APRIL 2022 TEST DRIVE MEME

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APRIL 2022 TEST DRIVE MEME

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: Delicious, Gelatinous Fruit Treats]
[Image Two: Women in white dancing around a May Pole (Animated)]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A woman turning away from a mirror. ]
[Image Two: A woman trapped inside a mirror with disembodied hands grabbing at her. ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A Forked Trail on a Wooded Path]
[Image Two: The Grim Reaper at the end of a sewer tunnel]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

A MOSTLY PLEASANT ARRIVAL

WHEN: May
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Forced honesty, personality changes, physical changes.

---

Congratulations, sleeper! You're one of the lucky ones to arrive in a month that is not awful to come ashore. The transformational process is almost alarmingly quick and painless. In fact, it is so quick that it is deceptively easy to change back into a squid and do it all over again! Partial transformations are not uncommon during this month for the first twenty-four hours after arriving, and even brief transformations of minor facial features like hair color, eye color, height, weight and a few more extreme possibilities have been known to happen. Don't worry, because the transformations are all temporary and none are inherently monstrous (Unless you already are a monster, in which case good luck with that!). Greeters are present in force to help accommodate you as you make your way, your welcome backpack and items all freshly and neatly cleaned and ready for you as they put the robe on. Everything is so welcoming and inviting that it almost seems like they're having a party.

This is, in fact, because they are. The Wild Moon is about and festivities are in full swing throughout the month of Bauphomette. May poles are set up and it is possible to dance around one if you should wish. Doing so can help to ground oneself in their current form, which may help new arrivals settle in a bit better. Even ignoring that, it feels good to sing and dance, and everyone is very friendly. Even the usually grim Hunters who guard the roads and entries to the shores seem to have less stern smiles on their faces, though their eyes are ever watchful to keep the peace of the festivities.

SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK
Decorations this month are decidedly floral in nature. Everyone is dressed in white, regardless of their usual preferences. Flowers adorn many of the people of Trench and the weather throughout the first week of May is pleasant. Even if it rains, it is a refreshing, light and pleasant rain, and there are many awnings and umbrellas to take shelter underneath.

And of course, there's refreshments. What festival in Trench would be without them? The foods this month have a very floral theme to them. Edible flowers have been grown and prepared especially for this time of year. They've been used to help create infused and gelatinous sweets, Floral spring rolls and edible flower cookies and the like, along with floral teas that are meant to calm the mind. Additionally, the people of Trench will note that any of the foods present can have a beneficial, albeit transformative effect on the mind and body. They promise it won't last long, but if you're really concerned there is hard tack and water available that's quite filling.

Changes from Food will last a few hours at most. There are several options available among the drinks and foods. These may be combined as the player sees fit. Drinks have mental effects, while Treats have physical ones, the Trenchies will inform:

Pomegranate Juice: Sweet and tart, anyone who drinks it or has some of the fresh pomegranate and seeds will feel compelled to speak nothing but the truth. Pomegranates are found littering makeshift shrines to Bauphomette throughout the party, and Trenchies insist they are free to take.
Petal Infused Hot Tea: Pungent and aromatic, it is relaxing. The heat gives a warmth and vibrancy that fills a person with confidence, to the point of arrogance and fearlessness, leading the emboldened to try something that they might not otherwise do, even if it's very risky!
Floral Iced Tea: While refreshing, it feels like there's something just a little lacking, and anyone who drinks some will feel that they need more but not what they need more of at first, making them clingy and affectionate towards other people, especially strangers.
Iced Water: It's not the tastiest, but has a way of washing things away. Water can cleanse and remove the effects of other drinks, though it leaves the person feeling emotionally drained if it is used this way.

Floral Spring Rolls: Trying one of these surprisingly edible treats will have the added effect of giving a person plant traits temporarily. Hair may convert into tresses of ivy or carefully manicured moss, or perhaps a mushroom cap! Skin might become bark-like or chlorophyl green. The more that one eats, the more that they change.
Gelatinous Sweets: These curiosities come with a note. “Have you ever wondered what it is like to walk in someone's shoes?” Eating one has a profound physical effect, causing a person's appearance to transform into that of another person in Trench! It may not even be someone they've met, or seen yet! It would be awkward to meet someone, not looking the way you're supposed to, or worse? Looking like them!
Edible Flower Cookies: They come with lovely notes saying “Eat Me!” What could be sweeter? Well, like something out of Alice and Wonderland, eating one can cause a person to grow or shrink by a foot. More cookies can cause the height difference to become worse and worse, though if you're only a foot tall, it's a good way to end up an inch tall! So, maybe eating more to fix the problem is risky.
Hard Tack: Like the water, it can fill the stomach and remove prematurely any physical effects, though if it does so, removing a physical change physically drains the character.

