APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

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.

Comments

[knewaguy]

Yeah, well... not the only one who uses it.

[Kind of a lie - he is the one primarily who does but pretending it's there for Stiles or Billy's a thing? Laura not so much. And hey, it has its use here today. He gestures before starting to walk away, effectively shop lifting the eye wear in his pocket as he heads for the door murmuring something about his car being in the lot. There's a limp when he walks - more subdued than when he arrived, but there nonetheless. He tries his best to disguise it as he leads her to... well, his fucking limo.]

No x-jet exactly, but... here. Hold on.

[He needs to clear off the passenger seat.]

[redheat]

[ The limp she notices, despite his best efforts to disguise it, but chooses to say nothing about it. At least not at the moment. There's just... so much that's happened in such a short span of time that focusing on patching up her finger is probably a good start to easing in to all of this that is Deerington and being here now - within a dream - after everything.

So she folds her arms against her chest, handkerchiefed fingers tucked under an arm as her steps begin to slow some when she sees the ride that Logan has for them. ]

You drive a limo?

[ It's asked in a more curiously amused sort of way than surprise as she makes her way over while he clears the seat off. ]

So it's four wheels instead of two now.

[ She seems to recall him favoring a particular motorcycle after all. ]

[knewaguy]

Yeah, it's - a long story.

[Seat cleared off, he stands back up with his hand on the door before moving himself out of the way to let her get in. Maybe it's habit, maybe it's stupid of him, but he waits to close the door for her afterward - like a good ol' driver - before moving around to the driver's seat. He's more or less on auto pilot until he's in said seat, keys in the ignition, swallowing hard before shooting her a sidelong glance.]

We don't have to get into it, but - I needed a job, and an income back home. This was the... best way to go about it.

[The dash lights up with his ID; reading James Howlett next to his photo.]

Would still prefer the bike, for what it matters.

[redheat]

[ The seat creaks as she settles into it, gaze dropping to the handkerchief wrapped around her fingers, spots of blood seeping through the material from her pricked finger. She rubs the pad of her thumb over it, coming to realize that she's really in this limo with Logan and that he's right there beside her. Funny, because he could very well be thinking the same thing but with her. ]

You always did enjoy going wherever you wanted.

[ His penchant for taking off. She doesn't mean to chide him though and she offers the easy pull of a smile on her lips when she looks to him for a moment. ]

Thank you, Logan. [ She finds herself saying then, looking down to her wrapped finger again. ] For being here. Even if you shouldn't.

[knewaguy]

No thanks needed. I'd do it no matter what.

[For you, he adds on mentally, not sure what to say about how obvious it is he'd go to the ends of the earth for Jean Grey. Some things never change and old dogs learn new tricks but they're always going to remember their pasts. He starts to drive - getting himself reacquainted with the streets and pulling off toward his shitty and humble abode. The ride only takes about ten minutes. It's in this silence he feels a bit too sentimental, so:]

But if you want anything kissed better, all you have to do is ask.

[redheat]

[ Is it wrong to say that she knows he would? That despite his taking off for however long he wants and the undeniable pinpricks of electricity she can feel from him that make everything so confusing and difficult for her whenever she finds herself alone with him, she knows he would. She doesn't need to be able to read minds to know that.

So when he decides to be the playful sentimental that he can be (and which she secretly finds herself adoring when he is), she smiles over to him. Bright. Amused. As if it's just the two of them right here in this little world within his limo and she hasn't found herself lost within a dream that she can make so little sense of. ]

Well now I know it's definitely you.

[ The gentle tease she prods him with is met with a glance outside the window before her attention turns back to him. ]

You're staying by yourself here?

[knewaguy]

[He almost says 'and now I know you're still with him' like it needs clarifying, but he doesn't. Maybe it's just because he's seen a world where he was the last of the X-Men that he doesn't really want to joke about Scott right now. Doesn't know how to go back to when things were easier, when he wanted to leech the heat off her body without a damn for anyone else. Still wants to do that, of course, that'll always be a part of his brain but somehow he possesses a little foresight.

Keeping his eyes on the road and his hand lazily on the wheel, he answers her question first with a tip of his head and a meager shrug. He's not sure how to delve into it all but he'll start easy:]

Mostly. Before you start callin' me anything - there are a couple kids here who're around time to time. I'm no Charles but I think he taught me enough to feel bad if I wasn't looking out for them a little. But ideally, yeah, I'm living a life of blissful seclusion.

