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

➼ i. ARRIVAL

[ Matt’s already disoriented when he wakes up. He heaves a gasping breath, mind flooding with everything’s that just played out. He knows he’s somewhere new. There’s nothing familiar and it puts him on high alert. He feels his way toward the music, but he doesn’t hear anyone. He’s almost sure he’s alone and he accidentally finds the basket, and he doesn’t even think before he’s twisting open the jar and shoving the food inside his mouth.

He just nearly died. Again. He’s starving.

Stumbling out the door, he’s only vaguely aware of his bloodstained clothes and the bruising on his face. This definitely isn’t New York. ]

Hello? Can someone help me —

[ Fuck pretending not to be blind. Matt’s willing to swallow his pride to fight off any rising panic. ]

➼ ii. DICE BLOCK

[ Well, he’s cleaned up a little bit. His face is still beat to shit and he’s moving like his whole body aches, but there’d been fresh clothes waiting for him, and glasses, and a cane. That’s a start.

But he’s quickly learning that this place is more bizarre than what Matt’s usually facing. Walking through a door and ending up in what sounds like a life size board game is new for him. His brow furrows, and he tips his chin up a bit, looking both thoughtful and annoyed. ]

You’re kidding, right?

[ He says this to the other person he knows is there. He hopes that they’ll help him navigate to good spaces, but people aren’t maybe as good as Matt used to think they were. ]

Who goes first?

➼ iii. EMOJIS

[ When Matt’s phone dings, he doesn’t think anything of it. He doesn’t really know anyone here, but people send misfires all the time. His phone doesn’t read it out to him, though, and he frowns. Did someone send him a blank message?

What Matt doesn’t know is that the message is a single emoji.

What Matt does know is that he starts feeling queasy not too long after.

It’s that unpleasant limbo of not-quite-vomiting, but, God, it’d probably feel nice if he could. He sits down on the first bench he comes across - well, stumbles across - and he’s unaware of how pale his face has become. He feels the heat under his skin and the sweat on his face and neck. If you see him, maybe it’s better to just keep walking. Or you can offer him a glass of water and some pepto. ]

➼ iv. WILDCARD

Choose your own adventure. Everything is fair game except DDR, because Matt’s not going to be able to help you by stepping on the lights. Sorry.

[ The wind stirs and the sound of wings brush across the air heralding the presence of another.

Castiel crouches close, his eyes lingering on the soul before him. ]

You're hurt.

[ It's not a question but a statement delivered by a gravel-like voice trespassing in his personal space. ]

Edited 2019-08-27 03:12 (UTC)

Thanks.

[ He doesn’t mean to be short, probably, but he’s aware. And he definitely looks too clean cut in his suit and his attention to grooming to say, oh I was a one man army against a prison of inmates who were bribed to do me in.

Matt exhales, tilting his head vaguely towards the voice. ]

Where the hell am I.

[ Castiel is unaware of the short response and continues on without inflection. ]

A pocket dimension masquerading as a city in the northern hemisphere.

[ A pocket dimension.

Matt shouldn't be surprised. Aliens have invaded New York City. Ninjas have come back to life. Danny Rand was apparently raised in some mystical city hidden from the world. Matt, himself, has abilities beyond normal and he lives in a world full of people with powers greater than his own.

But a pocket dimension? There's something about the casual way the man says it that makes Matt's eyebrows go up. ]

Where in the northern hemisphere are we talking?

Maine.

Maine.

[ Not quite New York. Not too far away, all things considered, since the northern hemisphere covers a lot.

Matt grunts a bit as he bites through the whole body ache. ]

I can't stay here.

You can't leave either, not by choice.

[This isn't the way the idiom goes.

Wrench takes in the man with bemusement before turning a full circle to look about the room. He's sure there must be a mounted camera somewhere. The Mayor must surely be live-streaming the video feed for his own sick sense of amusement. Forget purgatory and redemptive acts and overt lessons in morality. This is a circumstance best dreamt up in the mind of an overgrown adolescent.

A name flashes onscreen that Wrench doesn't recognize, and he pays another appraising look to his present company. His own introduction to this place was not so long ago that the memory has faded, and his shoulders slump as he recalls. Wrench can't imagine his own unwitting partner was any happier to find him at the other end of the chain. Maybe it's a lesson after all. He reaches out and gives the man a warning tap on the bicep, then takes up his free hand to fold down two fingers. Wrench doesn't expect the action to go over particularly well, but hey. He's trying here.]

[ Matt's instinct when he hears the other person coming over is to move, but he doesn't, he stands there and waits. He waits for words and instead he gets a touch. A light tap and then -

Of course.

Matt actually laughs. He has to laugh, because this? This is the sort of stuff that people can't make up. And this method is fine for now, but what happens when they start moving and Matt can't see the numbers and his partner in misery isn't there to help? Experimentally, he slides a foot out, satisfied when he feels there's a definite edge to each square. ]

This should be fun. [ Matt realizes he has no idea if the man can tell what he's saying or not. He's just going to go on the blind (ahahaha) assumption that he can and hands over the cane. ] Can you tap this to let me know how many spaces I need to move on my next turns?

[He expected a less permissive reception, but Wrench finds some measure of relief to know the man doesn't find him a threat. It's beyond his desire to imagine the level of trust it must take for the stranger to find himself locked in this sick funhouse and not lash out at the first thing within striking distance. But he watches with cautious interest as the other man's expression splits into an actual smile, and Wrench finds enough levity for a grin of his own. It's not wholly silent, but the breathless push of air isn't much of a laugh either. Just a note of something that wishes to be more cathartic.

Hesitant as he is to take the cane, Wrench knows better than to argue any method the other man thinks might be effective. He holds it experimentally, weighing it with a bit of surprise. Somehow he expected it to be considerably more substantial. Wrench grasps the grip and taps the end experimentally straight down on their game board, then looks gazes back up at the man with a curious expression. His face is painted with a question he realizes there isn't much hope of the other reading from him: did that make enough of a sound?

It hardly seems fair that he can see the expanse of the game board laid in front of them. The spaces indicating trouble are numerous, while those with reward are far fewer and sparsely distributed. He lays a hand on the man's shoulder, meaning to turn him, but thinks better of it for a moment. Good or bad, Wrench isn't sure he's ready to accept the other man's path as his own fault.]

[The Doctor just happens to be within earshot - which for Ten could be a few blocks away. When The Doctor spins around rather dramatically and spots the other man in the suit as well, asking for help and runs over. Upon coming closer, notices the bloodstained clothes. Reaching out for the other with his arms remarks]

Hallo, I'm The Doctor and if you come with me I can help you.