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memesville2020-10-25 11:03 pm
robbies) wrote in memesville2020-10-25 11:03 pm
Entry tags:
TDM - OCTOBER 2020
TEST DRIVE MEME - OCTOBER 2020
Everyone's entitled to one good scare.
CW: Violence, death, mouth trauma, vomiting, needles, razors
“Help me. Please, help me…”
A child’s voice, calling out for aid. There’s no rhyme or reason for when it comes to you. It’s so quiet, a whisper in the deepest, darkest corners of your mind. Were it not for the sharp, stabbing pain it pulls out of you, you could ignore it. You could even pretend it’s just your imagination.
It all happens so quickly and powerfully. Left in the dust, your brain struggles to process it all. Blacking out is the least it can do, but it’s also all it can do, and it does so before you even have a chance to fully register just how young the voice is, and how deeply, heartbreakingly lost it sounds.
When you finally awaken with your bare feet tangled in soft sheets, a layer of fuzzy fleece or slinky silk clinging to your body like another layer of skin, the sunlight pouring in from the window next to your bed momentarily blinding you, and the cries of happy children playing baseball outside of it carrying faintly, it all becomes very clear—
Something is horribly wrong.
A child’s voice, calling out for aid. There’s no rhyme or reason for when it comes to you. It’s so quiet, a whisper in the deepest, darkest corners of your mind. Were it not for the sharp, stabbing pain it pulls out of you, you could ignore it. You could even pretend it’s just your imagination.
It all happens so quickly and powerfully. Left in the dust, your brain struggles to process it all. Blacking out is the least it can do, but it’s also all it can do, and it does so before you even have a chance to fully register just how young the voice is, and how deeply, heartbreakingly lost it sounds.
When you finally awaken with your bare feet tangled in soft sheets, a layer of fuzzy fleece or slinky silk clinging to your body like another layer of skin, the sunlight pouring in from the window next to your bed momentarily blinding you, and the cries of happy children playing baseball outside of it carrying faintly, it all becomes very clear—
Something is horribly wrong.
OCTOBER 1st.
It becomes very clear very quickly that this isn’t a simple kidnapping.
By the time you make it down to the living room, you’ll notice that the television is on; someone must have forgotten to turn it off before they went to bed. On it, a cartoon pack of cigarettes and accompanying cigarette dancers prance around a black and white pumpkin patch, joined by dancing skeletons, ghosts and witches as a cheerful little earworm blares: ”Thirty days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, thirty days til Halloween—“ |
GETTING TO KNOW THE NEIGHBORS.
| As you get acclimated, you gradually begin to learn more about this strange new world you’ve found yourself in. You’re in a neighborhood on the east side of a town called Santa Rosita located… somewhere in California (wherever or whatever that might be). The year is 1961. If it wasn’t clear enough, your neighbors are more than willing to humor you if you ask. Even if you accost them with questions and demands. Sure, you and your family are a little kooky, and you have a very overactive imagination, but the key to any good joke is playing along! And how could something like “I’m from the future, from another world” be anything but a joke? A. AUNT MYRNA'S PARTY CHEESE SALAD.Over the course of the week, your neighbors will come by unannounced, each with a new homecooked meal to welcome you to their cozy little side of town. Meatloaf, potato salad, lamb chops. Gelatin molds — lots of gelatin molds.Someone even comes by to drop off a gelatinous yellow lump of pineapple, green peppers, celery and yellow cheese swimming in a soupy mixture of sour and whipped cream. “It’s my aunt Myrna’s recipe!” they gush once they drop the casserole tin into your hands, proceeding to rattle off every ingredient. Well, at least you won’t be starving anytime soon. When you bring it back in to your kitchen - and its cheery wallpaper and its floral patterned Pyrex dishware, you and your new...family(?) all stare at the cheese salad, the gelatin, the curiously frosted meatloaf spread. A smorgasbord courtesy of the insistent generosity! Who will take the first bite? |
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B. DON'T BE A SQUARE!
You can only avoid the cheer and the neighbors for so long, even as you sit inside enjoying all the amenities of your new home. The television can only turn its volume up to five, after all! One bright and sunny Saturday, the weather crisp and clear, news broadcasts and reruns of The Ed Sullivan Show are drowned out by the music in the neighborhood. Eventually it’s too much to bear — you simply must put on your shoes and go discover the source of that infernal racket.Why, it’s the block party! Haven’t you seen the invitation — with instructions — sitting in your mailbox, silly? Wear a badge so everyone on the block can know you’re new and welcome you to their extended family!
