MAY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to May's Test Drive Meme! This is our first Test Drive ever so let's make it a good one. This month's Test Drive's theme is: SUPERNATURAL 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: Sin related things? There's not much this month, actually.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

VISION OF A WORLD

Everyone knows that people with special powers who show up in Deerington always seem to end up having them altered. Healers can't quite fix people the way they used to, teleportation can't ever seem to get you out beyond the town lines, resurrection ends up a little... messy. Whatever the case may be, people should be pretty used to the idea of their powers never being quite right.

That seems to have gone to an extreme. While some powers seemed to work just fine before, anyone with any kind of special ability will find that there's some sort of glitch occurring whenever they try to use them these days. Even those with technology-based powers that are usually left alone will find that their tech just isn't functioning the way it's supposed to. Some will find their powers have gone into complete overdrive, unable to control them in any manner - maybe you just meant to use your fire abilities to light a cigarette and instead you burnt down an entire tree, or if you're usually a strong telepath, you're suddenly unable to filter out anyone's thoughts.

On the opposite end, powers may cease to function at all. Maybe your super strength disappears and you're suddenly as weak as a child, or your self-healing no longer heals, leaving you vulnerable and capable of extreme injuries you've never felt before. Ever wondered what it was like to be "normal"? Now's your chance - hopefully you don't end up in any tricky situations where your powers may have come in handy after all.

Stranger still, people who have never had powers may find they're suddenly able to do incredible things. Those scrawny arms can suddenly lift cars over your head, or your usually slow and clumsy feet can now move faster than the speed of sound. Anything can happen - but now you're stuck trying to learn how to control powers you've never tried to use before. Maybe you'll be lucky and won't hurt yourself (or someone else) too badly...

NO SINNER LIKE A YOUNG SAINT

What's a better way to welcome the coming end of the school year than with a music festival? The record store has set up a nice party for everyone to attend outside their store, closing off the whole street so that everyone can have plenty of space to attend! Vendors are set up along the sidewalks with food of all kind (no negative side effects, honest!), clothes ranging over a vast number of styles, and merchandise for bands that people have probably never heard of. Maybe you can find their record inside and give it a listen!

Most importantly, they're trying to focus on the tunes. Record players are set up with headphones if you want to try out an album you've never heard before. Otherwise there's a nice mix of different genres that play throughout the day, cycling through in a random loop. If you don't like what you're listening to one minute, just come back in a few and you'll probably hear your favorite song coming through the speakers instead!

Each genre of music seems to cause a unique effect to those who are listening. Whether it's the records in private or the music flowing out into the streets, characters will find themselves acting a little differently throughout the course of each song.

Classic Rock will entice people to act a bit more prideful. Boasting about your greatest experiences, telling everyone about your greatest success stories from home, showing off your awesome skillset that you think is entirely unique to you. You're feeling good about your own abilities and accomplishments and you want everyone to know about it.

Metal will have people acting more wrathful. Anger will sky rocket and the desire to get into a fight will be high. Maybe you just verbally attack someone else, or your anger gets great enough that you start to physically lash out. Hopefully someone is around to calm your rage before someone else gets hurt.

Country will bring people a feeling of envy. Suddenly everyone around you has something you want but don't have. Anything from a haircut you wish you could rock to a significant other you wish was yours or a personality trait you want to possess. You'll find yourself wishing you had what everyone else did. It might sink you into a deep depression or it might even make you try and take what they have - at any cost.

Pop music will fill you with a sense of greed. You want anything and everything, whether it's something you would normal try and possess or not. A person, a food, a piece of jewelry, one of the records that's in the store, clothing -- you want all of it. It doesn't matter if you have the funds or if the person you've got your eye on wants to be near you, you're going to get what you want and no one is going to stop you.*

Jazz music will bring about a suddenly make you feel a little bit lazy and sloth-like. Everything has slowed down for you and you're not wanting to really try and speed them up. You're ready to lounge and forget about responsibilities. Just chill in the corner with your records - who cares about fun or work or eating when you can just listen to the smooth notes from Coltrane?

