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.

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Practically ancient. Yeah.

[ He manages to keep a straight face while he says that, and then he turns to have a little quick chat with FRIDAY. It's mostly catching up and small talk, but it really is good to talk to her again. He assumed he'd never see her or hear about her ever again, so this is a nice surprise.

But before too much time passes, he turns his attention back to Peter, who's apparently bumping into someone just trying to get into the restaurant. ]

Making a new friend?

[ It's said with a half-smirk that may or may not be a cover for the fact that Tony's noticed Peter trying to get a better look at him. It's not like the scarring is something he can hide. ]

[he just gives tony a confused look for a few seconds. right before it actually clicks, and he looks between the closing door and the other man a few times.]

No. No. I don't know who that was, but I guess he's really hungry right now?

[the response is a somewhat distracted one, and he turns silent right after. but it's clear that he has more to say. has a question there that he really wants to ask. despite how obvious the subject of it all likely is, he really doesn't know quite where to start. not when everybody from home (well, aside from beck) is so hesitant to tell him anything about the future. there has to be a reason for that, right?]

Mr Stark, uh- Are you okay? I mean... [a flick of his eyes towards the scars and back again] Did something happen?

[ At any other time, Tony would laugh, crack a joke, do something to get a laugh out of Peter. But after everything, he feels like he owes him more than that. Sure, he doesn't know where on the timeline Peter falls, but- It doesn't even matter.

He's glad that, as far as he knows, Peter came back, survived the last battle, and presumably went on to do bigger and better things. For the Peter right in front of him, he still wants to make sure that happens somehow. Timelines are tricky things.

But the point is, Peter deserves a serious answer. ]

Makes sense, right? We are standing outside a restaurant.

[ Well, okay, a halfway serious answer. ]

But me, I'm fine. [ Now, anyway. ] Look, before I answer any questions, I gotta know- Does the name Thanos mean anything to you?

[ Because that'll put a lot of things into perspective. ]

Is...that a long lost relative of Thor?

[so no, he has no idea. but he at least gets the reason behind the question. with everybody else from their world being from his future, he's gotten used to the idea of not knowing what lies in wait for him. and as much as beck is willing to tell him everything if he wanted to know, he isn't so sure that's a good idea.

with tony though, he's a lot more willing to take that leap. assuming, of course, that the man thinks it's one he's allowed to take yet.]

I should probably tell you that it was 2017 before I got here. I still had bruises from Toomes when I woke up.

[ Cue the driest of chuckles. It's more like a snort of derision than a real laugh, and of course, it's not directed at Peter. It's not his fault he doesn't know. ]

2017. Huh.

[ Well, at least he has a frame of reference now. ]

But Thanos. Definitely not Thor's relative. Picture the world's worst villain, multiply that by a thousand, and you get Thanos. He's bad news.

[considering his only real battle has been his fight against the vulture, he doesn't really have much to compare it against. but the fact that tony considers this thanos person bad, after all he's already faced, means it's bad. which is why he sounds a little more hesitant when he continues]

You managed to stop him though, right? I mean, you're the Avengers.

[because it doesn't matter what he sees on the news, or what he's faced himself. he knows that iron man and the other avengers are the strongest team in the entire multiverse. they wouldn't let anything bad happen.]

[ There's only the slightest bit of hesitation on Tony's part as he remembers the hell they had to go through to get to the end, all the losses, until they finally got to the part where they beat Thanos.

He's asked himself before if it was all worth it, all the trade-offs that were made to get there, and while he wouldn't dare speak for everyone, at least for himself, it feels like maybe it was.

But he remembers a little too late that Peter's still there waiting for an answer, and he shakes his head to clear away the cobwebs, finally saying: ]

Sure we did. It just took some planning, a lot of doing, and-

Things.

[ God, he really doesn't want to be talking about this right now, especially with a Peter who doesn't know all the things that are going to be coming for him in his future. ]

Point is, he's a thing of the past and we set it all right again. World's still turning and everything.

[the pause leaves him wary, and peter ends up shuffling a little closer, half tempted to reach out for the other man to make sure he's okay. but then the words finally come, and peter ends up breathing a sigh of relief.

as much faith as he may have in tony's abilities, that confirmation lifts a weight off his shoulders. this thanos person is gone, defeated, and everything has gone back to normal again. albeit with a few leftover battle scars to show for it.]

