![[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
The words aren't entirely easy to follow, though Tsukasa gathers his companion believes in compassion and kindness, rather than punishment. He understands people's choices without agreeing, while recognizing... if not right or wrong, what, his personal thoughts on the matter?
"Intentions are well and good, but they are within one's heart. Consequences are what everyone else sees," Tsukasa says. His intentions were good, but that does not excuse his actions.
no subject
"Punishment, pain, payback, punitive payment... Hearts can be heard. People are complicated, they're inside and they're outside aren't the same. They can choose to be something they aren't. Be lots of things at once. Love and still intend to hurt. Starve and give to others to eat. Command, but take orders." His attention drifts elsewhere, then snaps back. "You're not a bad person. You should forgive yourself your mistakes. No one else can until you do."
no subject
He blinks and thinks of Senku, Gen, the others. They have definitely forgiven him. Perhaps not for this wrong, but for the primary one he has not forgiven himself for. They likely wouldn't hold him responsible for these men's lives either. Yet, he's forgiven Hyoga in his way. They've moved past the actions in the Stone War and worked together to protect others, so they could send a rocket to the moon and stop those that were trying to petrify everyone.
So why is it so much harder to forgive himself? "What right do I have," Tsukasa asks, "to forgive myself when I'm not the one I have harmed?"
no subject
"What do you gain by not forgiving him? You can forgive who you were. That he had his reasons and maybe they were right or wrong, but he did his best. And maybe he wasn't the one harmed, but he's the one who carries it now. Death weighs a lot. The dead don't care if you let them go, they're beyond that now. What do you lose if you forgive your mistakes?"
no subject
The dead are gone. What's done is done for them. Tsukasa believes in an afterlife, but he knows that most of them didn't think much about it. So he ponders the question seriously.
"I don't want to make the same mistakes again," Tsukasa begins. Yet, he knows he won't. Hyoga knows he cannot make the world he once wanted, same as Tsukasa. They've both moved past it. Tsukasa still works with Xeno who might, might, slip up and try to become a world dictator yet again. Tsukasa's presence discourages such things because any attempts would be shortlived. Senku has forgiven the former NASA scientist and moved on, but Tsukasa won't let him put the world at risk.
There has to be more.
"It feels like there should be consequences, personal consequences, for my mistakes," Tsukasa says. He believes in forgiveness from God, but he isn't God. Absolving himself of all consequences... It feels egotistical. His answers may not be the best, but it's not enough to let go entirely. One conversation, no matter how well reasoned.
no subject
"You won't, if you choose not to." It's not that simple, but it also is. All mistakes are unique, like all moments and all people. But being aware and working towards not doing the same things helps a lot.
"Forgiveness isn't absolution. It's forgiveness. There are consequences. You've been changed, shaped, sheared into shapes you never had if you never took that action." Consequences always happen, that's why they're consequences. Good or bad or both or neither.
no subject
Even if he went back to that time, back to the Stone World when it was fresh and new and Senku hadn't brought back most of science yet, Tsukasa wouldn't make the same choices. He might have revived Hyoga, yes, but he wouldn't have trusted the man with other people's lives. It's hard when what happened shaped him, but who he's become isn't the same. There's no going back and doing it over again.
"Perhaps consequences are the problem," Tsukasa says, "It doesn't feel that there have been consequences. It feels like there has been absolution." How then does he change that?
no subject
He reaches out hesitantly, doesn't try to touch, but his hand hovers near Tsukasa's chest, over his heart. "You don't trust that you've paid it back. You need someone else to tell you you've done enough. You need to tell someone how you feel about what you did."
no subject
"You're right," Tsukasa says, "What Kuma Lisa wants here isn't enough. I entrusted the wrong with my men's lives, and they paid the price. That's the wrongdoing she wants an apology for. I am sorry, with all my heart, but that apology is not enough for me. Nor Senku's easy thoughtless forgiveness enough for my attempted murders. I've spoken with Gen, but—" They haven't gotten through to each other the way Cole has with Tsukasa.
"I need to speak with him again. I need his help to make amends."
no subject
This is what Cole exists for. To make things better for others.
