countryclub | May 2022 TDM

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meme: tdm

May 2022 TDM

MAY 2022 TDM

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: Two woven baskets of freshly picked blueberries sitting in a field. ]
[Image Two: A close up of oranges and blossoms still hanging from a tree in the sunlight. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Precious Moments Figuring turned into a zombie ]
[Image Two:Vampiric, Monstrous Angel Statue ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A disembodied snake eye. ]
[Image Two: A spiraling clock, indicating a time loop. ]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

STANDARD ARRIVAL

WHEN: Upon Arrival
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Memory shares, violent behavior, obsessive behavior, potential for stalking, forced sexual desire

You're one of the lucky ones. Your journey is smooth sailing and you wind up exactly where you're supposed to: on the Farther Shores. You grow out of your squid body without a hitch, either with the help of another Sleeper or one of the Wakers, and you get to discover this new world. All new Sleepers might take some time to find their bearings. It might be tricky to remember how to use your body parts the way you're supposed to. You might stumble around the beach or forget how to talk - but don't worry! It'll come back to you sooner or later.

Hopefully, you've found something to wear, either in your Welcoming Bag or otherwise, and can start familiarizing yourself with your surroundings. Maybe you help some other squids out on the beach. Waking up sucks! You feel for the little guys. And hey, maybe you're hoping one of those squids is a good friend...Stranger things have happened.

SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK

Due to the increasing heat, people in Trench will be dressed in cool summer outfits, made of fabrics that are best for air circulation and cooling to the touch. The boardwalk is filled with merchants who are selling all kinds of freshly picked fruit. It's rare to get this kind of bounty in agricultural growth, so it seems like everyone in Trench is taking advantage of it, stocking up so they can make preserves and jams or even freeze it for when winter comes. For the most part, eating the fruit is completely harmless; in fact, consuming fruit will fill someone with a sense of calm and ease, providing immense relief from corruption for those who are being afflicted with it. People will be drawn to eat any and all fruit, even if it's not a kind they would normally eat, or even if it's something that they hate to eat in the first place.

There are some fruits that end up coming with some mild... side effects, though. It can take a little bit for it to get into a person's system, so it may be difficult to attach the strange events with the fruit itself. The more fruit that's consumed, the heavier and longer lasting the effects will be. Eating uncontaminated fruit can help to shorten the effects.

The fruit that cause effects are:

APPLES: Consuming apples, either raw or baked, will result in the uncontrolled ability to share your memories with others. This could be transferred through touch, through eye contact, or even projected from nowhere in a movie-like fashion for everyone to see. How the memories are shared is up to each individual player. Please make sure to mark for any individual content warnings that the memories may come with.

LEMONS: Eating lemons, even just the juice when it's added to other things like custard or sauces, or drinking lemonade, will fill people with a feeling of extreme lust. Even for people who normally don't get arouse may find themselves experiencing heavy desire. While this is normally/primarily sexual, it's not required; lemons can cause a lust for anything, such as for blood. If it is sexual, it will not make people go against their innate gender preferences (i.e. a gay man will still only feel lustful thoughts towards men) and it will not force people to partake in sexual acts that they wouldn't normally consent to. Please remember we have a strict policy against rape and sexual assault plots.

GRAPES: Eating grapes will cause someone to become highly obsessive. This can be over anything: maybe they'll feel they have to put things in a certain order, or they'll become highly focused on a particular task. Or maybe they'll even become obsessed with a specific individual and they won't stop thinking about them, or talking about them, or even want to leave them alone. This can result in stalking-like behavior and can escalate as high as a player wishes. Grapes have to be consumed in their natural state in order for this to have an impact: eating grape jam seems to not have the same effect for unknown reasons.

RASPBERRIES: Raspberries will cause an individual to become hyper-aggressive and violent. They'll take everything as a challenge and they'll be ready for a fight at the drop of a hat. Where they might normally have backed off or called a draw in a spar, they'll push their usual boundaries and won't want to end a fight until one or both parties are dead. They'll find themselves lashing out at others without cause and if they're not careful, they may find themselves going on a murder spree.

