July Test Drive Meme!

[reddosmod]

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. ]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

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.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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.

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Comments

Murderbot | The Muderbot Diaries

[offinventory]

OOC: Please refer to Murderbot as SecUnit in tags.

...Prompt: Rough Seas and High Wind.

CW: Death

Some days are no fun. This one lacks context because the striped squid doesn't have a strong understanding of why its world boils with rage. It makes for shallower waters, but the process takes days. It's swirled around a funnel of water reaching the sea floor. It gets tossed this way and that through the air. Somehow, it manages to find every rocky protrusion between it and the shore. In a moment of peace, it comes to itself, reshaping to four limbs with a torso between them and its head. That humanoid shape rapidly experiences the opposite of peace near the bottom of the ocean. It swims up up up, not fighting the lateral pull, and nearly breaches the surface before its lungs are breached with water. The limbs slow then stop, and the corpse sinks lower.

The squid carries on with grim determination. It is what it is, it can do what it can do, and the rest is up to the ocean. The ocean's in a bad mood, and it cycles through death and life and death again. Sometimes it only comes back for a minute. Sometimes it takes hours and hours to die again. When it's stranded on the shore, it lacks the strength to pull itself up the beach. Instead it burrows into the sand, pulling more and more over itself until little shows.

A slick spot no larger than one handspan acts like a window to the squid below. It thickens protectively over that vulnerable flesh nearly the same color as the black sand. In time, it recedes to reveal a human looking face, unconscious but breathing.

...Prompt: Of Monsters in the Water.

CW: Gore

The only time Murderbot has seen anything like this glowing monstrosity has been rather recent—gray skinned alien-remnant infected people that were no longer themselves but only serving something alien and dangerous. It's seen fauna across a wide range of worlds, large hostile fauna even. It's seen multiple mouthy bits. It's seen tentacles. It hasn't seen that many eyes on one thing. It has no idea what the large fauna is, but that tentacle is definitely passing someone up along its suckers like a conveyor belt. The mouth isn't as tall as a person, but it sits in the center of the tentacles, sharp and hooked, opening and closing with enough force to guarantee a person is never in one piece again. 

That's how Murderbot ends up running toward the horrific monstrosity with its large projectile weapon in hand. It waits until its close to fire repeatedly at the same point on the tentacle, higher up than the person riding the worst ride in recent memory. The flesh tears away, more than halfway through. Murderbot grabs the narrower end it's near and pulls. The limb goes taut, and everything halts for a moment. To a shriek Murderbot didn't realize water based fauna made, the tentacle comes off, spilling blood into the shallow water. It's still pulling with all its considerable strength. The tentacle, person and all, whip back from Murderbot. It releases it, and the whole thing flies through the air up the beach and away from the ocean.

One Murderbot. One monstrosity.

Sure, Murderbot's pissed, but it doesn't have armor on. This thing can clearly inflict a lot of damage. It does what SecUnits are good for—securing their clients. It races up the beach after the person, grabbing them without concern for however oriented they are. There isn't time. It's racing fauna without any kind of flyer or vehicle to reach. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck," it swears under its breath. What a good idea, Murderbot. Like it hasn't experienced enough forced shutdowns recently. 

The fauna chases them.

...Prompt: Boardwalk.

CW: N/A

Local clothes with pockets isn't hard to acquire, and Murderbot prefers almost anything over the 'we caught a new one' welcome outfit. It sweeps through the boardwalk to get a sense of the immediate area. There's a whole city. It's large, and something twisting inside it dislikes ending up in some dead end. It isn't sure why. Dead ends likely have fewer people. It opts to trust its instincts since its memories are still rebuilding themselves. 



Once the sixth person aggressively offers some kind of seashell, sea glass, or sea weed related hair piece, it accepts that not having one marks it an outsider and attracts attention it doesn't want. It also has no desire to stick a piece of the ocean that spat it out into its hair. Not that long ago something organic and goopy and gross was there. It approaches a table of wares the way humans might regard unexploded ordinance. It carefully touches nothing, in case that somehow obliges it with displaying the item prominently. It's all too much—too big, too loud, too complicated, too many fragile pieces that could explode far easier than its head. It feels like wearing a knife point pressing against its head. Who does that? (Humans, the answer is always humans). Which it is. It's a totally normal nothing to worry about human. That's what it wants the humans to think, so it needs to press some kind of aquatic death instrument to its skull.



It finds the plainest piece across three tables. Its slow regard and eventual approval offered to the person behind the table, as determined by its rejection of the other vendors, sparks an incredible level of joy, and the hairpiece is practically shoved forcefully into Murderbot's hand. Its fragile construction saves it skin to skin contact. It approximates a smile and makes a show of putting the thing into its hair to the distinct pleasure of the person before them. 



It continues down the boardwalk and notes a thirty percent drop in looks its way with a forty percent drop in the length of the looks it does get. The right call, clearly. It misses the stores in the space stations where it could obtain whatever it needed to purchase without talking to a person. It could have been worse.

What's more incredible, given the large fauna coming from the ocean, is how undisturbed the festival area seems. Perhaps the shells provide protection? Some marker the fauna respects? It cannot ask without revealing itself, which leaves Murderbot with only a growing list of unanswered questions.

...Prompt: Wildcard.

CW: N/A

[ Contact me at inoctavo or silyara#7604 on Discord to plot other options. Permissions here.

boardwalk.

