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Sodder ([personal profile] sodder) wrote in [community profile] soddersays2019-06-25 12:24 am
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JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME




JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME









Welcome to July's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: DREAM HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Violence, Freddie Kreuger references, fire, forced sleep with some drug-like references, stabbing, nightmares, monsters, possibility for extreme alcohol consumption, and lobster festivals
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!











WHEN THE BOAT COMES IN


It’s July and July in Maine means lobster! The Lobster Festival springs up seemingly overnight down near Koji Pond. In the morning, there’s a large parade that makes its way through town, starting from the top of East Main Street and all the way down through West Main St until they hit the festival. There are tents, a few rides, games, arts and crafts, and most importantly, food pretty much everywhere behind the hotel and you can help yourself to free ice cream at the ice cream shop! Lobster ice cream and Blueberry ice cream are pushed to the forefront, but you can get just about any flavor you could possibly dream of in the long run.

You can hear live music playing and a stage has been set up on the roof of the arcade. Live bands play everything from folk music to jazz to classic rock that you may or may not have heard in your lifetime. There’s a tent where local artists (including sleepers) are selling art, a craft tent where people are selling goods they’ve made such as pottery and homemade fudge, and a Do It Yourself tent where people are teaching you how to make your own buoy decoration for your front yard or how to weave your own baskets!

A seafood cooking contest is held for anyone who may want to show off their culinary skills. Any kind of seafood dishes are allowed, but they highly encourage showing your abilities to cook with lobster! Think you can beat the longstanding champions from Deerington? It’s pretty unlikely, especially since it looks like the townspeople keep trying to sabotage your meal as you’re making it. Did you mean to put in an entire half cup of salt to your stew? Oops. Guess you better figure out how to work with it anyway.

Across Koji Pond, there are floating crates set up for the great crate race! See if you can make it across the lake fastest – challenge a friend! These lobster crates wobble pretty heavily, but each runner is given a life vest for when they might inevitably fall in. Be careful if you do! Some of those strange looking fish in there definitely bite.

Each morning at the festival there will be an all you can eat blueberry pancake breakfast. Surprisingly, nothing drastic seems to happen, so have as many pancakes as your body can hold! They’re delicious, after all. Through the rest of the day, it’s easy to get your hands on lobster rolls of varying sizes, full steamed lobster meals (with corn on the cob and a buttered dinner roll), lobster salad, steamed mussels, scallops, haddock (baked or fried), fried clams, lobster stuffed risotto balls, blueberry cobbler, and strawberry shortcake are all available at any of the food stands. All the food seems perfectly safe. But you’re gonna need something to wash it down with…

The drink stand has a great deal to offer, but every drink seems to come with a particularly strange side effect to it. People who enjoy the hand crafted beers will find that it gets them drunk twice as fast and can even make people who would normally never drink completely wasted after just a glass or two. Every glass you have makes you thirstier than the last and it can be easy to want to reach for another beer to try and get yourself together. In fact, it’s particularly hard to reach for anything else. Urges to drink the beer will last for at least one full hour or can be cut short by being responsible and going to drink some water instead.

So maybe beer isn’t your thing; that’s okay! There’s also blueberry lemonade which will turn you the color of blueberries from head to toe! Fresh iced tea will make you feel particularly sarcastic, prone to mocking even your closest friends and gossiping with complete strangers about the things you may or may not have heard about the town. Got a juicy secret you were trying to keep for someone? Well, it’s out in the open now. Cream sodas will make you extremely cuddly, wanting to cozy up next to the closest person to you for a little while. The more you drink, the more touchy-feely you may get, so maybe try and stick to just one or two unless you’re looking for some afternoon delight. Hot tea will make you feel calm and relaxed to an extent you never have before. To the point where you might even want to just go lay down on one of the docks and take a quick catnap in the middle of the afternoon sun. Hopefully you wore sunscreen.

Effects from any drink will last for one to three hours or until you have some strawberry shortcake from one of the food vendors.


BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL


So maybe the lobster festival isn’t your thing or you got tired of all the crowds and wanted to go and do something else fun. Strangely enough, some of the fields out near the farmhouses apparently have a bunch of blueberry bushes that no one’s ever noticed before! They’re in full bloom and the berries look ripe for the picking. Perfectly round, juicy, warm from the sun – you could eat a whole handful of these and maybe never feel more satisfied. They’re deliciously sweet, perfect for pies and cobblers. And a whole basket seems to be reasonably priced, so why not go out and pick as many as you can!

