AUGUST 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

AUGUST 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to August's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: DYSTOPIAN 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: Physical violence, monster violence, creepy ogre-like monster in link, being hunted by a monster.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

BLOOD IN MY VEINS

With supplies low and food getting even more scarce, things in Deerington, Maine seem to be getting that much more tense. For those who pay attention to the habits of the townspeople, there’s something that might add to that feeling of stress; all of them seem to be involved in some kind of physical training, whether it’s archery, hand-to-hand combat, or fighting with firearms, they all seem like they’re getting ready for something and it definitely feels like it might be something big.

But no one wants to train against a townsperson - it’s highly likely they’re not going to fight fair with the way they’re all glaring at the Sleepers, as though they’re to blame for everything that’s been going on. Unless you’re sparring with people in your own backyard though, it seems like there isn’t any space to get your own training in.

The Betties are starting to pop up around town pretty regularly, waiting until they find Sleepers on their own, and quietly waving for them to come closer. “You need to prepare,” they’ll whisper to you in hushed urgency, before grabbing your hand to try and get you to follow them. If you fight, they’ll insist only once more, before leaving you alone. But there’s something inside of you urging you to comply and follow.

They’ll lead you down an alley, pushing aside a large dumpster, and revealing a trap door in the middle of the concrete. You’ve never noticed it before, even if you’ve been down this alley a hundred times. The Betty leading you leans down, pulling it open, and the ladder that goes into the tunnel is long and dimly lit. You could leave now, but the Betty will insist this is for the best.

“Knock twice. No more or less. Show them what you’re made of.”

Once you get to the bottom of the ladder, there’s an equally long hallway that leads towards a closed metal door. You knock twice and the door shakes before sliding open. The light that comes through is almost blinding with how bright it is compared to the dim tunnel, but as your eyes adjust, you can finally step in to a fully stocked training room.

There are instructors in basics for beginners, areas for intermediate, and most abundantly there are one-on-one sparring areas. The moment you come close enough, you’ll be immediately paired with another Sleeper, and the two of you will be locked in the room together to be observed. You could choose to not fight, of course, but you’ll be stuck there for a good long while if you do. It might be best to just get it over and done with.

So feel free to help others who seem to be struggling or show off your strength for everyone to see. It looks like everyone is going to need to be ready for some kind of fight.

I AM THE GREAT UNKNOWN

Maybe you got knocked out during a fight or maybe you fell asleep in your own bed - or maybe you don’t even remember closing your eyes at all, especially if you don’t usually have the ability to go unconscious for one reason or another. No matter the cause, everyone will wake up in the same place, surrounded by tall, thick hedges in the middle of a... maze?

It doesn’t take you long to realize you aren’t the only one waking up, too. Someone is next to you and it seems like you’re stuck finding your way out of here together. Literally. On each of your wrists is a metal cuff with a long chain connecting them. It can’t be broken, no matter how strong a person is or how powerful a weapon or spell they try to use against it. You’re in this together whether you want to be or not.

Once you can pick a direction to head in, it seems like this might almost be boring - that is until you start to hear the sounds of rustling leaves and breaking twigs. At first it seems like it might just be a trick to spook you, but the more you ignore it, the louder it gets, until finally you see it, charging down the row at you, scythe raised and ready to strike.

You can try to fight, of course, but it’s hard when you’re chained to one another. Learn to work together quickly and maybe you can make it work. It seems to go down with normal attacks, though it takes a long time to get the creature to fall unless you cut off the head. Ultimately your best interest might be set in running as fast as you can to get away. You can lose it in the maze if you’re quick about it. But then you might also be lost yourself.

If you do manage to lose the monster rather than killing it, stay quiet and you might not attract its attention again. It may take a while to find the end of the maze. The hedges feel like they stretch on forever and the sun is blaring down. You’d think there would be shade with all the height of the bushes, but there’s no relief from the heat. Hopefully you don’t burn easy.

When you get to the end of the maze, the two of you will come up on three doors. One door will lead out of the maze and back into the center of Deerington, cuff free. Another door will lead you right back to the beginning, forcing you to start again. And what’s behind door number three...?

The monster, of course.

Choose wisely.

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.

Comments

[sinnabon]

No. I'm— [ don't say one, don't say one. ] Seventeen. Sorry, eighteen.

