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June 2023 Test Drive Meme
June 2023 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 allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a Log with the prompts they want to participate in.
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: Alternate Universe, Memory alteration/altered sense of self, Exhibition
If This Was a Movie
If This Was a Movie
You forget everything the fox told you on your way over. You forget your own history. You remember a completely new one, one that matches whatever story you're now in. It could be a story from your world—a folk tale, a novel, a movie, a telenovella—or one you've never heard of. Whatever it is, this is your life now. Your memories match as though you've lived here your whole life. The tone may match your world, or it may drastically differ.Big Red Button
And you're not alone.
Whatever scene you're in features at least one other Star Child in the same situation you are. They might also be a new arrival, or they may be someone Thirteen has plucked up out of Folkmore and brought here to join you. Whether you've known each other your whole previous life or never met before, you know each other as the people in the story—whatever relationship that is. You don't remember being placed here. It's your life! It always has been.
The two (or more) of you pick up at whatever point in the story it is. Perhaps it'll go the same way as the original story. Perhaps not. You still are you—memories redacted—after all. This story is yours to write together!
The outfits, the setting, the NPCs (played by Spirits going along with things), etc. all perfectly match the story and adapt with you as you create your own retelling.
As it turns out, you aren't only in an entertainment, you are an entertainment. Across Folkmore, large screens showing these stories appear: in every school, in public squares, before a large meadow, in the middle of the desert, you name it. It's also streaming on everyone's relics. Everyone has the chance to see your story play out.
That's not all, Star Children are your key out of the story and into Folkmore itself. Along with these screens, there are big red buttons. Digitally, a big red button appears on people's relics when they watch these stories. It's pretty simple. Someone presses the big red button and you're free! The reason doesn't matter—boredom, pity, recognition, the irresistibility of buttons. These are the only way out, so when you get out is completely up to your fellow Star Children.
Once the button is pushed, an invisible wall between your story and Folkmore falls away. With it, you regain all your memories from home and from the walk to Folkmore with the fox. All you have to do is step out of the story and into the school of Baba Yaga. The school of magic. Thirteen isn't there personally, but you may feel her spirit around you. Baba Yaga—Thirteen—is the school itself.
A small chest is also there as soon as you leave the story containing an item from your homeworld. This may even be a weapon or magical item.
Small bat spirits have a couple stations set up within the school near where Star Children exit their stories. If you're injured or need to rest, they are ready to help treat you or provide you as many pillows and blankets as you wish. If you're hungry or thirsty, the other station has food and drink for all. Steaming tea, freshly baked bread, and all sorts of warm comforting foods. You'd be forgiven for thinking it might be autumn. They want you to be at your best when you leave Baba Yaga and enter the rest of Folkmore via Exile.
Content Warnings: Optional mind/body split, Possible invasion of privacy, Possible monster/creature violence
Eyes Open
Eyes Open
When you leave Baba Yaga, you're somewhere in Exile. Not even the Spirits or experienced Star Children can tell you where exactly you are. The school walks around on its chicken legs. Unless someone leaves at the same time as you, you'll start in different places. You'll have to find your own way out.Cowboy Like Me
If you have been exiled before, you'll have an easier time navigating the land. It'll help guide you toward where you want to go. If you have never been exiled before, you'll have a harder time navigating this section of Folkmore. The trees may try to push you back. Perhaps nothing happens, exactly, but the aura is one that doesn't want you. Regardless, there's enough fog that it's difficult to see where you're going. Attention certainly seems to be on you. Are the trees watching? Is the water listening? Those are simply stories Spirits share to scare new Star Children isn't it?
Suddenly, you may appear to be in another part of Folkmore! It could be anywhere. It could be a public area, a business, someone's home… Wherever it is, if you try to touch something, you realize you cannot. Instead you pass right through solid objects. You cannot open a door, but you can walk right through it. You may surprise someone with your sudden appearance, or perhaps you reach out to people you see for help. Perhaps you simply explore this new area where you were.
Take all the time you want. Hopefully nothing bad is happening back with your body still in Exile… On second thought, perhaps you don't want to spend too long away from your body. You can use your own skills or get help returning to your body or find yourself suddenly back in it. Time to take stock and maybe find your way back to the rest of Folkmore body included.
On your way through Exile, you may come across weapons sticking out of the ground. Swords, axes, shields, bows, guns… All manner of non-magical weapons. They're simply there, scattered here and there, free for the taking. It looks like someone had a bad time trying to get out of Exile. Whoever the weapons belonged to, they don't need them now.
A word of warning to those who grab the weapons, as soon as you do, one of the dangerous creatures in Exile will find you. These creatures don't only have sharp claws or fangs, poison or sharp senses, they are intelligent. You'll need not only the weapon(s) you grabbed but your wits to defeat them or the luck of someone else coming along to help you out.
no subject
The teenager ends up loosely jamming his own hands into his jean pockets. He picks at the loose inner lining fabric of the pocket. He's mended it a few times, but it just keeps falling apart. The familiarity of that is more easing than anything else given the topic.]
Yeah, after.
I...
