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soddersays2018-09-30 12:01 am
sodder) wrote in soddersays2018-09-30 12:01 am
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October 2018 Test Drive Meme
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!
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.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.)
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.
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Lot of creepy stuff, mostly... And things trying to kill you. The usual, right? [just remembering what's in there is making him rethink the idea of going back in. he figured a warning was the least he could do, though.
merlin looks at the handkerchief for a moment before reaching out to take it. he gives a short nod.] ...Thanks. Though I can't exactly give this back to you after, blood and all.
[luckily it's all mostly dry by now, if somewhat smeared. most of the blood is.. kind of all over his coat sleeve.]
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Don't worry about it. If all I lose in there's a handkerchief, I'll call it a good day. With all these warnings, though, why're you headin' in? Gotta be better reading spots around.
[ He did not, of course, know about the book inside. He did, however, step to the side as an animatronic skeleton hand waved jerkily from behind a fake tombstone. "WoooOOOOOoooo!" it yelped, unhelpfully. ]
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Well I was curious at first. Figured it'd be easy enough to avoid getting killed, but I wasn't expecting-- [he gestures to his nose and the blood.] Side effects of using magic in there, maybe.
[...was that a-- did a hand just? huh. they definitely don't have anything like that back home. merlin has the niggling urge to push that skeleton hand back into the ground. you know. where it belongs. but for now he just watches the animatronic wiggle around, uselessly.]
Anyway, the book. [excited? a little. the only other thing he's good for is studying.] There's a book in the middle of a room. When I opened it to take a look, I was sent back here. If it's magic, it's a pretty powerful one.... and powerful magic usually means it's hiding something.
[....]
...Or it's just a prank. [it is that time of year, apparently.]
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[ Who had two thumbs and watched Firestarter? This guy.
"WwwwooOOOooo..." said the hand, now sounding a bit plaintive. It wasn't scaring anyone today, it seemed. What did some dumb book have that it didn't? Look at these rad articulated fingerbones! ]
Meh. Worth checkin' out, in other words. Alright, let's go. I'm kinda curious about this magic book myself.
[ He stepped past the hand and toward the house. ]
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--Sorry. Did you need that? I'll just... [he apologies to the hand. and lowers the tombstone back in place without batting an eye. look, one of the demon castle's cooks is a walking skeleton. he's not going to judge if someone wants to live in the dirt. (he is not yet aware that it's not, in fact, alive. probably. probably not alive.)
merlin clears his throat and checks his nose for blood again. nothing, except a bit of a headache. he straightens out his clothes and follows after. and probably gives the hand a pat, because that's normal to do, right?] Works for me. I'll watch your back if you want to have a go at anything inside.
[because merlin doesn't want to. have a go at anything.]
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[ And with that, Majima stepped inside. He was immediately accosted by a large rubbery spider, likely set on a motion detector. "Fresh victims?! Fang you for your patronage!"
It was bad. It was real bad.
Cobwebs festooned the inside of the room, and he had to duck his head under the doorframe just to keep from bumping into the rubber creature. ]
I'm guessin' it gets worse the further in ya go?
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merlin follows his lead and ducks under them this time, now that he knows what using magic will do. better to save it for emergencies, as usual.]
There's a door you have to open a ways in. I haven't gone through the other door, so I don't know if it's any worse there... But if you mean the jokes and these toys, then yeah, it does get worse. [like the plastic skeleton popping out of a shoddy coffin, complete with clacking noises that is probably supposed to be laughter. it makes a bad attempt to grab at them, which merlin easily sidesteps.] ..I guess kids would like it.
[he's thinking about one kid in particular, who would absolutely hate it.]
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[ Or maybe they'd just riot when they figured out none of the attractions had any candy. Whoops, spoke way too soon -- the next room was, in fact, a recreation of some kind of Hansel and Gretel candy cottage. A witch's arm, clad in black long sleeves, reached out at odd intervals from a candy cane barred window. Her nails were painted like candy corn.
"Eee hee hee! Come over and visit for a spell!"
Majima looked like he was seriously reconsidering his life choices. ]
...I'll give 'em one thing, at least. This must've taken forever to set up. So, wanna skip straight to the good stuff?
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[merlin hums.] Depends what you consider the good stuff. Personally I find it all very dull and awful. [this is a lie. the dolls were terrifying.] Uh, I don't think there's a shortcut. We just have to... run through all the rooms, I guess. Kid's bedroom, closet door, that's what we're looking for.
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[ He wove his way past a room with a giant styrofoam vampire coffin, made up to look like a bloody cathedral. Props to whoever had designed the thing, who had clearly been thinking big, but whoever was in charge of the execution?
Nah, son. Dollar store-type goblets filled with what was obviously colored syrup. It was actually the child's room that threw him for a loop for how plain it was, how normal. There was even a series of scribble marks on the desk.
