Test Drive Meme #2 - Overflow

[changelinged]

TDM #2 OVERFLOW

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TDM #2 - March/April 2025

🦋 Introduction

Welcome to the Pixie Led Test Drive Meme!

The prompts will always be game canon, provided both characters who participate in a thread are either already in the game, or get accepted in the next application round.

You do not need an invitation to join the Test Drive Meme, it's open for anyone!

Please indicate character name and canon in the subject line of your top-level. For current characters, you may also indicate your character's court.

For prospective players, Invites open on the 18th, Reserves on the 20th, and Applications on the 22nd. Thanks for checking us out and we hope you'll join us!

🦋 The Party

You wake up at a party.

You're not sure how, exactly, you got here. You may have just been walking in the woods or at a meeting for work or doing any other normal activity for you. But you know you weren't supposed to be at this party, you're fairly certain.

Anyone you ask about it will say the party is for you. You and the others also waking up and looking confused. Further questions will lead to the partygoers insisting you have something to eat. You're starving and others are eating the food without repercussion, so you figure there's no harm in a bite. You finish your portion.

It's a garden party at the crack of dawn, with the sun still in its early stages of climbing through the yonder, casting a good mix of pastel hues of blue, pink, and beige on everything. Heralding the first day of spring, the Ruler of the Spring Court has found it fitting to arrange this gathering where guests can feel the blades of grass touching their ankles, as well as the rich soil beneath their feet. Flowers of all kinds surround the party as if they were carefully curated. With spring as the "dawn of seasons," which marks a transition from winter's latency to the resurgence of life everywhere, the Ruler of the Dawn Court has also seen it fit to host aspects of this party during the one time of the year that dawn occurs the whole day. Tall candles and torches grace the outskirts of the garden party, providing warmth and an orange glow everywhere. Not one flame goes out even with the occasional wind, the Duchess always makes sure of this.

There are also freshly picked blossoms and branches with leaves on every table accenting the festive spread of food and drinks. This time, a lot of the food prepared for the Adopted guests are familiar to them with a little bit of a twist. Burgers might come in small packages and in toothpicks, while hotdogs in buns are also diminutive. Cookies look delectable but they have a flowery flavor to them, as if eating freshly picked daisies or daffodils. Fruits that may have been present in an Adopted's home, such as pineapples and watermelons, have seeds in odd places. Picking this selection of food is an attempt to be more welcoming and to appease the lovely guests the fae have invited.

As the party winds down and everyone's eaten, a tall, stately woman stands up and speaks. You feel her voice more than hear it.

I am the Lawspeaker of the Fae, elected by Seelie and Unseelie alike, and you are all, now, subjects of Faerie. You cannot leave this realm once you have eaten our food, and even if you could, there is no saying how much time has passed back where you're from. Your loved ones are likely dead, your problems have likely played out. We require assistance in various matters, and each of you has been chosen for your talent and skill. You will be adopted by one of the Seelie or Unseelie Courts based on your strengths and personality. Your Court will decide what to do with you from there.

As suddenly as she stood, she sits back down.

🦋 Chance at a Dance

A party is not complete without dancing, of course, and while during the last gathering held for the Adopted, different fae danced to music exclusively for them around a glowing tree, this time they are insisting their guests to join in.

This is a party for you, after all.

If the prodding of the different fae hosts won't convince you, perhaps the music will. They play easily recognizable tunes that their wonderful guests must have heard before. These melodies have certain unique effects to their mortal attendees, which are as follows:

• Upbeat Music: You will believe that you and your dance partner have been friends forever and have known each other a long time.
• Romantic Music: You will become amorous and flirtatious towards your dance partner.
• Slow Music: You will develop some tension with your dance partner. It may be negative or sexual; completely up to you.
• Quiet Music: You will assume your dance partner is a threat and try to fight them.

🦋 Flower Power

At the Spring King's behest, every Adopted should wear a flower corsage or boutonnière to the gathering. After all, this is to celebrate the coming of spring and what better way to do that than to honor everything in bloom.

The thing is, though, the King of Spring, while amorous and friendly, also has a penchant for playing with mortals' memories, if not also affect their desires and despairs.

So, mischievous as he is, he made sure to enchant the different flowers present in every corsage and boutonnière for the party with the effects below:

• Rose: You will recall a horrific trauma
• Carnation: You will see a vision of your future, whether it's good or bad
• Orchid: You will remember a time you lost someone
• Chrysanthemum: You will believe someone among the Adopted is your soulmate
• Dahlia: You will believe you betrayed someone important to you, whether you actually did or not

It is perhaps a good thing that no one but the Adopted are allowed to see these visions and memories, but everyone who wears a corsage or boutonnière will be able to see each other's memories and visions when in close enough physical proximity to the vision-haver, for better or for worse.

🦋 GEIS

You feel a vibration in your pocket sometime after the Lawspeaker addresses everyone. When you search for the source, you will pull out your Leaf, the device the Fae use to stay in touch with each other. Anyone who's used a smart phone will easily recognize how it works.

Greetings, Adopted. This is your Lawspeaker.

Tell us all of a time you gave someone a gift. Perhaps a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates. Was it appreciated or not? A reward might await the most meaningful gift given.

ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

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Comments

[bestials]

Hank shakes his head, but he's smiling with relief. Even just seeing Raven here, in the flesh, in her usual straightforward manner, is filling him with a relief he can't describe.

"I swear. I wouldn't have believed it either, if I hadn't seen it." He turns to gesture to various points around the busy party.