Punk suddenly makes you feel gluttonous. Your stomach won't stop growling, your throat feels parched, and you're trying to buy everything those vendors and local restaurants and cafes are trying to sell in order to satisfy your belly. It doesn't matter if your stomach keeps feeling uncomfortably stuffed or you're slowly getting to a point well beyond wasted, you're going to keep eating and drinking everything in sight until you feel better.

Blues will make people feel a great amount of lust. Is there someone you've been wanting for a long time but never had the guts to make a move on? Or maybe you're desire for a complete stranger hits you out of nowhere. Regardless, you want to feel close to them in any way you can, your body aching and your mind only able to focus on feeling your body against theirs.*

All effects of the music will last as long as the tracks are playing, changing the moment a new genre is playing. If you are pulled out of earshot of the music or take the headphones off your ears, there will be a lingering effect for five to ten minutes before it will finally start to fade off. Let's hope you're strong enough to fight it - or that you at least don't make too many mistakes you might regret by the time the track changes.

*Please remember that there is no non-consensual sex in this game. Do not use these prompts to try and maneuver around this rule.

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

[ It was a funny thing, Wade hadn't noticed it before. All he'd noticed when he'd awakened at four am, was that something didn't feel right. Then, as the hours ticked by he'd begun feeling progressively worse and worse. A trip to a mirror showed him that he was looking awfully pale, and the red marks on his skin were an angrier colour. It wasn't until around seven, when he'd began coughing up blood that he knew immediately what was wrong.

He was tired, and hungry, and weak. The hunger brought him to the diner. A hoodie he'd bought after Peter had stolen the last one was pulled far over his face, making him look sketchy as all get out, but it was better than the alternative. Occasionally, he'd cough a wet cough into a napkin. It kept most of the people away from him as he'd tried to keep his appetite up to finish a stack of pancakes. Nausea was welcoming him to its front door fast though.

Luckily, a distraction began speaking to him. Wade turns slightly to look at him, trying to keep his horrorshow of a face to himself, for this guy's sake.

... Huh, he seems... familiar. ] Gonna need a little more to go off of than that, doll-- [ face, suddenly, Wade is turning to look at him. Sorry, about his face... Despite having no eyebrows, his brow is furrowed. ] No way.

[ Yeah, Wade looks sketchy as hell but that's also how Steve knows that he can trust this guy, at least more than some of the people who are either playing along or brainwashed.

He's also used to getting recognized now, but he realizes that he's not quite as iconic without the muscles and the not-possibly-dying-of-diphtheria thing he used to have going on. But hey Wade, you can relate, right? ]

I'm usually...

[ How does he say this. ]

...bigger.

[ Unless Wade had him mistaken for someone else, that should've confirmed what he was thinking. But he's hoping that Wade doesn't make too big of a deal out of it, since he has no idea what that waitress is hiding and he doesn't want to show their hand too quickly. ]

And I usually don't wake up in Maine.

[ The waitress comes back with both their breakfasts and coffees, and then disappears again to take a phone call. ]

[ Wade lets out a laugh, that turns into a coughing fit, that turns into Wade coughing into a an already bloodied napkin. Don't mind him.

When his lungs stop betraying him, he focuses back on Steve, even if he's feeling dizzy now. ]

Have some couth this is the first date! [ Why yes, he did just turn that into a dick joke. ] It's okay, I don't mind a grower. [ His shoulders jitter in silent laughter. ]

Oh, you're new. Yeah. None of us do. Supposedly we're in a dream, like the Matrix or something. Yada yada. But this place can do things to our powers. Like make you all... teeny tiny instead of hunka hunka.

[ He seems a lot more relaxed aside from how shitty he feels. ]

[ Steve is having a little trouble following but he keeps his expression neutral for all the double entendres that Wade is throwing at him; if he's trying to flirt, it's not going in the direction he means for it to be. Maybe some other time, but Steve's got his priorities in another order. ]

A dream. And we're... suspended somewhere else?

