countryclub | (August) 2021 Test Drive Meme

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meme: tdm

(August) 2021 Test Drive Meme

AUGUST 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to our first-ever live Test Drive Meme! Thank you so much for your interest! While our applications and reserves this upcoming round are for Early Access Members only, this Test Drive Meme is to open to everyone - both brand new players and old!

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: Lego face down on beach shore.]
[Image Two: Melting ice cream cone.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Person screaming underwater.]
[Image Two: Waves crashing on rocks.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Woman on a piano in the middle of the ocean.]
[Image Two: Pirate ship on wave during storm.]

Dates to Remember!
Read our Game Open information here.

Early Access is only applicable to those who played in Deerington from Dec2020-June2021. Public Access is applicable to everyone regardless of whether or not you previously played in Deerington.

August 27th: Reserves open for Early Access Members open.
September 1st: Applications for Early Access Members open.
September 26th: Public Access reserves open.
October 1st: Game officially opens. Public Access applications open.

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

STANDARD ARRIVAL

WHEN: August
WHERE: The Farther Shores/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
August means colorful streamers and fairy lights twinkling over the Boardwalk, lighting the way. Although Trench is a grim world, there is a distinct summer vacation feeling to the Boardwalk in August. You can smell fried dough and hot dogs being prepared - and no worries! Everything on the Boardwalk is completely free to Sleepers. The workers know it's your first stop and that you, more than most, need a bit of charity right now. Stop by and get a deluxe sundae or ice cream cone at the temporary ice cream booth. Want something besides your welcoming robes to wear? There are a few small shacks selling some solid pirate and sailor-inspired looks. There are also some cute bathing suits for those who think taking a dip in the ocean could possibly ever be fun. Get these summer goods while the going's good. They won't be around in September!

Some people have even set up some crude form of volleyball out on the beach. Join in for a game! The ball is a little leathery and strange to the touch, but it's probably for the best if you just ignore that. Hit the ball around enough and you'll notice that if it gets away from your court, it seems to roll itself towards the ocean. Pick it up again and it's just a ball again! Weird...Just play with the ball and don't ask questions.

The Boardwalk really is a gentle introduction to Trench. It's easy to forget that you just woke up to a hellscape dominated by blood. But hey. The corruption here is low and maybe that's the point. Take it easy while you can, Sleepers. The tide is coming soon enough.

DIFFERENT TIDES

WHEN: WHEN EVENT
WHERE: Among the Rocks in small crevices and caves.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Drowning, crushing bones, intense claustrophobia, flesh eating crabs, possible animal death via burning, possible hallucinations via toxins.

While most Sleepers are lucky enough to wash up on the Farther Shores, not all are so fortunate. The ocean is unpredictable and in this world, the ocean also happens to be a temperamental living creature. Come in at the exactly wrong time and the Pthumerian Mariana might decide to send you on a harrowing course towards The Rocks. Having to wake up while being slammed up against slippery slopes of stone is no one's idea of a good time, and if you're not a strong swimmer, you might die before you even have a chance to realize where you are. Even if you are a strong swimmer, it's exhausting and brutal being slammed against slate again and again. But you're not the only one suffering. There are other Sleepers crashing against the Rocks with you. Maybe you can help each other out before it's too late.

If you have the ability, you can possibly grab hold on the side of the Rocks and cling for dear life. You might even discover the advantages of your newly reborn body and blood sooner than intended. Not too many can clash against the Rocks without spilling a little sacred blood but you might just be able to use that in your favor. Sometimes shedding blood in this world means getting a hell of an adrenaline kick - and you might need it right about now. Maybe you can climb to the top and back to safety?

Not everyone has to take a beating against the Rocks. Some are sucked into the undertide and carried directly inside of the Rocks. There are dozens of small caves and channels. If you're having a genuinely terrible day, you might break the surface of the water in a pitch-black space, with rock above you, rock all around you. There may be very little space between the water and the rocks surrounding you, making it harder to breathe and concentrate and easier to panic in. Cry out and you may get some help. Find your way to one of the open caves inside.

As you try to find your way in the dark, you hear a constant clicking noise all around you. It sounds like rocks bouncing together, clacking, clicking, some plopping into the water near you. You can feel them moving around you and eventually, one drops down onto your shoulder. It's a crab! The little guy is no bigger than a golf ball and he mostly just seems curious. Another little buddy joins him on your other shoulder. Looks like you have some friends! Maybe they are here to help you.

