Test Drive Meme #3

[changelinged]

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

code

Comments

Renoir ⚔ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[betenoir]

Open Threads ⚔ Closed on Request ⚔ Contact at Plurk ⚔ Tagged for Spoilers
Just testing and having fun! Spoilers are for the end of act II and might include act III

⚔ Feeling on Hedge

[ Three strikes on the ground.

Three slow blows in succession echo around.

Three times the pattern repeats.

Until a lone figure emerges from the centre path with his weight resting upon a wooden cane. Looking up at the heavens, comfortable walking in the openness of the night air rather than the castle in which everyone finds themselves. Those who announce themselves will draw his attention down to earth. Strangers are acknowledged with a guarded stare and cocking of the head. Those observant enough to notice will see this man has carried himself through dangerous situations.

But those familiar with this figure receive nothing but silence. They are observed with a cold and controlled stare: an ominous warning for those who remember their first encounter.

Or worse.

As for the people more familiar with him than anyone? Well, that’s complicated. ]

⚔ Can’t Unseelie It

[There are some things one cannot see. The splinters in their eyes. The bars of their own prison. But the one he wants to see he cannot see, and those he doesn’t want to see he can. Until he encounters that strange figure and sees who he wants to see.

But for all she copies her image, strokes his neck with cold fingers rough as stone, he seems to be aware. They are not the same. He doesn't love this woman. And the woman he adores, the woman he has spent a lifetime loving, is not here.

So when those fingers begin clawing at his throat, he seizes her wrist and wrenches her away. But during that moment he hears movement. He turns his head towards the source of the sound and arrests them with a cold and callous stare. Someone is painting themselves into a private canvas where they have no business existing.]

⚔ Geis | UN: Dessendre

Really? This is your plan to get people speaking?

Do you know what it means to ask such personal questions? Or have you not considered how cruelly this act becomes you?

But my purpose is hardly to chastise you over what is wrong and right. How different would I be from you for doing so? I am here to confess that I was too enchanted by fantasy to the point I lost my grasp on reality.

This is why I know what it means to disappear into nothingness. And why I shall always be grateful my wife reached into that fantasy and gave me a second chance at life.

⚔ Wildcard

[Open to new prompts! Please feel free to DM or contact the aforementioned Plurk. Clair Obscur is a new canon and I am mindful of spoilers. I have finished endgame so castmates are free to interact. Canon point is following the middle of act II.]

walking spoiler having a no good very bad day

[lementeur]

GEIS — un: verso

I don't think they care how cruel they're being. Something of a running theme for those with the power to twist lives for the sake of their own fantasies.

another walking spoiler gonna brighten his day 💪🏻

[betenoir]

Geis | UN: Dessendre

Really, Verso? Did you forget your own words? I don't get to lecture YOU about family. Perhaps you will realize you should take your own advice. Because I am not the one trying to escape reality.

[lementeur]

un: verso

I think it's fair to say that this, wherever this is, isn't reality for any of us. You can't want this fate any more than I do.

We don't belong.

[ They don't belong in either world, really, but one conflict at a time. Renoir can't be happy about being here, so maybe they can finally agree on something. ]

[betenoir]

Geis | UN: Dessendre

[Perhaps this is the first time they have reached agreement in what... thirty, fourty or fifty years?]

We don't belong with them.

We belong with each other.

[And that includes your mother, you little shit.]

[lementeur]

un: verso

We don't belong anywhere.

Unfortunately, here we are. And you don't know the new rules anymore than I do.

[ Boy does he have some bad news about Mom... ]

Where are you? We need to talk. Properly.

[betenoir]

Geis | UN: Dessendre

[When Verso of all people is approaching him for a conversation he recognises the issue is serious.]

I'll be outside the hedge maze in a couple of minutes. Get to the entrance and wait.

[lementeur]

spoilers on the horizon

[ Normally he might protest 'waiting' anywhere for Renoir, but he's the one asking to meet and this is indeed serious, so he'll do exactly as requested. The hedge maze gets a most unwelcome side-eye from him, already having had enough experience with it to even risk going back in. But if anyone is going to breeze through a place as creepy as that, of course it would be Renoir.

Will he have such a steady demeanor if Verso informs him of what he's learned? It's probably cruel to do so, but it's a gamble. Maybe if he knows there's nothing left to fight against...

With arms folded, Verso leans against a statue and considers the shots still lined up on a table near the entrance. He hadn't really partaken before, but it's becoming more tempting by the minute. ]

[betenoir]

spoilers all the way down

[Renoir spends his time thinking about the possibilities ahead as he strides down the final path leading towards the edge of the maze. The only possibility that matters - that his son in his agony deems important enough to mention - is one of two things.

