FEBRUARY 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

FEBRUARY 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to February'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: Prompt 1; Grimp Reaper image, feelings of being stalked, repeated death, Groundhog Day/Russian Doll themes, talks of car accidents and suicide/murder. Prompt 2; Image of a heart, organs on the outside of the body (heart), very mild body horror.

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

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

BEREFT OF HOPE

The day feels the same as any other in Deerington. You wake up, you go through your routines, you wait to see if something creepy is going to be lurking around every corner, and then you go get breakfast. There's nothing too unusual going on, though sometimes you get the strangest feeling that someone might be looking at you from afar. Watching you. Waiting. For what, who knows, but isn't that just the normal vibe in this town anyway? You're starting to maybe get used to feeling perpetually anxious that you're being stalked. It might not even really make you think much of it at all. You continue to go about your day. Things still go as normal.

Until you die.

Maybe you were hit by a car, or you choked on your morning bagel, or a piano fell on you, or a townsperson who was going off the deep end decided to drag you off and murder you in Deerington Park; however it happens, you absolutely remember dying. The details are a little fuzzy around the edges, but you do remember seeing someone standing near by when it all happened, a shadowy figure you can't quite recall the face of. Maybe that's who had been watching you.

Dying isn't necessary the weird part, though. People die in Deerington all the time and come back remembering the details, usually with a fancy new scar to show off to everyone (or more likely keep desperately hidden because of your trauma ridden guilt). This time, though— this time sticks out. Because you don't go through the normal death process. There's no calming valley with a strange deer, there's no fruit, nothing about it is the way that it's supposed to be. You just were dead one second and now... you're not. Maybe it was a bad dream? You're in your bed, that's usual, but you're in the same clothes (or lack thereof) that you went to bed in the night before. The sun is shining through the window and...

Everything is exactly the same as it was yesterday.

If you've ever been a fan of Bill Murray at home, you can probably guess what's going on here. Or at least have your suspicions. You go about your routine again, you greet some of the same people, you eat the same breakfast (or maybe you switch things up just to try and break the cycle), and you still have that strange feeling of being watched. Every person you meet doesn't remember seeing you before your death and certainly none of them remembering you dying, no matter how public it was. You can try to convince them, but they're probably not going to listen, or they'll think that it's Deerington just fucking with your head again.

So you go outside. Same time, same place. And you die. Again.

Things start to repeat. Some people might start to snap from it and start to try and die in different ways. Some people might try the age old rule of learning from your mistakes, of being a better person, and try to spend the whole day being kind or trying to find some significant moment they're supposed to focus on to make this all better. Some people might just break down after a while and think there is no way out. Because nothing seems to be working. It's happening over, and over, and you're meeting the same people over and over, and you're doing the same things over and over, and you're dying over and over, so what's the point of even getting up out of bed now?

But there is a way to end it; find someone who is going through the same thing. All the other people you've seen, Sleepers or not, have had no recollection of you dying or of this all being a repeat day. Eventually, though, you might start to notice another person who is having the same discussion with another, desperately trying to tell them that this is all happening repeatedly and you can't figure out how to make it stop. When you realize there's another person having the same issue as you, you can start talking to them. Maybe you won't realize what you need to do at first, you might even end up dying together a few times before you finally realize— you have to save the other.

Every day you've died at the exact same time in roughly the exact same place, whether you took your own life or it was done outside of your own control. Prevent your comrade from dying all together until the sun goes down and the cycle will finally be broken for both of you. It just might be hard to do when the forces of the town are pretty hellbent on making sure you both die.

THE BEATING OF HIS HIDEOUS HEART

Happy Valentine's Day! Deerington seems to be trying to get somewhat in the mood of romance this month, the town decorated with hearts and tiny cherub statues and all sorts of delicious displays of chocolate in the windows of most stores. Don't worry! They're just normal chocolates. Eating them will do nothing to you unless you've got problems with controlling your blood sugar levels or an unfortunate allergy. Buy some for your sweetie! There are even some beautiful looking chocolate covered strawberries at the Hart Mart that could be perfect for a romantic evening...

