Test Drive Meme #2

[changelinged]

TDM #2 - March/April 2025

🦋 Introduction

Welcome to the Pixie Led Test Drive Meme!

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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.

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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 a garden party at the crack of dawn, with the sun still in its early stages of climbing through the yonder, casting a good mix of pastel hues of blue, pink, and beige on everything. Heralding the first day of spring, the Ruler of the Spring Court has found it fitting to arrange this gathering where guests can feel the blades of grass touching their ankles, as well as the rich soil beneath their feet. Flowers of all kinds surround the party as if they were carefully curated. With spring as the "dawn of seasons," which marks a transition from winter's latency to the resurgence of life everywhere, the Ruler of the Dawn Court has also seen it fit to host aspects of this party during the one time of the year that dawn occurs the whole day. Tall candles and torches grace the outskirts of the garden party, providing warmth and an orange glow everywhere. Not one flame goes out even with the occasional wind, the Duchess always makes sure of this.

There are also freshly picked blossoms and branches with leaves on every table accenting the festive spread of food and drinks. This time, a lot of the food prepared for the Adopted guests are familiar to them with a little bit of a twist. Burgers might come in small packages and in toothpicks, while hotdogs in buns are also diminutive. Cookies look delectable but they have a flowery flavor to them, as if eating freshly picked daisies or daffodils. Fruits that may have been present in an Adopted's home, such as pineapples and watermelons, have seeds in odd places. Picking this selection of food is an attempt to be more welcoming and to appease the lovely guests the fae have invited.

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.

🦋 Chance at a Dance

A party is not complete without dancing, of course, and while during the last gathering held for the Adopted, different fae danced to music exclusively for them around a glowing tree, this time they are insisting their guests to join in.

This is a party for you, after all.

If the prodding of the different fae hosts won't convince you, perhaps the music will. They play easily recognizable tunes that their wonderful guests must have heard before. These melodies have certain unique effects to their mortal attendees, which are as follows:

• Upbeat Music: You will believe that you and your dance partner have been friends forever and have known each other a long time.
• Romantic Music: You will become amorous and flirtatious towards your dance partner.
• Slow Music: You will develop some tension with your dance partner. It may be negative or sexual; completely up to you.
• Quiet Music: You will assume your dance partner is a threat and try to fight them.

🦋 Flower Power

At the Spring King's behest, every Adopted should wear a flower corsage or boutonnière to the gathering. After all, this is to celebrate the coming of spring and what better way to do that than to honor everything in bloom.

The thing is, though, the King of Spring, while amorous and friendly, also has a penchant for playing with mortals' memories, if not also affect their desires and despairs.

So, mischievous as he is, he made sure to enchant the different flowers present in every corsage and boutonnière for the party with the effects below:

• Rose: You will recall a horrific trauma
• Carnation: You will see a vision of your future, whether it's good or bad
• Orchid: You will remember a time you lost someone
• Chrysanthemum: You will believe someone among the Adopted is your soulmate
• Dahlia: You will believe you betrayed someone important to you, whether you actually did or not

It is perhaps a good thing that no one but the Adopted are allowed to see these visions and memories, but everyone who wears a corsage or boutonnière will be able to see each other's memories and visions when in close enough physical proximity to the vision-haver, for better or for worse.

🦋 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 gave someone a gift. Perhaps a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates. Was it appreciated or not? A reward might await the most meaningful gift given.

🦋 Link to Overflow Post



ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

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Comments

Hank McCoy | XMCU

[bestials]

01. when I wake up in the morning, love (arrival/dance - upbeat option)

[ Despite Hank's protests, he can't seem to find a way to wake up from this bad dream. Or... is it a dream? He's not quite sure. The food sure tastes real, and the tall grass brushing against his bare ankles feels real also.

Some music pipes up, including a familiar song, with an upbeat rhythm that even Hank has to tap his toes to. Someone tugs on Hank's elbow, urging him towards the dance floor, but he protests. ]

No, I, uh. I don't dance.

