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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sitting in another corner their is a handsome young man writing in a leather bound journal. He is humming quietly under his breath as he worked, a quiet song that almost sounds alien.

For a moment, John closes the book and places that neatly on his lap. "What do you think, good sir?"

Since surely you've read the latest book after all.

The man looks up his blue eyes twinkling with something like a cross between amusement and friendliness. "Darwin," he says his voice a smooth tenor, "not as shocking as most make it out to be." He sets his journal aside and picks up a glass of amber liquid sipping from it. "To think one being made the world in a week is a bit mad is it not?"

Those brown eyes stare back; but they're not cocky or cheeky or wisdom the reaches deep down. They're relative - human for a lack of a better word. Sure, there's the glitter of intelligent but doesn't seem to be bottomless as usual and there's definitely a more serious look to the face overall.

As far as the answer to that question - John is a bit conflicted and rightly so - when he is a professor of learning this is also one of those times that science is conflicting with religion. As before with Copernicus.

John does begin to open his mouth but stops and closes as the thought of Copernicus does cross his mind and like that - does rewrite history.

"Nowhere does it say, man came from anything else in here." Which John states a matter of fact.

Which the book does not say that man came from ape - if anything humans are left out. However, does imply

Still, John's face appears conflicted between science and religion because then it becomes do you go anywhere after you die? And the thought of you don't is a chilling fact.

Edited 2019-12-26 21:18 (UTC)

The other man tilts his head thoughtfully. If one were to look into his eyes they would seem oddly old for such a young looking face almost like he'd seen too much in his life to be his actual age. Then against given he is dressed in the uniform of a soldier that might make sense to the man speaking to him. "That book is the word of one man," Jack points out quietly, "based on his observations yes, but there may need to be more testing to fill in the blanks. That is how scientific theory works is it not?"

"Scientific theory is testing variables in various, yes." John does sort of notice how those blue eyes seem older than the face but shakes his head; that's quite impossible. The uniform, however, seems vaguely familiar - though, John is probably covering up with denial a uniform that is quite similar in his dreams... of impossible things.

"Pardon, my rudeness." John extends a hand, "John Smith."

The other man smiles and takes the offered hand with a firm grip. "Captain Jack Harkness," he replies in that calm tenor, "but please call me Jack most do. Have you been here long sir?"

John returns with a firm grip, however, when Captain Jack mentions his name. There's a moment on John's face that there's a very dim light that goes on in the back in John's mind. If only for a few seconds but long enough to look confused/dazed/spaced out. Why - why does that ring a bell?

If Jack let go of John's hand, Smith's hand is still extended as he's sort of frozen for a moment and then - blinks.

"Sorry, I'm not sure what came over me. Must be being out at sea."

Nope, totally didn't hear the question.

There is a look of slight sadness on Jack's face as he watches John. "Are you alright," he asks gently.

"Yes. Quite." Is the quick reply and then a slower; "Yourself?" For whatever reason the sadness in the other eyes bothers John. There's something familiar about this man like they've met before?

"This might be an odd question but have we met before, sir?"