soddersays | APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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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

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

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

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?

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? ]

[This is very very interesting. ]

Well, maybe you need to try shouting again? [Is he being sarcastic? It sounds like he's being sarcastic.] It looks that whatever you did wasn't enough. What did you say about it not being safe near you?

[ She cuts him a dry look. ] I think we can rule out shoutin' in terms of it being helpful.

[ But that's right, just keep poking at her, see what happens. ]

What did I do?

[ Her brow furrows as she replays the conversation. ]

No, really? You think?

[Varian desperately lacks that little voice other people have that tells them to quit while they're ahead. ]

I don't know. Maybe it was something to do with that? It's the only other variable that stands out. Does it mean anything special to you?

[ She looks at him and very quietly states: ]

I am not an experiment. Take a tip: Trying to one up the person whistling in the dark is a crap beside manner. This is humiliating and frightening enough without being treated as your current entertainment.

[ And she turns to walk away. ]

[Varian blinks in confusion. He's never exactly been the greatest at picking up on social cues, but weren't they just getting to the bottom of what was going on with her.]

Uh? Okay? Don't you want me to help you work it out? Isn't- isn't that what we were doing?

[Yeah, no, he was definitely lacking in a bedside manner. ]

[ She isn't really angry or deeply offended - it's a matter of principle. She is offended, but not enough to rip him a new one, especially when his confusion seems genuine and she knows that something in their conversation did reverse the effects. So that means he wasn't being intentionally cruel, (though unintentional cruelty is still cruel), he was likely just a jackass.

She can deal with that.

Rogue sighs and glances back over her shoulder. ]

You're real lucky you're talking with me an' not someone else, kid. Heck, even the me of six years ago might've left you on the ground for being such a jackass. Are you sure you even want to help me?

[ Not help in general. Help me. Look at me.

But directly after the word 'jackass', her hair finishes changing back to normal, so he might not get the implication. ]

[Good assessment there Rogue, he's bsolutely a jackass. Largely unintentional these days, but a jackass all the same. ]

Uh... yeah? What- what do you think I've been asking questions for? If I didn't want to help you, I wouldn't bother asking. I'd just leave you to it.

[Yeah, that bedside manner ain't getting any better. He points at her hair, helpfully.]

Your hair's back, by the way.

[ Since it seems an honest question, he gets an honest answer. She turns around and starts listing things off, counting them by touching the tip of the pinky of one gloved hand and moving across each finger as she advances another option. ]

Scientific curiosity. Sick amusement. Bein' a nosy parker. Writin' a newspaper article. [ She shrugs a little. ] There are a lot of reasons why people do things. It doesn't really matter.

[ She shifts to check beneath her glove and -- all seems well there too. Rogue frowns slightly. ] Because we should figure out what just happened to fix it, because if it happened to me, it can happen to other people. An' I'd hate to see what happens if that aging process isn't stopped.

I'd be lying if it wasn't scientific curiosity, but if I can work out how this place runs, the better chance we have of finding ways to cut off the insanity at the quick.

[And that, at least, is honest. It's not as altruistic as he's making it sound. He's still trying to balance the scales of his terrible existence, but it's still a step in the right direction. ]

Exactly! There's no guarantee it'll just stop. I want to end it and reverse it before it actually hurts or kills someone. I don't trust this place not to try and age someone into non-existence.

[Because you can absolutely die that way, hi Gothel.]

So when exactly, did my hair start to change back?

[He examins the back of his gloves with a soft snort.]

Around the time you called me a jackass.

[ God he looks young.

She does not feel bad about her assessment here, but with the threat of - you know - literally dying of old age in 5 minutes or less lifted, she is able to joke a little. ]

So do you wanna try takin' a bite of an apple and then calling me a jackass to see if it'll help?

[Varian chuckles, raising his hands in fake surrender.]

Hard pass, thanks. I can do that without eating the blatantly magically poisoned apple.

[Not that he WILL... probably, but that's beside the point.]

Maybe it's something to do with not holding stuff back? Not just anger- just. Everything? What you're really thinking?

Maybe. But it didn't change when I was about to walk off.

[ And she hadn't been holding back there either.

She approaches, but carefully does not get into his space. ]

What did ya write down?

No, I guess it didn't.

[He offers up his book to her, not precious about his notes. It's pretty much-scribbled observations on her changing state- a few keywords in their conversation here and there that caught his attention. Also probably a B| face that looks like her because teenagers gotta teenage.]

Notes, mostly. Do you think it might be a truth thing? Try saying something true about yourself.

[ She glances at the B| face and comments: ] It's missing the horns.

I mean, we could try that, but... [ she's pretty much better now ] ...I don't know, do ya see any more agin' signs?

I like to stick with scientific accuracy.

[That... might be construed as a compliment. If she squints. He looks up at her, canting his head. ]

No. I don't think so? You look in the clear.

So I guess that leaves us with two options an' no way to test them. [ She frowns a bit. ] Unless I eat another apple.

[ She... doesn't really want to do that, but knowing how it was reversed is really kind of also important.

...sigh.

She starts to move toward another apple. ]

[He watches, with no small amount of morbid curiosity. ]

I mean, if you want to- though there's no guarantee devouring an apple again wouldn't make it harder to reverse. Scientifically, it shouldn't, but this is a stupid dream so logic doesn't always apply.

So what you're saying is, [ she picks the apple and holds it out to him ] you should bite the apple. To keep the science, you know, exact.

[ Psh, like she'd let some kid do that. She doesn't wait for his reply, just takes a bite of the apple and chucks it away. ]

Okay, let me know when I start looking old again.

[He raises his hands in a No Thanks gesture.]

A good scientist never gets involved in his own experiments. You could end up skewing the results in the way you want it.

[But hey, if she's willing to chow down on another apple. He gets his notebook ready, poised for science.]

Sure thing.

Yeah, it's funny how scientists say that until the experiment is something they wanna do.

[ Sure enough, her hair is starting to turn white again... and this time her face begins to wrinkle, back beginning to hunch. It's a much faster transformation. ]

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE

GOOD ENDURES

Character Arrival

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