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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Once again, it's Steve's skill as an artist that clues him in rather quickly that this is not the Tony Stark he knows. Also the attitude. Tony doesn't hate him anymore. This guy who looks remarkably like Tony definitely does.

He raises an eyebrow. "My mistake." He takes a bigger step back, plenty of room for this guy to get past him.

"Enjoy the rest of your evening." Steve smiles politely.

By some great feat of self-restraint, Tony manages not to roll his eyes at the amazingly typical and expected reaction from Rogers. It definitely doesn't cure his urge to punch the man.

"Unfortunately, that's not possible here." He sips his drink. "No matter how drunk you get." Steve is more than welcome to try to either change his mind or convince him that not all Steve Rogers are self-righteous jerks. (That latter might be tough, but he can try.)

"Well, I haven't been able to get drunk since the 40's so, I can't make any recommendations for what to drink to improve things," he says dryly.

A drunken night of revelry doesn't sound like a good time to Steve. Not with this crowd who seem set on taking advantage of them. Using them for something though no one's been able to tell Steve what that is.

"Could start a food fight?" he suggests dryly.

"Truth be told, it takes about three standard bottles of whiskey for me to get there." And not because he's a life-long alcoholic either. He's got this cool new version of his extremis virus keeping his metabolism trucking along at higher than normal rates. "It just looks tacky to walk around carrying the whole bottle."

"Food fight, huh?" He shakes his head a bit. "The guy who lived through the Great Depression is on board with food waste? Interesting take, but, give it a shot, see what happens."

"I think we can waste the food that trapped us here," Steve says with a shrug. He wouldn't suggest it if it was normal food. That would be wasteful. This stuff is a trap.

"I'm also curious to see how this Lawspeaker reacts if we make trouble." He gives him a once over. "You wouldn't happen to have an answer to that, would you?"

Because he looks like the kind of guy who would make trouble.

"That food trick is pretty shitty, huh?" He didn't remember having actually eaten any, though he's relatively certain someone handed him a drink at the time and he may have eaten food after that. This time, it doesn't matter, he's eaten a bit. He's already stuck here.

"Wouldn't know on that one. So far the only thing I've done is fight a dragon." More or less. There may be the beginnings of a slight attempted corruption of a certain wall-crawling hero, but that's just for fun. "However, I'm not sure they'll respond kindly. But, knock yourself out, Cap. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Truthfully, Tony's been sitting back watching things play out over getting into trouble. Biding his time, so to speak.

"Hell of a trick to play on people." Steve's still mad about it. A nice spread of food and drink to entice people into eating. Instead of just asking people if they would stay to help. Not everyone would but enough would say yes. They didn't have to do this.

He shrugs. "You know, the last time I tried to just talk to one of them Loki stopped me. We haven't seen how they'd respond and people are afraid of them."

Afraid of starting trouble. Maybe it's just because taking on all of Thanos' army alone was still in his mind but Steve was ready for a fight.

From his understanding of things: "That's faeries for you." It's magic. He hates magic. But he's stuck here, surrounded by the shit. And he's figured out, as well as being told, that the fae like to fuck with people. A lot.

"Were you going to talk to them or to talk to them?" he asks, inflecting the second 'talk' to indicate a more physical approach to conversation.

Tony shakes his head though. "I'm not afraid of them, why should I be?" He also doesn't currently have any interest in stirring up the pot. That will come later.

Steve huffs. "I can talk to people without throwing a punch."

Look, he knows he's got a reputation for fighting everything but he can resist the urge and use his words. He'd appreciate a little trust but then again this guy is a stranger. He hasn't earned that.

"So you're not talking to them to find a way out because?" he asks, a little curious.

"Can you?" he asks, having his own Steve Rogers as evidence that may not be the case (even if his current view of the man may be a little skewed).

"Because I expect them to either tell me nothing or to lie. I'll almost certainly have more success figuring it out on my own. Maybe with a little help from other me." That won't be confusing at all.

