September 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

[reddosmod]

SEPTEMBER 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

OUR GAME IS OFFICIALLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON OCTOBER 1st.
Reserves open on September 26th. Applications open on October 1st.

Welcome to another Deer Country 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: Skeletons running across the beach and crashing into each other.]
[Image Two: Apples being dipped into caramel and put on a sheet.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A sketchy film reel of a well.]
[Image Two: An undead girl crawling up the side of a well with contorted movements.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A massive whale bursting out of water to eat something.]
[Image Two: The inside of a whale's mouth filled with water and the back of its throat.]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

STANDARD ARRIVAL

WHEN: End of September to mid October
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
The Boardwalk is quite the spectacle this time of year. Pumpkins have been stacked on spikes lining the Boardwalk with grotesquely realistic carvings of faces decorated on them. Massive white linen has been hung in the air to look like ghosts floating back and forth against the ocean wind.

Delicious smells waft from the Boardwalk as fresh donuts, candied apples, and hot apple cider are sold at every other booth. One or two booths are set up offering Face Painting, Natives explaining to new Sleepers that face paint was integral to the survival of Trench sometimes - especially during the month of October. "We do it to disguise ourselves from roaming spirits and hungry beasts."

You hear rumors of something known as The Black Parade coming soon and there seems to be a festive buzz about the event. The weather has gotten a little too chilly to enjoy the beach in bathing suits, but there are other ways to take a bit of a break before committing your life to the terrors of Trench! In the evening, natives will go out to the beaches and set up cozy bonfires in clusters. They will throw in batches of incense to keep the beaches safe and fill the air with the warm, comforting scent of cinammon. Smores are generously enjoyed around these fires. Stick around and you will hear some natives telling stories about Legendary Ghosts. They might ask you if you know any stories like that too.

But of course, they give a caution about ghost stories: "Careful. You'll never know when you'll start living a ghost story yourself..."

WELLNESS

WHEN: Always - this monster permanently exists in Trench
WHERE: Near the Wayward Station in a Well
CONTENT WARNINGS: Bodily contortion, nail trauma, being trapped, possible drowning, "child" appearing monster.

---

You are pulled beneath Trench and into the currents that circulate throughout the city. You are jostled through the complex sewage system or waterways and get tossed between the stone tunnels until finally you're spilling down into a deep, deep well. You hit the still water at the bottom, easily a hundred feet down, and everything is finally quiet. The water here is quiet and still: nothing like the hurdling ocean water and channels you were pulled through. Up above you can see a perfect circle of light: the opening to the Well.

Another soul is plopped out next to you. Perhaps a familiar face or someone you've never met before. It's good to know you're not alone. Still - how to get out? There's some low pressure in the Well weighing down on you, but more than that, the pressure seems to dull abilities almost completely. You can't just fly out or zoom up the walls as you might normally be able to. The walls are made out of wet cobblestone and they are slick and difficult to get a grip on. You're sooner to destroy your nails than make it even halfway up. And it's a long way up.

Maybe there's something around you that might help? Being thrown into the Well at least comes with the benefit that your Welcoming Bag is floating in the water with you. Maybe there's something useful inside or you can use your new Omni to send a distress call. Or use your Omen to try and help someone find out where in this godforsaken place you are.

Your Welcoming Bag isn't the only thing floating around in the water with you. A human skull bumps into you before sinking down under the water. Something slides through the water beneath your feet, wisps of hair glancing over your ankles.

Suddenly the heavy sound of stone sliding against stone comes from above. Someone is sealing up the Well. Your light is running out and just as the last sliver of light casts across the water, you see a humanoid-looking creature peering at you from the other side of the Well. Then everything goes dark.

Torn fingernails rip across your arm and you're yanked underwater. The moment your blood surfaces, even just a drop of it, you're revitalized with your power (if you have any). For those who are warmblooded and common, you will find that you can suddenly at least see in the dark almost perfectly. You can also see a distinct pattern along the stone wall that could be more easily climbed than anywhere else. Now the challenge is to just try and get there.