BLUEBERRIES: Eating blueberries will temporarily give someone the gift of healing. No matter how terrible the injury, touching another person will allow them to heal their wounds entirely. They'll be able to cure illnesses, ease mental health symptoms, and even regrow limbs if they've been freshly lost. The more blueberries consumed, the more intense an injury they'll be able to heal. This only counts for whole blueberries, though it doesn't seem to matter if they're dried or fresh. Baked/cooked blueberries, both in pies or in jams, will cause the opposite effect: those who consume cooked blueberries will cause injuries/illnesses with every touch.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

FIENDISH MOMENTS

WHEN: The Last Week of May and First Week of June
WHERE: Inside Buildings throughout Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Stalking, Small Monsters, Induced Emotion (Fear), Twisted Precious Moments dolls

They appear in the most innocuous of settings. There's really no warning to what is coming other than that, for some strange reason the native residents of Trench begin to show signs of increasing nervousness as the month changes over. They make warding signs when they think nobody is looking and stare over their shoulders, as if trying to make sure that nobody is there. If asked, they will assure the Sleepers that nothing is wrong and that they just feel spooked for no apparent reason. It happens in Trench from time to time. Yet, the number of people who dress in gaudy colors decreases rapidly in the last week of June, everyone seeming to favor somber, drab and easily ignored clothes until the malaise passes. They may not be able to put a finger on it, but something is going on.

The reality becomes more obvious whenever anyone visits one of the shops in town. Amongst the various articles that are for sale seem to be small and apparently harmless looking figurines of angelic figures and cherubic, idyllic humans. Anyone hailing from an Earth in the 21st or 22nd century might recognize these as very similar to a line of ceramic figures that were very popular in their world. They look ever so nostalgic in a sort of cheap, hallmark-esque kind of way and there's an urge to buy one that is felt the moment that they're seen. It's easily resisted and it may even feel just strange enough to have the urge that characters might be creeped out by it, but maybe refusing to buy is the unwise choice.

Anyone who resists the urge finds that the figure thus spurned has a way of popping up, seemingly in the corner of their vision, only when they do it is always somehow different. When they look at it directly it appears completely normal, but out of the corner of the eye they seem to convert into small, demonic, monstrous apparitions who look ready to do harm to the person. Their gaze spawns fear and terror in even the most stalwart of hearts and if someone pointedly tries to turn away, they will find that they are attacked by the little imps. They're dangerous, harmful, but defeatable. However, they seem nearly indestructible. No amount of physical harm stops them, and even if you survive one attack, they just keep appearing.

The only way to get these troublesome pests off of your back is for the person who originally spurned them to apologize to them, sincerely. The next time they are in a shop, they should make a trade to 'purchase' them, whatever it takes and put them in a place of honor and pride in their home, at which point the 'curse' seems to lift and their home feels surprisingly safe for the next week before they are just mysteriously gone.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

EYE ON YOU

WHEN: The Month of June
WHERE: Anywhere in Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Dissociative Episodes, Loss of Time, Warped Reality

It isn't the first time something like this has ever happened to those who were once trapped by Julia Sodder's nightmares, but this certainly might feel like the most petty example. One day, you are traveling through the town, and you take an action. It literally does not matter what action it might be, only that it is something that you regret. Perhaps you took a wrong turn and it cost you ten minutes in getting to work. Maybe you took too long getting ready in the morning. It might have been a harsh word that hurt someone's feelings. It doesn't really matter how significant or insignificant the act was, save only that you regretted the action.

At some point in the day, the feeling that you are being watched will become unavoidable. A look to your left or right will find a basketball sized Eye that is floating off of the ground, observing you. Most know who and what Remina is, and that the indestructible Pthumerian just watches every event that transpires in their own way, but the gaze seems for some reason very intent. It furrows and squints, and the next time your character blinks they find themselves back. It's a few hours ago. Before the mistake, before the error. You remember everything that transpired but not why this has happened, only that you are going back through the last two hours of your life all over again. The moment that anything is done that feels 'out of place,' that anything is changed within that time period that is not the correct change there is a foreboding feeling of the eye watching. They have minutes. Perhaps to plead with someone to help them, to ask for information, anything, but at the end of that time, they will look to see Remina again, angrier this time. A blink and now they and whoever they last interacted with are caught in the loop and there are letters in blood on the wall.

