folkooc | August & September 2023 Test Drive Meme

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August & September 2023 Test Drive Meme

August & September 2023 TDM

Introduction

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This Test Drive meme is open to all.
Welcome to Folkmore's bimonthly 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]

Oh How Quiet . ★

Content Warnings: Difficulty seeing, possibility of drowning, forced relocation

Fog & Footsteps

Some Star Children find themselves on land. The air is foggy and damp, blurring and distorting vision making it difficult to tell where they are, what’s real and what isn’t until–finally–Star Children find themselves on wet sand. Continue marching forward and trees begin to form a skeletal border, dark shadows growing and stretching further into their depths. Star Children who have experienced being exiled before can feel a path through the trees should they choose to venture further. Star Children who haven’t been exiled can feel resentment building around them and have greater difficulty navigating the path ahead.

Anyone who glances back may find footsteps in the sand alongside theirs. The more anyone looks back, the more prints appear. They’re inconsistent like their maker hops or flies part of the time or fades in and out of the physical universe… or something else. They may be human, or animal, or something Star Children can’t quite put a name to.

The Will or the Wisp

The longer Star Children dwell on them, the more tempting they are to follow—familiarity, comfort, curiosity, something. The footsteps eventually lead Star Children down a branching path toward a wall of thick, colorless fog. Inside the fog, there are enchanting wisps of light dancing just out of reach, urging Star Children to keep following. Just a little further, the sweet voices promise.

Continue onward and soon outlines appear in the mist, showing just who (or what) the earlier footsteps belong to–distorted human or animal shapes that exist only where fog is displaced by the will-o’-the-wisps they carry like lanterns. They lure Star Children deeper into Exile, all the while making promises they have no intention of keeping...

Salvation comes in the form of a fellow Star Child guided toward someone in distress by shifting sands. They radiate starlight that pierces through the thick fog around them, allowing people to find the sandy forest path toward The Beach. Once Star Children reach it, they will both find an old, sea-battered treasure chest which offers characters a personal item from home and either a nonfunctional compass or lantern. A will-o-the-wisp will fly directly into the item, which doesn’t seem to make it work. The compass needle points toward somewhere in Exile, not north. The lantern doesn’t light up. However, when the Star Child is truly lost, the compass will point where they need to go and the lantern will light up any darkness. Each Star Child can only receive either the compass or the lantern.

A Magical Day

Whether passing directly through the forest path or guided back to it, Star Children find a shoreline extending in either direction. Some water laps against the beach, but farther out is the long expanse of tenuous reality. Come September, it fades into the distance until it can no longer be seen. The beach itself is in Exile, heavy with the weight of magic. It feels reassuring and encouraging. Star Children can indulge in a sunless day at the beach, playing in the sand, and soaking in the magic. Those wishing for a bit more warmth can explore the shoreline north to the Boat Bonanza at the port where the Encantado reaches the ocean.

Key Points:

🦊 Star Children may pass through a thick fog to reach a wet, sandy path that passes through trees and leads to The Beach in Exile.
🦊 If they keep looking behind them on the path they will find footprints following alongside their own. Those footprints will try luring characters deep into fog using will-o’-the-wisp lanterns, leading them into the swamp so they can drown them.
🦊 A fellow Star Child can act as a light to guide lost characters back to the safety of shore.
🦊 Star Children that are rescued from the lure or who rescue another Star Child will be rewarded with a non-weapon memento from home and either a compass or a lantern (not both).
🦊 Star Children that don’t succumb will simply continue forward to The Beach without issue and will have opportunities to find a non-personal item from their home worlds being sold at the market. See below.

Christening Ceremony . ★

Content Warnings: Possibility of drowning, fetch quests

Boat Bonanza

Whether venturing up the coastline from Exile, floating down the Encantado River, or simply being plopped into the water, Star Children new and old find themselves in water. A strong wave rolls up the beach to drag suspecting and unsuspecting alike. Playful pinkish-red dolphins spray people off boats into the river. Or Star Children find themselves treading water deeper than they are tall with no land in sight. No worries, those who need help getting out of the water will get it. Along the shore, spirits in boats will pick up anyone in need of a ride and bring them back through the fog to the sounds of shouts and cheers and music to a large clear spot in the fog.