A DIM REFLECTION

WHEN: May
WHERE: Throughout Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Paranoia, existential dread, hallucinations, possession-related horror.

---

They warned you about mirrors. Every once in a while, one of the locals in Trench might have whispered it, made a sign of warding when they passed by mirrors, but nothing seemed out of place. They told you that you might see yourself in it, and you would never be the same. However, every time you've looked it's been fine. So, maybe they were being superstitious about something? It certainly wouldn't have been the first time someone had gotten paranoid about nothing in Trench, would it?

How wrong you were. Maybe it was when you were looking down at a puddle rippling in a light breeze. It might have been a formerly polished piece of bronze covered in tarnish that adorned a building. Perhaps it was that lovely bit of obsidian in the shop where you caught your reflection garbled by the shape. It happens only when a reflection is seen in a distorted surface, especially those that are naturally occurring, though occasionally damaged and weathered surfaces that were polished will work. When you were looking at the image, it seemed to look back at you and something was wrong, distorted, imperfect. By then it was too late.

The natives were right. You saw some part of yourself there in the mirror. It might be something that you've hidden from others for a long time, or it might be an exaggeration of a single part of yourself that you aren't proud about. What it is, is a distorted and incomplete part of yourself, something that you try to keep controlled and in check, and it was there, smiling at you and winking. The moment it winked, it was like you were riding in your own skin, watching and unable to act as you changed into a self that reflected that distorted, unnatural and incomplete side of yourself. What shadows do you hide from yourself?

This effect lasts for, at most, one solar cycle. From the rising of the sun to its setting, or the moon to its setting, the effect can last no longer than that. Especially strong-willed people, particularly palebloods, can end this effect sooner through force of will, though it usually lasts at minimum an hour. The character is, for the duration of this effect, changed in personality to behave in accordance with some singular aspect (of the player's choice) of their personality that they do not usually focus on in their day to day behavior. This change can be subtle, or it can be drastic and even dangerous. Its goal is to make sure that everyone sees and witnesses this change, and goes out of its way to impact others in a memorable fact, making sure that they see there is more to the character than what they are revealing. This could be relatively innocuous or extremely dangerous, depending on the person, and the whole while the dominant personality is riding inside their skin, forced to watch what is happening.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

WHEN: May
WHERE: Dream worlds
CONTENT WARNINGS: Existential dread, disturbing visions

---

It happens when you are asleep one night. There is no warning for this effect, and it comes without apparent cause. One night, you go to sleep, and then suddenly you find yourself in a dreamscape, on a path. You can sense eyes on you the whole time that you are present in this field, and though they have a sense of benevolence to them, there is a deeply alien element to the experiment, almost like you are being observed by a scientist through a microscope. You are not alone on the path, either. One, or possibly more than one, other people that you may know or not know, they seem to have entered the same dreamscape. Behind you is nothing but shadow, and before you is a path. Might as well get going if you want to wake up, right? That's how these things work.

Introductions and questions aside, there's nothing but the path and dense, impenetrable woods on both sides, so eventually you and your companion start walking. As you do, shortly you see a branch in the path ahead of you. The fork has two paths, one of which shows the traffic of many feet, footprints grooved well into the worn cobblestones and mud. One of you will somehow recognize that the footprints are their own, and will notice that the other path has no footprints or very few. That is when the compulsion hits. It is inexorable and impossible to deny, the curiosity to see what is down the path that those footprints do not travel.

