pixieledmemes | Test Drive Meme #1

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!tdm

Test Drive Meme #1

TDM #1 - January/February 2025

🦋 Introduction

Welcome to the Pixie Led Test Drive Meme!

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We have a gamewide EMP Meme currently up for you to browse and gather potential castmates. 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 seems to be a holiday party of some sort, if the large, candle-decorated pine tree in the middle of the tables is any indication. While the party appears to be outside, the temperature is mild and pleasant within the gates and hedges sectioning the party off from the rest of the garden. Stars twinkle overhead, a full moon hanging in the sky, as fluffy flakes of oddly not-cold snow drift to the ground. Some of the hosts dance in a circle around the pine tree, moving their hands around in odd patterns as their feet move; it seems to make the tree glow. The mood seems to be festive, with everyone smiling brightly. Their chipper voices sometimes crescendo louder than the soft chamber music that's being performed in the corner; their laughter rings out like little bells now and then as people get settled.

There are candles and sprigs of pine on every table accenting the festive spread of food and drinks. There are cookies, olives and cheese and crackers, various sliced meats, cranberries and oranges, chocolate coins, fried potatoes of every shape and style, warmed cider and mulled wine, and every other type of food you might be craving.

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.

🦋 A Great Miracle Happened There

In front of you sits a spinning top with symbols you don't recognize on each of its four sides. Next to it is a pile of chocolate coins. Someone nearby helpfully explains that you'll need a second player to bet against, but they at least are willing to take a second to explain the rules.

Each round, each player puts a coin into the pot. Then they take turns spinning the top, taking an action depending on the symbol that is landed on. The wind chime means you do nothing. The coin means you take everything in the pot. The sword means you take half of everything in the pot (half plus one if there is an odd number). The hand means you put a piece of your winnings back in the pot. When one person owns every chocolate coin and the other person is left with nothing, they have won the game.

Perhaps you should try and flag someone down to play a game to figure out what's going on around here. After all, half of the party guests look about as confused as you do, and it might be a nice idea to start getting to know the other people here.

🦋 Eat Me

Tucked away in a corner sits the dessert table. Each cake, cookie, and pastry has signs next to them:

Warning: Do Not Eat

But everything else you've had tonight doesn't seem to have an effect, so what's the harm in a little sweet treat? You dig in, and then, without your knowledge, something changes about you. What those changes are, exactly, is dependent on the desserts you've eaten. Luckily the effect is only temporary; some only last a matter of minutes, some last hours, but either way as soon as you leave the party, you'll be cured.

Types of Desserts

Cakes: You will believe you've lived in the Fae Realm your whole life and belong there
Cookies: You will shrink down to about two inches tall
Pies: You will forget someone important to you
Candies: You will no longer be able to tell any lies
Custards: You will grow a tail, antennae, wings, or any combination thereof

🦋 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 received a gift. It could be one you enjoyed or one you did not. Perhaps a particularly amusing story will be rewarded.

ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

🦋 The Party: CW: Mentions of violence

[For a few long moments after waking up, Regis just sits. Still. His eyes take in his surroundings, while his mind races attempting to figure out what in the Astrals' names just happened. He shouldn't be awake at all since his attacker had been so hell bent on beating the life out of him. If nothing else, his body should ache from the beating and his side should be screaming from the sword wound he'd taken. Yet, he felt fine. Physically.

Mentally was another story. Part of him wanted to demand he be sent back home. It wasn't as if he had been pulled from another boring council meeting. He had been fighting--and granted, probably dying--to save his people. Another part of him--the part that was once a little boy who read too many myths and too much lore--knew the best outcome of that would likely be him getting into a worse mess than he was in now. The adult that little boy had grown into knew all myths and lore came from a seed of truth and on Eos, at least, often that seed of truth led back to daemons. If these beings were anything like daemons, the last thing he wanted to do was get their attention.

Yes, it was better not to stir up trouble yet. There was too much Regis needed to learn before he could start to plan and those marked as troublemakers rarely had as many chances to learn as others.

Besides, so far it seemed that these beings valued tradition, rules, and a sense of order. He understood that. All those things had been a part of his life as long has he could remember. It was a game he played at home and it was certainly a game he could play here, especially if it meant getting him home.

Lucis needed him. Eos needed him. Aulea needed him.

After being so still, Regis finally moves, groaning and putting his head into his hands.]