Boats come into view. Boats of all shapes and sizes, from single person kayaks to large houseboats, fishing craft and sailboats. They rise and fall with the waves but aren't otherwise moving. Ropes, planks, and bridges tie the boats together. Whether approaching by river or by sea, new boats explore the outskirts of the great conglomeration of boats and attach themselves—increasing the size of the gathered ships. So many boats are gathered that the shore isn't visible from new boats tying up.

Everyone's welcome aboard and to wander from boat to boat. Starfish spirits offer games of chance at low tables on broad open decks under awnings. There are even holes in the bottom of the deck, so players can dip their feet in cool water. A cephalopod band plays upbeat music other spirits and Star Children can dance to in competition with a scavenging of seagull spirits singing sea shanties as loudly as they can two boats over. Far from them, jellyfish spirits offer places to rest in quiet, with curtains drawn and sound dampened. Many spirits offer food and drink—seafood or seafood shaped candy or in the case of mystery flavored taffy, sometimes seafood flavored candy. Those who don't want freshly rolled sushi or take a chance with the candies can always see the Wandering Dog cart on the shore, where the dogs try very hard to be included.

Flotilla Afterparty

Come September, nymphs pop up in the waters and start shooing the boats away until only the houseboats and some submarines remain. Some go off on their lonesome, but more of them form flotillas that float along the coastline continuing their activities and coming to shore to pick up any who wish to join them. A restaurant flotilla, a meditative flotilla, music performance flotillas, and even gambling flotillas. Should people want off and the boats aren't ready to go to shore, sometimes Catbus shows up, able to leap whatever the distance.

Fetchquest

At any time, during the boat festival or smaller flotillas, Star Children may find non-personal items from their home world for sale. It may be a weapon or magical item. These spirits can sense who is from the same world as an item and will only offer them to those Star Children. These aren’t free! After all, these spirits pulled up these items from chests in the water. Star Children will need to do a few favors or barter something else to obtain the item from home. Star Children who help in Vasilisa’s, now mostly staffed by spirits, will find they have an easier time bartering… unless it’s in the Cuttlefish Curiosities shop. If the cuttlefish spirit smells a whiff of the grumpy old octopus spirit who has taken over as chef, that Star Child will have to do twice the work.

Key Points:

🦊 Explore your way to Nereid where the Encantado reaches the shore or get dropped into the water.
🦊 Enjoy an enormous boat festival! All kinds of boats! All kinds of activities!
🦊 In September, the boat festival will split into multiple flotillas floating around the shoreline.
🦊 Do favors or barter goods to receive a non-personal item from home. It may be a weapon or magical item. A magical gun from your world? Yes. Your personal magical gun with your dog’s name engraved in it? No.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah, drek, really?" He sounds more hang-dog than actually upset at being recognized. With that, he folds away his more casual, natural self and stands just a little straighter. If he's supposed to be ~Last Jedi Master Skywalker~ he probably ought to try and do it justice.

"Sorry about that, it is good to meet you." In the same way that it's always good to meet another Force user. Even one so cold. If he were to be totally honest, cold is easier to deal with than the lightning cracking madness of C'baoth and, perhaps, a little of his relief seeps out into the Force?

"That is yet to be determined. I'm not typically one so aligned with the Jedi." A deceiver he can be but this is one thing he's never particularly kept hidden. "But, the enemy of my enemy."

Trouble yourself when it matters, ~Last Jedi Master Skywalker~. They're currently not under any particular threat unless you consider him one which presently he wasn't. Though being a Skywalker was concern enough and there was the issue of someone who was somehow in some way related to Sidious being here. Stay tuned for more on that. Who knew. Maybe you would be the threat. Life was funny that way. Until then, do continue to concern yourself with the boat if it so pleases you. "Assuming you were trained by Kenobi."

"To be blunt about it, I wouldn't know much about who or what would be Jedi aligned. Kenobi did train me, for all of about three days." Luke shrugs, well aware that it's only people without Force training that think he's a powerful Jedi. It would make sense that Maul (and/or anyone else) would instantly see that he's not trained in a traditional manner. There are familiar flickers, but he doesn't feel like a Republic era Jedi trained in temple.

