MARCH 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to March's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: SOULS & SINS.

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.

CW: Blood (both normal and black), B&W GIF with implied bloody hands, possible murder, possible body horror, possible insanity, possible suicide, possible forced aggression, possible demons, mental health references, leprechauns, stalking, being slowly eaten alive.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

GIVE IN TO THE BLACK BLOOD

Accidents happen. Maybe you scraped your knuckles against the lockers at school, or you got nicked in a sparring match, or your leg got caught on something in Rapture while you were away. Maybe you don't even remember how you got the small cut on your body, but it's superficial and nothing to worry about, right? Your tetanus shot is up to date (probably?) and even if it's not, it doesn't seem that bad.

You won't even notice the changes at first. The black blood is just like normal blood and you can't feel it as it invades your body, multiplying and taking over your regularly, healthy red blood cell count. It takes a day or two before your head starts to feel a little more chaotic than usual; thoughts start coming at racing speeds, becoming more and more violent as time passes. You can hear a voice that's not your own encouraging you, egging you on. telling you to just give in to the madness and embrace your destiny.

Under the effects of the black blood, you'll want to attack over the smallest things. Total strangers or casual friends will be the primary target as you seem to be able to at least recognize those close to you. You don't see these people as human, they're just a target, something to let out all those violent thoughts on. Even if you're weaponless, it won't matter; the blood in your veins can harden, burst from your skin and form its own weapon. Each one is unique to the person who is wielding it. Maybe it's a sword or two, a gun that is the perfect weight for you to hold, or a spear that's the exact length for the perfect throw. The weapons are indestructible and if they require ammo, they never run out. Those who are savvy enough will realize that they can harden the blood within their veins as well, usually in small concentrated areas, but it might be able to save you if someone gets the momentary upper hand and tries to strike a blow. While your skin can still be cut, any weapon will bounce right off of the black blood, and most blades might even crack if they don't have magical properties.

So how do you stop someone infected by the black blood? You'll have to get into their head. Looking into the eyes of someone under the effects of black blood will be difficult— their gaze is jumpy, staring at anything but the person they're attacking, and getting them to look at you long enough to enter into their soul will be a challenge because of it. If you manage to keep their head still, it only takes eye contact for three seconds before you'll be linked. You'll both end up in a small room, the one corner of their soul that hasn't been altered by the black blood.

The person under the effects of the black blood will feel weak, particularly if they've been trying to fight the effects of the madness taking over them. They'll feel defeated and might believe that fighting at this point is pointless. There's a small creature beside them, muttering to them these exact thoughts, that they're stronger this way, that it's the right thing to do.

The person who is trying to free someone from the black blood will have to target this ogre first. There are multiple ways to fight him, but the quickest is to find a way to shove him through the door you came in through and lock it. It'll give you a chance to talk alone, to try and encourage the other to keep going, to not give up, to take control. The ogre will be banging on the other side of the door the whole time, growing larger and louder with every passing second, so you'll have to do this quickly.

If the ogre ends up bursting back in or if you decide to attack right from the start, it can be killed— it's just hard to do alone. There's a glowing soul in the center of the ogre's chest, one you'll have to get a hold of and crush. Doing it by yourself is dangerous without weapons, but if you work together, it's not impossible. There is furniture throughout the small room you can use to attack with and if either of you are capable of summoning a weapon, you'll still be able to do so in this room. Magic will work so long as you're working as a team, but those trying to defeat the ogre alone will find their magic faulty and unpredictable.

Once you manage to pull the soul from the ogre, crush it in your hands, and the room will start to disintegrate. You'll end up back outside of the person's mind.

Purging the black blood from your body isn't pleasant; it will run from any open wounds and pour out of your mouth and eyes. It burns fiercely, evaporates as soon as it hits the ground, and sizzles like acid the entire time. When it's gone and your blood runs red again, you'll feel weak and disoriented. Maybe it's good to find someplace to lie down and recover for a while.

If you do not defeat the ogre or if someone fails to make eye contact with an infected person long enough to get into their soul, you will find the madness takes over all of your senses. The effects will last for two full weeks before you will collapse and the black blood will leave your body on its own accord. Death will also work to get rid of the black blood.

Note: Black blood can effect non-humans and those who don't even use blood. People who are usually incapable of getting cuts can still get infected with black blood as the wounds they enter through are supernaturally inflicted. The madness will affect non-humans the same way it affects humans and the weapons can be formed even if you don't have skin for it to come out of. You can still enter someone's soul even if they don't canonly possess one; it's the life essence that makes up any character. The black will pour out of whatever openings it can find when it leaves a body, regardless of if a character has a mouth or eyes.

