soddersays | JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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

That thumping draws Fern's gaze and wow, okay, forget the red. That is one big... stone arm? What even. A regular person might think it's weird, but Fern immediately thinks cool.

He makes a beeline over, grinning a little. "Maybe it's a human thing? Maybe humans don't eat pancakes with syrup." He wouldn't know, he didn't grow up with humans and he hasn't been in a restaurant here.

At any rate, the syrup is clearly not the important thing here. He gestures at the red guy's stone arm, adding, "Neat arm."

Hellboy eyes the green kid -- who, close up, appears to be mostly made out of vegetation, but who is Hellboy to judge after all -- then lets his hand open, palm up, on the table to allow for closer inspection. The ridges and whorls of ancient and terrible designs etched into the stone aren't especially visible, but it doesn't bother him much either way. The kid doesn't look like the kind to try any mischief.

"Thanks," he replies. "I think."

He picks up his fork with his left hand and gestures with it at Fern.

"So you're.. lemme guess, some kind of homunculus? Am I close?"

Fern takes that as a sign to grab a chair, drag it over, and sit. Since he isn't doing much aside from wandering he might as well, maybe he can find out what's with the arm, if it's a cool weapon or something.

"Nah," he replies, though after a split second he furrows his brow. "Wait - am I?"

He considers this a moment, then shrugs. "I dunno, I used to be two swords. A cursed one and a human that got turned into one. I don't think that counts."

Hellboy raises his eyebrows -- or the general area where his eyebrows would be, if his face wasn't interrupted in that region by two filed-down stumps of horns. He hacks off a chunk from his flapjacks with the edge of his fork, spears it and sticks it in his mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, he eyes Fern.

As far as origin stories go, it's far from the strangest he's heard. Objects being turned into people isn't particularly difficult. The issue in his experience is usually convincing them to turn back.

"I think that's a different ball game, kid. It's ok, homunculi can be pretty difficult to get on with. Tend to be kinda cranky."

He waves his fork around, broadly indicating their surroundings.

"So what's the deal with this place?"

Having never personally met a homunculus before, he's fine with deferring to this guy's knowledge on the subject and just nods. Right, okay, mentally striking homunculus off the list of possible things he is.

He focuses on the question, deciding to be straightforward about it. No point in beating around the bush. "It's a shared dream across a bunch of multiverses," he explains. "That's all I know. Something's probably eating our life energy while we're all asleep, or something."

Hellboy looks at Fern, then out at their surroundings. The slightly glassy-eyed people with the pastel hair, the occasional walking horror show and slightly more normal seeming person elbowing through their midst. Even the sound of the place seems.. on edge.

And then there's the fact that the last thing he can remember before he woke up on his back surrounded by softly breathing pines was Nimue and her cold hand reaching into his chest, plucking out his heart --

He returns his attention to his pancakes.

"Figures. At least this one has food."

He glances back at Fern and wriggles the fingers of his stone hand.

"You done with this, kid?"

The reality of the situation sucks hard but hey, at least this is one more person who doesn't look surprised or confused about it. That has to be a good sign!

Since there aren't anymore questions about that, Fern shakes his head. "No." Look, he isn't the politest kid, and he's curious. He leans in a little, his eyes flicking back down to the arm. "Is that a gauntlet? Or is it actually your hand? What happens if you punch someone with it?"

Hellboy doesn't mind the curiosity -- at least it's honest. Which is more than can be said about most things in this place, if the kid's assessment is correct.

He rolls his fingers again, soft sounds of stone grating on stone, moving a little slower and letting the kid watch this time. He's in a generous mood, or at least happy to go along with whatever shit gets thrown at him. Might not end up mattering anyway in the scheme of things.

So he's ok with answering the kid's questions, though the same enquiries from practically anyone else in any other circumstances might have earned them a withering glare. At best.

"No, yes kind of, and what do you think happens if I punch someone with it?"

He appreciates not getting brushed off or scolded for the invasive questions. Tact isn't his strong suit, and not solely because he's an idiot like most adolescents at this age.

He's utterly fascinated - excited, even - as he watches. "I wanna say their head would explode, buuut realistically I'm guessing their face would get smashed in." The morbidity of that guess doesn't deter him. "Which is still cool. Doubt many people could pack that much of a punch."

It's strangely gratifying to be referred to as "cool", even if it's for a part of him that Hellboy still hasn't entirely made peace with.

"That's about right," he replies, grinning. He points his fork at Fern and winks. "So don't mess with me."

Fern is a simple creature of simple tastes, and most of those tastes happen to involve fighting and weaponry.

"Hey man, I'm not a pushover," he says cheerfully. "I've fought loads of stuff back home."