The longer you’re out in the fields, the more you’ll start to feel a little groggy. It’s easy to shake off as just being from the sun at first and you might think about heading back, but something in you wants to keep picking. So you trudge in deeper into the fields, and that sleepy feeling becomes more and more difficult to ignore. Eventually, you might find that you’re ready to just lay down and take a nap in the shade of a particularly large blueberry bush. It seems like a good a spot as any – the ground is nice and soft. Just curl up for a little while and close your eyes. Even people who are normally not prone to sleeping will find that they are compelled and even capable of taking a quick nap in these fields.

Any dreams you may have while sleeping will feel more vivid than normal – to the point where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. Did you actually manage to find your way out of Deerington and back home? You can pinch yourself, but you won’t wake up, and it’ll hurt like a bitch, so it’s hard to be sure. Dreams seem to mostly be pleasant ones, but the occasional nightmare might find its way in to your otherwise restful sleep. Anyone who stumbles on you asleep in the fields might even hear you talking in your sleep, rambling out conversations and feelings you might normally have kept quiet. Got feelings for someone you were trying to bury? They might just hear you mutter them out loud if they’ve found you there in the dirt. Wanted to make sure no one in Deerington found out you had no home to go back to? That sucks, it sounds like you might have just spilled the beans without even knowing.

The real question is if the person who finds you will wake you up or just keep listening to find out more of your secrets without having to pry for them.


NINE, TEN, NEVER SLEEP AGAIN



It’s not just in the blueberry fields that sleepiness seems to be catching. Throughout Deerington, people seem to be having a harder and harder time staying awake for long stretches. The desire for a quick nap or even a long snooze becomes harder to fight as each day passes and you might find yourself nodding off in places you normally wouldn’t – behind the wheel of a car, in the middle of a store, at work… Hopefully no one gets too hurt or loses a job during these strange episodes.

Only unlike in the fields, when you do give in to sleep, the dreams you have are now far from pleasant. Nightmares are running amok in your mind, but that vivid realism? That inability to tell when you’re awake or asleep? That has definitely not changed. You might not have even realized you’ve fallen asleep at all – most of the scenery around you seems to be Deerington itself, but something just seems off. You don’t have time to think about it though because it’s then that things start to get scary. Whether it’s reliving your most traumatic experiences, running in to your worst enemies, or seeing monster of your own creation popping up and chasing you, danger and fear are permeating every corner of these dreams. Horror movie fans might find they’re being chased by Freddie Kreuger, hunted down by Jason, cornered by the aliens from Alien. Or maybe there are terrifying monsters from your own world that have started to come for you and are trying to tear you limb from limb. It feels impossible to outrun, and maybe in the end, you don’t. But if you die in your dreams, you don’t really die in real life, right? So you might just snap awake with a particularly frightening jolt.

You think when you wake up that everything is fine. That sense of fear is gone and you’re able to just breathe. But as you go about your day, you start to see images from your nightmares out of the corner of your eyes. Was that Freddie’s claws scratching against the blackboard? Did you just hear the strange clicking of alien feet against the tiles? You hope it’s in your imagination, but this is Deerington. When does anything ever stay normal?

The danger from your nightmares is definitely invading your personal space and it will try to kill you. Anyone else can see these images just as plain as day as you can and they are welcome to either sit and watch or help you fight. Whatever is trying to kill you will go down in the same manner it would have back home – that means that it could be as easy as a bullet between the eyes or it could be as complex as an intense ritual. Guess you’ll have to figure it out for yourself before it really does kill you.



Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.
vajratna: (A traitor may betray himself)

[personal profile] vajratna 2019-06-30 09:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ and here aru thought her life was weird. but she gets it. she wouldn't give up all the weirdness in her life, no matter what her mother or anyone else said. but that's more because aru can't give up being special. not after always being . . . not special. not good enough. ]

Sure. Take care of yourself. Hope it works out.
magija: (✾ ₂₀₉)

[personal profile] magija 2019-06-30 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ wanda manages to laugh at the girl’s blunt response, offering a nod in affirmation at the sentiment. ]

It does sound disgusting, doesn’t it? But believe it or not, it surprised me too. [ she peers down to her cup, still half filled with the dessert along with the small spoon that was supplied with it. she’ll even hold it out to the woman beside her in offering. ]

You’re welcome to try it, if you’d like.

