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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.
no subject
Deadpool -- your knight in shining armour. [ Wade's pretty sure he'd have a bad time if he kept drinking that stuff, or if he was left to his own devices half drunk in murder town. ] Here to deliver you safely to Denny's and slay anything that gets in our way between here and there.
[ Can Wade be serious? It's a mystery, but he's certainly not being right now. He doesn't even have his weapons. ]
no subject
Diarmuid hesitates, falling behind a little, looking unsure of this new information. He still follows, of course! It is just... Well, the memory of the last collection of 'knights' he'd fallen into meeting with had been...]
You're a - knight? Where do you hail from?
[At least he is not a french knight. And so far, he's been kind. Still, the thought of him knowing what happened worries the boy; after all, do knights not all have a sort of... unity? Would the man be so welcoming, if he knew what happened on the path toward Waterford?
........]
... From Dennys?
no subject
[ Seriously though, little dude, why are you slowing down? Wade slows his own gait to walk next to Diarmuid. Are those little leggies tired or something? ]
Sir Deadpool of Denny's in Saskathcewan. It's totally a mouthful, huh? Sir Jaime Lannister can get dunked on! [ So much for knights getting along........ ]
You said you're Irish right? Ireland's great..... I - uh - love rain.
no subject
[Sorry, he couldn’t keep up with most of what you’d said there. And while he seems a little skittish at the way Wade slows down — a little on guard, as if he worries that the man may use his brick for pummeling — he seems to relax a bit when he senses no menace in the man’s tone. De Merville had at least been pretty transparent in his sinisterness.]
And what is Denny’s, Saskatchewan like, m’lord?
[Oh no, he’s so genuine and interested in knowing. You’re cruel, Sir Deadpool.]
no subject
Cold. Canadian. Pancake-y. Really everything else melts away when you realise Justin Baedeau is in charge. Hubba hubba.
[ What was he talking about, oh, right, they're gonna be turning here, buddy. ]
What's it like where you're from? Green? A weird lack of snakes?
no subject
In honest answer, I must say you're right...! We've no snakes and it's very green. There are many rolling hills... And it rains often...! And foxes and deer and rabbits run the lands...
[He blinks blearily.]
What is a Hubba-Hubba?
no subject
Sounds peaceful. [ Aka boring. ]
A Hubba-Hubba is a hot babe. Someone you see and you just never wanna unsee? Justin Trudeau, Bea Arthur, Ryan Reynolds, Vanessa, Peter, Cher. Y'know the people that really get your blood pumping?
[ And he's suddenly opening a door and guiding the kid through it. Say hello to the place that's gonna serve you the best soup in the world, buddy. ]
no subject
[You can tell he's absolutely understanding about 60% of what Wade's saying.
This time, maybe even less than that. Blood pumping means panic and fear, right?
He looks so utterly lost in this place, looking around with slightly glassy, wide eyes.
H e l p.]
no subject
[ Aw, he looks so cute.
Wade guides him to a table and plops down across from him. ]
Soooo. What? Couldn't find a light-saber before Halloween?
no subject
And then burps. But closed-mouth, like a gentleman.]
Sir Deadpool, I must... be honest...
I understand very little of what you're telling me. I've no recollection of what a — A light-saber is. [He rubs his temples, looking overwhelmed.] There's so much I do not know — so much! What is this?
[He motions to the ketchup.]
What is this?
[He motions to the picture of tacos on the little menu stand.]
And I haven't a clue about that, either!
[He motions to the jukebox.
It seems now that he's drunk, he's particularly forthcoming about his frustrations.]
no subject
. . .
. . .
Processing. . . ]
Slow your roll Jack Skellington, what year are you from?
[ That's all he's going to ask before explaining what ketchup is, or what his one true love tacos are, or how they're going to play What's New Pussycat twenty one times with one It's Not Unusual thrown in and if this place doesn't have those songs he's going to be furious. ]
no subject
Oh, yes, a question. A question he can actually answer.]
... 1209, m'lord.
no subject
Hey, what the fuck? ]
That explains so much. You're not about to have a panic attack or anything are you? Culture shock must suck.
Sheesh. I'm from 2018, no wonder we're getting mixed wires.
[ Their waitress takes that moment to show up and without really giving Diarmuid a chance to protest, Wade orders two waters and two bread bowls with the soup of the day in them. And just as soon as she'd appeared, she was leaving again. She'd even tried to take the menus before she left, but Wade asked to keep them. ]
This. [ He points to the ketchup. ] Is ketchup. It's like blended tomatoes and sugar and salt or something I don't exactly know what all is in it. You dip food into it.
