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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!
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"An escaped specimen, not a deserter." The correction is still soft, but easily picked up over the Dramatic Heroic Speech not!Zack in the movie is giving. Something about friendship and honor; he'll review later. He knows exactly what sorts of things Zack means, exactly how Hojo saw his subjects and how he treated them. All of them. Even himself. "It's best you .. 'quit', if you weren't there willingly."
All he'd endured had nearly broken him, and he had been a willing participant in trying to extinguish the weakness in his mind and heart. How much worse would it be for someone who didn't want to be there? "Are you a wanted man, or have you disappeared off Shinra's radar?"
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That's all nitpicky semantics, though, so he shrugs his shoulders. His current status... well, that's more complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Sephiroth handed him an out, after all. "You could say I'm off their radar by being here. I was wanted before, though. They had the Turks and a whole army after me."
He's really not mentally prepared to get into the details of his own death with a teenage Sephiroth, sorry kiddo. Not that he's trying to spare the guy - clearly he's been through the ringer, death is no stranger to him, or any SOLDIER who's seen a real battle - but Zack doesn't want to get into it right now.
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The opinions of a second-rate hack were not really high on his priority list, but listening to specimen this, specimen that for long enough and it's hard to forget.
Like so much else, he considers it, boxes it up and puts it away for later perusal. Right now what Hojo did or did not say or do wasn't particularly relevant. On the other hand, Sephiroth .. doesn't know what another SOLDIER might be capable of, he can only guess based on what he himself could do. An entire army and some Turks might well not be enough to stop Zack, and since he's still alive it must not have. The idea that death might be involved is bypassed entirely, obviously if they were talking right now, Zack couldn't have been caught or killed. "..That aside."
It's not comfortable, even he can tell. "This.. conflict with Wutai, is it before or after you.. 'quit'?"
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...Nice of him to say, though. More than. Sephiroth was a surprisingly nice guy, before Nibelheim. Before the Jenova stuff. Good to know that hints of it started early, despite Hojo's... everything. It's enough to make him gentle his tone. "...Thanks."
He thinks back to Wutai. He doesn't have a precise timeline for the war, it tended to come and go, and he remembers really gunning for SOLDIER when another, proper war started up because he'd wanted to be a hero and fell for all the propaganda for it, because he was yet another stupid small-town kid who thought they could be hot shit like the war hero Sephiroth. "I don't know if what we're seeing is closer to my time or yours- some of it fits, some doesn't. It was before though, I can say that much. The war with Wutai officially ended like... 7 years ago, I think?" He counts idly on his fingers. "Four years, then one, then two... yeah, around seven. Early year, 2001."
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That's not really a question. If the military had more fighters like himself, it wouldn't even really be a contest. What would it be for? The right to drop another reactor on some other country's land? Still foolish, but it wasn't his place to question why, only see to it that things went as smoothly as possible. "..If it was years ago even to you, then you might not remember, but were there three SOLDIERs by the names of Lucia Lin, Glenn Lodbrok and Matt Winsord in the conflict? They would have almost certainly been together."
War was harsh, and Shinra was always fishing for new conflicts to throw their creations into. While it would be nice if they were still alive, the chances of that were about fifty fifty, and some new recruit having any idea of who they were, in comparison very slim..
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Zack knows the answer pretty much immediately, but to give it a fair shake, he does think carefully about it for a long moment. He hadn't met a lot of other SOLDIERs by name in the war itself, and while he was friendly with plenty of 2nd and 3rd Class back at HQ, none of those names ring any bells. His answer remains the same, and he shakes his head. "Sorry, man. I never met any of them. If it makes you feel better, though, I was on a special assignment. There weren't a lot of us in the area."
They could be dead, sure. But they could also have vanished with the collection of SOLDIERs who defected with Genesis, or... retired? Could SOLDIERs ever retire? (Probably not.) Granted, defecting with Genesis would not have led them to a better fate, either.
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There's an out in all of that too - he's already acknowledged it might be too much to hope for. "And what SOLDIER is like, in your day versus mine." He's not done pursuing names and faces yet, but the other one takes a bit more to work up to.
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Thinking, thinking... well, most of what he knows is about the SOLDIER program, so he can at least talk about that. "SOLDIER's pretty big these days. First Class is limited, there weren't too many of us, but there's loads of 2nd and 3rd. Probably like, hundreds by now. We've got multiple floors for us in the Shinra building." Gotta house them all somewhere, even if the pay and accommodations are kind of shoddy. "Right when the Wutai war ended there was this huge desertion, bunch of SOLDIERs ran off with a First Class, Genesis." He pauses. "I don't know when you guys met, but you were friends at the time. Does that name mean anything?"
