JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Prompt Three
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

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.

Comments

[endlessflask]

Funny thing about humans. We’ll break ourselves without any help.

[ Eliot still isn’t piecing together much except that the Monster knows Quentin, which had been the whole thing Eliot was trying to avoid when he shot the Monster. He eyes the duck warily. ]

You keep it, I think it likes you more. Look, about Quentin - You never ... He’s fine, right. You didn’t break him.

[ He knows that Quentin had been fine when he broke through, but if there’s any chance that something happened after that, Eliot doesn’t think he can play nice anymore. ]

[monstrousmistake]

[Why Eliot won't take the duck is confusing to him. It has been so long since he held a bird. They feel so fragile in human hands, he wanted to show Eliot what it felt like to have his throat in his hand before. But it's not a problem, they are talking about Quentin now and that is a topic he enjoys.]

I would not break Quentin. He is my friend. [He says it with more emphasis on the 'k' and holds the duck up, turning it around to look at its face with a smile. The bird immediately starts trying to peck at his eyes, and he frowns, grabbing its neck and crushing it dead. He tosses the body into the water carelessly.] Unless he betrayed me. Like all the others... but he hasn't, he is- helping.

[endlessflask]

Helping you.

[ It does sound like Quentin. Too nice, too helpful. Too much about fixing problems.

Eliot does a good job not flinching when the duck dies. He can’t quite get over Quentin helping the Monster. In the insecure parts of Eliot’s brain, that translates to not trying to save Eliot and it stings a bit. It shouldn’t. Logically Eliot knows there’s no way Quentin wouldn’t try to get him back. Eliot just doesn’t always think logically. ]

I shot you because I didn’t want him to be trapped with you for the rest of his life.

vanya • the umbrella academy (netflix)

[violinsce]

when the boat comes in
[ Vanya is very good at going unnoticed. She's lived her life in her siblings' shadows, both unknown by the public and often unnoticed by her family. So she's gotten good at slipping through crowds and sticking to the fringes. The only reason she's at the festival is because this is where she's most likely to find her family. One of the vendors managed to catch her and foisted a scoop of blueberry ice cream into her hands.

So there she stands, a girl in an odd school uniform, holding a cone of melting ice cream, and trying very hard not to look lost. ]

blueberries for sal
[ The blueberry fields are a welcome reprieve from the chaos. She's unused to dealing with crowds and noise for any significant amount of time. Her nerves are thoroughly rankled, but she doesn't have her medication. The gentle breeze and relative silence of the fields brings her some comfort, though. Vanya walks through, lightly brushing her fingers along the branches of the bushes. She feels herself moving more and more sluggishly. She tries to turn back, but doesn't make it far before she's napping underneath the shade of one of the larger bushes. She doesn't talk in her sleep, but there's a rare smile on her face. ]

wildcard
[ Hit me up with whatever! You're welcome to PM me if you're not sure about something. ]

[monstrousmistake]

[The monster's gaze narrows a bit, like he's trying to glean some other motive or meaning behind Eliot offering an explanation for shooting him. Taking a couple slow steps closer, he looks him over critically.]

Youuu- wanted to protect him... [He says slowly, like the concept of caring about someone in that way is foreign... or just temporarily forgotten and trickles of memory are nudging at his subconscious. Then his head tilts.] From the cage... or me?

[endlessflask]

[ Eliot’s not sure why he said it. A spark of bitterness, maybe, that all that and Eliot still lost Quentin somehow. The Monster is getting the time that should be Eliot’s. ]

Both. I don’t know. Quentin - Makes me feel the same way fun coloured drinks and pills do. I didn’t want to never see him again.

[monstrousmistake]

[The admission of how Quentin makes Eliot feel doesn't seem to surprise the Monster, if anything his expression flickers with a bit of 'so that's what it is'. It distracts him from the whole wanting to hurt Eliot again after learning he got shot because Eliot was selfishly taking his new friend away.]

The nice, warm bubble feeling. [He points to the center of his chest, eyes going distant.] So it is Quentin that does that to your body... How does he hold that power?

[lunchbreaks]

Oh, of course, Crowley. I wouldn't dream of assigning you any kindnesses, that's much more my thing.

[ But he says it with a tongue in cheek that's unmissable, smiling all the way through it. It had taken them many years to get to this point, and yes: he didn't want to lose Crowley, wouldn't trade him for the world if it really came down to it, and he'd had to ask himself that recently. Human food was good, and music, and literature... but what would it be if he was alone?

He might last a hundred years, a thousand maybe. But whereas he has nostalgia for the gavotte and for lyre music and even old incan dried potatoes, he'd miss Crowley.

Not that he'd admit it out loud. ]

--And I am not fussy.

[ In the dream, Crowley might see a flustered angel dot his lips with the corner of a napkin, but otherwise carry on with the cheese plate in front of them. In the present, Aziraphale almost forgets that he's supposed to be eating. ]

[endlessflask]

I don’t know. He’s just - Quentin.

