soddersays | SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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

"Gwen's who told me you were here. Though Jube mentioned you as well," David admits. Gwen? Totally adopted, by the way. Enjoy that. "Years and days all at once. Yep, that sounds like the sort of weird stuff we'd go through."

Still, coffee is suggested, and David nods as he heads past JP toward the door.

"I do want coffee. Good coffee. Maybe a latte. After you pay for your books, I'll let you buy me one."

Have a nonplussed look, David.

"Don't get sassy. Oh, ouais. Jubilee. She's here, along wit' that British kid wit' no face. Some version of Jean Grey. Gambit. A version of Rogue. ...Kurt and Logan." Does he sound weird saying those last two? Yes. But no matter, he's just going to march up to the cashier and pay for his books.

"At least, as of last week." If he frowns any deeper his eyebrows might stick together forever.

"Come. I will in fact buy you a latte on my meager teacher's salary."

"I've been briefed on it all," David says, but yes. David is smart, perceptive, and familiar with JP. So the weird note over those other two names is... intriguing.

Especially since he didn't know that JP was particularly close with the other two.

"Your meager teacher's salary exceeds my current funds," David counters. "I'll owe you. Come on, after everything I've done for you, you know I'm good to pay you back."

It's the implication. Does JP remember what happened to his sister? That David helped?

"Excuse me if I don't trust the mallrat to remember all the pertinent details," Jean-Paul says dryly. Books bagged up, he walks outside into Deerington's autumn. He looks around, frown lessening at last.

"Chrisse," he murmurs. He gestures sharply for David to follow him across the street. There's a coffee shop there, thankfully not staffed by anyone he knows.

"I know," he says. "So. You're, what, a few days old and now you're in a hellscape version of Maine. Welcome, I suppose."

Perhaps Jean-Paul may not trust Jubilee to remember, but David trusts Gwen to. She's detail oriented. Then he was following JP out of the place and across the street.

"Geez, do you have to bring up the age thing?" David groans. "Bad enough they do the whole naked presentation to people celebrations, but to be reminded that I've already died twice is..."

It's a bit much. A LOT much actually.

"Thanks for the welcome. Even if it's up to your normal standards."

Jean-Paul laughs sourly. "Oh, did Gwen warn you about dying here? Because it happens a lot. I'm only on number two, myself, so I guess in total if we're counting our home universes it's only t'ree. I know someone on number six, and she has quite literally lost her head."

He holds open the coffee shop door for David. Even if Jean-Paul is being terribly insensitive and cynical, he does still like the guy, if only because he's well organised and reliable.

He orders - lattes for both of them - and takes a seat by the window. If he sees anyone he knows he very well may duck under the table. "I know you're not really a few days old," he concedes. It's his way of trying to make up for being a grump, perhaps. He looks out the window, expression carefully schooled to be still.

"I spent two years here," he marvels softly. "And I forgot it all. And now I'm back. This is he second time this sort of shit has happened to me. People here, they probably didn't even know I was gone, I was sort of in isolation..." He looks at David. "What does one even do in this situation? How are you supposed to react? Why am I glad YOU'RE here?"

He means it in a nice way. Really.

"Jubilee warned me actually," David answers. Two deaths. That's... definitely not heartening. And David hates the idea of having it worse, having that many deaths.

He ducks in through the door and leaves the guy to get the drunks. Once they have a seat David grins happily at the drink before him. It's good, to have real coffee. Krakoa blends didn't really do it for him.

"Something here affection people on a psychic level, wiping it all out. Interesting," David muses. That's what he's taking away from Jean-Paul's information. It's not comforting.

"I suppose what you do is really shaped by the sorts of relationships you've formed here. How well people know you. From my experience and awareness of you, you're a very private person. I wouldn't be surprised if the thing you found easiest to do would be to separate the knowledge of there with the experience of here. It's not always easy, but sometimes one must take a step back and exist in the moment, as they are."

But maybe that's just the several psych degrees talking.

"And you're glad I'm here because I'm an intelligent, patient, competent man who isn't about to make your life complicated."

Jean-Paul sips his coffee, listening to David speak. The other man is younger, but he is a genius and for once in his life Jean-Paul resolves not to just act without thinking.

"I have four boyfriends," he says dryly. "Gambit told me I got married, in our where, and I said there was no way I'd let that happen. I had no plans to go home. Ever."

He studies his drink. "I don't think you could possibly complicate my life more even if you tried."

