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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
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (05)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-07-28 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[A new trick. It seems like the project is full of them, for all the good they'll do her. Mercymorn presses up to her feet with sinuous mustelid aggression, her feet sure on the slippery rocks, and she shows her perfect, blood-viridescent teeth in a bitter, flashing grin that vanishes into a cruel flatline smile.]

If I had known your mother dearest had gotten the brilliant idea into her thick, brutish skull to sabotage my project, I would have cratered your miserable little House from orbit myself, you puling error.

[Her eyes boil like planetary oceans hurtling towards a sun. More strings of guts weave up to join their fellows, rubbery and cold, two for every one cut.]

Where's your necromancer, infant? Or did you think to challenge the Saint of Joy alone?
lipochrome: (30)

cw: reference to nudity

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-01 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
No, you wouldn't have. You couldn't even call up the Reverend Mother and ask if I was dead, you fucking coward.

[ The knife isn't doing much against all these tendrils, so Gideon is forced to hurt someone with her words. Fortunately, she's had plenty of practice with Nonagesimus and Crux.

Still, she keeps struggling. Gideon "Eighty-Seven Escape Attempts" Nav doesn't give up that easily. She yanks her whole body backward, hoping it throws the old bat off balance. ]


Far away from you. You can feel free to stay the fuck away from her, by the way, after all that shit you pulled with her. You're not a Saint of anything here, except maybe the Saint of Saggy Tits.

[ Literally this is the worst context in which to see a naked woman. Why is Gideon's life so hard? ]
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (01)

cw: reference to nudity, breasts, body horror

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-02 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
As if anything ever escapes that wretched vacuum suck—!!

[The project seems to labor under multiple delusions, starting with the condition of Mercymorn’s tits, which are immaculate and gravity-defying, progressing to some feverish conception of issuing her commands, and culminating in the idea the Saint of Joy might call up the no-doubt miserably, heretically pious Reverend Mother to inquire after the well-being of a non-existent infant.

(She should have killed Duty herself, she decides, in white-hot pique, not left it up to her indecisive charge. If you intend to kill someone, or to die, you really ought to do one or the other.)]


Except, evidently, the intolerable pair of you.

[The girl-thing throws herself back. Mercy is obliging enough to catch her on a swell of globular fat strung through with lattice tissue, inspired by her rather unkind comment, which bubbles up to encapsulate her limbs.]

Did she finally choke you down? [Mercy cocks her head like a hammer-spring.] Or did you crack her head open like the abominable leaking egg it is and lever yourself out of it??
lipochrome: (31)

cw: reference to nudity, breasts, body horror, nsfw insults

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-09 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
[ Mercymorn's charity only agitates Gideon further. This is not where tits belong! She'd rather touch the frosty tits of the Beast in the Tomb than experience this.

Demanding that the Lyctor get off her isn't going to do any good, Gideon figures. And then she has to go and bring up being choked down, and all Gideon can think is: choke on a dick, you absolute hag.

But that's not cruel enough. Mercymorn has surely heard all that and worse, over the years. Fortunately for Gideon, the Ninth has taught her a couple of things, over the years. How to be tough. How to escape.

How to be an absolute, raging bitch. ]


Hey, come on. Only I get to call Harrow an abominable leaking egg. [ Gideon grins, sharp and cruel, like the egg she learned this from. ] And neither, if you have to know. I used the power of being cool as fuck to just show up here, good as new. Too bad your dead cav couldn't do the same.

[ Gideon still isn't grateful, exactly, for what Harrow did to preserve her. But she does appreciate it a little more now that she gets to use it for petty revenge. ]
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (06)

cw: reference to nudity, body horror

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-10 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Mercymorn stops.

The stillness is absolute. It is the absence of motion of perfect zero, every atom locked in a totality of inertia. God Himself might envy her achievement as she stands over the taunting monstrosity immersed in more bosom comfort than she surely ever received from her cursed dam. ]


And I had considered kindness.

[ She says, at last, in terrible wonder as soft as poisoned ash. ]

I had thought to kill you here, and spare her the second witnessing.

[ She lifts her hand, fingers splayed wide, and she reaches for Gideon. She reaches for her blood, for her bones, for the ephemeral anchors of her soul, and with one sharp, sweet tug, like a suck upon a loosened tooth, she pulls each ever so slightly out of place.

It is an agony. It douses the light around them, strips color from the world in rivulets of corrosion, and the Saint of Woe smiles serenely. ]


You have no compre-

[ She inhales, quick, clean as a shot, and presses up on the balls of her feet as some unseen tether yanks on her chest, raises it naked and vulnerable towards the sun, and her grip on Gideon slips as she turns inwards, reaching for her own unsettled self - and a storm of pink smoke boils out of her in a great thunderhead. ]

Mercy!

