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countryclub2022-06-25 05:57 pm
reddosmod) wrote in countryclub2022-06-25 05:57 pm
Entry tags:
June 2022 TDM
JUNE 2022 TDM
STANDARD ARRIVAL
YOU CANNOT HIDE
ALL ALONE IN A SEA OF SOULS
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: A close-up of the hilt of a large sword. ]
[Image Two: A GIF of the ocean. ]
Prompt Two
[Image One: A blood red tattoo of an A on someone's face]
[Image Two: Judgmental aristocratic vampires think they're better than you]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Despair Demon, monster with massive teeth]
[Image Two: Woman turned into a statue of salt]
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: A close-up of the hilt of a large sword. ]
[Image Two: A GIF of the ocean. ]
Prompt Two
[Image One: A blood red tattoo of an A on someone's face]
[Image Two: Judgmental aristocratic vampires think they're better than you]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Despair Demon, monster with massive teeth]
[Image Two: Woman turned into a statue of salt]
WHEN: July
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
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
The weather starts to become unbearably hot as the city makes its way into July. The humidity starts to become oppressively heavy and the cold water of the ocean looks mighty tempting to get some relief. Be careful, though! The ocean has started to become even more threatening than usual. Choppy waves might look the most menacing, but the periods of calm between them are where things are the most dangerous, and those who aren't careful will find they're easily swept back out with the current.
The arrival of a true summer doesn't seem to be reflected with the sort of relaxing, vacation vibes some might be used to in their home worlds, though. If anything, the Trenchies seem a little more jumpy, a little more on edge. They're snappier than usual and might not be willing to put up with as many questions as they have in the past. That irritation might be infectious; you may find yourself getting snapiper and more on edge yourself with no explanation as to why. And people also keep talking about one thing, like it's the promise of relief in the midst of all the heavy heat:
The Reckoning is coming.
To those who have studied Pthumerians, that might actually mean something, and maybe they can enlighten the newcomers who probably have no idea why this phrase feels so ominous! It's okay, newbies. So long as you haven't caused any intentional harm to the people around you or stolen anything as of late, you'll probably be fine. The Reckoning only comes for those who do wrong. She's quick to punish the cruel with her own violent form of justice. So hopefully you've been good.
There are no festivities on the Boardwalk this month. Instead, it will be decorated with offerings for the Reckoning; letters of thanks for her help, or offerings to try and gain some kind of forgiveness from those who feel they have done something unjust. There will be bouquets and candles and pieces of artwork all around. Maybe you can add your own letter of repent! Whatever you do with the offerings, admiring them from afar or getting a hands on approach to read the letters, do not take them from where they are left. Unless you want to meet the Reckoning face to face for being so dishonorable.
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.
The weather starts to become unbearably hot as the city makes its way into July. The humidity starts to become oppressively heavy and the cold water of the ocean looks mighty tempting to get some relief. Be careful, though! The ocean has started to become even more threatening than usual. Choppy waves might look the most menacing, but the periods of calm between them are where things are the most dangerous, and those who aren't careful will find they're easily swept back out with the current.
The arrival of a true summer doesn't seem to be reflected with the sort of relaxing, vacation vibes some might be used to in their home worlds, though. If anything, the Trenchies seem a little more jumpy, a little more on edge. They're snappier than usual and might not be willing to put up with as many questions as they have in the past. That irritation might be infectious; you may find yourself getting snapiper and more on edge yourself with no explanation as to why. And people also keep talking about one thing, like it's the promise of relief in the midst of all the heavy heat:
To those who have studied Pthumerians, that might actually mean something, and maybe they can enlighten the newcomers who probably have no idea why this phrase feels so ominous! It's okay, newbies. So long as you haven't caused any intentional harm to the people around you or stolen anything as of late, you'll probably be fine. The Reckoning only comes for those who do wrong. She's quick to punish the cruel with her own violent form of justice. So hopefully you've been good.
There are no festivities on the Boardwalk this month. Instead, it will be decorated with offerings for the Reckoning; letters of thanks for her help, or offerings to try and gain some kind of forgiveness from those who feel they have done something unjust. There will be bouquets and candles and pieces of artwork all around. Maybe you can add your own letter of repent! Whatever you do with the offerings, admiring them from afar or getting a hands on approach to read the letters, do not take them from where they are left. Unless you want to meet the Reckoning face to face for being so dishonorable.
