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December 2020 Test Drive Meme

DECEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to DECEMBER's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: SURREAL WINTER 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: psychological horror that deals with memory displacement, unnatural paranoia and madness, ghosts and hauntings, gore that includes limbs and organs, unknowingly eating rotted food and cannibalism

Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

YOU WIN OR YOU DIE

Perhaps you just stepped outside or you were on your way to the store, wherever you are out and about in Deerington, a blizzard so strong and thick with snow picks up around you and within seconds you can't see more than a foot in front of you. Choose a direction to search for shelter and you'll eventually come upon the mouth of a cave that you've never seen before and that's alarming in and of itself. But it's either going in the mysterious cave or getting lost in a blizzard and freezing to death.

Entering the cave takes you down a short narrow tunnel before it opens up into a large frozen over cavern with a narrow stone path that leads to an icy looking castle at the center. The air in the cavern is below freezing and while the castle has a foreboding look, the warm light that shines from all the windows promises warmth and safety. And when you step through the massive doors it's like stepping into another world. There's fires burning in every hearth and seasonal decorations of all sorts cover the walls and hang from the ceiling. No matter what you celebrate at this time of year in your world you are likely to spot several familiar cultural or religious ornaments.

And mingling around are countless ghostly but harmless and even friendly looking servants and lords and ladies, as well as other sleepers who have found themselves here just as you have. Make your way to the throne room and you'll find a medieval style court filled with more specters of finely dressed men and women standing to observe their liege dispense judgement and law. But no person sits upon that throne, just a lone crown that looks like it's made of ice that seems to call you forth. Nobody stops you when you reach out to touch the crown, in fact their faces seem to twist in an unnatural sinister delight the moment you do.

Once it has been touched by you, the full curse of the crown and throne settles in and you are compelled to place it on your head. Suddenly, the castle feels colder, you can swear there are greedy eyes on your crown and as you return to mingling and partaking in food and drink, the ghosts of court one by one start sidling up to you and whispering in your ear:

"I caught your most trusted friend in an affair with one who seeks to dethrone you, my liege." "Your advisor was plotting with the servant boy to poison your wine!" "I swear I witnessed your betrothed passing coin to an infamous assassin."

Your mind starts to place people in your life in the roles the ghosts claim plan to betray you, perhaps you now believe your best friend is your royal advisor plotting to poison you or that your significant other is your fiancé planning an assassination after you are wed. Or maybe it's someone you just met today that's suddenly your spouse. Your life as a sleeper in Deerington and everything before feels fuzzy, and all that matters is domination of power and being the only one seated on that throne. Paranoia slowly seeps into your bones as you continue to mingle with the court's holiday celebrations and all you can see are enemies until you're the one plotting or trying to end them before they can end you.

The more your irrational paranoia and suspicion grows, the colder the castle becomes, or perhaps that's just you. Ice follows you where you go, your skin is turning blue and everything you touch seems to frost. Maybe you have someone thrown in the dungeon to rot or you try poison or a knife in the dark, but no matter the more subtle paths you try to take out all your enemies, you eventually become so mad with power and paranoia it becomes a physical confrontation and somehow there's weapons all over the walls of this castle to grab and fight with or chase people through the maze-like halls with.

Only when the crowns are removed from the heads of those affected and not touched again does the curse lift, the affected sleepers slowly go back to normal and you look around to find that the ghosts have faded away and all the decorations are there, but they are made from pieces of people's limbs and organs. The food you have been eating may also have been rotted and covered in maggots or comprised of human body parts. And in horror you run for the nearest door to escape and then find yourself right back in Deerington. When the massive ornate doors close behind you and you look back, there's nothing there.

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

You know what they say. You can never truly know someone until you walk a mile in their shoes.

You wake up one morning, like any other. Nothing seems unusual about the day, nothing at all really. In fact, if you ignored the heavy snowfall lately, it would be an otherwise perfectly average day in a town in Maine. A glance out the window will show that there's been some paths carved in the snow, so maybe you can get out of the damned house a little. It won't last, so you might as well enjoy the freedom, right?