WISHING YOU A RAINBOW OF HAPPINESS

Throughout early March, you will be able to find rainbows randomly scattered throughout the town of Deerington. They'll arc through the sky, overlapping one another, and each will end at different points throughout town. If you follow one and manage to find the spot where the rainbow meets the Earth, you'll find exactly what stories have always said you would; a pot of gold! Amazing! You're rich!

Only that would be too easy, wouldn't it? Deerington always comes with a catch.

If you find the pot of gold and take nothing from it, you'll find you're blessed with good luck and happiness for a full three days. Everything will go your way, people will be kind and friendly to you even if they are normally your sworn enemy. You'll find people do what you ask them to without even thinking twice about it. If you realize you have this power over people, you won't be able to order anyone to do anything against their will, and you won't be able to make anyone hurt themselves, but simple, innocent requests seem to work just fine. Want someone to feed you grapes? You got it. Need someone to fan you while it happens? Absolutely! Live like stereotypical royalty for a day.

If you take a small handful of gold but leave the rest, you'll find that your day is pretty average. Congrats. You just got yourself some gold free of cost.

If you take a large handful of gold, you will find your day goes pretty crummy. Everything goes wrong in the most expected of ways. You spill your coffee, your car breaks down, you're late for work, you mess up even the simplest of tasks, you step in a puddle that's way deeper than it looked and ruin your shoes. Everything sucks and no one is being very kind to you to make up for it. This will last for three days or until you return your handful of gold.

If you decide to take most of the gold in the pot, you'll be outright cursed. Things don't just go typically wrong, things will go terribly wrong. People around you will be put in danger, the ones you love will turn against you and might even start to attack you, accusing you of controlling their lives and being greedy and heartless. No one will try to kill you outright, but things happen when people are driven mad by your very presence. This will last for a week or until you return most of the gold.

If you take all of the gold, you'll get the same effects as taking most, but with an added bonus: people will definitely try to kill you. You'll also find that a small man seems to be nearby when ever any of these attacks happen. He'll start popping up everywhere, just watching you. He'll be at work, in the restaurants you frequent, on the streets you walk or drive down, and if you wake up in the middle of the night, you might even find him in the corner of your room. Just... watching. It's creepy, right? Each night it gets a little closer. If by the end of the week you haven't returned the pot of gold, the leprechaun will attack. It's hard to fight off, quick in its movements and difficult to strike. If it manages to knock you down, you'll have to hope someone comes along and saves you, as you'll be frozen in place. The leprechaun will slowly devour you, starting with your skin, and keeping you alive as long as possible through the process.

Guess you shoulda returned that pot of gold, huh?

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

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.

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Give him a few moments. He waits, watching her, and puts it together about the time Neo points at her face as she still smiles. "So you can't talk. Thrilling." On the bright side, this means she can't say anything stupid, which is a relief. On the negative, she appears to be doing just fine getting her point across just through facial expressions and body language alone.

"I suppose asking your name or how long you have been here is going to be an exercise in futility." Unless this is about to turn a game of pantomime, which Maul will not be amused by. It took Sidious seventeen years just to beat a sense of patience into him and he still has trouble with it.

Oh, delightful. He had a brain inside of his skull. She knew more than one person who'd been in her old boss's employ who'd taken at least twice as long, and god help Cinder, but she always seemed to assume that Neo would finally up and say something, and they'd been working together closely for months. Then again, she was convinced the fall maiden was not the brightest bulb in the pack, just very cunning and powerful.

She gave him a rather rakish grin when he said that. No, there wouldn't be much point in asking her, would there? Most people relied on nicknames after all. She didn't seem to engage much in pantomime or sign language efforts, though. Instead, she reached into her sleeve and pulled out her fluid. Those fingers moved... fast. Lifting it, she showed him the message typed out.

I have this, if it's important. Not long.

She waited to watch the cant of his eyes and once she was certain he'd seen it, or decided to ignore it, she slipped it back out of sight on her wrist. Oh yes, she could type things out. She just didn't want to do that.

At least someone who wasn't the most chatty was not unusual to Maul. Back before he'd had a thirteen year break in his sanity, he'd been less then talkative himself. That's what came from being isolated from most people by his master. But being left alone on a junkyard planet in pain and with his mind slowly eroding year after year had left him more prone to talking afterwards.

"Oh, so you do know how to read and write. Good." That's not a dig at Neo personally. Maul has met a lot of sorts in the galaxy and the ability to communicate through writing isn't always as common as one would think the vast wide nature of the universe. "That makes two of us. I arrived only a short while ago myself."

As he speaks, he reaches out with the Force, seeking to see what he can find by skimming her mind briefly. He's just probing more of her emotions then her actual thoughts.

