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

around town—

[hiyakai]

[ who doesn't love good chinese food?

as much as kai loves cooking meals for addy, sometime they just need to treat themselves to takeout from the restaurants around town. he can make a lot of things, but unfortunately, chinese food doesn't rank as one of his specialties. luckily for him, yummy garden hot pot comes to the rescue each and every single time they have a craving for it.

approaching the restaurant, he nearly walks past the blonde examining the menu outside. never one to turn down an opportunity for a nice chat, he stops in his tracks as he offers helpfully: ] Yeah, they do. You should also try their salt and pepper fried squid and their eggplants with spicy garlic sauce. They are so good with rice. It's like... flavor town galore, you know? [ he cannot wait to get his hands on some. ]

sally!!!

[danvers]

[ X-ray vision ability aside, Kara considers herself kind of a perceptive individual — although even if she notices the other woman's chilly she probably won't comment on it directly. As awkward as her non-Supergirl persona tends to be, she also knows when and how to broach a certain subject.

At least her own coat is equipped for colder weather? Maybe? It probably doesn't look all that convincing for her to be standing outside for too long, so she goes through the motions of bringing her hands in front of herself and pretending to absently rub her arms before she shakes her head in assurance. ]

Oh, no, no. You don't have to do that. I was going to go in there anyway, I just figured I'd ask someone who looked like they might have insider knowledge. [ After a beat, she tilts her head, mouth quirking as she weighs her next question. ]

Would you — [ She jabs a thumb in the direction of the restaurant. ] — wanna go with me? I know it's not technically lunchtime, but I could always eat.

[danvers]

[ It technically beats out even pizza for Kara, but only by thatmuch.

Her ability to cook for herself is limited at best; she's capable of saving lives, but if she were forced to make anything from scratch, the odds that her recipient would end up on the receiving end of a stomachache are high. That, and, well, technically she's a working professional who spends long hours at the office (when she's not flying around the city), so takeout places are pretty much a regular staple in her life.

There's nothing regular about her being here, and as far as she can tell, no one from home has woken up in this town either, but when a familiar voice sounds from behind her she nearly freezes where she stands, mouth working open and closed as she finally turns around to put eyes on its source. ]

How do you — Mon-El?

[ Is this where he's been this whole time? Sorry, Kai, but this face confusion just means that you're going to have a Kryptonian throwing herself into your arms because she's too overwhelmed not to pick up on the fact that you're not her ex-boyfriend. ]

hell yeah...!!!

[scottishplay]

[Even if Sally's lackluster coat and occasional shiver betrays her, at least her smile comes easy enough.]

Are you kidding? I'm starving. And you just made me start craving potstickers. Plus, I'm obviously freezing my ass off right now.

[Sally's jumping at the chance to interact with someone who seems actually normal here, so she takes initiative and moves to hold the door open for the other woman.]

I'm Sally, by the way. Sally Reed.

[capturethemoment]

A little over a year I think. There's not many people that have been here that long. Most of the people I've talked to have been here a few months. I just got here at the beginning of October.

[ He shrugs a little in answer to Barry's question, looking off down the street at the stains still lingering in the streets. God, this town is a nightmare. It looks grosser now than it had, and it smells pretty vile most places. ]

There were tidal waves of blood through the town. It's impossible, but it happened.

[ There's something strained in Jonathan's voice. His brother died in those waves, but he's not about to get into that death and resurrection thing with a stranger. ]

I love herrrrr

[danvers]

I take full and complete responsibility for that.

[ There's never a bad time to have a potsticker craving in Kara's mind, and while she partly might be using it as an excuse to get them both out of this nippy weather, the other part of her really wouldn't mind the company. ]

Thanks. [ She glances back to Sally with a bright smile as the other woman holds open the door for her. ] Oh! I'm Kara. Danvers. Kara Danvers. [ She's usually always awkward at the introduction part, ducking her chin slightly as they head inside. ] Have you eaten here before?

[hiyakai]

[ well,

he certainly wasn't expecting this.

before he can even properly react, he is suddenly swept up into a little too tight hug and, as nice as she smells and as surprisingly warm of a reception he is getting from a complete stranger, he can't help but freeze up for like a minute or two. he should seriously be used to unexpected hugs by now, but it still throws him so off guard. while she's giving him a very enthusiastic embrace, he awkwardly has his hands up almost in surrender. he finally lowers his left hand after a moment to give her two light pats on the back as he tries to wrap his mind around what's happening and, more importantly, what a mon el is. ]

You must... really like my suggestion, huh? [ an uncertain joke. ] You're welcome...?

