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soddersays2019-08-25 12:00 am
sodder) wrote in soddersays2019-08-25 12:00 am
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SEPTEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
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!
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.
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.
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It's not very long after that a familiar horse-shaped figure comes bouncing down the stairs with dramatic energy — Bullseye whinnies, sliding across the wooden floor of the downstairs before he realizes what Woody had woken him up for. You can practically see it in the horse's eyes: Is that?! Could it be?! It is!]
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But they're still kids.
[Kids who need protecting - saving from the awful things that lurk in this awful place.
Luckily there is something that will make Jessie feel better every time without fail and that is one (1) ragdoll horse. She heard that familiar thump-thump and the worry just melts from her. Her smile widens at the sight of him, the trustiest heckin' steed. ]
Bullseye!!
[She launches herself at his horsey neck, pulling him into a hug and giving his mane a good scritching. Telling him he was a great boy, who's the best boy? HE'S the best boy.]
How did he even get here? Is he sleeping too?
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He at least can think about it all later. Bullseye's gone and saved him from letting his brain wander too far, and as Jessie and Bullseye hug, he stands with a cocked hip, looking pleased by the reunion. He'll take whatever happy moments he can get in a place like this, alright?]
I imagine he must be, same as us... the weird thing is, I woke up one day to find him napping in my blessing basket. Weird way to show up, but I guess it makes more sense than a toy in his own bed.
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She hugs the heck out of the BEST HORSE THAT EVER LIVED because this makes everything else bearable. She and Bullseye have been through some stuff together- she's so glad to have him here too. ]
Guess you've got a point. And he could have just wandered in there anyway. Could've been in a sunspot.
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Where there's a sunspot, there's a Bullseye.
... It's honestly a relief to have you guys showing up like this, after those first months—
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I'm just — It's — Y'know.
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I know. And I'm real glad to be around with you guys. Don't reckon this place would be half as bearable alone.
[She gives Bullseye another pat before resting her hand on a cocked hip, giving him a look. ]
'Sides, it's probably good I'm here. Someone has to keep you and Buzz outta trouble. Mostly you.
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Hey now.
[And he mirrors her pose, albeit more dramatically. Mostly to be ridiculous.]never get into trouble. I'm an upstanding citizen who minds my manners.
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Uh huh. So you're tellin' me you've been polite as anything to everyone here, and at no point said anything sarcastic or pitched a fit because someone ruffled your feathers? Not once?
[She SEES you, bro. You can't fool her. ]
1/5
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Yup. That's what I figured.
[She's going to have to go and talk to people, she just knows it. To try and convince them Woody isn't a jerk, he just sometimes lets his mouth run before his brain. He's the best, really. It's her duty as the marginally more reasonable sibling.
(She really isn't. They're as bad as each other, but she can pretend).]
Buuuuuuuut you were here by yourself and that's a good reason to be a little more ornery than usual. I guess. How many people was it?
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I'm not even sure you could go five minutes without speaking your mind, Jess.
[Pride folks are ornery and vocal, and you know it.]
... Chara's one — rude kid, careful around that one. Also some putz who calls himself 'Reaper'... and this 'Wade' guy who threw a fit at me when I said the Betties were a bunch of creeps.
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Hey! That's-
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[She would have probably tried to kick them in their shins, too.
She makes a mental note of the names- possibly for apologies but just as likely for gentle threats to not hurt the gangly cowboy or else. ]
Reaper sounds like a name someone would give himself if he was tryin' a mite too hard to impress someone. [But hey colour her curious.] Who are the Betties? Are they creepy?
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[Oh no, don't let him get all heated.]
And the Betties...! The Betties are these creepy gals running around with these masks on, and they act more plastic than any toy you'll meet; they were dragging people into the alleys not very long back...! I had to scare them off from some people in secret.
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[He does sound like a whackadoo. Jessie will add him to her mental list of people to absolutely avoid forever, thanks. ]
What? Why were they dragging people into alleys? What were they even trying to do to them?
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[Reaper's just a dirty dog. But then again, Reaper's probably more than happy to have naysayers, so maybe Woody's just doing him a service by sounding so displeased, he figures. He moves along to the other topic at hand, with that thought.]
I think in hindsight, they were... luring people and forcing them to fight each other in rooms. Like sparring? But — I guess now that I look back... they must've been preparing them for the dome, I reckon.
[Woody's already getting used to how this place works, and that's not great.
He knows, okay?]
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[She takes a moment to decide exactly what that was. ]
I mean, nice of them to try and prepare folk for the death-trap, but also maybe don't abduct people to do that? Or y'know, warn them about it so they don't wind up in there? Or ask them if they wanna train first? Or... pretty much any option that doesn't involve dragging them into a dark alley?
[What is WRONG with people, Woody?]
Did these Betties see you? Are they somethin' we need to worry about?
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[He frowns.]
I don't know if I'd see 'em as trying to prepare folks out of niceness. The mayor fella, I think... he had some part in the dome that got a lot of people hurt. And if I'm reading the room right, the Betties are probably ran by him. Or they'd do what he asked, anyway.
Either way... You see someone with a weird ceramic-type mask, you skedaddle.
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[Woody what is actually the hell wrong with this entire place? She makes a mental note to avoid the holy heck out of all of this.
Or, you know, fight them. Whichever seems the best choice at the time.]
Pretty sure I'd skedaddle from anyone wearing a weird ceramic mask. Don't want none of that, thank you kindly.
[No. No thanks. Still, this just goes to show that Woody has been through a lot while he's been here- and for the most part he's been on his own. She's already pretty worried about him back home, and this isn't helping any.]
Sorry you've been dealing with all of this on your own. Can't've been easy.
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