[ because maybe it’ll aid in sobering her up, though maybe that’ll be better done with some water. for the moment, wanda would rather avoid leaving the girl here on her own, swaying back and forth on the seat. ]

Oh, I’m — I’m from Sokovia. Small country, not many know about it. Right by Bulgaria and Greece.
rattailmom: (Oh thank god the ride is over)

[personal profile] rattailmom 2019-06-30 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I can only imagine.

[ A nod. ]

She wasn't the only one either, there's also the Balmera, a living petrified creature that grows crystals that have become highly sought after, since they can be used as an energy source. Not all were willing to give back to the Balmera after they took what they needed.

[ There's a bit of a pause as she thinks that one over. It almost sounds like Haggar when she makes those creatures of her's, although she's pretty sure Prorok was quite against it happening. ]

There is something similar where I am from, to an extent, although I don't believe the outcome is nearly as welcome.
magija: (✾ ₃₁₉)

[personal profile] magija 2019-06-30 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ she doesn’t know how it started or whether what he does is purposeful to ruin her or simply retaliate against anyone who might be messing with his ingredients. all that she knows is what she witnesses and right now, that happens to be that man beside her is using some sort of magic to disrupt the process of her dish.

when she takes notice of the frozen butter, there’s a quiet frustration in the tight pressing of her lips, but she keeps the composure, chin raised as she peers over to the man beside her.

she won’t even attempt to sneak, won’t disguise it now as she twirls her fingers for more of that soft crimson light as she uses it to merely carry her frozen butter and exchange it with the warmer butter on his table.

two can play at this game, sir. ]
shoutymutant: cachaemicgement @ tumblr (Default)

Re: Lobster

[personal profile] shoutymutant 2019-06-30 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[He glances up suspiciously, then gives a rebellious lick of his ice cream before he musters up an answer, and with effort he's not too shitty about it:]

There's room.

[He notices she doesn't have any lusus-adjacent shit on her person, so he just dives into the rant that was already on his mind before he can help himself.]

Do you see what they're eating? It's fucking horrifying. Humans. They'll eat anything.
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (smooth.)

Re: Nightmares

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[Is it him? He stares until the man comes into full view, and, no, it's not, though the resemblance is there. Maybe that's why he speaks more candidly than he normally would, in this situation. He normally wouldn't look for allies, just weapons, just plans.]

Bad dreams, friend. You wouldn't happen to have a weapon on you, would you? Blaster? Knife? Rapier?

[Now he's getting absurd. Now is not the time. But he's never been known as particularly sensible. Dangerous, maybe, but not sensible.]
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (Default)

Re: lobster

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ah, it was a mistake to take the head-on approach. He grins instead, watching the girl intently.]

Bad Wolf. Yes, I've heard of you. Such exploits! Such adventure.

Do you know my name, Miss Bad Wolf?

[He has to know how much she knows, how she knows it, and he is by no means equipped at the moment to pry it out of her by bloody means - and, least of all, there's the question of what the Doctor might do if he's around and he does so. It's a festival. He must behave, for now. How disappointing.]
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (now listen.)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[He frowns, less the exaggerated gesture that it usually is, more a genuine sad twist of the mouth, then he fights it back and tries desperately to fight back the current of emotion and sentiment and oh, but he wants him.]

I was born to rule, Doctor. I looked into the schism and I saw the truth. It was all there, for me.

[His hand tightens gently enough on the Doctor's. It's nearly a pleading gesture. Listen to me.]

If you would let me, I could give you everything you've ever dreamed of.
hiyakai: (xii)

[personal profile] hiyakai 2019-06-30 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ wow. he was... not expecting that reaction. then again, he guess it's a normal response from a sympathetic person. there aren't a ton of those in mystic falls. when was the last time he had even received a hug from someone?

decades ago.

sooo, he doesn't know exactly how to react here. tensing up a little, his hands immediately flies up as she wraps her arms around him.
] Yep. Tortured. [ he settles for giving her a somewhat awkward pat on the back. ]

Wait, there is a little octopus mutant in there? [ man, he wants to see what it looks like! he has never met an alien before. oh, and he guess he should respond more empathetically here— ] I'm sorry you almost destroyed the universe. That must not have been fun. [ it sounds very fun. ] Sounds traumatizing.

