NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.


All affects from the food will wear off within about an hour if you’ve only had a bite — or they could last up to twelve if you really stuffed yourself. Please be sure to obtain OOC permission from any players for the brain and eyeball prompts!

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.

Comments

taylor | lifeline games

[taylorisbusy]

arrival.

[ 20th century small town suburb isn't exactly what taylor was expecting to find on the other side of a black hole, but she can certainly think of worse places to wind up?? with the way her luck has been running lately, she wouldn't have been too terribly surprised to wind up back on that planet post crash landing and be expected to go through it all over again, but this time on hard mode.

in fact, that seems like just the sort of nonsense those stupid rocks would put her through.

she'd probably be a bit more willing to entertain the possibility of some small measure of fortune, even, except that this place kind of looks like the aftermath of a goddamn massacre???? taylor side steps a festering pile of unidentifiable red mush on the ground and makes a pointed effort to leave it unidentified in her mind, grateful for the full body coverage her suit is granting her, even if it has led to more than one odd look from the locals.

(the locals that aren't even taking a first glance at the carnage at their feet, let alone a second, so honestly taylor's of the opinion that their opinions are good for jack all at the end of the day.)

with her lifeline currently out of reach, taylor's running around on exactly zero plans for what to do about the current situation, but she's been keeping an eye out for any stray glowing bits of green in people's eyes as she passes by, and even makes a point of stopping a few people to ask: ]

Hey, hi, quick question for you. You haven't seen another me squirreling around town, have you? You'll know it's Other Me instead of Me Me because they're less cute and optimistic. Oh, and they'll have glowing green eyes too, I guess.

beast nor kin.

[ so maybe after everything she's been through, taylor should have been paying more attention to the ground. fair enough, that one's on her.

but maybe if the ground wasn't so busy looking like a slaughterhouse she wouldn't have been making such a point of not looking down, and maybe then she wouldn't have nearly tripped face first into an open, bloody hole in the ground and had to grab onto the nearest person to stop said descent. ] Woah, shit, sorry. Still haven't quite managed to shake off the anti-grav legs, you know how it is.

[ except, she definitely tripped over something just a second ago, not just gravity, and she's just starting to work up the stomach to look down at that awful awful ground and figure out what it was when a sudden sharp stabbing sensation in her leg has her looking down a whole lot sooner than she would have managed without it.

the scream she lets out when she lays eyes on what's currently clamped around her leg is mostly disgust, but there's a healthy amount of fear and pain in it too. ] Eaaauughh! What the heck?! Why is it always bite Taylor day! Ugh, this is disgusting, yech. I hate this, I hate this, I just wanted some nice calming tea!

network. un: t1

Okay so obviously this is going to be a long shot considering the tech we're working with here but I still have to try so here it goes:

This is Cadet Taylor, formerly of the starship Varia, reaching out with fingers crossed--so much easier to do when you're not in an IEVA suit!--that somewhere out there, somehow, my Lifeline is still reading this. Mel? You there?

wildcard.

[ go wild. hit me up on itsmel if you want to plan something specific. ]

elfs gotta have elf friends

[cuor]

[ Curiouser and curiouser. A bemused look steals across Legolas' features, and he laughs in surprise. Of the three tongues of the Eldar he spoke two, and this did not sound anything like the high elven of Elrond and his folk. ]

A strange thing indeed! [ He comes closer, eager to get to know this strange elf better. ] Where do your people dwell? Mine dwell in Mirkwood, east of the Misty Mountains. My father and his folk are Sindarin, and my mother Silvan, though there is little difference between them now after all this time. Are you of the Noldor?

[ Everyone else here is human, so as an elf you must be from his world. ]

[cuor]

[ Legolas listens politely to the stream of words, most of which he doesn't understand. Crystal balls? What use would a ball made of crystal be?

But whatever it is must be exciting, given her demeanour. ]

Being a newcomer to this place, I am, of course, interested to discover how you live here. [ It's not a yes, but it's not a no either. He's watching curiously to see what she does. ]

[acidwashjeans]

[ Steve doesn't believe that the scientific process even exists ]

Okay first of all, you got yourself into this mess, don't complain that I'm here saving you with a baseball bat instead of a machine gun. And second-- [ He pauses, swings at a maggot which explodes and gets bug juice all over his sneakers ]

Aw come on, these were brand new!

[bigbadrose]

[It might not be a yes, but it was definitely not a no, so she's snapping a quick picture and sending it to Aru right away, because this is going to be treasured forever!]

