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

[keenely]

I had a couple of drinks, but that's it.

You don't have to come get me, I'll come to you. Like I said, this party is mostly just people pushing lobster and pie in my face. Really, I'm fine.

[acidwashjeans]

[ it's too late, he's in his car ]

Nance, last month there were killer clowns wandering around town okay? Like actual clowns that murdered people. And sewer monsters that ate people and turned THEM into monsters. I'm serious about this place not being nice.

[finearts]

( Is she getting to him? Even does keep his composure, Victoria can hear a difference in cool. She's got an ear for these things. No one knows cool better than her. )

Karkat has a reason. He's a real alien. From a real alien planet. What's your excuse?

[monstrousmistake]

[The monster smiles a bit wistfully when Eliot talks about killing everything. Yes, he finds that to be a lot of fun. But then Puny Eliot says more words that are hard for him to understand. He knows the word love and what it is supposed to mean on paper, but... that's it.]

Love... [He rolls the word around in his mouth, looking like a kid desperately trying to understand a math problem way above his level. But there's something about it that has him stuck on the issue, he takes a step back and looks around at the pond, eyes skimming over the duck carcass like it's part of the scenery, looking lost.] The gods- stole something from me before throwing me in my cage. Something important... but I have no memories. I thought it was my body, but that word- echoes.

[He looks at Eliot earnestly.] What is... love?

[cue the musical number]

[keenely]

Monsters turning people into monsters? That's a new one. I'm not even going to touch the killer clown thing.

But I'm reading you loud and clear, okay. I've been on my guard since I got here. I'll let you know if the lobsters start trying to attack anyone.

[acidwashjeans]

Good. I wouldn't put it past this place to mess with the lobsters.

Hold tight I'm ten minutes away.

action.

[micycle]

[Of all the voices Mike expected to hear at the festival, Nancy's is most certainly not one, and for a few speechless moments, he wonders if it's real at all. This place has messed with him plenty before, and it's just a matter of time before it starts fucking up his mind. But... it's Nancy. Sharp, irritated, fantastic Nancy, for the first time in months. He turns around, a dab of ice cream on the tip of his nose, eyes wide.]

Nancy?

[He's... different, a little, to the familiar eye. His hair is longer, even more unruly; his freckles seem to have multiplied in the summer sun. There's the purple outline of a fading bruise around one eye, and below it his nose seems to have healed slightly crooked from a break.

A mess, in short.]

[keenely]

You really don't have to. If this party is potentially a trap for something dangerous, I'd rather you didn't, honestly.

I can meet you somewhere. Just give me directions - they gave me a town map so I can find my way.

[endlessflask]

[ Eliot’s almost convinced again that he’s dreaming this whole thing. He looks at the Monster and actually almost feels pity. He can’t believe the Monster is still the reason why he has to look at how he feels about Quentin. ]

Love is ... It’s like ... [ He sighs, and absently feels around his pockets for a cigarette. ] When you look at someone and your heart beats a little faster. When being around them makes you happy. They make you want to be a better person, you feel safe around them. Love is when you can’t imagine your life without someone.

[ Eliot pulls a menthol cigarette from the package. He hesitates a moment before offering one to the Monster. ]

Wait till you see how much my body likes these.

[violinsce]

[ Vanya looks up at him with a mix of surprise and uncertainty. She wasn't expecting anyone to notice her, much less approach her. She matches his awkwardness with her own. ]

Y-- [ She clears her throat, trying to speak louder. ] Yes.

[ Her nervous body language clearly screams 'having the time of my life!' She's replying in the positive because she doesn't want to disappoint. ]

Do you... do you want this? [ Vanya holds out her untouched ice cream. She's not overly hungry, and this man seems to have lost his somehow. ]

sorry for the delay!! this guy's got me really interested in watching mash??

[finearts]

( Didn't mean to startle her? It's too late for that shit. Consider her startled.

Who does he think he is, anyway? She was clearly having pleasant dreams about boats and meadows and little cheese platters. She would've gotten herself out of it eventually. She did not need his help.

It doesn't really matter what she needs because he's here, now, in real-time. Covered in coffee, looking apologetic, probably meaning well, but he has a way about him that makes that last sentiment a bit questionable. He speaks too fast, or maybe everything is a bit too fast right now. Doesn't matter. She's out of coffee. Wasted her good cup on this... guy. Right, about that: )

Who are you? ( It's answering a question with a question, which all her English textbooks tell her not to do. She hasn't decided if she likes him or not. For now, she'll act on not. It seems the safer choice. ) You even look at me the wrong way and I'll scream. Do you feel like a hero for coming on to a poor, sleeping girl? Is that what makes you feel good about yourself? The damsel-in-distress rescue bit must work for you every time.

