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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
Do I look like I'm joking? You see how sturdily I stir this liquid? The sweat on my brow as I slave over this flame with dedication? How smooth and confident my hand is at choosing a carefully considered ingredient?
[Without turning his gaze from her, he reaches out and grabs a random dish and tosses everything in it into the pot. He doesn't even know what it was he threw in there. It could have been the handful of blueberries. Could have been walnuts. He doesn't know, or care.]
Bam. Fucking delicious.
no subject
If it's so delicious, taste it. Right now. That won't be a problem, right?
no subject
[He shrugs and takes out the ladle, bringing it up to his lips for a completely unhygienic taste test.
(Wait, are those Fruity Pebbles? When the fuck did those get in there?)
From her point of view he's making loud slurping noises, mmm-mm-mmm, etc, and it looks like he did indeed slurp down half of the ladle.
But from his point of view, he froze time for a second, dumped out half of it, and brought it back to his lips to continue time as normal. He tends not to use his powers too much since after winning the game, not even to hurry up doing his chores or speed along the three minutes to cook the bagel bites in the microwave, but he isn't above using them for a literal second to have a little fun. (Though, if he was aware of the consequences of using them in this town he might have second thoughts... Nah, he still would.)
He wipes nothing off his lips with the back of his hand as he puts the ladle back in the pot.]
I repeat: mother. fucking. delicious.
no subject
( She saw it with her own eyes, right? This guy really slurped up this probably deadly soup and actually looked as if he enjoyed it. Of course Victoria wasn't able to perceive the second it took for Dave to slow down time for the illusion. Even if she had noticed something was off, she'd write it off as her own imagination. )
...Give me that. ( Because she'd rather take her chances with what was probably actual poison than to allow herself to be wrong. There's no way lobster, breakfast cereal, salt, pine needles, and whatever else this guy threw into this bowl could taste good together. It's impossible. He has to be bluffing.
So she swipes the ladle from the bowl and prepares to bring it to her lips for a taste. Last chance to be a good person, here, Dave. You have the power to come clean and stop her. )
no subject
Wait, hold up.
[He says, a little urgently.
Then he sprinkles a little bit of paprika on top of the liquid in the spoon.]
For presentation. It's important.
[He leans back, jamming his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, watching.]
no subject
So she downs it. Not even a little taste, she tilts the ladle back drinks everything it has to offer. If she doesn't think it about it, it's okay. If she doesn't think about it, it's okay. If she doesn't—
Her entire body wants to react, not just her tongue. It's too many textures. She can taste the grit from the salt that never fully dissolved, the spice from one of far too many seasonings all stewed together, the oil from the butter sitting like a layer of oil on top. And that crunch? Does she even want to know where the crunch is coming from? Was that... candy corn? Her immediate impulse is to gag and cough — like her throat so desperately wants her to do. This was a mistake. There are no gods. Congrats, she played herself. But as long as she doesn't admit defeat, she's still winning in some way. So she'll go along with whatever game Dave is playing. She doesn't know what he's up to, but she's not about to make a fool of herself for his benefit. )
Tastes... great. So yum! You're seriously... so... so... good at this!
( In reality, Victoria could feel her tastebuds hosting a riot against her. Even forming her lips to say these words was a struggle.
After a moment of letting of letting all the flavors settle on her tongue, however... it wasn't bad. )
no subject
He's impressed that she didn't just wind up throwing the ladle in the air while screaming out a disgusted BLUH, but she could work on her lying a little.]
That so? My genius continues to know no bounds. Would you like a cup of this lobster liquid. On the house. Let the judges see you mm-mmm-mming all over it like some aryan-lookin' kid licking his chubby li'l lips in soupy delight.
[Without waiting for her answer, he grabs the cup that once held the fruity pebbles and filled it with the colorful liquid.]
no subject
Instead she excuses herself to find a glass of well-needed water. She doesn't want to look too desperate to get away from him and the soup — but mainly the soup — so she powerwalks to safety. Once she's drank enough to wash away most of the taste, though she feels almost certain that it will never be gone from her memories, she takes an extra bottle for the road and returns.
After having a moment to get collected, she feels more like herself. )
By the way, your soup fucking sucks. Saying your soup is good is an insult to all soups in, like, America. No, the universe, because some troll kid told me there's life on other planets, too. They wouldn't even serve this soup to prisoners on Ulternian.
( Alternia*
Close enough. )
no subject
That's your problem right there. You were expecting soup when I clearly said liquid.
[He rolls his eyes, not that she can see, and his smirk grows a little more at the mention of Karkat.]
Lemme guess, the troll guy was grumpier than a lasagna cat on a Monday and had a wicked overbite. They definitely wouldn't have fed lobster liquid to prisoners, because they mostly eat bugs. [Beat.] Also: killed all their prisoners.
no subject
Fuck. Your. Liquid.
( She's too refined to knock his bowl of liquid to the floor, but not too refined to think about doing it.
She can't catch a break. One normal person is all she's asking for. Is that too much for this town to offer? Forget the aliens and the bugs for just a moment. Hold up. Rewind. Go back to that last part. )
What did you just say?
no subject
What? Killed their prisoners? Yeah, fuckin' crazy planet he's from. Knew a girl that would feed people that lost at LARPing games to her giant spider. Karkat looks all cute and cuddly, like you could just hold him all night long and have the most deepest of sleeps, dreams full of cotton candy and Kanye congratulating you on your sick flows with boxes of kittens, but that dude? Woof. I can't even say it.
no subject
...Are you high right now?
( She's been asking that a lot. It feels just a bit more justified in this case. )
no subject
[Beat.]
But, yeah, no, I'm not.
no subject
Even so, his nonsense somehow manages to be... almost... cool? A different kind of cool, obviously. Not her kind of cool. She would never let him sit with her... but she wouldn't not let him sit with her, either. And fuck what he says; he's definitely on meth or something. )
What's your name?
no subject
[Nice and simple here. No BS. Because it's his name and his name is cool.]
no subject
no subject
You met a dude named Karkat Vantas but *Dave* sounds fake to you.
no subject
Karkat has a reason. He's a real alien. From a real alien planet. What's your excuse?
no subject
[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.
no subject
( 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.
no subject
[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
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?