[redheat]

[ It's not entirely surprise which touches her features so much as genuine curiosity as he gives her some sort of warning in regards to the company which he keeps around his place here. She doesn't let her thoughts linger too long on the Professor, however. Everything still feeling so raw despite the bubble she sits within inside Logan's limo here with him. ]

I don't necessarily think it's a matter of teaching you to feel bad so much as it's that you've always been capable of caring, Logan.

[ With a look to him, she offers him a smile. ]

Rogue comes to mind with that.

[ And the lengths he had gone to help her when he simply could have just taken off. ]

[knewaguy]

[She throws the name Rogue out there and Logan reacts with a sidelong glance, looking away abruptly after that before peeking back. She's caught him with that, it's true, but there's a spike of emotion in him at the thought of Marie all these years later. Still, he grumbles something indistinct before looking back at the road - they're pulling up his street and driving by the gas station reminds him he needs to fill up. Later. Two minutes after that they're in his drive way.

The house is pretty decrepit looking on the outside - windows aren't all there, some boarded up and there's a lot of ivy creeping over peeling paint and nearly fallen down eaves-trough. Porch has a couple of empty beer bottles and an ash tray on it, things he's conscious of only after getting out of the car and heading up to the door. Which is unlocked because who gives a fuck - he swings it in.]

C'mon, let's clean your hand up.

[redheat]

[ Slipping out of the car, she's slow with her movements, fingers wrapped around the handkerchief covering the one injured, and she stands there at the passenger side, taking a moment to simply look the place over. It suits him, she thinks. Somehow. Finding Logan out and away from the hustle and bustle of city life and being out somewhere in a log cabin nestled in the forest is the image she gets from him and, while it's not exactly something you'd find at a ski lodge, it's still very him in a way.

She follows in after him, glances given here and there to the place while she still holds her injured finger. ]

I see you still keep the essentials on hand.

[ The beer and cigars, she means. ]

Is this where you woke up? I mean- I woke up in a room that very clearly wasn't my own and it seems people just appear within a random house.

[knewaguy]

Not exactly.

[He's entering the house, looking around and half-heartedly tidying it up. He moves a few things off the kitchen counter, dumping ashtrays into the trash and more or less trying to make this barely a bachelor pad place look... decent. Still needs a long way to go but after moving a few pill bottles away to a cupboard, he's fishing out a first aid kit from that same nook.]

I woke up somewhere else - people were transported there or something. Whole month of living in a fucking underwater dome full of drugged up psychos. Came back here afterward, but if you ask me? Place is still full of psychos. Wouldn't trust anything you don't know in this place.

[He looks up to her while opening the kit.]

But I guess you have the advantage of reading minds and intent.

[redheat]

[ Her eyebrows raise for a moment before a hand comes up to smooth along her arm. She may not have woke from this sleep within an underwater dome as he had, but prior to finding herself here, underwater is exactly where she had been. She's quiet for a moment, letting her gaze linger on him before she lets a smile carefully touch her lips. ]

I'm glad you're ok.

[ A beat, her gaze wanders over him a little more curiously. Going more on her intuition than anything else with him. ]

Are you ok?

[knewaguy]

I'm fine.

[He's a little too quick with that, and he knows it. It takes a moment for him to putter around with what he's doing - looking through the first aid kit longer than he needs to once he finds gauze and tape. Then his shoulders slump somewhat and he looks to her - lips in a firm line. He doesn't want to admit to anything, so.]

I'm just older. Comes with some side effects.

[redheat]

[ Little too quick is right and Jean lets her gaze linger on him for just a moment longer before she decides to let the topic drop. For now. Pursed lips turn into the gentle touches of a smile and she removes the handkerchief from her finger for him to tend to it a little more properly. ]

Not going to have to remind you things every now and then, am I?

[ She's teasing. ]

[knewaguy]

[Jokes about senility roll off him pretty easy in the moment, even with all things considered. He makes an amused snort before moving closer, dragging the kit with him and holding out his hand for hers. He's got a packet with an alcohol swab in it but just to play off her joke he says:]

No, but you can tell me this is what I think it is so I don't need to break out the glasses you definitely don't need to see me in.

[redheat]

[ It's familiar to be this way with him and considering where she- where they currently find themselves, a little familiarity is much needed and appreciated in this moment here between them.

With a gentle curl of fingers from her other hand, she slowly draws the alcohol swab towards her through the air, a slight tilt of her head as she watches it drift on the whims on her mind. ]

I feel like I'm learning a lot about you all over again.

