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soddersays2021-02-25 12:33 am
sodder) wrote in soddersays2021-02-25 12:33 am
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MARCH 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME
MARCH 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to MARCH's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: PSYCHOLOGICAL 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 that deals with gaslighting, losing one's grip on reality, being trapped and restrained, threat of drowning, threat of being eaten, sensory deprivation, bleach, blood, violence, haunting apparition of a child, injury by rusty implements
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!
IMPORTANT INFO FOR PROSPECTIVE PLAYERS: This past month we were excited to announce that Deerington will be entering a new chapter in a few short months. This new chapter will involve a permanent setting shift that you can read about in more detail on this post. All prospective players are welcome to ask any questions they have on the linked post.
THE WALLS HAVE EARS. AND EYES.
With all of the shifting in Deerington, it's not shocking when you start to feel like something in your home or workplace has begun to shift. You can't put your finger on what it is. Your furniture is exactly where it should be. Nothing seems moved. Maybe it's just Deerington paranoia acting up. God knows Sleepers have plenty to be paranoid about. Then you start to notice little oddities. Scratch marks on the baseboards of your bedroom. If you have a bedframe with posts you might notice what looks like human bite marks have taken out chunks of the material. Only surely no one's gone around biting your bed? When you walk by windows, you start to think you see a trick of the eye and you could swear you see bars on the other side of your window. What? No. You don't have bars on your bedroom windows...
You're just seeing things. You're just seeing things. But maybe you're hearing things too. You can hear scuttling in the walls - maybe the rats from February? No, no...This is different. It sounded too big. More of a sliding shuffle than a scuttle. Maybe you look into your vents just to make sure but there's nothing to find. Nothing at all.
Then you start to look at your walls. Was that stain always there? Was it just part of the wallpaper or paint? Hmm...You don't remember there being a stain there.
You keep looking at the stain. Maybe it only takes a few days or a few hours but eventually, you start to see a face in the stain. If the stain's big enough you could swear it looks like...a person crawling. No. No! That's ...Just your imagination. Get a grip. But that stain may start to look like it has eyes, eyes looking right at you. Or the design in your wallpaper might start to look like a face is tucked among the floral patterns, eyes staring right at you.
You start to notice creeping figures out and around Deerington. While you're shopping for groceries you swear you can see a woman crawling from one aisle to the next, quick and scurrying. Were you the only one who saw that? Surely not? Maybe others have too. Then you see more women crawling across yards and you feel paralyzed with fear because they all look like that stain on your wall.
When you come back the stain has moved.
This drives many mad. You start to obsess over the stain. Maybe you even break apart your walls to see if there's really a person behind them. Maybe you start to peel the wallpaper off your walls or try to repaint everything to hide it. But the more you do, the more you sink down into paranoia. Eventually you start crawling around, trying to see if you can conjure up these creeping figures. You find yourself scratching at the baseboards and gnawing on furniture, becoming the very creeping fiend you feared.
Maybe you even eventually start to creep into people's homes, into their walls, to start the cycle of madness all over again. The only way to break free of this cycle is to catch one of the people in the walls, take their hand and pull. If you win this tug of war, you and the figure you chased in your madness into the walls will fall back into the three dimensional space of regular Deerington and you'll find the person you were chasing was just another sleeper trapped in the cycle like you. If you lose... you find yourself falling into an endless void and when you slow to a stop--
WASH AWAY THE MADNESS. PURGE THE SIN.
--You find yourself floating in midair in the middle of a sterile white room. You lost the tug of war with the other sleeper in the walls, or perhaps you were just walking down the street and got distracted by your reflection moving strangely in the storefront window and touching it pulled you through the glass and landed you here. Regardless of how you got here, now you are in what looks like a room that belongs in a hospital. Somehow you are also dressed in white pants and a t-shirt and there's a hospital bracelet on your wrist that has your name and blood type printed on it as well as a patient number. Beside you is another sleeper, either the one who you lost the tug of war to or a completely new one. You are able to speak to each other in this space and there is a slight echo as you do, enjoy it while it lasts.After a moment of weightlessness, your bare feet touch the ground, which feels cold like concrete but is as white as the white subway tiled walls. There also appears to not be any light source, it just comes from everywhere and you may notice you're not casting a shadow. And neither is the albino german shepard that's appeared in the room with you. It looks friendly enough and you get the sense that it wants to guide you somewhere as it turns to walk through an open door that has suddenly appeared in the room.