[ One way or another, though, he's convinced to try dancing. And once he does, he finds that he's enjoying himself more than expected. He even gets into the mood to start showing off, twirling and dipping his partner, and at one point kicking off his shoes, and leaping ten feet in the air to hang upside down from a tree branch overhead! ]

02. and something without warning, love, bears heavy on my mind (boutonniere) (cw spoilers for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, discussion of off-screen character death, implied alcoholism)

[ There doesn't seem to be any escaping this place, so eventually Hank decides he'd better settle in and try to play along. He's not really the type to want to make waves, so when a fae attendant insists that he wears a boutonniere, he accepts and pins a small arrangement of red and yellow carnations to the lapel of his... bathrobe? Well, it's what he's wearing, so even though it feels a little silly to dress it up, it's all he can do at the moment.

He doesn't expect the vision that comes to him once he pins on the boutonniere, though...

It's Hank and Charles, sitting in the manor kitchen like they do so many days, alone. Charles even has a bottle of liquor in front of him. But something is different, this time around. They're talking about Raven... A subject that had rarely come up before Logan suddenly appeared at their door. But they're talking about her as though she's... ]

...Dead? Raven's... dead?

[ Hank swallows, though he finds that his mouth is dry suddenly. ]

No. This can't be true.

03. when the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face (GEIS)

un: therealMcCoy

My gifts tend not to go over so well. Probably not worth a reward to say, but it's the truth.

The last time I tried to give someone a gift, it turned out it was the opposite of what she wanted. What either of us wanted, really.

00. and I know it's gonna be a lovely day (wildcard)

[ Want something else? HMU with whatever, or poke me @ millennialfalcon to plot something specific. ]

un: pyro

[firings]

[ McCoy is a familiar surname, but also a slightly common one. He won't overthink this. ]

why? what did you give her?

[bestials]

[ Meanwhile, on his end, Hank has no reason to recognize or read anything into such a non-descriptive username as "pyro." ]

Without going into details... I offered to try to solve what I saw as a problem we both had. Turns out, she didn't see it as a problem.

It's a moot point anyway, because it didn't work.

[firings]

go into details

i'm bored :)

[bestials]

No offense, but I don't know you.

1.

[gossiptoilet]

Oh, don't worry, I'll teach you.

[ With this upbeat music playing, John knows they've been friends since way back. He's so comfortable with showing Hank some moves, and Hank seems to come to a point where he's taking great joy in participating.

John can't help clapping his hands when Hank does catapults into the tree. ]

Oh, my goodness, you're so fit. I didn't know you could do that! Tell me your secret.

[bestials]

[ It's weird. Hank doesn't remember having all that many friends, outside of his little crew of mutants. But at the same time, he knows he's been pals with John for ages.

He smiles, flipping back down to land gracefully on his feet. ]

No trick. It's just one of those things you're born with.

[gossiptoilet]

[ John giggles, giving Hank a wry grin. ]

Oh, don't even. You have to have an extensive routine.

[bestials]

[ Hank spreads his hands to show he's not hiding anything. ]

Truth be told, most of the exercise I get is just cleaning up around the house.

FLINGS myself across the room at you, hi — 2

[heavymetals]

[ This party is very much similar to the one they had when the first Adopted arrived, and the Fae's antics, while new, are nothing that really surprise him. It's still a guessing game, trying to figure out what might happen, and Erik's approach is largely cautious, bordering on paranoid.

That's set momentarily aside when he sees a familiar face among the new arrivals, and he heads over without a second thought. He's managed to dodge the boutonnières so far, which is perhaps a good thing, because that's not a memory he would have handled well.

He stops just behind Hank at the words, hesitation stopping him from reahing out. If Hank's that surprised about Raven's death, then that can only mean he's from a time before Erik's. Perhaps well before his own. But avoiding him isn't an option, obviously, so he speaks up calmly, tone cautious because now he realizes he can't tell how Hank will react to seeing him. ]

I'm afraid it is.

