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NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

NOVEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to November's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: DEATH/ZOMBIE HORROR.

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: Possible mild cannibalism, organs (including pictures of fake food that looks like organs), mutant insect in linked picture, blood, sensations of starvation, possible binge eating, possible binge drinking.
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

NOT BEAST NOR KIN

The blood and organs that have been festering in the ground and walls of Deerington seem to not only be attracting rats at this point, but something far more dangerous and... just plain gross. These deadly looking maggots are roughly the size of an average human. They’re slithering in an out of the ground, filling up holes where some organs seem to have burst open, or writhing around in the wake of the red waves that have left bloody puddles in the street. If you keep your distance, they’re mostly just disgusting to watch, adding to the feeling of utter decay that the town has gone into.

But those who wander too close or who are unfortunate enough to go by a nest of these maggots without noticing could end up swarmed. They can leap farther than something that large should physically be capable of and the sharp teeth on the end of their bodies will pierce through even the toughest of skin and bone. Once they latch on, they won’t let go; not until they’ve finished their meal. If you aren’t quick, the blood loss will be, and you could end up an evening snack for a whole group of these creatures.

They are fairly easy to kill, luckily. Average weapons seem to take them down or you can smash their heads (if you can call it that) with a few good stomps from a boot. The only trouble is how quick they move and how strong they are; you might need to call for help to get away from them when you get cornered by too many of these monsters.

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Maggots aren’t the only things that want to eat, though! And it seems that the community center is aware of that as well. Advertisements are strewn all over town for an all you can eat buffet that will be set up, not even an entrance fee required (though donations are welcome at the door if you’re feeling generous). No one in their right mind would want to go and get food from a party into Deerington at this point though, right? Of course not. You’re way too clever for that.

Except that as the party draws closer, anyone who saw the advertisements will find themselves slowly feeling like they’re starving. There’s a hallow belly feeling that no amount of food you consume will ever be able to fill. It feels like you might go crazy from how bad the hunger gets, craving something to fill your stomach, anything... And in the back of your mind, you might remember the buffet. You might start to feel a strange realization that the food they’re offering will actually help get rid of your cravings and you’ll be drawn to the party no matter how adamant you’ve been that it’s not a good idea.

The spread they offer isn’t something that should be appetizing to most on a regular basis; raw, very clearly human organs are laid out across the table on fairly decorative plates. A fountain of what looks like blood is put up in place of chocolate for you to dip your food into. No matter how disgusted you might normally feel, you find yourself practically drooling at the mouth and you’re quick to grab a plate and dive in.

At least the drinks look like they’re normal; sodas, beer, wine, champagne, and liquors ready to create your favorite cocktails. A menu will give you an idea of what pairs best with each organ, so make sure you select something that goes perfectly with your plate of intestines.

What would a Deerington party be without something tricky attached to all this. Even the smallest bites of any of the organs will offer sudden changes to the consumer, each power growing stronger the more that you eat.

Eating BRAINS will make it so that you are able to hear another person’s thoughts. Anyone standing near by, really. They’ll trickle in slowly at first, but the more that you eat, the more you’ll hear, and eventually it could become overwhelming. Sometimes you can focus in on just one person if you stare at them intently, but that could make you look like a creep. Maybe you should just go somewhere quiet until it passes.

Eating a HEART will make you feel compelled to confess your emotions to someone. Maybe a specific person or maybe it’s towards a complete stranger, but you just want to get everything out onto the table. You’re overcome with feelings so strong you don’t know how to contain them anymore and you’ve just got to get them out somehow.

Eating LIVER will cause you to want to drink. A lot. You might find that you’re not able to get enough, even. It doesn’t make you immune to the alcohol though, so it’s got the potential to lead some pretty nasty alcohol poisoning if you aren’t careful. Characters who usually can’t get drunk will find that consuming liver makes them a total lightweight. Woops. Better have someone help you walk home.

Eating the STOMACH will make you want to eat everything. You’ll no longer feel starving, but you just want to taste any food that’s near you, and you won’t stop no matter how full you feel. It’s not just organs, but any food consumed outside of the buffet. It might be a bad time to go to Peter’s Pizza for a late night meal.

