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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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I opened it once. I found matches. I closed it back up. ( Her hands pat the box itself, and push it a little bit farther away. ) I'm okay. I'm alright, Stefan. Are you okay?

I'm fine. ( automatic, instinctive. would he say otherwise if he wasn't fine? probably not. ) I haven't even opened mine. I've just been letting it follow me around.

( and it has followed him consistently. he sighs. ) What do you think it is? Can't just be matches, can it? That's too easy.

( too easy for people like them. )

I don't know, but, I do know you're right. It has our names. It can't just be matches. ( It can't just be a prison world, or a sibling of Jo's. It can never just be.

Her hand taps her box, as if it's a pet that needs the attention and not as a creepy nuisance. ) Yours follows you, I follow mine. I haven't let it out of my sight. ( She does sigh then. She trains her eyes on Stefan again. ) But, I should find blood soon. Have you eaten? ( Not drank, Stefan. Eaten. )

( blood. he'd been wondering just which elena he was talking to since he'd gotten the rundown from damon about how people could show up here from all different points in their timeline. damon himself was from earlier but which just means he was a pain in the ass in different ways.

in answer to her question, he nods once and taps a finger on the bar. )

I'm okay. ( not a lie but also not a straight up answer to her question either. ) There's access to blood bags here according to Damon. He's here too, if you didn't know.

No, I - I know. ( It's even more to take in, that Damon is from years before she is, that he has no idea about the cure, or his mother, or their love. Except, the cure - she did bring that up to him. It went about as well as either Elena or Stefan would expect. ) He - and Caroline -- ( They both found her in a bar today. Funny how she keeps finding Mystic Falls people in bars. ) and Katherine is here, too. But, not Bonnie.

( This, she's trying to confirm, because they just got Bonnie back from 1994. But, maybe it's better someone on the outside isn't asleep. Maybe Bonnie can get them all out. Maybe there's a way to ... get a message to her. But, that's a vague idea in her mind. ) I don't .. know what to do with Damon. Or, what to tell him.

Caroline?

( that's...someone he hasn't run into yet and maybe that's for the best all things considered. they'd parted on amicable terms but everything before that had been blood soaked chaotic haze of no humanity.

then, she'd started avoiding him and still was, apparently.

his jaw works back and forth for a moment before pressing on. )

I've seen Katherine. ( she would never be fully gone from his life. ) I can't tell you what to say to him. My best advice though is to be careful. I don't want him hurting you.

( not physically but emotionally. )

Yeah. She thought I'd already taken the cure. Which, I'm not sure if you know about or not. Bonnie brought the cure back for me.

( She has it, but, it may not be the time to say it. Especially because Damon's decided he wanted to take it? Or, the Damon she recently remembers. )

But, she's okay. She's - Caroline.

( Katherine will never be gone. Even when she is. ) Damon can't hurt me anymore. ( Not like that. Even if he decided to not take the cure. Even if he told her to go live her life or if he had to live through her dying, and not him. ) But, thank you - you know after everything, you're still one of my closest friends. I'm really glad I met you, Stefan Salvatore. Even if that means following you into a nightmarish dreamscape.

I don't know if I'd want anyone to follow me to this place but seems like we all followed Damon, actually.

( damon, who'd been here for a little while on his own and hadn't seemed to regress too much without people there to keep him anchored. stefan doesn't really know what's going to happen now, with all these new arrivals but he does know he's going to keep an eye on his brother.

as always. )

But, I do know about the cure. I'd heard Bonnie managed to bring it back from the prison world. ( what he doesn't know is if she's taken it yet or not. he knows she does, eventually, and that his brother wants to but he doesn't know if if they're there yet. )

( On its' own that sounds right. Where Damon goes, so goes Elena's nation. That's how it's been for three years, both on and off. But, Stefan and Damon are brothers. Caroline would not follow Damon. Katherine would follow Damon because Stefan did. It's strange logic playing through her mind, but it still makes her smile. Of course they followed Damon. )

She did, she brought it back for me, but - ( He wants to take it with her.

Not that they can have that conversation now. While Damon is like this, not like anything, but from before any of them. ) But, I haven't taken it yet. I've told everyone else, but I don't think taking it here and now - while asleep and in a place none of us recognize is a good idea. ( It's all so deeply disappointing. ) But, if Caroline or you feel like being human again... ( This, she jokes about, eyebrows raising. )

Yeah, that's...probably a good idea. I don't even know if it would work if you took right now since this is technically a dream.