Then you feel a little sharp jab of pain. And another. And nope- these guys are not your friends. They use their small claws to take chunks out of your flesh and eat it. They are easy enough to brush off your shoulder, but the problem isn't their size, it's their quantity. As soon as you get one off, another is falling down. And some are a lot bigger than golf balls. They get as large as basketballs and when those land on you, brace yourself, because they are dense. You'll discover that the crabs seem completely impervious too. They have rock-hard shells and are resistant to blood magic - probably because they eat nothing but blood-and-flesh creatures. But like all living creatures, they do have a weakness or two: fire and light. You can completely stun and paralyze these creatures with a flash of light. The brighter the light, the longer they will be stunned. If you have a light source to carry around, the crabs won't come near you at all. Fire won't stun the crabs, but it does terrify them and will send them fleeing. If you set a crab on fire, you'll see why: it's the only way to kill them.

So congratulations, you have Trench Crabs. Not the best experience, but it's an easier experience for some than others. Unfortunately for Warmbloods, Palebloods, and Vilebloods there's a certain toxin in the crab's flaws that can cause mild hallucinations and confusion in response to your specific blood type. Hopefully, you're stuck with another blood type who isn't affected by the crab toxins. To get rid of the side effects, you will need to thoroughly clean out all of your wounds with warm salt-water.

Let's just hope you can all make it out of the Rocks alive. Good luck.

QUICK FAQ

1. Those whose Patron Pthumerian is Mariana will be much luckier in the waves. Some may even discover that the water urges them towards safer passages. If they ask for direct help, the water might directly respond with immediate help. In the most extreme cases, the water might heal flesh wounds, but it will burn a little. Never a good idea to put salt (water) on an open wound, but hey, better than bleeding out!

This applies to the third prompt as well. 2. Characters can either find their way across the Rocks and climb to the area around the Sanguine Station or wind up at the Farther Shores. Wakers would be quick to help any mangled Sleepers.

3. Other characters can go to the Rocks and try to help save the Sleepers being brutalized. Maybe throw someone a rope or if you have the power of flight you can try and get them to safety.

OVERBOARD

WHEN: Pirates continually sail the Pthumerian Ocean therefore this event could take place at any time.
WHERE: Somewhere beyond the Fishing Zone of the Pthumerian Ocean
CONTENT WARNINGS: Drowning, kidnapping, imprisonment, "human" trafficking, cannibalism.

Some Sleepers don't make it to the Farther Shores or the Rocks. Your body might regenerate in the middle of the Pthumerian Ocean and the only thing in your favor is at least you're not reborn naked here (unless maybe you are - dealer's choice). You're cloaked in some long, white garment - not that it does much against the crashing waves all around you. This is not a great place to wake up! And it looks like you woke up in the middle of the storm only it's not really a storm...This is just the natural state of the Pthumerian Ocean: violent and unpredictable.

Waves crash and pull all around you, thundering through the air, the wind and skies above just as hostile and aggressive. You can't tell if it's raining or if you're just being constantly splattered by the mist and water of waves nearby. Whirlpools spin in gurgling clusters and it's easy to get sucked into them. Thankfully, you're not completely alone in this terrible situations. You can see other Sleepers nearby...And furniture?

Chunks of furniture float by. Couches, mattresses, pianos, bookcases. There is the debris of ruined ships too: flanks of wood, doors that could probably hold two people if you actually tried, masts, barrels, and the like. Might not be a bad idea to try and hold onto some of that stuff. Better than the alternative! Another thing going in your favor is that you showed up in August. The Pthumerian Ocean is a brutal place, but you won't be freezing to death in these waters. At least not this month. But what about where you are? Where you need to go? Well. That's answered for you.

There are few things tougher in Deer Country than the pirates who live by the law of the ocean. Their ships have been coated in blood magic, cutting through waves, navigating the tidal waves and the whirlpools with abnormal grace normal sailors could only ever dream of. But the people aboard are not human. Not anymore. Most have become completely corrupt by the violence of the ocean and they're more than happy to scoop up poor, disoriented Sleepers they find along the way. You'll find no mercy from these pirates. Instead, it's off to the brig with you! The people on the ship have disoriented appearances, looking more like sea creatures than humans, and they have the manners you'd expect from pufferfish and tiger sharks. They cannot be reasoned with - after all, they aren't just rude. They are blood corrupted and some of them are borderline on their way to full beasthood.

