countryclub | October Test Drive Meme!

OCTOBER 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: A snowy, rocky beach in winter. ]
[Image Two: Bowls of mushroom soup and bread. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Dali painting of the moon as a city]
[Image Two: Twisted, warped cityscape]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Monster choking a sleeping person to death]
[Image Two: Death hovering over a sleeping person]

BONUS PROMPT
[Image One: Liminal Space image of a nondescript room with strange ledges]
[Image Two: Cenobite woman with borg-like attachments to her face]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

STANDARD ARRIVAL

WHEN: First Week of NOvember
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk, Koz's Orphanage
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 is not the greatest month to wash up on the Farther Shores. It's November and you'll pretty much immediately hate it! The waters are frigid but not quite frozen yet, but that won't make your arrival any less uncomfortable. Thankfully the Boardwalk seems well-stocked with heavy blankets and furs to give to newly awakened Sleepers. Barrels of hot chocolate and hot alcoholic cider are readily available to warm people up. There are several stalls selling hearty soups willed with mushrooms, potatoes, beans, and other filling components.

Fresh baked bread and pastries are sold on wax paper. Enjoy a steaming cinnamon roll or croissant or just your standard bread and butter. Many bakers have set up temporary stoves and seem to invite teaching Sleepers how to cook and prepare bread and pastries. Maybe knead some dough, learn some tricks of the trade. If you help out ab baker, they might even thank you with a sack of flour or other ingredients for bread!

Like last year, as the Moon shifts to Bone, whispers and hushed talk begins anew among the Trenchies about The Tower. There are whispers that something feels wrong. "You know Trench is his body, right?" one might say. "But look at what's been happening. Is everything alright?" There is nervousness, agitation. Trenchies can't seem to put a finger on it. One of the old fishermen mutters under his or her breath if overheard in this time. "Long time since we tried to leave the Tower's shield. Hope didn't bring anything back from out there. World's a strange place."

None of them seem to have anything specific to add. They just seem nervous for some reason.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

IMAGE OF THE SELF

WHEN: Halloween through all November
WHERE: All of Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Distorted Reality, horrifying cityscape images, mounting paranoia, displacement

"They say that Trench is the body of the Tower." It is a saying so often repeated during the Bone Moon season that it becomes more of a mantra. Whether or not it is actually true remains a hotly contested debate between Arcane Scholars and Disciples, one of the few times that neither side fully agrees even with themselves. Yet, if it is true, what happens if the person whose body serves as a city begins to have an identity crisis of sorts? That certainly seems to be the case this month.

At random times, it just happens. You're walking from one place to another with your friend. You just stepped out of a lantern network teleportation circle. You open a door. Suddenly, everything is just wrong. It feels like you are in a surrealist's nightmare. Walls appear to be bleeding concrete in all directions. Stairwells twist impossibly, as if M. C. Escher himself were the architect. The pathway to where you intended to go warps and transforms itself into a perilous, twisted monstrosity that you have to navigate. Worse? The way you got here is just gone behind you, leaving you only the path forward.

Navigating this isn't impossible, but you will definitely need help. It might be that one has to stand on another's shoulders to get over an obstacle and then help them up. Maybe someone very small has to crawl into an opening to reach the door handle so the way through can be found. It varies, and the effect lasts only as long as it takes to get where you're going, but while you're here the reality continues to shift and some of these twistings could easily crush you! Don't tarry too long!

NOTE: The physical danger here is from environmental hazards. Feel free to choose any you like, but they will all return to normal when your character reaches their intended destination. Trenchies know nothing about this, though if one asks one of the former wastes, they will ward themselves as if against evil. They know something, but they dare not speak and will whisper hurriedly that the sleeper had best not talk too openly about this. "Best not to draw attention right now."

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP

WHEN: Last Week of October through the first week of November
WHERE: At Home, in your bed
CONTENT WARNINGS: Severe Insomnia, Sleep Deprivation, Deprivation induced hallucinations and mood swings

Something is clawing at your mind from the moment that the first signs of the cold coming. You can't put your finger on it, but even as you see the people of Trench preparing for the next month's arrival of sleepers, you can see they feel it too. Something claws at the mind and for a few people in Trench, this becomes a very literal problem. The thoughts are so overwhelming that you can't manage to find a good night's sleep. This problem is especially prominent for new Sleepers, who seem prone to arriving with terrible bouts of unexplainable insomnia.

That sounds simple enough to deal with, right? Perhaps some sort of sleep aid, or working oneself to exhaustion, and you can power through it, right? No. Nothing seems to work at first. Searches for a monster are futile. Warding and incense seem utterly ineffective, and no matter how hard you try, night after night you cannot sleep. You are terrified of falling asleep. If you fall asleep, you may never wake up! Even characters who do not fear a mortal death feel themselves compelled by this, and the longer that they do not sleep the more corruption risks them at its door. A night or two missed is one thing, but eventually irascibility sets in. Hallucinations may eventually start to crop up. The body needs REM sleep. It needs dreams, yet the horror that threatens the person will not allow them to sleep, for fear that it will come for them while they sleep. What 'it' is, they do not know.