The girl in the Well with you is violent and ferocious. She will try to drown you or break your body as quickly as she can and will use the dark and the water against you. She cannot be killed, but she can be temporarily stunned and thrown back. Once you begin climbing, she's quicker out of the water, crawling up the wall after you in spastic, contorting motions. The only true way to stop her is to get out of the Well and seal it back up. You realize that whoever had originally closed the Well wasn't doing it because of you...They were doing it because of her.

If you fail to seal the Well afterwards, the girl in the Well will haunt you. She will endlessly stalk people and drag them down into the waterways of Trench. She travels primarily through water and must be confined to the Well or else. The Well is located in the Trenchwoods close by the Wayward Station.

SWALLOWED

WHEN: Can happen any time someone goes too far out into the Pthumerian Ocean
WHERE: Middle of the Pthumerian Ocean
CONTENT WARNINGS: Being swallowed alive, travel inside a beast, possibility of killing a beast, organ-centric horror.

---

Like many Sleepers, you might get swept further out into the ocean before you're swept towards the Farther Shores. It's not the ideal scenario and immediately puts you in a vulnerable position. When you break the surface this time, you're in the middle of an unusually calm ocean. Where are the waves? Where is the commotion of the ocean? Although you're completely alone, you don't feel alone.

Pressure is building up beneath you. Something is coming towards you. You can feel the water beginning to churn about and you need to start swimming. Now. Still too disoriented from reincarnation, you probably don't have enough sense of self to use any sort of powers to get out of the situation. There's a tremendous roar, and suddenly, the world is going dark all around you, walls of red coming up on every side. Massive white stones jut out at you and it takes you a moment before you realize what's even happening.

A monster is about to swallow you whole. It's significantly bigger than you to the point where you've washed down its throat without a single injury. You don't even know what swallowed you, but you're sliding down the throat and through its body within seconds. You somehow get tossed to a strange part of its body and land on a fleshy surface and discover you're not the only thing this creature has eaten. Other Sleeper(s) are nearby, and maybe even some pets, all more shocked than hurt.

Looks like you've been had. But it's far from the worst. Everyone's okay and there doesn't actually seem to be anything inside of the monster that's interested in hurting you. Avoid the stomach acid and figure out the insides and you might actually just make your way out of the creature without incident. Most of the monsters who swallow Sleepers don't seem to even realize what they did, and you can usually find your way out the way you came in. Along the way, you might discover some other interesting things inside of the body such as swallowed ships with interesting resources, some of your items from home or other people's homes...And of course, you'll probably find a lot of skeletons of creatures swallowed long before you. Not everything can figure their way out of a massive creature.

You can always hack your way out of the creature but that's gory and tough work. These are behemoth beings and even cutting your way out won't necessarily mean you killed it - but it probably does mean you're going to really piss it off. Then again, it's so big, will it really even bother to fight back?

The situation can be admittedly disgusting. There's nothing fun about swimming up a creature's bloodstream or having to navigate its intestines. Some creatures are bigger than others, making the journey far more complicated. Others are smaller, easier to escape. If you upset someone's stomach, you might even just get puked up and that might be one of the simplest ways to get out of dodge.

The monsters can look like anything and be nearly any size. The Pthumerian Ocean is massive and contains massive beasts and lesser Pthumerians. Once your character has gotten out of the beast, they will find that they are much closer to the Farther Shores. They might even wind up beaching the creature they're in if they're really lucky! Navigating the creatures isn't too unlike navigating a complex cave. The only difference is the walls around you are some sort of organ.

CODING

Comments

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[wannasmash]

Arrival
cw: brief non-explicit nudity, temporary memory loss, that placenta-like material that appears with some Sleepers because I'm terrible, I'm sorry for everything

He was lying facedown on black sand. The rhythmic rushing, roaring sound was not the blood in his own ears, but the ocean surf. He moved and felt pieces of a thin, torn caul around him. His lungs suddenly heaved because he forgot to breathe--not water, but air?

"Gah!!"

His eyes flew open. He flopped and clumsily kicked off the placenta-cocoon-thing, gasping like a beached fish. He stuck out his forearm and tried to pull himself forward on his stomach. It was kind of pathetic. When he remembered how, he sat up and opened the backpack next to him. He could barely remember his own name, but the clothes inside were definitely his. His hands moved on their own, remembering how to put them on. The dark green jumpsuit, the iron soles, the gloves, the mask he left around his neck for now. They weren't his everyday clothes or his school uniform; they were clothes meant for saving people.

