soddersays | SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to September's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CHAOS.

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: Torture (emotional and possibly physical), claustrophobia, potential weapon violence (guns, knives, spears, flamethrowers, etc.), possible body horror, emotional manipulation, emojis
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Prompt Three
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

DICE BLOCK

In case everyone hasn't had enough fun and games to last a life time in the good old town of Deerington, apparently this month brings you one more. Maybe you were just walking through the door to get into your own house, or maybe you were leaving from work — the moment you walk through any door, you'll find that it doesn't open up to the place you were looking for. Instead, you find yourself standing on a giant game board and you seem to be right on the start space. The doors already disappeared behind you, don't bother trying to run back. The only exit is at the end and you'll have to hope you make it there.

But you aren't alone! With you are other unfortunate souls who hopefully weren't just looking for a quick bathroom break. Some of them might look a little worse for wear. What happened? Well, looks like you may have to ask later, because you'll only really have time to exchange names if you don't already know one another before a large screen you didn't notice was hanging from the ceiling will light up. There's a giant image of a typical six-sided game die that's completely stationary. For the moment. Shortly after, a voice will come on over the speakers, echoing in the otherwise fairly empty room. It's overly cheerful, grating, and giggles at the end of every sentence.

Welcome, players! Is this your first time? Yes? Great!
Would you like to hear the rules?
Okay!
Each player will take a turn rolling their die.
You can then move the number of spaces shown — but only those spaces!
You can move forward, backward, right, and left, but not diagonally!
Each space will have a symbol.
The spaces with a clover are lucky spaces! Congratulations! You'll gain some fortune, whether it's an extra turn, moving ahead more spaces, or gaining an important item you can take with you on your journey!
The spaces with the skull are unlucky spaces! Boooooo, that's too bad! You'll befall some grave misfortune here. Hopefully it won't set you back too badly! Make sure to avoid these at all costs!
The spaces with a chest are item spaces! Here you'll be able to win prizes, like medical supplies or weapons! Maybe even a small something from home! Wouldn't that be nice?
Your goal is to make it to the end alive! Good luck! And remember to have lots of fun!

The first player's name will pop up on the screen, before the die will begin to randomly blink between numbers. Eventually it will land on a number. Once the player moves forward and lands on their space, it will repeat for the second player. This will go on until one (or both players) reach the end!

When they said to make sure to not land on an unlucky space, they certainly weren't kidding. Each one seems to come with some sort of random punishment or horror; it can be as light as having to move back a few spaces or go back to the start, or as heavy as breaking a random bone or feeling a blade slice open your skin. Maybe you'll start to slowly turn into a monster or become filled with the desire to kill your opponent. Anything can happen, but it's always going to be bad.

Players who reach the end will be able to go through the door and end up back wherever it was they were intending to go in the first place. Players who lose? Well... It's back to the beginning for you. Time to wait for the next player. Better luck next time.

DANCE DANCE

But what's behind door number two! People are going to start to get tired of walking around in their own houses at this rate. Even if you managed to escape the board game horrors, this new room you've found yourself in doesn't seem much better. In the center is a large TV screen and on the floor in front of it are two pads with arrows pointing in four directions; up, down, left, and right. Anyone who is familiar with Dance Dance Revolution might feel right at home! But fear not, there are instructions on the screen for you to follow if you need them.

Two players only, and you'll have to work together! It's a team dance and you'll want to encourage each other to stay perfectly in sync. The doors won't open until you finish, and should you mess up? Well, look up, friend!

The ceiling is covered in sharp, painful looking spikes and every time someone misses a beat or steps on the wrong arrow, the ceiling will drop down a foot. It's pretty high up there, but miss more than three arrows and you're gonna start to really feel the pressure. The spikes are looking a lot bigger and more ominous than they did when they were all the way at the top. Hopefully you've got some good rhythm.

But this is a good lesson in teamwork! Even the worst dancers might be able to get out of here okay if they've got someone who they can work together with. Maybe their perfect scores will make up for your two left feet. You can only hope you're both so lucky.

THAT'S NOT A "MEH" FACE!

Everyone loves to get a text, don't they? Of course they do! Which is why someone has been kind enough to send out a little special something to everyone's Fluid's this month! There's no name you recognize — in fact, it doesn't even look like a name is attached at all. The sender's identification only looks like this: 🥳

The message you've gotten is pretty simple though! Each person has received a text message with one emoji inside. No rhyme or reason applied! That's... random, isn't it? You can try to text back, but no one will answer, and so you might as well just close your device and forget about it.

