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

[ Ah. An android, then. This is not overly disconcerting to him; he's becoming accustomed to James's ever-more-elaborate parade of killing machines. He knows that no good will come of disturbing the thing. He wonders who it belongs to, and for what purpose.

Politely: ]

My apologies. I'm merely attempting to familiarize myself with the town. It seems I'm rather new here.

[ Arid regards the human coolly, absorbing his apology in silence. His previous attention aside, he does not seem at all shocked at being addressed by her. Perhaps he is not from such a technologically backward place as many of the other Sleepers.

It is not necessarily a point in his favor. ]

You are in Deerington, [ she tells him, as if that explains everything. ] New Sleepers are installed at the beginning of every month.

[ Installed. Imprecise phrasing, but this is still useful information. ]

I see. [ And here this android is, standing guard over... he turns to inspect the establishment, trying to discern what about it requires such protection. ] And may I ask your purpose here?

[ The building behind Arid happens to be a distinguished-looking pub, dusky windows casting light onto an interior well-appointed with mahogany walls and furnishings. In a word, it looks old-fashioned—even by Deerington's archaic standards. Bold lettering stretched over the windows reads "Deerington Public House."

His question gets a pause and then: ]

My job here is to maintain order and safety within the establishment and to eject any who would threaten either.

[ There's an odd emphasis on the word "job" and when Arid says it, she stands a bit straighter—as if daring the human to say something to contradict the statement. ]

[ It looks very much like a tavern he'd find in his own kingdom, and is in fact the most reassuringly familiar bit of architecture he's yet encountered.

The emphasis on job puzzles him. It grants a degree of emotion to her voice he hadn't known to expect. Perhaps not quite like the Atlesian foot soldiers, then. ]

And I don't intend to keep you from it. Still, I am looking for information about this... very peculiar town. [ His tone is mild, but he's still looking at her with acute interest, trying to figure out what exactly he's seeing. ] Where might you recommend I go?

[ Arid holds that intense gaze for a moment—and then looks away. Faceless as she is, her uneasiness passes easily for irritation. This is not the first time she has been questioned like this by a newcomer and though this human is more diplomatic than Sims had been, it is not by much. She decides it would be prudent to divert his attention and quickly.

Still not looking at him, she holds out an armored hand. ]

You received a communication device known as a Fluid. Give it to me and I will direct you to the information you seek.

[ He parses it as impatience, which is still interesting. But his question stands, and he does intend to leave her in peace once she can provide directions. There seems little harm in trying his luck.

This seems promising. He withdraws his Fluid and passes it to her readily. ]

[ Arid takes the device from him and begins to tap at its screen. But it is not physical directions she is inputting. If the human is able to observe at all, he will see her navigating to what seems to be a game featuring colorful pixel graphics of flowers and trees. A few swipes of Arid's finger dismisses the whimsical facade, revealing pages of carefully categorized data. She passes the Fluid back to him ]

This database collates information about Deerington's history, inhabitants, and threats, [ she says tersely. ] There is no data on the town I can provide that it does not already contain.

[ And then, deciding for him: ] That will be sufficient.

[ When she passes the device back, he scrolls briefly through the posts. Most of the information is completely novel, unfamiliar at a glance, but all the more intriguing for it. It will take him some time to go through the resource.

So he pockets the Fluid again and nods to her. ]

Thank you. I appreciate the assistance.

[ Arid nods once. ] Acknowledged.

[ The interaction could very well end there, but given that the human has thus far proven relatively civil in his pursuit of knowledge, Arid will make one more addition—though, it is likely more useful to Tech Boy than it is the human. ]

The database is user-supplemented. If you acquire more data about Deerington or its inhabitants, submit it there. [ A pause. ] Do not speak about it openly where administrators may hear you.