Yes. He was a hero. He could never forget that.

Boardwalk
He tripped and fell face-first on the sand. Again. This was the fourth time. That had to be bad luck. His tongue hurt where he accidentally bit it. He coughed sand (and a little blood) out of his mouth and got up clumsily. The small pain helped dispel his daze. Strangely, he smelled tar. He tried and failed to dust all the black sand from his hair and face.

Finally he made it onto the boardwalk. His memories were coming back. This was like the school festival they'd put on not too long ago. Midoriya saw the candied apples and smiled. He knew someone who loved those. But with no money on him, he didn't bother approaching the booths, except to ask the locals some questions--like where on earth he was. He smiled to hide his nervousness, knowing he was very far from home.

"Roaming spirits and hungry beasts, huh? You're going to give little kids nightmares..."

Well
cw: possible violence against a monster that looks like a kid

Midoriya tripped on wet seaweed and fell off a large, slippery rock into a nearby tidepool. He sat up, unharmed, rubbing the back of his head self-consciously. It was his own fault, really. He still felt ungainly, and he should have stayed on the Boardwalk. He prepared to stand--

The sea rushed in, unnaturally fast, completely overwhelming him. It tossed him against the walls of the sewers, promising nasty bruises the next day, but he protected his head in time. Before he could tell which way was up, he was falling down the well. No problem, his Quirk's super strength should make jump-kicking off the walls a piece of cake--

"It's gone?!"

SPLASH. He surfaced, sputtering. He was pretty sure some dank well water got in his mouth. Gross! More importantly, the exit was around 30 meters up, and he couldn't use his power.

Wildcard
ooc: I can't do brackets myself, but you do whatever format you like! Plot with me on this contact page or misosoupaddict. Blood type: Warmblood. Patron: The Reckoning. Canon point: probably Ch. 217, after the Class A/B joint training. Please tell me if you don't want manga spoilers.

Boardwalk

[swellter]

Walking through the boardwalk, Todoroki has situated himself with a semi-familiar routine after a month of living in Trench. As such, he's become a fixed figure in the area. Today, he's at the boardwalk, curious about the food stands on display. He approaches a few and when he does, he spots a familiar head of curly green hair and forgets all about candied apples and pumpkins stacked on spikes.

"Midoriya?"

One step. Two. He side-steps a group of three and finds himself hurrying to a familiar face he thought he'd never see again.

"Midoriya. Is that you?"

[ ooc; todoroki's from Ch. 306. The beginning of the final arc. I'll have him react to Deku with context from his canon point, but have him realize that he's from an earlier timeline. He'll keep future events to himself once he finds out Deku's from the joint training arc. ]

Re: Boardwalk

[wannasmash]

Midoriya hadn't hit his head, and he hadn't drowned, per se, so the cause of his mental fuzziness and lack of coordination was unclear. He was safe, relatively speaking, uninjured, and his head was mostly on now, but... He was uneasy, being in a very strange place, with his legs refusing to act like legs every once in a while.

"T-Todoroki-kun!"

His voice came out a bit more strangled, worried, and relieved than the situation really called for. A few people stared, but continued their business. Midoriya wisely chose not to walk too fast towards his friend. He'd been in and out of a hospital bed enough times to know when he was wobbly.

"Did you wash up on the beach too?"

[ ooc: HAHA WELP. I'm all caught up, so if you ever find that Todoroki would ICly need to tell him anything, no need to worry, go for it! ]

[swellter]

With only a good-bye letter, scripted to each of them describing the quirk passed down to him by All-Might, Midoriya left UA without a word. Stepping out of their lives as if he hadn't touched each of them in some meaningful way, as if they wouldn't care. Wouldn't have tried to stop him. Or perhaps he knew they'd stage a coup to keep him from leaving. Shouto doesn't know. The letter, for its simplicity, struck a chord in him like it did many of his classmates. After their failed mission, losing Midnight, the fall of hero society. It was the final nail in the coffin for most of them.

