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soddersays2020-08-26 04:27 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2020-08-26 04:27 pm
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SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME
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!
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.
no subject
Oh, um, well- if you don't mind the clay-sculpting set is way out of my reach. [She gestured, without stretching her arm, to the top shelf. Such was Usagi's life.]
Can I ask what all that is for? Are you doing a major art piece or something?
no subject
Of course. This one, correct?
[ He points and, once she confirms he's got it right, retrieves the set for her and hands it over.
And boy does he look excited to talk about his eclectic pile of stuff. ]
Nothing like that. I believe the house I've just moved into may be haunted!
[ He sounds, and looks, positively delighted by the idea. ]
Ghosts are quite common - and annoying - as far as anomalous phenomena go, but I never expected to encounter something so soon after arriving. So I needed to assemble the materials necessary for confirming and recording my findings.
no subject
Ah! Your home is haunted? If you need, my friend Rei is a priestess, she makes me warding charms all the time to get rid of them! I'm such a baby about ghosts. [That said, she'll still remove them but STILL.]
Are you going to be okay? I mean, it sounds like you know what you're doing but still.
no subject
Oh, I'm sure I'll be fine. This won't be the first haunting I've had to deal with.
Are they really that common here?
[ Once again, he sounds more excited and intrigued by the idea than anything. ]
no subject
At his question she nods.]
Oh ah, yeah. Pretty much... everywhere? Or nearly everywhere? And definitely every month. But we have nice ghosts and mean ghosts. Like, a really nice ghosts hold a concert to chase off the sound monsters.
We have monsters galore too.
no subject
A ghost concert? Fascinating!
[ He's so disappointed he missed that, what the heck! ]
If you don't mind, could I ask you a few questions about the concert? [ He pauses. ] Perhaps not here, but later?
no subject
[She pressed a hand to her side where the bite-sized and shaped wound that had crystallized over was currently on her side.]
But sure, you're welcome to my home any time! My name is Usagi Tsukino, what's yours?
no subject
Stanford Pines - but please, call me Ford.
[ He'll even offer his hand for her to shake; something about Usagi puts him at ease. ]
You said these 'sound monsters' are still around. What makes you call them that?
no subject
[She reaches out and shakes his hand, bowing a bit by habit even as she does so.]
Mnn, they're still here. I think. But they're these really nasty creatures. THEY don't make any sound themselves, but they can hear like the slightest cough you make or if you just SIGH loudly miles away. And they're stupid fast. But their really good hearing is also a weakness too cause they can't STAND really loud noises, so like, walking around with a foghorn would keep them away.
That's why we had the ghost concert, so we could stay safe. Even animals were being attacked so they gathered at the park.
no subject
[ Creatures that hunt via sound, huh? He's more familiar with that than he'd like, but it's good to know that their sensitive hearing is a double-edged sword. Without thinking about it, Ford picks up the blank sketchbook on his stack of supplies and flips it open. He'll pay for it later; notes need to be taken now. ]
And the concert was enough to drive them off in significant numbers?
no subject
Mnn, I guess. They never once attacked the park and I know there are lots of them. Sometimes it's just one of them, sometimes it's like 3 or 4. I don't know if they ever travel in bigger groups than that. I have to wear my kimono or walk with Sunshine though if I don't stay at the park, which, I wouldn't because they don't have showers there.
[And you don't have Usagi's length of hair and NOT shower.]
no subject
So it's enough to create a sort of safe zone, at least. That's good to know.
[ He's had plenty of encounters with creatures that there was no hiding from. ]
Who is Sunshine?
no subject
no subject
I'd be delighted to.
[ 'Sunshine' is some sort of pet, judging by Usagi's wording, but a pet that can fend off monsters is worth a look all the same. ]
no subject
Please protect me. [She whispered. A wind picks up in the store and shifts the clothes of both Ford and Usagi. She turns her head and watches as a deer came around the aisle, standing well above the both of them, eyeless sockets gazing down at them. Sunshine stops just behind Usagi.]
Ford-san, meet Sunshine! Sunshine, this is Ford-san!
He's a bit to take in at first but he's a good boy.
no subject
Instead, all he can think is that Usagi really is just like Mabel. ]
It's a pleasure to meet you, Sunshine.
[ It's a good thing Usagi already told him not to touch, because he wants to more than anything. He'll refrain for now, however. ]
Is he a companion from your dimension, or one you met here?
[ Ford hasn't missed all of the deer meandering around town, even if they are a bit less undead looking than this guy. ]
no subject
But he's a good boy. [The deer leaned down, resting his "head" on her shoulder and she petted his skull.]
But yeah, unless I ask him to protect someone else, his first instinct is to just protect me. If anything gets too close to him otherwise, or moves to attack me, uh, well, that creature sorta collapse in physical agony until it kills them. Which has been great with the monsters, if I'm being honest? [She gave an idle shrug. Just like Mabel, clearly.]
He has deer ghosts friends that help protect me too, but that's only when we're outside.
no subject
I see. And is his unique among the other deer in this town? I've seen some unusual specimens so far, but none that resemble him.
[ You know, all hulking and skeletal and zombie-like. ]
no subject
A lot of them are more or less American monsters though, to be honest since we're in Maine. Which is fine, I don't really wanna deal with kappas or any of the other kinda yokai back home. Apparently bigfoot is nice, oh! And you guys have these cute jackalopes!