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

Dustin Henderson / Stranger Things

[sscuriosity]

ONE █ ARRIVING IN STYLE

[The dream was enough to rattle him but then waking up in a totally different place with the old hokey music playing made it all feel a lot more real. It's really not his style to dream about woodland creatures, his dreams are a lot more fantastic and creative. Dustin would've thought this just transitioned into another dream if it weren't for the basket that he takes absolutely no time ripping into.

The first thing he plucks out of it is one of the sticks of jerky and he's sitting in the lobby of the establishment he woke up in looking through the rest of the crap with some mild interest. He still has half the stick of jerky propped in his mouth like a Cuban cigar.

He's flipping through the text documents, and making notes with a pen he took from one of the desks. Things to remember for later, absolutely. When he isn't underlining relevant shit you can find him marveling at his fluid and talking to anyone that will listen about the functions with wild eyes.]

TWO █ CALL HIM JOHN MCENROE

[Curiosity never killed Dustin and when it comes to living organs growing out of facets in the street he knows better than to get to close. They're all over everything and it's impossible not to get stuck by one when it explodes, the worms screeching to life in a way he's never seen parasites move before.

It reminds me of the Upside Down, of Dart, and he uses the thick died branch that had fallen off one of the trees onto the street to start mashing them one by one as they came for him.]

AHhh! Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Please tell me these things aren't related to the Sarlacc.
Hey! You! Need a little help here.

THREE █ WILDCARD - NETWORK OR CYOA.

[I'm down to clown! Just toss something else from the TDM or a network post for a prompt and I'll reply asap. My plurk is doggos if you have any questions.]

[earthlike]

[ The worlds Nadass is used to are far advanced in terms of both years and technology, so the Fluid is nothing new to her. But she stands and listens intently to Dustin's raving descriptions, a patient smile on her face. ]

Interesting. So it can do voice, video, and text?

[sscuriosity]

That's what it looks like. I haven't seen anything like this back home. It's some pretty serious technology.

[Technology that he fully intended to figure out. The fact that it was so slim and portable made it even more interesting to him. He puts it away in his pocket for the moment to fix his focus on present company.]

You been into yours yet?

[earthlike]

[ Nadass examines the device on her wrist. ] Only long enough to set up a user profile. Though I might use it later to try to find some more information about this place. Ask questions, learn about the people here and their customs, that sort of thing.

t w o

[acidwashjeans]

[ Steve is literally already running towards Dustin, baseball bat in hand. ]

Jesus, you couldn't wait for me to tell you not to get close to these things? [ Honestly why was he pleased when Dustin first showed up again? No self-protection instincts at all.

One by one, he sets about smushing them when they get close.]

If you tell me you want to adopt one, I'm making you live with Byers.

[sscuriosity]

I definitely didn't ask for the puss explosion but yeah- let's go with you not being here for the reason it happened.

[If Steve really wants to take the blame for some random happenstance he'll let him but the look on his face is anything but sincere. It's high brow sarcastic and he is still beating the worms back with his stick, slightly jealous of Steve and his baseball bat now.]

This isn't the situation with D'Art. This is clearly different.

[A couple more wallops with the piece of wood, a worm tries to make its way into his shoe and he shakes his foot off, stomps on it a few good times for measure.]

Man, you really weren't lying about this place.

[acidwashjeans]

[ Steve is really not happy with these bugs being this close to Dustin.

Especially because he cannot see the clear difference between these things and Dustin's last pet.]

You thought I was lying when I told you about the monsters and the blood waves and everything else that's happened here? [ Dustin please. ]

one.

[micycle]

[The front door opens with a ding, letting in a burst of cold, blood-scented air and a quiet string of muttered swears. The boy distractedly trying to bustle through is loaded down with at least six pizza boxes, topped by two teetering bottles of soda.]

Uh, six pepperonis for Mr. Mc- [Shit, he can't see the label. He sets the boxes against the front window, trying to peer around to the sticker on one side. Why the hell would a laundromat even have a pizza party? Why is there literally no one here except-

Holy fuck.]

Dustin?!