[ Eliot doesn’t know shit about the science behind attraction or love. He doesn’t really want to know, and it’s just fact that when it comes to Quentin, Eliot’s just always had that warm bubble feeling.

And now the Monster is apparently experiencing second-hand love thanks to Eliot’s body. ]

It’s not power. It’s just a human thing. Are we getting you a fucking ice cream or not?

UHHH BREAKS MY MOSTLY-HIATUS REAL QUICK??? boat boat boat

[fourgasm]

[I mean, it's not like Klaus hasn't snatched a few meals from the vendors here already, so he's definitely not going to turn down free ice cream. Especially now that the foodstuff he grabbed during the time he went a little loot-happy (hey, everyone makes mistakes,) is starting to run out.

He's working on his own ice cream cone, glances over casually when he sees a small someone standing nearby, and instantly the generous scoop of ice cream he's licking at gets pushed out of the cone and onto the ground.]

Ah— Shitting fuck—

[Wait, okay, priorities. She doesn't look like a Deerington ghost, but she sure doesn't look like Vanya. At least, not current day Vanya. So what the fuck exactly.

The only way to find out, of course, is to just... casually step over, still holding his (now empty) sugar cone, and just utterly fail to not be completely suspicious as he strikes up some conversation.]

Uh... hey, little girl. Enjoying the, [he squints and gestures vaguely at the stalls and crowds around them, looking like he may have just forgotten what a "festival" is called,] uh, party?

[Hey is there a way to randomly approach a child who probably doesn't know you without seeming horrible? Asking for a friend. Klaus definitely already knows. Look at this.]

[list_maker]

[Arya looks up from her pancake mid-chew, not subtle in her staring at the third eye. It's a look of curiosity, not suspicion or fear. She's seen a lot in her short number of years, but that is something new. She doesn't stop eating but there's less of a frenzy to it.]

Yes. And no. [She's aware that response isn't going to make much sense. Once she swallows what she's eating Arya elaborates.] I was here before but just returned. Years for me. But less time passed here, I think.

[flask]

[We're casually skirting the appearance compliment, thank you.]

You're the only person I've ever met who would say a lobster is cute.

[This is said with an endless amount of fondness, of course. Nott isn't quite at the level of "I fucking love you guys" drunk, but after basically being convinced she was alone forever again, running into Jester fills her with so much relief she's especially grateful for this brand of weird.

And, you know, this leetle blue tiefling tends to be contagious in her excitement about pretty much everything.]

The crate's too big to carry, definitely... Too big for the sack...

[Nott is deep in thought. Which is always a good sign.]

Oh! I can just carry it around with my Mage Hand, right?

[Like, it lasts a minute, but she could just keep casting it after every minute... it's a cantrip... it's fine... Don't question her.

And with that, she makes the somatic gesture for her spell, and then the crate starts floating up, plucked off the ground by an invisible hand.]

Wow, those wings you drew on the Unicorn Dick were pretty fuckin' good, huh??

[onerthes]

[She was used to it. Stares just made her smile more honestly, since she found the curiosity interesting as a rule. While Arya looked, the third eye blinked, proving that it was definitely real.]

Oh... no, that makes sense. I ... don't know if we met before, though. I apologize if we did. I am suffering amnesia right now, but I'm sorry you've been stuck in this awful place all over again.

aaaa, hello!! sorry for the delay! work also... destroys me...

[finearts]

( Maybe she was looking at Max. Maybe she was looking at some dream-image of Max. It was hard to tell. All of her dreams had been Blackwell-oriented. She saw Nathan, and Kate, and Rachel, and... Jefferson... It was only a matter of time before Max's hipster ass joined the shame-parade that was also known as her nightmares.

In a different life, seeing Max half-asleep and drenched in coffee would bring a smile to her face. She might even say 'hold that pose' before snapping a photo because you can't beat the classics.

The thought crosses her mind and dies there.

She's waiting for it.

Waiting for Max to blame her like every other person in her nightmares does. Maybe she'll lay it on thick, like Nathan does, or maybe she'll just have those sad, sad eyes, all hollow and totally haunting like those Diane Arbus images, like sad mothers and children, like Kate Marsh. And when Max just stands there, Victoria knows something must be wrong. This isn't even the Two Whale's diner! Even in her dreams she would never be this inconsistent! It must mean that she's... )

No fucking way. You're real?

