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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.
cw: blood
But then Lev grabs higher up arm to keep from falling over himself, and Nico chokes on air, his vision blurring as he gets hit with what feels like a canon blast of pain from his shoulder blade down to his elbow. After a moment when Lev says something that he finds strangely hard to hear, Nico tears himself away with a whole lot more strength than he had displayed in the dollhouse. Probably enough to accidentally send the guy sprawling into the grass, which has begun to wither up and die beneath Nico's feet. What had once been bright, healthy green spreads out in a rapidly yellowing circle like the soles of his shoes are poisonous, smoking lightly in the otherwise cheery sunlight.] Oh, gods. [Blood is now dripping in stark rivulets out of the same shirt sleeve that the porcelain dust had fallen from, earlier.]
no subject
That was pretty scary. So maybe Nico is- Then he sees the blood and feels immediately guilty. He hadn't noticed when he'd made a grab for that arm...
He approaches, hand awkwardly outstretched.]
I... I have a medical kit.
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Plus, the reserves of healing nectar that he happened to show up in Deerington with are way too small for him to be wasting them on what obviously isn't an immediately fatal wound.
He lets out the breath he only belatedly realized that he was holding.] Okay. [He winces slightly, but after getting over the initial shock, controlling his reaction to the pain is getting easier.] I mean, that would help.
cw: more blood
[Lev instructs without even a waver in his voice. He's used to this. He patches Abby up all the time. Then once Nico is settled, he rummages into through his quiver and pulls out a small package of alcohol, rags, gauze, and a needle and thread.
Setting that near his feet, he gently raises the bloodied sleeve to inspect the wound, wiping away some of the blood with the rag. It seems to have come from the strange place they were in, like his skin just split open, rather than something cut him.]
I don't think you'll need stitches. And it's a clean cut so it should heal well.
[He pours some alcohol on the rag and pushes it against the wound. It probably hurts so if Nico squirms, Lev doesn't react. In fact, he seems pretty unperturbed by the blood.
Then with gentle fingers, he uses the a clean rag and some gauze to dress the wound.]
There. Just don't overuse that arm in the next few days.
[His own shirt has blood on it now and there's a smear where he rubbed at his face without thinking about his blooded hands.]
no subject
He misses Will a lot, but he doesn't miss the worried scolding about every scratch larger than a paper-cut that he got.]
Thanks. [He gingerly glances to the bandage over his shoulder, trying not to pull the skin apart by twisting too far to look at it. He definitely could not have done that effectively on his own.] You have a... [Nico gestures towards the place on his own face where the streak of blood is on Lev's, then finally asks what he's been curious about for awhile now:] Who were you praying to?
no subject
...I shouldn't have let you push that bookcase on your own.
[He hadn't been thinking. Too overwhelmed by this whole place full of so many new things. He should be more cautious. More helpful.
When Nico gestures at first he doesn't really get it for a few seconds before it clicks. Oh, the blood. He hadn't thought much of it. Sometimes you just leave the blood on your face because there isn't time to wash it off.
He ducks his head and wipes his face off on his shirt, then does the same for his hands. So he's just kind of a mess right now and seems... completely unaware of it.
Then at Nico's question about his prayers, for the first time, Lev seems a little reticent. Like he's nervous about the possible reaction.]
The Prophet. She... Her words guide me.
no subject
And yet, he also barely contains a shudder, remembering the complete lack of feeling from his shoulders to his elbows to about halfway down his back. It had been almost as unsettling as looking through his own hands, insubstantial as shadows, when he'd started to lose himself to the darkness after using his powers too much.]
Oh. [For what it's worth, Nico doesn't look even slightly skeptical. Worship of an oracle was common in the ancient greek tradition, and obviously he believes in all of that.] I guess I thought prophecies were supposed to be nothing but bad news. [Certainly, the ones he's been personally swept up in all have been.]
no subject
Ugh.
But at the mention of bad news and the Prophet, Lev shakes his head earnestly.]
No. Her teachings are about finding peace in the chaos of the world and in yourself. Living within the natural world as it is instead of trying to change it. They're not about misery or violence.
no subject
Sounds nice. [That might come off like more of a dismissal than he meant for it to, so he adds:] It seems like she was watching out, anyway. [He gestures vaguely up towards the sky, where there definitely is no dollhouse, but that sort of weirdness is practically normal to him.] I'm not sure this world is very natural, though.
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[He glances back up at the sky. There was a time where he literally believed that she was watching over him, protecting him, changing the world for him.
Now... he's not so sure. His faith was shaken by what happened in Haven to Yara. To his mother.
Then he scowls.]
It's like the Old World. Full of... cars and... technology and... houses that disappear!
no subject
The sort of magic that had to have been involved in the dollhouse, though, that probably is very old.] Is that... bad? Other than the house. [Obviously that had been awful.]
no subject
[Wow. That sure... probably doesn't make any sense! Sorry Nico. He's still learning a lot about this himself and sometimes he just doesn't have the words to explain it.]