Shouto, hit with his brother's revelation, Dabi's viral video, and having his sordid family history laid bare, crumbled under it all. Unable to speak with his throat burnt out from his brother's embrace, Shouto had time to think. The subject of his deep ambiguity, Midoriya and Dabi were forefront in his mind. Bakugou explained some of it, filled in the blanks where Midoriya was concerned but there was no such revelation for Dabi. In either case, he had no leg to stand on and grieved their absence in silence.

In the wake of Midoriya's departure, it struck him just how little he knew about him. He'd been naive thinking he could move forward without looking back. He forgot about his past, about his blood, and kept trying to break free just like Midoriya had told him to without ever seeing the struggles he too endured. Burdened by his family legacy, he never saw the weight Midoriya carried. Maybe if he had. If he'd been a better friend, he would have... might've... relied on him too.

"Midoriya!"

Torodoki reaches his side, placing a hand at his back to steady him. There's worry behind those dual-colored eyes and restraint. A hundred questions fill his thoughts, a hundred more on how he got here, but he keeps them at bay while he's clearly still rattled from the fallout of his arrival.

"What's wrong? Did you hit your head? Are you alright?"

He's already leading him away from the crowd to sit down at one of the seating areas littered across the boardwalk.

"Do you need to see a doctor?"

Working as a hunter, he's come across their services, not in person, but he knows they're out there and tries to recall the closest hospital and ponders whether or not he should take him there directly, but he can speak, ask questions, answering some of his own questions in the process.

"Yes. Is that what happened to you? How long have you been conscious?"

[wannasmash]

He settled onto one of the benches. He was relieved Todoroki wanted to sit down, both because walking was occasionally an exercise in futility, and because his friend also seemed distressed. Midoriya picked up on that immediately. Todoroki was normally cool and collected. Midoriya panicked; the last thing he wanted to do was worry someone else. He'd made a great effort not to do that anymore. That was the whole point of coming up with his Shoot Style in the first place. Even the recent explosion of Blackwhip was now contained, and the plan was, in future, he would only release as much as he could feasibly control in training. The advice from Blackwhip's original holder helped him a lot. He'd be miserable otherwise.

He'd already lied to Todoroki about it just being an offshoot of his Quirk, and that explanation seemed to satisfy him. Midoriya had to lie to everyone about One For All. He felt guilty, but it couldn't be helped. If society knew about such a transferable power, it would be dangerous. Even Bakugou, the one person he'd told, scolded him for letting it slip.

"I'm fine!" he said hurriedly, holding up his hands. "I'm not hurt. Just... I don't know, exactly. I woke up like I was asleep for days. I didn't drown, either." He batted his own chest, indicating his lungs were feeling normal. "It hasn't even been an hour. I feel better, but I'll go for a check-up later. Please don't worry."

Brushing off his own problems, he observed his friend more closely, trying to see if Todoroki was suffering some of the same symptoms. They were trained to take in someone's condition in an instant, after all. Todoroki seemed fine, and he wasn't even covered in sand, but he couldn't fail to notice...

"Wait a minute... You upgraded your costume!" He beamed. He'd have to update his notes.

[swellter]

Remembering his own state when he first arrived, Todoroki gives him space when Midoriya waves off his condition. He still looks rattled - which is the subject of his worry - but coherent. For now, he won't push him on his condition and settles down on the seat across the table from him. It's not the first time he's seen him in a questionable state. The fact that he's in one piece without any broken bones smoothes over the anxious look from earlier to something less expressive. Neutral. Familiar to anyone who knows him, but there's still that nagging question of - What is he doing here? - that echoes in his mind, while Midoriya explains some of what happened to him.

Todoroki listens, cross-checking his experience with his own, nodding his head here and there where their experiences intersect. His own form drowned in sea-water coughed out when he took form, expelling the liquid from his lungs. His memories of that time are distant, barely real. He remembers more the sensations of what happened than the actual timeline of events that got jostled in his mind. Like Midoriya, he wasn't quite lucid when he first washed up on shore and made his way away from the beach with the help of the figures robed in white.

"You should have rested a little more. You still looked... shaken" Point in case, Todoroki's reaction mixed in with the shock of seeing him again after his departure from UA. After reading his letter, he thought he'd be in worse shape, but he seems the same as he's always been. It settles his initial worry.

