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

[A policy that Syaoran respects, actually! He's not the type to sugarcoat a bad scenario, either, and he makes that clear as he focuses on the window at hand.]

That's assuming that's adhesive holding it in the first place. It could be some other force at work, instead.

[Like magic, perhaps... but even now he was hesitant to bring it up to people who might not be familiar with it. Adjusting the sword in his hand, he nods in agreement, his expression resolute.]

I don't know if this will be sturdier than the furniture, but it's worth a shot. Should I just pry it under the plastic?

[ Syaoran's pretty sharp, isn't he? His observation gets an approving nod from Ford. ]

I'll be shocked if it's a simple adhesive holding it in place - but it's important to eliminate the 'obvious' solutions.

[ Ford's wasted plenty of time over-complicating situations. It's a lesson that took a while to stick. ]

Under the plastic, yes - or if you can't, then under the entire frame.

[ Either way he'll let Syaoran get to work, and step forward to provide either assistance or a fulcrum if needed. ]

[He's a clever kid! And, admittedly, there's something a bit heartening over running into an adult here who didn't immediately treat him like a child, either. (Except he definitely is one, but don't tell him THAT)]

... that's true. Sometimes the answers can be the thing you'd least expect.

[So let's hope that means he'd just been going about it the wrong way earlier! At Ford's directions, he starts to use the pointed end of the sword to ease under whatever edge of plastic he can find on these windows, but it seems to only go so far until it hits a block. Similar tries under the frame fair no better, even with the older man's assistance on his side... which is a bit frustrating, especially considering Ford's greater height and strength in comparison. Surely that should have worked! Biting back a small curse, Syaoran pulls back from his efforts, finally, observing the window anew.]

No good. Maybe if we find something actually made of metal, it could cut through whatever's holding it, but otherwise I think we can rule adhesive out.

[But would there be anything flat and metal lying around up here?? It's hard to say.]

[ Ford once gave his 12-year-old niece a crossbow, then took her twin brother to raid an alien space ship for parts a few days later. He is not your guy if you need a responsible guardian for your children.

Their lack of success with the window is no surprise, and it leaves Ford frowning thoughtfully. ]

I haven't found any metal in here aside from some hinges. I don't think they'd be much use, however.

[ He presses a hand against the window. ]

I suspect your assumption is right: there's some sort of other force holding this place together. If there's a way out, I imagine there are certain steps we'll need to take or exits we'll need to use.

[Responsible? No. Cool as heck? YES. (And honestly, considering Syaoran's family let him live by himself in a foreign country at the age of ten and are perfectly okay with him using a sword... he probably wouldn't recognize a responsible adult if they kicked him in the face)

He places a hand to his chin, his own brow furrowed in thought, trying to think back to what he'd seen around this place.]

No, I don't think they'd be, either. It'd probably take too much time to try to take them out, and we can't afford that right now.

[Not when whatever weird magic is in effect here is slowly turning them into actual dolls, anyway. But what should they do...? Ford's suggestion is rather sound, but--]

Well, the obvious exits are definitely out-- I tried the doors downstairs earlier, and none of them worked. And we both know about the windows...

Maybe it's hidden somewhere? Like a secret doorway behind some furniture, or a trapdoor? It might take some searching, though.

[And who knows how long that's going to take, but he's hard-pressed to consider anything else.]

[ Once again, Ford notes how sharp Syaoran is. Their attitudes and appearance are completely different, but he can't help but think of Dipper all the same. ]

I've already investigated this floor thoroughly, so I doubt we'll find much else here. If you've already searched downstairs, then we should try moving to the top level. There may be an attic.

I think you're on the right track in suspecting a hidden door of some sort. Keep an eye out for any furniture that seems recently moves, or decorations that might conceal any switches or latches.

[He nods at Ford's ideas, already making his way towards the staircase. His gait is more than a bit awkward, despite his best efforts, the stiffening in his legs only worsening at this point. Hopefully they can find something before his arms start locking up as well...]

Sounds like a good idea. And if we can't find anything up there, we know we covered all of our bases, at the very least. I hope it doesn't come to that, though.

[There's a brief pause as he glances back over towards the other man, a concerned crease in his brow.]

How are you holding up, by the way? In terms of, ah...

[He falters for a second, wondering how to describe it. Dollification? Turning into a toy?? He gestures a bit at his plastic sword and then to his legs, where a bit of matte bisque porcelain peaks out from the hem of his pants cuff.]

... this?

[... A+ description, Syaoran, good job!!]

Edited 2020-09-11 23:24 (UTC)

[ Ford spots Syaoran's stiff, awkward movements, then steps aside so he can climb the stairs first, if he chooses. Ford would feel pretty bad if this kid feel and like... broke, or something.

Fortunately, that means that Syaoran's lackluster description more than gets the point across. Ford raises a hand and taps his fingers against his head. There's the soft click of nails against porcelain, as well as a fainter, dull sort of clang sound. ]

It's mostly on my scalp, but we should hurry. I have no way to know if it's spreading inward or not, and I doubt I'll remain functional for long if it starts affecting my brain.

[He tilts his head slightly at the odd clanging sound from Ford's head, wondering if he was imagining it or it was another sort of effect from the doll process they were going through. A reinforcement, perhaps? He wasn't about to question it now, though, and he gestures for Ford to go on ahead.]

You head up first, then. With the way I am now, I'm just going to slow the both of us down, and you're working on a tighter time limit. This way you can get a better idea of the room and what might need investigating, too.

[Though he's not entirely sure himself how soon it'd be until their internal workings got affected, but it was best to be on the safe side for now. Granted, maybe it would have been more practical for him to be the one in front, in case he slipped and fell (and he definitely did not want to break, thank you very much), but he wanted to be as less of a hindrance as possible.]

I'll be right behind you.