The Prophet said our reliance on those things, technology, is what caused humanity's downfall from the End. ...I don't like using that stuff.
no subject
He digs a thumb into the dirt, focusing on the feeling of grit beneath his nail and opting for another one-shoulder shrug.] I don't use it much either. [Because demigod magic tends to interact with technology badly and cause problems, not because it's immoral, but in the end the aversion is still there.] I don't think technology is going to be the problem here. Magic is.
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[But Lev is looking at him very intently, eyes deeply curious. To him, technology and magic aren't that far apart. Even the 'EyePod' Abby lets him play with seems like magic.] Magic?
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[He's pretty sure, anyway. He brings his hands back up, flexing the fingers, and when he glances back to Lev he startles slightly at the look he's getting. He's still a little unused to sitting out in the sunlight instead of in the shadowy corners of his own making and being, you know, perceived.] That house was sorcery, it had to be. I could feel myself becoming like those dolls in the kitchen. [He gestures towards the bizarre crack in his skin that Lev had just cleaned and covered for him.] What would you call it?
no subject
[He's taking this rather well, at least.
Some people might be from the Old World. From before the End. Impossible things are possible, or so She says. And in a place like this, it is probably doubly so.
Lev tilts his head a little at the startle and when Nico mentions the house, glances back at the spot where the house should be, before returning his intent gaze to the other boy.]
I don't know. I've never seen anything like that before. Magic is... [He frowns.] Abby tried to show me a magic trick once and made a quarter disappear but I know she just hid it down her sleeve.
no subject
Still, he finds himself shifting uncomfortably, wondering if he should be keeping what he is a secret here since he only knows of two other demigods running around in the whole place. But people will find out eventually: Clarisse said she has been stuck here for seven months already with no way out, and he definitely can't trick people into thinking he's normal for that long.] My magic works better at night. [He wrinkles his nose, wanting to distance himself from association with what just happened to them, which was definitely closer to Hecate's wheelhouse than Hades'.] It's different from that, though.
no subject
[Lev tugs at a few blades of grass. He thinks Nico might be referring to something else beyond those infected with the Cordyceps fungus that inhabit his world. Something that he doesn't know about. Which is a lot of things, he's finding, even things that aren't Old World.
At the mention of magic though, his eyes go wide and he leans closer to Nico, seeming for the first time, a little excited but also curious.]
Really? You can do magic? And not... uh, "putting a hat in a rabbit" kind of magic?
[Abby had tried to explain magic tricks to him but he got stuck at the idea of why you would even put a rabbit in a hat in the first place. Which probably explains why he doesn't understand that the rabbit goes in the hat.]
cw: dead animal (bones)
Nico worries at his bottom lip with his teeth, conflicted. He remembers being shown magic was real and being just as excited as Lev—alright, way more excited and hyperactive and loud—but he also weirdly finds that he doesn't want to chase Lev away. He seems, like, alright. Not pushy or skittish either. Nico doesn't know that he would have even found and moved that bookcase without him.
He takes a breath and decides that it would be better to just rip it off like a band-aid now instead of trying to make anything that's not going to happen, happen.] It's Underworld magic. Most I can do with a rabbit is, uh... [He glances down, pressing a palm into the dead grass and dirt like he's feeling for something before he shifts it to the left about a foot and says:] This.
[There is a few seconds of silence before suddenly the dirt starts moving and the spindly little skeleton of a rabbit scrabbles its way up to the surface, granted not looking much like a rabbit without the distinctive ears that have no representation in the skeletal structure. Its skull does twitch around as it scoots towards the two of them like it is sniffing things with the nose it simply does not possess anymore, though.]
no subject
[He is curious about what "Actual Demons" are but he quickly forgets when a skeletal creature moves it's way up towards the earth towards them. He doesn't know the concept of the "Underworld" and so the connection to death, or even something negative at all, doesn't land. Magic is unnatural therefore it should be able to do unnatural things, right?
He watches the rabbit move around, like it's alive, and reaches out for it, hand outstretched to see if it will come towards him, just like he would towards a live animal. Perhaps, other people might find it grotesque but Lev can't help but find it enchanting in it's own way.]
You're really 'cold'!
[It sounds sort of insulting, but his tone of voice indicates that he clearly means it as a compliment. Like someone would say "you're really cool!".]
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It's a nice change of pace, either way.] Thanks. I think. [Frankly, Nico is accustomed to being baffled by modern slang and tends to just roll with it using context clues. Being cold is probably just evolved from being cool, he thinks. Searching for something else to comment on than the end of Lev's world (because he's been told he needs to be less morbid all the time, and also he really is trying not to think about the possibility of Demeter absolutely losing it and deciding that mortals need to Go), he nods towards the bow Lev brought with him.] You're pretty good with that.
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Then he glances up at Nico and then at the bow.]
Most people where I came from know the basics, for safety against the Demons. But my sister... she was a warrior. One of the best. She started teaching me when I was little.