Are you okay though? [another glance at the scars] It doesn't hurt or anything, does it?

[ The thing is, the battle could have easily gone sideways. Time is funny, very slippery, and making one decision in a split second can change everything. It's not that Tony thinks their win was a fluke. It's just scary to think how easily it could have been a loss, and another devastating one at that.

He forces a smile because the last thing he wants is Peter worrying about him. He's fine; he's here, he's moving around and talking, and aside from the scarring, no one would even know anything bad had even happened. ]

Oh yeah, I'm fine. Completely fine. [ He waves a hand in an airy gesture, with the only detractor being the scars marring the skin there. ]

It just looks worse than it is. So I won't be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon. No big deal.

Okay. Alright.

[the words are mostly for his own benefit, a few nods to go with them. if tony's saying that he's fine, then he has no choice but to accept it. even if he doesn't...entirely believe him. but it's something he's used to, whether he likes it or not. his aunt does it, and his friends here are just the same. so while he may hate the idea of others trying to protect him from things, he does also take a small level of comfort in it. they wouldn't need to hide anything from him if they didn't care about him in the first place.

so he eventually manages a smile, his hands tucking into the straps of his backpack as he quickly reverts back to the excitable teen he was when he arrived, almost vibrating on the spot with his need to get moving again.]

I don't know if you've had a chance to explore much yet, but I can show you around if you like? I mean, you've got the map, right? So there's not really much else to show you. But... [a shrug. he just wants to make himself useful in some way. otherwise tony's probably going to want to leave, and peter really isn't ready for that yet]

Oh! Do you know about the others from home yet? I still haven't met them all, but I'm sure they'd want to talk to you.

[ Maybe someday soon if he feels more like talking about it, he'll tell Peter the whole thing and why he did what he did. But it's a conversation for another time. To tell Peter the truth means telling him a lot of upsetting things, and it's not even that he thinks he can't handle it. He just doesn't want to make him worry any more than he has to, and he can't help but think that the truth would really make him worry. ]

Yeah, I'd like that. Sure, I could figure it out by myself, but where's the fun in that? [ And he'll never turn down an excuse to hang with Peter, not after everything that's happened. ]

How many are we talking? I've talked to some of them, but-

[ He doesn't want to miss anyone. ]

[he's just going to...take a moment to count them all up. how many people are there?]

...six and two halves? [it makes sense to him.]

So there's Dr Banner, Mr Rogers, Mr Barnes, Mr Wilson- [who isn't actually here anymore. but it's not like he talks to any of them to get included in those kinds of updates] -Mr Lang, and Miss Maximoff. There's also Beck, but he's not technically from our world. And then there's uh- There's kind of another me too? But he's definitely from another world.

[life was so much less complicated when it was just aliens and gods. this place is a mess, and he's still barely keeping his head above water. but considering he isn't particularly close to any of the other avengers, at least he doesn't have to do much about managing those relationships. tony may have his work cut our for him though.]

[ Yeah, don't mind him if he looks weirdly at Peter. It's only for a second, but it's there. ]

So who's the two halves? [ It kind of makes sense to Tony, but it's sort of a leap to get there. ]

Huh. Not bad numbers. Sure, it's not the whole team, but it's close. [ He puts on a would-be casual tone, because heaven forbid anyone accuse him of caring. ]

How's everyone holding up? Okay, I hope.

[ And then there's a pause. ] Beck... Beck. Kind of rings a bell. [ And it kind of doesn't. It's something he files away to revisit later. ]

Two of you, though. How's that work? Don't tell me it's time travel related.

I think they're okay? The last time I saw any of them was at the airport, so...

[he just shrugs. sure, he's tried to talk to some of them. but considering the only time he met them all he was in costume and definitely on the opposite side, he hadn't really had a reason to seek them all out. especially when his few attempts at contact had gone unanswered. not that he blames them. they don't have any reason to talk to a random teenager like him.]

Beck and Peter are from different universes though. Peter's been Spider-Man for a lot longer than me. And Beck- His world was destroyed, so he came to ours to help protect it. I haven't met him back home yet though.

[so yes, it's time travel related too. at least with beck.]

Huh. The airport, right.

[ So now that makes him realize he should probably not run his mouth with Peter. Not that he was planning to, but sometimes things just tend to slip out.