[ pick one and stick with it, jack, it's not like he'll know the difference, they're both lies. but what if he needs to be a legal adult for something? because it'll be easier to tell the same lie to everyone he needs to lie to, right? the high school said he's in the 17-18 bracket, so that works, right? or should he be on younger one since he's just starting the year?

god, why is he such a terrible liar. ]

...Eighteen. I'm eighteen.

[ staring at him is really, really unnerving. ]

My name's Jack.

[dissemble]

[ The name (a terribly human name) is unimportant. Lucifer's scrutinising the Nephilim, looking at what he really is-- his grace, his angel half-- rather than the base human side of him. ]

You're a terrible liar.

[sinnabon]

[ blinking wide, jack swallows dryly and resists the urge to wring his hands, stuffing them into his jacket pockets instead. ]

I'm just nervous. My birthday was last month.

[ which is actually true, just not necessarily the cause for his nerves. he got back to the bunker in time for a birthday, and then popped into deerington shortly after. since then, a month.

the grace lucifer's watching might be... oddly fluctuating. there'd been a time a few months after jack was born that he went from a blinding beacon of power, visible fro practically all corners of the earth, to nothing at all, as if he'd walked off the plane of existence entirely, but that'd been something that happened subconsciously. while jack's grown vastly in his control of his powers since then, and had time in the apocalypse world to practice hiding himself from michael, that was before deerington and the strange things it does to his powers, and before lucifer was standing in front of him and jack was doing his best not to want to scream at him and shake him. his emotions will always be the unaccounted for variable that throws a wrench in his control. ]

[dissemble]

[ It's frustrating not to know whether he's getting an accurate read or whether his own power just isn't reliable right now. Not being able to just dip into his thoughts is equally as galling.]

Jack. Don't lie to me.

[ Nervous, though. Lucifer can work with nervous. He turns to give the kid his full attention, standing to his full height. Reaching out, he'll try to take Jack's chin in his hand. Intimidate him into submitting, that tends to work.]

[sinnabon]

[ it happens in a second, like a reflex, like a flinch, before jack can do anything to stop it.

lucifer straightens up, standing tall, something in his eyes changes and jack remembers the moment it all fell apart in the bunker. i'll handle him and will you? the second it shifted, and his maybe-father gave up on the game. his hand reaches out and all jack remembers is the blade slicing his throat.

a burst of power explodes out from him, unfiltered and raw, looking like dusty, fractured, golden light, jack's eyes blazing up with the same color, in a subconscious, kneejerk attempt to shove lucifer away from him.

the moment after is shocked stillness, and jack clearly didn't mean to let out that power, but any attempt at masking it now would be obvious, and if there's a way to lie his way out of what just happened, jack doesn't have nearly the skill to pull it off. welp, cards down. he never liked pretending much anyway. his tone takes a complete turn, nerves gone, voice hard. ]

Don't touch me.

[dissemble]

[ Lucifer goes stumbling back, both hands coming up to shield his eyes from the light that stings his vessel's eye. The urge to respond with an even greater show of power is oh so tempting-- because who does this little upstart think he is.

He's on the verge of it, unfolding his wings and ready to destroy half the town with an unfiltered display of angelic grace, when he stops.

This isn't an ordinary Nephilim. This is more powerful than any normal angel hybrid could hope to be. And not only that-- ]

That isn't possible. [ There isn't a facade now, Lucifer's genuinely furious, livid to recognise himself in this bastard archangel halfbreed. This isn't Michael's or Raphael's. It isn't even Gabriel's. It's his.

He flares his grace, power matching Jack's radiating from him as he plants his feet opposite this monster. ] Tell me what you are.

[sinnabon]

[ feathers are ruffled, there's a faint glow starting to take on jack's skin, and while he isn't unfurling wings yet, there's a hum in the air, just on the verge. this is a terrible idea. this is an incredibly terrible idea, he should've just teleported away that second he realized who this was.

too late now. who knows if lucifer could follow, and whatever this is going to be, it needs to happen well away from everyone else. ]

You know what I am.

[ jack's assuming from the that isn't possible that lucifer caught on to what's similar between them, and if not, well, he's not giving him anything more than 'nephilim' himself. ]

I didn't mean for that to happen, but you know you're not in a state to fight either. [ fight someone else, maybe, but fight him? right now, running around in a half broken vessel? lucifer isn't that stupid. ] I meant it when I said I don't want trouble.

