DECEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to December's Test Drive Meme!

This month's Test Drive's theme is: PROPHETIC HORROR.

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: Possible death via exposure (freezing), Krampus imagery, possible vore, visual and auditory hallucinations, monster violence, stalking, decapitation

Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One Prompt Two Character Arrival Master Navigation

VANISH LIKE THE WARM STOVE

Winter has set in in Deerington and it’s as harsh as one would expect for the frigid mountains of inland Maine. There’s snow on the ground, icicles hanging off of most buildings, and black ice all over the roads. Better be careful where you step or you might just slip and hurt yourself while you’re walking around town!

But there’s something unusual about the cold. It feels bone-deep and no amount of layers or staying inside seems to make it shake. Your teeth are always chattering, you feel the need to hunch in on yourself to keep any heat from escaping, and if you look at your hands, you might see them go from bright red, to white, to even the slightest tint of blue throughout the day. You’re getting colder by the minute and it feels like there’s no way to stop it. Maybe you’re just doomed to freeze.

The box is waiting on a bench. You didn’t see who placed it, but there’s a small tag with your name on it, so clearly it was meant for you. If you ignore the box, it will start to show up on random surfaces around town wherever you might be; the kitchen counter, a desk or display case at your work, the floor of your bedroom… No matter where you are, the box is there too. Eventually, you might as well just give in and open it.

Inside every box are three matches. They’re relatively long, like the sort you’d use to light a fire in a fireplace, and they appear to be completely normal. People who can sense magic won’t get a reading off of the match and no amount of testing the wood or the tip will show anything other than the exact chemical make up one would expect. So maybe they’re safe! There’s a small note tucked inside the box with only two words written in childishly messy scroll; Keep Warm.

If you light the match, you’ll find that you’re instantly starting to feel a little less cold. It’s the first bit of heat you’ve managed to snag in so long that you’ll probably find yourself a little desperate to hold onto it. The matches burn at a relatively steady rate, not too fast or too slow, and the wind can easily blow them out, so be careful! You’ll have to protect the flame from the elements if you want to keep yourself toasty. The only strange thing that you might notice is that whenever you’re near another person who has a lit match, both the matches seem to burn a little stronger and stay lit a little longer. So maybe you’ll have to pair up and learn to share. If you’re smart, you’ll light just one of each of your matches at a time, giving you a total of six chances to keep yourself from freezing to death.

There’s always a catch though, isn’t there? Each match will come with a unique vision as the flame dies out. A vision that can be seen by both of you. The vision will belong to whoever’s match as burning and it will be as vibrant and detailed as if you were really in the middle of it.

The end of the first match will show you something you want. It can be anything; a warm meal, a new bed, an object from home you’ve longed for. You’ll be able to pick it up, taste it, smell it, do whatever you would normally do; but at the end of the day, it isn’t real, and ultimately you might find that you’re just chewing on your own (or your companion’s) hand.

The end of the second match will show a vision of someone that you miss. Whether it’s from home, a previous world, or someone who’s come and gone from Deerington, you’ll see them clear as day, calling for you and beckoning you to come with them. It’s probably best to not. After all, you’d have to leave your matches behind, and it’s cold out there.

The end of the third match will show you a vision of somewhere you miss. It’ll be like you’re standing in the middle of the very place you’ve been longing for ever since you arrived in Deerington — maybe even longer. It’ll look, sound, smell, and feel like the place you’ve missed most. It’s almost easy to want to stay and forget to come back to reality and light your next match.

If you both can make the six matches stretch until the sun sets, you’ll find that the cold has finally broken, and you’re able to keep yourself warm again. If you don’t? Well, it’s time to find someone else with a bundle of matches, and hope they’re okay with some basic invasion of privacy to stop you both from getting hypothermia.

