APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to April's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: ENCHANTMENT 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: Enchanted food, possible body horror, mild finger injuries, magic based mind control, rapid aging, possible death
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE

Pork is on sale!! Time to buy it up for all your family meals. It also means anything with pork in it in all of the restaurants is on special and super affordable for just about anyone. New arrivals can even get a free meal of bacon, sausage and eggs at the diner! Seeing all the low prices, you find yourself craving pork more than ever. But who doesn't love bacon, right? Maybe you had ham and pineapple pizza at Peter's or those delicious and mouthwatering pork dumplings at the Hot Pot. You could have cooked a nice pork loin with your friends and family for a large get together. Candied bacon is a real treat to munch on in the park!

You're cooking it yourself or getting it from the local restaurants, so nothing bad could happen with a little self-indulgence, right? Just about everyone has learned not to trust the food at a giant feast in Deerington, but short of the lunch and dinner menus at the diner, the restaurants and the grocery store have never done a Sleeper harm! At least, that's the way it's always been before. Two years is long enough to start taking things for granted.

Anyone who has any of the specials from the restaurants or who cooks any kind of pork related product at home will find that once they have finished their meal, they will slowly turn into... pigs. It seems to vary on how fast a single person turns, some moving slowly over the course of days while they eat more and more food, and others will turn into a full blown pig in a manner of minutes. At first you can still talk to others and display your usual personality in pig form, but the longer you stay a pig, the more boarish you'll become.

So how do you break the curse? Locals say there's a magic stream up on the mountain that will stop these kinds of enchantments, but you can't go alone. Someone will have to carry you up and sing to you while you drink. It might be a friend or a lover or a complete stranger, but whoever you can nudge into it will have to physically carry you in their arms up the side of the mountain looking for this stream. It can take a while— the walk is fairly long, a few hours at best, but you'll know it when you find it. The stream sparkles unnaturally in the sunlight and it seems like none of the animals are willing to drink from it's unnaturally cold waters. The moment you take a long sip while your companion sings whatever song pops into their head, you'll turn back into a human. Hopefully your clothes turn back with you.

If your character does not eat meat/pork, then they'll be safe from this event!

GOOD ENDURES

Mirror mirror on the wall...

The pork doesn't seem to be the only enchanted object around Deerington this month. There are several of them cropping up all over the place and each one has a different outcome for those unfortunate enough to run into them.

Spinning wheels seem to be in the most random of places. Some of them will even just appear in your house. Sometimes multiple spinning wheels show up. Anyone who gets to close will have the strong urge to prick their finger on the spindle, the needle very easily cutting the tip and making you bleed more than you might have expected. Hopefully you have a first aid kit around.

Anyone who pricks their finger will find that they are forced to follow the next person they see around everywhere. They'll follow them to work, to school, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, even to bed. It doesn't matter if it's someone you've never spoken to in your life, you will follow them like a lost duckling every hour of every day. It's enough to drive anyone bonkers.

Mirrors will also suddenly be being displayed in every home and every shop, even if you never had them before. It doesn't matter whether or not you have a reflection, any person who looks into the mirror will find that they are forced to imitate the next person they make eye contact with. This can be their personality, their posture, the way they speak, their basic movements— you'll start to become a total mirror image. If it goes on too long, you might even start to find the two of you start to look more and more alike...

Apples start to pop up in all the stores as well as in your fridges. They're bright red and look so delicious, you can't resist taking a bite. Even if you don't like apples or are normally allergic to them, you'll want to eat these, and you'll find they taste delicious and don't bring harm to anyone. At least... not at first.

A few hours after eating the apple, you'll start to notice differences in your appearance. Your hair has start to thin and become gray and limp, your skin is wrinkled and covered in spots, your hands become frail and shaky. You're aging, and rapidly at that. Before you know it, you've turned into a hideous hag, one that would frighten children in any fairy tale book. But how do you reverse it?

The cure for all three enchantments is to tell three facts about yourself. Even just introducing yourself will show improvement if it's to someone who never knew your name before. Those who ate the apples will have to seek someone out, but anyone who pricked their finger or looked in a mirror will specifically have to confess these three facts to the person they're enchanted to follow/imitate. Once three facts have been shared, you'll be able to leave, return to normal, and age back to your regular self.

