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Deer Country Mod ([personal profile] reddosmod) wrote in [community profile] countryclub2022-07-25 10:37 pm
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July Test Drive Meme!

JULY 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: Colorful paper lanterns shaped like jellyfish lit up and hovering in the air. ]
[Image Two: A person with long hair wearing a crown dedicated with shells and rocks. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A GIF of waves breaking roughly out in the middle of the ocean. ]
[Image Two: Strong waves crashing into a lighthouse and rocks. ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A large Ningen (a sea creature that is half human, half monster, and has no face except for a large slit for a mouth) towering over a deep sea diver. ]
[Image Two: A person standing out on the rocks with their arms out stretched as the tentacles of a large sea monster wave in the air above the ocean. ]

STANDARD ARRIVAL
WHEN: August
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

This month has an entire festival dedicated to Mariana. The people of Trench seem to be quite enamoured with her, despite her often cruel and unpredictable behaviors. The festival has gone all out with decorations. The boardwalk will be lined with lanterns in the shape of various sea creatures, such as jellyfish, dolphins, seahorses, and (of course) squids! These lanterns will be lit every night throughout the month and will burn through the night. They are bright beacons to a month that is otherwise becoming more and more gray and chilly as time passes.

The people of Trench are also decked out for the occasion. Blues and greens are the popular color choices for outfits, and many people will even decorate their hair with pieces from the ocean. Whether it's with full headpieces that are worthy enough for mermaids or just something as simple as weaving shells into a braid, everyone seems to have something on them that ties them to the sea. There are stalls set up to help newcomers (or oldies who just want to have some fun) decorate their hair as well and face paint for those who want to go the extra mile.

The festival comes with all sorts of celebrations that can be partaken in at absolutely no cost. There are food vendors, though they seem to be short on seafood this month. Likely it's due to the rough seas with waves so treacherous that not even the most skilled of sailors seems to be able to get out into them. They'll remark on how difficult is must have been to swim to shore in those awful waves. So instead of fish and shrimp, there are other sea-dedicated dishes: seaweed salad, noodle dishes made with seaweed broth, caramelized chicken in a fish and ginger sauce, etc. There are also ocean themed desserts, such as cupcakes with blue frosting shaped to look like a great wave. There are games such as dunk tanks, dart balloons, ring tosses, and other typical carnival entertainment. If you can think of it, it's probably there. At the end of the night, there's often a fireworks display over the rolling waves.

rough seas and high winds
WHEN: Last Week of July, First Week of AugustT
WHERE: Beach and Nearby Oceans
CONTENT WARNINGS: Threat of drowning, severe weather phenomena, Environmental hazards, possible death


For some reason, Mariana is particularly wrathful even as the month begins. Even leaking into the end of the month of July, the sea begins to foam and rage in ways that are almost impossible to imagine. As you stare out int the beachheads, you may see vast waves and surf that would daunt the most professional of surfers. Water crashes into each other in colossal spouts. Waterspouts can be seen as storms occasionally buffet the coastline and just out into the ocean itself. However, the one thing about this chaotic energy is that it is just that, chaotic. One moment the sea may be calm, and the next it is a roiling, seething force out to destroy everyone.

This is, naturally, dangerous for those who are just hapless squids trying to reach shore. They may find themselves inexorably being flung towards sharp rocks and shoals, threatened with being dashed upon the stone near to the coast, or they may find themselves constantly swirling in eddies and whirlpools to the point of near exhaustion. However, they are not the only ones so threatened. Even those on the coast are in near constant danger of being washed right back out to see by an unexpected wave and sudden rip-tide. There are wood planks and other detritus to grab hold of, but it is very much a battle for one's life out there!

The sea's rage, the locals say, is because Mariana is particularly incensed over something that occurred. They do not know what exactly, but many have said that sleepers have felt a particular brunt of this ire lately. For now, it is a game of survival and a constant battle to bring people in safely.

