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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.

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[Cable frowns. It's not something he likes to talk about, even with people he knows and trusts. But this is a weird situation and honestly he might just wake up in the morning from this dream.]

Apocalypse started a war, and unfortunately, we lost.

[He stops, looks, starts up the stairs to the porch.]

This is the house I woke up in.

[Good thing, too. He has about half a shirt, metal peeking at the bottom edge.]

[ There's a very long, very pregnant silence as he thinks about war and loss. But whereas that had been filled with a kind of mourning, sorrowful and heartbreaking, the sight of Cable's home turns that silence into something more disbelieving.

Very quietly, he mutters, ] Wade's house.

[ He wants to talk more about the war, but he doesn't want to overstep. More important than that, however, is the way Cable is disintegrating, so he shuffles forward and opens the door for him, giving a good sniff as he does.

Wade must not be home. ]

We'll talk more after you eat.

[Cable goes right inside, the door unlocked. Basket found, he opens the jar and finds blackberries, ripe and juicy. Having no idea what they are, he shrugs and eats the handful. They're goddamn delicious. His shirt, and the skin underneath, stop dissolving. A red bead forms where the skin was, and the shirt is destroyed. He doesn't seem to mind.]

[He offers the jar to Logan.]

These are fucking fantastic. You should have some.

[ Cable eats like a kid.

It's a little jarring (no pun intended), but Logan watches it happen with surprised eyes that get even wider when the jar is held out to him.

God, he's never going to be able to say no to fruit, though.

So he gets a handful of his own, eating it, and though the pleasure on his face isn't obvious, the hair on his skin stands and his eyes soften just a little in simple, childish pleasure.

Maybe Logan eats like a kid, too. ]

I got strawberry jam in mine. [ He sucks his fingers clean. ]

[Cable licks his, not wasting even the tiniest drop.]

Sounds delicious. [He wonders if Logan used his fingers to eat the jam, and smiles a little.]

[The basket is filled with all sorts of things, one being a teddy bear, and another a box of ammunition. A rifle with delusions of grandeur leans up against the table. Nothing is as important as the bear. He picks it up as if it's made of glass and presses his nose against it, inhaling.]

It's like Christmas, sort of.

Edited (word change) 2018-10-12 00:10 (UTC)

[ He feels like he should ask about the bear, but doesn't. There's a shift in Cable's scent that speaks of comfort and happiness. That's really all there is to it. ]

Yeah. I'm glad you found 'em. [ He means it, too. Sparing a glance at the rifle, he remembers Cable came from war, and while Deerington's no vacation, it's certainly better than whatever hell he must've lived in. ] That Basket can give you... things. Least that's what I'm told. [ He shrugs. ] You just need to offer something in return.

I'm guessing that stuff's from [ he weighs the word in his mouth a moment ] home.

Offer it things. Like what, food?

[Food is important! If Cable went to someone's house to get an offering, that's what he'd want.]

[He sets the bear on a nearby shelf, making sure it's sitting up. It's riding-on-his-hip days are done.]

Yeah, home. I miss my people, but they're safe.

[His fingers brush the circular device, but he leaves it in the basket. No use doing anything with the timeslider right now, since it's out of charges. He'll try to fix it later.]

Do you have [he's unsure what to call them, but hesitates on the 'f' word] people at home?

Edited (and spelling) 2018-10-14 22:31 (UTC)

Yeah, I do. [ No hesitation, no uncertainty. Logan even smiles a bit. ] Least I hope I do. I don't, uh. I don't know how the world is right now.

But I got pictures.

[ Granted, they aren't his-- not in any orthodox ways, anyway, since they belong to some alternate timeline's version of him-- but they're in his wallet now, which sits now in his pocket, and that ought to count for something. ]

It's things like those that keep you going.

Yeah, I understand. This [he picks up the bear again] is my daughter's. It smells like home. If I fix my timesliding device, I might even see them again.

Now. [Cable puts the bear aside and starts removing the empty holsters and straps and whatnot leaving only his t-shirt, cargos and boots.] What were we talking about before we came in?

[ It's such an innocent, harmless question, and so indicative of Cable's sentimentality that Logan finds it hard not to crack a smile, even if the tilt to his lips is small.

He nods. Having been in this house before, he sits on one of the counters in the kitchen, finding an empty space among all the tupperwares of cookies Wade's laid out. ]

This world. I figured out three important things.

One, [ he holds his index finger up ] you're in a dream, but you can die.

Two, [ the middle joins it ] when you die, you come back.

Three, [ his index falls, leaving his middle, ring, and pinky finger raised ] there're monsters and horror novel things that're real, but a lot of unreal shit is going to happen, too. Words in your head. Images. The worst part about this place ain't so much the monsters as much as it is the mental strain.