WHEN: Last week of June, First week of July
WHERE: Anywhere in Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Forced Emotional Response, Scarring
WHERE: Anywhere in Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Forced Emotional Response, Scarring
As summer gets hotter and deeper, things in Trench have been getting tense. As if that weren't enough there appears to be something going wrong in the blood of many sleepers. Sleeper blood is normally rife with minute forms of blood pollution at even the best of times, regardless of monthly variation, and as the Reckoning nears her most awake, this corruption begins to bubble to the surface, literally. Whether the Reckoning was secretly a fan of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne or not, it certainly seems that the two share a certain similarity in style, and a complete lack of subtlety. Let it never be said the Reckoning is difficult to understand.
The bubbling up of corruption takes the form of a visible symbol. This could be as crass as a literal scarlet A formed in blood blisters that pool and then scab and scar at the surface of the skin, or it could be literal, actual scar tissue that forms up. The exact details are not important, but what is consistent is that it will always appear somewhere visible, nearly impossible to hide from others. It will be a symbol that is easily recognized by someone, and the moment anyone sees the symbol they will implicitly know what it means. For example, A for Adultery, M for Murder, T for thief.
The symbol will reveal a crime, whether publicly known or secret, that a person feels that they have committed. The only stipulation is that this must not be a crime for which they have been justly punished and made restitution. It must be something that guilt could be felt for, that has as yet been unpunished. Whenever anyone sees that symbol, they will feel an urge to judge the person for that, to speak their mind or possibly even mette out punishment on them in the stead of the Reckoning, serving as their agent. Let the punishment fit the crime, they say, and that adage applies. Either way, the symbol will last at most 3 days before fading again, unless the person is punished, in which case it will bleed out properly and ironically leave a person feeling more at peace in the first weeks of July.
Notes: The mark will only ever be for one "crime" at a time. This can be anything the player wishes, and the compulsion to know what the symbol represents is unresistable. however, the urge to punish can be resisted with an effort.
The Mark can be hidden, but it is difficult to do and it will be very obvious to everyone that the person is hiding something. The only real way to hide the Mark is to avoid human contact for a few days and stick to the network.
Anyone who punishes or is punished during this event will feel a greater sense of peace and neutrality in the first week of July, for having participated in the Reckoning's work.
The Reckoning is not consciously goading sleepers to do this, but it will support any act of reprisal that happens as it becomes temporarily ascendant.
The bubbling up of corruption takes the form of a visible symbol. This could be as crass as a literal scarlet A formed in blood blisters that pool and then scab and scar at the surface of the skin, or it could be literal, actual scar tissue that forms up. The exact details are not important, but what is consistent is that it will always appear somewhere visible, nearly impossible to hide from others. It will be a symbol that is easily recognized by someone, and the moment anyone sees the symbol they will implicitly know what it means. For example, A for Adultery, M for Murder, T for thief.
The symbol will reveal a crime, whether publicly known or secret, that a person feels that they have committed. The only stipulation is that this must not be a crime for which they have been justly punished and made restitution. It must be something that guilt could be felt for, that has as yet been unpunished. Whenever anyone sees that symbol, they will feel an urge to judge the person for that, to speak their mind or possibly even mette out punishment on them in the stead of the Reckoning, serving as their agent. Let the punishment fit the crime, they say, and that adage applies. Either way, the symbol will last at most 3 days before fading again, unless the person is punished, in which case it will bleed out properly and ironically leave a person feeling more at peace in the first weeks of July.
Notes: The mark will only ever be for one "crime" at a time. This can be anything the player wishes, and the compulsion to know what the symbol represents is unresistable. however, the urge to punish can be resisted with an effort.
The Mark can be hidden, but it is difficult to do and it will be very obvious to everyone that the person is hiding something. The only real way to hide the Mark is to avoid human contact for a few days and stick to the network.
Anyone who punishes or is punished during this event will feel a greater sense of peace and neutrality in the first week of July, for having participated in the Reckoning's work.
The Reckoning is not consciously goading sleepers to do this, but it will support any act of reprisal that happens as it becomes temporarily ascendant.
WHEN: All July
WHERE: Begins in sight of the ocean, but can proceed to anywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Depression, Severe Loneliness, Body Horror, Monsters, Loss of feelings of self-worth.
WHERE: Begins in sight of the ocean, but can proceed to anywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Depression, Severe Loneliness, Body Horror, Monsters, Loss of feelings of self-worth.
For some people, the herald of the presence of the Reckoning washes over them. But for others, when they stare out at the sea one day, they can feel a restlessness, a bitter cold that threatens to encroach within them. When they look, they see a specter, a shade of something monstrous that floats along the waters. Haggard, it chatters as if insanely cold. If they try to attack, it flitters away. If they say nothing, it does likewise, and seems not to even notice their presence. Perhaps they fear for it chasing them, but such is not the insidious nature of its curse.