"I... I'm glad you're well, but..." The line of his mouth barely curves down into a frown. "I can't say I'm happy to see you here. This place is dangerous."

On his own, it was tolerable, but having one of his classmates here changed the whole dynamic. One was a coincidence, two a plan. It begged the question - How many more of them were still out there floating in the ocean unable to take form?

"I'm sorry you were brought into this." He says before Midoriya takes note of his costume, which pulls on that frown just a little bit more. He changed it a while ago. Why would he comment on... his head snaps up, taking a second look at his friend. He's heard of this. What did that boy call it? Timeline Distortion. He stares at Midoriya, trying to look for something that would shed some light to his comment only he doesn't see anything.

"Midoriya." He says carefully, leaning forward. "What's the last thing you remember?"

[wannasmash]

He was secretly relieved that Todoroki took his words at face value. He didn't want him to worry. Midoriya's hero costume was completely intact, not to mention Midoriya himself, suffering none of the damage Todoroki would have recently seen.

He briefly glanced back at the Boardwalk, with its stalls and (admittedly creepy) pumpkin carvings. No apparent danger, but he knew in the cities back home, a villain could appear anytime, anywhere. He wasn't afraid. His desire to protect others eclipsed whatever fear he might feel. He and Todoroki were heroes in training, and they had learned a lot in a short time. They could hold their own.

He was about to ask him if maybe he was here on business with a Pro Hero or something, when Todoroki leaned in and started asking him about what he remembered. Like he was an amnesiac, which, after how slowly his memories came back to him on the beach, was a valid concern. He searched his friend's face for clues, but he didn't know what questions to ask. He pressed his lips together nervously, feeling put on the spot.

Something wasn't right.

"I... I visited Eri-chan today." Was it even still today? "And, let's see... yesterday we had a pretty good joint training session with Class B... I'm feeling fine, no weird outbursts since then." He stopped hesitating and fixed his eyes on his friend. Without any clues, he could only ask, "Todoroki-kun, what's wrong?"

He wasn't sure if he was asking about his friend's state, or his own.

arrival;

[virtuosital]

She had taken some time to readjust to legs, herself-- startling, for someone who, like Izuku, was used to being reasonably dependent on them. She had to have washed up a fair amount of time prior to the green-haired boy struggling his way into an upright position, because she'd already figured out how to slip into the cloak in her bag and wobble her way closer to help him.

"Excuse me," she offered quietly, reaching out to splay a hand flat between his shoulder blades to help him stay upright. "Are you all right?"

Re: arrival;

[wannasmash]

"Haifmmphb--"

Remember how to speak. Try again.

"Yes... It's just my legs are forgetting how to be legs..." he croaked in a voice as wobbly as his whole body. He decided that, for the moment, remaining crouched on the ground was the better part of valor. Some of his instincts and memories were coming back, but putting them into practice was another story. Anyway, he was glad he got dressed in time. Apparently there were other people on the beach.

That was close...

He raised his head to look at the person speaking to him. If he had difficulty moving before, he definitely couldn't now. Couldn't speak, either. His face turned the exact color of pink pickled daikon, and a tiny squeak escaped him.

He wasn't used to being this close to a girl.

Too close!!

[virtuosital]

She laughs softly, nodding. "That'll wear off eventually..., It's a little like if you swam really hard for a really long time, your legs sort of feel like jelly." She'd have assumed she was quicker at bouncing back due to her athleticism, but Izuku's physique suggested he had her beat, there.

She purses her lips when his face burns fluorescent pink, reclaiming her hand and sitting back on her haunches. "Oh," She recognized that response, but it was odd to see it on another person rather than being the one to get shy, herself. "I'm sorry, I should keep my hands to myself." She folds them, neatly, and sets them in her lap.

[wannasmash]

"It's OK..." he managed to say with his voice off by an entire octave. He tried to bring it down. "You were just trying to help..."

Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal. But out of nowhere like that, when he'd been out of it and hadn't seen her coming, he'd lost his composure. He had to avoid looking her in the eye for several seconds while he arranged his limbs into something like sitting, shoes in front of him towards the sea. The tide picked up the broken caul in a few lazy sweeps. Did I really come out of that? Gross...

