Test Drive Meme #2

[changelinged]

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



ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

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Comments

[victus]

[ Ah. So that was how this would go. Viktor would be lying if he claimed he wasn't a little disappointed, but truthfully, he couldn't fault her for the reaction. It had been an entire year since they last crossed paths, and he looked radically different — even horrifying, perhaps. Sometimes, even now, Viktor hesitated when he passed in front of mirrors and caught his own reflection.

It's with a little flick of his hand that he made the napkin disappear somewhere. Leaning a bit harder on his staff, he inclined his head. ] It's been some time. [ A small understatement. ] I regret that I couldn't visit again since I left. I'm glad to see you.

[ Viktor tilted his head a little, peering at her with a soft look. ] How are you?

[kirammans]

[She stares at him. No longer is he Jayce's lab partner. The friend he spoke so highly of, who seemed so wise, yet so frail. Cait's had a hard time reconciling that this is their enemy. Their threat. Viktor had always been so... unassuming.]

I'm... very confused.

[He'd nearly died, and then... then, he was something else.]

[victus]

[ Finally, the realization clicked into place. She wasn't from his time. She must be from the one Jayce had been pulled from. That ... complicated some things, but surely not everything? Viktor was just as confused, but he wouldn't let that stop him.

Still, he frowned a little, never quite able to mask his emotions. They were always written so clearly on his face. ]

You must be from my future. [ Viktor made a little noise, a shade frustrated by his lack of information. ] Jayce told me what happened. What I ... asked him to do. [ That was all they'd spoken about, however. ] I cannot explain how I am here, only that you know more than I.

[kirammans]

[The least she can do is listen. She'd never known him to lie, and she wants to believe that this being before is still Viktor in some way. She wants to operate as if he's being honest.]

Jayce... [He hadn't gone into great detail about what happened when he was--gone, but mention of him now makes her stomach flip with nerves.] Do you mean he's here?

[She doesn't think being from his future gives her much more knowledge. She had acted on faith in Jayce, in what he'd said needed to be done. If he's here, and Viktor is still standing...

Cait rubs her temple.]

Not quite helping with the confusion.

[victus]

He is. [ For a moment, Viktor studies her expression, growing increasingly unnerved by what he sees there. This isn't just be about his appearance. There was more. ]

What confuses you? [ It's a carefully worded question, not quite assuming anything, but Viktor is attempting to make connections here. ]

[kirammans]

[Strange, to meet his gaze and see so much different there, and yet all the same. That unnerves her, but stubbornness makes her refuse to look away.]

I'd just seen him. I don't understand how time is so... misaligned. I don't even understand what happened to you, after the explosion. I don't know if you're a danger or a threat as you are now. Here.

[Not that she's looking to have a throwdown in the middle of a party.]

[victus]

[ Viktor appreciates how straightforward Caitlyn is. It helps to know that when he asks for her thoughts, she gives them. And while they were never quite friendly like she and Jayce were, Viktor wants to believe they could find their way back to trusting each other again. ]

I asked myself what happened too. What I'd become. [ Finally, he looks away — down, at his hand — as though the answers were hidden there. They never were, no matter how often he looked. ]

What can I do to help? [ When Viktor looks up again, there's nothing but an open expression on his face. ]

[kirammans]

[Her eyes track every movement he makes, lingering on his hand. She wonders if he's cold to the touch, like metal, like a corpse, but keeps her own hands at her sides.]

Answer my question: are you a threat? To us, to the people here?

[Adopted, Fae, whatever. She's not particularly interested in experiencing any horrors. If Viktor is still standing to talk to her, that means Jayce has come to some sort of decision, too.]

[victus]

[ Was he? Viktor didn't know that he could guarantee that. The Hexcore was part of him in ways he didn't understand, and the Arcane surged through his body, a power he was still learning to control.

But he could at least promise one thing. ]

I have no intention of harming anyone. If I am ... taken over, or changed in some way, I trust you and Jayce will do what you must. [ It wasn't an easy thing to ask of either of them. But if he'd been so twisted — Viktor would rather be dead than destructive. ]

[kirammans]

[Her and Jayce? She knows Jayce is changed, now, but if it came down to it she suspects she would be the one to do it. A kindness to Jayce after whatever happened between the two of them, and whatever has happened since. Her lips press into a thin line as she debates what to say.

It's cruel.

At least none of them are a stranger to cruelty.]

Very well. Though I hope it never comes to that, Viktor.

[Not... again?]