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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.

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[ More alternate dimensional turtles? That's... Leo's mind momentarily goes back to Donnie's crazy personal alternate dimension conspiracy board. Damn...

Aaaaaand he almost gets himself clocked with the tail end of that chain. Okay okay contemplate the mysteries and implications of the multiverse later when Goatman ain't around. ]

Eh, alligator snappers are basically dinosaurs even when NOT mutated. Oh and solid tackle there beeteedubs.

[ Yep Mr. Monster is all teetering and tottering, and as soon as it's in range Leo makes a dive for one of the flailing chains and yanks as hard as he can and lets gravity take care of the rest... while awkwardly scrambling away lest he gets squished.

Timber. ]

[Alligator snappers?! Is he starting to feel jealous over an alternate self he hasn't even met? N-no, that's dumb of course he isn't-]

Not so bad yourself.

[Waaaay more carefree than his older brother, but so far as Raphael can see, this Leo's moves are still a hundred times better than the other alternate-Leo and their other selves. ...for one thing, he's actually using his weapon as a weapon.

...okay, maybe still a little rough around the edges when it comes to style points but STILL.

He comes up beside the ~~grumblemutter~~ taller turtle, eyeing the monster-thing as it already looks to be getting back up.]

Uuuh... think we just made it madder.

[ Carefree and chill~ It's almost like he doesn't have the crushing weight of Leadership and Responsibility on his shoulders.

But yeah. Anyways. This guy. Leo's even managed to tag him a few good times with his blade, but it's done little more then scratch up that thick hide. There's gotta be something... He glances at the length of chain he grabbed.

He yanks it again and the Krampus snarls and jerks. An almost manic grin spreads across the turtle's face as he twirls the end playfully. ]

I mean, does it really matter if he's a little grumpy if he's pinned down?

[A similar grin makes its way across Raphael's face as he exchanges a look with the other. Oh look, it's catching.]

Not like we really care what he thinks though, right?

[He darts forward and grabs for the other chain, giving it a firm tug to further set Krampus off balance.]

What? I don't know about you but I totally care about opinion homicidal goat-man monsters.

[ He gives a flippant wave of his hand.. and immediately regrets it as he's dragged a few feet and almost sent sprawling. Okaaaay both hands on the chain at aaall times. He wraps the end around his hand a couple times. Ideally he needs a way to tie or stake this sucker down. It's times like these he kind of wishes he packed a few other ninja essentials. Like kunai! That would be sweet right now. Perfect stake. Unfortunately when he have the coolest sword in existence you kind of forget about everything else. ]

So like... there a volcano or anything nearby?

....

[Raph watches as Leo nearly gets yanked off his feet, eyes rolling before he digs in with his own feet and gives the chain in his hands a firm yank to keep Krampus off balance. It's probably a good thing he's unaware of Leo's lack of consideration for being properly ninja-quipped and would assume the shortage of tools part of the whole appearing in town. After all, that's what happened with most of his ninja crap and he's still pretty annoyed by it.]

We're in Maine, I don't think they're known for volcanoes.

[Which is a real shame, because he's all for dropping this guy in a volcano. They can't just stand here holding this thing down forever!]

Bring him around that way! Towards that lamppost! I got an idea.

[One that actually doesn't involve missiles and aircraft carriers, not that either of those are exactly readily abundant around here.]

[ Listen. He'll definitely become an elegant and graceful master of ninjitsu that never eats shit and is always one hundred percent prepared someday. Maybe. ]

Well I don't think Maine is particularly known for their turtle hungry Goat-guys either.

[ But still. A volcano would be great. Though the ever looming threat of death by lava and volcanic eruption, not so great so it's probably for the best. ]

Gotcha, lamppost! So what's the- [ Leo no. Now is not the time. ] bright idea?

[ This is literally why his own brother invented a shock collar for him. ]

Pretty sure Maine isn't known for a lotta the crap that happens here.

[He could start making a list but he'd rather not think about it right now. Besides, angry goat man. Raphael hauls his end of the chain again, brow twitching as he shoots a glare over at lanky Leo.]

I am going to smack the stripes off your face-

[Later. First-]

-just bring that chain around and we'll lock him down.

[And then what? ...he hasn't thought that far ahead but what's planning anyway.]

Oh c'mon, that one was good.

[ So apparently it's officially a universal truth that literally everyone in existence is extremely tired of Leo's one liners. What a cruel world to live in.

There's a couple dicey moments in the whole dragging to the lamp post ordeal because he is several hundred pound of raw rage and murderous intent. ]

Alright so aside from just leaving him here I don't know what to do with him and I don't think you do either, no offence we're all clueless here. So Imma consult the internets.

