SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.

Comments

Arrival Sirenheads

[clickclickbloom]

Ruby hadn't been as active this month when it came to going out and protecting people from the monsters. She was only just starting to sleep full nights after the effects of the deathflu and the shakes had mostly gone. So it was time to get out and active a bit more.

...Except she hadn't expected to run into a new familiar face when she did. Her silver eyes go wide when she sees Ozpin wandering through the streets, blood dripping from his ears, nose and mouth. She freezes for just an instant. The last time they had spoke they left off on shaky terms and she had been forced to pick up the pieces of his mission. It hadn't been an easy burden to bear.

But a Huntress didn't leave someone in need and she wasn't about to start now. She approaches cautiously and offers him an arm.

"Professor Ozpin? Here lean on me for a bit." She keeps her tone carefully neutral. She wasn't sure what time he had arrived from if he was in that body. She for the longest time had been the furthest behind in terms when they arrived. If he was in that body, did he even know what had happened between them?

[clocktowers]

She calls a name, and— that is one of his names, isn’t it? Ozpin. He can't recall whether that's the current one. He can't recall which life he knows her from.

"Thank you."

It comes soft and tired, but he accepts the offered arm to steady himself as they walk. She is terribly small, but this seems only right; she is young and helpful, and he is an old man.

Or— is he not? He was sure of it. He needs his cane just to get around, these days. Or— does he not? He doesn't seem to have it now. This body must be a new one; that must be why he can't remember who he's supposed to be. It all seems to run together.

He rubs at his eyes with his fingertips, breathes a sigh. When Oz opens his eyes again to look at his rescuer properly, he sees silver looking back at him, and the spark of recognition shows in his face.

"Ah." I know you, he almost says. Instead he says, "You have silver eyes."

She must be a warrior, then. A helpful rescuer indeed.

[clickclickbloom]

"You're welcome. Just... doing my job." There's a hint mix of worry and uncertainty in her tone, but she tried to push that aside. She didn't know how to feel about Ozpin being here or even if she should help after what he had done. In the end he was still someone who needed help right now and she wasn't about to abandon him because of the hurt she felt.

They start to walk and she keeps a wary eye on him at first but that shifts to surprise and more than a little worry when recognizes her eyes. Was he from before they met?

"Uuuuh... Yeah-Had them all my life. My mom did too."

[clocktowers]

"Your mother..." His tone has gone soft with weight and longing as he wonders— he is looking at her with more focused interest, now, trying to recognize a resemblance. Trying to remember. He feels so very close to understanding, but there are so many faces in his mind.

So many losses, each one an aching wound. It is dangerous to dwell on. He knows better. No good comes of carding back through the memories, letting pain and nostalgia drown him. It would be easier to avoid such missteps if he had any grasp on the timeline, if he knew who was still alive; he glances to his free hand, scarlet blood smudged on pale fingers. He can almost put a name to these hands. He knows they are his.

If only he knew who that was.

"My apologies." For staring, for trailing off, for leaning on her as he makes his unsteady way through this unfamiliar street. The polite little smile he gives her is not easy to muster, but he'd like to think it's a noble effort. Doing my job, she'd said, and he does feel certain she's a warrior. "You must be a—" They've a new word for it, now. His word. He fumbles for it, "—a Huntress."

The Academies. Yes, he remembers now.

[clickclickbloom]

Ruby stops mid step and her eyes go wide when Ozpin mentions her mother. If he even meant her mother? He seemed more than a little scrambled at the moment and she still had no idea if he even knew her at the moment.

"My... Mother?" There's so much she wants to ask about her but that's all she muster to say at the moment. She's not even really sure she would get an answer out of him if he was in his right mind anyways.

So she starts to press on again and just lets him put as much weight as he needs to on her. She was used to it, what was a few more literal pounds with all the metaphorical ones she was carrying around on her.

She gives him a small little nod when he starts to put more words together. He was starting to put things together now. Maybe he just needed a little help?

"That's right. I'm a Huntress. We help people." She pauses briefly and then adds in. "You taught me."

[clocktowers]

He bears with her through the stumble, and hopes she does not ask too directly; he's not sure he could provide satisfying answers to her questions, nor deflect them neatly. It is all such a tangle. And he cannot necessarily lean back on the excuse of being a feeble old man. His hands are unwrinkled.

He's Ozpin. Professor Ozpin.

"Yes, I suppose I did." It is reassuring to have this to hold onto. It puts some pieces in order: the war is ended, the world is at peace, he is no longer king. "Beacon Academy."

Beacon fell. He realizes it in a horrible jolt, the moment he says the word, and now it is his turn to miss a step as his breath catches. He remembers the dying Fall Maiden, the battle in the vault, and— his family's farm in Mistral.

No, that only confuses things again.

"Well, I appreciate the assistance, Miss...?" He is so close to it.

[clickclickbloom]

Ruby isn't sure she'd get a straight answer if she asked directly, whether he was in his right mind or not. She knew how far she had to go to get answers the last time. Her eyes glide down to the lamp that was hanging from her hip. It didn't sit well with her that he hadn't trusted them enough to explain things herself, but after seeing what he had lived through... Well she couldn't blame him.

She holds back and her grip on him tightens when he misses his step. He was hurt and she wasn't going to let him do anything worse by accident.

"It's okay. It's okay. I'm here." She tries to sound reassuring even if she doesn't fully feel it. She pauses briefly when he asks for her name.

"Rose." She simply. "Ruby Rose." She felt the need to clarify with how confused and dazed he seemed to be,

[clocktowers]

She is a very kind girl. He does appreciate it. He lets her take his weight as he steadies himself again, and follows her gaze as it falls to her hip—

She has the Lamp.

All at once, he remembers. Snow and shouting; Jinn's amused little smile; Salem, young and beautiful, close enough to touch. His daughters. The millenia of failure after failure. Qrow.

And after that: the place he'd shut himself away, such that everything went distant and hazy. Such that he could almost stop feeling it. Yes, he remembers.

The pause drags long; he has been looking at the Relic, not the girl, through the whole of it. He shuts his eyes.

"Ruby." His tone has gone from polite and distant to something heavier, more raw, all at once. He sounds much more lucid, and deeply sad. "Yes, I remember."

[clickclickbloom]

The pause is more than enough to make Ruby feel uncomfortable. More so when she realizes just what he's staring at. Eventually her hand will move to pull the lamp back and hide it beneath her cloak. She... Wasn't so sure she really needed to keep it from him after what she's seen, but it was something that made her wary nonetheless. She remembered how he had acted the last time it had come up.

When he finally speaks up she picks up on the change of tone. She frowns and lets her head hang low for a moment before she looks back up at him. There was a confusing mix of emotions running through her. All the fear, anxiety, sadness anger, confusion that he just left them and a understanding about what he had been through all rushed to the forefront of her mind and she couldn't find the words to say. Her hand trembles lightly against his back as she struggles to think of what she should do.

Eventually she takes a breath and shoves it all down. It wasn't the time for that.

"Alright." It's all she can think of to say. She's not sure whether it's good or bad that he remembers, but she leans toward good because she she doesn't have to explain things to him. She wouldn't hide things from him like he had with them.

"This place can be dangerous but it looks like you already know that." She just kept pushing her emotions down. There were more important things they could focus on for now. "I've been here for awhile. I can answer any questions you have."