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soddersays2019-06-25 12:24 am
sodder) wrote in soddersays2019-06-25 12:24 am
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JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to July's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: DREAM HORROR.
All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.
Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.
CW: Violence, Freddie Kreuger references, fire, forced sleep with some drug-like references, stabbing, nightmares, monsters, possibility for extreme alcohol consumption, and lobster festivals
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!
WHEN THE BOAT COMES IN
It’s July and July in Maine means lobster! The Lobster Festival springs up seemingly overnight down near Koji Pond. In the morning, there’s a large parade that makes its way through town, starting from the top of East Main Street and all the way down through West Main St until they hit the festival. There are tents, a few rides, games, arts and crafts, and most importantly, food pretty much everywhere behind the hotel and you can help yourself to free ice cream at the ice cream shop! Lobster ice cream and Blueberry ice cream are pushed to the forefront, but you can get just about any flavor you could possibly dream of in the long run. You can hear live music playing and a stage has been set up on the roof of the arcade. Live bands play everything from folk music to jazz to classic rock that you may or may not have heard in your lifetime. There’s a tent where local artists (including sleepers) are selling art, a craft tent where people are selling goods they’ve made such as pottery and homemade fudge, and a Do It Yourself tent where people are teaching you how to make your own buoy decoration for your front yard or how to weave your own baskets!
A seafood cooking contest is held for anyone who may want to show off their culinary skills. Any kind of seafood dishes are allowed, but they highly encourage showing your abilities to cook with lobster! Think you can beat the longstanding champions from Deerington? It’s pretty unlikely, especially since it looks like the townspeople keep trying to sabotage your meal as you’re making it. Did you mean to put in an entire half cup of salt to your stew? Oops. Guess you better figure out how to work with it anyway.
Across Koji Pond, there are floating crates set up for the great crate race! See if you can make it across the lake fastest – challenge a friend! These lobster crates wobble pretty heavily, but each runner is given a life vest for when they might inevitably fall in. Be careful if you do! Some of those strange looking fish in there definitely bite.
Each morning at the festival there will be an all you can eat blueberry pancake breakfast. Surprisingly, nothing drastic seems to happen, so have as many pancakes as your body can hold! They’re delicious, after all. Through the rest of the day, it’s easy to get your hands on lobster rolls of varying sizes, full steamed lobster meals (with corn on the cob and a buttered dinner roll), lobster salad, steamed mussels, scallops, haddock (baked or fried), fried clams, lobster stuffed risotto balls, blueberry cobbler, and strawberry shortcake are all available at any of the food stands. All the food seems perfectly safe. But you’re gonna need something to wash it down with…
The drink stand has a great deal to offer, but every drink seems to come with a particularly strange side effect to it. People who enjoy the hand crafted beers will find that it gets them drunk twice as fast and can even make people who would normally never drink completely wasted after just a glass or two. Every glass you have makes you thirstier than the last and it can be easy to want to reach for another beer to try and get yourself together. In fact, it’s particularly hard to reach for anything else. Urges to drink the beer will last for at least one full hour or can be cut short by being responsible and going to drink some water instead.
So maybe beer isn’t your thing; that’s okay! There’s also blueberry lemonade which will turn you the color of blueberries from head to toe! Fresh iced tea will make you feel particularly sarcastic, prone to mocking even your closest friends and gossiping with complete strangers about the things you may or may not have heard about the town. Got a juicy secret you were trying to keep for someone? Well, it’s out in the open now. Cream sodas will make you extremely cuddly, wanting to cozy up next to the closest person to you for a little while. The more you drink, the more touchy-feely you may get, so maybe try and stick to just one or two unless you’re looking for some afternoon delight. Hot tea will make you feel calm and relaxed to an extent you never have before. To the point where you might even want to just go lay down on one of the docks and take a quick catnap in the middle of the afternoon sun. Hopefully you wore sunscreen.
Effects from any drink will last for one to three hours or until you have some strawberry shortcake from one of the food vendors.
BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL
So maybe the lobster festival isn’t your thing or you got tired of all the crowds and wanted to go and do something else fun. Strangely enough, some of the fields out near the farmhouses apparently have a bunch of blueberry bushes that no one’s ever noticed before! They’re in full bloom and the berries look ripe for the picking. Perfectly round, juicy, warm from the sun – you could eat a whole handful of these and maybe never feel more satisfied. They’re deliciously sweet, perfect for pies and cobblers. And a whole basket seems to be reasonably priced, so why not go out and pick as many as you can!The longer you’re out in the fields, the more you’ll start to feel a little groggy. It’s easy to shake off as just being from the sun at first and you might think about heading back, but something in you wants to keep picking. So you trudge in deeper into the fields, and that sleepy feeling becomes more and more difficult to ignore. Eventually, you might find that you’re ready to just lay down and take a nap in the shade of a particularly large blueberry bush. It seems like a good a spot as any – the ground is nice and soft. Just curl up for a little while and close your eyes. Even people who are normally not prone to sleeping will find that they are compelled and even capable of taking a quick nap in these fields.
Any dreams you may have while sleeping will feel more vivid than normal – to the point where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. Did you actually manage to find your way out of Deerington and back home? You can pinch yourself, but you won’t wake up, and it’ll hurt like a bitch, so it’s hard to be sure. Dreams seem to mostly be pleasant ones, but the occasional nightmare might find its way in to your otherwise restful sleep. Anyone who stumbles on you asleep in the fields might even hear you talking in your sleep, rambling out conversations and feelings you might normally have kept quiet. Got feelings for someone you were trying to bury? They might just hear you mutter them out loud if they’ve found you there in the dirt. Wanted to make sure no one in Deerington found out you had no home to go back to? That sucks, it sounds like you might have just spilled the beans without even knowing.
The real question is if the person who finds you will wake you up or just keep listening to find out more of your secrets without having to pry for them.
NINE, TEN, NEVER SLEEP AGAIN
It’s not just in the blueberry fields that sleepiness seems to be catching. Throughout Deerington, people seem to be having a harder and harder time staying awake for long stretches. The desire for a quick nap or even a long snooze becomes harder to fight as each day passes and you might find yourself nodding off in places you normally wouldn’t – behind the wheel of a car, in the middle of a store, at work… Hopefully no one gets too hurt or loses a job during these strange episodes.Only unlike in the fields, when you do give in to sleep, the dreams you have are now far from pleasant. Nightmares are running amok in your mind, but that vivid realism? That inability to tell when you’re awake or asleep? That has definitely not changed. You might not have even realized you’ve fallen asleep at all – most of the scenery around you seems to be Deerington itself, but something just seems off. You don’t have time to think about it though because it’s then that things start to get scary. Whether it’s reliving your most traumatic experiences, running in to your worst enemies, or seeing monster of your own creation popping up and chasing you, danger and fear are permeating every corner of these dreams. Horror movie fans might find they’re being chased by Freddie Kreuger, hunted down by Jason, cornered by the aliens from Alien. Or maybe there are terrifying monsters from your own world that have started to come for you and are trying to tear you limb from limb. It feels impossible to outrun, and maybe in the end, you don’t. But if you die in your dreams, you don’t really die in real life, right? So you might just snap awake with a particularly frightening jolt.
You think when you wake up that everything is fine. That sense of fear is gone and you’re able to just breathe. But as you go about your day, you start to see images from your nightmares out of the corner of your eyes. Was that Freddie’s claws scratching against the blackboard? Did you just hear the strange clicking of alien feet against the tiles? You hope it’s in your imagination, but this is Deerington. When does anything ever stay normal?
The danger from your nightmares is definitely invading your personal space and it will try to kill you. Anyone else can see these images just as plain as day as you can and they are welcome to either sit and watch or help you fight. Whatever is trying to kill you will go down in the same manner it would have back home – that means that it could be as easy as a bullet between the eyes or it could be as complex as an intense ritual. Guess you’ll have to figure it out for yourself before it really does kill you.
