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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.
cw: mentions of torture and mind control, child endangerment
On the one hand, Vergil recognizes everything that his pursuit of power has cost him. He fought viciously and been at odds with his brother for the majority of their lives. He was tortured by his father's enemy and his mother's murderer, and had his own will twisted by that very same demon. By the end, it very nearly cost him his life. Vergil also lost time with Nero, forcing his son to repeat the cycle of growing up without a father as Vergil had before him. And even if Nero didn't particularly need Vergil as he likely did as a child, Vergil was forced to once again abandon him as a consequence of his choices without really getting a chance to know his son. Not truly.
But on the other hand, Vergil was eight years old when Mundus exacted his revenge on Sparda by attempting to kill the entirety of his family. It was his father's power, his dark blade Yamato, that answered Vergil's pleas as he lay there in his own blood, reaching out and crying for his mother and brother. He had been utterly helpless, unable to save his mother, his brother, or even himself until the sword came to him. Seeking out power has been all Vergil has ever really known as part of his survival since then. The regret for all that he lost has really only begun to settle recently by comparison. It leaves him ultimately with a far more complicated relationship rather than one that's resolved.
"I have no desire to seek more of it."
His body is no longer dying, and he stands equal once again with Dante. There's little other reason for him to seek power now. That's the most he can say to the question honestly and without divulging more than he would care to to this stranger.
"Aside from having Yamato returned to me, of course. But that's because it's a blade that shouldn't be claimed by anyone but a Son of Sparda."
It wouldn't be unfair for the other man to assume it's entitlement rather than pure desire for power that motivates that particular desire. As far as Vergil is concerned, Yamato is his birthright. And it is subsequently Nero's birthright as well. It should be with one of them. But there is also perhaps a degree of wanting that power again, too. Vergil has never been without the Yamato for long, and there's a degree to which he cannot shake a sense of vulnerability to be without it. Especially considering the little time he had been without it throughout his lifetime, Vergil was no longer himself or his body was dying.
no subject
This man, however, was powerless once and sought power at great price in order to keep it. She doesn't know what powers he has without Yamato. Even as a man, Mizu would bet he is a skilled warrior. He summoned a magical blade, so he still has some powers. That's not a bone Mizu feels the need to pick. They both have their secrets and talk because it is required to gain their freedom. That fact cannot be mistaken for anything else. They would remain complete strangers were they not placed here together.
"The fox spirit may not quickly return it to you. Not without a price."
Everything has a price. The loss of their weapons (not that the knife Mizu used had any personal significance) upon coming here. All their worldly belongings back where they came from. It would be no difficulty for someone who can fetch people to fetch objects, except for inclination. Mizu could ask what price he'd be willing to pay, but Mizu very well could end up a part of it.
Though for this exercise, he seems to need her alive. Probably.
no subject
"Yes," he says, his expression smoothing once more even as the truths refuse to settle within him. "If these are the lengths the fox is willing to go to for a group of strangers to have a heart-to-heart with one another, then I am certain there will be a high price for its return to my possession."
Vergil cants his head slightly to one side.
"The fox will not be able to grant you your revenge though. Why agree to come to this place then?"
no subject
At least it is unlikely to be possible within the library. Mizu will keep an eye out for Vergil so long as he is on this quest for reunion with his blade because he's a potential threat. The fact he wants the blade means the fox spirit can get much out of him... for something it probably cares little about itself.
"I do not want the fox to grant my revenge," Mizu says, "I will take it for myself. I came here for information, so that I can track down the men I need to kill. It seemed likely easier to get here than where I was, so here I am."
Plus, if she gets the information she needs, Mizu doesn't need Fowler alive. She can kill him and be done with it. Two down, two more to go.
no subject
Vergil bows his head slightly, expression thoughtful as he mulls it over alongside his own reasons. The swordsman seeks an easier path and there's not necessarily any fault in that. Especially given what blood has already been shed if what he says is true about his pursuit thus far. But Vergil did not accept the fox's offer with the notion that it would be easier to attain his goal. Finding a way out of the demonic realm for both Dante and himself was never going to be an easy matter. The seal closing behind them was quite a final matter, and it would take a great deal of energy and effort to find a way back to the human world again. Thus, Vergil has not deluded himself into thinking the path to be found in this realm is going to be any different than any of the potential paths afforded to him there. It's more a matter of it being a path worth exploring when nothing else has presented itself immediately.
He lifts his gaze back toward his companion.
"Easier," he reflects back, the skepticism apparent in his tone. "You are no doubt a skilled and presumably intelligent swordsman to have both survived for as long as you have and to have come so close to your target." Vergil doesn't need to bear witness to actual prowess with a blade to come to that conclusion. Knowing that his man has persisted and sought revenge for his mother's murder is enough evidence to assume competency of varied kinds. "But seeking an easier path may not expedite your path as you hoped."
Vergil fully lifts his head back up.
"As far as I can tell, you are human. I will grant that despite your kind's inherent fragility and weaknesses, humans have the tendency to persevere and it is easy for those who aren't human to underestimate them, but it is potentially a dangerous thing to find this fox your bedfellow.
