December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

December 2023 - January 2024 TDM

Introduction

Overflow TDM post found here

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

Thirteen Knows What You Did Last Summer . ★

Content Warnings: School Detention, Time Not Passing, Forced Reflection/Confession, Potential Violence

Welcome to detention. Star Children, whether they're new arrivals to Folkmore or old hands, find themselves sitting at two person desks in a library. Perhaps there's only two Star Children, perhaps up to four or five. Regardless, each Star Child has a slip of paper in their hands which spells out why they are in detention, a secret detention slip no one else can read. Which, whew, because the reason any Star Child is in detention is for something they've never been punished for, something they might reasonably have thought they got away with, something they know was wrong.

The door to the library opens, and Kuma Lisa enters. She explains that Star Children will be in detention for four hours, and by the end of detention, they will need to reflect on what they did and express contrition. The headmistress gives no further guidance before leaving and closing the doors behind her.

Four hours is a notable chunk of time, but it's not so long, is it? Surely it's possible to wait it out without making good on the assignment… Or perhaps it's enough to write about it in one of the notebooks on the table in front of each student, without explaining it to another soul. Star Children are welcome to try whatever they want. However, they may notice an oddity with the clock. Namely, no matter how many times the second hand ticks around a circle to mark a whole minute, the minute and hour hands don't progress. It's the same minute over and over and over—

Detention is four hours, but how long four hours takes is entirely up to the Star Children in detention. Read every book in the library. Throw a dance party. Get high. Pull weapons out of the books. All matter of non-magical weapons. Nothing immediately happens upon pulling those weapons—no monsters to make detention less boring. Unless people make progress reflecting on their transgression, communicating about it with another Star Child, and showing penitence for it, time won't pass. Reality warps to stay in the same minute, minute after minute, hour after hour.

What's it going to be? Never ending detention or personal accountability?

However long it takes, it only takes four hours in the realm of Folkmore.

A word of warning to those who grabbed weapons, they will be attacked on their way home after detention. They will be attacked by creatures out of storybooks. Star Children will need to know the literary weaknesses of these creatures, good luck, or the help of someone else coming along who does know their weaknesses. At least there's some excitement in the day after four long long hours.

🦊 Star Children, new and old, in groups of 2-5 are in detention for something they did wrong & haven't been punished for.
🦊 Kuma Lisa explains detention lasts four hours, and people have to express regret for what they did by the end.
🦊 Time doesn't pass unless Star Children make progress toward that assignment.
🦊 It always takes four hours in Folkmore time.
🦊 Star Children who draw weapons from books during detention will be attacked on their way home.

To Prank or to be Pranked . ★

Content Warnings: Theft, Glitter Bombs, Minor Power Nerfing

There's a problem with the nonexistent mail delivery system in Folkmore. Gifts are being delivered to residents' addresses—their correct addresses, even if they live in the woods—but those recipients, written on a fat cream label, cannot pick them up, teleport them, or otherwise move them under their own power. These gifts sit in garish and contrasting colors that make certain to draw attention to themselves. Hello, here they are.

Anyone else can pick these packages up, from the person next door to a stranger walking by. There's so many gifts around it's easy to pick one up, remove the label, and go on one's way. Few people are home all the time, and even if they are, what are they going to do? Pick it up themselves? Ha! It's free real estate. Star Children with abilities to see inside the packages can see something they want badly within as extra motivation to go for it.

When Star Children open their ill gotten gains, these packages explode in a glitter bomb that coats everyone within a ten foot radius. This glitter is impossible to wash out, magic away, or otherwise remove for twenty-four hours. Walk, swim, fly, or otherwise go about with glittery evidence of the crime committed.

Almost always. If it were guaranteed, where would the fun be in that?

The rare fortunate criminal or the original recipient, helped by another Star Child, will receive an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item. Those who receive an item will stop receiving gifts on their doorstep, whether they stole the gift or received it from a package addressed to them. They can keep stealing other people's gifts, but they will only receive a glitter bomb from then on.

Mischievous Star Children can even prank each other by changing the label and redelivering packages to someone else. Should that person get help to bring the gift inside, it still isn't their gift, not really, so it too will explode in glitter.

🦊 Gifts appear outside Star Children's residences, even those without residences.
🦊 Recipients cannot pick up the gift but any other Star Child can.
🦊 Almost all stolen gifts explode in a glitter bomb that leaves glitter for 24 hours.
🦊 Star Children can receive an item from home, even a weapon or magical item.
🦊 Star Children can prank each other by changing the labels/moving the packages.

