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

[ The other man is more solid than Hank, or at least takes up more space, so he stumbles a step to avoid the collision but recovers quickly, a curse on his tongue until he catches the words. The curse dissolves then, eyes widening in concern, head bobbing in answer to the question as he looks over the railing in reflexive worry. ]

Should watch your malchik better so close to the water, but da, am okay. Do you need help? Many eyes find quickly.

[Given the context he's almost sure he knows what malchik means but there's no point in asking, the fractured way he's talking makes it all too clear his first language wasn't English.

It doesn't bother him, what does is the offer to find his son. He's a naturally paranoid kind of guy, especially after losing his wife, so hesitance has become part of his core personality.]

I guess... Well, he's about this tall. [Tall for a boy, not too many inches shorter than the guy in front of him with his hand as the indicator.] Dark shaggy hair, big glasses.

[ He pays rapt attention to the description, even if it's not much to go on. It's plenty he can go off of, at least for the moment, so he nods again. ]

Easy. Will look. I am Hank.

[ He thrusts a hand towards him, cheerful grin on his face, waiting expectantly. ]

[It's not the attention to detail every father would describe their kid in but he doesn't think giving more information would be appropriate. Most kids on the boat wore pretty uniform clothing, there wasn't a whole lot of diversity where that was concerned and the last he needs is for Richie to catch more negative attention than he already managed to do on his own.]

Thanks, his name's Richard. Goes by Richie. I appreciate your help, I'm Barry. He's a damn espionage expert, so, we probably won't get a hold of him.

[ The hand hangs there for a few extra beats before he drops it, but the grin doesn't drop an inch. It's no problem. ]

Richie. I will remember, and if I find him I will make sure he gets back to you. Is good to meet you, Barry!

Edited 2019-12-27 19:50 (UTC)

[Barry definitely should've caught the gesture of goodwill but he's so caught up in worry and with his attention divided he's not half as good socially. Not that he was ever very good at navigating this sort of thing.]

Sorry. Thanks. I appreciate the help. It's a big ship but it's still a ship, he's around here somewhere.

Sorry for what?

[ It's not forgotten, exactly, but as far as he's concerned missing a cue isn't much cause for apology; it happens to everybody, after all! ]

Where does he like to go?

The handshake I'm- a little distracted.

[Is he still going to point it out? Absolutely even for a widower ex-naval officer he's every bit as socially inept as he always was.]

He's a teenager. This is a boat. He'll go anywhere he can get into. These days he's been hanging around with another group of kids his age, so, that's an option.

Oh! That? Is nothing.

[ He crosses the space to clap him on the shoulder instead; it's fine! Already behind him. ]

So no harm then? If he's only out having fun. More kids, less chance he's the one who will go overboard!

Richie's too smart for that.

[Barry's already shaking his head side to side at the idea he'd ever be close enough to the railing to get himself caught in a bad situation. He had his survival skills and an innate sense of tactical thinking. It was going to be hard to pin him down.

The clap on his shoulder surprises Barry but he responds halfway normally smiling in the direction of this newcomer because as a former sailor he never much cared for classism himself. When it's life or death those things don't matter.]

Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. You're a life saver.

Accidents happen sometimes. But I am sure you're right.

[ It's not meant as a threat, or anything like real doubt, only an assessment of reality, no matter how it might come off; Barry's not the only one with a strange sense of social mores. But Barry responds with a smile, so at least he's doing something right maybe? ]

Of course! We are stuck on a ship, after all, should all pull at same time, yes?

[Barry doesn't even want to consider what kind of accident would hurdle his son into that mess. He knew that his boy had a mouth on him, and what's more, he encouraged him to speak his mind so long as words were gauged wisely but at his age, the wild streak came out more emphatically than it had for him. That cockiness got him into trouble all the time.]

Yeah. The good news is, even on a ship this size, he's still here. Somewhere.

Exactly. Is piece of pie.

[ Yes, he looks particularly proud of himself for that one. ]