BETTER WATCH OUT

Have you been a good person this year? Probably not! This is Deerington after all and everyone’s got a sin or two they’ve committed that they’ve been carrying around some deep shame about. Whether it’s something you’ve done here or something you did back home, the things your character feels guilt over will start to plague them more and more frequently as of late. Maybe you’ll start to see small little snippets of the memory flash before your eyes, or hear the voices of the people you’ve hurt calling out to you for mercy. No matter how it manifests, it’ll be gnawing at your insides, growing more and more impossible to ignore.

It might just be the paranoia from having to flashback to your worst memories at all hours of the day, but eventually you start to feel like someone (or something) is following you. You hear the scrape of nails against cement, the thud of heavy footsteps, or the sound of a heavy sigh by your ear accompanied with the smell of rancid breath. But every time you go to look, it seems like there isn’t anything there. No matter how logical a person you might be, you still end up feeling a little on edge, and you know you’re right about being… well, stalked. You may not be the sort who usually goes for comfort from others, but something inside of you tells you that maybe you’ll be a little safer if you aren’t alone. You seek out a friend, a colleague, or even a complete stranger— just someone who might make this creeping suspicion of being watched go away for a little while.

Except the moment that the two of you are together, Krampus finally arrives. He seems to fall from the sky, landing in front of you with a ground shaking thud, his long tongue hanging out of a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. He’s ever bit the demon you’d expect him to be and he looks hungry. You can try to run or you can try to fight, but he’s quick and strong, certainly hard for any normal human to take down. And if you look into his eyes, then things are about to get a whole lot worse.

Whoever locks eyes with him will have the very thing you have been feeling guilt over put on display for both you and your companion to see. It’ll be like you’ve been transported directly into the memory, Krampus’ clawed hand gripping your shoulders and forcing you to watch whatever your shame is play out in front of you all over again. The detail is striking and there’s nothing left out, no matter how hard you or your companion try to stop it.

When the memory stops playing, Krampus will start to move his tongue around you, wrapping you in the long, blood red muscle like it’s a snake. You can try to break free and it’s possible to cut the demon’s tongue with a sharp blade if you or your companion happens to have one; whatever you do, it’s best to do it quickly before you end up a snack.

Krampus can be taken down in one of two ways; either the person who is experiencing the guilt must confess their sin out loud and profusely apologize, begging for forgiveness for their misdeeds or he can be taken down in a somewhat simple ceremony. The chains dangling from the Krampus wrists must be grabbed and somehow secured into the ground; this will weaken Krampus greatly and leave him more vulnerable to attack. Once he is secured, you must take off his head. It doesn’t matter if it’s cut off, ripped off or blown off, the moment the neck is severed from the rest of the body, the Krampus will turn a deep black, like coal, before crumbling into dust, leaving only the head behind.

A little messy, but definitely efficient.

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

Mm. ( he gives stefan a tight lipped smile. he can feel the discomfort from his own stab wound, but the fact he's a little drunk is helping to numb that somewhat. besides what's a little physical pain? it feels good. ) Figured I'd better give you the heads up about that. Better me than someone else. ( right? right? isn't he right? finger guns. pew. pew. pew. )

You're in for a whole lot of crazy, brother. ( it's a whole shit show. and there's nothing they can do about it. but look at how well he's been doing being stuck here. he can just be himself again. isn't that great? ) Better be prepared. You know, mentally, physically, spiritually...

Oh, I'm sure I'll be fine. I always am, right? ( until he wasn't. until he turned off his humanity or got locked in a safe for three months or got his heart pulled out. until then. )

When's the last time you weren't drunk, Damon? ( this is definitely a damon he remembers but hasn't seen in a long, long time. which could mean a number of things, all of them either confusing or bad. )

Telling me you can't get through this whole thing without being intoxicated?

Telling me you can't get through this whole thing without being intoxicated? ( childishly repeats it after him with a roll of his eyes. yeah, they're so not going there. no ruining the mood. )

You keep saying you're fine which is only making me think that you're not. ( he narrows his eyes at him before letting out a bit of a chuckle. ) Well. It's okay to let loose, you know. We're just dreaming, right? ( and now that stefan's here, maybe it's time the salvatore brothers have a few adventures together. )

Want to go do something crazy? Come on. Let's go jump off a cliff. Who knows what'll happen? Maybe we'll wake up.