G̴̬͙͘Ḛ̴̠͓̼̋̅T̵͖̯́̌͘ ̸̯̘́͒͋͑Ì̴͙T̶͙̞̆̀ ̶̪͕̥̣̔Ṙ̴̨̥͉̳͒̑͋I̴͚̼̓̀G̶̛͖̱Ḩ̸̧̣̙̈́T̷͉͉͑̾̕ ̸͙͛̽̿Ṯ̸̨͠H̴̬͒͆͑͘I̶̡̗̼͌̚͝S̶̢̹̫̣̈̈́͋ ̷̳̔̓̆T̴̡̚I̶̺͓͆̀Ṁ̸̤̊E̶͙̹͊̇͝

There is no true punishment for getting it wrong, other than that the two of you are stuck reliving those two hours over and over again until they 'get it right.' However, this can be an infuriating experience because of just how exact Remina can be when she is petty. Getting it right means that you have to do exactly what you originally did, but when you get to the point you regretted? You fix that one thing, and only that one thing. In that moment, there will feel like a relief lifted from your shoulders and you will be free to go about your day. Did you learn your lesson? Good.

Because Remina is always watching you. Always.

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Welcome home. Somebody hears those words, and feels the kind of full-body warmth that makes his tentacles quiver with glee. How long, how long has it been since he had a home, a place all his own that he could be comfortable in, someplace that was genuinely safe? Not since before the Immortal Alliance Conference for sure, not since he'd...well, not since the Conference. And even before that, how could he have ever really relaxed in Qing Jing Peak's Bamboo House, with Shen Qingqiu's canonical cruelty and grisly fate hanging over his head all the time?? Maybe when he'd lived in his apartment in Beijing...before, you know, he died there.

But that didn't matter anymore! Because he was entering a new world now, with a fresh start! The voice said so, and somehow somebody...Shen Something...Shen Yuan! Yes! Shen Yuan knew that was it was true. He could feel it.

It didn't occur to him to wonder if he should really trust mysterious feelings and voices in his head until after the Waker was gently setting him down in the sand, and by then he was much too excited about growing a new set of human limbs to worry. Two arms, two legs, a slender torso, it was all coming together. He couldn't quite remember what his face was supposed to look like, was it slim and elegant or small and a bit pudgy? Were his eyes green or black? But as long as the seven apertures were all present and working properly he supposed it didn't matter.

He was a bit less pleased with the mass of black hair that suddenly sprouted from his head like a time-lapse video of vines, the tips immediately attracting sand like they were magnetized, but the person who'd picked him up just smiled and helped him stand, kindly brushing the sand out of his hair before wrapping him up in a black robe before he'd had time to get embarrassed. He smiled back at them, giddy. New world! Fresh start! What did having too much hair matter, compared to that?

[ooc: Hi all, I'm Drake and I'm planning to app next week! I have a mostly completed application and permissions up on my journal, and anyone reading this should feel free to pm me if you have any questions. If anyone would like to be Shen Yuan's Wakener feel free to jump in, otherwise I'll start moving him towards the boardwalk in about 12 hours. Backtagging is also fine! I'm very excited about this game!]

Edited 2022-05-28 09:28 (UTC)

Another day, another newcomer Sleeper, and another day that Nehan is on the beach. But he chose this, just to check if there's anyone he knows. He doubts it, but it's become habit at this point. A few of the Wakers know him well enough to let him examine some of the Sleepers when he has a moment, and thus one of them brings someone new to him.

The erune's ears twitch, and turn forwards, all of his attention moving onto the man before him.

"I'm a medic." A quick, and simple opening, just so everyone knows what to expect. "I assume you were brought to me to make sure you're all right before sending you on your way, but I can also answer questions you may have about this world."

Only three years of pretending to be a noble and dignified Peak Lord save Shen Yuan from the embarrassment of publicly cooing over the stranger's fluffy dog ears. Which is good, because that would probably be horribly rude! But they're just...so fluffy! How adorable! Much too adorable for somebody so serious!

He nods, standing up straight on shakey legs so he can offer a proper bow. "I appreciate your time," he says calmly, matching the stranger's level of formality. There's no point in clinging to xianxia standards and making a spectacle of himself when he doesn't even know what's considered normal in this world. "My name's Shen Yuan; may I know who I am addressing?"

...Eh, that still came out a little more formal than he'd intended! He can't help it, he spent three years talking and acting a certain way like his life depended on it, because it did! Habits that deeply ingrained can't be broken overnight, you know??

