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soddersays2020-12-27 12:14 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2020-12-27 12:14 pm
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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!
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.
no subject
I don't really know what's going on.
But I think we're supposed to talk to each other about our awful memories. This town is big on... things that you've tried to repress. Bringing it out in the open to... hurt you again.
[She glances at the peephole once more and feels a shudder creep up her spine.]
...If that doesn't work, my other idea is that I'll blow up this wall.
[Her default idea.]
no subject
[Now that it had been a couple of years or so since he had lost his father and all. This was at least an idea. Something to try. Even if he might not be sure how talking about their difficult pasts might get them out of here, if she has more experience with this place, might as well try it. Miles gives a shrug, gesturing for them to sit on the bed and chat, as he then turns and shifts to sit down, cross-legged, his hand removed from her shoulder after one final slight squeeze of attempted reassurance.]
Um....I dunno if you want to start, or I can. Talking about what we saw.
no subject
Lysithea sits carefully - a little bit closer than she normally might.]
...Why don't you begin? If you don't mind. Your father died in a... difficult manner?
no subject
[But Jefferson had already died. Miles lowers his gaze, biting his lower lip as he shakes his head. Even if it has been a couple of years or so. It still hurts. He still misses his father. Miles would never get him back. Would never hear his father reassure him again. It was still hard sometimes to think about Jefferson. To talk about it. Let alone to some stranger.]
no subject
He had lost somebody, and it was the most painful event of his life. She could recognize that.
She carefully reaches a hand for his knee - again, very unlike her - for a light touch of reassurance.]
He died saving many others.
[...]
Maybe you hear that a lot. 'He was a hero.' But it still hurts.
no subject
[Miles admits. His first meeting with Peter....could have gone better. To say the least. But it wasn't like Pete, in public, after the funeral, could come out and say his father had saved his life and they had worked together with him being Spider-Man. Still, he purses his lips, shaking his head, glancing to the other when he touches his knee.]
A-anyway. What about you?
no subject
Me?
[She gives a small, weary smile.]
...I'll keep it succinct.
When I was very, very young, my siblings and I were... I suppose you could say kidnapped. There's a lot of unnecessary backstory, but it was political revenge. ...Regrettably, they did not survive.
[Her voice is as neutral and monotone as she can keep it.]
no subject
[Admittedly her situation doesn't sound as complicated? As what his situation was regarding his particular friend there. But at the same time, Miles knows how scary it can be, being kidnapped. Let alone as a kid. Well. Technically he still is a kid himself, but. Details. Miles glances to her, a hand at her shoulder in some attempt at reassurance. Even if it's been years, grief still comes and goes. And different people react differently.]
But ah, you think...you think that's enough? There should be some way out?
no subject
...Let's take a look back through that hole.
[For some reason, she feels as if... she ought to offer him a hand when she stands up from the bed.]
Thanks for... listening.
no subject
[It isn't like he has been here long yet at this point. Miles gives a shrug. He's....perhaps still nervous, about seeing his father's death again. But at least if it happens again, he would be expecting it? Maybe, it might sort of help in at least anticipating it this time? He isn't sure. But, well. They have to try if that is somehow the way to get out of here as she suspects.
He straightens in standing, taking the offered hand with a faint smile of reassurance.]
Sure. Listening is the least I can do. Together, we're more likely to figure this than alone, anyway.
no subject
[She says, a fireball momentarily appearing in her free hand.]
...Alright, I'm just going to say it. I don't want to be weird, but I've also never felt this touchy-feely in my life. There's something about this place that wants us to connect with each other, which means I think we're on the right track.
Go ahead and look. I'm with you.
no subject
[Miles isn't so averse to physical contact. He's not really thought twice in things like touching her shoulder in some measure of attempt to comfort her. Reassure her. He's just meeting her but -- well. Anyone would? In reliving, talking about these sorts of things? With anyone, let alone strangers like this. Still, he gives a nod, shifting to the hole again and looking through.]
Okay....
no subject
[Lysithea steps up beside him as he leans forward and presses his eye against the hole. It feels... vaguely as if she can feel his heart beating through his hand. And when he looks through, she can suddenly see...
The man once more. And somehow, she sees what it is Miles sees - that scene in the plaza, the explosion, the falling debris...]
no subject
[Miles isn't sure how both of them could look through at once. But he does as she requests in having another look, pressing his eye up against the hole again. Seeing the strange, faceless man there again, waiting.
Then, again, the ceremony for his father. The attack. He does start to panic a little again, but at least this time he expects it.]
cw: child death
They are... vivisecting him. The boy is faceless, because... she does not remember his face any longer.
She, too, cannot keep her calm and she squeezes his hand harder. Some measure of reassurance.
When this is over, she thinks... they will be free.]
no subject
Let alone what they do to that boy. Miles swallows, unable to do anything but to keep watching as they figure this might be the answer in getting out of there. Out of this room. He watches still, letting her squeeze his hand in some attempt to comfort her at least.]
no subject
...There.
Is that...
[But the faceless man inclines his head now and -- a new set of memories begins to surface.]
no subject
[He's expecting it this time at least. As the memory fades of her brother, as there's a brief moment in seeing that man outside their room, before his own starts again. The ceremony for his father. That guy that ran the homeless shelter that Miles works at as that Negative villain. The explosions. The debris in the way, trying to help his mother. Trying to find his father.
The funeral. Gods, he really had been quite an ass to Pete back then when they first met. But he'd had no idea who Pete was. Had been so upset over losing his dad that he had been lashing out.
Once it's played out, once it fades and stops that Miles seems to be less tense at least.]
no subject
In five years... no matter what happens... we'll come back together...]
no subject
Ah, you think.....is that it?
no subject
[And as the memory fades, Lysithea gives a start - for their vision now is very clearly of...]
The hallway outside!
[She glances back - there is just smooth, blank wall with a single peephole.]
How... -- ?
no subject
No idea? But if it's the way out of here. Gotta try figure it, right?