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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Fortunately, Dana's convinced almost right away that the pancake swiping isn't malicious, because then she might have to actually find it in herself to muster something beyond her mouth working open and closed a few times. There may even be a small squeak of protest that makes its way out, nothing that could even really be termed a sound — but secretly, she might even be admiring the boldness of the move itself. It's something she's not even all that convinced she could pull off if their roles were reversed. ]

Uh — no, that's fine. [ Comparatively, she's not all that hungry anyway, and her wary gaze sweeps up from that half-eaten pancake to the other girl's face before she forces a smile. ] That's all you.

[ It hasn't even occurred to her to Dana to consider the possibility that the "meal plan" in question is one born of necessity and not just, like, a fondness for extreme living. She's seen Man vs. Wild. She knows you can make a meal out of bugs and that technically, it's safe to drink your own urine, but why would you want to? ]

Is it true that they taste like chicken? [ She's trying for a joke about it, but the jury's out on whether or not it'll even be considered a good one. ]

Oh, uh, great. [ she gives a fairly bashful smile as she holds up the fork-pierced pancake, almost in the way of cheers before she gives it another bite, smaller and more in control of herself this time around. she’s still starving but she also knows decency when it counts.

but who knows when she might have a meal like this again. because she’s been through this before a fair number of times — settling down into a setting that’s comfortable, something that may appear a bit long term for extended survival while riding out the rest of the apocalypse, only to have it all crumbling apart. chances are she wasn’t going to be in this town for long before the next obstacle came around to push her forward.

besides, she still needed to reunite with the others.

even so, she does chuckle at the girl’s question, nodding her head with a focused look feigning seriousness. ] Totally. Yeah, usually all you need to do in order to get that flavor is add a small dose of actual chicken and you nail it everytime. But hey, on the bright side, you can eat as many as you want and you never even gain a pound. Anyone who said you can never have too much of a good thing clearly never had crickets.

[ sarcasm, of course. because, well, crickets. ]

Edited 2019-06-26 01:42 (UTC)

[ She smiles — though it's really more of a tight press of lips, something that offers politeness even if she's still a little taken aback by this entire encounter and how it even started off to begin with, but if she's in any way concerned about how long it's going to take for her second pancake to get replaced, those fears are quickly assuaged when someone comes out from behind the tent where they're being served, an entirely fresh batch ready to be served out. Turns out Dana's unexpected loss hadn't been in vain after all, because look what it's earned her now.

She gets another pancake to stack on top of the first and then continues on down the line, though she's occasionally glancing back at the girl next to her — she might be distracted by trying to figure out whether to put regular maple or blueberry syrup on her already-blueberry pancakes, but she's definitely still listening. ]

Mmm. I think I'm going to take your word for it, but — [ She uses her plate to gesture towards the other redhead, trying to figure out how best to phrase this next part. ]

I mean, if you're trying to keep your figure, it looks like the cricket diet is working for you. [ Okay, she's just going to shut up now before she says something even more awkward, spinning so quickly back towards the array of syrups that her hair sways over her shoulder. ]

[ the good thing is that the girl does manage to get a replacement pancake for the one she so rudely swiped from her on accident. the great thing is that she gets a new set herself, a stack that she can't quite calculate with its addition to whatever she already has floating in her belly (she can't even tell how many she's had, and she can't tell if it's just luck that she can't feel it or if this is all going to literally bite her in the ass in time).

but there actually manages to be a momentary successful distraction from the sweet breakfast treats on her plate when she receives something of a ... compliment? maybe? ]

Thanks? [ she raises her brow, but the light chuckle she gives out showcases more amusement.

reaching for the standard maple, she squeezes the bottle to let the syrup drip freely atop her stack, eyes brightening a bit at the sticky sweetness. ] Though, I guess more of that credit goes towards the regular jogging routine. Gotta thank the Z's for keeping me on my toes.

Edited 2019-06-26 19:55 (UTC)

[ It was supposed to be a compliment? Granted, it was one that sounded way better in Dana's head before she actually stumbled through the telling of it, but she's never had a great mind-to-mouth filter and she's even less capable of attempting general flattery without it coming out super awkwardly.

So yeah, she's going to be spending a few minutes mentally kicking herself for that one later and crossing her fingers that the other girl doesn't remember it when they run into each other again. If they run into each other again. ]

Uh, Z's?

[ It's got to be short for something, and what does it say that her first thought runs to zombies? Maybe her clash with the sadistic Buckner family is still fresh on her mind, but for all she knows it could be a reference to some kind of new drug the kids are all taking. Meanwhile, Dana doesn't even like how she feels after drinking too much coffee; the only reason she'd been willing to light up a joint was because it had been the literal end of the world. Special circumstances and all that. ]

[ addy's bound to remember (she doesn't exactly think it'll be hard to forget now the girl whose pancakes she practically literally ate off her plate), but it isn't like she'd be holding any awkward conversation against her. it's an awkward time in an awkward place, and addy was the one to make it awkward in the first place. ]

Oh, uh, Z's — zombies.

[ it's almost strange to hear some people not actually know that shortening. from the start of the apocalypse, the term had been so wide spread, there was literally no chance of escaping it nor the bodies labeled with that name. even now, she was still finding it hard to believe that this town was supposedly free or them.

maybe it really was a dream like they say. ]

They've been kind of running the world for the past, uh, five years or so? That really not a thing here?

Zombies.

[ She doesn't repeat the word like she's unbelieving, it comes out somewhere closer to a repetition so she can confirm she's heard it right — because maybe she's too recently entrenched in all the hijinks surrounding her arrival here, she could just be substituting in a word that makes sense considering her history. Then again, what word actually rhymes with zombies? ]

I mean, I don't think it's a thing here, or this festival would look very different. Very undead. [ She gestures with her plate, then finally makes a decision to just go for the blueberry syrup. When in Rome, and all that. ]

It was sort of a thing for me. Where I'm from. Not that they'd reached total world domination yet, but — turns out they actually are a thing. [ She pretends to force a laugh. ] Who knew?

Oh.

[ maybe her tone shouldn't sound so impressed when someone confirms that they're familiar with zombies, of all things, but she's noticed a lack of mutual understanding between her and the other involuntary residents of this town, so there's something oddly comforting in hearing someone else have some familiarity. ]

It's probably totally insensitive of me, but I'm actually really glad to hear you say that. [ she grits her teeth with an awkward smile, a nervous laugh in her breath. ] I was just beginning to think I was absolutely crazy and dreamt the whole thing all this time.

[ which maybe would have been the better result. her voice softens though, as she continues, ] But it's — yeah, it's a lot to take in when you see them for the first time. I hate to say, you kind of get used to them after a couple of years.