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!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

curse the fiends

Waking up groggy and confused on the floor of what seems to be a large metal warehouse is never anyone's idea of a good time, but here you are. You may not have even known Deerington had warehouses (except for those who have been to the real Hair of the Dog) let alone how to get to one of them. It's clear you've been placed here against your will, but for what reason?

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

It's just the month for getting stuck in tiny rooms. This time, walking through any door in Deerington could land you inside this cramped closet with far too tall ceilings. Again, it seems you aren't alone; the wall on the opposite side of the closet seems to have brought in someone the same as you. The doors behind you both disappear and it seems like you're completely trapped. There's shelves all around you, completely empty, but they've got to hold a purpose, right? You may take some time to look them over, see if there is some kind of switch or hidden compartment they might be blocking.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not exactly. Not all that far from Croats and demons sometimes but… no Lucifer.

[ Which is probably evidence enough that Dean's come from a point in the timeline where he hadn't even faced off with the devil yet. Maybe if this wasn't right in the middle of a damn near apocalyptic feeling week, Dean might even explain that while there isn't a Lucifer here, there's a Sam - not that he's been able to get hold of him yet, and the house is empty - and a Cas… with powers. But he honestly doesn't have the energy and not sleeping for a week has left him with just enough mental capacity to stay safe outside and suture up a wound. He feels wrecked in ways that he knows aren't going to change for as long as he has this insomnia. It's never been this bad before.

But he's not going to lie, and he's not going to pretend like some people hadn't been able to see a shadowy of Cas trailing behind him a few months back. ]

No. I didn't see you. Everybody else did.

[ Letting out a heavy breath, he scrubs a tired hand over his face forgetting that it has dried blood on it. It just doesn't feel all that important right now against the real possibility that he might just fall over at any point all thanks to sleep deprivation. He hasn't looked back up from the floor, vision swimming and forcing him to blink hard a few times to try righting it again. ]

You were my guilt shadow.

Yeah, okay, that's... hm.

[ Cas looks at Dean, brows furrowed... and then rolls his eyes so hard he sways with the motion, seamlessly using the small momentum to pitch himself forwards and grab for the bag of supplies, coming away with nothing more than some cloth that he dips into his not quite empty glass of water. ]

So, uh. First...

[ He gestures vaguely. ]

Don't punch me.

[ And with that quite reasonable request, in his opinion, Cas moves over, and crouches by Dean's side, reaching up and dabbing the damp cloth against Dean's skin, wiping away the dried blood with... well, mostly surprising gentleness, but not so much that he doesn't, for a moment, curl his fingers around Dean's chin a little too tightly. ]

Second... how about we, uhm... don't say things like that while smearing our friend's blood across our faces, hm? I think... we can agree on that. Yeah.

[ Dean's face cleaned, Cas unceremoniously grabs his hand, holds it in his and begins wiping the blood away there, too. ]

Fourth... no, wait. Was I on three? Hm....

[ He pauses, eyes going glassy as his mind skips down a side-path until he shakes his head, dismissing the musings about numbers. Carefully unfurls Dean's fingers and trails the damp cloth along the length of the inside of Dean's index finger, base to tip and back. ]

Whatever, uhm... number we're on... [ He's not holding Dean's hand, technically, he's just cleaning it. If he squeezes it, that's between them. ] I'm here, now. You stitched me up. All better.

[ Dean broke it, Dean fixed it. Sure, that might not be the end of the story, and Cas...while certainly not about to hold a grudge, certainly isn't over how Dean's been treating him, not more so than he was before at least. But he bristles at the idea of this place butting their mutual pain and trauma on display for others. ]

I'm here.

Punch you?

[ As far as he knows, Cas hasn't done anything yet to be worthy of a swing, but he's quickly getting with the program when there's a damp cloth pressed to his face. He doesn't flinch, exactly, but his expression does tighten into something uncomfortable. It wouldn't matter who was doing this for him, he'd still find it hard to take, harder still to match up the kind of care and attention somebody might take for him when he's been so bad at it for the last few years with anybody else.

