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

[ The pig squeals and she drops to her stomach to stay out of sight.

She doesn't answer when the guy calls out the first time (how's she to know if you're not turning people into pigs, mister) but reconsiders when he seems to be exchanging conversation with his charge.

Pushing up just enough so that she's peering over the top of a particularly large rock. ]

Um, hi?

[ Now what, Kaya? ]

Are you two okay? Do you need help or something?

[ Despite calling out to her, Jeff startles a little when the girl pokes her head out from behind a rock-- not all flailing limbs or anything, just a little jerk, reflexively clutching the pig closer to his chest for a moment, before he takes her in and noticeably relaxes. His own greeting is friendly, spoken with a somewhat bewildered smile. ]

Hey!

[ She's a kid. Younger than his daughter, by the looks of it, but probably close to the same age. And though he doesn't know her from anyone else here, Jeff can't help but feel a little surge of protectiveness, not just as a dad and a teacher, but, like, as the adult here, in a weird dream-like town where people can get turned into pigs for eating a ham sandwich. (Fiona.) ]

Oh, we're okay-- [ He exchanges a look with the pig in his arms, and she snorts in disgruntlement. Jeff grimaces a little. ] Sorry. I'm okay; she's not. Okay, seriously, can I put you down now? [ The pig oinks out something that sounds like a very impatient Fine, and Jeff gingerly sets her on the ground to stretch her legs. For her part, she trots on over to the girl and appears to size her up with a scrutinizing gaze. ] I'm Jeff. And that's, ah... Fiona. She's under a curse.

[ That explains enough, right? Jeff steps towards her, though he moves cautiously, giving her space in case she doesn't trust him-- which he'd totally understand, since he's a total stranger and was just serenading a pig. ]

Are you okay? You didn't eat any pork or bacon or anything recently, did you? Oh man, please tell me you didn't.

[ His mind's already racing to the WORST CASE SCENARIOS. Because if she starts to fall under the curse, he has no idea how he's going to get two pigs up the mountain! ]

Edited 2020-04-08 00:41 (UTC)

[ The pig walks up to her and Kaya crouches down, setting her weight on her calves so she's relatively eye level with-- ]

Hi, Fiona. I'm Kaya. How'd you get like this?

[ --of course her head snaps up when she hears the older man's question and for a moment she's confused - she eats pork on a regular basis but--

--here's her eyes wide as saucers before she looks back down at the piggy. ]

Who would do something like this?!??

[ Her mom grew up in the province and used to tell her that her Lolo Romi once got it into his head to raise chickens and one very pale pink pig that well. Let's just leave it at: it ended up a very sad story. ]

How do we turn her back??

I don't know. This kind of curse feels pretty... old school... [ Like Greek mythology levels of old school, with the pigs and.. Shit, did he step into The Odyssey without even realizing it?

And-- oh. Oh no. Jeff's starting to think he might've worded his question differently, like, maybe in a less potentially panic-inducing way? Now there's a chance she either thinks she might be cursed, or that the meat here used to be people-- which, come to think of it, was a possibility that hadn't occurred to Jeff, but he sure as hell can't shake it now.

But he's going to put that aside, try not to dwell on the possibilities, and focus on the one thing he can affect. ]

But it's okay. She'll be fine! We just have to get to this... enchanted stream? That's what the locals say. We get her there, sing a song, and bam! [ THUMBS UP. ] Good as new.

[ He... he thinks, anyway. Jeff doesn't really know for sure, but for Kaya's sake, and Fiona's, he's definitely going to act like he's totally confident. Fake it til you make it. ]

She'll be walking on two legs again in no time.

Edited 2020-04-08 19:43 (UTC)

[ Okay. Okay. There's a plan. That's something at least.

She's petting Fiona's head with both hands in soothing motions as she nods. ]

Okay, so we take her to the stream and then sing her a song.

[ A beat. ]

How can I help?

[ Where Fiona seems to, at best, tolerate Jeff, she seems much more receptive to Kaya, positively basking in the head pats like she's a queen and this is her due. And though there's a moment where Jeff's debating if he should turn down the offer and send her back to town, he quickly figures that, well, they're already a little ways out here, and it's not like town's that fucking safe.

After all: there's people turning into pigs there. Weird as it is, it's probably safer where they're heading. ]

Welllll... [ He makes like he's thinking on it, then smiles. ] How's your singing voice?

[ Fiona's more than welcome to all the fussing because the texture of her hide reminds Kaya a teensy bit of her own cat. Given her encounters in this place, fussing over an animal - even if they used to be human - is good and centers her. ]

Passable...? [ A head tilt. ] What you thinking of singing?

[ Because right. To break the curse you need to sing. Got it. ]

To be honest? I'm not sure! She keeps vetoing all of my suggestions. [ He looks thoughtful for a moment, then adds: ] I don't think she's a fan of... super upbeat music. [ Probably because the pig curse has got her in all kinds of a bad mood. Can't imagine why, Jeff... ] You wanna pick something? Even if we don't know the same songs, we've got a whole hike to learn.

[ Though he'll happily choose a song if she doesn't. But hey, why not let their new questing companion put in her two cents?

Questing...

Holy shit, he's on a quest. They're on a quest right now! A quest to break a curse! That's so cool... Okay, okay, Jeff, try not to dork out over that realization now. ]

So... What were you doing out here, anyway?

[ She is terrible when it comes to thinking up non... upbeat songs. Her playlists tend to also mostly be stuff from video game soundtracks. ]

Pick something easy that kind of uses the same words over and over? [ Have a not!smile that is ten ways past sheepish. Most adults aren't familiar with her music anyway.

But to his question: ] Um. Town was getting weirdly crowded with... [ she glances down at Fiona ] I figured I'd explore to avoid whatever was causing the commotion.