soddersays | SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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'm gonna ignore those last comments and get right to business. No low-rent porno quotes intended.

[This always scares people, especially kids, but she doesn't have the time or patience to be soft with him. She pulls out a thick leather spiral from the confines of her jacket and opens it, rolling out the various sized and shaped knives that were clearly not meant for cooking. Some were pure silver, one was made from bone. It's a small hunting collection, nothing special, but clearly pilfered and not bought together.]

You can have one of these. So long as you promise not to be a dipshit when you get it because speaking from experience if you don't know how to knife fight and you aren't smart about sporting it, I could disarm you in a matter of seconds.

At least you're not naive, Richie. That'll save you some grief later on. We've got minimal essentials here and from what I've experienced the natives aren't really bending over backwards to help us out.

Edited 2019-09-11 22:11 (UTC)

Shit... [ richie breathes out the word before he can stop himself, admittedly impressed by the collection and feeling a little self-conscious about his tiny pocketknife now.

still, there's something to be said for the fact that instead of using that collection to knife him and steal all his stuff and be on her merry little way, claire had offered him a trade. his hands lightly ghost across the grips of the knives on display before finally settling on the one made entirely of silver. not that he knows it's silver, of course, he only knows enough about knives to avoid cutting himself with his own, but something about it draws him in, even has he pulls his hand back towards his lap in an effort not to appear too eager over the deal. ]

Wow, unhelpful locals, I'm just. Shocked. Astonished. Confounded, even. [ he says in a voice that very much suggests the opposite. ]

You're really just gonna give me a knife if I give you some food?

Edited 2019-09-16 02:22 (UTC)

[Claire is leaning back against the wall nearest to where she laid the knife kit down. She's trying not to be too intimidating, because when show someone a knife set like this they tend to feel like you're about to kill him.

That's not what she's about.]

Clearly, I have more than one knife.

[Claire won't mention anything else yet, but she's clearly getting impatient, hands stuffed in her pocket uncomfortable.]

That one saved me from being a werewolf.

[Completely deadpan.]

Look, just give me the food, I don't have all day and I'm not staying here. Any place that's just gonna put you up has some bullshit intentions. Not interested.

And I have more than one eye but you don't see me offering one of 'em to anyone.

[ it's a bad analogy, and richie is well aware of that, but he caps it all off with an expressive eyeroll behind those coke bottle glasses that make said eyes look so large.

still, claire's comment about a werewolf is more than enough to sell richie on that particular knife and he grabs at it with one hand even as he uses the other to push his little gift basket of goodies closer to claire in a clear agreement of trade. ]

No shit, a real fucking werewolf? [ he brings the knife a bit closer to his face to study it, tapping along the blade thoughtfully with a fingernail. ] That means it's made of silver, right? That's what works in the stories, anyway.

[ it's not hard for him to accept the possibility of werewolves as a thing, in light of derry. it's not hard for him to accept any of this weird shit in light of derry, really. ]

I'm not sure knives and eyes are comparable.

[So, the guy's weird but he seems to be a lot smarter than he looks and quick on his feet. Better to give him the blade if he can use it smartly and not get it turned around on him.]

Yeah, a werewolf. [Little known fact, she had to ingest the heart to return to normal but it's not a story she really feels like sharing. Too near death, and she would've had to die at the hands of Dean and Sam. That makes it worse.] Silver bullets work too. There's a kernel of truth in all the stories but that doesn't make everything you hear true.

Thanks.

[Claire goes through the basket and grabs what she needs, shuffles it into a bag she stole out of one of the rooms that hadn't been occupied. After which she rolls up her kit, and puts it back.]

[ richie offers claire up a diffident shrug and stashes the knife away with a: ] All depends on how you use them, I figure.

[ he gives her comment about silver bullets some serious consideration, tapping the same fingernail that had run along the blade of the knife against his chin as he does so. ]

Silver bullets? Wouldn't a fucking silver bullet have trouble traveling very far? The weight would be all wrong.

