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

[oversight]

Trying hard not to freak out, there's plenty of thoughts running through his mind, the least of which involves a pistol coming to his rescue. He knows that Dick is out there helping out and it's absolutely luck that has his hands under the hole at just the right time to receive the rebreather.

He's got that transition between his own oxygen stores and the rebreather, but that's cake compared to being trapped without oxygen altogether as the game decides to take its slowest roll yet. Pressing the device into play, he trusts that it's good and blows out what he's got left to clear the water from the system. At the same time, the dice rolls and comes up three, which happens to be a rather poor solution to John's dilemma. Go back three spaces, the game says. Netting him nothing, the trap door doesn't open, but somewhere on his Fluid is a prompt asking if he'd like to take another turn. It's a ten-second countdown, not that he'd know as much. When that finishes, it'll be Dick's turn again.

At least the rebreather seems to be working for now...

[turbedon]

The die starts flashing again and Dick focuses on slamming at the glass some more. The first two strikes don't have much impact, but the third finally helps break through enough of the glass to make a large hole he could feasibly pull Blake out through. Right before the numbers are done flashing, he reaches in to grab for Blake's shirt or hand- something, to help pull the man out. For such a thin, small kid, he's surprisingly strong, and manages to pull Blake halfway out before he has to move.

"I'm gonna go before the game zaps us or whatever for not keeping up," he tells Blake, making sure the man's upper body is secure to the ground of the board before starting to move the six spaces the die has indicated. "Catch you on the flipside."

As he gets closer to the square, he sees the now too-familiar print of the skull and braces himself, glancing around warily as he steps on. Then there's a surge of energy that Dick hasn't felt in a... long time, since visiting Melasurei in Synodiporia. Six giant, pearly grey wings with a bright blue underside sprout from his back, though he doesn't remember the sensation being so painful, and his halo appears in a glowing disk behind his head. Looking back at the wings as they spread and stretch, he sees the myriad of glowing blue eyes studded in the feathers. His own eyes have started to glow, the sclera turned black, but that at least is hidden behind his glasses.

"What-" he begins, but there's an echoing depth to his voice despite the low volume he's speaking with. The ground shakes ominously and Dick abruptly stops talking. Right, Cherubim's voice, he'd forgotten about that. Worried his halo might blind Blake, he pulls up his hood, wings furling to his back as he stays silent. Talk and he might destroy the building they're trapped in. All in all, not the worst 'danger' to be stuck with, but for a chatty kid... it's annoying, to say in the least.

That an he hates this particular form, a reminder of the horrors he'd experienced in Purgatory, ugh. Hopefully it'll recede by the time his turn comes around again.

[oversight]

Blake's just beginning to crawl out of the hole, finally freed as Dick's turn ends and his begins again, he's left to observe the change in the other man, shocked into silence in an entirely different way. He figures he's seen some pretty impressive tech before — holographic projections and the like — but this feels different.

"Uuuh," he says, momentarily distracted as he rolls a six. Remembering the rolling of the ground, he looks at the target. It puts him out there, passing Dick, and he wonders if getting close puts him more at risk.

"You okay?" he asks in passing, offering a thumbs up. Please don't spit fire at me or something, he silently prays as he takes his place on a lucky spot. A shield appears and that worries him for what might be next.

"Lemme use this extra man," Blake says, and before the game can move on, he's graced with a second roll that nets him just shy of the finish line. It's not a great space, either, because a man-sized scorpion pops up to defend it, aggressive tail fended off by Blake with the shield. Until he can take the spot, dripping wet and with only a shield and a rebreather to fend it off, they won't be able to move on to the next roll. "A little help?" He asks. Didn't Dick get some kind of weapon earlier?

[turbedon]

The birdarang is in Dick's hand in a flash of red and he's gesturing with the other for Blake to drop back. After all, he's not sure what the range will be of the explosives in this one, and he'd rather not be responsible for someone's death so soon in a new world.

