October & November 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

October - November 2023 TDM

Introduction

[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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]

Candy Man . ★

Content Warnings: Potential nonconsensual physical changes

Tides doesn’t have a farmer’s market. However, it does have a regular artists’ fair. Spirits—and Star Children—can set up stalls to offer art they have already made or to make it right before people. On the spot commissions! It’s a great way to see a wide spread of the art available in Tides, on rare occasions even Jewelia’s own.

Within the artists’ fair is a makers’ square where everyone is invited to join an artist in learning to make some kind of art. It might be painting and wine. Lithography. Embroidery. You name it. Seriously, feel free to put a suggestion in the box of what Star Children would be interested in. The artists leading the space don’t all teach at Jewelia Academy. This could be the only chance to learn from them!

This time it’s making salt water taffy. Spirit Children can learn how to complete the process from start to finish with a bit of an arm workout. If they aren’t interested in or cannot handle the arm workout pulling the taffy, they can help a spirit wherever they’re interested. There is any flavor Spirit Children can imagine to flavor their taffy, even ones only found in their home worlds. Share a little culture!

Star Children may keep up to half of the taffy they make, but the rest will be offered to everyone coming through the makers’ square in the artists’ fair. Perhaps it’ll encourage other Star Children to make their own! Star Children, whether they make taffy or simply take free samples, will find that eating taffy can have an effect on them.

Eating taffy made by Legends will give Star Children color changing eyes that give away their mood, just like Legends. Eating taffy made by Myths will give Star Children horns, claws, or a tail that grows larger when they react more logically and less emotionally. Eating taffy made by Familiars will give Star Children animal features. These effects last from one-six hours.

Eating taffy made by Spirits has no effect at all!

🦊 Star Children can attend an artists’ fair and make salt water taffy.
🦊 Eating salt water taffy made by Star Children will give temporary features of that kind of Star Child.
🦊 Eating salt water taffy made by Spirits has no effect.

Creative Block Castles . ★

Content Warnings: Pocket universe, dungeon castle crawl, forced relocation

One of the many food carts in Tides serves homemade ice cream. The fox spirit serving it promises that it will provide a jolt of inspiration—even to Star Children who cannot eat. Even holding a cone or cup of the ice cream can jolt someone’s imagination, the fox says. It’s free as part of the welcome to Tides, but no one has to accept it, not even to hold. The fox spirit won’t cajole anyone, and Star Children can go along their way.

At least a few hours later, long enough to have forgotten the offer or to get frustrated by the lack of promised inspiration, Star Children fall down down down into a painted, sculpted, sidewalk chalked, or otherwise artistically bent world. They are as artistically made as the rest of the world around them. They match it, as do their one to three companions who arrive with them. They may be friends or strangers. They are compatriots in this strange world.

Whether starting deep in the bowels or high in a tower, this artistic world is that of a castle. A unique castle to each Star Child host. Elements of its design, decor, and mechanisms tie back to a creative endeavor of the host. For the castle is a direct manifestation of whatever project the Star Child host experiences creative block around, whether that’s art or science or anything else. It’s baked into the design. Not only that, the castle is under attack! Dragons or monsters or knights, oh my! Whatever attacks, the very creative idea may crumble if it doesn’t get solved.

Star Children who ate the ice cream will have an easier time shoring up defenses, buying time to think, and even experiencing a breakthrough moment of inspiration. Any companions who ate the ice cream will have an easier time helping the host. Regardless, the only way out is a breakthrough or to see the idea fall to uninspired ruin. Which will it be?

When a group breaks through, they return to Tides with up to four nearly identical dollhouse castles. A miniature doll of one party member will be in each dollhouse. The doll will also have a miniature version of an item from home. Take it from one’s doll, and it becomes lifesize. It may even be a magical item or weapon.

🦊 Star Children will be offered homemade ice cream by a fox spirit.
🦊 Star Children will be transported into an artistic world set within a castle under attack.
🦊 1-3 other Star Children will join the host.
🦊 Escape by breaking through the host’s creative block.
🦊 Star Children whose groups break through will receive a personal item from home. It may even be a magical item or weapon.

