soddersays | JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to January's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: OCEAN 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.

PLEASE NOTE FOR CHARACTER ARRIVALS: This month, all players can choose to have their characters wake up in the town of Deerington or on the Titanic.

CW: Ghost of a child, rotting corpses, drowning, hallucinations, paranoia
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

WHERE FEET MAY FAIL

For those who were left behind in Deerington while everyone else was whisked away in the flood during the New Years Eve party, they will find that the town is a little more wet than usual. The streets are still flooded, houses are damp, and the chill of winter isn't making it easy to deal with. Your hands can feel like ice any day of the week and it's hard to focus with how badly you may find yourself trembling from the cold.

But it's almost preferable to the visions. They start off while you're sleeping; large sea monsters roaming the ocean, waiting to pull you down into the darkened depths; or maybe it's a strange, ghost looking girl with glowing eyes and tattered clothing, her skin blue and rotting the way a body does when it's been submerged in water for too long. She's calling out to you, beckoning you down, and all around her are the strung up, floating corpses of the people who were foolish enough to listen.

It's just a dream though, right? Slowly you start to see the girl around town. She's still calling to you, watching you, waiting for you. If you get too close, she'll even be able to grab onto you, pulling you down into the waterlogged streets, and into what you thought was only a puddle of water. It's as deep as an ocean, and just as dark and cold too. Someone near by can grab onto you before she can drag you under and the vision will disappear. If no one does, maybe if you're a strong swimmer, you'll be able to struggle free, but when you resurface, there will be a bruise forming on your arm in the shape of a hand – something to remind you that maybe these visions are a little more real than you gave them credit for.

The only way to stay safe is to travel in pairs. The girl seems to keep her distance when there's more than one person around, but it doesn't mean she won't try to find the means to separate you. Whether it's increasing the flooding in certain areas of the street or trying to distract one of you long enough to put some distance between you and your comrade, she'll do whatever it takes to try and grab onto whoever she can.

GHOST SHIP

Those who are on the boat might find that life is a little easier, depending on what class you've found yourself in. The struggles between first, second, and third are certainly rough on everyone, but many seem to find themselves thinking this is just the way of things. Maybe your mind has been altered to just accept the class differences or your memories completely rewritten and you think you've led a completely different life so far; either way, only a handful of passengers seem to fully understand that this isn't the way things are supposed to be.

There's nothing anyone can do to change things, though, and so many find themselves getting lost in day to day activities. Whether it's working on the ship, enjoying the finer foods in the first class dining halls, or enjoying the rowdy parties in third class storage after hours, everyone seems to be finding something to keep themselves occupied. As the days pass, even those who know full well what's coming seem to forget the looming doom, and you might even find yourself feeling lost in the monotony of day to day life.

But those who stare into the water too long, who look at the strange, large shapes swimming just under the surface might find a sense of dread filling them. The paranoia will shake you to your very core, leaving you with a sense that all is not right with this journey. You can try to tell people, but most will look at you as though you're insane. Eventually, your fear will become so heavy that you start to see destruction all around you. Whole sections of the ship will look flooded, rotting wood and rusted steel taking over every inch of the once proud ship, and every section is covered in algae. You might start to realize it looks uncannily like an old shipwreck.

The ship is still floating, though, and the coarse steady. So it's all in your head, right? Staying away from the water will make the visions and paranoia eventually ebb, but any glance at the floating shapes will cause it to come back tenfold. Maybe just stay inside and away from the ship's edge. It seems a lot safer that way.

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

NOTE: Character's this month can wake up in Deerington or on the Titanic.

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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[the bermuda triangle rings zero bells. wei wuxian can't think of a single sect attached to a place named that.

he does calm a little before chuckling at that advice.]

Eh - friend. Water ghosts aren't carp. They're not known for just leaving people alone. If we don't get rid of them, they'll definitely cause the boat some trouble.

Exactly. We have to exorcise them before they join together and gobble us up.

[his heart is still racing, and the whispers inside his head still tell him to be afraid, be terrified. but it's not deep enough to change who wei wuxian is completely. this needs to be dealt with, and he won't run for the hills.]

You? [even for a disciple, she looks young. but as wei wuxian looks around the ship, he starts to see more and more to worry about. he squeezes his eyes shut for a moment before nodding.] Let's hurry.

[Kokichi scoffs.]

And how do you know so much about the ghosts around here?

[She looks skeptical at the idea of these water ghosts eating them (since when did ghosts do that?), but then draw herself up with a challenging expression]

Yes, me. [What's the part that makes her look like she couldn't be one? Is it the short skirt and thigh-highs or the seeming absolute lack of any weapons?

So, you know, that's fair. She thrives off not being seen as one, since that's way too much of a hassle. People then expect you to help.