( Ah, yes, hostility. The gatekeeper for vulnerability. )

If you're really going to sit there, at least make yourself useful. Get me napkins! ( Notably, she says nothing of the man whose need for napkins was far more dire. ) And I need more coffee! ( Both were said loudly enough for the wait staff to come offering them both, pouring a fresh cup for each of them and offering napkins to, well, Hawkeye. )

[fourgasm]

[It's so Vanya, is the thing. Not really how she is now, though he hasn't seen her as much as some of the others had in the past week. Like, the week before he was here. But she's been around, and he's noticed how she's changed and how she's stayed the same.

But this is not that. This is familiar in a different way, an uncanny way, and he's seeing it now years later and noticing... she agrees with him because it's expected, because it's easy. She is obviously lying.

He wouldn't notice it—or maybe not in the same way—if he were still the same age. But this is obviously not a Five scenario. This Vanya doesn't recognize the tattooed man, still taller but much more so, less restricted in his dress and expression.

Which makes how he approaches this harder, probably. He's... weirdly missed the rest of the siblings, but this isn't how he expected a potential next reunion to go.]

Uhh, no, I just... finished mine.

[He gestures with the empty cone, and then just goes and takes a bite out of it, continuing as he chews.]

Always save the cone for last. Just... never outgrew that, I guess.

[Sure!!! That's believable!!

Guess what else is totally believable? He suddenly snaps with his free hand, as if he's suddenly remembered something.]

Hey! Now I know where you looked familiar! Aren't you Vanya Hargreeves?

[YOU KNOW!!! THE MANY VANYA FANS OUT THERE!!! THOSE EXIST!!!]

[timeriffs]

Well, I'm not an alien for one.

[He tilts his head.]

Though that's pretty xenophobic of me, thinking you're from Earth. But you sure got that Earthling reek about you, too.

[finearts]

You put cereal in soup.

( liquid* )

I think you really are an alien. But it's cool. I totally don't judge. I support all different kinds of cultures, even the weird ones.

[timeriffs]

*Liquid. You really think cereal in lobster liquid is the weirdest shit humans have managed to combine to cram down their food holes? I saw a neighbor eat tuna inbetween two chocolate chip cookies. That's a thing I saw with my own eyeballs more than once.

[He puts his cheek in his hand, tilting his head the other way, now in even deeper thought.]

But I guess I could technically be an alien, idk. I was born on Earth, but now live on Earth-C.

did dave verbally say 'asterix' asking for a friend

[finearts]

( Hearing that hurt her. Physically. She could physically feel how wrong that was. The worst she's seen food-wise were those weirdos who insisted on eating sour cream and onion chips for every meal.

She didn't talk to those weirdos. )

Do you need a chiropractor? ( All that head tilting... ) I have a great one. I've never been more aligned in my life. Totes worth it. ( Not that she was offering to share. )

Oh good, more planet shit. Remembering Altoona was hard enough. Is Earth-C out there with Planet X?

[redrighthanded]

Hellboy shrugs expansively and leans back in his chair, making it creak under his considerable weight. He scratches thoughtfully at the tabletop with a single stone finger.

"I guess. Dragons, witches, vampires.. uhh, giants, were-people, frog people, that robot Hitler one time -- you know, the usual. Hey, sometimes I even won. I had help though. Mostly."

His expression sours a little, thoughts tracking back to the last time he was around the B.P.R.D. and that whole ugly business with Roger. To distract himself, he looks back at Fern.

"My name's Hellboy, by the way." He drops his fork and offers his left hand across the table.

Cream Soda w/ a dash of blueberries

[onerthes]

[Vira-Lorr was simply enjoying the festivities, minding her own business and trying to relax against the wall of one of the buildings in town. There was something comforting about being surrounded by people desperately fascinated with the wholesale slaughter of the cockroaches of the sea. It was relaxing and actually relatively normal compared to some of the other idiocy she'd seen in the last month since she'd lost her memories.

She'd passed on the beer. Not that she hadn't found out that her ancient liver could take a truckload of booze, but she just didn't trust the situation. One never knew what they had added to a drink here. She, however, had seen someone turn blue from the lemonade, and that was innocuous enough. Besides, she was thirsty. So, about the time that someone's fingers were threading through hers out of the blue, her skin was right up there in the category of Avatar shade.

