soddersays | APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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.

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Is there? [Bella's voice is fainter than she wants it to be, the coppery scent of blood making her wrinkle her nose. She knows it's dumb, especially considering -- everything -- but she still feels the old wave of nausea at the smell. She ends up covering her mouth with her left hand, which causes the ring on her finger to catch the light.

She is definitely too young to be married, and it makes her wince, seeing the ring glaring, and she starts trying to pull it off, smearing blood over the diamonds.] S-Sorry, I -- it was my own fault, it should...stop soon. Right?

[ When Bella struggles with trying to remove the ring, Jean lets her fingers gently reach out for her, meaning to take the girl's hand into her own. ]

Hey. Slow down. It's all right.

[ Her voice is soft, calm, filled with a gentle reassurance that she doesn't need to panic, that everything is going to be fine. ]

Nobody's here to try and play the blame game with what happened, ok? But we really do need to get you cleaned up.

Yeah. Y-Yeah. [Bella allows the woman to take her hand, trying to focus on the soothing words, rather than the panic or the dull throb of pain from her hand. She looks down, frowning against the wave of nausea at all the blood, then lifts her chin, swallowing tightly.]

Sort of dumb, huh? All this, and it's...it's the sight of blood I'm freaked out by. I'm sorry. Um, thank you.

[ With a gentle shake of her head, Jean smiles to Bella, still warm in her touch and expressions. ]

You'd be surprised how many people get a little squeamish at the sight of blood. So don't feel like you have to apologize.

[ Her touch is careful and gentle, coming to discern that stitches won't exactly be needed but... there is a lot of blood. ]

How about we get you to sit down somewhere? Don't want you passing out on me all of a sudden.

[Bella is carefully looking anywhere but at her bleeding hand -- the sky, the ground, at the woman's face, her gentle smile and careful, experienced gaze. It helps, reminds her to breathe deeply and try not to notice the coppery notes of scent still in the air.

She nods, gratefully, aware her knees are wobbling. She feels a sudden spike of panic at the idea that the woman might decide to leave and blurts out, suddenly:] What's your name?

[ Jean's careful in the way she holds Bella's arm, a gentle guide to a spot where they can sit and she can tend to the cut on Bella's finger. She's slow, gentle, never moving too fast or rushing the girl along with her steps. ]

Jean.

[ She smiles as she gives her name and, upon finding a spot to sit, she guides Bella there slowly, careful in the way she helps her down. ]

How about you?

[Normally Bella would be annoyed at being treated so delicately, like she's something that's going to break -- but then again, she doesn't normally have copious amounts of blood streaming down her hand. So instead she settles down on the bench Jean led her to, shaky knees relieved.]

Bella. Nice to meet you -- I mean, uh, under the circumstances.

[ She smiles as she reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a neck scarf in the colour red. Ideal since it's not as though the stains of blood will be noticeable. Carefully, she takes to tending to Bella's finger, taking a quick look before she begins to wrap the scarf around her finger. Not too tight but enough to apply pressure to it. ]

Considering how disorienting it can be suddenly find yourself here, I'd say it's a good thing we ended up crossing paths.

[ She loos up to Bella through the strands of her hair. ]

Have you been here very long?

[Bella watches for a moment, then swallows tightly and looks away, her already-pale face going a couple shades whiter. The question gets a weak sort of smile.]

About...twenty minutes, I think? Give or take. Long enough to dangerously injure myself, of course.

Well that sounds like a bit of a record there.

[ Her tone is gentle yet playful at the same time. Simply a means to lighten the mood some and ensure that Bella has something else to distract her thoughts with so as not to feel any more sick to her stomach with the blood than she already does. ]

Where are you from? Since you just arrived and all.

It's in my top ten, for sure. [Talking about her nearly-medical-grade levels of clumsiness is always a good distraction. The mention of her home makes her sober a little, frowning lightly.]

Forks. It's a really small town in Washington state. I...guess there's not an airport here, huh?

[ Making sure the scarf is nicely wrapped around her finger - but not too tight - she smiles to her as she holds her hand so carefully within her own, applying a bit of pressure still to the finger to help with stopping the bleeding. ]

I haven't really been here that long myself but I'm going to have to go with your guess on that and say no, I don't think there is.

