JUNE 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

JUNE 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to June's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: FAIRY 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: Alligators (pictured & written), pictures of skulls, violence, mention of corpses, possession, possible death
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

The low sound of growling coming from the pipes should probably be a cause for concern, but is it really that strange for Deerington? Is anything that strange anymore? There's been people talking about monsters again, the kind that snatch kids and small animals without mercy through the gates in the road and someone said they saw something that looked practically prehistoric pop up through a manhole on the north side of Main Street. He was drunk, though, so who's really gonna believe the ravings of a college kid on a bender.

The growling sometimes comes with hisses, a strange snapping sound, and the occasional scratching of claws against metal or stone. There's something down there alright, but are you going to go try and find it yourself or just hope someone else takes care of it?

Anyone who ventures into the sewers will find that it's become home to some rather large and terrifying beasts; alligators, to be precise, but not normal ones. Oh, no, that would be too easy. These have clearly been mutated, grown to a much larger size than any alligator anyone has ever seen, with teeth as sharp as diamonds and they're ready to rip you apart in one bite. The skin is hard as rock on top, but the underbelly is still soft as ever. Looks like you'll know where to aim if you decide to fight.

Those who don't go into the sewers can still find that the alligators are indeed popping up from manholes, or coming out of from the drains along the road, and if you're not careful, they might even manage to somehow find a way through the pipes and into your home. It shouldn't be possible, but anyone who's been in this town long enough can tell you that anything is possible.

These large alligators take at least two people to take it down. One particularly strong person may be able to fight it off themselves, but it's going to be dangerous and you'll probably walk away severely injured. The more who join in, the easier it will go. Normal weapons will work fine on the underbelly, but the top skin will be incapable of being penetrated by even the most advanced of weapons. Magic seems to have a particularly strong effect on them, however, so maybe you should think of teaming up with a wizard.

RIDDEN THE BACK OF THE WIND

The smell of corpses is what hits you first; it's overwhelming and impossible to escape, no matter how hard you try. It seems to take over the entire town at random intervals, and the first thing you'll notice is the locals running indoors. They'll slam all windows that face west shut and lock them tight, or maybe go so far as to close any open windows and doors all together, and they'll stay there until it's passed. You'd be wise to do the same.

The wind picks up quickly and there's the sound of what could be hummingbirds, but doesn't sound quite right. The fairies that come through are looking primarily for the dead or dying to whisk away their souls, but being particularly sadistic bastards, they're prone to getting sidetracked by tormenting the living as well. They'll swarm unsuspecting victims in the outdoors, picking them up and pulling them high above the streets as they circle them. If you're caught, they'll swarm around you, the humming becoming unbearably loud and the vibrations shaking your body down to the very core. The evil within them will consume you and when they drop you - which they always do - you'll find that you're filled with a violent and uncontrollable rage.

This rage will cause you to attack anyone and everyone around you with whatever weapon you are most efficient with. You're not just here to do mild harm, you're out for blood, and you'll soon as kill your best friend if it means quieting the darkness welling up inside you.

The only means of curing the darkness is by purifying it with light; this can be interpreted metaphorically by having someone with a pure intentions try and love you through your own pain or literally by having someone use light magic or bright, shining sun lamps to literally overwhelm the darkness inside of you and give it no place to escape. It's entirely up to the player.

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.

Comments

[threelayers]

She settled back in her seat in what was now a booth, sipping her drink once and offering Emerald a smug little grin there or a moment. Let it all sneak in, get the whole feel of it for a little bit and then she'd reply. It was going to be text. She didn't mind keeping mute, but this was a lot harder if she didn't type something out. When her fingers moved, she was quick, but that was no shocker. She'd done it with Roman like this whenever he needed a real report.

Scooting the fluid over so that she could see, she shook her head.

I'm good, but not that good.
Watch your semblance here. It won't always work quite right.

So, you have questions. I'll answer your first.
Cinder's not here, and she's never come here, not yet anyway.
I did check when I showed up.

