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tdms

JANUARY 2019 TEST DRIVE

JANUARY 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to January’s Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: NEW YEAR'S.

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: Mind alteration, alcohol, options for self-harm, knife violence.

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

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

YOU BETTER GET THIS PARTY STARTED

It's party night at the Grady Hotel and the hosts are pulling out all the stops. Champagne, funny hats, pictures, great music, and a wonderful countdown clock that let's everyone know just how much closer they're getting to the end of what has probably been a pretty crazy year for everyone. The glasses never seem to empty themselves and the citizens serving them out to people seem to be making extra sure that everyone has one for themselves. Regardless of whether or not you usually like champagne, anyone with a glass in their hands will eventually be tempted to take a sip, especially the closer it gets to midnight - the bubbles make you giggly, friendly, talkative in a way that you may never have been before. It lifts up just about anyone's spirits, no matter how rough of a time they've had before (or during their time in) Deerington. It doesn't seem to get you drunk, no matter how much you drink, but it definitely makes you more euphoric. Enough so that you might start to think you can do anything; tell someone how you really feel about them, compliment whoever you've had your eye on all night and see if they want to spend more time together, make up with someone you've been fighting with lately, do a magic trick you never were able to master, or even something as drastic as fly when you know you can't. Hopefully you start off trying to jump from a chair, but there is definitely roof access for those who are a little more daring - maybe someone a little more sober will have the wherewithal to stop you before it's too late.

There is also plenty of entertainment happening in various parts of the room. A table with beer pong for the adults who never outgrew their college days, a dart board, card games in the back, and a game called Guess the Candy for those who want to test their sweet tooth. Anyone who wins a round of any game will get rewarded with a small gift from home (no bigger than a toaster). Unfortunately will disappear once you leave the party, so make sure to enjoy it while you can.

The dance floor is also lively, the music upbeat and easy to move to no matter what your personal tastes might be. If you want a random dancing partner, take a dance card! Each one has a random, glowing number on it and it's your goal to find the person who matches. Once you do, no matter who it is, you'll find yourself literally stuck together (hopefully just by your hands, but it can be any body part) and will have to go through an entire dance (or maybe even two) with them before you come unstuck.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Everyone starts to gather around the countdown clock as it nears midnight, and when it's down to ten seconds, obviously you've got to start counting too! Everyone seems to be having such a good time as they shout out each number (10! 9! 8!) and you might not even notice the way some of the people around you have started to get a little... twitchy? (7! 6! 5!) Or the way some are starting to get more handsy, pushing themselves up close to whomever is beside them. (4! 3! 2!) And it isn't until they all shout 1! in unison that the room seems to shift in two very different moods.

If you're lucky, the person next to you will just have the urge to kiss you - and you might even have the urge to kiss them back! After all, sharing a kiss at midnight is supposed to bring you good luck for the rest of the year. And with the way everyone else is starting to act, you might need it. For some, the urge to kiss might be stronger than just a chaste peck. For those who find themselves wanting to get a little more intense, it might be best to try to sneak out the back and head back to your place. The moment you step outside into the cold air, though, the urges seem to disappear - unless, of course, you were in the mood all on your own.

If you're unlucky, there's a murderous rage that runs through you, and there seems to be a table of weapons near by to help encourage a messy time. Various knives, swords, machetes, and other blades are laid out, enough for almost everyone. You might find yourself driven to plunge your weapon into the closest person, or maybe someone you've hated for a long time, and even more - maybe someone you've loved. Whoever it is, the image of their face will be burned into your mind and you'll do everything you can to try and make them bleed. Hopefully they can fight for their life - or at least evade your attacks until they can trick you into going outside. Like the desire for love, the desire for murder will also disappear the moment that someone steps outside, regardless of whether or not they did so on purpose or just to try and hurt whoever they're after.

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.

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i. you better get this party started

Rey's never been to a party before. She's not even sure how to behave at one, really, so she sticks mostly to the edges of things, trying to look like she belongs and isn't entirely awkward. In a floor-length white dress she stands out a little, but not too much. When she finds herself with a champagne glass she sips the drink suspiciously, and finds that she likes it. Enough that she has a second glass not too long after the first.

As the night wears on she feels more relaxed, actually approaching a few people to introduce herself, and finding herself swaying to the music. She could probably easily be pulled onto the dance floor, though she wouldn't know what she's doing so hopefully no one minds pinched toes.

ii. happy new year!

The passing of another year is something Rey is intimately familiar with. She's marked the passage of time for years on the side of her AT-AT home, ticking off each day with a hashmark on the metal. This is the first time she's experienced that passage of time with such fanfare, and she finds herself entirely swept up in the moment.

