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

Arrival

Cassandra wakes to a hard, sharp pain in the middle of her forehead.

"Owl," she mutters. "Stop that."

But Owl hasn't been with her since she took the Moonstone. He disapproves and had been very clear about that. And she doesn't have the Moonstone anymore. She blinks open her eyes as the memories come rushing back in.

She's supposed to be dead. Taken down in the fight against Zhan Tiri, finally fighting on Rapunzel's side again like she should have been doing from the start. She's given her life and she'd given it gladly, and she sort of assumed that would be the end.

But here she is. And here Owl is, sitting on her chest and glaring at her with his unblinking gaze.

She groans and sits up, holding an arm out for Owl to perch on. "Where are we?"

Owl hoots and takes off. With a grumble, Cass follows. Her chest feels weird. Maybe a result of losing the Moonstone? She doesn't remember it feeling like that before, but there was a lot going on. She rubs at it absently.

Owl lands on the rim of a basket and hoots again. Cass frowns.

Shortly thereafter, she can be found sitting on the stoop of the house, Owl perched on her shoulder. She's reading the letter and frowning thoughtfully. There's a jar of blueberries next to her. She hasn't eaten any yet. She hasn't decided if she should. There's a lot to process here.

Pesky Kids

Cass has had just about enough of this. She doesn't know who keeps moving her things around, but she's not going to stand for it any longer.

That's why she's stalking out into the street, her sword drawn, and glaring around at anyone who looks suspicious, which right now is everyone.

"Whoever's been messing with me, come out and fight me for real you coward!" she shouts.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, no one immediately volunteers to fight the angry woman with the sword. So instead she rounds on the nearest person.

"Did you see anyone come out of that house before me?" She narrows her eyes. "Did you come out of the house before me?"

Answer wisely.

Video

[Cass is sitting, fluid pointing up at her face, Owl on her shoulder again looking at it with her. She curls her lip up and picks something out from between her teeth.]

It's like a mirror, but fuzzier. What's the point of this?

[Owl hoots. Cass rolls her eyes.]

You read the instructions.

[Owl hoots again and flaps over to grab the instruction manual Cass has abandoned. He drops it in her lap.]

Fine. [Cass puts the Fluid down, and for a moment all that can be seen is a strange, upside-down view of some grass and houses. Then Cass yelps and grabs it again, pulling it up to her face again so she can look into it.]

Other people can see this??

[She squints, looking closer.]

...is it magic?

Wildcard

[GO NUTS. Or contact me at

antivillain and we can figure something out.]

That we can, that we can. Welcome to Deerington. And yes, magic works though I think others would insist it is science.

[There's a laugh from the three eyed woman relaxed in a seat, one arm lounged over the armrest. She had a mantle that covered her entire neck in black lace over the red dress she wore and a little purple necklace on.]

I take it that your friend is the talkative sort? I imagine they and Susan would get along.

[Varian would probably insist it's science. She softens a little, but she still shakes her head at the question.]

...Owl can't talk. He's an owl.

Oh? Then can you understand Owl?

[Please don't tell her that you just talk to Owl if you can understand... oh wait, humans did that with dogs all the time didn't they? And her Absol only said Ab... and Sol.]

Of all the people Varian expected to see today, Cassandra isn't one of them. Especially not Cassandra looking like that. The last time he saw her she was very blue, very spikey and very angry. He doesn't immediately assume she comes after him, time wise - oh no, Rapunzel showing up and not having a single solitary clue who he was has put paid to such things. Maybe she's from before the moonstone. Hell, she could be from a point in time when he was the threat to the Kingdom. Or, equally, she might not know who he is at all.

Later, he might examine why he didn't place the possibility of her coming back to them- of finding the redemption he so relentlessly pushed her towards- higher on the list. But for now, he exercises some caution, stepping a little closer but still keeping a safe distance. After all, one of his last waking memories of home is the whole... cage thing. Best to be safe.

"...Cass?"

Edited 2020-09-01 17:39 (UTC)

She looks up from the note, something painful flickering over her expression as she sees him. Her last memory isn't of the cage, not anymore. It's of Varian engineering machines designed specifically against her.

That had hurt at first, but now that her head's less clouded, she can see why of course it would be what he'd do. It'd be what she would have done too, in his place. So she just gives him a slight nod.

"Hi, Varian."

Owl hops off her arm and flies over, giving him a more enthusiastic hoot.

