark seems to greatly dislike the idea of stitches, and all but scrambled to hide under Fjord's cloak, with him between itself and Javert, peering around his side with the same sort of side-eye one might get trying to coax a recalcitrant animal to take medication. "Well! Alright, stitches go in the 'maybe' column then. Not really like the cracks are bleedin' or anything..."
The half-orc just half-turned to peer down at the shark, smoothing a hand over the creature's head with a bewildered frown, yellow eyes studying the cracks thoughtfully.
"Y'know if you just talked this'd be way easier you little troublemaker."