The red device shoots out of Dick's hand and gets embedded in the base of the scorpion's tail, the little lights flashing with the tell-tale beeping of a bomb. Then Dick's shooting at the scorpion with the handgun, counting bullets in his head as he tries to keep the beast distracted from attacking Blake more until the bomb goes off.

[oversight]

There's only an initial need to fend off the tail with the shield, it's punishing attack quick to push Blake back upon impact. But it doesn't break through the shield, and as more and more of Dick's intervention takes place, the creature it pushed back and away. The countdown ends and with a great noise, the scorpion blows apart into three-dimensional pixels that spread across the ground, blink a few times, and then disappear.

Rubbing at his ear on the side of the explosion and gunfire, Blake moves his jaw around like it's going to ward away the ringing (which, coincidentally, resides behind the water annoyingly hanging out in his ear).

"Ah, nice shot," he says, moving forward to the spot to finish his next round. "Be careful," Blake adds, "and maybe we can bring this home with both of us alive..." No thanks to Blake, really.

[turbedon]

Dick manages a little smirk for Blake's benefit and waits for the dice to roll. As soon as he steps off the square, the wings retract, the halo vanishing under his hood and his eyes returning to normal. On feeling that decrease in weight at his back, Dick pauses and looks over his shoulder, relieved to see he's human again.

"That's something, at least?"

He makes his way over to his destination, stopping just a couple of squares behind Blake, hiding any reservations he might feel about stepping onto another skull...

And then he startles, looking this way and that with a frown furrowing his brow over his glasses.

"... Did the lights go out?"

[oversight]

Blake can feel his heart jump and he stares at Dick, a deep-set frown on his features. He's hesitant to answer, waiting himself for something to happen, like maybe the lights will go out. But time rolls on and after too many seconds holding off, he says, "No," slowly. "Think they might've done that to you."

He figures that they can maybe end this, waiting for his roll to settle. "Got a three, I'm gonna be just short. If you get a six, we can end this," he tells Dick, moving ahead. He ends up on a lucky spot and feels his vision sharpen. What good is excellent eyesight at this point? "Got a weird feelin' I gotta be your eyes," Blake says, ominously.

[turbedon]

"Great."

He sounds so enthusiastic, doesn't he? After all, it's a 1 in 6 chance to win. The odds aren't great, but whatever...

The dice flashes the number 3, but of course, Dick can't see it, so... He turns his head in Blake's direction, asking, "Gonna be my seeing-eye guy?" with a little smirk.

[oversight]

Blake frowns. "You got it, kid," he says, spying the next spot for Dick. It doesn't look good, and Blake says as much. "Prepare yourself. 'Bout five feet ahead, not a good square." And he feels tense looking at it, realizing that they're so close and yet it feels so far. Arms wrapped around himself as he tries to ward off a chill from being soaked and afraid, he convinces himself not to worry prematurely, but considering what they'd just gone through, it's hard not to.

[turbedon]

Bracing himself, Dick walks the five feet in careful, measured steps, and as soon as he stands on the skull, the square changes. It looks almost like a DDR mat, except all nine squares are white without any arrows.

Then the middle square right in front of Dick flashes red three times before a red-hot laser beam shoots up, just barely missing the teen's nose. He feels the heat, though, and steps back automatically, brows rising with surprise over his glasses.

"What am I dealing with?" he barks, none of the jokes from earlier in his voice as he feels the heat vanish, the square turning white again as another starts to blink red.

[oversight]

Blake can feel the breath caught in his throat as Dick very nearly finds himself incinerated (or close), and it comes out in a relieved puff when the laser disappears. Processing quickly, he leans tensely in Dick's direction, voice tense as he says, "A laser grid. It's a three-by-three. Imagine your left top left is one, and bottom right is nine, like a dialpad. Avoid seven until I tell you otherwise. Can you feel the grooves? Find the edges, quick, but don't step outside the grid..."