Hellboy saws off another chunk from his stack of pancakes and sticks it in his mouth. He eyes Fern's apparently untouched coffee.

"Like what?" He asks, genuinely curious, around a mouthful of blueberries. The kid doesn't exactly look the brawler type -- then again, he did say he was made out of swords. Swords and grass, apparently.

"Uh, let's see...." He scrunches up his face, thinking for several moments, before lifting his free hand to start counting off. "There was a gross sewer monster here. Back home there was this evil spirit that fed off fear? I killed him pretty fast. And a bunch of grass monsters. Uh, dragons, skeletons, goblins, other kinds of ghosts. Orgalorg, whatever he was - some kinda big cosmic space umbrella? There was Darren too. And the Lich, can't forget that wad. I used to beat up on Ice King, but he's mostly reformed these days...."

Hellboy nods along with Fern's list. It all sounds pretty normal, at least -- he assumes -- for a kid who was part plant and part blade.

Orgalorg, though, makes him frown. It deepens at the mention of the Lich. Those sound more like his speed, though he doesn't recognise the names.

"Sounds like a pretty tough roster you've got there. You did all that on your own?" He's impressed.

Fern blinks at the question, not expecting it. Usually people have been looking at him like he was crazy, so this is a nice change. "No! I mean - sometimes? Usually my brother or friends were there too, but -"

He pauses, giving this some more thought. "For some of that big stuff, it was just me. Or me and Finn."

Does that count as on his own? Sort of? Glob, who even knows, he isn't sure and he doesn't want to think about that too hard, so he turns that question around. "What about you? You must have fought all kinds of crazy stuff, right?"

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.

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.

Fern's hand is tiny in Hellboy's big paw. He shakes it carefully, then lets go. He frowns at the question, scratching his chin with a stone finger.

"Fromoo? What's Fromoo?"

"From Ooo," he clarifies, dropping his hand. "Ooo's my home. An island, or a continent, or whatever."

Clearly, from Hellboy's reaction, he can tell the answer is a 'no'. Apparently in the multiverse, Ooo isn't all that common. He doesn't bother hiding his disappointment, though he isn't all that surprised. "Guess you aren't."

Hellboy sees the kid's expression fall and feels a twinge of guilt, though it's not as if he could have lied about it. What sort of place was called Ooo, anyway?

He shrugs, poking at the pancakes on his plate with his fork.

"Sorry, kid. I'm from.. uh, Colorado." He looks over at Fern. "Is everyone in Ooo made outta grass?"

Nothing he can do about it, so he tries to steer the conversation away from Ooo. "No. There's other grass people there, but I'm kinda unique." Horrible-unique is the implication, because he doesn't sound happy about that, either.

He absently taps on his mug. "What's Colorado? That a human city? Like - what's it called - New York?" He asks, trying to draw on what little knowledge he has about non-Ooo worlds.

Hellboy picks up on the uncomfortable tone in Fern's voice and has not a little sympathy for the kid. He knows what it's like to be unique.

"It's a state. Bigger than a city. New York is.. both, I guess." He frowns, just then realising how confusing this probably is. Clears his throat. He finds himself wanting to make Fern feel better. "I'm pretty unique there too."

That uniqueness hasn't exactly disappeared here, what with most of the other Sleepers also being human (or some variation thereof). If anything, this town is completely homogeneous compared to all the different species in Ooo, and that doesn't help at all.

So it's nice to find someone who gets it, even if it means they have to be 'unique', too.

The explanation of New York is confusing, and has him wondering if it's some kind of giant kingdom-equivalent. A trip to the library briefly passes through his mind, but wow, how boring would that be? He decides to focus on the Colorado stuff instead. "Is it because it's full of humans? Everyone here comes from one of those kinds of worlds, ones where humans are still around."

Hellboy has been kind of assuming that Fern comes from one of those inter-dimensional spaces where he's more used to magical creatures coming from. But the kid's reaction to his answers are starting to suggest otherwise.

"I guess." He frowns, thinking. "So.. humans aren't around, where you come from?"

"Not really," he response. It's a bit of a mess to explain, but he's managed it before. Whether he's actually been successful at doing it is another story.

"Back home everyone thought I was the last human around," he starts, then quickly cuts in, "When I was human. I used to be human."

Because that explains everything so cleanly.

"Uh - point is, everyone assumed I was the last one, and that humans had died out like a thousand years ago. But before I woke up here we had found out they weren't all gone, there were some on an island. I dunno the details," he ends lamely, scratching his head.

JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

JULY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

WHEN THE BOAT COMES IN

BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL

NINE, TEN, NEVER SLEEP AGAIN

Character Arrival

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