Character Arrival
You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.
The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.
If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.
no subject
Then she was on about his angel and... was that jealousy? Who in Satan's name are you? ]
Aziraphale is his name. He's, well, I've known him almost my entire long life--
[And that was when another with a voice strikingly similar to his brusquely entered with barley contained threats in his tone. He'd never heard his own voice so angry before. And who was Rose? Oh, wait. Oh. Wait. Absolutely pissed, he still had his deductive reasoning and all the puzzle pieces just fell into place. Every last one of them.
Oh bloody Hel-- For the love of-- God bless it! She thinks I'm you? I thought I was losing my bleeding mind! [Note, he was neither angry, afraid, nor currently humouring his enraged demand to move. He was here first, good sir. She sat beside him.] Why d'you look like me, anyway?
[The demon shifted slightly, directing his attention back to Rose.]
Rose, was it? Crowley. Now that I know I'm not insane.
no subject
[All the hairs on the back of her neck were on end in alarm purely at the tone of voice coming from the Doctor. It was the kind of voice before whole galaxies could be destroyed!]
[She scrambled out of her seat, to his side, took him in with some bewilderment and took his hand. Even if he was a fake...]
Rose Tyler. [An apologetic awkward as hell handshake with her right hand to Crowley, as her left was still holding the Doctor's hand.]
[And she nods up at the angry TimeLord.] It's true. I never gave him time to catch up. I just thought --
[She closes her eyes and lets go of his hand. She wanted so desperately to find the Doctor and for everything to be okay with the multiverse again that she ignored the ginger hair and clothes as part of this dimension. But that didn't mean this one was real.]
[She put her hand up over his heart, and peered into his eyes.] How do I know you're you?
[Alive. Dimension. Where were they?!]
[Rose shook her head sadly.] He shouldn't be possible, right? You said TimeLords don't splinter. [She tensed all over again. If he was real... then she still had to be careful about time.]
[Sideglance to Crowley, and an apologetic broad grin.] Sorry, mate. You said you didn't recognize the term, but I thought it was just him bein' cagey about--
[Face scrunch and an accusing face to the Doctor!] You do act all weird and cagey a lot!! And there's bein' rude, and then there's just plum overcompensatin' for not bein' ginger! [Face scrunch and a giggle she hoped disarmed some of the Doctor's fierce rage.] I just thought he'd done the opposite.
[To Crowley:] Were you really born with that hair???
[Back to the Doctor:] See? Aren't you glad you're not ginger now!? [Gestures as if to say, "It's hideous."]
no subject
Don't swear
[Then a pointer finger at his twin's face]
What did I say?
[Ten's face softens when Rose takes his rough hand and gives a small squeeze and a smile and when Rose lets go - he does understand why and he's glad she's questioning it all things considered. Which is a good sign that is Rose. Still will feel two beating hearts in his chest and peers back into her eyes. He'll never enjoy being limited to his five senses; however compared to the sewer Rose - doesn't have that off feeling with her eyes right now and he can't believe he's going to bring this up but]
I brought you back a year late and your mum slapped me.
[At the splintering comment and why do you look like me; there's only a small face wince. It's his face but with a different out-come. Which technically should be impossible but here they are. Maybe something will happen to this face of The Doctor that hasn't happened yet that will cause him to splinter off into the multiverse.]
Oi! I told you I'm rude and not ginger.
[Being cagey? NEVER! Expect a lot. Something to do with being an old soul he supposes.]
[At Rose's question about aren't you glad you're not ginger now; stops and sticks out his tongue to the side - after all part of it just he's never been a ginger and thought he'd look great as a ginger. Which The Doctor does think double face looks sexy with the ginger hair but Rose thinks that her Doctor looks better without the ginger hair and it's a bit more important what she thinks. Retracting his tongue, just gives a head nod to the side and pulls his cheek muscles as if saying 'yeah'. After all, this face had the nervous jiggers enough that Rose would reject his new form and not want to travel with him. Which thankfully she didn't. Maybe she would have if he have had ginger hair]
Would you still have traveled with me even if I had ended up with ginger hair?
no subject
When scolded by his twin, the demon craned his head up just slightly, looking somewhat amused. Interesting.]