( would it make just this version of her human and the actual elena that exists in the real world would still be a vampire? it's too much to think about and probably too big a chance to take on something so valuable. )

I can't speak for Caroline — ( though he's pretty sure he knows what her answer would be. ) — but I think that time for me has passed. Keep it for yourself, Elena. Bonnie gave it to you. It's yours.

( She nods, agreeing. It was a joke, but, the circumstances have changed. Either way, she's keeping it pocketed and not out in the open. )

So, we're accepting it. We're all dreaming. But, not Bonnie. ( And that could mean something. ) Stefan, if we're all dreaming it won't be long before Bonnie and everyone finds us. If anyone can get us out, it's Bonnie.

I haven't heard anything about Bonnie being here, no. From what Damon's told me, people show up at different times. He's been here a few months and now others. So, it could just be that she's not here yet.

( or maybe she's not coming at all. it was hard to tell, hard to predict. there was no real precedent for being stuck in some dream. )

She'll do whatever she can. ( unless she ended up here too. ) She always does. We just have to make sure we're here when she does.

No, let's focus on 'not here yet.' I don't want to think about never.

( She'd like Bonnie to be here, with them, but it's better that she's out there awake. )

Bonnie got out of the prison world and got us back in. There's always a way in and a way out.

( Or, this isn't a dream, and it's a prison world. With ... people none of them know. People she'll get to know, and help. She can do this. They can all do this. ) We just have to have faith, Stefan. ( Do you hear all this faith she has? ) Besides, we shared dreams last year and we survived the Travelers.

( Not that those Doppelganger dreams hold a candle to this place. It helps to talk about the familiar, to talk about what she can talk about. )

We'll be fine.

( fine being a very subjective word in this instance. survival, in this case, is going to be fine in his eyes. it's a dream so he doesn't know what a dream can do to them but he doesn't think he wants to be find out. )

We'll give her time and until then... ( he trails off and sighs, shrugging a shoulder. ) I guess we'll live our lives. I don't know exactly what that entails but that's my plan for right now. Until I know more about this place, that's my plan.

( figure this place out, figure himself out, figure out his own emotions in regards to certain people. ) I don't think I'll go back to high school, though.

You're not going to graduate for the hundredth and something time?

( She remembers that it's up there, the number of times Stefan has graduated, but forgive her for not knowing the exact number. She was coming off a no-humanity bender and had Katherine blinders on. )

I was going to say the same thing, because we're not the only ones here. Damon and Bonnie spent months living through the same day in 1994, but they thought they were alone. We're not, there are other people here. Living their lives. There's a community college, but I don't know if I can take classes seriously here. ( Or if she took them... there. ) Maybe I could find something here like volunteering at the clinic. There's no Jo, ( and no wedding for Jo and Ric ) but I could do some good.

You can do whatever you want, Elena. I don't think anyone's going to say no to you. ( well... ) Not unless you wanna go on some no humanity bender but trust me, not as fun as it sounds.

( as someone who'd just come off yet another one of those and all. )

But no, I'm not going to school again. I don't know what I'm going to do. ( hadn't gotten that far yet. ) Keep an eye on Damon, probably.

( as always. ) Make sure he doesn't drink all this place's alcohol.

( That makes her grimace, but it helps her understand when he's from. Or, at least what two points in time he could be from. Three, if she was counting her own.

He didn't ask who Jo was, not that they both didn't have bigger concerns than Stefan not knowing of her medical mentor. )

Knowing Damon, that will be your biggest challenge. ( Hers will be adjusting to this Damon again, and maybe slowly, methodically letting him see he's worth being loved. But, that's not something to explore on day one in a place like this. ) You can too, you know. Outside of leaving, you can also do whatever it is you want. ( If that's Caroline. Pursuing something he never had. ) We're all here to support each other.

Edited 2019-12-07 15:58 (UTC)

( it's a nice sentiment but stefan's not sure what he wants or, really, if he deserves to have what he wants. maybe he's better off just leaving those desires as just that: desires. something to think about but not to put upon anyone else because he was a mess on the best of days. )

Who's saying I'm not doing exactly what I want right now? ( by basically siting here and moping. he doesn't want to not being this, after all. )

I'll do this and I'll watch Damon since my schedule's just really opened up a lot. Keep things easy. ( yeah right. things would never be easy. )

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