October 2018 Test Drive Meme

[sodder]

OCTOBER 2018 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to October’s Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: HALLOWEEN HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Wet and rotting corpses/zombies, ghosts, violence, blood, knives, possessed dolls, options for underage drinking

Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

IT’S JUST A BUNCH OF HOCUS POCUS

It’s not Halloween if you don’t make a trip to a cheesy haunted house. At least, that’s what everyone in Deerington likes to say. The old Victorian stands at the top of a hill, rickety and in desperate need of a new paint job. The yard and porch have been decorated with what you’d expect for your typical haunted house; fake spider webs spread across the overhang, painted foam grave markers with cheesy names like “Here lies Richard Cranium” and “BEWARE!!” in creepy letter etchings. You can see the blinking of variously timed strobe lights in some windows and the shadow of what you’re pretty sure is a full-sized doll standing in the window, meant to look like someone staring out at you. The rocking chair on the porch near the door has a skeleton with a bowl of candy in his lap, and a sign is propped up against the wall next to him.

“ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. TOUCH NOTHING AND NOTHING WILL TOUCH YOU!”

Well that sounds promising.

The first few rooms you enter are appropriately cheesy. There’s the silly burst of air that you hear just before a plastic figuring pops out of a poorly constructed coffin, the clicking sound of the machinery inside echoing in the room when it starts to pull back and the lid closes once again. There’s fog machines trying to give the appropriately spooky air, stuffed sheets shaped to look like dead bodies wrapped up laying in piles on the floor with fake blood staining the white fabric, black lighting to show off words scribbled on doors like “TURN BACK NOW” and “SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.” Nothing you haven’t seen before. It might be even worse than things you’ve seen before, over the top cheesy, boring enough to give a yawn. Each door seems to open on its own so you don’t even have to touch the handles.

As you make your way through the next automatic door, the room you walk into is different than those before it. It’s a regular children’s room. A bed against the wall near the window, a dresser in the corner, a small desk with a chair. Nothing out of the ordinary, save for the lights not being on, and the strange flickering light in the closet. You step towards it, figuring you’re in for another jump scare, but the door doesn’t open. Whether you’re naturally the curious sort or not, something in the back of your mind makes you want to open the door and see what’s on the inside.

If you fight it and walk towards the next automatic door, you’ll find you’ve walked out to the backyard of the house, those same foam decorations and a dozen or more jack o’ lanterns lighting your way on a path back to the town.

If you choose to pull the door open, however, it’ll take you into yet another room, with a flickering television playing nothing but static. Once you step past the doors of the closet, they slam shut behind you and whoever else dared to enter. The doors won’t lock no matter what you do, no matter how strong the person shaking the handles or pushing against the wood may be. You realize you broke the one rule; you’ve touched something. But can things now really touch you?

The only light source in the whole room is that television and it’s not lighting up much inside the room around it. If you squint when the TV is at its brightest setting, you can just make out another door. Your exit, you hope. But as you make your way towards the door, the flickering suddenly stops, the TV steadily bright, a low humming noise coming from the screen, and suddenly the door seems several more feet away from you than it was a second ago. Before you can reach the door, there’s the sound of trickling water from behind you. If you choose to look back, you’ll see something coming out from the screen - a girl with soaked clothing and pale, rotted skin. She emerges fully from the glass and starts to move towards you. You know it’s best to start running for that door. If you stay and try to fight, you’ll find that no regular weapons work on her, though special weapons and powers that are effective against spirits will definitely do the trick. For those who don’t have any of these at their disposal, however, there is one more hope besides just trying to run; two old school VHS tape sit on the table near by, a fancy machine between them that is meant to copy one to the other. Work as a team and have one distract her while the other records, and you’ll find that she disappears as quickly as she flickered on the screen and the TV will return to static.

