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

[ blake's eyes don't leave yang's face, watching her as she speaks. her right goes to her partner's cheek, stroking her thumb over it. ]

I left you once, though, didn't I...? [ she murmurs that after a moment, absently. like it's half-remembered, sand running through her fingers. she grasps yang's prosthetic hand in her left, running her thumb over the pressure sensors in her palm. ] After you lost this.

[ she knows that she came back afterwards. she knows she promised her, swore to her, that she was going to stay, wasn't going to leave again, that they were protecting each other. but remembering this is making some of it fresh all over again. ]

[ 'get away from her!'

then red, nothing but red.

yang suppresses a shiver, chest and throat suddenly raw, and leans her cheek into the touch. ] Something scared you so bad you thought it was better if you left. It took a while--way too long-- [ she smiles at the foggy memory of blake standing there and calling her name ] ,but you came back. Whatever it was can't hurt either of us anymore. It's gone. And if something else comes up?

[ she kisses the inside of blake's wrist. ]

We're going to be there for each other. Nothing's gonna beat us ever again.

You're asking why I chose you when you're saying things like that?

[ red creeps into blake's cheeks, and she keeps her eyes firmly on yang's as she speaks. heat travels up her arm, but she stiffens, freezes. something scared you. her gaze detaches, unfocused, a vacant horror in her eyes now.

you're ghira belladonna's daughter. out alone in the streets at night. let me walk with you. you never know what monsters are out in the dark.

hello, my darling.

running away again? is that what you've become, my love? a coward?

you. will. but not before you suffer for your betrayal, my love.

... and as i set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, i will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.

starting with her.

she can't breathe. her ears flatten almost painfully against her scalp, and the rest of what yang says—it might as well be rushing water. the sound of a waterfall fills her head along with a cruel voice that chills her to the core, and everything is red stained over black, a blade red with dust, another with blood, all wilting roses and a blue eye like a whirlpool dragging her down—

she knows that she's felt separate from her body before, when using her semblance. but this is something else entirely. the worst part is that it isn't unfamiliar. ]

Edited (i changed my mind) 2020-01-21 11:56 (UTC)

[ goosebumps raise along yang's skin as she feels the mood shift even before the thumb on her cheek goes still. the electric energy in the room dissipates in an instant, replaced with a sense of dread so heavy that it makes her shoulders sag under its weight.

and even more terrifying than the sudden silence is the dullness of blake's eyes. she's here in body, but her mind is gone, carried out to sea by some invisible riptide. ]

Blake Belladonna, listen to me. [ yang cradles her face, voice low and urgent to mask the deep concern in her tone. ] You're okay. All of us are okay: Weiss, Ruby, me, you. It's alright. You're safe with us.

[ with me. ]

You've gotta breathe. Can you do that?

[ blake doesn't immediately respond. her eyes shift a bit, locking on yang's again, though the dull terror in her gaze hasn't faded. she pulls in rapid, shallow breaths, and the fact that's all she can manage seems to trouble her even more—but she nods, quickly.

she brings up her right hand and rests it on top of yang's left. ]

Adam. [ a ragged, deeper breath. ] Adam, he— [ she chokes that out, swallowing. blake hears someone talking, but she doesn't quite realize it's herself. her voice sounds detached and panicked all at once, almost like someone talking in their sleep during a nightmare. ] I didn't... remember him, before...

[ adam.

just thinking his name makes her stomach roil with anger. he had taken her arm, had taken away so much more from blake than yang would ever understand. adam took and made other people suffer the consequences. it was--

"cheap". that's what yang said when she learned about his semblance. and she was tired of she and her loved ones paying the price for his cruelty.

the flesh and blood part of her right arm are taut with anxiety, yet she never tightens her grip on blake's hand, leaning forward so that their foreheads touch. ]

He's gone for good, that much I remember. He isn't coming back. Ever.

[ a beat as she swallows past the anxiety lodged in her throat. now wasn't the time to falter. ] We protect each other now. Tell me what I can do to help.

[ blake manages to steady her breathing a bit more, ears still pinned. a bit more light returns to her eyes, melting from dull copper in the low light of the cabin's bedroom to something more like their usual amber. she's... mostly there, now, but not completely. ]

I know. We killed him. There wasn't a choice. [ there's no stepping around it for her right now.

no one's ever treated her with this kind of tenderness, she thinks. there's her parents, but that's altogether different. not like this. ]

... Just be here. Be you. [ she pushes her forehead forward against yang's, drawing in a breath. ] It's always been enough, Yang.

[ 'enough'. not a surrogate mother or a loving daughter or a dependable teammate--just being her. that's enough.

yang likes the sound of that. ]

You know, most people usually ask for me to be less myself. [ the corners of her mouth quirk upward in a grin despite the seriousness of the situation. at least some of blake is back from the spiral she was currently in, and that's more than enough for yang. ] But if that's what'll help, I won't go anywhere. Promise.

[ a deep, heavy breath, as blake leans forward, trying to steady herself. ]

Most people are idiots, then. But... good. [ she kisses yang's cheek, slipping her arms up over her partner's neck. it's so easy to just melt into the affection that yang's already initiated. ] I'm not leaving either. We're protecting each other now, right?

[ she takes a breath. there are a lot of little creature comfort things she wants to put at yang's disposal--a bath, bribing a crew member to retrieve yang's things from third class--but she's not quite settled down enough to try to offer that. give her a minute. ]

That's the deal. I remember that much.

[ yang wouldn't even accept any of those creature comforts until she has absolute certainty that blake was okay. besides, there's a very good chance she'll get her own stuff from third class and cheerfully and politely tell anyone that has a problem with her new lodgings to shove it. ]

Yup, that's the deal. [ her grin to turns into a full-blown smile, fighting back the strong urge to kiss blake properly. for some reason, that feels like a line she shoulcn't cross yet. instead, she'll place a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. ] I'm glad you're back. This ship was going to be really boring without you.