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soddersays2018-07-01 06:30 am
sodder) wrote in soddersays2018-07-01 06:30 am
Entry tags:
July 2018 Test Drive Meme
JULY 2018 TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to July's Test Drive Meme! This is our first Test Drive ever so let's make it a good one. This month's Test Drive's theme is: JAPANESE BASED 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, supernatural horror, body horror with stitches, potential gore, potential burning.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!
THE SISTERS OF KOJI POND
The streets of Deerington are hazy this fine summer evening in July. Buzzing drunkenly through the tall wild grass on the sides of streets are the speckled dots of fireflies as they fly about. It's a bit muggy, the kind that makes your clothes hang from your body and cling against the slopes of your shoulders and arms. It's easy to feel lost in the tranquility of that perfect summer night. The stars are bright overhead, and there's a full moon in the sky that looks as big as a quarter from where you're standing. Distantly, it smells like somewhere someone is having a late night bonfire. If you listen hard enough, you could almost hear the crackling of the wood as it splinters and burns.That's when you can hear the soft laughter of a woman. It's the appealing kind of laughter that maybe reminds you of a distant lover, a sister, a friend, or maybe even your own mother. Turning towards the laughter, you might see the shining glow of the moon tucking itself behind a nearby building. But no, the moon was still up in the sky where it belonged. Wasn't it? The moon has halved itself. That's all right. That's how it had been when you last looked. Wasn't it?
The laughter distracts you from the halved moon, sounding closer now. The exhale of a sigh and you feel that prickling sensation that you are not alone. That's when you see a white cat. The creature is sitting neatly in front of a street lamp, and it's positively otherworldly with its luminescent glow. So that's where the moon had gone. The cat appears perfectly normal except it has twin tails winding slowly back and forth behind it.
When the cat finally looks your way, it opens its mouth and a woman's laugh comes out of it, bright and cheerful.
The cat stands up and pads down the sidewalk, its tails twirling about in an almost mesmerizing motion. Behind you, the moon has gone from a half down to a thin crescent, the stars blacking out one after the other.
If you follow the cat, it takes you down winding streets. The cat takes you to Koji Pond. Above the sky has gone completely black, and there are no fireflies to see. The street lamps have gone completely out. It's just you and the woman-.
The woman? What had happened to the cat? No, it had always been a woman you were following, right? You can't mistaken a cat for a woman.
But there's not just one woman. There's two, you realize. Two at opposite ends of the pond. Each are wearing an identical moon-white kimono. One is laughing softly, but the other is staring blankly across the water. The grave woman wears her long black hair up in a tight bun, whereas the laughing woman's hair is flowing free and filled with soft flowers. The grim woman turns her flat, black eyes and gestures to you.
"Come here. Now."
The laughing woman tucks some hair behind her ear, looking your way. She radiates warmth and that summer sweetness you remembered feeling before the world went dark. "My sister is so cruel. Ignore her. Sit beside me."
Which woman will you go to? Neither of the women will pressure you, but you'll find that if you try to leave, your sight will grow darker and darker, though you won't be blind exactly. It's more like the light from all the worlds in existence have been stolen away and put into these two women. Everything beyond them is cast in darkness.
If you go to the stern woman, her tight expression will smooth out and she will bow her head, cupping her hands against her chest. From her sleeves, she will remove a silk bag of roasted soybeans. She hands them to you, not smiling, but not looking quite as severe as she had moments ago. "Scatter them."
Once you do, you'll notice the more you scatter, the more stars you bring back into the night sky. By the time you're done with the bag, the women will have both disappeared, and the white cat from before will be sitting where the stern woman once sat. Only this time, the cat has one tail.
However, if you decide to go to the laughing woman....
As you come closer, you'll notice that her hair is parted to hang evenly over her shoulders, and at the back of her neck is ...a mouth. A snarling mouth with sharp teeth. The closer you walk to her, the hotter and more stifling the air around you becomes. All you can hear is the woman laughing. Her face is reflected a million times in the water's surface in Koji Pond, all laughing, an entire auditorium's worth of laughter hurled at you.
You must overcome the laughter. The woman's hair will grow, wrapping itself around you wherever it can to drag you towards her. The moment you assault the woman, her laughter will turn to screams and the world all around you will feel as if you've been placed into an oven. Small fires will spark live in nearby bushes and across the grass.
It doesn't seem like regular objects can truly kill her though.