When the person beside her pulls her into a kiss, it's something she's surprised to be receptive to, though she quickly pulls away after, embarrassed.

"Well I think I've had too much to drink," she laughs, somewhat sheepishly as she holds her hand up in front of her mouth.

iii. auld lang sine

Her blood is boiling. She's familiar with this feeling, the darkness within her coursing through her, unbidden. Usually she can control it, but for whatever reason tonight it feels like it's swallowing her, as she doesn't bother reaching for weapons but turning on the person, that face instead, her hand stretched towards them.

Hand curled to mimic a choke hold she reaches with the Force, seeking their life force, looking to cut it off even as she drags them towards her.

iv. wildcard

[ hmu for anything not here, or hit me on discord @ Varis#4890 if you want to come up with something! I will answer tags in prose or actionspam format, so feel free to reply with whatever you're comfy with! ]

Peggy's seen a few parties in her time, but those were slightly different from this one. This one is purely a party for fun, at least for Peggy, and there's no strings attached from her perspective. There might still be some strings, but those strings aren't related to the SSR or anything else on Peggy's list of things to investigate.

But she has on a nice dress and an equally nice pair of shoes, and the mood in the place is festive, and that's good enough for Peggy. She, too, has been keeping to the fringes, or at least constantly moving through the crowd, never staying still for too long, but it's when she's paused at a spot at the edge of the room that she spies Rey.

"Hello there. Having a good time?"

She's on her third glass when Peggy approaches her, and where ordinarily she might be a little wary of strangers approaching her, now she just smiles.

"I don't know. I've never been to a gathering like this before," she replies, her eyebrows arched as she looks out over the people milling about. She seems a little dazzled, because while she's certainly seen this many people in one place at one time, she's never seen this many people in one place dressed nicely and all looking generally happy to be there. She looks back at Peggy, nodding her head.

"It's nice. Are you having a good time?"

"Haven't you? Well, then, this must be quite exciting." She also looks about the room, taking in the various people participating in the festivities. "And I am having a very good time, thank you. Whoever is hosting this certainly has put in considerable effort." And they certainly haven't spared any expense.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but where is it that you're from?" She hopes Rey doesn't mind a bit of friendly small talk.

"You can, but I don't think you'll know it," she replies, taking another sip of her champagne and tilting her head to the side. "I'm from Jakku. It's... pretty much the middle of nowhere."

Rey smiles a little grimly at that. For a long time Jakku had been the center of her world, that rough life of waking up, spending the day hunting for scrap to trade for rations that might barely feed her for another day. Everyone else didn't think much of the place at all.

"How about you, where are you from?"

"I might not. There are a lot of places in the world, after all," is her response. But she is interested, regardless, and as she listens, she too takes a sip of her drink. "Jakku? I'm not familiar with it, as you guessed. As for the middle of nowhere, well, even nowhere still is somewhere."

That may not make perfect logical sense, a fact she attributes to the drinks she's been having.

"Hampstead, England, originally, although lately, I've been living in New York City. I'll wager you've heard of neither of those places." It would seem they're from very different places, as she's never heard of anywhere called Jakku.

Peggy's comment about even nowhere still being somewhere makes Rey smile, and she nods her head.

"I like that." As complicated as her feelings about her past and essential imprisionment on Jakku, it's still where she spent her entire life. She doesn't love hearing others belittle it.

Not knowing where Peggy is from doesn't bother Rey, she's familiar with planets, but she's gotten the impression that this place is very far away from the galaxy she's studied over her lifetime.

"I've never heard of any of them, no. Though I don't know many individual cities, I've heard of a few of the major ones on Core planets, but a lot of people around here don't seem to identify themselves by what planet they're from." Which is so weird to her.

"It's true, though. You won't find Hampstead making the headlines anywhere, but it's still where I grew up, so I am a bit fond of it." She hasn't been back there in years, and she probably won't be visiting anytime soon, but they do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

"Planets?" That has Peggy's eyebrows raising even as it piques her curiosity. "Are you an astronaut?" Space travel hasn't exactly taken off, as far as she knows, but she can't think of anyone else who would talk so casually about other planets.

[[ OOC: I haven't played him in a minute and I'm so rusty, but why not!! I don't have a canon point in particular in mind, so hmu if you want to steer a particular direction or if I assumed too much with this tag and you'd like a different outcome. I'm easy-breezy. o/ ]]

As if out of nowhere, there is a force (and the Force) twisting in effortlessly, gentle like a whisper on the breeze.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," a voice says, easily breaking through the din. It belongs to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, a mere ghost by all rights in Rey's time. He is as much a stranger to these parts as she is, but even somewhere so very far, far away — (and distant it is, that much can easily be sensed) — there is no stopping the Force.