( It's one hell of a greeting. She waits a few moments for Max to shift and morph to some other scene, but she stays right there. )

[finearts]

Sounds fake.

nancy wheeler . stranger things . end of s2

[keenely]

when the boat comes in

[ this is all

so damn weird?

nancy is from a town where, lately, "weird" tends to also mean "horrifying", but here everything just seems weird-weird. there's lobsters and basketweaving and free ice cream and okay, maybe all of those things are pretty normal for a summer festival, but after the letter she received at her arrival, and the fact that they gave her this watch that's overwhelming but apparently very useful, for free? she's feeling more than a little bit of whiplash. she doesn't trust any of this.

and the fact that they gave her a tattoo without her permission? NOT okay. her mother was going to murder her. twice. and there was literally no way she was going to get a job at a formidable newspaper company with a tattoo on her wrist. ugh. not that it mattered. apparently there was no way home from here.

and yes, of course she considered that this was some twisted dream world that was somehow related to the down. the thought crossed her mind. but it was all too- lively. she's been to the down more than once, and it was not like this.

but anyway, for all the talk of not trusting this place, she can't seem to pass up a free drink. she avoids the beer because no, she will not be drinking alcohol in this completely messed up town, but she will have a cup of iced tea. and at some point, a cup of cream soda.

so you have options, random passerby: you can either deal with nancy being kind of a jerk about the live music as she watches from below the roof they're settled on ] --You'd think they'd play something a little more up-to-date, huh? My dad doesn't even listen to this kind of stuff, and he has terrible taste in music.

[ or she's just casually slipping her hand in yours, and then, totally naturally, with maybe some mild heart-eyes if you're looking close enough - ] Hi.

network

[ okay so, this is also insane. and weird. a device that allows you to send typed messages to a giant group of people without a phone number or anything? how the hell was that even possible? but anyway, this is a lot of pressure, just sending out a message to the whole town. so... best keep it brief ]
un: nancywheeler

Hi, this is Nancy Wheeler, and I'm looking for anyone that's from a town called Hawkins, Indiana, or if you even know anyone from Hawkins that might be trapped here with us. Please write back as soon as you get this.

[ FUCKIN NAILED IT, WHEELER ]

NETWORK

[acidwashjeans]

[ it's like ten minutes after he sees the message that steve replies because he keeps dropping his phone and pressing the wrong keys ]

UN: harrington
Nance?? Nancy WHeeleR is that you? It's me, Steve! Steve HarrINgton! Are you Okay are YOu hurt?? Where are you??

[monstrousmistake]

[Complete lack of understanding is all that's on the monster's face for a moment as he weighs what's more important to him in this moment. There's a lot of things he learned in the last couple minutes of conversation that's important and he has strong and confusing feelings about, but... he also does want ice cream.]

Yes. [He says it carefully with a slow nod.] But I want to know about this- human thing... that lead you to shoot me. [His gaze turns hard and piercing and a hand comes up to grip where Eliot's shoulder and neck meet.] Did you think I would forget so easily?

[timeriffs]

[Well, that throws him for a bit of a loop, though his face remains impassive. But seriously? DAVE sounds fake?]

You met a dude named Karkat Vantas but *Dave* sounds fake to you.

[endlessflask]

To be perfectly honest? I didn’t actually think I’d ever be in this situation so, no, it never really came up.

[ Seriously, can he stop touching him? Eliot is usually pretty comfortable when it comes to no personal space, but this is all sorts of different. No one wants to be manhandled by the Monster borrowing their body. ]

I’m the last person to talk to about emotions. I like to kill them the way you like to kill - Everything else. I just don’t want to kill this one. [ He shrugs himself free of the touch, putting space between them again. ] We love each other. I guess.

[ He knows. He just can’t not be flippant about it, and, yeah, it’s petty but Eliot really wants to assert the fact that Quentin feels warm bubbles for him, too. ]

[keenely]

Steve?? Holy shit.

Hi.

I'm not hurt, just confused. And a little angry.


I have a tattoo! They just GAVE mE A TATTOO! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

[acidwashjeans]

Yeah they gave us all tattoos. Deer horn things. Antlers.

Where are you? Did you just get here?
Are you sure you're okay? This place is messed up, Nance. I'm talking like the Upside Down but worse.

[keenely]

It's bullshit - they didn't even ask me if I wanted it.

I just got here a few hours ago, yes. I'm at this giant festival thing. They're trying really hard to get me to try the lobster but I'm not exactly hungry.

Worse than the Upside Down? You realize that's a really strong statement, right?

when the boat comes in ahhh

[tagartist]

[ Chloe had been mostly staying away from the drinks and snacks because she knows their games here by now and while the thought of snagging a beer is tempting, she doesn't want to end up wasted and puking on someone, looking like she can't hold her liquor when she totally can.

That hasn't stopped her from otherwise enjoying the festival though, since for once it looks like no other weird shit is happening - until she's suddenly getting her hand held out of the blue by someone she's never talked to in this town before. She goes to look at who it is and --

That's

That's Nancy Wheeler. NANCY WHEELER. And all of sudden it's like she's 16 and in that stupid town in France again and she's holding her hand and shit, she's been quiet for too long, this is getting awkward. ] Uhhhh... [ COME ON, PRICE. ]

Hey.

[ Perfect. ]

[acidwashjeans]

You're at the festival? Okay. Nance. Hold on I'll come get you.

Whatever you do don't eat anything okay? Have you eaten anything yet?