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

Oh.

[ richie answers flatly, clearly not happy with the explanation, but unable to offer any sort of response in light of his distinct lack of experience with it in comparison to the others.

he flips both hands palm up on the table between them to glare at their clear, unmarked skin, and starts tearing up all over again. this time he doesn't move to wipe them away though, too preoccupied with staring holes in his hands until his vision goes blurry from the tears and he balls his hands up into fists instead. ]

That stupid fucking town... won't stop until it takes everything from me, huh?

[ richie tries to make it sound like a joke, but there's tears leaking steadily from his eyes now and his knuckles are going white from how tightly he's clenching his fists, and no matter how hard he tries he can't seem to force his mouth into the shape of a smile. ]

Hey, Richie...

[The crying surprises him, because Trashmouth Tozier very rarely let anyone see anything but the strength of his cynicism but it's also revealing. This place had done a number on him, and it was more than just some demonic entity in their sewer system.

It's difficult not to feel Richie, still burdened with the same weight he'd carried all those years ago and for a second, Stan considers whether or not Richie ever got rid of that weight.

It's a fleeting thought, Stan reaches out to put his palm over one of Richie's balled up fists. The same palm that was still scarred, even though he didn't know how telling that even was.]

It's okay.

No it's not!

[ the words burst out of richie like a geyser, anger overtaking his despair in a hot, frothy mess as he practically climbs the table between them to lean in closer to stan. ]

I promised Eddie I wouldn't just disappear and you--!

[ richie opens his hand underneath stan's, twists until their fingers are tangled and their palms are pressed flat against one another, stan's scarred and richie's utterly unmarked. ]

What the fuck am I even supposed to do without you, Stan? [ he doesn't give stan even the chance to answer before he's using his grip on stanly's hand to twist his arm enough that he can see the first hints of freshly healed scars on his wrist.

the next words that come out of his mouth are softer, weightier, as he looks up to meet stan's eyes again. ]

What the fuck did you do without me, Stan?

[Stan jerks back, not because he's scared but because he's startled by the outburst. Richie's always been loud, a little more animated, but he's never seen him quite like this. Not that he can remember, and it shocks him. Shocks him, but doesn't keep him from trying to console him.]

We can't always control what we don't-

[Remember or understand is what he's about to say, but the squeeze on his palm motivates him to take a minute to squeeze his hand back. he's not expecting Richie to use it any kind of way. No, Richie knew more maybe than he'd thought he did.]

It was the only way. I would've fucked everything up. I needed you guys to be okay.

[That deep well of desire had been strange to him at first but the more he remembered, the more he knew he needed to be taken off the board so they could maybe conquer It. Maybe do something without him holding them back.]

How the fuck am I supposed to be "okay" without you?

[ it's a more starkly honest question than richie would normally allow himself to be, even with stan, but these past two months have been emotionally exhausting for him, and he's been feeling more... just more ever since he'd gone werewolf.

he's still struggling to find his balance again, and this new piece of information about his eventual future is not helping any. ]

How am I supposed to-- I don't know who I am without you guys, Stan.

[ he can't imagine being much of anything without the other loser, honestly. ]

[Stan was much closer with Richie than the other losers, much to the dismay of his parents but the losers altogether were touchy with each other, handsy, in ways that maybe young boys shouldn't be.

Being so close to his childhood friend, makes him feel like a kid by contrast so Stan doesn't really think about it when he uses the leverage of Richie's hands-on him to pull him across the small space of the table between them into a tight embrace.

God, it all feels so real. Richie's still a mess of tangled curls and skinny lengthy limbs.]

You're Richie fucking Tozier. Whether I'm here or not. You're a fast-talking, wise-cracking, invaluable jackass with a wit as sharp as your tongue. I made my choice, I know there's no going back but I did it out of love. I want you to know that. I'll always love you guys.

[ there's a strange dissonance in richie's head the moment stan wraps his arms around him.

richie's distinctly not used to the feeling of an adult touching him much beyond cursory pats on the shoulder from his dad or controlling arm grabs from his mom or especially exasperated teachers, and there's a small, anxious voice in the back of his mind practically rioting at the sensation, telling him to pull away, not to trust it but.

but even old, even sad, stan is recognizable to richie in a way that there's simply no denying, and his hug is familiar too. and richie wants so desperately to sink into that hug and let the rest of the world just fall away.

there's a good thirty seconds where richie is still and shivering in stan's arms, like a rabbit about to bolt, before he gives into his instincts and buries his face in stan's shoulder, tears flowing freely now. ] I love you too, Stan.