Okay, apparently there were still things that could catch David off guard. In this case he froze with his drink halfway to his mouth, and just stared.

"Forgive me," he says when he puts the cup back down. He knows that was probably the wrong way to act. "I'm just used to you and Kyle being a thing. How devoted to him you are. The idea of four men in your life sort of blows my mind. And makes me realize I'm really failing at the whole idea of romance."

But that last part is clearly spoken with a self-deprecating edge, laughing lightly. Then he finally takes another sip of his coffee and nods.

"That would be complicated. But I could complicate your life, by sharing information. Or could have, were it not for the fact that you already know. But if you are happy in your here and now and you cannot leave your here and now even if you wanted to, then you take time. A few more days, to yourself. Take those memories and work through them. Talk to the important men in your life, be honest with them. Very little in the world is solved by secrecy. Trust me."

Jean-Paul looks at David critically for a long moment before he sighs. "I would normally never dump this on you," he says, sounding incredibly tired. "Even as I speak, I'm a little horrified that I'm telling you any of this. It's..." He sips his coffee, not sure how he can possibly communicate how terrifying but also familiar it all is.

Besides that... he is technically David's team leader. He needs to suck it up.

"Merci. I appreciate your logic, David. Now. Did the ladies answer all of your questions? You're here, now, and even if it is completely fucked, you ARE one of mine, non? So I will look out for you."

"We're friends and teammates, Jean-Paul," David counters. "And I helped figure out what happened to Jeanne-Marie. Plus I'm told I'm a good listener."

Mostly he was told by Magneto's grandsons. Well, the one that was a speedster and wildly private.

He takes another, thoughtful sip of his coffee. One of his huh? Forgive him for the half amused look in his eyes.

"I'm not sure your boyfriends are going to appreciate you picking up an attractive young genius as a ward. Especially not one who is an adult. But I appreciate the offer of friendship. I find myself in need of a speedster to meddle in my life right now. Turns out I'm better at life with one looking over my shoulder. As for what I'd like to know is why I've been told to be careful around cats."

"Friends? How presumptuous of you," Jean-Paul replies at once, but he doesn't actually sound offended. "But you did, yes. I won't soon forget that, you know." That's another emotional blow - here he is, not helping his own sister. Again.

Jean-Paul snorts. "Picking up attractive geniuses half my age might get me a round of high-fives, you don't know," he counters. He finally cracks an actual smile.

"The cats are the cops," he explains. "Unlike the real thing, they'll probably leave you alone. The dogs here are good, and the deer. This place has a real animal theme. There's a place you can go - well, you could, things seem a bit different just lately so I'm not sure - where you can get a sort of animal guide. So sometimes you'll see people walking around with ghostly hyenas or panthers or whatever."

Yes, Jean-Paul. Whatevers.

"I suppose it's a lot to take in."

Yep, that's some really high quality side-eye you're earning, JP, for suggesting that this isn't friendship. Or as close to it as Jean-Paul is wont to give. But if it's being dismissed, then he can just walk away.

"You're right, it might get you that," David agrees, not even going to verbally touch the possibly not friends thing. It's just wrong.

"I literally took place in a seance at Xavier's school. I think I can handle the strangeness of spirit guides. And this place is still better than half the dimensions I went through with the Young Avengers."

Don't worry, David - he tells most of his friends he doesn't care. It's a lie.

Jean-Paul leans forward just a touch. "You know, David, there's an awful lot about you that I don't know. I have always had a hard time keeping up with people if they're not in my immediate circle - a combination of selfishness and lack of time - so I'm the first to admit I don't know half of where you've been. I would like to remedy that.

"Did you actually find ghosts at Xavier's?"

"Very few people know much about me. It's usually by design," David counters, leaning forward as well. JP clearly isn't the sort to deal with much gossip. That's something David should expect more from Remy he suspects.

"A ghost found us, after the time Xorn went mad, thinking he was Magneto thanks to one of the Cuckoos. School got destroyed, a boy who was a teleporter tried to teleport out during the blast, died during it. Left a psychic imprint. He was with the younger grade levels. My team investigated it because the first contact was when my little sister came to visit for the weekend. The one that sat in on your flight class with Sofia."

He doubts Jean-Paul remembers Kim, the one little human girl that sat by and watched flight glass for a single day, and no doubt had asked a wealth of questions and been horribly cute and annoying. David loved Kim, but she wasn't likely to have been on JP's list of importance.

