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OCTOBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME
OCTOBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to October's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: MONSTER 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: ... Monsters..., excessive blood, possible death via monster or drowning, violence, being trapped in tight spaces, bloody GIF, dead body parts
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!
curse the fiends

You aren't alone. There may be one, two, or even three people there with you. You're all in this together, so you may as well work as a team to see if there's a way out. The room isn't very large and it's completely empty, save for a single flashlight in the center of the floor. The only way out (or maybe it's a way in) is a long, narrow, and very dark corridor. That's gotta be completely safe. Despite hesitations, what choice do you really have?
The flashlight won't give off an abundance of light, but it at least makes it so you aren't stumbling around blindly. As you move through the corridors, you'll start to hear the sickening screech like nails on a chalkboard, but there's something worse about it. Something that makes you feel like a bucket of ice has just been dropped down your back. Something dangerous. There are different corridors that branch off of the main one you're walking down and your team will have to decide whether to stick together an choose one path or split up and explore multiple to find away out. Given that you've only got one source of light, you'll want to choose carefully.
Whether you stay together or split up, the corridors all look the same. The same sound follows you wherever you go. Eventually you'll start to notice it sounds close. Too close. Like it's right... above you?
Looking up, you'll see a large monster which jumps down in front of your team within seconds of having the light turned on it. The beast takes up the majority of the space in the corridor and there's no getting around it. Time to double back and try out one of those other passages, it seems. Hopefully you can run quickly. It's not the only thing that's jumping out of the shadows to try and hunt you, either. The large creature is working with a smaller set of monsters who seem to appear out of nowhere, their footsteps impossible to hear, but the screeches they give are almost deafening. If you split up earlier, maybe you'll run into each other now; it seems like the monsters are herding you together, trying to make you easier to hunt.
The small monsters can be killed easily. Any weapons you have will work against them, no more than a couple of shots from a gun or a good hard swing of a blade will be needed to take them down. The big beast you first ran into is another story. Nothing seems to work to slow this guy down. It'll bleed, sure, the injuries are more than apparent, but it doesn't seem to make the monster any weaker. If anything, it just makes it more irate. The only chance of living is getting out.
If you're lucky, you'll eventually turn enough corridors to see cracks of light at the end of one. Light that seems to be coming through a door. If you can outrun the monster down this long, straight stretch, it seems to actually be your exit. The door is heavy and the lock is a little rusty, but with a little team effort, you should be able to get the thing shoved open. Slam it closed before the monster can get out and you'll find yourself safe again.
fear the old blood

While you're observing the cramped space around you, trying to find a way out, you might hear the sound of air rushing from above you, almost like the sounds of an elevator shaft. There's a ding, a click, the sound of doors opening— all from the ceiling up above. It's a way out! But nothing ever comes so easily in Deerington. Within seconds of the doors cracking open, blood will start to fill the room, pouring in from your only exit.
Working together and using the shelves as leverage, you might just be able to reach the ceiling to pull yourself up (and hopefully your partner), but you'll have to push against the downpour of blood in the process. It's far from easy, definitely slippery, and you'll have to move quickly if you don't want to end up drowning. Waiting it out for the room to fill so you can reach the top easier will prove to be a horrible idea; the moment the blood reaches the top of those bookshelves, rotting hands will begin to reach from the walls, dragging you down and keeping you from getting to the top.
Once you have both made it into the exit above, the doors will close, and the elevator will right itself. There's no blood anywhere to be found and there also isn't a button to press to choose any floors. You'll simply hear the sound of the elevator climbing the shaft before the doors open again, and you'll be let out into the lobby of the Grady Hotel.
Time to head home and take a shower, I guess.
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.
I. (I love the Endverse so much!)
She's examining a particularly lovely maple when she hears someone below. His scent is immediately unpleasant. And a bit...off. Ozone, probably. She's smelling it on almost everyone, lately.
Curious, she drops down to a lower branch, landing in a neat squat with her back against the trunk. She leans forward, grabbing the branch with both hands, letting her face and her ropelike braid fall to one side, looking down at him.]
What about fornication?
oohhh I'm so happy to hear that <3
He glances up, though, bleary blue eyes finding someone in the branches above.
Huh. Interesting. ]
As in the expletive, not, uh. The act. Though the act would be... preferrable to... whatever all this is, really.
:D
[She's still getting used to all of the idioms from all the worlds, colliding all at once. As it is, she's terrible enough with her own world's choice words.
Which is funny, as she knows over thirty languages.