[ how to cover up your own confusion? with humor, of course. ]

[danvers]

[ There are lots of ways for Kara to identify someone when she's thinking clearly enough to focus on using her abilities. She can pinpoint the heartbeats of the people she's specifically close to, like her adoptive sister or her equally superpowered cousin. She can use X-ray vision to pick up on whether or not someone has shapeshifted to merely look like a loved one. She can sometimes even tell when people are being truthful based on whether their pulse quickens, even if they aren't giving off any other signs of lying.

None of those routes enter her brain right away, not when she's confronted with the face of someone she knows — or thinks she does — but she's anticipating an equally strong hug and when it doesn't come, she's left feeling more confused at the start, slowly withdrawing until she can set her hands in the crooks of his arms, peering to his face with an awkward laugh. ]

What's going on? You're acting like you —

[ And then it hits her, and she lets that thought trail out into almost a whisper. ] — like you have no idea who I am.

wow same!!!!

[scottishplay]

Never in my life.

[Sally hardly notices any awkwardness in Kara's greeting, or if she does she doesn't point it out. The inside of the restaurant is immediately much more inviting than nearly anywhere else she's been so far, especially with the added warmth. It's all doing wonders for Sally's nerves.]

I just got here from LA a few days ago, except it was completely against my will, which I'm sure everyone's heard a million times by now. Maybe not the LA part. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to try out a lot of the restaurants yet. But when I moved to California I was totally by myself and didn't have any money either, and that turned out fine.

[...Automatically, Sally's gone into talking-about-herself-a-mile-a-minute mode. She seems to realize she's just started going off, though, and laughs it off.]

Wow, look at me, we just met and I'm practically telling you my life story.

[hiyakai]

[ he relaxes a little when she lets go of him, but she is still too close for comfort.

he adjusts to it quickly though, a natural ease for someone who can't feel embarrassed or shy. her next words bring some clarity with them, except he can't be entirely sure what that might mean for him. she clearly knows someone who looks like him.

could it be the... mon el? is that like a nickname or something?

it sounds french. ]

Yeeeah... [ he smiles at her apologetically as he meets her eyes. ] I don't. Are we supposed to know each other? [ different universe? different timeline? does he meet her in the future or does she know someone who just has the same face as him? the possibilities are endless. ]

supergirl—

[magija]

[ she's a ghost, so the maggots shouldn't be a problem. right? right.

but if she thinks she's formed some sort of invincibility (and invisibility, at times) with her body's new state, this is precisely the worst time to realize her mistake. because while she'd been able to seize a few of them with her magic — a surrounding glow of red wrapping their bodies before she works in a twist to render them lifeless — she doesn't hold up her guard as well as she should, predicting all they're bound to do is simply sliver through her body.

instead, she feels the tight wrap of that slimy exterior slide upon her legs, wrapping around to seize her place, to grip her fingers within its clench to keep her from casting a spell.

panic starts to set in, and whether she needs the breath or not, she's panting fast and trying to find an alternative, to seek a way to twist out of its grip. but she can see the sharpness of its teeth closing in and she screams from the pain of its tight grasp —

and then it loosens, a sudden force knocking her over to the ground but free of the maggot's trap, and as she peers up, she sees the woman towering over her, a cape flapping against the wind. ]

What — ? [ she blinks, elbows against the ground as she tries to pick herself up, brows tight with confusion. but as she sees another maggot working its way in fast towards them, she throws her arm out, a wave of red light tossed for her palm to strike the fiend, exploding it from the impact. ]

[danvers]

Yeah, same here. I'm not from LA, though, but I've always wanted to visit. I don't really get all that much time off — work, you know.

[ By all appearances, a mild-mannered reporter for Catco Magazine could work hard enough to not earn too many vacation days, but the truth is that she never really gets time off from her real job — nor does she expect to. But she's distracted from all of that by Sally launching into lengthy detail about herself, and Kara can't stop her smile from widening. ]

It's okay, really. Sometimes I have trouble shutting up.

[ She lifts a hand to indicate that there's only two of them to the hostess, and then follows her over to the table, sliding into a seat across from Sally. ]

I'm from National City, actually. Still California, just way south of LA.

[danvers]

[ Her hands suddenly fly off of him as if she's been burned; she hasn't, and it would take more than a normal method of heat to even so much as give her a first-degree burn, but it's more the awkwardness of realizing she's still holding onto him that prompts the quick yank back as she vigorously shakes her head in embarrassment. ]

I'm so sorry, I — I thought you were someone else.

