![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme
December 2023 - January 2024 TDM
Introduction
Overflow TDM post found here
[ TDM Questions ★ Jump to Comments ★ Full Navigation ]
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.
🦊 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.
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.
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.
🦊 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.
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 freereal 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.
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
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.
🦊 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.
no subject
Lots of good reasons out there to be a commitment-phobe.]
Hah! If only I could use that excuse.
[His first interpretation of "brain wash-y" is a pretty literal, like the kind you'd see in cartoons or comic books.
But then he thinks about it for a minute. What exactly is brainwashing in the real world...?]
Actually...yeah. Now that you mention it.
[He hadn't really thought about it that way. But it feels like it absolves him of more responsibility than he feels compelled to claim.]
no subject
like most of the couples Ari dated]
So...you knew?
[because that would be fucked up. seriously, she's wondering why Thirteen thought she'd be a good candidate for this again. her potential is as bog-standard as family vs. career vs. both]
Okay. So now I'm confused.
[which was g-d's honest truth]
no subject
The epiphanies come in bursts.
[It's not like he's well-versed in cults or how fascist dictators get established -- if he did, maybe he would have seen the red flags -- so he doesn't have anything eloquent to say like deprogramming doesn't happen overnight.]
Each one hurts just as much as the last.
(CW: right wing conspiracies)
That sounds messy. Mentally speaking.
[the closest she'd know of were MAGA and QAnon. which were very real dangers but it's not like they were going to go all Escape from New York anytime soon]
I'm sorry. [a pause] Need another Advil?
no subject
[He laughs, as warmly as it can be, to her offer.] Advil won't help that kind of pain, unfortunately.
(CW: drug use)
No, you need Xanax for that. Or MDMA. Or a nice, thick sativa haze. Damn, I would go for any of the above right now.
drug use continues
[He eyes her cautiously at her suggestions as his eyes turn a bright shade of cyan.
He doesn't really want his habits to become public knowledge. But anyone with this level of "shot in front of a live studio audience" experience isn't going to let an uncomfortable topic create some awkward dead air.
Ramon grins playfully.]
During detention? I thought we were supposed to be getting out of trouble, not in it!
drug use continues
and Ari was a long-term New Yorker who hung around with would-be comedians and cater-waiters. and in the case of her dear ex-wife Cass, self-important professors with their noses so stuck in the air, it was amazing they could get enough oxygen to breathe.
all of whom generously partook of the various chemical mood enhancers or inhibitors. he's in no danger of judgement from her]
Haven't you ever seen 'The Breakfast Club?' It's basic cultural literacy! [and she smiled to herself, having used the words Josh used with her so many times when it turned out that she missed major cultural touchstones, like 'Titanic' or 'When Harry Met Sally']
still drugs, now with a side of propaganda ment.
I don't think I could possibly capture the scope of just how many people I hurt.
[It's not her judgment he's worried about. It's his image. Why's he worried about that right now, though? Well, habits die hard.]
...No? We come from different worlds, Ari. I don't think we're going to have the same movies.
[Especially when one of them only produces propaganda film.]
still drugs, now with a side of propaganda ment.
[had Ari hurt anyone in her adventures in bedhopping? other than salt and pepper man with blonde hot wife? and Josh.
but what she and Josh had was worth saving. worth keeping for the rest of their lives. and unlike her marriage to Cass, the thought of spending the rest of her life with Josh was exciting, not unnerving]
--damn! That's going to take some getting used to. A lot of getting used to, actually. [she shakes her head as though she's trying to clear it]
no subject
But it's neither here nor there right now.
He crosses his arms and acquiesces her earlier point.]
Yeah, I could go for a joint right about now. It's been a while.
[Intentionally vague but also true.]
no subject
does she want a kid or a career or both and if she wants both, both her and Josh will be working crazy late night hours and kids need supervision when it's daylight, too, and fuuuuuuuuck.
she shrugs and starts rooting around in her backpack, emerging triumphant with some gummies]
I have edibles? And they've got to have the real stuff around here somewhere, it grows normally in the wild!
no subject
...Oh, wow. She does. His eyebrows practically shoot through the ceiling.]
You just have those on you? Out in public?
[Oh, but his image though.
His image!
Wait, why does he care about his image again?
He's stuck in a box with a man who wants to kill him and a bunch of people who refuse to admit any wrongdoing while Ramon has spent this entire time writhing in regret from the beginning.
After some several moments of internal debate, he sighs in defeat as if she'd spent the last half-hour trying to peer-pressure him. He holds his hand out, palm up.]
Fine, I'll take one.
no subject
Uh. Yeah. Technically legal since 2021. Seriously, you can go into a dispensary and get any kind of weed imaginable. It's kind of amazing.
[Ari doesn't have an image.
if she did, the cannabis would be a boost. everyone loves stoners, look at Seth Rogan. he built his entire career on being a stoner.
and she plops a fruit juice sativa gummy into his hand]
Go for it. In fact, I'm right behind you. [and she pops a gummy of her own]
I'm so sorry to anyone who's gonna read this tag and feel tremendously old
Ramon pops the gummy down the hatch and glances at the clock as he chews...then remembers how stupid of an idea that is. The damn thing doesn't work. It'll just have to hit when it hits, he supposes.
After swallowing:]
It's humbling to know they still haven't figured out how to make these things taste anything other than medicine in thirty years.
Old, old, old stoners. Poor Boomers.
The blue raspberry ones are actually pretty good. Almost too good, where I can just pop one after the other and chill while me and Josh watch 'Donnie Darko.'
drug talk probably persists after this point
Arching a brow:] And get halfway through the bag before you're staring at the ceiling and being far too aware of your own heartbeat?
[On second thought...]
Maybe the medicine taste was intended this whole time.
[CONSPIRACY.]
Re: drug talk probably persists after this point (absofuckinglutely!)
Exactly! Then I watch whatever softcore lesbian movie Netflix has to offer and fall asleep with my hand in a bag of blue heat Takis. It's my process. Or it was until this past year.
[on second thought~~~]
Probably. Like some weird attempt at getting us to not consume more than recommended. Like cough syrup after you're drunk.
[clearly a brilliant plan]