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

[ultimateknight]

At least it's free and welcome to fish on the beach. No one owns this beach or the rights to the fish in its waters. That and company make Tsukasa comfortable with fishing this slow inefficient way. Waiting for the fish. It's not like he could hear the story while diving under the water and spearing fish directly. This sort of interaction is also one the fox encourages, so in a way it's three birds with one stone.

Fishing rod. Bait. A seat in the sand. A line cast in the ocean. Quiet and peaceful.

"No," Tsukasa answers. "I know about various crystals, not a definitive one." The Crystal. Tsukasa could hear the capitalization in the way Noctis spoke. He mentally decides to take notes in case it is of interest to Senku, for science's sake.

[canyounoct]

Quiet. Peaceful. A balm after his hectic last few days. As Tsukasa already rightly thought - two hours in this place was barely any time at all.

“Right. Well … it’s kind of weird explaining it, I suppose, it’s like explaining the sun,” Noctis noted quietly, sadly. A sun that his world hadn’t seen for two years. But saying that aloud would be getting ahead of himself.

“I’ll give you the short version of everything, best I can. The gods gave it to my ancestors. They could channel its power to protect people, could grant that power to people they trusted. Especially since there was this scourge, killing people and turning them into daemons.”

“For centuries, we’ve been protecting people against the starscourge. Another place started experimenting on the scourge … there was a huge war … I won’t get into all the history with that, but finally they stole the Crystal.” Noctis waved a hand. Just skip the messy bit with his entire city burning and his dad’s murder and everything. “So I was trying to get it back, ten years ago.”

[ultimateknight]

"People had to learn about the sun as part of scientific progress," Tsukasa says, "they still do as children to understand the universe." Given how many scientific basics have been explained to people—really rainbow flames were supposed to awe him?—in the stone world, Tsukasa does not feel judged to hear something as basic to this man's world as the sun explained to him. Simply now he's the one in the place of an Ishigami villager, perhaps. No, not that, because he's not even from this world. It's more akin to hearing about the aliens who visited their world.

"No protection Crystal, ramped up starscourge. Sounds tough."

Understatement, but then, he's likely hearing an understated version. A huge war may get handwaved away, but so much pain and hurt comes with war. Tsukasa sinned a great deal in the effort to prevent the kind of wars his world had seen before, so he can only imagine what terrors the older man leaves out. A desperate quest, in the end.

"How did that go? Getting it back."

[canyounoct]

“Not … well,” Noctis told him quietly. “The days were growing shorter and shorter with the scourge. One of my friends died helping me - another was permanently blinded - another captured and tortured just to get to me. We helped a lot of people along the way, but …”

He shook his head. “When we found the Crystal, it … sucked me inside of it, more or less. Apparently it was meant to do that all along. Part of a prophesy nobody told me the details of.”

“The sun disappeared from the world entirely for ten years while I slept in the Crystal. My friends had to suffer and help everyone survive without me. The whole point was that B- one of the gods was letting me have the power to stop it all, but …”

“Yeah. I woke up a couple of days ago to that.” Noctis’ jaw set. “I did stop it like I was meant to. I … I can only hope it worked. That they have sunlight again.”

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa listens and raises an eyebrow. Senku's approach wherein no one would die doesn't sound like it would work in that world. What they did cost them a great deal—all for a future Noctis will never see. He doesn't even know for sure that it worked. All that pain and suffering...

As a religious person, Tsukasa still doesn't believe in these gods. They aren't his, and it sounds less like the gods letting people make their own choices as forcing choices upon people. That sits poorly with Tsukasa. Not that he can do anything about it. He's not in that world. Here, now, he sits next to Noctis and waits for a fish to take the bait.

"All that, the gods wanted it to happen all along? At least one of them?" Tsukasa asks. Pain and suffering without purpose. Needlessly. What a waste.

[canyounoct]

“Not exactly,” Noctis said with a wince. He’s … of course he was with Bahamut, in a way, for ten years. Not that he was fully aware during that time, but he wasn’t completely asleep either. But he was prepared. Made to understand his purpose.

