Entry tags:

DECEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE

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

⛧ Vanish Like The Warm Stove | CW: Possibly graphic memories, thoughts of death

[Dean sat on a bench viciously rubbing his hands together and breathing into them for any relief from the cold but it seemed futile. He huddled closer to himself in his jacket. This cold felt unnatural. Nothing relieved it or took the edge off the icy blades creeping into his skin. He came back for this? To freeze to death in a nightmare world? Sounds about right.

He plucked one of the matches from his jacket pocket and looked it over suspiciously.]

Fine. You know what? It's fine. Just friggen dandy! [Who was he arguing with? Yeah, there's no one there, Dean. With one final grumble, he struck the match on the bench and almost immediately felt the cold seeping away.] Oh. Oh! Just like that, then? That's all it takes?

[But how long was it going to burn? He only had three. God, just send him back to purgatory! At least he felt like he was in more control there.

He doesn't look up from the match when he hears someone approaching. He's already burned one completely. The thought of the Impala had slowly faded away with its warmth. Whoever walked up would see Dean standing by the bench, a woman with medium-length blonde hair stood before him smiling. She held out a hand and all he could do was stare.]

....mom? [It was the quietest of whispers that you might just miss if you weren't quiet.]

⛧ Better Watch Out |CW: Violent memories, mentions of minor character death

[Dean Winchester was a hunter. He's been followed and stalked and ambushed his entire life. So when he felt the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that someone was stalking him, he did what any reasonable man would do: he turned and glared at the expanse behind him.]

Don't know who you are or why you're stalking me, but it'd be smarter for you to back off. I'm not some poor idiot you wanna mess with. [No response. Well, not that he really expected one. So, he turned back around and continued down the street.

Some hours later, Dean felt that presence even closer. Like it was almost right behind him. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He pulled the knife from his waistband and whirled around again. This time he saw a shape in the shadows briefly, but then it was gone. He woke his Fluid and shot a text:]

Outside the diner. Might need backup.

What's wrong? Lose your bridge, Goatman? I think you should've stayed in Maryland.

⛧ Wildcard! |

[OOC: Pitch a starter at him! I'm open to Arrivals as well. NOTE: This is a tentative decision. If you're looking to app Dean, lemme know and I'll bow out. <3]

[ When Sam gets a text like that from anyone these days he's going to come prepared for anything. He's heard of people being stalked, even a few rumors of people seeing something lurking in the shadows, though he hasn't gotten a good description of what the thing is, or what it even does aside from freak people out. Which means it could be almost anything.

'Almost anything' means that Sam's sticking to the reliable basics - silver bullets in his gun, already in hand when he gets out of the car, parked on the other side of the street, and an angel blade close at hand as he heads around the corner, peering out into the alleyway behind the diner. He hears his brother before he sees him - and unsurprisingly, stealth obviously isn't his play here. Dean's always been a fan of the more direct approach.

It's not the worst idea actually, especially when he knows backup is coming. Most things that stalk people in the dark aren't used to that kind of confrontation, and throwing them off their game like that can make a big difference. Considering how things around here tend to operate though Sam's not expecting this thing to be rattled. Assuming it even is an actual creature and not some kind of weird hallucination. There's been a lot of that going around too. ]

Did you see it?

[Sam's quick to respond. Dean could always count on that. With his brother at his side, he was less worried something would get the better of him, even in a place like this that didn't follow all the rules they were used.

He didn't look away from the dark alleyway when Sam joined him. Watching for any sign of movement again.]

Big, ugly son of a bitch. Goat horns and a freaky tongue. I've got silver, salt, and iron but I've never seen this ugly mug before. Not sure what'll do the trick.

[Unfortunately, the silver and iron were both in the form of melee weapons, a blade and crowbar respectively. The salt... well, he had a few spare rocksalt shotgun shells in his pocket but no gun to deploy them. Didn't mean he couldn't cut them apart and just toss the contents in the desired direction.]

Sounds like a pagan thing.

[ Which could be bad. A lot of the old pagan gods were only weak to a very specific kind of weapon, and they don't have time to delve through books looking for possibilities. Then again, most things here aren't too hard to take down if someone's determined enough, even if they're not using ideal weapons. Whatever it is, odds are good that it won't like either the silver bullets or the angel blade. Even if they can't kill it, they should at least be able to shake it off until they figure that part out.