The other sister can't reach you, but she is throwing raw soybeans to you. They scatter all over the place. If you're quick on your feet, you'd think to pick them up. If you're even quicker, you'd think to throw the soybeans into the nearby fires to roast them. This seems to be the only way to really hurt the woman- and the only way to eventually banish her. But it'll take some time.
The worst part? The longer you stay near the woman, the sicker you'll feel. Maybe you'll come down with the cold, or maybe you'll grow blisters on your tongue. It doesn't matter: you'll grow terribly sick with some illness in the world and nothing will cure it until the woman has been abolished. And when she finally is? You will be left terribly weakened, but the stars will slowly come back as will the full moon.
I LOVE YOU: PLEASE LOVE ME BACK
It begins as a regular day in Deerington. The only problem is that there's really no such thing as a regular day in Deerington. When you come to, you'll find yourself feeling particularly emotional. Whether that's overly sad or happy, it doesn't seem to matter, because you're feeling everything so intensely. Maybe you just didn't sleep right, or maybe it's this weird dream you're having. Hopefully if you ignore it, it'll go away.Except it doesn't go away. It's beginning to feel isolating being alone with your thoughts, even if they're happy, because it feels like you're near bursting to express yourself to someone.
When you finally cave, it's to the nearest person. The urge grows even louder inside of you until finally you're exclaiming loudly to the other person how you're feeling. Then you think to ask something that seems perfectly natural to you: you ask for a hug. Or maybe you ask for a handshake. Any contact.
Maybe the other person is sympathetic, or maybe they're feeling this emotional onslaught as much as you are. Either way, the moment your skin makes contact with another person's body, you'll feel a sudden swoop of sensation slide through your skin. It doesn't hurt, necessarily, but you've never felt anything quite like it before. And you don't want to stop touching this person wherever you may be touching them. As a matter of fact, you want to get closer. This urge does not need to be felt on both ends.
But the closer you get, the more yourself you begin to feel. Until at last you decide to look to where you have touched the other person.
Securing the two of you together are thick, coarse black stitches. Try and tug yourself away will result in atrocious pain on both ends. Anywhere your skin has touched the other person's will have been stitched to it. Careful getting hysterical though- the more emotional you become, the more likely you'll be to crowd closer to the person you're sewn into, and the more you'll fuse together. Better try and calm each other down first.
The solution is simple: you need to cut your way out of the bond. The tricky part is finding something to cut it with...and, well, the fact that the moment someone tries to cut the stitches, you'll both feel a hysterical urge to stay together forever.
It's possible to overcome that urge- but boy, do you need to have an iron will. Cutting the stitches is a miserable ordeal that hurts every snip of the way- but each time you cut a stitching, it fades away entirely as if it had never been there to begin with.
There is another option, of course. You could always jump into some water and get the stitches wet. Once you do, they'll melt right off you, not even leaving holes or dots behind. Surely you hadn't just imagined that, right?
THIS IS MY HOLE, IT WAS MADE FOR ME!
It is certainly a nice day for a refreshing hike into the woods! Or perhaps you have decided that a little exploration is in order for this new, strange town you have woken up to. At some point along the way, perhaps you find someone else on the trails of the National Park. No such thing as bad company, right? As you traverse towards Mount Rheum, the wind begins to pick up and you hear a low moaning. You could swear that you recognize that voice. Before you can place any names, the moaning stops and it's easy to think that maybe it was just the wind. Winds pulling through the trees always did make the strangest noises. Except when the wind picks back up, you're more certain that you know this voice. Maybe it's the voice of your companion, or a loved one, a hated one from back home...Maybe it's even your own voice that you recognize. Each time the wind blows, the voice seems to change. It can't be the wind? It all seems to be coming from one direction: Mount Rheum.
You never quite reach the base of the mountain.
Even if you head straight on towards the mountain, when you pass through the line of trees that should technically open up to the base, you'll find no such thing. Instead, you'll find an enormous looming wall of gray slate. You can't even see the mountain behind it, it's so immense. How did you not see that from the forest? The wall seems to be tipped towards the mountain, and you think, just maybe, you could climb it. It crosses your mind for just a second before you notice something odd about the wall. From far away, it looks like a bunch of black smudges. But as you grow closer, you realize they aren't smudges at all. They are holes.
Holes the shape of human beings. And every single hole looks completely different from the next. There's hundreds of them, maybe even thousands, and they climb all the way up the slate wall. And there is one hole made specifically for you.
You may even find the hole that belongs to someone you know, or your companion, and every time the wind blows, you can hear the groaning voice of that person coming from within their hole.