First, a reason to end hostility. It hardly sounds possible. So he starts to believe in the second option, the impossible way out of this dilemma. His son wants to fight by his side

He wants to believe it. But he cannot believe it.

The first thing Verso will hear is the striking of his cane upon the stone floor of the floral labyrinth. When he appears, the bottom tip of his cane is sporting a shimmer of blood.]

It's been a while.

Feeling on Hedge

[deprime]

because lol this is one hell of a spoiler if there ever was one

[ Good sense should have sent him running the other direction, like he'd promised Maelle he would. Good sense, maybe, but Gustave wasn't thinking about good sense right now. He was thinking about Maelle, and he was hoping these... fae weren't lying when they claimed to need them all and that they wouldn't let them all just kill each other in this maze before the night was over.

All of it could have been wishful thinking.

If this ended the same way, well, shame on him for trying, but Gustave wasn't going to tuck tail and run this time. He couldn't. ]

Hey. [ If there was time for pride, his voice was even enough to facing down this man who had wiped out almost everyone he knew in a matter of seconds. This man who... ] Listen to me. [ Less of a command and more of just an appeal. Father to... whoever this man was. Surely he'd had children once (and oh, the irony...) ] Leave her alone. Let her live or I'll find a way to make our time [ and he gestures around, at this maze, for the general sense of this imprisonment by the fae ] here? As hard for you as I can figure out how to make it.

[ Threatening this guy wasn't good sense either, but in case the nice part didn't work, it might have been worth a shot. ]

[betenoir]

equipping the baguette

[Renoir offers nothing in response except to stare: that same cold and calculating glance he had levelled at the expedition when they had landed on the beach. His mind is already thinking ahead to what will emerge from this encounter.

Because upon seeing this man alive, his thoughts had turned towards leveraging the bond he had observed. Between this man who considered himself a father and a girl who deserved everything and nothing.

The girl his son had told him was alive in this place.

In which case, he knows better than anyone how good sense would never have him running in the other direction. The pleading, the bargaining, the threats? They all roll off his back for the sake of those he is alive to protect.]

Tell her to stay away from the others.

[Verso. Clea.]

Because I will not tolerate her if she is going to interfere.

[deprime]

don't forget the beret.

[ That impassive look was, not quite comforting, but familiar, predictable, and that was something. Gustave had, though, been holding his breath, every muscle tensed and braced for impact, and even when it never came, he hovered in this strange limbo, caught between expectation and reality.

A counter demand wasn't where he thought this would go, but he'd take it. If this white-haired man was willing to talk, or negotiate, Gustave wasn't going to waste this opportunity. ]

Away from who? Interfere with what?

[ This was toeing a line, asking too many questions, but he pressed on. ]

I can't stop her if I don't know what I'm keeping her away from. We'll just go around in circles.

[betenoir]

he's already wearing the shirt

[Two strides. Three. Renoir approaches Gustave with the intention of forcing him towards the hedge using nothing but his presence. But much as his gaze is pinning the younger man to those leaves and vines, his mind is elsewhere.

Should he share those names and imply some connection?]

Clea and Verso.

[His cane strikes the floor with every step.

Let this man infer some connection from the demand. Let himself become the focus of his attention. The expectation that Gustave should also keep his distance goes unsaid.]

I will not ask this again.

[Do you remember what happened the last time that girl ignored his warning, sir?]

[deprime]

and the shades.

[ At each rap of that cane, his heart stuttered out of rhythm, as if that sound somehow existed in a space outside of reality. Gustave didn't flinch though, he couldn't. Giving ground could get him killed.

An inhale, and exhale. Two names, ones that certainly meant something to the man attempting to crowd into his space. Enough to threaten him over, enough to make some kind of a deal. Gustave could work with that. ]

I—no, I heard you. Clea and Verso.

[Two names, two people he'd just met. But this man he knew enough to know not to trust him. He couldn't. Not with Maelle at stake. ]

And you'll stay away from her? Leave her alone?

[betenoir]

and suspenders

[Two or three steps and he is crossing the boundary of personal space, confident the gifts he received will again protect him from harm. But he knows what this man is capable of with his back against the wall. That he will position himself between the danger and those he cares for.

For a moment, he respects what this man has done and regrets what he must do. But do it he must, because he too has those he cares for. Both of whom are condemning themselves to die.]

Ensure your end of the bargain and I'll handle her accordingly.

