MAY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to May's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: DARK FANTASY 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.

CW: Heightened mental health issues (anxiety & paranoia), auditory hallucinations, option for visions of canon death and violence, child death, corpses, possession.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

DEATH'S EYE

Desperation and anxiety are things that come easily in a place like Deerington, but lately it seems like it's being felt in waves. Maybe you're feeling more desperate to get home, maybe you're afraid of what will happen when you do leave here, or maybe you're dreading what the month to come has in store for you. Some people might just start to feel anxious and terrified with no real reason behind it. The worries are plaguing your thoughts, leaving you unable to trust those around you. You keep seeing visions in your dreams of violent wars, senseless murders, and all of it seems to end with a stand in the middle of the woods with a single glass orb.

There's no rationality for it, but eventually, you'll feel compelled to find the orb. You'll find that when you leave the house to go somewhere, you'll forget where you were headed, only to end up at the edge of the forest. Sometimes you might sleepwalk and wake up in the dirt by the trees. If you decide to fight it and keep leaving, you will grow more and more paranoid, isolated, and violently aggressive to those around you. If you can wait out a full week, you might find the anxiety starts to ease, and slowly over the course of five days, you will begin to return to normal.

If you don't fight it and head into the woods, you will feel pulled to follow a long and winding path through the woods. There are multiple branches off of the path, but you won't feel compelled to go down them. Keep heading straight. Another personal will eventually stumble down the path you're on as well and the two of you will walk together through the woods.

Eventually you'll find a clearing. It's the same clearing from your dream with the same orb displayed in front of you. One or both characters will hear whispering throughout the clearing that grows more intense the closer you get to the orb. They're urging you to touch it, to free yourself from the pain you've been feeling for days on end. The strong can fight it, but most characters will be too weak from the lack of sleep and the constant fear to refuse to give in.

If you do fight it, you can leave the clearing, but the same anxiety and paranoia cycles will follow you for another full week before it begins to ease. If you don't fight it and you touch the orb, you will be filled with a blinding pain that runs through your entire body. There will be a quick and heavy sequence of images that runs through your mind; they will be images of the most traumatic experiences that your companion has ever faced and you will feel as though you were experiencing every moment first hand.

When you break free, the anxiety and paranoia will be gone and you'll be back to yourself. It seems you two will have a lot to talk about on the walk home.

Note: It does not have to be just one character who touches the orb. Both characters are welcome to.

NOW YOU SEE ME

The first few signs you're being haunted are easy to miss. Maybe you think you just misplaced your keys or put that book you were reading down on a different counter than where you find it. Things get a little harder to ignore when random objects start to fall off shelves or glasses shatter without any warning. Eventually there's no denying you've got a full fledged poltergeist on your hands; the walls will shake and screams will echo in your head that you can't block out no matter how tightly you cover your ears. Lights will flicker and bulbs will eventually blow from the power surges. Objects that fly across the room will barely miss your head— some might not even miss at all.

If you know any tricks for getting rid of angry spirits, none of them will work. Trying them seems to only make the spirit angrier. If you try too many times to get rid of the spirit, it will eventually possess you, filling you with a blind and violent rage that can make you attack even your closest of friends. The possession will last for one full hour and once the spirit leaves you, you'll feel completely drained for the rest of the day.

But there's hope! In your blessing's basket, your character will find one-half of an antler wreath. The trick is to find the person with the other half. Each wreath will have a unique set of flowers on them and you will have to find the person who has the flowers that match your own. Both of you will have been being haunted by the same ghost, it seems; they were a busy little poltergeist.

Once the two halves of the wreath are connected, it will begin to glow, before a faint wisp of light starts to travel a path in front of you both. If you follow the path of light, it will take you through the town, down the roads, through the playground at the elementary school, and eventually stopping near the edges of Koji Pond. Continuing to search will eventually lead to both character's stumbling on the body of a young child. Rest the wreath against them and the light will encompass the body, becoming blindingly bright, before disappearing altogether.