She managed not to roll her eyes at that comment. It was fair, after all. She did have to report to her superiors somehow back in Remnant, and that was frequently the best way if the information was more detailed than 'guess who?' The only person she'd ever been able to communicate with perfectly had been Roman, who just seemed to understand her after their time working together. But Roman had been special.

A quick nod while she looked back at him. He did seem out of sorts, for all that he put up a gruff front. His scan found resistance, but the resistance of a person who was cautious and well trained, not a person used to defending against actual psychic attack. A little resistance and then he could feel the emotions at the surface.

She was calm. Her emotions weren't a roiling or light-headed sort of sea. She didn't give off bubbly impressions like her somewhat ditzy smile might have indicated. There was a cold, methodical calculation to the way that she was looking at him. The guarded element fit with how she was cautiously gauging his physical reactions, the smallest ones. It was like she was sizing him up, getting a feel for 'better than me' or 'weaker than me.' She was a tiny bit nervous, and a latent hint of violence bubbled just beneath the surface, searching, yearning, hungering. She was a hunting dog, waiting to find the scent of its target.

Meanwhile, as that bit of her emotional state came through, she was tapping her lips, on the surface patient enough to wait, to see if he needed or wanted something.

He feels all that is going on beneath the surface carefully, sifting through them one at a time to paint a full picture of the woman before him. She has a sense about her that reminds him of the Mandalorians in Death Watch under his command. That coldness mixed in with the desire to find out who the strongest was. That entire focused nature of her made him muse that she would make a good minion.

It instinctively makes Maul pull himself up to his full height and roll his shoulders back, the intensity in his eyes giving him a permanent sort of glare. It was showing off in a physical sense that he was no one to be messed with.

"What is your name?" He pauses and the barest hint of humor seeps through his next words. "You do have a name, don't you?" Hey, for all he knows, she comes from a place where they don't give out names to their people. Weirder things can be found in the galaxy!

The painting derived from her emotions was one of colors. There was a hollowness that felt almost yawning within her, a thing that was missing and not looking to be refilled. She embraced it like one embracing the pain of an old wound. The sense of roiling anger didn't feel undirected, but closer to a laser focus. When he drew himself up, for instance, there was no sudden urge to test him to see if he was better. She was simply gauging.

There was familiarity in the way that she reacted to his own gauging. She'd been sized up that way countless times in the past, after all. Kind of came with the territory in a world's criminal underbelly.

She considered his question and responded with a quick nod. Oh, she had a name, a name he'd given her. It had been an existence he'd given her. Idly, she wondered if this creature knew about ice cream before she shrugged and reached out with one of her feet. 'NEO' was scratched in the dirt. It wasn't her full name, but pretty much everyone used it, so it would suffice for the moment.

Her emotions seem to feel almost familiar in a sense, things that he himself had experienced. She was no dummy or brainless mook, that was for certain. This is someone here who knows what she wants and how to get it. Her feelings aren't aimless, no there is a sharpness to them like a tack.

He'll have to be watching this one.

He looks at the name. So it is Neo. He doesn't immediately connect it to the word Neopolitan despite her rather unique coloration. One has to wonder if they even have ice cream in a galaxy far, far away. Poor deprived aliens. "My name is Maul." He gives a short jerk of his head by way of greeting rather then shaking hands or anything like that.

She quietly reached her umbrella back up and against her shoulder, opening and fanning it. For someone whose mind went to such dark places, she certainly enjoyed frilly things. Then again, appearances could be deceiving. The jerk of his head was met with a nod from her. She'd make a note of the name, though she rarely had use to actually communicate using them for obvious reasons. It was still handy to have something to mentally file away.

The lack of handshakes was for the best. She wasn't a touchy feely sort. Smile away, sure, but physical contact and closeness were unpleasant things outside of conflict and battle.

A moment's consideration and she looked around, as if trying to decide something. Turning back to him, she inclined her head. It was very much an 'is there anything else' sort of gesture.

They certainly made for an interesting-looking pair. Neo looked as if she could have been going out for a pleasant stroll given her general look with the gloves, bowler hat, and umbrella. Meanwhile Maul looked as if he was always prepared for a funeral given his head-to-toe black attire, though it was quite practical given how often he ended up fighting.

Not much to discuss with someone who couldn't (or was it wouldn't?) talk. Granted, Maul could be like that sometimes too. Give him long enough and he started to revert back to the way that he'd been when he was young. "I suppose if we both survive the next couple of days in this place, we shall see each other again."

She reached up to tip her hat just a fraction, a polite little gesture followed by a nod of the head. She took a few steps, the last of them almost a skip, walking past the former Sith and down the street. A few more steps, and the click of her heels was gone. The faintest tingling of sound was on the wind, almost like clinking glass.

If he looked over his shoulder, she was nowhere to be seen. Only natives as far as the eye could seen, all of them dressed in the same white.

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