Entry tags:

*tdm

December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Interesting. Caduceus takes in the changes with lifted brows. So even the lie of an altered appearance is not accepted, then... while he might not have a use for doing it, he makes a mental note not to bother with a disguise himself at any point. If their captor is just going to dismiss it, little sense in trying.]

I imagine if we're to accept our own mistakes, we ought to accept the mistakes of those around us. Secrets bared, those we carry in our hearts or those we wear... this isn't the place to hide. It's alright. It'll only be until we leave here. [He smiles, hopefully in a calming manner.] I won't tell anyone.

While I agree that’s likely why she keeps breaking my guise, it’s still irritating.

[His tail lashes back and forth like a cat’s. It curls at the tip before he sighs and writes down on his journal. The words are readable.

‘Avoids sharing who and what you really are.’ He sighs. And says,] Can you read this? If you can.

[He offers him the pen.] We can figure out how to get through this together.

I can read it. [Caduceus tilts his head thoughtfully, accepting the pen and beginning to jot down the gist of his own secret.] Why do you hide it? No judgment, just curiosity.

[He doesn't see anything wrong with either version of Dan Heng's appearance, but that's not his call to make, so what he thinks hardly matters.]

[He stares down at the words and doesn't answer. Would it hurt to say it here? There is no context for his secrets. His past isn't chasing him. A minute passes before he says,]

My people self reincarnate. My predecessor committed a grievous sin. He was punished for it, forced to molting rebirth early. My first memories are of a prison where the council of Preceptors intended to keep me and tell me all the ways he failed.

For the rest of my life. [He looks down at his hands. Then back up.] An old friend of his, a general, managed to get me exiled instead. I didn't want to walk in the shadow of the man I looked like. It felt like if I avoided his path, his likeness, I could avoid making the same mistakes.

He is my past. His sins are mine to bear, and I do what I can to make up for them. But, I would rather be seen as myself than his imperfect reflection.

[That... is a lot. He's no stranger to the concept of reincarnation and carrying forward the legacy of that past - it's built into the backbones of Xhorhas after all - but the idea of bearing the sins of one who came before you doesn't sit well with him. A rebirth should bring with it new life and new opportunities, not an old chain.

Still, it's not his culture - not this man's, nor those in Xhorhas - so he makes a thoughtful noise, tapping the pen idly against the paper.]

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be seen only for yourself or your own actions. Everyone should be allowed to live their own lives, rather than answering for whatever existence your predecessor enjoyed. Maybe it isn't the self-identifying that our host takes issue with, but the act of lying.

[He stares. The views of the Nameless spoken here and now so far from home feels…

His spirit took such a hit when they went to his old home. His lips move and words spill out.] That is all I’ve ever wanted. To blaze a trail of my own. Maybe they are frustrated with my hiding being Vidyadhara.

…but it still feels odd to let myself look like I really do after…many, many years covering it up. [He closes his eyes after a moment and sighs.] I’ll think on it. What are you in here for?

[Caduceus offers up a sage nod; it seem as if their main expectation is to admit and reflect, and if that is his plan, he should be able to fulfill Kuma Lisa's requirement to leave. He'll do alright.

At the question, Caduceus sets the pen down and turn the book around, where the words 'coped with loss through hallucinogenic plants' have been written.]

I think maybe we were paired together like this because we've both been lying to ourselves.

[He reads the sentence and rubs his chin. It does seem to be right. But-] That sounds right.

And we both…endured pain. Who better to talk to than someone who could relate?

[He lost everything before he ever had it. And the fragments of the past cut him like knives. But he has the Astral Express now.] Rather perceptive if that’s why we were paired together.

Mm... I assume she also knows that my issues with loss have been resolved, more or less.

[There's a certain amount of pain that lingers, of course; reuniting with those he'd missed and feared for does not erase years of isolation and worrying. But he has more peace than most from the eventual resolution.]

For many years, my family has devoted themselves to guiding people through pain and loss. It is of course no easy thing, but if talking through it might bring you some peace eventually, I'd be glad to listen.

