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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ she doesn't embrace him because, like so often lately, she doesn't know where the line is between them. does he want her to? it doesn't seem like it. it doesn't seem like he wants to, either.

after all, when he'd struck a match and seen the person he wanted most, he'd seen someone long since dead and gone. someone very different from caroline. it didn't matter that her vision had been the same from matchlight to reality. ]

It's cold. [ too cold. there's a sharpness to this chill that shouldn't be there. a reminder of a mortality neither of them truly possess. ] I don't want to freeze to death.

Then, we can go inside.

( he doesn't know what striking a third match will do, what it might show him. if the first had shown him a thing and the second had shown him a person, would the third combine them? show him a place?

or just twist everything on its head and make everything that he'd seen drenched in red and pain? it's a chance he's not sure he wants to take. )

Come on, we'll go somewhere else. ( he takes a hand out of his pocket, away from the match and curls it around her arm, not pulling but trying to encourage her to move with him. ) We don't need those matches.

[ going inside. what a concept.

except, every time caroline's tried to open a door to a bar or a cafe or a shop, she hasn't been able to get the handle to turn. the ice covering the handle has made everything slick and impossible to grasp, and even vampiric strength hasn't allowed her refuge indoors yet. she's been forced to stand out here, burning matches in some desperate attempt to stay warm.

it's ridiculous. ]

I'm going to light mine.

[ if memories of stefan trying to reject her but not reject her was the worst thing this place could give her, then caroline would survive it. ]

Unless you have a better idea for how we're going to avoid freezing to death.

I don't think the answer in these matches. I think these are meant to cause trouble.

( to say the least. he doesn't go as far as reaching for the match to try and take it for her (because he's not that much of an idiot) but it's clear that he doesn't think it's a good idea. he doesn't know how many she's already lit and what she's seen but she knows what he's seen.

and he doesn't know if he can deal with seeing anyone else that he'd loved and lost tonight. )

Don't light it. ( he says it plainly before taking his hands out of his pockets entirely and gesturing her closer to him. ) Come here. We don't need any magic matches to get warm.

( was this a good idea? bad idea? something in between? he'd figure it out later. )

You think everything's going to cause trouble.

[ it's a bad idea. the expression on caroline's face — a surprised lift of both brows, a purse of her lips, the slow inhale of breath through her nose — is indication enough of what a colossally bad idea this could be.

but caroline's always found it hard to say no to him. so while she'll swear up and down that she knew this was a terrible idea to anyone who might ask her about it later, she doesn't resist for more than a second or two before her shoulders slump in resignation, her body stepping forward to fill the space in between his open arms.

it's not much warmer. he's as cold as she is, if not more so for having been out longer, but her hands manage to nestle between the fabric of jacket and shirt to get a little bit of heat, her forehead pressing against his chest. ]

Do you know how to build an igloo?

[ is there enough snow to build an igloo? probably not. ]

That's because everything typically does cause trouble at least for them. ( he waits for her to get closer and once he moves (though he can clearly see the trepidation and hesitation there and that gives him pause) before winding his own arms around her to try and transfer body heat between them.

he keeps his embrace loose so she knows she can move away if it's get to be too uncomfortable for her but he hopes she doesn't. he doesn't voice that but this is — maybe he's not warm but he is comforted.

and that's a rare feeling. )

That's not something that taught me in the...few times I went through high school. No igloo making 101 in between math and science.

We're not doing high school again here.

[ she still doesn't understand why he suffered through it more than once. he could totally pass for a college student, he didn't need to relearn biology or geometry just to fit in. he could have passed for a post-college bachelor slumming in his family's old house, for that matter.

would have been weird, but at least there wouldn't have been any homework involved. ]

If we live through whatever freak blizzard misery this is, we are not doing high school again. No way.

[ she's also not going to address the fact that being held in his arms is a feeling she's craved (no, that's too strong — or is it?) for longer than however long she's been wandering around deerington. it doesn't do much for the chill that's seeped into her bones, but it still warms something else inside of her.

which she hates. giving up that control seems like an even worse idea now. ]

We're not, are we? ( there's the quietest hint of laughter in his voice but, underneath that, there's something else at hearing 'we' instead of 'i'm'. the fact that she seems to just automatically include him in with her, no questions asked, is something...good.

but, it's something he's not sure what to do with either. she's his best friend, the person that had always (always) been there for him so talking about them together is expected, isn't it?

it's still good though. it still makes him feel a little less alone than he usually does. )

What do you want to do then? You seem to have more answers than I do.

