pixieledmemes | 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

That gets a blink as Kiriya considers it before expression abruptly narrows into something thoughtful. "Can you read me?" Still curiosity, but there's a slight edge to it now. What does he register as now? Human-ish or other?

But he's not going to question extra information, and easily hangs a right at the next opportunity. Handy, that. "Anything else you want to share?"

"I am admittedly trying to pay more attention to those further away," Amberdrake glances at Kiriya a little closer for a moment, registering that edge. That could be any number of things. A degree of wariness, for example, is a common reaction to hearing what he can do even on his own world.

It doesn't quite read that way, though. Interesting.

"But... yes, of course. Is that a surprise?"

Just a little gentle prodding at that edge, he can't help it.

"I am also a Healer. And, in the interest of not having the Empathic Gift render me useless in the thick of danger, a noncombatant."

Intentionally hurting someone or something else fucks him up. You know, exactly when that would be the worst thing to fucking happen.

"A little. Like I said, I'm not exactly a normal human." Well it's good that he has normal emotions, at least? It does make him wonder exactly what his new friend is picking up on, since he doesn't exactly have synapses that would usually constitute brain activity. But it's not much of a shock that magic doesn't seem to care about that either.

In the end, it's more or less a fun factoid. Maybe there are more Kiriya can prod out of him.

"Healing magic, huh? What's that like, where you come from?"

"Well, most of the people I know aren't human at all, but they still have emotions."

Honestly, Drake's one of the last people to consider the whole human issue an actual... issue. Even if he knew that Kiriya wasn't biological anymore; the guy has emotions, and that's just a simple and established fact to the Empath.

"What do you mean, what's that like?" he's not sure about that question, though. "Do you mean... what can I do with it? Or something else?"

"Anything," Kiriya returns with an offhand shrug. "We don't have much in the way of magic where I come from and what I gather around here it works differently for everyone." An overstatement, maybe, but only slightly.

And just to put a point on it, he glances over to toss Drake a bright smile. "I'm a doctor. Non-magical. So you can see how a guy might be curious."

"The Healing Gift is hardly a prerequisite even where I'm from, it's just another tool at a Healer's disposal."

But it's quite the wide topic to try to cover all at once! Especially while, you know, trying not to run into anything nasty out here.

"I have nothing to hide about it; I'll tell you whatever you like, whether now or later. Any priority questions at the moment?"

Gift. Okay, so that's definitely a hint. Not that it's going to stop him from asking more. Sometimes the stupid questions are the ones that get you what you want.

"It something anybody can do or is it a born with it kind of deal?"

"Born," Drake confirms, "but I would be willing to help you train a similar ability, if you have one."

Or develop it in the future! You never knew, around here, not that Amberdrake was familiar enough with this place yet to know it.

"I've found my non-magical training infinitely useful in making use of it. I'm sure you would experience much the same."

"Probably," Kiriya agrees with a small shrug. "But sadly there's nothing magical about me."

It's not even a lie, really. Any magic he's got is from an enchantment. Though who knows what all else their hosts have in store, if the mentions he's seen on the network are anything to go by.

"Sounds like you have some experience with the training thing."

"I was a trained chirurgeon before ever learning to do anything with my Gifts," Amberdrake says, and adds perhaps a touch wryly, "In a teaching hospital, with no mental shields, and no idea what was wrong with me."

It was not a great time. Not recommended. And yeah, Kiriya would definitely know by now if he had something like Drake.

"Unless you meant as a teacher, and I have done some of that as well-- ah, straight or left. We have something to the right I'd like to not meet."

His eyebrows flick upwards slightly as he catches on the unfamiliar word, but context can get him the gist of it. Maybe it shouldn't be too much of a surprise, given the general look of him, but Kiriya has learned very quickly not to make those kind of assumptions around here.

But he just hums thoughtfully, absently keeping them on the straight path without comment. "So you, what, could feel the emotions of your patients?" Yeah, that would probably suck. Yet another reason why Kiriya's chosen career path is superior. Except for all the times it isn't.

"I did mean teaching other people, yeah."

"Emotions, symptoms, pain. And then my teachers would treat me for things I did not have, and..." he lets that go with a vague, but graceful gesture.

Hellish.

"Well, you said that you're a doctor, which context suggests is a Healer," Amberdrake says, "and that you have no magic. Are you looking for teaching in something?"

"Trying to learn more about healing magic," he says, flicking a measuring glance in Drake's direction. "Don't know if I'll ever be able to do much of it myself, but it seems worthwhile to know how it works."

The fact that it seems to work differently for everyone is both a complication and an irritation.

"You could call me a healer, yeah." In loosest terms, but sure. "Figure I might as well do what I can while I'm here."

"I see no harm in that," the kestra'chern nods in thought, "no learning is ever wasted."

Words Urtho had lived by, and so his surviving people try to do the same.

"First, as a sense. The Gift allows me to see into the body, I can view bones, muscle, tissue, veins, and so on. If it's there and is supposed to be there, I can see it. If it's there and shouldn't be, like an arrowhead, I can see the shape of it in the surrounding tissue."

And if that was all the Gift allowed Drake to do, that would still be a hell of a lot to go along with his non-magical training.

Test Drive Meme #3

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