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

>>emoji madness

[ They didn't have emojis in 1953. They also didn't have cell phones, or anything even resembling this smooth, flexible wristband of technology that is currently blinking at him. Even the material feels out of this world - or maybe just out of his world. A place he, most certainly, isn't in anymore.

He stares at the Fluid, absolutely at a loss for what any of this means. What even is 😍 supposed to be? A secret message from the Chinese? ]

Well, that's certainly unheard of.

>>wildcard

[ Want something else? Go nuts! ]

[You rang for the Chinese, good Sir? Well, have one specimen staring over your shoulder.]

Hmmm... A moon with blood stains?

[He's not even a little serious, but it's as close to a guess as he has all the same.]

[ Oh crap. Speak of the devil and all that - Asian faces are a strange thing to Hawkeye Pierce and although he's a humanitarian, a staunch advocate for healing the injured no matter their ethnicity or national allegiance, he also can't deny that North Korean and Chinese soldiers have tried very hard to kill him these last three years.

So, forgive him if he's just a tad cautious. It's nothing personal. ]

And a little happy smile? That's pretty cryptic, don't you think?

[At least the long hair isn't especially Maoist? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But no offense taken, regardless.]

A smile..?

[It could be, he supposes, though he's never seen one stylized in that particular way. A thought occurs to him, and he raises a finger, proud of his perfect answer to this riddle. (Spoilers: it's not perfect, and he knows it. But it's something he enjoys thinking about, which makes it good enough.)]

Emperor's Smile!

The emperor is the son of the heavens. The moon could be seen as the same!

Oh! So it's like a riddle! [ That makes zero sense but it's not like he's got any better suggestions right now. ]

Why is the emperor bleeding out of the eyes? That can't be a good omen.

It's a riddle no matter how you look at it.

[But probably not in that particular way, no. Still, is there really any reason to think on it more seriously than Wuxian is doing? It's a tiny image on... some sort of magical bracelet. It needn't mean anything.]

Ahhhh.... There, you have me stumped. Maybe he drank too much of the alcohol named after him?

[Hangovers may not actually make your eyes bleed, but it can feel like they do.]

That can happen. I would know, I'm a doctor.

[ A doctor painfully and intimately familiar with all the side effects of excessive alcohol consumption. ]

What, uh... what emperor are we talking about here?

Then I'll certainly defer to your expert opinion!

[Especially since it coincides with his own.]

What emperor... I don't actually know which one.

[He scratches his head a bit, vaguely embarrassed not because he doesn't know the answer, but because he's never posed himself the same question.]

All I know is that Emperor's Smile from Gusu is the finest alcohol I've ever tasted.

[ Ah, there's a thing he has some actual expertize with! ]

You know what? I bet that's the solution to the riddle - we should find a bar. Alcohol is always a solution, in my experience.

Maybe not a good solution, but still a solution.

If the doctor says so, I can only concur!

[He'd argue that alcohol is always a good solution indeed, but it's not worth the effort of even a fake argument when they're going out drinking already.]

How about this: if they have Emperor's Smile, I will treat you! If they don't, you can pick a drink and treat me.

[Listen... he can try?]

Pixel-based iconography.

I prefer :-) It's a little less convoluted.

I'm not sure about their, well, particular relevance at least as it pertains to this specific system.

I had something like twin dancing sisters? I don't know.

Edited (i am so sorry) 2019-09-09 10:23 (UTC)