He gives Tsukasa a small smile. "It will get better. For all of you."
no subject
"Thank you," Tsukasa says deeply. "Your guidance means a great deal to me. I am here for you as well, should you need or desire someone to talk to."
no subject
And as a spirit, he knows it's both a lot more complicated than that and exactly that simple.
Cole smiles at the last words. It brightens him, gives him a bit more colour than "nearly corpse pale'. "I'm glad I helped. I like helping. Would helping me help you? I don't know how to be helped."
no subject
Tsukasa considers Cole's question. Strange that Cole would accept help primarily it seems to help Tsukasa. If that's what he needs, so be it. Tsukasa won't denigrate that. "In this case, I believe it would help me," he says, "Kuma Lisa said, after all, that we must all consider what we've done wrong and express contrition. All of us, so that we may leave. And, I must admit, I feel better helping others in return, rather than simply being helped."
no subject
"There was a group. People called it the Inquisition. They came together to stop a bad thing from happening, and then to defeat the creature that made it happen.I said I would help. I wanted to help. But the man in charge, Lucien, he was, cold, cruel, carved apart people to watch them work.
"I left. I know I should have stayed and helped, but I left. He was changing me and I didn't want to be changed to Mercy or-" He trails off. If he fell to Despair, there'd be no coming back. "I promised Cole to live the life he never had."
no subject
"You can be sorry you couldn't help stop the bad thing and defeat the creature," Tsukasa says, "but you are not obligated to experience or witness such torture in the name of some greater good. A greater good built that way will become a new bad thing that must be stopped."
He reaches out one hand, an offering. "Please forgive yourself if you have not. Not because you'd make a different decision but because you made a right one."
no subject
It's not said with any emotion. It's a blunt statement of fact. "When the Anchor aches, arcs, acts alone, I'll have to find him and stop him. I've done it before. He won't be allowed to hurt anyone else then."
He doesn't look much like an assassin but he's a very good one. "I know I did the right thing for me. Lucien's Inquisition would have killed Compassion, maybe Mercy too. But I still left people I like. I could only save myself."
no subject
"Why do you have to wait?" Tsukasa asks. If murder is planned, why not immediately? "The Anchor... is that tied to the Inquisition? Are you waiting for them to succeed?" Perhaps these questions aren't the most important. It's okay if they aren't answered.
A soft exhale. "I'm sorry you couldn't save them," Tsukasa says. For all he doesn't understand everything, he accepts that. He cannot judge the best most moral choice Cole could have made. The feeling is easily understood.
no subject
And that is why he can't touch Lucien. Lucien can see him, true, but that doesn't matter. Cole is still good at being not seen, even by those who do see him.
"I didn't want to leave them. Varric calls me 'kid' and tells me stories with nugs and happy endings. Dorian calls me a chaotic curio and cleans the blood from my nails. Cassandra promised to stop me if I went bad and she does the voices when she reads." It's obvious how fond he is of them.
"Solas sings sweet songs of secrets, silent stories that sway through streams and stone."
no subject
"They sound good," Tsukasa says. "I'm glad you found them." He doesn't ask if they know what Lucien's doing. If they do, he doesn't want to tarnish Cole's memories of them when there's nothing to be done about it. He needs to keep going. Facing that potentially bitter truth doesn't seem like it will do much good. Tsukasa would rather be kind, given what he can do. That's about it.
"I'm sure they miss you, and they'll be glad to see you again someday."
no subject
Cassandra might. A Seeker is something else, something much more aware and awake than most mortals.
no subject
A blink. They've only just met, but Cole has done so much for him. The kindness. "Am I going to forget you too?" Tsukasa asks. He doesn't want to.
no subject
It's possible. But maybe, he's more real here than memories. "I think you'll remember me. But I can't be sure."
no subject
He offers Cole his hand. "I'm Tsukasa Shishio. It's really, really good to meet you. What's your name?"
no subject
He looks at the hand for a moment, then up, not entirely getting it at first but then clasps his hand around Tsukasa's wrist. A fighter's greeting. "You can call me Cole."
no subject
"Cole," Tsukasa says, "A pleasure. I hope to keep your acquaintance once we leave this room." He smiles, as he writes a note about Cole (from Thedas) on a sheet of paper in the notebook, tears it out, and tucks it into his clothes. He also takes out his relic to record the same electronically. Even should he forget Cole, he will remind himself.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)