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soddersays2019-07-27 01:49 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2019-07-27 01:49 pm
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AUGUST 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
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!
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.
owo!
"I suppose this is your first day here, then? I haven't been here much more then a month, myself, but I'm sorry to say that whoever is in charge of our captivity doesn't seem to enjoy making things 'easy,' no." The look he gave the man was sympathetic, but there was definitely a bit of irritation in the expression. The question of tests, however, made him stop, and ponder it seriously for a long breath. It would be a lie to say that the thought hadn't crossed his mind more then once since he'd first woken in Deerington. A test, or a punishment, or...well, there were quite a few possibilities he had in mind. But he reminded himself that, to a human, the concept of a "test" had more then one meaning, and more often then not, they didn't mean it in the same way he might have.
"...I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'test,' if I'm being honest..." He shook his head, as if mentally correcting himself. "Either way, it's hard to say. They aren't very forthcoming with reasons for why they've done what they have. Or who they even are, for that matter.
[OOC: Is your Kurt from before or after the whole dying and Heaven thing? And if he's after, would you want Aziraphale to be able to sense that sort of thing on him?]
no subject
Kurt nodded a little to himself, the man's words confirming similar suspicions he'd had. Captivity, he thought, might be a good word for it. Like rats in a maze -- literally, in this case.
He rubbed a hand absently across his stomach, thinking about how he'd been prevented from teleporting. If whoever it was who had brought them here had done so for the purposes of study, or entertainment, it would make sense to stop those with abilities like his from leaving or upsetting whatever was going on.
"Then "they" aren't this Sodder?" He asked, looking over at Aziraphale, his expression solemn. "There is someone else?"
no subject
It did in fact feel a bit like running in a wheel, running some maze while being watched, while someone else enjoyed the mayhem that was being caused. Especially when it caused certain...fears, certain memories to be dragged screaming back to the surface without the security of them being hidden safely within his own head so that no one else could see them.
He shook his head, noting the way the other seemed to either be in pain, or remembering a pain. His instincts told him to heal it. He'd found out very recently that that was perhaps not the wisest instinct to follow, now, and he held himself back.
"I haven't the foggiest idea, and it's driving me to my wits end. Those of us who are here against our will seem to have theories, but the people who run the place don't seem to make a habit of showing themselves, from what I've seen." He gave a small sigh, glancing up at the maze around them before shuffling awkwardly to his feet and brushing dirt and twigs from his clothes, offering the cuffed hand to the man to help him up without actively grabbing his hand without being given express permission. "Allow me."
The area around them was deceptively quiet, and had he not already see some of the things Deerington enjoyed throwing at them, he might have taken that for granted. Dark figures lurking in shadows, inhuman mockeries of religious adherents attacking the people who tried to stop their thieving tendencies. He'd rather have dealt with Satanic nuns then those void-filled horribles! At least the Satanic variety seemed more interested in counting cute little baby's toes then actively harming people.
"I'm not sure what they have planned for us, but it's probably best if we prepare ourselves for some rather unplea-..." And that was when he caught it, the first sounds of shuffling from nearby, his aura reaching out and searching, finding a dark, frightful form on the edges of his consciousness, just around the hedge at the indigo-colored man's back. When he spoke again, his tone was hushed, dare say it almost afraid. "unpleasant business..."
no subject
As he stands he glances up at the looming hedges, squinting his glowing eyes against the sunlight. In some ways it's almost pleasant, almost --
Then the noises come again. Kurt looks over at Aziraphale, not reassured by the fear in the other man's face.
"It is a monster," he whispers, stepping in to put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. "But a mortal one. I have met it before. We can outrun it, if we are clever."
no subject
Demons did not look like this young man. Not even Lucifer, with his crown of horns and red skin and terrifying, glaring eyes. But that didn't make his appearance fit the image the humans had in their heads of a demon any less, even if the color of his...fur was all wrong. He reached for the other's presence again, bewildered. No, there was nothing demonic about him. Nothing angelic, either. Nothing-...nothing...
Oh. That was strange. He felt human in every way save one, and it was a wonder that he'd missed something so fundamental a moment ago. It wasn't often he met a human who felt empty where a soul should be.
If it weren't for the actually frightening presence that was coming ever nearer, Aziraphale's intense bewilderment might have finally made him forget all propriety and actually ask the questions that raced through his mind. He glanced the direction of the noise, back at the man when he stepped forward to try and reassure the angel - and oh, his pride felt a little wounded at that, a mortal wanting to help an angel, making him swallow just a little bit of that fear - and then back at the hedge thoughtfully before nodding.
"That seems par for the course, yes. I would definitely prefer to avoid fighting, if at all possible. Especially given our current predicament." He rattled the cuff gently between them in explanation before looking around them, up above them at the height of the hedge walls, his mouth twisting in an indignant frown. He could certainly fight. And, truth be told, he could fight fairly well. But he detested it with every fiber of his being, and he wouldn't risk getting a mortal caught in the crossfire. "I suppose the only way to go would be away. Quickly, let's be off."
He nodded his head in the direction the sounds weren't coming from, dimly hoping that the winding corridors of the maze wouldn't lead them directly to it.
no subject
However he did notice his companion's confusion, his astonishment seeming to grow with every aspect of Kurt he took in with those wide eyes. It was enough to make Kurt feel a little self-conscious in a way he hadn't experienced for many years. He found himself remembering the comforting feel of the image inducer in his palm. It had been a crutch, yes, but those moments when he hadn't even had to think about being noticed, when he had been able to walk down the street and be ignored -- ignored! Such a privilege! -- had been sweet in their own way.
Kurt shrugged off those thoughts with some difficulty, forcing his attention back to the present and their situation.
He took Aziraphale's suggestion with a murmured agreement, heading off at a pace slightly faster than his normal walking speed. Staying on two feet was a little uncomfortable, as it always was, his natural inclination being to drop to all fours to enable him to jump and lope along. He'd schooled himself out of that impulse long ago -- even in the X-Men, it had been easier to not bring so much attention to himself -- but found it rising again in the face of Aziraphale's confusion. His tail switched back and forth behind him above the grass, betraying the state of his emotion.
Still, he tried. He glanced sideways at the angel as they made their way into the maze.
"My name is Kurt Wagner," he said, deliberately not using his codename where he might usually have flourished it. "I would say that I am pleased to meet you, but I don't know if I can say it is pleasant to meet anyone under these circumstances."