"So, do you still think the same as when you agreed to come here? Or has this little exercise begun to change your mind?"
no subject
Her kind's inherent fragility and weaknesses usually means half-white stock in Japan. From Fowler's own lips, once he realized, it meant woman. Everyone has an opinion on her inherent fragility and weaknesses, whatever those are perceived to be, and the generous estimation this half-demon grants her is no less patronizing or insulting for the way he qualifies the statement. Go on, consider her fragile and weak. She doesn't care. If it comes to combat, Mizu will tear through him for the sole reason he stands between her and her revenge.
"A fox spirit will be a fox spirit," Mizu says, "Neither friend nor foe. It wants to use me in its tricks, and I want to use its knowledge. I already know more than when I arrived. I'm here, so the only way out is forward."
She shrugs. What's the point in ruminating on that choice when it has already been made and the fox spirit hasn't made it part of this exercise? When the thousand claw army came to Madame Kaji's, the only way to achieve her revenge was to defeat them, to kill all of them. It wasn't a question of ease or desire. It was a fact.
no subject
He opts not to dwell upon it. The end result appears to be the same in the end regardless of intention, as he clearly is not to be deterred from placing his stock in this...trade with the fox. With any luck for the rest of Folkmore, the fox will not see to it that the two of them find their goals at odds with one another because it would seem Vergil isn't the only one who perhaps struggles with relinquishing old ways of thinking. Folkmore would likely not left be standing in the wake of that conflict based upon sheer determination alone.
"Well, if you wish to keep your skills with a blade honed in the interim," he says, "you have at least one person willing to spar with you."
It's not an entirely selfless offer, of course. In the absence of Dante, there are few that Vergil would ever say he derives any sort of pleasure in sparring with. Even if Dante is inarguably slower and less disciplined, he matches Vergil in strength at the very least and he is clever despite what Vergil might otherwise say aloud. This swordsman although human is likely as close to a worthy opponent as Vergil is liable to find in this place, and thus, can make for at least some form of substitute. In addition to satisfying that need to keep his own skill sharp and demonstrably strong, it also provides the opportunity to know this swordsman's strengths and weaknesses, and his overall technique.
It wouldn't be wise for the fox to pit them against one another, but in the event that were to happen, he'd rather chance revealing too much of his own hand than be completely ignorant to what this other man is capable of doing.
no subject
It is what it is. The way through is forward, and Mizu will go forward.
"I appreciate it," Mizu says. "We shall see how long we are here, but that may be called upon."
It would serve Mizu well to see how this man, this half-demon, fights so that she can master his techniques as well. They can strengthen her skills and make her more likely to succeed in the future. It won't only be sparring but practicing what she sees of him in the meantime. Yes, that too can serve her quest for vengeance. If they wind up at arms against each other, Mizu can adapt her fighting to meet his better once she knows what it is.
no subject
"I won't take it easy on you because you're a human."
From a certain perspective, Vergil's response could be seen to be arrogance. As he acknowledged himself but a few moments ago, those that are not human often tend to perceive themselves as the superior. Thus, there's perhaps some merit to that. Especially given that Vergil is more than confident when it comes to his own skills and abilities. But less than a boast or assertion of prowess, he means it more as a promise that if the swordsman ever does call upon Vergil for practice, Vergil won't try to kill the other man or grievously injure him, but Vergil won't disrespect the other man by patronizing him.
"I'll expect the same in return if I still do not possess Yamato once again by the time we cross blades."
no subject
"Good," Mizu says. She wouldn't respect anything less. Vergil doesn't have her respect exactly, from this conversation, but there's been a level of honesty (if fox spirit motivated) that she appreciates. Seeing her as weak because she's human is simply another form of arrogance. She'll show him, should they be here long enough.
Vergil hasn't done anything to Mizu. She has no reason to want him dead. He has nothing to do with her quest, and unlike Taigen, he's not asking for a duel to the death. Sparring. Mizu has rarely had a sparring partner. Usually it's simply trees. They don't offer the same resistance as someone wielding a sword. She smiles with teeth.
"Yamato, no Yamato, I won't hold back."
It's not like she has her sword either. Mizu doesn't deserve it. They may both fight with other weapons. The clock ticks closer to the final moments they're in this place.
no subject
A smile doesn't quite manifest itself on Vergil's face, but there's something that sparks and brightens in his own blue eyes that speaks of his approval and perhaps even a bit of anticipatory excitement. This man isn't Dante and he won't put up nearly as much of an opposition to Vergil as Dante would, but he's... He's far more than Vergil would have anticipated he might find after his run-ins with the others also trapped in this library at any rate. Hopefully, he thinks, he won't find himself disappointed. The swordsman hopefully will apply a bit of that tenacity and doggedness he uses in seeking out his revenge to not give up too easily once he realizes just what it is to fight against a Son of Sparda even in the context of sparring.
The clock strikes its fourth and final hour. Vergil gives no signs of outward relief when he sees the clock carry on with its movements as though nothing out of the ordinary about the passage of time it was meant to track ever occurred, but even as an avid reader, he's had enough of this library.
"I believe we are finally permitted to part ways," he says, rising to his feet. He lingers only for a moment longer to say, "My name is Vergil."