Every person who received a text will find that their personality starts to shift. They begin to take on some aspect that's tied to the emoji they received. Did you get a simple smiley face? You're happy and relaxed for the time being! Or maybe a silly face will lead you to become more of a prankster. An eggplant could have someone feeling like sexting a Special Someone. An angry face might get you really riled up, even towards people you love. Did you get a knife? Time to start stabbing. A gun? Those people around you look like really good target practice...

The options are endless. Each emojis effects will last for twenty-four hours or until another emoji is sent from the same user.

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

▶ 01. DANCE DANCE

( ambrose spellman has found himself in a lot of unusual situations in his life. it's something that comes with being who he is and living where he does. he's used to weird things and weird places but he's never really dealt with something like this. )

Am I...in a video game?

( that's what this is, isn't it? it wasn't like there were game systems in the spellman household. auntie zee would have set it on fire and then buried it before doing it again the next day.

ambrose looks around, taking in the lack of exit and the spikes on the ceiling. )

Well, that is just lovely. ( when someone else appears, he smiles and gestures to their surroundings. ) So, it looks like we're about to be tested in the art of rhythm. I, for one, do not want to die so please tell me you don't have two left feet?

▶02. EMOJITASTIC

( he doesn't die in the weird video game place. he doesn't die and he's very appreciative of that. when his strange phone thing chimes, he's half expecting it to be sabrina, telling him she needs his help with something but instead it's one simple thing:

👍 )

Well, that's...kind. A bit informal but kind. I appreciate the encouragement.

( he doesn't think anything more of it until he starts seeing people and just...giving them a thumbs up no matter what they do. someone rams into his shoulder and he gives them a double thumbs up.

eventually, he just starts walking around with his thumb extended up. people stare but he continues on. a man on a thumbs up giving mission. )

▶03. WILDCARD

( feel free to throw other scenarios at me if you've got ideas! )

( even after all of this time there are things that lilith doesn't expect. being trapped in a room she does expect but having to dance her way to freedom-- heaven, who thought up this ridiculous thing.

what's perhaps more curious is the person that she happens to find herself with. someone-- at least slightly more familiar than most of the people in this town )

I don't.

( physically. though she's also never used one of these things in her life and she doesn't plan on starting now )

Though I would suggest looking elsewhere first.

I know you.

( for a moment, he forgets where he is and what it looks like he is being tasked to do. they haven't had many personal dealings but he knows her. )

And while that suggestion is a good one, do you think I haven't already tried? If you'd like to do your own perusal, please feel free. I'll wait here because I have nowhere else to go.

( except apparently getting stabbed and smeared into tiny pieces of those spikes starting moving. )

( it's certainly not the reaction that lilith expected given the last things that had happened when she'd met ambrose but there wasn't time to question it. or at least they shouldn't waste time with it )

I don't mean an exit.

( because she knows by now that the answer won't be so obvious or simple )

But at-- their task. An alternate method of completing it.

Be my guest.

( he's going to pull the new kid card and let her do it if she's so confident that there's another way out. if she can find it, he'd gladly follow her right on out. )

Because from where I'm standing, I don't see any way out of this that doesn't end with one of us being used as a pincushion and I would like to avoid that. I've already had a close enough call with people trying to stab me.

You're a warlock, are you not?

( a witch and a warlock against a machine. granted these people had-- ways but lilith was not about to just give up and roll over. not without testing her own thoughts first.

she moves closer to it, looking up at the spikes )

I presume when you've previously used one of these it was not quite like this?

( because he'd at least seemed to recognise it )

I was the last time I checked. If things have changed recently, I have not been informed.

( ambrose peers around the room, looking for any signs of weakness in the room. it looks solid but it doesn't look indestructible. he rubs his hands together, finally figuring out what she means. )

No, it was not quite like this. The last time I saw something like this, it was in a much better situation. The possibility of being pierced by many spikes wasn't there.

( and he would rather avoid that happening at all. ) So, are you suggesting we get out of here with magic?

It's an option.

( though she's been in deerington long enough that she's aware that something could affect their power or even prevent them from leaving entirely )

There'll be a price to it but I'd prefer not to remain here.

And what sort of magic do you suggest? Something to destroy a wall?

( it would at least give an alternate exit. )

Or something to mitigate the spikes above? Because that seems like the pressing concern here.

SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

DICE BLOCK

DANCE DANCE

THAT'S NOT A "MEH" FACE!

Character Arrival

ambrose spellman ( chilling adventures of sabrina )

dance dance

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emojitastic

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Emojitastic!

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