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

Peter Quill | MCU/GOTG | OTA

[zunesareawesome]

[Note: Peter's canonpoint is right after Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but feel free to 4th wall him at any time if you'd like!]

a. Straw Houses cw: body horror

[Look, there's free food. And Peter hasn't eaten earth food in years, so yeah, the moment he's got the opportunity to? He's chowing down. So much. Bacon? Hell yeah!

...look, the fact that he's somehow gotten a pig nose and pig ears afterwards is...maybe kinda almost worth it. Almost.

It sucks that it's getting worse, though. Probably he should worry about it? Once his hands turn to hooves that's when he starts running around, trying to get someone to help him.]

Hey! Hey, you! I need some serious help! [A pig-faced Peter runs after you, waving his hoofs. Hooves? The tusks in his mouth make it a little hard to talk, but he should still be fairly understandable.] I swear I'm cuter than this!

b. Apple a Day cw: ageism likely

[So Peter ate an apple and now he looks really, really, really old. This sucks for obvious reasons, many of them being he was also, once again, not his normal action hero self. He stares at himself in a window, mouth agape.

No, he was freaking out because he kind of looked like his dad. He doesn't look like his dad, does he?

He looks worse than his dad. He rubs his face.]

I guess I could make it work by being the old wise sage of the group. Like Gandalf or something...

c. Network, Video; Un: Star-Lord

Hey, so like, is there anything you can eat in this stupid place that won't, I don't know, warp your face? It's just a little weird...

d. Wildcard:

Anything goes! PM or plot with me at indymica!

a. Straw Houses

[wolverinesbodyguard]

[She had been wandering the area looking for food as well. Something simple, and not something that kept getting shoved t her for SALE. Good pork is never on sale.]

[That's when the pig faced man came into view, and she couldn't help but draw back, her hand dropping to her sword. She didn't draw it, but it was there at the ready. Her other hand lifted, holding her palm out to him.]

Whoa, slow down there. [Was that a set of tusks? What the HECK?]

You're not looking so alright.

[zunesareawesome]

[Peter pauses, eyeing the sword. He knows exactly what it's like to lose against someone who was an expert at sword-fighting, so he doesn't dare take another step closer. He holds his hooves up, eyes wide.]

...you think? Aw man, is it getting worse? It's getting worse, isn't it? This sucks...

[wolverinesbodyguard]

[Glad he stopped, she lowered here hand, looking wide eyed at him as well. Huh. She had seen someone turn into a full sized pig earlier but not like this.]

Interesting. [She said softly, leaning in a bit to look at his snout and tusks.]

Does it hurt? I do believe it's getting worse, unless you always had tusks before.

[zunesareawesome]

[At least she's not attacking him, which is good. Peter calms down the tiniest bit.]

...not really? It just feels weird.

[He reaches up to poke at one of the tusks with a hoof. There's tusks now. Fantastic.]

...nope. It's getting worse. I used to have hands, too? Actual hands.

[wolverinesbodyguard]

[She was studying his face now, so interesting. Learning in a bit more and wanting to reach out and touch. She had never seen anything like it.]

It's a good thing it doesn't hurt. What might hurt is you ending up on the Special today at some restaurant. This place seems obsessed with Pork. Now I see why.

[She reached a hand out to try and take one of his hooves.] Tell me, what did you do? Did someone curse you?

cw: mention of childhood trauma related to cannibalism

[zunesareawesome]

[He doesn't mind her inspecting the weirdness, hell, he's just happy that someone's actually taking the time to help him out.]

...yeeeeeahhhhhhh. That would not be cool. Oh man, that would so not be cool.

[Thanks Yondu, for terrorizing him when he was a kid into thinking people were gonna eat him. Worst dad joke ever.]

I honestly don't know, I just...ended up like this. Does that happen? Cursing? Is that a thing? Maybe it had something to do with the bacon I ate...revenge of the pigs?

[wolverinesbodyguard]

[Good, because she is totally inspecting him. Look at those little piggy feet. How cut--wait. No. Be serious. She is serious.]

No, it would not be cool. Though I am sure we could ask someone more on what is happening to you.

Because I doubt the bacon is cursed. Though it could happen, maybe? I've never seen it happen, but I haven't bothered a lot of witches either.

A.

[lightthedarkness]

[Usagi was just about to put a bun in her mouth when suddenly someone was right in front of her. And that someone-]

GAAAAH! [Usagi was about to quite rightly, high kick Peter in the face but she was able to hold back and merely hugged her basket closer.]

Um... uh... h-hi... [She took a step back, putting distance between her and the other guy.] I'm... gonna... assume you aren't usually with pig ears and a snout.