[ Wings, shining, translucent, sweep over Gideon, a hundred shades of orchid and blush and apricot, golden tinged and many-scaled. The Saint cannot be seen past through them except as a dim shadow, stilled once more. ]

Mercy, [ comes the voice again, a chime of bells on a silver chain, sorrowing and lovely ] please.
lipochrome: (25)

cw: reference to grooming, body horror, eye gore

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-14 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ There are no words for this pain. That doesn't mean Gideon hasn't felt it before.

Her head lolling in someone's lap, paper skin-and-bone hands covering her mouth. Blood pouring out of every orifice, her insides becoming her outsides. They take too much. They take, and take, and take, and it is never worth it, and it is all you get. Her own skin, flayed from her bones.

Gideon must be screaming, because someone is calling for mercy.

Wings, lighter than feathers, and Gideon is convinced that when she opens her eyes, she will see too-blue eyes and sugar brown curls.

What she sees, instead, doesn't make any sense. She probably isn't seeing anything at all; the nasty Lyctor has probably irradiated her eyeballs or some horrible shit. All Gideon can do is clutch her head and scream, and maybe some of those screams will form words. ]


What - the fuck!!
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (08)

cw: body horror

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-16 01:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The grip on Gideon's soul is not so much released as it is slammed, her soul set back in socket with the abrupt, clinical force of a dislocation popped back into place. The engulfing fat and binding tendons melt away around her in a sagging, weeping gush of dissolving cell walls, like the world's messiest water balloon fight gone worse. The pink veil over her stays in place, and the shadow of a woman steps back and away, out of sight.

She stays that way even as the covering Omen shrinks herself down. The beach is empty except for Gideon, the slick pool of gore around her, and the butterfly that alights on the tip of her nose, her diaphanous wings flapping slowly. There's nowhere for the Saint of Woe to be concealing herself, but she is absent all the same. ]


Let it out if you need to. [ The voice says, calm, soothing, steadier than a voice so sweet should have any right to be. ] I've got you.
lipochrome: (05)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-19 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ Gideon doubles over as if thrown, hands on her knees and eyes bulging wide. She breathes in short, quick gasps, her body bracing for another shock that does not come.

It's only after she calms down a little that she notices the little flappy worm on her nose. I've got you is an absolutely ridiculous thing for anyone to say to her, let alone an insect, and Gideon nearly asks who the worm is before she realizes: ]


Are you fucking kidding me? I make one nasty comment to a nastier woman about her dead cav, and then she shows up? That's just my luck.

[ There's absolutely nothing worse than "letting it out." That must be why the cavalier-Omen wants her to do it. It's a punishment, or revenge, or both.

(The idea that there is a ghost who might care about her well-being -- that ghosts are even capable of caring about such things -- is unthinkable. That idea died when Pyrrha Dve shot her.) ]
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (06)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-22 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The butterfly Omen is unbothered by the inversion, dangling from Gideon's nose as the girl heaves and sputters. Gideon's derision is met by more of a feeling than a sound, a little curl of gentle sadness. ]

You made her think about me.

[ That's never a good thing. She knows that much, even if she knows so little anymore about anything else. ]

Are you okay to stand? [ She wants - she wants something. Hands? ] Take it slow. Do you have anything to eat? Sugar helps.

[ Old, dim memories are just out of sight around a corner, or behind a dark, dusty glass. She thinks they might be hers. ]
lipochrome: (21)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-25 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ Gideon's first instinct is to lie down in the sand, honestly, but this little bug asking Gideon if she can stand is kind of like a challenge. Sort of. Almost. If there's something fundamentally wrong with you, and unfortunately for Gideon, that applies.

She straightens her spine, and the world spins a little, but only a little. Success! ]


I -- uh, fuck, I don't know? I wasn't planning on this.

[ As soon as she feels a little steadier, she'll start rummaging around in her pockets. Right now, she's focused on balance. ]

She still shouldn't have said that shit about Harrow. For the record.
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (08)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-25 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ When Gideon rises the butterfly takes to the air again, hovering until the (other) cavalier is upright before she flits to her shoulder to perch there. She grows there, puffing up her size to a whole hand's worth of wingspan. ]

That's fine. One thing at a time. [ A press of encouragement. ] Feet wider than your hips, knees a little bent, shoulders back. Make a line and keep your weight in it.

If you feel sick, put your left thumb in your palm and make a fist.


[ A brush of wingtip against Gideon's jawline. Another pulse of support, shot through with reserved sadness. ]

I'm sorry she said anything about your necromancer.

[ There should be a she didn't mean it, a plea for grace. It doesn't come. ]
lipochrome: (02)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-08-27 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ The support is nice, despite Gideon's bad attitude. It helps, even. She does as she's told, down to the fist, and after a few deep breaths, she feels a little less like she's about to spontaneously loose her insides. ]

Damn, you did this shit all the time?

[ Mumbled mostly to herself, but loud enough for the small creature to hear her. Gideon continues, louder this time, now talking at the dead cav for real: ]

You know what it's like, right? When people treat your necromancer like shit, and you can't do anything about it?

