pixieledmemes | Test Drive Meme #3

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Test Drive Meme #3

TDM #3 - May/June 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 another garden party near a large hedge maze in the middle of the night. With his penchant for games the Ruler of the Spring Court decided it would be nice to hold an actual game for all the Adopted present. None of that dreidel game a couple of parties ago. This time, he wants more spectacle with higher stakes. Forced to participate and host aspects of this gathering as well, the Ruler of the Dark Court wanted nothing to do with this, so he figured his participation in itself is for the party to happen at night, during his rule, when his mood is at its most pleasant.

Of course, there is no shortage of light sources such as candles and torches, much to the Earl's chagrin, as well as no shortage of food. This time, the fae decided to try their hand on some pasta. They heard it's a good delicacy from the mortal plane. Thing is, sauces look and smell bizarre. One's purple, while another's bright pink, and they taste fruity, as well as flowery, much like the cookies from the last gathering.

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.

🦋 Feeling on Hedge

So, what about this hedge maze that seems to have appeared out of nowhere and looming quite eerily beside this night's gathering? For one, peculiar noises can be heard whenever one's near its entrance. From the rustling of leaves to a woman crying, everything seems to be coming from inside.

Of course, the Adopted's participation is required and paramount. Anyone who refuses will be met with harsh penalties and consequences, whatever those may be. They also hint of a prize to anyone who comes out victorious on the other side. It's unclear what it is, though.

The fae know that while the Adopted have been very useful so far, they are also vulnerable and susceptible to fear, so to mitigate that, they have some colorful shots on a table marked LIQUID COURAGE near the entrance to the maze with such effects:

Gold: Essentially a strong drink that gives you profound energy for 24 hours.
Red: Downing this will make you feel warm like an aphrodisiac.
Blue: Basically functions like a normal tequila shot. Or three. Comes with a little bag of salt.

These shots are not compulsory for the Adopted to take, but they will be highly encouraged to do so before entering. Once inside, the rustling of leaves and the sounds of someone crying become louder and even more evident. There are also a few key things that seem to be very clear the longer an Adopted is within the maze's walls:

The maze is moving. How it's doing it, nobody knows. But it appears to be alive somehow, much like the castle grounds, so finding a clear pathway is almost impossible.
Whenever an Adopted turns right two consecutive times, they will see a more positive outcome from a terrible event in their lives. Lost someone? They're now here and alive. Gave up on a dream? You find yourself currently living it.
If an Adopted turns left two consecutive times, they will see someone, a family member or a friend who's still alive and had a deep impact on their lives, bleeding and dead on the ground.

It would be great if no one else can see an Adopted during their most vulnerable, but since the maze moves constantly, another Adopted or two might be able to see them trying to parse out what they're seeing, even if their fellow Adopted can't see it themselves.

🦋 Can't Unseelie It

CW: dismemberment, body horror, forced body transformations, mild gore, asphyxiation, drowning of children, death

The Spring King only wanted some good-natured fun within the maze, but unbeknownst to him, some Unseelie creatures and Unseelie magic have appeared inside, threatening the safety of the Adopted traversing every nook and cranny. Surely this will not have any lasting consequences between the relationship of the Seelie and Unseelie court rulers. Not at all.

A few of these Unseelie beings and Unseelie magic roaming around the hedge maze that the Adopted will have a chance to meet are as follows:

Manananggal: Capable of severing its torso from its legs, this vampiric creature usually preys on sleeping pregnant women and unborn babies. But not anymore. Due to magic put on it, this manananggal will strike anyone it comes across. Better pour salt on its severed lower torso once you find it, or else.
La Llorona: Remember that woman crying? Well, somewhere in the maze alongside the eerie sounds of water flowing, you'll come across a weeping woman cloaked in white with her back turned against you. Be careful not to approach her because once you do, she'll try to choke you to death, reminiscent of how she drowned her own children.
Jersey Devil: The first thing you'll hear once you turn is a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream then the sound of bat wings flapping. You better run as fast as you can to the other direction because this devil is out to attack anyone it sees on its path.
A fountain: How odd. Running from the jersey devil or the manananggal might have made you thirsty so perhaps there's no harm in drinking from it. But just coming in contact with its water will make any Adopted soon realize they have transformed into an Unseelie creature.

Fighting off these creatures might be best with a fellow Adopted. After all, there's power in numbers. Just be careful not to die within the hedge maze. There might be some dire consequences.

🦋 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.

To be on theme with our festivities for tonight, we want to know a time in your life when you felt lost and wandering about. Perhaps the most compelling story will receive a reward from us.

ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

THE PARTY
Okay. To say he’s confused is saying the very least that can be said, an’ he reckons he could say a lot about this whole waking up at a party thing. There’s light all around them, and it shows the food which… Well, it ain’t nothing like he’s ever seen before. The colours certainly ain’t like any he’s seen before, not on food at the very least.

Doesn’t stop it tasting nice though, he’ll cop to that at the very least. He ain’t sure why he ate. Well, no, okay, he knows why he ate, that gnawing hunger that always lingered, even if he’d managed to get something decent in his belly that day. It killed that feeling, an’ he always thought better when that feeling was gone.