[ He's now directing D-Dawg's gaze to the tacos. ] These are tacos. Also known as the one true love of my life. They're meat, green stuff, cheese, hot sauce, onions, sour cream and occasionally salsa if you're feeling feisty. We'll give you a crash course on those when you're not totally blitzed.
And that, over there, is a jukebox. You pay it and it plays you music.
no subject
[He seems to wilt a little where he sits, but shakes it off to say:]
I'll be alright, though! You're teaching me a lot already, Sir Deadpool.
I'll keep all of this in mind...!
[... He's gonna forget most of this, isn't he? He is.]
When you say music, you mean — it plays instruments? How could this be?
no subject
[ How ridiculous. ]
Good, because there'll be a quiz later on all of this.
[ No, there won't be. Wade's already forgotten like... all the stuff he's explained to him already. ]
It's pretty much magic. [ Wade pats himself down, looking for something it seems. What he finally finds is a fat wad of cash and a bunch of coins that fall onto the table with loud metallic noises. He pushes four coins over to the small monk. ]
Go put these into the coin slot, there will be an arrow saying to put the money there. Then pick whatever you want to listen to.
[ Wade's never had... a strange moment like this with a kid. Something so mundane and yet comfortable. ]
You good to walk over there?
no subject
[Springy, he gets up from the table and moves with the coins, swaying only slightly when he finds himself staring in full at the small silver tokens. He's never really held real currency before...! They mostly barter, outside of large places with more structure to them, after all...
He nearly bumps into the juke box in his thought, and looks back with wide eyes.]
Right here? This slot, m'lord?
[He puts them in without waiting for a response, because he's tipsy and they look like they go there anyway; just because he's from the 13th century doesn't mean he'd fail putting blocks into a baby's shape set, you know. But with that in mind, he just... randomly pushes a few buttons. He has no clue what he's doing, okay?
An Elvis song suddenly blares to life, and he startles backward and ends up sitting on his butt, staring at the juke box with shock and awe and — and looks back at Wade with an expression that reads this is insane and I am both scared and a little excited????
Over the music that is too close to him right now:]
Is this music from today?! It's so loud! Where is the person singing it?!
no subject
[ Wade's sure the poor crew working hate their guts already but no one's seeming to pay them any mind, other than the waters that were dropped off. ]
Hard to say, I don't know what time-frame we're technically stuck in here, not all of it makes sense, so let's leave that first answer on a hard maybe. The person singing it isn't here. That's a recording. Pick the rest of your songs and come back here.
[ What a cute dweeb. Wade squeezes the lemon slice he'd been gifted with his water into his water and swirls it around with a freshly opened straw before dropping the entire thing into the water. Whether or not Wade's worried the kiddo will freak out or lose his appetite after seeing a bit of his face doesn't really show, at least not with the way Wade's unattaching the bottom of his mask and rolling it up so it's up to his nose. Scarred lips find the straw, but his attention stays on Didi -- helicopter parent anyone? ]
no subject
It suddenly explains a great deal, and for a moment his mind immediately jumps to leprosy; brother Rua told him once that they suffered as Christ did, that they endured purgatory on earth so they may fly straight to heaven — that they were possibly closer to God than any, and so it was against all goodness not to welcome them with open arms.
So he does not stare for much longer, before he takes his own glass and starts drinking eagerly to dispel that concerned wrinkle between his eyes.]
... Oh! Lemons!
Those travel long and far to be sold, all the way from England and even further still — I've only ever had one once, I think. Aren't they terribly sour?
no subject
It's kind of nice that he doesn't say anything. Wade's used to the nasty comments too. ]
They're pretty fucking awful, yeah. Unless they're in water or iced tea. [ He points at the lemon slice on Didi's glass with his straw. ] You can always give it a try. [ Not that he suggests it. ]
And don't worry about this butherface, I'll cover it back up when your food shows up. [ He wiggles back and forth slightly to the music from the jukebox. ] So what do you think of your first Elvis song?
no subject
No, I — it's not the state of your looks that...
... I was just worried for your health; I'm sorry for staring — it wasn't kind of me, and I should never have... I apologize... [He looks down at the water, and despite being from hundreds of years ago, even he seems to know the old routine of awkwardly churning the water with one's straw in awkward embarrassment.] Is he insulting us, when he calls us 'hound dogs'?
no subject
[ He shrugs. ] You don't have to worry about my health, I'm not dying any time soon. The universe won't let me.
[ The question that's asked though, draws a laugh out of him and before he can reply, the food is being brought to the table. ] Sorta, don't take it personally though.
[ Just as Wade had promised, he pulls his mask back down to cover the bottom of his face. ] Come on let's see if we can sober you up a bit.