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The boy doesn't clarify. While it's certain he's listening to every word Zack says, it doesn't much look like it. It looks like he's miles away. "Friends, huh?" Even his voice seems a bit detached, distantly weighing this new puzzle.
He thought he might have friends now, at least people he could trust. Or had, before coming here. And then there would be at some future point in time, this other person, who'd ... desert his post, like Zack did. "No." Project S and Project G were not allowed to mingle! What if their failure contaminated the perfect golden child?! Allow him around people his own age? Preposterous. "... Did he leave for the same reasons you did? Did the rest?"
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That's saying something. All they ever seemed to do was strive to turn people into monsters- or just make monsters the old fashioned way.
"Far as I know, he left because he was looking for a way to fix what was done to him. I don't know what he said to the other SOLDIERs to make them leave with him." He rolls his eyes. "Probably quoted LOVELESS at them and said something melodramatic about heroes."
Seriously, that man could not make less sense. Was he different in the past? He really wonders sometimes how him and Sephiroth became friends. (Maybe it was all Angeal, or maybe Seph just liked having a rival. It's a big mystery.)
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This person was, or should be, or would be, someone he thought of as a friend. He didn't feel anything about someone he didn't know, but it would be good information later. If that ever changed. "Did he ever succeed in ... fixing it, that you know of?"
None of it seemed like a lie to him. Zack seemed to be doing his best to answer his questions, even if everything he wanted to know he was sure now wouldn't be possible through this particular person's recollection. "And I am, at that time, content to let him and the rest simply leave. Possibly because of LOVELESS' abilities to transcend reason when quoted often enough."
Later on, when he could review all of this, he could allow himself to let emotion bleed into any of it. That he might actually have associates, equals, people who weren't merely subordinates would be a wonderful thing, if he dwelled on it. Now was not the time.
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Still, it'd... sucked. A lot. When yet again he'd tried to save someone from being the monster Shinra tried to make them into, and failed.
"He didn't succeed," is his eventual, reluctant answer. "The ways he was trying weren't... good. He just pushed himself closer to the end."
He doesn't know what happened to Genesis. He'd left the man unconscious on a chair outside Banora, taking Cloud with him, more focused on returning to Aerith- someone who actually mattered to him. Whether he died or lived... that should be up to Genesis himself, he'd thought. He wasn't Zack's responsibility. He'd done all he could already.
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Or end his suffering sooner.
"Thank you for your honesty." Sephiroth's one friend in the future, and he dies thanks to unethical experiments that went wrong. That tracked. "It sounds as if you were assigned dealing with the matter yourself. It shouldn't have fallen to you. I'll do better." He had to. That was a personal failing, he suspected, that fatal flaw he'd been warned of about friendships that led to emotions and bad decisions. The leaders always had the responsibility of seeing to their subordinates one way or another, and Sephiroth doubted Shinra would allow anyone to outrank their poster boy.
Then again. Maybe he'd been replaced by then. Prototypes were always destined to get a perfected version. Was that too much to hope for?
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I'll do better, he says. How depressing is that, already planning ahead on the dispatch of his future friend. He sure is different from the cool and confident war hero who can get away with just about anything. ...Maybe he'll feel better, knowing that part.
"Actually... I was given that assignment at first because you - or future you, at least - refused it. You didn't want to be the one to kill your friend." And while he's being honest, "And I don't know if he's dead! I kicked his butt and left him to think about what he was doing with himself. He disappeared after that."
Golden boy Sephiroth refused an order, and got away with it. Chew on that one, kiddo.
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A twitch of a frown crosses his face at the confirmation that he himself, years in the future, refuses to do his job. Either under orders or to spare his friend from suffering. How the mighty fall, indeed. He was willing to bet the news wouldn't showcase that one. "I should have. What kind of leader abandons their people like that? What sort of friend lets another friend ... degrade, and do nothing?" There should be something behind that, the heat of anger or .. anything. But even at this age, control has been long since beaten into him. "I've always been under the impression that friends don't simply abandon each other, either 'Genesis' didn't rate the attention or I did not consider him a companion."
His gaze remains on the movie, but he's not seeing it, he's imagining other people in the place of this hypothetical other First. The recording will help with that later. "You don't need to try to reassure me. I don't know this person; he means nothing to me, alive or dead." Not yet. But what if it had been Lucia? What if Matt had been one of the deserters?
What if Glenn was the one disintegrating? Maybe that weakness was with him even now; could he kill them, if told to?
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"I can't speak for future-you, but... I know you guys had a falling out. It doesn't mean that you weren't friends before Genesis went rogue. Just means that you had limits for what you were willing to put up with, you know? He's the one who abandoned everyone."