[ It's probably not the best time for her to go into full detail about who she'd confused him for, especially since they're standing right here on the sidewalk, and she's definitely blushing a little even as she tries to get over the fact that she's essentially thrown herself into the arms of a total stranger. ]

You look... just like him. [ Her mouth works open, a soft sigh escaping her as her shoulders slump. ] It's uncanny.

[danvers]

[ She's dealt with these disgusting things enough times now to figure out that once they latch on, they're even harder to pry off — not impossible, for someone with her strength, but considerably harder, and she risks doing damage to the person they've attached themselves to in the process. She doesn't want to inadvertently hurt anyone if she can help it, and the best course of action she can see here is to try and see if she's fast enough to grab and crush them before they have a chance to open their mouths and sink their teeth in.

But once she's down on the ground, toes skimming the pavement slightly before she finally drops to stand, she picks up on the sound of slithering all around them, realizing that the maggots won't necessarily be confused by the prospect of more than one person to feed on. If anything, they're going to try and swarm both of them, and Supergirl glances back in the other woman's direction with a surprised part of her lips as one of the insects explodes from a sudden burst of red energy, energy that she tracks all the way back to its source of a raised hand. ]

Okay, maybe you've got me too.

[ They'll have an easier chance of fighting these things if they can do it together, and she rushes over to the dark-haired woman as quickly as she's able to (even her speed is slightly slower now) to offer an outstretched hand with the intent of pulling her up. ]

Can you stand?

[hiyakai]

It's okay. It happens all the time. [ a pause and then: ] Not to me. To other people. Or at least I think so...? [ he can't list any examples. ] There are a ton of us from different worlds or different point in time here, so it can get kinda confusing.

[ is this his attempt at reassurance? who knows? ]

Anyway, I'm the only one who looks like, well, me in this town. Sorry to disappoint. Although, I did have a weird situation with a clone a few months back, but... [ not important, kai. ] look at me rambling.

[ he clears his throat. ] So, how long have you been here?

[effinphd]

Preoccupied? By waking up in helltown? Can't even imagine. [Her voice is incredibly flat.]

You got an apartment? Where? [Social niceties be damned, Theo isn't about to be responsible for a whole huge house.] ...Theo.

Molly Solverson | Fargo (TV)

[oofta]

I. Not Beast Nor Kin— cw: blood, insects, violence

[ It's a modest struggle between Molly and her first maggot. Caught by surprise, she shrieks at the near-miss in a manner unbefitting a uniformed officer. She'll be potentially embarrassed about it for hours (potentially because it's unlikely anyone around will question it, but just in case they do, best to be ready). She swiftly dispatches the maggot with a hefty boot, face contorting at the sight and smell. Gross.

The second and third go a bit better, with Molly having the advantage of surprise, and eventually, with the aid of a hatchet, it becomes easier than expected. It's hubris, then, that leads her to take on a few more than she should at once. By the time she dispatches the last, she's staunching a weeping wound above her elbow, hissing quietly at the pain.

She looks around, and spotting the first person she lays her eyes on, she calls from across the street. ]

Hey, excuse me!

[ Molly waves a bloody hand, gritting her teeth into a tense and pained smile. Her accent, for anyone who might be familiar, is midwest United States, quaint and sweet and kind. Suitably deceptive when you've just seen someone murder a half-dozen giant maggots. ]

Hi. Hello. Sorry to bother you. Do you have a second?

2. All You Can Eat— cw: cannibalism, organs

[ She hasn't been able to help herself (and she'll be sick over it later), but soon enough the allure overcomes her and Molly takes to the buffet. At first the idea had felt too incomprehensible, but after a while she's convinced herself that it's nothing that hadn't been eaten before.

Tentatively, plate in hand, she walks the display of food, occasionally using a pair of salad tongs to jab at one of the plates of organs. Eventually, she picks out a few of the more scrumptious looking morals (again, she'll be sick over it later), placing them daintily on the too-white plate, lips licked in anticipation. It's completely bonkers, true madness, but Molly isn't thinking any about that as she finds some plastic silverware, a few napkins, and a seat, staring hungrily at her first course. ]

A girl's gotta eat...

[ Even Molly's surprised how it sounds like a matter of fact coming out of her mouth. ]

3. BRAINS— thought-sharing

[ After getting over the very worst of it, Molly begins to feel the strange sensations tingling in the back of her head. When the thoughts start flowing in, they sound a bit like static. Molly passes them off as part of the same hysteria that's allowing her to consume brains in the first place, but when words begin standing out — words not in her mental voice — the static becomes more clear, although the concept less so. She knows, based on what people have told her, to expect the unexpected, but she could never have anticipated this.

