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soddersays2019-12-24 01:53 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2019-12-24 01:53 pm
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JANUARY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME
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!
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.
no subject
[He's run across various hunters before, not to mention a Slayer. Still, not all hunters were good, not all Slayers were, either...jury was still out on this one. For now.]
Well, I'm a lawyer. But I saw a lot of what you'd call unusual things at the firm I worked at.
[A lawyer who ended up defending these things or working for them.]
Nothin' like this, though. I'm not even...really sure how I got here. [He rubs his face.] Memories and perception's been altered. I thought I belonged here...
no subject
Well, nice to meet you, Mr. Lawyer. The name's Winchester.
[But that... that piece of information actually shook Dean. The bit about memories. He'd been having dreams... Dreams of a life his but not his. Friends he didn't know, people he'd never met claiming to be family, and worst of all, he'd barely known his mother in these dreams.]
Memories altered how? What do you mean you thought you belonged here?
[OOC: I'm dumb and didn't realise you'd already apped into the game. If you'd rather not continue this, I completely understand. But I'm good to continue if you are.]
no subject
[He shakes his head, looking just as baffled.]
I don't know, it's like...I remember a life here but I know it can't be right, but it feels so real...it's like I've lived somewhere else, or both places at the same time. All I know is someone's messed with my head. Or...maybe I'm going crazy.
[Or maybe everyone was.]
[OOC: Haha it's no worries at all, I'm absolutely loving this thread! I was so excited to have him be tagged by Dean! I'm definitely good to continue.]
no subject
[He didn't like that this man was just about exactly describing how he felt. Usually two is a coincidence and three is a pattern, but something so freaking specific? No, this was a pattern. Especially when dealing with supernatural elements.]
Well, can't say you're crazy or not, but I can say I agree. Something's messing with our heads. Had a whole different life. You recognise faces and you don't know why? Some flashes of things that don't fit. Like, at all. And worse, I keep getting the feeling something happens to this boat. I should know what it is, but I just get a feeling about it. A bad one.
There's this thing called Djinn. It poisons you, messes with your head, slowly feeding on you. But you dream the whole time. Thing is, usually they give you what you want. I can tell you right now, if this is a Djinn, it missed the mark. And they don't let real life bleed through. That's the only guess I had and I know it's not right.
[OOC: I'm glad! I was really excited to see Lindsey and a Wesley on the TDM! Lindsey's a character you don't see around very often.]
no subject
[Well, he'd wished they were in better circumstances, but what could you do?
But he nods, what Dean's describing isn't too far off from his own exact experiences, too.]
I think somethin' really bad happens to the boat, if this is the same exact boat I'm thinkin' about. And I mean, catastrophically. So if you and me are on the same page, and there's something definiely messing with our heads?
Yeah, we should be worried.
[There's a frown. He didn't know every single demon and/or monster and/or being to ever exist, but he knows quite a lot.] Sounds somethin' like a demon where I'm from. I heard of Djinn before, but I ain't never seen one, don't really know their powers. Could be the same thing, could be something similar.
[OOC: Yay, I'm glad too! It's such a great setting for this genre, we're both super excited to be here. I just watched a recent episode of Supernatural with Lindsey's actor interacting with Dean too, what perfect timing!]
no subject
[Dean shrugged when Lindsey brought up demons.] Demons are more annoying but less dangerous. These things just touch you and you're under. I've only been able to kill one with a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood... [Except, wait. Did he? He could distinctly remember being jumped, overpowered, and living a dream. With his mother and without Sam. But... but why would that have been his dream?] I think? The memory doesn't make any sense. But I know that's how you kill it. But if it's something else, we'll have to find the bastard before we can figure out how to ice it.
You good teaming up with a hunter on this? My brother's around here too, but that's still just three of us trying to cover this whole ship.
[OOC: So, that was actually reminded me to add you on Plurk. That meme was going around about "can your character sing" and I came across the clip of Christian Kane (Lindsey) and Dean singing in a bar together in the newest season. That made me incredibly happy! I am so here for this cross-canon friendship.
And maybe occasional karaoke.]no subject
[It's hard to pin down the memory, exactly, but it's getting clearer the more he tries to concentrate on it.
Still, having someone that knew how to kill a thing that might be affecting them could be very useful, indeed.]
I think lamb's blood is in short supply, even if we could find a silver knife...but hey, maybe it's somethin' else. Maybe it's somethin' we can just shove overboard before it's too late.
[And if it's powerful enough to survive that, then they probably had more problems to deal with.]
Hey, I'd team up with anybody to get rid of this thing. Ship's huge, though... [Lindsey looks anxiously down the railing.] Don't know how much time we have.
[OOC: YESsssssss I loved that part! And me too, I'm so here for it!
Good luck Dean, he really enjoys karaoke...so much karaoke.]no subject
Yeah, I always carry a silver knife. [Dean brushed back his brown jacket enough to reveal the blade holstered on his hip.] Hopefully it's something we can ice with silver or, yeah, the overboard thing would be ideal.
I'll take the odds over rolling over and giving up. My bro and I don't go down without a fight. [He wasn't sure why he was so confident in that. He knew he wouldn't, but he hadn't seen Sam in easily a decade and a half until this boat ride. But it felt like they always hunted together.] Then we better make the best 9f the time we've got.
[OOC: I'm way too excited for this. XD ]
no subject
Nothin' wrong with bein' prepared. A little paranoid maybe, but hey. We might end up needing that after all.
I'm not sure how great the odds are if we gotta fight somethin' or like, the entire ocean, but I get that. I'm always lookin' for a good fight.
[OOC: Me too! Looking forward to it!]
no subject
But imagine, if we fought the ocean and won, that'd be a pretty fun story to tell. Not many people can lay claim to that.
[OOC: I'm sorry these tags took so long! This month got away from me! x_x]
no subject
[The thought feels wildly comfortable, as if that's how he's been living his life all this time.]
No one would ever mess with us again, that's for sure. [That gets another smirk from Lindsey, the thought of being that notorious is comforting, at least.]
[OOC: No worries at all and sorry for taking so long too! I definitely know that feel!]