Follow the dog and you'll find yourselves in an all white hallway, only there's a mirrored ceiling and the yellow stains of age on the peeling white wallpaper move in ways that make you uneasy. Almost immediately, you'll notice that there is no sound, not even from the dog or your own steps, not even your own heartbeat can be heard. But oddly, you can hear your own breathing, so loud in the otherwise utterly silent space that you speak to your companion just to have a different sound, but your voice is muted as well. Charades might be the only choice of communication between you two for some time. And as you continue on in this odd liminal space, out of your peripheral vision you'll notice your reflections on the ceiling above acting oddly, walking backwards or twirling in a childlike fashion while you are walking a straight line.
Spend long enough in this never ending silent white and bright hall with nothing but your breath to remind you that you're physically occupying this space and you start to feel on the edge of your sanity. After pulling your gaze from the disorienting reflections and stains on the wall, you look for the dog, but the dog is gone and in its place far down the hall is a small child dressed in white from head to toe with very little skin showing. It feels like it's been so long since you heard a voice that when the child speaks your ears hurt, blood trickles out. Wait, that can't be right... is it because of the silence from before or is the voice just supernaturally immense?
"GET OUT."
Is all the child says before water starts slowly rising up from the floor, but take a whiff and you catch the strong chemical scent of bleach. You and your companion must rush to find an exit or another creative solution to the problem at hand before you are drowned, and there will be no holding one's breath and swimming with your eyes open if you are submerged in bleach so you must act quickly. At the end of the long hall where the child stood there is a red light, but if you run towards it, it seems to only get further away.
If you can't go forward or back, then through the walls is the only solution. It is difficult though, at all the spots on the walls that are white, they are indestructible. It's the aged, yellow stains that are perpetually moving and shifting that are the weak points. Together, you must try to corner the shifting stains to stay still long enough for you to kick and punch your way through very thick walls. The stains seem to move away from anyone experiencing strong emotions and towards those who are calm and collected, and the key is to get them to stop moving entirely.
Once you burst through the thick wall and escape drowning by bleach, you'll either find yourself back in Deerington, or...
BREAK MY CHAINS AND I'LL BREAK YOURS.
You stumble into a mostly empty and dimly lit surgical room with blood on the floor and old dinge and rust on tiles and sinks. If you came here from the white hallway slowly filling with bleach, the pungent liquid will spill into the space as you enter, but turn around to look at the hole you and your companion made and you'll see it magically stitch itself up, like a wound in flesh speed healing rather than tile and drywall reorienting itself. However, it's possible to arrive here from Deerington without going through the white hall and that's by passing an empty lot in town. You could have sworn that lot had a house or a store the other day, but instead there's a dingy storage shed that draws you in with an intoxicating scent that wafts from a jagged hole in the side. No matter where you came here from, when you walk through, one or more other sleepers can walk through holes in the other walls at the same time and each hole will stitch up behind you.It's too late to turn back once you're in and you barely have time to realize the danger you're clearly in when you are struck from behind and knocked unconscious. No matter what your body is made of or what abilities you have, you are knocked out cold... and when you awaken you are chained in the center of the room to a rusy old cair. The other sleeper or sleepers you found yourself with in this place are in the same situation facing you and on the floor in between you is a pile of old rusted keys of varying shapes and made of all different kinds of metals. The only thing these keys seem to have in common is the look of sharpness on every edge, like if you picked them up too hastily you could slice open your hand and get a tetanus infection from the rust.
The next thing you might notice is the heavy breathing of another person nearby, and when you look you see a large man in a soiled button down, jacket and khakis. He looks like a pro wrestler that went to a court hearing that then got blown up and he was the only survivor. But more striking than his size and attire is the fact that in place of a human head is just a black smoky blur with what looks like hundreds of eyes poking through the darkness, and when he turns, his face is nothing but a gaping circular maw with rows and rows of jagged teeth that spin like a food processor. The man doesn't speak, the only sound that seems to come from that horrifying void that is his head is haunting and hard to describe. It gazes at its prisoners with its infinite eyes for a moment, washes blood from its hands in one of the sinks along the wall and then lumbers over to the only exit while sharpening a butcher's knife.
It is rather clear what his intentions are. But why leave a pile of keys and not kill and eat you now? Who cares what game he's playing, what test you're undergoing? Time to figure out how to get free and obviously the keys are important. The chairs can be moved, tilted over and pushed, but they are heavy and you'll have to work together to get the right leverage to start picking up keys and testing them on each other's locks which are placed by your hands bound behind your backs. Your hands are so tightly bound that you have to use the keys blindly on the other person's lock, and don't forget that those keys are sharp and hard to hold too. One of you will get free first, but then the haunting sound and the thump of his feet can be heard in the next room. Do you leave your companion to the monster or risk it and try the other keys?
