AUGUST 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.

Comments

[specifiercity]

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

Why?

[falsify]

She was from the future, apparently.

[Eames is quiet a long moment, waiting for Arthur to take in the fact that that is definitely a sentence he just said.]

She had scars and a tattoo I didn't recognise, talked about us which she absolutely shouldn't know, but it was definitely her.

[specifiercity]

[Arthur takes a moment to digest all of that, his jaw working in thought. There's obviously one thing he gets caught up on and after deliberating he decides to just ask.]

Us?

[falsify]

Said we were living together.

[Which is obviously nonsense.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur doesn't know what to do with that, and he just directs his confused frown at Boxer as he keeps scratching his ears.]

You said she was here? Where did she go?

[falsify]

People just... Disappear sometimes. Wake up, I guess. Sometimes they come back, sometimes some whole other version does.

[Oh boy he better get this one out of the way too.]

Sometimes there's more than one version of someone at once.

[specifiercity]

What do you mean version?

[Arthur looks up at Eames.]

Like, past and future? The way Nancy was supposedly from a future where we're living together?

[Yeah he's not dropping that quickly sorry.]

[falsify]

There's... A different you here.

[Can we all just leave the co-habitation behind]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur wants to freak out. He wants to just fucking wake up already, but that's not who he is. He sits up instead, really trying to digest this all.]

What do you mean?

[falsify]

There's a man called Arthur with your face and your voice and, as far as I can tell, a completely different life.

[But hey if it helps]

I shot him when I got here, actually.

[specifiercity]

[Oh wow cool.]

That before or after you realized it wasn't actually me?

[falsify]

That was the reason, actually.

[specifiercity]

[This is stupid.]

Should I thank you for defending my honour?

[falsify]

[Arthur please.]

I wasn't trying to win points with you.

[specifiercity]

[He throws up his hands.]

Well I don't understand any of this. I don't know what it means for me to have a fucking doppelganger wandering around this weird dream world that I don't even know is real, and to be honest I don't want to fucking deal with it.

[falsify]

[Boxer gives Arthur a concerned look at that and immediately tries to get up to his face. Face licks will make him happy right?]

I just thought you should know.

[specifiercity]

[Arthur pets Boxer's head with a sigh.]

I don't know what to do.

[falsify]

[Eames sighs too. He feels for Arthur, he does. It's a whole fucking lot to suddenly take in and Eames isn't sure there's really any way to make it easier. There's still so much, but maybe he'll just... let that lie for now.]

[He frowns at Arthur, sympathetic.] Glad as I am to see you, I'm sorry it's like this. Deerington is... This place is a fucking hellhole.

[specifiercity]

[Arthur looks up at Eames and tilts his head. It's less quizzical and more... tired.]

What happens if I let myself fade away?

[falsify]

Then you fade away into nothing.

[It's probably starting to happen already, Eames doesn't really want to look too closely to confirm.]

I don't know if it works the same way dying does here, but then it's either nothingness or dying and waking up a few days later, worse for wear.

[specifiercity]

[Arthur thinks about that for a moment and then gestures to the box of crackers.]

[falsify]

[Eames floats them on over, waiting patiently for Arthur to take them and eat.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur takes the box, reaching in to take a cracker right away, his expression genuinely tired and resigned. He hesitates a moment and then slips a cracker into his mouth. That's the point of no return, then.]

[falsify]

[Eames stands once Arthur's taken a bite, passing by him to the kitchen. He pauses to put a hand on Arthur's shoulder as he goes and give it a light squeeze, hoping it's at least a little comforting.]

[It's less than a minute before he's back with a bottle of scotch and two glasses.]

In hindsight, maybe I should've lead with this.

[He holds up the bottle for emphasis.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur can't help but smile warmly at that, finishing the cracker and then leaning forward to put the box back on the coffee table. Boxer's still in his business, so he pays him some attention as he sits back with a sigh.]

Might've helped, yeah.