soddersays | AUGUST 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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AUGUST 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to August's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CRYPTID 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: Violent animals, ghosts, hallucinations
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

Everyone loves s'mores, right? Of course you do. If you've never had them, you're gonna love them, and if for some reason you hate them, well, as it usually goes in Deerington, something inside of you will nag at you about how maybe you ought to give them another chance. There's a variety of different kinds of s'more flavors to try and plenty of perfect campfires to roast your marshmallows over. There's promise of wholesome and innocent fun to be had! Surely that won't be a lie this time.

Everyone who gathers around the fire for some tasty treats will find themselves in the mood to share creepy stories from their home worlds. Maybe they make one up on the spot or maybe it's an ancient legend that was passed down through the ages. Regardless, there's gonna be a whole variety of spooky stories, and the flavor s'more you're eating seems to dictate the theme that you'll end up leaning towards.

🔥 Traditional S'Mores will have people wanting to tell classic ghost stories. Maybe it's a haunted house you ended up in or a spirit who possessed the friend of the brother of this guy from your town once. The main theme here will be ghosts of all varieties.

🔥 Peanut Butter & Chocolate S'Mores will have people wanting to tell slasher stories. A famous serial killer from home, maybe, or the story about a group of kids who went up into a cabin in the mountains where there was once said to be a creepy caretaker and they were never heard from again...

🔥 Chocolate Chip Cookie S'Mores will have people wanting to tell monster stories. Local legends, maybe, or the classic stories about werewolves, vampires, and Bigfoot. Any kind of monsters will do.

🔥 Salted Caramel S'Mores will inspire people to tell revenge stories. These could be legendary warnings that exemplify why vengeance always leads to digging two graves. Or maybe it's your own story of revenge from home— or the fantasy revenge you'd like to get someday.

🔥 Nutella S'Mores will have people wanting to tell personal horror stories. These stories are ones that hit extremely close to home. The scariest, most bone-chilling memory you have, no matter how silly or serious it may be in comparison to those around you. Hopefully most people aren't fans of chocolate hazelnut?

Regardless of which story you hear, anyone gathered around the campfire will listen intently to all words spoken, and they will find themselves believing every word. On your walk home, you'll be filled with a sense of paranoia and dread, seeing things move out of the corner of your eye that may or may not be there. Is that a man with a hook for a hand or is your imagination just playing tricks on you? It's certainly hard to tell.

These can stay as harmless hallucinations, but for those who end up stuck in the paranoia for too long without being talked down, they will slowly start to become real. Eventually, they can become solid enough for other people to start seeing them, and the creatures from your mind may even start to attack. They can be defeated with normal weaponry or by the power of positive thinking! Wish your attacker away with enough conviction, and poof! They'll be gone.

Let's hope you can do it before you end up the victim for the next slasher story someone tells.

AHHH! REAL MONSTERS

It seems that the monsters from these stories aren't the only ones popping up in Deerington, though. There's talk from locals of multiple sightings of classic Maine legends all over town. They're easy to ignore as the townsfolk just being easily spooked for a while. But when enough stories start to line up, you might start to think maybe there's some truth to them. Or maybe you'll even end up seeing one of the monsters for yourself.

Down in Lake Tomoei, the legendary Cassie can sometimes be spotted peaking up from the water, or trying to attack anyone who even tries to go near the lakes shores. She's a nasty beast with one hell of a temper and she's quite possessive of the lake she's found herself in. 100 feet long with a skinny neck and a fish like tale, she definitely seems like a force to be reckoned with. Cassie is easily injured by ordinary weapons, but her skin is thick, so it will take a while to draw blood. Most likely, she'll disappear into the depths of the lake before she can be killed.

Up in the mountains, there's talk of the ancient evil Pamola. Penobscot legend describes him as half-man, half-eagle, with the head of a moose and a temper to match one. Pamola can't stand people visiting his mountain, even for a casual hike, and will often try to deter people away with random and unpredictable storms; thunder, snow, and powerful winds will beat down on whoever goes looking for Pamola. If you manage to find him, he will show no mercy when he attacks. Most who have tried to find him have been killed and eaten by the evil spirit. Because he's an ancient spirit, he will be particularly hard to defeat if you manage to find him; he can not be killed, but you can offer a sacrifice to quell his anger. If you have magical powers that can hurt deities, these will still be effective in weakening him until he retreats.

The final creature that seems to be wandering about is the Specter Moose (pictured above). This moose is thirteen feet tall, with thirteen foot wide antlers, and is a blinding white color. The moose can be found wandering in the park, usually, but sometimes it comes out to look around town. He may seem harmless, even cute, but don't get to close; moose are dangerous and locals fear them for a reason. They can charge at the drop of a hat and not even large vehicles tend to survive an encounter with a creature that big. The Specter Moose also seems to be incapable of being injured by normal weapons; solid objects mostly go right through it, unless it's purposefully aiming for them. You'll either have to get a shot in while he's slamming into something (or someone) or just run. Anyone who has magic or weapons that can hurt spiritual beings will be able to fight the Specter Moose as they normally would.

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

[Arthur's disoriented, half convinced that this is just a regular dream or that he's fallen into faery somehow, so the sound of Eames' voice carries some terribly conflicting emotions with it as he turns to look at him. His eyes are wide and cautious, but otherwise his expression is blank the way he's trained it to be. He has no sense for magic, much as he wished he did, so he can't tell and it kills him.]

Eames?

[Eames hesitates, gaze flicking to Arthur's wrist and back to his face.]

