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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.
SLAMS IN HERE. detention
And now she's in... detention? In a school? That takes her back, for a moment. To the time before. Before the night her life fell to pieces.
Not like she ever really forgets, and over time, the memory has dulled to a kind of buzz at the back of her mind, so she's able to move on and take in her surroundings. Immediately, her eyes are drawn to the other person in the room. She lets out a gasp when she recognizes Makie. That otherworldly beauty is hard to miss or ignore.
But she's hesitant to say anything and figures she should take a look at her note first. As she unfolds it and reads the contents, her eyes widen and her throat goes dry.
Right, then. Well, she isn't getting out until she talks about it, apparently, and that shouldn't be so hard, really. Honestly, what a relief to solve a problem without bloodshed for once!
Still unsure, she clears her throat. ]
Makie-san... ?
heck yeah all the cool historical hot messes should be in detention
Rin. [She even manages a smile, small and wan though it might be. They're both unarmed, they can just... talk. Right? Makie would like that, she thinks.] I'm... surprised to see you here. Are you... all right?
best time to be had!
I'm surprised to be here! Though, I mean, I did follow that fox. Did it appear to you, too?
[ She is... perhaps surprised that Makie asks after her well-being. The woman is not unkind, that much Rin knows, but a little hard to read sometimes. ]
And yes, I'm alright, thank you! How... how are you?
[ Hesitation. During the final showdown, she was unconscious, but in the aftermath, she'd heard about Makie from Manji and Hyakurin. Supposedly dead by bullets. Maybe she'd escaped after all? With how strong she is, perhaps there are less surprising things in the world. ]
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[Perhaps she's not dead after all. She meets the idea of that with an unsurprising lack of interest. She hopes that's the case a little, though, because she had thought Rin was all right. It would be a shame if she died so young.]
I'm fine. What's the last thing you remember from... from before?
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She doesn't doubt her decision, not anymore, but her heart aches for Makie still. She looks away and ventures: ]
... it's over.
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I'm sorry. How did it happen?
[Because she's assuming something else entirely, Rin. She's assuming that you died.]
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I killed him, Makie-san.
Anotsu Kagehisa.
I killed him.
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She knew it was a possibility. Only the most optimistic of people would assume Kagehisa would make it from the docks unscathed, but she had hoped that... he'd at least be able to walk away. But she failed. She didn't kill all the snipers, they weren't the only enemies, Rin and Manji were still there.
In a way, weirdly, this news is more acceptable than the idea that Rin had also died. And what kind of wife, what kind of karma... did that make her? Anotsu hadn't wanted to kill Rin either, but...
She still doesn't want to hurt Rin. Despite this. Which means that this paper sitting in front of her, this paper accusing her of failing those she cares about because she never carries through... it's a hundred percent correct.
She died to try and make it right, and she still failed in every way possible.
But all she says is--]
...
...I see.
Thank you for telling me.
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Still, Rin acutely feels the air between them getting heavier; suffocating. She has to look away again, the hands in her lap twitching slightly.
Then, a force of emotion overcomes her and she whips around again, her hair ring smacking against her cheek, but she doesn't care. ]
Why are you so calm? Aren't you angry? You loved him, didn't you!
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[She's going to cry. She can feel the heat pricking at her eyes, and Makie won't hold back when it happens. She's not that proud. She has no right to be.]
But anger is... a wasted emotion. Kagehisa always held your right to kill him in high regard. He hurt you deeply. Who am I to be angry when you are merely avenging your family? That makes you... a filial child. I wish I'd had your strength. I do.
I made peace with the fact that Manji might kill him long ago. It was my choice to let Manji live. In a way, I... think it's better if you were the one who killed him instead. I hope you can live with it better than I can.
[Her words are gently said. But she delivers them in such a dead way, staring down at the floor, and the first tears slide down her face.]
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Perhaps she'd been hoping for a sign. That it'd all been worth it. All that she'd put herself and others through, these past three years, being led by nothing but her emotions, grief and fury, leaving too much suffering in her wake.
She thinks of the note still in her bag and closes her eyes, a tear now escaping hers, too.
Not for Anotsu, oh no. She's done crying about him. But for Makie. For Renzo.
But -- those words. Your right to kill him. A flash of memory. Yes, he'd seen her coming, and he had not side stepped, though surely he could have. Instead he'd turned toward her, as if welcoming it, and smiled.
Oh. That bastard.
The corners of her mouth quirk up in a thin smile and she lets out a ghost of a laugh. ]
He let me.
[ There. Perhaps that will be a small comfort for Makie. ]
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...gave up?
But to Rin-- she could see it. He'd lost everything and everyone. Even Makie, who had promised to stay by his side. Maybe he merely found it fitting that at least one person could find fulfillment of their goals when the rest of their aspirations were in tatters.