[ Though even if there was, she very much doubts it could be any sort of means to escape from a dream they've all managed to land themselves in. ]

Are you here alone? No one you recognize from home?

Ah. Yeah, I didn't...didn't really think there was. [The attention to the injury is...nice. Kind of reminds her of being around her mom or dad when she was little. Little enough to be taken care of, at least.

The question gets an awkward, unsure shrug.] No, nobody I know. I mean, I didn't last too long before dangerously injuring myself, but in that time I didn't see anyone. Have you been here long?

A few days. Not as long as quite a few others here it would seem, but the longest I've been in a dream if I'm to be perfectly honest.

[ She smiles to Bella, a tilt of her head given. ]

The good news is... I think you'll be just fine with this little injury here.

A few days. [Bella repeats this in a somewhat faint voice, looking intently at her hand now.] I thought...you weren't supposed to be able to get hurt in a dream.

Unless this is one of those, uh...lucid dreams? Something like that?

Generally, you're not.

[ She finds herself giving a sigh, hands coming to curl under the bench they sit upon. ]

Although, where I'm from, someone creating a very realistic dream like this isn't all that unheard of. [ She glances to Bella then, a touch of a smile tugging at her lips. ] It might be a little easier to work with all of this if it was, in fact, just that.

Oh. Do you think...it is? [The idea of it being a realistic dream is sort of reassuring. You're supposed to wake up from dreams eventually, right?] I mean, do you think it's the same as where you're from?

But then, why are people from other places here too? [Unless they're all from the same world? Unless...Bella lets out a soft, frustrated sigh, reaching to rub at her forehead. She's getting a headache.]

[ Pursing her lips, Jean allows for her gaze to wander about for a moment. She doesn't slip into her telepathy, finding that every time that she has so far, her head had begun to slowly throb in a way that she hasn't exactly dealt with since her powers first manifested back when she was younger. That, and, she knows she won't find much what with having tried a couple times already before. ]

That's what I'm not so sure about. [ Teeth drag over her lower lip before she shakes her head and reassures Bella with a smile. ] I'm not exactly sure if this is something like where I'm from but I think it's best to exercise a bit of caution around here either way.

[ A beat, she tilts her head. ]

You don't have somewhere to go here, do you?

...yeah, it's a little...horror-movie. Small town full of people who don't seem to care that you're brand-new...lots of deer. [Bella likes deer. She likes their big eyes and cute faces. She just doesn't care for the sort of deer she's seen around here, who have...multiple eyes and faces.

The question makes her blink, coming back to herself, then shaking her head, absently twisting the ring on her left index finger around and around.] I-I mean, I woke up in a house that seemed empty, but it's...definitely not mine.

[ Considering what she saw herself moments prior to waking here, she would have to agree with that. Which is why she looks to Bella both curiously and with gentle concern. ]

Do you feel safe there?

[ A beat. ]

I woke up in a house that definitely isn't mine either but I don't want to leave you someplace on your own considering the circumstances of this place.

[ Being completely unfamiliar. ]

[Bella hesitates, casting a look over towards the house she had come out of -- or, rather, the row of similar-looking houses. None of them particularly fill her with comfort, or even ease. More a looming sense of dread, of wrongness.]

Not...really, no. [Logically, she shouldn't feel safe anywhere in this alien place, but she finds it more comfortable closer to Jean than alone.] Um, you d-don't...you don't have to worry about me, though. Honest.

Maybe not. But I don't think there's anything so bad about looking out for each other.

[ Her words are gentle as is the smile she lets touch her lips. ]

Might be a lot better than having to try and figure this all out on your own. If you want, that is.

...yeah. [Bella smiles a little, something in it hesitant, but hopeful.] Okay. That'd -- be really nice.

[ She matches that hesitant hope with a brush of her own against that smile she still wears. ]

There's more than enough space where I woke up- a lot more than one person needs, really.

[ And so she had wondered if somehow that meant she was to find someone else here to share this dream with. ]

Yeah? The houses here are big. [She's still a little shy about it, not used to being invited to...y'know. Live with someone.] And they just kinda give them away? Must suck to be in real estate around here.

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redheat - 2020-04-09 22:45 (UTC) - Expand

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