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

[Even with all the bolstering, there are so many little kernels of truth in this child's behavior. It would take a blinder man to not see them all at once, and despite the natural tendency he has to point them out, Magnus is filing away some of that recognition for a later time.

Since his arrival in Deerington, he's already had to come to terms with certain inadequacies he's never had to cope with before. His magic was on a leash, and even with the book of white he's not been able to resolve it.]

Whether you like it or not, half-pint, my services are required in this particular case. If not for your lack of rhythm than certainly for your ineptitude for teamwork.

[Harsh? Not quite, the way it rolls off his tongue doesn't have the usual bite and with an irritated roll of his eyes he snaps his fingers, energy coming to dwell within his palms, he pushes that energy downward, and then throws it up - the ceiling breaking apart from the impact, shrapnel and debris raining down around them.

The energy it's taken to simply get that done has him melting down against the back bar of the dance machine, thankfully it's providing some protection from the spell.]

Oh, and - don't flatter yourself. I wouldn't have played this game with you anyway. The music is terrible and you're a little young for me yet, biscuit.

[ magnus doesn't know richie well enough yet to know how truly shocking it is to find richie trashmouth tozier at a loss for words, but that last little pet name sure managed to do it for him. he splutters violently for a moment, not even bothering to give the newly blasted hole in the ceiling a second glance. his eyes are wide behind those thick, magnifying lenses. ]

Biscuit????!?

[ and anyway, who the fuck does this guy think he is, judging richie about shit that he hasn't even made an effort to give the man an impression of yet? attacking his rhythm and teamwork of all things?? people are free to think he's dumb as a bag of rocks, but those are two things he simply won't budge on.

he takes a blatantly confrontational step toward magnus, uncaring that he just saw this guy blast a hole in the ceiling with, ah fuck, magic maybe? who the fuck even knows. ]

Hey, fuck you. You don't know the first fucking thing about my rhythm or my teamwork! [ it's not as if he'd even made the slightest attempt at either with magnus.

he'd been a little too busy trying not to panic at the setting to put any sort of effort into anything else. ]

[The bewilderment at such a simple word or turn of phrase is telling, but Magnus is still reeling from the gutshot of using his abilities, so, the most he can offer Richie is a sarcastic look and a toothy grin that suggests his thoughts on the matter.

It takes a lot more effort than he's comfortable with to settle into a seated position against the crossed bars of the game system, being out of breath just adds insult to injury.]

I'm sure you're quite the Fred Astaire and a philanthropist to boot. I can tell, even now, that you're just dripping with genuine empathy and concern for others around you.

[Rim-shot. Whoever this child was, maybe he's being tougher on him than he should be but life or death situations bring that out in him. As did agonizing pain and the buffer on his magic.]

You're welcome, by the way.

[ richie is great at throwing out his own nicknames to other people, much less suited to receiving anything back in return. even trashmouth had been a name he'd gone and adopted with the sort of grim determination so as to more or less make it his own again in the end.

and biscuit? biscuit has a connotation to it that he's definitely not comfortable analyzing for long in a setting like this. ]

Fred Astaire? [ a wrinkled nose, a scoff and shake of his head. ] How fucking old are you?

And why should I be expected to give a fuck about some strange adult, anyway? Pretty sure I've been told not to even talk to people like you. [ not by his own parents, of course, but he's heard it once or twice from stan's and he figures that counts. ] You could be dangerous.

[ considering how poorly he reacted to the pet name and the town and era he came from, that particular combination of words could easily have taken on a far more insidious implication, after all hasn't richie heard more than enough derisive comments about men that wear makeup for him to start drawing some pretty grim conclusions?

there's nothing recriminatory or even especially accusatory in his voice when he says it though. plenty of aggression, sure, but it's shallow and put upon like a mask. he's been acting a bit like a caged animal since he got trapped in here and the blown hole in the ceiling has at least managed to loosen some of the tightness around his shoulders but he's already letting his eyes slide away from magnus towards that source of freedom with a slightly desperate light behind them. ]

Too old.

[It comes out between wheezes, Magnus has since lost interest in the back and forth. While typically a verbal jousting session was at least entertaining for some time, this had gone on long enough. It's concerning that such a simple act would leave him depleted and he's silent, ringing in his ears, as the child beside him continues to spew petty insults and unconvincing rhetoric.]

By all means, leave then.

[Magnus was dangerous, it was true, but he'd never be so upset over this loss of magic as to take it out on a child. Lethargy has set in, spun him out in a way that he's never known. Magnus rests his cheek against the cool metal support bar of the game and it feels nice. That should be enough to upset him, but right now he's not thinking of anything but the relief.]

The only danger here is no longer an issue.

[ magnus is struggling visibly enough at this point that even through his anxiety induced anger richie can recognize the signs and it draws him up short a bit in his desire to pick a fight with the nearest asshole.

he nearly asks the man what's wrong with him, even starts to take a smaller, uncertain step closer with none of the previous underlying negative connotations to it, but he draws up abruptly short when his eyes settle once more on the machine that magnus is leaning against for support.

there's a clearly audible hitch in his breathing and he backpedals quickly, memories of bowers and the arcade and pennywise after still far too fresh in his mind right now, too raw. he can't... he can't do this right now, can't be in front of people with probing eyes, and magnus' eyes have proven far too probing in just the short time he's known him.

he has to get out of here. ]

I... fuck, yeah, I'm out of here. Try not to die in here or whatever.

[ and with those inspiring words, richie turns on his heel and escapes the room as quickly as one possibly can without actually resorting to running, quickly slipping out of sight. ]