There is only one solution. For those who already spend time with others? This is a simple thing, but they must still agree to do it. You can solve this curse only if you do not sleep alone. Another must stay awake for the vigil through the whole night. Simple enough given their insomnia, but they will be assailed by their own horrific lack of slumber. Only, after you have had a good night's sleep, be sure to care for the other who was so kind to you. Why? Because anyone so unkind as to not help their erstwhile companion sleep after they have finally gotten rest will find out that those fears were not unfounded and the next time they sleep, they really do not wake up!

Death, in this rare case, comes in the form of a heart attack. Its source is unknown, and all that the sleeper will remember is the worst nightmare of their life as they lay in bed, dying in soundless screams. So, be sure to take care of each other, sleepers!

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

THE VEINS OF THE TOWER

WHEN: November 1st (And only November 1st)
WHERE: Beginning anywhere, ending in A Nightmarish Place
CONTENT WARNINGS: Liminal Space, Disorientation, Hints of horrible monsters, Possible Death, Insane Zealotry, Mutilated Bodies

Rumors have lingered since the first encounters two months ago of a 'space between spaces' that people could accidentally fall into that this occurrence has not been entirely limited to the month it first happened in. Every once in a while, on unusual days, it has happened since that time. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to it, but it has happened again. Maybe you took an accidental step backwards. Or maybe you were crazy enough to have identified some spot you disappeared before and you were actually experimenting with the effect every day to see when it happened. You know, to chronicle the dates it happen, to keep a record, to understand it better, all of those sorts of things that cause some sleepers to poke things that are Better Left Alone because that's what some sleepers do with their free time, and then they touch the spot with something and suddenly they and everything around them are sucked in. How you got there is not important. You're here now, wherever here is.

Only this time its different. You're not in the spot you were last time, and in the distance you can hear shuffling of feet. Dread enters your heart, as you know that you do not have the means to fight whatever it is. You have an overwhelming urge to run, to flee at top speed. You and whoever is "lucky" enough to be with you must run as fast as you can, around corners, a roaring, inhuman scream echoing through the hallways, slamming into walls. You can't quite see it, not unless you want a swift, awful death at least. But around a corner there is salvation, an elevator shaft and the door is open. Frantic scrambling, running and jabbing buttons will cause the doors to close, just as something black like a giant hand grabs the far wall. You hear the rush, the scream. The elevator shudders three times as something pounds on it, but you're safe. Or, are you?

Instead of the usual moldy hallways, you see what looks like a hospital hallway. Anyone who lived through the nightmare may have awful flashbacks, but nothing is chasing you this time. The impossibly stretching hallway seems ceaselessly unchanging, each door locked, at least until you happen to notice a grate on one of the overhead air conditioners open wide. If you are curious enough to crawl up and into it, you're treated to a long scramble through the passageway, right up until you hear voices, menacing ones in the distance. Crawl quietly!

A grate emanating ugly, light is up ahead. As you and your companion work your way over, you're hopefully not heard. Through the grate, you see something awful. Two mutilated and disfigured figures speak while a third, calm and ordered looking woman listens. She seems to have mutilated her throat such that she should not be able to speak, and the other two appear have performed torturous experiments on their own flesh, their twisted visages that of the 'Zealots' that the Sleepers sometimes whisper about in fear. "It is almost time for the harvest. We made the quotas last cycle but only barely. The need is greater. Sacrifices must be made," one hisses. The other nods vigorously. "Yes. The situation is decaying. We have to move to stop this before it gets out of hand."

Before they can say more, however, the third woman looks up, directly at the grate. She smiles once, and a voice echoes from her throat as what appears to be a mouth inside of it moves, her own lips unmoving. "Continue this discussion later. It seems the problem has worsened. We will need to step up security in the meantime." She reaches out a hand and wrenches. The air shimmers around them and suddenly the duct you are traveling in collapses and breaks beneath you. Instead of falling into the farm, however, you find yourself falling through darkness for what seems an eternity, until you collapse hard to the pavement, in front of the entrance to the Gate, your breath coming back to you slowly, shakily.

NOTES: Death is possible should a sleeper assault the first creature. It is a being of impossible angles and blackness, is itself unkillable and will rend its victims to oblivion through brute force. Fighting the Zealots is not possible through this prompt. The grate cannot be opened in time to exit into the Sleeper Farm and engage them. However, the astute will be certain that there was for a moment an actual entry through and into the Sleeper Farm, somehow. Those familiar with these locations will recognize them as being Floor 1, the Stalls

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shigaraki has been watching the new arrivals. There's usually an influx around a certain time and he comes here specifically to try to make sure no one washes up that he has to pretend he doesn't care about and didn't care about washing up. That means it's not hard to pick out the bullshitters and the weirdos. Considering he is part of it, and parcel to it, he has nothing but a glance to the side at the approach of one of those bullshitters and weirdos approaches him and instantly admits he is, in fact, at least a weirdo.

"Depends on what you call a human, and it depends on what someone else thinks." Impact on himself isn't a huge deal, he's got so many aces up his sleeve that he may as well be cheating.

