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

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.

( she sighs, knowing that michael's overstepped. she starts walking again, leading them to a nearby bench to sit on. the cafe would have to wait )

It's your own choice. Free will. I can't do what Michael did but I will let you choose -- choose whether or not you want to remember.

( she nods just to back it up, serious about it )

[ he's grateful in spite of himself for the bench. and sinks down into it, not realizing how wobbly his legs were beginning to feel until just now. he sets his shopping down at his feet, and crosses his legs neatly at the thigh, smoothing absently at his jeans and staring down at slim, scarred hands. ]

The-- The thing is, I don't feel like someone that should be.. Him. [ her. them. do pronouns matter to the creator of the universe? they matter to sunny. ] I.. Did you know I was an atheist before all this? [ he laughs a little sadly. ] My family spent my whole life tellin' me I'm going to hell because sometimes I'm a she and because I date boys. Now I'm supposed to be the person they think would hate me?

( as human as she now is she really can't relate to this, never having parents per se or having grown up. she'd wanted to be a parent but that opportunity was taken from her.

there is one thing that she does know though -- someone's soul, possibilities of hell. and maybe she can soothe him )

Your parents were wrong. About Hell.

( she's calmer again, putting aside the revelation that he's given. ignoring it is easier, just talking and soothing, guiding-- that's what she can do )

I don't know you but you seem to care what other people feel. Why would only one thing destine you for Hell?

( also ignoring him being god. not ready )

I don't have parents, it was my-- [ he starts, and then pauses. ] Well, I guess it don't much matter. [ it amounts to the same thing in the end, doesn't it? they were people that should have loved him and didn't.

he turns to smile wanly, apologetically at her. ] That's.. just how things like that work with people like that. With parts of that region, really. Doesn't matter how good a person you try to be, being different's enough to condemn you.

[ he spreads his hands in a small shrug. ] It's why I rejected all of it eventually.

( trust her, she might be an angel but there's no religion to her. humans had gotten it very drastically misinterpreted millennia ago and they couldn't be corrected )

No one could blame you.

( maybe even god wouldn't. it was complicated. but perhaps it was more the idea that someone had tried to push on him that had been rejected than entire belief. since he did believe in god and angels, accepted their existence. religion was something else )

But what is happening to you is something different.