TDM - JANUARY 2021

[robbies]

TEST DRIVE MEME - JANUARY 2021

Good to the last gasp.
CW: gaslighting, potential mentions and depictions of trauma and other problematic material, body horror, dolls, violence

---

“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 outside of it carrying faintly, it all becomes very clear—

Something is horribly wrong.

---

JANUARY 1st.

It becomes very clear very quickly that this isn’t a simple kidnapping. If you’re twenty years old or older, the bedroom you wake up in is very clearly a couple’s bedroom — with separate beds like a modest, modern couple of course! A similarly lost and confused stranger is in the other. They are your counterpart, for everything in this room has a matching counterpart — the nightstand and lamp each of you have beside your beds, the framed pictures on the wall, even your pajamas. If you’re under twenty years old, your room is smaller but more personalized, filled with comic books, model kits, stray baseball cards littered around the floor. Dolls, fashion magazines of people dressed from a bygone era, stacks of vinyl records neatly arranged next to a record player. And then there are the pictures. They’re everywhere in the house — in a frame on your nightstand, hung on the walls, stuck in the photo albums and scrapbooks lying on your desk or tucked away in drawers. Here you are on your wedding day, exchanging vows with your partner. Here’s you sitting in a fishing boat with one of the younger members of your house. Here’s a picture of you at ten years old getting ready for the first day of school. All of the photographs are aged, sepia, even yellowed and dusty in frames hung for a long, long time. 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, the morning news is playing. The newscaster, a man in a gray suit and horn-rimmed glasses, keeps shuffling his paperwork on his desk as black and white footage of people in the midst of celebration — throwing streamers, wearing paper hats, toasting flutes of bubbly liquid — is interspersed between his droning report: ”New Year's Eve was in full swing last night as citizens from all over Santa Rosita came together to ring in 1961. A surge in ginger ale and sparkling cider beverage sales was reported by Honeybees as early as eight o'clock in the evening, a boon for the store…“

---

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. CLOWN AROUND. If December was a time for sweet treats and good food, January is the month where everyone is trying to unload their leftovers. Who better to enjoy them than you, the newest family on the block? Your neighbors have quite a bit of food to share: Throughout the month, they'll stop by to say hello, bringing a new sugary dish with them each time. As always, jello molds are a staple. One plate turns into three turns into five, and by the end of the first week of January, you're likely to end up with a collection of jiggling pink, green, and orange lumps taking up space in your fridge. From mountains of Whip 'n Chill to Broken Window Glass cake, you'd be forgiven in thinking that there's no end to it. And yet, there's the occasional exception. Someone comes by with a Bundt cake lathered in vanilla icing and topped with rainbow sprinkles. Were it not for the giant candy clown head topping it, it would almost look good enough to eat. "There's a rumor going around that you've been a bit under the weather, so I thought this would cheer you up!" they say, right before thrusting the technicolor nightmare into your hands, the clown's dead pink frosted eyes staring up at you. Your neighbor is quick to tell you to eat it while the icing is still fresh (you never know who might lick it off when you're not looking, eh kids?), but not that the clown itself is made out of styrofoam. That's something you'll just have to find out for yourself when you take it back inside and start chowing down!

B. SNOW DAY

What awakens you one cold Friday morning isn't the blare of your alarm clock or your family getting ready to start their day or even the chilly air that tickles your toes as they poke out from the bottom of your covers, but the sound of hooting and hollering outside your window. The sight that awaits you when you go to investigate is something out of a Norman Rockwell painting: The entire neighborhood is outside, playing and carrying on in the snow. While everyone was sleeping, Santa Rosita got four inches of snow, more than enough for the schools to close but not enough to stop everyone from enjoying it.

And enjoy it they are! Children build snowmen in their front yards while their fathers work on shoveling their driveways. Most, however, are busy erecting snow forts in their yards and the middle of the street, running back and forth as they collect ammunition for an ongoing snowball fight that takes up half of the neighborhood. Nobody is spared from their assault, not even the adults, and especially not the newly arrived ones who leave the house. Good luck getting the mail, mom and dad!

"Come on! There's plenty of snow!" one young boy yells at you over a snowdrift. "You can join my team!"

"Nuh-uh!" another boy shoots back. "You can join my team!"

And on and on it goes. Well, for the pacifists among you, making snow angels is always an option!

---

THROUGHOUT JANUARY.

