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

( Javert noticed something similar, though he hadn't been certain if it was because he was an outsider, or because people were able to recognize a police officer. He's never been well-liked, even before he joined the force. The apprehension never bothered him, and so he had not paid it much mind. )

You're not so dull as you think.

( He says, and there isn't quite a smile on his face, but he somehow seems less stern. )

I could show you, however, if you do not find it objectionable. The creature has surely left a trail behind for us to follow.

I appreciate the note of confidence. It introduces an element of hope in a strange place that seems as much a prison as a nightmare or a twilight place between dreams and waking.

[Wesker glances up the street, then back to Javert.]

I would appreciate that. I am... in need of something to apply my mind and powers of observation toward, if you can bear working with a man who's been away from investigating the field for eight years.

We shall see.

( He doesn't seem particularly skeptical. Wesker's been pleasant enough company thus far, and he hasn't said anything to irritate Javert or cause him any further anxiety. He leads the way, following in the direction of the creature with his arms held neatly against his sides. )

You believe what they say about this place, then? That it is a dream?

( Javert sounds as if he's a little skeptical, as he often is when situations seem particularly outlandish. )

[The other keeps a careful distance from the tracks, keeping an eye on them, his gloved hands clasped behind his back, as he walks abreast of Javert.]

To speak plainly, I am not certain what to believe about this place, but I am keeping my mind open to all possibilities. When I first awakened, I thought it could be either some version of the afterlife, if not a dream while I lay dying. That it could be a shared dream to which we are summoned? It remains to be seen, though it's something I would seek out, the better to understand it and the reason why any of us has been called here. We all had better things to occupy us in our respective worlds, didn't we? [A bit dryly humorous, then his calm sang-froid returns.]

( His suspicions are quite similar to Javert's own. Though neither of them seem quite certain what to believe, it's still a bit of a relief to have his thoughts parroted back to him. At least he doesn't feel as if he's descending further into madness. )

Not so.

( Javert had hoped to end his life, not continue it. )

I had my affairs set in order. There's no reason for me to have stayed in my world any longer.

From the way you phrased that, you sound like a man who anticipated his own death, before you were called here instead. Your purpose there was fulfilled, I take it?

[There's a quiet curiosity and a professional concern in his tone.]

[And then a figure draped in a bedsheet darts across their path, clanking chains and moaning as it darts out of sight around the corner of a building. Wesker pauses in his tracks as precisely as an alert cat. He looks to Javert as if to say 'Really, now?']

( He hesitates a little, uncertain of how to answer. His agitation must have been great, for he did not even notice the figure darting out in front of them until it is nearly gone, disappearing just as quickly as it appeared. He looks away. )

It matters little now.

( He says, and he's silently grateful for the distraction. How could he explain it to this man? He may not understand. Javert follows the trickster around the corner of the building, listening for its chains. )

We should not allow this creature to escape us again.

Hm. I suppose it is pointless and academic to look backward to our respective worlds, except as our history and source. For good or for ill, a new world has taken us in, allowing for a new chapter to be written.

[He glances up the street.]

Shall I take another route and head them off, while you approach them from this path?

( Javert looks as if he's about to say something, but he halts himself before he's able to get the words out. His troubles are not something he should give freely to a stranger, especially when there is work to be done. Javert has always been a man of duty, not of contemplation, and he doesn't wish to think about what drove him to the Seine. He nods, looking ahead. )

That seems wise. Unless the creature can climb the buildings, it should effectively be cornered.

[He seems to have noted that change of direction, as a flicker of understanding if not quite reassurance flickers across his impassive face.]

We can take up this discussion later, as I sense it's something we both could use. [A glance up the road]

If it's what I believe it to be, they're no more able to climb walls than a rabbit is. The townspeople, if that's what this creature is, are ...highly plain creatures, no stronger than a typical human.

[That said, he ducks down the alleyway. while up ahead the sheet-clad chain clanker waves its sheeted hands, woo'ing along, drawing an amused chuckle from a tall man passing by in a long grey coat, carrying a couple large pumpkins.]