Red's here. Her sister.
Kid I met once who travels with them. Oscar?
Jaune. That robot girl's back too in one piece.
The Heiress and Faunus were here, but they're gone again.
Pyrrha too, so "but they're dead" doesn't always apply, fair warning.

Clover was here too, but she hadn't quite pinned down exactly who he was, and she was still waiting on the new arrivals to sort of suss themselves out before she said more on the topic, but she knew that Emerald was going to want to know who was actually here that she knew, especially Cinder, so best to get that out of the way.

[hallucinogem]

Lots of information. Neo was always good at that. Emerald wasn't exactly feeling a drink right now—she figured it was probably better to keep herself as lucid as possible, especially after how these two had gotten here in the first place—but she still sipped at her own politely enough while she read over what Neo had to debrief her on.

Reading the part about Cinder sent her on a face journey that she wasn't necessarily sure how to define. It was probably... better that she wasn't here, yeah, but it really did leave Emerald with. With Neo as her only touchstone to what her life used to be. And that's one hell of a connection to be hanging on to, considering how long it had been since they'd actually interacted at all. And whether they could be considered friends in the first place, or if Neo was just working on her own schemes, whatever they were.

And then Red. And Red's sister. And she scanned through the list of other people here, and it was great to know that just because someone was dead didn't mean they couldn't appear in this weird, messed up place, but her brain still focused on Yang so hard that her hand holding the glass began to tremble. "I don't know what Ruby's sister did to Cinder, but she and I have a score to settle. Do you know where they're all holed up?"

[threelayers]

6010 Swan Lane
Can get you directions.
Far be it from me to get in the way of payback, but a few things you should know.

1) Cinder's alive last I saw her. New arm, though.
Had me grab some sort of "relic" for her.
2) Do NOT let the umpteen hundred black cats in this town see you try to hurt someone.
They. will. FUCK. you. up.
Trust me. You cannot beat them.

She knew this from very personal experience. The first time she'd tried to kill Ruby Rose in this town had been her first day in this town. The cats had been the ones to stop her that day, and she'd been studying those little troublemakers ever since. What she'd gleaned was helpful, but not cheering.

She was only sipping at her drink to keep the people here from hassling her, but since she worked in this place as a bouncer most nights, she could probably count on a certain amount of leeway. She settled back, letting Emerald digest this next bit. She'd known that the Authority was going to get mentioned sooner or later. They both needed to know about that.

[hallucinogem]

This was... a lot to take in. She trusted Neo a hell of a lot more than she trusted Salem, so hearing outright that Cinder was alive the last time Neo saw her was... that was a lot. Her hand stopped trembling, and her expression widened, all in her eyes, then it spread down to the corners of her lips, and finally she realized that she was still being looked at and reined it all back in to come to. Some kind of neutral expression. Even if her heart felt like it wanted to beat out of her chest.

She couldn't have been waiting very long to process all of it before she was able to snap herself back into reality. That was when she decided to read further down and actually understand everything, and though the mental image of Neo getting swarmed by a bunch of cats was pretty hilarious, it wasn't exactly something she liked hearing. Reading.

"I'll do my best. If Cinder's still alive, then blondie doesn't have to answer for anything anymore, so I guess violence is off the table with her." She meant it as a joke, but some part of her was legitimately relieved. The less ass she had to kick to get her answers, the better. "But. If you and Cinder met up, then... gods. How long have you been working together?" She paused, weighing whether she should talk about Salem's plan for her and deciding that it didn't matter anymore. Not with Neo, at least. Not with this. "Salem was going to send me and Merc to Vacuo. That's the last thing I remember, was being on a ship on my way there."

[threelayers]

She nodded. Cinder hadn't told her much of anything about what happened in Mistral, but since when was that news? Cinder never told people shit about the times that she got her ass handed to her royally. So, naturally, she assumed Emerald would know not to ask for details about that sort of thing. Only Cinder knew how she'd screwed up in underestimating Raven, and she was going to want to keep it that way.

