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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shut up!

[Michael bristles, and his voice is louder than he'd intended. They're not entirely wrong. Even if he's not having fun anymore, he's boiling with anger now, and it wants an outlet. He's used humans that way too, taking out his disappointment and boredom on the nearest body until he eventually got bored with that.

They look hurt, but then right away they're laughing as they call him out on every ugly impulse. It reminds him of Eleanor. There's been times he would've given anything to slam her head into a wall. She'd be so disappointed in him right now.

He continues in a lower tone:]

I am trying to be good, okay? I shouldn't have even done that to begin with. And now I'm doing that thing again where I yell at you because I'm really mad at myself! Boy, I am knocking it out of the park!

[Fuck, fuck. He breathes deliberately, and busies his hands with adjusting his cufflinks and his tie. By the time he's done that, they aren't shaking anymore. He's under control.]

[He hasn't fucked up this badly since he started caring, but he knows what he's supposed to do when he does. Apologize sincerely. He hasn't apologized to anyone who wasn't a friend before, but he does regret what he did. Maybe that's enough.]

I'm sorry I yelled, and I'm sorry I slammed you into the wall. You didn't deserve it, because it wasn't really self-defense. Do you need a doctor or something?

[He's breathing hard, saying things that should be incomprehensible, except that they strike too many chords with the churning texture of their own thoughts. Trying to be good. Trying, except - not hard enough.]

[Look at what you've done, now. You provoked this. You made this happen.]

I attacked first. I'm a threat. A danger to you, and everyone else.

[They try to keep the automatic comparison from cropping up - between this sharply dressed man who is and is not human, and the soft, reddish eyes of the Dreemurrs who knew that they had granted asylum to something incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous, and yet did not hesitate for a moment before offering kindness and care.]

[It isn't fair.]

[It hurts to talk, but they shake their head anyway. Get up, slowly, pressed up against the wall for support. They've hurt worse. They've been hurt worse.]

[Their breath emerges in uneven, shallow spurts, their gaze chasing an exit that does not exist.]

Why aren't you doing anything about it?

You're no threat to me. If you break this body, I'll be pissed off and I'll have to fix it. Wouldn't be the end of the world.

[There's no boasting here; he's only stating a fact. Michael narrows his eyes as the kid gets to their feet. He still feels jagged and raw, and if distracting himself by lashing out is wrong, doing it by focusing on them doesn't seem so.

What's wrong with them? He knows all about how the human body can break, but there's never been a need for him to look at one and diagnose what's gone wrong. They don't seem concussed. Maybe they're just very winded?]

If you start looking threatening to anybody else, I'll do something about that then. Why are you so interested in stabbing to begin with? You're a human.

[Something contrarian rears up in the pit of their stomach - something that wants to insist that they are a threat, that wants to stomp their foot and rail against that assessment as hard as they possibly can. It's as petulant and childish an impulse as it is a pointless one, but they can't wholly suppress the way their lip curls, the way their eyes narrow.]

[It took no time, no effort on his part whatsoever, to coax the worst out of them. Always bubbling so very close to the surface. No matter how good you pretend you can be, you're really only ever pretending, aren't you? It's only ever a paper thin veneer over the real you.]

[Their head still hurts.]

[They laugh at that assertion - that they're human. Unfortunately. It's a cruel, unhappy sound.]

Don't remind me. Is that not answer enough?

[Humans, always predisposed to war and pain and looking for ways to impose that pain upon others. That is their nature.]

Since when is humanity capable of anything else?

Hey, some of my best friends are humans.

[He actually does sound mildly offended on their behalf. Michael knows better than to put humanity up on some pedestal; he worked in Hell, he knows the kinds of things they can do. But he also knows that the vast majority of the ones he saw down there weren't actually evil. They were there for dumb, petty things.]

Anyway, we all have free will. I don't think humans are inherently good or evil, but if they were...

[They could try to be good despite it, and then relapse the second they're alone with a kid?]

...individuals could still choose to act differently.

Then you're as big a fool as you look.

[As far as comebacks go, it's not their personal best. But they've just been thrown into a wall and are having notable difficulties reorienting themself, despite the...hopeful lack of anything resembling a concussion.]

[They've felt worse. They're certain nothing's broken - if it were, they'd know. They'd know because they've fallen down a hole that no one was meant to survive falling down, and just about everything hurt.]

Humanity is as indelible as a cosmic stain, incapable of changing its nature.

Ha!

[Michael lets out a short burst of laughter. Which is probably rude. But they're being rude too, so.]