[ Because you're less than a hallucination, a fragment of a soul. Something they turned their back on. ]

It fucking sucks.
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (03)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-08-27 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The waves are louder beside them, the wind picking up speed. The cavalier on Gideon's shoulder hunkers down, her wings ruffled and antennae bouncing. ]

Yes.

[ An answer to both questions, knit with more of the dreamy sorrow that comes to her every time she really thinks about anything. It's easier not to, to linger in the joy of being, but this is real. This is important. There is something about her eyes. ]

I'm sure yours isn't a leaking egg. [ She buoys herself up, a bracing dash of lightness thrown in. ] Mine isn't a rotten apricot. Have you ever had an apricot? I love them.
lipochrome: (21)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-09-06 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, although she can sometimes be a spoiled one. [ but here's the point: ] Only I can call her that, though. The rest of you people don't know the first thing about her.

[ Gideon blinks away the sand that threatens to blow in her eyes, and then she remembers she has a tiny, delicate creature on her shoulder. She cups a hand over the tiny flapping thing, without thinking that that might be Mercymorn's job. ]

I haven't. We don't have apricots on the Ninth. Just the Tomb and bones. But they have all kinds of new food here. You should try the sugared fried dough, if you can still eat.
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (06)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-09-07 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
She must be something, for you to stand up for her like that.

[ On the subject of Gideon's necromancer, whoever she is. A little skull painted egg, swaddled in Ninth House black lace. Delicate and difficult. It reminds her of someone else, on the tip of what is no longer a tongue. ]

I don't know if I can. [ She hasn't tried, but she should - and she should get Mercy to try them, and see if she likes them enough to be coaxed to eat more, until her stomach is full and her lips are covered in sugar. ] But you should have them. Don't forget.

[ She tickles the girl's cheek again, happy about her pretty yellow eyes, and the shape of how they're set. They're good eyes, she decides. ]

It's one of a cavalier's sacred duties, you know - looking after the flesh.
lipochrome: (19)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-09-18 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
She likes to think she's the greatest necromancer of her generation. [ Gideon smiles for the first time, a lopsided thing hinting at a private joke. ] So, you know, a huge nerd, and full of shit.

I'll bring you some.

[ The promise falls from Gideon's lips before she even has time to consider stopping it. It's so easy for her to promise things, these days, and the sweet little flappy worm makes it even easier. Gideon likes to think she's not sentimental, but the little creature is kind of cute, despite herself. And she's helped Gideon out tremendously. A favor for a favor. ]

For you, though, not the old hag. And don't worry about me. I'm looking after flesh plenty.

[ Gideon returns the tickle with a little wink. Isn't she hilarious? ]
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (10)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-09-21 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The Omen's tiny laugh is the popping of champagne bubbles, delight expressed in the bobbing of her antennae and renewed fluttering. ]

Scandalous!

[ She doesn't mean it a bit. ]

A sense of humour and good looks. I believe it.

[ She believes in the encouragement of young people, too. Even ones who call her necromancer an 'old hag'. Cristabel basks in the cheer of that wink, the odd, nagging sense of something easily forgotten in its glow. ]

I'll try to eat them, if you bring them. Cross my heart.
lipochrome: (20)

[personal profile] lipochrome 2022-09-24 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ A sense of humor and good looks? Wow, this flappy worm sure knows how to flatter a girl. ]

You know, I'm always saying that.

[ Gideon's not sure why the nice worm wants a cross over her heart -- do worms even have hearts? It probably doesn't matter, and Gideon puts the phrase out of her mind almost immediately. ]

You got it, little guy. I owe you one, after all the deep breathing tips.

[ Gideon gives the pouty pink necromancer a rude hand gesture and her butterfly another lopsided grin, and with that, she's off.

(A few days later, Gideon will send the horrible necromancer's Omen a text that simply reads where are ya. If the flappy worm tells her, Gideon will leave at her location a small box of treats: donut of various shapes and colors, some dusted with soft powdered sugar, others with glaze, and all of them delicious.) ]
acidjail: rights to use paid by me; do not take (06)

[personal profile] acidjail 2022-09-24 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Four frontward limbs wave the young cavalier on her way as Cristabel hovers, waiting until Gideon is well on her journey before she flits off in search of her unhappy necromancer.

When she receives the message days later, it is that same necromancer that reminds her who it came from, and helps her pick a place to tell the nice girl. She even holds the box of treats in her lap as Cristabel investigates the donuts (powdered coats her slight fluff, glazed sticks to her uncurled tongue), clambering all over them and making just a little bit of a mess of herself.

(No matter how much Cristabel asks, her necromancer won't touch them. She says that they're just for her, and Cristabel doesn't know how to explain.)

Thank you! Cristabel sends back, with an up close view of the topography of baked goods she is happily nestled in. ]
Edited 2022-09-24 22:03 (UTC)