SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.

Comments

Re: Dance Dance

[martha_jones]

[Nothing breaks Martha's heart more than the fact that the Doctor doesn't recognize her. It's like she's looking at an old picture of him and it's sort of him, but it's not someone she knows. And he used to know her. He used to see her---maybe not always how she'd like to be seen by him, but he saw her at least.

Time travel, she figures. However she ended up here, she ended up at a different point on his timeline.

She wonders if he'll remember this when he does meet her, in the future. His personal future.]

What about these? We've got plugs going into the back, but no sockets. And it doesn't look like it needs a coin, it just looks like it's about to start powering up.

Doctor, please! I don't even know how to play this game!

Re: Dance Dance

[borntolove]

You can bypass that part easily. So don't go on it.

[The real question is does he dare try to open the back - up? Because something like that - meddling with the objective so to speak, could trigger the ceiling as Ten eyes up for a moment but his thoughts are interrupted when she says his name. That's interesting. That's a thing. She knows his face and cautiously eyes her and there's a more positive look in those brown eyes - not the undertone of the broken man, Martha first met in the hospital. Though he doesn't ask how she knows his face. All things considered, Rose is ahead of him and Quill might have something to do with his future]

Don't!

[The Doctor scratches the back of his neck in thought and does wonder if there's some sort of one-way mirror where the wires are coming in through the next room and feels the wall and eyes around for a camera and clicks his tongue.]

It looks simple. Step on the arrows.

[martha_jones]

[she pulls off her heels to get better footing]

And just...play through it? Play it until we win?

[She wants to tell him this is just like that stupid trivia game on the ship----remember the ship, sailing into the sun? Or that time they played chess on the mountaintop of Surrey 7657, all those meteors falling around them. These were moments in their life, and it's so hard to see him and know he doesn't know any of them.

But he will, she thinks. And she's fought beside him even when he had no idea who she was before. She just didn't think she'd ever have to do that again.]

All right. So I stand on here, step on the arrows. You stand on that side, do the same? It's song-based, yeah? We can do this.

[borntolove]

[It's not worth the risk. Not with her in the room with him to take the backing off the console.]

Yup! We play. We have fun.

[Their lives aren't on the line at all.]

Yup. Seems so.

[Ten gives Martha an overconfidence smile that there isn't any risk involved; that he's not scared. Expect he sort of is]

Let's get started.

[martha_jones]

[Oh, Martha knows that smile. He gives it to her, and she gives him an unimpressed look back]

So how likely is it that once we start the ceiling just drops down on us?

Or that we just have to keep playing until we've failed enough and the ceiling lands on us?

[She gives him a pleading look---please Doctor, please remember that I'm worthy of being talked to.] Tell me what is really going to happen here. Please.

[borntolove]

That all depends - on how many feet one mistake costs us.

Well we could tamper and take off the back and see how the machine is wired on the inside but doing so may trigger the ceiling to come completely down on us.

Our best chance is to play.

[martha_jones]

And there's no way to see how far it would fall if you tried?

[Martha doesn't want to agree, but she does. She tosses her shoes aside and steps onto the machine.]

Just step on the arrows, right?

[borntolove]

Follow the arrows on the screen.

[Don't worry, if one of them messes up he is listening for the ceiling]

Rock on.

[martha_jones]

[Martha hits a button, and tries to set it for the lowest setting possible, but those controls look like they're locked.]

It's starting!

[This can't be that hard. This can't be that hard. Nevermind that she failed every dance class her mother tried to put her in when she was young.]

[borntolove]

Yup.

[Of course, it's ridged with the settings. Someone he's not surprised. Time to find out how much this body of his can or can't dance]

[martha_jones]

[The first set of arrows begin to drop, and Martha stumbles, but hits them pretty solidly. It's all on beat, which she's comfortable with. She was awful at dance, but she could carry a tune, could hit a few notes when needed. This isn't that different. Like a drumbeat.

Then a blue arrow drops and when Martha moves to hit it, she misses. Something off-beat?

There's the sound of screeching, and chains moving above them as the ceiling begins to drop a little.]

Doctor!

[borntolove]

[The Doctor heard the ceiling drop and sounded about a foot. The easy part - are the arrows because his brain is predicting the pattern a few minutes in. What he's not sure about was if this body could dance or not. Considering his last incarnation wasn't the best. However, he is thankfully finding this body of his capable of having rhyme]

Keep focus!

[He has noticed in his peripheral vision that Martha's screen mirrors his own]

And listen to my voice.

Left. Up Up. Hold. Right. Down. Double side.

[Martha may notice that he's able to voice sync perfectly the moves; as if his brain found the pattern]

[martha_jones]

[Well, thank goodness his brain got the pattern, because Martha was starting to really get worried she wasn't going to catch the pattern at all.]

Right, down, double side.

That blue one, that's an off-beat one, I missed it before!

[borntolove]

Two feet. Two arrows. Keep up!

[The Doctor continues to shut the arrow pattern - that is until the song is over and collapses on the dance pad. That's one way to break-in his legs. Least non-classic dancing anyways]

[martha_jones]

[Martha leans against the machine itself, taking in big breaths. She's pretty physically fit, but that's certainly a workout.]

How many rounds do you think we're going to need before they just drop the ceiling down on us?

[borntolove]

[He doesn't know only clings to the railing to pull himself up from the splits on the floor. It wasn't so much as being unfit as this body of his not broken in yet in some ways. Though so far - there has always been a way out. Just after a long and gruesome trial. His breath almost caught up, is about to reply when a door materializes on the wall. Which cues him running; legs exhausted be damned. As The Doctor opens the door remarks]

By the way, who -?

[The Doctor is cut short as the door handle just jolted a few thousand volts into him - don't worry. He's okay. Slightly frazzled but okay.]

Are you?

[martha_jones]

Doctor!

[Martha jerks back as he has volts of electricity shot through him. She looks around immediately for something to pull him off of the handle. Nothing metal, something wooden or rubber----

And then he's fine. She stares at him, mouth open for a moment. How does he do that? Just survive when something should absolutely have killed him.

She blinks at him, at his question, and then extends a hand. She tries not to look sad, because there's no need for sadness, not for him. He just doesn't know her yet. He's got all of that to look forward to.]

Martha. Martha Jones. Doctor Martha Jones, actually.

[borntolove]

[Ten shakes it off, a bit literally with the right hand that attempted to open the door. He's fine. Just fine. Just a few thousand volts. Though it is good to know that is still a thing that works for him. Unlike some abilities that have been lost.

Ten takes the offered hand and gives a big smile, looks directly at her and firm handshake]

Good to meet you, Doctor Martha Jones.

[No pressure Martha but if you've traveled with him he expects great things from you. As Ten does stare into her, he's also taking in the person that will come after Rose or least that's who it could be. What did he put her though? Was he cold and distant? Shaking his head tries to not think about the inedible of losing Rose and tries the door again- which this time does open and no shock.

Ten slowly creaks the door open - and peeks his head out and then a foot out and it's - Staggering Heights Theme Park theme park, which is up and running and the interesting thing is about - the time. Though after that one month of twilight twenty-four hours a day; it's hard to tell when something is weird or they just spent more time playing that dance game than they thought]

This looks like fun, doesn't it?

[Though he's going to be cautious after that carny that came into town]