Travel, walk and taking that path, you will be treated to a vision. It is a moment in the dreamer's life, where they see something that happened in their life, which involved a choice. Did they go left or right? Did they say yes, or no? A choice they made, even one that seemed immaterial at the time, had some profound effect, and now you and they watch as the other choice was taken. And, within the hour, you will see the results, to your horror. Something terrible will happen to them. It could be anything, but it will be life-shattering, perspective altering and ghastly. They might even die from the experience or see a loved one die. The horror of it will still be in your hearts as you stand there for a moment, trapped in the sight of the aftermath, trying to come to terms with what you have just seen, and just at this moment, after a few parting words are said, both will wake up in a cold sweat.

The event that plays out can be from either character. Close CR is not required. Bauphomette has summoned the characters into the dream directly, and is sharing a distorted mirror of an opposite choice that could have been made. Actual “What if” canon events such as alternate timelines in Supernatural could be used for this, or the entire event can be concocted for this scene. The characters themselves are witnesses, and cannot be personally harmed in any physical way, but the horrific ending for the 'vision' version of the one whose dream this can be as awful as desired and take any form wished so long as it is unpleasant. Please be aware and mindful of each other's Content Warning Preferences in setting these scenes up.

CODING

Comments

[towards_okeanos]

Iskandar had no problem dressing in the strange attire that all over the revellers donned. He's fond of things strange and novel. That includes the new modes of dress.

"Oh, there's no need to apologize, my friend," he replies with a wide smile before he's even registered who the apology came from. "No hurt has been done."

Then he looks, and immediately takes interest. The contrast couldn't have been more stark, and he finds it utterly fascinating. Now, he needs to know more about this person.

"I am Iskandar, and who are you if I may ask?"

[noniad]

This Iskandar would tower over even Protesilaus. Ortus has never seen someone who is so much, not only in height and musculature, but in the already brilliant projected force of his personal charisma. It's all more than a touch overwhelming. He finds his mouth quite dry before he swallows to moisten it, and even then, his tongue is cowed to quiet.

"Ortus Nigenad, of the Ninth," he says, meekly, stepping back from him and his deeply resonant voice. "I was careless in my ambulations."

Careless in my ambulations. He would kick himself, if such a thing were possible. What century does he think this is?

"I thank you for your graciousness," he adds, less stiffly, but still with pronounced shyness.

[towards_okeanos]

Iskandar's grin widens, his massive brows go higher the more he hears from this strange and yet fascinating individual.

"The pleasure is mine, Ortus Nigenad. Do tell, do I have the pleasure of encountering a poet, perhaps? Much time has passed since I've heard one express themselves in such refined a way."

That Iskandar speaks plainly is a matter of simple practicality. There's no room for a pretty turn of phrase on the battlefield. He needed all his soldiers to understand him clearly. It doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate it. In fact, he very much does. He loves all arts, theatre the most, and Ortus reminds him of a few actors he knew. Highly cultured people. He respected them greatly. Maybe it's his painted face or his way with words.

[noniad]

Ortus clears his throat twice, once low and once high, dislodging the particularly irksome gobbet of mortification that sought to make a home there. It is not embarrassing to be correctly judged, he tells himself, deeply embarrassed to have been seen so clearly - even if the signs could hardly have been more obvious, from his manner of speech to his still tightly clutched notebook.

"I write poetry, on occasion," he says, managing deference instead of cringing, "I read it often, which I have been told gives one a particular manner of speaking. You are a fellow appreciator of the art?"

He cannot help but pitch the question a note too eager. He is as shameless in his foisting of his work as he is reticent about everything else.

[towards_okeanos]

"Indeed, I am," Iskandar admits this with no small amount of pride. He hadn't been called a prodigy for no reason. "Never had as much time to devote to the art as I would have liked, but I read what I could get. I have my favourite authors."

Who would have thought that he'd find a fellow poetry enthusiast here of all places. This is truly auspicious day. But there's one more important question the needs asking.

"Say, what do you think of theatre?"

[noniad]

"I have not had the pleasure of seeing it performed," Ortus answers, wistfully, briefly transported from the present to the shelter of a fondly recalled library, "I have read many excellent plays, but much like poetry, much is lost when confined to the page alone."

Many were the nights he would imagine the staging of some of the more vivid offerings. The only plays Ortus ever saw performed were as a child, consisting of the dreadful religious mummery put on by himself and other children for the amusement of adults.

