SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to September's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT 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: Evil dollhouses, potential body horror (turning into a doll), heights, pranks with the potential to cause harm, some stalking vibes
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

When you wake up, you find you're not in your own bed, your own room, or even your own house. The room is well decorated, almost Victorian in fashion. The bed is pretty uncomfortable and you're not even sure the mattress is a real mattress. The chairs look like they might be made of plastic and the doors are flimsy. But it might not be what catches your eye, especially if you look out the window.

Through the clear panes (which also seem to be plastic), you will notice you do not see the town of Deerington, or even the outdoors at all. You see a living room that feels larger than life. There aren't any people in it, but as you look around at the fake looking furnishings and the strange view, you might be hit with a realization: you're inside a dollhouse.

The dollhouse has three floors for those who explore; the second floor you woke up on has two bedrooms and a fake little bathroom, all decorated in the same Victorian dollhouse style as the room you originally found yourself in. The bottom floor has a cute little kitchen with small porcelain dolls sitting around the table, a living room with all the basic furniture one would expect to find (in fact, it looks a great deal like the living room outside the windows), and an office filled with books that can't actually be pulled out of the shelves. On the very top floor is an attic. It's dusty and filled with broken toy beds and chairs, a few shattered doll pieces, and on the far wall you'll see another bookshelf. All seems... fairly standard, really, if you're used to seeing dollhouses.

But what there doesn't appear to be is an exit.

While searching, you may run into another Sleeper. A friend or a stranger, it's clear you're both stuck here together. And the longer the time ticks by, the more concerning things get. You might not notice at first, but anyone inside the dollhouse starts slowly... changing. It seems to go at a different pace for everyone, but the results are always the same. Your skin will start to become porcelain, your cheeks more rosy, your clothes made of cheaper cloth material, your joints become stiffer, and your eyes will start to become more and more glass like. If you don't get out of the dollhouse soon, it's clear that you may become the next doll at the kitchen table.

Searching the house again may feel fruitless, but keen observers may find light scratches on the floor in front of the bookshelf in the attic. Maybe they were like that because of someone moving things around or maybe there's a reason. If you decide to eventually pull the bookshelf aside, there will be a large door in the wall. It may seem strange, given that the wall only leads to the outside, but it's the only door to the outside that actually opens. You expect it to open up into the living room, but instead you'll see the grass of the park below. Far below. It's likely you could get hurt jumping, especially if you've started to turn to porcelain, but what other choice do you have?

Once characters take the plunge, they will find that they land rather softly in the grass, despite how high the jump may have seemed. As soon as you are out of the dollhouse, your body will have returned to complete normal.

And the house with the dollhouse in the living room will be nowhere in sight.

THOSE PESKY KIDS

You start off thinking maybe you're just forgetful and moved minor pieces around in your house without paying attention. You might think you're just seeing strange things out of the corner of your eye, because why wouldn't you? It's Deerington. Things are always strange. But each day, there's something weirder going on. Small objects might turn into entire rooms being rearranged, strange sightings out of the corner of your eye might turn into you swearing you saw a lake monster running through the street, and you swear you can hear the rattling of chains or the sounds of someone telling you to leave echoing in your house at night or following you down the street.

A haunting seems plausible. It wouldn't be the first time in Deerington. But no amount of herbs burned, or exorcisms performed, or chants and spell cast will make these things go away. In fact, they seem to just becoming more and more frequent, and more and more intense. Eventually, the strange creatures you see running around may start to try and attack you. They may start to try and kill you. But they always run off before you can attack back or show yourself to be stronger than them. It's probably the first time the monsters have ever been so easily scared.

Anyone who looks into it further may start to find weird clues lying around after a monster has been chased off. Footprints that don't look quite monster-like, tapes or records that when played will make strange rattling sounds like the chains you've been hearing, a piece of rubber that looks a lot like the monsters skin... Huh. The more you follow the clues, the more they'll lead you towards the answer to your dilemmas; these aren't hauntings.

They're pranks.

People can work together to catch a monster or ghost (or killing it, if you decide to); catching them will lead to them getting quite flustered and angry, struggling to get away. Pull off the mask or the sheet and underneath you'll find... a very disgruntled townsperson. Maybe your business was taking too much money away from theirs and they were hoping you'd close down with enough scares, maybe you talked back to them one time and they were looking for revenge, maybe you ruined their house or garden when you were fighting the things in Deerington that actually try to kill you, or maybe they were just having some "harmless" fun; they all have a different excuse, but they're clearly angry about getting caught.

They woulda gotten away with it if it weren't for you pesky Sleepers, after all.