When you go to get dressed, however, there is something odd. There's another set of shoes there. Maybe you recognize them as a friend's, or maybe you've never seen them before in your life, but they're definitely not yours. On a whim, you feel an almost inexorable compulsion to try them on, and they fit perfectly! It does not matter how biologically impossible this might be because of different species, foot sizes, the fact that you've never worn high heels in your life, they fit, and fit perhaps better than any other shoes you've ever worn.

That's when the rubber meets the road, however. The moment you put them on, your memories feel fuzzy for a moment and then everything is just wrong. Your memories of life become those of the person whose shoes you are now wearing. Inconsistencies are papered over for a moment. Flagrant inaccuracies just don't seem important at first, and you go about your business, being them. There's always a strangeness to your day, a sort of surreal oddity to it. It feels 'off,' and every time you look in the mirror you swear that you see the words somewhere in the reflection "Cogito Ergo Sum. At qui ego sum?"

Eventually, the nagging feeling gets worse and worse until you're compelled to find the person wearing your shoes. Only then can the curse be lifted by talking about the pieces of each other's false lives, sharing bits about oneself and realizing in the haze, confusion and fear that they are sharing your memories, not theirs. When enough have been shared, the urge to trade shoes comes, and once the right ones are on your feet it's all back to normal. The false memories bleed away like the morning fog. At most, only vague recollections linger unless the two of you choose to continue talking about them. But the next time you look in the mirror, backwards, written in blood are the words:

"?I ma ohw tub ,ma I erofereht kniht I"

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.

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"Thanks for the heads up Matchstick. Good to know, but I don't really have any interest in a crown. Surprised they just left it laying there though."

Weren't those that held those positions usually the type that was a bit paranoid and held themselves to be above everything. Looking around she saw most of the 'nobles' whispering and eyeing them as well. It was very much an air that she didn't care for.

"So what brings you here?"

The nobles whispering about them made her feel uneasy. One could probably say that they just didn't care for outsiders, but she couldn't help but think that maybe they were talking about her. Talking about how she had fallen victim to the curse.

"Um, actually... There's some sort of curse to the crown. I was just trying to get out of the cold and I ended up here. It makes you feel paranoid like... everyone is against you," she explained, "I just wanted to help anyone else who may possibly fall prey to it as well".

"It is a cold one out there, and you'd hope that they'd be a bit more welcoming to those just trying to find a little warmth. There's no reason for anyone to be or left out in this weather."

Not when it looked like most of those here were fairly well off and could do with having a few extra guests to crash their little gathering. More and more she was beginning to wonder if this place was just another Atlas. Those living above the clouds looking down on others, a leadership position that seems to be cursed.

"Well they say it's a heavy burden to bear, and that being on top means having to watch your back. When people care more about themselves than those they share this world with, I can see why that kind of person would be paranoid."

This girl on the other hand,

"But that doesn't seem like you at all. If you're taking the chance to warn others about it. That's awful nice of you."

"I don't think they really care," glancing around the room, "We definitely don't fit in here."

"It must be difficult to be in that kind of position. I'm not sure I'd be cut out for it, paranoia aside," she said, reflecting on her feelings that she felt while under the curse. She had always been put on a pedestal, but this was over her head. She would rise to a challenge, of course, but from her experience... It was lonely. She couldn't even begin to imagine leading a country or region like that.

"Oh. I... It's nothing really. I just had an awful experience and I'm sure it would probably be the same for anyone else," she said, giving her a sheepish smile, "I wonder how far away the town is. I wasn't really prepared for the weather here, so I'm not sure how much my Aura would be able to take of the cold."

"Being responsible for the lives of others, trying to be a good leader and provide a life where everyone can have a chance at happiness, it's a lot of hard work. Unfortunately, too many people who are drawn to it care more about the power that it offers. What they'll be able to do for themselves and their friends."