"Over there, on the dance floor, the music will mess with your head and make you think that you're best friends with someone you only met thirty seconds ago. And over there, on that table, there are flowers that they want you to pin to your lapel, but once you do it— it shows you things..."

He loses steam and trails off, reminded of the horrible vision he'd witnessed of what could only be his future, where he and Charles were arguing over Raven's apparent death.

Swallowing, he continues.

"I mean, there's a possibility that there's really some super powerful mutant behind all of it, but somehow I really do think it's magic." He hates that he believes that, but he does.

[notsogroovy]

The thing about Hank was that he wore his heart - and every other emotion - on his sleeve. It wasn't hard to tell that he was troubled by something. The problem was there was so much troubling about this situation that it was hard to narrow down what was bothering him. Something about what he'd seen, maybe?

She squeezed his arm gently.

"Okay, so it's magic," she said in that way she had of accepting everything because what other damn choice did she have? Some acceptance, some resignation, and a hefty dose of bitterness.

"Are we the only ones here?"

Hank could take care of himself when it came down to it, but if there were students here, her focus would have to be on them as much as finding a way out of whatever this was. The woman had said the people she'd known might be dead if they could get back. She'd heard about the time travel. Maybe they could travel back to their earlier bodies and...not get caught in whatever this was?

[bestials]

"Charles is here." First and foremost; always Hank's top priority. "And Erik. Also, some other mutants from the future? So, there's that happening also."

As though just being kidnapped to an alternate reality wasn't enough, they have to deal with time travel also. Which reminds Hank...

"I have to ask, what's the last thing you remember from home? We all seem to have been taken at different points in time." Don't think it hasn't passed Hank's notice that he's the farthest behind out of everyone he knows.

[notsogroovy]

"Big thing? We beat the first mutant. It's been a few months since that." There were a lot of smaller, more personal things there. She and Hank had had a talk about the way she'd left last time. She and Charles were trying to find their new normal after everything that had happened between them. And then there were the students she was getting to know.

"Why? What's the last thing you remember?" Surely it couldn't be much past that or else he'd have known she was missing. Same if he'd gone missing. Maybe she wouldn't know a few years ago, but now someone would have come running if Dr. McCoy didn't come to class. Or if Raven didn't show up for training.

[bestials]

Hank mouths 'First mutant?' under his breath, clearly not understanding what she means. He sighs. "Seems like I'm the farthest behind, then. The last thing I remember was... you, coming back to the manor to disable Cerebro, so we couldn't track you and stop you from trying to kill Trask."

More specifically, the morning after. But the more relevant memory is their talk the night before.

[notsogroovy]

Raven felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. "That was ten years ago." And surely if something had happened to Charles and Hank ten years ago, she would have found out in much the same way she'd found out about Erik. And if they'd gone on some kind of journey like this, surely they would have mentioned it in the months after she'd come back to the mansion. She didn't like thinking of the repercussions of that.

Instead, she thought over what little he'd revealed. "How long have you been here?" Long enough to warn her about things that the music or the lapels could seemingly do.

[bestials]

Hank exhales, nodding. He's already run into this with finding Charles and Erik here at the party, but he's a little disappointed to find that there's such a long gap of time between him and Raven. Out of everyone, Hank most would have wanted to be on the same level as her.

"Like I said, whatever they're doing to bring us here seems to have plucked each of us from different points in time. Somehow without disturbing the course of history, I'll add." Which is another wrinkle in the whole story that Hank has yet to unravel.

"I just got here a few hours ago. Long enough to start to get my bearings, but not really long enough to have a firm grasp on what's going on."

[notsogroovy]

"Or that's what they say," she muttered. If she were going to believe this, any of this, she was going to need proof of some kind. Hank believing was a good start. He was a scientist and had a rational mind. But when it wasn't the lab, he thought with his heart.

"We're taking it on faith that they're telling us the truth."

Not that she was going to try to fight her way out at this very moment. What she wasn't taking on faith was how they'd captured all these people. How they'd captured her without even waking her. That was power and not being imminently in danger, it meant she could approach this with caution.

Until she had proof, though, she was still approaching this as a problem that needed to be solved.

[bestials]

Hank nods, then shakes his head. Not really sure which emotion to convey in this moment.

"You have a point. They also say that hundreds of years have passed in our respective home worlds, and that everyone we know and love is long dead, but here you are, alive and well, so unless we come from only nearly identical, but actually separate, distinct timelines, one which I was removed from in 1973 and the other in which I remained until you were removed ten years later... Then at least that part of what they say can't possibly be true."

Of course, there is a very distinct possibility that they are all here from incredibly similar but actually separate parallel timelines, and no two 'Adopteds' actually were pulled from the same universe. If multiple realities are possible, and proven by the breadth of people present here, then, theoretically, infinite realities can and must exist. But getting too far down the rabbit hole of theoretical physics is not how Hank wants to be spending his time at this party.

He looks down at Raven, and places a hand on her arm, as reassuringly as he can. "Look, no matter what, we'll figure this out. I'm just glad you're safe."

[notsogroovy]

Out of each of the three men that Raven has had feelings for over the years, Hank had always been the one that was both least and most complicated. She'd hurt him, but he'd always stood by her. He'd always been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. She'd betrayed that trust once and she wasn't going to do it again.

She took her hand off his arm and covered his hand with hers.

"We will. And at the very least, we have each other."

As much as she'd been alone for half of her life, it was reassuring to have someone she knew here. Even if it meant that she had to look out for him. They had to look out for each other.