But no matter.
She offers the stranger a sympathetic smile.]
Plenty of reasons for expletives, I suppose. Any specific ones I can help with?
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Horrifying death and strange resurrection into a dreamscape aside, this day might be about to turn around little. He grins, a little too wide. ]
Well. Which idioms do you know, for uh... extreme unhappiness with an overall situation?
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[She throws her weight to one side, swinging to the underside of the branch, still holding it tight.
Her braid brushes the grass below.]
May I make the assumption that you're new to the city?
[He's got that new-arrival fog to him.]
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His fingers twitch. ]
I mean... who am I to. Hm... deny a beautiful woman her assumptions?
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She drops down onto the grass, landing in a crouch like a cat. And then, not sure what else to do, she sits down in front of him, pulling her legs into the lotus position.]
Is...is that a yes?
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Good times. ]
Sure. You're... not new, yes?
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I guess not. Not any more.
No, I've been in Deerington...almost half a year, I guess.
[The days tend to blur. And she hasn't been as careful about tracking time as she might normally have been.]
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So... you can tell me all about this, uhm... lovely little pocket of the universe, then.
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[There's actually quite a lot Ariadne appreciates about Deerington. Electricity is fun. The people are usually quite interesting. And there are such extraordinary inventions to use.
She spent half a day amazed at the way a new tissue popped up from the box, every time she pulled one out.]
There are some dangerous forces at play that want to hurt us.
[A pause. Her sharp, gray eyes assess him for a moment. That phrase--pocket universe--would seem to indicate a more than basic understanding of the situation already.]
Mother Superior is one of the ones you gotta look out for.
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And ah... there it is.
Because of course there would be meddling by way of congregation. ]
Well, I uh... can't say I believe I'd get on with any nun.
[ Though the idea of scandalizing a convent, come to think of it... well. No, perhaps there is some blaspheming even he'd avoid. For all time's sake, not because he has faith left anywhere in this half-dead body of his. ]
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I don't know what she has against us...
[There has to be something. Some hidden pain. Because Ariadne doesn't believe people are evil by nature. Evil is just a manifestation of frustration and anger and hurt.
One that can be healed, in the right circumstances.
But she can't even dream those circumstances for Mother Superior. There's just too much she doesn't understand.]
But we have Sodder protecting us. Watch out for creatures with antlers. They're generally on our side.
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White's been taken off the board. Too bad. ]
So, uh... a nun and stag are fighting it out and we're caught in the middle, yes?
[ Simplified, perhaps, but... well, that's the kind of cosmic conflict Cas is used to. ]
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[Not exactly how she would finesse it, but it might be a way to explain it to a child.
A very, very small child.]
I think we tend to lean toward the stag, though.
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[ Antlers good, nuns bad - simple, but not yet so much to go one, of course.
Cas taps his lip in thought. He might seem easy smiles, runaway sentences and over-simplified, but there is a sharp mind still tucked somewhere behind those slightly unfocused eyes. ]
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[Something tells her he does. But Ariadne's instincts are a little wonky here.
And assuming can get people hurt, as she well knows.]
There have been some very awful curses.
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Been a while since they stumbled across witches, though.
Been a while longer since Cas had the occasional to channel a spell himself. ]
Yeah, uh... that's awfully familiar.
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[Forgive her, strange man. Where she comes from, everything ties back to Elves, eventually. She's trying to break herself of that particular line of thought.]
Terrible magic hits us all the time.
[She gestures up to the trees, gilded with gold and metal.]
Like that. Some curse turned all the leaves to...well...that.
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In all fairness, he probably sounds just as weird talking about his own world. Still, he feels too sober for this conversation. ]
That seems... tame, as far as curses go.
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[Which is upsetting her quite a lot, apparently. Judging from the way her voice trembles a little bit.
But she pulls herself together, clears her throat, and continues.]
And, you see, a few months back, they sealed the entire village with a magical dome. Which cut off our air, boiled off a lot of our water, and nearly poisoned us all.
no subject
Now... that sounds unpleasant. How did you, uh... make it through?
no subject
Hit by lightning, we think.
[She wishes she knew more, but frankly, it's all a bit mysterious.]
Although when it shattered, a lot of people got hurt.
no subject
I can imagine... so you're, uh... free to leave this town otherwise?
no subject
[She shifts a little in her seat.]
There's a limit to how far anyone can go. Although I think it's getting wider.
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sorry this took a bit. am sick but recovering \o/
No worries! Glad you're feeling better!
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