But he was never like Lunafreya, an Oracle who gave herself to the Astrals. A part of himself was still a teenager who resented what he was born into, his lack of choice.

Only difference was, now he was convinced that was childish. He sighed.

“They didn’t create the Starscourge. They tried to stop the meteor it came on - that saved human life when they did,” Noctis furrowed his brow, remembering what Luna told him. “Only someone like me could’ve stopped it. I’m the one with the connection to the Crystal, who was chosen by Bahamut to stop it all. If … if I had already been ready when I’d found the Crystal, He wouldn’t have needed to prepare me.”

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa notices the wince and recognizes it likely means the man blames himself, in part or in whole. He listens to the explanation but cannot say how much of the explanation is true versus what the gods, what Bahamut, convinced the man. Tsukasa is not from that world. He lacks enough information to make an informed decision. He only knows what Noctis has told him, ever so briefly.

It's enough that he looks skeptical.

"The one with the connection to the Crystal given from the gods, inheriting power from them," Tsukasa calls back to the earlier explanation of the Crystal. If it's from the gods and Noctis's power as well, then why must someone be chosen to stop the scourge? Why not the gods themselves, the source of the power? It sounds like the old and the powerful yet again using those less significant than themselves. Noctis said he died. He died to stop it. This Bahamut didn't take the risk, though he might have had an easier time of it.

"If it had to be you, you could have been prepared earlier by the god who knew what you didn't."

Far be it from Tsukasa to give anyone a pass simply because they're powerful. That goes for the fox as well.

[canyounoct]

Noctis shrugged slightly, his grip flexing a little on the fishing pole. "As if everyone else wasn't trying to prepare me? Sure - many of them didn't know what would happen to me. But my father did. He ... he really tried to make sure I could have a good childhood, and tried to give me the training and education I needed. I just didn't appreciate it at the time."

His whole chest hurt, thinking about his father. It'd been more than ten years in truth. For him, it's barely been months. Though time was strange in the Crystal. He'd been understanding all that time what Bahamut wanted him to know - but also, he thought of the lengths his father and his friends had gone to. Everything they've done for him. All the reasons he needed to do right by them.

All the guilt he had, that he hadn't been good enough.

His vision blurred, but he blinked the moisture away. His grip shifted on the fishing rod once more. "I'm sorry, I know you're just curious about the prophesy. I shouldn't have dumped that on you."

It didn't seem right to ask him to change the subject. Certainly - if he lived, it would've been worse, everyone asking their king how it all was possible. He earned this.

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa lets the man speak, lets the guilt pore out of him, as salty as the sea they cast rods into. This man could cry himself an ocean with that guilt, with the responsibility he so firmly believes lands squarely on his shoulders. Everyone has convinced this man he's responsible for everything despite the gods being right there.

"Your father is a man. I am sure he did his best," Tsukasa says, "as I am sure you did yours. You should not blame yourself or feel guilty for acting like a child when you were a child. You were a child and deserved to be one, the same as every other child."

He knows that destiny means Noctis may doubt that, but he's no more an adult from birth for any of it. "You have been here a matter of hours," Tsukasa says softly, "I could not expect differently."

[canyounoct]

“I was not the same as other children, though. No matter what I wanted,” Noctis said, but then sighed and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now, I suppose. This place doesn’t know who I am.”

His lips twitched a little. “I’m going to look at that as a good thing. Hopefully … this place doesn’t need saving. So maybe I can just exist for a while. Do this, maybe.”

Isn’t that what he always wanted? To just be some fisherman, not a prince or king?

He didn’t want to do it without his friends, though. Noctis already felt a little lonely.

[ultimateknight]

An instant declamation. A refusal to let himself be a child. Tsukasa immediately thinks of Mirai and imagines this man instead as a small child who wants to read or in another life would love an animated movie. Except instead of considering the hero of that movie a person, he denies himself personhood.

"This place is full of saviors," Tsukasa says, "Even should it need saving at some point, you'll have to get in line." He smiles slightly. "So just exist. Fish. Get used to life. That's all you have to do." Move on. Move ahead. Move forward.