As it permeates all life, it permeates those who seek to use it, too. Kenobi can feel it rolling off this young woman, and between her obvious rage and the deep set of her brows, he's reminded of the past (although he doesn't rightly place a name or a location or a time just yet).

He directly intervenes, although he thinks perhaps he shouldn't. One lift of his hand and he rips the Force right from the center of that connection, thereby relieving the person's suffering. The second it takes to do this has Obi-Wan stepping in front of the heap of a person to eliminate any possibility of the act resuming.

Leveling his gaze on Rey, ever patient, he waits for her reaction.

The interruption of her will is a surprise, something she's only experienced once before, with Snoke. Though this is different, where Snoke had violently ripped control from her Obi-Wan's will was more like a splash of cold water, knocking her off course and confusing her for a moment.

Part of her knows this isn't right, but that part of her isn't in control right now. She blinks as she stares at the Jedi, her breathing suddenly heavy and her brow furrowed. His voice echoes somewhere in her mind, a half forgotten part of a confusing dream.

Then her eyes find the heap behind him, half hidden and her anger reasserts itself.

"Get out of my way."

He felt the anger rolling off her like an avalanche off a mountainside. For a moment he was caught by it, not having felt this since their fight on Star Killer Base. He can feel it threatening to swallow her whole. She reaches out, upon seeing him, her rage quite clear.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" He waves off her attempt at Force Choking him, having long since learned how to suffer through Snoke's own use of the technique. "If you're going to channel the Darkside of the Force you're going to need a lot more anger than that."

He was mocking her, every nerve ending screaming at him that she was dangerous right now, that he shouldn't be here. Even so, he wants to help her if she means to go to such a dark place. Unlike her previous Master, he wasn't afraid of it.

Carefully, he inches towards her as a man would when faced with a dangerous beast. He'd told her once that he could teach her, that she didn't need to struggle for meaning alone. He'd meant it. He wanted her as an ally. She was powerful and could have furthered his goals. Instead she'd chosen the pathetic Resistance, chosen his mother.

"Let me show you." his voice is barely above a whisper as he entreats her.

Every thing he's done is clear in front of her. He killed Han, just as good as killed Luke too. He had abducted her from the forest, forced his way into her mind. When she'd proven to be a match for him he'd nearly killed her friend.

She hates him. She wants him dead. She doesn't know why she'd hesitated before, in the Throne room. Death was the only thing that would stop Kylo Ren.

That he pushes her will aside as she tries to exert it over him only fuels her anger, and she looks towards the table of weapons, her teeth clenched as her arm stretches out for a double-bladed staff.

"I don't want your help," she spits at him, swinging the staff as soon as it meets her outstretched hand, lunging at him blade out.

He reacts instinctively, reaching out for a weapon of his own and holding it in front of him to defend himself. The metal shrieks as it collides, their two opposing wills clashing just as it had in the forest. He growls between clenched teeth, trying to hold her in place without moving an inch back as much as he can.

"I told you. You need a teacher. You need someone who can help you, who isn't afraid of your power." He's talking about Luke, of course. Luke had failed them both. He wouldn't make that mistake, though. He had told her once that she wasn't alone and he meant it. "You think you hate me but you don't. You hate what you think I am. You hate that you see it in yourself."

He forces himself as much as he can, attempting to get her to budge even the smallest bit.If he could push her back, he could disarm her. He wouldn't make the same mistake as the forest.

She presses her weapon into his, fueled by her anger and how much she just hates him in this moment. He may as well be talking to a wall for all the influence his words have on her.

"I know what I am, who I am," she snarls, twisting her grip on the blade, shifting her stance so she lets him press the advantage and moving so that she isn't behind the blade, rising with the other end of the double bladed weapon. "I just hate you." She swings the off end of the blade towards his skull.

He barely evaded a blow to the head as she swung at him. Instinctively he raises a hand, pushing out with the Force to knock her back, a move she was no doubt familiar with from their last fight. It gave him a moment to breathe, to think.

"Really? Yet you still cling to foolish sentiments. Until you found that droid you were still waiting on that desert wasteland you called home. You didn't know who you were then and you barely do now. You keep hiding it away, pushing back what you could truly be." He believed so firmly that she was barely scratching the surface, holding onto her past and holding onto what few people she had in her life so that they could replace the hole she still had.

"You can hate me all you like but I'm the only one who can help you see yourself become what you were meant to be."

She''s knocked back by the Force, but even as he's taking a moment she's gathering herself again, shifting her weapon in her hands.

"You told me I was nothing!" She nearly screams at him, before lunging again, with the blade of her weapon pointed directly at his chest. She's spent so long striving to find where she belongs, that hearing him say that where she thought she belonged wasn't it had hurt. It had hurt even more because of that connection they'd had, that understanding she thought they had forged. That he could say something so wrong to her, it made her furious.