What was that about the closet? There supposed to be a monster in there or somethin'? ]
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You know that sign out there that says don't touch anything? [merlin lifts his hand towards the closet door. it rattles something mighty, but doesn't open up, even though just about everything else in the room is rattling too. merlin's holding his nose again and wincing after the shaking dies down.] This is one you have to touch. Which is, well, why I opened it in the first place. Would you like the honors?
((ooc: i don't actually know anything about this house but i figure this is the safest way to go haha....))
:|b
[ It did occur to Majima that this was a terrible idea, but it was one among many, to be quite honest, and if they could learn something by putting a little skin in the game... why the hell not, indeed?
He swung the closet door open (not slid, American closets were so space-inefficient), only to step inside to... a room? With a television inside? It was on, but it cast little light. No program on, only static, and when he turned back to Merlin with a questioning look, there was the sound of water behind him. ]
What --
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[a little too late to back out now. the moment they step through the door, it slams shut on them, which might surprise majima but merlin already went through that (complete with some frantic panicking and throwing things at the door) and is not keen on repeating it.]
Hm. Still here, same as last time. [he looks past majima at the... magic box. he doesn't know what a tv is, it's just a weird box that a very creepy, very dead, very soaked figure is crawling out of. it's unfortunate that he doesn't get the reference but scary is scary and he's not sticking around.] We should, uh. Move fast. Unless you know how to stop.. it. I threw a table at it and it didn't do anything.
[merlin heads towards where he remembers the next door is from the first time he was here. he doesn't know how to fight ghosts and he doesn't want to know how to fight ghosts. if it even is a ghost.]
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[ o shit son, it was a ghost
Merlin's words barely even registered because somehow, despite all the bullshit he'd seen so far, this was the first time Majima had come into contact with a bonafide Japanese long-haired ghost.
...Okay, the second time, but did that even count? His aura of impenetrable obliviousness had protected him!! Ironically, that other time had also involved a VHS tape.
He wasn't a quitter, though! As the woman lurched toward him, sending a splash of water towards them, he drew out his tantō from under his suit jacket. The instant the girl caught sight of the light from its blade, she recoiled a little.
Majima was going to. Continue backing towards where Merlin was, though. Just in case. ]
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[merlin is keeping one eye on the ghost, one on majima, and. well he's only got two eyes so he's just walking backwards blindly and hoping he's heading in the right direction.]
Does it work on ghosts? [he does notice majima looks a little distracted, which is valid, because that is a real ghost right there. merlin saw the castle janitor ghost-demon swallow a man whole once though so this is pretty tame in comparison. he'll repeat the question if majima doesn't catch it the first time.]
I apologize for everything
[ With a frenzied cry, the ghost surged forward towards him. What followed was a horrible comedy of errors: Majima jerked to the side, jarring the table next to him; the ghost somehow barked her shin on the table and fell over, directly onto the extended blade of his weapon.
And then she began pinwheeling her arms backwards, screeching in lively fashion as she pulled herself off the blade and backward into the now ankle-deep water (which smelled a little like seawater? hmm).
THIS WAS NOT AS PLANNED. ]
I guess it does? Look, lady, I'm real sorry for the misunderstandin'!
[ look
it was rude to stab people and he supposed
that was what he'd done, so ]
it's hilarious and great so it's Probably Okay
[merlin twists out of the way with a yelp to avoid all three of those things. only when the ghost actually gets stabbed and backs off almost comically does his heartbeat stop trying to skyrocket.]
I guess it does! [anyway he approves of the apology. that's some gentlemanly behavior there.] Ma'am I understand if you don't want us in here. Again. Or me in here again, you might want him all to yourself-- We'll leave right away. If you do that again we will have to respond in kind!
[with, y'know. majima's sword, since it apparently works. merlin is not very big on about hurting things that don't need to be hurt (which is very little honestly but even then), but he is also not very big on getting mauled or eaten by a ghost.
he tries to grab majima's arm, or shoulder-- or whatever he can grab, it's really dark, he hopes that's an arm --in order to help lead him towards the door that he still can't see (why is it so dark, how did he even manage to find the door the first time around).]
I super hope you app, ngl
or ghost stabbings
actually, Majima was just kind of done with ghosts in general, so when Merlin grabbed his elbow, he was more than willing to be led away from the ghost in question. The light of his blade did offer some small amount of illumination, though of course Majima himself was still pretty much 95% focused on the ghost.
Who looked to be climbing back into the television, now that her prey had turned out to be not quite as easy as she'd expected. Little streams of water sloshed into the room from the bottom of the TV as she hiked one leg up over the end of the monitor, gosh it why was it always harder getting back in. ]
Again, real sorry! ...uh, you find that exit yet?
i'm definitely considering.. pickings are sparse....
(it was not fun.)
well! that was easy. why didn't he try stabbing her the last time. why did he give himself a massive headache trying to force her back into the tv. (he doesn't have a weapon, is why. merlin doesn't believe in weapons.)]