Fluids. We have Fluids here instead of... [.... cell phones. Cybus tech. Give her even longer to figure this one out.] Communication devices???

[She shows off the Fluid device on her wrist.] Very useful. You can... [Stream. Video. ..... ????] Show yourself or write words to people also here in Deerington... [Slowly, but then she nods!]

First thing you gotta know, is people come here from lots of different... [... universes. Wow. That is going to go over even worse than it did with Merlin. Okay.] Time periods. [Yes, that's a lot easier, at least.] Me, and most of my friends here are from way in the future of you and a few others. Like milennia. Thousands and thousands of years. Twenty thousand years even.

[Gestures around them!] All this is probably really futuristic or just plain weird to you, and it's actually the past for me. Sort of. It's complicated.

So if people seem to recognize you... that's why. Mostly. It's complicated. But there's a lot of legends, and it happens a lot here, you're not alone in it. [Nod!] Yeah.

[Okay. That's step one. Step two... ????? She has no idea. What does a Mirkwood elf do in a place like Deerington...? Oh wait!]

Second thing is F.E.A.R. You wanna check them out. The Doctor and Aru will be mad at me, because I'm trying to start up my own uh... organization, that will run counter to them, but FEAR fights a lot of the monsters here and stockpiles weapons, and they're -- [Orcs, Sauron, darkness, zombies...?????? She'd field this to Aru if she wasn't half worried Aru might be even more incoherent than Rose herself.]
[Rose shakes her head.] The monsters and fighting them is probably what you're more used to than my stuff. [Face scrunch!] I'm more on the technological side. Not just the Fluids... but stuff that'll get even madder to try to explain.

Oh my gosh though! Do me a solid, if you ever do some archery practice or demonstrations, put it on camera -- Fluid. I'll show you how to show it off, or do it for you, but I wanna see Aru swoon! [Worst/best friend ever.] Oooooh if we only had Green Arrow or Robin Hood we could have the most amazing competition evar-- ahhhhh sorry! I'm bein' rude, you might not even be that into archery? I mean, legends get overblown, but usually I find the truth is even better than the stories, yeah?

grady numbers | fargo (tv)

[dividingline]

from the housetops to the gutters - arrival

Waking up is a surprise. It's not so much the act itself as the fact that it takes place in what clearly isn't, in fact, a freezing cold motel room in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Minnesota, with a broken heater and Wrench snoring in the next bed over. In fact, he wakes up in a pretty nice bedroom, all mid-century decor and wreathed in peaceful silence. It's actually kind of nice. For about five seconds. Then his fight or flight instincts kick in.

Grady throws back the bedsheets, gets tangled in them on his way up, and falls out of the bed onto the floor.

"What the fuck?" The floor doesn't seem to have any answers either, and remains solidly unreasonable as he pushes himself up and staggers out of the room, seeking some kind of clue as to his surroundings and the fact that he's alone(!) and unarmed(!!) and nowhere near where he was when he fell asleep.

An exit -- namely the front door -- presents itself. Ignoring the rest of the house, Grady takes it as a gift and stumbles out into the chilly nighttime air of.. well, it looks like a suburban town, but not the dull, flat Midwestern sprawl he's expecting. Instead there's forests and mountains and a weird blue thing in the sky. No snow. No motels. Everything smells like salt and blood.

His earlier enquiry bears repeating.

"What.. the fuck?"

from the ocean to the shore - beast or kin

Okay, so it's a dream. Or a nightmare. Either way, it's not real. So it feels more than a little unfair to Grady that it feels real. That it smells real. That the hideous monster maggot creatures he's alternating between bringing his heel down on top of and shooting when he can't reach them seem, in every way, to be perfectly real.

Grady's not quite made for this. He wasn't the kind of kid who grew up reading Lord of the Rings or The Neverending Story. He read car manuals and old copies of National Geographic he stole from the library. He didn't want to be told about something that didn't exist; that didn't interest him for a second. He wanted to understand the world around him, the world that seemed so often unfair and strange. Wanted to make sense of it all, if only for a little while.

And this? Doesn't make sense.

He talks while he works. He can't help himself, he's used to having someone to talk to.

"Gonna wake up any second now -- " stomp, squish, " -- gonna wake up and get breakfast -- " bang, wow those things really explode, " -- maybe eggs, some toast, okay maybe not eggs -- " there are a lot of them though, " -- gonna go find that bastard and do." Stamp. "The." Maggot all over his goddamn shoes. "Fucking. Job."

