pixieledmemes | Test Drive Meme #2

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Test Drive Meme #2

TDM #2 - March/April 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 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

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☠️ Content Warnings

( Ryuji suffered physical abuse first from his father, then from his track coach, most notably breaking his leg. Descriptions of the latter will be the subject of the Flower Power prompt, and descriptions of the former may occur in thread. Feel free to read my Permissions before tagging in. )

☠️ The Party

[Oooookay, sooooo! This is kinda weird as hell!!! The whole garden party thing never appealed to him much to begin with, but now he's in a magical forest? And there's weird fairy people? And the party is… for him?

Well, hey. Free food is free food. Even if it looks like it's made for ants.

Ryuji is holding the tiniest, daintiest little bowl of ramen he's ever seen, barely bigger than a teacup in his hands, enough for a couple sips of soup and maybe two noodles. He squints at it, picks off the strange delicate flower placed on top for decoration, and drains the bowl in one single gulp.]

Huh… Hey, that's actually pretty good! [Don't mind him as he reaches for another one!]

☠️ Flower Power

[These fairy people are a pushy bunch. It's not like Ryuji is dressed for a fancy party or anything, still in his school uniform, but as he's continually ushered towards the display of corsages and boutonnières, he figures he might as well do what everyone else is doing and pick something to wear. This stupid blazer has a breast pocket for a reason, right?

What he doesn't expect as he picks up a rose and affixes the bouto-whatever to his chest, is a flash of–

The smell of the locker room is rank, too sour in his nose as he's shoved to the ground, the sound of Kamoshida's chastizing voice muffled through the ringing in his ears from hitting the tiled floor. The rest of his team pretends not to notice, pretends not to see as the grown man shouts at their captain, crumpled on the floor, trying to push himself up to stand his ground, to fight back, to stop this awful man from punishing his team any further. He doesn't get to. Kamoshida's leg is in the air, Kamoshida's foot slams down against the star runner's thigh with hateful force, Kamoshida's cruel laughter is drowned out by the horrific sound of something snapping under his full weight. His own screams are deafening in his ears, the pain excrutiating–]

Woah. [Ryuji flinches. There's a twinge in his bad leg.] Wh-What the hell…

[ Tony leans back and lets Ryuji reach for another... What were those? Ramen canapes? Hm. He'll grab one of those too. Why not, he was already trapped here, after all. ]

Yeah, if there's one nice thing you can say about this place? It's that we're well-fed. [ Sort of like a tiger in a Russian guy's backyard, but that's neither here nor there. ] Maybe they're fattening us all up for soup. [ Tony chuckles, like that's a funny joke and not a mildly real possibility. He raises the ramen-filled teacup. ] Kanpai.

Whaaat? [Ryuji laughs, loud and boisterous at the stranger's weird comment. What a random thing to say! Surely that's not gonna burrow into his brain and become a real problem!!] That's crazy. What kinda weirdo fairy tale logic is that?

[He kanpais the man back and drains another teacupful of soup, right down the hatch. Just soup. Normal soup. Definitely not made of people.] Only nice thing about this place, you said? What, you been here long?

[ Tony appreciates the laugh from his captive audience. Yes good, love him, adore him. He's very funny. ]

'Bout two months; ever since the last one-a these parties. [ A beat. ] Last time it was winter, I guess this month the theme's spring. [ Tony rubs an eye, like he's just waking up. He wasn't - he's been up for hours now, but it's more for effect. ] Spring and dawn, excuse me.

[There's a gloved hand clasping at Ryuji's shoulder from behind as he flinches forward, looking like he may crash forward to the floor.]

Careful, Sakamoto. Your face is busted enough as is.

[And once he's certain the other boy isn't about to tumble, the touch disappears as Akechi steps forward into Ryuji's view, an indifferent look at his face. Where the younger boy is still dressed for school, Akechi's clothing fits right in with the fae, a form-fitting blouse in a beautiful burnt orange, with a line of golden buttons that go straight up his neck and flowing, translucent sleeves of the same color. And that's tucked into a pair of equally fitted pants that have ribbons in that same orange lacing up on the side of each leg, tucked into an attractive, but sturdy pair of boots.

Just a casual little fit to come dunk on Ryuji in. Or to make out with his rival in. Either or.]

[Ryuji twitches at the unexpected touch, but doesn't jerk away as he fights to pull himself out of the memory. It's like he's still there, like the assault just happened, the pain as fresh and blinding as it had been on that day. The hand on his shoulder anchors him, brings him back to the forest, to the music, to the strange fairy people uncannily floating around.

To the insufferable dillweed calling his name.]

Oh, great. You're here. [Even though it's Akechi, Ryuji can't muster any real venom, too relieved to see a familiar face after being forced to remember the worst day of his life.] Wh-Who you callin' busted, dickhead?

