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.

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[ Kurogane nods. Something like that would probably come with a lot of training. Honestly, he was lucky to have Fai just use some of his magic on him.

The question takes him aback, but just a little. Right. This Syaoran doesn't know his name. Although he's knows this Syaoran isn't the one he knows, that simple fact had escaped him. ]

Kurogane.

[ He doesn't care about pleasantries whatsoever, so he's tempted to leave it at that. But... he very much has a soft spot for Syaoran regardless of the world he's from, and so he pushes his distaste aside for that kind of thing for just a moment. ]

And yours?

[Syaoran wasn't much one for small talk, either, though he had certainly been getting better at engaging in it when he had to. There is a brief moment of confusion at Kurogane's name, though-- was that just his name? Or was it a family name?-- but he shakes it off. He was just have to address him as such.]

Li Syaoran-- but just 'Li' is fine.

[Because, unlike Kurogane's Syaoran, this one was a bit more picky about things-- considering only close family (and Sakura) called him by his given name, it was more or less a matter of intimacy. It was common enough back home that he didn't have to make the distinction, but people seemed a lot more familiar here than he was used to...]

It's nice to meet you, though, Kurogane. [Another odd difference-- he didn't use honorifics like the other Syaoran did, either.] Have you been in this town for a while?

[Not being very social has made him somewhat unfamiliar with a lot of the residents, so as far as he knew, Kurogane might have been in this place for a while already.]

[ Just Li, huh? It's a little surprising to Kurogane, even though realistically he shouldn't be. Different life circumstances would account for things like this. At least he knows he won't slip up since he rarely calls Syaoran's name in the first place.

The lack of honorifics is surprising too, but not completely unwelcome. After all, Kurogane can't be bothered to use them, so why would he be bothered in turn? It's actually kind of nice to see that this Syaoran isn't as polite. ]

No. I just got here a few hours ago.

[ And stumbled right into making s'mores. ]

[That... certainly was not what he was expecting Kurogane's answer to be, and for a moment or two, he blinks in disbelief. Maybe it shouldn't seem strange that Sodder was still pulling people in, with her vast power and all, but to think there'd be new Sleepers this soon...]

A few hours...?

[Well, dang. His eyes glance towards the campfire, then back at the other man, his expression looking almost stunned.]

You seem to be adjusting pretty well to things.

[Seriously-- it took him at least a few days to get used to everything here, although having a bunch of killer robots around did make things more difficult.]

[ Kurogane just shrugs. ]

I've traveled to a lot of different worlds. At this point, this one is just another on the list.

[ Except not really, but he doesn't want to cause concern for Syaoran either. There are a lot of things that concern him here. First, he hasn't come across his companions here at all. They've been separated, but there would at least be one of the others with him. Here, it seems that there's no one. Second, and most importantly, he's come across a Syaoran he doesn't know. After all the places he's been, this has never happened and he's admittedly surprised and not entirely sure how to feel about it. ]

... different worlds?

[His brow furrows a little, not meaning to parrot back Kurogane's words, but... the other man just seemed dead set on surprising him today. Whether or not Clow chronicled his adventures with Yuuko in his diaries, or even mentioned her in general was a mystery... but regardless, it's probably not something Syaoran had come across in his studies. Although he may have heard a vague thing or two about inter-dimensional travel...]

But... doesn't that take a lot of magic to do? To travel between them? I mean... we're no doubt here because Sodder has a ton of power, but...

[ Kurogane shrugs again. At this point, world travel isn't a big deal to him, but he knows it certainly can be for anyone not used to it. ]

I guess so. I wouldn't know how much magic it takes.

[ Which is technically true. He does know it takes a lot of power, but other than that? Not much. ]

Anyway, it wasn't really a shock when I woke up here. The whole letter and basket thing was new to me though.

[ And so were his missing companions. ]

How are you doing it, then? If you don't have any magic...?

