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

[ He's only been here for a handful of hours, at most, and it already feels as though seeing something familiar would be more shocking than the parade of oddities he's awoken to. Even so, the glasses are distracting. As is the choice of address. Dude?

At least it seems positive? ]

Uh, yes. We do. They're quite common in the academy I was at before arriving here.

[ Less so in the castle of Fhirdiad, though he had seen them around the city itself. ]

If you don't mind me asking, is there a meaning behind the name you selected? I'm afraid I can't make much sense of it.

[If he asks, she's probably just going to break into song, honestly. Dude is dude.]

Schoolboy, huh?

[Someone has probably earned himself his first nickname. But, then he does look like a nice kid, and she's already imagining him in a white shirt with an ascot.

But she's diverted with a question. Her expression shifts from amusement to a softer, gentler smile. Right, medieval indeed.]

Oh! Yeah, I don't mind. Gonna guess you don't know what a mall is, so...uh. It's like a huge indoor market, with entertainment and food added in to keep people's interest. A mallrat is someone that likes to spend time in a mall.

I used to live in a mall, so I'm kinda the Mallrat King, or Mallrat Supreme.

For a few more months, yes.

[ Before it's time to return to the capital and prepare for his coronation. A prospect as daunting as it is necessary.

He listens to her explanation, head cocked slightly in interest. ]

Right. I believe I get the picture. [ Er, relatively speaking. ] Perhaps I should have chosen a pseudonym as well...

[ Alas, he's sorely lacking in the nickname department, self-titled or otherwise. ]

Edited 2020-08-29 14:33 (UTC)

It's okay. Your name's honest.

[Honest, and kind of formal. Seems to fit this guy.]

Got any other questions for me, as a new arrival? And, I guess, as someone who's from a place not as advanced.

I fear not as advanced may be putting it charitably.

[ Technology, clothing, architecture... He's yet to find a single resemblance between this place and Fódlan. It's a divide that only serves to feed his longing for home. ]

Are you certain it's no trouble? I would hate to monopolize your time, especially over questions that must seem trivial.

Edited 2020-08-30 16:23 (UTC)

Absolutely no trouble at all. I'm at work, and bored. No customers right now.

[Just chilling at the roller-rink.]

Ask away, Dimitri.

All right then.

[ He'll simply have to find a way to repay her kindness in the future.

In the meantime... What to ask? The Fluid has been covered, but he still has more questions than answers when it comes to the rest of Deerington. The most critical of them — what exactly this place is and how to return home — have already proven either impossible (the latter) or nearly incomprehensible (the former).

Thankfully, her casual mention of work reminds him of one place to start. ]

I read that there is a defence organization, of sorts, created to protect the citizens here. Is that correct?

There is. It's called F.E.A.R. Though I don't know what it's an acronym for.

[Again, she shrugs, the epitome of 1990s 'tude.]

There are also groups that go out and patrol that aren't affiliated. There's a bunch of soldier types, and superheroes and stuff like that around.

Ah, that’s a relief to hear. I suppose there are always those willing to support and defend others, no matter the situation.

[ Concerning naming schemes and unfamiliar titles (superheroes?) aside, he’s genuinely impressed. It would be easy for the chaos of this place to upend traditional structures and lead people to embrace their worst instincts. Yet nearly everyone he’s spoken with has proven kind and eager to assist.

Whether luck or an accurate representation of the population, it’s served as a better welcome than he would ever have predicted possible under such circumstances. ]

It sounds as though you’ve been here for some time... Rather than simply bombard you with question after question, let me just ask this. Is there anything else you feel I should remember?

[ This seems a better way to narrow down what’s most important. Otherwise, they could be here all day focusing on the inconsequential and throwing around too much information to ever properly keep hold of. ]

S'okay, Dude. I really don't mind, but that's definitely a good question.

[Jubilation gives it some real thought, rubbing her chin, her animated body language just a part of who she was. She did want to help this lad, after all.]

I've been here about two full months now. And I think that the thing I'd have wanted to know before I got here is to be skeptical of anything that isn't given to you by another Sleeper. Sleepers being us, from outside the dream. The locals are not nice people, and they can turn on you easily. They sometimes give us things, and I've been told repeatedly that any food or drink could have side effects, so be cautious about that.

Not, like, poison or anything, but sometimes eating that stuff that makes you want to fight, or makes you really tired, or other things.

[ That sounds fairly similar to poison, all things considered. Albeit more varied than the types he's familiar with. It's also deeply worrying ]

I see. I've noticed that the... people here don't seem fond of our presence. [ To put it lightly. ] I'll make certain to remain watchful of them and any gifts they may offer.

[ He likes to believe it's a precaution he would have been wise enough to follow, with or without forewarning, but it's always preferable to be prepared. ]

Have there been any attempts to speak with them? To locate the source of their hostility or find out what drives them to work against us?

They won't really listen. Remember that this is a dream. So, they aren't really likely to change. They're...I guess like, background people. Not entirely real. Just set there to test us.

[In a bad way.]

Right... That makes sense. I guess a part of me is still struggling to consider this place a dream, in spite of everything.

[ He's no stranger to nightmares. On the contrary, they've become a persistent companion over the last five years. But it's still difficult to believe those endlessly repeating horrors and this place could stem from the same source. ]

Well that is important to remember. Please, don't forget that, if you remember nothing else. It's a dream, and that means that logic may not track.

Yes, I promise I'll bear that in mind going forward.

[ Along with the rest of the knowledge she's imparted to him. He has no doubt it will all serve him well in the coming days. ]

I feel as though I've taken up enough of your time, but thank you once again, Jubilee. I hope we'll have the opportunity to speak more in the future.

[ And not only because of his desire to offer some form of repayment or assistance. ]