Well! Each neighbor was supposed to set up a table with snacks and drinks and entertainment on their front lawn. Carter Mayhew, one of your Robbie neighbors, has a whole ring toss obstacle course set up for boys to play with, and his wife is cheerfully and blandly instructing a group of girls on jump rope rhymes. Colorful streamers hang from every lamppost and mailbox, balloons and party favors galore. Like you, there are even a few newcomers to Santa Rosita that are caught just as unaware of this event — though others are being welcomed in by husbands and wives and children, caught in conversations about building decks and the upcoming Halloween festivities.
Before you can decide if returning home or joining the party is your choice, a plate with chips and dips and yes, more gelatin is shoved into your hands and a party hat snapped on to your head.
“The guest of honor has arrived! Come and meet your neighbors, neighbor!”
THROUGHOUT OCTOBER.
|
Life falls into a peaceful haze for the next several days. Dull, unassuming, tranquil. As the month drags on, the spirit of Halloween begins to manifest in Santa Rosita, from the pumpkins people start putting out on their doorsteps to the smiling faces of paper skeletons pressed against their windows. And then, towards the end of the month, something terrible happens. You hear it first through word of mouth, rippling through Santa Rosita like a wave, dark murmurs accompanied by sad sighs and downturned eyes. Soon, you start to read about it. Grim business, they say. A tragedy. How could something like this happen. People stop talking about it by the end of the week. Best just to forget about it. Every day, that cigarette commercial comes on. It’s impossible to escape it. And every day, the number of days in the song changes, counting down. ”Thirteen days till Halloween—” “Eight more days til Halloween—” “Three more days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween…” |
HALLOWEEN.
CW: Violence, death, mouth trauma, vomiting, needles, razors
|
October 31st. It sneaks up on you whether you like it or not. When dawn breaks on Halloween day, things are as serene as they’ve ever been as men do yard work, raking leaves as their wives bake fresh pie and cookies in the house, the spicy scent of cinnamon, apple and pumpkin wafting through the neighborhood on chilly October wind. There’s a smile on every child’s face as they skip off the school bus in the afternoon, running into their houses to get their costumes ready. As it begins to get dark, the residents of Santa Rosita start lighting their jack-o-lanterns. One by one, little balls of light flicker to life on every porch and doorstep, jagged smiles grinning in the dark. For the entire night, nobody blows the candle inside their pumpkins out. It’s a tradition, a very old one, and traditions are just another way of saying rules. And Halloween in Santa Rosita, as it turns out, lives and dies by the rules. |
A. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CANDY.
Halloween isn’t just for the kids, although they certainly make up the bulk of who you’ll see out and about on the streets. Walking through Santa Rosita, your neighbors are as generous with handing out treats as they are with handing out gelatin molds and pot roasts, and they don’t discriminate. Adults are received just as warmly as children; the worst one can expect is a quirked eyebrow if they show up to a house without a costume.Apples, packs of gum, homemade cookies. Chocolate bars, nickels, popcorn balls. Your neighbors hand out all sorts of treats, most of them homemade. The Robbies are no exception, and it’s their treats that seem a bit more high quality than most, some of the candy they hand out being obviously expensive, brand names. The good stuff. They drop each treat into your bag with those same pleasant, mild expressions and too-tight smiles you’ve grown used to in your short time here.
Eventually, as everyone winds up doing at some point in the night, you decide to start digging into your treat bag to sample some of your well-earned goods — maybe in the comfort of your home, maybe outside on the streets. And that’s when the fun begins.
Maybe you bite into metal, the razor sharp end of a blade embedded into the apple or candy bar you’ve picked out burying itself in your gums, or splitting your tongue. Maybe it’s a needle, impaling itself straight through the roof of your mouth or a cheek. Or maybe it’s nothing that obvious. Maybe the realization that something is wrong comes moments after you’ve devoured that chocolate bar or cookie, the bitter aftertaste of rat poison hitting the back of your throat along with bile and the rest of the contents of your stomach as they rise up and out of your mouth.
Or maybe you’ll bite into plain, sweet chocolate or fresh fruit. That’s also part of the surprise. You really don’t know what you’ll get until you start eating.
B. ALWAYS RESPECT THE DEAD.
At ten o’clock, all the television sets in the neighborhood turn on, blaring to life right in the middle of that omnipresent cigarette commercial. The volume begins to rise of its own accord as your television starts to pick up interference, bursts of static squealing amidst the rising, screaming chorus of ”HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN!”Breaking through the static, garbled and tinny, a child’s voice cries out.
“Can’t— I can’t hold them— back— Pumpkin— don’t blow the— out—”
And just as quickly as it cut in, the voice cuts back out. Commercial jingle notwithstanding, you’re alone once more. But not for long.
