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countryclub2022-01-25 08:17 am
reddosmod) wrote in countryclub2022-01-25 08:17 am
Entry tags:
January 2022 Test Drive Meme
January 2022 TDM
SEMI-STANDARD ARRIVAL
EAT ME
love hurts
CODING
Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Overhead view of broken ice in an ocean]
[Image Two: A blooming rose]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Three steaming buns in a steam basket]
[Image Two: Plumes of smoke]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Two hands cupping a candle]
[Image Two: An anthropomorphic flame being held by an anthropomorphic wick, which is melting]
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
Prompt One
[Image One: Overhead view of broken ice in an ocean]
[Image Two: A blooming rose]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Three steaming buns in a steam basket]
[Image Two: Plumes of smoke]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Two hands cupping a candle]
[Image Two: An anthropomorphic flame being held by an anthropomorphic wick, which is melting]
WHEN: Late January through February
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
Much of the ice has broken up, black ice replaced with powdery snow along the boardwalk. The snow falls gently most days, but on others it picks up, sleet and hail raining down, making the boardwalk dreary. For new Sleepers who wash up in the frigid water, the chill can make the change from squid to your original body slower and more difficult. You may get caught halfway through the transformation and need a hand (or tentacle) to help coach you through the rest.
Wakers are there and ready to greet you with thick robes and cloaks to ward off the cold and the sleet. The Trenchies who run the booths and tents that line the boardwalk tend to roaring fires and offer a selection of candies and steamed buns for any Sleepers who approach. The Trenchies will tell you that the buns can ward off the cold.
Trenchies also offer red roses to anyone they see, and more roses line the booths, available to be given to someone you fancy. Some Trenchies have gone so far as to create intricate rose sculptures, with one towering over the boardwalk in the shape of Doorway. If you stand beneath the sculpture of Doorway, you feel a great sense of possibility in the city.
Sleds are still available for anyone who wants them. The slope of the beach is ideal for sledding, but be careful not to sled straight into the frigid ocean. The broken ice can be walked across, taking Sleepers to the Farthest Shores to look out at the endless ocean.
Wakers are there and ready to greet you with thick robes and cloaks to ward off the cold and the sleet. The Trenchies who run the booths and tents that line the boardwalk tend to roaring fires and offer a selection of candies and steamed buns for any Sleepers who approach. The Trenchies will tell you that the buns can ward off the cold.
Trenchies also offer red roses to anyone they see, and more roses line the booths, available to be given to someone you fancy. Some Trenchies have gone so far as to create intricate rose sculptures, with one towering over the boardwalk in the shape of Doorway. If you stand beneath the sculpture of Doorway, you feel a great sense of possibility in the city.
Sleds are still available for anyone who wants them. The slope of the beach is ideal for sledding, but be careful not to sled straight into the frigid ocean. The broken ice can be walked across, taking Sleepers to the Farthest Shores to look out at the endless ocean.
WHEN: Late January through February
WHERE: The boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Compulsion to share thoughts or feelings, invasion of privacy
WHERE: The boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Compulsion to share thoughts or feelings, invasion of privacy
If you eat the warm steamed buns offered by the Trenchies, you find that you are warmed from the inside out, and you can suddenly feel more than you did before. You may start to hear thoughts in a different voice than yours, or feel touch when no one is near by, or feel emotions that aren’t your own. You may connect this to the buns you ate, or you may not.
Eating a taro bun gives you a strong sense of empathy. You’ll be able to feel the feelings of those around you. You may be drawn to the person, or people, whose emotions you can now feel, that intense empathy driving you to celebrate with them, or mourn with them, or try to lessen their suffering.
Eating a pork bun lets you feel the physical sensations of those around you. If someone nearby isn't wearing a cloak and is shivering in the cold, your skin feels that chill, too. Perhaps someone else is sinking their teeth into a steamed bun, feeling the warmth of the bun in their mouth.
If you eat a red bean bun, you start to hear the thoughts of Sleepers around you. These thoughts may just be surface level musings, but the closer in proximity or in emotional closeness you are to them, the deeper those thoughts become.
The effects only last a short time, about fifteen minutes. During that time, you may be drawn to the people around you, by empathy, curiosity, or solidarity. You’re all Sleepers now. If you share a bun with someone, for a brief instant, you know them, deeply and thoroughly. The moment will pass, but you'll feel a sense of solidarity with them, a strong foundation for any bond.
Be careful, if you eat more than three in one sitting, you lose the associated sense for fifteen minutes. If you eat more than three taro buns, you lose your sense of empathy. If you eat too many pork buns, you lose your sense of touch, and if you eat too many red bean buns, you lose your internal voice.
FAQ
Eating a taro bun gives you a strong sense of empathy. You’ll be able to feel the feelings of those around you. You may be drawn to the person, or people, whose emotions you can now feel, that intense empathy driving you to celebrate with them, or mourn with them, or try to lessen their suffering.
