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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
Agreed. Step back and I'll try my initial plan.
[ But that doesn't get them any further than the fire does, though at least the broken doll furniture doesn't attack him. The panes are stubborn, however; striking it doesn't work, steady pressure doesn't work, even wedging a thinner piece of wood between the pane and the window frame and prying at it fails to produce results. When he finally gives up he's feeling a little tired, and his joints are stiffer in a way that has nothing to do with age. ]
Unfortunately, it seems we'll need to find another way out. I'm worried that whatever distorted your magic may be preventing us from taking a more direct means of escape.
no subject
[Lysithea's solutions to most impediments are to blast them out of the way. It's worked very well in the past. Still, her greatest strengths are her reason and her wits. She crosses her arms -- and though she feels a bit off, she attributes it to the burns.]
Well, let's reflect. If they have the power to transport us here without our knowledge and to alter my abilities in such a way... then should they mean to torture or punish or directly harm us, they would have already done so.
This suggests to me this is more of a... test. Or a game. The rules are that you can't leave through a normal means of egress, and you can't simply use magic to blast your way out. Perhaps a closer search of the house will grant us some clarity and insight. I suspect this is something along the lines of... entertainment for our captors. There may be other consequences if we fail.
no subject
A dollhouse is a child's toy, so I believe a game - or at least some sort of unstructured playtime - is the most reasonable construction.
Perhaps we should focus our efforts on the house facing away from... that.
[ He gestures towards the over-large living room outside the window. ]
If it's on display, then any openings for arranging furniture or toys should be on the other side.
no subject
[Lysithea frowns, one hand up to her cheek as she thinks.]
I had one when I was a little girl. [she's still a little girl] And... yes, you're correct, the front was the stage, and the back was where you had opportunity to manipulate the furnishing and decorations within.
...The house is not too large. Perhaps we can divide the efforts? I... will trust that you have my best interests at heart if you can trust me.
no subject
She makes a good point about trust, an aspect of human relations that Ford has always struggled with. He's doing better, though, so after a moment: ]
I will - but if our respective searches don't turn up anything, we can switch levels and try again. I suspect we have different areas of expertise, so that should ensure nothing is missed.
no subject
Then it's settled. Why don't you continue with this area and I'll head back upstairs to the bedroom? Speed is of the essence. We don't know when they'll grow tired of --
[Lysithea had attempted to place her arms back at her sides, but found it curiously stiff.]
When they'll... grow -- Oh! Goddess!
[Rolling up her right sleeve... apart from the reddened and angry flesh where she had just burned herself, her right elbow and portion of her lower arm are now stiff and shiny porcelain.]
no subject
... Granted, the confirmation that this place is actively tampering with their bodies damages that calm somewhat. He's not panicking yet, but his expression is deadly serious as he leans in closer to observe the porcelain that's replaced parts of Lysithea's skin. ]
'Speed is of the essence' indeed.
[ This presents a problem with her proposed plan, which Ford was otherwise just about to agree with. Limited mobility is troublesome in any situation, but in this one in particular it's bound to make searching for an exit more difficult. Especially since he's pretty sure he now knows the source of the slowly but steadily increasing stiffness in his joints. ]
I'd normally agree with your plan, but I believe staying together is the best course of action now. [ As for where to go... ] I've given each level a cursory sweep, and I've investigated this one thoroughly. If you think you can manage stairs, I say we start at the top and work our way down.
no subject
I --
[She shakes her head, slowly regaining her wits.]
Y-Yes, I suppose it would be foolish to separate at this point. I'll be fine.
[Her automatic response is not actually grounded in fact. Lysithea surreptitiously checks her legs before repeating -- ]
I'm fine - let's make our way up quickly.
no subject
Ford's understandably dubious of Lysithea's repeated claim that she's fine, but he doesn't bother reassuring her. The best way he can help is by getting them out of here, and he'll start by leading them up the stairs. ]
Keep an eye out for any surfaces that seem especially worn, recently used, or lacking in dust. Whoever controls the doll house may have a particular means of ingress and egress.
no subject
Anything standing out in any way...
[Her injured - is that even the right word? - arm is held stiffly at her side as she follows him up the stairs, ever mindful of any odd bodily sensations. But it seems as if it's restricted to that one arm for the time being.
As they ascend to the attic, Lysithea will immediately set to work. She has three good limbs still, after all.]
You know, in story books, it's always something like 'replacing the doll on the chair with the secret pressure plate' or 'tapping the right combination of books on the bookshelf'.
no subject
Yes, whoever created this place may have had similar designs in mind.
[ In fact, he thinks it's downright likely by now. ]
Something hidden away... Something obvious when you know what to look for, but subtle enough to not break the 'illusion'...
[ Once he has those conditions in mind, it doesn't take him long to spot the bookcase with the scratches on the floor in front of it, and he doesn't hesitate to point it out to Lysithea. Before he goes about dragging the shelf around, however... ]
Stand back. I'm going to move it, but there's no way to no what sort of reaction it might set off.
no subject
[Lysithea would spring to help, but a: she's already got no strength in the first place and b. now she can't really leverage her right arm at all. It galls her, but even her inflated sense of pride isn't unreasonable enough to insist on getting in the way.
Is it as simple as moving the bookcase aside, though? She suspects there may be more of a trick to it.]
no subject
Hm. This could be a problem.
[ He steps aside slightly so that Lysithea can see what he's referring to. ]
I only have something that might help, but it requires metal so I'm afraid there's no guarantee it'll work.
no subject
[Lysithea can't bring herself to feel very surprised that there's one last obstacle in the way. And though there's nothing wrong with her instinct for self-preservation, she suspects that jumping out the door is a much better prospect than staying in this house.]
Perhaps we might use some bedsheets as a sort of makeshift parachute.