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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A voice. One that, for half a moment, rings in him like that of the Goddess had. A warm voice, welcoming and purifying all in one. For a moment he thought he might turn and see her again, her brilliant white majesty, and the look of sorrow upon her face as she explained what the price of his health would be.

A price he had gladly taken, for all that he had been aggrieved over what had led to it.

But no, it was a young woman, with soft brown hair and eyes of a shade that made his heart skip a beat. Was she familiar? No. She could not be. But she was clearly curious. His heart stuttered another beat as he considered how to answer.

"They were... They were my most precious friends. And in my fear and pain, I betrayed them both. Drove both to their bitter ends, in differing forms of madness. Such suffering I caused..."

Who is this Goddess? Aerith has never met her, but that doesn't mean anything. The Goddess could be Gaia, right? She is just one part, a guardian, of a greater whole. A guardian who has abandoned her post - but not on purpose.

As for familiarity... They are all connected. Shinra has ensured that. Genesis should trust his instincts, though Aerith would prefer - above all else - to not talk about those memories.

"You're Genesis." she nods, thinking over what she wants to say - versus what she should say, "We can only do our best and...apologize...for our mistakes. If you get the chance to meet them again, that's what you should do. But they understand...your anguish. They shared it with you and not always because you pushed them. They did it because they are your friends."

Familiarity. He is glad to find it, even if he was not expecting it. But given her statement, they have never met. How intriguing. She is... captivating.But he knows not how to address her and her words.

"It is not possible to apologize to those who are dead," he points out rather calmly. There is no way they will hear his words, not while he yet lives. But he is certain they cannot understand his anguish and his regret. "You assume much of men you would not have known."

"Are you sure about that?" Aerith gives him a small, sad smile, "I can hear those voices and see their memories. Those that have passed." or, rather, she could.

"Since we are far from the Lifestream, they are too faint for me to make contact." she blinks slowly and lowers her gaze, "You're right. I never knew Sephiroth when he was a hero and I never met Angeal" properly anyway, "either. I guess I know the most about Sephiroth after his mind and heart were broken."

Edited 2025-03-17 01:06 (UTC)

As the woman speaks Genesis's eyes go wider and wider. To the point where the ring of mako light in them is quite obvious. Because he's realizing just who she is. Or, better said, what she is.

"You're one of the Cetra then. Truly an Ancient, beloved by the Goddess."

He doesn't ask 'where were you when I needed her to hear me'. It would be unseemly.

"I cannot speak fully to his mind, but my hand dealt wounds to Sephiroth's heart. I made my friend a monster in his own eyes when he most needed compassion. But I was broken, tainted by the degradation. By the outsider that flowed in my blood."

"...the last." she murmurs, crossing her arms behind her back, "Through my mother."

Remembering Ifalna is something she does in private, away from prying eyes and certainly beyond the touch of Hojo. He is the reason she was made an orphan; where Aerith can forgive Genesis and Angeal, she cannot forgive Hojo or Jenova.

"You were broken too." so mighty and yet cracks surely spread from his heart outward underneath his armor, "You hold yourself to a high standard, but Jenova wanted him to break. She wanted him to feel alone and isolated. That was the only reason he would come to depend on her."

Her mother? Oh. That's why she looks the littlest bit familiar. When he was going through files Hollander had one of the G-Clones bring back. There had been a picture of Gast and a beautiful woman. One who looked so much like this young woman. Alas, he did not know the name. And at the time he had not cared.

"Your mother became unwillingly wrapped up in the business of very human monsters," he noted. "Their machinations doomed us all. For that I am sorry."

He has no clue who her father is, what connection she had to Shinra, or anything else. Just that if her mother was close to Gast then she had some distant connection to the pains of the company.

When she speaks of his breaking his had goes unwittingly to his shoulder. The original scar remained, but the taint that spread from it was gone.

"I earned the standard, but perhaps only through the taint of that creature in my blood. I wonder if perhaps she propelled the three of us together."

To make Sephiroth stronger. To shatter him.

"I may have been mad in my illness, but my choices were still my own. Another may have cast me, young Cetra, but I still played the part with a will. I cannot be absolved of my role. If it could easily be done then I would not bear the weight of Her choice upon me. The burden of her will and proofing against the future."

So he had seen her parents. Aerith has precious few memories of her mother and none of her father, which she sees as a blessing. She had been a newborn when Gast was killed for betraying Hojo (and thus Shinra).

"The worst monster of them all experimented on you, too." yes, she makes a distinction there by adding 'too'. Hojo had experimented on her and her mother - until the latter was too sick to keep living.

"Don't give her too much credit." she cautions, "You would be strong and a leader without her in your blood."

As for absolution... No. That doesn't belong to any of them.

"You contradict yourself." her green eyes seek his gaze, "The weight of her will - the burden of it - would have just been the beginning. If you stood against her, she could have driven you completely insane and turned you into nothing more than a mindless puppet. You chose to retain what sanity you could and that's why you feel guilty."

