Test Drive Meme #3

[changelinged]

TDM #3 - May/June 2025

🦋 Introduction

Welcome to the Pixie Led Test Drive Meme!

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🦋 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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Comments

[foraride]

Okay so that's...good? Probably? Astronema's definitely seen him in worse circumstances but just once it would be nice if she didn't have to.

Too late now. He shakes his head a little, front hooves shifting restlessly. "Yeah but how many people do you sit in the middle of a lake with?"

[astronema]

"Kiriya?" Astronema asks, startled, and then... horribly amused. Her smile's right there in her voice. "You... drank out of the well, didn't you?"

This guy cannot catch a break when it comes to magic, it seems. Touching cursed plants with his bare hands, drinking cursed water? And now, he's a horse. She supposes that's better than burning up with a lethal fever, at the very least.

[foraride]

Yeah, that's the reaction he was worried about. Kiriya can't exactly give her a look like this, but he can think his exasperation real hard and hope she picks up on it.

"Fell in, actually." Which is not a whole lot better, but at least he didn't go drink cursed water on purpose. "Trying not to get eaten by your flying friend over there."

[astronema]

Sorry, Kiriya, that's still funny. A little less funny, but still.

"At least you're not boiling alive this time?"

There's a bright side, right?

"You seem to have quite the luck with magic."

[foraride]

"Don't I know it," he sighs. "Gonna need to learn some of it, probably." For self-preservation, if nothing else.

But now that they've largely settled on the fact that no one is attacking anyone else, he turns his head to the side to get a better look at her erstwhile companions. "How are you...doing that?"

[astronema]

"Mind control," Astronema says casually, like it's nothing.

Then, "Don't worry, I won't do it to you."

'Voidstar' had revealed themself to be an accomplished magic user, so in the name of anonymity Astronema is... hesitant to say much of her own magical abilities. Kiriya's assumption that she's 'techy' that time in the lake had been useful, even if she's far from an expert there.

As she'd said, she mostly knows enough tech to get into trouble with it.

Magic, though? Not everyone can mind-control shit, for example.

Still...

[foraride]

Okay well that's. A thing. Kiriya gives her as much of a slightly askance look as he can manage and snorts out a breath. Much as he'd like to leave things there, sadly that might be one of the better options.

"You might have to." For a change, he sounds almost entirely serious. "Apparently this is the kind of horse that eats meat." Please do something if it looks like I'm about to attack you, in other words.

[astronema]

That gets both eyebrows up, and Astronema tips her head to the side, considering him and his current, new form.

"Interesting. You're that worried about it, are you?"

She's not. But she's also not used to people being, you know. Concerned? On her behalf?

And so Astronema sounds contemplative, maybe even a little... lost? when she says, "...You're quite strange, you know."

[foraride]

"Heard that before." It sounds like he'd be grinning around it if he could. Though in terms of weird things he's done, I'd rather not find out what cannibalism is like doesn't seem like it would rank that high. But Astronema's got more than a little strangeness of her own, so who is he to say.

"Been mostly trying to avoid people until this wears off." Which. It had better. Kiriya has accepted the idea of being ridden, but this is pushing it.

[astronema]

"Understandable," Astronema said, back to playing with her locket while she watched him. After a moment of thought, she shrugged a shoulder. "I grew up around monsters far larger and scarier than carnivorous, wet horses. I'm really not worried about my chances if your new instincts took over."

Which is, you know, a big reason people aren't usually concerned on her behalf, specifically. She usually is the big scary thing in the room, no matter how unfortunately human her genetic code may be.

"But I'll control you if it happens, so you don't have to worry about taking anyone else out. Does that help? I don't promise not to see if you can do any amusing dances in that shape, though."

Gotta get something out of it, right? Behaving just isn't her forte.

[foraride]

"I'd also like you or anyone else not to kill me by accident," Kiriya returns dryly. He can't exactly defend himself in the usual way and apparently shapeshifting cancels out pixelating. Seems like an oversight to him.

The laugh he lets out sounds more like a snort, but it counts. It doesn't not help, after all. "Right. Consider it payment if we get that far." And he can just. Hope it won't. Or start planning payback now, either way.

"What are you and your entourage up to?"

[astronema]

"You can stick with me," Astronema teases in response, terribly amused by this entire situation, "I'll keep you safe~"

This is honestly fucking hilarious for so many reasons. Not the least that she's normally what everyone needs to be kept safe from. Andros had even been going around warning people about her, at some point; had he not gotten to Kiriya?

Unfortunate.

"We're looking for the center of the maze," she adds, "that's normally where the prize is, isn't it? And a minotaur, too."

[foraride]

"Pretty sure the only prize here is the fact that we get to leave again." But really, is he doing anything else important? They're all stuck here until their hosts decide it isn't funny anymore and Kiriya is more stuck than most.

