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

𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝. | ( cw: underage drinking )

[ about fifteen minutes into the party, archie stops asking people to pinch him. they can’t hear him over the music anyway. he stops debating if this is one huge fever dream because the truth ceases to be quite as important with a flute of champagne in one hand and a noisemaker in the other. it starts with a sip—and why the heck not? if he’s dreaming, then breaking the law doesn’t matter. where deerington fall on a map is irrelevant. how to get home, how badly his side aches, whether or not his bandages need changing, if bambi was a carnivore — everything stops.

one glass turns into two, then three, and before too long archie’s practically grinning from ear to ear. he aims to be contagious when he leans to the side and announces gleefully: ] I love this song! Want to dance?

[ somewhere between four and five he absconds with three beer pong balls cradled tightly against his abdomen and between his hands. attention, please! this idiot is climbing onto a chair, a table, a couch. any surface will do. just know with the latter, he will step over people until he snags an empty cushion. ]

Watch this. [ haven’t you seen a ginger juggle before? it’s slow, like, at a turtle’s pace. truly. but the way he’s beaming ( and gradually picking up speed ) may be hard to crush. or maybe, you’ve caught him riffing an air guitar solo somewhere in the crowd and you want to rock out together, it’s all fair game. ]

𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫

[ getting a little handsy after too much to drink? it’s practically in the watch-me-rebel handbook that nearly every teenager takes out of their back pocket at some point. everyone has at least one golden screw it moment. archie’s no stranger to the warmth in his cheeks and the impulse rising in time with his heartbeat. the excitement gets tied in with the countdown and that’s not unusual either — the tradition of grabbing someone and kissing them at midnight is no secret.

but it’s different somehow. instead of searching for that special someone or staring into the bottom of his flute ( tongue pressed to his teeth because he beat that dead horse into the ground ), he finds he’s just looking for someone.

( 3, 2, 1! )

that’s right around when he recognizes it isn’t desire, it’s a desperate need. archie feels like he’s underwater, sluggish almost, in the few steps it takes to stride for whatever poor soul has caught his eye. there’s no warning. no apology before he sets his hand on the back of the nearest person’s neck and yanks them into an unrelenting kiss. the chaos, the shouting, a likely knifing nearby, and the stampede ought to make him break away but he's going for it like a champ. ]

( wildcard it up if there's another scenario you're into. )

[ jughead has made one (or, more accurately, three) too many mistakes for the beginning of a new year, but at least he has finally come to his senses. the clarity does not bring much relief though; in fact, it's making this entire night all that much worse for him. he is not going to have a fun time processing everything later.

but for the time being, he has pushed aside whatever trauma or guilt he has experienced in the past... however minutes it took for him to find his way out of the building to venture back inside for the sake of locating reggie mantle.

yes. reggie freaking mantle. as much as he hates the guy and as much as he doesn't want to see him right now, jughead can't exactly leave him inside a party that has turned very much violently out of control.

—except who he finds instead stuns him to the point where his legs freeze in the middle of an ongoing bloodbath. jeez, snap out of it, jughead, but also— ] Archie? [ who is he even making out with? does it even matter? he must be under the same influence he was in not too long ago. ]

Sorry, I'm going to be taking him. [ don't mind him while he separates archie from whoever he's locking lips with. ] I strongly recommend you step outside for some fresh air though.