Regardless of what you choose before carrying on, the next room you come to as the door slams and locks behind you is entirely different. Brightly lit and filled with what seems like hundreds of porcelain dolls, it’s almost hard to tell where there could possibly be another exit hidden among the massive shelves. You can start to wind your way through them, but before long, you start to hear the sound of running feet, the jingling of bells, the swish of satin, and most eerily the sounds of children giggling - but there’s nothing that sounds save about them. Some of the dolls you saw on the last shelf seem like they’ve moved and are sitting in the corner or laying in a new position on a new shelf. Sometimes you swear you can see their heads turn to watch you pass, but it has to be a trick of the light, doesn’t it?

That is until one of those dolls runs by you, brandishing something shiny in their hands - something sharp. A knife, you realize too late, as it tries to slice at your legs and knock you down. You can kick them away and they’ll go flying, and when the porcelain smashes, the doll will scream in agony. You notice there’s blood pouring from the hole that formed, spreading quickly across the ground. The dolls are easy to kill, but are they really just dolls? You can take your time to contemplate that later, as now you have to fight your way through the violent and armed toys to reach the door at the end of the maze of shelves. Hopefully you can get out without too many severe injuries.

When (or if) you do manage to get to the next room, you seem to have a chance to take a breath and tend to any wounds. It’s decorated like the room of a small cottage, a large pot over the fireplace that isn’t lit, and several jars full of (possibly rotting) food and herbs on the shelves. You see a book on the stand in the center, latched shut and covered in dust. You can open it, if you want, but remember the warning you ignored that got you in trouble in the first place. It’s probably better to carry on to the next room.

If you do choose to open the book, though, there will be eerily glowing text lining the pages, the light will seem to poor out and fill the room, and you’ll be transported back out in front of the house.

Those who continued through the door will find themselves out in the backyard. Just like for those who got out sooner, there are dozens of jack o lanterns, but the graves don’t look like they’re made of foam this time. They’re real stone, engraved with real names and real dates this time. And the ground underneath them seems to be moving, like someone’s trying to crawl out of there. Better not to wait around. Soon as you start to move down the path, you’ll start to hear the sounds of groans as the undead start to crawl from their own graves, pulling themselves up through the dirt, and determined to get to the only food source they see - you. The zombies seem like they’re never ending, coming from every inch of the yard, but at least they’re just like normal zombies - completely incapable of being killed unless you cut off the head. There are shovels lying next to a few graves if you need a quick weapon, but there’s also still always the option to run as fast as you can up the stone path to the front of the house and back towards the street.

When you do finally manage to get back to the front, there’s a momentary blinding flash of light, disorienting anyone near it for a few seconds. When it finally fades, any leftover zombies chasing you have disappeared and the house looks like the same, cheesy haunted house you walked up to in the first place. If for some reason you decide to go and explore the backyard again, the grass will be back to normal, and the graves will all be replaced by cheaply painted foam once more.

Was that all in your head? Who knows. But maybe it’s best to just get out of here.

WE DID THE MASH

Somehow the street lamps have all been converted to oil based flames, the Authority are in witch hats, and every where you go there is music that seems to be playing from faintly glowing bats hanging upside down from telephone wires. The bats will open their mouths in succession, seeming somehow capable of producing the sounds of instruments and singers alike of popular Halloween songs.

Yards are decorated as thoroughly as the front of stores. Maybe you haven't bothered to decorate, but your neighbor sure has! Fake gravestones are propped up in yards, giant fake spiders in trees, and no matter where you walk, the ground seems covered in thick, rolling fog from machines. Or at least you hope it's coming from machines. Hell, you can't even find it in yourself to be too worried! Everyone around you is having way too good of a time! And God, there is food everywhere! Might as well grab a bite while you're out, huh?

It's tempting to break loose and dance. Jack-O-Lanterns absolutely crowd the streets. There's more than you can even begin to count, and all of them are lit all throughout the night. Even if you accidentally trip over some, they don't seem to catch fire to anything or go out! Some neighbors have camp fires set up with marshmallows to roast, while others have...are those broomsticks? Well that's kinda cool, you guess. Correction: it's really cool since you can actually pick one up and take it for a fly! Make sure to attach a little lamp to the front though because God knows it's dangerous flying at night. The brooms only work if you wear the appropriately provided hats, of course, but you can keep both the broom and hat indefinitely and have a readily available means of flight in Deerington after! Be forewarned though: the brooms are as easily broken as regular brooms and the hats easily blown away in the wind.

