APRIL 2021 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to April'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: Ghosts, talk of suicide, drowning, violence, zombie-like humans, blood
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

THE LADY IN WHITE

Swamps are hardly pleasant place during the day, but at night, they’re even worse. The creeping fog, the full moon, the overall sense of dread... None of it makes you feel comfy cozy and ready to pitch up a tent for the evening. You want to get out of here quickly, but it’s hard to see too far in front of you and it’s easy to end up straying off the path. As if alligators and poisonous snakes weren’t enough to worry about, there’s a chill in the air that is strange for such a ridiculous hot evening.

I’ve been waiting for you...

The voice seems like it comes from all around you but you can’t see anyone near you. You can keep walking or try and search her out, but no matter which direction you go in, you can still hear her voice like she’s standing right behind you.

I’ve missed you. I loved you... She never loved you...

The voice becomes more distressed and you start to feel more of a pull to find her. As you wander through the fog, she’ll start to talk of a past as though it’s yours; a deep love you shared for one another, a romance that was denounced by her family, but you never failed to come to her. She will talk of how she begged her father to understand and begged him not to hurt you. But all the while, you were straying. Eventually, she found out she was pregnant, she tried to tell you, she wanted you to love her and your new family. She begged her father not to shoot you for what you’d done to her, and in the end? You ran off with the new woman who caught your eye. You left her alone. You left her unwed and an expectant mother. She begs you to do her one last favor, to come and meet her by your tree.

Eventually, in the distance, near a large willow tree, you see the image of a woman, shining brightly in the moonlight, her large, flowing dress as white as her skin. It seems like she’s floating over the ground, before you notice she’s not floating; she’s hanging. Her body swings in the breeze, the rope creaking, and finally an anguished, furious shout rings through the air:

I LOVED YOU!

The woman’s body disappears, but the rope stays behind. It turns out you weren’t the only one to explore this voice, looking for the desperate woman in the trees. Another person stands on the other side of the trunk, another Sleeper, someone you can hopefully team up with in this lost wood. You can discuss the grief stricken past of the woman you just heard or maybe together you can work together to get out of this swamp.

As soon as you leave the shadow of the tree, you’ll hear a woman again. Perhaps the same one? Only instead of words, she sobs incoherently. Maybe it’s someone who’s been hurt. Try to leave or go to explore. Either ultimately takes you to the same place...

A FINE NIGHT FOR IT

The lady in white—though perhaps a different one? How many are in this damn swamp?—is crying by the edge of the water. It’s hard to ignore and as you get closer, the crying grows louder. Maybe one of you gets close enough to reach out and touch her. Or maybe you call out to her when you’re in hearing range. No matter what, she eventually looks up to see you, and her face is covered in blood that runs from her eyes instead of tears. Her skin is sagging and wrinkled, rotted like that of a body that has been left too long in the water after drowning...

She lets out a scream before she rushes at you. Luckily, if you have a weapon, magic, or are particularly fast and strong, you can get the best of her easily. She’ll go down with one shot and her body will seem to disappear into the depths of the swampy water around you. There’s just one problem: she wasn’t alone. Her scream has clearly alerted others.

Strange looking people, their pale faces painted with mud and ground powder, come rushing from out of the trees. Their skin has a quality to it that doesn’t seem right, the same sort of rot that the woman had had, but they are definitely alive. And extremely strong, unlike your most recent foe. They carry all sorts of weapons, but they’re all ones you’d expect from people living in the woods: pitch forks, axes, machetes, hatchets... Anything that could stab you or chop you into pieces. They’re also clearly coming for blood. Some will try to tackle you to the ground and get a rope around your wrists and neck to tie you up into the trees and hang you. The Night Folk who roam these swamps want nothing more than to kill the intruders who have come into their territory.

They won’t speak. They grunt and shout at each other, but never say any actual words. The best way to kill them is to cut off their heads, but they’ll also go down if you beat them badly enough. Make sure to double check that they’re really dead though: it’s not uncommon for one to spring back up the moment your back is turned to try and kill you. Work together and maybe you’ll get out of this attack alive.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Probably not. I'll check your username on the ground when we can look at your fluid. If it's changed it's possible you woke up and returned with no memories while we were out of touch the last month or so." She said it all so casually, like it was an every day occurrence, because around here... sadly? It kind of was.

"I know this might be confusing, Bolin, but it's not the first time it's happened here. If you're not feeling sick with the worst flu of your life on top of memory issues? It's probably that you woke and returned. It's... It's alright. Really."