Comments

[faenix]

"I've learned to make them. Particularly when human...things are involved." There's a bit of emphasis on the word 'things', not quite disdain, but close enough. It really is rather impossible for her to avoid at least some jab towards humans.

Agency. Ah, he said the magic words. To her agency is everything; something that was once taken from her that she now places higher than just about anything else. Slowly, she tilts her head and then asks:

"Does our benevolent host often choose to intercede to take our agency away?" If so, then perhaps there would be a problem eventually. For now though, she eyed the bag he held, and then reached in and plucked a one out that happened to have a light yellow hue to it. "What sort of traits should I expect?" Or was that to be left to chance for her?

[untitledshuos]

Not everyone who comes to Folkmore is human, so naturally some of them won't like human things. The fortunate matter with spoons means she won't be forced to go full human immersion. Not that everything here is... human. The spirits have their own culture and norms. If they seem similar to humans for her, well, that may not be a universal human culture.

Jedao considers the question and shrugs slightly. "Not so often to inspire mass insurrection, but she enjoys toying with us, pressing buttons... fucking around and finding out. Enough that you never truly know when it might happen, even during the lulls," Jedao answers. It's far less onerous than Kel High Command or the games hexarchs play, but everyone has their own norms. Plenty of people would do the same if they could.

"What traits depends on what Role is associated with the candy. Color changing eyes for a Legend. Perhaps a tail for a Myth. Animal features for a Familiar. I cannot tell which one that candy is by its color," Jedao explains honestly. The surprise is part of the fun for him.

[faenix]

"And how precisely has being treated like a toy not lead to mass insurrection?" How complacent were the people here that they simply accepted such a fate? Maleficent
would have to wait to see how she felt about being toyed with in such a way to determine what she might do. She certainly wasn't too keen on the idea of being toyed with by anyone at all.

Though her eyebrows scrunch at the way he used 'fucking around,' as it had a very different connotation to her than he might have meant it. "Fucking around? She toys with us in such a way as well?" The disgust in her tone was accompanied by an equally disgusted look on her face.

"What fun," she responded as she waved a hand at him. "You first then." Then she supposed she'd take one. Perhaps. If he didn't just keel over right here or something.

[untitledshuos]

Jedao shrugs, casually. "Plenty of people come from worlds with far worse treatment than here. You have food, clothes, shelter... You can have far more so long as you simply interact with other people. You can take classes for free at any number of schools. No military or police comes around locking people up. There's violence sometimes, sure, but it's no war front," Jedao answers, "Honestly, this place is like going on R&R compared to where I'm from. Not saying I have no concerns, but I'd be more suspicious if no one ever toyed with us here."

He takes a piece of candy and sighs. "Not what I meant, but as far as I know Fuck Lightning—pretty self-explanatory—has happened twice in the last year and a half. Stay indoors. Don't get hit by the purple lightning, and you're fine."

Jedao gets it. People want to have control over what they do, far better to face a deadly monster than lose their autonomy. Especially this lady, who's come on board with eating candy in the name of autonomy. He unwraps the taffy and tosses it in his mouth. It takes a fair amount of chewing, and as such silence, to get it down. The flavor's nice, a bit strong, and his eyes change to a glowing gold color. The Shuos gold.

"Taste tested as requested," Jedao gives a little bow.

[faenix]

"I had heard of that, currency coming from interaction." A strange concept for her, though in truth currency itself was unfamiliar to her. That was a human concept that was lost on those from the Moors. Not being akin to a warfront was quite nice to hear at the very least. "R&R?" Was she supposed to know what that meant? If so, she most certainly did not. She couldn't even figure out a potential assumption to make on what it was meant to mean.

Her face twisted ever so slightly at the mention of fuck lightning. "You're serious?" He seemed deadly serious. "What point did the Fox have in causing fuck," the way she said the word was foreign, complimented by a click of her tongue on a fang, "lightning?" What potential was that meant to cause in them?