Eating a pork bun lets you feel the physical sensations of those around you. If someone nearby isn't wearing a cloak and is shivering in the cold, your skin feels that chill, too. Perhaps someone else is sinking their teeth into a steamed bun, feeling the warmth of the bun in their mouth.
If you eat a red bean bun, you start to hear the thoughts of Sleepers around you. These thoughts may just be surface level musings, but the closer in proximity or in emotional closeness you are to them, the deeper those thoughts become.
The effects only last a short time, about fifteen minutes. During that time, you may be drawn to the people around you, by empathy, curiosity, or solidarity. You’re all Sleepers now. If you share a bun with someone, for a brief instant, you know them, deeply and thoroughly. The moment will pass, but you'll feel a sense of solidarity with them, a strong foundation for any bond.
Be careful, if you eat more than three in one sitting, you lose the associated sense for fifteen minutes. If you eat more than three taro buns, you lose your sense of empathy. If you eat too many pork buns, you lose your sense of touch, and if you eat too many red bean buns, you lose your internal voice.
FAQ
- The buns lets you feel the sensations of Sleepers within around 10 feet of you.
- You can eat more than one type of bun at once, and experience all the different sensations.
- Buns lose their power once they're cool. Reheated buns have no power.
- Sleepers can shield their thoughts/feelings/sensations if they’re experience in shielding their mind or meditating.
- You can’t sense the thoughts/feelings/sensations of Trenchies.
WHEN: End of January to mid-February
WHERE: Throughout the city of Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Injury, body horror, burning, melting, simulated codependency, possible mental/emotional manipulation, possible existential cold & loneliness, possible death
WHERE: Throughout the city of Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Injury, body horror, burning, melting, simulated codependency, possible mental/emotional manipulation, possible existential cold & loneliness, possible death
[From ANTHOLOGY OF TRENCH LORE AND SUPERSTITION. Found in the Archives:]
"There is an old Trench legend of the flame and the wick. One day, a flame awoke, gazing down at the candle beneath it. The flame reached down as the old, forgotten wax stretched upwards, its arms to the sky, dripping wax with yearning to touch the flame. They sought each other, ever they drew closer, but never did they embrace until the last moment. As the heat consumed the final inch of the wick, the flame was snuffed out. Trenchies argue whether the legend may in fact be true, or an invention of the Doorway to teach a lesson about desire and its cost. Ultimately it matters little, because they have seen it come to pass."
Your heart beats loud in your ears and there’s a pressure on your chest. You find a string connected to your heart. You somehow know that someone is on the other side of the string, and you feel a deep, intense yearning, and an all-consuming desire to draw closer. Your desire may be romantic, it may be of friendship, it may be the need you feel when you recognize someone out of the corner of your eye and need to know them. It’s a desperate need that drives you forward, one that’s difficult to fight, if you even think to want to.
The closer that you come to one another, the more one of you begins to melt like wax, and the other begins to flake away in soot and ash. It hurts with the pain of burning, but the more that it hurts, the passion and need for closeness burns hotter. You know, somewhere deep in your heart, that if you touch, it will be over, like the candle and the flame.
As soon as you see the object of your desire, you have a decision to make. You have to weigh your desire to touch, to embrace, with the risk that brings with it:
You can cut the string. After all, love is often shattered by the raw emotion that it involves. If you do, you feel a cold wind blow across your body, chilling you to the bone. A door somewhere slams, closing on the potential of your passion. You are safe from further harm, the melting and burning fading with an hour and you’ll be whole again, but the feeling of loneliness will be consuming for the rest of the day even if you try to talk it off, an ache in the very bones.
You can draw closer but not quite touch. The melting and burning will grow worse, but if you talk to your partner, talk through your desire, the guttering of the wick will fade and so too will the tie that binds you. It will hurt, but the melting will fade in a few hours and you’ll feel warmed by it, if not quite fulfilled.
You can give in to your desire and embrace, letting your need for the other person overwhelm you. The pain, the risk, may not enough to keep friends and lovers apart any longer. In that moment, there is excruciating agony as if you were burning alive, and there is peace. You’ll feel your partner melting, being consumed by your partner, who is burning themselves out for you.
The embrace can end one of two ways. If you release and flee the pain, the door will slam and you hear a mournful sigh as the melting finishes consuming you, leaving nothing but faded crystal dust, a sense of judgment in your death. Connection is too much for some, but the Doorway is pitiless in this. For those who stay regardless of the pain, you will be burned to nothing and you will hear a door open. Wind sweeps over you. As it rushes past, you feel your bodies restored and a warmth that lasts with you until the middle of the month, like a blanket of hope of reunion, a tiny blessing of the watcher at the threshold.