"I'm not great with math, but I think it works out to, hmm, 3661 after the Treaty of Coruscant." Is that the easiest number? No, but it's pre-Imperial and lines up with BBY counting. (He thinks? Maybe.) "Either way, I'll give you the same choice I gave Kenobi. I don't know if you can change it, but can tell you what's coming. Or not."

Odd way of counting indeed but he can manage just fine. To be honest, it wasn't something that mattered all too much to him. The visions Maul had received were vague and he could only imagine that Luke was young at the time of that fateful eve. What mattered the most was that this man standing before him would bring about the end of the Empire yet what he saw was not what he would hope for.

"Three days," Maul repeated, "did the old man get lazy?" There was simply no way Kenobi would give up. Something had to have happened and he was going to be awfully mad if it was the something that his mind jumped to.

That said, "Ah, you met the padawan." Was it as strange for you as it was for him? "I cannot change anything, young Master. I am dead." If you wanted to speak bluntly then you're in good company, Luke. "It is you, to my understanding, who is the one to change things."

For the time being, and until or unless he tells Obi-Wan, Luke isn't going to touch on the reason that he wasn't fully trained. Given enough time and context, Maul will most likely be able to figure out the real reason.

"Please, I'm no one's Master." He understands that it's a Jedi tradition to take up that title, but it doesn't sit well with him. Maybe one day he'll grow into it, but not yet. "Just Luke. Or Skywalker if you're not comfortable with first names."

"In the fall of the Empire and the rise of a new Republic, I played a role, but so too did hundreds and thousands of others." Modest. Maybe too modest and edging into self-effacing. "If that's what you're talking about, that is."

You cannot escape that question so easily, Luke. He was going to pry and if that didn't work, well. They'd just have to see how Maul felt about it. There were many ways to answer questions and he just couldn't help himself— Was about to pry. Because Luke said his last name and everything came to a halt. "Skywalker." A laugh, and then? Wouldn't you know it he laughs some more. "Yes, of course. Of course. Skywalker it is."

He didn't get a last name during the vision. He heard someone in the distance say Luke. He saw flashes of the war that was to come and many other bits and pieces. It was enough and it was enough that there was confirmation to follow. Din had also mentioned that indeed the Empire fell although the outer rim was still somewhat effected but when was that new. The outer rim would do what it did.

"How humble of you," sarcasm. It was done, and that was what mattered most to him. Who ruled what stopped mattering on Naboo. So very long ago. Back to other matters, and actually he'll take a little walk along the shore. Join if you'd like. "How did he die, then? Kenobi. I can't imagine he'd give up on you."

Luke falls in alongside Maul and he knows he ought to answer, but the whole thing is a tangled mess. Even in his home'verse, there are plenty of things he and Leia have chosen to keep hidden - it's not common knowledge that they're siblings. Especially if it got out that Vader was their father, it wouldn't be politically savvy or safe.

"He fought a Sith Lord. He - " How to put it? How to protect his identity and others? "He lowered his saber and passed into the Force."

"Has the Empire risen in your time?"

"Vader no doubt." The Skywalker, the first one. What lineage you have, Luke. He has to wonder if the young man knew. Perhaps they'd get there.

"He must have had a great deal of faith in you." There's a certain quality to his voice that's hard to determine the undertone. Perhaps it was because Maul was not sure how to process the news even though he'd been right with his assumptions without knowing the mechanics of how. They walk, continue through the fog as more boats seem to come up to shore. People around them climbed aboard. He was yet to be enticed to follow if only because he wasn't interested in following.

So many things he could say and some he still might but for now he'll indulge this curiosity. "Indeed, if going by the galactic standard it was about fifteen years ago that the Empire rose from the ashes of the Clone Wars."

"It was," he says as his signature starts to do something interesting. Anger, grief, and a screaming level of frustration. Luke's stride slows and he takes a breath before continuing. "He was the second Force user I ever saw, and well, that was the end of Obi-Wan's formal training. He and Yoda have appeared a handful of times, but that's ... that's it, really."

"Faith, perhaps, but just as much desperation." He's met as many Jedi in this place than he's ever come across.