We met up in Mistral.
After some kerfluffle with Faunus at the academy.
They're looking for you over there, by the way. All of you.
Some big guy I don't know too.
Last I saw, we were in Atlas after I got the relic.
Something happened with the winter maiden.
Cinder was pissed off, as per usual.

She had not had the pleasure of meeting Hazel in person. She probably would like the big guy, honestly. He had an attitude that she could legitimately appreciate, and he didn't brooke bullshit. Gotta appreciate that kind of man. But, by saying this, she knew she was letting on that she wasn't really 'in' Cinder's inner circle. She knew only what Cinder chose to tell her, which could be paltry little at points.

She took a sip from her drink, closing her eyes and sighing a bit. One hand reached out to brush the back of Emerald's as she dipped her head a little. Her taps were slower for a second. Not really a deeply emotional moment, but...

I'm going to kill Red.
The cats won't stop me forever, even if it kills me.
But, it's good to have you here.
Only person I really have to talk to is Maul.

You'd probably like him.
Total psycho, but has it together.
But, he doesn't know.
You know.

[hallucinogem]

Neo would probably like Hazel, though Emerald was still trying to wrestle with the idea that she liked him herself. He'd treated her more kindly than most had, and she still assumed he wanted something from her; she just hadn't figured it out yet. But it wasn't as important as everything else that Neo was telling her. Another maiden in Atlas, and probably a failure... on top of everything that Neo felt towards Ruby. It made sense. What Neo wanted made sense, and she couldn't really argue any of it.

She nodded through to the last sentence. Not a lot of people here knew Neo as well as Emerald did, even if that bar was low and the list of things she really knew about Neo was closer to a pamphlet than a book. It helped, too, that Neo was touching the back of her hand, and if they were closer she might have turned her hand over to hold Neo's. Instead, she just kind of... let the contact happen, let her gaze soften.

"There's not a lot of people here who get what we've been through, is there?" she said, not sure where she was going with it. "Well. Now we can work on getting back home together, and maybe I can find a way to get to Atlas." She looked ahead, out in front of her, trying not to think about what that would entail. Her hand tensed again, and the words escaped anyway. "It would mean crossing Salem."

[threelayers]

Her hand froze a little. She swallowed, realizing what she was doing. She was consoling the woman who loved someone she intended to murder in cold blood. She was doing it not just once, but twice. She'd done it to Penny when she'd lied to the network so that she and Ruby would stop getting other people involved in their shit, and now she was doing it to someone who hadn't exactly been nice... but who had never been openly cruel to her.

Was she really this cruel?
Was that better than Cinder?
Did she hate this much?

A few breaths and she pressed down with the palm of her hand before typing onto her phone. It was a little reluctant, but she nodded to herself as she did it. No, she could type this at least.

I help will get you back.
I have nothing to go back to, so long as she is here.
Tell me about Salem.
Cinder tells me very little, and I think I trust you more.

Really calling water wet right there. She trusted anyone more than Cinder. she trusted Ruby considerably further.

[hallucinogem]

From Emerald's perspective, she just assumed Neo was grappling with the idea of offering genuine help to someone. Same as Emerald did more often than she'd prefer to admit. Evil-curious indeed. She started, "Salem is—"

And then reconsidered. Maybe text would be better. This was sensitive information, after all, and she couldn't exactly... she couldn't be sure that this wasn't all some big plot from Salem anyway, or that she wasn't going to plant someone here to overhear everything, or whatever it was about her that made Emerald question even thinking negative things about her.

She started typing out her answer instead on her own wristband, removing the device and leaving it in clear view of Neo. Emerald wasn't quite as quick with her thumbs, but she still knew how to work technology.

Salem wants the relics. I don't know why except that they're going to make her even more powerful.
She really hates Ozpin. Like, she destroyed her own meeting chambers because someone said his name.
And if anyone does anything that goes against her

Emerald closed her eyes, pausing in the middle of typing. She still remembered Salem's words crystal clear, as though she'd just heard them yesterday. After a moment with nothing but the fear creeping into her head and onto her face, she continued on a new line.