It would help if I could see where I was going...... [still, since the ghost doesn't look interested in them anymore, and he trusts majima to be a good ghost-lookout now, merlin focuses more on finding that door instead of making sure they don't get.. whatever'd by the ghost. if it's even a ghost. maybe it's just a demon in a box.
merlin lifts his free hand to aim a wave of magic in front of him, making things rattle and shake in place blindly until he finds something that sounds like a locked door.]
Found it. [aaand let's go that way! ow. a chair.] Where did all this stuff come from, I thought I wrecked the place last time.
yeah they've been a bit slim lately
[ With the ghost on the retreat, Majima was free to help search for the door. He swept into a small pile of VHS tapes, recordings with titles like "An Anteater Killed My Husband!" But there was no time now to be worried about how he'd deprived the art world of priceless undiscovered treasures. ]
Let's blow this popsicle stand.
[ He grabbed at the doorknob and turned; the door opened inward with a horrific squeal of hinges. Someone needed to oil that thing. And...
Candles. Faintly-burning candles, set between hundreds and hundreds of porcelein dolls. Majima would take this over ghosts, however. ]
i Was going to wait until next month but then i decided No, so rip me speedwriting this app
it's very unfortunate that merlin doesn't recognize good ol' antiques when he sees one or he might have tried to save them. the world will have to do without bootlegged copies of 'The Bling'.]
Uh, sure. [he 100% did not understand those words in that order, but that's fine, the sentiment is obvious. and oh look! merlin's favorite room! second favorite. okay, maybe third.] Your turn. They're easy to kill if we have to. Er, break. Or don't, if that's not your thing... you did apologize for stabbing a ghost....
[merlin does not say this with mockery, but understanding. they don't have to break things if there's another way. sure, the dolls might be watching creepily as he leads the two of them through the maze of shelves, and they might eventually start ankle biting with knives, and, yes, they might even start getting a little stab-happy... but............. alright maybe he just thinks its creepy when they scream and bleed.]
\o/!!!
[ Yes, absolutely. That was the main point of focus here. Definitely not that utter disaster they'd just managed to pry themselves away from. God willing, these dolls wouldn't be animated by the souls of unfortunate children because he was just about done with all of this.
Which perhaps he should have announced out loud, as a particularly feisty one leapt out from amongst its fellows and swiped at him with a knife, screeching a high-pitched war cry. Majima caught it with the silver-tipped toe of his right boot. ]
Run and get the door open while I distract 'em, how's that sound?
[ Even he thought taking on hundreds of tiny stabby dolls was a terrible idea, but he'd do it for you, Merlin! All for you! ]
i made it in time.. i really did that. /brain fizzles out
[see: another doll following close on the heels of that first one, diving down from a shelf. merlin doesn't need to point but it looks kind of cool, which is why he even bothers lifting his hand to casually swat the thing aside without actually touching it. it sails into another doll with a eerily petulant wail. if it cracks and starts screaming, it's not his fault! they're really fragile and he has no time to be that gentle! they have! knives!!]
Maybe I broke several of them by accident. [ahem.] Sounds good. We just have to... find the door first...... again. [it is still down that way, isn't it? why are we always playing find the door. why can't we just play open the door? open the door is fun and easy.]
..Well. Let's hope it hasn't gone anywhere. [merlin's tall but not particularly fast when his life isn't on the line (which it has been too much lately. sppoky dolls with knives are pretty relaxing and easy to avoid.), but he still checks to make sure majima isn't too far behind as he moves forward.
ur such a good guy, majima. god speed. great sacrifices must be made for knowledge. merlin will float your corpse out if you die and try to cry about it at least a little bit.]
applause!!
It emitted an almost comically wail as it sailed through the air, waving its non-broken arm in the manner of an old man strongly urging kids to get off his lawn. Majima was following Merlin, but not too close, which was why as a doll came swinging at Merlin, suspended from a chandelier and yodeling like Tarzan, he had to shout a warning. ]
Hey, head's up!
i'm in....... /vibrates into the game
What? [he looks up. oh. Oh That. y'know, idly, he wonders if he could get them to shut up by.. breaking their throats. or their. voice box. whatever's making those weird noises. which seems a little drastic even to him, but it's not like he can try asking them to shush? they don't look very obedient. they actually look- oh shit he should dodge that before he dies or something.
merlin throws himself to the side like a proper panicking human and nearly goes headlong into a set of shelves. luckily there are no dolls on it... because they've all jumped over his head to run at majima instead. isn't that nice of them. this... is not gonna be fun.
he takes a deep breath and lifts his hand again. this place does weird things to his magic, so only some random number of dolls freeze in place, and even in mid-air if they haven't landed. he was gunning for all of them, but beggars can't be choosers. hopefully this helps majima a bit. it better help. his nose is bleeding again you better not die majima.]
you did it!!
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