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NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

NOVEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

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

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

NOT BEAST NOR KIN

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

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

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

ALL YOU CAN EAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The girl staring at Theo is small for her age, wearing a leather jacket and biker gloves, and carrying a pretty hefty machete. She's also liberally splattered with maggot guts. There's a fiery look in her eyes, something that seems eager and a little bit impressed. ]

Nothing. There's another nest of them down the street. Want to go beat them up? [ Brianna lifts her machete and grins. Come on, come on, it'll be fun! ]

[theo shakes the maggot goo off her glove and then flicks her hair out of her face. in spite of the fact that this entire place is really fucked up, she has to laugh at the grin on the girl's face.]

...yeah, sure, why not. [she hefts the crowbar over her shoulder and shakes out her hand.] Got an extra hair tie? These things are juicy.

Uh huh.

[ Brianna pulls her runner's pack off her shoulder and spends a couple seconds digging around until she finds an extra hair tie. Once she finds one, she slings the pack back over her shoulder and extends it to Theo. ]

You're lucky, 'cause I always have my hair up.

Thanks. [theo takes the elastic, holding it in her teeth as she gathers her hair up.] I don't blame you, this place seems like there's a ton of stuff that can end up in your hair. Or other places.

[once her ponytail is secured, theo offers a smile, one that she hopes is reassuring and friendly, despite the weirdness of where they are.] I'm Theodora. People call me Theo. Have you been here a while?

A year this month. I'm Brianna. Everyone calls me Breeze.

[ She gives her machete a little spin and then sticks it into her belt for safekeeping. ]

It's not awful here all the time. Last month was pretty bad. Maybe this month will be less bad.

A year? [Theo pauses, picking up her crowbar again and taking a moment to look at the girl, trying to place her. Not one of her patients, that she can remember. Not Nellie or Shirley or Theo herself. Someone new. That...isn't like Hill House. It's not creative that way. It doesn't need to be -- it's easier to hurt someone with familiarity.

She exhales, nodding slowly. If this is a new trick, she'll adapt. She'll figure out the twist and she'll beat it.] Well. If you've been here a whole year, I'm sticking with you. Bet you know your way around, huh?

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.

I've got a couple dozen questions, honestly, but they can wait. [Theo twirls the crowbar a couple times, like a baton, then squares her shoulders.] Thanks. I mean, it's no machete, but it gets the job done.

Where's this nest you were talking about?

Down by the arcade. Let's go!

[ With that, Brianna zips down the block toward the nest of giant maggots. She'll let Theo follow at her own pace. ]

I don't -- [Theo huffs out a sound that's half laugh, half exasperation. She has no idea where the arcade is, kiddo. But she'll heft the crowbar up and follow, albeit much slower. Were kids always this fast? Is she just getting slow?

When she rounds the corner, the glaring neon sign of the arcade is fortunately very vivid, and Theo lets out a sigh of relief -- that turns into a grimace at the sight of the nest.] That's disgusting. That is so disgusting.

Yeah, they're nasty. Let's kick their asses!

[ Brianna is clearly having a great time. She loves shit like this. The psychological horror of Deerington is no fun, but this? Just full out beating the crap out of giant maggots? This is what it's all about. ]

[Okay, that makes her laugh -- a genuine laugh, the first one she's given since arriving. There's something about the full-on manic glee the kid is showing that's infectious, so...why the hell not fling herself wholeheartedly into the maggot-smashing?

At least until most of them are nothing more than oozy puddles, and Theo is pretty sure she's pulled about 12 of her muscles.]

Jeez, kiddo, you're a beast.

Yeah, I know.

[ She's so humble, too. ]

I'm widely considered third-deadliest kid back home. [ This factoid might come across as sarcastic to Theo, but she's being absolutely earnest. She's very proud of her title. ]

Third-deadliest? [Theo chuckles, though the comment makes her look at Brianna a little closer.] Hard to imagine. I can't believe there's someone with better machete-wielding skills, for one.

Oh, no, I'm definitely the best with a machete. But there are other things.

[ You know, laser powers and telekinesis. Typical stuff. ]

Oh yeah? [She's hiding it well, but Theo is genuinely Mildly Concerned about what sort of place has enabled a tweenage girl to wield a machete so well.] What kind of stuff?

Like other abilities.

[ Brianna, now the maggots are dead, is wiping her machete off, using the bubbery, half-deflated body of a maggot to do so. Yuck. After that's done, she sticks her machete back into its spot on her belt loop. As she does that, her fucking ammo belt is visible for a couple seconds, just in case Theo thought anything about this interaction could be even remotely normal. ]

My friend Sam can, like, shoot deadly laser beams from his hands, and his brother can move shit with his mind. Those guys are the two deadliest kids. I'm okay being number three because they're both older than I am. [ Surely she will surpass them someday. ]

[Right now Theo's assumptions are leaning towards the "radioactive war zone" line of thought. If this were any other time or place, she'd assume that any talk of "abilities" was some sort of coping mechanism/imaginary thing, but after the past week back home and now this...

So instead she adjusts her view, approaches it the way she would anything else -- be validating, don't talk down to her, don't patronize.]

Sounds like you're the strongest girl though, which is extra impressive. Especially if they're both older. That's incredible.

Besides, who needs laser hands? How are you supposed to get anything done if your hands are lasers?

Well... he can turn them off, obviously.

[ Brianna is more concerned with the other things Theo is saying, though. She'd never thought of it like that before—strongest girl in the FAYZ. Damn, why has she been going around calling herself "third deadliest" when she could be calling herself the strongest girl instead? God, the reporters outside the dome would have loved that. She could have monetized it! Created a whole brand! Well, if she'd gotten out, anyway. ]

But yeah, I guess it is pretty incredible.

Good, otherwise the only career he's set for is one in infomercials. Cooking panini's with his hands.

It's really incredible. [Theo hesitates for a moment, because if this is all imaginary she doesn't want to feed into it, but...] So. You haven't told me what your ability is.

I'm faster than a speeding bullet. That's why they call me the Breeze.

[ It's totally not a name she created herself and forced everybody to start using, shhhh. ]

Ahhh, I get it now. That's a pretty awesome superpower. Wish I had that instead of...

[Theo trails off, realizing abruptly that she can figure out if Brianna's telling the truth. She hesitates for a moment, tugging at one of her gloves.] Can I tell you a secret?

Um... sure, I guess.

[ She sounds warier than she did before, though. Not entirely suspicious, but bordering on the edge of being suspicious. Killing maggots together was fun and all, but she doesn't know Theo at all, really. ]

[Theo offers her best reassuring smile, tugging up her gloves a little more.] I have an ability too. I've never met anyone else outside of my family who does. It used to freak me out really bad when I was your age.

[She exhales, trying to keep her voice even, professional, not belie how mind-blowing it is to find someone else who can do strange things, even if it is a kid.] I think you being proud of what you can do is almost as cool as being the deadliest girl. I wish I'd been proud of what I could do when I was a kid.

[ She figures whatever Theo is about to do involves her hands somehow—which tracks with how abilities in the FAYZ work, too. Even Brianna's powers center around her hands, as weird as it sounds. So... that's okay, although it still begs the question what the hell that power is, if she was so freaked out by it. ]

Well, some powers just suck. [ Which is her lame attempt at cracking a joke, though she's clearly still a bit uncertain about what's about to happen. ]

NOVEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

NOT BEAST NOR KIN

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Character Arrival

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