As he turned with the swell of the Force, Luke raised a hand as if to block the attack. That wasn't what he was doing of course, but he could direct her Force around him rather than making a bad situation even worse. He had, after all, only recently reopened himself to the Force, which made him perhaps a touch hypersensitive to its use.

"Please, a Force choke hold is such an old and obvious technique," he drawled with a t'sk in his voice. "Can't you be more creative than that?"

For whatever reason, he was close enough to the door that he had a more level head. He had enough age where he knew better than to give into his temper, what with sulking on an island for that whatever many years. He steeled his mind against the influence.

"Outside, now," his voice carried a certain command to it, one he may not have bothered with in any of their other encounters. "You want to hurt someone, we can figure it out with more space."

Her anger for Luke is a strange, twisted thing. There's some bleed between her and Kylo, even now that she's trying to shut him out, that feeling of being betrayed. But Luke had betrayed her, too. He'd refused to come with her to help Ben, and then he'd died, leaving her alone without a teacher. It's probably more her connection to Kylo that makes her want to kill him, now.

Her fingers clench angrily as he breaks her attempt to choke him, her eyes burning in anger as she glares at him.

"Afraid you'll hurt someone else?" she nearly snarls, before looking at the door, nostrils flared. "Fine."

Her anger was something he could take, wary as he was about it. If he was meant to be in this place beyond the twin moons he had watched on his final evening, then he would likely have to nip this in the bud now. Once she cooled her head, he knew she would be annoying and badger him all over again about whatever nonsense she thought she knew about the Jedi.

At her glare, his lips twisted into a smirk. Directing it at him meant she wasn't lashing out at other people around them, so he'd keep her attention right there.

"Afraid you will and then have to regret it," he said coolly, gesturing at the door. He purposefully turned his back on her like all the times on his island and headed for the outside where they had much more room to contest each other. "I know you aren't so stupid as to forget stronger emotions means you're tapping into more Force automatically. That makes you reckless and dangerous to everyone around you."

May as well get a lesson out of this, right?

She's focused enough on him that she isn't asking any of the other obvious questions, and his berating her only adds fuel to the fire.

Tempted to again attack him while his back is turned like she had on the island the only thing keeping her from doing so is some distant echoing feeling that he's right. It's dangerous for her to be so angry, as focused as her anger is at the moment.

"You'd rather have me live in fear of my emotions, like you?" she snaps, starting after him. She doesn't entirely know what she'll do once they get outside, but as soon as she's past the threshold the anger that had been hanging around her thick like a curtain practically evaporates. There's still resentment, but that's an old friend to Rey, something that sits in the back of her heart and doesn't need much attention. She nearly falls to her knees on the spot at the sudden shift in her emotions, swaying on her feet briefly as she lets out a gasp.

Following swiftly in the vacancy of the anger however is shame, embarrassment. She'd felt so prepared to kill him, and now she isn't even sure why. Especially as she knows, he's already dead.

"Master Skywalker?" she calls out to him tentatively, unsure where a moment before she'd been so furious.

Chloe hadn't really been entirely sure what had come over her. Even when she's with people she's comfortable with, people she's crushing on, she never gets up the guts to actually kiss them. So doing so to a total stranger (a really, really pretty stranger; did anyone ugly exist in this town?) was enough to make her eyes goes wide when she pulled back and a fairly decent blush cross over her face.

That's not weird. Not weird... at all.

"Uh - yeah." She clears her throat, rubbing the back of her neck. "Same, I guess. Hell of a party."

Chloe being as awkward about the situation oddly makes Rey feel a little better and she nods to her observation, letting out another small laugh.

"I guess so. Um, so I'm Rey," she offers a little awkwardly, holding her hand out to shake. As absurd a gesture as it is after having just kissed a stranger, she only feels like it's appropriate.

At least it was better than being attacked, which was the other option she understood people had a tendency to fall into in this place. She reached out for her hand, giving it a quick and firm enough shake. The leftover lessons on good introduction from her step father she always meant to resist but never quite shook.

"Chloe. Enjoying the party outside of the drinks?" She at least said it with a smile and no judgement. She is, after all, a girl who loves her booze. "It's pretty tame for the usual shenanigans this place throws."

Eliot was usually one for being swept up in moments, especially when those moments include alcohol and physical contact. When the clock strikes midnight he reaches for the first beautiful person he sees and sweeps them into a kiss without even a thought.

Once the moment passes he blinks, letting the woman pull away. "I don't know what came over me." His eyes search her face for a moment before he smiles, "Though I'd be lying if I said I was sorry."

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