The doorbell rings. You can see them outside from your window: costumed children. Their masks and clothes are grimy and ragged from the muddy, slimy water they’ve been decomposing in for over a week. When they come to your door, squelching wetly as they shamble up the porch steps, they ring the bell or knock, as all polite children do. If you don’t let them in, they’ll find their own way, always by force. And once they find you, all they can gurgle in their reedy, waterlogged voices is, ”Trick or treat.”
From there, they attack.
With superhuman strength and speed, they tear and rip at anything they can get their hands on — clothing, skin, muscle, face, eyes. Being short and small, despite their strength, they're at a distinct disadvantage. They can even be thrown off, with some effort. But they don’t stay down for long, and attempting to hurt or mortally wound them only stalls them for a few moments, if that. How can you kill something that’s already dead?
Some in the neighborhood are willing to try and find out.
The only houses they seem to ignore completely are the ones with lit jack-o-lanterns still outside. They’ll loiter outside these houses, staring straight ahead at your door or window like they can see exactly where you are. But sooner or later, they’ll pass by and move onto the next house.
As long as the candles in carved pumpkins stay lit.
OOC INFO
Hello, and welcome to We're Still Here's first TDM! Here's a few things we'd like you to keep in mind:
The TDM is canon. You can treat this as the game's first real event and pick and choose what threads you would like your character to remember when they enter the game. For characters who app into the game, the events of the TDM will be treated like a dream. Upon awakening from it, characters will find that time has jumped ahead to December 1st. You may also feel free to use similar reality and/or time distortions to explain why the family members your characters have in the TDM aren't the same as the ones they may be assigned to in the game proper.
If you would like to have Halloween content in your relaxed housing prompts, please feel free! You are not beholden to follow our prompts exactly so long as the spirit is maintained.
There is no Network prompt listed, but feel free to wildcard one for your characters anyway.
Although the TDM is canon in the sense that characters are free to remember its events when they app into the game, it does not count as an official plot heavy event, meaning that characters will not receive regains from participating in it.
With regards to the dead trick-or-treaters: you may NPC them however you'd like, but keep the details we've listed in their prompt in mind. They are supernaturally fast and strong, will ignore houses as long as they have a lit pumpkin on the porch outside, and will try to enter each house the moment the candle in the pumpkin goes out. Additionally, they can't be killed, but they can be momentarily stalled by injuring them. By November 1st, 6AM, they will disappear the moment the sun comes out.
The TDM is canon. You can treat this as the game's first real event and pick and choose what threads you would like your character to remember when they enter the game. For characters who app into the game, the events of the TDM will be treated like a dream. Upon awakening from it, characters will find that time has jumped ahead to December 1st. You may also feel free to use similar reality and/or time distortions to explain why the family members your characters have in the TDM aren't the same as the ones they may be assigned to in the game proper.
If you would like to have Halloween content in your relaxed housing prompts, please feel free! You are not beholden to follow our prompts exactly so long as the spirit is maintained.
There is no Network prompt listed, but feel free to wildcard one for your characters anyway.
Although the TDM is canon in the sense that characters are free to remember its events when they app into the game, it does not count as an official plot heavy event, meaning that characters will not receive regains from participating in it.
With regards to the dead trick-or-treaters: you may NPC them however you'd like, but keep the details we've listed in their prompt in mind. They are supernaturally fast and strong, will ignore houses as long as they have a lit pumpkin on the porch outside, and will try to enter each house the moment the candle in the pumpkin goes out. Additionally, they can't be killed, but they can be momentarily stalled by injuring them. By November 1st, 6AM, they will disappear the moment the sun comes out.
Lavinia Whateley | Fate/Grand Order
[The strangest thing about waking up, to Lavinia, is the waking up part. She can remember the pain in her chest as she bled out in Abby's arms, she can remember her best friend's tears falling onto her face, and the overwhelming sense of peace she felt when she realized that the Outer God had been successfully chased out of Abby. She was dying, dead, and it was just as she felt herself fading that she heard that voice pulling at that last fraying thread of her consciousness...
... And then she woke up. In a room so bright, so unlike her room back in Salem, wrapped in soft sheets and such an utter feeling of wrongness that warning bells immediately begin chiming in her head. In a flurry of movement, she rolls out of bed, red eyes darting this way and that, noticing the dolls and the books and the colors that absolutely aren't anything of hers.
It's so... mmm. It's not familiar, but there's the same uncomfortable prickling at the back of her neck as she cautiously steps out into the hallway of the house, seeing pictures of her and people she never met before. Evidence of her living a life she never lived, acting familiar with strangers... it's almost how it was in Salem. Was she brought here to play a role, just like then?]
W-What role, though...
[She mumbles to herself, unaware that there might be other people around. In fact, she seems to be doing her best to avoid other people; eventually, she'll make her way outside, away from this fake family she's found herself a part of, just... poking around the neighborhood. Looking in garages, garden sheds, even testing some of the cellar doors of the other houses.