"There is an old Trench legend of the flame and the wick. One day, a flame awoke, gazing down at the candle beneath it. The flame reached down as the old, forgotten wax stretched upwards, its arms to the sky, dripping wax with yearning to touch the flame. They sought each other, ever they drew closer, but never did they embrace until the last moment. As the heat consumed the final inch of the wick, the flame was snuffed out. Trenchies argue whether the legend may in fact be true, or an invention of the Doorway to teach a lesson about desire and its cost. Ultimately it matters little, because they have seen it come to pass."
Your heart beats loud in your ears and there’s a pressure on your chest. You find a string connected to your heart. You somehow know that someone is on the other side of the string, and you feel a deep, intense yearning, and an all-consuming desire to draw closer. Your desire may be romantic, it may be of friendship, it may be the need you feel when you recognize someone out of the corner of your eye and need to know them. It’s a desperate need that drives you forward, one that’s difficult to fight, if you even think to want to.
The closer that you come to one another, the more one of you begins to melt like wax, and the other begins to flake away in soot and ash. It hurts with the pain of burning, but the more that it hurts, the passion and need for closeness burns hotter. You know, somewhere deep in your heart, that if you touch, it will be over, like the candle and the flame.
As soon as you see the object of your desire, you have a decision to make. You have to weigh your desire to touch, to embrace, with the risk that brings with it:
You can cut the string. After all, love is often shattered by the raw emotion that it involves. If you do, you feel a cold wind blow across your body, chilling you to the bone. A door somewhere slams, closing on the potential of your passion. You are safe from further harm, the melting and burning fading with an hour and you’ll be whole again, but the feeling of loneliness will be consuming for the rest of the day even if you try to talk it off, an ache in the very bones.
You can draw closer but not quite touch. The melting and burning will grow worse, but if you talk to your partner, talk through your desire, the guttering of the wick will fade and so too will the tie that binds you. It will hurt, but the melting will fade in a few hours and you’ll feel warmed by it, if not quite fulfilled.
You can give in to your desire and embrace, letting your need for the other person overwhelm you. The pain, the risk, may not enough to keep friends and lovers apart any longer. In that moment, there is excruciating agony as if you were burning alive, and there is peace. You’ll feel your partner melting, being consumed by your partner, who is burning themselves out for you.
The embrace can end one of two ways. If you release and flee the pain, the door will slam and you hear a mournful sigh as the melting finishes consuming you, leaving nothing but faded crystal dust, a sense of judgment in your death. Connection is too much for some, but the Doorway is pitiless in this. For those who stay regardless of the pain, you will be burned to nothing and you will hear a door open. Wind sweeps over you. As it rushes past, you feel your bodies restored and a warmth that lasts with you until the middle of the month, like a blanket of hope of reunion, a tiny blessing of the watcher at the threshold.
no subject
I have a pretty big house myself but I don't like living alone so I live with some of my best friends.
No soup, and no carrots for me. What are your thoughts on sushi? I know a great sushi restaurant on the boardwalk!
And I'm happy to help! If no one ever helped another, this would be a much sadder place.
no subject
That must be wonderful, to make a home with those you care for.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what sushi is. That likely sounds strange, doesn't it?
I agree with you completely. People should help one another, not because one has more or less money than the other, but because it's the right thing to do.
no subject
Like me! If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask!
And no, not that strange. I'm pretty used to people not knowing it. Have you heard of the country Japan? I should have asked that first.
no subject
you're very kind. i'll be sure to remember your offer.
I have, but according to the papers, it's been dealing with some upheaval? Trying to get themselves into the position of being on equal footing with other nations so no one would try to colonize it.
no subject
[.......]
Um, if you don't mind my asking, what year was it before you came here?
no subject
it's 1912. why?
no subject
Ah... um, well, so the thing is, I'm from about 80 something years into your future? It's the 1990s for me. Japan is past... a lot of things by then.
no subject
1990s? That's impossible!
Isn't it?
no subject
Ah... well, believe it or not, there are people from even FARTHER in the future and people from even further back in the past. Some people aren't even from Earth.
no subject
All of that sounds so incomprehensible. They really have that kind of pull over time and, well. Space, too?
no subject
Space too, yeah. We've got a couple of people running around from galaxies far, far away than the Sol System of Mercury to Pluto.
no subject
Isn't the idea of something having so much power a little scary?
no subject
[Considering who Usagi is...]
Well...
It... IS scary but it's not the scariest thing that happens here.
no subject
May I ask what the scariest thing is? If you don't mind, of course?
no subject
Uuuuuh well... it's not that I don't want to tell you more... it's really unsettling and you already have a lot on your plate as it IS. I don't want you to feel paranoid on top of the stress you're going through.
no subject
All right. But, once I'm settled? Can I ask then?
no subject
Absolutely. I'll see you at the cafe in a little bit, okay?
no subject
All right, see you soon!