But not to worry, now that Tony's here, he's definitely going to be keeping an eye on Peter and checking in on him from time to time. ]

Oh, so you've already had a crash course on multiverse theory. Great, saves me time explaining things.

[ Not that he's going to just dump a bunch of information on Peter right now. There's time for that later. ]

I guess that just means I'm going to have to meet them and have a little chat. Think they'd be up for it?

Yeah, probably. I don't know how much the other you talked to them before. But Peter isn't- His past isn't like mine, so he hasn't really...worked with you before?

[well, actually, he doesn't really know that for sure. considering how long that peter has been spider-man, he knows that he must have fought alongside the avengers before. and sure, he may not have taken up a position with them yet, but he doubts it's for lack of trying on that iron man's part.]

And Beck's from 2024, but he said the Avengers weren't around when he came to our world. So I don't know if he met you before he turned up here.

[why yes, that is him purposefully not thinking about just why the avengers weren't around. clearly they were just...busy.]

Well, all the more reason to compare notes, right? Figure out what's similar and what's not.

[ Tony's just far to curious to do anything else, and, well, he supposes that's the good thing about being in a dreamscape. What happens here probably won't have any bearing on what goes on in other worlds, right?

... Right. ]

Hold up, he actually said that? The Avengers weren't around in 2024?

[ That's... weird. Sure, he figures things would be different, with several of them dead by then, but- he didn't think they'd just cease to exist. ]

He didn't say they were gone completely. Just that they weren't available. So I think you were all busy?

[which, okay. even he isn't naive enough to think that's the whole story. not when beck had gotten so serious when he'd started asking the man why. whatever happens in the future, he knows it isn't good. and that's exactly why he hadn't taken the man up on his offer of more information.

with tony there though, it's that little bit easier to finally ask--]

...I don't want to know what happens. But, um- Can you at least tell me if everyone's okay?

Yeah, that has to be it. We're just busy.

[ But even he can tell that his words sound a lot like he's trying to convince himself as well as Peter that that's the truth. And, of course, Peter's smart, so he's bound to see through it. ]

I want to say we're all okay, I really do.

[ But he can't lie, not to him. ]

But really, considering how long we've been around and telling the bad guys what's what, we had a good, long run.

[ And they only lost two of them in the last big push. ]

[it's what isn't said that gets to him. what tony so clearly skirts around saying. if they'd all made it through to the other side, then he's sure that he would have said as much, plain and simple. but he didn't, and that can only mean one thing. the very thing that he's spent these past few months trying his best to avoid learning about.

his gaze slips down to the floor as the words sink in, and for a long while, peter ends up just staring at nothing. he doesn't notice as his breathing picks up. as he edges closer and closer towards an outright panic attack. all he can focus on is the fact that tony didn't say they were all okay. that he was too finite with those last words.

is this what beck was trying to tell him?]

...I can't do this.

[his words are quiet, shaky, his shoulders slumped in defeat. he isn't sure that he'll ever be ready to hear the full truth. but right now, with tony having only just arrived, he really isn't ready for this.

when he does finally manage to look up again, there's an entirely forced look on his face. a smile that's completely at odds with how close to breaking down he is. but he's doing everything he can to hold it together. because again, tony has just arrived, and peter really isn't his problem to deal with.]

I- I should go. I'm sorry.

[ Well, shoot. Tony instantly knows he's said the wrong thing; he's told Peter too much, and now he's gone and upset him. It's been some time since he felt anything remotely resembling symptoms of panic, but as he tries desperately to think of something to say, he feels the pinpricks of anxiety combined with the need to fix this, to make it right, starting to make themselves known. ]

Peter, wait-

[ The situations are entirely different, but he's having a flashback to a bedroom, a nightmare, and Pepper just walking away.

But the difference here is that he's not the one who needs looking after. He messed up, and now he has to fix it. ]

You don't have to go, Pete. I'm- Sorry I brought it up. I shouldn't have said anything.

[ He knows that now, and he wishes he could take it all back. ]

I'll go, you can stay if you want.

[ The way Peter's forcing that smile is like a stab right in the gut. He never wanted to see that look on Peter's face, and now that he has, he never wants to again. ]

Yeah, I'm gonna go.

[ It feels like he could say he's sorry a million times and it wouldn't ever be enough. ]

Sorry, Pete. Really.

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APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

APRIL 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE

GOOD ENDURES

Character Arrival

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