[But then he stops, looking as though he just admitted something he shouldn't have. Not that Kurogane wasn't already familiar with it, though.]

I-I mean... I couldn't sense any on your end, at least.

[Or was this too nosy of him to ask? He just didn't know how world traveling was possible without a magician or some sort of power source behind it.

He does nod slightly when he mentions the basket, though, knowing exactly what he meant.]

It's strange getting something like that, but it's also... considerate, in a way. There'd probably be a lot more chaos here if people were brought in without a single clue what was going on.

[... not that the letter does all that much to explain things, but at least it's better than nothing at all.]

[ Kurogane considers him for a moment. He doesn't want to give away too much information, but with this all those "visitors" mentioned in the letter alluding to everyone essentially being pulled from other worlds here, he's inclined to at least tell Syaoran a little more than he would otherwise. But there's a lot he doesn't want him to know either. ]

You're right, I have no magic. We used some talking meat bun.

[ While unusual, the letter was nice. It was a relief to not have to go through the usual routine of figuring everything out when they would arrive in another world. ]

There would be, and it would get annoying having to explain everything to everyone over and over.

[ Even though he had some explained to him, at least he didn't have to ask about how to earn money or find a place to sleep. ]

... a talking meat bun?

[Just........give him a moment a moment to process that, because... wat. Was it some sort of metaphor? A literal enchanted meat bun? No doubt Yamazaki would have some wild stories to tell about steamed buns who discovered a new island or something like that, and Syaoran would probably buy it hook, line and sinker, but somehow this didn't seem the same...

... probably better to switch over to a less confusing line of conversation in the meantime!]

But yeah, that could wind up pretty exhausting. From my experience, though, a lot of the people who've been here a while all seem willing to help out the newcomers when they can. For a place like this, it's... nice to see everyone looking out for one another.

[Because one would think a lot of people would just not bother after dealing with the constant stress of this town.]

[ It's really too bad Kurogane refuses to use Mokona's name... But he won't elaborate on that either, because to him Mokona really is a talking meat bun. Sorry, Syaoran. ]

Yeah, it could be worse. [ Does that qualify as optimism? ] That does make everything easier, though. Nothing like going to a world and having no one help you out.

[ Especially dangerous ones. ]

[... welp, guess he's just going to be convinced Mokona is a magical meat bun until someone somehow tells him otherwise! So congrats, Kurogane, you're the first person to bullshit him here and you didn't even do it on purpose.

He tilts his head slightly at that, though, his curiosity piquing.]

... did something like that ever happen on one of the worlds you wound up on?

[ He would be honored if he knew.

Kurogane thinks about that for a second. ]

A couple of them, but that was probably more circumstantial than anything.

[ After all, sometimes it was their fault like in Recourt or no one else was in the world like in Fai's. But he just shrugs. No use in thinking back on it and worrying about the possibilities of it happening here. ]

At least it's not the case here. We all got lucky with that.

[BE PROUD, KUROPAPA

He frowns a little at the thought of that, though, the idea of arriving someplace new without any sort of help being a somewhat unsettling one. Granted, he did move to Japan all on his own at the tender age of ten, but that was at least on the same planet. He sort of wants to ask more, but he also doesn't want to pry too much into Kurogane's business.]

Mm... between Sodder's letter and everyone else, it does make things a little easier. On that end, we're lucky.

It's just the robots and monsters and everything else that complicate things.

[Because boy, arriving here when there were giant Monokuma bots running around and people being thrown on trial right and left was rough.]

Edited (oops html) 2020-08-30 20:58 (UTC)

Robots and monsters?

[ Can't this place just decide on one or the other and stick with it?

This Syaoran knows how to use a sword, but there's still that small bit of concern that seeps into him anyway. He has to accept the fact that he'll worry about any Syaoran he comes across. ]

So what do they do? Just attack people?

[ At least that can be dealt with, in a way. ]

[He nods, a dark look settling upon his face. He hadn't personally seen any monsters himself, but judging on what others told him, and the general environment, they were there. It was just a matter of time before he'd run into one of them eventually.]

The robots do, yeah. To anyone or anything without any sort of warning. They even got into people's houses a few times, too. There's been less of them over the past few days, but...

[But still enough of a threat to stay on guard about. And if Kurogane was concerned by just that, it probably was a good thing Syaoran didn't tell him about passing out due to overworking his magic in the midst of all those things. Warps sure were great!!]

I'm not entirely sure about the monsters, though, but it's probably safe to assume the same about them, too.

[ It's definitely a good thing, because Kurogane would get actually worried, which he hates. Even what he's just heard is enough to annoy him, that feeling of concern even greater now. ]

Sounds annoying. What did people here even do about it? Could they be fended off?

[ That's the important part to him—if something can be defended against or defeated, things would be more or less fine. ]

[And Syaoran certainly hates people worrying about him, so it's a win-win situation for the both of them! (Except it's not, please stop being like this, you two)]

They did what they could, which is mostly just fight them off or hide when they couldn't. Since they're robots, though, certain weapons weren't all that useful [namely: swords], but anyone with a good amount of magic or firepower could take them down if they wanted to. I ran into someone who managed to hack into one of them, too, but she said they tended to self-destruct if she tried it on too many at once.

It didn't help that some people were getting affected by all the mayhem, either...

[Or falling into Despair, as it were. It didn't make for a very good first meeting between him and a certain blond they both knew, anyway.]

[ Kurogane's glad he just now got here... he would hate dealing with this, especially if magic was the only effective thing against them. Seems like his lack of magic is going to be a big problem here. ]

What happened to those people?

[ He's curious. ]

[If it was any conciliation, at least Kurogane didn't have to worry about his own abilities back-firing against him. Magic was useful here, but only when it actually worked, and it seemed like the forces in this town were aware of that. Syaoran can't help but frown at the question, though, recalling what he saw... compared to the robots, he was fortunate enough to steer clear of those people.]

... I'm not sure, to be honest. They just seemed to be enjoying all the misery, and trying to drag other people into it with them. I don't know if it was stress or something else, but it definitely wasn't normal. I didn't try to get near any of them if I could help it.

[ When he sees magic used here, he's going to be very thankful he can't use it. ]

Yeah, that was probably for the best. There's nothing worse than dealing with people who wanna drag you into their own misery.

[ Good thing he doesn't know anyone like that. He just hates people who drag others into things in general, though. ]

Especially when that misery involves getting put into the path of a killer robot.

[Again......... thanks Fai, for trying that. THAT WAS A REAL FUN TIME]

If there was any upside, though, it seemed like they could be reasoned with, if you pushed through enough. The one person I met who was under that influence snapped out of it when I talked to him, at least.

[Or...... yelled at him, rather. Sorry, Fai]

[ Fai no... ]

Really? It's that easy to snap them out of it?

[ It's good to know in case it happens again in the future... ]

Well... I can't really say for sure. Like I said, I only dealt with the one person, so he might have had a milder case compared to a lot of the others. But it seemed to help, anyway.

[A beat, and then--]

Of course, if it escalated any further, I probably would have fought him. But I'm glad it didn't get to that point.

[Because, unlike Sakura, who will always try to find a peaceful solution to problems when she can, Syaoran's not above fighting others if they present themselves as a decent threat. He knows well enough that trying to talk through dangerous situations like these can be a death sentence.]

[ As much as Kurogane likes fighting, it really is better to just talk it out when possible, although he hates to admit it. ]

Yeah. Sometimes you've got not choice but to knock some sense into someone else.

[ He sighs. ] Maybe things won't be so bad from here on out.

[ Truthfully, Kurogane doesn't have hope for that but he's not going to put his own negative outlook onto Syaoran. ]

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