If this is the work of some powerful magecraft, or a demon like Raum, then there has to be a workshop somewhere. She can find more clues from there...]
[B; Aunt Myrna's Party Cheese Salad]
[Supposedly growing up in a Puritan village in the 1600's, Lavinia is used to a rather bland, simple diet. Bread, porridge, eggs... the most extravagant things she's ever eaten were the pancakes Abby's family was able to afford to eat whenever she stayed the night. So all of this food, and the excess of it, was a little overwhelming for the girl. Some of it looks downright alien, and that's what she avoids.
... Except for the "cheese salad". It looks revolting, no doubt about that, but she can't help but stare at this congealed mess of what looks like spoiled milk and vegetables. From the safety of her front porch, out of the sun, Lavinia stares at a plate of the stuff, cautiously poking at it and quickly pulling her hand back when it wiggles.]
Th-This is..... cursed, isn't it?
[... Yeah, even the creepy albino kid is unnerved by it.]
That... that c-can't be what she says it is... right...?
[C; Always Check your Candy (cw: needles, mouth/tongue trauma)]
[This is where the most jarring difference between Salem and this new town presents itself; in Salem, All Hallow's Eve was talked about in hushed whispers. The townsfolk always had dark stories of the heathens and their communion with spirits around the fires during Samhain, and it was around this time of year that they gave Lavinia and her family a larger berth than they usually did. The fear of witchcraft made this night a dark day... so when the town comes alive the closer it gets to the end of the month, the more confused Lavinia gets.
She's even more confused when some of the neighbor kids invite her out trick or treating. She's not shunned, not given glares or harsh words. No, they're... encouraging her to celebrate with them? It's strange, and Lavinia wants to say no, but the fake "sibling" of hers almost literally drags her off to visit a few houses. She doesn't last long, only managing to collect a few handfuls of treats, but this is fine. Lavinia's not really one to get too involved in celebrations like this.
Maybe it's not so bad, though... the treats she managed to collect look nice. As she walks down the street, back towards her temporary home, she unwraps one of the candy bars - such a strange delicacy that Lavinia has grown fond of - and pops it in her mouth, biting down-]
-!!!
[And lets out a pained yelp, spitting it out and dropping her bag so she can raise her hands to her mouth. There's a sharp, jabbing pain in the roof of her mouth and her tongue, and she can feel blood dripping down onto her chin.]
A... wha...
[Anyone rushing over to help her will see the source of the problem right away; digging into the roof of the girl's mouth and spearing straight through her tongue is a sewing needle, glinting in the glow of the nearby streetlight.]
A
Hello there, I assume you've just arrived as well.
[Not getting to go on fun adventures to singularities and whatnot (though how fun is debatable), she has absolutely no clue who Lavinia is, other than she's assuming not local since none of the people who seem to call this world home have been doing this sort of thing. As far as she knows anyways. Though maybe they're just better at not being seen?]
But if I may ask, is there something in particular you're looking for? I don't think there's anything terribly interesting in there.
[She's more curious than anything else. It's not her garage anyways since she's just walking by, and even if it was, it still wouldn't really be hers. So she isn't really too concerned with whatever Lavinia's doing.]
i am HOWLING over your username jesus christ
I-I'm... looking for something that doesn't belong. Something... that looks like a m-mage's workshop....
[It doesn't matter if this woman understands what she means or not. Lavinia wasn't expecting any help, so if her words seem like nonsense to Kiara, that's fine. It just means that she won't be slowed down in her search.]
thank you I try
[Just not something she's seen firsthand, unless the oil rig's Planetarium counts.]
Though I'm not entirely sure a mage would keep one in a garage. Or who would be capable of all this.
[She..okay, no, she can imagine how much magical energy would be needed for something like this, but that would be a lot and that makes it hard to fathom who would be capable of something like this, and if they were...why. A Singularity maybe? But that wouldn't explain her being here instead of in Chaldea. So many questions and so little answers!]
checking the candy!!! korra is here to protecc
[ it's the yelp that catches korra's attention, and with movements edged by panic, she scurries forward in her polar bear costume. coming to a halt, she kneels down in front of lavinia, her voice calm as she rests her hands on the young girl's shoulders. ]
Easy, hold still. I'll get that out for you, okay?
no subject
Issss fie....
[It's hard to talk, with each movement of her moth as she tries to form words sending another jolt of pain through her, but she's quick to step away from Korra, looking somewhat wary as the young woman reaches out.]
I wass jus... surprise......
[She doesn't need help. It's fine. She can reach into her own mouth to pull the needle out, seemingly not bothered at all by the blood dripping onto her fingers....]