JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.

Comments

amara the siren / borderlands 3

[phaseflex]

bottom side

[this isn't the first time amara's been on a ship. her most recent home was on board the sanctuary iii with the other crimson raiders and vault hunters. admittedly her room was... significantly bigger and nicer than her second class cabin aboard this ship, but she can't complain.

...anymore, at least. she got it all out her system a while ago.

she misses her guns, most of all. fortunately for everyone around her, the ship's warped her memories enough that she doesn't recall the sanctuary being a space ship, nor does she remember her otherworldy siren powers. she doesn't question how her tattoos no longer glow or how she can no longer access a digistruct bank through her communication device. she makes no attempts to solve a mystery she doesn't know needs solving, doesn't feel like the powers she doesn't know she had have been stolen. she continues on as many others on board the ship does, none the wiser.

amara can be found most nights at the third class party, drinking, laughing loudly and telling stories of her exploits. the scars littering her body don't imply any of them are untrue.]

Hello, friend! [she might approach you if you're being a wallflower. or just at the party? look, it's a social occasion.] Are you enjoying the festivities? I haven't done anything like this for quite a while! Well... not counting the last several nights before this, at least!

top side

[the water isn't right. dangers in the ocean, that's nothing new, but this water that's foaming around the ship as it surges forward-- it's not right.

she isn't used to feeling like this. amara doesn't respond to things with fear. she doesn't get scared-- she's a brave hero who fights to protect the weak, the tiger of partali! how can she be scared by the water? those big shapes duck and weave over each other, elegant in any other situation. something deep down tells her they're going to jump out of the water and onto the deck at any moment, even though they never do.

she's staring over the edge intensely having only glanced out of curiosity, gripped with the paranoia. if anyone approaches her, she whips around, expression wild and throws a punch at them.]

Get away from me!

wild card

[ya'll know what to do, PM me or hit me up on jabbers if you wanna discuss anything!]

bottom side

[pinballs]

[Oh, Kim is definitely being a wallflower right now. Partying isn't exactly his "thing", per se, but he needs to know more about this ship. He's been carefully listening to everything that's been going on, scribbling down notes in his tiny notebook as if he were on a case. When Amara approaches him, he shuts the notebook before she can peer into his notes.

He's also refused to dance all night. He will not be making a monkey out of himself in front of hundreds of strangers.]

I will admit, partying in the bowels of a ship isn't what comes to mind when I think of fun. But I suppose it's festive enough.

[His accent almost sounds French, if France were a thing where he was from.]

You have some truly impressive tattoos. Where did you get them?

[They're really cool, actually. If he were not a police officer, he might look into it, himself...but he has to uphold his Image of being a non-delinquent.]

[phaseflex]

[fortunately, she wasn't about to sneak a peek, even if she is tall enough to peer over. you're safe this time, kim.]

What, you'd prefer to be up in the classy areas? I couldn't think of anything more boring. [she has her own wealth, but she's never been that sort to lord it over people. it mostly went to traveling for her work. at least... that's what she believes, right now.] I've had them longer than I can remember. I think I got them when I was a child...?

[that's a bit of a hole. weird! feels like something's not connecting. oh well.]

There will probably be a few more people with similar ones when we dock.

[pinballs]

Well, maybe not the classy areas. God knows what they'd think of me.

[He is very much Not Classy despite how composed he tries to be. The RCM is spit upon by most citizens of Rechavol--and those outside of it, as well. He just prefers peace and quiet.

What Amara definitely says strikes him as odd, but she seems to be telling the truth. Then again, most of the people on this ship act a little odd....]

Ah. Yes. Speaking of docking--do you happen to know where we're headed? No one has given me the same answer twice.

[As a police officer, it's his job to ask questions. If Amara doesn't find a way to turn the conversation, he'll probably just keep asking them.]

[phaseflex]

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.]

[pinballs]

...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.

[phaseflex]

Lucky.

[he's good at playing the part-- even if it's not something she'd look into anyway. amara can read people well enough to know when they're lying, but she doesn't really notice anything off.]

I'm not in the business of ratching people out. What could I possibly gain from it, anyway? Blackmail? Please, I'm not that sort.

[pinballs]

You'd be surprised. Plenty of people try to make themselves feel superior by bringing the authorities down on people they think are doing wrong.

[He's being sarcastic, of course. He's seen it all too often among the citizens of Rechavol--those in the gutter dragging those who try to leave the gutter right back down with them because they don't deserve to have what others have worked so hard to achieve. A vicious cycle of people wrestling at the bottom of the pyramid, too blind to see that their real enemies are those keeping them down.

Maybe a different avenue of questioning might work to glean some answers...small talk. Yeah. That works!]

What exactly do you do at these parties, anyways? So far, I've only seen people drink and eat and... [He trails off.] ...Well. Drink even more.

[phaseflex]

I am an authority, [she says with a little smirk.] But not on this boat, and not while you are no threat to anyone. If you decide to start causing trouble, then maybe we'll talk.

[she believes she might've been always by the book, but she's learned to be a little more lenient, too.