Oh right, the zombies were really annoyed right now because she'd floated just far enough that the one pair that did try riding on shoulders couldn't quite reach them. It really was an almost comical sight, for as horrifying as it also was.

Well, Vira-Lorr is right about one thing, it is confusing. Very confusing.

"No.. I don't feel sick or anything."

And as funny as the slow following of zombies is, Bolin isn't liking the idea of what will happen when they come down. He picks a spot about a hundred feet ahead and reaches, grabbing the earth with his energy and pulling up, then in. It's a little harder to earthbend from up here but the crater he makes will do the job just fine, filling with thick mud almost as soon as he makes it. And since the zombies are so super focused on them they don't see it until it's too late, tripping into the pit like lemmings off the side of a cliff.

Heh heh heh, suckers.

That... was perfect. They weren't the smartest, no, and the mudpit was enough that when they reached the other side, she looked back and floated back to the ground. "Let's make a run for it. They'll take forever to catch up and by the tie we reach town they shouldn't follow."

As she took of, she didn't explain how she knew that, but she was damned certain of it.

"Here's hoping hey-" he points to some familiar looking trees.

"That's where I ran through last time. That part really gt there and I came out in town."

Convenient!

She started to take off at a dead run in the direction of those trees as soon as he gestured, motioning for him to follow. "Good eye. Let's get the hell out of here. The town's awful but it's better than this by a mile."

[Right there* w o w typos phone please]

Bolin is right behind her, glancing over his shoulder as they go to make sure nothing has followed them.

They're lucky this time. He wasn't so lucky before.

Fighting through the Spanish moss and cypress trees they do, indeed, come pouring out into the sudden, bright shock of town. Blisteringly hot and dry.

Bolin double over, hands on his knees while he catches his breath, all hopped up on adrenaline and not sure what to do with it except sigh dramatically a few times in a row as he shakes out his hands and shoulders. Awful!! That was awful! He hates swamps now!

Well, hating swamps was never a bad thing. On the upside, a look back showed no actual swamp and she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's gone. Like a dream within the nightmares of a child," she murmured. "Well... now. Welcome back to Deerington, Bolin. I'd ask if you missed all this, but in some ways you're fortunate not to remember. You weren't here that long before, if memory serves."

"mmm.. well, I don't remember at all so I think we're pretty even, there. Thanks for what you did back there. If you don't mind my asking how can you fly?"

"Well, to be precise, If levitate and float. It's an old magic spell I've known for a very long time. Requires very little of my power. The problem is... elevation and speed are not the advantages. It's for staying out of range of a threat in the ground and slow moving. Not really... escaping." She only wished she could really fly. The best she could manage was a good brisk jog like that.

"Mmm, mmhm," he considers and agrees.

"More of an cruise airship than a fighter plane."

"..." Pause, wait... no, she knew the difference. "You realize that the only reason I can nod is because there's someone here who actually HAS a fighter plane here, heh. It's a small one I'm told. But yes, I think that's a good comparison."

"Well, not to toot my own horn but toot toot~" he laughs and gestures as though he was indeed honking a horn.

"Planes are pretty cool. I mean, my only real experience with them is being strapped to the wing of one during a fight but in hindsight it was pretty neat."

She chuckled a little. Yeah, that sounded like the Bolin she'd met before. "They're fascinating creations. We don't usually bother with such creations back home, but to fly like that... only the Harpuia are so fortunate." A pause and then she smiled. "Oh, I apologize. They're winged people in my homeland. Lovely folks."

Winged people-

"That's so cool! What's your home world like?"

"There are many races, and magic has taken more or less the place of what many view to be the work of technology and manufacturing." A fair way to put it. "We've been at war with the monster races for some time, though that has finally come to peace."

"Huh, cool. Kind of sounds like where I'm from. We don't have flying people, though. Just the air benders but I don't think that works the same way."

A beat. He takes a breath and pets Pabu who has climbed up onto his shoulder to watch Vira-Lorr.

It is. So hot out.

"Are you going to be okay out here? I should get back to my brother. He's probably worried about me."

Edited 2021-05-01 23:48 (UTC)

"I don't think it quite works the same way, from what little I know of bending? Korra's explained in the past, but I don't fully understand." But afterwards, she nodded and smiled. "But we can chat later. Don't let me keep you. I am around, should you need me."

"Yeah, for sure," Bolin smiles and nods.

"And likewise. It was a pleasure meeting you. You really saved my butt back there."