[ a beat. ]

I'm sure your friend will be fine. Is he here too? [ good job, kai. ]
laminae: (punch punch)

[personal profile] laminae 2019-06-30 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh, beat up gets Fern's attention. He perks up.]

Nope. But hey, that also means there's usually some dingwad monster that's gonna murder people to wail on. The heroes around here even banded together to make a whole organization dedicated to keeping everyone safe.
hiyakai: (xxiii)

[personal profile] hiyakai 2019-06-30 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ kai, on the other hand, is feeling way more amused than annoyed at the moment. honestly, he could care less about the contest now that it has been confirmed he isn't the only witch in this town. it's very exciting.

man, he loves witches.

her magic is so pretty and cool too. just like her. he has never seen anything like it before. it's red and mesmerizing, and he can feel the power.

UGH. the best.

anyhoo, the swapped butter is a nonissue for him. if he can freeze it, he can unfreeze it — just like how he can freeze the butter she took from him, so enjoy that. with a quiet murmur, he also (un)helpfully turns off her stove. (:
]
borntolove: (That Semxy Hair)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] borntolove 2019-06-30 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[The Doctor feels the settle tighten grip - and those brown eyes haven't cut eye contact. He is listening. Oh, that's what you saw in there. When Ten speaks it's still gentle]

Yes, you were born... and you did look into the schism. We both did. [A pause and small in hale] But beyond that - we both should know better to question what is the truth. That is raw space - one can make any truth they want out of it.

You really think - you really believe that billions of years of time and space was just waiting for you to be born? So that you could rule over all life in that?

Not to downplay us as Time Lords but do you believe just because we've mastered time travel that it gives us the right to do that? To decide who lives and who dies? Shouldn't we be better than that? Be an example. Something to strive for that they will never achieve.

What if another species got a hold of time travel? Does that give them the right?

[All of a sudden Ten looks and sounds like Four as someone does a very short qoute of a very long statement as a shadow of a Dalek is seen somehow behind The Doctor before disappearing. After all - guess what other species mastered time travel]

Do I have the right?

[Then changes back like nothing happened and eyes The Master like someone is listening and a very gentle thumbing of The Master's palm. A non verbal 'what is that?']
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (Default)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's stirring, that's impossible to deny. He stares at the Doctor, bereft for a moment, then pulls away his hand despite his every instinct to hold on, to drag the Doctor alongside him. There's as much of a chance of that of the Doctor changing him.]

Wild hopes as ever, Doctor. Do you think you can change me? Could I change you?

[A smile crosses his face. It's not a happy one. He's not happy with himself. He's failing. He always fails at the only thing that matters. Then he speaks, with sarcasm lacing the words:]

What am I, without this?
bigbadrose: (wry grin)

Re: lobster

[personal profile] bigbadrose 2019-06-30 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Harold Saxon? But I'm getting the feeling there's more to you than meets the eye.
borntolove: (Side Glance)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] borntolove 2019-06-30 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's an unblinking look back of those big brown puppy eyes. And hope. The first face of The Doctor that would have this idea that maybe instead of their cutthroat game of chess - that maybe it was time to be kind to his oldest and only left of his species]

Those seem to be the questions - doesn't it?

What is it you think you can give me?

That's not something I can answer for you. That's something you'd have to find out on your own - but you wouldn't have to do that alone.
bigbadrose: (dance like no one's watching)

[personal profile] bigbadrose 2019-06-30 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[In a way that really is similar, since Rose felt so lost and ordinary before the Doctor shook up her life. Though she would tell Aru, everyone is special, everyone is important, butterfly wings create typhoons without even knowing it.]

You too. Be seein' ya!

[A wave as she runs off. Time for more adventures.]
bigbadrose: (yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah noooo...)

[personal profile] bigbadrose 2019-06-30 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[No worries, Rose is getting really used to throwing people off their game. It doesn't help that as it is, she's rusty at people-ing. Long story.]

Yeaaaaaah they're more dangerous out of the tank believe it or not. So just... avoid it. They can take control of your nervous system if worse comes to, make you act as their living puppet. And they're primarily motivated by just pure hate. Hate and survival. And supremacy.

[She can't help the giggle though, instantly catching on that he kind of wishes he was there for the mayhem.]

Well, no, it was pretty fun! But I don't remember a lot of it. Human failsafe to avoid that trauma thing.

Yeah. If he's not--

[Frown. She has watched him die way too often. But it's not real... right? Or permanent or... she can't be sure, after all she's backwards in timelines so...]