He hasn't been kind, and he knows that. Knows that of all the people who got hit the worse because of it? Cas has paid time and time again the toll for trying to be anywhere near him. Three months in this town and he's already been taught lesson after lesson on how much he doesn't know, how much he'd forgotten, and this feels like another one.

Tiredness dampens down any further reaction he might have to what Cas goes on to do, and by the end of it - hand squeeze provoking only the briefest eye contact - he's as close to sleep as he's going to get. It's still frustratingly, maddening out of his reach. Cas' declaration of 'all better' finally catches at that frustration, and eventually Dean snorts derisively. There isn't an all better for either of them. That's not how life works, that's not how this town works, and that's not how either of them work. ]

There's nothing all better about this situation. And I say this not trying to be an asshole to you... but I wish you weren't here, man. This place? It's like Hell all over again.

[ Maybe not in atmosphere - there's been less chains and fire and torture racks so far - but the whole idea of being stuck here, subjected to constant psychological trauma. This is exactly the Hell he'd have chosen to inflict on Lucifer. ]

You did what I asked you to do and this is what you got for it. That's not all better.

[ Standing pulls his hands out of Cas' and he's stepping away before there's a chance for the fallen angel to try again. The stained glass window still looms, and he's trying not to look at it either but he's running out of things to look at trying to avoid so many other things. Now that he's put some space between himself and the kind, soft actions he knows he doesn't deserve, he clears his throat and starts putting back anything that can be saved into the medical bag. Catching sight of his now clean hands, he slows to a stop and exhales heavily. Manners. He used to have those. ]

...but thanks. For the... help.

[ Anyone but Dean himself might be surprised at the fact that Dean's reaction is, after a moment, met with a laugh. It doesn't quite reach Cas' eyes, but it's also not as empty as it could be given the circumstances. He slides into the chair Dean abandoned, letting his legs sprawl gracelessly. ]

Whoa, just... hm. Look at you. Manners. How positively nostalgic.

[ There's a little bit of bite there, because how could there not be - but there's also a level of genuine amusement. That must have cost Dean years off his life, to squeeze a 'thank you' past his lips. It's impressive, really. Cas would applaud, if he didn't feel like that might genuinely earn him a black eye. ]

And as for the rest, well. No offense taken. The feeling is, uhm... quite mutual. I happen to... also wish I'd stayed dead this time around.

[ Less than amused in comparison, Dean's a little rougher about shoving the medical bag back together and picking it up. It's been a long, long time since he could be considered naive, and whatever this situation is between them, he knows better than to leave medication of any kind lying around. Maybe he would have said something along those lines, back in there world. For now? He just turns to face Cas lounging in that chair and all that's left of his annoyance is the way his nostrils flare briefly. ]

It's gonna be a long-- however long this lasts. If it ever goes back to the way things were.

[ Both of them have experience of things definitely not going back to the way things were, and the barb about nostalgia spikes something uncomfortable into his chest again. It takes effort to make his next offer. ]

Blankets and a spare pillow's in a bag next room over. You're on the couch. Get some sleep.

[ Hell knows he hasn't been able to, and that's making already rough edges jagged with exhausted energy. The liger puts in an appearance, winds itself around the back of Dean's legs and its so big it brushes across his lower back. ]

I got some things to take care of but later? We're making a plan.

[ Cas still can't fully wrap his head around 'here' and what 'here' entails, and part of him doesn't want to. He gave everything that he had ever been - his death was earned, and his rest deserved.

And now... well. Now here he is.

And here they are.

Once again, stuck in the strangest situation. Well... no, this one wins. This is stranger than Lucifer releasing a virus to eradicate humanity. Cas... isn't sure if being here with Dean is better than being here alone. Of course, not being here... preferrable, by a long shot. ]

Yes s---

[ He was about to fling out a 'yes sir', but stumbles on it.

but later? We're making a plan.

Cas sighs. Swallows.

Fiiiiine. He can play a little nicer, too. ]

Yes, Dean.

[ And with that, he makes his bed, knowing he has to lie in it, too. ]