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

[hopecanruinyou]

Well I mean. [ barry gets an awkward shrug from an awkward teen now, so congrats i guess if that's what you were going for there. ]

I don't have to tell you if you already have the information, I guess. But I also don't really have a different answer for you. Unless you just want me to make something up?

[multipliable]

Actual war.

[ why would he speak figuratively? ]

audio;

[kissingbridge]

Give me a fucking break alright, all this shit is fucking new to me. I barely managed to figure out voice to text and vice versa.

So if it's a search function why the fuck did you just call it a she? This isn't like that stupid boat thing Bill always likes to go on about, is it?

[earthlike]

[ Interesting. Nadass would love to know more, but... She knows well enough not to press war survivors to relive their trauma. ]

...I am sorry.

[multipliable]

[ he doesn't respond. not for a long moment. ]

What is your world like? Ninga. [ he would rather not know about her earth. no point. ]

[earthlike]

[ Once the moment passes, Nadass makes a small nod and continues walking, allowing him to set the pace of the conversation. ]

It's a bit larger than Earth, and older. So our technology and culture is a bit more advanced. We are a world of invention and discovery, of peace. We have deep, rich histories that have interwoven throughout the millennia. We work together to build a sustainable future and make the best use of all the resources available to us.

[ She pauses, eyes flicking over to him. ]

We... don't really have a concept of angels or demons, in the same sense as Earth. We have our gods, but they are more myth than reality.

[multipliable]

[ it sounds completely surreal to him, but so is the existence of this town.

peace — a concept hard to wrap the mind around when life has only shown him anything but. ]

Sounds lovely. [ a subtle sarcasm to it, devoid of malice. ] Where I'm from, we 'ave remnants of the past, but peace is a foreign concept. It doesn't exist. Just brief periods of quiet between all the shit and lies people convince themselves to get them through another day. Nothin' so idyllic like yours.

[ myths, eh?

if only the divine of his world are just some silly stories to scare the children to sleep. ]

Lucky you. [ they're nearing the townhouses now, aren't they? what a quaint, colourful neighbourhood. ]

[earthlike]

[ His world sounds truly awful. Nadass mourns for the loss of peace, and loss of lives. ]

I would say, perhaps being in this place will give you some respite... But I think those creatures prove this town isn't so peaceful after all.

[ Ah, but here they are, at her front doorstep. She steps onto the stoop, and turns to face him once more. ]

Thank you again, for saving me, and for walking me home. I don't know what I would have done, had you not been there.

[multipliable]

[ it won't.

but in many ways, deerington is an improvement from what his life was like back in his world. ]

Get yourself a weapon. [ and with that final note, he turns to leave, lugging his canvas bag along.

he isn't great with goodbyes — or conversations. don't mind him. ]

[bulletgram]

A joke! You make jokes now. Good.

[ Like it's a reliable metric for anything here, and yeah, it's not really a joke because he looks and yes, those are maybe-spleens, certainly some kind of organ, and he'd sigh but then Barry's talking about Vacha and it gets a laugh out of Hank even if it's not really all that funny. He follows over to find something passable to drink himself, and there's nothing to eat with it but it'll be fine. He's not eating raw organs thanks. ]

Oh, Vacha. He was good people. ...a bit overdramatic, but good people. He never needed excuse to wear apron, honestly, but would be good place for it, yes. Like splash guard.

tw: torture lol

[hitactor]

I always made jokes. You were just too busy trying to kill me or blackmail me to notice.

[Laughing at how messed up this place seemed like a better option than taking every single part of it seriously. The outlook was bleak, and this place was a fucking nightmare. Sure, he might better equipped to handle it than most but that didn't make it any easier.]

I watched Vacha file a guy's teeth inches from my fucking head. He wasn't good- not even a little bit.

Re: tw: torture lol

[bulletgram]

...maybe. Sorry for that, you make good jokes. Very funny.

[ And it's not even patronizing, sincere as sincere can be as he takes a sip of his own drink. ]

Depends on definition of good. He was not very nice, no, and was very into torture, but he was very good at it. And very reliable, both personally and professionally. Very fun at parties too.