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

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.

[ 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.

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.

[ She doesn't know the extent of the pain and hardships that he's shouldered over the years. A quick peek into his mind could easily let her know, fill in all those gaps. But they're his to tell, whenever he's ready and despite being able to slip into one's mind whenever she so chooses, she never does. Not without reason. Not without permission. Despite being here within this dream, that doesn't change and she wouldn't even think to let it.

Her smile grows a little more. With having thought that she would never see him again - never see any of them - to have him here now with her... forever familiar and something she might very well need here in this place. ]

I would hope it goes without saying that if you ever need any help, I'll do the best I can.

[ For not only his daughter, but for him as well. ]

The same goes for you.

[He's plucking at supplies, offering her gauze and a bandage both in a hovering, trying-to-be-helpful way with mild subtlety. He just wants to contribute something just as much as he wants their fingers to touch again, grazing skin to skin in a way that still feels so... foreign. He'd lost her a couple times now and he's afraid of it happening again.]

You're always welcome here.

[ She smiles as fingers gently take the bandage from his, tearing at it in a way where she affix it to her finger without too much excess. ]

I have a place in... Prospero I think it is. [ Her gaze drifts for a moment before coming back to Logan. ] It's not exactly the school but, you're welcome to stop by if you ever need to.

[ Ducking her head some, she glance off again. ]

I actually have someone staying with me. Her name's Bella. I ran into her a little into my own first coming around here. She was bleeding and out of sorts. [ Fingers running along the back of her neck, she lets arms fold in front of her chest then as she looks back to Logan. ] I thought it would be best she wasn't on her own when who knows what there is around here to begin with.

I'll know to knock and not just let myself in, then.

[He feels rusty when it comes to flirting and he's not sure if that's genuine age or the - embarrassed, awkward edge of still not quite knowing what to say to a woman he's genuinely head over heels for even now. He wants to say 'see? you are the people person out of us both' but settles for leaning against the counter and wondering if there's any other ways to prolong this moment. Before she has to return to Prospero. And leave.]

But you know I will be taking you up on your generosity. Like I hope you take me up on mine.

[ The knocking would be appreciated so as not to startle the girl Jean's taken in, yes and she's glad he plans to do that. The gentle reminder of her being more than welcome here, however, gets her to look to him with a look of amusement before teeth drag over her lower lip and she gently twirls a finger about, lifting the first aid kit a little ways from them to be packed up. Each item neatly floating its way over and into the kit. ]

Wouldn't be to get a telekinetic in here to help you clean up a bit, would it?

[ But despite the teasing, she finds herself smiling as the kit is gently placed down on the table. All packed up. ]

[He watches her pack away the kit and the impossible happens - surly old man Logan cracks a smile, head bowing down with a huffing exhale as his lip twists up in one corner. He's not exactly embarrassed of his living quarters right now, no, but she's definitely getting him to rethink living in beer bottles and dust.]

Would I see more of you around if the place was more up to snuff?

[ That smile is one she hadn't thought she would ever see again and yet, here in this almost rickety ol' thing of his, she does and it pulls at something within her chest that she can't quite put into her words. ]

It wouldn't hurt.

[ Said gently but still with the right amount of teasing to it, she lets a breath fall from her lips then and takes another look around the place. ]

I should get going. There might not be any boxes to move in and the place doesn't exactly need much in the way of repairs, but I don't want to leave Bella on her own in a house that big.

[ Again, nowhere near the size of the mansion, but... she's almost positive it's easy to feel lonely within it. ]

There's an extra two rooms as well as a basement. [ She looks to him, a tilt of her head. ] If you're ever in the area and need some place to stay...

[ He can. Always. ]

I'll ah, walk you to the - do you want a ride?

[He stumbles a bit to offer, ready to drive her across town if need be to get her home safe. The offer of staying over at her place is one he'll consider - ideally he'd love to take it but he's not sure if the cards will play out the way he wishes they could. But any time with Jean is... well, it's time with Jean. He'll take whatever he can get.]

I'll drop you off at home. So I know the route.