...and also, no-one has paid her to deal with stowaways, so she ain't doin' shit, bro.]

You make merry and make new friends and connections! Some of the best people I've met was at a [COV raid on a crimson raider aftermath? no, that doens't sound right. it must've been a party.] party.

do you ever realize you wrote a reply and later edited it so your action text makes no sense

[pinballs]

You and I probably attend different kinds of parties, then. I can't remember the last time I went to a party and no one started a fight within the first five minutes.

[Is that a smile creeping up on the lieutenant's face? No. It couldn't be.]

Of course, most of that is due to the attendants already being drunk upon arrival. Why leave the partying to just the party?

absolutely RP HARD

[phaseflex]

That's part of making merry.

[loves a good fight, this one. she might even be the one that starts them a lot of the time. just for fun.]

And yet it seems like you enjoy them. I see that smile.

Top side

[teamfun]

[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.

[phaseflex]

[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?

[teamfun]

[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.

[phaseflex]

Mm.

[yeah she does look briefly concerned at that, but also she's not unused to the idea of people being in fights daily. the best part of it is the fact that she didn't do worse to him.]

I... yes, the water here is... full of something. I haven't been out this far on an ocean before-- maybe it's normal. [she wants to believe it. if her memories hadn't been affected and her siren powers suppressed, amara might've been the one to jump off the ship to fistfight everything down there.] I'm starting to regret seeking naval passage.

[teamfun]

[Louis had been on cruises before- in the world that was- back when his life was simple and he didn't have a single care in the world. Back before he knew just how good he'd got it- what a lucky roll of the dice existence had given him. He knows what the ocean does and it's not this.]

Yeah, it's not normal. Most of the time the ocean doesn't give you spooky-ass hallucinations.

[He's not sure if she remembers herself, or if her mind has been altered. It could go either way, honestly. He decides to play it safe, offering a smile.]

Well, you're here now, right? I think so long as you don't stare at the water too long, you'll be okay.

[Unless the boat sinks. In which case, none of them will be okay. ]

[phaseflex]

[she doesn't remember most of herself, but she's still... enough of herself.]

Thank you for checking on me. I'm Amara, [she says, holding a hand out.] I'll be sure to pass on the warning... figures I haven't truly learned anything about this ship. I've been too busy in the bars.

[shaking her head lightly:] I suppose you've encountered others who've had this problem?

[teamfun]

[He takes the hand, giving it a shake.]

Louis. And don't mention it. We gotta look out for each other here, right? And I don't blame you. The bar is the place a lot of people end up at the start. It's... a lot.

[Deerington is a lot, but being on the Titanic is, too.]

A couple. I checked up on my friends and a couple are dealing with it.

[phaseflex]

We have to look out for each other everywhere.

[she was going to invite him to come with her, but figures from that comment he doesn't need to go back. she stops and closes her eyes, pressing a hand to her temple.]

Yes... is there something wrong with this ship? I have rust on my hands from the railing...

[she holds a hand out. there's nothing there.]

[teamfun]

Damn right we do. That's important shit to remember.

[It's something he very much believes in back home- even when half the world is at one another's throats most of the time. He looks at her hand, at the nothing, and grimaces. ]

Uhhhh, maybe. I think there might be something in the water. I... wouldn't stare at it too long, if I were you.

[phaseflex]

...Point taken. [she wipes her hands off on her jeans, even if there's nothing to come off.] I feel like...

...We should go to the bar. I don't want to think of this too deeply just yet.

[teamfun]

[A laugh bubbles out of him. Any adult that suggests they go to a bar instantly raises themselves in his cool estimations. ]

I mean, I don't know what the drinking age is in... whatever the fuck timeline we're in currently, but sure! The bar's pretty fancy.

Top side.

[clickclickbloom]

[Ruby was just innocently swabbing the deck when she comes across Amara. She can't help but feel a pang of worry for her as she glances over the edge of the boat. The last thing she wanted was to see someone not enjoying themselves on this trip.

She sets down the mop and moves toward Amara, about to reach up and put a hand on her shoulder. That is until Amara suddenly turns around and decks her right in the face. Ruby stumbles back eyes wide with fright and confusion.]

Wh-what the heck was that for!?

[phaseflex]

[she's not usually like this. really-- amara is usually far more level headed and aware of things that dig into her psyche. the main problem here is... this isn't the normal amara. that amnesia is a hell of a drug.

poor ruby gets the brunt of her water-induced paranoia. she'll feel pretty terrible about this later, but right now she thinks... surely the workers have some idea of what's going on.]

Deckhand, no? Tell me what is wrong with this ship! What have you brought us onto?!

[clickclickbloom]

[To be fair Ruby's usually a bit better at taking a hit. Thinking she's just staff aboard the ship has made her a bit absent minded when it comes to her actual abilities.

She rubs her cheek and shoots a glare Amara's way.]

Y-yeah, I work here. I mean besides my boss's and apparently the passengers being huge jerks? My room has weird to smell to it and it's hard to get any sleep.

[Her eyes roll slightly. She's probably a little sour about the punch.]

The freakin' ocean, duh. I thought that was obvious with whole boat thing.