"Seem to be doing it right now," he says with a slight smirk. He doesn't know why this Tony is so annoyed with him but he's not going to ask questions. It might actually lead to someone getting punched.

"The lie can tell you almost as much as the truth if you pay attention. But sure, try it your way." He shrugs. Telling Tony what to do has rarely worked out in his favor.

He's learned that lesson.

"Sure," no sense arguing just for the sake of arguing. It is an absolute chore not to be the biggest asshole to Steve right now. Back in his world they aren't on the best of terms - though, they used to be. (Some of that now probably has more to do with Tony giving the proverbial finger to the reversal spell, but still.)

"Thank you. It's like I've never faced an evil asshole before. I'm so glad you were here to fill me in." He tried, okay. Just, not as hard as he probably could have. Sarcasm is the best he can manage.

Could Steve teach a few more people that lesson? It would save Tony several headaches.

Ah, there it is. There's Tony being a sarcastic bastard. He's used to that. It makes him frown but Steve doesn't react any other way.

"You know, you could weaponize that clever wit and get us out of here," he suggests because if he's going to annoy this Tony he might as well just keep going. "Since you're so aware of their lying and ego tripping. Should be familiar to you."

Because boy Tony Stark always has an ego.

Well, when you're this intelligent and handsome, ego comes with the territory.

"What makes you think I haven't already started doing exactly that? Do you think escaping a magic faerie land is easy? And I cannot believe I just fucking said that." Magic Faerie Land - dear lord what is even happening.

Steve can't help but smile a little. It is funny to hear Tony Stark, tech genius, talk about escaping a magical fairy land. And be so annoyed he had to say it.

"Come on, isn't this just the kind of challenge you love?" he wheedles just a little. "Proving technology is better than magic?"

This Tony's a dick but Steve's never been one to back down from baiting the bull. It's one of his more troublesome traits. "I've mostly heard you dismiss every idea I've brought up and not mention what you're actually doing. Don't want to talk about it here?"

"Are you goading me right now? That's low, man. I thought you were better than that, Cap." He shakes his head. Needling him? Really?

"Technology is better than magic." And most magic is, in his mind, unexplained technology.

All Tony Starks are dicks, it's genetic even when they're adopted. "I don't share my ideas period. That's how you get people taking over your shit." Granted, he'll share with his alterna-universe counterpart, but that's different.

Technology serves a purpose just like magic. That's how Steve sees it. And he's not denying the goading. He only shrugs. Sometimes the best way to get Tony to talk about what he's working on is to tell him he can't pull it off.

It was worth a shot.

"I appreciate that you assume I could take over anything you are working on. That's very flattering." Steve's good with technology but he's not Tony Stark good.

Dammit, Rogers, that is exactly the way to get Tony to do things - tell him he can't. Fuck you, Rogers.

"Oh there's no way you'd be able to take it over. But you wouldn't have to just to pilfer the idea." Even if unintentionally. "But, the first step of any good idea is doing the due diligence." That's as much as he's willing to share.

Steve Rogers is a tactical genius.

"You could also bring in more help," he suggests. "So it's not all on your shoulders. That's the point of a team. Not to steal your ideas but to help you work through them."

Does he think this tactic will work? No, not really. Tony's being stubborn and secretive which rarely works out well. Unstoppable force and immovable object. That's what they are sometimes.

A shame because when they work well together, they work very well.

He grunts. "If I get to a point where a team is needed, I'll consider it."

Though, probably not. Unless there's some benefit in it for him.

"Until then, guess you'll have to be held in suspense."

"You're already in one."

He's working with Steve's Tony.

Not Steve's Tony.

The Tony from the same universe as Steve. This multiverse business is frustrating to talk about sometimes.

"But sure, I can wait. If you need anything, let me know." Because Steve will generally always be helpful if he can.

That 'working with the other Tony' is a bit of a stretch. They've chatted and shared ideas a bit and tinkered with things, but no formulated plans on overthrowing the faerie regime. Yet.

"Yeah, you're definitely from an alternate reality. The you in mine is an asshole." They did used to be friends, but things change.

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Test Drive Meme #2

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