[It’s a kind offer. He thinks about it. Their different reasons for being here lay in his mind like different books. He looks at the page and picks up the pen.] Before I stepped into Folkmore I was about to resolve mine.

[He rubs his chin. The more data one has the more connections happen. One thing flows into the next.

He looks up at Cad.] I think you’re right that this deals with lying. But I don’t think it means how we lied to the world or others.

I think it’s about a lie we told ourselves.

Oh, in my case I have no doubt about that. I've never had the opportunity to lie about this to anyone else, but to myself, I've lied plenty about my motivations.

[He chuckles faintly, shaking his head.]

I think in general, in life, we lie to ourselves more than anyone else.

[That makes him pause. His tail swishes back and forth.]

…I agree. I told myself I was staying hidden because I could be me. That’s not a lie.

But, I also stayed away because I feared if I let myself be all that I was I would end up the way he had. It’s easier to not if you don’t touch power or walk in their shadow at all. But it isn’t a realistic solution.

[And now here he is. He gets up and sets up the coffee pot. As he works he says,] What lie did you tell yourself about yours?

[All good things to be self-aware of; Caduceus nods along.]

It may not be a realistic solution, but it's a very understandable fear. To acknowledge it is very brave.

[It's not said in a condescending manner in the slightest. He means every word. Although, if there is coffee, he's going to look for tea. He could use some about now.]

I told you my family devoted themselves to guiding others. It was by way of the Wildmother, the god we've followed for generations. I'd heard that a stronger connection to Her could be forged by consuming these plants, so I tried it... I told myself it was to help me find my calling. [He chuckles faintly, shaking his head.] And it was, the first time. Maybe once in a while after. But mostly it was to escape reality.

[As if reading his mind, Dan Heng sets up a teapot too. His fingers still mid reach for cups. Walking with a god.

He looks back at him. ] That sounds like a very difficult situation. It makes sense to me that you sought to reach closer connection to a constant, the Path you walk.

[He grabs the cups and sets them up. Looking for and finding things that could be added to either. He sets them out with the ease of practice.] …You are the first to speak of a god that I can almost discern the Path they might embody.

[He walks back to the desk and sits down while the pots burble and work.] The water has to heat but in the cupboard below the pots is a box of different kinds of teas.

Mm, good, thank you. [He crouches down to sift through the tea, sniffing each box until he finds one that satisfies.]

It made sense to me at the time, too. Melora, the Wildmother, is goddess of the wild and the sea, she who tends to nature, harvest, and all that falls within the natural order of life and death. Though they were unhealthy, the flowers I ingested were still from nature. Why couldn't they also be a path towards communicating better with her?

[He shakes his head.]

She did bless me with a vision, once. I don't understand it yet, but I'll find the answer one day. Maybe if I hadn't abused the lilies, I'd have found it by now.

Or maybe it would still elude you. It’s hard to say. [Dan Heng says as he busies himself with cleaning up the room a bit.] …If you don’t mind sharing it, I will listen. I’ve been traveling the stars.

Maybe I can help you. [He reaches into his robes and produces a more battered journal. He sets it beside the first on the desk.] Melora sounds like the Aeon of Abundance but a lot kinder than she is.

Oh, she's very kind. Call me biased, but I've had no complaints from others I've met who've experienced her power in some way, even as non-believers.

[Mostly those whom he's healed, but even Jester who was steadfast in her faith in the Traveler thought the Wildmother was indeed very cool.

He considers the question, nodding in the end as he straightens up, settling on a sweet floral blend for his tea.]

The last vision I remember seeing was... a river of dark water, seemingly with no bottom. It moved through the valleys of the world and emptied into the ocean. There was a mighty forest, and the trees had eyes. I looked up, and the sky above the trees had eyes. When I looked down, I saw the springs in my home, and at the bottom of the spring, eyes. I looked to the gravestones of my family, where the flowers bloomed, and nine butterflies the likes of which I'd never seen before were drinking from them.

[He's quiet for a moment afterwards, then shakes his head, as if brushing off the effect of that memory.]