Did you just get here?

[The fact that Eames is keeping his distance really throws him off, makes his anxiety twist around in his stomach as he glances around at their surroundings. He fiddles with the clasp of his watch, wondering where the boundaries of its luck magic end.]

I think so. I don't know where here is.

The short version is it's some kind of dream realm in Maine, supposedly.

[He gestures for Arthur to follow him, waiting until he actually moves before he starts leading the way back to his place.]

There should've been some food when you woke up, did you eat it?

[It's a fair question, considering it's the opposite of the rule in Faery.]

[He frowns as he remembers, following Eames a couple steps behind.]

No.

[Is that important? He doesn't just eat random food laying around, particularly when he has no fucking idea where he is. He takes a couple quick steps and puts his hand on Eames' shoulder.]

Eames, wait.

Yeah?

[He stops and turns to face Arthur, half aware he's rushing through this but he kind of just wants to get somewhere quiet and private so they can debrief.

Where are we going?

[The way his eyebrows knit together betrays just how scared he is. This place doesn't feel right and Eames is being kind of distant right now and he just needs something to be stable for fuck's sake.]

My place.

[He frowns and steps closer to Arthur-- He doesn't touch him, but he lowers his voice a little. Softer, gaze flicking up and down the street a moment before he looks at Arthur and sighs, a little sympathetic.]

I know this is a lot-- I just want to get us off the street before we get into it.

[He pauses, a light smile tugging at his lips.]

Plus Boxer will be happy to see you.

[Arthur's expression softens and he raises his eyebrows.]

Boxer's here?

Yeah.

[Eames tilts his head, gesturing again for Arthur to come with.]

Sleeping right now, probably.

[Arthur follows, a little more relaxed now. He gets that Eames wants to be somewhere more private to talk about all this and he wouldn't mind either now that he has a little more faith that this is Eames and things aren't immediately terrible.]

[It's not a long walk, especially not with both of them moving at a decent clip, and Eames is eager to get them back. Also to get some food in Arthur so he doesn't vanish. The house is picturesque in that 40's suburban Americana sort of way, but like it was taken through a lens that makes everything just a little... Unsettling. He's long since gotten used to the whispers on the wind, the way nothing feels quite right, it doesn't occur to him to warn Arthur about.]

[He gets up to the door, a gesture to let down his wards as he starts unlocking it and glances over his shoulder.]

We need to get food in you first of all. It's what tethers you.

[Arthur's never felt so displaced in his life. He doesn't like this feeling — new places are fine, but he didn't choose this and something about it feels so terrible and off. He's eager to get inside Eames' house, sticking close to him, twitchy with anxiety.]

Do I want to be tethered?

Yeah. It's not like Faery. If you don't eat you just... Fade away.

[He opens the door for Arthur, pausing as he steps aside at the familiar clacking of Boxer's claws on the wood floor. Guess he woke up.]

[Arthur steps inside, looking around at everything and trying to take in the strangeness of the situation. Eames seems so established, so used to everything, when Arthur's sure he saw him recently. The stretch of time between then and now feels fuzzy in his mind.]

[The house is sparsely decorated, but it's lived in, and what decoration there is is to Eames' taste. It's not home and he doesn't have the means he does there — none of the fancier plants growing outside, for instance. None of the hidden charms he had at home either — but it's his space and he's making do.]

[Eames is planning to lead the way to the kitchen when Boxer arrives, cautious at first until he gets close enough to really smell Arthur, and then there's about 120 lbs of rottweiler leaping up on his hind legs excitedly, front paws on Arthur's stomach and tail wagging at mach 10.]

[Arthur laughs, easily infected by Boxer's pure joy, and he crouches down as he always does so that Boxer doesn't ruin his clothes while he gives him some affection. It always takes a minute or two for Boxer to get it out of his system but Arthur is eager to find out more about what the fuck is going on. He's still scratching Boxer's ear when he looks up at Eames.]

What is this place?

[Under usual circumstances, it takes a couple of minutes, but this is one of Boxer's favourites whom he hasn't seen in nine months. Even once this initial burst of excitement wears down, he's going to be on Arthur's case all evening.]

[What's more important is Arthur's question though, and Eames sighs. He reaches out for a box of crackers that come to him, otherwise a little uncertain how to proceed here.]

General consensus is this place is some kind of... Dream. Being dreamt up by a child. Fucking Pleasantville by Lovecraft is what it is.

[Arthur's hesitant to eat anything, eyeing the box of crackers and keeping his hands busy with Boxer.]

Why are we here?

Honestly? Not completely sure.

[He gestures for Arthur to come to the living room and sets the crackers down on the coffee table, watching Arthur's hands for any sign he's slipping away. Eames doesn't really remember how long it takes.]

Sounds like it was an accident, but I haven't decided if I believe it.

[Arthur follows Eames through, taking a deep breath as he looks down at the crackers.]

How long have you been here?

About eleven months.

[He narrows his eyes and looks away a moment, frowning as he counts the months in his head. Has it really been that long?]

[Fuck.]

[That really catches him off guard. He looks at Eames with a bewildered frown.]

Eleven months? I feel like I just saw you.

Mm.

[It's a lot to take in, Eames himself is kind of over it though. He sits with a sigh, almost distracted by the absurdity of Boxer fussing over Arthur while they have this conversation.]

Nancy was here. It was all even more confusing with her.

[Arthur spares Boxer a moment of ear scritches as he sits down.]

Why?

AUGUST 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

AHHH! REAL MONSTERS

Character Arrival

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