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

[The sights and sounds are a blur of overstimulation and adrenaline waiting to happen. The last thing they expect, then, would be the presence of another child in the vicinity - another child approaching them of his own volition, no less.]

[A human one. But the playing field is, at least, level. Something about his easy foulmouth, the way he is enamored with his game of pretend, how eagerly he expects them to play along - startles a vague pulse of something almost like amusement.]

[They shove it back almost at once. They can't afford to let their guard down. Especially here.]

...

[Incredibly, their mind fails to supply them with an appropriately sarcastic retort.]

I'm...on a strict timetable.

[Great. Fantastic. A cunning ploy to - to get him to let his guard down. Why don't we go with that? That sounds much better than their brain short-circuiting, and dredging up the first horrible joke it can think of as if in compensation.]

(There's something distinctly familiar about that voice, but with the clatter of the party roaring overhead, Eddie only just barely hears it. He shuffles a little bit closer, bowing his head towards the other child so that he could hear them better, and a joke occurs to him instantly after they make their own joke. It has him stifling a giggle behind his hand.

He lowers his hand a second later and then points up.)

I'd say you're under a strict timetable.

(Get it. Because they're under a table. Yeah. Eddie's really the cat's meow sometimes. Really gets ya in the spleen and whatever. The champagne makes him more giggly than normal, and he's laughing again, his eyes squinting shut before he calms himself back down. That's when he takes a good look at Chara, looking over their face slowly, speculating. It's been a long while by now, and the darkness of the table...It disorients a lot...

But he's got that feeling of knowing something he can't quite put his finger on. At the tip of his tongue. That kinda thing.)

Do you only have til the end of the year? Cause if you do- buddy, you're shit outta luck.

[This is why that was a bad idea. It posited a friendliness that they don't in actuality feel. Or, perhaps, don't realize is present in earnest.]

[Their eye color is different - brown, instead of red. Something of their poise and clipped precision hasn't yet been locked so firmly into place. Their SOUL is still softened in some places, by the presence of a love that has taken root in the core of them. Not yet flooded in and out with a bitterness and loathing for the species that took them in.]

[Eddie, of course, they don't recognize at all.]

[There's no graceful way to segue into a reaction that allows them better control over this - whatever this is. They take a dishonest route instead.]

You'd better not let anyone catch you talking like that.