Entry tags:

*tdm

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 ]
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

[ This is all a lot more pleasant than he thought it might have been. Then again, like Finn said, this guy has a twin brother, so he must be used to having someone around who looks just like him, what's one more? He's more interested and curious than unsettled himself, maybe because he has seen more of the galaxy than a lot of people have, and especially in the company of Jedi. After seeing what Leia and Rey can do it's probably made it easier to accept the concept of magic being an actual thing, one that's apparently just as vague and hard to pin down.

So some people can move objects with just an extension of willpower, and others can turn into a cat when they want. ]

Yeah, I'm starting to learn. [ About the Folkmore things, but he's taking it in good spirits. At least as good as it gets when he's supposed to be somewhere else and he has things he needs to do, no matter what that fox says about what they're actually doing here and what's going on back home. ] How did you figure out you could do that?

[ Being able to fly does sound appealing, even if he's not so sure about the idea of being an animal, as much as Marc makes it look easy. ]

[A little snort escapes through Marc's nose at the question. The memory of the first time he transformed into a cat is somewhat worn by now, but it's hard to forget entirely. And for a long while he was embarrassed by it, but by now something he can look back on with a nonchalant shrug.]

Honestly? By accident. Someone caught me off guard and I guess that triggered some kinda Familiar instinct. Poofed into cat form before I even knew what was happenin'. And lemme tell you, when you don't know what you're doin'? Getting back to human form is a pain.

[ So some kind of defense mechanism? It makes as much sense as anything else around here. Poe's not judging him either, he's already learned just how impossible it is to stop some of these things from happening to them, starting with getting dropped off here in the first place. A younger, more hotheaded Poe might have thought he could fight anything off, but he tends to be more realistic about what he's facing these days. ]

I'll have to take your word for that one. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I manage to grow wings or glow or something, huh?

[ He glances down at his hands, brows furrowed slightly. As far as he can tell he doesn't feel too different, but he also hasn't yet been subjected to any intense or dangerous situations here. Just a confusing jumble of a dream and the surreal reality of what passes for a few 'normal' days around here.

He's just taking it one day at a time. ]

So where are you from? If you don't mind me asking.

['Grow wings or glow', huh? Another Legend? Marc hadn't expected that. There's really only three options, so the odds of Poe getting the same thing as Steven were really likely, but... For some reason, Marc had thought that Poe would get the same role as him. He's not sure why. Probably doesn't say anything meaningful that he's the only Familiar of the trio, right? ....Right?

His hands slip into his pockets, brow furrowing lightly.]

Like... Which planet? It's called Earth. I don't really remember if that exists in your universe. Does it?

[ It makes sense that he probably wouldn't get a particularly useful answer, at least not as far as relating it to anything he knows. Almost anyone from his galaxy, unless they were from some random, completely isolated system, would recognize the Rebellion insignia he's wearing on his jacket, and hell, they'd have better than even odds of recognizing his name, if not his face. The First Order has it out for all of them, but he tends to think that he hit a particular nerve, having escaped them only to turn around and deal the final blow against the most powerful weapon they had.

That would make it hard for someone like Marc to show his face too. But they don't have to worry about that here, even if the Fox happened to bring in some of their people they'd be too vastly outnumbered here to cause much trouble. ]

If it does I don't think it's in our galaxy. [ It's not his first time hearing that name here though. ] Maybe you could tell me more about it? It seems like a lot of other people here are from Earth too.

[ He glances around them at the currently empty sidewalk. ]

If you weren't busy with the cat thing.

[Marc still thinks it's weird to be looking at what's clearly a human, and then be told Earth doesn't even exist in that universe. This is just what people from other planets look like by default over there, apparently. Wildly different from big purple freaks like Thanos, and whatever it was that invaded New York that one time.

And it's even weirder that someone from a totally different planet (and presumably with different parents) could look the exact same as him. It gives him a headache if he tries to think about it too much.]

Nah, I wasn't busy with the cat thing. Just goin' for a walk. I don't have a real job here, so I gotta do somethin' to pass the time. [He shrugs.] You wanna go sit down somewhere, or...?

[ Poe's definitely feeling adrift here, and the idea of not having a job, let alone the sort of constant job that's been taking up almost every waking moment of his life for the last few years, is one that hasn't fully sunk in until possibly right now. It's freedom, yeah, and he has no idea what he's going to do with that, just that he'll have to do something. He'd drive himself crazy just going in circles all day, obsessing over the state of things that he left behind.

He's looking at all of this from a very different viewpoint than someone from Earth. To him it's completely expected that humans wouldn't be the only sentient species around, not even necessarily a majority, and the idea of them coming from different planets is just normal too.

The nearly identical looks aren't as expected, but at least he's different enough as to obviously not be some kind of clone. ]

Yeah, we can do that. Does this place have a... cantina or something?