I had a kid break through my psychic defences just by looking at me, made me go berserk for the first time since I was a teenager. Walked into a corn field and it made me want to kill everyone I saw.

You have to keep your guard up, always.

Edited 2018-10-16 03:45 (UTC)

[Cable raises an eyebrow at the tupperware containers, but says nothing until Logan is finished speaking. He takes a look in the fridge, because he's thirsty, and comes up with two cheap bottled beers.]

So, we're trapped dreaming Lovecraftian horrors and we can't even escape by dying?

[He hands one of the beers to Logan (if he wants one) and pops the top on his own with his metal hand.]

Not that I had that in mind. [He takes a drink, winces at the taste.] Who runs this hellhole? Someone has to be behind it.

[ The bottle has him shaking his head, hand lifted in a simple 'I'll pass'. It might be the first time Logan's ever refused a beer in his life, but he's had one already in this place and he's not interested in getting tipsy again (it scares him more than he's willing to admit). ]

I don't know. [ It's an honest answer, a mix of frustration and resignation. ] All I know is that there's this... person, being, or entity named Sodder tryin' to help us out. And I don't know if someone's running this show or if it's just fucked up because that's what the world's meant to be.

Haven't had a chance to explore everything just yet. [ His lips press into a thin line. ] Believe it or not, downtime like this is rare.

[Cable shrugs and sets the beer aside. He has yet to be scared of anything here.]

I remember... in my dream, before I woke up here, there was a voice. It said we may be able to help, but it didn't elaborate. [He takes a drink.] Nice of 'em to ask first.

[He can tell Logan's not happy with it either, and that worries him more than what he's been told. Nothing is as teaching as experience, and what the X-man has experienced would be worth more than any book or story.]

[No breathing room?] Sounds like war.

No. [ He shakes his head. ] It's not war.

[ War is-- worse. Endlessly worse than this. This is just a minor inconvenience compared to everything that happens when people fight people for power and intolerance.

Logan might be dense about a lot of things, but he at least knows when the W-word is most appropriate, and it's not quite there for Deerington yet. ]

It's more like a fun house, but if you don't pay attention you get hurt. [ His expression sours. ] Or you get your head fucked with and you hurt someone else.

Easy to pretend you got a peaceful routine here, but the day you let your guard down... [ He trails off, then changes the subject. ] I ain't saying you gotta be ready for atom bombs, but stay alert.

We got more innocents here than this place needs.

Mm. Not war, then. Found a positive.

[For Cable, war might end up being easier. Mind games were never his thing. Leave that to the higher level telepaths.]

I don't know what to do with peaceful. I can't do small talk. But I can stay on my toes, get this place set up with more than a cheap lock on the door.

Um. Who lives here, anyway?

[ That... sure is the question, isn't it. ]

His name's Wade Wilson. Friend of mine. [ Sort of. Logan rubs at his jaw. ] ...don't stare at his scars. It gets to him more than he says.

And I live next door, number 2008.

[Cable's reaction is instant.]

Deadpool? I get sucked into a dream world and Deadpool is here?

[He's more mystified than anything.]

There has to be something... look, he and I were together, earlier today. Does this kind of thing happen, people getting taken in twos or even threes?

[ The way Logan's brows rise to his hair as Cable calls him Deadpool is almost comical. ]

You know Wade. [ They were "together earlier today"? From the same reality, or was it another Wilson?

He shakes his head at the question, however. ] I don't know. I came alone.

But. [ He has to ask. ] Wade one of your people, too?

[Cable jerks his chin up, sets his jaw. If asked the same question two days ago, the answer would have been different.]

Yeah, he's one of my people.

[He runs a hand through his black and grey hair.]

This has been a hell of a day.

I bet. [ He wants to ask about Wade-- wants to ask how, and why, and is Wade from the war-torn, En Sabah Nur world that Cable hails from?

But he holds back. That can probably wait for another time. ]

Look, you should get settled in. [ Logan hops off the counter, landing with a surprising lightness of his step. ] You ain't leaving any time soon, so.

Like I said, I live next door. 2008. You can find me there. [ Then, like an afterthought: ] ...or on Network. Uh. Name on there's Wolverine. [ Obviously. ]

You gonna be okay on your own? I'm sure Wade'll be home soon.

Yeah, I'll be all right. I'm gonna get some sleep. Hopefully it stays safe enough to do that.

[Cable smiles, or as much of a smile most people get. At least it's genuine.]

Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

[He holds his hand out.]

[ Logan takes that hand, giving it a shake. It doesn't take a genius to be able to tell Cable's not the smiling type, and remembering this man looks up to him-- to some history book version of him, at least-- makes Logan feel an embarrassing warmth he used to get whenever his students jokingly called him "mum". ] Any time.

Sweet dreams, Cable.

[ With that, he leaves the house. One of these days, he's really got to get Cable and Deadpool in the same room, and he marks that idea down for later. ]

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