August & September 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

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.

Comments

[nestingdevil]

While she talks, the Sin is all motion and movement. He drags his hand through his now-dry hair (and when did that happened?), feeling out his skull and the base of his neck as if he's refamiliarizing himself. It's been so long since he had a body of his own, he can't help the sensation - the deep, twisting feeling of just right that churns over and over again in his core. It's like waking from a good-night's sleep. His muscles are tense, yet relaxed; a friendly taste of carbon clings to his gums.

And to top it all off, the first person he sees, the first face he's had the pleasure of speaking to, just so happens to look like a chimera.

Abruptly, the Sin barks out a thunderous laugh. Joy, viciousness. They tangle in his throat as his chest bursts open. Living again. Now, that truly is the deal of a lifetime, isn't it? How long he'd be gone - he can't even remember. All he knows is the nothingness of it. The emptiness, swallowing him and drowning him in black, black, black with a promise of little to nothing more.

When he collects himself, the homunculus gingerly swipes his lower lip with his thumb as his 'Shield trudges back down the tips of his fingers; the look of it like black sand scurrying on its own. "You've got bit more than just strength, lovely. But thanks, anyway. Sounds like I owe you." With a quick jerk of his shoulders, he tosses his arms back through the holes of his vest. "A lot of people wouldn't bother, and I can't say I'd blame them. Not that it would have mattered much, anyway. It'd take a lot more than that to get rid of me." He straightens his collar, making the fur of it bristle out and around the cut of his jaw. "You just saved me a lot of time."

He gives the fur a few, curt plucks from his fingers before turning back to them. And what a sight they are. How they tower of him, how they stand as a complete compliment of delicateness and brute strength. The Sin's eyes tick wide one moment only shrink again; his leer, a devil's heated gaze. "Rue, then," he tongues, testing the name. "-the pleasure's all mine, I'm sure." Greed sinks into himself as he talks. His torso slouches and his heels splay out, making his knees swing ten and two. He isn't home. Far from it. All of this should be strange, new, different, and to anyone else, alarming.

To him, though, well -

The Sin takes one step forward, letting his legs cross over one another as stiff as a tango's start. It's clear that he's watching them. His eyes dart all over: their paws, their tufts of feathers and fur. Greed dips his chin and as his lips close to a simmering kind of smile, the rest of his body tilts. His whole demeanor, a man wild, brazen, and unabashedly forward.

Death, after all, couldn't take away what he was.

"This place - " He starts. "-can't say I'm familiar. And I wasn't exactly in the best spot before coming here. So, why don't we make a deal?" Dnk, goes one of his fingers as it taps idly on his thigh. "Why don't you tell me about this place? In return, I'll see what I can do. Whatever you want." Oh, and doesn't that one word cause a reaction in him. It seems to breathe life into him at a pace; like lit kindly or a low fire under a constant breeze. He's more awake, more aware, more focused.

Because the saying is true, right?

"Sin, sweetheart. Sin will always find you."

[ruevealing]

It is, well, to be frank, unnerving, to watch the way the strange man so suddenly explodes into laughter, the way it bursts out of him with such force, how every heaving laugh seems to get caught against his shark-like teeth.

If Rue was any less practiced in composure, they would be twisting their head to look away, unable to watch the way barks out his mirthless laughter and then gathers himself back up again, but as it is, Rue faces him head on, unblinkingly, not at all visibly troubled by the reaction.

With the fey, the promise of favors always end in binding contracts. Nothing is given away for free, no kindness to be shown without payment. But Rue is not like the fey that raised them. Greed mentions owning them a favor, and they simply brush the offer away with a gentle wave of their paw. "It is nothing, Mister Greed. Pray, if anything, think of it as a welcome gift for joining us in this realm. I am still fairly fresh myself, but I have already learned that the more that we help one another, the more we ourselves are helped in return. The power of our community will always be far greater than the power of each individual within it."

Oh, but Rue is used to having eyes on them. Even before, when they wore the disguise of an elf, it has been the one constant of their entire long-lived life, to be pinned in place by the hungry gaze of the world. They hardly even bat an eye at Greed's obvious stare.

"I hope that you do not take offense to this, Mister Greed, but I hardly believe that you can give me what I want right now in this very moment. A trade between us is not at all necessary."

[nestingdevil]

A sort of stillness flashes over his face that makes every part of him pause. The slits of his eyes freeze and shrink, his finger hovers and sticks between one tap and the next. And for a while, he stays that way. As if something is echoing, calling back.

Finally, his eyes close and the Sin shakes himself back to the present. "That so?" Greed's neck sinks into his shoulders, making the fur around his collar open and tease his skin. He tests his mouth again as he wanders away, his heels loud then dull, almost deaf in his ears.

"You feel for it, hook, line, and sinker -"

The homunculus finds the rail of the boat when he comes back to it again; like a man adrift and dazed suddenly snapping to reality. "Ah - ? No," he clicks his tongue behind his teeth and finds his smile with a crude, tight curl of his lip. "-it'd be a lot harder to offend me, lovely. Most people tend to say there's nothing they want. Glad you were at least honest with me." He throws his arm out to his side to wave it back and forth as if shooing away his thought. "Everyone wants something, after all. Guess this thing of yours is pretty important."

A second, another, and for a few minutes, the odd sort of quiet settles in. Everything she says is too close. Too close to those final moments, that split-second decision. He'd thrown all of his chips and then some onto that very idea. The idea that humans, despite how fragile they could be, despite how easily they could be overtaken, despite how quickly they could die, in numbers? In determination? In will, power?

Him and his didn't stand a chance.

Greed's mouth tightens; his smile old and tired. Then he drops it all together, and ah, hasn't he always been the Ultimate Shield?

"Can't really argue with that, huh? Fine, suit yourself," the homunculus hums while he shifts his weight, throwing his body in a haphazard, playful tilt. "-but I still think that's a pretty rotten deal for you. Like I told you, I'm not good, but I do have my own standards, Rue." He casts a look over his shoulder. "Don't take me for something I'm just not, hmn? In the meantime, think about it. If you ever need something - "

Another boat sloshes on the water, and Greed turns his eyes back to it. "-feel free. It'd be a shame to waste the offer."