Should he have ate? Eh, probably not, but right now, feeling full for the first time in a while? Hard to remember why he should have been more careful. It’ll come to him, at some point. Maybe.

Probably not.

That voice though… The way that it runs through him. It’s like it’s inside him, something filling his head in a way he ain’t never heard any music do before in his life. His face falls as the woman – grand fancy toff that she is – speaks.

He can’t leave? His people are dead? … Nah, nah, that can’t be, can it? Can it? He looks around, letting his panic show on his face for just a moment before he hides it away. No, he ain’t panicking, he’s the Artful Dodger. He’s… There’s going to be a way out of this. Always is some way to work things.

First things first… he had to work out where the bloody hell he actually was. Everything else could come from there. He had to just calm down and think. Use those brains people always said he had.

“Ain’t exactly the most upliftin’ thing I heard,” he mutters. “Still, c’n’t all be the St. Crispin’s Day speech, right mate?”

He speaks to whoever is near by, a grin on his face.

Time to get to work.

FEELING ON HEDGE
Dodger looks up at the hedge with a general sense of… He thinks foreboding fits, but generally he would prefer to go with ‘what the hell have I gotten myself into now?’

There’s noises coming from inside that hedge. He can hear some poor sod crying, who knew what about? Maybe just ‘cause they got lost? He reckoned that could make anyone cry, gettin’ right lost and not know which way to turn. He’d been told a story once, ‘bout someone who found their way out of a big maze with string. Least he thinks that’s how the story went, it was years ago, an’ he’d only been half listening at the time. Not like it mattered much, anyway. He ain’t got any string, more fool him.

Wish that person’d stop crying though. Sorry, missus, he ain’t the one who’s going to be able to help. Everyone for themselves, an’ that meant the Dodger first.

He eyes the colourful little glasses. Liquid courage, was it? So… that meant booze? He nodded, he was good with booze. God knows he could use a decent slug of gin round about now. He considers the colours, reckoning through each of them. Red… well, that makes him think of one thing, an’ he ain’t downing that. Blue, Dodger don’t ever recall seeing a drink that was blue before. Water, maybe, an’ water wasn’t going to give him any sort of courage.

So… gold then? That was likely whisky, from what he remembers of seeing of it. He grabs that one, downing it in one go.

He coughs.

Bloody hell, that was stronger than he thought.

“Reckon I prefer the gin,” he mutters, sitting the glass back down. There’s a shake of his head, a slight face made from the aftertaste of the drink. “Oh, that’s got a kick, alright.” He shook it off, and sighed.

“Right then.”

He had to do this damn maze, so there was no time like the present to get started on it. He travels inside, wandering in whatever direction he wanted. Left, then straight, then right… then left again, and then… No. Wait, this wasn’t working. He stopped.

“I ain’t getting no where, here. It ain’t workin’.”

He turned to retrace his steps.

… Wait, there was a turn behind him, wasn’t there?

“...What the hell…?”

GEIS
Dodger ain’t exactly sure what this… Leaf is. It’s nothing he’s experienced before. Still, he was going to learn it, prodding it with a finger slowly and cautiously. He frowns at the words on the screen, pushing at it like it might do something. Makes them bigger, at the very least. He mouths out the words, reading slowly.

What? He can read, it just… takes some work. Same with his writing too. How… He frowned, pressing the screen again. Oh, there was those letters again. Now, what was that they asked? A time he felt lost and wondering about…

Depends on what you consider lost. Gettin shipped off when I ain’t asked for it. That’s being lost alright.

"I love you, Nancy."

The world stops as Nancy's feet and heart do. There, in front of her, is the man she's been missing for a month. Tall, dark, handsome, there is Bill Sikes in front of her, holding out what truly looks to be the most beautiful ring she can imagine.

"Got it just for you," he says, and places the emerald ring on her finger. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I figure it's high time we get 'round to making it official. What do you say, Nance? Marry me?"

"Bill! Yes!" She doesn't stop herself, she flings herself at him, wrapping her arms around her husband and kissing him with all the passion she has for him. It's the sort of scene that would have played out, to some degree, in the flat she and Bill shared. The kissing, the passionate embraces. The only thing that was different was Nancy's dress-no longer was she in something Dodger would recognize from her limited wardrobe, but a dark pink dress in a far better fabric than they'd ever had access to before, and the flowers embroidered into the hem would have cost a fortune. But it's still Nancy. A Nancy with tears in her eyes and rose gold freckles sprinkled across her cheeks.

He's not sure where he's been going, not really. This damned maze keeps twisting and turning on him, an' he wants it known he don't find that fair play. Not that he's really cared about that before, but ain't the point! Still he finds himself... somewhere, and it's the voice he hears before he sees anything.

"That c'n't be..." his voice trailed off. It had been years since he heard that voice, but he'd never forget it. Not that one. He found himself turning, moving quick and hoping - really hoping - that this bloody maze would hold true until he found her. Turning left, and then right, and then straight on and...

There she was. Dressed in something that would get a pretty penny right enough with the right kind of fence back home, and there was something sparkling across her cheeks, but it was still her. He'd know her anywhere.

