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

[touchofrogue]

[ The picture of comfort, he is. ]

Yeah. [ You're terrible at this. Which honestly makes her feel a little better; she tends to be terrible at this stuff too, and it's a lot easier to deal with someone obnoxious than it is someone nice. Still, she manages to hold back the commentary, because if he is doing this to her... ] You see what happens when someone else eats one of those apples?

[droptheious]

[Everyone benefits from having a Varian in their life.

He's the worst at this. How do you social? He doesn't know. It's a msytery.]

Not yet. I've observed what happens when people prick their finger on the spinning wheels- but I haven't seen anyone eat the apple yet. Once I know the effects, I can try and figure out a way to counteract them.

[touchofrogue]

[ An eyebrow raise of extreme skepticism. It's not even directed at the fact that he looks about... what, 14? It's that... she's been to places like this before. She somehow doubts that there is anything anyone can generate that will impact whatever effects this thing happens to have. ]

Yeah? What happens when people prick their finger on the spinning wheel?

[droptheious]

[Rude, Rogue, he's 15 and that makes all the difference, wow. He's practically an adult!!! (He isn't. At all). He flicks through his notebook- to where he's sketched one of the spinning wheels in charcoal.]

Clinginess, mostly. They find a person and they just... follow them. Literally everywhere.

[touchofrogue]

[ Thirteen. Got it. ]

...that's it? [ Wow, she was expecting something so much worse. ] Could be worse.

[ Her hair, already graced with a streak of white, begins to gray... ]

[droptheious]

[G A S P.]

Yeah, I know. [Hr pulls a face. ] Honestly, after the hallucinogenic flowers last month this is a bit of a let dow-

[He notices the hair, raises a finger.]

Huh. Okay. So that's a reaction.

[touchofrogue]

[ Slow blink.

She doesn't... feel any different. ]

What is?

[droptheious]

Your hair.

[Which could be construed as pretty judgey but he's also part of the weird hair stripe club so for once it's not. ]

You're getting streaks of grey in it.

[touchofrogue]

[ ...is he colorblind or is this an effect? ]

Like... besides this? [ Flipping at her white bangs with gloved hands. ]

[droptheious]

[He rolls his eyes skyward. ]

No. I mean grey like... old lady grey. Not your bangs. Obviously.

[touchofrogue]

[ Well, that's concerning. Because Rogue is up on her Disney films, and in order to give the poison apple to Snow White... ]

...this is gonna turn me into an old hag, isn't it.

[droptheious]

[Varian scribbles down some notes, giving a nod.]

Probably? Do you feel any older?

[touchofrogue]

No. [ Except her hair is all grey now - except for the white bangs, those stay white.

Oh, and -- her hands are tingling. That's not good.

She steps back a few paces from Varian and cautiously lifts the edge of one of her gloves, just so she could see down the material without moving the protection of the glove and without Varian getting to see anything. ]

Oooooh no. That's not good.

[droptheious]

[Varian, ever curious and ever neglectful of societal norms, cranes his neck to try and see.]

What isn't? What's happening? Are you experiencing further side-effects?

[touchofrogue]

Don't come any closer! [ She warns sharply. He's not physically moving, but she doesn't trust his curiosity. ] It's not safe to get close to me.

[ Her hair, at this true statement, begins to change back, starting (oddly) from the tips and working back up. ]

[droptheious]

[He reaction is sudden enough to make him pull back quickly, raising his hands in mock surrender.]

Okay, okay. I'll... stay where I am.

[Oh, but look at that. He keeps his position, hands still raised, but drops a finger to point at her.]

Um. It's actually going away a little bit, now.

[touchofrogue]

It is? [ She reaches up to grab a strand of her hair and pulls it around so she can observe it herself, then drops it and checks her hands -- no, still withered, and working its way up her wrists. ]

That's... weird. Why would it be going back?

[droptheious]

[Varian puts a hand to his chin, trying to work this out. Magic was always a pig of a thing to figure out. It didn't follow logic, it lived in arbitrary rules that made no sense to anyone. ]

Well. I doubt it's just worn off- your hands are still... that. This is magic, so you probably did something. Maybe yelling at me? I don't know, magic never makes sense.

[touchofrogue]

Like anythin' good has ever happened from me yellin' at someone. [ Is that true? Meh. Is that going to stop her from yelling? Not even a little bit. Scowling down at her hands for a minute before looking up at Varian, who is still studying her like some kind of experiment which is dehumanizing and bothersome.

So if you can't address one problem, address another one. ] I'm Rogue, by the way. You are?

[droptheious]

Well, it might make you feel better to let it out.

[Sorry, Rogue, he's really bad at people-ing. He doesn't get out of his lab half as much as he should. ]

Cool name. I'm Varian.

[touchofrogue]

So are you a scientist or a reporter? [ She glances under her gloves at her skin agai and... huh. Her brow furrows. ]

[droptheious]

I'm a scientist! Specifically, I'm an alchemist. I've been trying to see if any patterns emerge with what happens here- if I can find a pattern, then I'll be able to predict it and at least prepare people for it.

[touchofrogue]

...alchemist, what, like ya try turnin' things into gold?

[ Still... staring at her skin without giving Varian any clue as to why, sorry. ]

[droptheious]

That seems to be what most people know about alchemists and no, I don't chase that particular pipe dream.

[Mostly because endless wealth has never been anything that's interested him.]

I prefer creating things that can help improve people's lives. Or even just... seeing if I can, honestly. [Off handed:] You keep looking at your hands. Is anything wrong?

[touchofrogue]

Yeah, the... wrinklin' stopped, halfway. [ She glances over at him. ] What about the rest of my hair, did it change back?

[ Why is it turning back and why did it stop? ]