JANUARY 2021 TDM

[sodder]

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.

Comments

[jedies]

[ obi-wan shoots him a dry look. ]

Who says I spoke of outward change? It's not like you to jump to conclusions either.

[livingforce]

It isn't jumping to conclusions to know that even Masters can forget the basics on occasion.

[ but his smile widens a fraction. that dry look, at least, hasn't changed. ]

But you're right. As far as I'm aware, only a moment has passed between the duel on Naboo and my finding myself on this planet. Unlike the others I've met here-- no time seems to have passed.

[jedies]

You must feel disoriented.

[ good, he thinks, but it's a brief moment of spite that fades quickly. he had defeated his grief or so obi-wan has always believed of himself. because he has so much of it, so much he has had to move away from.

he sighs, placing his hands on his lap. ]

Things have been well, Master. I trained him, like you asked. Anakin is a fine Jedi Knight. His future is in his hands now.

[livingforce]

[ the disorientation Qui-Gon can deal with. His death-- he's still dealing with.

There hadn't even been time to find out if all he'd learned from the Whills had been true. But he shakes his head, lets that too go into the force, and focuses on what Obi-Wan is telling him ]

A knight already? How old is he?

[jedies]

[ shifting the conversation to anakin makes it easier to breathe. to avoid lingering discomfort. ]

He's 23 now.

[livingforce]

Then it's been just over ten years.

[ Since they found him. Since Naboo.

Qui-Gon's silent a moment. Ten years is a long time. It about as long as he's been- as he was with Obi-Wan (no, he must let the loss go. he must stay in the moment) ]

Has he been much trouble?

[jedies]

[ obi-wan shoots him a wry grin. ]

What do you think? He was your pathetic life form.

[livingforce]

[ that gets him to smile properly ]

Remind me which life form I ran into on Bandomeer? The one working for AgriCorps?

[jedies]

[ obi-wan gives a light scoff. ]

You mean chased after.

[livingforce]

I couldn't leave you there to terrorise the planet.

[jedies]

Says the terror of the Jedi Council.

[livingforce]

In their case, a little terror is healthy.

[jedies]

[ obi-wan shakes his head. ]

I sit on the Council now, Master.

[livingforce]

[ it shouldn't be a surprise. and yet it is.

he takes a breath, centers himself. Obi-Wan isn't him. He's never stood against the council. ]

It's been a long time since there was a decision of theirs I could agree with. I'm glad for you.

[jedies]

[ is he? that is probably the truth. obi-wan did things different after qui-gon's death and he can't say he regrets it all. but regret still lingers, despite his best efforts. obi-wan will never fully be rid of it. ]

You just liked being contrary.

[livingforce]

We had very different approaches to the force, the council and I.

[ theirs usually being the wrong approach, in his opinion. ]

But I imagine ten years isn't long enough for things to have changed.

[jedies]

[ he doesn't roll his eyes, but it's a near thing. but the next thought sobers obi-wan up quickly. ]

A lot has changed. We're fighting a war and it may end soon.

[livingforce]

A war?

[ Surely the Trade Federation weren't that greedy for power-- ]

[jedies]

[ obi-wan hmms softly. ]

A few planets seceded from the Republic.

[ a beat. ]

Count Dooku led them.

[livingforce]

[ qui-gon's forehead creases as he considers it. there's no question that obi-wan is telling the truth, but it still takes a moment to digest the news.


strange, that it's less of a surprise than obi-wan being on the council. his old master was always driven to do what he thought was best. ]

He was always better than I at seeming to agree with the council, then finding ways to do what it was he had in his mind.

[jedies]

[ another long sigh. ]

I cannot say what drove him to it . . . nor will we have answers. Dooku is dead. Anakin killed him recently.

[livingforce]

He did what?

[ no. there's the most surprising news. ]

He may be a knight, Obi-Wan, but he's still young--

[jedies]

[ obi-wan purses his lips tightly. ]

It's war, Master. And he's no longer young. None of us are.

[livingforce]

He's just-- [ he begins hotly, but breaks off.

qui-gon isn't there. he doesn't know the circumstances. Anakin will no longer be the small boy they'd found in a junk parts dealer's shop ]

It may soon be over, you said?

[jedies]

[ obi-wan gives an inch, relaxing a little. he's not sure if he wanted to discuss the ramifications of the clone wars. no one liked it, not even the jedi and the situation was . . . complicated. ]

Soon. I was about to face the last general.