It's a comfortable routine between the two of them, no matter what year they're from. Some things just don't change.

They need to sort Dean out on weapons, that much is obvious. They actually have a respectable stockpile at the house now, as they've been slowly adding to it over the past few months, but all of that is far away right now. They'll just have to work with what they have at hand.

The goat thing though. He has a feeling he's read about something like that before, but he can't put a finger on it yet. ]

Maybe we shouldn't fight it right out here next to the- crap, Dean, look out!

[ Almost as if sensing that they might get away, it comes crashing in through the snow, headed straight for his brother. ]

Pagan? Great. We've got a wonderful track record with Pagan Gods.

[See, this is why Sam was the book guy and Dean was the gun guy. Pagan Gods were generally a pain in their asses and, unless you were Lucifer, they took a special touch to gank. Didn't hurt to try, right?

Dean would've been on board with Sam's almost suggestion to lure it away, but apparently Goatman didn't agree. It also had a hankering for Dean, but he was okay with that. He'd rather have it on his ass than Sam's. However, before he could react beyond bringing up the silver knife, bracing the back of the weapon-hand with his free hand, he locked eyes with the Krampus.

The world around Dean dissolved into a memory. Krampus was behind him now, holding him in place by the shoulders. Welcome to Purgatory, Sam. Oops? Hasn't Dean mentioned this? Flashes of everything he killed sped by in hyper speed, not necessarily the point of this exercise. Repeated images of an obvious vampire and Castiel working alongside him sped past as well. Things seemed to slow as Dean and Cas ran up a hill towards a portal. Dean stepped through and Cas didn't.

The elder Winchester closed his eyes and tried to turn away, but Krampus dug its claws into his shoulders and shook him, forcing him to look back at the scene just as he left Castiel behind. As the memory faded, a tongue coiled around Dean's neck. Nope. Nope nope nope!]

Memory-jacking sonova-- [He flipped the blade around in his hand, the other reaching up to grab the slick appendage, and he sliced through it with the knife, staggering forward and away from the Krampus that was currently roaring angrily.] --Kiss reject!

What Pagan God feeds on guilt and will silver kill it?

[ Sam didn't know what he was seeing. Only that he somehow has a feeling that he's looking at someplace that could take a run at Hell as far as being hospitable, though he doesn't think that's what it is. It's mostly a violent, chaotic mess until it narrows down onto two familiar faces, joined by a third that he doesn't know, fighting their way through hordes of monsters of every size and description that he's ever seen and then some. He might not understand what's going on, but he does understand the crushing guilt that he sees on Dean's face as the memory fades.

He doesn't know how or why Cas got left behind. It doesn't matter right now anyway, and regardless, no part of him would believe that Dean would have just abandoned the angel unless he had no other choice. Of course he would still feel guilty as hell about it.

And that seems like the reason that this thing is onto him. ]

I think it's a Krampus! [ Or something a lot like it. ] The Krampus, whatever.

[ It's already furious about its tongue being sliced clean through, but now that Dean's clear of it Sam's got a clear shot, and he's taking advantage of it to fire several silver bullets right between those burning eyes. ]

Oh, well if it's The Krampus, I guess that changes things! Wouldn't wanna confuse it with a Krampus!

[Despite his sass, Dean did appreciate Sam's knowledge. He also appreciated his aim. The Krampus went down, seemingly dead. He pulled the detached tongue from around his neck and tossed it to the ground. He could have done without the tongue around his neck, but okay.]

Nice shot, Sammy. Even Evil Demon Santa doesn't like silver bullets. Is it just me or are Pagan Gods getting easier to off?

[Probably because it's not dead, Dean.]

DECEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

VANISH LIKE THE WARM STOVE

BETTER WATCH OUT

Character Arrival

Dean Winchester | Supernatural (SUPER tentative; no pun intended)

hello c:

Hello! <3 Shhh, it's a secret. Lol

no subject

no subject

cw for gunfire/violence

Re: cw for gunfire/violence

sup - like the warm stove

Oh gosh, I'm sorry Claire.

it's cool - welcome to the pain train.

no subject

no subject

I'm realising just how many confused faces he makes...

Warm Stove

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

like a warm stove

MebbeDean ;D Shhh. Is a secwet. (Literally everyone tagging me rn knows, but w/e XD)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject