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

[hopecanruinyou]

[ thom's facial expressions go through a journey at the league being called a church group. not that there's anything wrong with church groups as a rule, he's volunteered with several and had a generally positive experience. that doesn't stop him from feeling a bit offended on the league's behalf regardless though.

but even more importantly, this guy is saying the league doesn't even exist, that he's... what, in another world (if the wizard of oz analogy is to be taken literally, anyway, and thom is inclined to do just that, since the league is well known even outside of his city and this guy has very visibly never heard of it before now)?

thom's face settles on gut-punched, in the end, but there's no doubt mixed in with it. he's trusting shades at his word here. at least for now. ]

I... yes? I guess? Where exactly... is here?

[norivals]

[Shades may be a skilled liar, but he didn't do it for no reason, and screwing with anyone's sense of reality more than necessary wasn't something he was apt to do. The town did that enough for him.

He almost feels bad for the kid, seeing the look on his face. He draws a pained hiss through his teeth. How to even start?]

They call this little slice of Americana hell, Deerington. Deerington, Maine. Except...as far as I can tell, the place only exists inside our heads. You're dreaming.

[hopecanruinyou]

[ maine is certainly a bit of a surprise, though he supposes that it goes a way to explaining the cute little suburb he's been walking through up until now, but it's the mention of dreaming that really sends his thoughts reeling. ]

I'm dreaming? [ he echoes, brow furrowing as he attempts to consider the issue logically. to make a plan maybe, even, something to get him back home to his team where he might have a better chance of figuring out what to do. or, golden boy would come up with something, at least. ]

Is it some new villains power, or... but wait. [ he gestures in shades' direction, as he works through his thoughts out loud. ] You didn't know who the League was but said something about someone called the Avengers, which definitely doesn't exist back home, I would know.

[ because he was such a super hero nerd, of course, but that went without saying. ]

So you're saying whatever or whoever did this to us is... pulling people from other... worlds?

[norivals]

That's what they tell us. You should do home and read Sodder's love note. [Because it's clear this is the first the kid is hearing about this. Which also means he probably didn't grab a snack either, which could be a problem sooner than later.]

I don't know how it works, only that Sodder is behind it somehow. You want to know about that, you can ask around. [He pays a minimal amount of attention to why of everything and more to the warnings the Dog Keeper sends them.] But that's the basics, yeah. Time and space aren't shit when it comes to dreams, I guess.

[He shrugs, privately marveling at how normal that line of thought is becoming. If he hadn't believed it at first, the Great Sleep had crystallized that for him.

It's too warm for his usual winter coat, so he's wearing a plain black t-shirt, the bandage around his hand and forearm obvious as he sweeps it idly around at the town]

[hopecanruinyou]

Love note? [ thom makes a face as he thinks back to that strange gift basket on the bedside table that he'd thought was just some sort of joke his teammates were pulling on him. but now, looking back, he thinks he remembers seeing something like the word 'sodder' before. either way it's something he's definitely going to have to look into, if he can even figure out how to find his way back to the house.

he's about to point out that it isn't just dreams that can challenge the basic laws of time and space, thom can think of at least three heroes off the top of his head that don't have anything to do with dreams, but then again the man hadn't seemed terribly interested in the league, or even these avengers people, so maybe that's not the best way to make a good impression right now.

which means he's suddenly at a loss about what to talk about instead. until he notices the man's bandages, anyway. ] Oh, you're hurt. [ he reaches out an open palm toward shades, but doesn't close the remaining distance between them yet to touch him. ] I can help you with that, maybe?

[norivals]

Yeah, it happens.

[Cavalierly, because it does. It's not the first time he's been injured, here or otherwise. He led a violence life, especially when he'd been younger, before he learned to better defend himself. Deerington was harder to anticipate and overcome.]

You a doctor or something?

[He eyes Thom warily, although it's true he's been avoiding having it seen to. He's been told to not trust the hospital, so he's been making do with first aid.]

[hopecanruinyou]

[ that question manages to startle a small laugh out of thom, even despite the circumstance because, well. he doesn't exactly look like a doctor, does he? far too young, for one. ]

No, no. I... in my world some people have powers? And mine is that I can heal people that are sick or injured if I touch them.

[norivals]

Powers are a thing where I come from too, and there's plenty of people like you around here as far as I can tell. Sodder likes 'em interesting, I guess.

[Makes him feel a little like the odd man out, except for those times he's gotten powers of his own. It's because of this that he doesn't exactly know that they don't always work as they should, so his only hesitance is in the face that Thom is a stranger.]

You can give it a shot, if you want.

[He holds out his arm]

[hopecanruinyou]

[ it's such a small thing, but just the opportunity to help this one stranger he's met on the street with his powers manages to brighten thom's mood visibly. he's feeling lost and scared and confused (understandable given the circumstances) and this one small opportunity for control over something he sort of understands is desperately needed.

thom's smile is relieved as he reaches out to touch the injured area of shades' arm.

there's a moment, as his hand warms up with the contact, where everything seems to be working precisely the way it's meant to, and then the injuries on shades' arm begin to get worse.

the instant thom notices the shift in his powers he whips his hand away with a cry and stares down at his palm with open horror, stumbling back a few steps to put some distance between them. ]

That's. That's not what's supposed to happen.

cw: blood

[norivals]

[There's a moment when he feels that same warmth before the pains spikes through his forearm, and the tiny specks of blood under the bandage blossom rapidly outward. Shades makes a small keening sound of pain and jerks his arm backwards, gripping it close to himself. If it weren't for the immediate apology and confusion from Thom, he might have nearly lashed out in response.

His jaw clenches a little instead.]

I sure fucking hope not. What the hell was that?

[hopecanruinyou]

I don't. I don't know!

[ thom's clearly beginning to panic, eyes darting between his hands and the aggravated wound on shades' arm and then back again with wide-eyed terror. ]

That's never happened before, why would that happen?

[norivals]

[Shades starts to laugh - a little pained, a little delirious, and a little mad at himself for thinking he'd get a free pass on being injured.]

Because nothing around here works the way it's supposed to. Mierda...

[He's clutching at his wrist trying to stop the sudden flow, as if every little wound had re-opened all over again, which seems accurate going by the blood trickling out down the back of his hand.]

Why don't you do us both a favor? Go home, eat whatever they left in your damned basket, and try not to touch anyone else.

[hopecanruinyou]

[ it's not that shades isn't completely justified in his anger with thom right now, but that doesn't soften the blow of his words any for thom. he flinches back like he's been physically struck and then just keeps walks back, stumbling slightly over a crack in the sidewalk. ]

I. I'm sorry, I didn't mean... just. Sorry.

[ and with that he ducks his head and turns on his heels to beat a quick retreat, hands stuffed deep into his jacket pocket. ]