One morning, you'll wake up to a gift wrapped in pink paper with a red bow on a table in your home. It's clearly marked for you and it's from a secret admirer. Did you even know you had a secret admirer? If you choose to not open the gift (this is Deerington, this could obviously be bad news), it will do exactly what one would expect it to in a town like this; the package will follow you. It will show up on your desk at work. It will show up on the counter at the store you frequent. It will show up on a bench. In your car. Next to your bike. On your porch. On your best friend's porch. Anywhere you go, the present will be there. Waiting. You can't ignore it forever.

When you finally cave and open the gift, you'll find a truly fitting present for such a romantic holiday: a heart. It might be human, it might not, but it's still beating. You can watch it pulse, but it's surprisingly neat, no blood to be found anywhere in the box or in the heart itself. It just sits there, thudding away, waiting for you to pick it up. No one really wants to touch a heart, but if you know Deerington, you know this heart probably actually belongs to someone, and if you're new? Well, you're gonna figure out how this all works pretty quickly.

Pick up the heart and you'll get a flash of memory. Someone else's most precious moment. It will be burned in your mind and the heart will start to faintly glow as you hold it. Walk with the beating heart in your hands and it will start to change. The closer you get to who the heart belongs to, the stronger the glow will get, and the faster the heart will beat. Eventually, you'll find them— someone who looks empty, soulless, like a walking ghost more than a person. You can save them by putting the heart back where it belongs— you'll have to use some strong force, but slam the organ against their chest, and it will sink right back into place. Your hand will even go a few inches into their chest before you let go and yank yourself free. There's no scar, no hole, no blood. But the life will come back into the person in one fell swoop, like breathing again after almost drowning.

If you choose not to put their heart back in their chest, they will be forced to do whatever you say so long as you are in possession of their heart; however they will get steadily weaker and by the end of a full day, they will die.

Enjoy your Valentine.

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

[siriusly]

Haa-?! [he gawks at her in disbelief...and of course...belief, because, well.

he's dissolving. the fact that he hasn't eaten a damn thing doesn't even cross his mind at this point, because why trust a piece of mystery paper when there's a flesh-and-blood(-and-smoking) person here to explain things??]

Are you serious?! How's this happening? How does it get stopped?

[equaltrades]

( his reactions to everything are so animated, yūko thinks, so cute and genuine. it reminds her faintly of watanuki and so she holds back a smile. )

It's the power of this place. I would help you, but my magic is affected by it. Tricky and unpredictable.

( she doesn't like that part, more so than the dying. there's a downcast look, a glimmer of honest emotion. )

But even if I could intervene, the cost would be great. So, we wait, and eventually we'll find out what this place wants of us.

[siriusly]

[his expression scrunches up, adding vexation into the mix.]

W-what do you mean magic? [there's no such thing? hello??] I though this was some kind of...like a, uh, time anomaly thing? Mind thing? Er-- [his eyes dart around as he rapidly rifles through recent memory.] Dream? Dream--I read something about a dream?

[he wiggles faded fingers, frowning.] This is a dream, right...?

[equaltrades]

Ah, yes. But it's not like normal dreaming, is it?

( they're always so skeptical at first. when she exhales again, the smoke moves in a strange way. forming from the thin ribbons is a butterfly, yūko's favored symbol, which glides smoothly across the air toward him before it vanishes. )

Come and sit. Your dreaming isn't done yet, even if you disappear from this spot.

( she tucks the pipe away with leaden hands. limbs growing heavier by the moment, it's hard to stay aware, stay focused. maybe she will end up back here again after all... )

[siriusly]

[sit?? how can anyone sit at a time like this?! he should be taking some kind of action to fixing things! he swipes at the spooky butterfly smoke belatedly, his eyes still wincing with concern.]

What does that mean? I-- [he scratches at his head -- with the unaffected hand, mind.] I can't even remember what...wait. I was just...on the train back to headquarters. Did we hit some anomalous space gas?!

[equaltrades]

Tsk-tsk.

( she lazily tilts her head back, offering up another languid yawn. when she does, the collar of her dress shifts and a tattoo of antlers pokes slightly into view. )

I can't help you anymore than this.

[siriusly]

Eh? ["this?" what "this?" whatever "this" is slows his roll a bit so he stops and actually focuses on her for more than half-a second. he stares at her in confusion before his attention goes to where the antlers are being displayed.

blink.]

...Wait. Didn't I see...? [antlers everywhere? okay, yes, but besides that--

he pulls at his sleeve, eyeing his own, stylized antler inked along the inside of his forearm.]

