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soddersays2020-03-25 05:21 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2020-03-25 05:21 pm
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APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME
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!
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.
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The waitress brings them back their drinks. Eames picks up his glass and takes a gulp. ]
There's a scar on your jaw I haven't seen before.
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You should find other faces to look that closely at.
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Eames leans back in his seat and drags his drink closer.
He says nothing at all, leaving it to Arthur to lead this time. ]
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A bit after you vanished, the Townspeople got violent. Some houses got broken into, people got attacked. A food shortage, which got used as a way to force the Sleepers to participate in some violent 'games' to get supplies for winning. Some second-level dreaming, but again, no detectable Dreamer or Subject.
[A thoughtful tilt to the head as he thinks back on that.]
They called it the Great Sleep. Killing yourself to get out of it didn't work, either. I tried.
[He remembers walking through the desert with a hole in his head, feeling numb and cold as blood dripped down his face. At least that had been easy enough to recover from.]
Then back in town we got some 'evil clones', but they weren't too hard to kill off. The town got a gothic redesign for a while, then flooded with blood... Some zombies, except these were loved ones and then they turned violent.
[Finishing off his drink, he gestures to the waitress for a refill. Somehow, thinking back on all the shit that's happened makes Arthur very thirsty.]
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It sounds horrific and Eames is done with his double by the time Arthur keeps a little break. ]
I would imagine that we're quite well tranquillised up there that killing would do very little.
[ That's what he decides to say. Arthur doesn't like him to ask what happened to Arthur himself, so Eames is gearing up for that. ]
cw: gore
[He's been here long enough to think that maybe, just maybe, it's not about being sedated. That there just might be something supernatural at work after all.
Not that he'll ever admit that out loud.
Eames already suspects he's losing it, so he'd best not encourage that line of thought.]
Anyway, Christmastime wasn't too bad, but then at the end of the New Year's party when the ball dropped, the town flooded. Most of us ended up on the Titanic of all places, and a lot of us weren't... us any more. We were made to believe we were someone from that era. I was Blake's twin, even. There was more Deerington type of weirdness onboard. My arm got cut off during a party on the deck. It gets a little hazy after that.
[He honestly can't remember what happened to the other Arthur. He remembers the sudden shock and horror and blind panic of looking down and seeing his arm neatly sliced off, fingers still twitching as it lay on the ground in a pool of his blood. And then... it's all a blur. Next thing he knows-]
We ended up in some underwater city with all these drugs that could make a person gain powers. I was back to myself by that point and stayed clear of that. Some people weren't so lucky. Their withdrawal symptoms got pretty intense. After about a month there, we got brought back to town, just in time for some fucked up spring festival with more drugs and twisted sacrifices.
[Which he's not going to go into. Hopefully ever.
Just in time, the waitress brings him his refill and he thanks her, taking a long, slow drink from his glass.]
That's about it.
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He stares at Arthur when the waitress brings them their drinks and pulls his own closer but doesn't touch it yet.
A lot has happened. And tries as he does, he finds it secondary to his actual concerns. The ones that Arthur doesn't want to address. Did they do this on purpose? Yanking him out of this place. He doesn't like living with the idea that he could be taken out whenever and well...
He picks up his glass finally and knocks it back in one go. Bloody brilliant.
Then he bites his teeth together, eyes narrowing as he stares Arthur. ]
The scar. What caused it?
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[... He's not lying...]
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[Is he going to go into detail about the scarring? Nope, he's far more interested in his drink, thanks...]
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[ Eames is nothing if not persistent. ]
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Eames quiets for a moment and then nods, levelling Arthur with a look that speaks volumes of his frustration.
Apparently Arthur isn't going to tell him what happened to him. ]
Anything else you want to add, Arthur?
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[Translation: no.]
Want me to get the next round?
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[ What else is there to say? ]
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Arthur will get those drinks as a reward for his good behavior.]
So. Where's your new place at?
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The same place as the last.
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[He's going to pointedly ignore that tight jaw or the aura of irritation surrounding Eames. He's a big boy, he can deal with Arthur not wanting to talk.]
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[ Let's just pretend Eames is being super difficult. ]
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... I see.
[Why are you such a dick for no good reason, Eames?]
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Ugh, why did he care about this insufferable dick, again?]
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So, eventually he throws back his drink and stands up. ]
You know where I'm at, Arthur. [ An invitation but also a good bye. ]
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