July 2025 IC Mingle

[folkie]

July 2025 IC Mingle

Introduction

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This IC Mingle is open to all.
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly IC Mingle! Please feel free to post with any characters regardless of whether they joined this month.

All IC Mingles are game canon and work like "mini mini-events". They're a great way to gain new CR and immediately jump into the setting.

IC Mingle threads can be used for spoon spending at any time.

Current players are always encouraged to tag new players on the IC Mingle!

[ Prompt]

Meet Me in My Dreams. ★

Content Warnings: Dreamscape/Dream Logic, Potential Violence, Potential Memory Sharing, Potential Mind/Power/Etc Swap

In most of Folkmore, it's impossible to tell how deep the cracks go, their black void and nature to swallow whatever enters them evading the answer. On Never Fade, an island in the sky, one crack breaks through the bottom of the island. It devours the space it occupies and grows little by little by little. When it reaches a foot wide and crosses a third the island, Lavender declares enough is enough! Whatever Star Children decide for the rest of Folkmore, this threat must be stopped. Lavender sends chickadee spirits in dreams and reality to invite Star Children to join them.

Star Children can ease the process by coming to Never Fade with someone who matters significantly to them. People need to space themselves out on either side of the divide and connect. Star Children with bonds—soul mates, Familiar/Unfamiliar bonds, adoption, etc—are asked to go into the tunnels. They must use their bonds to find each other in a dreamscape, which will thin the void until they can see each other again. Star Children with emotional connections—non-formal bonds—are asked to face each other on the surface. There they will knit the energy of Folkmore together with yarn. They can toss the yarn back and forth to each other or even exchange yarn with someone next to them, to tighten the weave. Lavender goes hazy but walks above the crack on the woven yarn. The void fades until its blackness is gone.

The space remains empty, a chasm across Never Fade. No one will disappear from Folkmore should they fall down it, but if they cannot fly, teleport, or otherwise recover themselves from a fall, it's a long way down to go. Mildly problematic when it traverses so much of the island. Lavender asks for Star Children to come up with ideas for how to solve it. Either, Star Children will fix the problems in the process, or it can generate enough Lore for Lavender to heal the island.

Lavender creates a lucid dreamspace around the crack. The dreamscape allows Star Children to use any of their abilities, native or Role or something completely different, and to physically manifest challenges to build the Lore needed to succeed at this healing. It requires both physical and relational (Lore) elements. The greater the differences between Star Children, the more effective their challenges are at healing Never Fade. Differences include amount of time spent in Folkmore, Roles, regions they live in, worlds they are from, species, etc. The greater the gap(s) between Star Children, the bigger the impact.

The challenges manifest themselves based on the approach pairs of Star Children take to solve the issue. They follow dream logic. Success depends on both material means and emotional success.

• Add material to fill the gap > find common ground. Examples: walk across a rope bridge toward each other, with each slat requiring saying something you have in common; fighting an enemy together with teamwork.
• Pull/push the island together > understand a significant difference. Examples: complete a maze/obstacle course that requires skills of both people; walking through a memory that shows why the other person is the way they are.
• Magically connect the sides > switch places and succeed. Examples: complete a challenge with a power swap, body swap, or Role swap; fight an enemy in a mech where one person controls each side or each set of limbs.

• A crack in Never Fade gets so big, Lavender decides to banish it.
• Lavender invites Star Children to help:
• Star Children with bonds (in-game or from canon) go into the tunnels on opposite sides and focus on their bonds to thin the void.
• Star Children with strong relationships face each other atop the island and toss magical yarn back and forth, weaving it together. Toss it to your neighbors too!
• Once the void is vanished, the empty gap remains. Lavender creates a lucid dreamscape where Star Children can face different challenges based on their solution so close the gap:
• Fill the gap with material > challenges to find common ground.
• Pull/push island together > challenges to understand significant differences.
• Magically connect the sides > challenges to switch places and succeed.
• Wildcard (got another idea?) > ask below!
• The effects/impact of successful challenges are bigger, the more differences there are between partners: time in Folkmore, Roles, regions they live in, worlds, species, etc. The challenges are just as hard.

Comments

[apuckalypse]

"I mean- usually wouldn't," It's his precious weapon, gifted to him from his uncle, he's very protective. But, uh. His uncle is here now, and could totally make him a new one if something happened, and... "It's kind of an emergency! I've got another one. Take it!"

When Slash rushes past Raph and is still in the process of halting and turning around again, Casey tosses the chainstick towards him. With the blades retracted, it's just an incredibly durable hockey stick, so it should be good to wield, even if it isn't the same as having his trusty sai.

