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

aru shah | the pandava quintet

[vajratna]

( i. lobster dinner )

[ being vegetarian, aru wasn't really considering participating. that being said, it was neat to see what the fuss was all about. lobster-flavoured ice-cream? pass. she wandered around, hands in her jean pockets as she spots the lobsters in a bucket. no doubt preparing for the competition. she was about to pass them by when they started screeching at her. she winced. aru had completely forgotten that she gained the ability to understand sea creatures.

and she forgot how loud they were.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP USSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. FREEEEEEE USSSSS"

aru winces, stepping and trying to whisper back. ]

Look guys, it's out of my hands!

[ feel free to notice the crazy girl talking to lobsters. ]

( ii. blueberries )

[ aru didn't mean to fall asleep. she just . . . liked naps. constant adventuring and finding herself in strange places like the realm of the dead, the realm of dreams, otherworlds etc tends to mean taking short naps when you can was a godsend. and this blueberry patch was so nice . . .

she lies under a tree, fast asleep save for the strange crackle of lightning around her, ready to zap anyone nearby. it's not painful, merely annoying, like a bee's sting while she mumbles in her sleep. ]

They're taking the elves to Isengard . . .

( iii. nine, ten, never sleep again )

[ most people fear monsters. rakshakas. the inky depths of the sea. that one time a giant crab tried to eat them. come to think of it, a lot of aru's experiences involve nearly getting eaten. that's just rude. but her nightmares always took a particular form. a dark shadow, sometimes with fangs, sometimes with red eyes. sometimes he had scales or a tail.

in all those times, he was her father, trying to kill her. because her existence brought upon his fate.

she was used to it, those dreams. but now she keeps seeing him out of the corner of her eye, in the mirror, at the edge and it's driving her nuts. she wasn't going to let some strange . . . magical hallucination beat her.

gritting her teeth, she waited until the strange shadow appeared, from the corner of her eye and launched her thunderbolt vajra at it.

which means a thunderbolt is probably launched at you. ]

( wildcard )

[ got a different prompt you’d like to do? ping me on captainkink / pm this journal ]

blueberries

[variantcover]

[ Gwen likes taking Jeff, her pet baby landshark, for walks. The only problem is that she can't really fit a collar or leash around him, so he just kind of takes off running whenever he sees something that interests him.

Like now, when he goes bounding up to a girl dozing peacefully under a tree. Well... As peaceful as you can get with weird lightning crackling around you. Jeff doesn't seem to care, though, he just runs right up to the girl, sniffing at her hair and whining, 'MMMMMMMRRRRRNNNNNNN!' ]

Jeff, no! Stop it!

[ Gwen comes running up behind him, panting slightly, not realizing that the girl is on the ground because she's asleep, thinking that Jeff has knocked her over. ]

I'm so sorry, are you okay?

[vajratna]

[ aru stirs, rubbing her eyes blearily until she notices that vajra had cast a net of protection over her. standing up, aru recalls it back into her hand, turning it into a golden ping-pong ball and turning to face . . . the landshark? she squints.

yep. a landshark. cool. ]

Yeah, I'm good. Where did you get a landshark? Because that is amazing.

[variantcover]

[ Glad to see the girl's not hurt, Gwen tries to corral Jeff away from the poor girl. ]

I picked him up at a creepy abandoned carnival run by some supervillains. But he's not a bad guy, he's just a little too friendly, aren't we, Jeff?

[ Jeff moans again and wriggles in Gwen's grasp. ]

Where'd you get a little lightning ball?

[vajratna]

[ aru gives jeff a little salute, briefly wondering if she can speak landshark or if her fish-speaking powers only work under the sea. ]

It's fine, I was just dreaming about Legolas. I can do that any time.

[ at gwen's question, vajra buzzes in her hand and aru shoots it a look. ]

I earned it during a quest. It's called Vajra and it's kind of a transforming thunderbolt.

[variantcover]

[ Gwen sighs dreamily. ] Ah, Orlando Bloom. A gift to this green Earth.

Well... the other green Earth. I don't know if this Earth has an Orlando Bloom on it.

[ But she digresses. ]

That's pretty cool. Are you some kind of adventurer?

[vajratna]

I . . . guess? It's a complicated answer.