Eating INTESTINES will give you an abundance of courage. You’ll find that you’ve got guts you never knew you had and it might make you willing to go tell your crush how you feel about them, or tell off that one guy who’s been pissing you off for weeks, or maybe you might start to think it’s cool to go scale a building or fight a monster when you don’t have any skill sets to actually take one down. Hopefully you don’t do anything you’ll regret in the morning— assuming you don’t get yourself killed doing something stupid, of course.

Eating EYEBALLS will allow you to obtain the memory of the first person that you touch. Depending on how much you’ve eaten, you may just see a small snippet or you could get sucked in to a full and heavy flashback. The memory will feel like it takes place in real time, but by the time that it’s over, you’ll find that whoever you touched is only just starting to ask you what’s wrong — or tell you to watch where you’re going, buster.

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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All-you-can-eat buffets are normally great things, though they're slightly less great when they're filled with some very questionable-looking dishes. They're downright awful when you feel like you're starving and literally can't eat any of the food, no matter how questionable it may be.

Fern hasn't even gotten a drink. He hasn't figured out how alcohol interacts with plants, and the soda brings up bad memories from home, so he's mostly just stuck looking forlorn as everyone else digs in.

That is, until he notices the walking tree downing some concoction with an eyeball tossed in for good measure. He stares, openly, since this is the first other-plant-person he's ever seen in Deerington. It's weird, sort of unsettling since he looks like a smaller version of Darren, whom he distinctly remembers killing, and extremely baffling.

Eventually he gets ahold of himself and wanders over, uncertain of what he's doing. "Dude," he says, deciding to go for the obvious. "Are you from Ooo?"

The cafe? Yes, yes, we can use that. I haven't been in a while.

[And, as soon as they were through the door, she was stumbling over and flopping hard into a chair, pulling out a lighter and some incense. Flick... flick... And it started to smoke before she was coughing into her hand again, sighing some and smiling up at Yang.]

Sorry... this is what happens, when you come back from the dead around here, Yang.

[ okay, so lighter situation is solved. what leaves her with more questions than answers, however, is vira-lorr's explanation. this is what happens, when you come back from the dead around here, yang.

she's...stunned into silence for a moment. she's seen what happens to people who come back from the dead. she's seen what happens to those who are reincarnated over and over again, and she doesn't like it.

not one bit.

this...has to be different though, right? it's not like remnant. it's not the same... ]

You...what happened to you?

(Yeah that was the reaction Eddie was hoping for. Not so much because he got off on making people uneasy or shocked, but because it was going to make this whole explanation thing a whole lot smoother than it was about five seconds ago. Adults with their incessant urge to see proof. Some part of Eddie still expected adults to not even see that much.

Seeing was absolutely not believing. After all, none of the adults in Derry had ever seen what they had gone through. It never made that any less real.

He looks warily at the guy, not too thrilled at the idea of handing over a sharp object to a stranger, but at the end he winds up doing it anyway.)

If you're going to remove some of it I have extra gloves if you want.

There's really no need for apologies.

[The fact that he goes so far as to make amends for what he'd said is enough to bring a soft smile to his face. Magnus had played out that day several times over before the events that transpired at the wedding ceremony and continued to do so long after his arrival here.

No, he wasn't wrong in his words, simply his execution.]

I was holding out hope for something I felt and had heavily considered. I failed to realize you hadn't yet done the same. That's on me.

[The person next to her was flopped into the seat a second yet, motioning for her to sit down and shrugging and she reached over to grab a whole heap of what could be politely called "chitlins." Yeah. Chitlins... they'd go with that, right? She might reach for the sweet meats too... if she was still feeling peckish.

Laughing in a bar, she shrugged.]

Don't know, don't care. Kind of disgusting, but I'm hungry, so why not? Sit down, girl. It'll bet cold, haha

[She offered her a reassuring smile that she didn't feel right then. She felt horrible, and having been fighting just moments before, she was definitely feeling the regret for the physical exertion. Ugh... damn this place.]

I... misgauged something, and I made a terrible mistake. A fr... a monster killed me. A week later, Sodder returned me to life, but there's a terrible flu for the first week afterwards. You're not yourself for a month.

...and worse, though I've been having luck with the other things so far... so far. [Sigh.] Actually, a fair question. We haven't met before, have we? You're not simply being nice while my memories come back, I hope.