[ Plucking the swab from the air, she's careful in tearing it open. ]

Anything else I should know?

[knewaguy]

Couple things, maybe.

[Couple decades, even. He looks to her and there's just... something about seeing her use her powers that slathers him up in that same familiarity. It was like just yesterday he saw her last, back when he didn't know how close he was to losing her. He's got a spike of something sorrowful, just briefly, before he swallows it down.]

Not all of it's important right now. Might be better to leave it. But there's one thing you'll probably find out sooner than later, so you might as well hear it from me.

[redheat]

[ The torn part of the swab is gently dropped down to the table and before she can apply it to the cut on her finger, her gaze lifts to meet his own and she stares to him. Concerned. To say she hadn't had a feeling there might be more to it all, well... she doesn't need to be a psychic to read Logan in some aspects. ]

What is it that I need to hear?

[knewaguy]

There's a girl around here, about twelve. Mutant like us.

[Should he have started at the beginning? Getting into Alkali-Transigen and all of the mutant suppression? That's always kind of heavy to start off, though. So he looks for a way to ease into it as he slides some gauze her way and then moves to get himself a beer from the fridge.]

There weren't any mutants born for a long time, back home. Suppressants in the food, the drink. It went to hell, basically. There were a group of kids who escaped from a facility designed to turn them into weapons. They were created with cloned DNA.

[He looks up to Jean, oddly pensive.]

Laura's made from mine.

[redheat]

[ When he starts, she applies the swab to her finger and there's only the barest of flinches that comes with the sting from the alcohol. Taking care, she begins to wrap the gauze around her finger and finds her gaze drifting off as everything he says slowly clicks and slides into place within her mind. No more mutants? What exactly does that mean for... so many things?

Brows furrowed, she looks up to him with a tilt of her head. It's not that she doesn't believe him it's just... ]

She's a clone of you?

[knewaguy]

She's made from my DNA.

[He - hesitates a beat because it wasn't too long ago that he was so willing to deny that just not to get involved. Then he had to face the fact and deal with what that made him to her and vice versa. It's not exactly the most traditional way of passing down your genes, but it is what it is. And she is precisely who she'd be if he had done it in any more... common way.]

Found out the exact way nobody wants to find out they're a father - kid pretty much dumped on your doorstep.

[redheat]

[ The gauze is wrapped a couple more times around her finger before she stops entirely, gaze lingering on the torn swab packet that rests on the table. ]

She's your daughter.

[ Whether that's said more to herself or as a means to confirm what it is that Logan is more or less saying in his own way, who is to say. But she falls silent for a moment as she tucks the gauze under her finger and then looks to him with a bit of a smile. ]

And here you were always worried you weren't good with kids.

[knewaguy]

I'm not good with kids. Especially ones that are a lot like me.

[He admits in a momentary show of - softness, like he's appealing to Jean for help here. He's been pulling himself along all these years, trying to keep himself afloat alongside Charles and when the kid showed up? He was kind of a bastard about the whole situation, and that's still on him. He doesn't know where to begin in terms of giving her the things she's owed, nevermind the things she deserves. So he's been still keeping his distance, biding his time, hoping something will help solve his problems for him. Hasn't worked.]

... I'm not good with kids, Jean.

[redheat]

[ It's not even a matter of being able to feel what others do in this moment. She can see it on his face- hear it in the softness of his voice. There's so much left to be filled within the gaps between where she herself is and where Logan is years ahead of her and yet, in this moment here between them, none of that matters. Because despite the gentle differences that are so apparent within him through more than just looks alone, he's still Logan. She feels that within him. Buried beneath so much... always so much.

She reaches for him then, a hand gentle in the way it touches his arm. A reassuring touch that gently glides down to his hand which she holds then. Fingers soft in the way they curl around his. ]

No one expects you to know what to do with it all, Logan. [ Gently, she lets a smile touch her lips. ] Don't be so hard on yourself.

[knewaguy]

I...

[He wants to argue because he has reason to. Nobody expects him to do it, maybe, but at the same time he was the only one who could do it. Who could do everything - he was one of the last, after Westchester. He was the only one who was able to pull them through the mud, taking care of Charles even though that burnt him out long before Laura came along. Nobody expects him to do it feels like a lie, because he had to shoulder it all.

He's quiet for a beat, curling his fingers around hers in a gentle squeeze. This familiarity, this comfort, it's soothing after going without it for so long.]

You're here now, which helps.