That'd explain this, but then whose consciousness is it.

[ Because he'd like to be in control and make himself a little less... sickly, pale and tiny. He's really gotten too used to the other body, and it's not like he can't manage with his God-given one, but it's also a bit of a distraction. ]

--And are you alright? I saw a hospital, I could take you there.

Iunno. Probably not the best guy for the lore tl;dr. I don't even believe it if we're being honest here. I'm pretty sure we've been kidnapped to some evil hell universe. Think more Good Place.

Enjoy Creepsville, otherwise known as Deerington or something. [ He waves a lazy hand. ] Stephen King would be creaming his pants if he could see this place. If there are any red balloons floating from the sewers, leave them alone.

[ Wade wheezes out a laugh, that sounds far more like just a wheeze than anything else. ] Peachy keen, jellybean. Working on my tumor factory; it really takes a lot out of you.

Wade. [ He doesn't offer a hand. ] Normally, I'd totally ask you to sign my chest, sorry.

[ Steve didn't follow along with most of that, but he replays it in his head once. ]

Steve. And it's alright, I don't really sign people's chests. Never did; props maybe, or books.

Sorry about your...

[ He pauses. ]

Sorry.

[ Then he takes another drink of coffee, before he says: ]

Never saw the Good Place. IT was alright, I liked The Shining better.

[ He snorts. Sorry about your... sorry. Yeah, so is he. ]

I did not peg you for a Stephen King fan. That's so un-Disney of you. I think. I don't know, they bought me... my Disney views are really messed up right now. Scar totally killed Simba's dad, that was pretty messed up too.

[ Wade turns his gaze to the coffee sitting in front of him, not yet taking a drink. ]

This place messes with powers. Sometimes permanently, sometimes not so permanently. I'm betting it's what de-beefcake'd you, it's currently engaged in some fuckery regarding my healing factor.

Well, let's both hope that this is temporary.

[ Because Steve can't handle being like this forever but honestly he feels very bad for Wade, who definitely doesn't deserve all this cancer. Good lord, how is he still alive? ]

Is that what you normally do, Wade? You heal fast?

I try not to get my hopes up over this place. It's usually an entire shitshow and a half.

Yep, you don't think I got such a butherface without a sick backstory, did you?

[ To punctuate his sentence, he turns back to Steve fully, an almost mean-spirited grin forming on his face. It definitely doesn't bring any mirth to his dark eyes. ]

I typically consider myself the tumor on life's prostate, you just caught me at a bad time.

[ A short pause and then: ] Are the rest of the Avengers here?

[ Man, this guy really doesn't slow down. ]

Some of 'em. I don't think all of them made it, but I'm hoping they notice the rest of us are missing.

[ He places a hand on Wade's arm, resting it there. ]

The sped-up healing isn't the only thing that makes you special. Never was. You're gonna fight this thing, and I'm gonna help you.

[ He is the Merc With a Mouth after all. If he still had eyebrows they'd probably blast off to the moon, actually his face still looks like they're trying to. ]

Oh em gee, you are America's sweetheart! Stop, stop. No, no, don't really stop, do go on.

[ Captain Fucking America just called him special. ]

Unless you're Ant-Man and can shrink down really really tiny and karate chop all the cancer cells in my body, I'm not sure there's a "I'm going to help you" angle to this. You aren't friends with Osmosis Jones or happen to be hiding a magic school bus anywhere, right? Wow, there are so many movies about people shrinking and going into other people's bodies, how do I even narrow down all the references? Innerspace was a classic though.

[ Finally, he takes a drink of his coffee -- wowie, a reprieve from his incessant chattering. ]

We'll find you a doctor. Or... we'll both get our powers back. Both of these things would benefit me greatly, so if it makes you uncomfortable to think this is about you, just think of it as being about me.

[ He reaches out to shake his hand.

Sorry Wade, were you expecting America's sweetheart to offer any less? ]