Comments

[artofrevenge]

Assistance in locating knowledge is not the same as knowledge itself, but Mizu accepts the aid nonetheless. It's not like she grew up with access to a great library. How libraries are organized—how this library is organized—is foreign. Unknown. The only way to get anywhere is to move forward, so she does.

Mizu moves to join the person who offers help. "It's a name," Mizu hazards a guess, "of a person or place." Fowler wasn't exactly forthcoming with the details with a knife in his throat. Too busy wheedling his case for his next breath. That knowledge is the only power he has. If Mizu can learn about it here, then she doesn't need him.

[vermilloci]

"I'm guessing there's something noteworthy about it," she replies, beginning to walk down between the aisles. Rem lifts her chin, reading the letters and numbers written on the shelves. The translation-magic, or however it works, is rather phenomenal.

"So... if it's a name, perhaps it's an author. If it's a location, there's bound to be a section with atlases." She pauses walking, pointing down one of the aisles. "Fiction tends to be arranged by author's last name--... or, it is in my world." Her voice drifts, allowing a brief moment to pass where she appears to chew on her bottom lip. Clearing her throat, she steps in between the two rows of shelves. "I'll take this side, and you take the other?"

[artofrevenge]

The name London is connected with two men she seeks. A link to achieve her revenge. As helpful as this person is, she may become less helpful if that reason is made plain. "It is a clue I was given to find someone," Mizu says, "I didn't have a chance to learn more before I came here."

So here she is, it says. While Mizu does not know how long she will spend in this realm, as soon as she has the information she needs, she will do her best to return so that she can uphold her vow. The woman she thought was her mother betrayed her, but that was not her mother. A nursemaid. Someone who cared more about her medicine than about the child she raised.

"I doubt the information I seek is in fiction," Mizu says, "At least it's unlikely." How much information about an author can she expect from a book? What city they did business in? It may not be much, but Mizu would take even that information.

She nods and goes down her assigned row to check. London. A white man's word. Name. Fortunately everything is translated or Mizu would be even more out of luck. She finds a group of novels: The Call of the Wild, The Iron Heel, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang. There's also a Collected Short Stories of Jack London. "I found something!" Mizu declares.

She takes out White Fang and opens to look at the publication date. And frowns.

[vermilloci]

Rem browses her side of shelves, leaning down to peer at a row of books whose authors all begin with the letter L. With a library this large, there are multiple authors with the last of London. If this 'London' is a person, then her companion might not have the easiest time narrowing down which one it is.

She happens to be opening a novel written by one 'Juila London' when the young man speaks up. "Oh...?" Straightening, she closes the book. Tucking it into her arm, and turns to face him--

Ah. That expression doesn't seem like he's found anything useful.

[artofrevenge]

Mizu double checks the publication date, but it clearly states what it states. It raises other questions—huge, enormous questions that some would consider far larger than her revenge—but they don't matter to Mizu, so she sets them aside.

"If this book is to be believed, it was published two and a half centuries after the time I come from," Mizu says, "There is no way that this author can be the London I seek." He doesn't even exist in Mizu's time. Useless.

A small huff. Mizu closes the book and returns it to the shelf. "I am from the seventeenth century," Mizu uses the calendar the book used, "I doubt the author of any book published after that century has anything to do with the matters of my life." Just some foreigner sharing a name.

[vermilloci]

Her brow raises, then settles as she slowly comes to a realization. The fox gave the impression that many myths, legends, and familiars have been taken from a variety of realms, true, but that fact hadn't quite struck her until now.

He is from the seventeenth century. Rem is from the ninth according to her world's calendar. Furthermore, it's impossible that he's from the future of her world... because her world has ended.

"...Hey," she says, quietly, and then lifts a hand towards him, hoping to offer a quiet, comforting gesture of placing a hand upon a shoulder, brief. "Let's check out the maps, instead. None of these are from my world at all."

[artofrevenge]

The time travel aspect of this realm doesn't bother Mizu. The fox claimed as much, and while tricksters should never be trusted wholly on their word, there wasn't much effort put into convincing Mizu it was true. It's some kind of fact. For all that, Mizu doesn't care to find information about her future. That will change. That can change. So was the promise. So the reason Mizu accepted. If that was a lie? Mizu will find out when she returns.

