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

Phil Coulson | AoS

[40seconds]

I. The Evil Dollhouse A

[ All right, so a dollhouse is strange, and so is being the right size to fit all the furniture and furnishings. But as far as Coulson can tell, the only thing he can do right now is just take this in stride and hope that he gets restored to his normal self, sooner rather than later. It's not easy, of course, but what choice does he have, anyway?

Reason says to start at the bottom and work his way up, so that's exactly what he does. He searches the dollhouse room by room, stopping only when he turns a corner and very narrowly misses running headlong into someone.

He steps back and holds up his hands apologetically. ]

I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. This is a fine introduction. I normally don't run right into people, but I was under the impression I was alone here. I guess that was silly of me.

[ And then he smiles a smile that's both self-deprecating and friendly, all wrapped up in one. ]

II. The Evil Dollhouse B

[ It's a little bit later, and Coulson's still in the dollhouse, but now he's starting to feel strange. His joints are just a little bit stiffer than he remembers them being, and sometimes he catches himself feeling like his expression's been frozen in place. But he knows that panicking isn't going to get him out of whatever's going on. Finding a way out, or someone who knows the way out, is the important thing here.

The only problem is, his pace is drastically slowed down, and there's a lot of rooms to search. What if he doesn't find anyone? Meeting his end as a porcelain doll never crossed his mind, and yet it's starting to seem like it might become a reality.

But he's not done yet; he just has to focus on putting one stiffening foot in front of another and hope he finds help before it's too late. ]

III. Those Pesky Kids

Bang!

[ A shot that sounds suspiciously like a gun has just gone off, and if anyone's nearby, they might find Coulson with a literally smoking gun in hand. No, he hasn't just shot someone, just sent off a warning shot. As it happens, there's a terrified but belligerent townsperson on the ground at Coulson's feet. ]

What'd you go and do that for?

[ The townsperson grouses, glaring angrily at Coulson. Coulson, for his part, maintains a placid expression, but he's already put the gun away. There's no threat here, so there's no need for keeping it out. ]

You might find that some people don't take kindly to being followed and then jumped, even when it's only meant to be a prank.

[ His tone is mild, and of course, he's smiling, but there's the smallest steely glint in his eyes. He's not happy that he just used up one of two bullets that were held in his gun, and over something as silly as a prank. Neither is he happy that he reacted in that way, but the sudden way in which events unfolded made him feel as though there was a legitimate threat that needed to be addressed.

He's regretting it now, of course, but there's no unwinding the clock. Hopefully any fellow Sleepers passing by don't mind the commotion and are able to just enjoy the show. Or ignore it. Whichever works. ]

IV. Network | Text | UN: lola

Hello. I'm sure this message is coming too late to be of any use, but just in case it's not: it seems there are some tricksters on the street. They seem a little disgruntled, even angry, so if you come across one, be careful.

At best, they'll just accost you. At worst, they might attempt to hurt you. But, as I've found out, a show of force is enough to scare them off. They might insist that they meant no harm, but I'd take that with a grain of salt if I were you.

Just be careful out there.

[ He figures his warning doesn't carry much weight considering he's only just arrived and has barely started to get his bearings, but he just can't ignore the miscreants. ]

Those Pesky Kids

[morethan084]

[The sound of a gun going off is unquestionable but, instead of running away from it, Skye rushes off in the direction of it. She doesn't realize who she's looking at first, as his back was to her, but his voice has her heart hammering in her chest.]

Coulson?

[She can barely get her voice above a whisper as a knot forms in her throat. The last time she saw Coulson here, he was a ghost. She couldn't handle that again. God, but she doesn't want him here having to deal with all of this. She wouldn't wish it on anyone.]

[40seconds]

[ The threat might be neutralized, but the adrenaline's taking a little bit longer to wear off, so when Coulson turns, his posture is still a little tense. ]

Skye?

[ He doesn't want to start firing questions at her, but he does need to know what's going on here. ]

What's the situation here?