[ He's assuming that'll translate into something recognizable, since languages don't seem to be a barrier here somehow. ]

[Marc's had the conversation several times before that he should find something more worthwhile to do with his time. Trouble is, his skill set had most worth back home, in service of individuals like Khonshu. Most he could do is flip it around to teach self defense classes, but that would involve being a teacher. He's not going to stand in front of a class, no way. He needs to find a new skill set first, but the search is... slow.

He'll figure it out.]

Cantina... Like a canteen? A place to get food? [... A diner? Or more like a bar, maybe?]

Right. Food, drinks, usually some entertainment. Exactly what kind depends on the locale.

[ He peers around them, taking in the scenery. It seems peaceful here, quaint even, definitely not the sort of shady part of town where he might expect to find a cantina with dancers and card games and under the table deals going on just barely out of sight. That's not what he was looking for anyway, though he's got more experience with those than anyone here would know. Presumably. He wasn't always the poster boy for the Resistance, or an up and coming star in the New Republic Navy.

Though some part of him has to wonder if that's at least some of the reason why he's here. ]

Just the food or drinks part would be fine, wherever you'd like to go.

[Food and drinks are easy, but none of the places Marc knows of around here include entertainment. Unless he counts the cat cafe, and he refuses to do so. It's a shame, because he expects the local spirits might have some interesting music to perform in a bar or a restaurant. As for gambling dens... Cruel Summer might have one of those, but that's way too far from here for Marc's liking.]

Just food and drinks it is. There's a food cart near here, they've got nice hot stews and meat skewers, and stools for sittin', if that's good enough.

[Yes, the food cart's run by dog spirits, which is a little weird, but the meat is so good that Marc just looks past the whole... 'furry paws handling food' bit. He has yet to find a hair in his meal.]

That sounds good to me.

[ Poe will follow him if he wants to lead the way. So far he's been doing a bit of exploring on his own, and gotten a fair amount of information from Finn, though there's a lot he still wants to see in person. It'll all make a little more sense when he's mapping it out visually, and since there's apparently no such thing as holo maps around here he's just going to have to do it the hard way. And who knows, maybe he can patch some things together with some time and some parts, since this place isn't completely in the dark. It could definitely be worse.

Marc seems to be taking this pretty well. Then again, he does have a brother who looks just like him, and apparently it's not all that strange to have people from different 'versions' of the same universe around, so this must not be completely unexpected to people who have been here a while. For his part he knows he's probably staring a little too much, it's just... different. Different, but also closer than Steven. ]

I'd take anything other than another ration bar. We've been living off of those for way too long.

[Marc will definitely start leading the way. The food cart's not too far from here- or it shouldn't be, anyway. He saw it parked near Satori Hills earlier. The dogs usually keep their cart in one place till sundown, so unless something weird happened, they'll still be there now. He tries not to walk too fast, so Poe can walk by his side. For the most part, it's so they can talk more comfortably, but Marc also doesn't like it when someone walks behind him; it makes him feel uncomfortable. It stems from some instinctive paranoia, he supposes.]

Oh, yeah, I get it. If space rations are anythin' like the rations we had back in the Marines, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. Don't worry, the food cart's got real food.

[ Poe will keep pace with Marc, however fast he wants to get there. He's more used to a faster walk himself, usually leaving most people jogging to keep up with him, but there's nowhere in particular to rush to here, is there? Not now, anyway. Apparently things do sometimes pop up that aren't entirely friendly, which isn't too unfamiliar, he's been living under constant threat for over a year now. ]

I bet they're pretty similar. [ Another military guy, huh? That tracks with what Poe's picked up so far, though he can only imagine what that looks like on Earth. Especially since they'd only be fighting with each other for the most part? He hasn't gotten the full story yet, though he does know that space travel isn't really their thing. ] Marines... so like a ground unit of some kind?

[ Earth does have a few different kinds of ships, going on what he's learned so far. They'd have to be a far cry from what he's used to, mostly restricted to the local atmosphere, but he'd still love to get his hands on one. ]

I was in the New Republic Navy myself, back before the First Order took the whole system out. Not sure what your equivalent would be on Earth.

[Marc's a little torn on how to explain the Marine Corps in a way that makes sense to an outsider, but then he hears the word "Navy" and figures it may not be that hard after all. It doesn't cross his mind that the Navy may refer to something different in another universe.]

See, this is where it gets a little tricky. On paper, the Marines are a branch of the Navy. Get to hitch rides on the ships and be deployed from 'em, report to the Navy secretaries... But they're treated as their own branch 'cause they've got different specialties. Much more combat-oriented training- not just weapons but the actual physical stuff. Marines basically take charge of the shore once the ship reaches it by kickin' enemy ass. You don't have anything like that?

[ Poe was expecting drastic differences, it's... kind of nice, in a way, to share some terminology, even if it's probably largely due to the inherent translation they're all getting here, there's obviously some common thread. And at the end of the day there's a commonality between soldiers, however they're fighting and whatever they're up against. But it also just so happens that what Marc describes sounds even more familiar. ]

Yeah, we used to have the Pathfinders, that was exactly their kind of thing. My dad was one of them.