Cagey, rude, and not ginger? I'm two of the three. I see why she was confused.
[But her insult to his hair made him huffy. Look here, little human.]
Oi! Created not born, but if you must know, yes. No choice in the matter. Had scales after I Fell, but always ginger in this form.
[Yes, please, make less sense, Crowley. He doubted either of them were even paying him any mind at this point. They seemed far too enwrapped in eachother.]
no subject
Nah. [To Crowley, though she can't seem to tear her eyes away from the Doctor proper.] You're less rude than him. [Gestures with a shoulder to the Doctor.] But please do not take that as a challenge, or you'll find other people's mums slapping you instead.
[Funnily enough, Rose is used to having to keep up conversations with everyone around her while being utterly completely fixated on the Doctor himself, who knew this would be an important and useful skill to have, ever?]
[She glomps the Doctor's midsection and hold onto him fiercely in a tight hug, only pulling back to glare at his question.]
Of course I would've!
[But she's clearly not angry, and since he remembers Hell, and even did it to her once before, she feels safe enough in pulling his head gently down to kiss his forehead.] Daft old alien... I loved traveling with you even when you barely had any hair, remember? [She gently runs her fingers through his hair all the same. Look it's been two years of fantasizing about this and she even told Donna how fantastic his hair is, she needs to touch it, even if this is just a dream. No, especially because this might all be a dream.] I just like this best, yeah?
[But then she completely lets go again and turns back to Crowley like it wasn't a long-overdue impossible jumps through time and space looking for a man who couldn't even exist in most universes and was dead in a lot of failed and collapsing timelines; like she didn't miss her one and only soulmate and the only person she wanted to devote her life to--]
So when you say... created? Is that why you look like him? Some sort of clone, cyborg... no wait.
You said you have an old life too. And knew an angel? [A head tilt.] How literally are we talking about here?
[A glance back to the Doctor, and then to Crowley, and then purely back and forth as her mind worked rapidly trying to solve a hundred puzzle pieces at once.]
Um.
He said he can't normally get drunk, like you, so it's either the drink or this place. Either way, watch out? [Rubs the back of her neck and shrugs.]
[Her eyes drift to the Doctor's lips, before fervently dashing away, and she shakes her head, stubbornly refusing to look directly at the Doctor anymore.] We can talk about everything else later, yeah? [And gently squeezes the Doctor's hand.]
no subject
There's no return in any way what-so-ever- when Rose kisses him on the forehead.
Don't get him wrong he does love it - and that scares him too. How close he's gotten to her and maybe if he lies to himself. When he does lose her - somehow - it won't hurt as bad.
However, does smirk lightly at 'just like this best' as she plays with his hair. He wants to pull her in and snog the snuffing out of her. Which Crowley notices - however, the temptation is dismissed.
Then sort of looks away, yeah, lets not talk about how their abilities are less here thing. A look at Rose and confidently remarks]
I'm fine.
[He catches her eyes looking at his lips and feels his body tighten and his hearts thumping louder in his chest. Could he - would he be able to stop her? He'd have too. There's something of a worn look at that thought, which she may not see. As that goes away as quickly as that came and gives a hand squeeze back]
We better. You have a mortgage to pay.
[Then takes out his sonic and buzzes that Crowley. Nope. The energy particles are different. Definitely not of their universe]
no subject
Batten down those psychic defences of yours, mate. You've sprung a leak. [It wasn't a threat, it was a friendly reminder that there were beings around with minds able to reach out. He hadn't even paid the odd wand any mind when it'd been aimed at him.]
