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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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You shouldn't... [ pull that out, is what she's going to say, before Clara does just that. Sarah cringes, waiting for the spray of blood, but there doesn't seem to be any. Even the fork looks clean. Must have gone in more shallow than it looked. Sarah takes a deep breath and nods toward the exit. ]

Let's go.

[The fork clatters to the ground, and Clara reaches for Sarah's hand, trying not to get separated in the increasingly chaotic crowd. The nearest door is a hundred meters away at the least, past the line to the ladies' room, where a dozen guests seem to be gearing up for a fight to the death with their removed stilettos. The eerie red glow of the exit sign marks their path.]

You know- [She pauses to grab a metal tray off the bar, and hands it to Sarah.] -they say what you're doing at midnight- [Another brief stop to arm herself with a ladle from a punch bowl.] -determines what the rest of your year'll be like.

[Alright, here comes the home stretch. The Stiletto Gauntlet.]

This is probably not far off. [She tosses Sarah a slightly manic smile, and squeezes her hand.] Now run.

You're taking getting stabbed pretty lightly. [ Still, she can't help but half smile. Fighting for her life is just more of the same, right now. If this determines the rest of her year, she can't pretend to be surprised. ]

Right. [ She lifts the tray, ready to use it as a shield or a weapon as needed, and starts to run for it. ]

[Sarah's observation about the stabbing is just met with a wild smile, before she takes off into the crowd.

Generally, Clara's size is a detriment more frequently than it's an advantage. She has trouble scaling fences and reaching shelves, and her feet don't quite reach the floor when she sits in most chairs. In this situation, however, it proves helpful. She's able to slip under arms, dart beneath raised weapons, fitting through openings a taller woman wouldn't be able to manage. Few of the party guests even notice her, as focused as they are on their own delusions of homicidal rage. Finally, she bursts through the last of the crowd and slams into the door's panic bar. Immediately, the emergency exit alarm starts sounding overhead; no one even seems to hear it.]

C'mon, out you go!

[Cold, night air hits her as she holds the door open for Sarah, a grin still on her face.

This girl ain't quite right, sorry.]

[ The cold air hits her like a slap as she runs the last few feet and out the door, alarm blaring overhead. She turns and tries to return Clara's grin, but already it's like everything she'd been feeling inside has been muted—why the hell had she been so happy at the party, anyway? So willing to just forget that she's essentially been kidnapped and held against her will? Fucking hell. The adrenaline crash is like a punch to the chest. ]

You alright?

[The thing about Clara's adrenaline is that it doesn't crash. She has two modes - high, and low - and no bloodstream controlling them. When the cold hits her, it only fuels what she's already feeling. Clara isn't alright, she's great.]

Yeah. You?

[Her chest isn't heaving with breath, and she's still paying no attention to the holes in the back of her jacket.]

[ No. ]

I wasn't the one stabbed with a fork.

[ She takes a few backwards steps, makes sure no one's followed them out, then turns and looks up and down the street. ] Should we call the cops? [ She's become so desensitized to shit like this (well, not exactly like this, but... yeah) that she's not even sure what's an appropriate reaction. Stand around, let those people fight each other? Try to intervene? She's not even from here, Christ. ]

Oh, right! [She reaches over her shoulder, patting around for the holes in the jacket. It stings, of course, and she winces a little when her fingers prod at it, but the prongs of the fork weren't sharp enough to pierce through any muscle.] That'll be fine. It didn't even bleed.

[Unfortunately, Sarah's question is a bit harder to approach than the fork incident. Clara can tell right away that she must be brand new.]

Cops won't be any good. Deerington's sort of... self-policed. [It's the friendliest way she can think to put it.] Basically, I was planning to pop back in there once you were safe and try to stop it myself.

I'm not letting you just go back in alone.

[ Which isn't to say that Sarah wants to go back at all, but she's not going to stand out here while Clara goes and just hope for the best. She's not a great person, but that would be too callous even for her. ]

Good thing I don't need permission.

[She starts to pace a bit, boots scuffing on the pavement. The chunky heels put her right at Sarah's height; normally, she'd top out at her companion's nose.]

Oh! [The pacing stops suddenly, Clara's eyes wide and electric with a realization.] It stopped when we got outside. The second we left the hotel, I didn't want to shag you anymore. [You're welcome.] Maybe it's the same for the people fighting. Whatever's going on, it only lasts so long as they're inside!

[So... how do they get all the hotel's occupants to leave?]