"Mm, well then," the only polite thing to do from here was to give a taste to one here. Even if she was quite certain that it was one of the last things she wanted to do. She chewed the candy slowly, clearly not too impressed by the flavor. Hers it would seem had been made by a familiar and her nose began to shrink and pinken, turning into something that resembled a bunny. Tuffs of white fur poked out of her ears as they began to length. She reached a clawed had up to touch her nose. "I am so lucky I'm alone here." She'd never hear the end of it if any others from her homeworld were here.

[untitledshuos]

"Rest and recuperation officially. We always called it rest and recreation," Jedao smiles. "A chance to find some way to blow some credits and time in a port you may never see again." Whiskey, until that ran out. Cards, until he was banned. Sex. He could only buy so many guns. Most of them he couldn't even bring with him. They were in storage while he had them (on display with the Kel, then Shuos after he was executed).

"Inter... action," Jedao draws the word out, "First hit only made you need physical touch. A hug. Cuddling. Something nice and tame satisfied it. If you ignored that or if you were super (un)lucky, a second hit would drive you further. Really get the fuck in the name." He sighs. "Sex generates a lot more Lore than waving to your neighbor or a polite conversation about the weather." That one almost makes him laugh since this is, among other things, a polite conversation about the weather.

His eyes remain an amused gold as the woman partially turns to a rabbit. Her look is far sharper, yet the edge has been removed by the fuzzy softness. "Far from the first bunny I've seen in Folkmore," Jedao says, "and welcome to the alone here club. I've been the only one from my universe here for a year now."

[faenix]

"Rest and Recuperation. R&R. Hmm," she hummed lightly. "I see." People truly did have such strange terms for things. Strange and truly varied. Her eyebrows scrunched up at his explanation of that in a momentary display of her displeasure at his explanation about these interactions.

"What point would there be in making excessive Lore in this realm? It would seem money would have no true value." Not that she didn't always expect people to be greedy, it seemed to be human nature after all. "Surely there are places one can grow food. Then you would have even less need of," she waved a hand, "this Lore." Therefore such forced sexual interactions should hardly be necessary.

Her cute little bunny nose scrunched up and then twitched a few times. "Maybe rabbits have an earesistible quality to them." Look, she tried. Give her credit for trying at least. "A year? How...unfortunate. Is that uncommon? To b here without any others from your home?"

[untitledshuos]

For all the similarities between them, and Jedao feels they are many, their universes are worlds apart on many matters. From the regularly identifiable military terms—even R&R is common across universes, for how much his universe seems uniquely different from those of people he's met here—to her seeming dismissal of sex as important. You could get any kind of porn you wanted in the Kel. Seriously, he never found the outer limit of what types were available, even if he hadn't been paying attention to them when using them as cover for grid diving.

"The whole place exists because of Lore," Jedao says, "If no one, not Star Children, not spirits, not anyone, generated Lore anymore, they would fade away to nothing, so the lowercase l lore of this place suggests, and in due time Folkmore itself. Lore is more than the currency of the realm. It's the stuff the realm is made of. The first fuck lightning happened with the earliest known arrival of Star Children. Perhaps it was costly to bring people here all at once, and the place needed an infusion of Lore. The second happened a couple months before the creation or revelation of the ocean and Tides. Perhaps fuck lightning helped pay for Tides existence."

It's all supposition. Guesswork. A theory that would explain things, but Jedao doesn't know any more, in the end, than any other Star Child. Leaders like Thirteen-zho aren't so easy to read in their plans and machinations or they wouldn't get where they are. Jedao shrugs. "I started off a paranoid near hermit, and I nearly faded away. Should the same befall you, you can reach out to me if you want. I'm ~justafox on the network."

His smile is wide with silent laughter at her pun. It may not be the best joke, it may not even be a very good joke, but Jedao like Maleficent for trying. "Not terribly common, but not terribly uncommon either. Quite a few people replied when someone made a network post asking about such things, and surely more didn't reply. In any case, someone has to be first."