[morethan084]

[Tears welling up in her eyes as the feeling of both relief and worry overwhelms her, Skye doesn't answer his question.]

You're here.

[She doesn't hesitate to close the distance between them, wrapping her arms tightly around him. Not only was he solid, but he remembered who she was this time. Pulling back after a moment, Skye quickly wipes the tears that had fallen down her cheek.]

Are you okay? Where-? Do you know if anyone else from the team is here?

[Sorry, Coulson, Skye has a lot of questions of her own.]

[40seconds]

[ The tears combined with the hug is enough to let him know that something's going on, and he means to find out what that something is. They might not be in their own world anymore, but that doesn't mean his responsibility to her stops. ]

Yeah, it looks like I am.

[ He manages a smile at that, even while they're in the middle of a hug. ]

I'm fine. Are you okay? And I don't know. I haven't seen any of them, but I have been looking.

[ He'd be a poor leader if he wasn't. ]

[morethan084]

[Skye doesn't answer his question because, honestly? It's hard to know how she feels right now. She is happy to see him, obviously, but this place was bad. It's also been two years since she's seen any of the team and at this point she's lost hope of any kind of reunion.

Shaking her head, Skye doesn't even know where to start.]

Was that you with the gun?

[40seconds]

[ He'll allow it this time, but he's going to keep asking her how she's doing. It's his job to worry about anyone on his team, and since she's on his team and someone he cares about, he's going to keep worrying. He'll figure out the rest later, like what he's going to do, where he's going to live, and what's really going on around here. ]

It was. There was someone following me, and they decided it would be a good idea to attempt jumping me. I didn't shoot them, just the air.

[ In case she's wondering. ]

[morethan084]

[Well, so much for a calm start to his arrival here. Skye looks behind him as if expecting to see anyone there.]

Did you get a good look at them?

[40seconds]

[ Is anything in either of their lives calm? He's used to it by this point. ]

Actually, yes. He was wearing some kind of disguise to make himself look frightening. It didn't really work.

[ Well, it worked for about five seconds. ]

[morethan084]

What kind of disguise?

[Even if it's broad daylight, Skye is still on edge. The idea of anyone trying to harm Coulson makes her feel sick to her stomach.]

Can we talk somewhere that's not here? My place isn't far from here.

[40seconds]

Dollar store Halloween costume, or something close to it. It's almost funny.

[ Except he's not really laughing. ]

That sounds like a good plan. Lead the way.

[morethan084]

[Doesn't sound familiar to her, but that doesn't mean someone isn't going around in a Halloween costume to mess with people.]

Come on.

[She's going over what questions to ask when they get back to her house, so she's abnormally quiet until then. Pulling out her key from her pocket, Skye unlocks the front door and steps through and out of his way. Her house is pretty bare, all things considered, but it's rather clearly been lived in for a while.]

Are you thirsty? Did you eat already?

[Did he even read the letter? If he didn't eat soon, well, she just knew it wasn't a good thing if he didn't eat upon arrival here. Skye wrings her hands while she waits for his answer, and if it looks like she's biting back a string of questions, it's because she is.]

[40seconds]

[ Honestly, the silence is all right with him. He has a lot on his mind, starting with finding himself here in this strange town, and ending with wondering what's going on outside of this weird dreamscape, if anything.

He follows her inside, takes a quick look around, and nods approvingly. ]

I like what you've done to the place. And no, to both questions. I was about to, but I- Well, I got distracted.

[ The disgruntled townsperson underneath the costume caught him just a little bit off his guard, so his plan to find something to eat got temporarily pushed to the side. ]

[morethan084]

Thanks.

[Leave it to Coulson to be this chill when he's just arrived in a hellscape.]

You need to eat, take a seat. I'll be right back.

[She doesn't have much in the way of snacks right now, but she has a small bag of unopened chips and brings it back to the living room, along with a bottle of water.]

Sorry, I don't have any coasters.

[Ha-ha.

Shit.

Handing him everything, Skye takes a seat next to him, unable to keep the concern off her face.]

What do you know about this place?