Edited (same icon whoops) 2019-01-04 18:47 (UTC)

[ Wow, okay, hey. She's wearing leather pants. She's extremely shaggable right now. ]

I don't know, set it on fire? [ Excuse the attitude. She's a bit offended, honestly. ]

[It's somewhat telling, in terms of how much Clara has changed over the past years, that it takes her a moment to register Sarah's shift in attitude. And even then, she's not sure why.]

A fire, or- [She sticks a finger up in the air, sharp and emphatic.] -a fire alarm.

[With her non-gesticulating hand, she grabs for Sarah's, lacing their fingers enthusiastically.]

C'mon.

An alarm went off when we opened the door. No one seemed to care about that one.

[ Still, Sarah accepts the hand holding and allows Clara to pull her along. She's got no particular resistance to trying out the fire alarm, other than, you know, who she is as a person. ]

Yeah, but the door alarm didn't have sprinklers.

[Not that she's positive the fire alarm will either, given that this is a woefully outdated town. But a few things here are modern enough to take the chance that fire safety may be as well.

She pulls the door back open, and the wall of sound hits them at once. Alright, so the party hasn't quite ended, good. Clara tugs Sarah back into the ballroom, and leans close.]

We'll just stick to the walls until we find one! Stay close!

[She's certainly not letting go of Sarah's hand, it seems. In fact, as they move along the dark, paneled wall, the grip unconsciously becomes tighter, and the distance between them closer.

Maybe, just maaaaybe, she made a miscalculation on the permanency of the broken spell.]

[ Yeah, you're damn right you did, Clara. Sarah seems to relax, despite the attempted murder going on all around them, as she grips Clara's hand and follows her around the perimeter. She's... had worse first dates. ]

If this doesn't work, do we have a backup?

Nah, but that's the fun bit.

[If anything, the attempted murder going on all around them just widens Clara's smile, and it's not even from the effects of the spell. This is where she's at her most alive, in the middle of danger and chaos.]

Come on, I think there's one up ahead.

[About fifty meters in front of them, a red pinpoint of hope.]

After this, back to my place?

[ She sounds distracted, now, about their mission to turn on the fire alarm. It's only an incidental thing, something stopping them from getting from point A to point B. ]

[The main mission is still at the front of Clara's mind, but at Sarah's suggestion, the thoughts pushed a bit farther back start to come forward. Yeah, yes, back to this woman's place, that was precisely what she had been counting on. It almost feels like it was her own idea, now.]

God, yeah.

[She tosses Sarah her most enticing smile, urging her the last stretch towards the alarm. A nearby blade flashes moonlight across the device for just a moment.]

Alright. Here goes.

[The teen-delinquent thrill of the moment, the proximity to danger, the promise of later activities - it all seems connected, all bound up in the same flash of madness behind Clara's eyes, in the brilliance of her grin. She squeezes Sarah's hand, gives an excited huff of a laugh, and then throws the switch.

Instantly, the alarm shrieks into action. White lights flash from above, accompanying the chirps. A few people in the crowd seem distracted by the sound, and for a moment that seems like it's all it's going to do. Then - blessedly - the sprinklers start up, like rain after a drought, and Clara laughs, turning to face Sarah in what feels like delighted slow-motion, the spray of water already dampening her hair.]

[ Sarah, caught up in the moment, grins back at her. She's so beautiful, God, this night has been so weird and so crazy and so beautiful. She steps forward without even thinking and pulls Clara into her arms and kisses her, deep and slow. As she does it, it feels like some great weight is being lifted from her, like her bones and her heart have been lifted somehow, made new again. Like all the bullshit from before doesn't matter. The clones, Cosima being sick, Kira, none of it is present anymore. Only she and Clara are here and now. ]

[Oh! This is... very, very nice, even nicer than Clara had anticipated. She doesn't even look around to see if her plan worked, because all at once her hands are seeking out the back of Sarah's head, tangling deep in her wet hair, and her eyes are closing tight and hard against the sudden spark in her stomach. It doesn't feel like it's through a haze anymore, not like when the clock first struck midnight and the room erupted into something dizzy and dreamlike. This doesn't feel dreamlike; it feels like adrenaline, like it's coming from her veins instead of clouding her head.

... Okay, maybe it's still clouding her head a bit. She can't tell, not when she's being distracted by a frankly sensational kiss. There's no need to pull back for breath, but she separates from Sarah just long enough to manage, ] Happy New Year.

[Someone bumps her a bit in their hasty beeline for the back door, but she barely notices. Her fingers tug at Sarah's hair, just barely, and she smiles as though she's thinking of a secret.]

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