[He clicks his teeth together uncertainly. The guilt of losing EDITH makes his stomach drop uncomfortably. How is he even going to explain any of this?]
[Peter Parker as always is an open book, his expression tight with guilt before he slowly gathers his resolve. He takes a breath.]
Mr. Fury gave EDITH to me. [Start simple.] I think, too soon, I'm not ready for that. Well, I wasn't ready for it.
no subject
He'd be gloating about it to Tony, if he could. ]
That's alright. I'm sure he'll give it back to you in a couple years. Once you, y'know, prove yourself to him a bit.
[ A beat. "Like you proved yourself to me," Tony almost lets himself say. He stays quiet just long enough to make it awkward. Shit, what would he want his dad to say in this kinda situation? ] It's okay to fuck up sometimes. The important thing is you gotta unfuck it in the end as best you can.
[ Even after four years of having his own kid, he's still terrible at this. ]
no subject
Mr. Stark, I kind of really fucked it up. I don't think I can unfuck this situation. [He feels stupider the more he talks. He didn't even have a chance to explain last time.] Someone, tricked me, and... I gave the glasses to him. I thought, he was- someone I could trust.
I know that makes me stupid. [He owns up to that immediately, the guilt just weighing over him.]
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He doesn't. Switches tactics instead. ]
You know the story of how I became Iron Man, right? Cave in Afghanistan and all that? [ A beat. ] That all started with me getting tricked by someone I thought I could trust too. And I'm not stupid, so neither are you. And I unfucked my thing, so you can unfuck your thing.
[ It never, for even a second, occurs to Tony who might be responsible for Peter's problem. ]
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Mr. Stark, I died. [The words come out very soft. A breath of a response to Tony's insistence.
Peter is quiet for a long moment, opening and closing his mouth before he does speak again. His expression is tired, but focused for now.] I tried to fix it. I tried to get EDITH back, and I died.
[Saying it aloud to someone else makes it more real in a way Peter can't completely cope with. He spoke about it to Leo, and wasn't sure how to even talk to anyone else about it.] I put everyone in danger, and now, I can't even fix it.
no subject
It was all for nothing.
Tony's silent for longer than he should be. ] Someone else will fix it. [ Is what he manages. ] Fury. Or- Or maybe he'll call in someone else to fix it. I'm sure the idiot who stole her doesn't even know how to use her. [ He makes a frustrated hum, winces at what he's saying. ] None of that matters.
I- If you need to talk about it...? [ He gets it, the whole dying thing, he means. ]
no subject
He's just proven he wasn't ready for EDITH. He failed Mr. Stark. He failed at being Spider-Man. He couldn't even help the ADI stop the entities, or help Leo & Donnie find a way home.
What good is he anymore if he's not Spider-Man?
Tony's voice pulls Peter out of his own spiral. He crosses his arms over his chest.]
Only, if... you wanna hear it. [He's honest about that much.] I'm sorry, I was- I really was trying. I thought I could trust him.
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[ But there's a little voice in the back of Tony's mind telling him to follow up on something. ] This guy who took EDITH, who- [ "Killed you," Tony thankfully doesn't voice. ] Who is he? [ Someone for Tony to beat to a pulp if he ever shows up in The Cottagecore Home for Dead Superheroes, a name to scratch off. Maybe in the meantime he could warn someone, get a message out somewhere; FRIDAY might be able to interface with EDITH cross-dimensionally, it was worth a try, he could make it happen... ]
No one I knew, right? [ He already has a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like an elephant made of bricks sitting on his chest, like another heart attack. He was willing to put money down on another grudge match Peter got dragged into. Like Toomes. Like Thanos and his not-so-merry band of extraterrestrials. It's his fault. Tony's fault. As usual, he hears Howard's voice echo in his head. He can't breathe, so he doesn't. Not for several long seconds, until he finally lets out a shaken exhale. ]
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Quentin Beck, Mysterio, I don't know if you knew him. [As far as Peter knows Beck is just someone who wanted to steal the EDITH glasses for his own purposes. The teenager isn't even aware Beck had a team of people with him.]
He was pretending to be a super hero from another dimension. That some big threat had followed him to our world. [Disgust leaks into his tone as he talks about Mysterio, an anger he hasn't completely dealt with. He can't wrap his mind around why someone would do this.] He was killing people with illusion tech and creating disasters to make himself look better. It was just this huge lie with a death toll.
no subject
Tony pushes that aside for the moment, focuses on the much more human problem in front of him; Peter needs his hero, and this Quentin Beck guy can wait. ]
I'm gonna be honest with you, kid; being an Avenger is for the birds. You have to sacrifice a lot. A lot. Sometimes everything. And it's not fair to the people around you. And they won't always understand that it's not just the- the power, it's the fact that every problem in the world rests on your shoulders. [ Well, he's close. ] You're not doing anything wrong by trying to give it up and be a normal kid again. [ Tony rests the blame of Peter thinking otherwise squarely on himself. ] But uh- Here's your chance?
no subject
I know its not great, or safe, but, I just wanted a break, then I'd go back to being Spider-Man. People still needed help. [If there is one thing that can be said about Peter Parker, its his determination to do good. To help. His own wants tend to come second to that.]
