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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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?

[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.

[He does his best to smile a bit, but it's more of a grimace than anything. At least he's trying?]

Can we do that? Is there like some pig-turning-into-authority here? That would be awesome if there was.

Good, because it tasted way too good to be cursed. Nothing that delicious should be cursed, it'd be just wrong. Unless it it was cursed because it tasted so good?

...it was free.

Edited 2020-03-26 02:26 (UTC)

[He is trying. She would be less pleased with herself if it was her.]

I am unsure if there is an authority here, but we could ask some locals.

Maybe cursed in a dream world means it tastes extra good.

[She pat him on the shoulder and looked past him.] Where did you get the free bacon. Maybe we start there. Before it's too late. I'm Yukio, by the way.

Sounds like a plan to me!

...note to self, never eat anything here that taste good ever again. That sucks.

[He points a hoof towards the diner.]

Got some free breakfast over there. Weirdly enough, I ate eggs too and I didn't turn into a chicken...

...before it's too late. Right. I'm Peter Quill. People call me Star-Lord? Peter's cool, too.

[When he pointed out the diner she nodded for him to follow while he could.]

That is where we will start then. It seems strange that it would happen in a diner, but maybe they saw something.

Mmm chicken wasn't on sale. Maybe that has something to do with it. Pork is being pushed nearly everywhere I've been so far. It's very... curious.

[She reached out and pat his shoulder, smiling.] Okay, Star-Lord, Peter. We will get to the bottom of this. This way.

It's gotta be the pork then. We've just stumbled onto a conspiracy! Or a mystery. Or a mystery-conspiracy.

[He nods and follows her.]

You got a cool sword there.

So it seems. How are you feeling? Anything else changing?

[She slides a hand down the sword and says]

Thank you. It is named Danzan. It means separator in my language.

Uhhh...Aw man, I think so. Dammit.

[Peter pauses for a moment and frowns, feeling something sticking out of the top of his pants. It's a curly pig's tail.]

I got...a tail!?

[He cranes his neck, trying to look around. The effort makes him snort and make what sounds like oinking noises.]

That's a pretty sweet name for a sword, all things considered.

Edited 2020-03-26 20:01 (UTC)