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

"Well, sure, but you're okay - you speak French." This is perfectly logical.

Jean-Paul nods, still smiling a little. "You're probably the best prepared person to be here," he muses. "And as much as I am sorry you've been dragged into this, a selfish part of me is glad."

He sighs. "I plan to get very, very drunk tonight."

"I speak three different dialects of it even. I can understand Remy at his most Creole, all the insults you can trot out, and normal French as well."

Was that a slight judgement? Calling it 'normal' French? Jean-Paul will just have to choose whether to be insulted or not.

"I'm not sure which of those to touch first, Jean-Paul. The selfishness, or the drinking."

"Bog standard French, ouais," Jean-Paul replies easily.

He waves a hand. "You don't have to touch either. But I meant what I said - I'll help get you settled, if you wish."

Oh yes. He forgot that description. Bog standard. It earns a hearty chuckle from him. Oh boy, got to love the Quebecois.

"Well, the selfishness I'm intrigued by. The drinking I've never really seen the point of doing, so I wasn't going to take you up on it anyway. Though I hear Logan is here, I'm certain he'd be happy to join you."

Don't hate him just because he doesn't know.

Jean-Paul winces a little. "He is, ouais," he says, sounding deliberately vague.

"You can't possibly be surprised that I'm selfish, so you must mean you don't understand how that relates. I just mean that you're incredibly capable. And it is oddly comforting to know that you're from the same point in time as I am."

Capable. Yes, people tended to laud him for his capability. Which David often knew translated into 'you can do stuff for me when i need it'. For JP, though, he figured it was more the latter.

"From the same point in time, with all the juicy Krakoa gossip you already know," David agrees, smirking. But then he gives the older man even more serious look.

"You know... just because we work, and now live, together doesn't mean you have to put up with me if you don't want. You don't have an obligation. Even to a friend of your husband."

Listen, there was something to be said about being a competent Black man in a relationship with a mutant speedster. Especially a human man dating a speedster. The description described David well enough until recently that already he was bonding with Kyle over it. Not, you know, wine and gossip friends, but definitely a growing connection.

There weren't, after all, a lot of speedsters in the world, not in the grand scheme of things. And ones who were men dating men were even rarer.

"David. I never feel an obligation to people I don't care about," he says dryly before his face cracks into a genuinely warm expression. "You two really do get along, non? I'm glad. It's not always easy for him, as you probably already know."

He feels a sharp pang - Kyle isn't here. He isn't going to be here.

"We're similar," David offers back. "And once I started getting involved with the guy I am, I came to him for some advice."

Since then it was irregular coffee and discussions until the X-Factor work started.

"Just know that when you need me here, I'm available. Probably. Not like I'm rolling in responsibility here yet. I'm sure that will change. I hate being unoccupied."

And being occupied will take his mind off of what he doesn't have here. Who he doesn't have here.

"What guy is that?" Because Jean-Paul doesn't keep up on all the gossip all the time.

"There's a lot of opportunity to get involved in shit," Jean-Paul says. "I'd tell you more but to be perfectly honest I mostly just look after the people I care about. I've never been a great superhero."

David winces because, well, it's awkward.

"Speed."

A guy that rarely felt welcome on Krakoa because of who his mother was. But maybe Jean-Paul could understand even better why David and Kyle got along.

"You're a great hero, Jean-Paul, even if your focus tends to lay close at home."

Jean-Paul laughs a little. "Oh. Well. Okay, wow, I suddenly feel like you know all my secrets, David. I can imagine the shit Kyle tells you." He says it with love.

"Flattery gets you everywhere."

"He doesn't tell me your secrets," David laughs. "It's just that he's one of the very small number of people in the world who can teach me the special brand of patience once needs to date someone of a certain power set."

How, one has to wonder, are you ever enough for someone who lives in the world far faster than you can? One that is so used to not having someone there for them? Maybe the story is different, but there is enough in common between Tommy and Jean-Paul that it had been helpful.

"I'm not trying to get anywhere at the moment, so it's not very useful."

Jean-Paul laughs, one hand half hiding his eyes. "He can," he says through his laughter. "Oh, Chrisse." And he knows goddamn well Kyle would have passed on a few choice stories.

His laughter tapers off and he looks out the window. "I'm really going to miss him," he sighs.

Yes, but the choice stories had... well, they had made David feel more certain about his commitment to his speedster. Now if only he knew if it was his boyfriend's brother or one of his own best friends who was here.

"I wish I could say I knew how you felt, that I felt the same way. But first blush of romance and marriage are two very different things. But you know he loves you. And he'll be there when you go home."

If he goes home.

That pulls another laugh out of him. Congratulations, David, you're quickly becoming Jean-Paul's favourite.

"You're not wrong. That honeymoon period really does end."

Oh, don't worry, David is pleased to enjoy the appreciation. Even the laugh.

"Way to crush my hopes and dreams there, Jean-Paul. I'm impressed I kept my speedster's attentions nearly as long as I have. Now you give me the bad news."

"It's not bad! It's better in a lot of ways." He's definitely warming up a bit. "And if I may be frank? If he loses interest it's his fault, not yours. Being fast is no excuse for expecting other people to entertain you."

Well, that's comforting.

"I haven't had the best luck in life, so every bit I get from him is a blessing. But one day he'll come up with an excuse. Probably something like Surge had, a problem with my mortality, even if we have the Five to deal with that right now."

Right now. Yes, David is a pessimist. He understands that Krakoa, while so good and so good for him, wasn't something fated to last. His faith in the very idea of hope was killed so long ago.

"You know what we're having right now, Jean-Paul? A friendly conversation. I think I'm taking that title you scoffed at earlier, and running with it."

Jean-Paul makes a face. "David, if he comes up wit' an excuse to dump someone who'll put up wit' his shit? Then he's an idiot." Jean-Paul isn't about to debate the 'right now' part - he too believes things will change. He just doesn't know when.

Jean-Paul nods and smiles. "Ouais, okay, fine. I'm a dick, what can I say?"

Yeah, David isn't going to point out that if he did happen to get broken up with for stuff like that before. He definitely expects it. Expecting good things were a bit weirder.

"I think you literally just said what you can say. You're a dick. But people love you anyway," David assures him. But he doesn't really have a lot to say about the rest.

Jean-Paul snickers. "They do now, yes. Which does make me wonder how many people I pushed away when I was younger just because I expected them all to leave me."

He drains the last of his latte. "Come. Show me where you're staying, or you can walk an old man back to his apartment. I want the fresh air. It was summer when I left here, and a miserably hot one at that."

There is a lot David could say in response to that. About how those who had been hurt the worst, those that had abandonment issues, had a harder time accepting people near them. How it was often easier for them to push people away to save themselves from a fear of abandonment. How likely Jean-Paul was to have done the same thing.

Jean-Paul is more than sufficiently self-aware for that.

"I think for now I'd rather walk a perfectly reasonably aged man to his apartment. There is no way I'd consider you old."

"Now you're my favourite," Jean-Paul says with a smirk. "I have no idea how old I am, now. Do I count time here? Hn. Let's just stick with 'early forties.'"

He stands, eyes scanning out the window one last time. "I should warn you, David, October is wild here. So use this month wisely."

"For getting you the truth?" David counters, shaking his head. "You're not even twice my age. Hardly old."

Warn him? Oh dear.

"Please tell me this place doesn't decide that it has to be spooky just because it's Halloween."

"I feel old," he confesses. "Kyle is younger than me. Fucking scandalous."

He nods. "Like 'rivers of blood' spooky. Invest in matches and lanterns."

SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

THOSE PESKY KIDS

Character Arrival

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