It is impossible to get over the wall of gray slate. No matter how hard you may try. But it seems possible to find your own hole. You'd swear that the holes are moving. Examine the inside, and they seem to go on indefinitely. Put your hand inside any of them, and they will feel oddly warm. As warm as a human body. If you put your hand into the hole that belongs to the person you're with, they will feel a terrible coldness overcome them. Keep your hand in long enough, and you'll begin to see them die right in front of you. Better keep your hands to yourself....Or that'd be easier said than done if you didn't feel yourself grow in power, in intelligence just from stealing their life force.
Climbing into your own hole? You'll feel exhilarated! Alive! Like you have truly found the proof of your own soul. You don't want to leave your hole. It was made for you!
It is almost impossible to get out of your own hole. Chances are good you'll be slowly pulled into it, your body steadily crushed and stretched out, but you'll be conscious the entire time, and at some point you'll begin to moan horribly from the pain of it all.
Of course, you can always be saved. If someone climbs into your hole after you, it'll break apart the rock structure clenching down around you and they might be able to pull you out in time. You'll be left terribly weak, pale, and incapable of proper speech for a couple of hours...But at least you're not dead.
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.
Arrival
[Seeing the way that Allura had walked out of the house had Rei venture over, curious as to what she was up to. But at the whirl around, Rei had her hands up, her expression placid, even calm.]
I'm not armed.
[And Allura...yeah she could beat up Rei pretty easily. She may be five foot six, but she's slender with it.
And notably, there are twin tattoos of antlers just under her collarbones, the edges just hidden under her shirt.]
And I'm not here to hurt you.
no subject
Peace and diplomacy first. And with little knowledge on her situation, she must rely on the kindness of others. ]
I was startled. You have my apologies.
[ She stands straight, and although not much taller than this girl--she looks Human, is she Human?--there is a certain air about her that makes her seem like she should be. Allura taps her earring again. No luck. ]
Do you happen to know if we're in some sort of dead zone or electromagnetic forcefield? I have lost contact with my allies. I'm not even getting a signal.
no subject
[But what Allura says next...that has Rei's eyes widen, startled. And more then that. Alarmed.]
From what I've been told, it's neither. But-miss? Ma'am? Have you gone through your welcome basket yet?
[She still has her hands up, but she's looking a little...agitated. But maybe not for the reasons Allura may think.]
no subject
[ Her arrival was...intended? That disturbs her more than anything else. The thought that this could be an accidental side effect of traveling through compressed space-time is much easier to accept. Her surprise only lasts for a moment, though, before her expression hardens. ]
...No, I must have missed that.
[ Was this girl involved? Hm. ]
Please be at ease.
[ Allura gives the girl permission to stand down, if she's more comfortable. ]
I was intended to discover it when I awoke, is that correct?
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[She drops her hands, but her brow is furrowed. Worried.]
There's a letter inside, which should tell you a little of the situation. And more importantly, there's some food. If you want to stay here, you need to eat it.
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[ She had not explored the entirety of the building. Turning around, Allura gives the structure a glance over from the first floor to the last. ]
When I realized that I was not getting a decent signal, I came right out side in the hope that it was just the building causing interference.
[ Which seemed unlikely as the structure itself looks made of mostly wood and rock, but given the situation, she did not want to take any chances. But she turns back to the girl at that last bit. ]
"If I want to say here?" What do you mean by that?
no subject
[What it is...it's well. Kind of gross. That's something they can go over in a minute.]
But from what I and the others understand, it's not interference. You're asleep. Your body, and mine-our real bodies-are elsewhere.
And to stay here, we have to eat. We don't know what happens if we don't-we might not wake up. We have no way of knowing.
no subject
[ A Human word. Then she is most definitely Human. But a tick is longer than a second, and there are sixty ticks in a dobosh and also sixty seconds in a minute. Which means... ]
If you're right, then I have less than ten doboshes left!
[ If not the room she awoke, then-- ]
The kitchen?
no subject
The place where food is prepared? Most likely on the first floor. I can help you find it?
[Because if they're thinking the same thing, Allura doesn't have much time left.]
no subject
[ Allura will take her up on that offer. She's done nothing thus far to make Allura suspicious of her motives, after all. With that she immediately makes her way back towards the building.
It's not large and right off from the entrance is the doorway to the kitchen. Allura pauses, her head tilting upwards. ]
Is this where the music has been coming from?
no subject
Yes. That's supposed to draw your attention to it, I think. But more importantly-do you see the jar of food inside the basket?
