2nd Event: Choices We Make

[upcyclingmod]

Welcome to the Test Drive Meme.
| Premise | FAQ | Full Navigation | Rules | Reserves |

Arrival


Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

C-C-Changes

Thankfully the fog has gone down to what it was before, a slow creeping crawl over the ground. And too, the monsters of before are gone, leaving the town much like it was before. Well...close to what it was before.

For now the season's have changed, from a lingering summer to a cooler fall.

There’s new foods to try, even if some things like lattes cause people to slip into warm boots and tie up their hair, and soups make people curl up under blankets on the couch. And it also means decorations of all sorts, made of the leaves from the forest, orange, yellow and red things and...we can not forget...

Pumpkin overflow

Pumpkins! They're everywhere. Wickies will find pumpkins infused into all sorts of things, like coffee, ice cream, even spaghetti options! It's wild.

There’s also many jack o'lanterns. They have been placed everywhere in town, outside homes, and even small ones have been made into table decorations. The Jack o lanterns have very cheerful faces, and seem to watch Wickies every single move.

That is, until a Wickie bashes or otherwise abuses a pumpkin. That's when it changes- there seem to be more of them. Their expressions change to that of anger, sadness and disgust. None of them attack- yet. But their faces become more and more horrifying, as they follow the Wickie more and more- outside of the bathroom perhaps, or found on top of them as the Wickie wakes up in the middle of the night.

It shouldn't matter right? They're only pumpkins.

What a ride

Funny enough, with the pumpkin invasion, there also comes a dull colored horse wandering about the island. Its head is drooped, and it looks depressed and lonely. The horse is tame on approach and will accept pats and treats, even from those who are obviously not human.

But it also wants something, for all that it seems to be begging for attention. It wants someone to ride them, seems to even be begging for it with its big eyes. The horse will help Wickies to figure out how to mount; it will even stand beside the Town Center benches, rocks, or even go down in order to make it possible for the Wickie to get onto the horse’s back.

That’s when it changes. The Wickie is immediately wrapped in chains from their barrel to the Wickie’s waist. The horse turns a coal black and the Wickie’s clothing changes into that of a soldier's uniform, with a hand either holding a whip modeled after a human spine, or a jack o'lantern.

The Wickie cannot get off the horse on their own, no matter how much they struggle. As the horse moves throughout the town, they will go anywhere from a walk to a full canter, seemingly impervious to any magic or physical attacks. The same cannot be said for their unfortunate rider.

If the rider is hit, or simply in pain, the Wickie will feel an impulse that grows and grows until they scream a name of someone in town, someone they know.

And the named will drop, paralyzed. Paralyzed wickie are likely to die within minutes, more so if they are too close to horse and rider. The horse will happily trample anyone on the ground to death.

Even without the impulse, should the Wickie rider use anyone’s name, that person will drop, paralyzed, and unable to breathe.

There is only one way to possibly save the rider: scatter golden objects in their path. The horse will shriek, and promptly buck the rider off, before running away. Just make sure to catch the rider, or at least cushion their fall: they have no way of saving themselves until they hit the ground.

Heart game: confession

Current residents of the island may remember this particular beeping alert, and how it doesn’t go away, no matter what they do! That is, unless they open up the Heart Game, and answer the question.

Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you again! Now let’s play that game, Confession! And the question isssssss…

How do you celebrate the changing seasons! Don't be shy!

Comments

[paperpusher]

[...What.

It's not like it's that unusual for people to want to talk to an exorcist-- otherwise, he wouldn't get any jobs outside of the community, after all. But it's normally a type: older, superstitious, often with a family history brushing up against this sort of thing that would lead them to seek him out. Natsume had been excited, at first, but that had been because he'd found someone who could see the same things he could; he certainly wasn't interested in the details of exorcisms besides a few protective spells. Finding someone who immediately identified him as an exorcist while also being completely disconnected from that world is... well, this is the first time he's come across anything like it.]

I-- yeah, an exorcist. It's-- this one would expel a spirit from the pumpkin, or make it reveal its true form if it was just pretending to be one.

[Really excitable, isn't he... He leans in after Jion as if to take another look at the pumpkin himself, then straightens up and runs his hand through his hair in exasperation.]

It's not just the pumpkin, though. I think we're in-- well, I guess you'd say I think this is the sort of situation someone would hire me to solve. All of this.

[organfarm]

Hm? [ The slightly embarrassing truth here is that he only took a guess because he's seen those talisman things in weird foreign action movies -- cheesy films where exorcists spend 120 minutes kicking demon ass with mediocre CG and bad scripts. He really likes those sorts of movies, after all.

And also, he kinda, uh doesn't actually believe in this stuff? In ghosts and spiritual things? So when Natori says something about being hired to solve 'all of this,' Jion looks politely confused. ]

... all of this?

[ A puzzled cant of the head as he straightens up. ]

You mean the, uh, all the pumpkins? Or ... people ending up here? That's kinda ... [ 'Doesn't seem like something exorcists can do anything about,' he wants to say. But maybe that's rude? He flounders visibly for a moment before course correcting, gesturing awkwardly to try and cover up how weirded out he is by this conversation. ] I mean, I thought exorcists deal with, like, people who start acting funny? And haunted locations? Maybe I have the wrong impression ... ?

[paperpusher]

[Listen, he gets it. He might've even been in one of those weird foreign action movies if he hadn't laughed his way out of the audition.

In either case, this reaction is closer to what he was expecting in the first place, so it puts him on more solid ground.]

No, we do that too. But sometimes particularly strong and vengeful spirits can draw humans into their realm, or manipulate the world around us in strange ways. [He's acutely aware of where the lizard is on his body at all times, and this is one of those rare situations where it could come in handy. He shoves his sleeves up above his elbows like any other casual, ordinary gesture, revealing the small ayakashi currently chilling on his left forearm. If Jion can see ghosts and spiritual things and all the good things he doesn't believe in, he'd see what looks like a solid black tattoo of a gecko on Natori's skin; to the rest of the world, the ones unaware of the youkai living alongside them, it just looks like Natori's bare arm, utterly unremarkable he doesn't lift.

He has a feeling this guy is the sort of person who would bring it up if he can see it.] Seems like as good an explanation as any for how the two of us ended up in this town we don't know, right?