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

The barrier stands up to the desperate fist Matt bangs against it but it's no more soundproof than a car with all the windows rolled up; he still hears Wrench's struggling clear enough to imagine the kind of pain he's experiencing. Matt feels up and down the surface of the barrier in case there's a crack or something that could provide a way out of the space but he finds nothing.

Wrench's reassurance doesn't do much. Matt grits his teeth and stands like he's ready to pounce the second the barrier lowers again. He stays in the space waiting for the dice to roll, Wrench does have a good point that the game might deal punishment for breaking rules and while Matt is willing to risk his own safety he has no idea if they'd both be harmed for one person's misbehavior.

"Is there a finish line to end the game?" he asks. The dice fall into place and his choices are revealed. Left the long way around to a safe space or right straight toward the goal but landing on a bad space.

The onscreen display is almost cheerful, its bright flashing lights and colorful images mockingly discordant to what the game itself is bound to hand them in return. Wrench watches the spinning dice, not realizing the way he's holding his breath as the numbers flash and turn and finally come to rest. He examines the board beneath them, mapping out the distance and the alternate routes. When he finds the man's words captured by the voice-to-text on his phone, he frowns and types a response.

YES. IF YOU MAKE IT THERE FIRST, THEY SHOULD LET YOU LEAVE. He's not vying to be the first to cross it. Wrench can endure the pain, if the prizes are worth it. He'd rather stand in this spot and push others through and through as quickly as they can go, trading the wounds this board will give him for whatever might be revealed by those slots that promise prizes and supplies. IF YOU GO LEFT, YOU'LL BE SAFE. IF YOU GO RIGHT, YOU'LL BE HURT, BUT CLOSER TO THE END OF THE GAME. True to his word, Wrench leaves the choice to Matt.

If they make it out and neither of them need emergency medical attention he might thank Wrench for the honesty. He doesn't give it much thought now with the choice before him.

His first choice, the one that he makes in less than a second like instinct, is to go right and take the pain. If it will reduce the game time and with it the number of roles that risk more punishing results then it's worth whatever gets doled out to him. He does have one hesitation.

"Any idea what happens to the loser?"

THE LOSER STAYS UNTIL THEY WIN. It's an educated guess, bolstered by past experience with the games this place enjoys forcing them into. Different as the circumstances may be, it puts Wrench in mind of the underground fighting rings he found himself stolen away to on his own arrival. There he'd faced opponent after opponent, allowing each one of them to take their fear and aggression and desperation out on him, and then to walk free of the place.

He has every intention of doing the same here. At least in this game, he stands to win something for his effort. If he can send people through quickly, he'll face the pain and the torment of the game a hundred times over to gather the supplies that he can.

"Don't hesitate to aim for the finish line then," Matt says. He doesn't know Wrench, doesn't know his values and whether he's the type to hang back on somebody else's behalf or what. Without knowing the full board layout he can't tell at this point if the other man has been trying to win or not. He hates not knowing but he shoves down that silent frustration and makes his next move. A little soon to make assumptions.

Matt goes to the right and the same mocking "Uh oh!" sounds over the speakers when he steps onto the square. What's it going to be? At least in a fight he knows what kind of pain to brace for. He's always able to calculate more. The wait is the worst part, he thinks, almost laughing at how nervous he is compared to usual. He's interrupted by the discomfort of the air getting knocked out of his lungs. He gasps on instinct but the air seems to have disappeared.

Shit. The game is trying to make this worse by scaring him and probably disturbing Wrench as well. If he just- He holds up a hand toward Wrench, like he's telling him to just wait a minute and attempts to croach down and sit on the floor as gracefully as he can as his face and neck go red. At first it's a battle of patience- he's had worse, if he just stays calm he'll be- He loses concentration and his head hits the cold floor at some point. He hears Stick's voice in his mind, berating him for losing control, and panic sets in. What if he was wrong? What if he doesn't wake up in New York again? What if he's really dead? He didn't get to say everything he wanted to Foggy and Karen in Rome. Why didn't he fight harder?

With a jerk, as if someone kicked him to wake him up, he gasps and breathes again. He coughs violently as he struggles to sit up. "Really hate this game," he barely manages to rasp out.