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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!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Laying low? What for?

[Lance asks before he also goes to poke around the cabinets. When Shiro finds the basket, he grins and goes to take it off of his hands, placing it down on the counter to rifle through it. It's not long before he finds the letter inside the envelope and he blinks.]

Huh, it's warm.

[He gestures absently toward his face. The bandage there. Over the old scar.]

I had an incident in a corn maze.

[Like it's no big deal. And, maybe it isn't, in the face of everything else. He's still standing, after all. Still functional. Grimacing a little as Lance notices the letter.]

Yeah... yeah, it's gross.

[Lance's brows draw together over this incident that Shiro clearly doesn't want to get too deeply into, so he doesn't ask anything more about it right now. Instead, he just turns his attention back to the letter and pulls it out to read it. It takes him a couple minutes to get through all of it and his reactions to each part are clear on his face.]

... You're kidding. We're dreaming? That's not the same as time slippage at all! Or pocket realities, or whatever else Pidge goes on about all the time.

[There's more to the letter that bothers him, but that's the big one. He lets out a breath and drops the letter to the counter so he can reach in and pull out other items mentioned in the letter.]

[Lance's arrival is way too important to go into too many of his own sordid details -- plus he's not sure how to explain it, other than "some kids got a knife because of the corn crazies."]

It could be. It also could be both. Time slips affecting dreams. I do know, though, that sometimes the dreams here are more like nightmares.

[Also important to tell him. To warn him. Just in case it happens sooner than later.]

[Lance's hand finds the town ID in the basket and after looking at it for a moment, realizing what the red is and seeing the picture, he jerks and drops the card like it burned him.]

N-nightmares, huh? No kidding. That thing is straight out of a horror movie! [He points at the offending card laying face-down on the counter, and looks back at Shiro.] So... what? We're just sleeping and our souls are stuck in this place and we can't wake up? That's it?

Yeah. It is. And I hate to say it, but... it's probably going to get worse.

[He really does hate to say it aloud. But, also? It's better Lance hears it now. Instead of finding out down the road.] But we've come through everything so far. As long as we stick together, we can keep doing it.

[Well, you know, if you drop a bombshell you may as well try and clean it up a bit. With some inspirational speech.]

Essentially, yeah. And whoever wrote that note is somehow on our side.

[Lance lets Shiro's attempt at inspiration sink in with a bit of a pensive look on his face, then he sigs and tosses the note back in the basket while picking up the creepy ID card and pocketing it without looking at it again.]

Well, I don't suppose you have any ideas as to why we're stuck in this place? [Technically, it's not the first time he's been transported via his dreams to some strange plane of reality to be messed with by a mystical being. But this is totally different from Bob, and Shiro's been here for months now.] Like... are we being judged or tested or something?

If we are... they're not being too clear on what they want from us. Or who they even are.

[He pushes his hand through his hair. Thoughtful. Pulling through the words he wants to say. How to explain what they've seen without going too deeply into nightmare territory.]

You really can trust the deer, though. And yeah, I know, it sounds more than crazy. Whatever they are... they're connected to the person who sent us this note.

We've done digging. But nothing seems to get any clearer.

[Lance sighs and rifles through the basket one more time to pull out the phone and the keys he read about in the letter. His personal belongings he decides to leave there for now.]

Well, like you said, at least we've got each other. [He glances at the phone face for a moment before pocketing that too and then giving the keys and the attached antler accessory an odd look.] ... but man, this is just a lot to take in. Our souls trapped in a freaky nightmare town and our best allies are deer?

[His shoulders slump and he looks back up at Shiro.] I think I'd like that Oreo now.

Edited 2018-10-04 06:12 (UTC)

Yeah. We do. [There's a brief pause.] And we're going to need a bigger apartment.

[Said like it literally just occurred to him. Which it did. With Krolia coming and going, it had been three people there, usually. Plus Keith's wolf. He shakes it off, looking apologetic.]

I'm sorry. But I didn't want to have you find out the hard way. I know it's a lot to ask you to believe.

[As if in further apology, he sets a hand on Lance's shoulder.] Come on. I'll take you over there -- where the Oreos are.

[Lance grins when Shiro promises to take him to where the Oreos are.] Yes.

[Then he grabs his basket and holds it under one arm while pulling out the map of the town to look it over.] Hey man, if I can accept finding a giant robot cat that psychically communicated with me in a cave and fly it through a wormhole on the edge of the solar system within like an hour and spend a year meeting aliens and doing all kinds of crazy junk, I can get used to whatever's going on here.

[He gives Shiro a lopsided grin and nudges his arm.] Anyway, you said you guys're staying in an apartment?