Meanwhile, Casey plucks Draxum's magic pinecone from his side pouch, tapping it to summon his gifted magic staff. He's not as fast with casting as he is with the chainstick, but if their goal is non-deadly defeat, then he has spells that can utilize that a lot better than, well. Slicing and dicing.

[saisdoesmatter]

If Casey's suggesting it, then he's not going to say no! At this rate he's going to have to figure out how to get a pair of sai again, but when Casey lobs the stick at him, Raph's snagging it out of the air and spinning it like a stave to get the feel immediately.

"Thanks!" he replies, used to working with his own Casey's sticks from time to time. Granted, they'd usually break more often than not, but this one is reinforced somehow. It definitely feels heavier than the normal one.

Slash shakes off the miss to turn and survey them again, the bandanna tails fluttering as he slams the mace against the ground and roars at the pair of them. Raph grits his teeth, then stiffens as Slash completely ignores him and goes for Casey instead. "Oh hell no!"

[apuckalypse]

Oh, cool, he's the favoured target now. Well, thankfully Casey Jones is used to fighting against (or around) people who are much bigger than he is, Krang or otherwise. He keeps a careful eye on that mace in particular as he's charged, recognizing that it would absolutely flatten him in one hit, and times his dodge early enough to force the big turtle to miss, too late to adjust his aim. Casey slides between Slash's legs, dragging the staff against the ground as he does so and activating one of its spells.

Big, weedy vines burst up out of the ground, winding repeatedly around both of Slash's legs, trying to pin him in place and keep him immobile long enough for a counterattack.

[saisdoesmatter]

Hollering a wordless yell, Slash drives the mace down to try and catch Casey with it, missing as the teen avoids it with his own years of practice. The huge spiked mace slams into the ground, kicking up dirt everywhere as he attempts to turn to watch where his target is going.

The staff does its job just fine when Casey drops under Slash's bulk, the vines winding around the turtle's legs without much trouble, given his size in comparison to the other two teens.

Raph isn't expecting the spell from the staff, given that he doesn't know about Draxum or where Casey got it from, but he's not about to deny the advantage Casey just gave him. He's already moving, spinning the hockey stick around so the blade part is facing away, so he can use the handle to vault up and kick Slash in the back of the head, bouncing off and sending the big guy landing belly down in the ground amid the vines.

[apuckalypse]

"Nice going!" Casey grins behind his mask, the excited tone of it carrying through his voice. While the big turtle is down, Casey taps his staff on the ground once more, sending out a fresh layer of vines to wrap around Slash's body, one side to the other, to try and fully pin him down. "Can we, uh, get that mace off of him? I assume it'd be bad to kill him..."

Since Raph seemed to know him and all. Casey's still not used to non-sparring fights where the intent is not to kill. Maybe they can knock him out...?

[saisdoesmatter]

Once he lands on his feet, he's adjusting his grip on the borrowed hockey stick, but the vines pop out of the ground at Casey's summoning - snagging the big turtle and driving him further into the dirt. It manages to hold him for now, resulting in Slash struggling in the binds and bellowing in rage.

He nods at the suggestion, moving to where the mace ended up and slamming the hockey stick against the meaty part of thumb and forefinger, earning another holler of pain before he's snagging it and tossing the damned thing out of range. With another spin, he's slamming the end of the stick into Slash's temple to stun, quickly moving to the exposed section of neck to jab a pressure point.

It takes all but a few moments before the big guy goes still, letting Raph back off with a hard exhale. "...there...that'll take care of it for now."

[apuckalypse]

Casey approaches from the other side cautiously, his staff pointed towards the fallen turtle, though he takes no further action, but ready in case he suddenly wakes up and attacks again. "Whoa. What'd you do?"

He's never done pressure points before, that sort of thing doesn't work on Krang monsters. At least, not in his world.

[saisdoesmatter]

It's pretty obvious that Raph's a little rattled as he rolls his shoulders a few times, plunks the stick into the ground and leans on it a little bit. "Pressure points. Renders the foe unconscious for awhile - mainly gives their nervous system a little bit of a reset so they go down."

He quiets as he looks at Slash for a few moments before continuing. "My sensei taught me them."

[apuckalypse]

"Ah..." That word sure has a lot of implications, in their family. In Casey's experience, sensei and dad are pretty much interchangeable. "Master Splinter?"

[saisdoesmatter]

His eyes close at the name but he nods. "Mmhmm. My father. He taught me how to use it."