"The moment you put your desires before my own, they will be lost to you."
"The path to your desires is only found through me."
She told me that when she figured out I care more about Cinder than I do about her.

[threelayers]

As soon as she did that, Neo looked it over, acknowledged the username and sent her both a quick friend request and then replied using her inbox. It was a little easier this way. She figured they were being a bit on the circumspect side, after all. She read it all over impassively, nodding at points and frowning.

So, she's as power mad and crazy as Red seemed to say.
Yes. We've talked.
It's kind of hard to avoid her in this town.
She's freaking everywhere.
We got into it and the topic came up some.

I wonder if it was really Cinder Roman was afraid of.
Or if he actually met Salem.
That was something he never told me about.
I think he might have been protecting me.

It bothered her a lot, but she'd known how scared he'd been towards the end. They weren't in it to dominate the globe. They were in it because he didn't see a choice in the matter. She'd wondered for a long time since coming here if it was actually Salem, if he'd known, and he'd been too scared under all the bluster to ever tell anyone.

She'd probably never now the answer to that.

I assume she's more powerful than Cinder?
Even with that Maiden trick and demon arm?

[hallucinogem]

Oh yeah, friending. Huh. Probably gonna make things a little easier. And... gods, she really did kind of appreciate that Neo was willing to listen to her like this. Not that she doubted that Neo would or anything, but having any kind of support network around here was starting to seem impossible. Just going through the process seemed to relax her and make it easier to settle back in her seat. All the better, given what she was about to type.

No question. She makes the Maidens look like babies.
She's the strongest person I've ever met and she loves making sure everyone remembers it.

Was that the best way to describe her? Probably not. But if she tried to be glib about Salem then it took some of the fear away.

I hope Roman never met Salem. I hope you never have to.
You'd be useful to her the same way me and Merc are useful to her.
She wouldn't give you up once she got her claws in you.

There's a pause in her typing. She turned her head towards Neo and there was something... there was something friendly in her eyes? Maybe? She wasn't sure what emotion, exactly, she was feeling. But it stayed on her face as she finished up.

Kind of makes being here a relief.
Salem isn't here. And you are.

[threelayers]

Considering how Cinder pretends to act?
I'm going to bet she's the "Calm, Cool, Collected until you Fuck Up" type.
Cinder, no offense, kind of feels like she's trying to be something she's not all the time.
I'm going to take a wild stab and say she's trying to 'be' Salem or be better.

Why did she say that? Because what Emerald had said so far really explained a fucking lot about the vibe Cinder was always giving off. That girl was in someone's shadow this whole time, and it wasn't Red. She hated Red for hurting her, but that was stupidly easy to figure out. It was all about 'rawr' look what you did to my face! No, she had this massive, undeniable inferiority complex she was always pushing on others and now it had a name.

Salem.

If I can get away with just letting Cinder turn in the relic and meet up with me, I will.
And, based on what Cinder's said, she prefers that too.
So, here's hoping.

What had Cinder said? Neo didn't have orders from Salem to lay off Ruby, and that was important. So, ideally, she was being kept a free agent ace in the hole, which suited Neo just fine because it meant she was still herself.

That last statement, though... better to warn her, now.

Nightmares show up here, real and alive, sometimes.
"Salem" might show up for a short period.
Fair warning. This town can really suck sometimes.

[hallucinogem]

Emerald took a moment to consider Neo's words. They weren't... she wasn't being malicious. And she probably wasn't wrong, entirely. Em didn't know a lot about Cinder's real motivations, but she had never had reason to question them, and whether Cinder was fake or not didn't really matter. Because she treated Emerald well. She cared for Emerald. And that was the important part.

She doesn't need to be Salem. Nobody should want to be Salem.
Even if she gets the same amount of power as Salem has, she'll always be better than her.

That's kind of... that was kind of all that Emerald wanted to say as far as comparisons went. It just seemed, like. It seemed important to put it out there. Just as, she was certain, it seemed important for Neo to warn her about the nightmares. But... Emerald looked down at her drink, then to her device again, and let out a long breath through her nose as she typed.