Edited 2019-12-14 16:35 (UTC)

Well, you did just stab me so maybe I'm not fine. ( but everything else is fine, damon. besides, even if it wasn't (and it's not), he can't really talk about it with this damon because this damon's not going to know what's going on.

this damon is...different. a thing of a past that both of them had moved on on from. )

Is that what you've been doing for fun here? Drinking and trying to see how badly you can hurt yourself? ( with healing dulled, stefan doesn't even want to think of how much damage damon's done to himself. )

No? ( maybe? a little. gotta try to push the limits, right? figure out what's what however he can. not like he had anything to lose. not then. now? well, it's a little bothersome that stefan's here. he's back to having to give a shit and he might be a little pissed about it. he steps forward and wraps his arm around his shoulder in a goodnatured, affectionate, brotherly hug. )

I'm fine. ( just pulling a stefan now. ) Everything's peachy. Hey. Want a tour of Deer Town? Play a little game of catch while we're at it? ( he shoves at stefan hard just then, all of a sudden, pushing him into the middle of the road just as a car zooms past and it almost, almost runs him over. oops? )

I'll give you a head start. ( what better way to deal with the freezing temperatures than to zip about town? he's also had enough of stefan being judgy towards him. if his brother thinks he's been misbehaving -- well, he's happy to prove him right and show him that's he's not lost his edge at all. )

Damon, what are you doing? ( he sighs, watching the speeding car go by before fixing damon with a look. it's hard to tell if this is just regular damon behavior or if damon's mad that he showed up here. it wasn't like stefan had a choice in matters. )

That's the second time you've tried to kill me in less than an hour. You really want to do this? ( he could try and talk to damon but this damon isn't going to listen. this damon is going to blow him off and act like he's untouchable. )

Fine. You catch me, I'll stop asking questions. I catch you, you cool it for a night.

Oh, please. If i really wanted you dead, you'd... be dead. ( duh. he smirks at him before making a little gesture with his hand that stefan should skedaddle. )

It's a deal. ( he'll even do a count from ten to one out loud all dramatically. stefan can either run very far, very fast or find a good place to hide somewhere. either way, he'll sniff him out. probably. eventually. or maybe he'll get bored and decide to get rip-roaring drunk in another bar. he's got his eyes closed so... his brother could also just... still be standing right in front of him because he's decided to not play this silly game. hm. damon decides to cheat and take a quick peek.

he's hoping stefan has run off somewhere because he's in need of a time out. a moment to just go 'what the fuck, deerington?' why out of everyone in mystic falls, it's his brother who finds himself here in this horrible, piece of shit town? this isn't at all congruent with his desire to just not give a crap anymore and he wants to kick at things. to scream. )

( stefan actually does consider running but he's pretty sure that damon's not going to try and find him. they've grown out of games like this years ago so while damon counts, stefan backs up a bit and finds something to lean against while he waits for damon to finish.

except damon cheats and peeks and stefan just smiles thinly at him because of course his brother would do that. and of course stefan's just standing there, arms crossed waiting for damon to either throw a tantrum or try and attack him again. )

Guess I lose.

( oh darn. )

( ugh. just as he expected. damon gives stefan a withering look, clearly not approving of his decision to just stick around like this. he doesn't want to admit that maybe, just maybe, he's somewhat glad that his brother's here because things have been shitty as hell lately. )

Yeah. Well. ( he'll take a few steps back as he spreads his arms out like whatever, bro. ) Just do me a favor and not get yourself killed. We both know that sort of thing is reserved only for me.

( supposing stefan's still here tomorrow or the day after that. damon's not about to get his hopes up. so he'll just be leaving. enough already. he's done with this little family reunion. over and out. )

I'll see you soon, brother.

( because you could walk away now but he wasn't going to just let you disappear for the duration. )