[Perhap. Perhaps he cannot. He stabbed this man in the back before lancing him through the front. He is prepared to run this deal through in the same manner if necessary.]

[deprime]

and the nice black jeans.

[ Those few steps, and Gustave is positive this is the closest anyone he's known has gotten to this man while still alive. This close, he can see the details of his face, the similarities. It's a wager, but it feels like a safe bet to assume they're related. A father and his children.

The longer he stared, the more he was sure of it. It makes sense and aren't he and Gustave doing the same thing? Trying to protect the people they care about? ]

Yeah. I'll do what you ask if you can promise me nothing will happen to Maelle.

[ Gustave doesn't know if he'll believe that promise, but he's asking for it anyway and already formulating a back up plan. Be prepared, right? ]

[betenoir]

he draws the line at jeans

[Each studies the other. Fathers who should be on the same side. Fathers who might never find common ground because their ideals are in conflict. Renoir regrets these circumstances yet cannot doubt or stop them from continuing. Because protecting his family is more important than protecting theirs.

He refuses to blink. Because he recognises that flash of recognition, realises how far this man could go. He takes one step backwards, relieving the pressure as a sign of what could be agreement.

Perhaps this man is better off never knowing about his adoptive child, never mind the world. He understands more than anyone the changes that can come about when you are faced with a changing reality. But before he promises anything...]

You know what I expect in return.

[Stay away from my family.]

Hedge

[thephotosynthesis]

[ Olivia has had her share of interactions with mysterious old men with dangerous vibes. This guy could be real trouble if she provokes him. Maybe even if she doesn't.

Well, if it comes to that... she's confident in her speed, but not so confident that she could get away. Only thing to do would be to stand her ground and fight.

But before that, there's an option that a lot of people overlook: Talk it out. ]

Hello! I'm not with the creatures in the maze, I'm just lost in it. Maybe two heads would be better than one?

hello hello! before I dig into things what spoilers are good for you?

[betenoir]

[Renoir studies her for a good while. His eyes are cold and calculating, while he compares her against his experience of this maze, of this strange world where up is down and right is left. The fae strike him as possessing fondness for personal melodrama and a love of exploiting emotional connection.

Were this a trick of the light, there are more important people whose visage they could draw upon.

A stranger, then?

He says nothing for another moment. Because while he cannot trust the fae, he cannot claim a fondness for the people they find so fascinating.]

Perhaps. You haven't been here long, have you?

[But that lack of trust hardly means he lacks compassion for her situation.]

All of them! I've cleared it

[thephotosynthesis]

Not at all. It's my first day.

[She's clearly still wary of him, but keeps her hand away from her pistol. No need to escalate.]

My name's Olivia. What's yours?

Wonderful!

[betenoir]

[There is nothing to gain from introducing himself with an alibi. Nothing to lose by sharing his name; his family name of which he is immeasurably proud. Though it means less and less these days.]

Renoir Dessendre.

[His slow and measured tone, his advanced age, his demeanour. He speaks like the leader of a family. The patriarch.]

I am delighted to make your acquaintance.

[Manners. The duty to keep his family respected. The need to put his own claim on that name before that girl.

Family is complicated.]

[thephotosynthesis]

Oh, um... likewise? Yeah, likewise.

[Olivia's family is anything but nobility, so she doesn't have a lot of practice with that kind of talk.]

If I'm being honest, I don't actually know what the goal is here, beyond "reach the exit". I've just been exploring and surviving as best I can.

[betenoir]

[Exploring? His mind barely entertains the thought. But when she speaks about surviving, being unarmed against impossible odds, he finds himself feeling appreciative.]

Then probably now is a good opportunity to turn around and find your way back outside.

[Does he want her to suffer in this maze? No, it would be pointless. But in the end, she isn't family. He might follow the same path, but really doesn't have a duty to offer his assistance.]

[thephotosynthesis]

[Her grip on her wheelchair tightens slightly at the advice. She's perfectly aware of her limitations, but being told to give up because of them just makes her want to metaphorically dig her heels in.]

The creatures out there were pretty clear about participation being mandatory. I know I don't look it, but I can take care of myself.

[betenoir]

[Renoir notices that tightening grip, the demand for perfection and control, to prove yourself capable when others continue to lecture you. He thinks about one of his daughters for a moment; his hand dusting nothing off his sleeve while his eyes soften in the corners.

His children hardly value their lives. It should break his heart to see it repeated here, yet...]

I suppose I don't get to come in now and interfere.

[He muses. Sometimes it's better to walk away. Sometimes it's not easy.]

At least let me ask if you are alright.