"It doesn't just feel like I'm tired. I know what that feels like." He had the sudden memory of collapsing into bed after hours of training, so exhausted he couldn't even shower. He experimentally opened and closed his hand. "It's strange. Like my brain can't remember how to do things."

Speaking of forgetting, he couldn't forget his manners.

"Oh! Nice to meet you. I'm... I'm..." He went speechless again, but for a different reason.

Oh no. I can't even remember my name...!

[virtuosital]

She sits back a little farther on her haunches, her back a little straighter, watching his line of sight to follow the caul as it is swept into the tide. Her expression mirrors his in a slight grimace before he's speaking again, and she turns her attention back to him. "I think... we all started off as some kind of sea creature? I don't really remember much, now that I'm me again, but it took me a while to remember how to... be me, again." Which was something she was already uncomfortably familiar with, and was maybe why she had managed it much quicker than Izuku was. She gave him a moment to stammer and realize he'd forgotten his name, shaking her head and rearranging herself to draw her knees to her chest.

"Don't stress! It'll come back to you, I'm sure. For now I could call you...," She squints at him, trying to find something that stuck out. "Freckles! I could call you Freckles."

[wannasmash]

He nodded, remembering his weird dream about being a squid... thing. If he had much in the way of squid memories, he'd be less troubled, but he didn't. Just vague ones of being someone with two legs and a hero costume, memories that slipped through his fingers like sand. It was enough to make anyone panic, but thankfully she distracted him.

Pink spots appeared on his cheeks again. It sounded too cute coming from her. No one but his mom ever called him anything that cute, much less now that he was too old for that. Ah, yes! He had a mom. He was glad he remembered her. How could he have ever forgotten? He smiled.

"S-sure! I'm sorry it happened to you too, but it's kind of a relief I'm not alone. But what do I call you?" He hoped she remembered her own name, because he didn't feel confident coming up with a nickname.

Well

[onekindsoul]

[There's a sound of a sputtering spit from behind him as he makes that splash. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Midoriya is the only one down here. Ruby wipes some of the water out from her eye as she stands up straight.]

"Uh- Do you mean our dignity? Because yeah that's long gone."

Re: Well

[wannasmash]

Fair point. He splashed closer and got his footing.

"No, my Quirk! We could be out of here in seconds otherwise."

Midoriya looked around. It was too much to hope that his homeroom teacher was somewhere here. (Though, really, he'd only erase his Quirk with no warning if he was causing trouble.) He was waterlogged, but otherwise unhurt, so he ruled out the possibility of being hit with anything else that could erase his Quirk. The only thing he noticed was something round and dull-colored floating in the water next to his elbow, something that looked suspiciously like a human skull...

His head snapped up when he heard a noise above and saw their light quickly disappearing. It confirmed his worst-case scenario, that someone was sealing victims in here forever, that skull being the remains of one of them.

"STOP!!"

[onekindsoul]

"Quirk?" She had heard that word used once or twice before so she had idea what he meant by that. So she took a second to try activating her aura or her semblance. Neither of those seemed to be working.

"Yeah- My powers aren't working either. That's not great." She takes a second to examine the walls around them but it didn't look like there was just a ladder to climb up either. The brick and stone jutted out enough in different places that it looked like they could climb out-

Those thoughts were quickly swept aside briefly as she heard Midoriya cry out and she looked above.

"Quick! We gotta get up there!" Don't mind her as she starts grabbing at some of the stones to star climbing up. She stops though and offers a hand to pull him up with her.

[wannasmash]

"Just hurry!" His style was more wall jumping, but rock climbing was part of his training too, and would serve better if he was trying to get out of here Quirkless. That heaviness in the air... it had to be some sort of anti-power effect. The stone was slippery, but he was strong. He'd hauled piles of trash off an entire beach, and that was before he started his hero training.

He was a few handholds up when something latched onto his leg.

"A person?! Don't worry, we'll get you out too--"

She snarled and raked nails into his side, drawing blood. He cried out in surprise. Like the ending line of many ghost stories, that wasn't a person.