Notes:
-Any natural weather occurrence is possible in the first week of August and last of July. Seemingly impossible combinations may occur (A waterspout in the middle of the eye of a hurricane, almost anything.
-These threats will be upon anyone who is not far enough inland to enjoy the festivities. The beach is not truly safe and sleepers are hustled inland quickly.
-Death is possible, though sleepers who die in the ocean find themselves returning very quickly as squids for some reason, within 24 hours, only to be threatened again before they eventually find shore.

of monsters in the water
WHEN: Throughout August
WHERE: The coast and waterways
CONTENT WARNINGS: Monster Horror, Possibly Getting Eaten, Threat of bodily harm, Unnatural Physiology, Existential Dread


Something has been dredged up from the deep by the storms that rage. It is said that Mariana not only presides over the oceans, but also the most powerful monsters that dwell within the deep. Some of these, it is believed, may be the remains of Pthumerians whose minds and lives were lost during the hard times before, or the spawn of their mating with things other than humans. Whether these rumors are true, eldritch things have begun to emerge from the depths and darkness, things best left unseen.

Throughout the month of August, it is possible to encounter creatures that can only be described as monsters emerging from the water. With every passing storm, another emerges. Some are as large as small kaiju, while others are closer to human size, and each shares very little in common with the others, save for two particular details. The first of these is that they are all aquatic in nature and bear at least a passing similarity to sea monsters of ancient legend or particularly large and dangerous aquatic animals. Giant cuttlefish, Megalodons, Plesiosaurs, Octopi, Sea Cucumbers, Whales, or any of a number of other sea creatures appear to be their basis. The other similarity, however, is that all are hideously and grotesquely deformed. Tentacles, second rows of teeth, great clawed hands and feet enabling them to walk on dry ground, a thousand eyes all over the hump of a hunchback whale all shooting laser beams in the full moon, almost anything seems to be possible, though the changes are all chtonically horrendous in nature.

These creatures are violent, dangerous, and horrifying to behold. Just looking at them jars the mind and threatens to damage one's psyche while they try to understand what they are seeing. Bones are in seemingly impossible angles, bodies moving in ways that they shouldn't. Just looking at them can cause nausea, vertigo or mental breaks, though the danger does not stop there. They are agents of chaos, seeking to destroy mind or body, on a rampage whenever they reach ground, though they do not delve far into Trench beyond the waterways and beach, almost as if they are prevented by something. When one strays too close, an ominous light glows from the tops of the tallest spires in the city and they are inevitably repelled, but until they are killed or sent back to the deep from whence they came, they remain a threat outside of the city.

CODING
chetchet: (pic#15836525)

Bow Lion | See

[personal profile] chetchet 2022-07-26 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
rough seas

By virtue of experience (or perhaps a considerable lack thereof), Bow Lion is not the strongest swimmer. Instinct tells her to fight the current that seeks to hold and command her, but she feels strange and clumsy inside her own body. The harder she works against the natural order of what's happening, the more she feels as if she's being torn from herself by the crashing waves and the indiscernible warmth of sunlight from somewhere very far above her. Or perhaps it's below.

It's the exhaustion that makes her give in to what she assumes is a certain fate, but only when she gives in that she realizes her body seems to know what to do. The crashing waves carry Bow Lion as far as a small tide pool just shy of the shore. It's there that she emerges on her hands and knees, coughing water from deep in her lungs.


the boardwalk

All the commotion reminds her of a festival. She's only attended one, but Bow Lion is instantly put in mind of the vendors bartering their various goods and strangers dancing by the bonfire and becoming much more. It makes her giddy, but also wary. Their games are unfamiliar to her and their shouts leave too much room to question their intentions. And the smells? The harmony of brine and spice and thick, sticky-sweet honey gets all up her nose and disorients her senses.

games
Some of the vendors are a little more aggressive than others, and it's not long until Bow Lion finds herself yanked towards one of the games. It's a simple whack-a-mole style contraption, but when the vendor realizes she can't see he starts to snicker at her. If she notices his derision she doesn't let on, but Bow Lion turns to the person nearest her and takes them by the shoulder before asking, "How does this work?"