He brings his gun up to bid another maggot sayonara, except this time he gets a hollow click instead of a deeply satisfying rapport.

"Oh, shit."

all you can eat.

[hylights]

[Yang's interruption is welcome, if Zelda is to be honest. Ever since she had come into the buffet she had found her gaze drawn horribly, inexorably towards the raw meats piled high on the tables. She knows she ought to leave but she doesn't really make a move to do so. Her hunger keeps her here, hovering on the margins, hands gripped together tightly.

She startles a little when Yang speaks to her before laughing awkwardly.]

Oh! No ... not at all, actually. It's my first time.

[And she hopes it's her last, at least for this particular community hall.]

b. Feel free, she's book canon too, so you can add in any memory you want.

[song_of_fire]

[She was halfway through the heart by the time she steps outside, having eagerly devoured most of it at the table. It was easier going this time than before, no morning sickness to roil her stomach and the eyes of the Dothraki weren't on her. Even as her teeth dug into the fresh meat, she could almost hear them chanting at her:

'The Stallion that Mounts the World'. It made her ache before her stomach took back focus. Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal had taken to following her whenever she stepped outside, needing the chance to stretch their wings and grow stronger. Still only the size of small dogs, there was at least a chance they would grow again to their normal size. Perhaps even this fresh meat would help?

...If she was willing to share.

She nearly didn't see the young boy, only assuming it was a pile of furs left behind, but the presence of the wolf made her step back in surprise.]

I know, I found my own.

[vytal]

Cool, same here. And hopefully it'll be our last, right?

[ just, y'know. would reaaaally rather not be surrounded by literal organs right now, is all. yang pointedly avoids looking over at the meat section and keeps her eyes trained on the other girl -- doesn't mean the temptation to look (and eat) isn't there, though. lingering in the back of her mind. ]

Have you been here long? ... "Here" being Deerington, not...this.

Beasts

[song_of_fire]

[He's almost Valyrian in his looks, the sort that makes her heart ache and long for some semblance of home. While having her dragons with her is a comfort (and all three are somewhere flying around, despite their small size), it wasn't the same as having some sense of family and home.

I will never find that red door. He's not Valyrian though and it would only bring her pain to imagine it. Pushing away these thoughts, she's missed his question, taken instead by his appearance. He didn't look like the sort of warrior she knew, more of an elegant man, but the dagger in his hand made it clear he knew his way across a battlefield.]

They do not have maggots where you are from? They feast on the dead.

[multipliable]

[ stepping out of the way of the incoming projectile, ilias looks behind him as he watches the box hit the floor and spill forth a couple of crackers. he turns back to the spooked brunette at the counter, smiling at her apologetically. he deserved that reaction in its entirety, no question about it. ]

I would have knocked first, but... [ he angles his body slightly to show her the state of his arms, meticulously and tightly constrained by the silver links. ] Your door was opened, so I wanted to test my luck. But hi, I'm Ilias. Could you tell me where I am?

[ she isn't an angel, so her threat level is mild right now. a nice yellow. ]

[wwrench]

There are certain aches that will never leave you, no matter how far you get from the inciting incident. Over time you may grow a callous over the wound, or learn to hold your weight differently so as to protect it from repeated strain. You might find other means of dulling the sensation, whether in substance or the form of a distraction. But the pain will always remain, insisting acknowledgment in quiet moments of inactivity or times when something brushes too closely up against the place of that old wound.

Loss in Deerington may take on a different form than in the rest of the waking world, but it still hits with a pain all its own. Wrench has had too much of it in recent weeks. He's strived to be a savior, to fashion his hands into safety nets instead of the brutal tools he's come to know them for. But the man simply isn't built for rescue. So instead he stomaches loss after loss, subsisting on the small hope that they won't be permanent even as he feels his failure so acutely.

There are things that still demand his attention, and that for Wrench may be a blessing. There's a certain rhythm to life that he's found in this place. Odd jobs to fulfill, and students to tutor in sign. Sometimes helping shape their fingers through the letters of the alphabet makes him feel more alone than ever, but eventually, he knows there'll be more of them to talk to. He's heading back to the cabin, fresh from another lesson when he's struck all of a sudden by a familiar figure standing in the middle of the sidewalk, looking lost and confused.