But he pushes it aside to smirk, eyes crinkling with mischief. "I could probably teach you some of them if yer interested."

[apuckalypse]

Casey's eyes brighten. "I'd like to, yeah! That'd be cool. Who knows, it might come in handy."

He finally feels comfortable enough to relax his posture, circling around the giant turtle to stand next to Raph. Now what are they supposed to do...?

[saisdoesmatter]

"Sure thing, Case. I can give you the basics at least."

When Casey wanders around the still stuck and downed Slash though, his face falls. "...something don't feel right about this whole thing though. Even if Slash was from some other point of our world, he should have at least recognized me."

[apuckalypse]

Casey crouches down, sliding his staff across the distance between to gently poke Slash with the non-pointy end. "Gonna be honest, this... probably isn't the real Slash. I bet it's a trial. Sometimes we have to fight something, or someone, familiar to us to get past it."

What the next steps are, though... "Tell me about him?"

[saisdoesmatter]

The downed turtle doesn't really do much but get poked, given that he's still out cold. A rumble of general breathing sounds from Slash, but with him down and vine wrapped, he doesn't do much else.

Raph listens as Casey brings up the idea of a trial, his eyes narrowed at the downed turtle, but grumbles about it. "Well...where to start, really..."

He rubs the back of his head and takes a deep breath. "Slash used to be Spike. A normal turtle. He was my pet before he got mutated into...well, Slash."

[apuckalypse]

"You had a pet turtle!?" He did not see that coming! Besides Mayhem, he can't recall ever hearing about any of the turtle fam having pets... Master Splinter had a goldfish once, he vaguely remembers? (Who joined the resistance before he was born. He. Thinks.)

[saisdoesmatter]

He isn't all that surprised by the surprise from Casey, but it makes him smile. "Yeah, someone abandoned him into the sewers so I rescued him. He was my best buddy."

[apuckalypse]

"Oh... that's cute. I'm sure he was real happy you took him in."

In his experience being adopted when you feel abandoned or lost is kinda the best thing ever.

"Weird that he just attacked out of nowhere..."

[saisdoesmatter]

"I like to think so; he seemed happy when he was with me before the mutation."

His gaze goes to the downed Slash, who still hasn't gotten back up or woken, which surprises him because Slash is pretty hearty, even when they fought the first time.

He swallows hard because those bandannas around his bicep are enough of a reminder.

"...after he got mutated he...at first thought it should just be him and I. That the rest of the team wasn't supposed to be a part of it."

"It was all my fault."

[apuckalypse]

Casey's eyes widen. "Why do you think that?"

He finds it hard to imagine that Raph would've done something intentionally to cause an assumption that unreasonable. Like- the brothers were inseparable, surely in every universe, because the opposite feels wrong, not something they'd have chosen. Even in his own apocalyptic world where everyone died, the choice was made for them and they'd fought every day against it.

But he's no stranger to self-blame either, so... he listens.

[saisdoesmatter]

Raph doesn't smile, he just looks over the downed Slash for a few moments before continuing.

"I don't know if you ever like, vented to anyone about like, the things that bother you or when you're frustrated or whatever. I did that when it was just Spike and I. I mean, he was my pet and my buddy. So like, he was there to listen when no one else would."

And all that turned into misunderstandings and assumptions when Spike turned into Slash.

"When he got mutated? It was fine at first. Then like...I guess he thought because I complained about m'bros that they shouldn't be in the picture anymore."

[apuckalypse]

"...Oh..." That's sobering, considering the implications. He can understand the guilt, now. "But- that's not your fault! It's just venting... it was a misunderstanding. There's no way you could have known."

[saisdoesmatter]

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "No, but it still happened. They still got hurt because of me and my big mouth."

[apuckalypse]

Casey is quiet for a moment. He can't argue much against that, much as he wishes it. If his error had gotten sensei hurt, or...

...Still, though. "You can't take all the blame. Even if you could've known or done anything different... he should've talked to you. He didn't have to take it all on himself, without checking first if it's what you actually wanted."

[saisdoesmatter]

Raph is quiet for a bit, looking over the downed Slash before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck. "I...suppose. But the crew got really hurt because of it. It's my job to look out for them, not get them into deeper trouble."

[apuckalypse]

"Man... is that a built-in Raph thing, or what? Mine's always like that, too." It's not a bad thing, but... it sure sounds like a heavy responsibility, every time it comes up. "You guys are brothers. You look after each other, it's not all on you."