![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelinged) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pixieledmemes2025-03-15 08:32 am
Test Drive Meme #2
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!
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.
( flower power )
She's been staring at Natasha for a while, with large brown eyes and without approaching. Not until Natasha adresses her does Eleven step closer. Hesitant.
She glances over the options. After a moment, she indicates the pink orchid. It's soft and delicate, like a dress Eleven once wore when she thought she might be... ]
Pretty.
[ Her nose wrinkles a bit, and then she points at a deep red rose corsage instead. ]
Bitchin'.
[ Finally, she looks up at Natasha with a shrug. There's something strange to the cadence of her speech. Just a little too stilted, too slow for her age. ]
no subject
Her phrasing gives a low, half chuckle before Nat's nodding and picking up the red rose corsage instead.]
Matches the hair a little better?
[It gives her a reason to look over at Eleven a little better. She wouldn't have minded the pretty pink orchid either, but the rose certainly does stand out. But it doesn't take a few more moments from her slipping the corsage on that the garden party they're at gives way to old architecture instead, wooden walls, beautiful craftmanship. There is a younger version of Natasha standing there, too, with a woman that has failure hair, pulled into a bun.
Sloppy, she tells Natasha. Nat has relived this before. The ceremony is necessary for you to join your place in the world.
I have no place in the world. The younger Natasha, only a few more years older than Eleven herself says.
There's a man bagged and on his knees there. There's a gun. Nat's breathing heavily. She's relived this before, knowing the signs. It's not real. It's not real. The gunshot goes off, and Natasha knows what it means, but she turns to try and block the view from the other girl. She doesn't know her history obviously, but no little girl should be subjected to the horrors of this place.]
I'm sorry-- [She shouldn't have scene this.]
no subject
Either way, she's about to say something when...
Eleven flinches at the gunshot wound, because loud noises still startle her. Beyond that, however, a strange absence of... shock, or trouble, as the vision fades. Eleven looks up at the red haired woman, eyes wide. Assessing. ]
You... killed the man.
no subject
I didn’t want to. I was trained to listen to that woman, but she wasn’t a good person. They take little girls, even younger than you to train them for that. [Maybe not exactly having preteens assassinating people in cold blood, but it was what she had to do to complete her training. One of the things, but she’s trying to spare the gritty details to a young girl.]
no subject
Eleven, are you listening?
She scrunches up her nose. The comparison comes easily. Papa guiding her, instructing her.
Her small hands wrap around Natasha's wrists - if Natasha doesn't resist, Eleven will turn her arms a bit, trying to look at the insides of her wrists, expecting to see a number tattoo'd there. ]
You were. Stolen.
[ It sounds unsure, but it's not a question. Eleven is trying to make sense of the explanations in her own way. ]
Me too.
no subject
Do-- did that place look familiar to you? [Was she a widow? Nat knows that she went to destroy the Red Room and Dreykov, but this place messes with time and people. It doesn't necessarily mean that the girl is in training, but it still makes her chest ache. There are enough similarities, enough other places and other governments hurting little girls.]