I.. guess it is, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it, I guess. [Now he has to explain the ADI thing, and Peter has no idea how to broach that.
CRAU struggles!] there was another place I ended up before here, it wasn't great. They needed help stopping the end of the world.no subject
Well, luckily for the both of us, the world doesn't exactly seem too close to ending 'round these parts. [ Because Tony gets it, in other words. That compulsion to do good. That need to push until he's given everything he can, and then give some more. ]
I've been in a few fights since getting here, but- [ He's mostly been forced to stay on the bench without a suit, is the actual truth. Tony inhales sharply through his nose. ] Nothing I couldn't handle. Pretty peaceful, overall.
gives us a break from horror so Tony can tease Peter
If- I can find my boyfriend, he'll be happy about that. [He says this without even thinking about it.] He hated working with the ADI, even if he liked, the weird spooky riddle horse stuff.
always worth it
[ Wait.
One minute.
Wait just a second.
Tony's brain screeches to a halt, the phantom smell of burning rubber and asphalt clinging to his memory. ]
...Boyfriend? [ There is a slightly mischievous smirk hiding just behind Tony's lips. ] Boyfriend. [ He quickly walks around in a small circle as he lets that one sink in.
Like, okay, fine, the kids these days have their... Whatever - and Tony admittedly kinda had his suspicions about this kid in particular, but-
...Well, okay, fine, sure, he can admit this to himself and no one else: He kind of always figured Peter had exactly zero game and wouldn't end up stumbling upon any game until college, at least. ]
no subject
The man walking around him does not help.] Yyeah. My boyfriend, Leo. He and I met- in that other place I was at.
no subject
Mm. Is he more da Vinci or di Caprio? [ Probably a mix of both looks and smarts, if Peter's little high school girlfriends were anything to go by. Tony stops pacing around Peter and quirks an eyebrow. ]
And he knows about your- [ ...Tony pauses, not entirely how to mime "spider powers" for a second there. He goes with an almost-comically over-exaggerated bite a second later. ]
no subject
[That doesn't actually answer the question, but he sure tried. Bronze star! Peter fidgets with the cuffed hem of his plaid over shirt.]
Yeah, he- he knows. We talked about it a few times. [Among other things, such as hand holding and kissing, classic teenage distraction.] He's a ninja so, me being you know, isn't super weird.
no subject
Okay, so you and Leo The Ninja. [ Okay, yes, this definitely is going to require some getting used to. Tony's nodding his head slowly. He nods faster as he realized he yeeted himself out of having to deal with Morgan dating in the future. Probably a good thing. This was stressful enough when the kid wasn't even actually his. ] How long's that been a thing?
no subject
Uh, a few months, maybe almost a year? [Peter as any teenaged boy isn't too aware of the exact dates in the moment.] We shared a dorm back where we met.
no subject
[ Because "maybe almost a year" is a pretty long time for a... What was the kid, now? 16, probably. ...17, maybe? More data needed. But either way, "maybe almost a year" is a pretty long time for a high schooler. So Peter and Leo The Ninja seemed pretty serious. Hell, they lived together. Likely still will, assuming they both got to Folkmore in one piece. ] Huh. [ Weird. Well, no, just... Different. Requiring getting used to.
Blackmailing the kid in his bedroom seems like so long ago now, and Tony's a little floored by the relentless passage of time. 3 years for Peter. 8 for Tony. He inhales sharply through his nose. ] Sorry; senior moment. [ Yeah, sure, that works. Go with that. ]
Have fun. Don't be stupid. [ Do as he says, not as he does. ] Absolutely do not do anything I would do without precautions. [ Tony smirks, gives the kid a quick wink. ]
no subject
The long pause definitely makes Peter marginally nervous in a way he can't articulate.]
I didn't think you were old enough for a senior moment, Mr. Stark. I mean, you're like an adult, but not old.
[He is actively a little flustered at that.] Oh my god- we are- not talking about that. We are safe- [QUICK CORRECTION.] We'll be safe-
no subject
[ He puts his hands up in an "I surrender" gesture for a split second before Peter corrects himself. "'Ll be?" Tony's face scrunches for an instant, as the confusion and mild horror courses through his brain. Oh no, that is not- ] Fine. That's... Good. [ Tony forces his face back to neutrality.
Just keep doubling down, Tony. ] Great.
[ Deep breath. He hears Pepper's voice in his head telling him, "I swear to God, Tony Stark, if you say anything-"
Tony is unfortunately not a strong man, and death has only made him bolder. ] Didn't you say nearly a year? [ He's not judging; just curious, and worried about the kids these days. ]
no subject
[Peter is trying to give both of them an out here.]
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...Okay fine, kid, you're free. ] Yeah, you got it. I'm done.
[ Inwardly, Tony is screaming. ]
no subject
Um. I'm- [Trying desperately to take this anywhere else.] I'm really happy with him, and hope you guys can meet soon? I mean, he has to be here somewhere.
[At least Peter hopes so. TDM timeline is different than in game timeline.]
(no subject)
rip to Tony, enjoy this info dump
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