[ does she? sometimes, it feels like caroline has no answers at all. just a determined, fervent need to survive, to see another day, to live. in the wake of her mother's passing, after losing and regaining her humanity at the expense of possibly all of her friends, caroline can't risk anything getting in the way of that.

besides, it's stupid for a vampire to die of frostbite. it shouldn't even be possible. ]

I don't know. If I say 'not freeze' again, even I'm going to be sick of hearing it. [ maybe burrow a little closer. just for warmth. not because she missed him or anything. ] Are you sure we can't try to light another match?

We're not going to freeze. ( maybe he's not as confident as he sounds but there's no way he's going to let her freeze in the middle of another small town that's decided to mess with them at every turn. )

You sure you want to risk what it might show you? ( he can't stop her, not if she really wants to light a match, but he doesn't think it's a good idea. he doesn't think it's ever going to be a good idea. )

What if it shows you something you can't — that's gone forever? ( like lexi. ) I don't want you to get upset, Caroline.

[ the words are there, on the tip of her tongue — some snapping retort about how it's rich for him to not want her to be upset when he's done so much to upset her himself — but they don't come. maybe it's the cold, maybe it's the way his arms are cradling her against him, maybe it's just the fact that in the face of being in a strange and unknown hellscape, comfort is better than being alone. ]

Stefan, I already lit two matches. [ and she saw him in one of them. how much worse could it get? ] What's it going to show me that's worse than those?

[ there are a lot of things that could be worse than stefan salvatore calling out to her, but when's caroline ever thought more than one step ahead? ]

( it feels like tempting fate for her to say something like that. considering he'd gone from his car to his best friend, he can only guess that these visions are increasing in how personal and affecting they are each time they're lit.

there are a lot of things he could see that would get to him worse than lexi and he guesses it's the same for her though he doesn't know exactly what she'd seen. )

Do you really want that question to be answered? ( he's cold but he's gotten a
little warmer now that she's closer to him. he shivers a bit and tightens his embrace instinctively. ) I don't want to chance it.

[ she doesn't answer. she doesn't know how to tell him what she saw — or if she should. she's already told him so much, only to be met with stony silence or ineffectual acknowledgement, only to be burdened with the ache that came with the realization that her feelings weren't exactly returned.

why keep subjecting herself to the same painful silence? better to swallow it down, and press her forehead to his shoulder when he pulls her in a little closer. for warmth, she assumes, though it only dulls the ache of the cold where they're touching. anything exposed still feels like ice in the wind. ]

We should find somewhere to wait out the storm. It feels like it's getting colder.

That's a good idea.

( he doesn't point out that he'd suggested going inside earlier. it doesn't matter, it's a good idea no matter who suggests it. he doesn't let her go while he looks around the area, trying to find some place that looks both open and easy to get into. )

How do you feel about a little breaking and entering? ( because every place had their lights off but they had to get inside sooner rather than later. ) I'll take the blame tomorrow but I think we can get into that pharmacy easy enough and stay there for awhile.

Stefan...

[ he doesn't need to take the blame for anything. if they break and enter into a place, they break and enter together. he's not taking one for the team here. she'll own up to it just the same as he will.

but maybe a pharmacy's not exactly the place to break into. after all, who knows what kind of security a pharmacy would have? the one in mystic falls had all sorts of silent alarms to keep the teenagers from breaking in and stealing the narcotics on hand. ]

Can we find somewhere that's worth hanging out in? Like, I don't know, a house?

[ or even just a car to get to a house. ]

( so, it wasn't his best idea but it was the closest thing to them and he doesn't know how long it might take to find a house or a car to get to said house. still, if she doesn't want to take the chance, they won't. )

You know of any houses around here?

( he hasn't exactly gone looking at the real estate in this town just yet. he's found a place to stay and a place to drink and he's found his brother and katherine and now her but he's done little else. )

Or cars? I don't have mine.

Damon said they're free for the taking.