[Nope, not a remnant, but welcome to a crash course in the 'penalties of dying' from the resident expert who'd died the most times of anyone around here. Hah, not exactly what she wanted to be known for.]

So when people die...they just...keep coming back?

[ nope. noooooope. yang does not like that at all. it's nothing against vira-lorr, it's just -- she's seen things. she's seen what can happen to people who just won't die. ]

And no, we haven't. Don't worry, I'm brand new here, you're not imagining things.

[ though yang's starting to realize that she's being a little insensitive right now. vira-lorr seems like she's been through so much. yang tries her best to stop being so tense and just ends up sighing and shaking her head. ]

Sorry. This is just...a lot to process. I'm sorry that happened to you, but...I'm glad you're here now.

I shouldn't need the gloves, but keep them out. Just in case.

[There's a gradual shift in demeanor for Barry, who had seen blood and gore in his time and was more than familiar with the inner workings of something like this. Whether it was tangible or not, that remains to be seen.

This kid had that in common with him, experience, and it's a look and attitude that can't be replicated. So, he does them both the favor of not doting on him more than he really needs to.]

Actually, yeah, give me the gloves.

[Curiosity has piqued and even if his initial plan hadn't required it the rest of what he'd been hoping to do absolutely would.]

I'm Barry, by the way.

[It's such a small thing for him to do, to see whether or not this was real or in his head, but he doesn't want to scare this kid either. Basic understanding of the human body allows him to have at least some concept of the way the human body works. You need that knowledge as a soldier, and even more so in his current line of work. He sighs and points down to the floor piece with the scalpel.]

I'm going to sever this little valve right here, so unless you want to see a heart attack in real-time you might want to look away.

[If this town was living and breathing and these organs really worked then they could replicate a heart attack lungs and all once the aortic valve was snipped but that doesn't mean this fifteen-year-old or whatever he was needed to stick around and see it either.]

Everything about Deerington is a lot to process, Yang. Wait until you meet the giant talking robot.

[She managed a small laugh, her voice strained but her smile at least a little less forced. Chin on one of her palms, she let her talk before continuing. Might as well explain.]

Not... forever. There are limits, but we haven't found them yet. Sodder has trouble each time, and it gets worse. Things don't work right. First? I was sick. The second time, I couldn't remember my home for two months along with that... the third, I could not even remember this place, barely remembered my name for three.

...I've... taken steps this time around. Been getting the memories back sooner. It hasn't been easy. [And took a lot of effort] But every time I sleep, I feel things trying to claw at me, to drag me out of my bed. I woke up outside of my own home this morning... barely managed to get back in before some of those maggots got me.

(Eddie delicately hooks a pinkie inside of his fanny pack to get out a pair of fresh gloves and deposits them neatly on the floor just next to Barry for him to grab.)

I'm Eddie. (He glances again at Barry's face, a little too long, trying to place it still, but his interest is taken away pretty effectively by the fact that they were apparently about to dig right on in. Eddie's face doesn't so much as twitch. If anything, he leans over a little closer to get a better look.

Eddie snorts softly and looks up at Barry. He can't blame the guy for trying to want to shelter Eddie from some serious surgical gore, but it never failed to feel a little ironic when adults cautioned him about medical things anymore.)

I'm practically a registered nurse, dude. I've done a lot more than snip an aortic valve. I actually harvested a decent amount of the organs we've been finding in the floors this month just in case they're viable for transplants.

(Which he still isn't sure of, but at least they had them around in the freezer. If anything they could prove as valuable research.)

Don't expect the other organs to react. Sometimes they're connected but sometimes they're completely separated. It doesn't make any biological sense- but I mean. Organs in the walls and floors aren't really on par with reliable science, so.

Organs are only viable for so long. You can't really keep them for future transplants. It doesn't work that way. At least not realistically.

[A nod back to the reality at hand, he picks up the gloves and puts them on and they strain against his hands. He's got pretty large fingers and wrists, definitely not the kind that should be stuffed into a size medium or what might be comfortable for Eddie.

Barry wasn't a combat nurse, he wasn't even close but he'd seen injuries in the field and he'd had to do botch medicine to keep people alive, sometimes himself. So, his skills were hackney at best.