So it won't be much different from what my nightmares are usually like.
That's what you're saying?
Because I'm surprised I can even get any sleep some nights because of her.

[threelayers]

She smirked over at Emerald and just shook her head, reaching over to pat her on the arm again and give her a wink. She wasn't going to give Emerald the kind of heck about her idolization of Cinder that Mercury had, mostly because she was just as guilty of following a flawed person around and she knew it. Of course, she'd been a wee bit more willing to accept his flaws as part of him, but that didn't change anything.

I'll take your word for it.
She didn't steal the Winter Maiden's powers, though.
I know that much, and I don't think she got Spring either.

Again, she played that one pretty close to the chest and she only knew so much on the topic. The fact that a certain someone was going to remember that she was actually the new winter maiden would be news to just about everyone, even Neo.

Better in some ways.
Much, much worse in others.
This town has a way of reading your thoughts, not just being very good at guessing them.
If Salem's a fear? You'll have to deal with it. Guaranteed.

I've seen fake Romans here too.

[hallucinogem]

Not being able to get the Winter Maiden's mantle was a little disappointing, but not... completely surprising. Emerald knew Atlas would be a rough place for anyone to get into. It was probably Weiss who got the powers anyway, that little prissy rich girl. (Of course, if she was right, that introduced even more problems, so. Hopefully she wasn't.)

She nodded along, not... not wanting to brace herself for the reality of running into Salem, even if it wasn't the real her. It was only because she knew it would be a fake Salem that she wasn't bolted to her chair and freezing up entirely right now. Well, and. Something else.

One of the ways Salem gets to you is by making you feel like you're completely alone.
Like there's nobody out there who can help you. Like she's the only person you can trust.
She's even trying to split me and Merc up, but... he's doing a lot of that on his own.

She frowned, but continued typing. As the words came out, her expression softened and she turned her head a little bit towards Neo. At least Neo wasn't going to give her too much crap for the way she thought about Cinder. They had a mutual understanding, if that wink had been any indication.

But I'm not alone here.
And I know I sound just like Red when I say that, so shut up and give me a break.
I don't like it either.

[threelayers]

Let's face it. Mercury's an ass.
We're all assholes, Em.
Comes with the work, so it's to be expected.
But that idiot's only got you, so don't give up on him if he shows here.

Us thug have to stick together.

So what if they sounded like Red? She could hate the girl and recognize that she did occasionally have a good point. Besides, she was struggling to maintain the true weight of that hate with some of the things they'd seen, dealt with. It was harder to hate her when she kept trying to fix things over and over again, when she accepted responsibility for his death and regretted it, when they seemed to both have mutual friends who didn't want to choose. Her life was getting complicated and she didn't really like it.

Ok, enough sappiness.
Next question. We can handle Salem another day.
I'd rather not think about her either.

[hallucinogem]

They were moving on, but eventually she'd probably have to tell Neo about that fight. About how Merc is finding... other people. People who aren't Emerald. How he thinks that she needs to find those same people. The thoughts bubbled up while she read over what Neo was saying, and she could feel her jaw clenching, but it was. Fine. It was fine for now. They had other things to worry about.

Does the optimism get any easier to deal with?
You know, Red's. You're stuck in the same place with her for longer than any of us can usually take.
Hard to imagine she's not infecting everybody else around her.

But there would be times to be bitter later. Something else seemed to strike her, and it seemed... like kind of a more important thing to ask.

Actually, hold on, better question.
Are you looking for a roommate right now?

[threelayers]

She made a 'tch' sound through her teeth, reaching up to rub her forehead. How did she even begin to explain the situation with Ruby? Fuck, eventually Emerald might have the sense to see her old message on the network. But she could get to that later. Finally, she reached down and typed, sighing.

No. It gets harder.
I've tried to kill her three times but things have interfered.
And she's still trying to save me. She's like head lice.

Grumble, grumble. She really could go miles about Ruby.

I think you might need some help getting keys, but yeah, there's room at my place. I'll show you the traps.

She could trust Emerald with that much at least.