[He straightens back up (that's a lie, his posture is as atrocious as ever, but he straightens as much as he cares to) and rubs a trembling hand hard over his face. It had felt so real…]

What the hell was that?

There, I'd say you're back to normal. Good.

[But then comes the question of just what it was that Ryuji saw and Akechi can't quite help the downward twitch at the corner of his mouth. Even without an extensive knowledge on Ryuji Sakamoto's sordid history, it doesn't take a genius to put the pieces together and see more clearly through some of his behaviors to who this boy really was.]

You're the only one who can say for certain. But to me, it appeared to be a memory of yours from your time at Shujin. That was Suguru Kamoshida, was it not? I remember reading through his confession after the whole ordeal was over. I recall him implying his abuse was never solely confined to Shujin's volleyball team, but nothing else ever came of it. Why didn't your family press charges?

What? You–

[He'd seen it. Every miserable second. This is officially the worst party ever.

Ryuji frowns as Akechi recounts the details of Kamoshida's confession, how he'd freely admitted to the abuse of the volleyball team, apparently only implying that his reign of terror had started elsewhere. Well, Akechi just got a front row seat to the sordid truth. The track team that was doomed from the very moment the Shujin alumnus step foot back on campus, wealthy with prestige and gold medals and seething jealousy of young talent. If the volleyball team were to shine, the track team and its star runner had to go.]

… It wasn't that simple. [Like they could even afford to press charges. Like his mom would have been able to shoulder that kind of shame. Like he could stomach being even more of a burden to her.] Nobody believed me when I tried tellin'em. What's the word of a violent punk against an Olympic medalist? [Ryuji scuffs his shoe against the ground.]

Cops never do shit.

[Don't worry, Ryuji. It can still get worse. :)]

No, I imagine it wasn't. [For as bluntly as Akechi may speak, he doesn't need to dig very far to understand the power dynamics and discrimination at play, as well as a healthy natural distrust of the police. It isn't as if they would have made a move even after that girl went and threw herself off of the roof. The burden of her attempt would have simply been her own alone and that man would have gotten away with it.]

It's unfortunate. If they had listened to you and stepped in after you own incident, then Suzui might have never done what she felt necessary.

[It still doesn't feel right, Kamoshida should be dead instead of sobbing over his own transgression behind bars.]

This is the great justice we grew up being told would keep us safe. Everything we were taught - to put our heads down, to stay in line, to be silent - all of it was preparing us to be nothing more but aimless bodies in the system holding the wealthy up over us. My contempt for these disgusting, so-called elites of society...

[Yusuke knows the drill. Everything here is trapped in some way, some mild and some much worse. He remembers the first party he attended, the way he forgot his true reality for a false world where he had always lived among the fae. But that had been around food. The flowers, despite his past experience with Narciso at a party, seem relatively safe.

So he had taken a boutonnières shoved into his hand, an orchid predominately on display, and then turned to see-]

Ryuji!?

[Pure shock in his voice as Yusuke fully faces his friend and he goes to ask something else, probably a question about when he got here... and that's when those little tricks he suspected could happen kick in.

It's a memory, that's for sure, but not one of his own. A strong body odor that has Yusuke wrinkling his nose in disgust as he suddenly sees multiple teen boys in a locker room. When not a moment ago Ryuji had been standing in front of him, now he is crumpled on the ground crying out in pain as a man that Yusuke has only seen once or twice stomps his thigh. The sound of cracking bone makes Yusuke almost nauseous but that is nothing compared to hearing his friend scream. He's never heard Ryuji like this. He's never wanted to.

There's barely any room for thought as Yusuke lunges towards Kamoshida, rage bubbling in his chest at the cruelty so blatantly on display and rage at those who would stand idly by as Ryuji is injured. He doesn't know what he will do once he grabs him, but perhaps a taste of the same pain Kamoshida has inflicted would be a great start.

But it is a memory. Yusuke cannot change the past. And so the lunge ends in Yusuke almost falling to the floor, with the vision gone in a flash. He's at the party again. Or maybe he never left? Quickly he catches himself and whips back around to Ryuji.]

Ryuji. You- you're all right?

Wha–?! Yusuke?

[It's beyond jarring, the memory of the worst day of his life suddenly interrupted by the flash of his friend barreling straight past him, a look of murderous rage on his face as he almost eats shit on the forest floor. Ryuji can't remember many times he's seen Yusuke look like that, but it's enough to rattle him as they whip around to face each other. What's gotten into him all of a sudden?

It's almost as if… But there's no way, that's stupid…

His hands shoot out to keep Yusuke steady, even as his own legs feel wobbly. The memory of the pain still feels so real.]