He smiles as Eddie proclaims himself a registered nurse, references the right anatomy. Calls him dude. It's all a little surreal.]

I'm a former soldier. I've seen a lot worse than an exploding heart.

[He'd done a lot worse too, but all the same he takes the scalpel and snips the artery apart. The heart does, in fact, start laboring, working overtime to cover the loss of the valve but there's no keeping it beating past a certain point, other parts of it rupture, and it bleeds out. It's quick, and that's how quick it can happen.

This might just be the weirdest shit I've ever seen, but I don't know that I'd call it monstrous. More like ... confusing.

Edited 2019-10-29 01:59 (UTC)

[His hands fall back to his sides. But not without some hesitation. His natural instinct is to help. To support. And it's hard to fight against it. Especially when someone seems to be suffering.]

Okay. I'll -- I'm here if you need anything.

[Because what else can you do? His hands slide into his pockets. His weight shifting slightly back from her. Unsure of what else to do with himself while she composes herself -- he won't push. That never helps, he's noticed.]

[And then his head snaps up. His eyes widening before they drop to his right hand. To where he swears he can still hear the occasional whir of machinery within.]

I -- I didn't -- [Oh god. What did she see?] I'm sorry.

(A long enduring sigh.)

I know. But they could be good for research. And you don't know this place, okay? Not everything works how it does back wherever you come from. Like this month if you ate a heart you could access someone's fucking mind. So. Logic and science aren't exactly your allies here. So it's a little dumb to assume they're gonna work the exact same way normal organs do.

(One day he'd just make a glossy brochure about Deerington and how you should really avoid figuring anything will work how you expect it to. Dream logic, baby. It was the fucking worst. He curls his small arms around his knees and makes himself comfortable in his squat. He watches Barry put on the gloves, has a strange, absent thought that he doesn't quite understand, and then is looking up at Barry's face again.)

Yeah...Most people here have I think. (By now anyway. Some haven't, but a lot have. He glances briefly over the rest of Barry, and he can kind of see the soldier thing. He had -- arms. Nice ones.

Eddie stares down at the heart because it sure was a good distraction from whatever the fuck was going on in his head. He laughs outright then, and it's more of a giggle really.)

You're in for a wild ride if that's the weirdest shit you've seen. I'm not gonna show you a monster. I could but last time I showed someone a monster who didn't believe me we almost got killed. So why don't you take my word for it for now and you can check back in with me later after you've seen a monster, huh? It'll happen pretty fast. Bet your fur it will.

If you wanna spend valuable time and energy playing dissection with shit that doesn't even function within the realms of reality no one will fault you for it. Pretty sure the same could've been said for Einstein.

[There's no sense in cutting away more floor now. This was a lot to wrap his head around and he passes the scalpel back to Eddie once the heart stops because it was
his after all. The gloves get pulled off of his hands, flipped inside out and on top of themselves so the blood couldn't be touched easily when handling them.

He sighs, adjusts the strap of the duffle on his shoulders with some malaise for his current situation and whereabouts.]

You've been here a while. [A normal kid, an average kid, wouldn't be so despondent when faced with this sort of thing. It's not that he assumes the guy isn't normal outright but there's a world-weariness he understands and has come to notice in those that have been trapped in less than savory circumstances. It's something that can be seen around his expression too, worn thin in ways that loom just under the surface.] How long?

[The part about the monster just gets a sage nod in response, he wets his lips and presses them together into a terse thin line. The last thing he wants to do is have to deal with a monster, whatever it might be, but he's gotten used to fighting- to survive, despite the issues he still has with what he does and he's more than capable.]

[Mike's pretty sure he's the only employee besides the owner-slash-pizza-maker, but that's a clarification for another day.]

I, um. [He tries very hard for a second to drift back down to the floor, but no beans. If only being dead (??) meant that he couldn't feel anxiety.] It's a long story.

[Finally, he looks directly up and into Dustin's eyes. Nine months is a long time not to see one of your closest friends, and he hates how it's almost making him feel nervous. Like maybe he isn't the person Dustin's going to expect.]

What was I doing the last time you saw me?

[If Mike had more wherewithal, he'd be surprised that there's not a literal error noise coming out of his mouth right now.]

Um.