[ and one aru's not sure would make her look cool or just plain weird. honestly, she still struggles with it from time to time. ]

But I do go on quests a lot. It's just like a video game. Hit all the spots before you can reach the end, etc.

lobster dinner

[ethicalproblems]

[ The whole festival involves more outdoors than Topher would generally prefer, but he's drawn out by the lure of free food. So, here he is, ice cream in hand, despite the very real concern it'll turn him into a crustacean by the end of the cone. You never know.

... And now there’s a girl talking to the seafood. Which, before arriving here, he’d have chalked up to regular crazy — potentially interesting but nothing you couldn’t find out on the streets of Los Angeles. Here, though, it could be a different story, so he’s gotta ask. ]

Are you seriously rocking the Dr. Dolittle thing?

[vajratna]

[ dolittle? a reference she doesn't quite get, but she turns to face him, hands on her hips. ]

Maybe.

. . . I don't know what that is.

[ the lobsters click their claws at her, cackling, you're such a gen z. aru gives them a glare. ]

Rude!

[ethicalproblems]

Uh, it's a subpar movie from the nineties. Not the point.

[ Missed references are the story of his life. Way less interesting than glancing between her and the apparently attitude filled lobster. ]

Let's try that again. You can talk to animals?

[vajratna]

[ aru nods slowly. ]

Kind of? Only sea animals? I think? It's a new power, so I don't know a lot about it.

[ethicalproblems]

That's so... oddly specific.

[ He still seems pretty jazzed, the thrill of rubbing elbows with the magically gifted—c-list or otherwise—yet to lose its shine. ]

At least we'll know who to call when the marine uprising is upon us.

[vajratna]

Don't jinx it.

Though I think they're too lazy to bother.

[ save for that one giant crab trying to eat her, one time. ]

lobsters!

[bigbadrose]

[Rose winces right back at Aru's apology.]

Listen, I like lobster as much as the next gal, [Heavy British Londoner accent despite her seeming at ease being in Maine.] But you wanna help stage a small breakout for a few?

[vajratna]

[ hmm. on one hand, aru doesn't really care if the lobsters get eaten or not. but at the same time . . . she's a big fan of chaos. ]

Sure. How do you want to do this?

[bigbadrose]

[If you like chaos (and freedom and helping small defenseless animals) stick with Rose and while you might go hungry, you'll never be bored again.]

A diversion. We're not too far from the docks, but it's not like I can carry the whole tank, we just gotta knock it over close enough to where they can get the rest of the way on their own, yeah? High tide should do it.

How well do you know this place?

[vajratna]

I can manage a distraction.

[ vajra buzzes in her pocket, eager to show off. ]

But I only just got here. Do we just. Dump them back into the sea?

[bigbadrose]

I think so. [Nod.] Let 'em go with a warnin'. No more wanderin' into obvious baited traps. [A shrug.] Probably won't stop 'em, but might buy 'em a few months or whatever, yeah?

I'm thinkin' we can let loose some fireworks too in the square, yeah? I know it's America, and all, but they can't be that desensitized to gunshot sounds, right? And who doesn't love big loud flashy explosions?

[vajratna]

I don't have fireworks buuuut — [ aru digs out a ping-pong ball that seems to vibrate in her hand. it switches into a thunderbolt which she holds with ease. ] — I can generate a little lightning.

1

[shiro2hero]

[Shiro has seen some weird things since he got here. Heck, he's seen some weird things since he went to space. But still. Someone talking to a bucket of lobsters is... well.]

[That's new.]

Is... everything okay?

[vajratna]

[ aru blinks, turning to face this new person. ]

It's fine. They're just unaware of the circle of life. Man eats lobster.

[shiro2hero]

[Said new person stands there rather clueless for a good few moments longer than strictly necessary. Is he going to impart some words of crustacean wisdom? Life sciences?]

[No, he's going to ugly snort-laugh.]

Okay, you got me there. Unless the town suddenly gave sea creatures higher intelligence too.

[vajratna]

I wouldn't recommend it. They have way too much attitude.

[ stupid giant crabs trying to eat her and fish sassing her all the time. ]

[shiro2hero]

Bad run-ins with some uppity sharks?

[He's still laughing, but trying to calm it down. It's probably rude.]

[vajratna]

I didn't meet any sharks, but I bet they had attitude problems too.

[ they all did. the sea? terrible place to live in. ]