Literal angel. [Crowley answered Rose after leaning back away from the face that looked so much like his, but younger.] Wings, holy smiting energy, flaming sword--before he lost it--the works. No harp, though. That's just silly. Like a demon with a pitch fork. Uh, demon by the way, me. Literal, again. This one can tell you, [He said, waving casually to the Doctor.] Just scanned me, yeah? Not human. Old. Me, not you. But you're not human either.
no subject
See??? I knew you wouldn't forget!!
[A giant tongue lolling beam. And then she tilts her head at Crowley moving in to say something to the Doctor, but she can't catch it, so she decides it must be very personal, and if the Doctor wanted her to know, he'd tell her later.]
[Especially given the demon thing.]
Wait... so you've been to Hell too then? [Frown frown.] But not Krop Tor? Not... [Cheeks puff and she looks to the Doctor for reassurance, before telling herself inwardly she doesn't need to do that, she can just trust her own instincts, and if the Doctor isn't real... but it seems like Crowley recognizes him as a TimeLord, even without knowing what that is.]
[So Rose's human brain works out the most logical human conclusion:]
Doctah, you think maybe the -- erm. Being we met at Krop Tor wasn't even from our universe? Just got trapped there by -- what'd he say? Forces of Light?
[So much chewing on her bottom lip. He said he would rain fire and hell and destruction; not darkness. Not undoing things. So it wasn't connected............... or was it? She was here. The Doctor was here!!!!! After so much searching. And a demon who just happened to look like the Doctor's current face was here?? Yeah. Rose didn't need Bad Wolf blazing on all the banners to tell her something was fishy.]
Are angels and demons friendly in your universe? Oh! Um!!! Also!! Because it's like... really important... [It is, but she's already starting to lose her nerve.]
[Headshake.]
[The Doctor couldn't tell a demon or not, he said their universe didn't have them, and he didn't believe in things before time.]
[Rose rubs the back of her hand over her forehead.] Can Satan, Lucifer... whatever you call him... possess people? Or could other demons? How crazy would one have to be to try to impersonate him? Can you get out of a black hole? I know... you said Doctor, it was like someone was screaming at the ood, yeah?
Oh and Mr. Crowley said he can't touch time here. I thought he just meant... see it, yanno, ripples and effects. [Another hand squeeze.]
[Spiritual, psychic, void.]
'member that time Jack was in the void and tryin' ta get through to me because you always have your shields up? And you thought I'd just gotten broken or...
[Rubs her temples with both hands.] And you were able to reach me in my dr--
[Bites her tongue, cheek and lip again in that order. If he hadn't lived it...] Ummmmmmmmmm point bein'. Maybe if you have a strong enough psychic being they could do things across the void, but also... Maybe since your universe is more sealed tight, that's why they thought it was the safest place to chain him??? [Head tilt looking up at the Doctor, confusion and concern all over her face.]
no subject
What
[Then verbally to Crowely]
Wasn't a question if you were human or not.
[Then makes a frown scrunch face because he doesn't believe in a Heaven or Hell. When you die you turn to star dust and that's it become one with the universe and whatever was in Krop Tor was definitely - something. Something that didn't fit into The Doctor's rules of Before Time. Angels and Demons existing in another universe - according to the particles the sonic picked up.... Maybe... It's mathematically possible. Doesn't mean The Doctor likes it.
A hand squeeze back. He doesn't want to talk how someone hasn't been able to see or taste time here. Or having telekinesis problems but how long can it hide the latter part from Rose is the question.
The problem is, Rose. The Time Lords monitored everything going in and out of dimensions and he can't confirm if The Beast was something that was seen by them or not. A mouth pop.
However, for the most part silent. Which Rose may read as something is wrong]
no subject
[Crowley was wondering if, perhaps, the alcohol in his system had broken down finally. His head was still fuzzy, but it was far clearer than it had been in the last three hours.]
Are we friendly? If, by friendly, you mean try smiting eachother and carry a timeless grudge against eachother, then yes. If you mean, are they genuinely accepting of one another, no. The whole smiting and war thing.
[The demon tilted his head just so with curiosity when she began, stating how important it was. He wasn't prepared for what she asked, however. Normally relaxed and confident, Crowley was now very rigid and uncomfortable.]
