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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.