[dissemble]

[ Backing down when provoked doesn't come easily to Lucifer, not when he can't see anything in it for him. He's confident in his ability to take this upstart, even with his power as limited as it is. ]

You don't want trouble? Fine. Tell me what I want to know.

[ This has to be a joke. A test. Something his Father had made to punish or teach him a lesson. ]

[sinnabon]

[ there's a tense, still moment, jack trying to find another angle to approach this from that doesn't escalate it further, or make this situation more dangerous than it is. even jack can feel the surge between their grace, the strains in it that are similar, not identical, but still tied to each other. he has to know by now, so what's it change if jack confirms it? can he really get out of this without doing it anyway?

after a while, he sighs, and the next time he blinks, his eyes are blue again rather than gold, disengaging. ]

I'm your son. [ said flatly, ] I was born in 2017.

[ if this lucifer doesn't recognize him, jack's pretty sure that means it's the same issue Sam, Dean and Cas have - too early on the timeline. maybe 2017 will clue him in on that too. ]

[dissemble]

[ A muscle tightens in his jaw. Lucifer wants to scream because he can't stop it. He hasn't the control over his vessel that he should. He isn't able simply to turn this child into dust.

Fine. He isn't like Castiel or Michael. His strengths are many and he's adaptable.

Abruptly he draws his power back into himself, presenting an appearance that's calm and collected, unperturbed by anything.]

There, was that so hard? All you had to do was tell the truth, Jack.

[sinnabon]

[ lucifer, of all people, berating him about lying. that's rich, and jack barely keeps himself letting out a huff.

if anything, the calm is more a threat than the display of power was. his father's manipulative, scheming, clever. jack didn't believe it before when sam, dean and cas told him because he didn't want to, and maggie paid the price for that.

whatever the new angle is, jack doesn't want to hear it. ]

Great. Are we done?

[ teenagers, man. they're just fuckin' rude. ]

[dissemble]

Watch your tone. [ The rebuke is quick and sharp.

He's silent for a moment, studying the way Jack holds himself. Then- ] You can go.

[ As much as Lucifer wants to get all the information out of him that he can get, he isn't going to do it while his vessel is bleeding all over the place. Jack can't escape this dream, so there's no rush. ]

[sinnabon]

[ jack should quit while he's ahead, he really should. he should keep his mouth shut, teleport away, and go warn his family about lucifer being here.

but jack is a one year old in an eighteen year old's body, and the guy standing in front of him is the entire reason his life has been so damn hard since the day he was born. he's someone jack could've broken the way he did michael back home, at one time, and he just told him to watch his tone, as if he's owed even an ounce of respect from him. ]

Why? [ he starts, nothing of respect in the tone. ] You're not my family — you didn't raise me, you never cared about me.

You're just some stranger who lied to me for a few days and hurt people.

[ and it broke his heart when he learned the truth of it. the guilt for harm his ignorance allowed to come to his friends and family was just piled on top of it. ]

Maybe I don't wanna fight you, but I'm not your kid, I'm not your lackey, and I'm not afraid of you.

[dissemble]

[ There's nothing as maudlin as sentiment in Lucifer. He recognises the tone in Jack's voice-- he recognises that hurt and dismisses it, because how much can this infant really have suffered?

His stare is impassive ]

That's family, Jack. You don't get to choose.

[sinnabon]

[ 'you don't get to choose'. The statement contradicts everything he's learned about family so far with Sam, Dean and Castiel.

The first breath he took, he knew his father was Castiel, and he knew he needed to go to him, that that's where home would be. So why not? Maybe he can't choose his genetics, but his family? ]

But I did. Before I was even born I did. [ there's a small, almost fond, half smile. ] Even then, it wasn't you.

[dissemble]

[ Picking at his nails, appearing completely bored. ] Weren't you going?

[ Lucifer doesn't owe this monster anything. He doesn't care if it doesn't want him, doesn't care if it thinks it can just deny what it is. That never works.

He just needs more time to consider how to make it submit to him.]

[sinnabon]

[ the urge to eyeroll is not resisted this time, and jack's eyes nearly fall out of his head with it. what a diva, his biological father is. ]

Yeah. I was.

[ and that's it. later, pops, he's turning away and shuffling off, no longer terrified and anxious, more irritated and disappointed. ]