In retrospect, Miu thinks she shouldn't have said anything here either, but she's tired of being on this ship and if outing herself is a necessary evil to getting back to something sorta normal, then she'll deal with it.]

Those things have probably been clinging to this ship for days. They can wait two minutes while you get ahold of yourself. You're starting to see everything for how it really is too, right? Take a breath.

I could care less. People like that cause more problems than they're worth. [they just make her think of aurelia and the companies like vladov that send their armies to wars that cause nothing but suffering. she doesn't mention this, though, because obviously kim would know that!] Ah-hah. Stowaway?

[..........it's a good question.]

[Genuine happiness wells up in Louis- oh thank god, he remembers. A laugh bubbles out of him, and- yup, sorry Kokichi, you're getting a big-ass hug.]

Holy shit, you remember me! You're the first one since I got here.

[He's made himself a new life here because you have to. You've got to keep moving on, no matter what- but he hasn't forgotten Wonderland- not the people he left behind there. ]

Jesus, I've missed you, you little troll.

[he snorts at that question, tempted to ask if the name 'yiling patriarch' already means so little.

...then wei wuxian scratches his head. he's still a little confused himself where that name comes from, but he does remember one thing for sure.]

I grew up around lakes and rivers, I definitely know water ghosts!

[maybe that's why he's feeling less afraid now that he's not staring down into the dark water. yeah, he can handle this.]

Mmf!

[Hey! He's accepting the hug, all right!

But... Something makes him pull away after a second.]

Nee-hee hee! I'm glad to see ya too, buddy...

Buuut... What are you talking about? This is another dumb event from Wonderland... Right?

[the lack of a sword is definitely one thing that threw him, though wei wuxian doesn't have one either. he has reasons.

he doesn't like the idea of waiting, not even for two more minutes. but he's never been much of the patient type.]

How it really is? What does that mean?

Yeah, sure. And I know all about the Queen of De Nile.

[Someone does not sound too impressed. It's like he doesn't believe this weirdo.]

...Yes. I'm a stowaway. How'd you guess?

[This is his life now. Okay. He can play the part. He's gone undercover in the pinball rings for nine months. Surely, passing himself off as a stowaway in this mystery ship isn't that hard. Who cares about the fact that he doesn't actually know anything about where they're going?

Besides, it's more believable to say that he's willingly gotten onto this ship as opposed to waking up in a confused state.

The corner of his mouth twitches upwards as he attempts to muster a more confident expression.]

But keep your lips sealed--we wouldn't want the officers of this ship to overhear, would we? I'm just here to sit back and watch.

[Louis releases the hug, but keeps his hands on Kokichi's shoulders. Oh, hooo boy.]

Yeaaaaah, no. This isn't and event. It's not even Wonderland, Ko.

[Which... is never the easiest thing to accept. He was pretty convinced this was a lot of Wonderland bullshit when he first arrived. This kind of thing is Wonderland's MO, after all.]

This is a different kidnapping world. It's called Deerington- a legit nightmare dimension, from what I've managed to work out. None of the others are here. Hell, I've only seen two people here who remember Wonderland at all.

[Louis has found the entire Titanic trip to be a ticking time bomb. He's fairly certain this will end in everyone being drowned and/or frozen and given half the people on board have had their memories toyed with, most of them aren't even aware of it. It's made him uneasy, and the spooky-ass water is not helping things.

He'd come across the newcomer, staring out at the water and was moving forward to advise that probably wasn't the best course of action when she whips around to try and punch him. He ducks away, but she still catches his shoulder as he tries to move out of face-punching range.]

Ow! Lady- jeez. [He raises his hands, showing he has no weapons.] Take a breath, I'm trying to help.

( ooc; I'm currently undecided on which canon point for Jesse, so these prompts are from different canon points to see which works best! )

» GHOST SHIP

— canon point: Phoenix (2x12)
[ In the middle of floor of one of the myriad long corridors sprawling through the ship lies a young man. He's alone, lying on his side, slumped unconscious; his legs are askew and skinny arms, slack. His mouth is agape, his eyes are sunken shut, and his short dark blond hair is an unwashed mess. He smells, too, if one were to get close enough to inspect him; he smells kind of sour, of stale sweat, like he hasn't had showered in a good number of days. The only clothes he's wearing is a pair of baggy grey sweatpants; his bony chest is shirtless, and his feet are bare. His chest rises and falls with long, heavy breaths that also seem shallow at the same time. He's dead to the world, as though nothing will ever wake him. ]