The coiffed hair, the shape of the jaw, those unmistakable eyes... It's anger that Wrench feels rise in him first. Furious, destructive rage at this place that's taken so much and intends now to taunt him too. To mock his senses and give false hope to something he knows can't be. His footsteps are heavy with his approach, but when he's only twenty feet off he draws his pistol from its holster, takes aim at the back of that familiar head, and stamps his foot for the nightmare's attention.

[orcnorris]

There's a line between "ready for glorious battle" and "getting a little too excited about it" that this woman seems to be walking, but he won't say anything about it. Better a competent...mage? shaman? whatever - than a cowardly fighter or unprepared innocent.

"Just clearing the streets." The oncoming worms are getting within striking distance, and he automatically assumes a ready stance, back turned slightly towards her to cover one side. He presumes that she'll take the other. "How long have they been here, then? Where -" the baseball bat smashes into a leaping maggot, pulverizing it instantly. "- are they coming from?"

[dividingline]

There's a certain familiarity to the place he's found himself in. The more Grady looks at it, the more it seems like he should know where he is. Like it's a postcard he's seen in a store, or something from a movie. He squints around at the houses, the little walks and the streets, trying to figure out where it's supposed to be, trying to sort his mind into some kind of order. The last time he checked he was asleep, so maybe this is just a really intense dream, right?

"Just a dream," he murmurs to himself, rubbing his hands together in the frigid air. Figures he would dream about being cold. Even his imagination can't stretch to getting him out of goddamn Minnesota.

Distracted, he doesn't hear the footsteps until the smack of one heavy boot against the sidewalk. He doesn't so much turn as startle in place, undignified but it's not like he's got anyone to impress here anyway. One hand automatically drops to his hip and in the split second that he remembers he hasn't got a gun he also recognises the figure standing before him, those wide shoulders and unruly curls and the goddamn fringe he loves to hate, so the sum total of his body language relaxes for the beat it takes for him to realise he's being held at gunpoint.

Automatically, he makes the universal gesture of 'let's everyone calm down a minute here', palms up and out, fingers spread. Then, with a frustrated growl, he gives that up for something more useful.

Hold on, what the fuck? What the fuck are you doing? What is this? His outflung arms beg the world to answer. He takes a small step forward, frowning as he takes in the sight of his partner. You look like shit.

network, un: saurfang

[orcnorris]

Our Earth is called Azeroth. It's very different from this place. Less humans, for one.

This town is part of the United States? What can you tell me about it? The books in the library haven't been helpful. [Because they're...weirdly broken in some way.]

[wwrench]

That moment of shock and startle satisfies Wrench like picking loose a scab; it is a pinprick of self-inflicted pain. Recent events have lessened the struggle it may otherwise have proven to hold his former partner like this. He's seen the destruction look-alikes can cause, and how cleverly this place can conjure them up and set them loose on unsuspecting Sleepers. Wrench knows the powers that control things have enough of his blood to do with it what they want. He can't know where they might've come by Grady's, but it isn't such a stretch. At least not until the hands raised in surrender shift and shape into something else entirely, and he's left watching the accented formation of words as familiar to him as the thoughts in his own head.

What seems most reasonable isn't necessarily truth in this place, but Wrench has more to lose in opening himself up to a desperate possibility. For five long years he's wondered after the body of the partner he never saw laid to rest. Five years spent wrestling with the possibility that the policewoman was mistaken, that Malvo was a liar. That Grady was still out there somewhere, searching for a way back. It's hard to find closure when you can't see it for yourself. Now the man stands before him, looking every bit the same as he did five years ago. Trapped in time, while Wrench has become something else in the years since his absence. Leaner, wilder, more hollow-eyed and unkempt.

Stop! Don't come closer. Wrench re-trains the barrel of the gun on Grady, his shoulders shaking with each heavy breath. He can sign, he can sign. He signs just like his partner. How did you get here?

[fayzedandconfused]

Oh, yeah, definitely. You have any questions, I'm your girl.

[ Brianna nods to the crowbar approvingly. ] That's pretty cool. I might have to get one.

[dividingline]

There's a desperate, wolfish quality to Wrench's stance that gives Grady enough pause to obey him, though normally -- and especially given he's just dreaming this whole thing -- he would have cheerfully told such an order to go fuck itself. Instead, he pauses to assess the situation. Wrench really does look like shit, like he's been running for days and doing that thing where he doesn't eat and doesn't sleep, trying to kid himself that if he doesn't stop he doesn't have to think about what he's doing. Grady's seen it before and it always makes him feel guilty, like he's failed him somehow, failed some duty of care.

