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JANUARY 2021 TDM

JANUARY 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to January’s Test Drive Meme!

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: Claustrophobia, panic attacks, ghosts, demons, hallucinations, blood, violence
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Prompt Three
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

THE ONLY ME IS ME

The room is unfamiliar. You're not even sure how you ended up in here. Had you fallen asleep? That has to be it. Even if you're not a being who ever sleeps (which must make being in a dream world feel that much more surreal), it feels like the answer. There’s no door, no windows, and the only source of light in the whole place is two tiny, extremely dim side table lamps that give a soft, orange glow to your surroundings. It’s hard to see and easy to bump into the sparse amount of hotel room furniture that seems to be scattered around the small space. Hopefully you don’t have bad knees.

While there is no exit, if you look along the walls, you will eventually find a peep hole. The small hole in the wall makes you feel instantly uneasy, even if you’re someone who isn’t prone to fear in the first place. You’ll feel fidgety and tense, but there’s a part of you that still desperately wants to look through it. Avoiding the peep hole will make the tension disappear eventually, but it creeps back up every time you look at it.

If you woke up here alone, another person will appear in the bed you woke up in the moment you turn your back. It’s good to not be alone, right? But with the room so small, the air might start to feel a little thin. Is it getting hot in here? Is the ceiling feeling a little lower than it did last time? Are the walls closing in? It’s hard to tell if it’s all in your head or if the room really is getting smaller. Having to share it with another person, to share the limited air with someone else, is enough to make anyone panic a little.

Whenever one of you decides to look through the peep hole, you will see a man standing on the other side in a typical hotel hallway. He’s just waiting. Watching. Or at least you think he’s watching; it’s hard to tell when he doesn’t have a face at all. His presence makes that fear in you spike, your worst memories flashing before your eyes, and you won’t be able to look for long without going into a full panic attack. Getting as much distance between you and the peep hole is the fastest way to get a chance to calm down. If you can get yourself to calm down at all.

The key to getting out is the person beside you. If you choose to let them close, eventually the panic will start to ebb, and you’ll find yourself feeling more at ease the longer you sit beside them. Touching, whether it’s a hug, a hand on the shoulder, or more, will eventually make the room stop feeling so tight and the air won’t feel as thin. Eventually, you might start to feel some semblance of trust— trust that they can keep you safe. Approach the peep hole with your roommate and look through it together; while you’ll still see the painful memory from before, one of your happier memories will play soon after to soften the blow. Seeing both your dark and Your light is the best way for someone to truly get to know you, after all.

Once the memory fades, you’ll both be on the other side of the wall, and the man outside the door will be nowhere in sight, with no sign that he was ever really there at all.

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL NOW

Walk through a door, any door and you're not where you thought you'd be. Instead, what lies before you as well as to your right are what looks like perfectly normal hallways you'd find in an apartment building or a very large, fancy house. There's doors spread out along either side at varying intervals and one of them opens to let another person in, someone just like you who probably meant to go to the restroom and ended up here. If you try opening the doors, none of them budge no matter what you do and so it seems the only choice you have is to pick a direction and walk.

There's a tingling sense of dread that creeps up your spine as you go. You pass what looks to be doors to restrooms, bedrooms, living rooms and recreational rooms, but none of them seem to be an exit. On the walls are pictures and paintings, it looks like there's a familial theme to them, there's group portraits and moments captured in time such as when someone's Dad spilled punch all over himself at the family barbecue. All wholesome and loving looking pictures but oddly not of just one family, in fact you might see some familiar faces in there. Along with pictures, there's narrow hall tables with vases and more photos in frames and all the drawers seem to be locked, though you get the sense there's something in there...

Eventually, you turn a couple corners and it almost feels like you've come full circle, but at the end of the hallway there's a clear exit. Three steps down to a cracked open door. It sort of looks like a garage from what you can see, but when you open it... you're right back where you started. Only now, the halls are colder, the lights overhead that were once warm and steady are flickering and the pictures on the walls are tilted, some even cracked. There's a creaking sound somewhere far off, like something heavy swinging from a rope. You feel as though something is watching you, following close behind as you hurry your way through the halls again to find another exit.

Again, the only exit is the garage door and with no other option, you step through. And you're back where you started only now other doors in the halls are cracked. In one you see the light of a television playing static in a dark room and someone sobbing and muttering to themselves, in another there's bright red light spilling out of the crack and you see movement, something swaying, the creaking is louder. Heart pounding, you make your way around the corner and the drawers of the tables in the hall all open at once to let damaged photos fly out, all of you and your friends and family in horrifying circumstances or dead.

Run to the exit again and you are back at the start and there's now spatters of blood over the walls like a grisly murder occurred in several locations along the halls. The creaking is louder and so are the wails of the person in the room with the television. More doors are open a crack here and there and each promises something horrifying should you open them. Maybe they're abstract manifestations of your greatest fears, painful memories coming through the static T.V. set, or a stereotypical ghostly spectre with unfinished business. There is a supernatural force in this place and it feeds on your deepest traumas and fears whatever they may be, or it'll be content to sip on the fear brought on by a jump scare or a ghostly shadow watching you from afar wherever your turn, waiting for the moment to suddenly appear beside you.

To escape this haunted loop of rising torment, you must bring the demonic spirit with you as you pass through the exit door. This can be any way you wish, though the easiest is to allow it somehow to possess your body while your companion wrestles it, and you, through. You can discover this solution through clues behind the pictures and scratched into the wood on the bottom of the drawers in the form of riddles, or you can stumble upon it by accident. Once the spirit is pulled through the door, it will break the loop and you will be back in Deerington, though perhaps not quite where you were when you opened the door the first time.