CW: gaslighting, potential mentions and depictions of trauma, and other problematic material

There’s no business like show business! And business is hopping at the Starlight Drive-In, which has been boasting about its all-new film premiering on January 2nd and playing all month long. The critics are raving, the townspeople are flocking, and plans to go to the drive-in seems to be all anyone can talk about. “Make sure you get there early to see the serials,” many of them suggest, eyes wide with excitement. “I couldn’t look away!” Whether you come with your family, your friends, or simply come on your own, the lot is packed, Robbies and normal townsfolk alike beaming as they hook the individual speakers onto their cars. Apropos of the cold weather, the concession stand has added seasonal items to their menu, serving up hot chocolate and kettle corn in addition to its usual soda and popcorn. Watching a movie against a backdrop of gently falling snow while you're sipping on steaming chocolate and melted marshmallows has a certain je nais se quoi to it that even you have to admit is appealing. At last, when it's finally dark enough to start, the projector clicks on from the booth in the back of the lot and the movie begins. A. COMING ATTRACTIONS. The movie, Curse of the Doll People, is a horror flick. A real chill-o-rama, starring actors you've never heard of playing a group of archeologists who unknowingly trigger a deadly curse that sets a group of murderous living dolls upon them. The poster pasted on the ticket booth promises it'll be the most fun you'll have screaming. Unfortunately, you have to sit through several minutes of previews first. The coming attractions aren't anything special — a bunch of westerns, a romance, even a beach musical. Far from being bored to tears like you might be, the people in the cars around you are glued to the screen, popping snacks into their mouths and whispering their commentary among themselves. The movie is the reason why everyone's here, sure, but you don't just get one flick out of going to the pictures! There's also the serials, little 5—10 minute long chapter plays that tell a story in pieces. Nothing can beat those, and when the first one starts, everyone sits in rapt attention as if it were the feature presentation itself. But as the scene opens up on a sight that is instantly familiar to you, and your own face stares back at you from the projection screen, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary film. You watch your memories play out in grainy black and white footage, aired for all the world to see. Or perhaps not — though you may not realize it, the movie playing out on the screen differs from person to person. No one sees the same thing. The person next to you might see one of their worst fears come to life, whether imagined or real, practical or fantastic. You might see one of the worst moments of your life — the death of a friend, your hated enemy bringing you to the brink of death, your absolute lowest point — exactly the way you remember it... save for the way your double on the screen occasionally turns to face the audience, staring directly at you with a knowing smirk and a wink. Or the way your loved ones will sometimes go off-script, gazing at you with pleading eyes as they beg you to help them. The people of Santa Rosita will see an exciting battle between two pirate ships, swashbuckling and cannon fire in place of the traumas you're witnessing. When the serial ends on a cliffhanger, much to the disappointment of everyone around you, it's almost a mercy. "Tune in next week for the thrilling second part!" Well, you will, won't you?

---

END OF THE MONTH.

CW: body horror, dolls, violence

Aside from the horror of the drive-in, January might seem to be passing calmly... until one night, something changes. In the middle of the night, once you fall asleep in your comfortable bed (or on your couch, or with your head lolling against the kitchen table), a nightmare comes to you. The shift from whatever dreams you were having to the cold, dark void you find yourself standing in happens gradually and quietly. So too does the image that plays out in your mind's eye: From out of the darkness, a featureless mannequin stands ramrod straight, facing you with its arms pressed rigidly to its sides. It has no face, no identifying marks, no features at all. It's a blank slate in every sense of the word... until it isn't. Slowly, the material of the lower half of its face begins to split as a searing pain tears through your own, as if invisible fingers are ripping your lips off inch by inch. The slit on the doll's face widens and deepens until, finally, mercifully, its new mouth opens as yours disappears, replaced by a flat, smooth barrier of skin. Like it was never there to begin with. The pain returns, this time in your arms and neck — right as the doll's own begin to jerk. Your joints are hardening, seizing up as the doll's arms go from minutely twitching to slowly flexing. While every nerve and bone from your fingertips all the way up to your shoulders grows heavy, the doll tilts its head and looks down at its hands, as if seeing them for the first time. By the time it takes its first step, you've taken your last: the pain has spread to your feet, ankles and toes hardening and locking into place. Every part of you is claimed this way; what isn't taken by force simply fades from your body and shifts into being onto the doll's, your skin replacing its cloth body, your clothing dressing it, your hair filling out its head. Your tongue goes numb as the licks its newfound lips, coarse cloth and batting surging up from your lungs and all the way to the back of your throat. By the time it's over, you can't move. You can no longer breathe. All you can do is stare at the perfect, eyeless double of yourself standing before you. As your eyes begin to burn, the last thing you see before everything goes black is the sly curve of a smile — your smile — before the face wearing it turns away and walks back into the darkness. Luckily, you wake up to a room full of sunshine and the distant sound of traffic as the neighborhood gets ready for another beautiful day. The morning air feels cold and dry on your skin. You're you. As much as you've always been. Right?