— canon point: Open House (4x04)
[ Jesse stands at the side of the huge creaking ship, staring down over the barrier into the dark, murky water. He's dressed in all black — black baggy jeans, black t-shirt, black bomber jacket. As dark and bleak as the heavy bags underneath his eyes. He's clutching a crumpled pack of cigarettes in his hands; he'd come up onto the deck for a smoke, in futile and anxious attempt to distract himself from... well, everything. His face is pale, stony with haunted exhaustion, and gaze is hard, nervous, sharp. He's watching something — something moving down beneath the surface of the black water. He wants to think it's a whale, or some other majestic beast of the sea, but the inexplicable churning of dread in his gut tells him otherwise. His mind rattles with thoughts of panic, of death, of punishing decay and savage cruelty; a loud relentless clatter of white noise as accusing and ear-piercing as a gunshot going off. He wants to stop looking but he can't; he's frozen. It's like looking down the barrel of that gun he'd pointed at Gale's head and watching himself pull the trigger over and over. ]

» WHERE FEET MAY FAIL

— canon point: ABQ (2x13)
[ Jesse is drowning. His arms are thrashing about in icy cold, black water, and his mouth is agape with gasping breath. The thick green dressing gown he's wearing is waterlogged, heavy — it's dragging him down like an anchor. That vice-like grip biting into his ankle down beneath the surface of the water, however, is dragging him down faster. God, he'd been asleep — or, at least, he thought he'd been asleep; a feverish, heroin-withdrawal sleep, limbs twitching, muscles spasming, stomach churning with bile. But, no; turns out the dream he'd thought he'd been having of being trapped under the sea, of seeing the dead girl — Jane, god, that dead girl makes him think of Jane — is real. A scream tears out of him, gurgling and shrill as he's yanked underwater. He disappears completely beneath the water for a moment, and then thrashes back to the surface, wheezing, choking, trying to scream for help. ]

» WILDCARD ME!

( ooc; Feel free to toss another starter my way, with any of the canon points I've listed above! If you want to discuss anything beforehand, please shoot me a PM! )

Edited 2019-12-26 06:20 (UTC)

. . . You can't be serious.

[He can tell Louis isn't making this up, but... Yeah.]

[ is she supposed to hesitate? honestly, the food was left behind, and so rey took it; there wasn't much thought to whether or not someone would come back for what they abandoned.

and as to something offered outright — well, there's barely a second before rey's hand darts out, curling around the dinner roll with slim fingers and yanking it back. no take-backs, stranger. ]

Thank you.

[ she does have one (1) manner, though. small miracles. ]

[Fast reaction. Swift hands. he gave a small whistle from high to low, just for a moment, but smiled.]

You must not be used to food. [He said politely as one could, accent soft.] Name's Genji. Hello.

[He himself didn't eat that much, so he didn't mind offering.]

[The good news is she does have a weapon. The bad news is it’s in her bag and is likely nothing he’s ever seen before—and it’s a little embarrassing to fight with anyhow. She’s sort of hoping she won’t have to bother.

She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns up at him (and up; shes unfortunately short, okay?] When you arrived this probably looked like a really fancy ship, right? Too if the line, every luxury accounted for.

I’m not sure how it’s even staying on the water like this, but it definitely doesn’t actually look like that. [She taps against her lower lip with her index finger, frowning in thought as she murmurs to herself] Some kind of hypnosis...? I don’t know. But it’s weird and the more people seem to look out at the water, the more they seem to become aware again.

It keeps going away after a while for most people though and they go right back to acting like everything’s normal. [Most people. Not her, apparently, but she’s watching him with a careful curiosity, like shes trying to figure out already which he’ll be.]

A; Golisopod, we're not in Alola anymore...(Arrival)

[The transition from his world to this one made no sense, but he's never been one to be hung up on details like that. Last he remembered was the captains in Po Town, and the UBs he released making a mess of things—his town, his team, hell...even him. One had grabbed him, dragged him away, and then the next thing he knew he was in a forest being dragged by what looked like a Stantler maybe?

Everything happened too quickly, and now he's here, wherever here is, with no better idea of what's going on than he did back in that forest. Waking up in some unknown bed, in some unknown house, in an unknown town, not to mention who even knows what world this is.

Certainly not his, the lack of Pokémon cements that, but there's no Ultra Beasts neither, which raises even more questions. None of which are truly in the forefront of his mind as he makes his way through this snowy town, hardly dressed for the weather with his short sleeve zip-up hoodie, muscle shirt, and baggy sweat pants.

He's also not alone. Guzma's large arthropod companion seems to be fairing the cold better than it's trainer, at least. Guzma's general poor state of being certainly doesn't help hide how terribly he's handling the cold, but otherwise he seems unbothered by the strange new place he's found himself.

Certainly hasn't hurt his confidence, neither. Not when the moment he spots someone else, he's quick to approach. Walking with a slouch that cuts about five inches off of his height, hands deep in his pockets, as his grey-colored eyes lock onto his target. Golisopod likewise wastes no time to block their path, swinging one of those large arms in an attempt to hook the person by their shirt, lifting them off the ground.