Whatever your choice, the door to get out is locked and unbreakable, but there's a vent high above it that you can get through alone with great difficulty, but will be much easier and faster with the help of your fellow sleeper. The moment you are inside and moving through the vents, the hulking man with the void head will let out an ear shattering screech and chase you from below, the butcher knife and other stabbing objects will slice through the bottom of the vent and you'll have to dodge and weave until you see the light at the end. Kick the exit vent open and you'll crawl out onto grass outside any building in town.
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.
Ivar "The Boneless" Ragnarsson | Vikings
It probably wasn't a good idea for him to already be seeing things in the wall given Ivar's mental state isn't the greatest to begin with. A Norseman who trusts too much soon ends up in the grave, so Ivar has always had a healthy dose of paranoia. But this is getting downright ridiculous.
He feels there is someone watching him all the time. At first, he's able to dismiss at nonsense. But the longer this goes on and on, he cannot help but wonder....is it true? Is there someone really there in the walls?
At the end of it all, he goes completely and utterly manic. He starts hacking the walls apart with his axe, his hands, anything that he thinks will work. But no, that's not enough, the furniture needs go too. This won't just stop at his own home, but those of others, and even some of the shops in town.
Whether you encounter him in your home or the grocery store, it's best to approach with caution as he mutters to himself. "They're still in there....oh yes they are....got to keep looking..." Just be careful if you approach him while he's tearing whatever he's fixated on apart. That is a pretty sharp axe after all.
II. Break My Chains
[Ivar is the first one to wake up of the two stuck in the same room together and it's right about now that he's starting to wonder if he's just going to keep bouncing from one strange situation to another in this town for however long he's going to be residing there. Well, nothing to be done right now except try to escape this terrifying situation. When the horrible figure comes in, looking rather like what Ivar has always pictured a fire giant as looking like in his head, he hisses at whoever is across from him.]
Wake up! Come on, don't just sit there like a lump! We've got to get out of here!
[He really doesn't want to be left alone to deal with this monstrous creature all on his own and it looks like the only way to get out of here is going to be working together. Well, Ivar's never been shy about asking for help before, and he's not about to start now.]
III. Arrival
Well, this definitely counted as the strangest experience of Ivar's life, and he's been through some pretty weird ones, like the time he'd met the god (and his grandfather) Odin in person. He's not entirely sure this isn't some prolonged hallucination. Perhaps he'd fallen on the field of battle and this was his dying dream? The letter he finds doesn't really clear up too much and he eyes the food in the jar with suspicion.
He finds a strange contraption in the house he wakes up in, what looks like a chair with wheels on it. Well, that'll be far better to use than just crawling around on his arms like he's warranted to. It only takes a few minutes for him to figure out how to work it exactly. Really, it's such smooth going that he wonders why he never thought to create one of these at home.
Granted, a wheelchair is far easier to use on paved roads and sidewalks then in the grooves of mud and dirt that would be in his home world. As he goes down the street, he'll be looking for anyone who can tell him what the hell is going on as he observes and takes in the town.
"You there!" What can you tell me about this strange place?" He calls out in an accent of indeterminate origin but which definitely sounds Northern European. A few things to note when he speaks to someone: his eyes are extraordinarily ice-blue and the whites of his eyes are bluish-tinted as well, he's got an axe strapped to his back that looks awful sharp, and he's wearing clothes that look positively medieval, which should give a clue as to what time period he's from.
IV. Wildcard
[Want to do something else or get a custom prompt? Just poke me at
II.
[The shouting isn't technically what had woken her up, but it's doing nothing to help her mood at waking up in yet another sketchy place she doesn't recognize. Pidge blinks and takes a moment to look around... and immediately wishes she hadn't.
As strange rooms go, this one is probably the worst she's seen in a while. And for this place, that's saying something. At least she's not alone?]
I feel like I'm going to regret asking this, but you wouldn't happen to know how we got in here?
[Because she's absolutely not a fan of whatever nonsense Deerington is getting up to this time. While she waits for an answer, Pidge is back to taking stock of the situation. The keys seem like an obvious solution. Too obvious? She hasn't decided yet.]
no subject
[Ivar retorts. He’s been inspecting his bonds, the chair, the room around them. Anything to distract him from the sight of the monster that looks like it wants to carve both of them into pieces. He snorts at the mention of how they had gotten in there.]
Don’t you think if I knew that I would have already gone back through the same way to escape?
[Ignore the snark, Pidge. Sadly, he’s always this sarcastic and grumpy, but at least he has a good excuse as to why with the constant pain in his legs.]
no subject
[She can't even argue with that logic. Unfortunately, it seems like the mystery of how they managed to be trapped in here is one that'll have to wait.]