[onekindsoul]

"I'm going, I'm going!" Ruby's working her way up the wall opposite of him. She wasn't unused to this kind of climbing, being able to scale or fall from tall heights was important in unpredictable monster fights. It was just part of a Huntresses' work back in her world.

She hears him call to the person or thing and starts to suck in a breath right up until Midoriya cries out.

"No- No- Snap!" She turns and sees the creature digging into his side and quickly turns to throw her foot at it in a kick. Trying to lodge it off with one of her combat boots. Unfortunately the creature grabs a hold of her too. It can't get through the thick leather with it's nails but it's definitely got a firm grip.

"We have to push this thing back down!"

[wannasmash]

For the first time, Midoriya saw what everyone meant by monsters and just how close they were to taking out any ordinary citizen. He'd just been strolling along the beach! They were really in a pinch now. His face contorted, but he ignored the pain. (He was good at that.) It was only as deep as long, torn fingernails went.

"Let go of her!" he grunted, aiming a kick with his free leg at the monster's elbow. Her clammy fingers briefly opened.

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz is happily munching on a candied apple when she spots a strange looking guy who looked like he was wearing some kind of green uniform thing. He actually didn't look that much older than her either.

She walked over, interested, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey. Need any help?"

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[wannasmash]

"Yes actually! I'm not from around here, and..."

He faltered when he turned around and saw that it was a girl around his age who had tapped his shoulder. His expression didn't change. Rather, it froze completely, and two bright pink spots appeared on his cheeks.

What he really needed was help being less socially awkward.

However, it helped that he was among the public, and more importantly, wearing his hero costume. Even if it was the only clothes he had at the moment, it technically meant that he was on the beat. If his work-study had taught him anything, it was that once he stepped out in it, he should conduct himself in the manner of a confident, cool hero.

"Would it be too much to hope that there's a Japanese embassy here?" he asked in a quavery voice that was neither confident nor cool.

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[imaglyphwitch]

Oh don't worry Deku! Luz was far from your regular girl, and she found the idea of her being able to make anyone freeze like that pretty funny!

That, and she could pretty much right a book about being socially awkward.

"Oh, yes, because we're actually not even anywhere near Japan! We're in a totally different dimension! That's kinda how I could tell that you're not from around here! Well, that and what you're wearing is different from what regular people wear. But there are a LOT of us that started off where you did!"

She stuck out her hand. "I'm Luz! Luz Noceda, from Connecticut in the United States to be exact! Pleased to meet you!"

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[wannasmash]

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Midoriya Izuku..." He returned her handshake on autopilot, not even sure what to say about being in another dimension. That did not ease his nerves.

"It's not what regular people usually wear, because it's my hero costume. My hero name is Deku."

His face brightened and returned to something like normal when she mentioned where she was from. That was one of the harder state names to pronounce, but he remembered it. Of course he did. He was a huge fan of the hero All Might, whose trademark moves were named after US states. Naturally, he had looked up all of them.

"That's on the eastern coast, right?" he blurted out.

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[imaglyphwitch]

"Midoriya Izuku. That's Japanese, right?" She was fairly certain this was the case by the way of his name, though something about him made her think it too: the costume maybe?

"A hero? Wait, is that something like a job where you're from? You even have your own hero name?"

That was pretty surprising for Luz. Here, well, heroes were just heroes, that was it. Maybe they'd have a cool uniform, likely they just wore what they wore though.

"Yes, it is! It's close to New York, actually. And you just got here, so...I'm guessing you're probably pretty confused right now, huh?"

Re: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia | OTA

[wannasmash]

He nodded multiple times. Yes, yes to everything. What odd questions. Wasn’t she speaking Japanese to him right now? That was how he could understand her perfectly, right?

"But," he mumbled, "You're from the United States... They have lots of heroes there..."

Of course he started with denial, but that was falling apart pretty quickly. He couldn't help it; the worry started to show on his face. How could he feel confident when the discrepancies were staring him in the face? He wasn't just far from home, he was far from his version of Earth entirely. Another dimension, as she said.

"No way... It can't be true... I asked the locals about a few things. They said it, but I didn't believe it..." Both his eyes and mouth widened in disbelief. "I'm really in another world?!"