Is this why? Or...?

[equaltrades]

Oh? Well, now you're paying attention.

( she gives him a sidelong glance. )

Whatever it is you want to do from here on...you won't be able to fight on your own, you know. ( she points a slender finger at the tattoo on his arm. sorry for being cryptic, kid, but it comes with the job title. ) Human connection is the key to waking up from this dream of ours.

[siriusly]

[well, his attention has truly been got now, and he'll even finally heed her ask from the start and sit down! though...he is going to sit on the edge of the bench because he has to be ready to hop up and into movement at the drop of a hat.]

...Human connection. [and a fight? huh? against what? he's ready to go at a moment's notice, sure, but--] Alright. So should I be looking for someone in particular? I guess there's a time limit, since... [hand. dust. hand dust.]

[equaltrades]

But time works differently in dreams, doesn't it? You might disappear, just to find yourself back to where you started. ( well now, this is much nicer. here she was, thinking that she'd die here alone. what a sad fate indeed. ) And how many dreamers are in a town of this size, do you suppose? It can't be just the two of us.

( yūko watches him perch on the end of the bench. in contrast, she stays sprawled out as usual and has no qualms taking up the lion's share of space. )

Will you really try to help them, I wonder?

[siriusly]

O-of course! [he nearly talks right over her, looking more resolute than confused now. given direction, all that energy of his can go a long way...for better or worse.] And you, too. Of course I'll help you out of this pinch, too! I just need to figure out the right way about it. So if you know what I ought to focus on, then...!

[then he'll naturally run head-first into the situation with as limited information as he's got annnnnnd probably get the snot kicked out of him.]

[equaltrades]

Oh-ho, so valiant! ( slipping into a comfortable facade, she smiles and waves at him demurely. ) Maybe if you look around, you might prevent an accident for someone else, hmm?

( she gives him a heavy-lidded glance. it won't be long now...but hopefully this is enough to help him continue fighting onward. ahh, these heroic types. )

Don't forget what I said about making connections.

[siriusly]

[woosh is the sound of praise going over his head, and not because he's a shortie. Manabu's just not the sort of guy who basks in compliments -- it wastes time! there's work to do! preventing accidents? he can do that! point the way! making connections? sure, he can--

wait.

he blinks a couple times.]

Oh-- right. [he pats at the emblem on his chest.] I'm Manabu Yuuki, part of Sirius Platoon. It's my job to help people already, so...so I may as well do that here, if I can. It wouldn't be right if I didn't. But--

[he grimaces, looking down at the gradually disintegrating hand.] But if I'm going to fade away, then how...how do I help...?

[equaltrades]

If you fail today, Manabu Yuuki, you start again tomorrow of course. ( lying down on the bench, she looks ready to take a nap. ) Don't give up and I'm sure you'll...succeed...

( yūko lifts her hand, an effort that's now so much more difficult, and tries to gently shoo him away. under her breath, it sounds like she says something strange about...hitsuzen? )

[siriusly]

Eh-? [his eyebrows raise, confused by her behavior and the way her tone trails off.] He-hey, uh-- [ma'am? this isn't how people have conversations normally. hello?] Miss? You-- [wow, okay, just gonna...slide back like that, huh? that's weird and not good! is she anemic??

after a hesitation, he reaches over, lightly shaking her shoulder.]

Miss? Are you okay? Are you-- [diabetic? sugar crash? narcoleptic? man, that'd make her the most graceful narcoleptic he's ever heard of--] Hey, are you alright? Do you need a doctor?

[equaltrades]

Maybe if it's fated...we'll meet again...

( she doesn't open her eyes, but with what little strength the witch has left she lets her cool, slender hand rest on his for a moment. yūko doesn't mind dying if she must, but she's glad for this boy and his company. and for his gift, she can only hope she's given equally in return.

then there's the sound of wings. so many.

a butterfly flashes between them, its azure wings fluttering to obscure the vision of her --

and then she's gone. disappeared, with nothing but an empty bench and a task put forth for him to complete. make connections.

save who you can. and don't give up. )

[siriusly]

Wh-?! [Manabu's heart drops, now on his feet, hunched over the bench, hands hovering over the spot where the woman had laid. dream or not, it does not feel right to watch someone magically vanish like that!] How...I...

I didn't...even know her name...