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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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[He can hear a touch of the tension there, but he chalks it up just to the fact that he didn't recognize this man who clearly knew him. Not to the depth of it, doesn't even guess at that.]

Steve Rogers.

[He holds a small hand out in greeting, offering a handshake. Because Bucky had been right when he'd called his name, so he tries to at least offer him this. A fresh start, a place to begin. With how everything is strange, he almost isn't sure he wants to ask the question, but Steve's never really been one for backing down.]

..You know me, don't you?

[ Bucky takes the hand, but he's a little stiff about it, because what the fuck do you say here? ]

I know a Steve Rogers. He looked an awful lot like you at one point, but this place does some weird things to all of us.

[ He wants to find out what Steve knows before he gives much away himself. It's not really in his nature to keep much from Steve, but right now he's not even sure that this is Steve. ]

Where are you from? And what year?

[Steve shakes his hand, and he can tell that the moments a little terse, a little bit awkward. And Bucky's words, if anything, just makes it that much more confusing. At one point? What sort of weird things did this place do?

--Then something clicks. The serum? He doesn't know what that would mean. Had Erksine lived? Had Hydra found some way to take over the experiment? Although he couldn't imagine how since the doctor had kept it all in his head. There's a flicker of a frown for a moment.]

1940. Brooklyn. [Which is a truth, even if it sometimes didn't feel like it. Even the instructors had called it going back home, but he'd lived so much of his life at the school.] I signed up with the military because of the war, so I was in Jersey before I came here.

[ And what? There's just no Bucky there with this Steve in Brooklyn? Bucky hates how much that thought hurts, like a jolt of ice in his heart, because who the hell is Bucky Barnes without Steve Rogers? Where is he?

He swallows it all down with a short nod. ]

How'd you pass the physical with your health?

[There's a touch of amusement in his voice, a wry curl to his lips as that smile slips back onto his face, because Bucky's right, of course. Between his asthma and everything else that was wrong with him, he'd been stamped 4-F so many times it made his head spin.]

Stubbornness, basically.

[And, because that's an easier topic than anything else, he tells him the story:]

I went every single morning, there as soon as the line opened, trying to talk the doctors into not stamping me 4-F. I was working as a bus boy at a diner, and some military brass came in, and they recognized me. Apparently I set a record for most times being rejected.

While I was getting his coffee a guy walked on his bill and stole the waitresses' purse from behind the counter. I didn't catch him, but I got her purse back.

[And his face punched in, but he lets that part go unsaid.]

General Phillips told me he expected to see me in the line tomorrow. Stamped me 1-A.

General Phillips is a fuckin' asshole. You got no business bein' anywhere near a war like that, Steve. You're gonna get yourself killed.

[ And suddenly Bucky's got his accent back so thick there's no mistaking where he grew up. ]

At least some things don't change.

[ Steve doesn't, anyway. Big-mouthed and headstrong. ]

You really don't know anyone named Bucky Barnes? James Barnes? You don't know me at all?

That's bull.

[It's the same thing he'd told General Philips when the man had tried to tell him that they were saving his life. There's that flash, fire in his eyes, as he squares those small shoulders in defiance.]

I can still do my part. And there's this project- they were going to make me better.

[This is an argument he'd had with Helmut how many times? Steve wanted so much to be something. Helmut had tried to get him to be happy with a desk appointment, something away from the fighting, but Steve was too stubborn for anyone's good. Hydra wasn't exactly a forgiving place, either. He'd heard the whispers, talk of how he should have been euthanized and it just just made him feel like he had to fight harder.

Since he'd been a small child, reeling from the loss of his family, and placed somewhere most people didn't think he deserved to be alive because of his frailties. Helmut had been the only one to see past that.]

No, sorry. But... I would like to change that.

[He offers Bucky a tilt of his head and a slight smile. Maybe arguing wasn't the usual best way to start off a new potential friendship, but it was familiar when nothing else here was.]

[ It's the same fire Bucky's always seen in Steve. There's really no mistaking that and it's familiar enough to help him swallow the rest of this stuff. ]

They're gonna make you bigger, maybe, but you ain't gettin' any better than you are. You're good just like this.

[ And Bucky will honestly fight anyone who says otherwise. Steve had never needed all those muscles to be a good person. ]

Where I'm from, there's a Steve Rogers just like you and he's my best friend.

[ Cards on the table, because it's still Steve. ]

[There's an exhale of breath tinged with wry amusement at the words. It's nice, sounds like something Helmut would have said. Something about leading and how he didn't have to try and do this.

Then Bucky puts his cards on the table, and Steve can't help but do the same. Always a little earnest, and Bucky seems like a good person. Familiar in strange ways that make a little more sense with that fact on the air.]

Where I'm from, I only really had one friend. He saved me from some bullies when I was a kid, and we were- best friends ever since. Either getting in trouble together, or he was pulling me out of it. But his name was Helmut.

[Steve didn't expect Bucky would know the name, and if he did, who might Helmut be in his world? But he leaves off his last name anyway in a silent sort of reflex. But there's a fondness, quiet affection to his voice.]

[ It's silly, but Bucky feels an odd sense of jealousy in his gut. He'd always felt a little special in being Steve's friend. Steve's important to him in such a personal, intimate way. He's an anchor in Bucky's life, even when he's not around. The idea that someone else could just have that feels wrong. ]

For a long time, I was Steve's only friend, too, but he has more friends now.

[ He smiles sadly. ]

Sorry, I haven't seen him in a while and he hasn't looked like this in even longer.

[Steve is honestly not quite sure what to say to that. It's this strange thing, this idea that he had another life, with someone else in it, and not the best friend that ached in a hole of his heart. It had been a while since he'd seen Helmut even before this. So he wrote letters, updates on the mission, what things were like. Living on his own for the first time in his life, and more than anything he missed his best-friend.

So that sad smile is something Steve understands, and his own expression is a quiet echo of it.]

It's okay. Do you want to tell me about him?

[He's curious, but he doesn't want to push too much. He's still trying to feel out what Bucky's comfortable with. He'd like to be his friend, even if he's not his Steve.]

[ Bucky laughs and it's a little hollow. ]

You know, last time I met someone who knew another me, I didn't really enjoy hearing about him. Maybe I should spare you.

[ Understatement. The Bucky those kids had told him about had clearly been a better man than he is, braver and more honest in ways Bucky just can't muster. It had weighed heavily on him for a while there. ]

[There's a wry curve of his mouth at Bucky's reply. And he can.. understand that, he thinks. And Bucky's maybe even right-- Steve struggles so much to measure up to what people want or expect of him. What if he can't even measure up to himself?]

Maybe you're right. But I think I'd still like to get to know you better. Even if I didn't know you in my world-- I'd like to be your friend here.

[His smile is a little unsure, but still genuine. Steve has just never really had friends aside from Helmut, and so much of his life has been shadows and suffering that he tries so hard to only focus on the light, on purpose.

But he's not sure if he knows what his purpose is anymore.]

I'd like that, too.

[ The answer comes so easily. It's Steve, even if he's different, and Bucky isn't opposed to making friends with people, anyway.

This feels completely surreal, but what doesn't these days? ]

If you need help with anything, let me, okay? It's not--I like helping my friends.

[ It seems necessary, because his own Steve has always been a little too proud to ask. ]

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