Hmm. Maybe this one isn't the most observant. But that's the risk he took, leaving it up to someone else! Rather than show any disapproval, he only offers a gentle smile.

"So you're one, too." That aside, "I meant the ones that didn't change like us. A living city sounds like something out of a story, right? So how come they're full of fear instead of wonder?"

While that bit's probably rhetorical, he should still try getting the point across.

"It's not too difficult to see their priorities."

"Sure, whatever you say." Though essentially, according to his world, yes he is a human. However, he doesn't care for semantics. He cares for his elbow on the boardwalk railing so he can prop his chin on it and continue to look out. "Because they're defenseless morons. People who can't take care of themselves live in fear."

Too bad if its rhetorical, it has a good answer.

"It's everyone for themselves here unless you fit into their cookie cutter, or someone else's." Tomura's eyes scan up on that stapled face and he huffs, amused. Topic change. "You held together by those or are you just edgy?"

Is stating the obvious really an answer? How disappointing. Maybe he picked a dead end, here. But then, maybe that'll make it more enjoyable when it catches people like this off guard later.

So he'll look happy with what he's given, as he turns to lean against that same railing.

"That's true! If it's like you say, I think I can get used to it, here." Whatever he might mean by that, it's said a little too cheerfully-- leaving him on a good note when that taunt's spoken. Lucky. When he raises a hand, then, it's not to get rid of this person but to touch fingers to the point where both seams intersect.

"Want to find out?"

Surely he can make something up as they go.

Stating the obvious isn't an answer, but it's the truth so he can get what he wants to get out of that. Nothing, something, everything but Shigaraki won't mind. It just makes more of the obvious for himself, too. Odd attracts odd.

There's more admission in that single statement, or at least a bloviating if he's bluffing. By the look of him it shouldn't be, most people don't staple themselves if they don't have some reason to. He knows this. However, good move. Long cold day in hell that Shigaraki would let himself be touched by some stranger.

"I asked, didn't I?"

A fair point. So then what would be the most fun?

Digging in, skin splits apart as easily as if it had never been whole. There's no blood, and in turn no indication of pain. And somehow.. Nothing. What's revealed as his face is torn open isn't muscle or bone, but emptiness, energy swirling, glowing-- until it appears to mend itself, even the staples settling back into place on their own.

"I've always had them, though." So in truth, the answer's neither. Similarly, "What about you? Starving and sleepless? Or is that look in style here?"

If Shigaraki's supposed to be scared, scared isn't what he is. Intrigued? Fuck yes. He's intrigued. The lack of blood, the lack of care for if it does or doesn't hurt. The talk of 'humans' obviously tagging into the ring while he's thinking about other things. A regeneration type ability? Maybe. The staples make it seem like maybe not.

In fact, enjoy the little smirk for the ballsy question line. "Just little old me, progging my way through the content." For now, it may be best to hold his cards close to him. "You know I'm going to ask how you did that, right? You going to tell me or let me dream it up?"

"Will you dream up something interesting?" Spoken so lightly, it's equal parts curiosity and a challenge. "If I like your answer, I might even try it out."

A big if. But what kind of influence does this place have on imagination? There's no harm in trying to learn.

"Probably not." He says softly, leaning against the rail and continues looking out in opposite for now. "You're not so different from me." Without knowing that, yes, he is in a great many ways. "Regen isn't an anomaly that's uncommon where I'm from, it just depends on the person."

He lets his head loll to the side, red eyes looking over. "Demon would be cool. Alien would be lame. Angel would be lamer, unless you were a fallen angel. Am I warm or cold?"

Regen must mean regeneration. If this human can heal... It's good to know. He'll just have to aim for the face if he ever wants him dead.

But staying on track,

"I wonder if things like those exist." If they do, they must be some kind of imaginary spirits. Maybe that does mean this guy's 'warm' despite the curse's musing. No sense in taking it back, now. "Here I thought aliens were kinda cute. They do seem a little too eager to get along, though, so I guess you're right! Let's go with demon."

He's just.. picking one, like it's some sort of game.

Please do, give him a challenge. Something that's going to keep him on his toes and whet the need to actually fight. He's picked the right person to just pick one with. What he is or isn't doesn't matter at the end of the day. "Depends again who you ask and what demon means to them, but demon it is. Welcome to your new life, Mister Demon."

He lets his head lean back so he can look upward instead, the sky is bleary as always. "What an exciting place. You get to wonder what happens next, when it does, and then you get to fight it. Or not."

How should a demon act, anyway? They're made out to be such a wide range of general concepts rather than any one concrete species. ... But, well, maybe the same can be said for ghosts, with how inaccurate all those movies tend to be. So whatever. He'll just listen with amusement as that nice explanation's offered up.

"Sounds like we get some entertainment, then. So what about this Tower? I can't say I'm interested in fighting a city in the literal sense." Killing the people within it would be so much more productive.

October Test Drive Meme!

Boardwalk

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If it goes into spoilers, I'm asking ICly so it's okay <3

Is it spoilers or total BS? Who knows. Definitely got some body horror going on now though

Click here to find out in part 2

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