Desperation. The word caught a chuckle in his throat because, well, there was a piece of him that'd thought the same. He wanted to keep that to himself if only to bask in the possibility. As touching as their last moment had been, Maul was still... Maul. There was something else, though. He couldn't put words to it just yet. Something not so gleeful. Nevertheless, the anger and grief did not surprise him but the frustration made him curious.

"I loathe to think that Kenobi would break when I'd spent so much of my life trying to achieve such a thing." No, no he doesn't think he's going to hide that. It sounded a bit amused but also there was an earnest sadness. Ah, yes. That's what it was. And even more complicated emotions. Stay tuned. You will find, young Skywalker, that Maul was a conflicted sort. So very clearly entrenched in the dark side, and yet.

"I don't think he broke, just that he knew that choosing to put down his 'saber would give us more time to escape. That Vader would...he'd pause." Emotions are tough, buddy. Luke is hovering around the edge of trying to rebuild the Jedi as they were or just set out on his own path and see what comes of it. (Spoilers: Either way, there's going to be a lot of headaches.)

"I only met him a few times, but he wasn't an easy man to stop or redirect once he got going." That's putting it mildly. Skywalker bullshit wins out in nearly every situation. Only the great and noble Saint Beru managed to contain Luke's innate stupid for almost two decades. "He's the one that killed the Palpatine, in the end."

Aah, that only furthered his emotions. Whatever they all were. Though as for the fate of the Jedi? Well, Maul wouldn't be the best person to ask according to some though he personally felt the Jedi were just as bad as the Sith. Hypocrites, liars, deceivers, slavers. Make your own path, Luke. You are the hope for something new.

"Mm," was all he'd give the whole Kenobi vs Vader thing. Though as for people putting up with Skywalkers... Maul did not know Anakin all too well. He did know Kenobi, and knew the man to be steadfast, stubborn, and more proud than he'd likely care to admit. Which did tickle him. Imperfect, though. Surely the early greys were all caused by Skywalker. As for the news of Palpatine's end? Surprised? No, not surprised to hear it in the least. Thankful, and amused. He could almost laugh. "Ah, the rule of two strikes again." A beat. "You are aware of who Darth Vader is?"

"Was."

A pause and there's that tangled snarl of conflicted emotion again. When Maul suggests telling him Vader's former identity, there's a bright, sharp stab of surprise. A Force user actually telling him something? What a novelty.

"He died, but renounced the name Vader before the end."

Is that enough of a hint to show that Luke knows what his birthname was? Perhaps. Luke looks away from Maul, off towards the boats and the ocean. While his face is calm, internally he's struggling to get his own emotions back in order.

Come now. You speak with a former Sith. That conflict is not something that can stay hidden from him and he stops in his walk to observe the man. A hum, "the Jedi would tell you that what you feel now should be ignored. Do as you wish with your emotions, young Skywalker, but personally I find the concept preposterous. Your pain is valid."

Maul thought for quite some time about what to say and something, mm. Something begged him to speak more of this. It wasn't that he cared about Luke's internal conflict. Perhaps it was that he wanted to destroy the image of Darth Sidious so thoroughly, to ensure everyone knew exactly the type of man Sheev Palpatine was that he was willing to play nice every now and then.

He finally moves forward. "You cannot imagine the power that Darth Sidious possesses over a person. His observations are so astute that by the time you realize he is the enemy you've already become indentured to him. I know this well." He paused to look toward Luke. "Anakin had long been groomed to become that which he had become. This was his plan the very moment I had been sent to find him on Tatooine. He was but a child. Just like I had been."

That? That right there? That idea stops Luke in his tracks. There's no hiding his Force signature now. He opens his mouth to speak and, closes it before saying anything. He is used to pain being something to pass onto the Force, or something that is considered his due as a Jedi, and pointedly refuses to use it as a base of power, but valid? That's not a concept that has ever occurred to him.

Once it does, he thinks over what else he knows of his friends, his family, and while he would never tell them to release their suffering, perhaps he should have acknowledged and validated it.

"Sidious wanted to take me on as his own. I was only in his presence the once and it was too much for me. I can't imagine how - no, I don't even want to think about what he could do." The idea makes him shiver and some of his more lightning damaged nerves shudder and twitch as if in sympathy. "I wondered about Anakin. Why he ...just, why, but all Obi-Wan said was that Vader killed my father and left me on a moisture farm."