Successful or not, Guzma inquires all the same:]

Yo, where the hell are we? No playin' games, the temp's low and so's my patience.

[Golisopod gives a low rumble of a growl in agreement, those cross shaped eyes locked on.]

B; Child Spooks In My Mind? More Likely Than You Think! (Where Feet May Fail)

[Even past his initial introduction to this town (which wasn't much of anything), it's still cold, it's still shitty, and he's still not fully sure why he's even here. He's even less sure why he keeps having weird dreams. Not that he's a stranger to the torment his messed up and damaged mind subjects him to, but rather he's never had dreams about sea creatures quite like the ones that have been plaguing him.

Even less so visions of an oddly bloated and decayed little girl. He's not nearly as bothered as he should be, not when he's hardly a stranger to morbid thoughts and the like. However, when he begins to see the girl around the freezing town, calling to him, beckoning him...perhaps that's enough to get his attention—and his ire.

See, Guzma doesn't frighten easily, and he's no stranger to ghosts. Not when ghost Pokémon are a thing, not to mention the ones that plague Alola are particularly nasty (looking at you Palossand).

Perhaps to most what Guzma chooses to do about his poltergeist pest seems a bit rash, but never has the Skull boss cared what people thought of him and his decisions, least of which when it concerns some annoyingly persistent ghost. Releasing Golisopod, it's not Guzma who gets close to the specter, but rather the Pokémon as it charges the water-bloated child with First Impression, as commanded by his trainer.

To little success does the attack land, when the girl dissipates like mist as those large blade-like claws should have connected, leaving both Golisopod and Guzma surprised. Just as Golisopod turns back to Guzma—he sees her. The girl rising from the depths of the puddle behind his trainer, only half of her torso emerging as she grabs onto his ankles and yanks him down.

He's pulled down to his waist, fortunately having enough ground to grab onto in his desperate attempt to keep from fully submerging. His Pokémon rushing forward to aid him, but likewise finding itself being pulled down into one of the puddles it stepped in.

The two of them make for quite the sight: both halfway submerged in a puddle, desperately (and angrily) trying to pull themselves free. Who do you help, if either at all: the strung out looking gangster, or the giant bug monster?

Either way, should Guzma notice someone nearby...]

—Hey! Get yer ass over here!

[Unfortunately for Kim, he still has yet to encounter somebody who fully understands the significance of his introduction.]

[Instead, he's met by a woman wearing a fleece-lined jacket opened up over a drab tweed vest and trousers. Her puffy hair is held back by the cable-knit yarn headband snugly hugging her forehead, revealing her ears along with the small silver hoops hung from them. ...she seems to be severely lost in thought, restlessly pacing back and forth between two tall vertical beams supporting the dining hall's roof, tightly clutching a camera in her hands- one that appears curiously incongruous with the majority of the technology present in the Titanic.]

[...she very nearly drops this precious piece of tech when her shoulders give a sudden jolt at his approach.] God-! Don't sneak up on me like that! [It... really doesn't matter whether he was sneaking or not. It's a reaction based less on Kim and more on the strange state of affairs she's found herself in at the moment.]

..."lieutenant", huh? Really wouldn'ta guessed by the looks of you... thought you mighta been any other Joe Schmoe on the boat. Suppose it's only fair of you to go 'round telling folk that little fact about yourself, then- else, it's entrapment.

[she pulls back immediately, looking mildly horrified that she made contact with him at all. amara holds her hands up, taking a step back.]

Shit. I'm sorry, friend. [the paranoia has ebbed slightly when she's not looking directly at the water. she takes a deep breath to press it down and try to avoid showing it more in front of louis-- having someone else around gives her reason to do so, rather than let herself get completely absorbed into it.] Are you alright?

I genuinely wish I was- but nope. I've been here for about five months, now. The last thing I remember in Wonderland was the Mirrors being allowed over whenever they wanted. Then I was here, and I've been stuck here ever since.

Edited 2019-12-26 16:25 (UTC)

[He gives her a lopsided smile- because, hey, at least she wasn't going to continue trying to punch him. He'll take that.]

Don't worry about it, I've had worse.

[That... does not sound as comforting out loud as it did inside his head. Oh well.]

Are you okay? You're looking pretty weirded out. I... I think there's something wrong with the water, FYI. So don't stare at it for too long.

...

Excuse me for a sec.

[He walks out of the room for a moment. Louis can hear frustrated screaming just outside...

Then Kokichi returns with the most exhausted look on his face.]

... Wonderful! Outta the frying pan and into the fire! It's like the multiverse decided we weren't suffering enough!

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JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

WHERE FEET MAY FAIL

GHOST SHIP

Character Arrival

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Jesse Pinkman » Breaking Bad » CW for drug references

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Guzma | Pokémon SPECIAL

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