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pixieledmemes2025-03-15 08:32 am
Test Drive Meme #2
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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.
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.
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.
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.
no subject
Oh, s'alright. Not your fault. It's this place, isn't it? It's weird, it's like it's messing with our heads. ( She takes a crisp inhale, squares her shoulders, and adds: ) Besides, don't let the hair fool you. I'm made of sterner stuff than I look. I'll be fine.
( Though perhaps she undercuts the sentiment just a bit by dragging a thumb under one of her eyes, to wipe away the moisture that managed to escape, just a bit. It's fine, and she's fine, and everything's fine and brilliant and also did she mention it's fine? )
no subject
And the hair never fools me. [Natasha had been letting the bleach grow back into red. She's been damn near every color under the sun, but red always suited her best.] Don't ever listen to blonde jokes. I'm not sure they have more fun, either.
[There. Ease it all on back. Light bantering and joking. That's better. Let the thoughts go. Don't let it play on an unskippable repeat in the back of his head. Just...let it fade back. Background noise of his life.]
Usually made a little sterner myself, too, just...got caught a little off guard. You made a hell of a rescue, though.
no subject
Well...
( Like that one might debatably be true. She's kidding, of course. Her life the last couple years hasn't been particularly fun; not since Canary Wharf. Not since Bad Wolf Bay. It's been all single-minded determination, sleepless nights, ignoring Mickey and her mum's pleas to stop, to settle, to breathe, to take a day off, to do anything else aside from plow forward like a stubborn, charging bull at a project that may very well leave her inside out in a void for the rest of eternity, but-
But, there's no stopping. Even here, now, in the fae realm there'll be no stopping. The dimension cannon might not be working anymore, but she'll find a way. She will. She has to.
They're the same on another page: easing it up, keeping it light with banter. Pretend you're not drowning by making a joke about it all. )
Yeah, well. Some might call me a hero. No big deal. Just doin' my job. All part of a day's work.
( See? Jokes.
Slightly more seriously: )
I'm Rose.
no subject
He's glad for his layers at the moment, because it helps suppress a little shiver from the comedown of grief-panic, the drain of adrenaline and his heart sliding back into place in his chest. Hero, she jokes, and he has to give a more genuine if small grin at that. Yeah, he might know a thing or two about being a hero for doing his job.]
I'm Clint. And I'm real glad the world's got a few more heroes in it. [There's a little self-deprecating laugh out of him, more aimed at the ground.] Bleeding heart ever get you in trouble?
no subject
Interesting to learn this Clint Probably-Not-Eastwood is in the hero business, too. Right off she's thinking maybe fire brigade, search and rescue, something of the sort — until her mind replays the memory she saw. The suits, the intensity of it, the otherworldly nature. The fae sure have made an impressive selection of their kidnapping victims. Maybe here the odds skew in a particularly more grand direction?
His question doesn't even require a single second of thought: )
Oh, loads. Constantly. All the time, really.
( But what's life without a little trouble, yeah? Boring, is what. Boring's for people who, like, retire or something.
She skirts around him to aim for a fallen tree nearby; it makes for a decent Perching Log, and she settles in against it, absently brushing bits of moss and tree bark away to give her palms a clean(er) place to rest. )
Spend a lot of time on other planets, do you, Clint? That memory, that wasn't on Earth, was it? Didn't look like it.
no subject
He doesn't follow, exactly; lets the stranger whose name is Rose have her space without him crowding into it. Not sure if she needs it, but he knows he appreciates a little space when things get a little much. Like now-ish.
That memory makes everything freeze.
Is that...is that why she was so upset? Why she insisted it wasn't his fault, that this place messes with heads? She saw--]
You saw? That memory? [It takes effort to sound so neutral. Not casual, can't be casual about it, but the last thing he needs is to work himself back up again.] You were in my head?
no subject
Felt more like you were in my head.
( Like the memory was being pushed into her, or like it dragged her into a scene, or something. She's not a psychic, not like the Doctor is. Not like she's seen in other species on other planets. She can't do that sort of thing, she had no control over it, no way to steer it or turn it off or anything. Seems like she'd have had more control if it were her doing the invading, right?
Or maybe not, she doesn't know. )
But yeah. I saw it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just sort of... happened.
no subject
[He has to lean back against a tree, this one upright, and spend a moment hating how violating this is on both sides. And then:] That was actually the first time I'd ever been on another world.
[Tries not to sound sullen about it. But it does kind of sully the idea of going again, deliberately.]