TRICK OR TREATS

At any of the events, especially the nighttime partying, you can find any number of the following treats (and their potential side effects):

Donuts (Will make you deliriously happy. Everything is amazing to you. May cause a lot of affection. A lot of affection.)
Candy Apples (You will eagerly tell someone everything you like about them. Talk about a sweet tooth.)
Candy Corn (Will make you extremely sad. Like god, you'll be wondering why you hate yourself so much.)
Pumpkin Spice Lattes (Causes suspicious amounts of obedience and a desire to do what you're told.)
Hot Chocolate (Can provide some minor healing. Best stuff to drink with a common cold!)
Hot or Cold Apple Cider (Nothing will happen. It's just really good.)
Alcoholic Cider (This isn't your grandma's apple cider. This stuff will knock you on your ass. Anyone who drinks this will get wasted regardless of whether or not they are immune to alcohol or even ingest regular food. It only takes one or two before you start to get tipsy, but any more than that and you'll be well on your way to drunk. Please drink responsibly. We don't need any FUIs.)

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

Comments

clara oswald || doctor who

[oddbod]

[ 1 ]

[Okay, so. The zombies are a bit... unexpected? Unwelcome, at the very least. Just when Clara had begun to think that the prickle at the back of her neck was pure paranoia, that she was imagining how off this whole place seemed...]

Look, I'm sure we can sort this out. [She swallows down panic. Think, think.] Corpse to corpse, alright?

[How are you going to win?]

That's a very nice dress you were buried in, there. [Throw the flashlight and run for her life? Escape back into the house and hide?] What is it, 1920s? Love the 1920s, myself.

[She takes another step back, away from the encroaching posse of disgustingly undead visitors, and finally her eyes land on it. There. It's going to have to be enough. Slowly and carefully, she reaches back to grab the rusty shovel from against the wall - and then, she makes a swing towards Miss Maine 1920, lopping the poor girl's head right off of her sinewy neck with a disgusting rip.

Feel free to give her a hand. As much bravado as she has, she's still horribly outmatched.]

[ 2 ]

[At the very edge of the festivities, barely in earshot of the tinny seasonal music, a flashlight beam bounces through the thick fog. Oddly enough, getting chased by the undead hasn't exactly put her in a partying mood, so instead she's having a closer look around, just in case something else is lurking.

The fog doesn't make sense. It all seems like it's blowing from somewhere, billowing around her ankles even at the darker end of the street, but she hasn't seen a single fog machine.]

Is this all coming off the lake?

[She knows she saw signs for one, riding around earlier in the day. In any case, the question is far more rhetorical than anything. Whoever you are, she knows you aren't likely to know much more than she does.]

Oh- [Something in her hair catches her attention, and she quickly flicks a bit of residual zombie out of sight. Embarrassing.] Sorry. Rough night.

2

[morethan084]

[Meanwhile, Skye has been having a great time by herself. Which may or may not be thanks to the alcoholic cider and the chocolate glazed donut she's currently eating. She hears someone asking a question, and while she's not sure if it's directed at her, Skye turns anyway to see who it is.]

What is that?

[She saw something wet and slimy hit the ground, but it was hard to make out.]

[oddbod]

[The something in question lands all too close, and Clara tries to nudge it further away with the toe of her shoe.]

A bit of neck tendon, I think.

[Which... isn't a real explanation, she knows. Hold on while she gets it off her sneaker, just a sec.]

I sort of ran into some zombies a little while ago.

[morethan084]

[While she would've normally been horrified by that, Skye can't help but laugh right now.]

Oh my God. Apparently, they don't know personal space.

[Don't worry, Clara, Skye is amused for the both of you.]

Here. I think you need this.

[Skye holds out her half-empty cider, which happens to be her third helping of.]