For those who see the banshee that wanders the ocean, they will be cursed by an incomprehensible loneliness. It will be a feeling of abandonment that is oppressive, overwhelming and bone-chilling. Worse still is the fact that it will be made even more pronounced the more people that there are around them. Standing in the market square or being in the middle of a packed bar in Cellar Door, they might feel as if they were freezing to death, because they are. Within a crowd, they will feel right or wrong as if everyone's eyes are ignoring them. The more that it persists, the more that they will feel a petrifying power yearning to make them freeze where they stand. If nobody pays attention to them, how are they different from a piece of furniture or forgotten decoration?
The longer that they linger, the more dangerous it becomes. Their skin will begin to solidify and harden and despite the heat they will feel intense cold. If they flee to a place with fewer people, there is some alleviation but the intense loneliness persists. The only real cure is for them to find affirmation of their fears and comfort in the company of one person, a person who they are not already close to. To just be noticed, that is enough to break the curses of the spirit on the waters. But, however well their closest boon companions might wish, their words will always feel hollow. Until they are affirmed by someone they are not closely tied to, the curse will continue until they freeze to death or a week has passed at most.
Notes:
The curse can last from 3 days to a week, player preference. It can be alleviated through magic and blood powers, but not completely removed. Only fulfilling the curse of the banshee will do the trick. If natives are asked about a freezing sensation or the spirit on the waters, they will shiver, make a warding gesture and tell how to cure the curse, but will refuse to do so themselves. Generosity is hard to come by and they don't want that thing's attention.
It is up to player discretion how close or not close CR should be to be able to cure the curse. This is entirely up to you to decide, but the idea is basically that one's close connections cannot do it.
It is not possible to find writings on this being in the records in Mutter. The librarian will be confused and swear they should exist. A search of the shelves, however, will find that any book they believe it to be found within has been defaced. Specific pages have been torn out or cut out crudely, as if by a large sword. Any attempt to record this spirit's nature will have similar results, the pages being destroyed when not attended first. If one asks in Cassandra, a Disciple will murmur softly and whisper that the shade may be a memory lingering behind of the Reckoning, though it is no longer part of her. It represents her own loneliness, and she denies that it exists.
The spirit can be neither killed nor harmed in any way. It cannot even be interacted with. Mystical senses will be unsure it is actually there.
For those who see the banshee that wanders the ocean, they will be cursed by an incomprehensible loneliness. It will be a feeling of abandonment that is oppressive, overwhelming and bone-chilling. Worse still is the fact that it will be made even more pronounced the more people that there are around them. Standing in the market square or being in the middle of a packed bar in Cellar Door, they might feel as if they were freezing to death, because they are. Within a crowd, they will feel right or wrong as if everyone's eyes are ignoring them. The more that it persists, the more that they will feel a petrifying power yearning to make them freeze where they stand. If nobody pays attention to them, how are they different from a piece of furniture or forgotten decoration?
The longer that they linger, the more dangerous it becomes. Their skin will begin to solidify and harden and despite the heat they will feel intense cold. If they flee to a place with fewer people, there is some alleviation but the intense loneliness persists. The only real cure is for them to find affirmation of their fears and comfort in the company of one person, a person who they are not already close to. To just be noticed, that is enough to break the curses of the spirit on the waters. But, however well their closest boon companions might wish, their words will always feel hollow. Until they are affirmed by someone they are not closely tied to, the curse will continue until they freeze to death or a week has passed at most.
Notes:
The curse can last from 3 days to a week, player preference. It can be alleviated through magic and blood powers, but not completely removed. Only fulfilling the curse of the banshee will do the trick. If natives are asked about a freezing sensation or the spirit on the waters, they will shiver, make a warding gesture and tell how to cure the curse, but will refuse to do so themselves. Generosity is hard to come by and they don't want that thing's attention.
It is up to player discretion how close or not close CR should be to be able to cure the curse. This is entirely up to you to decide, but the idea is basically that one's close connections cannot do it.
It is not possible to find writings on this being in the records in Mutter. The librarian will be confused and swear they should exist. A search of the shelves, however, will find that any book they believe it to be found within has been defaced. Specific pages have been torn out or cut out crudely, as if by a large sword. Any attempt to record this spirit's nature will have similar results, the pages being destroyed when not attended first. If one asks in Cassandra, a Disciple will murmur softly and whisper that the shade may be a memory lingering behind of the Reckoning, though it is no longer part of her. It represents her own loneliness, and she denies that it exists.
The spirit can be neither killed nor harmed in any way. It cannot even be interacted with. Mystical senses will be unsure it is actually there.
Arrival!
He's spoken briefly with the Wakers. Until he can find his possessions, there's only so much he can do. Without them, he's unable to channel any magic worth mentioning. But it seems only right to help the others--he's not the only one blown ashore by strange tides.
