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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.
ππππ€ππ πππ€ππ
She's curious β and unobtrusive in her watching, staying on the outskirts, at the peripherals of Natasha's vision, though evidently not quite unobtrusive enough. The question comes drifting her way, and Laura's nearly startled to be addressed.
Some internal debate happens. She considers whether or not to speak, to leave, to answer at all β but she talks to strangers now. Sometimes it takes a little while, but she does talk. Mostly in English, too, if she's feeling comfortable enough.
Maybe she's not quite on that level yet, but she at least has enough surety in her to quietly step forward, to stare down at the selection, and to consider β before finally pointing a finger at an Orchid corsage. The pink, she thinks, is very pretty, and it will look very pretty alongside her red hair and pale skin. Like it's in the middle of the two. )
cw: gun violence
The other girl seems to be checking her out which is why she offers the question, wanting to know a little more as she finally turns to look at her, a softer smile, but keeping to the options of the corsages in front of them. The fact the girl doesn't directly answer her verbally is a choice-- some kids are naturally chatty, but this one keeps to her own boundaries, and Nat can respect that more than most.
But she does pick for her, her smaller hand picking the pretty, pink orchid, and Nat hums approvingly. She reaches for it and places it against herself first.]
That's a good choice. You like the color pink?
[She's about to ask more, but she just slipped the flower on, and the overwhelming sensation of loss hits her. It's something she's carried for as long as she can remember. Bits of memory of the Red Room filter to the surface first. Being a Widow should be an honor, but it means she's an orphan.
Nat tries to push it back, not wanting to go into the thoughts and memories of the Red Room. Instead the memory of her and Yelena being brought back after their time in America. There is a woman shot, bleeding out and unconscious as two girls look on. One girl with blue hair tries to calm the other down. But she starts shouting for her daddy, running across army men as the blue haired girl runs after her. As the soldiers start to go for the smaller girl, the other one is able to get the gun off one. She screams in Russian and in English, threatening them if they hurt the little girl. The man the little girl called Daddy steps forward and talks the blue haired girl down, takes the gun away and tells them everything is going to be fun as the two girls hold each other until two soldiers come up and inject them with something, carrying them off after.]
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But she isn't.
It's a girl with blue hair, and her younger sister. It's a man who is and isn't a father. It's soldiers, and it's an injection to the neck β she's had those before, too. The way they make the world go black, the way she would wake up in a new place with new things in her body. Metal where bone was.
When the memory ends, there's an uncommon wetness in her eyes as she stares at Natasha, looking for the blue-haired girl behind the red-haired woman. The flowers are forgotten. The color pink is forgotten. Instead, what she wants to know is: )
Did you get to keep her?
( The other girl. The sister, the friend? )
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When reality sets in, the black clears to the colors of the fae party around them, it seems too bright, and she has to blink herself before she hears the other little girl's question, the girl that is still here. Nat clears her throat.]
No. [She can hear Yelena's contempt in her ears. That she escaped. She swallows before bending down to look at the younger girl.]
But we did find each other again. [Before it was too late.]
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At length, she nods.
She told Erik recently that she doesn't believe any true stories are happy. This woman's story is not happy, but it would be unhappier to know that things ended there, the way they had in the vision she just saw. Less bad can be good enough. )
Esto estΓ‘ bien. ( A beat, and then slightly quieter: ) I think probably you should not wear those flowers.
( If they make people see memories. She wouldn't want to share her own, and as curious as she might be, she now has the lived experience to know she doesn't necessarily want to see the visions that belong to others, either. Not if they are sad. She has enough sad ones by herself. )
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Her attention gets addressed to the fragrant orchid, and she looks down at the likely culprit. Suffice it to say strange visions may not be the first time for her, but then it certainly doesn't seem that another redheaded girl is at the forefront, using her chaos magic.]
That common around here? [Enough to not trust anything they offer if that is the case? She unpins the flower and tosses it back on the floor.]
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She nods. )
Si. The first parties had candy that made you tell the truth. Even if you didn't want to talk.
( Ask her how she knows. It wound up working out alright for her in the end; she met John, and now John is her friend. But she'd been angry at the time, forced to speak when she hadn't been ready yet. She is supposed to be able to decide when she talks and what she says. Words have been the only thing she's gotten to control from herself since the beginning, and the only thing she had to give away or keep.
Yes. Tricks are common here. In the food, in the flowers. )
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They want us vulnerable, [She switches to Spanish for the ease of the girl. Natasha isn't sure what to do with that information, but she's aware of it. Her finger slips over one of the other petals though not picking it up. She's risked too much already, still feeling those raw emotions that the Red Room brought forth.]
I'm sorry you saw that. And I'm sorry you're here.
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It's okay. I saw worse memories than yours. At least yours ends up not so sad later. I'm glad.
( The other girl was still alive at the end of it, and there was a reunion. She has seen two memories of death today, a father and a daughter. Comparatively, this is something she can handle. )
My name is Laura. I go to Dawn court. If the other girl comes there, I will tell her to find you.
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Natasha, and I don't know if you'll see her, but her name is Yelena. My sister.
[She's only barely starting to understand about the courts, what she's meant to do and why they're even sorted, but she will remember this, and the girl she's met. Nat's already curious about her, but not willing to push for more in the midst of traumas that have been dug up.]