The instant the stranger introduces himself, Nehan knows-- this is someone whose culture is awfully similar to his own. The one he was born into, rather, not the culture of the mafia he grew up with. At least he doesn't seem to be an elder, otherwise Nehan would have had to do a lot of verbal maneuvering and placating.

"My name is Nehan." Then he grunts as he reaches for the nearest portable chair and unfolds it, putting it down from across himself and points at it. He cant stand without a lot of effort, and his crutch is propped on the back of his own chair, and he doesn't feel like reaching for it to stand. "Sit down. Are you injured or feeling ill in any way?"

"Thank you." Shen Yuan sits down quickly, without protest; even though he's only been on his feet for a few minutes, it's still a relief to get off them. "I don't think I'm injured," he says slowly. "A little shaken, perhaps, but I think I'm simply still acclimating -- unless that was an especially vivid dream, when I thought I was a squid just now?"

He smiles slightly. Honestly even if Nehan tries to convince him it was a dream, Shen Yuan isn't sure he'll believe him. He's experienced constructed dreams after all, and they didn't feel like that.

As he takes stock of himself, however, Shen Yuan notices something...not right. Something that he hesitates to bring up; what if he's entered a world where magic isn't supposed to exist, or is stigmatized somehow? He doesn't want to end up locked up or labeled a crazy person! Point against that happening: he apparently just turned back into himself after being a magical squid or something, and he's talking to a person with dog ears. But in the pros (or would it be cons?) column, Nehan is visibly disabled, which generally doesn't indicate a high level of assistive magic or technology? How many people in magical worlds have actual disabilities, unless it's a plot point or they have special abilities that make up for it some way, like Professor X?

Ultimately, though, it's too troubling not to mention. If there's a problem he could always just take it back and pretend to be confused, right? "I'm not certain, but I think there might be an issue with my meridians, however. They don't seem to be present in this body, although I can still feel my own spiritual energy somehow." Don't mistake him for helpless, here! But he's just...not going to mention the fact that his golden core is apparently missing, not unless Nehan notices it first. That would be admitting to way too much weakness before he knows how things stand around here.

Now that's a word he hasn't heard in a long time. As a medic by way of family trade, of course he was taught in those as a child, but he started drifting away from that when he got into potions and magical healing. His potions were always a catch-all heal, after all. Nothing a good brew under the right conditions couldn't fix.

"If that's true, you're one of the unfortunate ones. There have been reports of people losing what abilities they had when they arrive in Trench." Then he lays one arm onto his thigh, wrist up, and tugs his sleeve away from his skin, just enough that he shows a small sliver of skin, and the barest hint of his vast network of scars. And points right at the veins. "Trench has its own set of... magic, you could call it. Some have to learn how to adapt it to what they already have, and others have to adapt to just that."

Then he leans back and covers up his wrist again.

"It's all dependent on your blood. It's changed the moment you arrived as a squid, even if you cant tell right now that it has." A subtle response to the question about whether or not he's actually a squid.

"...I see." Shen Yuan delicately covers his mouth with his fingertips, wishing he had a fan handy to cover his face while he processes this. At least he didn't lose all magical ability; getting knocked back down to normal after transmigrating for the second time would have just been unbearable. He didn't even get the chance to use most of the cool abilities that come with being a high-level cultivator!

"If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling me a bit more about magic works here? I'm passingly familiar with the concept of blood magic, but I'd hate to make any dangerous mistakes due to preconceptions that turned out to be false."

"First, you need to know what sort of magic is in your blood-- your blood type-- and it varies by individual, but there are only so many blood types to be. For example..."

Hopefully his human companion isn't squeamish, because Nehan is already drawing his knife from the elaborate holster at his hip, flashing the fact that he carries two knives and a revolver on his person despite being a medic. Then he draws the blade over the back of his arm, a deep enough cut to draw blood, but not just any blood-- seconds after it's drawn and starts to run down his arm, the liquid freezes, even if the wound is still open.

"That's a sign of my blood type, coldblood. Normal blood until I start to bleed, and then it turns into ice outside my body." After wiping his blade clean, he returns it to its sheath. "One wont be able to tell what type they have unless they bleed-- and then visual confirmation is enough."

Shen Yuan's eyebrows up when he notices how much heat Nehan is packing, not because he objects to the idea of going around heavily armed per se but more because...well, that implies some rather unfortunate things about how safe this place actually is, doesn't it? If even a medic feels the need to carry multiple weapons on his person...

