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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.
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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?
no subject
[Failed to avenge her mother, dithered on Anotsu's wants for her... mostly, she knows, this paper is about how she tracked her father down and couldn't even bring herself to kill him until it was too late. It broke her at the time. She doesn't think that wound ever fully healed. She just buried it under slaughter. Reaped the whirlwind.]
no subject
Oh...
[ Then she looks at her own lap, the hands folded into it. ]
I've often... felt the same. This whole journey, I have so often been indecisive. Even your words made me question my purpose!
[ She turns to Makie again with a sad smile. ]
Remember? When you asked me how I can justify my revenge? Those words cut me deeply at that time. I thought about simply giving up my revenge. It was Manji-san who held me to my promise.
[ Then, her lips quiver for a moment. ]
And that... well, you could say it led me to my own greatest failing.
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You were not wrong.
[An answer that she didn't give at the time.]
Do you... want to talk about it? [Her greatest failing. It occurs to her that Makie is not the only person in this room who has had a chance for revenge and did not take it. But for Makie, she only had the one chance. Rin... she knew from Kagehisa that they had met time and again before that final confrontation. Even talked.]
no subject
I'll have to.
[ She takes a deep breath. ]
Do you... does the name "Kawakami Araya" ring a bell?
[ Rin wonders. She's pretty sure Makie wasn't part of Itto-ryu back then, at least she certainly wasn't present that night.
Suddenly, Rin wonders what Makie would have done if she had. If she'd intervened. If she'd helped Anotsu. For a moment, she indulges in a fantasy of Makie mowing down her own comrades for Rin's and her mother's sake. It's strangely satisfying. ]
no subject
It does. One of Kagehisa's former men, isn't he?
[She hasn't met him. She does know he left the Itto-Ryu before she joined, and that he had died to Manji. Another of Rin's victims, she has always supposed, though Rin's question makes her wonder how complicated the issue actually was.]
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Yes, he was. He was there that night.
[ That last part of the sentence is imbued with meaning. Rin hopes Makie gets the drift. ]
Two years later, I met him again. He was selling masks at a festival. A-and when I saw him...
[ She swallows hard. ]
I wanted him dead. I wanted him dead so bad. But that day, I also learned that he had a son.
[ And here she pauses briefly, searching Makie's face for a reaction. ]
no subject
The moment she mentions Araya's son, her face softens with a painful understanding. Given the context... she can see where this is going.]
You couldn't do it.
no subject
I mean, I didn't want to, at that point. So... I should've left well enough alone, right?
But I went to seek out Araya anyway.
[ And here she swallows hard. ]
I asked him for an apology, but he attacked me instead. Manji intervened. They fought. Manji won.
[ Rin's hands tighten into fists. ]
So now a young boy is an orphan because of me. It's just... always the same thing, over and over again.
no subject
[She understands. But herein, she also knows that Rin has no fault here.]
An apology is such a small thing to ask given the level of his sins against you. Were it I, I would have offered it freely. That he chose to attack you instead...
Manji-san is your bodyguard. He had no choice but to protect you, and you are owed the right to defend yourself. A young boy is an orphan because his father chose his path.
It is a tragedy. [She lowers her voice.] It is no fault of yours.
no subject
So that's it, then? Once you've chosen this path, there's no avoiding it?
[ Rin runs her hand through her hair. No, she knew this. She's known it a long time. ]
I'm not even sorry about Araya. That guy... ugh. But Renzo... I still don't like that I made him suffer so.
And yet, sitting here and lamenting it, I still went through with my revenge. I truly am not very decisive at all!
no subject
Araya's death sound well-earned. [For all that he was one of Kagehisa's men, she had no care for him. She wasn't close to any of them, really; had some respect for Magatsu, perhaps.] But that is the problem, isn't it? The question I asked so long ago... in getting your revenge, you in turn become a rightful target for others. It is a very bloody path, Rin. [This might sound like a lecture from someone else. Makie just sounds sad. It's a shitty place to be trapped.]
Will this boy seek your death?
no subject
That last question makes Rin look up in surprise. ]
Uhm, no, I don't think so... ! Actually, upon my return to Edo, I found out that my family friend, the one I mentioned earlier, is putting him up. He's a painter and taking Renzo in as his apprentice!
He refuses to talk to me, though. [ Another rueful smile. ] That's very fair, of course.
