soddersays | MAY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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

No pressure situations are new to me, but it seems that way since all I want from you is company and information.

Also drinks.

The second round is on me if my credit cards work here.

its a deal. see you there! :)

Nearly forgot to ask. How will I identify you?

do you have plans with anyone else because if not then ill be the only one looking for you. :)

Not yet. You'll probably have me to yourself for the evening.
Unless I get bored.

what a vote of confidence! see you in a couple hours :)

[ True to her word, Molly shows for this little get-together. She's had to make preparations, both in getting herself something suitable to wear and in pumping herself up to have a social evening when everything is so very confusing and even a bit scary. She's gotten herself a spring dress and a jacket to stave off any lingering chill, even bothered to curl her hair and accessorize. It's quite the difference from her day-to-day work attire, but it makes her feel girly and light and that's enough at the moment.

Lingering outside the Hair of the Dog, she's obviously waiting for someone as she shuffles around in her flats, shoulders bare save a purse strap, that jacket hanging between her clasped hands.

She's not quite sure what to expect, but at least she won't be spending the evening at home, pining away for a life that now feels out of reach. ]

[Raven puts a little less effort into dressing herself since, well, she can just change instantly on the way out the door. Even her clothes, if she wants to. Sometimes she'd wear clothing for fun, but still being new here, she hadn't had the chance to do much shopping.

So she goes with a simple black dress and matching pumps. The bar isn't hard to find, and neither is her company for the evening. It turns out there aren't so many people in this town, and even less of them look as friendly as this woman. She could be mistaken, but she takes her chances, sending a text message as she approaches.]

I take it, you're my date.

[ Molly looks momentarily surprised, unsure of what to say, but certain she has to say something. Things in this place have been arguably bizarre, lacking in her full understanding, and perhaps this 'date' is no exception.

Smiling, she holds out her hands in something of a shrug, at a loss, but not beyond trying. ]

Well, you said you'd be in white, but I guess it's gotta be, don't it? But, uh. You don't mean date-date, do ya?

[ Call her old fashioned or maybe just not worldly enough, but Molly doesn't exactly swing that suggested direction. Still, there's a certain gentleness in her town, like she's not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. It helps that her Minnesota accent means she sounds like she couldn't (or wouldn't) hurt a fly. ]

[Oh, did she say white? Must have slipped her mind. Raven contemplates simply changing the color of her dress, but decides against it. They found each other, so there was little use changing now.

Mentioning that she was blue would have been a great warning, but Raven sort of enjoys the first reaction expressions that she gets out of people. And if Molly isn't into this look, she can always change into a slightly more attractive and extremely more male form if it comes to that.]

Why not? Am I not your type, darling?

[ For some reason all Molly can think about is Violet Beauregarde, although she's far too polite to actually mention such things to the woman standing in front of her. Instead, she reminds herself that 1.) this is a dream, and 2.) people have strange health issues all the time, and as far as polite Minnesotans go, that's about as far as one gets in commenting on another person's appearance. ]

Oh, no—

[ She looks down from a moment, bashful for just a second, and then laughs at her new companion, waving off the question. ]

I mean, yes, but also I've got my eye on a fella back home is all. Gus. Sweet as can be.

[ But Molly's nothing if not a good sport and even offers her arm. ]

Shall we?

[Raven is using Molly for information and entertainment, so the least she can do is give her something more comfortable to look at. In most other situations she wouldn't bother to go out of her way to do this, but Molly has been kind and forthcoming so far--almost annoyingly so. There's something about her that's a little hard to dislike, though she can't put her finger on what it is.]

Right. So you like men. I'm not sure what your Gus looks like, but..

[Raven reaches to take her arm as her blue skin and black dress shift into herself to be replaced by the sleeve of a tailored Armani suit, gently tanned olive skin, medium length black hair, a fair amount of tasteful stubble, and eyes so blue they could pass for gray. Even her voice had deepened.]

This should do. Now, I'm sure you have as many questions for me as I have for you.

[Urging Molly along seems reasonable, just in case she frightened of what just happened. Inside the bar seems like any other small town drinking establishment--very ordinary. It would do.]

[ Watch as Molly is utterly startled, her eyes going wide and mouth falling open. She almost wants to pull away, thinking maybe that the shifting under her hand feels a little too unnatural, but she holds off when everything settles again and she's found herself with an entirely different person.

This is a dream, she reminds herself for the umpteenth time. Maybe if she remembered that, she'd be able to access a part of herself that would allow her to change form, too. Or maybe that's not how it works. Either way, it's both unsettling and weirdly apt considering what she knows of the place. ]

Um. Sure.

[ Insert uncomfortable laugh here. ]

What was wrong with how you were before? Don't go changing on account of me. Heh.

[Yeah, wherever this woman was from clearly didn't have mutants or anything similar. It's probably for the best that it's being dismissed as a dream to preserve her sanity and maybe quell any potential fight or flight feelings that could come up.