That instinct pulls him toward an odd, partly-formed body.
"Come back to yourself, dear one." He kneels down on the sand next to them. "Whatever form that might take."
Re: Arrival!
It isn't wearing anything. Performance reliability drops twenty percent.
Murderbot turns away from the person and draws its legs up. Oh yes, such a scary Rogue SecUnit it is, unable to face one stranger. It guesses the man, it sounds like a man, hasn't interacted with a SecUnit before or only one in armor.
"Clothes," Murderbot forces out. It's hardly the politest tone, but it feels like it's handling things rather well, considering. It keeps that input front and center with the serial, but it unpauses the show for the emotional relief it provides.
no subject
He turns away to grant them privacy, trying to make sense of what he'd seen. Whatever they are, he doesn't know of anyone like them. "Are you injured?" His own fresh bruises had unfortunately been healed upon his arrival, but he'd been told others might not experience the same.
no subject
"Please wait for a status update," comes out of its buffer.
Then it rewinds enough to catch child as well as the question. Murderbot looks around them dumbly. Is there a human child here? It's fooled people into thinking it's an augmented human, but no one's taken it for a child. Perhaps this man had only had experience with pet bots, who might actually like to be addressed as children. It cannot sense ART within sensor limits, and this is clearly not Preservation Alliance personnel. It cannot even pull a Feed ID immediately from the person. As a security precaution, it turns its off. If people don't recognize a SecUnit, there's no need to tell them a rogue SecUnit has arrived.
It scans its code, but everything tagged has been removed. That process was a success. What tag? Murderbot asks itself. Not everything is back online. It isn't missing a notable amount of its body mass or other faults, so Murderbot glances at the man while he's still turned away. Pale skin. Grayish/graying hair. Age—Murderbot has never been good at guessing ages—adult? Is gray related to age or an aesthetic choice? At least his skin isn't gray. Not a Target.
"I'm uninjured," Murderbot replies. It hesitates, "I don't remember coming here, wherever here is." It could lie, but a five minute conversation would likely reveal that. It might take such a conversation to obtain further clothing.
no subject
"We've been restored to our bodies, after some time adrift. How we arrived on this world is unclear." Unfortunately, he couldn't even answer whether they were still within the Material Plane. Or whether this being had even originated there in the first place.
"Where is the last place you remember, dear one?"
no subject
"What are the options for polite titles?" Murderbot asks because it simple cannot fathom answering to 'dear one.' It isn't modifying its endangered human protocol for that. "We're not from the same place, and that is not an acceptable term between strangers." Not when one of them is it.
It considers what information it can safely share and whether or not it wants to lie. It doesn't know what a convincing lie would be to this person. Much less the next human to wander close. "I was near a previously lost colony site." Since they aren't even in the same system, it isn't a lie.
no subject
"My name is Abdirak, priest of Loviatar. Any terms you would find appropriate for clergy would be welcomed. But I'm afraid I don't know what you are." And he's quite sure he never knew before washing up on shore either.
Whether he would learn more was up to this being's discretion, and they seemed unwilling to share much. He supposed he could understand, given the strange and discomforting circumstances they found themselves in.
no subject
Human religions were many. It had observed people performing religious activities as part of the mandated monitoring required to avoid a) getting its neurological tissue fried or b) getting disassembled because that didn't fry its brain. Like most things, they hadn't been of interest, and Murderbot hadn't paid it much attention. Instead it searches its media collection for religious depictions, selected the ones it has already seen (there's no time to watch a whole new serial, not even an unrealistic one that sounds more fun than talking to strangers), and uses the Company's codes for data mining to query and read the results.
Your HolinessBrother
Sister
Father
Mother
Your Eminence
Your [anything really]
Reverend
That one least implies a relationship that the search results provide quickly. Fine. It's not like Abdirak is its priest of whoever. One imminent anxiety spiking dilemma resolved, one to go.
It's passed for an augmented human. It could go that route. The thought is draining, and performance reliability drops by one percent. Anxiety spikes at the thought of being honest and possibly having to go into combat without proper clothing, much less armor. People don't react well to SecUnits. Even someone who has never heard of one probably doesn't feel warm and cozy upon hearing it (unless large alien fauna is about to eat them; then it's yes, please stop that thing!).
"Reverand Abdirak," Murderbot uses the title not for the lead in to be particularly polite but to demonstrate the selected term, "I am a bot-human construct. Not a bot. Not a human. It's different." Such as being classified as a dangerous weapon in more places than not. It hoped it doesn't get mistaken for a sexbot (excuse it, ComfortUnit).