[canyounoct]

The black wings on Noctis’ back shifted and he smiled a little at Tsukasa. “That sounds like a pretty good afterlife to me.”

He’s quiet for a moment, looking at the water, before he asked, “So, how about you? If you don’t mind telling me.”

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa doesn't think Folkmore is an afterlife, but he doesn't say as much. There's no reason to, and he hasn't been here much longer than Noctis has.

"What do you want to know?" Tsukasa asks. It's not exactly something easy to leap into an explanation for.

[canyounoct]

Now that was a tiny bit evasive, wasn’t it? But Noctis wasn’t offended. Not everyone needed to vent about the weirdness which was the final days of their lives. He shrugged a little.

“Whatever you’re comfortable with? Doesn’t have to be gods asked you to save the world kind of thing,” Noctis told him. “What do you do here, maybe? Got any hobbies? Are there cool games to play here?”

[ultimateknight]

"No gods have ever asked for my aid," Tsukasa says, smiling slightly, "but a scientist." From the first moment he broke out of the stone and saved Senku and Taiju from lions to all else that followed.

"That scientist and one more are here," Tsukasa says, "We yet live when we come from, and it is my goal to see them safely home, to protect them in this place until such a time he finds us a way out." Because he doesn't need an afterlife when he has a life. "At the moment, I mostly hunt and fish and provide meat for the table."

He looks out to the water. "There is a casino set on boats out there, if you can find it. If that is your kind of fun."

[canyounoct]

'Scientist' brought two very different kinds of people to mind. One of them - Sania, a bit weird but really nice and very eccentric, he found a lot of frogs for her, he hoped she somehow survived the decade-long darkness. The idea she might have not ... made him quickly try to think of things.

The other kind ... the people who built magitech. Magitech troopers. The things which destroyed his home and ended up accelerating the arrival of daemons and the darkness. But ... but. Also, the reason that Prompto existed. Who was one of the best people Noctis had ever known, someone he already missed fiercely.

"What kind of scientist?" Noctis asked, curious. He at least sounded like someone this guy trusted and was very loyal too. Not unlike a Crownsguard, he couldn't help but compare.

He snorted a small laugh then. "I don't know, gambling isn't really my thing. Never even got into gatcha games, it kind of seemed pointless if I could just pay to win. Not that they would've let me go to a casino back then ..."

[ultimateknight]

"A generalist," Tsukasa says, "The truest kind of scientist. We were all petrified for over 3,700 years, and he was the first of us to break free. He started with nothing, not even clothes on his back, and he started the rebuilding of civilization."

He smiles because he cannot help it, thinking of Senku. There's no one he admires more. "He didn't do it alone. No one can bring back civilization alone, but none of it would have been possible without him. We wouldn't have the kind of world we have today had it been someone else."

Had it been Xeno.

He shrugs about the casino. "I too am not into gambling and never endorsed gatcha games. However, someone else I know pointed out that it could raise spirits and morale, and indeed it raised the mood among the crew. So I admit it has its purposes."

[canyounoct]

They seemed like good friends, Noctis thought. But he of course can't help but say, "Three thousand, seven hundred years ..."

Noctis shook his head. "Ten years of darkness nearly destroyed our civilization, from what little I saw ... so. Even if everyone could be restored after being petrified - it sounds like you guys had your work cut out for you."

He tried to imagine the four of them, petrified by some daemon for thousands of years out in the middle of the wilderness ... Noctis shuddered a little and shook his head. It's a good thing that never happened.

"I guess I can check it out," Noctis agreed with a shrug. "I don't have a lot to gamble with here, but, I guess if they're often plucking people out of the water like this, maybe they expect that?"

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa nods. "Everything humanity built was gone," he says, "well, most everything. Some statues remained, but cities, roads, buildings, technology, all of it was gone. We've had a decade since then, and we've accomplished a great deal. Society is rebuilding itself at this point."

"I remember watching Senku make soap for the first time, and now we've gone to the moon." It sounded insane when Senku first said it. Yet they've done that and more.