[ He presses his lips thinly, offering Hank a look of condolence and understanding both. ]

I'm sorry.

hiii! (Hank's from DOFP btw, I forgot to mention)

[bestials]

[ By the surprised look on Hank's face when he turns around and sees Erik standing there, even Hank isn't sure how to react to seeing the older mutant. He just kind of stands there, dumbfounded, still reeling from the vision he just saw, before he finally finds words again. ]

When did...? [ He is aware enough of time travel now to know that something like that is happening here. But there's a more important question on his mind. ]

How?

(oh fantastic. erik is from after dark phoenix!)

[heavymetals]

[ His genes have worked in his favour over the years, admittedly, but he still looks older than Hank would remember. More lines on his face, the hair a little longer, the shadow of a beard on his jaw. Hank looks... actually not that different. It's difficult to know precisely which point in time he comes from. ]

If you mean our presence here, I don't know. Even those of us who have arrived here before, we are yet to find out how, or why. We do know there are many people from different realities here, some parallel universes, and varying points in time.

[ But he knows that what Hank really is asking about is Raven. Something that Erik absolutely doesn't want to tell him about. ]

I didn't expect the Fae to bring even more people here.

[bestials]

No, I—!

[ Hank shuts himself up, because it's clear that Erik doesn't want to talk about Raven dying any more than Hank does, and even trying to say her name is making Hank's voice waver in a way he doesn't want Erik to see. Don't think he's forgotten the way that Raven feels about Erik. How she chose to follow him after Cuba, instead of returning to New York with Hank and Charles.

He swallows, hard, and pushes a hand under his glasses to scrub at his face so he can focus on the conversation at hand. ]

So... these "fae" people. Who are they? They can't actually be, what, real fairies?

𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑

[valle]

( She was too late to warn him, but perhaps that's alright — she would not have thought to warn this man anyway. He does not, at first, look like anything other than a normal human. But then she notices the way he swings from branches during the dancing. And she notices, later, that Erik approaches him to speak softly, as though they know each other.

And she manages to catch a scent on the air sometime in between, something unusual, something different than most humans tend to have.

All of these things combine so that toward the end of the day, at the tail end of the party, after Erik has already come and gone and his conversation has ended leaving Hank to digest it all, a girl of maybe twelve approaches. She steps softly, she moves quietly, she approaches from the side only when he's occupied by nothing else.

And she speaks to him, which he can't know is significant, but it is. Rarely does she break the silence first, except that Erik trusts him, and that she overheard parts of the conversation. )

I'm sorry you lost someone.

( She lost someone too. She knows how it feels. It hurts. She doesn't know him well enough to take his hand, but she wanted him to know this much at least. It's all she can offer by way of comfort. )

[bestials]

[ Hank definitely has the smell of something extra on him— something animalistic, kept suppressed, underneath the surface. He might also have lingering traces of another familiar scent on him. After all, he was on his way to wake up Logan when he ended up here at this party.

He looks over, frowning when it's just a kid who's approached him. He didn't get much time around younger students before they had to close down the school, but he still wouldn't want a child seeing a scene like the one he just witnessed.

Nervous fingers unpin the boutonniere from his lapel, dropping it to the grassy ground and stamping on it. ]

It's... fine. It hasn't happened to me yet, and... I'm going to try to do something to make sure it doesn't happen ever.

[valle]

( It's subtle, faint — she hadn't noticed until now, until standing this close to him. Now she picks it up, that scent of metal and leather and cigars and the impossible to describe unique brand of human skin and sweat and genetics that mingle together into its own distinct identifier.

Logan. Beyond just the feral wildness, beyond the animalistic nature of his scent, she smells her father. Something in her chest pangs roughly; she'd meant to sympathize, but she hadn't counted on sympathizing quite this much. Logan, without the sickness coating him. Logan, in a way that's alive and vibrant.

This man must be from before. He must be from Erik's time.