[She feels kind of bad for hovering but...well. This IS important after all.]
no subject
She exhales slowly through her nose.
Time to ruminate on that later. For now, she approaches a basket that she finds on the counter. The kitchen is much like the rest of the house--made of wood, some old ceramic tile, not at all in the styles that Allura is used to. There are several items in the basket, but she plucks out the jar first. ]
Yes, right here.
[ And the contents inside look quite a bit like... ]
...Juniberries?
[ But...how is that possible? Could it really be--
--the girl had said this was a dream.
Right.
She opens the top and a smell so nostalgic takes over. Well, whether or not these are actually juniberries they are doing a very good job impersonating them. She takes a single berry out and spares a glance at the other girl. ]
I am trusting that you're right.
[ And pops the berry into her mouth. ]
no subject
But then, her instinct was to hide, rather then seek out a possible threatening situation.]
This should be fine.
[She offered her a smile, watching as Allura at a...juniberry. Funny. She never heard of those before. But there seemed to be a lot of differences between them.
But seeing Allura eat it, she let out a sigh of relief.]
Good. All right. First hurtle, cleared.
no subject
There are several other items in the basket, one of which is a letter. Allura plucks it from the bunch and turns to the other girl. ]
I suppose if I had read this I might have less questions to begin with, hadn't I?
[ With that, she unfolds the paper and begins reading. Carefully.
Her brows furrow as she does. It's... ]
...This is more dire than I imagined.
[ It does say that she should be asleep. Where? On the castleship? And somehow her essence must have been transported to this other reality. That in and of itself isn't too strange to grasp in the grand scheme of things, but... ]
It is...unsettling.
[ There's concern hanging around the edges of her face as she regards the other girl. ]
...And I seem to have forgotten my manners.
[ She folds the paper carefully. ]
My name is Princess Allura and you have my gratitude. If not for you I might not have seen this until it was too late, if everything noted here is true.
no subject
Unsettling is...a good place to start.
[She pushes herself off of the wall, offering Allura a deep nod.]
Rei Kurosawa. I'm just glad that someone was able to reach you in time.
[She offers a small smile, letting her arms settle so they rest folded against her stomach.]
I've been here for a few months. I can try to answer some of the questions you have but-I can't promise answers. I'm still looking for those, myself.
no subject
Any information that you have for me would be very much appreciated, though I am already in your debt. It's fair to assume that everything I've read is true to your understanding, yes?
no subject
No debt.
[She shook her head.]
But you're right in that as far as I know, what the letter says is true. There's more I can tell you, about the townspeople, things that have happened before.
What did you want to know about first, your highness?
no subject
She pulls out the two maps. ]
Where is Deerington, exactly?
[ The larger of the two, taped together, is one that she rotates. ]
Is this plane of existence based on a physical reality?
no subject
[She considers. It's a very good question considering...]
We're told that we're in the state of Maine, which is...a location on Earth. I don't know if we're really in the plane of reality. Maybe it's better to say I don't know if we're completely physically on Earth?
Since we seem to be able to do something...rather particular, given the right steps.
no subject
[ That immediately catches her attention. Earth is a very important place--not only was it the hidden location of the Blue Lion, but it's where all her Paladins have come from. Earth.
Yet, it makes since, considering this girl must be--... ]
So then you truly are a Human.
[ It's good to know her instincts were correct. ]
Particular? What do you mean?
no subject
[She tilts her head at her. This is a little strange but...well. This whole thing was weird.]
Sorry, I'm not used to being considered anything other then that. Anyway-the particular thing is we seem to be able to step into places that aren't visible in this world.
[It doesn't make much sense, but it's...well, it's a start.]
no subject
[ Which isn't something she holds against humans. She still has plenty to learn from them. ]
...You mean the ability to access separate dimension? Or layered reality?
no subject
[She doesn't hold it against Allura either. It'd be silly to get mad about something that's true.
Though she has to think of that question.]
I'd lean towards layered realities. Which...makes sense in a way.
no subject
[ Allura takes a moment to consider that. Having traveled to a alternate reality to this one once before, she's very aware of the real possibility. Of course there can be--and likely are--an infinite number of realities branch off from each choice being made. What would be the consequences of combing them? ]
Admittedly this isn't my area of expertise, but what exactly is it like to step into this invisible world?
no subject
[She rubbed the back of her neck. Some of the things she saw weren't pleasant.]
We were at a masquerade-a party where we had to wear masks. At midnight, there was just the demand, the urge and in taking it off...
We were there.
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