He can only hope working together like this will mean that Dick keeps his nose, because otherwise he hates the idea of the alternative. Wanting desperately to end this, he'll call out the numbers as needed until the turn ends of one of them makes a mistake.

[turbedon]

Dick successfully dodges the next few blasts of heat, a bit narrowly for the last, but still, he's not even singed, thankfully.

"As soon as your number's up, run!" he suggests, easing back to the middle of the square as he feels the heat recede from the last laser beam.

[oversight]

There's literally no chance that Blake will take his time after everything they've been forced to go through together. He affirms Dick's command and waits anxiously for his turn to come up. It hardly matters what he rolls, and once the number displays — a six — he takes off. It's just a few steps across the finish line, and as he crosses, a pop of confetti explodes into colorful paper around him.

"I'm comin' for you," Blake says. Before he can even think to celebrate, he's looking back to Dick, reaching back over the threshold to pull him to safety. Game over, right? They 'won,' although whether they could count it that way remains to be seen.

[turbedon]

"Wait-" Dick snaps, holding his hand up. "Is the game over?"

It does seem to be.

The die 'dies' and Dick hesitates a moment before twitching and blinking rapidly behind his glasses, his vision gradually returning.

"O... kay, I guess it is," he murmurs, looking around warily before glancing at Blake with a little smirk. "That was whelming."

And then the door out opens, much to the kid's relief.

"There's not gonna be some new game on the other side of that, is there...?"

[oversight]

"Let's hope not," Blake says, with little actual hope, but at least some confidence. Usually Deerington is rough and persistent, but not really the kind of place that heaps and heaps. Not until October, at least.

As they approach the door, Blake tugs on his wet clothes and then pats Dick on the shoulder as they're passing through the threshold. "We should keep in touch."

[turbedon]

Dick grins at that and puts up his fist for a little fist-bump. "I'm up for it."

Don't leave him hanging, Blake.

Except when their knuckles touch, he's going to be treated to a little vision.

It's a large training room, with punching bags, several weight machines, and even some gymnastics rings hanging from the tall ceiling.

A small figure is easily swinging in smooth wheels on those rings - clearly Dick, just maybe a bit younger, but not by much. A year or two, at most. He flips off the rings a couple of times before catching them on his descent, but there's something tense in the way he moves. The way he mutters to himself in a barely audible grumble.

He flips off, flying high and nearly touching the ceiling with his feet, and lands on a stand, but it's slightly off and his arms wheel as he loses his balance. He smoothly transitions into several backflips to keep from hurting himself, eventually slowing and landing on his feet, back smacking a bit too harshly against the wall. Annoyed, the kid turns and slams his fist into the offending wall, leaving a little crater behind.

Scowling at it and brushing the plaster and cement off his calloused knuckles, the takes a seat with a towel over his shoulders, calmly sipping some water, when the door opens, Alfred standing there, stoic as ever, clearing his throat.

"Master Bruce wishes to see you."

Dick stares for a moment, clearly unimpressed at the interruption, but doesn't argue, just dropping the towel and bottle to the bench he'd been sitting on, following the butler through the manor. While the kid clearly can keep a poker face, there's something tense and resigned there, as if he's expecting a lecture.

When Alfred opens the door to the back gardens and, more specifically, the basketball court, Dick's greeted with a basketball nearly smacking him in the chest.

"What's this?" he asks, catching the ball and staring up at Bruce with some mild confusion. The man himself is dressed to work out, smirking down at the short kid.

"Training," he answers, hands braced on his hips. "Hand-eye coordination."

They stare at each other in silence for a moment, Bruce waiting patiently, Dick assessing the situation. Then he smirks, cocking his head to one side.

"One-on-one?"

Bruce's own smile grows a fraction. "If you think you can handle it."

Whatever tension Dick had been carrying, whatever wariness and apprehension, just melts away immediately and the kid darts forward, dribbling the ball and cackling as he weaves around the bigger figure with ease, Alfred himself smiling from the doorway.