Sat-- Lucif-- My Boss may be able to. We can possess humans if we felt like it, but it's not something one does often. Sharing a body is cramped and awkward. Like wearing shoes too small for your feet. I've got my own body, thank you very much, and I rather like it. I'd only possess a human if I'd been discorporated and sent back Below. The possession would be in a dire emergency to relay a message until such a time that I could get a new body and return to Earth. Not all demons share my affinity for my appearance.
[In other words, he didn't like possessing humans and it may or may not have to do with some form of morals he has, but he will make it sound like vanity to preserve his reputation.]
If another demon were to impersonate Him and they were caught, I don't imagine the Dark Council would be kind or lenient. A sentence of permanent death, I would imagine. As far as black holes, never tried. And if it's quite alright with you, I'd rather not test the theory. Demons aren't bound by physics, but black holes seem to have their own rules.
He isn't exactly chained. Not in my universe. [And if Rose was listening closely enough, she could hear a waver to his voice when he admitted that.]
Euh, don't. Don't call me Mr. Crowley. Just Crowley. I hadn't anything to do with Mr. Crowley. Bit loony, that one.
[When the Doctor's mind touched his and that reply bled through the static, Crowley's yellow eyes locked on the Doctor's brown ones.]
'You're leaving your mind far too open. That temptation or yours sought me out.' [He suspected the Doctor usually kept his mind locked up tight. Was something here hammering on those walls like they were warping his miracles?]
I suppose it wasn't. What did your tricorder tell you about me?
no subject
Our hell was on the edge of a black hole.
You went to the Ritz with 'im. [A tongue touched grin.] That doesn't much sound like Armageddon or war. Unless you're both in charge of peace talks between the two sides, yeah? [Sly grin.] Or conning the two sides as an excuse to go to the Ritz, but I'm not sure angels are capable of deviousness.
[The rest... she doesn't know if she wants to stand in front of the Doctor and shield and protect him, or hide behind him buried up to her face in his coat and protection.]
Is that right?
[She both wanted to talk more about it... and not. And clearly Crowley was afraid of Satan and --]
Well, it was the year 5000... something. But I think he said the prison was from before time, and the Doctor was all, there's no such thing, and --
[Looks off distant.]
[But then give Crowley a cheeky grin.] No black holes unless you start talking about bein'--
[She drops the Doctor's hand, steps wide in front of him like a sumo wrestler about to fight, but poses as a monster with hand claws and growls (cutely, though she's unaware of this) her voice all dark and throaty:]
I am the rage the fire, the ferocity, the darkness, the thought of me shall never die, I shall live forever in the bleeding hearts of men, in their rage and in their lust!
[She drops the act, and picks up the Doctor's hand again, with a quiet beam up at him. She found him. Even if Satan escaped and got his revenge on Rose, it didn't matter, she found him, and they'd stop the darkness.] and breathin' fire and talkin' about destroying Earth or one o' my other favorite planets. Then I might have to shoot you into a black hole, like I did ol' Luci.
[Still beaming up at the Doctor, like it's no big thing.] Nothin' personal, I quite like you so far. More'n the archaeologist he possessed.
It's a screwdriver, actually. [A giggle, and she finally does look back at Crowley with a grin.] I cannot get him to watch Star Trek with me. I'm always tellin' 'im, gimme more Spock! Yeah? And he doesn't even get it enough to joke back. So sad.
no subject
Event horizon. [The Doctor corrects her]
And that was a planet.
[As far as what Hell is - that depends on the individual doesn't it? As far as Rose's impression - when she looks back at her Doctor she'll feel that he feels something is slightly off about her and glances over at Crowley. Giving a glare of - WTF - did you just prossess her because if you did. Though he does take Rose's hand and gives a hand squeeze but doesn't take his eyes of off Crowley.
There's no return statement about leaving his mind too far open just psychic static as his nose begins to bleed a little]
Come on, Rose. Let's go.