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

[Fern's eyes dart between the kid and the display, as if either the game board or whatever that weird countdown is is going to result in some kind of danger. He isn't opposed to just cheating this stupid game, so he's on alert in case he needs to jump in and be a hero.

He's grateful that isn't necessary yet.]

I think that's a congratulations for not dying.

[He watches the screen as the die rolls for himself, and when it stops he takes a few steps forward to another space. There's a cheerful little noise and a roll of medical bandages drops down onto his head.]

- Hey!

[ louie can't seem to decide whether to direct his glare at the ground the glitter popped up from, fern for his comment, or the board directing them, but eventually settles for the board when his name inevitably pops up again with another number next to it. ]

Great, just what I wanted, a sarcastic board game that's trying to kill me.

[ he's talking to try and stay calm, for the most part. while the glitter bomb was just annoying, the appearance of bandages on the board reminds him all over again of the potential dangers this game could offer and he just. he really really doesn't want to be here right now. ]

What are you even going to do with bandages, aren't you a plant or something?

[He nods. Why on earth would a plant need bandages when he can just regrow himself?]

I think it's making fun of me.

[Buuut they're still getting shoved into his backpack. He knows plenty of people who could make use of them, so he'll give them away once they're back in town.]

Par for the course for Deerington.

Yeah well, uncle Donald would say that Deerington needs an attitude adjustment.

[ louie continues to try and brush as much of the glitter from his clothes and feathers as possible, gathering it all together in a decently sized pile in his hands that he considers quietly for a moment before shoving the handful irritably into his jacket pocket.

maybe if he lives through this stupid board game and back home he can distract webby with the glitter or something.

when his name starts flashing at him from the display board louie jolts anxiously, lets out a sigh that sounds far more like a whine, and forces himself to move forward again. at his new stop, three small chests appear suddenly in front of them, as well as a sign that clearly reads: ] One holds a prize, the other two doom. Choose... wisely?

Your uncle would be right.

[Well, that's a trap if he ever saw one. Fern rests his hands on his hips, squinting suspiciously at the three chests, then glancing around to see if anything else has shown up.]

Hold on.

[He doesn't trust those chests or that sign at all, but if one of them does actually contain treasure then it isn't so bad. He isn't going to tell his kid not to open one of them (something even worse might happen if he doesn't), so to be on the safe side he'll form his battle axe in one hand.]

Alright, ready.

Yeesh, don't let him hear that.

[ louie rolls his eyes when he says it, that sort of childish exasperation with family that you can't help but love anyway.

and then he's back to looking at the three chests in front of him with an intense, probing look, even as all of his previous panic and fear seems to slip away. ]

Nah, this is the sort of thing I'm great at. [ he tosses the words back at fern casually as he makes a tight circle around the chests before stopping short in front of the left most one decisively. ]

This is the one, there's definitely something expensive in here.

[ sure enough, when the opens the chest there's a glittering gold crown inside, just the right size for louie when he places it on his head with a crow of triumph. louie's ability to locate money could almost be considered preternatural, under certain circumstances, but then, everyone needs a skill, right? ]

Very nice, I think this more than makes up for the glitter bomb last turn!

[Fern still holds his axe at the ready, just in case the kid is wrong or it's a trap and none of the chests have any treasure. He's relieved, though, when he finds that he's wrong. The axe disappears back into his hand and he grins.]

Hey, great job! First time I've seen some actual loot around here.

[He watches the screen for his turn. The dice rolls and... he has to go back one square. Not the worst roll ever, thankfully, and he steps back.]