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

[hopesong]

[Man, Kate can't explain why this horse is a Bad Horse, other than the fact it makes her heart thump unevenly in her chest.]

You're not wrong, but there's something off about it. I grew up around horses, none of them ever did this kind of thing.

[Where it snorts, and tries to chew and tug on Morgan's hair in an Oh So Sweet Manner.]

[psychotronics]

[Morgan-- Stoic, reserved Morgan-- she who rarely loses her cool, or looks any kind of freaked out unless there are literal murderous super aliens trying to hunt her down-- Is openly and undeniably spooked by this. This damn horse, has made her show an emotion. This horse is now her nemesis.]

Oh my god--! Nope! [She shies away from it, shooing it off and irritably reaching back to readjust her bun.] Back off, Bucephalus. Not interested.

[hopesong]

[Its response, is to whinny sadly, reaching back out towards Morgan with its Big, Sad, Soulful eyes.

And its mouth. It's going to try mouthing her again.

This time, however, Kate intervenes, grabbing it (gently!) by its face and steering it the other direction.]

Go on, get. You'll get no attention here, certainly not the kind you want.

[psychotronics]

[ Oh god, horse teeth. Morgan's eyes widen briefly, and then she fixes the horse with a glare like ho don't do it, taking another few hasty steps backwards with her hands held up defensively. Thank god this horse whispering stranger intervenes!]

Yup! Evil. Evil horse. I know that's a redundancy, like saying "ATM machine" or calling someone a puny shrimp, but I'm sticking to it. I refuse to trust any animal with teeth like that and lips that flexible.

[hopesong]

They really aren't that bad, hun. [Minus the one she's shoving away, who gives the absolute saddest, most baleful whinny.

Which Kate ignores.]

I mean, obviously I can't introduce you to a proper horse, but I promise they're fine.

[psychotronics]

Says the woman who clearly has a horse bias.

[Teasing! Teasing.]

Guess I can't hold it against you though since you did just save my life... and my hair... Think it'll follow us if we try to leave?

[hopesong]

I've got a sweater with horses on it.

[She knows her bias, thanks!

But also, that clearly makes her more informed than someone who has never met a horse before.]

Probably. Seen any plastic bags around?

[psychotronics]

...What good is a plastic bag going to do for us?

[Is the horse girl going to try and suffocate the horse or something?

No, okay, that got dark, and she's glad she kept that to herself. Gotta be another reason. Hell if she knows what, though.]

[hopesong]

Plastic bags scare 'em somethin' fierce for some reason.

[Don't ask her why.

She shoves the horses head upwards and gently to the side, trying to turn its attention away from her as gently as possible.

Understandably, it doesn't work.]

[psychotronics]

You're screwing with me.

[She's extremely amused by this information.]

Doesn't look like it wants to take the hint. Think we can outrun a horse?

[hopesong]

I'm not and the answer to that is a resounding "No". There's a reason why people ride 'em instead of walking.

[Despite the fact that there's cars and motorcycles now.]

[psychotronics]

Hmmmm.

[That means it's probably time to pull out the big guns, she supposes.]

I've got an idea. Take my hand.

[hopesong]

[Kate, Resident Horse Girl, Straight from Hell realm, purgatory Texas, does not see how holding a strangers hand would possibly get the away from this Non-Traditional Horse.

But, she does it anyway, because why not. Nothing deadly has happened yet! Disregarding the fact she got eaten in another thread by a voidsent.]

I don't see how in the world you've got a plan to get us away from this horse. Unless you've got a house and we can just close the door on it, anyhow.

I have no idea if Phantom Shift can even be used to move other people like this but w/e

[psychotronics]

[The moment Kate's done talking-- no indication of what's about to happen, no verbal warning given-- the world blurs for like, 2 seconds. And then just like that, they are now standing a few feet behind the horse instead of in front of it.

Morgan immediately takes off running for the trees, letting Kate's hand drop with the expectation that she'll instinctively know to follow. Which hopefully she does! But if Kate spares a glance back to see what the horse is doing, she'll find it looking completely baffled over a pair of vaguely Morgan and Kate shaped duplicates that are now standing where the real deals were mere moments ago. They appear to be made out of some kind of oily, shadowy goop...]

it does now

[hopesong]

[What the fuck. It takes a second for Kate to realize what happened, and when she looks behind her, it's- them, but gross and goey and the horse is so Very Concerned, and when she looks back towards Morgan, Morgan is sprinting away.

She's not sure if she should follow Morgan. Her heart is pounding, and she feels like just falling to the ground and not getting back up for a moment, because that's exactly the sort of thing that happens with The Spirit.

Or, not the exact same thing, since there's significantly more stabbing involved with her weird shell, but.

Kate books it after a second of deliberation, following in the other woman's tracks even though she feels like this is how she's going to get hung from a meat hook today.]

Re: it does now

[psychotronics]

[Morgan doesn't get super far before she has to stop and catch her breath, but hopefully it's far enough that the horse won't bother trying to follow them. By now the decoys will have dissipated in a wisp of smoke.

When Kate catches up Morgan is doubled over with one hand against a tree, laughing breathlessly. She straightens up and pushes a lock of hair out of her face, grinning broadly.]

I think it worked? I don't see any sign of it...

[hopesong]

[Kate isn't slightly out of breath by the time they stop, but she does look like she's about to bolt again, because... She's not sure what that was, or really how to react.

She keeps... a respectable distance, where even if Morgan lunged at her, she wouldn't be able to grab her.]

You're not about to shove me up on a meat hook, are you?

[...Not that any reasonable murder would be honest about that, probably! ]

[psychotronics]

[Her grin fades just a little bit, morphing into something more puzzled.]

Come again? [What is she so spooked abo-- Oh. The typhon powers. Right.] Do I look like the kind of woman who walks around with a meat hook stuffed in her pockets? Not that I'd be stabbing you with it, even if I was.

[hopesong]

No, that's not... [What she means, but this woman is clearly confused, so it's probably not murder in her immediate future.]

Sorry, hun. I'm just used to... people putting me up on one. Sorry, that's weird to say. [But she laughs, like it's not a big deal to be strung from a meat hook???

... it's not, anymore.]

[psychotronics]

[Morgan straightens up to stare at her, lips pursed in vague concern.]

Alright now I'm just confused. Is 'meat hook' some kind of new euphemism I'm just not familiar with yet?

[What the fuck are you talking about Kate!]

[hopesong]

[She gives a humourless chuckle and shakes her head.]

Nah, hun. I was bein' quite literal. Before I got here I was about to be hung up on one. [She doesn't feel like, as bad about telling Morgan about this, because Morgan has weird powers.]

[psychotronics]

Um...

[The concern increaseth. Morgan's brow creases further. And just to reiterate the sentiment: What the fuck.]

Okay, you got me. I mean, I'm told I have a pretty dark sense of humor, but even I'm not sure how to make a witty joke out of that one.

[Are you OKAY, KATE?]

[hopesong]

Maybe something about being hung up like a Christmas ornament? Though it's the wrong season for that.

[Well, she did try, at the very least! And doesn't seem offput by making light of the situation either.]