Astrals, Clarus is going to kill me.

[That is, if their attacker, the man who only identified himself as the infamous Adagium, hadn't finished the job already.]

🦋 GEIS:

[UN: KingDad]

Gifts? I'm afraid that I don't put much value on what one might consider a traditional gift. Too many "gifts" have come my way with strings attached or with the sole purpose of buying the favor of me or my country.

Were I pressed to pick my favorite of the true gifts I have received, I would say it was when my wife gave me her hand in marriage. While our marriage was arranged like most royal ones are, she and I are friends from childhood whose friendship grew into something more. I was truly blessed the day we were finally able to make the marriage official.

[Wow, who is this sap? Someone get him off the Leaf stat!]

🦋 Wild Card: It's a party. He's there. Pick however you would like to run into him. PM me at his journal if you have any questions.

Please, let us hope that Clarus does not kill you.

[Not that Giuseppe knows who Clarus is: not someone here, he presumes.

Regardless, Giuseppe’s words to the man sitting beside him are soft. Intended to be an odd sort of comfort, since they all seem together in this. Visitors trapped together in the Fae’s web.

For now.]

It sounds absurd, I know. [Like the silly sort of fairytales Giuseppe would read his son, once upon a time. A lifetime ago.] But why not... indulge?

[Not that Giuseppe believes there is no escape. Food, somehow a binding contract? Preposterous.

What if someone made the Fae not want them? What if Giuseppe...?]

There seems to be plenty of food, and... wine. [Although Giuseppe has never been much of a drinker, they’ve already been kidnapped. Why not partake?]

[Having fallen so far into his own thoughts, it is only years of practice that keeps him from jumping when words, no matter how soft, are addressed to him. The words are surprisingly comforting considering they come from a stranger, but the sentiment seems genuine enough. In fact, it draws a a grateful half-smile to Regis' face as he turns to the speaker of those words.]

No, he wouldn't. Even the Shield of the King can be charged with treason and treason charges bring so much paperwork. More likely he would just curse at me and then throw me over his shoulder and cart me off.

[As ridiculous as it might sound, Regis states the words with a confidence that comes from someone who has had just that thing happen to them more than once. The amusing memories are painful without Clarus here, though, as it leaves Regis without his stalwart defender and advisor for the first time since he was born. The distraction discussing food and drink brings is welcome.]

I usually get in trouble for indulging, but I'm not certain if they can punish us more than forbidding our return home.

[He hasn't given up. Instead, he's moved into something akin to fact finding mode and finding out other "visitors'" thoughts on all this is definitely information he wants to find out.]

Sweets tend to be my weakness, though, not wine. What of you?

[ By the time Cale's excruciating hunger had abated enough to think clearly and feel suspicious it was already too late — his Ancient Powers burn through food so quickly there was no way for him to forcibly empty it from his stomach.

He had come across various incarnations of 'Fae' through the numerous genre fantasy novels he read in his life as Kim Rok Soo. The knowledge he has is enough to gauge which type of 'Fae' he's been kidnapped by.

...This is bad?

This is really bad.

Cale is so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of how fucked up his current situation is that he can't even respond properly. He just commandeers a whole bottle of alcohol, finds a seat away from the more energetic fellow supernatural kidnapping victims.

Cale sits there quietly, sipping his drink straight from the bottle because he doesn't trust himself with a glass right now. Even so, he still manages to look unfairly elegant.

The quiet, aristocratic-looking man next to him finally makes a sound. It startles Cale, but aside from a minor quivering of his hands he doesn't show it. ]

Yeah. [ Cale agrees.

He doesn't know who 'Clarus' is, but he also doesn't care. It's someone from the guy's home.

Time passing differently between realms isn't a lie.

The rest of it is bullshit. Cale knows for a fact that powerful gods can rewind the time of a world.

If there is one way then it's possible to find more.

Cale likes this quiet guy who hasn't given into the despair of never returning home to his people and is instead worried about how mad his people will be at him when they reunite. ]

We're a bit fucked.

[ The crude language and the tattered, bloody, debris-covered black military dress with generous gold embellishments don't take away from his regal aura.

Neither does the remaining bits of dried, dark blood on his face and neck that he missed when wiping himself clean with a napkin. ]

But at least the alcohol is pretty good.