Yeah, man, I'm– [fine, all right, not totally the truth, but] I'm fine. What're you doin' here? What's the matter?

[Ryuji wobbles and Yusuke is now grabbing his shoulders to keep him steady. Two boys, holding each other in the middle of a party. Not 5 feet apart because they are bisexual.]

You're fine.

[Yusuke looks him over, sees that he doesn't look like he was rolling on the floor recently and lets out a sigh of relief.]

Good.

[Right, there's more questions to answer.]

I apologize. I thought I saw something terrible happening to you. I suppose I acted without much thought.

[Ren has already been around the party for at least one sweep, trying to find if there's anyone else he recognizes, someone else he needs to see. He did pick up one of those flowers-- a mum, he thinks?-- and it is making him feel a bit restless, but he hasn't linked that as a cause and effect yet. Mostly, he's just trying to make sure he doesn't miss anyone.

Which means he wanders into Ryuji's proximity before he even knows he's there, and instead it's-- Shujin, and Kamoshida, and Ryuji on the floor, and he needs to do something and needs to get to him and--

So the Ryuji who is physical and here goes from 'chillin' to 'Ren Amamiya bodying him to the fucking floor' as he tries to change the memory and take the hit for him. Ren has no idea this is not how it works- he just sees Ryuji in trouble, any version of him, and he acts. It's only the right thing to do.]

[He's too caught up in the memory, too distracted by the pain and the fear and the sound of his own throaty scream, to notice his best friend barreling towards him and, without warning, knocking him to the fucking ground. Ryuji squawks loudly as he's taken down, assassinated by one Ren Amamiya who bravely lands on top of him, shielding him from a hit he took almost two years ago like the amazing friend he is.]

H-Hey! What the hell, man?!

[That's one way to knock him back to his senses. Ryuji squirms underneath Ren, trying to shove the boy off of him, momentarily too indignant to notice he's not at Shujin anymore. He's in a forest, he's at a party, he's not actually back there taking the worst beating of his life. Ren did intend to save him, after all.]

Why'd you do that?!

[Hey, he's doing a great job, thanks. He's just kind of late to... everything that this is, because it's a memory and therefore has already happened. But he actually isn't expecting to for real land on Ryuji, so it also takes him a second to pull himself up and blink at him before his brain catches up.]

Oh. You're-- really here.

[He knew they weren't really back there. Maybe. Probably. Don't ask just jump Ryuji should get it.]

I, uh... thought I could get you out of the way.

[Excuse him as Tsukasa leans over into Ryuji's personal space a little too eagerly, peering at what he's just grabbed.

!!]

Is that ramen?

[Ow! Yikes! Right in his ear! Ryuji jumps at the realization that a strange boy is all the way up in his business, making warm noodle soup splash all over his hands. That's. That's like half the bowl gone.]

I dunno, I mean– Ramen for babies, maybe. Look how friggin' small this thing is!

[He shoves what's practically a thimble of broth in Tsukasa's, insisting he commiserate.] I've never seen ramen this tiny.

[Yeah, sorry about that, Ryuji. He does at least jump, startled, when that tiny bowl of ramen splashes all over Ryuji's hands. Whoops!

He fumbles for a napkin, offering it quickly--and then that ramen is right in his face, and he leans back a little despite himself.

They probably both look so goofy doing this back and forth.]

True, it's small, but! I haven't seen any food even remotely Japanese the whole time I've been here!

[AND NOW. RAMEN FOR BABIES.]

[Admittedly, Horse ate some of the flowers (they just looked tempting ok!!) so she doesn't see what Ryuji is seeing, but she knows a person in distress when she sees one. So there will be a full-sized horse glancing down at Ryuji.]

Uhhh... you... ok there?

[... Look she's not exactly good at this kinda thing.]

[ Ryuji's almost at the bowl of ramen when a gloved hand bumps into his as he is going for the same tiny bowl. Does he know what ramen noodles are? Probably not, they look like a fancy bowl of spaghetti drenched in broth. The better question is how does he intend to eat them when he's currently morphed? Easy, he plans to load up some plates and sneak away to demorph elsewhere.

The Silver Ranger looks over at him, laughs, and draws his hand back before gesturing to the table. ]

After you, I'll get the next one. I've gotta say even though the food is bitesized, I'd like to give my compliments to the chef. He - or she - sure knows what they're doing, huh?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme #2

Ryuji Sakamoto | Persona 5: Royal

☠️ The Party

☠️ Flower Power

The Party

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flower power

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cw: mention of suicide attempt

Flower Power!

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flower power bc i gotta

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party

TSUKASA TENMA MY BELOVED

🥺 RYUJI SAKAMOTO MY BELOVED

flowers

The Party.