[oddbod]

[Clara smiles, glad that this girl doesn't seem too outraged at standing a few feet away from a potential biohazard. She takes the cider a bit gingerly, like it may bite.]

This what's got everyone so sloshed tonight?

[It's been like chaperoning a school dance, she swears.]

[morethan084]

[And as if finally hearing her for the first time, Skye's eyes light up.]

Are you from England?! I know someone from there, but she's not here.

[Watching her sip at the drink, Skye finishes off what's left of her donut before looking around. Trying to remember where she had gotten the cider from, but then her attention is back on the woman.]

Do you like it? Because they have so much of it back over there somewhere.

[oddbod]

Yeah. Blackpool.

[Honestly she's just relieved right now that Skye didn't try to ask if she knows the person. As for the cider...]

It's good. [Passable? She's not sure how to judge cider. In the name of politeness, she takes another couple of sips.] I'm more of a wine girl.

[morethan084]

I have no idea where that is, but it sounds cool!

[Watching her take a few more sips from the cider, Skye feels pleased with herself that she might've helped at least take her mind off the zombies that had been attacking her.]

I don't think they have wine here.

[But that didn't matter, right? Cider was good too. With absolutely no hesitation, Skye reaches down to grab for her hand.]

Come on, they have other stuff too.

1

[provostsdog]

[A knife flashes through the air and buries itself in the eye of one of the zombies. Which... doesn't really slow it down much.]

Swiving cankerbums! [The speaker steps into view, a youngish woman, holding a throwing knife in one hand and a serious looking baton in the other.

Watch on your right! [A zombie tries to rush her and she ducks to swing her baton into its legs. As the creature goes down she slams the hilt of her baton into the back of its skull, which crumples with a sickening crunch]

Mithros, what are this cursed things?

[oddbod]

Zombies.

[That's the short answer, at least, the long one being more along the lines of, I'm not sure but I'm not about to try to ask them. She sidesteps the second corpse as it goes down beneath the newcomer's baton, and gives an impressed hum.]

Just keep going for the heads.

[Wait, what the hell is a cankerbum?]

[provostsdog]

What's a zombie?

[Then she shakes her head] Ne're mind, it's not important right now. Knees and groins usually more useful places to hit a cove. Might need t'keep a couple alive to figure out who sent 'em.

[A pause as she cracks the skull of another one, almost thoughtfully]

Or are these some sorta mage work?

[oddbod]

It's sort of a- [Whoops, there comes another one from the side. Clara nearly loses her balance whirling her shovel around towards it. Don't fight zombies in heels, kids.] It's a dead person.

[Which seems like about the dumbest thing to say right now, when they're being swarmed by these supposed "dead people", but this isn't really a great time for a more illustrative description.]

And they're usually not talkers.

[She's no expert, but she's seen a few zombie films.]

[provostsdog]

[Right. Must be mage work]

What sorta cracknob mage'd waste power raising this many dead folk?

[She reaches out to steady her fellow fighter, but she has to take a swing at another of the creatures. A glance takes in the other woman's impractical footwear.]

Might wanna kick them shoes off at least till we drive these mumpers off. Better muddy toes than a broken ankle. There's too many of these things for me to handle alone.

2!

[exorcizamuste]

I don't think the weather is right for it all to be from the lake.

[ She actually receives an answer to the rhetorical question regardless, as it appears Sam is also not in the partying mood. He does, however, seem to be in the mood to appreciate another person continuing to investigate despite the festivities; he's holding a flashlight of his own, after all. ]

But who knows if weather works the same here, anyway. Wouldn't be the first weird thing. [ He shrugs, but any further musings on the weather are put aside as he follows the path of zombie guts she flicks away with a raised eyebrow. ]

Let me guess: rough night is putting it lightly?

[oddbod]

I don't think so, either.

[Clara's from a very foggy place, and she knows how very foggy places work. Besides, isn't the lake to the east? Why is all this fog coming from the-

Christ. She looks up at Sam, and then up some more. A foot above her own head, even with her heeled sneakers. Wasn't quite expecting that.]