[necrosaint]

When Harrowhark Nonagesimus looks back over at the SecUnit in question with its starfish hairclip, does it cause an increase in that assessment of looks? Or is she not picked up due to her Lyctoral black-hole nature? Ether way, it's still happening, and it is very easy to notice Harrow with actual eyes; she wears what would be a puffed sleeved sundress if it were not a) ankle length, b) black and c) three quarter length in the sleeves instead of short-sleeved. But they are puffed, and it is a fairly loose-fitting, swingy dress, so she does seem to at least be making some amount of effort to fit into the boardwalk.

The combat boots stand out just a little bit, as do the impressive amounts of bone jewelry and the way her face is painted with a skull, but when she's actually looking over at SecUnit her expression isn't the aggression that might go with how she looks.

It's just a little bit of squinting in the sun and a little bit of beleaguered understanding. She's tried very hard to avoid anyone trying to get her attention. It's been a hard few weeks. For her part, she's wearing a seashell headband that almost looks like a bone tiara.

Someone else trying to get away from the attention by falling in line is getting the sly smile edition of Harrow sympathy. The knowing look, almost appreciative, and the quick blink-and-you-miss eyeroll at the festivities.

Re: boardwalk.

[offinventory]

It itches to release its drones and to look at people through their lenses. Intensely, but nothing at this festival reaches the levels of technology it's used to. The local network is unusual, and Murderbot hasn't posted to it, only observes. With so few inputs, even though no direct eye contact is made, it cannot miss that glance clearly directed at it. The other possible lines of sight don't react, a clear sign it is not meant for those humans. Humans always seem to know somehow.

The direct guide to bone structure—enough information Murderbot can see four ways to kill someone from that alone—is an unusual choice, but the nautical hair ornament points outward like horns. Perhaps it's predatory markings, a warning like bright colors.

It gives a small sigh and shrugs its shoulders. What else is there to do but fit in?

[necrosaint]

Direct eye contact is terrifying and Harrowhark fails to hide her immediate satisfaction at how she is being responded to without being shrouded in friendliness; her shoulders sag a little bit in relief, she sighs softly and then draws herself up into a more confident stance.

It's worth a try, she figures.

So she walks false-confidently over to this new person who she is exchanging indirect expressions of present sentiment with, and stops just a little bit too far away for most conversations, but not a distance that anyone who knew Harrow would consider incongruent with her individual preference for space kept between her and 99.5% of people.

"If we walk together everyone will ignore us," she says abruptly. "No need to—actually pretend to be friends."

[offinventory]

The words match so closely its preferences that they sound like something from a drama, if the characters were socially anxious killing machines instead of sex and/or stupidity driven humans who explore the bounds of terrible decisions. It sends a query, just in case, to ensure there isn't something in one of its unwatched series.

Murderbot motions them on, so that they are actually walking, before it replies. "Exchanging words usually lowers people's threat assessments," it says. That isn't pretending to be friends. Also, "Your clothing and decoration, except for the shells, deviate from observable norms." They are a choice. They mean something even if they come with attention.

[necrosaint]

This is fine with Harrow, as it is not actually making the attempt to appear as if they are friends. They are simply making vaguely companionable mouth sounds.

"Here they do," she agrees, or perhaps confirms. "In my home they are perfectly ordinary and expected."

[offinventory]

It sideeyes the bone edge of their ear. In its home that might come across as a sign of alien remnant contamination. This place certainly has unusual fauna if not alien remnants. Perhaps this person is affected by such remnants. Obsessive ritual is something it's heard Thiago mention.

"You may have noticed," Murderbot replies, "we're not in your home." It considers the decor pointing violently toward its face. "Is this really all it takes?" The shell. The company. Everything else written off. Substitute certain implants for shells, and it sounds familiar in the most horrible way. It performs a low level scan of its head and that of its companion, to check for suspicious signals or suspicious whatever dramas never prepared it for.

[necrosaint]

"To my displeasure," Harrow confirms in a flat tone that is almost! bordering on! playful, "I have in fact noticed this."

The very quiet sigh is no longer really a pang of homesickness. She has gotten used to Trench. It has been so long it feels like forever, and also feels like no time at all; it feels like the way the passage of time normally feels to Harrowhark unhinged and undirected.

"It ... yes, pretty much. Sometimes you'll get more invasive local attention, but during a festival, all the people of Trench seem to care about is that no one is left out. Whether or not anyone wants to be left out."

[offinventory]

There's worse things than the black and white paint, so far as cultural norms go. It hides some amount of expression. Murderbot isn't recording this from a proper angle to tell, and there isn't a strict comparison on hand. Same person. Plain face.

"It could always be worse," Murderbot deadpans. Their flatness an easy cover for its own. It waits, in fact, for something to go worse. Just in case.

Nothing jumps out and tries to eat them immediately. "Could you not have stayed at your quarters?" Murderbot asks. Not home. This isn't home. People have to sleep somewhere, and the beach looks like a terrible choice.

[necrosaint]

"I am currently staying somewhere ..."

Harrow hesitates, trying to find the right words for it. There are so many things that the dojo is that she wasn't expecting that aren't bad things, but also so many things that it is not.

But in conclusion:

"... loud. I also like the seashore, for the sea parts rather than the—this."

[offinventory]

It continues to watch the world around them, almost everyone extremely engaged in this festival. It's somewhat like the celebration on Preservation (lots of loud colorful people) without the focus on entertainment (plays, music, poetry). Food, games, temporary body modification in what it's seen so far. So, worse.

There's so many people, though, that they do pass relatively unnoticed. That's a problem in less populated areas. It's even less disruptive than a transit ring in the Corporation Rim.

Loud it understands, but the sea? "The sea is unsafe," Murderbot tells the person, with limited hopes that will change anything.