Genesis could have asked for help, instead of running off on his own. Zack doesn't know a whole lot about what went on behind the scenes, but he'd heard enough. Sephiroth tried to help. It's not his fault no one let him do it, or bothered to explain what the problem even was.
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"Right before the fox turned up and I ... felt compelled to go with it," he says slowly, measuring his words carefully. "My team had decided to ignore their orders and turn back to save an enemy civilian, abandoning their duties in a lethally dangerous situation for nothing more than the illogical whims of emotions." He doesn't sound like he approved. A child's disapproval is a heavy thing. "I went with them."
Sephiroth turns a little to study Zack for a long moment, that little frown still in place. "But in fifteen years, I won't. Not even for someone called my friend? Did he not matter as much to me as they do?" He sounds irritated by it, but that's not really irritation. It's something worse. He trusted his team, and when they chose to ditch everything and risk it all for one person, he chose to do so with them. What kind of person would not do even that for a friend?
no subject
Feels kind of weird to be defending a choice made by Sephiroth of all people, but in this case, Zack agrees with it. Or at the very least, he can't judge him for it. Thinking about how he'd felt, having to fight and kill Angeal... if he'd had the choice to refuse that order, he might've been tempted, too. He had refused to do it, until Angeal forced his hand.
"It isn't about who matters more or whatever. It's about knowing your own limits. You're allowed to have 'em."
in which a whole lot is written about a whole lot of not doing much
It isn't more interesting. At least it wasn't following the plot of recent events anymore near as he can tell. Nobody's about to bomb for mako.
There were more important questions to pursue, details he could use to save lives or end conflicts before they begin, things more relevant than the personal relationship with a single 'friend'. "Of course." The words are meaningless, there's nothing behind them to suggest it's anything more than agreement for the sake of agreement.
He should ask. Whatever he could learn could help, eventually.
the joys of complex characters lol
"Sorry," he manages, finally. "This is kind of weird for me. We were friends, too."
Were, because Sephiroth died. Were, because Sephiroth lost his mind and Zack had to be the one to try and put him down, though he hadn't dealt the killing blow. Were, because the kid in front of him has no idea who he is, and isn't the Sephiroth he knew. He can't find any closure in two of those reasons; he'll only be able to voice the third aloud. He has a feeling this is only going to get harder.
\o/ Stress for everybody!
Were is past tense. "But not anymore."
And Zack is very much alive, which had implications, so he bends what little knowledge he has about friendship to working the puzzle out. It was obvious Zack was defensive of the decision to not kill Genesis, be it by orders or as mercy, and he didn't talk like they'd become enemies.
Were. Something got removed from the equation, and it wasn't Zack. How do you become not-a-friend, without losing that friendship in the doing? "When do I die?"
no subject
If they're gonna talk about death so bluntly, it's better to get it out in the open rather than dance around it. He's not a good enough liar to pretend Sephiroth didn't die, or that their friendship hadn't ended when Nibelheim burned, so he can let his own demise be the distraction. He doesn't take his eyes off the television, though he barely parses anything on the screen. He just doesn't want to meet Sephiroth's eyes in this moment. Talking about his own death is still... really difficult.
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"You're very lively for a dead man." It might not be complete nonsense, people could be brought back with standard resuscitation techniques. "I can only guess based on what I've observed from others, but friends coming back from the dead is a cause for celebration, isn't it? Not the loss of said friendship."
Kids learn all about death pretty early, and he earlier than most. Friendship is ... harder, he had no real practical experience with it at all, but there were of course stories, and they all shared similar themes. He should perhaps demand more information about this supposed death, but as Zack very clearly ISN'T dead, at most it had to be terrible injuries. Ones he's obviously recovered from. What else was there to know, except how or why this would end a relationship? "If at some point I am allowed such things, then I'd think I'd be quite pleased to have an associate alive. Especially were it to happen after the loss of the other one."
Three. It wasn't one lost friend, it was all of them, wasn't it? But Angeal hasn't entered the equation at all yet.
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He thinks about it, but before he can come up with a response, Sephiroth continues, and that makes Zack smile. If he's allowed, huh? "Is that your way of saying you want to be friends? Because I'm all in."
Even if... what happens, happens... that's later. Sephiroth was a dear friend to him before things went south. He wouldn't mind extending a hand to his younger self.
no subject
"..."
Hojo isn't here. Shinra isn't here. All his training meant precisely diddly-squat, and who was going to report back that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to? "I.. suppose..?"
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if this reads too oddly I'll edit in the morning, migraine issues :(
all good! sorry about the migraine :c
weather changes cause them. e_e
i know that feel :/
Getting old sucks. I always thought 'my knee hurts so weather is changing' was made up
shakes cane, ya dang kids
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