Blink blink. She glanced at the young woman, though she didn't dislodge her hand. Girl both looked very VERY local, and yet the locals never mingled, so she really didn't. Maybe she'd drunk something?]

Oh, ummm, hello there. Curious one, aren't you? It's the blue isn't it? Or is it the third eye?

i am glad we understand each other lol

[mypartnerintime]

[Max's eyes close for one, two seconds... as she tries desperately to bite back any scathing retort. Yeah, she's fucking real Victoria, but that doesn't make this any less of a nightmare. They've traded like five words and somehow her shirt is already drenched in stale coffee, Victoria is already swearing at her, and Max is an inch away from just dumping a ton of hate on this pretentious-... ugh.]

Yes. [Her eyes flutter open.] Yes, I'm real, Victoria, and you-... [She gestures uselessly at her shirt, and then starts pulling at it so the wet fabric doesn't stick to her skin. It feels absolutely gross. On the plus side, she feels more awake than she has in days.

She lets out a long, slow breath.]

Why wouldn't I be real?

[finearts]

( Why would she be real? Here, in this place on the other side for the world — maybe in a different world entirely — what are the odds of Max being here too? Of all the people from Arcadia Bay that she could encounter here... )

It wasn't that nice of a shirt to begin with. In a way, I guess you could say I did you a favor. You're welcome.

( The remark doesn't have the same amount of bite behind it as her usual snide comments do, but she's getting there. Still, an apology would have been more helpful.

Seeing Max dripping where she stood must have done something to Victoria's heartstrings, because she eventually resigns with a large sigh and an eye roll. ) God, you're so pathetic. You're like one of those charity commercials on TV. ( Despite saying this, she rises to her feet and slides out of the booth. She makes her way to the bathroom and gestures for Max to follow her.

Blame it on the sleep deprivation, but Victoria felt that she could at least offer to help with clean-up duty, even if she didn't plan on actually helping. )

[timeriffs]

I got my ways of avoiding being exploded.

[Nice and vague.

He hums in thought and looks at his sword once more.]

Hm. Honestly, don't remember if this can cut through things like my other sword can. So I'll keep that in mind, don't need this broken piece of shit to break even more. It already brings enough shame to our families.

[He finally puts his sword back on his hip, but keeping his guard up, cold sweat still on his temples. But shittalking his shit sword always helps the nerves.]

If we're here why couldn't they be here.

[laminae]

Fern is fascinated as he listens, nodding along. Those are all things (except whatever robot Hitler is) that he's familiar with, which is... nice, really. Most of the people here aren't from worlds like Ooo, he's learned that much, but this guy? This guy's home has to be similar.

... If not actually Ooo.

Now that would be surprising. It's been months, and any hope he had of seeing someone from home show up had started to die.

"Fern," he replies, reaching over to shake Hellboy's hand. "You aren't from Ooo, are you?"

With his luck the answer is probably no, but he might as well ask.

[portraitor]

Yeah... yeah, I guess...

[The only other child Mary routinely interacts with is Chara, but they're pretty cold to her attempts at friendship. But Fraanciscus, and Newt... they've been nice. Maybe it would be okay to ask them about keeping an eye out for Garry and Ib.]

Okay, I'll... do that... mmm...?

[Oh, she's starting to stir a bit--looks like she might be waking back up any second now?]

[monstrousmistake]

[The Monster seems to put forth a little bit of effort to trying to understand Eliot's description of love, but it all sounds so... frivolous. In no way carrying the raw power and significance he feels like it should, the words seem inadequate and pointless. Things he has never experienced to his memory. Meaningless.]

So it is nothing... disappointing. [He settles on dismissively, though something still seems to bother him a tiny bit. Then he looks down at the offered cigarette, studying it for a pause before slowly reaching out and taking it.] I know of these. Cigaarettess. I have not played with them yet. But Quentin likes them too... is it another meaningless- love thing?

[He seems like he's almost gagging on the word love. He doesn't like it anymore because he doesn't understand but it still echoes. Then he sticks the cigarette in his mouth the wrong way.]

[endlessflask]

No, it’s just a way humans like to use to kill themselves a little faster. [ He pauses. ] Uh. Like this.

[ Eliot shows the Monster how to properly put a cigarette in his mouth, then gets out his lighter. He’s even nice enough to light the Monster’s first. ]

So the gods took something from you. Seems pretty on brand.