JUNE 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to June's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: PSYCHOLOGICAL 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: Altered personalities, potential physical violence, character death
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

Welcome to the theater! No one knows when they held auditions, or when they held practice, or even when they started advertising, but there's suddenly flyers in every home, every shop, ever restaurant, and the locals seem to just be dying for a night of real culture. Whether or not you're usually a person who enjoys plays of any sort, once you see one of the posters, you'll find it hard to get it out of your mind. You'll find that your schedule lines up just perfectly for one of the plays and the tickets are free, so... Why not?

Strangely enough, none of the performances seem to be the same, so multiple visits to the theater will get you a variety of shows. It could just be a night of fun - a performance, maybe you go to dinner with a friend, and you get to have a night of pure enjoyment, especially if you really do love the theater. It could seem harmless the first time, maybe even the second, and maybe you'll walk away without ever experiencing the strange occurrences you hear other people going on about.

If you weren't so lucky, people attending the various performances will find that each show brings its own unique horrors, and they all seem to personally catered to you. The players seem to be broadcasting people's darkest secrets, their worst fears, and the most violent and terrifying personality traits that so many try to keep hidden about themselves. Monologues will be run that sound a lot like the critical voices inside of your head - maybe it's your mother talking about how worthless you are, or your best friend saying how they truly hated you all along, or the person you're deeply in love with making sure you know how pathetic they find you, or maybe you even see a player who looks like someone you lost, come back to tell you how it's your fault their gone, how you let them die. Or maybe even how you killed them.

The shows will leave you feeling dark and empty, depressed and maybe even angry. You'll find that you're more prone to lashing out, to getting violent, and you're more than ready to take it out on the people around you. Strangers, friends, it doesn't matter; someone needs to feel the same pain you are and you're happy to be the one to put them in it.

NOTE: None of the scenes put on in the plays will be actual memories. While background information or secrets may get brought up, they are primarily broadcasting exaggerated insecurities and fears.

RING AROUND THE ROSIE

A carousel has popped up in town, just nearby the ice cream shop! It seems like it has just pop up over night strangely, but that's the nature of things in Deerington, isn't it? The kids seem to love it, going to get sundaes, and then hopping on to one of the classic wooden horses for a ride. There's a tug of nostalgia that will hit you as you watch them laugh and play, even if you've never been on a carousel, or ever even seen one before today.

What's the harm in one ride? When it comes to a stop and the most recent group of kids runs off, you might find yourself compelled to hop on. The cheesy, mechanical music will fill your ears as the carousel starts to spin and for the first couple of turns, you're actually kind of having fun! No wonder the kids were laughing and clapping. There's something almost relaxing about this.

Until it's not. Things start to get strange quickly - the lights on the carousel flicker, until they go dead entirely, and it's like the entire world has gone dark with them. The music is still playing, but it's slowly warping into something less comforting. Eventually, you'll start to see things - terrible things that might make you regret having gone on the ride in the first place.

Whether it's occurred at home or not, some character's on the carousel will start to see detailed visions of their own deaths. They'll experience them as if it were truly happening and there seems to be little you can do to stop it. If you're lucky enough to not see your own death, you might get sucked into the vision of the person near you. Can you help to save them? Or will you only be able to do your best to comfort them through it?

Once a character is dead, the vision will end, the lights will return, and the music will be back to normal. You'll still be sitting on your horse as if nothing had happened at all. No physical reminder is present, but that doesn't mean the memories are going to fade any time soon.

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

[ oh no.

ichiro lights up. ] Oh, shit, really? Like Vocaloid? It's that popular? I mean, shit, I do utaite all the time, especially rap covers, but I can't imagine it being that powerful.

[ ... ] Then again, most people wouldn't think of rap being a worldwide battle tool either, so.

[ ayana he's a fucking otaku ] --Anyway, I was starting to get the same sense. It feels like some kind of isekai, you know? [ he's REALLY an otaku ]

Edited 2019-05-27 12:32 (UTC)

[Ayana isn't entirely sure about Vocaloid, but it sounds like it's about the same thing. His enthusiasm makes ehr skin crawl tough. Oh no. Oh no is he--

Yep. Confirmed Otaku.

Now, if he was a girl, she might find the enthusiasm kinda nice or at least tolerable. But from a guy she can't help but wrinkle her nose in a look of disgust.] Ugh, you're one of those. How typical. Isn't there anything you guys don't taint?

[Though at least he's keeping his distance and not drooling over lolis or something, so like... That's something? She's not gonna give him any quarter though.]

...Did you say rap as a battle tool? [WHAT. she'll get to the isekai thing in a second but WHAT]

[ no way, he's a protect the lolis kind of guy not date them, that's just gross. big bro game too strong for that. ~~badass twintail ladies are the goal~~.

oh. well, it's his turn to explain, isn't it. they're definitely not from the same world if she's never heard of that before, so, ichiro pauses a minute and ignores her dissing him for being an otaku, instead pulling his microphone out of his pocket. he doesn't turn it on, just lets it take the proper red shape it usually does, fingers through the knuckle rings. ] It's the only way men fight, where I'm from, with one of these. It's not on, it won't hurt you.

[ just in case she gets any ideas with the rolling pin again smh. ] It's called a hypnosis mic. You rap with it and it gets into people's heads. That's pretty much it.

[She takes a couple steps back when he brings out the microphone, just in case. She's seen people battle with all sorts of weird things in Mobius, including her own stun gun...thing.

On one hand, men not allowed to have fights except through weird rap battles? Sure, she'll take it .That's better than giving them any actual sort of weaponry, tough she's pretty sure that men could find a way to ruin just about anything. Anything could be a weapon in the hands of a man capable or desperate enough.

And a hypnosis microphone that could get into peoples' heads?? SHe looks a bit horrified] What's the point in taking away weapons if you're going to give men the strongest weapon of all like that!? That could be ten times worse than any knife or gun could be! What the hell are they thinking giving men so much power like that!?

Believe me, men don't have shit where I'm from. Man, you'd fit right in.

[ is he bitter about that? yeah. doesn't help he was a part of one of the groups, and that one of his few good relationships in his life was destroyed by the people in charge, but then again... the women in his world are running a dictatorship. they have cancellers nowadays, anyway, which just leaves the men as vulnerable as ever.

he shrugs, jamming his hands back in his pockets. ] Whatever. Neither of us are from anywhere remotely near here. If this is an actual isekai, we might as well work together.

What's that supposed to mean? [Should she be offended? She feels like maybe she should be offended.]

I don't-- [want to work with a man, is what she wants to say, but she snaps her mouth shut with a scowl. It looks like saying this is going to take everything she is and she hugs the rolling pin tightly to her chest.]

Just... Keep your distance from me! The President would want me to get as much information as I could and... And if you're aware of this place then that's... Like in Mobius, or something... [She trails off, mumbling to herself as she justifies this. Her eyes squeeze shut briefly and she shivers in something like revulsion before she straightens up in determination. If she could work alongside the male members of the Go Home club, she could do this, surely.]

I guess... I guess we have to track down information first, right? Like...Where we really are, and maybe what we're supposed to be doing...? I might still have that letter, somewhere... [She trails off, patting at her dress and blouse idly]