You're serious? I'm a demon. We are literally a cosmic stain. Before humans came around, we used to get together and try to make stars collapse, because usually an angel would come along and be all offended about it, and then if you were lucky you could catch them in the black hole. You know that big one, out in Canes Venatici?

[...wait, no, they probably don't. Also that's not a great story in retrospect. Michael waves it off.

~~I'm not even lying, it's at the top of wikipedia's "supermassive black hole" list and I was like "oops that's coincidental"~~]

Not important. Point is. You might have some shitty ape instincts bouncing around in there, but you're not inherently evil. Anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to avoid feeling responsible for whatever they did.

[They should laugh, too. They should, but they're a little too busy trying to stare him down, trying to fight back the urge to...look away, possibly, or stab him again just to get him to stop talking. Stop talking to them like they're a little kid.]

[Which they are, but that's not the point.]

You're a demon.

[That almost sounds like it's caught their interest. Congratulations.]

Yeah. None of your religions are real, though.

[Like, just FYI, don't @ him about Lucifer. Michael casually stoops down to scoop up some of that dripping black ooze with a finger, keeping half an eye out for sudden movements from Knife Kid as he does.]

And definitely not Dante's Inferno.

You don't have to be demonic to infer that.

[Scorn comes easily. As does envy, of course. Not overtly; just enough to wish they could be something so innately depraved in at least a constructive sense, and not merely a vague, ephemeral, mildly destructive one.]

[In short, it'd be amazing to be an actual demon and not just an edgy child who wishes they could be one.]

[Shrug]

It comes up a lot. I find the Dante thing particularly egregious - it's just some guy's list of everybody he hates, with a layer of Catholicism slapped on.

Do you always critique classical literature after beating children into walls?

[This is familiar, easy, even. The cut and riposte of a sharp tongue in parallel with an adult's repeated assertions. Done in the wake of a bruised head and the aftershock of an altercation that they inevitably lost - it's even more so.]

[The literature is new. The demonic slant is also new, assuming it's true.]

[Michael frowns, rolling his shoulders in obvious discomfort.]

I did ask you if you needed a doctor.

[They smile.]

[It's as ruthless as it is bladed, a vicious edge that's not nearly so polished as it will be, one day, but deliberate nonetheless.]

Only if they're a euthanasiast.

[Ow, the edge. Michael arches an eyebrow. He's having trouble being intimidated by a tiny human, but boy are they putting in the effort.]

Doubt it. I wouldn't rush to the afterlife, if I were you. Not a lot of opportunities for stabbing.

[Don't you know?]

[They don't know exactly where kids like them should be burning, just yet. But they will. And will. And will, again.]

You really don't know what it is I want.

We've been talking what, ten minutes?

[Of course he doesn't. Though if they're into being tortured, damn.]

What do you want, then?

[You're asking me?]

[...well. Of course he is. They baited him into asking, after all. They're simply not used to that being answered, in seriousness. They have no reason to trust that he's going to be taking them seriously at all.]

[They settle for what's most well within reach, and thus most conventional.]

The same thing that awaits us all.

The end.

[Michael cocks his head. It's not like he's unaware that some humans think that way, even if he can't at all relate. But he's never given it much thought.]

What do you think that's going to be?

Does it matter?

[Their smile warps, slightly, turning into something right-handed.]

The complete cessation of existence would undoubtedly be preferable, but I doubt I'll be fortunate enough to see it.

You won't.

[That's why he was asking.]

Nothing sapient does. Well, maybe Janets. I don't know about them...but we don't die, and you all get the afterlife.

Janets.

[They form the word into a dry, skeptical pull - the hope for an explanation without making it into a deliberate question. Condescension, to put the other party on the defensive, to coax what little information they can without compromising their facade.]

[It's all in all a pretty pointless exercise, considering that he's already thrown them into a wall and all.]

Janets!

[Yes. Indeed.

...nah, he'll explain. He's used to explaining things to humans, and he kinda enjoys it. Michael swipes at the air, summoning a transparent screen out of apparently nowhere, which he flicks through until it displays a picture.]

This is my Janet. She's a foundational mainframe. We use them to create and maintain pocket dimensions.

[Definitely more to him than his appearance suggests, summoning some kind of...screen? Interface?]

[It's like no magic they've seen.]

She looks as human as you.

[This manages to come across as judgmental - as though people who are, allegedly, as powerful as demons or mainframes, should think of something a little more grandiose to impersonate. Perhaps they should. It would look, Chara thinks, a heck of a lot cooler.]

The human-facing parts, sure. She was designed by angels.

[He's not thrilled about general human appearances himself. Weird-looking things.]

But if you could see a few more dimensions, you'd never fall for it. She's connected to all of space and time through her void, so she's very...what's the word...expansive.