[40seconds]

[ Coulson doesn't say anything, just does as he's told, but he's waiting and watching for her to come back, with some of that earlier tension seeping back into his posture. It's not that he thinks they're in danger, but they are in an unknown place (well, she has the advantage of time, whereas this is all new to him) and he's not sure what could be waiting in the wings. ]

That's all right. This is just fine, thank you, Skye.

[ He tries to smile reassuringly, but it does fall a little bit flat, in spite of his best efforts. ]

This place is a dream. Or a dreamscape, and we're all asleep.

[ He pauses. ]

And deer have something to do with things here too.

[ He's not 100% sure on that one. ]

[morethan084]

[So he did read the letter, good. At least Skye doesn’t have to go over that with him.]

A lot to do with this place, but, yes.

[She hesitates with asking her next question but, she also really wants to know.]

What year is it back home?

[40seconds]

All right. I don't see what deer have to do with this place beyond the dream and the name of the town, but all right.

[ He figures if she can, she'll explain. ]

2012. Why, what year is it for you?

[morethan084]

Well, the tattoo you get on arrival involves a deer on it.

[Skye lifts the hair covering back of her neck and shows him hers.]

The deer protect us here.

[She isn’t sure if she should be relieved or not to hear what year it is for him.]

What’s the last thing you remember? Before ending up here.

[40seconds]

Funnily enough, a tattoo was one thing I never really wanted.

[ So much for that. He looks at her tattoo carefully, the frown lines on his face deepening just a little. ]

How do they do that? They're just deer.

[ And at her question, those frown lines deepen even further. ]

Among other things, meeting your- friend. Miles Lydon.

[ He knows she'll get the significance of that without him saying anything else. ]

[morethan084]

Better than it being a tramp stamp, I guess.

[Letting her hand fall away her hair fell back into place as she turns to face him again.]

Honestly? I’ve given up trying to think about it too much it just makes my head hurt.

[She’s also been here for two years now...

At the mention of Miles, Skye's stomach twists despite it being over two years, the betrayal still hurts her. One of the many reasons she has trust issues. But if that’s the last thing he remembered, that means he hasn’t—-

Shit. Skye isn't sure if it’s even worth warning Coulson about everything she knows, by both being a bit further ahead than him and others here from the same Earth they’re from. Like HYDRA still at large when they all thought it was long gone.]

I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have been so—-

I was stupid to have ever trusted him.

[40seconds]

[ He honestly didn't want to bring it up, because it's a sore spot for him as well, but since she asked... ]

Don't.

[ He holds up a hand to stem her apology. ]

You've apologized already, we've forgiven you. It's in the past.

[ Sore spot or not, he's doing what he can to move past it. ]

Everyone has lapses in judgment, even me.

[morethan084]

[We.

God, she misses the team so badly. She's imagined a reunion countless times but not quite like this. Tears spring to her eyes, again, and she swallows the lump in her throat.]

I've seriously missed you. It's been a long two years here without you, without the team.

[40seconds]

I can imagine, but I'm not surprised to find you looking well.

[ Or as well as possible. He thinks he can see signs of whatever happened in those two years weighing on her, but he knows she's resilient. ]

But since there's always more going on below the surface, I have to ask. Are you all right?

[ It's only a request to be let in, if she feels like doing so. Requests can be denied, and if that's the case, then he won't push too hard. ]

[morethan084]

[Her next inhale gets caught in her throat at his question, but it’s still easier for Skye to lie than be honest with him. Opening up to people, even him, is difficult for her. Forcing a smile on her face, Skye tries to be nonchalant, adding in a shrug for good measure.]

As good as anyone can be after being stuck in a dream place for two years.

[40seconds]

[ He understands that this is hard for her, so he just has one comment along those lines left, and then he plans to move on. ]

You know you're not a very convincing liar.

[ But he doesn't want to push her, especially when she's not comfortable with it. He's just going to take this opportunity to open the bag of chips and help himself to one. ]

Thank you for this, by the way.

[ It might just be chips and a bottle of water, but he appreciates it anyway. ]