NOW'S THE TIME FOR ACTION

There's something watching you. You don't know what, but you can feel it in your bones. Sometimes you think you see it (them?) out of the corner of your eye, but you can't quite make out the who or the what that might be following your every move. Sometimes it looks supernatural, a mythical creature from your own world maybe, and other times... It looks like someone from home you never wanted to see again. People show up here all the time, it's not impossible...

It doesn't stay just one being, though. Eventually you start to see small groups of people or things you can't quite make out before they disappear. It's hard to tell if they're really there at all or if it's all in your head. But the danger feels real. The inexplicable feeling of pure terror, the solid idea that they're going to kill you and you aren't going to be able to fight them off, the absolute assurance that they're evil. The longer this goes on, the more drawn to a crowd you'll begin to feel. There's safety in numbers, after all. But just being surrounded by people doesn't feel like enough, not when the other Sleepers you find feel just as on edge as you are.

In the center of the crowd are scattered tables. Each table has a bowl or jar filled with various party supplies. Bluetooth speakers that can connect to your Fluid to play music, noise makers, snap poppers, even pots, pans, and their lids. It's enough to make a real ruckus. And you're realizing that that might be the answer. You start encouraging the people around you to make as much noise as possible. Grab the things on the table and just start shouting whatever comes to mind. The more noise you make, the more the fear ebbs, and the shadows following you start to disappear. They almost seem like they're actually running from the noise. You keep shouting just to drive them as far away as possible.

You might notice that you're shouting out things you never expected— and so are the people around you. Emotions you wanted to keep buried, confessions you never planned on giving to someone, secrets you've been trying to keep to yourself. They come pouring out faster than you expect them to and they're there for anyone to hear before you can even stop yourself. Hopefully this doesn't have too big of a fall out for you.

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

i. Don't touch that Dial

[ Gathering information on the strange town has become her primary mission. With so few residents compared to Corusant, she almost feels like she's on one of the outer rim planets. The low tech is usually a dead give away, even the kidnapping feels familiar. She's reminded of the time they were sent to discover the origins of a distress signal and got stranded on a distant planet with beings entwined with the Force. But there were no animals there and she clearly remembers the horned creatures that appeared to her on her arrival. She still doesn't understand it all but she's aware she's in a similar place. Not a planet imbued with the Force but something different. So, when she finds herself stranded in a hallway it's not the Will of the Force that she senses behind it, but something she's not certain of yet. Light or dark. She moves through the corridor with tempered steps letting the Force guide her. ]

a) Strangers in a Distant Place

[ All corridors lead to the same place, a garage door that sends her back to where she started. It's beginning to feel like a trap meant to whittle her down. Each time the place gets colder, more chaotic. Even the pictures hanging on the walls look worse for wear. Still, she persists. She tries different doors and ignores the feeling of being watched until she finds a break in the pattern. Perhaps it's the Force that guides her or simply coincidence, either way, Ahsoka comes to a stop a few feet from the other party and regards them with an inquisitive look. ]

Have you gone through the garage door yet?

[ She asks, curious about their answer. Were they as lost as her? She has a feeling she's not the only one out of her depth here. ]

b) Puzzle Pieces

[ Ahsoka comes to a stop in front of a portrait and gestures to her companion to come take a look at it. The painted lines start to shift and morph before their eyes into a black spot that seems to move down a similar hall like the one they're on. Portraits they've passed not too long ago come into view as the picture continues to shift like an acrylic film. Soon, two figures appear in the distance. As the spot grows closer details start to emerge depicting Ahsoka and her companion in perfect clarity. Blue eyes widen and she whips around to face their tormentor. Two white sabers flash to life and the sound of contained energy buzzes through the hall. ]

We know you're here.

[ She calls out to the thing they've seen depicted in other portraits. It was always a black spot. She's seen various depictions of it like a tale told in pictures but this is the first time she's seen one of the portraits move with intent. ]

c) A demon in my view

[ The feeling of being watched is exactly that she was being watched. An unknown figure disappears down a corridor and Ahsoka gives chase in search of answers. If with a partner, they'll find her at the next turn down the hall in front of a door. She catches their attention and ushers them closer, waiting for them before she enters to face the thing together. If alone, her chase will end the moment she turns the corner and crashes into them with enough force to knock her down. ]

ii. Network

Text | un: Fulcrum

Are demons a common occurrence here?

iii. Wildcard

[ ooc; write your own scenario, i'll make it work. ]

[He can't believe he's even saying this but]

Have you seen any? Tall creatures possibly look like mutated animals?

[ Mutated animals? ]

I don't know what I saw exactly, but I was told it was a demon. If they're going to be a problem here, I'd like to learn more about them.

[ Three dots hover beneath the first line of text before the second comes through a few moments later. ]

You said they might look like mutated animals. What kind of animals?

[ The term is too broad considering her knowledge of animals spans multiple planets. ]

Dogs, bears, wolves - but mixed up and wrong. Things with too many teeth and too many limbs.

[Graham is about to get an extremely rude awakening]

The demon demons I've seen though are impossibly tall with no eyes and all black skin and pointed - I must sound crazy

[ Aware of the 'type' of animal they're referring to, Ahsoka concentrates more on the spirit of the explanation than the details. ]

I've seen many different creatures on different planets. Just because someone hasn't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist.

JANUARY 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

THE ONLY ME IS ME

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL NOW

NOW'S THE TIME FOR ACTION

Character Arrival

ahsoka tano | star wars

Network

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iii, ahsokaaaaa

Obi-Wan <3

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1/2

2/3

3/3

IA

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c. And hello

o/

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ii. text; un: fern

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iii

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