So he picks his way over to her despite himself, shooting the manananggal a dirty look as he passes. "Lead the way, boss." Hey he's done the minion thing before. This is probably going to be a lot more fun.

[astronema]

Astronema gives him an amused look at that, but moves them along without any further fuss, letting her couple of winged monsters do as they like. They seem to have been told to stay near her and watch for anything that attacks...

[foraride]

And Kiriya seems content enough to wander around with the little group, aside from a few startled twitches whenever one of the other unseelie gets too close. Even monster horses can't entirely kill the prey responses, apparently. But it's comfortable enough.

Too comfortable, maybe. Enough that he unthinkingly lets go some of the incredibly tight control he's been keeping over himself to relax a little. Which is fine, right up until Astronema's attention turns to one of the other creatures and on pure instinct he whips around to try and bite down on her shoulder.

[astronema]

Well, that sure is her shoulder he manages to sink his big horsey teeth into!

But not through, despite those teeth belonging to a carnivorous monster. There's the give of muscle, the crunch of tendon, but no tearing of the not!fabric covering her skin.

She half-whirls in immediate response, almost even as it's happening, like it's just a dance, and she plants her other hand on his broad forehead.

For a second, all he'll see is purple filling his vision. When it clears, his mind's cleared with it. Not empty, but primed.

"Let go."

A very calm and simple instruction, that.

[foraride]

Lost in the kelpie's urges as he is, he doesn't register anything other than the immediate command to open his jaw, utterly still aside from that. For about a second, before he shifts almost restlessly in place as Kiriya fights to take control back from both the unseelie instincts and the coercion.

Those equine eyes are still a bit distant, but the unthinking malice is at least fading a little.

[astronema]

"Good," she's never used this power on someone from another reality before today, but it had worked on the monsters, and so she'd been pretty sure it would work on Kiriya. Good to see she hadn't been wrong, though.

It would have sucked to have to electrocute him. In part because that didn't make things bite down less hard.

She uses the armored hand still on his head to push it back from her shoulder, then to the side so she can look him in the eye.

"You are Doctor Kirya Kujou, currently in a horse body," she says, leaning on the spell to try to help reinforce who he is, and threading the needle when it comes to... not accidentally making him forget why he has four legs, right now. "No attacking anyone who doesn't attack you first. Understood?"

[foraride]

And just like that everything crystallizes, Kiriya's conscious mind able to shove back into the forefront forcefully enough that it makes him throw his head without thinking.

"Got it," he says, sounding a little dazed but increasingly present. "Fuck, that was..." Oh shit.

"Are you okay?"

[astronema]

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Maybe because he'd tried to take a chunk out of your shoulder, Astronema? It... takes her a second to remember that, actually, and she looks down at her shoulder and moves that arm around, quite used to checking herself for injuries that might restrict movement.

"It seems fine. There will be an impressive bruise, but no worse than anything I took in training."

She looks at him, then, the matter of her shoulder easily dismissed.

"Are you okay? I know it can be jarring."

Astronema's had just about every form of mind-control, brainwashing, and manipulation done to her own head, after all. Probably even this very spell at some point, or some variation of it she'd reverse engineered later.

[foraride]

There's a slightly skeptical pause in response to that, but it's not like he can do anything about it right now anyway. Without much other option, Kiriya takes a moment to think seriously about the question.

"It's weird," he pronounces finally. He can feel he command rattling around in the back of his head, but it's also holding back the unseelie trying to crowd in, so net positive? Maybe? Whether it would be more or less strange without that added complication is hard to say.

"But better than the alternative, probably."

[astronema]

"Mn," Astronema makes a sound of agreement, "I think you may be the only one I've done that to and then chatted about it, after. But it is weird. The variation I reverse-engineered this from felt a bit like having sandpaper in my skull, every time I thought about it. When I could think about it."

She offers a wry little smile.

"Good to know mine is superior in multiple ways."

Take that, Rita.

[foraride]

"No sandpaper," he agrees, sounding just a touch bemused. But if nothing else Kiriya can respect some good information gathering so he does at least take a moment to give it some real thought. Always helps to describe your symptoms.

"It's kind of like when you're trying to think of a word and you know the shape of it but you just can't think of the specific thing you're looking for. There's something in your head you just keep thinking around." In this case, the urge to bite. He's not complaining.

[astronema]

"Interesting. That could be the creature being repressed, too. I told you who you are to pull you forward, rather than have you still trying to elbow those instincts out of a doorway you were all jammed into."

She knows what that's like, if in a different context.

"Let's find our way out of here, and see if that turns you back."

[foraride]

Well at least one of them does. Out of all the weird shit Kiriya has had dumped on him in the past year or so, mind control has oddly not been part of. Not that he's complaining, but still.

"It had better," he mutters, but dutifully puts his head down to start trying to track the exit. Whether that's because she told him to or just because he agrees is kind of immaterial at the moment, though it is an interesting question.