Talk about a statement that truly brought laughter to Genesis's lips. The man waved her point off entirely. For she did not know something he did.

"I know enough to know Hollander was not as bad as Hojo. So no. We did not bear exactly the same curse. Mine was far more inept, and quite gross on his own merits."

Frankly, Genesis was happy the man was dead, and sorry he outlived Angeal.

Perhaps she was correct about some of his strength of course. It made him feel better to hear that. Might even have made him preen were it not for one thing. His magical aptitude. Everyone said it was shockingly high, even for a soldier of his rank. He could do things with spells even Sephiroth could not dream of. Surely that spoke to some of his power not being his own.

"If you had known me in those days, you would not accuse me of sanity, dear lady. Not for one moment."

...Hollander. Right. She had almost forgotten about that monster. Aerith picks up her basket and seeks out a beautiful bloom, a reunion lily, bright as a sunrise.

"Those memories can never be forgotten, but I hope this reminds you of the good in our world." she extends the flower, delicately holding onto the stem.

She will need to grow her lilies in this world too. Somehow. Maybe they have flowers that are familiar too? She hasn't had a chance to look.

"All the more reason I don't feel any hatred for you." she looks up at him, "You're yourself again, aren't you? Your best self? If your friends arrive, you have another chance to do what you didn't - or couldn't - before."

The lily is beautiful, and he does reach out to take it. It looks... familiar. Feels familiar. Where has he seen this before? Has he seen this before? He does hold onto it with delicate care though.

"I do not believe I have ever been what others might consider my best self. And you hold more hope than one perhaps should. My lady, you are not what I would have imagined of one of your folk. Gentler, perhaps. Though more aspirant to the good of man than we deserve."

Like their protector, the lily is sturdier than it looks. He doesn't have to worry about it falling to pieces unless he is rough with it.

"There's time." to fulfill dreams and goals, "I'm Aerith. My mother was a full Cetra. I'm only half of one." and that leads her to the uncomfortable truth about her father.

"Professor... Professor Gast was my father, but I never knew him."

But things were often rough around him, and things often fell to pieces. Maybe he did, in fact, need to worry.

"I fear time is something I have more than I bargained for of," he admits. Though then he's silent as he takes in the information she shares.

That... explains the picture.

"You look like her. The beautiful woman in the picture with him that I found."

"I'm the same." Aerith had understood that her fate was connected with Gaia's. She hadn't expected to live to see old age or even all of the years that lead up to it.

"She was beautiful." she looks shy, and a little pleased, by the compliment, "They experimented on her...too much. When we were free, she couldn't..." her throat tightens, "Anyway, she chose my adoptive mother. We never really got away. Shinra knew where we were. Where I was."

Of course they experimented on her. At least he looks disgusted over that fact. But it does put some math together in his head.

"You're where the Turks regularly disappeared to."

Because Genesis hadn't liked their sort. So he tried to be aware when they were out in the world.

"Mostly." Aerith lifts a shoulder in a shrug, "I know a lot of them by name now." she isn't fond of them either, but she doesn't hate them.

Not like she hates Hojo.

"As long as they don't try to take me back, I don't care what they do or see."

Well, that was one mystery he didn't need solved that was answered now.

"I find that they might be hard pressed to do that here," he notes, gesturing to where they have come to be. It was more likely she was out of their touch for a good long time.

Then he giggles behind his hand.

"I just imagined Tseng having to unclench long enough to dance."

"Good point." Aerith smiles, the light returning to her bright green eyes, "I know how to put up a fight now anyway. I should trust myself."

His laughter draws her in and she peers into his face, finding...

A decent man. Mischievous, yes, but what's wrong with that?

"I've been his headache since I was eight. He's not all bad."

Once, perhaps, he was a decent man. And maybe in the future he'd get a chance at it again. Now, though, he's still snickering.

"Oh, he can be annoying in ways you cannot fathom. But you have not seen him in his other work aspects."

Hope never dies; it just gets ignored. Aerith will root for him until he proves she can't.

"...other work aspects?" now she's curious! "He protected me from a lot and not always because of work."

"Do you know just what the Turks do, my dear?"

What they authorize? What they did to his home town? What Tseng did?

"...some of it. I don't know everything." and she isn't sure wants to. Tseng became a friend of sorts, oddly, and she does care about him. More than she probably should.

"I was sheltered, I guess."

"Yes, you were," he agrees if her answer was 'I don't know everything'. But he does not intend to take the rose lenses from her eyes if he need not.

This was a woman who deserved better than that. She is too gentle, to kind for him to be blunt.

"Have you any idea why they allowed you to live outside of Hojo's grasps?"

"...they were waiting...for me to grow." Aerith does know that much, "The experiments... I could handle them better grown than I could as a child."

What gross reasoning. Do you see the face she is giving you, Genesis? That one is usually reserved for Hojo.

Well that earns a look of annoyance and disgust from Genesis. That was most decidedly not something he could approve of. But he well knows that face. He reserved it for Hollander.

"My greatest grief and apologies, dear lady, for that which would have been inflicted upon you. And for what you lost."

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