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]

"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.

[canyounoct]

The smile subdued into a much smaller one, a shadow of his fishing enthusiasm. It’s also a bit nostalgic, while he looked at the fish and remembered something. “Yeah … all the people who’ll get to eat their creations are going to be pleased, too.”

He was remembering Ignis - telling him that the greatest joy in cooking was seeing his friends fed. Ignis, who … couldn’t exactly see anything anymore.

Shaking his head, he went to put the fish on ice. “I’ll definitely check out that casino …”

Trailing off, Noctis realized he didn’t know his name. And then, he realized he never introduced himself either. This made him chuckle again. “My name’s Noctis, by the way.”

[ultimateknight]

He's surely lost a lot of people if he cannot get through a single conversation without bumping into heartwrenching topics over and over again like a blindfolded deafened man in a dark room. He seems like he could really use this place.

"Please do. It has an interesting group of people in it," Tsukasa says, "You're at high risk of having a good time."

He holds his hand out to shake. Any fish mucus doesn't put him off it. "Shishio Tsukasa. It's good to meet you."

[canyounoct]

“That almost sounds like a threat,” Noctis can’t help but joke a little, he hadn’t lost his sense of humor. Even if - as Tsukasa had rightly observed - he’s a little shaken from having just died and all. It might take a little bit of adjusting after all of that.

Noctis took his hand and firmly shook it. No matter his privileged background, which Tsukasa rightly guessed - the king’s hand was roughly calloused from swords, lances, fire-flasks, and the occasional break to hold a fishing rod. They weren’t the smooth hands of a spoiled politician. “It’s really good to meet you, too. I’d be glad to fish again with you sometime - or, maybe, if there’s a game arcade around here …?”

[ultimateknight]

"You'll know if I threaten you," Tsukasa says with a straight face. A joke, but it may be hard to tell. He shakes Noctis's hand and notes everything about it. Old habits die hard, and he is so used to protecting Senku and Gen that even in this place, he assesses everyone for danger. Noctis knows how to fight, but he also hasn't shown any signs of being a threat. He's too... hurt for that. Though hurt people can lash out.

"I'll be hunting and fishing regularly," Tsukasa says. "If there's a game arcade here, I don't know of one." He pauses. "I haven't played arcade games much." He didn't have the time for that back home. He doesn't think game shows count. "I haven't been here that much longer than you."

[canyounoct]

That made Noctis laugh softly, joke or not. He's not intending on attacking anyone, of course - because why? He thought he was only fighting robots and monsters for years, the truth of the matter came out ... later, but. Point was, he's not really used to fighting people. It's maybe fortunate he was sucked into the Crystal so quickly after learning the truth about Magitech Troopers.

But yes - Noctis wasn't really keen on the idea of fighting other sentient persons. Unless, of course, you're actually a walking bag filled with daemons bent on destroying the world. He'd think that's a rather unique situation, too.

"Want to try?" Noctis asked him with a friendly grin. "I mean - if this is a new place, maybe we can both try out new things. Being normal for me, and maybe video games for you."

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa raises an eyebrow and waits for clarification. Want to try threatening him? He's ready to throw down at a moment's notice if it should ever be needed, but Noctis is so tired and exhausted and ready for a fresh start that it seems unlikely.

"I am willing to try," Tsukasa says, "It will not do me any harm, and I have been... busy back home. Too busy to try many new things." Rebuilding the world is like that. As is keeping an eye on someone with an inclination to become a worldwide dictator.

[canyounoct]

"Then let's head out to the arcade sometime," Noctis said, and merely because he mentioned a generalist scientist - he's not clairvoyant - he added a joking, "It's not like it's rocket science."

He looked out at the sea, all the boats, and remarked a bit more seriously, "This seems like a great place to start something new."

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa laughs gently. "I've been recruited into performing rocket science," he says, "Not the calculations or determinations. The physical labor." A pause. "Hopefully the arcade involves fewer explosions."

There's a huge difference between them. Tsukasa doesn't want to start something new. He wants to be home and to continue what he has there. However, as long as Senku and Gen are here, he will stay here to the best of his ability. "Indeed, it does," he agrees.

[canyounoct]

Noctis laughed too, just as quiet, some of the tension falling away from him. “Only virtual ones, I promise.”

He went to cast his line back into the sea, but gave Tsukasa a small smile. “We should meet up there sometime, then.”

[ultimateknight]

"You find the arcade and let me know where it is," Tsukasa says. "I haven't found one."

A pause. "I haven't looked, admittedly, but I wouldn't know where to go."

[canyounoct]

“I’ll accept that job,” Noctis joked lightly. But he would seriously try and find an arcade anyway. “And then I can teach you … uh. They gave me some kind of gamepad instead of a phone, will it do the same thing?”

[ultimateknight]

Tsukasa nods. "It is a multimedia device. It functions as a smart phone, effectively. If your world did not have those, it will operate as a phone, texting, a social network, and more. You can play games on it, as well as watch movies and tv shows if you don't mind the small screen. There may be more. I haven't explored all the apps."

[canyounoct]

“We had smartphones,” Noctis looked intrigued, frankly. “One of my favorite games was on there, actually. It’s probably not a thing in this place, but …”

[ultimateknight]

"It's had everything I knew to exist on our smartphones," Tsukasa says. "These are remarkable devices, at least as capable as anything we had."

[canyounoct]

“So maybe they’ve got King’s Knight after all, then?” Noctis grinned. “I’ll have to check it out. Maybe I can meet some people in that game, too.”

He shrugged. “Or if not that game, maybe others. It should still be fun.”

Even if he would wish he’s playing with his old friends.

[ultimateknight]

"They might," Tsukasa says, though he's never heard of the game and doesn't know why it would lead to meeting people. If Noctis hadn't called it a game, he might have mistaken it for some royalty matchmaking app, perhaps for bodyguards.

"That's what starting over is for. Meeting people and having fun." At least when someone is this worn out emotionally.