Nine, and eyes. In my journey, we've started to come across the phrasing of "eyes of nine". That can't be a coincidence, can it?

It doesn’t sound like a coincidence. [He picks up the more battered of the two journals and flips to a section marked with a grey ribbon. He turns the pages and sketches with titles like Aeon Of Propagation. Aeon of the Hunt. Aeon of Destruction. Go by. He stops on a page listed as dreams. Sections off and writes visions, then writes it down.]

It sounds like a warning. ‘Be careful, they’re coming.’ And just how far whatever is coming will go. What is this ‘eyes of nine?’ What does it entail that you’ve heard.

Mm... the specifics of it, I'm still unclear about. We'd just begun researching it in earnest before we left. But not long ago, we encountered a creature of enormous power, who had taken over an entire island of people and controlled their lives and memories. It took everything we had to slay it, and as it died, its power forced on us a memory: of a time where it fled through the Astral Sea, feeling a great terror as it ran for its life from a living city made of thousands of minds, fused and scrambled together. The city was actively chasing it, full of hunger. That memory told us that the Eyes of Nine are connected with that city.

[He shakes his head, quietly disturbed by the memory of it, and his own brief stint within the Astral Sea.]

If a creature that powerful was afraid of the city, I fear for our world, should something grant it passage to us. That hunger it carried... I think it could consume a world if it wasn't stopped. And I think it wanted to cross over.

[He listens and as Caduceus looks disturbed he gets up and pours his tea. He sets the mug down before him as the words fade away.] There is a great number of terrible forces in the cosmos that have the power to devour worlds. What you describe to me sounds like an abomination.

I’ve heard of swarms. The aeon of voracity that devoured worlds until it died. But never a living city.

[It sounds like-] Is someone providing it with a beacon or a gateway?

Hard to say. There's a lot of politics spinning plates in the world, and I'm not much good at keeping track of all of that.

[He lifts his mug once the tea is poured, blowing gently on it. Feels nice, and reassuring to have one back in his hands. An abomination... from what he remembers of both Vokodo and that city, the word is an appropriate one to use.]

At this point, we're not sure if Eyes of Nine is the city itself, or some unmet group trying to reach the city. But we do know that a third party connected to this whole situation had a book stolen from them, and that book contained an important teleportation ritual. So that seems convenient.

[He gets up and pours himself a cup of coffee. He adds a little sugar and cream as he sits back down. He sets the mug down and the world feels like it turns as fine threads of water rise from him. He opens his hand and they spread out, forming a city made of thousands of eyes and fluttering bug wings. Terrible mouths open along its sides and views of the depths of the void within.

And beyond something made of plants flees for its life. And beyond that a planet within the void of space.] I used things I know.

But, if you can give me details I can fill them out and see if anything sounds like something I’ve seen in the archives. These are formed from examples of The Swarm. And the abominations of Abundance.

[Caduceus watches with morbid fascination, taking in the details. It isn't quite right, but that only makes it more alarming. To think that there could be more monstrosities in the universe like this- as if one wasn't enough.]

There's no wings, no mouths, no eyes. The vision wasn't literal. It had tentacles on the underside... red and purple, like jellyfish. The buildings shifted between rigid and flexible, they looked like moving muscles. The roads pulsed. The way it hungered was a feeling, explicit but not visible.

That is definitely like nothing I ever heard of.

[He reaches out and touches the image of a city. It shifts according to what Cad is describing. The tendrils extend below and the city flexes and shifts, rippling like it is part of a pond. He stares at it. He reaches into the threads and the flexing adjusts to more like a muscle tensing and relaxing.

There is something about the way it moves that telegraphs a hungry predator on the move.]

What… [He quiets, rubbing his chin.] I wonder what caused it.

[Caduceus stares at the image, deeply unsettled. By the look on his face, it's easy to assume that this altered replication is much closer to the real thing he'd witnessed.]

I wish I knew. It's one of many questions still left unanswered about what that thing is.

December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme

Overflow TDM post found here

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