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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
rottencactus: (60)

[personal profile] rottencactus 2022-08-18 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
He does find the casual manner of Eichi's attempt at conversation to be very unusual, perhaps because he is being so normal about it. He knows better than to call attention to that. He feels like he's in a very precarious situation right now which is not at all what he needs on top of everything else.

Ah, but Mayoi is not a reckless person. For all his self-destructive tendencies he is a survivor before anything else and Eichi is an ally no matter how you look at it. No good would come of fleeing from him, even if the man scares the shit out of him. In this place where they know absolutely nothing, it would be beyond foolish to not stick together until they can figure out what's happening, and Eichi is, if nothing else, frighteningly competent.

Yes, they are in this situation whether he likes it or not, and so they need to figure out how to get through it. A weird sense of calm falls over Mayoi at that. The same sort of calm that comes from getting on stage, where his fear has crossed the threshold into being so terrible it warps into serenity.

His posture straightens out just the slightest bit and he takes another bite of the cupcake.

"Yes...." He says after a moment, looking out into the broad direction Eichi's gesturing. "If you were to look inside me, it would not look too different from this, I think."

And then if that wasn't a wild thing to just say, he continues, "Tenshouin-san, I-If I may, we ah. Should find shelter..."

That is always the first thing to sort out when you are unsure of your surroundings. When the ES building overtook the place he called home, he simply moved home into the ES building after all.
hospitalies: (pic#12932600)

[personal profile] hospitalies 2022-08-19 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Eichi feels like after the seventh hectic ambulance ride in which you're ferried to the hospital before you literally die (and he's pretty sure he's technically died at least once -- there's definitely a joke in there about not having a soul), you lose all ability to take things seriously, and life is just one long string of casual conversations over tea while the planet burns.

Like, not that Eichi wouldn't try to stop it, but he's not going to not enjoy his tea just because of the chaos, you know? For his part, Mayoi's particular brand of chaos is -- not too weird, honestly. Ritsu says incredibly strange things all the time, so it's really just a matter of exponential weirdness mixed with Mayoi's specific brand of social terror.

Which Eichi cannot relate to at all, but.

"Oh! Yes," Eichi says. "I'm told there's housing available, should we desire it! I'm afraid this isn't a circumstance where I can simply use my family's money to ensure a safe place to live, so I'm quite at the mercy of your expertise when it comes to making sure an area is properly scouted."
rottencactus: (56)

[personal profile] rottencactus 2022-08-19 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
Eichi has no money. He had not considered that, actually. Or rather, he did not put together that Eichi washing up on the shores in his birthday suit, much like him, would be bereft of his family fortune. Though ...come to think of it, nothing he's gotten his hands on today has cost him any money, either.

Weird.

"My expertise..." He does pride himself on a few things when his thoughts allow, and one of those what he hones for the Ninja Association. While he might brush it off as his bad stalking habits and skills he learned out of necessity, Chief still praises him, and so to hear it from Eichi, too. Well.

If his miserable existence had to be good for something, it may as well be this. He gives Eichi a nod. As scary as it is to have so much unfounded faith in a creature like him, he isn't going to shy away when he's needed.

He drops his hood and looks around for a moment. Somewhere quiet and off the streets for now while he figures out where to start. As he's looking, there is a bit of disturbance in his hair. Out darts a small ball of smoke that forms into ...a little mouse as it scurries the length of his arm. Mayoi holds his hand out for it to perch and it begins to squeak at him conversationally.

"...Ah. Where did you see it...? I-I see. Thank you, Christine..."