Both characters will be filled with a sense of peace afterward and will be safe from harm for a full twenty-four hours after the ceremony is complete.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She moved forward and Jaune held his ground. Although she stopped, he kept his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. She wasn't attacking and she wasn't going to answer his questions, her expression made that pretty clear. Should he stick around really seemed to be the question -- surely she couldn't be his only lead in this place.

Though it did make him wonder about who was really behind all this. Perhaps he should have read that note more closely.

He sighs, "Look. I just got here okay? I don't know what's going on and we both know you're not going to tell me anything -- even if you could. Can we just...not do this right now?"

She paused there when he piped up and laughed silently at him, bringing up her hand while she let her eyes practically sparkle. Oh this was priceles wasn't it? It was pretty obvious to her that he'd only just arrived and she leaned forward, pulling out her phone.

Oh, she could throw him a bone. Tap tap tap... and she turned it around like a chalkboard.

Do what?

Jaune had to admit -- he didn't know a lot about Neo. He didn't know what to expect from her, only that most of Team RWBY seemed annoyed by her and she'd definitely been supporting the villains for some time. She was...tricky. Though he wasn't sure that was the word that had been used.

So, despite the innocent text, he's not so clueless as to miss the look on her face or to think she doesn't know what he's talking about. She's treating him just like Cinder had during their confrontation -- like he's insignificant, not worth their time. He doesn't have anything to prove to them, but it's still frustrating as hell.

He's better than that now though--right?

"Be antagonistic...fight?"

Oh, she and Cinder did have that in common didn't they? Admittedly, she was less vicious about it, but it was probably still pretty annoying. She grinned at him, seeming to snicker as she started to type again.

Now why would I fight you?
You don't have anything I want right now.
And as long as you don't get in my way?
It'll stay that way.

She gave him a little wink, lifting her umbrella to rest it on her shoulder again. On the upside she wasn't out the fight him right now... right?

He straightens up after reading it -- she wasn't exactly making it easy to read, though at least she was communicating at all. Her message really only raised MORE questions for Jaune. Mainly two: What did she mean by something she wanted and get in her way from what? This was very suspicious and did not do a lot to put Jaune at ease at all.

But what should he do? He's out of his element here -- more so than usual -- and fighting her out in the open without knowing what was going on didn't seem like it was going to help. Besides, she hadn't done anything here and if he attacked her...well that didn't seem right either.

"Okay...I mean you've attacked my friends in the past so I was sort of under the impression you would try to fight," he says it in a 'can you blame me' tone.

She shrugged, clearly not that concerned about him trying to justify the nerves. It wasn't like she didn't expect that. After all, she'd attacked his friends just like he said and they'd been on the opposite side of the fight to this point.

...oh, and she wanted to stab Ruby until she stopped twitching.

Things like that didn't make for friendly relationships in this situation. She grinned at him, unphased and typed away. Holding it up so the taller lad could see, she winked.

I only attack when I have orders.
Or a good reason.
No offense, but you're not on my radar.
Even if you're better than years ago.

Cause she'd totally seen the travesty that was his participation in the tournament, being in disguise at the time. It had been memorably lucky.

Jaune thought he had been uncertain before, but the longer this conversation goes on the more uncomfortable he gets. Neo is definitely still someone to watch, but those back-handed compliments (which barely qualify as compliments) just make him bristle. He knows he has gotten better, there is evidence of that, but sometimes he thinks about at the cost those improvements came and also how far he still has to go.

People like Cinder, like Neo, people who saw him from the beginning still dismiss him as weak and useless. An annoyance, at best, and probably someone who is dragging everyone else down.

Jaune's never been one to mask his emotions, so it's pretty clear on his face that her message irks him. He sighs, stepping back, "Well, if that's all, I'm going back to my walk. Excuse me."

It was hard to convey, and Neo wasn't the sort to be inclined to, but there was a difference with Cinder. She mocked everyone too and was supremely confident in her abilities, but she didn't actually think Jaune was terrible, just not up to her personal skill level. Her choosing to ignore him, however, had nothing to do with his improvement in skills. It was just... he wasn't Ruby. And he was laser focused in her own weird way.

She smirked and gave him a sweeping bow before winking once more and waggling her fingers. No 'see you around.' She probably didn't need it. She wasn't going anywhere after all.