[In his shock, Mike loses grip on the pizza boxes - or rather, they seem to just... drop through his hands. The boxes land flat on the floor, unharmed, but the sodas aren't so lucky. Hard commercial tile busts one cap right open, and bargain-brand Fruity Cola Max fizzes out in all directions in an ambiguously colored ocean. But Mike hardly notices, standing there speechless and focused. The laundromat's front door is half-visible through the sloppy mass of his sweater and flannel pajama pants, and his hair has become something almost otherworldly since it's last haircut nine months ago. He looks like a feral ghost, delivering pizza in its pajamas.]

[sscuriosity]

Miiiike...?

[At first Dustin isn't sure what he's looking at, not until the pizzas get placed away from the voice and it sounds a lot like his friend, and the legs sort of match up but he can't quite tell.]

Mike!

Yeah, that's a lot of pizza he'll investigate that later with his mouth, right now he's in a hustle on the way to his pal, stowing away his fluid and something he was reading in the process.]

Holy shit, dude. You're here too? Why the hell are you delivering pizza?
Oh. Well, there goes the coke.

[micycle]

'Cause it's my job.

[He's so glad to see him, but he's also confused and frustrated and a little bit freaked out, and it comes out a bit too sharp as he hurries to right the bottle and stop the flood. There's an inch of blank air between the floor tiles and his bare feet, and the stuff misses him entirely and goes right for the cardboard pizza boxes.]

When did you get here? [Okay, looks like Pizza #1 is just going to have to get sacrificed. The ruckus hasn't brought anyone out of the back office, and Mike is starting to wonder who even called in the order. One of the frequent perils of a delivery job in Actual Hell Town - this place loves to play pranks.] Are you okay?

Two

[laminae]

[These maggots are pretty big, but strangely enough, Fern has dealt with bigger. First back home underground, though he was technically a sword at the time he still counts it, and more recently in trips to the Great Sleep, where giant worm killing is pretty much the only real past time.

Both have left him with more than enough experience in handling these things, and wrecking stuff is always fun times, so when he hears what looks like some kid having a rough time he doesn't mind helping out. Darting in with inhuman speed, Fern forms a grass sword and starts slicing those bozos up in the same way a chef expertly slices up a sushi roll.]

Dude, your weapon sucks.

[sscuriosity]

That's because it's not a weapon. It's like driftwood ... or something. I found it on the street.

[Is this dude really calling him out when he can just shapeshift into whatever weapon he feels like? So far, Dustin's done pretty okay with his dried out piece of wood, just beating the grubworms into a gooey pulp but he doesn't mind the help.]

Woah. So- you- what are you?

[It's not like he means for it to be an insult, it's the contrary. He's never seen anything quite like it and one of his friends can travel between dimensions and use telekinesis. It's curiosity that has him asking, because whatever he is- it's not on the side of normal that he comes from himself.]

[laminae]

[Okay, that's a legit answer. Even though Fern has strong opinions about this kind of thing, not everyone around here shows up with weaponry. Not everyone has weaponry. Hardly anyone can be weaponry, like he can.]

Grass. I'm made outta grass now. It's a long story.

[That's easy enough to answer, especially when the worms have most of his attention. He's really getting into it too, sliding a foot under one of them and kicking it up into the air before bisecting it into exact halves.]

You new around here?

TWO

[teamfun]

[Louis has been beating his way through the (gross, so fucking gross maggot things as he makes his way across town. It's been a shitty month and he's pretty goddamn done with it all, but like hell, he's not going to make sure people aren't getting through it okay. He hears Dustin and comes jogging over, his chair-leg-with-nails-in-it weapon dripping maggoty grossness as he does. ]

Stand back, dude, this shit is awful and I don't think you wanna accidentally swallow any of it.

[If he goes through the basic rule of walker-smashing, he figures it'll work out fine, right? No fluids get into you and you're fine. Probably. He swings his weapon down, taking the maggoty mess down with a wet, squishy squelch.]

Ugh. This is the grossest fucking thing. [Then, to Dustin:] You okay?

[sscuriosity]

[Squelsh is a good word for it if it hadn't been heinous, to begin with, the addition of the bug guts and germs is enough to make it down right revolting but Dustin's not sick about it just surprised.