He's not exactly sure how he feels about being something of an inspiration for the training of potential Jedi but it was what it was. You're welcome, he supposed. As for the topic of Sidious? Maul could talk days about that man. Amused all the while of how Kenobi seemed to evade the truth. How divine it was to see the Master grew all the more flawed with age. Time does indeed come for them all in the end.

"As is his wont," Maul seemed fully unsurprised by this revelation. "You're younger, likely stronger, and untrained. Emotional. Raw potential ripe for manipulating. Such are things that he seeks but but especially the latter." Dooku was more a political pawn than an actual apprentice, he was sure of it. "If you were to accept you, too, would end up like your father. Nothing but a slave." An irony, to be sure. He knew well Anakin's past was precisely that. A slave.

As for Kenobi?

"I imagine there is a part of him that feels responsible. Vader was his padawan." And now they get into the real depth of this conversation. His hands folded across his chest as he stopped once more by the entrance to yet another ship. "Yet to deny that your father and Vader are one in the same is to refuse the truth of what Sidious is capable of and ignore the fallacies of the Order. It was no failing of Kenobi's that Skywalker fell but the failing of the Jedi as a whole."

"I feel honour-bound to stand up for the Jedi, but the truth is, I don't know enough about them or their ways." He looks down at the beach and pictures a different shore - other plants, other planets. "Before my arrival here, I met two Jedi. Kenobi for a couple days, and Yoda for a few months, and beyond that, it was Vader, Sidious, and mad cloned Jedi that had fallen far."

And Mara, but her secrets are her own.

"I've searched and found a handful of holocrons, but that's it. I didn't even know what a Jedi was when I found Obi-Wan. I can't imagine what the plan was sending me against Sidious. They couldn't have believed that I could've fought him alone and won. I didn't." Luke knows that all he did was buy time and trust that he could stall long enough for Anakin to return.

It was not a good plan.

"Honor." He chuckled. "Yes, because it is more important than truth. Quickly, very quickly, does honor become pride, young Master." He well remembers the dislike of such a title but make no mistake he used it with specific intention in this instance, Luke.

As for the plan, the plan, Kenobi's plan or whoever else had been a part of it. Maul couldn't say. He was dead, but if Luke wanted a realistic understanding of things... He considered a moment before replying as he does now. And as a testament to his growth he's not going to do the usual slander no mater how deeply tempting it was and it was so very tempting. He couldn't help his previous quips but they were truthful.

Ezra he thinks might be too swayed to one side and the Kenobi that was here was... well, he was what he was. Nevertheless he owed Kenobi, his Kenobi at least. To be somewhat decent toward Luke. To try.

"Seek a person by the name Ahsoka Tano. If you remain here, her insight should be useful to you. She was apprentice to your father once and left the Order on her own accord but did not fall to the Dark Side. If you want a realistic understanding of what the Jedi were I feel hers will be the most balanced."

Blink. Luke had never thought that Anakin had been with the Jedi long enough to have an apprentice of his own. That she's here? Well, that's even stranger.

"Thank you, Maul. Not only do I appreciate your candour, but I am in your debt." He looks over towards the boats and knows that they're going to part ways for now. "If I may, I'd like to ask one question. I don't know if you've the answer, or if this Tano will, but I have to ask, you understand."

"You know about Anakin, but do you know the name of my mother?"

There's a knee jerk reaction to being thanked as if it was truly the most appalling thing he had ever heard. Teeth bared and everything though it was more a look of surprise at the end of things than one of anger. Ahem, alright moving right along. He's just not going to address any of this.

"Ask," he encouraged, thankful this was going to be the end of things. Too much good doing for one day he was starting to feel ill of it. But, ah— yes, the mother. "Amidala," touchy subject. Not, uh. Not because he gave a damn about the politics of Naboo or anything because at that time he truly did not and frankly still doesn't if he's being honest but just that it was Naboo that he last saw the young Queen and also the bottom half of his body. Fun little field trip that was. "Lady Tano, I imagine, could tell you more."

Anyway, run along now Skywalker. He has things to stew on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

August & September 2023 Test Drive Meme

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