[She just facepalms.]
He gets into trouble worse'n I do, I swear.
variantcover: (idk my bff Jill)

[personal profile] variantcover 2019-06-30 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Gwen just shrugs. "Then move? There's plenty of places to stay that aren't all run-down."

She has an irritating (sort of) boyfriend, but unfortunately for Jerry, he's in another dimension. She does, however, have a gun in her backpack so proceed with caution.
variantcover: (💣...)

[personal profile] variantcover 2019-06-30 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
That's entirely possible.

[ Gwen looks around the blueberry patch, suspicious. Jeff, meanwhile, lays his little shark self down for a shark nap. ]
magija: (✾ ₁₈₇)

[personal profile] magija 2019-06-30 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ she’s seen her a few witches here, along with some other magically-influenced personnel, but usually it’s under far better circumstances (or at least, aside from the time she and era literally fought with their magic while wanda was under some villainous influence, but that’s besides the point). she isn’t so set on winning, but she is incredibly stubborn about being messed with.

and maybe the fact that he looks so amused by the whole thing is only frustrating her a little more. because how dare he, he started this.

chewing at her lip, she stubbornly turns on her stove again, tossing the pan over it to place the frozen butter within, warming it the old fashioned way, since her magic isn’t necessarily about generating heat. still, she can toss a quick flick of a spell that punctures his sack of flour, forcing the white powder to explode up towards his face. ]
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (chat.)

Re: lobster

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I hear that a lot. [But he gestures casually, offhanded, how could you be worried about someone so congenial?] I could be quite honest with you if I believed you wouldn't raise the alarm. I know the friend we have in common would very much appreciate the effort.
swill: poppyapples.dw (ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ)

[personal profile] swill 2019-06-30 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's fairly slow on the uptake, eyes widening just enough when the guy (Shiro) admits his worry aloud. Hawkeye's not sure why his insides decide to imitate jelly again, lukewarm, but he also refuses to acknowledge it beyond passing.

That had sounded entirely too much like what Beej would have said, which is what a decent person would have said, which is, Stateside, unremarkable. Right?]
Huh. [But Hawkeye is looking easy, which is the important thing here. He's not white-knuckled or overly tense and when Shiro laughs, he cracks a grin again and this time it reaches his eyes.

Good kid.

Hawkeye waves Shiro away, or waves the pleasantries away, and fully dislodges himself from the hunk. He gestures to the open space between them and then to the space where the festival continues.]
Yeah, yeah, I know. Just missed th'mud season but the laurels are lookin' good so it can't've been that bad. We've got a ways to go before winter, buddy, believe me, I'm from here, I know this place like the back-a my hand. Well, not-- here-here, but I know Maine. It's not as bad as everyone wants it to be. I love it here. [Which isn't what the guy had been talking about, he'd bet, but beggars can't be choosers.]
hearthedrums: Hollow Art (annoyed.)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] hearthedrums 2019-06-30 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[There it is, that awful weak trembling, and the panic that rises along with it. He must gain control, or what will he be? No one. A pet. His mouth twists to that unpleasant smile again.]

You would control me.
borntolove: (Thoughtful)

Re: Blueberries

[personal profile] borntolove 2019-06-30 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
No. Not control. Offer suggestions, yes. I can't make you into someone you don't want to be.
swill: poppyapples.dw (ɪ ʜᴜʀʀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ʙʟᴜᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ)

i believe in us

[personal profile] swill 2019-06-30 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
What makes you think I wasn't a janitor? [Flat delivery, but her goddamn giddiness makes up for it. Hawkeye feels his lips, treacherous things, begin to pull at a smile again and it forces him to drop that melodramatic posture of his. He lets his gangly self really sink into the bench.

Wino extraordinaire.

He raises a brow, delicately, when she launches into that don't you know who I am style of introduction and it's he alcohol that's making him bark out a quick and short laugh again. My father the inventor of Vitex. And she's right; he has no fucking clue and for once, it doesn't seem like someone will die for it. He uh-huhs along with her challenge, and hopes he can remember to harass her for whackjob inventions later.

Right now he has an impressionable young lady who just loudly and proudly admitted to liking jazz and working in them dens of sin(ful music but Pierce does love his exaggerations). That's much more fun.]
Rose. What a lovely thing a rose is. [The Naval Treaty.] Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life. A lovely name for a lovely girl. [--] I'm Hawkeye.

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