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

If you'd seen what I've seen, you'd be okay with this too. This, as in, this place, not the spread. I keep repeating the word "cannibal" to myself, but do you know tempting that liver looks?

[ She's. She's really trying here. But the longer she stands here, the more her willpower erodes. Maybe it's some residual Rules And Principles bullshit from the Library that's keeping her strong -- her mother's own words, A crisis is no time to abandon one's principles play over and over in her head -- or maybe the mirror bridge fucked her up worse than she imagined, or maybe she's just so relieved to have run into someone who signs so comfortably that she can still see how strange this all is. ]

[Before Deerington, the only places Wrench had conceived of that were outside his experience came from stories in books. He's been introduced to a world of strange in the months since his arrival, and every new conversation seems to illuminate some bit of life he's been otherwise ignorant to. It's been a fascination, and he regards the woman with no less interest now.]

There's a good chance it's manufactured. [That's it. His willpower snaps like a guitar string, and Wrench grabs two plates. He offers the second out to the woman, but continues signing easily with one hand.] What's it like where you're from?

[ You know what? She'll buy it. Seems solid enough. Tis the season. Etc etc etc. she grabs the plate with a thank you.

What's it like where she's from? Well, that depends on where specifically she talks to. New York is weird but mostly in mundane ways. The Library is... well. It's the Library. The mirror bridge was something else entirely but also, not a place she's from, per se.

She goes for a piece of liver. Fuck it. Puts it right on her plate. When her hand is free, she answers. ]

Similar to what I've seen here so far. There's magic, portals, illusions. We have cell phones and internet and drugs and booze - I would say that's "normal". But then there's things dragons, vampires lurking at parties, magicians who use illusions to keep the IRS off their backs.

[ And then there's her "news" website, Fuzzbeat, masquerading as your standard clickbait site to share restricted knowledge with any magician savvy enough to figure out at least half the articles are covered with illusions. ]

In the neighborhood where I grew up, there are cannibals. So, you know. This is weird. But it's synthetic, at least.

[ Yeah. Sure. ]

What about you? What's your home like?

[Wrench doesn't need to be told that "typical" is a relative experience, but it seems that this place is intent on re-emphasizing the point to him at every turn. Virtually everyone he's spoken to is from a place or has lived through experiences that he thought only existed in stories. Magic, zombies, far-flung planets, folks who refer to themselves as literal gods... If he ever made the mistake of describing his place of origin as "ordinary," Wrench knows now that holds no meaning in a place like this.

As she explains, he glances at the spread. It's rude, but he can't help himself. Despite the raw and bloody look of the organs, he wants to taste them more than he can remember ever wanting anything. Wrench spears a slice of brain, then adds a couple of eyeballs. These are, at least, organs he is particularly familiar with the texture of.]

Northwest United States, 2010. [He lays out the details first, if they mean anything to the woman.] If there was magic, I didn't know about it. [He shapes his thumb and index finger and arcs it at his forehead. Clueless. They share a language, and he knows that's not down to the universal translator in this place. That says plenty.]

You're Deaf too?

[ Ah okay, so if she names her current address (more or less), he'll get it. Maybe later. This is important, and furthermore, she appreciates his sense of humor. ]

Yes. [ She smiles. ] I take it there's not many others here?

[ She hasn't seen any, herself, nor any hearing person who knows sign. Bummer. ]

[Wrench grins in spite of himself. He's met several with varying capacities to sign, but she's the first fellow Deaf person he's known in a long time. Much longer than this place. It's at once relieving and lonesome, and he curses Deerington for the way this town can give and deprive in near-equal measure.]

None that I've met, [he admits. Wrench looks at his plate and then at the spread, and spears up some heart as well with greedy, hungry eyes. And then some liver. It just looks too appetizing on her plate to go without.]

Are you magic, too?

[ This isn't the first time the topic of magic has come up with non-magicians - though with them, it was about sleight of hand and simple tricks - but it's the first time she's ever encountered it phrased like that. Harriet laughs, with none of the usual dry sarcasm on her face. She's genuinely amused. It's a nice change. ]

I'm a magician. I was born with magic. It's how things are in my world.

[ Should she show off? Why not show off. She does a few quick forms with her hand and produces a small fireball in her upheld palm. She holds it there for a few seconds, then puts it out with a thought — the flow of magic. ]

I was raised surrounded by magicians. Most magicians aren't so lucky. Some of them were like family. They learned sign. I guess that means I was extremely lucky.

[The terminology may fail him, but he's earnest in his curiosity. Wrench pauses with an eyeball between his fingers and halfway to his lips when something sparks to life and a shaped, glowing orb appears in her outstretched palm. His eyes go wide and he mercifully abandons the plate of food to watch in earnest amazement as the energy of her life seems to stoke it, until it's extinguished. He's not sure he'll ever get tired of seeing this kind of thing in action. Watching with wonder as the people around him perform things he can barely imagine: teleportation, manipulating their bodies, moving faster than any human possibly could.

He can't help but think about culture. About being among people who understand you. It leaves Wrench with the bitter taste of nostalgia in his throat, though it's something he's only barely experienced himself.]

Your magic is innate? You're either born with it or not?

[ Loneliness she can relate to. The Library isn't exactly teeming with kids, let alone Deaf ones. Her mother was good to her and never favored spoken language over sign in their conversations, but even so, Harriet would sneak out and explore the world, aging normally for hours at a time. The older she got, the more time she could spend outside the Satellite Branch. Then came the day she left for Brakebills, and then the argument that made her choose to leave for good.

She'd been lucky in many ways, but deeply unlucky in others. Deerington looks like it'll be about average in that regard, so it's not a big transition, at least. ]

That's right. It manifests as you grow up, and it peaks in your 20s. By the way, shall we sit?

Sure. [Wrench has the good sense to look sheepish when he realizes he's practically interrogating the woman. It's been this way with virtually everyone he's met. They're all so interesting, their stories a fascination to the man who has been a long time surviving on only the barest scraps of human interaction. Before Deerington, conversations were few and far between. Those in American Sign Language were almost entirely nonexistent. It's another thing this place has given him that he can't discount: the ability to be among and with people in a way that's eluded him since childhood.

He guides them to a table and settles in. Much as his stomach still begs for food, Wrench's natural tendency to go without is a strong thing, and the questions seem more pressing.]

That seems true with everyone I've met so far. Either you have it, or you don't. You can be taught how to control it, but only if you were already born magic.

NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

NOVEMBER 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

NOT BEAST NOR KIN

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Character Arrival

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