Edited 2018-10-04 06:54 (UTC)

I wouldn't hold out on you there.

[Wouldn't hold out on his teammates and cookies from earth. That would just be cruel. Some kind of torture.]

Wow, when you put it like that, it sounds like a walk in the park. [He lets his shoulder knock into Lance's, motioning them back out of the house.] But yeah. You can. I know you can.

[Did he mention it's really good to see him? Because it is. It absolutely is.] We are. I woke up there when I first got there and just started bringing the others in.

[Lance nods and follows Shiro out of the house.] Oh yeah, total walk in the park. Things trying to kill us is just every day life, right?

[When they step out the door, he looks around at the neighborhood, and with the new knowledge of the locals from the letter, he's not sure how to act. He huffs a breath, watching a couple people whispering on the corner.] Now I get why you wanted to go inside to talk.

I really wish I could argue against that... I really do.

[But he can't. Because that would be a lie. A huge lie. Things try to kill them on a daily basis, don't they?]

[Once they're outside, he shrugs his shoulders more into the sweatshirt he's wearing. His hands shoved down deep into his pockets. The locals stare enough at his hair as it is -- he's doing his best to hide the arm from their view.]

Yeah -- they're not the most welcoming bunch. To say the least.

No kidding.

[Lance grumbles while side-eyeing the way the locals are being really dodgy as they leave the house and get out onto the sidewalk. Then he rubs at his right arm where the antler tattoo still burns a bit. He'd only seen the edge of it earlier when he first woke up, and had promptly freaked out and ran outside instead of following the music. He looks over at Shiro as he seems to try and hide in his sweatshirt from the prying eyes.]

So is there an unspoken rule about what you can and can't talk about in the open or something?

No, there's not. But... it's less comfortable.

[Way less comfortable. He keeps his right hand as hidden as possible. Just in case. The accusing stares aren't helpful. They smack of other times, other moments when people had paid way too much attention to it.]

We don't know who to trust here, either. Where the locals are concerned.

[Lance glances over at some locals on the other side of the street and up a block, taking in their odd appearance and furtive glances in their direction.]

You'd think we were the ones with weird fashion sense. [He huffs a tad petulantly to ease the tension.]

[Yeah, okay, he's got to laugh a bit at that. Though it's brief. A little hollow.]

Speaking of... This is probably the time I should warn you. If you see Keith in leggings, don't say anything.

[They may or may not still be working on getting the poor guy actual clothes that aren't borrowed.]

[Lance raises his eyebrows at that. Well of all the things he didn't expect to hear, that was certainly high on the list.]

Keith in leggings? The heck? That's worse than the mullet. Why's he wearing leggings? [He pauses and raises another matter.] And why can't I say anything?

[And Shiro... grimaces. Blowing a breath out hard enough to fluff his hair.]

He didn't have a lot of options when he got here... and we haven't had a chance to look for more. [Allura's leggings were just sort of. There. And weren't going to be a dress on him like most of Shiro's clothes.] Because he's going to get embarrassed.

[Lance raises an eyebrow at him.] That's it? Dude, it's practically my job to make fun of him.

[Of course he's gonna poke fun if he gets the chance. If Shiro said something like Keith's trying to hide some sort of terrible new deformity and leggings are the only way to do that, then he'd understand. But when has he ever spared Keith embarrassment? Come on, Shiro, look at who you're talking to.]

I can probably promise not to go too far, but that's my final offer. [He's kidding around, he'd never go so far as to seriously hurt Keith's feelings and if that was the case, he wouldn't do it.]

Just don't go too hard.

[Yes he knows you, Lance. He's just asking for a little less... Lance Brand Poking. It's been a rough time. So when Lance adds that bit about not going too far, he sighs, pushing his hand through his hair.]

Thank you. We've had a rough month or so, since he woke up here.

[Lance frowns a bit, a notch forming between his brows.]

Rough, how?

[He's definitely gotten the sense that something is off since talking to Shiro, and he gets the sense that this town isn't exactly a vacation spot after reading Sodder's letter and all that. But he still has no way of knowing just how bad it can be here.]

[Shiro walks a few paces more before answering him. His eyes on the street in front of them.]

... I don't think either he or Allura have slept. They say they can't. Something comes for them, when they try.

[His jaw works. It's not easy to say it aloud. None of this is. But Lance needs to hear what he's gotten into.]

There was a fog, month or so ago. Showed everyone memories and... possible futures. That was rough.

Jeeze. [Lance breathes out, concern for Keith and Allura clear on his face.] What comes for them? Is it hurting them?

[You know, besides keeping them from getting sleep. Then he hesitates unsure if he should ask more about the fog.] I guess... you saw some pretty bad stuff, huh.