[ true enough, but not something an orginary 13 year old boy looking like richi would say. ]

Well, that's only true if you're not shooting them point-blank.

[Which in Claire's experience doesn't seem to be the case, it's a lot easier to get them while they're feeding and you can walk right up on them and hit them two to the chest that way. Especially when the transformation isn't always consistent.]

Why the fuck would you go and let a werewolf get close enough for that?

[ seems like a real good way to die in richie's book, but then, his experience with the supernatural begins and ends with an evil killer clown from space so like. what would he know, right?

he's definitely making mental notes about this shit though, you really never know with derry. ]

They're defenseless when they're eating.

[Less so when someone comes after them with a knife, but the only sure way to become a werewolf is to be bitten and not eaten. It can happen, but it's rare. Typically happens around mating season, little love bites. She doesn't need to go into the details there with him.]

Huh. Duly noted.

[ and it very much has been, whether or not he made an effort to physically write down the note or not. it's a tip he's not going to be forgetting any time soon. ]

Wonder if that applies to other things.

I guess. So long as you get the kill shot. Otherwise, you'll have a pissed off monster or animal for that matter.

[The logic sort of applied to hunting animals too, even if that wasn't her style. She took a long look at the knife she passed him while tearing into one of the snacks from the basket.]

Eat the meat. And you might want to get a sheath for that knife.

Right-ho, Mon Cap'itan!

[ richie offers her an incredibly sloppy salute, and doesn't appear to be taking her words especially serious but he still reaches out for some food from his own basket after a moment and tears into it with the gusto specific to a 13 year old boy.

he talks with food in his mouth, because of course he does. ]

Wouldn't want to cut my wang off by accident, what a tragedy that would be for the whole town.

The only tragedy would be the nurse that would have to stitch up your accidental circumcision.

[Did she go there? She absolutely did. Welcome to your nightmare, Richie. Claire sometimes has even less of a filter.]

[ honestly he's absolutely delighted. up until now only his friends have every been willing or interested in vollying back at him, and he's grinning pretty widely at claire's dig now. ]

You're right, she'd be practically enamored after just one peak, but alas, my heart already belongs to another.

[ he says this with all the overdramatic gravitas to make it clear that this is part of a bit. ]

I hate to break it to you any nurse that's into your dick after an accidental briss isn't the kind of nurse you'd want to keep around.

[It's true, it takes Nurse Ratchet to bold new levels that she's not gonna waste too much time thinking about. Still, the comment with the flourish added in makes her smile. Good for him.]

Wow. Lucky you. Do they know?

Nah, in Derry that's the sort of care you gotta pay extra for.

[ a joke in poor taste? a sad truth of derry? aren't they basically the same thing? ]

Goodness no, I'm far too shy.

[ weirdly honest, considering how brazen he's been with claire up until now. but she's free to assume he's lying. most people do. ]

Derry doesn't sound any different than Pontiac. Except when you steal from people at seventeen it takes two cops to get you into the police station.

[It might have been four years ago but it feels like yesterday. A tired old agent, a promise of juvenile detention, complete orphaning, no parents - no life. One hell of a douchebag willing to trade you out for a good deal.]

You're about as shy as I'm sweet.

[ the thing was, in this one particular subject, 'shy' was perhaps a generous term for how he felt about the idea of eddie ever finding out. 'terrified' was probably more accurate.

so he's just gonna... try to push past this particular topic and pretend it never came up at all, if he can, thanks. ]

Where the hell is Pontiac?

[She catches onto it, but she'll let it pass. There's no sense in beating a dead horse. He was new here too, after all, bigger fish.]

It's in Illinois. It's been almost ten years since I really...

[Had a reason to stay there, had a reason to stay anywhere. Claire rolls her shoulder.]

Anyway, before this place, I was on the road a lot. No one place was home, not really.

Okay, but what's the shittiest place you've rolled through, then?

[ throw him a bone here, claire. he finally gets out of derry and still somehow manages to stay in maine. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

DICE BLOCK

DANCE DANCE

THAT'S NOT A "MEH" FACE!

Character Arrival

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