A. DOPPELGANGER.

It's the kind of morning that makes you want to sing. Where the sky was once dull and grey, it's now a deep blue. Barring the usual hustle and bustle on the streets of Shadyside, the first sound that greets you when you wake up is the steady beat of water trickling outside your window as the snow begins to gently melt under the rays of the sun. You may even hear the chirp of a bird! January, in all its dreariness, is nearly at an end.

When you leave the room to go downstairs — or upstairs, if you slept in the living room — the house is quiet and flooded with sunlight. With how perfectly silent everything is, it's easy to mistake the calm for solitude and think you're alone.

This is not the case.

Waiting to greet you is a familiar figure. If you go downstairs, you'll see it sitting in your kitchen with its head bowed and its arms hanging limply at its sides; if upstairs, lying in your bed on its back. There's no mistaking who it is. Even at a distance, their hair, face, clothes and features all instantly recognizable, and you know who it is before you even fully register their presence:

You.

Motionless, your doppelganger looks more puppet than person. Its chest is still, not a single breath leaving its mouth. Its eyes are closed. They snap open when you get closer to it, wide enough to see the whites, as its head jerks up to look straight at you. In a staccato imitation of your voice, it chirps at you:

"Hi!"

"Good morning!"

"Hello!"

"Rise and shine!"

Your clone is a good imitation, but not a perfect one. Its movements are stiff and uncoordinated, like a marionette being commanded by unseen strings. Though its cheeks are rosy, its skin is pale and almost glossy with the texture of newly polished porcelain. None of these setbacks bother it in the very least. If left alone, it goes about the house mimicking your morning routine, though given how awkward just walking is for it, it's almost certain to do a very bad job. Still, it tries its hardest, following you all day around the neighborhood, trying to imitate your movements — all with a smile!

That is, until you become aggressive with it.

It doesn't take much to set your doppelganger off — a simple shove will do it. When that happens, its eyes will do the impossible and open even wider, its mouth yawning into a wail that pitches louder and louder. That's the point when it will lunge at you. Its hands will try to go for your throat, but not always. It's resourceful enough to improvise with whatever it has around it, whether that be a kitchen knife, a paperweight, or even a letter opener. Luckily for you, they're fragile. Just hitting them is enough to crack and chip away at their skin. With enough strength, their limbs can even come off. Unluckily, they don't stay down for long; even a severed appendage can be popped back into its proper ball-jointed place.

All the while, they never stop childishly whining and shrieking at you.

"Not nice!"

"Why are you so mean?!"

"Not nice, not nice, NOT NICE!"

The only way to shut them up for good is to keep pummeling them until they're nothing but a pile of doll parts. But be thorough — even a mouth that's nothing but a shard of porcelain can still talk.

---

OOC INFO

Hello, and welcome to We're Still Here's second 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 February 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. Additionally, starting today comments made to the TDM will now count towards Activity Check. Current players are permitted to use up to five comments from it for this month's Activity Check — half of the required amount to pass. The other five must be made within the game's communities.

If you would like to have January or other winter-themed 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.

A note about the drive-in theater: Players are in full control over what memories, phobias, or fears the serials before the movie will depict. You can also specify whether or not other characters will be able to see your character's serial. Be sure to label your threads with relevant content warnings if needed!

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Comments

[sunborne]

[ daylight is sympathetic to the guy’s plight but is quick to raise up his hands while they quietly shuffle to the side. he’s going to do his best to show he doesn’t have any, like, game-changing information to hide so please don’t try to start a tussle with him. last thing either of them needs is the attention of the too-smiling folk are who now wandering over here, checking on the lingerers, no doubt.

he spares them a suspicious glance because trying to get back to the current topic— attempting to answer the questions to the best of his abilities: ] We’re all surviving, basically. [ he pauses, trying to figure out where he should start. ] A lot of us have been stripped of pretty important stuff— Things like powers or important items. In my case, I somehow lost my original body.