[ Then, she turns pensive again. ]
However, should he ever change his mind... I don't think I would resist.
no subject
That in itself sets you apart. You are concerned for his welfare and understand he has a right to his vengeance. [Which, ironically, described Kagehisa's regard for Rin as well. But until this conversation, she wouldn't have thought Kagehisa would allow Rin to follow through.]
Your original path is at an end, but you already prepare for the possibility that someone may seek you out. That means you intend to be able to be found, does it not? And that means that, until then, you will live.
[She's far, far stronger than Makie. Ah, she hopes you find something to make you happy, despite everything. Despite the death between them.]
Perhaps that is why we are here.
no subject
[ Rin looks away while fiddling with a loose strand of hair. ]
Renzo did actually try to exact vengeance once. But on Manji, not on me. See, Manji had lied to him and told him he killed Araya over a gambling debt.
So Renzo wanted to take Manji's arms... and I offered him my arms instead. Because in that moment, I thought it's alright as long as I get to see my journey through. I could see Anotsu Kagehisa die without my arms, and if anyone would fight, it'd be Manji anyway.
[ A gulp. ]
Well, luckily, that didn't happen, because everyone else intervened! Hehe... actually, your buddy Magatsu did, too. He gave me a whole lecture. But I mean, he was not wrong. I was trying to shield Renzo from the full truth for my own gain at that moment, too.
[ Yeah, the whole thing was very messy, indeed. From the start, Rin had put her own goals above taking care of Renzo. And that is her regret, even though she's not sure she'd do anything different, given the choice anew. ]
no subject
She is taken more by a different thing that comes up here.]
...so Renzo never knew the real reason behind his father's death?
no subject
[ Rin wonders if that is good for him. It's not knowledge a child should have. Then again, he'd been with Shira... Rin doesn't even want to imagine what that man might have done to Renzo. ]
no subject
Rin, may I ask a sensitive question?
no subject
Go ahead.
no subject
Before the docks, you had a chance to take your revenge and did not. Why didn't you?
no subject
Well, uhm... I suppose that's true. But... you know I could never have taken him in a fight. The only real opportunity I had was on the trip back from Kaga, when he was sick.
And at first, I thought I might, but then he just got sicker and sicker and... look, I just didn't have the heart. Killing a guy who can't even walk anymore. Felt scummy. So I didn't.
no subject
Rin and Kagehisa have certain things in common. It is not something she will say aloud.]
You could have simply abandoned him. That you didn't... I am grateful. But you perceive your desire for vengeance with nuance now that you are older and more experienced, is that not so?
no subject
Hmmm. You know, Makie-san... for two years. For two years since that night, I was alone. There was no one to really talk to, or touch, or anything...
And then I met Manji-san, and from then on, I met many more people. Everyone had something to say. All different things. So I considered. I started doubting. I met Araya and that whole thing went horribly south, too.
You know, I ran into Anotsu in the woods one time? I stupidly tried to ambush him. He ended up explaining his philosophy to me. That was weird...
[ As Rin recounts all this, she fidgets with her thumbs in her lap. Why is she telling Makie all this? Maybe it's more about her own need to reflect. ]
So I couldn't help thinking, but what if he's right? I just felt like I had only just entered the world and I didn't know anything. Soon after that, I followed him to Kaga and it felt like things got both clearer and more muddled at the same time. But I was more sure that I didn't know everything there is to know yet, and I decided that was okay. I can wait.
And then there were the immortality experiments. Doa and I fought like hell in that horrible prison, to get our men out. And that... felt like a better thing to fight for than vengeance.
But still. I had to see. See where his path went, how it ended. That was the one thing I still had to do.
no subject
At the beginning of any harrowing journey, you will see only the end you desire. But you grow and learn along the way. A young woman seeking vengeance on the man who slew her parents. It is no longer as clear, free of nuance, by the end. [She hesitates.]
A young boy seeking vengeance on the young woman in turn. I imagine as he grows older and learns more about the situation, things might change. Who can say...? You can only wait.
Was Renzo like his father?
no subject
She considers the question, digging her fingertips into her cheeks as she mulls it over. ]
I don't think so. He was a bit of a brat when I first met him, but a good kid. But after everything that's happened... I don't know if and how that will change him.
But he's with Master Sori now. I think that's going to be a good environment for him! [ Rin smiles at the thought. She's glad to see Renzo cared for. Especially with Tatsu around. ]
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