Pirates will value Sleepers for their blood and plan to either eat the Sleepers, use their blood for blood magic, or sell them to other pirates and most won't immediately try to kill a Sleeper. They might be violent, but they aren't stupid. Pirates may simply throw you in a cell or chain you up. They may put Sleepers in a cell together or separate them into cages. If Sleepers are especially mouthy, they may make you walk the plank, tied up with heavy chains that will surely bring you to the bottom (if there even is a bottom) of the ocean. Players can choose the severity of the imprisonment of Sleepers and how Sleepers may escape their situation. Maybe they sneak out of bond and steal a lifeboat. Maybe they overpower their captors and kill most of them or throw them overboard and steal their ship. Either way, once they have met some kind of escape, the Pthumerian Mariana will be impressed enough by their hardiness to help guide them through the currents all the way to the Farther Shores.

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. full of longing for the secret of the sea [arrival]

[Something is familiar, about the water. The way it rushes into his mouth, his nose, his eyes, fills all his senses with salt and darkness, the way it swirls around his clawing fingers and drags at his flailing limbs. The way it doesn't care if he lives or dies. He's done this before, drowning. It was easier before, because it didn't last long.

But this ends with him deposited onto a shore, gritty sand under his fingernails, gagging up mouthfuls of seawater, trading it for ragged breaths. He's exhausted from swimming (he's always, always been swimming), but there's also an exhilarated thrill of triumph. I did it, he keeps thinking, even as someone drapes a robe over his shivering shoulders, murmurs words of comfort. I did it, I did it, I'm back. I'm BACK.

Will Byers doesn't remember where he's back from or where he's gone to, but the sense of victory remains, even as he staggers to his feet and tries to get his bearings. It'll come back to him, slowly. Maybe the sight of a familiar face -- or even an unfamiliar, kind one -- will help.]

ii. upon the boardwalk, down by the sea [boardwalk]

[It comes back to him, eventually. Everything -- who he is, where he's been, the last eight months back in Indiana. The myriad ways he'd failed there. Will doesn't want to dwell on that too much, so he's wandering up and down the splintery boards of the boardwalk, holding the damp robe around himself and letting the soft summer wind slowly dry him off. He lingers closer to the fun things -- the food, though he doesn't let himself take any, too cautious from two years in Deerington, even as his stomach growls audibly, or watching the volleyball game.

Part of him is anxious to find the others who'd (hopefully) made it too, and he reaches out impulsively, a couple times, grabbing at someone's arm and half-shouting a name. if it's not who he thinks it is, he quickly backs away, pale and apologetic.]

Sorry, sorry, I thought...I thought you were someone else.

[Later, he dares to approach the water again, watching the waves roll ever in and in on the sand. He sees the squids, watches people rescue them, either by rolling them or just tossing them back into the water. And, eventually, he's joined by a strange, ominous creature, rising from the ocean waves and moving silently across the sand. To anyone else, this would be (rightfully) terrifying, but Will is almost in tears of joy as he reaches out, lets the damp, unblinking horse-like beast nuzzle against his hands.]

Hey. Hey, you made it. [His voice is soft, wavering, exhausted from a very long day. He leans forward, rests his forehead against the horse's soaking wet neck.] I missed you too.

iii. drink up me hearties, yo-ho [pirate ship]

Stop pushing! [One of the worst things about going back to Hawkins was that all the hard-earned muscle and strength and combat abilities that Will had gained in two years of Deerington had immediately vanished, and he'd returned to a shrimpy little twelve-year-old. Even eight months afterwards, even with a few inches of height, he's still a beanpole, and his struggles against the pirates steering him down the stairs towards the mass holding cell are pathetic at best.

Somewhere in his mid-ocean struggles, Will had busted his lip, which now leaks a steady drip, drip, drip of blood. It's dark outside, and the moon shines in through the barred window, illuminating the blood droplets, which suddenly begin to glow a soft, luminous white. One of the pirates pauses, reaching out to catch a couple drops of blood, growling approvingly to itself -- and then licking the blood off it's craggy, barnacle-encrusted hand.

This is gross enough that Will just sort of stares, even as he's shoved (more gently) into the cell and it's locked behind him. He doesn't even notice who else he's locked in with, finally managing a weak:] Gross. Ew.

[ there's a lot going on, but his spider-senses still tell him when a hand is reaching for him, and he sidesteps it and spins around in one smooth motion. his own hands flip up in a harmless gesture, expression apologetic and a little confused. he still doesn't know where the heck he is; all he knows is alternate universe and scary. ]

No, uh! It's fine, dude. [ he jerks his thumb back to the beach itself, where squids are still.. growing into people, and winces. ] This is all pretty.. weird.

[ the other guy's about his age, though--maybe a little younger? the haircut is unfortunate--so he shoulders the backpack and offers a fist out for a fistbump. ] I'm Miles. You need some help finding your friend?

It's...yeah. It's really weird. [Will reaches up and rakes his fingers backwards through his hair, making it stick up. He isn't sure why he's suddenly self-conscious about it. It's the peak of style in 1985.

