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

Huh. I guess there's a parable there about how fire can be pretty uncontrollable if you slip up a little. But yeah, Hazel is a little wolf that breathes fire. Pretty useful to have around, though not so much in the lab.

[With all the super flammable chemicals and whatnot. ]

That's what we're aiming for. To try and fix the mess other people made, and hopefully get home in the process.

The elemental spirits are definitely a bit wild, and they can be hard to control. I guess that's why back home they needed a fifth spirit. I don't know what's up here, and maybe it's different in your friends world.

I can see where fire and chemicals would not mix. Bad combination. Hopefully little Hazel stays out of your lab.

[ It sounds like a good goal at least. ]

The mess other people made?

Yeah, Ooo is kinda weird honestly. From what I've been able to gather from Fern is that it had a really bad disaster and now there's candy people and stuff? Literal candy people. People made of candy. Sentient people. It's really weird.

He does, I keep the door locked.

[He lets out a soft hum.]

I'll have to let you read my notes. All of this is a dream of a little girl. She brought us all here- but this town sorta came around when they tried to control her power. Suppress it, 'know? It's more complicated than that, but it's a long read.

[Because having a power surpassed sure isn't gonna be familiar, sure won't.]

Sentient people made of candy? That does really weird! And I bet pretty dangerous for them!

[ That's a story that hooks her deep. She's only had the most basic of information about Sodder and if she's just a little girl being locked up because of her power then all she can envision is Elsa being a prisoner and accidentally creating a cursed world because of it. With that information, empathy and concern is all Anna can feel over it. ]

They're doing what?! That's...that's HORRIBLE! How can they? Don't they see they are probably creating this whole mess just by trying to control something they shouldn't? No one deserves that!

[ She takes a deep, but shaky breath, put that way it just screams Elsa to her. ]

Yes please, I'd like to read your notes.

Apparently, they're all pretty safe? But I don't quite understand how. The best I can figure is that it's magic.

[He raises his shoulders in a shrug, but he appreciates that she clearly cares. That's good. Too many people here are complacent and he doesn't get it. ]

You'd think, right? But nope! Apparently, it's way more important to try and control the magical girl they created themselves than it is to treat her with any kind of decency.

[He's still pretty sure Sodder is dangerous- Varian knows better than anyone that age means nothing if someone is determined enough. But equally, he's not convinced Sodder MEANS any of it. Still. This is not the way to go about it.]

Great! I'll be sure to send them to you, they're well worth a read.

Magic does seem the probable answer.

[ The idea just fills her with fury and not just because it hooks her on a very deep level, but because imprisonment like that just seems wrong on any level. ]

People fear what they don't understand and rather than try to find answers, they lock it away and throw away the key, and pretend they never had a problem in the first place. If that's how they are approaching her, it's no wonder her powers are so out of control.

I'll do what I can to help. It reminds me too much of Elsa...

[ Even if Elsa and Sodder are nothing alike, and it would be better to be in eternal winter, really. ]

Thank you Varian. I'll be sure to read them as quickly as I can.

It often is, when things are a little too out there- until you can figure them out, anyway.

[But Varian always exists in that weird area between science and magic- even if he distinctly doesn't want to admit to the latter. ]

That seems to be what's going on, yeah. I guess they're happier to live in ignorance and fear rather trying to understand her and help her. It's stupid and it's probably going to get us all killed.

Your sister, right?

[He has the vaguest ideas of Arendelle royalty. He's pretty sure he heard Rapunzel mention Elsa before. ]

Don't mention it. We need to look out for each other here.

[ At least it broadened the reasons for the unexplained. ]

Well I certainly hope it won't get us all killed! I'd really like to get home.

[ She nods. ] Yes, my sister. She has magic, but spent years and years hiding and trying to bury it. First it was because of our parents, but then after their passing, she kept herself locked away. When everyone found out she had powers, she accidentally buried Arendelle in an eternal winter. Everyone wanted to imprison her...or worse...but it was love that set her free. Soon as she had that, she managed to get control.

[ She pauses at a thought. ] Rapunzel and Eugene were at the coronation as I recall.

Either way, it's not fear or isolation that's going to free us from this. It never is.

Oh- um. On that? We uh... come back from the dead here? It's not... fun but we don't stay dead.

[He takes that in, mulling it over his head. Wow, their world was super bad at dealing with people with powers. ]

I'm glad she got out of it then? Gets out of it? I don't think it's happened for me yet- time is weird here. As far as I'm aware Eugene and Rapunzel haven't been to Arendelle yet.

Agreed- there are people we need to fight against here, but it's sure not each other.

[ They come back from the dead here? Well, that was an interesting piece of information. She didn't like the idea of dying, but it offered a little bit of reassurance, if not confusion, that it wasn't permanent. ]

I guess they do say you can't die in your dreams. [ Which she wasn't so sure about, she'd seen the Nattmara after all, but it was something she had heard. ]

That is weird. But like the whole thing with death, I guess this place is just weird. I guess it's a good thing I'm not typically put off by the abnormal.

You do come back sick, though so... fair warning. It's like the worst flu you've ever gotten.

[He doesn't have fond memories of it at all.]

That's good! The better you can roll with the weird stuff here, the better chance you have of getting through it all.

Yeesh, that does sound terrible. Been awhile since I've been so sick, but it is not something I want to repeat.

[ She chuckles softly. ]

Well, if I wasn't good at rolling with things, I would have had to give up long ago. So I'll just have to roll with this too, because I am no quitter.

I don't recommend it, honestly.

[Oh, Anna. That gets a soft huff of laughter out of him.]

Thaaaaat's the impression that I'm getting. Yeah. Probably a good thing.

Death isn't usually recommended, it's probably good it comes with such high consequences even here. Otherwise I bet people would act with even less consideration to their well being, or the well being of others.

[ It was definitely an impression she gave off to most. Headstrong and stubborn Anna who wear people and situations down until she got what she wanted. ]

Here especially. Though I will be glad to get home as soon as I can.