She watches him stomp the flower impassively; she would have done the same. There is something new she's curious about, now that he says this, now that she's smelled that scent. )

Do you think you can really stop it? If you go back home, could you truly save someone?

[bestials]

[ Hank frowns. He doesn't know this girl, but something about what he's said has clearly resonated with her. He's not sure why, but he knows better than to discount something like that offhand. ]

I'm.. not sure. But I have to try.

[ He has to believe that the future can be changed. After all, if there's no way to change the future, what was the point in the Charles and Erik of the future sending Logan back? ]

dancing

[umas_second]

[There was a lot that Harry didn't know how to do, but dancing? Dancing he could do for hours! He reached for the man with both hands, grinning.]


C'mon! Everyone can dance! I'll teach ye!

[bestials]

[ Hank looks at the hands offered to him, and shift uncomfortably on his feet. ]

I don't know... I'll probably just trample your feet.

[ With the serum in his system, Hank's feet aren't as dextrous as they normally would be. ]

[umas_second]

Handsome lad like ye stuck as a wallflower? No, we'll get ye dancin in no time! C'mon, the song's just beginnin!


[Harry reached again for the man's hands, not one to take the first no as an answer. The music was in him and he needed to move, so everyone else ought to feel the same, right? Singing and dancing just came naturally to him. He was already humming to the music even though he didn't know the words, all but dancing in place. Normally he'd just drag someone onto the floor, but some people had reacted really badly to his usual tendency to manhandle a reluctant friend.]

[bestials]

That's very flattering of you, but I'm honestly more comfortable as a wallflower, I swear.

[ And yet, he's allowing himself to be taken by the hands and led out onto the dance floor. Maybe it's the song... But how could he deny such an old, familiar friend a dance when he's been so kind as to ask twice? ]

boutonniere

[secunit]

[ Murderbot doesn't have the context to make the vision itself disturbing, not really. It could have been a clip from media; it has no stakes in any of the people present, nor in this 'Raven'.

What is disturbing is that it was summoned into its mind seemingly out of nowhere. The bot-human hybrid had been walking past, and the sudden... memory clip upload? makes it pause, mid-stride.

There's a person speaking. About the clip.

They're from the clip.

Murderbot turns on its heel, and stares directly at Potential Target #12. With its eyes, and everything. Yeah. Not top form, Murderbot. It sends a ping out, just in case, but as its finding to be usual in this place... it gets nothing back. ]

How did you do that?

[ That tone is impatient and demanding, sorry probably-traumatized maybe-human. ]

[bestials]

[ Hank's a little caught up in the emotional aftermath of what he's just witnessed, he almost doesn't notice someone staring at him. It's not until the person speaks up that Hank turns and looks at the stranger.

It hadn't even occurred to him that other people might be able to also see what he just saw. That almost feels even more upsetting than being shown the glimpse into (what he can only assume is) the future in the first place.

He stammers, pulling his glasses off his face with one hand, and scrubbing the other one over his eyes. ]

I-I-I don't know. I didn't do it— it just— it just happened.

[secunit]

[ Scratch that, a definitely-traumatized, maybe-human. Get it together, Murderbot. ]

Alright.

[ There is nothing more dangerous than a panicking human. It needs to calm this person down, quickly. Switching on its move-like-a-human code bundle, because people find other people less unsettling, Murderbot then lifts a hand, palm out. ]

Take a deep breath. Let it out. Good.

[bestials]

[ Hank knows he needs to calm down. If he lets himself get too emotional, then he's going to lose control over his mutation, and that's the last thing he wants in the middle of such a crowded party.

He squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep inhale, holding it for several seconds, then lets it out through his nose. He repeats the breath, until he's sure he's gotten a handle on his emotional reaction. His hands are still shaking a little bit when he puts his glasses back on, but he's standing straighter, more composed. ]

Thanks. Sorry about that, I was... [ He swallows, finding that words are a little hard to put together. ] ...That was more of a shock than I was expecting.