But he also looks older. Just a little, around the eyes, in a way that turns something over between Grady's ribs.

How do you think I got here? The question brings back his obstinate frustration of being questioned by a figment of his own psyche, or whatever this whole deal is. I fell asleep, despite being half frozen and the amount of noise you somehow manage to make when you're not even fucking awake.

He pauses, rewinding a little. Frowns and tries not to feel the sense of impending doom creeping up the back of his neck.

What do you mean, how did I get here? Where are we?

[onerthes]

[As soon as they were at a bench in an open space, Vira-Lorr nearly collapsed onto it, coughing wetly. She really didn't look very good either right now. Frankly, the woman shouldn't have been out, but she could be really stubborn at times.

Settling there, she smiled over at the girl weakly and nodded.]

You're not wrong. And this place will give you ample reasons to run or fight, you'll find. It's ...nice to meet you, Yang, ignoring the situation of course.

[onerthes]

Oh don't you laugh at me, I'll wring your neck!

[She was coughing as she followed and panting when she got to the car. She glared with irritation at it and got down on her knees to look down there. Yeah, not the smartest spot to be if you didn't want to get snapped at by an angry bird, was it?]

Arrival

[onerthes]

... the dopplegangers died out last month. I don't think any of us have seen them since then. I thought someone had announced that, and I don't remember green eyes.

[Not the most helpful statement from the sickly pale woman resting on a park bench with a cloth in her hand to keep occasionally very nasty fits of coughing under control. She'd obviously seen better days. She also didn't have glowing eyes, but she did have three! So... that was something?]

I don't recall anyone looking like you before, though.

[wwrench]

In the absent, hollow space created by a half-decade, some things are bound to start to fade. Wrench can tell himself that he remembers the exact shade of brown in Grady's eyes and the precise angle of each strand of hair on his head, but these are just stories intended to make him feel better. When he really stops to think, he's forced to admit the degradation of the picture in his mind's eye. It's harder and harder to recall now the smell of Grady's preferred hair products and the cut of his jaw beneath the thick beard. Wrench wants to say he'd know immediately, but the truth is there's just too much uncertainty. He keeps the gun trained, wanting desperately to believe but knowing the cruelty of this place and the danger of letting down his guard.

Both Logan and Kurt died once before this place, didn't they? The bounds of this strange imagined town seem not to obey the laws of mortality. It could be that they've reached even further back in time and plucked his partner from a place before Malvo, before the blizzard, before Grady's tired pleas and Wrench's own demands for meticulousness. But then why would he be asking where they are? Wouldn't he have gotten the letter?

Wrench is no more silent now than at any other time. Confusion makes him grumble over his own breaths, frustration seeping from him in ways unknown to him. A sigh, a wordless murmur, the scuffle of his boots on the pinkened concrete. He's desperate to give in to what he knows he shouldn't allow himself. Like the naive peace of a full night of rest. Like trust. Show me where you came from. Where? He crooks his finger around the scene, a sweeping gesture to the buildings that surround them. If Grady was brought here same as he was, surely he'll lead them to something familiar.

[dividingline]

Frustration is a familiar emotion for Grady. The standards to which he holds both himself and the world around him are high, though he'd be the last person to admit to it, operating instead under the attitude that they're the only standards anyone ought to have. The battle between his own expectations and the reality in which he finds himself is constant, brought about by a need for understanding and reasonable responses which the universe continues to defy, but it's the grit and the grind that keeps him going.

It's frustration that drives him now, rolling his eyes and throwing out his hands in disgust at Wrench's strange request. He makes enough noise himself, a stamp of his feet as he turns to point up the little shaded walk to the pleasant house he more-or-less fell out of.

There. What difference does it make?

[trancheuse]

Yeah, it was like she enjoyed tightrope-walking on that line while balancing a pair of knives on her fingers. She certainly seemed to relish a good fight. As for 'what' she was, the way she fought? It was far more like a Rogue, if rogues had the ability to rain thunder down on their opponents. Sort of a weird combination.

"Long enough," she said as she hurled one of her blades straight through one of the oncoming ones, taking up the position at his side that gave them full coverage without so much as being told to do so. "Enough to see how boring this place can get. The maggots are new, but they've got monsters to fight from time to time."

[oddbod]

Not the kind you can see.

[She clops over in heeled boots, gives the dead monster a toe-tap, like she's checking to see if it'll wake back up and roar into revenge. It doesn't.]

I'd say it's usually a bit nicer than this here, but mostly it just smells better.