That depends on how much you like zombie hordes. Personally, I'd give them a three out of ten.

[exorcizamuste]

Three out of ten? That low? [ He gives a wry smile. ] I'd say at least a five. They don't take that much thought to take care of.

[ But the zombie horde situation does sound familiar. At least, he's pretty sure that she's being serious considering that the evidence had been in her hair. Yikes. Been there. ] Zombies- at that haunted house? What about all the other weird stuff in there, what did you see?

[oddbod]

Yeah, but they smell.

[A little gesture towards the distasteful bit in the grass. Out of all the creatures she's faced, she vastly prefers the ones that don't come with any mess. The ghosts in the underwater base, for one. Those were very much not smelly.]

And I didn't quite make it inside. The zombies were camped out in the yard.

[exorcizamuste]

You've got me there. [ A lot of monsters smell, true, but the scent of straight-from-the-grave zombie is still fresh in his own nose, which wrinkles at the memory. At her explanation he nods slowly. ]

I didn't notice anything weird in the yard at first- it wasn't until I went inside that weird stuff started happening. Didn't catch the zombies until my way out. Actually, it's weird... [ He looks thoughtful. ] I don't think there were any signs of a previous struggle when I was back there, but you're not the first other person whose mentioned them.

[oddbod]

[She doesn't look surprised by this, but she does look intrigued.]

They disappeared, after we lopped all their heads off. There was a sort of flash, and then... [Poof. All except for the bit in her hair.] Must be some kind of teleporter.

1

[lednikovyy]

[ Bucky catches sight of the scene from up the road and he comes running as fast as he can. By the time he gets there, she's already managed to take a zombie's head off and color Bucky impressed, but he's not going to leave her to fight them alone.

One of them starts to come at her from the side and Bucky fires a quick shot from his Beretta, hitting it square between the eyes. It slows the zombie down and seems to scramble it for a moment, but doesn't take it out completely. ]

What he hell?

[oddbod]

[The shot startles Clara, but she only misses a beat as she looks back at the newcomer.]

Thanks.

[And then the shovel is swinging back towards the incapacitated zombie, whacking it right where the new bullet hole sits ragged and unbleeding. The poor chap's corpsey head tumbles backwards, his body staggering another foot before crumpling. Okay, so that's two down, and about... five to go?]

[lednikovyy]

Don't mention it.

[ Okay so the gun's not super effective, but there's a rusty old rake with his name on it leaning against the side of the house and he'll just help himself to that. ]

Just stay alert.

[ He swings the rake at another of the zombies, this one looks like a dead ringer for this kid Bucky went to school with, right down to the brown wool pants and suspenders, but Bucky doesn't have a problem knocking its rotting head clean off. Four left. ]

[oddbod]

I wasn't planning on it.

[There's always time for sassy retorts to men, even when you're fighting a zombie horde.

Oh, and by the way - three left.]

Ugh. [The head lands at Clara's feet, rolling up onto her shoes, and she kicks it away like a football... right towards the next contender, an old woman in a high-collared dress. The woman trips over it, and falls towards Bucky.] Watch your feet!

[lednikovyy]

[ He shuffles back and brings the back end of the rake down onto its skull, crushing it like a bath bomb.
Some of the brain matter splashes onto his boots. Two to go. ]

Seriously? These are my only nice shoes.

[ They're heavily worn combat boots, which he proceeds to kick the next zombie with as it tries to sneak up on him. This zombie, wearing a priest's cassock, trips over its own long garment and tumbles to the ground between Bucky and Clara, groaning and gurgling as it tries to get to it feet.. ]

[oddbod]

Now they've got character!

[Re: the boots. You're welcome, Bucky.

Oh, and lovely, the priest couldn't have fallen in a more convenient place. Clara plants her shovel right down into his brain stem, swallowing back a horrified grimace.]

Last one?

[She motions over Bucky's shoulder, where the final contender is shambling upon them.]