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

( um excuse me, he's getting eaten??? in case you couldn't tell!! all right, it's more of a bite but yknow thanks for asking! as loki sails by taking the creature by surprise, ren takes his chance, side-stepping out of harm's way.
his hand reaches to put pressure on his bleeding shoulder, looking over at akechi through one eye, the other closed in a wince.

he's just close enough still that the repeated stab wounds add a few more swathes of blood to his clothes. his fear of the beast that had attacked them had all but subsided, replaced now with a much more horrific scene.

with a clenched jaw he reached, trying to get akechi's attention with a touch at first— though quickly ren moves to cling at whatever he can grab a hold of. his arm, the tattered edges of his cape, anything. )

Crow!

( his voice is loud and and strong, intending to snap him out of... this. )

( the sound of his name (his other name) doesn't register until he can feel something wrapping around him, he turns violently at joker, thinking that he might be yet another enemy, thankfully he's not so far gone to strike against him when he recognizes him. he keeps standing there, breathing heavily, the grip on his sword is so tight it might hurt later, and he's shaking, even tho he doesn't feel it at the moment. )

You... ( his voice, raspy and low. all of that rage seems to be focusing back back on a single person, on joker. )

You fucking idiot! Why did you turn your attention from your enemy! It could have killed you! I will not have that! I won't let it happen! ( and that's... the whole issue. crow's breathing, while still hard, begins to even some. ah... it sure feels like a huge weight has suddenly lifted off his shoulders, by simply saying that.

while it's hard to focus on anything else that's not that stupid face in front of him, his eyes diverge to joker's shoulder. he finally approaches him, with every step forward, his clothes go back to normal, he takes off his coat—which either he hasn't realized how badly stained it is or he simply doesn't care—only to bring it to that lacerated shoulder and help him apply pressure with the piece of cloth. )

( having prepared himself for the violent jerk in his direction, ren didn't flinch. his grip tightened on akechi just slightly in response to the tremors, remaining still until he knew crow was re-focusing.
and at the sudden chastise he softened releasing the hold he had, looking down, though his eyes widened with the words that came tumbling out in his direction. he wouldn't... let that happen? ... as akechi turns, presumably to leave, ren takes one last glance at the bloody mess on the ground. poor bastard, he thought tiredly to himself. )

Wait, that's—

( there probably wasn't much use protesting seeing as the state of the coat was already questionable at best. which has ren releasing some tension in his shoulders, turning his attention to his wound, and akechi's hand on it. )

... I don't know what happened. ( the effect of this forest? those stories from before? it's all excuses, right? no way he'd want to hear those. ) Sorry.

( did he worry you? )

Edited (omg the formatting on this tag is killing me orz) 2020-08-19 22:43 (UTC)

Don't give me that shit. ( he still sounds pissed, but at least he definitely seems a little more in the moment as opposed to when ren has initially turned to him. of fucken course he was worried, he still is, what if he cannot move his arm for a while or something. )

It wasn't your fault. ( heck, he can't really even say it was his, even though he should have fought it, that fear. goro gets to look from ren's shoulder to his face, taking note on the smears of blood that were no longer running down his chin. this time he doesn't seem to have a reaction to them either. ) You look awful. ( not once does he attempt to look back at the furry thing that attacked them, it deserved what it got. ) Let's go clean that and get you a rabies shot.

( there's no doubt in ren's mind that he looks awful. better than that other guy at least though, rite??
he reaches up, pressing a hand against akechi's— applying just a little more pressure as he does. looking up at his would-be saviour turned caretaker. )

You'll be gentle, right?

( MAX CHARM? oh my god this is so not the time. )

I don't know how to do that. ( lies. he's good at least at attempting to be. that said, he certainly applies more pressure unsure if he's gonna bleed out if they don't, and brings ren close to his side so he can lean on him—it sure feels they've gone through worse but he'd rather not tempt fate. a quick scan to their surroundings and he sets them into another direction to get ren treated. )

You owe me new clothes.

Edited (wording ) 2020-08-23 03:37 (UTC)