"Said ghost nearly killed me. Three times. Fun stuff."

Jean-Paul smiles. "I respect that," he says honestly. "Some people are far too eager to tell the world every mind-numbing detail about themselves."

He thinks back, then nods. "I remember her. She was adorable. So you nearly died - did you wind up calling an exorcist or what?"

Interesting. David can't help the fond smile over the fact that his sister had been remembered.

"I don't tell what isn't asked for. But yeah, she was. Super adorable. And no. We finally got the kid to just talk. And calmed him down. Helped him come to terms with it all. After M-Day he..."

David frowns.

"He's on the list. For resurrecting. I put him on it myself."

Edited 2020-08-30 20:11 (UTC)

There's a lot living in that silence. Jean-Paul nods.

"Well. Perhaps if we return we can get him bumped up a little. I mean, we are performing an important service and all."

That reminds him... "Oh. Foley is here, I'm sure the ladies mentioned it."

He sits back and sips his coffee. "It's so strange to wake up here again. I spent nearly two years here, David."

"Josh remembers him. That will be enough," David dismisses.

And his expression changes lightly over the mention of Josh. Of course he has feelings over Josh being here. Not knowing Krakoa. It's going to be... an emotional mess.

"Two years here has to be a lot. I wish I was a telepath, to give you peace from that. But I can't. At least... you know that whether you are here or there, you are loved."

David is clearly a private person, so Jeam-Paul doesn't ask about the change in his expression, but he notes it.

He does raise an eyebrow. "That's really ominous, David," he says. "Sort of like you just said you'd brain-wipe me? I've had enough of that lately, merci. It didn't even stick, so."

Mindwipe him? David rolls his eyes at the very suggestion.

“Don’t be dramatic. I’m far too smart to do something so stupid. Erasing memories achieves nothing but the chance for the to come back and destroy things. No. If I was a telepath, I’d do one thing and one thing only. Emotions are powerful things, especially love. And the memories of a marriage and the love leading up to it are even more powerful.”

He takes another long sip of his coffee as he arranges an artful and apt metaphor in his mind.

“Consider memory to be like a bright candle. It’s great. It gives light and some kind of warmth. Over time it can naturally gutter out, or it can leap and dance and it’s fires can consume. Trying to wipe out a memory is like putting a wicker basket over the candle because the light is too bright and hurting your eyes. The basket will hide the light. May even kill it entirely. But it could also catch fire and destroy everything around it. No, if you want to dim the light without putting it out completely, you put a thin cloth between the source and the viewer. The light is still there, it’s still visible, it just isn’t as piercing and painful. There is still enough to read by, and you can see the candle enough to realize if the fires are going to spread, to give you a chance to act. I would prefer the cloth to the basket.”

Verbose? Yes. Very much so. This was part of the cost of knowing David Alleyne.

Jean-Paul listens to all of this with an expression that is partly bemused and partly incredulous. "I see," he says at length. "And while the thought is appreciated? I would prefer not to dim that light at all."

He turns his coffe cup about on the table. "I'll handle it. I always do," Jean-Paul says softly.

"So. Where are you set up, hn?"

"I'm explaining that I have no intention of brain wiping you. Nor the ability. You asked earlier how I'd deal with your situation. That's what I would do if I had the power. But all I can say in your situation is be patient."

But he has faith that Jean-Paul will handle it. He's seen the man come back through so many things. And heard stories as well. With a soft sigh he moves right on to the next question.

"Honestly, I'm not fully sure? Got lost already. I've only been here a few hours. It's been intense."

"Hn." Jean-Paul thinks for a moment, then actually says, "I'm sorry, David. I did ask, and you don't deserve me taking out my upset on you."

Apparently being reset has at least made him a little more conscious of his attitude.

"I can see you home. Oh. I'm at David Cliff apartments. I'm not always there, but you're welcome there regardless."

"Jean-Paul, I'm used to moody teens taking their frustration on me. Not to mention the time I worked at a heroics support call center and how bad that was. You? You've barely even begun to be irritated."

Still, he looks impressed that Jean-Paul would offer him an open door policy, but he supposes... well, they are a team. Even if that's fresh and new for them both. Very new. New to the point where David still wasn't certain if he should refer to the man by first name or not.

"Thank you for your generosity. I'm certain that I'll be on my feet quickly."

SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

THOSE PESKY KIDS

Character Arrival

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