We’re all… clustered together. We quickly noticed that part real fast. Kept in ‘families’— [ he does air quotes here, his face twisting a bit to show how he feels about this. ] —and being told we totally moved in here as one big happy gang. The town keeps doing weird stuff to try and throw us off. Like... We had murderous reindeer chase us down to try and trample us to death. Twice, in my case.

[apodictic]

[ what is a reindeer, let alone a murderous one. angelo can't even imagine what that was, and the fact that it can ... trample people to death? so it's like a horse? angelo hasn't really seen that in-person either, maybe a few in shows here and there. how bizarre. he can't even tell if that's an earth fauna or this ridiculous city's fauna.

that his 'original body' has been replaced with a human one is disturbing to him. but it is not .... entirely out of the realm of possibility if one is capable of pulling people from different worlds and into a forced 'family'. it is .... entirely possible even in the context of his own world, even if it's tied up to newtype research. losing items are regrettable, but if you're the tyrant in the equation, it's par for course.

so, a city subjected to the whims and harassment of its captors, whoever they are, beyond dictating the general behaviour approved of in groups. if you remove the supernatural aspect of it angelo is familiar with the same methods, and purses his lips into a thin line. though really, the familiarity and understanding isn't out of empathy but because of his work and general experience with war.

but even neo-zeon has its own ideology to adhere to. terror like this doesn't have anything apparent in order to explain itself, which makes it difficult, beyond "keep these individuals here." the only way to find out is to stay, and the way he talks about it it seems like nobody has any success leaving at all; or if they did, it's something that isn't up to the new residents.

a pity he is now trapped here and cannot report back to his captain. but if it is planned, then it can be endured and ridden out.

figures, however, that he would be trapped in earth, of all places. ]

What provoked those attacks? [ the murderous reindeer, that is. it still seems ridiculous to him, but if it's a threat .... ]

I have heard there is a mayor. Do you know how deeply involved he is in the city?

[sunborne]

Honestly? How the hell do I know? The reindeer thought if you so much as existed around them, you pretty much forfeited your life.

If you went near their territory, they would literally chase you down, even if you were in a car, to try and ram you off the road. I have the bruises to prove it-

[ daylight tugs his garish sports shirt to reveal the mottle of gnarly purples and blues across his chest. it looks like the work of a seatbelt trying to desperately keep him alive. and thank good for the belt, too, with how the reindeer would not leave him and okuyasu be until they beat them back and outgunned them after a ridiculous chase.

(and no, before one asks: he still does not know the reindeer are still lingering in the town and will be staying at that. the poor guy.)

but- concentrate, daylight! as for the question about the mayor... ] He seems to be beloved, from what I've gathered so far. I remember him being the belle of the ball during this talk he had announcing the gala. Seemed popular enough.

[ he pauses and looks around, wanting to make sure no one is listening to them.

when he's sure, daylight is still not taking any chances. he leans forward to whisper this bit of information, ] He pointed me and others out during the speech. Ones who are also in the same situation as us. If he's not in the know, I'll be shocked.

[apodictic]

How interesting. And nothing else, I suppose, for the rest of us trying to survive this horrible town.

[ he looks at their surroundings balefully. he can tell he's going to have problems here -- he is not a nice person, neither does he have a politically palatable version of himself that can probably pass around here. ]

How is your 'family'?

[sunborne]

It's only me and my 'wife', Agatha.

[ yes, he does air quotes when using the word 'wife' because even he looks incredulous by the turn of events. ] So far, we're doing okay. Besides me getting freakishly tall and her being able to crawl on walls plus getting briefly turned into one of them, it's been... alrightish? Alrightish is the word, yeah.

[ like... alright. cards on the table: daylight is pretty impressed the guy is not gawking at him for being exactly eight feet in height. others have been doing so since he woke up like this (and still are, as moviegoers head towards the concession stand to get snacks).

it's been hard enough as is, adapting to this weird height. please allow him and the other guy to have a somewhat sneaky chat, please. ]

[apodictic]

She. What.

[ excuse you, she crawls????? on walls???? angelo just narrows his eyes at him. are you married to a spider? are you okay?

(and he doesn't really care much about his height considering the world he comes from it's not uncommon to strain his neck given a) he's not gifted with height and b) talking at people in 20m-40m tall mobile suits is just his life. though granted it was easier to do with zero gravity, he doesn't really care at this point.

in any case his height isn't really the thing that's bothering him the most about being in this stupid world. there are other problems. other very big problems. distressing.) ]

[sunborne]


Yep.