The fist gets a long, bewildered look, before Will slowly reaches out and bumps his knuckles to the other boy's. Yeah, that seems...right? Sort of? Maybe?] Um. Probably, I...I'm sort of still out of it.

One by one he'd watched them venture through the columns of smoke and hoped to himself that whatever awaited them on the other side was what they were each looking for. At the end of it all, Wes had stayed behind. He couldn't pretend that he didn't have some inkling of the fate he was resigning himself to, but after a lifetime of running he finally thought he was ready.

Maybe he should've known it could never really be that easy.

He'd take the mountains over the ocean any day, not that he's had much experience with either. Frozen lakes, sure. Those stagnant bodies of water are a dime a dozen where he comes from, but being surrounded on all sides by water as far as the eye can see is something different entirely. So why doesn't he feel more disturbed by any of it?

The creatures are a whole different thing entirely. When one wraps a slimy tentacle around Wes's upper arm, he headbutts it without a second's hesitation. Before he knows it he finds his arms bound, lifted off his feet and dragged by three of them to a cell under the deck. The rusty door slams with a deafening creak and the tall man picks up an empty cask and hurls it at the bars.

"Woah, wait--" The cask shatters against the bars, doing nothing at all to them, and Will instinctively flinches, shields his face against the showering scatter of the broken bits of wood. He'd spoken without thinking, just seeing the tall shape of the man shoved into the cell he'd been sitting in for what feels like hours. It hadn't had any effect (of course not, duh, whispers the voice in his head that's been steadily trying to remind him of things he's almost forgotten) so he does something sort of dumb.

He steps forward, reaching out with his own bound hands to touch the man on the back. "Hey, that's not...gonna help."

[Will is not alone in the dark. He is absolutely not alone. Someone has been shoved in before him, bound by rope, of all things, and finally having worn himself out enough to stop fighting - for the moment.]

[Thankfully, though, seeing the small face illuminated by the glowing drops is enough to rouse him from where he'd ended up collapsed in a corner.]

[Rope rustles. Cloth squishes - still wet from the ocean.]

... Will?

[Throughout this very weird re-entry to the dream world (or, rather, the waking world), Will has been half-remembering lots of things. There are a lot of fuzzy bits, things that had faded during his eight months back in Hawkins, eclipsed by the dangers of that world. The stint as a squid hadn't helped, had flattened all his memories of Deerington into a vague, amorphous mush. It would've been par for the course if he'd reacted with alarm at the sound of someone saying his name, if he'd recoiled and asked how the man knew it.

But he doesn't. Even if everything else is vague and half-formed, that beloved, longed-for voice strikes right through the haze and solidifies into a face, a name. More blood drips down onto Will's shirt as he lets out a shaky, half-laugh, half-sob.]

Shiro.

[That's my kid.]

[If he forgot everything else, forgot all that happened, even if he forgot Will's face - he would know that voice. He would know it anywhere. The voice, and the way Will says his name. He could never forget it. Not after everything they've been through together.]

[That's my son.]

[Using the wall, he's gotten up on one knee, trying his best to take a step forward, to get across the room. He's off balance, but damn it, Shiro has to get there. Has to get across to Will.]

Will - I - It's okay. I'm here.

C-Careful-- [They'd left Will untied, clearly assuming that a scrawny, doe-eyed kid wouldn't be much of a threat. So he crosses the room, the blood on his shirt catching the light like a moonstone, reaching out through the dark.

His voice is -- too high. It's lower than it was when he first arrived in Deerington, minutely, but soon after his 14th birthday in the town, it had dropped significantly, to go with his broader shoulders, his more muscular arms and legs. Those are all gone. He's younger now, barely thirteen, at least physically. The scarred, serious, strong Will from before is gone.

When he reaches out, his hands are soft again, not callused and hardened from fighting for his life. But he remembers. He remembers.] Be careful.

[He can see him, vaguely, in the wan light from the glowing substance. His brain hasn't quite tracked it as blood yet. Not yet. Will being alive is more important than what's on his shirt. Will being alive and remembering... It doesn't matter that his voice is different, that he looks more like the boy Shiro lost in the snow years ago, than before.]

[That's still Will.]

[And Will remembers.]

[He stumbles, ending up kneeling in the middle of the cell, with every cell in his body wanting to catch the boy up and hold on. Embrace him and reassure him and be here. It feels so clear now, remembering Will. Like he'd never let the memory of him fade away.]

Hey... hey, buddy.

Will Byers | Stranger Things | deerington CRAU

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boardwalk ya im rping gengar what of it

you're an ICON

:3

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