He catches the momentary panic and takes a careful step back. For a moment, he wonders if she really is from when he was trying to kill her. That would be just his luck, honestly. She doesn't draw her sword, though, and that can only be a good sign.

"Hey Owl, " he looks upwards, because... well, at least Owl's here, and pretty chilled out, he'll take that as a good sign too

He looks back at Cassandra, shifting uneasily. Things aren't exactly great between them, and haven't been for well over a year. Cass used to be someone he could talk to no matter what, one of his most trusted people. But now things are complicated- partly due to him, partly due to her. Their mutual switching of sides. He's not sure if they're friends or enemies or what any more.

"Uh... when did you get here?"

Hey there!

You can use that to communicate with people around town, it's got a bunch of other things you can use it for too. It's pretty handy but it's definitely not magic.

I'm guessing you just here, huh?

If you say so.

[Definitely still seems magic to her.]

Yes. It's... [She frowns. How does she put this?] ...not how I expected to spend my day.

[Because she expected to be dead.]

I just did.

[She catches the frown and gives a curious tilt of her head.]

If it makes you feel any better I don't think anyone here really expected this.

If you have any questions I can help out as best I can. Or I can give you a little tour.

Say the word and I'm there.

Yelling angrily at anyone in the near vicinity with a sword drawn is a totally legitimate response to anything and everything, in Fern's opinion, and it's why he doesn't look too put off by it when she rounds on him. It's probably what he'd do in the same situation, and besides that, she looks kind of familiar. But he can't quite place where he's seen her from, so he just shrugs.

"Uh, I don't know? No? You looking for someone?" He asks, glancing towards the house she came out of. Does someone need stabbing? It sounds like someone needs stabbing, and that's why Fern looks back over at her to point at her blade. "Also, your sword is cool." Because that needs to be mentioned, obviously.

"...thanks." It is a cool sword. She looks at it, pleased with herself, then raises it again, glaring. She will NOT be put off by compliments. Who does he think she is, Eugene?

"I'm looking for whoever keeps touching my stuff."

Fern grins at her. Heck yeah it's cool!

"Okay, you got anything to go off of?" He asks, trying to be helpful. "What they look like, or something they left behind? It could always just be the town messing with you, it likes to do that, though touching your stuff sounds pretty harmless."

Perhaps, fortunately, or unfortunately depending on Cassandra's opinion, the person she angrily rounded on was Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice, and oh yeah, goddess and ruler of the moon as well. She is on patrol, her Tiare in hand as she gazes at Cassandra.

She gazed at the sword and then tilted her head. Sailor Moon feels as otherworldly as she actually is. The senshi merely was silent for a long moment.

"No," she began, "I have been patrolling the streets. Is something the matter?" she offered.

Cassandra does a bit of a double take because, well, she's extremely gay and maybe has a thing for magical blonds. But no, focus, Cass, now is not the time.

"Yeah, something's the matter. Someone's been messing with my things and thinks they can get away with it!"

Meet the moon magical blonde, Cass. This one is also princess flavored. You have a serious type.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I do not think you will be getting the answers you want by yelling and threatening anyone nearby with a sword." Just a thought.

The point is to talk to other people who’ve got it. Don’t worry, you got that part down pretty easy.

[A pause, then Richie scratches his head like he’s trying to work something out.]

Fuck, okay—it isn’t magic, sorta, and I can tell you why, but first: tell me what the first thing that comes to mind is if I say machines, because I don’t know a whole lot about history that far back and I gotta know if I have to read an encyclopedia first.

Edited 2020-09-02 05:03 (UTC)

...I know an alchemist who makes them.

[She doesn't understand them but they seem to make Varian happy, so that's nice!]

Really? I thought they just tried to turn shit into gold. [But he is very impressed, anyway. Also, that’s a pretty good clue as to what he’s working with—alchemy isn’t a thing in even a backwards-ass Maine town in 1989, but at least she knows what machines are.]

So the Fluid is a machine, sort of like what your alchemist buddy makes? But pretty far down the timeline. I don’t know how far, but I wouldn’t count on seeing something like the Fluid there any time in, uh, the next fuckin’—century, or so.

[A beat.]

Unless you have some way to talk to people over a couple hundred miles already, I guess. That’s the usual first step.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

THOSE PESKY KIDS

Character Arrival

Cassandra | Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures

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Pesky kids

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