But that is neither here or there. Here, he finds himself venturing a near smile, a slight twitching at the corners of his mouth easily lost behind the stiff obscuring fall of his veil.

"Are you an actor?"

[towards_okeanos]

"Truly, it is."

Iskandar can only nod in agreement. He's been lucky to see some of his favourites performed before he embarked on his Asian campaign. Later, he could only read. It's better than be deprived completely, but it's never enough.

The question, though, does make him laugh.

"Oh, no! I'd wish, but my talents lie elsewhere. I doubt I would have been able to put on a satisfactory performance."

He can sing and play the lyre, but acting? That requires a lot more.

[noniad]

Perhaps it is the contrast between Iskandar's booming voice and the rest of the festival that makes it seem less raucous and more a pleasant babble. He certainly casts enough shade to explain why the light of the sun above is not so harsh. Whatever the cause for the fact the world has softened at the edges, Ortus appreciates it, as it gives him more time to bask in an unexpectedly welcome interaction.

"Where do your talents lie, if I may ask you such a question?" Ortus asks, with a mild warmth that would not serve as effusiveness for anyone else, but does for him. He has unconsciously shifted to holding his notebook across his chest with both arms, a gesture better suited to a shy child than a grown man.

But who would not feel some of the awe of a youth in this man's presence? Ortus is sure there are few.

[towards_okeanos]

Anyone expecting modesty or humility from Iskandar is there for a grave disappointment. Though, he's so genuine in his self-praise that it doesn't even sound boastful. More like he's just sharing the information requested with no intention of impressing anyone. Which is only a half-truth. He's always out there to impress people. Being an example for others to follow is as much a part of his personality as anything else. It's not hubris, it's just who he is.

"I have been called a prodigy in my youth, but if I were to name a few most notable that would be a commander of armies if I can gather one, a warrior if I must, and a diplomat if I cannot avoid it."

He's also pretty good with a lyre, but it doesn't feel valid to mention it since he didn't exactly have many occasions to practice lately. Or actually at all ... for the last... many, many years... or centuries.

[noniad]

Ortus is gawp-mouthed as Iskandar lists off his accomplishments, an expression that combines with the deep set of his black painted eyes to make him resemble nothing so much as a landed fish.

"My lord," Ortus says, because it seems the correct title, for lack of another given, "It is an honor to make the acquaintance of one so accomplished."

He is like a character from an epic in the flesh, one of a more conventional bent than Nonius, but still a heroic figure. He contemplates unclasping his notebook to use it for its intended purpose, but that seems far too bold. He will simply have to commit what he can to memory, which is fortunately a task he is accustomed to.

[towards_okeanos]

"My accomplishments are not only my own, for I had friends and allies to aid me in all of them."

The funny thing is that he is like a character from an epic. He has deliberately modelled himself after one. The very pinnacle of an epic hero. The great Achilles.

"There are many ways one can acquire power. One that wields verse is no less mighty than one that wields a sword. Sometimes even mightier."

He was known for having levelled a city that opposed him, and leaving one house standing, because it belonged to a poet. That's how much he respects this art.

[noniad]

Ortus barely contains himself from praising Iskandar's modesty and generosity. It does not do to gild the skull, so to speak, and more so than that, Ortus detects no trace of purposeful modesty or generosity in it. Iskandar seems to simply be speaking the truth as he perceives it, and that is a characteristic Ortus must contemplate the naming of.

"That is so, at times," he says, bowing his head in deference, "Though a poet such as myself seeks no might of my own. I record the deeds of more valorous souls, so that their feats are not forgotten, or recorded in ill-fashion."

Some of the descriptions of Nonius in the histories were unacceptably dry, or shaded to dismissive. The deeds of cavaliers are most often lauded in concert with their necromancers, but such was not the focus of Ortus' work.

[towards_okeanos]

Events can be shuffled around, motives misinterpreted, words taken out of context or outright invented, to make a man look bad or good, depending on the purpose of the one telling the story.

Iskandar has some strong words to say about people who put together a biased or distorted accounts for their own gain. He's been on the receiving end of such slander way too often.

"Do not diminish yourself or your work, my friend. For it is through the words of poets that the valorous gain immortality. By recounting the tales of their deeds without distortion, you not only add to their honour, but to yours as well."