Her eyes watch the hand coming close to her, but Mizu permits the brief contact because it's only to her shoulder (and shows no sign of aggression). "That must be discomforting," Mizu grants. The gesture might not only be for her.

Mizu leads the way back out of the aisle and checks out the surrounding areas for one promises maps and atlases. She's never been in a library before, but Mizu isn't helpless. "We want maps from the seventeenth century, most likely of Europe," Mizu explains. London isn't a Japanese name. "If it's a world map, Japan should be on it."

Mizu starts looking through options to identify whether a map is worth searching for London.

[vermilloci]

Japan. London. Europe. Seventeenth century. Those are all straightforward pieces of information, and Rem follows the other into the next section of the library, glancing at a dusty globe as they pass.

This time, their research is much more straightforward, as well as fruitful. One of the atlases is specifically titled Europe: Through the Ages. "Oh...! This one."

Rem reaches for the book, pulling the title of the display. It's heavy, large, and smells newly published. How this library may have come to have such a book is difficult to say, but Rem isn't about to dismiss such an obvious lead. She opens the covers, flipping first to the index. London has its own dedicated chapter, it seems, and so she flips to the correct page. "Here, take a look."

[artofrevenge]

Mizu pushes her glasses up her face and intently reads over the open section of the of Atlas. London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. Originally founded by the Romans as Londinium in year 47 in the white man's calendar. Anglo-Saxon and Viking era. Middle Ages. The Tudor period. Mizu finds amusement in the Lines of Communication that failed to protect the city when it was invaded only five years after they were built (which was only a decade ago). The British aren't any better than the Japanese. The Great Fire of London in 1666. Nine years in her future. Next thing she'll know the fox will write that on a slip of paper.

"I think this is it," Mizu says, "the London I'm looking for." She turns to a map from 1593, more than fifty years out of date, and takes in the broad strokes of the city shape. Mizu is not a city person and never went to Kyoto until she had reason. Nor to Edo until the same. Fowler probably guessed as much from the need to stay hidden, but a white man's city will be far more different for Mizu than a Japanese one. She turns the page and finds another map that folds out of the book. The city has grown since the previous map. She checks the date. 1658.

She feasts on this map and prays it is accurate. Certain features stand out, but knowing as little as she does about the city, Mizu does not know where to find men like Skeffington and Routely. Will the fox come and punish her if she takes the map out of the atlas? The idea of leaving it behind whenever they leave this place is unbearable. This information is directly useful, and once Mizu learns more, she can cross reference that information with this map.

"Thank you," Mizu says, still not sure why the person is helping her.

[vermilloci]

There's a question burning in the back of her mind, simple and nosy. Why. Why London, on what world is London, and why is London so important to him? Does a simple map fulfill all of his questions?

But it would be rather rude to ask, especially upon first meeting him, and so Rem does nothing but smile, giving him a polite, short bow. "You're welcome."

When she straightens, Rem raises a hand to her chest, fingers going to the golden clasp that holds her cloak together. "Always happy to make a research friend, even in a world like this." She inclines her head forward. "I'm Rem... Rem Tokimiya, by the way."

[artofrevenge]

Though the notebook remains back on the table, Mizu is no mapmaker. There's no way she could recreate this detailed of a map, not even tracing it page by page. An artisan only does one thing. This mapmaker was an artisan. Maps are made to be used, to be accessible, so she'll make use of it. Possibly steal it later.

With great effort, Mizu tears her attention away from the map when her companion starts speaking. If the person simply walked away, that would be fine. She could focus, but like Ringo, when people help Mizu, they usually want more than a dismissal. A polite introduction. Fair enough. It's not like Rem Tokimiya has noticed Mizu's eyes most likely.

Mizu imitates their gesture, assuming it to be a polite one where she is from, and inclines her head as well. "I am Mizu. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I suspect doing research in a new world will be different for us both."

[vermilloci]

"It... would, wouldn't it?"

Speaking of. So many books. So many things to research. Hopefully, something that will lend her an alternative out that addressing the piece of paper.

Rem smiles warmly, then takes a step away. "I'll be around, if you need anything else."

[artofrevenge]

"Thank you, and... good luck with your research." Presumably she has research.

Mizu waits until Rem is gone before carefully tearing the large map out of the atlas, folding it up, and pocketing it. She spends time reading the rest of the atlas, taking notes, forming more questions, and starting a long slow trek of research. The ready access to books is new, so Mizu takes advantage of it while they're locked in here. No reason to let a good thing go to waste.