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

[ Raylan huffs out a laugh, shrugging with his mouth a little. Fair enough. Yeah, this place doesn't scream high quality, but then most diners don't anyway. You get what you're given. ]

Hey, no. Appreciate the company. [ Raylan gives him a sympathetic grin and a side-eye, lifting his coffee cup as a cheers before he has another sip. ] Just got here, huh? How's that hittin' ya?

[ Honestly, Nate would prefer this over a Michelin star restaurant. He gives a little nod of gratitude to the wait staff as a plain, white mug of steaming black coffee is placed in front of him, accompanied by creamer and sugar. Nate bypasses both and takes a sip of the stuff plain with a satisfied hiss through his teeth. ]

Y'know, I've been hit by a lot of things in my time, but it sucks pretty hard. Not my first- [ He waves his free hand. ] -alternate dimension, but I'd kinda hoped the previous one was my last?

[ Not his first alternate dimension. Raylan nods, like that makes even a blind bit of sense, which is what he's been doing relentlessly every time someone says something remotely weird to him around here. ]

Novelty's worn off, huh? I get that. [ In an empathy sort of way. ] So what was the last one like? Or do I not wanna know?

Changed locations a lot so the layout was hard to keep track of. Regularly-scheduled disasters. Monsters.

[ Judging by the stiffness in that nod he can recognize something that wavers between skepticism and sheer incredulity, which tells him the man with the hat - delicately bequeathed its own seat - isn't from or of a place like this. ]

If it makes you feel any better the the only magic people do where I'm from is that stuff you see on a Vegas stage. Sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors, that kind of thing.

[ It occurs to Nate somewhat belatedly that he can actually do conventional magic due in no small part to Hadriel, but that seems like a lot to just throw at a near-stranger. ]

[ You know what, that actually does make him feel better, which is a nice feeling. Raylan's shoulders round out a little from the way they'd been squared up tight, and he grins, blowing out a gust of air through his nose that's all he can manage for laughs right now. ] Think that puts me and you in the minority here, buddy. Even if you got your regularly-scheduled disasters for experience.

[ Raylan picks up his coffee. Sips. Glances over at the door, expecting Arlo to come shambling in, feeling like a kid all over again on high alert for his daddy to come home and ruin his day. No Arlo, just the quiet thrum of background noise, people talking. ] Tell me somethin'. Those disasters, are they the kinda shit you get used to, or the kinda shit that splashes you right in the face every time it hits the fan? [ Disgusting metaphor. He wrinkles his nose a little, apologetically. ]

[ It's oddly reassuring to know there's somebody else here who hasn't come from some sort of magical land full of dwarves and giants and witches; from the transitional perspective of coming back, it's just. Neater. Helpful. A similar frame of reference is a paltry balm to an otherwise open wound, but it means they're on the same page.

Nate eyes him for a moment as he drinks, sort of shifts with an uneasiness that's understandable given the events of the day, but the position he took with clear view of the door is obvious. He spent too much of his wayward youth keeping an eye out for authorities to not notice similar signs. ]

You mostly get to be an old hat at them, but once or twice they'll really throw you for a loop. [ It's true enough, but then, he considers himself fairly adaptable. ] Looking for someone?

[ Funny that they have experience watching doors for the exact opposite things, or it would be if Raylan knew. He puffs out a sigh and pinches his horseshoe ring between finger and thumb, twisting it thoughtlessly. Well, if Nate's an hold hat (ha ha), maybe he'll be able to offer some advice here. ] Someone who ain't normally here... he's taken to followin' me around this place, gettin' in my way.

Ah.

[ Nate replies with knowing inflection, not so much fully understanding the situation as he is comprehending the gist. Lone Star over here fidgets and in an unconscious, sympathetic gesture Nate thumbs at the ring on his own finger briefly before his hands still. ]

Is he solid or see-through?

[ That copycat gesture isn't lost on Raylan, but if anything it just makes him smile a little, sheepishly. ] Solid. Gettin' in everybody else's way too. Used to do the same thing when he was alive so I ain't exactly surprised to see it's carried over.

[ The answer has him grimace. Solid's not great, but at least it means you're not losing your damn mind, either. Good to know whatever's haunting him is pissing everybody else off, that's always a thrilling bonus.

It reminds him of Elena. Of the rooftop he watched her fall from, once. ]

...you mind me asking who it is? Who he is to you?

[ Eugh. Raylan scrunches up his face for a second. ] My father.