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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ he's just going to do it more now. you're not his dad!! and you're not the dad to his kid while we're at it!!

he offers thawne his half-eaten apple and speaks with his mouth full, ] Do you want an apple? They're really nice and sweet. Highly recommend. Ten out of ten.

[ this is probably one of the greatest gifts the flash has ever given his #1 stan. ]

[ he is most definitely your dad and your kid's dad. he's all the evil dads you ever dreamed of.

anyway consider him thoroughly disgusted and revolted at barry's... everything. he's doing on purpose too which makes it worse. ]

Apples aren't even any good. At least eat a more respectable fruit.

Like what?

[ does thawne even eat anything that isn't big belly burger? thinking back to how things were five years ago... he doesn't recall ever seeing eowells eat anything that wasn't that burger. curiouser and curiouser...

barry at least has his mouth full of apple to prevent him from bringing up the fast food chain he misses dearly. ]

Strawberries.

[ yes, he's that kind of person.

but also he's starting to notice barry is still aging and still eating apples. quietly his mind stirs wondering if there's any connection, but he's not willing to make himself a guinea pig to test a theory he doesn't especially care about. ]

[ he breathes out excitedly, ] Ohmygod, I love strawberries.

[ no offence, apple-that-is-aging-him in his hand. barry stops eating it, which is great, since his hands are looking super wrinkly and… wow, those frown lines? they're definitely settling in now… ]

Do you think they have some here? They're so much better dipped in chocolate. I wonder if they have melted chocolate… [ snapping himself out of his whimsical dreaming, he frowns. ] Of course they would, it's a dream world. They'd have everything.

Dream world? [ an eyebrow raises. ] Please don't tell me you think you're asleep here. You really are aging rapidly. At this rate you might keel over and die.

[ which, hey, bonus! ]

[ he does not want to get into this debate with thawne again so he rolls his eyes. ] Dream-Earth, then.

[ whatever, thawne! there are cats here who are the freaking police!

barry raises his free hand to touch his face. ] Oh, frak. [ he really is aging. what the fork??? ] How do I make this stop? Why is my speed healing not de-aging me?

[ thawne!!!! ]

[ shrug! ]

Don't know, don't care.

[ he's pretty confident the apples have something to do with it but he isn't telling that to barry! ]

[ way harsh, tai.

he stops eating his apple, seemingly losing his appetite for it. crossing his arms against his chest, he looks at thawne with a pointed look. ] Who are you going to talk to if I die?

[ you have no friends. ]

Any of the other people here?

[ rude as hell, but true. ]

Go talk to them.

[ him suddenly aging at a rapid rate is no longer his concern here. it's fine; he can die and go to heaven because he knows thawne will miss his company and most likely cry over him. thawne missing his company means thawne will help him de-age. ]

I want to make sure you'll have people to talk to before I die. Go on.

Touching, but I'll be fine. I can go back in time and talk to you whenever I want.

[ truly they are never too far apart, but also? hurry up and die. ]

[ he says that, and yet, they both know that every and any barry he goes to will slam his door in his face if he so much as says hello. he doesn't want to say that because that seems kind of mean and unnecessary. ]

Which me? Which Barry would you choose to go back to?

[ answer him before he croaks!! ]

Easy: the rookie Barry. [ he wags a finger at him, grinning. ] Enthusiastic, gullible... young.

Did you know that I really admired you? Back then. It probably wasn't a surprise—Harrison Wells was the man to be in science.

[ he shrugs. meeting earth-2 wells had made things even more complicated, but since learning the truth of who harrison wells really was, he has wondered numerous times if earth-2 wells is a better representation of the real wells than this man sitting before him.

beneath his eyes grows baggy with wrinkles. ]

I always wanted to be him. Kind of ironic, right?

[ since thawne wanted to be barry and clearly still does. (who wouldn't? barry is awesome.) ]

Just a bit. [ he smiles a touch. ] He was an idol of mine too, when it came to historically revered scientists.

[ he knows well. barry bought his book, read it through multiple times certainly, and the first time they met he couldn't contain his gushing. that time, for him, is still present. but in the face of a barry allen who is clearly older, knows well who he is now, and even has a daughter... well he must treat him differently. pity.

so, he throws him a bone: ]

You know those apples are making you age, right? You stopped eating and it hasn't continued to progress.

I figured. [ his hands haven't reverted back, despite his passion for his skincare routine. he shrugs a shoulder, feeling a little sheepish, ] I was wondering how long it would take for you to tell me. I'm impressed—I kind of expected you to not tell me for another ten minutes.

[ maybe twelve, if barry opened his mouth and said something. ]

I thought you didn't like people from the past... that they've been dead and irrelevant for centuries. Was Dr Wells really that great?

Barry, it isn't that I dislike people in the past. I simply know not to get too attached to someone who died long before I was born.

[ that's the nature of things when you're a time traveler. you never tie yourself down so much that you won't be ready to leave when it's time. he's only human though. ]

Dr. Wells was a genius. Creator of the Particle Accelerator, STAR Labs, and a number of vital discoveries that made us rethink how physics operates. Truly a man worthy of respect and awe.

[ it's nice that he recalls the man he murdered and subsequently catfished with such admiration. but barry has to call bullshit on one thing he's said. ]

You got attached to me.

[ he sighs, loud and frustrated. ]

Yeah. Yeah, I did. [ he crosses his arms and tilts his head toward Barry. ] What can I say? You were sweet and blissfully ignorant. Now look at you - bitter, jaded and... old.

[ ha ha. ]

[ he rolls his eyes. ] There's no way I'm going to die from old age.

[ he won't allow for it to happen and neither will his speed! right? thawne would probably let him become withered until he freaked and saved him. c'mon, you know it's true.

sighing, ] I was stupidly naive to how the world worked. I lived in my bubble of wanting to find my mom's murderer and bring my dad justice. The Barry you knew was looking for a purpose and you were happy to give it to me. You liked that I gave you a purpose. I liked that I finally had a way to help the world.

[ this barry's found it and doesn't need thawne anymore. that's why he's being a little bitch, isn't it?

btw, fact #2 down. ]

[ he smiles, fond and reminiscent. ]

The two of us working together... it was nice. Nicer than I ever expected it to be. [ he breathes in, lets it out, and his smile thins. ] Shame you're no longer cute. Your wrinkles have wrinkles and it's so sad to see you like this.

[ he rolls his eyes. ] What would you do without me, Thawne? I think you'd get bored.

[ doesn't that sound like an echo of what he'd shouted at him, five years ago in star labs? what would barry do without him controlling his life? apparently, he'd flourish, have a family, then die of old age at 29. but what would thawne do? his entire existence for so many decades had revolved around barry. he's curious to know if he'd find his way or if he'd crumble without that carrot being dangled in front of him. ]

Me? Doubtful. [ he grins, warmly. ] There are plenty of other speedsters. That adorable daughter of yours, for instance. Nora, right?

[ :^) ]

[ wow, thawne, he doesn't know anything yet.

barry narrows his eyes, which isn't a great look given that he's ageing. it's not that he can't wear wrinkles, it's just the damn fact the wrinkles are wearing him. tone threatening, ] Leave Nora out of this, Thawne.

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE

GOOD ENDURES

Character Arrival

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