[ It's an unintentional reminder of just how little they have right now, less than even the Rebellion did at their lowest point, though they ended up losing a lot of that getting through that last battle. Normally he wouldn't be talking about that, the last thing they need is to get bogged down with demoralizing tail-spinning, but he doesn't need to sugar coat this for people here, does he? Marc seems like the type to prefer it straight anyway. ]

Right now we're all filling in wherever we can, we don't have the numbers to dedicate specialized units like that. It's... a long story.

[Marc's immediate thought is that Pathfinder sounds way cooler than Marine. More accurate, too. The thought which follows is a bitter one: what's Poe's father like? Since Poe looks just like him, would his father look like Marc's father? Or different? His father wouldn't join anything remotely like the Marines, that's for sure. Too soft. Too focused on community.

He quickly shakes those thoughts off again, focusing on the point of Poe's story instead.]

If the long story boils down to 'war', then... Yeah. I get it. No need to go further into it than that. [He waves a dismissive hand.] Anyway, got discharged from the Marines years ago. I turned mercenary instead.

[ There's an obvious lack of judgment on Poe's part about the idea of going mercenary, and it's not just because he's heard that story plenty of times, he had a similar kind of experience, just reversed. But while Marc probably wouldn't think less of him for that, since mercenary work probably ranks more or less the same as working for spice runners, he's just not going to volunteer that particular piece of his past unless it's important for some reason. And it's not. Honestly the most important thing is the present, it doesn't matter where they came from. ]

That's about the long and short of it. Except we don't have the people or the ships to actually fight a straight battle with them now, mostly we're just treading water and hampering them where we can.

[ He won't regale Marc with all the details. He gets the idea, and he can probably draw the obvious conclusion that this has taken up Poe's whole life. Back home, that is, here he's just... Poe. Not Commander Dameron. ]

Mercenaries are a tough crowd, but there's not much of that here, is there?

Yeah... From what I've heard, everyone who's lived a similar life is left without much to do here.

[People like Cobb, Bucky... Marc's pretty sure they're like him; guys who've spent so long fighting, they don't know how to handle peace. Left on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And every so often, that shoe does drop.]

Sometimes Trials happen that send wild monsters after us or some shit. That's the only time we get to really... do anythin' remotely close to what we're used to. Stuff like guard jobs or transport jobs? Forget 'em. No need for any of that here.

I mean, that's a good thing. No one should have to live through a war.

[ Yeah, he's absolutely right there with them on the whole 'not sure how to handle peace' thing. But it hasn't been as long for him as it probably has been for some other people around here, so he figures he'll probably be able to work this out better than some. On the other hand he's definitely spent his whole life flying around in space, being planet-side for any significant length of time... that'll be an adjustment too. ]

I've heard about the Trials, yeah. I'm not usually fighting without a ship, or at least a blaster, but I've been practicing my hand-to-hand skills. I didn't want to be helpless outside of my x-wing.

[ Now he's kind of wishing he'd practiced more. ]

[Marc feels like he's just been called out on being a terrible person. Common sense tells him Poe didn't mean it that way, but- Urk. Of course it's good that a mercenary's more offensive skillset isn't needed here. Of course it's good nobody here needs an armed guard, or some sort of violent extraction. Marc's an asshole for wanting something like that. He just can't stop himself from feeling useless when there's nothing for him to do.

He really needs to find a productive way to spend his time.]

If you need to practice more, there's an academy in Cruel Summer that specializes in teachin' people how to fight. Hand-to-hand, lotsa different weapons... And the self-defense stuff too. You can get some trainin' in before the next Trial.

[ As far as Poe's concerned he's just as useless here as any of the rest of them that are used to fighting, whatever conflict they're in back home, and though he doesn't have any doubts about the necessity of what he's doing he does have to accept the reality that he's a solider, and whatever way anyone wants to see that it involves death and violence, it's just a part of war. Having to adjust to that not being a thing here, and grappling with the effects that it's left on him, that's... definitely not going to be easy. It's obviously been tough for Marc too.

He's nodding thoughtfully at the suggestion, though he doesn't immediately know where this Cruel Summer place is. Navigating the different areas hasn't been too difficult so far, between the various modes of local transportation. It's not as fast as what he's used to, but it works? ]

I might do that, thanks. [ Maybe he should be taking notes. ] Speaking of ships, I know they've got some mechanical things around here, is there a specific place for that too?

[Marc's not much of a tech guy, unfortunately. He has his bike and he can do his own maintenance on it, but that's about where his level of expertise stops. He's got nothing on Frenchie, who was way more knowledgeable about ships, planes, all that stuff. There is someone in Folkmore who comes to mind, though.]

You could try askin' around for Tony Stark. He's got a garage where he works on engineering projects and stuff like that, I'm pretty sure. Really knows his tech.

[As they round a corner, the Wandering Dog food cart comes into view. A Shiba Inu's currently manning the counter, paws tapping restlessly on the hard wood. When it spots two incoming customers, its tail starts to wag too.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

December 2023 & January 2024 Test Drive Meme

Overflow TDM post found here

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject