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

so you ARE an angel
i'd be really grateful if you could
i'm honestly not sure how to manage them on my own

I'm complicated.

( but she'd give him the story when she met him. she's also only saying complicated because he did, as if it's a little joke between them )

Where can I meet you?

[ oh. she wants to meet now..? well, that's convenient. ]

there's an art supply store called paintbrush kingdom, and it's REALLY obvious.. how's that?

I'll be there.

( doot doot.

since she's not an angel it takes her a little time to walk across town from the cafe she'd been in. hope he likes the wait. and art supplies.

at least since it isn't busy she doesn't have many people to try and suss between as to who it is. so, gently approaching-- )

Hello.

[ he's poking through the stuff he picked up when he finally realizes someone's approaching him, and glances up just in time to not be startled by her greeting.

a doe-eyed blink, and he smiles, offering out a long-fingered hand. if she's observant, it's clear there are healed up needle scars over the veins, but they're also easy to miss if you're not paying attention. ]

Mrs. S, I guess? [ and his accent is a soft southern u.s. drawl. ] I'm Sunny. Like.. sunny day, not sonny boy. Nice to meet you.

( she's a little more observant than the angels that she works with but mrs s. has also been on earth a lot longer than them )

Mrs Sheringham, but I suppose Mrs S. works.

( her hand lingers on his, finger running over the back of it )

This wasn't Michael's doing I take it?

( if an angel started advocating this she'd be afraid )

[ she's.. bright. somehow. like.. more bright than regular people are supposed to be, but not the way angels are weird and bright and terrifying. he blinks, trying to tell himself he doesn't see it-- the last thing he needs right now is for his perception to break again and for him to start seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting things that humans shouldn't.

and then she brushes the back of his hand and he jerks it away, laughing a little nervously and clutching both hands to his chest as if trying to hide the markings. ]

Uh-- Uh, n-no, that-- I started, um.. I-- I was self-medicating. For. Stuff. I'm clean now, Michael.. cleaned me up.

That's good.

( she offers a smile, one hand resting on her hip )

Why don't you buy those and we can take a walk. You can fill me in on how Michael's helped you.

Oh. Um. Yeah, okay. [ he returns the smile, relaxing a little when she doesn't make a big deal of it, and trots off to make his purchases.

when he meets her outside, he looks almost comfortable again, a bag on his arm and his other hand in his back pocket. ]

Hey, sorry to make you wait, uh, ma'am. [ he lets her pick the direction they're going to walk, content to be quiet for a few moments as he considers where to start. finally he just.. settles on her. ] Could you.. tell me more about you? You're not, uh.. I mean, angels are usually.. hard to look at at first. Real bright. [ and she's not.. quite like that. ]

( the direction she picks is conveniently the road back towards the cafe she'd been in. a little tea and a scone wouldn't hurt with this conversation.

her head lifts up, curious look at him for a moment. he was talking about sight, seeing an angel. their aura. their wings too? )

Well, that would be because I'm not an angel, not anymore. I'm human.

( just before he assumed she was a fallen angel )

But-- you can see that? See an angel?

[ .. a human. she's a human. it's.. like him, kind of. only she seems to remember everything, and he definitely doesn't and isn't sure he wants to. ]

It's.. why I was, uh.. self-medicating. I was.. seeing things, hearing things. I thought I was hallucinating, and nothing else was helping, and it was all.. impossible.

[ he pushes a few loose strands of hair behind his ear, frowning uncertainly. ] Michael.. found me. He usually sticks close, because I.. they're not hallucinations, it's my brain trying to.. make sense of what I'm supposed to be able to perceive. He's able to help with it some.

( a human with such a talent was a rare thing indeed. and a little terrifying to an angel. to be seen and known? )

Michael's doing the right thing.

( though she was concerned he'd stepped too far. angels weren't supposed to interfere )

I won't be able to do exactly what he does but I can talk to you about it, about what you see. Help you to understand it.

I-- [ his lips part, then press thin again, brows knitting. he's not sure if he should talk about.. what he is. does it really matter here? no one's going to bother him about it, probably. he has his migraines to think of, but.. ] Um.

[ a nervous sideways glance. ]

Can I.. ask why you became human? And.. I mean, you-- you remember everything about who you were.. before?

I--

( she looks away from him. the first time one of the angels had asked her about it she'd snapped back that they were never to ask her. but then she'd told him. it was a story filled with joy and pain and she carried it all with her )

I'd fallen in love. I asked God to make me mortal, to be with him. ( she sighs, hoping to close the page on it ) But yes, I remember it all.

Oh.

[ not.. exactly the same, then. he fiddles with the bag on his arm, then a button on his flannel shirt. ]

I don't.. remember much. Just.. l-like snapshots. [ he chews the inside of his cheek, tasting copper, anxiety crawling up his veins. ] The first notes of Lucifer's first song. Galaxies. The.. garden, I think. It hurts to focus on them.

[ he shudders, folding his arms self-consciously. ] Michael wants me to remember everything, to.. be.. what He was. But He did this for a reason, right? He-- He became human.. for.. a reason. Right?

( she nods slowly along with what he says, not thinking too much on it.

and then-- michael wants me to be what he was. he became human.

it makes her stop walking, looking up at him, hand laying on his arm to stop him )

You're saying that God became human?

( that was impossible. she'd met god, still heard from him in signs, in the angels she was with. god wasn't human )

[ he flinches a little at the touch, not quite able to look at her, staring down at his boots. ] Y-Yeah, [ he manages shakily, tightening his hands on his arms. ] A.. long time ago, He.. left.

[ at least, that's what michael tells him. he doesn't remember any of this. ]

And now He's.. [ he uncurls a hand to tap the center of his chest. ] He's here.

( her hand drops from him but there is legitimate silence, a very confused expression and-- bafflement. she honestly feels lost and even though she has no reason to believe him, she knows her own truth, for some reason part of her does.

slowly she looks down to where his hand had tapped, focusing on it, trying to decipher what he'd meant. and then remember how to speak )

You-- you can't be saying that you're--

( it just sounds too insane for her to voice. but also if she voices it it makes it that bit more real )

His vessel?

( or-- him.

she'd met god which was why it all felt wrong but-- if he'd left, locked himself away, taken on a vessel-- she was mortal, she couldn't sense anything anymore, she couldn't know. and the story had come from michael )

Not.. Not His vessel. [ but he's starting to feel confused and upset trying to make sense of it all over again. his vision is starting to bleed other, and he squeezes his eyes shut to try to block it out. ] Um, [ he manages shakily, heart hammering in his chest. ] It's.. He is.. me. Just..

[ he trails off, shaking his head. there are phantom echoes in his ears, and when he opens his eyes, the world's changed. her glow is brighter than earlier, things drift through the air. he squints as pain lances through his head, but manages a shaky smile. ]

It's.. a lot to try to.. deal with.

( one hand comes to her mouth in surprise but then as he looks a little unsteady she reaches out with both hands up steady )

You-- won't remember why.

( why has he done this )

[ he shakes his head, feeling a little panicked just at the thought. ]

N-No. I'm sorry, I.. don't know why He--I?--did it. I guess.. I mean, if I were to guess.. it would be awfully tempting to.. fix people. Considering what humans do to each other.

[ and that would fuck up free will, wouldn't it? but who knows? maybe he'd just wanted a vacation for all sunny remembers. ]

( that part she rejects with certainty )

No. Angels guide, we don't interfere. We're not to change a human's free will.

( not that it seemed to stop those she was currently with from having a little nudge. but if those were the rules for angels that came from god-- )

It's something else.

Then I.. [ he trails off for a moment, then shrugs helplessly. ] I don't know. I don't.. remember. Maybe He-- Maybe I-- Maybe we don't want to remember. Maybe it's.. safer this way.

[ he glances back to her again, looking pained, as something impossible drifts between them, obscuring her face briefly but not the glow. but there's something.. there's something about her brightness.. ]

Oh, [ he says dazedly, feeling strangely disconnected. ] It's.. like a scar, isn't it?

( he might be right that even though she wants to know that it's better not knowing. if she found out and it ruined all she believed? )

Scars should be left alone. They ache but they're a reminder of what you gave up.

( she says from experience )

You gave up this knowledge. That's your scar.

Maybe, [ he agrees softly, lips tilting crookedly, tired and aching. ] I don't know if I can.. be what Michael wants me to be. I don't want to be.

[ sunny's never been.. enough, but that doesn't mean he wants to give up himself, give up the life he has. if god gave up the throne, maybe it's because he needed to. ]

Um. Anyway, that's-- that's where my migraines come from. That.. part of me.. has started, uh.. coming out more.

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE

GOOD ENDURES

Character Arrival

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