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

[In Alex's defense, this place frequently tries to murder him. Also he's definitely provoked at least one Sith Lord into wanting him dead. So when he hears a thump, he grabs the lacrosse stick he's acquired and raises it over his shoulder. It won't be enough to save him if Maul is really here to attack him, but hey, better than going down empty handed.

He's currently wearing nothing but boxers, and he crouches by the door, ready to swing the stick at the intruder. The door starts to open, and he swings.

...he's going to be very sorry in about two seconds.]

[ Of all the things Henry expects when he opens the door a lacrosse swinging at his face isn't one of them. God bless every single one of the self defense courses that he's had to take throughout his life. He might not be army certified but Henry reacts quick enough to catch the blow with his arm instead of, you know, his beautiful face.

Hardly thinking, Henry slams his would be attacker into the nearest wall and then - much belatedly - realizes that it's the love of his life. ]

What the fuck? Alex?

[Alex is ready to fight back, but the weight of the attacker against is so familiar as is that voice and--]

Henry?

[It's been so long. Alex drops the lacrosse stick and grabs Henry's shirt, but not to push him away. Now that he knows who it is he's found, he's pulling Henry in and kissing him breathlessly. He's missed this asshole so much he ached.]

[ There's a moment where Henry looks at Alex and realizes that something is wrong. He's looking at Henry like he's seen a ghost and then-

And then Alex is kissing him and rational thought goes away for a while. It's been a two weeks since the election, two weeks of Henry back in England to prepare for the move to New York. He's missed Alex the way a flower misses the sun but this feels like more than that.

When they finally part, Henry doesn't go far, still close enough that personal space doesn't exist. ]

What's gotten into you, love? And where are we? Last I checked I was at Kensington.

[Alex's laugh comes out a little broken as he runs his hands over Henry's broad shoulders.]

Um. Maine. In the 1950s. As written by Stehen King. It's... this is gonna be hard to explain.

I think you're going to have to be a bit more detailed than that.

[ And yet in spite of that, in spite of all that madness he can't help getting just a bit distracted by the fact that Alex is in nothing but his boxers.

No. Bad lizard brain. Not the time to be admiring just how fit he is.

Instead he curls a hand around the base of Alex's neck and squeezes gently, a reminder that he's there and willing to listen. ]

I'm guessing this isn't some elaborate escape room set-up? I don't think Shaan would have approved a cross continental kidnapping just for a prank.

[It is ALWAYS a time to be admiring how fit Alex is excuse you. He's a very handsome guy.

Alex huffs out a noise that would almost be a laugh if there wasn't so much exhaustion in it. He leans his forehead against Henry's shoulder.]

No. I don't think I could have annoyed my mom or even Zahra into locking me into a weird racist and homophobic helltown escape room for two months.

Two months? Alex, I think I would have known if you were missing for two bloody months.

[ Except it explains a lot about how distressed Alex sounds. Even the thought of being away from Alex for months makes something in his chest tight with fear. No wonder he sounds so peaked if that's the case.

Not once does it even occur to him that Alex could be lying. He wouldn't make up something like this for a joke. ]

Alright, let's go sit down and you can tell me everything. Then we can figure out how to get home.

[Alex reaches for Henry's hand and sides his fingers between Henry's. He nods, his shoulders slumping, and tugs him towards the bed. Not in a sexy way, unfortunately. There'll be time for that later.]

That's gonna be hard. A lot of people have been stuck a lot longer than me, and they have superpowers. [He grimaces.] Also some of them are, like, literal fictional characters? I mean freaking Darth Maul is here. And he kind of hates me. It's been fun!

[Henry's been holding it together really, really well. It's only now, with Henry here, making him feel safe and at home with his very presence, that he's finally managing to let go enough to freak out. It's not great for his sexy and cool image. Good thing Henry already knows him too well to fall for that on a good day.]

[ The weight of that hand in his feels like coming home. On the bed, Henry pulls Alex closer, tucking him into his side and curling an arm over his shoulders as if it might protect him from everything that might want to hurt him.

Including, apparently, Darth fucking Maul.

There isn't enough time to unpack all of this. ]

I suppose I should be grateful you're still breathing after being left unsupervised this long.

[Alex smiles into Henry's shoulder, letting him take Alex's weight. He fits so perfectly against Henry's side, like always, and for a moment, it doesn't even matter that he's trapped in a a hell city. He's with Henry, so he's home.]

I figure if I piss off enough people, they'll just fight each other and I can sneak away. Or, you know. Bean them with a lacrosse stick.