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

[danvers]

Yeah, why not even the odds a little more?

[ She flashes a quick, bright grin in the other woman’s direction and then lifts herself into the air with a minute amount of effort, closer to hovering over everything rather than flying, but getting a higher vantage point enables her to see exactly what they’re dealing with and how many of them are coming.

Her heat vision reaches pretty far as long as she’s timed it right, slicing an impossibly hot line through one of the maggots to bisect it into two writhing halves that eventually go still. And the woman she’s fighting with — the one she’d moved to protect before — seems like she can handle herself pretty well too, even though Supergirl’s never seen anything like the energy that crackles from her hands, winding its way up her arms. It’s almost like some kind of telekinetic force, but she doesn’t have time to really study it or ask questions, not when they’re in the middle of dispatching these bugs as they skitter close in what seems like waves.

It’s not the first time she’s unexpectedly found herself teaming up with someone, and it probably won’t be the last — but when she’s been feeling the diminishing of her powers lately, she’s not going to decline the back-up.

Inevitably, fewer and fewer maggots are swarming them, and when she’s sure the last of them lies dead, she slowly returns to the ground, docking her hands against her hips. ]

Thanks for the help.

[magija]

[ the woman holds a unique kind of power, especially with the light that emits from her eyes, the heat of it almost carried over to where she stands, and though she holds plenty fascination in her capabilities, wanda diverts her focus on the fight before her, aiming the strength of that psionic magic on the creatures that escape the woman's laser attacks.

she could hover too if she wants to, but on account of knowing that it tends to take up a good dose of her energy that she doesn't always have full control over in these days, she instead chooses to keep her feet on the ground, dividing the battle from air and land between the two of them.

though she isn't quite in need of catching her breath, habits still have her panting slightly once the maggots have diminished from their surroundings, and as the woman returns to stand before her, she manages an appreciative smile. ]

Well, you did rescue me first. [ she pauses, considering a momentary thought before she continues, ] I'm ... Wanda. I'd shake your hand, but — [ raising her arm, she gives a small wave of her fingers, the act making the faint translucent glow of it more obvious. ] I've been going through a literal phase these days.

[danvers]

[ She doesn't have endless reserves of strength anymore, between the dimmer sun overhead and this town's strange effects on her powers, so even now she's trying to make sure she doesn't overdo it, doesn't overextend herself so far that she's too weakened to keep fighting. Of course, unless Deerington suddenly acquires a deadly amount of kryptonite, chances are she'll be okay here, but it's better for her not to take too many chances.

And anyway, she doesn't have to worry about that right now, not when the immediate threat has been handled and as far as she can tell by briefly listening out, no one else is in current need of Supergirl's help.

Her eyes widen when she realizes the exact reason for why they hadn't been able to clasp hands, although the occasional wordsmith in her definitely pauses to internally appreciate that verbal play. ] Right. Well, you know, I'm definitely not surprised about that, just based on... everything I've learned about this place so far. [ And, because she has the advantage of a name, it's only fair that she give Wanda the courtesy of the same. ] Call me Supergirl.

[magija]

[ it's almost a bit sad to think that scenarios like this now constitute as normal here, but for as long as she's been here, it certainly has become a standard routine to undergo some sort of change, be it mentally or physically.

still, as she nears almost two months in this state, she still hasn't quite become used to the change, how she's been trapped in the same leather jacket through the entire course of that time, not having basked in a single minute of sleep or a minor taste of warm food in her mouth. ]

At least you're picking up on it fast. Assuming you're new in town, but I think I'd have remembered the cape. [ it's not actually all that common to see someone sporting that attire. no one but the norse gods, normally.

the name though makes her raise a brow, a corner of her lips quirking up. ] Supergirl. That's quite the hero's name.