Probably. You don't seem like the type who enjoys hanging around in creepy rooms inhabited by weird creatures that probably want to eat you, but I suppose anything's possible. I've met weirder people.
[It's possible that waking up chained to a chair and unable to free her hands is just making her snappier than usual.]
Have you been awake much longer than I have?
III
The accent isn't recognizable to him, but the medieval style looks like something similar to what the barbarians back in Ooo would wear. "You gotta be new, right? The town's a shared dream kinda situation," he explains, not considering that that explanation may in fact be completely terrible and only raise more questions. Nope, instead he blinks as he notices the axe, then leans over to try and get a better look at it. "Cool axe, dude."
no subject
“Yes. I only just arrived. There was a letter but I don’t read the alphabet the Saxons use.” Only Norse runes and that was hardly going to help him out here in town.
He beams at the compliment about his weapon. Taking it off, he flips it around in a casual manner, grabbing it by the hilt when it spins around. Not an easy thing to learn if one wanted to keep all their fingers intact and especially with Ivar being more conscientious of his hands than most. If he lost use of them, he’d truly be helpless. “A shame I arrived here with only one. And no knives at all.” He sounds nearly scandalized at the thought of going around without seven or eight knives at all times.
no subject
Didn't read the letter, huh? Fern raises an eyebrow, the gears in his mind turning away as he focuses on the axe. This guy obviously knows how to use it which is totally rad, he isn't sure he'd be able to do the same fancy moves with one himself. Despite having a battle axe, he's fairly certain he'd loose a few fingers if he tried spinning it around like that. Give him swords any day.
"This place is pretty good at giving out weapons, especially smaller stuff like knives. I got to build up a whole new collection here, which is great," he replies casually, then scratches the back of his head. "If you didn't read the letter, does that mean you didn't eat the food in the jar? 'Cause that's really important."
For real, please don't die cool axe friend. That would be a huge shame.
no subject
"No. Was there a reason I needed to?" He asks curiously. The Norse, like most other cultures of their time, do have a lot of rules revolving around hospitality and food, so the idea he was supposed to eat something doesn't seem all that strange to him.
no subject
Ohhhhh no. Nope, nnnnope, he reaches up, grabbing the ears of his hat frantically. "Which way's your house? You gotta go back and eat it, you dingwad, or you're gonna die!"
III
But the sight of a man in old-fashioned clothes - and with an axe strapped to his back - gives her pause. She blinks, hesitates for a moment, and then reaches into her pocket to pull out her own arrival letter.
"I... just got here," she answers almost apologetically, wishing she had all the answers for him already. Her hands work quickly to unfold her letter so she can skim over it again. She brought it along with her, just in case she needed to refer to it.
"I don't know much about this place yet. I do know that this place is called Deerington, and I've heard it's like a collective dream. I'm not sure how it's possible, and I'm still looking for more information."
no subject
“There was a letter left for me on one of the tables in the dwelling I woke up in but I do not read the alphabet Christians use.” Only Norse runes, and despite some surface similarities, he wasn’t going to be able to read much until he learned how to read English properly.
I. The Walls Have Ears (late Feb)
"Uhhhh who's in there?"
no subject
Rather than feel contrite or like he should apologize, Ivar frowns, looking a bit putout. “Hmmm, I must be losing my touch. That should have pinned you easily.” Sorry, Varian, you’re dealing with an insane Norseman. It’s just one of those days. Ivar wheels himself over, reaches up, and yanks the axe out from where it’s stuck deep into the display with a surprising amount of upper body strength.
no subject
"Yeah, maybe by my skull!! I need that to live??"
This is what he gets for speaking to new people. This is why he should just ignore them and stay in his lab. This is exactly why. He watches the guy wheel over, more interested in the chair than the axe now.
"Hmmm, that's probably going to cause you problems here. This place isn't exactly easy to live in when you don't have the requisite number of limbs to run away."
The taps on his prosthetic, clunk clunk. He knows how this place is.
no subject
But then Varian says something he takes badly. All he hears is someone judging him for the fact he can't walk the way people have done his entire life. He begins to think he shouldn't have put away that axe. His eyes narrow and the temperature of the store seems to drop by six degrees as he answers in a cold tone. "I've survived the last sixteen years when everyone thought I should just give up and die. I think I can survive some dream town just fine, legs or not."
no subject
Varian raises his arms in mock surrender as Ivar turns on him.
"Hey, lower the knives, I'm not telling you that you should give up and die. Did- did you not see my leg?" he squints at the wheelchair. "But this place is dangerous- and has... stairs. This might need some modifications so you can move better here. I mean, I'm guessing with the axe throwing and all you'd rather be in a fight than running away from it?"