[Just. What.]

I'm Mike. Wheeler. [He can't feel his hands or feet.] From Indiana.

Okay, wait, slow down.

[ there's so much to unpack here. ]

Each time you come back, it sounds like you lose a part of yourself. Is that right?

[ as for the dreams part...well. yang has been there. boy does she know what that's like. but she's not going to comment on her. adam's gone. he's not going to come back to haunt her here, on remnant -- nowhere. ]

(That response actually warrants a slight smile from Eddie. It was tiresome to explain these things, but at least the guy understood what he was saying when it came to the random experiments. That meant Barry would probably adjust better to this place than a lot of people have over the past year or so.

He takes the scalpel from Barry and takes out some alcohol wipes to carefully clean it. He's meticulous in his work and eventually seals the scalpel and puts it away. The gloves are peeled off and deposited with Barry's in a similar fashion.)

Over a year now. I turned thirteen here and in about two weeks I'll be fourteen. Before that I was in other weird places. (Eddie gives a thin shrug, and it's true. He carries a whole lot of weariness. A lot of scars, a lot of weight that he hadn't carried back when he was eleven.)

I've been gone from Derry and in other worlds since I was eleven though. So. I honestly don't remember much from my home sometimes anymore.

(Sometimes he even forgot the faces of his own friends. But that's something he doesn't feel like talking about even on a good day. Eddie gets to his feet and although he's much smaller than this man, he offers both of his hands anyway. They're both scarred heavily on the palms, but the right far more than the left.)

Upsie-daisy. Don't wanna sit near organs for that long. God only knows if they have anything wrong with them in the long run.

Nah. [A bit of a wobble as she kicks some guts off of her boot.] They're not always coming out of walls.

[She's half-kidding.]

Softball, yeah? I did rugby, four years. That tends to come in handier on blokes than giant worms, though.

[ How curious. ]

Why did you think you died?

...if you had asked me months ago, I would have said yes. It is probably better to say that the more you die here, the more you become part of the nightmare. Like the people we see from time to time, tormented and trapped they do not remember who they were, what they are. They simply are part of this place.

Eventually, you are trapped here. Possibly as deer. We aren't sure. Nobody has found the limit, and I don't plan to die again. [Said the woman fighting monsters while sick from death.] But... you're getting the idea. Sodder puts us back as best she can, but it's worse each time.

Do they mix it up? Come down from the ceilings, or up from the sewers like that fuckin'...creepy movie? [Theo isn't going to assume anything now, having just beat a giant maggot to death.

That gets a brief, quirk of a grin and a quick subtle look up and down.] Yeah, I could see you doing rugby. [Jesus, Theo, stop flirting for maybe like five minutes?]

Would've pegged you for fifteen but it's not like I spend much time around anyone under thirty.

[It's true, but he takes the things that Eddie's saying with some sincerity on his end because there were all different types of hell. Sometimes hell was something you lived in, and sometimes it was what you took with you. This kid was clearly older than his age, in ways that spoke multitudes for not only his maturity level but also the insight that he has over the same age bracket.

The offer of hands surprises him, but it's not like he wants to be rude so he gives him at least one palm and uses his own legs to pull himself up. He dwarfs Eddie, both in sheer height and body mass. The last thing he wants to do is topple them both over.

Well, thanks for the dose of realism, Doogie. And happy early birthday.

[Barry does notice the scars but it's not like him to ever ask about another man's wounds, there were things you didn't do. An unspoken rule and he had enough of his own to know better.]

I hope it's not too offputting to you.

[ He's known many who regarded the cloak of royal upbringing with outright hostility. ]

It's nice to meet you, Mistress Yang of the Remnant.

I'm afraid I'm ignorant of the title.

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Page 15 of 62

NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

NOVEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

NOT BEAST NOR KIN

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Character Arrival

3.

CW mentions of death

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:c oh no my heart

C (CW Cannibalism cause Larxene's just going to dig in.)

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tw: body horror, organs, inducing a heart attack - some bullshit back at it again with these vans

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Re: tw: body horror, organs, inducing a heart attack - some bullshit back at it again with these va

tw: body horror, organs, inducing a heart attack

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Re: tw: body horror, organs, inducing a heart attack

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volume 6 spoilers

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