Which might be unpleasant, but it should not be a surprise, he firmly tells himself. Whoever heard of somebody transmigrating into a boring, safe world, where nothing particularly exciting ever happened? What would be the point of that? And as soon as he's put it into that context, it becomes much easier to see Nehan's demonstration as both a timely distraction from uselessly gloomy thoughts and the valuable educational opportunity that it is, and give it the attention it deserves.

"Fascinating," he murmurs as Nehan's blood freezes solid and sticks to his wrist. He can sense...something, as it happens. Something very like a qi flare, but different in ways he lacks the vocabulary for. Ugh, he hopes this place has a library.

One of his eyebrows goes back up when Nehan cleans his blade and returns it to his sheath without even offering to check his blood for him. "One might assume, from your taciturnity, that there is some level of risk involved in heedlessly showing one's own blood to others?" Ugh, he slipped into a more formal register without meaning to, didn't he?

Nehan gives a nod, acknowledging the question as an intelligent one. "It's not a matter of common decent or face, but of practicality and health."

From a pocket in his coat, he pulls out a small scrap of cloth and wipes the frost off his skin, before laying his fingers near the wound, closing it by channeling magic into it. To any outsider, it just looks as if the cut is sealing itself.

"Our changed blood is a massive health hazard-- blood was always inherently toxic unless it's transfused properly to the right recipient, but the types in Trench are all dangerous in some form or another. Mine, to continue the example, is excellent for battle because it bestows me with some elemental magic. But can you imagine if I were to try and give it to someone else?"

"I believe I can imagine the outcome of such an interaction all too well." The curse of a vivid imagination: useful when one spent one's time reading novels, but significantly less entertaining when one was hearing about things that might happen to one's own person at some point in the future.

Shen Yuan sighs, eyeing the slightly bluish veins on the back of his hand uneasily. He can still feel his own qi if he concentrates, and now that he's actually looking for it it's easy to believe that it's not just following his blood, it's in his blood. Or part of his blood? Or the blood itself is his qi now? If only Shen Yuan had transmigrated into the lord of the medical peak! Then he'd have spent the last three years devouring Mu Qingfang's library, and he'd probably have a much easier time processing all this!

One of the first tricks young cultivators learned, after passing the novice stage of identifying and condensing their qi, was to consciously circulate it throughout their bodies, both to clear the mind and to promote good health. What the hell would happen if Shen Yuan tried that now?? And did he dare make the attempt?

He sighs again and gives Nehan a pained smile. "Forgive me; I find myself somewhat at a loss," he says frankly. "Of course I cannot expect to monopolize you for the rest of the day; surely there are other newcomers who need your help much more." And anyway Shen Yuan always preferred to saving his freaking out for when nobody was watching him do it. "If you would advise me on how to proceed for the immediate future, I would be most grateful -- and perhaps you could tell me what resources exist in this place that would help me research my new situation safely?"

If he was going to be operating on his own in this new world, better to know about it now, right?

Edited 2022-05-30 04:43 (UTC)

"I chose to come here, how I spend my time with newcomers is my own." He leans back in his seat, hands clasped together. It could have been a comfortable pose, if it weren't for the closed-off look on his face. After all, it's not as if he has anything else to do on the beach-- the news is always the same when he's here. No one he recognizes.

Which is a good thing, he thinks. No one to suffer in this place. He doubts even Six would last for long.

"First we determine your blood type and find your belongings. I'm not particular about which one we do first."

"My belongings?" Shen Yuan's face lights up before he can stop himself, and though he schools it back into calm interest immediately afterwards, even he has to admit that he's probably not fooling anyone, including himself. "It would be nice to have more to my name than the clothes on my back," he says ruefully -- and even the robe he's currently wearing is either a gift or a loan, nobody said which. Shit, there's so much he needs to find out about this world, and quickly: what kind of currency do they have here, and how can he get some? Is he going to have to get a (cough, cough) real job? Maybe he can find a group of parents who are just desperate to have their kids learn how to play guqin...

Oh fuck, where is he going to sleep tonight?? He's not used to thinking about these things, he's just a rich NEET forced to cosplay at wise sagehood! He's basically never been in a spot where there wasn't someone looking after him before, this...this is kind of scary.

Shen Yuan (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System)

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Open Thread: Fruit Prompts

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