[zunesareawesome]

[Thanks for not kicking him in the face, he appreciates it.]

...nope. Nope, I usually don't have them? I'm human? Well, half-human.

[lightthedarkness]

Half-human, haaalf pig? [She tilted her head.] I'm sorry, what's the other half?

[zunesareawesome]

Well, I'm not supposed to be a pig? As far as I know. But I'm half-planet?

[He says it like it's no big thing.]

My dad was a planet.

[lightthedarkness]

[To Usagi, who is housing the powers of a planet, it's not.] Oh! Okay, so... no... pig features. [She pushed some hair behind her ear and tilted her head as she looked up at him.]

Um, okay, so I guess, the question is... how do we make this go away? Like, I mean, how did it even START, but how do we make it go away?

[zunesareawesome]

[Awesome! She just went with it, which is so much easier than having to wait for people to catch up to the fact it's a thing, deal with it.]

Nope. Just human ones. [There's a huff that sounds suspiciously like an oink.] I have no idea, so like...it just happened? I don't even know...I mean, I did get a free meal, maybe it was magically tainted or something?

a. straw houses

[quipsandthwips]

[Peter is being swiftly approached by a man waving pig hooves at him.

Which, you know, is a very serious thing. Super serious situation.

Say something supportive, Pete. Something helpful.

... Slowly, he holds up a finger, informative:]





I don't think this is what they mean, when they say 'bring home the bacon'.



[Nailed it.]

[zunesareawesome]

[He stops, dead cold. Did he just?

He so just. Nice!]

Dude! Good one!

[You get the hoof-versions of finger-guns, bro.]

[quipsandthwips]

Aw man, thanks! Was kinda worried that one was gonna be a little too boaring.

[... He puts a hand to his chin, studying Quill with a little more concern. Just a touch. Oh boy, uh... He points at the hooves, brow furrowed.]

But seriously, that's not good.

When did that start?

[This goshdamned town, he swears.]

[zunesareawesome]

Two pig puns? Bro, you're a legend!

[But all this congratulations is quickly forgotten because there is the fact he has to deal with the problem at hand--er, at hoof, so...]

It was a little after breakfast, I just...suddenly pig stuff. Really uncool. It wasn't so bad at first? I used to have hands. I think it's gettin' worse.

[quipsandthwips]

... Yeesh. [Very professional response, Pete. He considers this whole situation a bit more carefully, though, pretty quick to notice this guy is totally a newbie.] You might be going full pig-mode. Which would be something this town would do.

Don't worry, though! I'm sure there's... something we can do about it...

[Squinting and wincing at the hooves, he has to reconfigure a minute here.]

Right. No problem! We'll just figure out what we've gotta do here.

I'm guessing you had bacon or something included in that breakfast?

b.

[funnyname]

[It's the muttering that catches his attention. That, paired with the obvious age of the man and his gesturing at the window has Luka slow in his step.

The old man looks upset and, well, ghastly in way. Maybe some sort of sickness?]

Sir?

[Luka approaches slowly, his voice kind.]

Is everything alright?

[zunesareawesome]

[Peter turns around, still frowning, when someone comes to help him.]

...aw man, I'm a sir now, too? You just sir'd me.

[Somehow this is just as upsetting as how he looks.]

[funnyname]

Shouldn't I have?

[He still keeps it gentle, a little cautious, like he would approach an elderly patient that seemed upset.]

You could tell me your name if you prefer that.

[zunesareawesome]

[Is he treating him all gentle and nice like if he was a real old person? This sucks.]

It's just I'm not really the sir type? But my name's Peter Quill. People call me Star-Lord.

[There's a weird...sensation when he gives the information, and some of his more prominent wrinkles disappear, and his hands stop shaking and look a little less gnarled.]

[funnyname]

[Yes. Yes, he is.

He even reaches out to gently take his arm and lead him over to one of the benches.]

Well, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Quill. Why don't you sit down for a moment?

Star-Lord, that's a funny name. Were you an actor?

[You know, in the past, when you were still working and not old and stuff.]

[zunesareawesome]

[HE IS SO NOT.]

O..okay.

[He lets him lead him over to sit down, being old is exhausting.]

...what? No--I mean, I'm kind of flattered that you think that I was--I mean am? It's just my outlaw name. I'm a legendary outlaw.

[Even as he gives that piece of information, he feels...better, somehow. Something in his back snaps back into place and he doesn't have to stoop so much. Weird?]