[ Someone else had to have run into this asshole. So while he leaves Mini-Raph to finish up the whole securing him to the lamp post thing while he whips out his phone and fires up the DeerFeed. He scrolls through a little bit, honestly a little disappointed by the lack of shitposts! Something he's going to have remedy...

Oh right he's looking for something specific. Anyone talking about angry bitey goat dudes... nope... nope... oh huh! There we go. ]

Hey our buddy's called a Krampy! Some other guys have run into him.
Apparently you have to confess your sins and he just effs off. Or you cut his head off and he just kinda poofs. Whatever's easier.

[It's like dancing with an unwilling partner. Or a particularly clumsy one. Okay, so it's very much just trying to play tug-o-war with an uncooperative monster.]

Wha-

[Raphael didn't expect Leo to leave things to him so abruptly in his decision to consult the interwebs, so he makes a jump for the chain before it can be pulled out of his reach, planting his foot against the lamppost as he struggles with trying to bring both chains together against the thrashing Krampus.

It's almost comical, juxtaposed with Leonardo's tapping at his phone while he's doing so in the background. There's a clang as the goat's head meets the lamppost after a gamely round of tag before Raphael manages to wind the chains and thrusts one of his sai into the links, twisting it about to keep it in place.]

Yeah!

[He jumps back, eyeing the beast warily as the lamppost shudders with its renewed efforts. That...is probably not going to hold as long as he'd hoped. He looks towards Leonardo.]

Confess- what? What's that even mean?! -lob off his head!

[ Hey, he definitely flashed Raphael an encouraging thumbs up he was probably just a little too preoccupied to notice. ]

I don't know, I mean it feels kind of wrong to just CHOP [ He flicks his hand past his neck ] while he's all tied up. Maybe we could reason with him?

Hey man-

[ Like a dumbass he actually tries to approach the monster. It seems like it's calmed down a little... Of course once he's within snapping distance it Snarls and goes NUTS again and the lamppost creaks and- ]

-GAH!

[ Luckily he's got a quick kneejerk and he's got both hands wrapped around his odachi as it whistles through the air and oh look yep internets did NOT steer him wrong. It's kind of gross and disturbing how easy it is to separate this demon's head from it's body and all too soon the edge of his blade is biting into the very abused lamppost. ]

Really?! You're having second thoughts now???

[He's two seconds from grabbing Leonardo's weapon to do the deed himself but as Krampus makes a leap at his odder, stringier brother Raphael jumps back as well with a yelp.]

WHOA!

[And then the goat thing's body thuds to the floor and begins to blacken and disintegrate, leaving both turtles to stare at its head.]

....

...nice swing.

...Thanks.

[ ...The head is still there. The head did not despawn. Hello nightmare fuel. Leo is just gonna make a quick swipe at the ground to open a small portal. And then just kinda, punt the head in. He's hoping it just drops off in the middle of the woods but he did just have a panic and his portals tend to go wrong when that happens. So he could have accidentally teleported it to someone's bedroom for all he knows. ]

Soooo let's do that again never.

[That's still a nifty trick that he'll have to ask about later. Right now, he's totally fine with just getting that awful head out of sight, and even as he stares at the space it had once been, he holds up his side of a fistbump towards Leo.]

Agreed.

[ Pounds it. Never leave a bro hanging. Even weird not quite bros. Speaking of which now that things have finally calmed down he plants the tip of his blade in the ground and leans lazily against it and assess things. ]

So. Raphael, huh? [ it is SO wrong not being able to literally look up at him. ] I think I owe Don twenty bucks because his crazy person multiverse theory cork board is apparently not as crazy as I thought.

That's me.

[He steps over to pick up his sai, dusting it off from coal dust as he tries not to make a face thinking about where said dust came from before he tucks it back into its place in his belt behind his shell.]

He's got a crazy board on multiverse theory? Man, Donnie's been slacking on my side- although not that a flow chart of possible scenarios to get a with date April isn't crazy in its own right.

Where'd you get the cool warp-sword?

Seriously? He wants to date April? April O'Neil? Multiverses man...

[ April is practically their big sister! The thought of any of his brothers macking on her is even weirder then tiny-Raph. But hey! Talking bout his sword. Great distraction and one of his most favorite topics of discussion.

He grins and pats the hilt fondly. ]

It IS cool huh? I stole it from Baron Draxum's armory. Best decision of my life.

Yeah, he's had this monster crush on her ever since we first went up to the surface. It's kinda sad.

[His brows lift behind his mask as he looks from the sword to Leonardo.]

You stole it? Haha! [He sounds approving of it.] The Leo I know would never do something like that. Never heard of a Baron Draxum but it sounds like he deserved it.

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