Time to get a drink in her hands. Raven takes a detour to the bar to grab them a couple beers. So much for having Molly take care of the first round. Seating is easy enough to find, so that's one less thing to worry about.]

Nothing was wrong with it, but I know how your kind is. You feel comfortable with the familiar. Am I wrong?

Well, no, I suppose not...

[ Molly smiles a grateful smile at the beer, setting out some cash in order to pay, even if retroactively. ]

But is anyone uncomfortable with the familiar? And... what do you mean by "your kind?"

[Well, she’s not going to argue with the retroactive payment.]

Plenty of familiar things have the potential to cause discomfort. Depends on the person, but on first glance familiarity usually reassures people. They like to see themselves in what they look at.

[After a long drink of beer, she settles back and folds arms over her chest in thought.]

Humans, my dear. People like you. I’m not—I’m something different.

What kind of different?

[ Because she wants to know. The obvious is... obvious, sure, but she— he— whatever her companion identifies as seems humanoid enough. ]

And could I have a name now?

I’m what your kind, humans, evolved into. A mutant is what they call us, but I think homo superior sounds a little less derogatory, don’t you think?

[Well, obviously it depended on who was judging, really.]

Raven Darkholme. I don’t know this one’s name, I didn’t impersonate him for long.

Well, Raven, it's... good to meet you properly.

[ For some reason — perhaps a very good one — Molly thinks it's better not to highlight the idea that she's likely considered homo inferior in light of Raven's explanation. That, she imagines, would be even more derogatory and unwelcome than "mutant" which she silently agrees feels unkind. ]

I kinda miss the old you, though. What's the use in impersonating someone now? Do you think two ladies can't have a drink? Or will this little old town be too scandalized at the assumption that we're more than we're not?

[ Molly's much more progressive than she sounds, even if she's not about to throw herself into bed with another woman. ]

[After another bit of beer she squints curiously at her companion for the evening. It was odd that anyone might prefer a blue-skinned yellow-eyed woman to some random model-looking gentleman she'd come across by chance. He was easy on the eyes by her standards, but if it wasn't helping the situation maybe there was no point in it.]

Alright. Have it your way.

[She returns back to normal--which is still abnormal in comparison to everyone else around her, but she's comfortable enough in her own skin to appear to not give any fucks about it.]

I don't care what they want to assume, really. I just have a lot of questions about this place. We'll be here for a while, so I wanted you at ease.

[ If Molly were being entirely honest with herself, which has become harder to do since coming to Deerington, she would admit that she really wants to see that change happen again. How convenient would it be to have the ability to change form? She knows plenty of folks back home who would give anything for that kind of ability (although arguably most of them are probably criminals who would use it for nefarious circumstances). ]

Is this a bad time to mention I'm very new myself?

[ Molly winces and dives into her beer a little more in earnest, somewhat sheepish at this admission. ]

But I'm always glad to help out.

[Raven had expected Molly to be a little knowledgable about the place because of how friendly and comfortable she seemed, but she may have definitely misread the situation there. In her defense, she's never interacted with someone this friendly before--it throws her off sometimes.]

It's fine.

[Although disappointing, it's not the end of the world.]

When I first woke up here it was like a dream. I had a letter. Did you go through the same thing?

Mmhm.

[ She makes an affirmative noise, thinking back to the strange experience. It was unsettling and nearly incomprehensible, but that's beginning to appear as something of a theme in this place. ]

And then I had to eat something. It was strawberries, which I wouldn't have thought were in season, but they were so sweet and perfect. Just like the ones I had when I was a little girl. We used to go picking them and you could eat as many as you wanted while you were out there. I never got sick of them either.

[ It's almost said proudly. She's been lonely or she's something of a talker, but either way, Raven's getting a short story. ]

[Oh no, she was a rambler. That was fine. Raven had experiences with all sorts of people, she could probably redirect her if she got too carried away. So far it doesn't seem to be Deadpool levels of nonsense, just someone who might have longed to talk to someone. She could understand that in a place like this.]

I was given mulberries. Too sweet. Like they were trying too hard.

[Raven offers, trying to see what else might have matched up.] Before you were here, where were you? By the sound of your accent, mid-western America. On Earth?

Bemidji, yeah. In Minnesota which... is technically on Earth the last time I checked.

[ It would seem like a weird question if not for everything else that's happening around them. This new reality certainly takes some getting used to. So much so that Molly can't quite believe it's not all something she'll eventually wake up from. ]

What about you?

Also Earth.

[She can relate to that feeling that this is something that she'll wake up from and not remember in a couple days, but waiting on the wake up part is what's taking an eternity.]

Probably a different one since mutants don't seem to be a thing in yours. I'm from all over. I don't stay in one place too long, as you can imagine.

MAY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

MAY 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

DEATH'S EYE

NOW YOU SEE ME

Character Arrival

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Wanna play this out?

sure!

Excellent~

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