She'd seen it too many times, people who would promise the people the world, everything they wanted and needed, and then once elected nothing changed. There was always an excuse, and people bought it, the re-elect them in the hopes that they would keep their word this time. It's one of the reasons that Robyn had been so disliked and everyone opposed her campaign. They wouldn't be able to hide their lies anymore.

Phyrra though seemed like a pretty sweet girl. And Robyn could have sworn that she looked familiar, she'd seen her before. She would be able to figure it out later, right now there was a matter of finding something to wear for the poor girl.

"Well, then we'll just have to find something a little warmer to wear. I'm sure that they won't miss it, after all, they're leaving a crown just lying around, what's a jacket or blanket or two."

She let out a sigh in response. She wasn't wrong, "Power can be intoxicating. Even people with honest intentions can be corrupted by it." Pyrrha hadn't seen it first hand exactly, but the attention did seem to cause problems. Some loved the attention it brought... and some were put off by it.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. I can find something else later, I'm sure," hopefully anyways. Holding out a hand with a gentle smile, "I'm Pyrrha Nikos, by the way."

"They can be, but that's why transparency and accountability is important. So that the people can see what they're up to and put to a stop to anything that shouldn't be happening. So they can stop the corruption before it goes too far."

Only so many people were willingly blind to it, showing loyalty to such a degree that they became complacent with it. The idea of a single person controlling all of the information, deciding who went where, and what resources were directed to which projects, it was more power than a single person should wield.

Robin held out her own hand, obviously the girl wasn't from Mantle or Atlas. She honestly couldn't remember the last time someone willing offered her their hand like that.

"Robyn Hill. Nikos huh, I thought you looked familiar. Lot of kids enjoy that cereal you were on."

In Mantle there were still some floating around, since out of date supplies were the best they could provide at times.

"That would be the ideal way to deal with any possible corruption, but I assume it's not that simple," she agreed. She wasn't naive enough to expect that to be the case all of the time. She could at least hope that it was being handled that way, though.

It's a good thing for Robyn that she doesn't seem to know who she is. Even then, Pyrrha really wasn't the kind of person to really hold secrets. Trying to refrain from telling everyone about the Fall Maiden stuff was hard enough as is and it was damn clear that it was eating away at her. It was hard to want to talk to her friends about it, but not having any outlet for her fears.

No. It was more than that. It was hard to admit that she was scared out of her mind because she wanted to remain strong. She didn't want to let anyone down. She'd always had that issue, but when such an important situation rested on her shoulders, it was easy to crumble underneath the weight of it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Robyn," she said with a soft smile, but her next comment made her realize that she was also from Remnant. Responding with a sheepish smile, "It's a shame it wasn't healthier."

"Unfortunately not."

It wasn't that Robyn did constantly, and it wasn't something that she could do secretly, but it was still enough to make most people nervous. Most self-conscious and afraid she would sniff out the deepest secrets. So they avoided her.

"For those in Mantle who don't have much, it's better than nothing. And it's nice to meet you as well."

"Is the situation that bad?" That sentence is concerning. As if she could do anything about it now. She still feels bad about it, "I'm glad that it's helping even if it's only a little bit at least."

"For some, yeah. Though you wouldn't know it for the way that Atlas boasts, I'm hoping to change that. Or at least I was."

Before Ironwood had lost what little humanity he had seemed to have left. But that wasn't something that they really needed to focus on right now, and was something they could talk about later hopefully.

"So, since we don't seem to be making any friends with the locals. What do you say we stick together for a bit Matchstick?"

The amount of mixed feels she gets from this... Its true Remnant wasn't doing so hot, but to hear the extent of the damage was... a lot.

"I hope you can too. Someone needs to," Matchstick... That's interesting, "I'd be happy to help. Maybe we should find something warmer first?" Giving her a smile, disregarding the nickname.

Mantle had been struggling long before, the fall of Beacon had simply been the straw to push them all to the breaking point and catalyze the need for change.

"It's always good to find those who are willing to help. You seem like you'd get along with Fiona, May would probably appreciate to have another helping hand too. But yeah let's find you something warm to wear."

And Robyn told her about Fiona and May as they left to find a warmer place to stay and chat.

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