Eat brains and hear thoughts? Well, maybe it's not the strangest thing she's heard. And maybe it's not even the first time she'd heard that.

Whether it's right or not to use this to her advantage can be debated later (it's not). For now, she scoops another piece into her mouth and turns her attention to trying to listen in on the thoughts of an individual, any individual, probing limits like a true investigator. ]

4. EYEBALLS— memory-sharing

[ After the brains, Molly finds herself drawn to the eyeballs. Curiosity has never meant to be sated this way, of course, but she's not the only one indulging. Other people are eating, and so she presses on, picking pairs of blues or browns, carefully popping them into her mouth but always finding them too large not to chew. It's unfortunately disgusting, but there are plenty of people who eat eyes, right? It's not culinarily impossible and—

Okay, well, there's really only so many excuses that a person can make. By now, Molly knows she's just reaching, but she's gone so far past the point of no return, she can't stop herself from taking another eye from the platter and washing it down with a glass of milk.

Thinking it works very much the same, she'll be looking into the crowd for someone to see into. ]

5. WILDCARD—

[ Anything goes! ]

Feast Your Eyes (har har har)

[wwrench]

For his own part, Wrench has grappled with none of the moral or visceral quandaries related to the buffet spread. His upbringing has given the man the advantage of being well versed in organ meat, and a willful eye towards ignorance is just enough to allow him to assume the animals these were harvested from were natural prey. It is, of course, an extreme leap of logic for a man who has seen Deerington serve up its horrors on offered plates tucked with festive napkins time and time again, but today he can't seem to resist. Something draws him to eat that goes beyond hunger. The desperate need nags at his mind and pulls him along until he's greedily shuffling bits of the spread onto his own plate.

Brains are a true delicacy. Liver is a more common offering in the circles he's traveled, but no less delicious. Wrench even scoops some slices of heart and a tract of intestine. His plate is nearly heaping by the time he reaches the end of the buffet. It looks like a generous helping for a man of his stature, but for a guy who's hardly eaten anything since his arrival the food might easily weigh against every bite he's taken thus far.

He's already forked a bit of the heart even as he's turning away from the buffet table, too ravenous to wait to find a place to sit. But it's a familiar face that stops him in his tracks, and stalls the utensil halfway to his lips. Wrench feels drenched in ice, and as if by instinct he reaches into his pocket for his knife.

[azurestar]

[His posture sags in a way that says he'd expected that as the most likely response.]

Dude, I'm actually surprised you haven't shot me in the face before I finished talking, but if you did I'd just come back in like a week because that's the stuff that happens around here, and I know it sounds crazy!

[He waves his hands a bit to emphasize his point.]

What can I do to prove it to you?

[dustprincess]

[Thank you for considering her feelings.]

I see... so there's a chance my friends might come here. How long do people usually wait for that to happen?

[driving]

i dunno man i might end up in like
rural alabama or something
that's a pretty big risk
i'm 18 now so i don't have to live with the bastard anymore anyway
if i could go home i'd just drive back to california and probably get recruited to be a model or something

[gentrify]

hey man badass
if you can put together the cash to get out on your own do it
parents just get shittier and shittier

[hylights]

Mm... for a whole world, it must hardly be enough time to scratch the surface.

[Don't mind her. She's just imagining how she'd go about such a mission. There would be a lot of research to undertake, first of all. Ah, but that question. Zelda nods, brightening a little.]

My world is called Hyrule. Some things about this world are similar, but the nature of the town, the people... that is all quite different to me.

[Hyrule was much more sparsely populated, and anything technologically advanced was paradoxically ancient.]

[rocinantes]

( good question. )

Probably nothing but the fact that I haven't shot you is pretty unusual. ( he was typically one who shot first before talking. )

You're not a very good welcome wagon, you know? ( but no one would have been able to calm him down easily so you were probably in good company, lance. ) Don't even have any cookies.

[onerthes]

There's a chance one of two things may happen. You may see your friends here, but they could be fabrications of the nightmare. Ghosts. Monstrous versions, hauntings, fake tombstones with their names... It could happen at any time.

Or they could appear here like you have. It usually happens around the middle of the month, just before the latest insanity that follows the lunar cycles. When people arrive, check your phone. If you see someone familiar, perhaps they've arrived.

Other than that, it's hard to predict.