[ y e p, he goes. as if everyone knows someone who can crawl on walls.

he is being strangely casual over the fact his assigned partner here now has the ability to outreach the shelves between the pair of them. is it something he's used to? is he used to spider people? ]

She can crawl on walls now and, last time I checked, she wasn’t able to do that. [ he pauses, his expression strangely thoughtful. ] At least, I think so. We both compared notes about where we came from and when but we didn't delve too deeply into what we could and couldn't do prior to our arrival.

[apodictic]

[ hmm. he doesn't like that at all. ]

... what a bizarre ability. I suppose she can have a future in construction work or in being a thief.

[ what else could one need such newfangled powers for. it's not even cool. if he starts climbing on walls, angelo thinks he might as well speak another language as well in order to complete the deal. ]

[sunborne]

[ daylight laughs at the thought of agatha either working on a construction site, scuttling up a beam, or sneaking into someone's house in the middle of the night, scuttling on their ceiling. ]

Um- [ he clears his throat, trying to keep himself in check and to keep the attention on them to a minimum. ] I'll recommend it to her. I don't think she'll seriously take it but never hurts to give her some options on what to do here.

So- I know this is a change topic and all but you doing okay so far? Settling in best as any of us can in this situation?

[apodictic]

I am ... [ what's the word. angelo feels like he's lost all knowledge of language as he tries to name his emotions upon arrival. it's just a bizarre situation overall. he knows, at least, that he's not alone in feeling the way he does, but he just feels that even calling it 'bizarre' doesn't quite encompass how he feels.

so he settles with, ] I am fine, despite the circumstances. [ a pause. ] We are given a house and a warmer welcome far more gracious than most captors would, I suppose there is something to thank for that. Though understand - I am being generous when I say it.

[sunborne]

That's good to hear.

[ definitely a better experience than what others have had in the past but yeah. even if you get a roof over the head and get friendly faces shoved in your face, it doesn't exactly make the situation they're in all that less unpleasant.

still. now that he has his bearings after getting away from the movie and he knows this guy is on the same boat as him, daylight doesn't think it'll hurt to offer the following: ] Listen- I know we just met but, you know, if you ever need a hand, I'll be happy to help out.

Look up the name 'Daylight vis Lornlit' on that rinky dinky device we have. I'll see if I can be of more help than whoever gave you gross housewarming food.

[apodictic]

I am ... Angelo Sauper. [ it is strange to introduce himself without his rank, and angelo frowns as he says his name, like he disagrees with it.

anyway, he is at least very much agreeable about the idea of offering help. ] I do like mutual aid, when done well.

[ as with all kinds of agreements everything is subject to trust and change. in this situation it is certainly recommended to cooperate, and angelo will be a fool to discount something offered in good faith entirely, even if it goes against everything he believes in. he is very sure that his captain wouldn't approve of the latter. ]

[sunborne]

Nice to meet you, Sauper. Wish we could have met under better circumstances but them's the breaks, I guess. [ judging by how the guy carries himself, he strikes daylight as a 'last name basis only' type of guy for these kinds of talks.

which is confirmed by the last comment he made. daylight tilts his head to the side and grins, nodding in agreement. ] Quality over quantity, right? I'll do what I can to make sure the aid is well-done. So far, everyone in the same boat we're one is doing pretty well. Wellish. All the weird shit, outside of the kidnapping thing, going down aside.

[apodictic]

There is no point in that.

[ wishing that there were better circumstances, that is. all he could hear is his captain, telling suberoa zimmerman that men are always afforded the chance to make amends for things that aren't to their liking ... how he misses his captain, but that's not a sentiment easily communicated anywhere.

angelo nods at what he hears from him, then adds, ] I have military and combat experience. If you need help, I can certainly set you on your course.

we can wrap it up here! looking forward for day and angelo interacting. o7

[sunborne]

I'd definitely appreciate that. I don't want to get rusty when it comes to hand-to-hand and target practice.

[ hm- daylight looks around. not only to make sure no one heard that but to also see if there's a chance for them to book it now.

and judging how there weren't a lot of people at the concession stand or hurrying back to the weirdly riveting movie, he thinks there's a window for them. ] I think it'll be safe for us to slip away. Don't think that stupid movie is going to stop anytime soon but no one is going to stop us from leaving, I think.

[ especially since there's a much-touted part two in the works. no one would care if they slipped away. not like they can go anywhere else, after all. ]