"Nance!"

"Ignore it," Bill whispers to her, his voice husky, rumbling in his chest. "Just ignore him." And she wants to. She wants to ignore the person who's calling her name, but the accent is so familiar- it's not Spike, or Mr. Cravensworth's, and neither of them call her Nance.

She looks at the person speaking to her, even as Bill tries to pull her back into him. She keeps her arms locked around Bill.

"Pardon, sir?" She blinks at Dodger. "I'm in the middle of something with my husband here." She gestures to what Dodger will see as nothingness.

Sir? Only time he'd ever been called sir for serious was when he was in the dock, an' he hadn't thought much of it then, except was a lark it all was. That was before the ship, of course, but it still was daft to think back on it.

There's a blink at her words, looking to the empty air as if there should be something there. Husband? Only one person she'd ever call that, an' there's no way he was there. Nah, Dodger knew you'd never miss the sight of Sikes if he was hulking around the place.

"Oh, come off it, Nance," he says, grinning wide. "It's me! Can't tell me you don't recognise your old Dodger, surely?"

yes, Dodger. There is someone right there. And he's kissing Nancy's neck the way she likes and holding her just so. She wants to grab him by the hand and run back to her dorm, but they'll have to get through the maze, first.

"Dodger's a boy," she tells him. "You're a man, you are." A brother, maybe?

"But if you are Dodger, can you come back? Me an' Bill've got a bit of catching up to do." She giggles, looking back at him with stars in her eyes.

"I was a boy," he agreed, though with a sense of not totally believing it himself. "But I ain't been one of those in a long time," this was added on as if to make it all clearer. He doesn't know if he ever considered himself a child, but he knows he's not one now.

"...An' Sikes is where, exactly?" He asks, looking around, trying to see the great brute, or his shadow. "Ain't seen him in years, should offer my hellos."

This man knows everything. He knows Dodger, he knows Nancy, he knows Bill. She shakes her head to try to make the pieces fall into place.

"He's right here." She nods up to Bill where he stands, his arms around Nancy. He's affectionate, too affectionate. But how can she realize it's wrong when he's said he loves her and holds her now in front of people.

"You can't be Dodger. I saw him a month ago." But the lawspeaker had said time moved different. She'd witnessed it herself, making friends with people from the 2000s. There were people who were here from the same world, but different times. Was that... what was happening here? She looks at him curiously. He has the same coloring as her Dodger. There's something about the eyes.

Dodger can't help but look around, wondering at where Nance was nodding to. He couldn't see Sikes himself, but she seemed so sure... He kept looking around, like the next glance through would somehow reveal Sikes to him. Or at least make it clear why Nancy was so sure that he was here.

"Yeah, well, fair dos, it's been a few years for me," he said, still glancing. "Wet Lettuce joins the gang, an' I get hauled up in front of the beak and then sent away fer the good of me health," a snort at the end there. "But it's me all the same."

Because he is here. He's got Nancy's hand, an arm around her waist. He kisses her neck, and she blushes that it's here in front of Dodger.

"You what?" She holds up a hand to try to stop Bill, so she can step forward. "When did this happen? What-" she looks at Bill. She wants to ask Dodger about the fallout of Oliver Twist. To see what happened to the gang. But he might not know. And Bill was right here, and if he didn't know, well she didn't want to tell him.

"When did this happen?"

The question makes him stop in his searching, actually trying to think on it.

"... Years ago," was the only answer he could come up with. "Sent me to Australia, doin' hard. Days never really changed, so didn't keep track of time right proper. Grew though, didn't expect that." He supposed it was because he did get fed, even if it wasn't good.

"But it's me, Nance," he says, nodding in her direction. "Same old Dodger. Just... older."

It had to have been after the night she found herself here, then. And he doesn't... he doesn't seem upset with her. So either he was taken so soon after, or... or nothing came from her betrayal.

"Is Oliver safe?" she has to ask, stepping forward and out of Bill's grasp. Behind her, he vanishes, a plume of smoke like he was never there in his place. She hardly notices, instead reaching to touch Dodger.

Oliver? Dodger can't help but think. Bloody hell, it had been years since he thought properly on Twist. He was a right sort, alright. Too wet for his own good. Great for an innocent front though. He'd heard some stuff but... He looks at Nancy.

"What you mean, safe? Ain't the lettuce still with the gang?"

"No," she says softly. "He's- d'you remember the night Bill took him t'break into that house and he got shot?" Bill had said the boy was lost, and Nancy had gone to drink herself to death. "He's there with them. Safe." she glances behind her. Bill is gone. Another strange part of this world.

Her finger feels lighter.

"Where we can't touch him ever again."

He frowns, trying to think.

"Oh, yeah," he says slowly. "That did happen. Got landed in a right toffken, no mistake 'bout that." He sighs. "Hadn't thought on that in years." Well, he had no reason to. Why consider someone else's relatively good fortune when he was doing hard?

Just make him bitter, that would.

Jack "The Artful Dodger" Dawkins | The Dodger Papers | OTA

IN THE MAZE.

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