[ granted, damon was very drunk when he said this, but he did say it. which wasn't too far off from what sober damon might have said when he was in his the world is horrible and i'm going to be an asshole phase, but he hadn't been talking about compulsion. he'd just been talking about deerington as a whole.

very spooky, very dangerous, but with plenty of free housing just waiting to be claimed. not exactly an even trade-off, but probably not the worst it could be. ]

My car's parked by the library.

[ she hasn't claimed anywhere yet. she's driven around, looked at places, but never staked a claim. somehow, it felt like doing that would make this real. if she said "this is mine" and didn't immediately wake up out of this nightmare, it would be real. but it was real, and she couldn't keep ignoring it. ]

If we're breaking into a house, maybe somewhere with fewer neighbors.

[ there were the suburbs, of course, but clarke acres had felt the most familiar. homey, in a fantasy sort of way. more gone with the wind than mystic falls... but if this was a dream, if it was a nightmare, why shouldn't she be scarlett o'hara? ]

Okay, come on.

( he's inviting himself along but he doesn't think she'll mind that much. she'd grouped them together when talking about high school, he's going to group them together when trying to find a place where they don't freeze.

so, he let's go of her with one arm but keeps the other around her to try and ward off some of the cold until they can get to their car. )

Your car came with you, huh? Lucky. ( just gonna...make conversation here. ) That was one of the things I saw when I lit one of those matches. My car. I thought it was here but —

( smoke and mirrors just like lexi. ) Hopefully the heat's working.

[ his car, he says.

she peers up at him for a moment, just out of the corner of her eye, but doesn't say anything about it. his car was — well. she understood why he might like to have seen it, a possession he'd taken special care of, but it didn't seem to match up.

eventually, as they finally cross over a particularly slippery patch of ice on the ground, caroline's hand having tightened its grip around his upper arm in the process to keep her balance, she offers: ] I saw my mom's sheriff's badge. [ and then, ] And you.

[ and then she resolutely says nothing else, because she's too busy looking straight ahead. ]

( he doesn't know what to say in response to that. her mother's badge had to be a painful sight all things considered and he wants to comfort her, say he's sorry, say something that might ease the ache but then she tells him she'd seen him and he doesn't know what to say.

he'd seen lexi. she'd seen him. )

Caroline, I — ( he opens his mouth to try and say something but words fail him and he closes his eyes in frustration. ) I missed you too.

( a lot. more than she knows. more than she's going to believe. )

[ always the second choice. it's a motif that threads itself through every facet of her life. always the back-up, the replacement, the second choice that steps in when the person someone really wants isn't available.

even a magical gift box knew that. ]

Yeah.

[ she's not even sad about it. it's just a soft exhale in resignation as they approach her car, her hand extracting from its grip on his arm in order to pull open her car door. ]

Come on.

Do you believe me?

( he stops before he's gotten into her car. stops and crosses his arms over his chest because it's freezing but it's a question he wants an answer to. she sounds so defeated and he's making it worse. )

Caroline, do you believe I missed you? ( he's not getting in that car until she answers him, one way or another. and, depending on that answer, he might not get in the car at all if he thinks it's going to be too much for her. )

Does it matter?

[ she's defeated, her voice is hollow, and she can't quite meet his eyes. how many times do they have to do this? how many times does she have to repeat herself? how many times does she have to tell him that she's got these feelings that he doesn't have, that she's trying to move past them, that she can't let her control slip for one more second without the rushing, overwhelming desire to flip that switch again screaming in her head? ]

Can we just go? It's freezing, Stefan.

[ and if she cries in the cold, her eyes will freeze over. ]

It matters to me that you believe me because I did. I do.

( he's still missing her because she's stepped back in a way he doesn't know how to handle. she's there but she's gone and no amount of reaching out of, trying to grab her back has worked.

so, he doesn't move. he stands there, cold and shivering but he doesn't move because he wants to know just how much work he has to do to make this right. )

Do you believe me, Caroline? ( his teeth chatter a bit but the words are steady. )

[ why are they doing this? what does he expect to happen here? why is it not good enough that she's still here, that she hasn't run away from him or screamed at him or just shut down altogether? why is her tenuous grip on her own humanity not enough?

what else is she supposed to do? ]

Okay! Okay, fine, you missed me. I believe you, Stefan!

[ she believes he misses her the same way he might miss elena or his brother. as a friend, as a confidant. not in the way she misses him. so it doesn't matter. ]

Is that good enough?!