"You'll have some Lore from our conversation, and you'll gain more as you interact with everyone there. So long as you don't lose it all too quickly, it should pay for itself." He smiles. "How well can you bluff?" The man has been all emotions as plain as day.

[canyounoct]

Noctis had to smile a little. "People are determined to survive and work together. Even if things are dark and hopeless. I'm ... glad it's the same, in your experience."

But he did have to blink. There's genuine astonishment when he said, "The moon? You're kidding me."

Lore. Currency just from ... talking to people. He remembered driving around finding work after Lucis fell, while they tried to take down the Empire and rescue Lunafreya ... and. It's kind of like that, just avoiding the extra step of hunting beasts or finding frogs for them first. Not that weird.

He smirked, kind of at his own expense. "I'll just imagine I'm being interviewed by some nosy reporters or I'm talking with my dad's Council. I wasn't particularly good at hiding my emotions, but apparently I'm good at looking annoyed and bored instead of what I'm really feeling."

Definitely poking fun at himself, and with a self-awareness he wouldn't have displayed before his Crystal nap. But what was the point of trying to play it cool now? He's dead.

[ultimateknight]

"The moon," Tsukasa confirms, "That was everyone's reaction when Senku said it. It seemed impossible. We'd only built a single ship capable of traversing the ocean at that point. Radio communication. The basics."

Annoyed and bored and rich as can be. The reference to his father's Council seals the deal that Noctis isn't a self-made celebrity like he was. Not that Tsukasa cared about being a celebrity. He needed the money. Tsukasa bets he would have hated Noctis back in the day, if they'd been in the same world. Annoyed and bored may hide other emotions, but it hardly gives people a positive impression.

"Perhaps you should work on looking friendly and bored," Tsukasa suggests. "There aren't nosy reporters here, at least that I know of."

[canyounoct]

And Noctis was used to people hating him. He would've hated himself if he met him. What kind of guy just sat around while other people tried to protect him? But that huge, massive ball of teenage self-loathing was quietly packed away over the years, until it's just a coal to fuel his drive to protect people. Prove to himself he wasn't what he hated.

"And if they were, why would they care about me?" Noctis pointed out. "Like we talked about ... I can finally just be a guy. Not that I won't help people here, but there isn't any of that bullshit-"

His rod jerked, and Noctis cut himself off. "Woah! Hang on, I think I got something."

[ultimateknight]

"Just some guy," Tsukasa muses. His reputation preceded him into the Stone World. They still call him the strongest primate high schooler, no matter how many years it's been since he was in high school. Thankfully, people haven't called him that here. He hopes Senku and Gen don't spread it around. It's fun from them, but from others it would be weird.

"Go ahead, I can wait," Tsukasa says. "The fish won't." He wouldn't either with a hook in his mouth. Fortunately for Noctis, he isn't the thing on the other end of the line.

[canyounoct]

Tsukasa didn't need to tell him - Noctis was already absorbed with reeling in the fish, standing up and bracing himself while he kept tension on the line. He's completely focused now, everything else falling away.

It's like a dance, give and take. He can't pull in too fast, or the line might snap or the hook might tear. Pull in too slow and the fish might also get away. The creature was strong, and driven with the instinct to fight with its supposed meal and escape - but Noctis was also strong, and practiced. He'd won that fishing tournament, didn't he?

Eventually, he's pulling up a decently sized fish, as long as his arm. It's far from the biggest thing he's caught, but it's going to supply a lot of sushi. He grinned from ear to ear, the most happy he's seen the entire time he's been speaking with Tsukasa. "Beautiful. The chef will be happy with this one."

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa watches and resists the urge to dive into the water and grab the fish directly. It's an excellent way to catch fish quickly, but after the initial haul, it scares them away for some time. Noctis needs the time to relax, and if catching multiple fish help with that, he needs the time to sit and while away on the shore.

"Good work," Tsukasa compliments him. "The chef won't be the only one happy." That's been one of the fun parts of fishing, seeing the people enjoying the food afterwards. He's glad to be beyond roasting meat on a spit above a fire himself. The benefits of science.