[faenix]

One thing Maleficent is slowly starting to realize is the simple fact that her world may be a bit...behind others so to speak. There was, of course, an army that she'd fought against but it involved humans and as such she knew little about it. The only thing that had really mattered to her was the fact that they were a threat to the Moors, one she was focused on stopping no matter what. Whether they had specific terms in their army she had no way of knowing or caring. The Moors itself though, well, they had no official military, simply her and those who followed her to defend their kind. The terms here were definitely going to be something she'd struggle with. Granted, back in her own world she'd struggled some when it came to interacting with humans.

"What a depressing thought for this world." To think that without this Lore it would all just fade away...there as something about that idea that brought on a certain feeling of melancholy to her and she wasn't quite certain why. She had no real attachment to the place, but still...she shook her head to clear those thoughts out and refocused on what he was saying. Her nose scrunched at the explanation he gave. "Surely a better way to generate Lore could have been found than something so...distasteful." The sentiment was said with something of a halfhearted feel to it. She knew that probably wasn't the case, after all what better way could there possibly be to generate mass quantities quickly?

Ah, and they were already back to things she didn't quite understand: the network. "I've heard of this network. Such a thing does not exist in my realm. Nor would we ever have need of it. The name...you pick for yourself?" Well, at least she might be able to have fun with that.

His smile is wide with silent laughter at her pun. It may not be the best joke, it may not even be a very good joke, but Jedao like Maleficent for trying. "Not terribly common, but not terribly uncommon either. Quite a few people replied when someone made a network post asking about such things, and surely more didn't reply. In any case, someone has to be first."

She appreciated the laughter, even if he might have been humoring her just a bit, it was still appreciated. A twinge of sadness crept into her smile though at that. "I see." She shrugged. "It's probably for the best my companion not arrive here. Who needs a raven flying around?" At least that's what she'd tell herself to avoid feeling as though she might grow to miss him.

[untitledshuos]

Jedao rests a hand on the nearest surface briefly. "Everything you see here, everything and everyone in this brilliant city, the largest city by far in all of Folkmore with more spirits possibly than the rest put together, all of it either didn't exist or was unknown to us only two months ago," Jedao says. So to imagine what it might take to support it. Yes, Jedao doesn't mind fucking around, quite literally, for that. He shrugs slightly.

"At least you know about the phenomenon. Should it happen again, you can heed anyone's warnings and remain inside without needing to ask about it," Jedao suggests, "Whether a better way to generate Lore is possible or not, twice is the start of a pattern, such that I don't expect anything else to be chosen."

He pulls out his relic, a flashy red and gold device with black accents, and pulls up the Foxi network on it. "The network is a way to communicate with other Star Children in Folkmore," Jedao says, "You can use text, voice, or a moving image of yourself. You choose your own username, and it's a great way to stay in touch with people and aware of what is going on."

Jedao doesn't mention that many people have pets or animal companions or even that there is a raven flying around Folkmore independently on its own as a fully sentient being. "Should you want for animal companionship, remember that any Familiar in Folkmore has the potential to turn into an animal, if not a raven." Not to mention the capacity to form a psychic bond. No need to overwhelm.

[faenix]

Maleficent paused for a moment and took a slow look around at the city around her. It was probably quite clear by how slow and meticulous she was in her look around that she was trying to judge something about it. Specifically she was trying to judge the amount of power and energy it would take for something so large.

"My, my, my," she clicked her tongue against her fangs as it fully registered to her just how much power it would require. Quite an interesting thing to think of. She waved a hand, as if dismissing the subject both from their conversation and her own mind and then moved back to the other topic. "Your warning is much appreciated." SHe grinned. " Though I wonder, what is it you wish from it?"

Surely he must have something he wanted from it, some sort of reward. Or perhaps he would simply remember that she owed him at some point for the warning. The idea of being indebted to anyone here was not something she looked forward to. Or liked the idea of.

She cocked her head to the side as he pulled his device out and didn't even try to hide her distaste for this object. She moved her fingers around and then sort of shooed him (and it) away. "How...wonderful. I do love having an easy way to stay in touch." There was no lack of sarcasm in her voice. At all.

"A companion is not so easily replaced." It had taken Diaval long enough for her to accept him as the companion he was, she could not imagine finding anyone else to fill that role. "I'm rather fond of time to myself. I doubt I'll finding myself wanting for anything."