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

[amurderofcrow]

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?

[tonchiki]

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.

cw: mention of suicide attempt

[amurderofcrow]

[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...