[The course language brings a nearly inaudible and most certainly inelegant snort to Regis' lips before he can stop himself. It's almost as if Cid was sitting next to him even though the air the stranger has is more like that Weskham had. His torn attire and bloodstained clothes remind Regis of Weskham at the end of a hard battle, and suddenly through everything else that is rolling through his mind, Regis realizes that he's not the only one who was pulled from a life or death battle even though he's not wearing the damage as clearly as this stranger is for whatever reason.

It's weirdly comforting.]

I just hope that those we've left behind are not as...fucked as we are.

[The swear word is spoken in the way of one who has been trained not to use such language, but has really no other word that could describe the current situation.

Cid would be so proud.]

I haven't tried the wine yet. Do you mind sharing that with a fellow "visitor?"

Do you trust them?

[ Cale thinks of the situation he was taken from and focuses on the most important facts: the immediate enemy was defeated, the children have numerous adults to rely on still, the others are all stronger than him, and the gap he's leaving behind can be filled in by everyone working together. With a combined thousands of years of expertise and allies from multiple worlds, Cale knows they will be able to persist.

He chuckles and takes one last, large drink from the bottle, emptying it down to half with an alarming speed that speaks of perhaps a bit too much practice. His pale skin immediately flushes as though he's drunk, but his eyes are clear and he shows no signs whatsoever of intoxication.

Cale holds out the bottle for the guy to take. ]

My territory's wine is better. [ That instinctive pride in his Henituse family bubbles to the surface, as does the anger at these Fae bastard's gall to demand he be adopted.

Fuck that. ] But sir, I am no 'visitor'.

I'm clearly a victim of human trafficking.

[ He feels like this person might appreciate his bratty retort. ]

Edited (forgot half a sentence) 2025-01-16 01:06 (UTC)

Not in the slightest.

[Regis wishes he could feel as resolved about what he's left behind, but the only thing keeping him from getting lost in his worries is the ironclad control he's developed through training and experience. Losing himself to his concerns for his family and his country won't get him back to them, and until he gets back there they remain in great danger from the mysterious attacker and the undead and enslaved Astral setting everything aflame.

Granted, he wasn't doing all that well when he was pulled away, but he would rather depend on himself than his ancestors who so far, have not given him one peep of advice.

Thanks guys.

Regis winces as he watches the stranger knock back so much liquor at once, but takes the bottle when it's offered with a nod of gratitude. When he drinks, he drinks a much smaller amount and then frowns slightly, offering the bottle back.]

I would hope so. For almighty beings, their wine leaves much to be desired. It's a shame we don't have one of the bottles my wife brought back from Altissia when she last visited. That would be something to wash away some of our troubles with.

[If asked later, Regis will blame the laugh the stranger's retort draws from his throat on the truly awful wine he just drank, even though one swallow of wine hasn't affected him like that in years.]

I wonder how our captors would react to that charge?

[It's a shame he suspects they would only laugh it off.]

[ Ah. That's unfortunate.

Still, Cale, no, Kim Rok Soo, understands the situation of people left behind far too well. ]

...They'll persist. That's just how people are.

[ Persist. Survive.

If humans couldn't do at least that much they would have been wiped out millennia ago. ]

I expect to the Fae palate it is probably more of an 8/10. To me this is more of an upper mid-tier, so it's a decent one to drink in bulk. [ Kim Rok Soo was never a big drinker beyond the occasional beer and soju with teammates, but Cale Henituse had a reputation as a drunkard to live up to so he learned pretty quick. ]

If you had a bottle of Altissian wine from your wife with you it would be a shame to waste it on a bullshit celebration trying to lull us into a false sense of security.

[ He drinks the rest of the bottle because, well, fuck it. Cale can't get drunk off one bottle, but maybe this Fae shit might at least give him a bit of a buzz.

Parties are one of his least favourite things in any world. The fact that it's essentially a celebration of their kidnapping makes it even worse. ]

Both the Seelie and Unseelie courts would think it was amusing if they cared at all. From what I know of them they will treat us as playthings that exist for their amusement.

They are known for mind manipulation magic and being exceptionally cruel to anyone who crosses them.

Edited (icon :u) 2025-01-16 02:03 (UTC)

Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII | FFXV (Episode Ardyn)

the party

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this idea popped into my head and i couldn't resist

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geis.

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GEIS: un: sistersalvation

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wildcard.

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