He scrambles away when he's told, his own plank of wood in his hand and it's a piss poor weapon, considering this guy has a bat with nails wedged through it.]

Yeah. I'm fine. The grubs? Not so much. What was their problem?

[In his experience, maggots aren't territorial and they don't delight in living flesh. It has to be diseased or necrotic.]

[teamfun]

[It's okay, Dustin, he can teach you the wise ways of a makeshift murder weapon.]

I'm gonna guess 'they just decided they were gonna by eldritch horrors today'. This sort of shit happens... like all the time. Not specifically the maggots.

[He flicks some guts off of Chairles with a grimace.]

Those're new.

one

[tagartist]

[ Chloe was just trying to get a coffee so she could go to work. That's really it. Why is her life a series of young teenagers who always want to talk to her about things? He's new, clearly, and obviously from a time with slightly less tech, because she's never heard someone from the 2000s or later get so pumped about texting before.

She leans against the counter, at least not interrupting his raving, and waiting until he takes a breath to comment. ]

You're from a time without smart phones, huh?

[sscuriosity]

Yeah, and I'm starting to get that I might be in the minority.

[The last person he got into it with about the tech literally had a spaceship in terms of where they were from and even though space shuttles aren't new, planets with intelligent life definitely a big new addition so he went back to being thrilled about the fluid like the reasonable guy he was.]

[tagartist]

[ She smirks a little and shrugs. ]

Nah, there are a lot of pre-2000s people around here. Most of 'em about your age, too.

2

[gentrify]

Can't believe I'm about to save a Star Wars nerd.

[ comes the murmur from some yards away, followed by the mechanical click of an AK being locked and loaded. if dustin takes a glance back towards the should, he'll find mickey milkovich, some pale looking early-twenties punk with a goddamn semi-automatic rifle pointed in his direction. it's mostly aimed for the maggots, sure, but dustin's stiiiiill kinda in the way. ]

Yo! Tuck and roll, Boba, this thing ain't known for accuracy.

[sscuriosity]

Star Wars is film magic and you know it.

[Clearly, because arguing with a thinly veiled insult is important right now. Dustin scrambles to his feet and swings his own weapon like a golf club or a broom, to keep them away from him.

It's not until he's gotten behind the guy that he realizes what he's brandished.]

Dude. All you're gonna do is send them flying? They're too small a target for, is that a damn machine gun?

[gentrify]

Fuck Star Wars - Indiana Jones was film magic.

[ give him a cool hat and a whip and some nazis to shoot any time and mickey'd be happy. star wars was just too nerdy for him, too far removed from the life he was raised in.

and now this child is bitching about his machine gun, oh my god, the youths these days. ]

Well shit, I'm sorry, I forgot to bring my pesticide spray pack on this stroll. [ which is all pretty obvious, exaggerated, sarcasm as mickey tugs a metal flask out of a jacket pocket and starts to pour it onto the ground in front of them - ground the little worm dudes are about to come inching onto. ] If this rescue isn't up to your standards, I can always toss your tiny ass back to the Sarlacc pit, Junior. Hold this.

[ 'this' being the flask he was just dumping out, while he digs in his pockets for a lighter. ]

[deadbutpretty]

[Buffy was just trying to get the lay of the land when she hears someones panic-filled screams. It doesn't take her long to figure out what the situation is and she rushes in to help, without thinking twice she starts stomping on their bodies. Blood getting everywhere including her clothes.

Despite her small size, there's very clearly a strength behind her stomps. She can sense some of them trying to come up behind them and turns around quickly, reaching to take the branch from the kid as she goes in an attempt to use it as some sort of bat.]

[sscuriosity]

[ Woah, okay then. This chick knows what she's doing so when she grabs the branch from him he moves off to the side to let her do her thing. In the meantime, he's gonna pick up where she left off, stomping the little guys in front of him. ]

Nice swing! Thanks for your help.

[deadbutpretty]

[It may not be a vampire, but you stab just about anything and it's bad news for whatever it is that's being stabbed. Like these weird maggot things.]

Are you okay? What were those things?

[Buffy is a little breathless from having just ran to help him out and when she finally looks down again she lets out a groan.]

I just bought those.

[Somehow her cute boots were a bigger concern than the monsters they just fought off.]