fireworks
When nighttime draws near she knows she ought to be searching for shelter, but the young woman prefers instead to keep in the close company of others who are around. The sound of the fireworks exploding is like nothing she's ever heard before, and she can't see the way they light up the night sky. It all feels more like an attack than entertainment, so she grabs her sharpened staff and wields it like she's ready to fight the sky itself. "What is it? Where do they come from?


of monsters

As a kill dancer, Bow Lion is used to being out in front when conflict arises and enemies are close. She doesn't hesitate and she doesn't show any fear. When she hears the screams of those on the beach, she reaches into her welcoming bag and mercifully finds her kill ropes.

The others in her clan know to keep a proper distance when a kill dancer is leading the pack. The long rope she wields over her head like a lasso has thick, spiky metal barbs attached to the end. It's an effective weapon against anything fleshy that gets in its path.

Anything fleshy.

Unfortunately, it's not much good against laser beams or other powerful projectiles.


wildcard

Have an idea for a starter you'd prefer? I'm up for it all! Just a note that Bow Lion is canonically blind and comes from a futuristic time when society has collapsed and virtually all surviving humans are also blind.
robussy: (pic#15837210)

rough seas!! (if you prefer prose i can match!)

[personal profile] robussy 2022-07-28 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ 2B has been earlier struck by a world breaking realization that would bend and repair her psych once fissured: the possibility of there being live humans hurled onto these angry shores just as she had. her first meeting was strange and posed even more question than answer with only word of mouth to go by. she is no recon unit with innate, burning curiosity, but she can feel the questions gnawing behind her head. more questions. a desire for truth.

she wants to see. she wants answers. if she has anything left of herself from the world before trench, she wants her purpose returned to her.

it doesn’t take long to return to the feisty tides in search of it. of anyone, anything. a human from afar would say she was nude; a closer look would show that her chassis is missing finer organic detail. she is an android, modeled after a human woman. she sounds and feels like such when she poses herself against the riled waves to catch the human’s frame by the arms, and hoists her up with feather light ease. ]


I’ve got you.

[ all that was left to do was pull her away from the danger, and closer to the frigid ocean air with surprising carefulness. she can already see, holding the frame against her chest, that something deep within the mechanisms of her circulation jumps. flutters. pod scans who she holds, sputtering and drenched. 100% organic.

she is holding something human that has so long ago left her. ]
faceblocks: (explain)

games

[personal profile] faceblocks 2022-07-30 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[vi is used to shouldering her way through crowds as of late, and her opinion is twofold. the mood is a marked improvement from the reckoning's month, and she's tried her hand at several of the games with varying levels of success, finding herself thinking how her sister would have been even better at a great lot of them (owing to marksmanship more than strength). the high striker, though? step right up and test your strength - she's beaten it several times and quite likes the sound of the bell going off.

the angry ocean is a thing she's not happy about, for a few reasons. it's harder now, to look for jinx, though she does it anyway, unsure if looking for a blue squid, or expecting to find any familiar quality in a suspected sister-squid is even a useful tactic. (sometimes she looks for starks, but she is even less sure there, so she calls their names, wait for ...something).

vi returns today with no success, half damp with a wet sparkler in one hand, her stomach rumbling at the food smells - the suggestion of fish scenting the air - a fish sauce here, seaweed noodles there. she'd rather have the fish, but chides herself for being choosy. and oh, look ...those blue cupcakes again. she frowns at them as she passes, shoves those feelings elsewhere, and considers the strength test once more when she suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder.

she tenses, but turns, and finds herself face to face with another sleeper she has not seen before. not unusual - there are many she doesn't know.]


It's uh---

[taking in the game, the expression on the vendor's face, freshly smug with the find of an easy mark, and the woman's possible blindness (she's familiar enough with blindness in the undercity, but nothing here is guaranteed to track the same) and answers quickly, quietly.]

---shit pops up through little holes in a board, you just gotta be quick enough to whack it with the hammer.