If he'd allow himself to die to anyone, it would be Rin.
So yes. It is a little comforting. There's a small, selfish voice deep within that tries to offer comfort by whispering he couldn't live without you and she quashes it. It's unworthy.
So she smiles. It's small and weak, but it's there.]
I'm glad.
[She is. It's death on his own terms. It's all anyone could ask for. But it tears her heart apart nevertheless.]
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Rin drumbs her open hands on her lap, a little, then clears her throat. ]
Uhm, what you said before -- "I hope you can live with it better than I can". What did you mean?
[ She turns to face Makie, expression now open, inviting. ]
If you'd like to share. You know, I think all this time, I never really heard your story.
[ Yes. This is what she owes Makie now. ]
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Well, the whole 'detention' thing was adamant she think about this sort of thing, anyway.]
You are... not the only person who has embarked upon a path of vengeance. But my family was broken to begin with. I sought to kill my father to avenge my mother.
[She pauses, hesitates. Admits.] And me.
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[ Her own father? Something horrible must have happened. Rin hesitates for a moment, but then decides to ask. ]
What did he do?
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[It would sound... cruel, but not deserving of murder, wouldn't it? But--]
I had an older brother. When it was discovered that I, a girl, had inherited the martial skill in our bloodline, he committed seppuku. My father went mad and threw me out of our household. When my mother tried to defend me, he disowned her, too.
She died, alone and heartbroken and sick, in a brothel when I was still young.
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That's... that's horrible.
[ Then, her lips thin to a line and her brows furrow. ]
Samurai... kenshi... they're all so stupid, aren't they? All that bloodshed, all that death. And for what?
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A maelstrom of blood and death. We cannot seem to help ourselves. I've... tried. [Twice. Both times? Anotsu. She doesn't fault him for it.]
When I had the opportunity to kill my father, I found... I could not. I was weak and indecisive just long enough for him to die to illness.
[Heh.] The same one that should kill me, so I suppose that's fitting. Though I suppose the lady kitsune will not allow that, either.
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[ Rin looks surprised at that. ]
But Manji, he... [ Her cheeks blush scarlet when she remembers that particular scene. ] Gave you the medicine. Did it not work after all?
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It worked. It will work for some time. But it is not permanent. Those that take the medication must continue to take it.
[She hadn't wanted to because of the price of the ingredients involved. But when Manji had taken the decision out of her hands... well, he made a solid point. She was alive. The liver that went into that medication belonged to criminals that died regardless.
Manji, always finding a way to embarrass her. Or shock her into... seeing things differently.]
I suppose it will likely not kill me here, if I am somehow still alive. After all-- [The ghost of humour.] Bullet wounds are a much more direct form of death.
[She shifts her shawl slightly to show the blood stains on her kimono. But she's no longer bleeding, and the blood is halfway to being dry.]
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Then... what I heard was right.
[ A powerful swordswoman, finally taken out by bullets. How... prosaic. ]
We... all of us... to think this whole time we were arguing and fighting each other with swords, when the bakufu had firearms this whole time! I feel like we were just kids that they willingly allowed to play in a sandbox for a while.
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It seems very convoluted of them, but perhaps there were wheels turning I was not capable of seeing.
[A slow blink.]
What will you do now?
[You know. Now that you've fulfilled your obligation to your parents and gained revenge.]
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Ah, well, uhm, I'm still kind of figuring that out... well, first I'll have to work for a bit to repay my debt to a family friend who's been helping me out.
[ After all, she had promised Sori-sensei to come back healthy and repay him! She intends to keep that promise. ]
After that... I'm not sure. I only just got back to Edo. Maybe... maybe I came here in hopes of finding something out. Having more time to think. To tell the truth, I don't really know!
[ She rubs the back of her neck and lets out an awkward, breathy laugh. ]
What about you, Makie-san? I mean, I know you're... dead, but you're here now.
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...I don't know. [But she says it thoughtfully, tapping her chin with one finger.] Truthfully, I think I will be aimless for some time, at least until I understand what the nature of this place is. Perhaps it is... a more forgiving place.
[Or not, given the first thing that happened is they got put in detention. But being told to sit somewhere for four hours and think about her crimes is, when you think about it, incredibly forgiving compared to the landscape they've both left.]
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Right! I'm curious about what this place is like.
[ Then she remembers the original assignment. ]
So, four hours, huh? That should be plenty of time to see what this library has to offer. I'm sure the books have some information about the world we're in.
[ Then she hesitates a moment, but ultimately decides to just address the elephant in the room. ]
The... papers we were given. Do you want to talk about it? Now?
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