![[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.
no subject
( That's about right. He can tell. Probably at least a boy and a girl among the three, and it doesn't really matter what ages. You have kids, you see something like that up close and personal, the age doesn't matter. They're babies again in a second, aren't they? Just kids, just kids. Things that should never be used in the same paragraph as the word bullet, things that would be immune to them if there were any real rightness in the universe.
But there isn't.
And the longer he stares at this guy, the more familiar the face becomes — until Frank's head is rolling back an inch, chin lifting, recognition visible. Clint's probably seen this look on a stranger a dozen times by now. Maybe more. It usually preempts something like hey, I know you! or you're hawk guy! or I've seen you on the news!
Frank's got a less optimistic take on it. )
Shit, so this is that kinda problem.
( The out of his league by miles kind. Yeah, okay. Makes sense. )
no subject
It still makes his head spin even now that, for a couple more years yet, Nate was nothing but dust for longer than he ever got to be alive.
What does saying any of it do to the man who lost everything so permanently, so horrifically?
So the shift is actually kind of nice. A gift to them both in a way. Even if the recognition never gets easier, he at least takes it with a little more grace than he used to back in the prime Avenging days. Still makes him awkward, still gives him a strange embarrassment. But yeah. He recognizes the look long before the guy says anything.
Though what he says makes Clint huff out a tired half-laugh, tight smile on his face.]
Seems like an everyone kinda problem, but, yeah, doesn't sound like you're wrong.
[Shame half the Avengers are gone and one's off world for who knows how long and one just wants to retire to Mexico and one just wants to stay the hell retired for once jesus christ-- Not that there aren't others. But they aren't a team. They're individuals with their own shit going on. The ones that are left. Or the ones just coming into what they are, who they are. Kate's not exactly fit for the big leagues, but someday she will be.
Not exactly placing bets on who's going to come to the rescue. Might have to be an inside job.
Clint doesn't have quite the same reaction. But. When playing the 'don't I know you from somewhere' game, it isn't like the big guy's completely foreign. Or that...a New York park massacre is foreign to him. And...wasn't this guy arrested? For murder? Lots and lots of murdoh god that's the Punisher.
That's fine. This is fine. The fucking Ronin has no judgement to give on that.]
no subject
At least this one's subtle about it. Someone less perceptive probably wouldn't have clocked it at all, but he's keyed in right now to exactly one person. Hasn't had time to grow out a beard or a head of curls.
Tell you the truth, he's half-expecting to have to throw down all over again for a second, but that moment never comes, and he's left standing stiff and wary, eyeballing the other guy while he decides whether his first move should be to throw a punch, dodge a punch, or bail while he's got the chance (never likely).
Could be worse. At least he's not eye to eye with the green guy.
Still, he feels the need to put it out there: )
I worked with homeland security. Technically, I'm Pete now. So.
( Legally, don't start none won't be none. Just in case Hawk Guy's getting any ideas about making a citizen's arrest in the fucking faerie realm. )
no subject
Technically, I'm retired. [And technically is supposed to have been for years, ignoring that five year stint where he did anything but be retired.
He can't throw stones. He's just not particularly interested in letting any more people than absolutely necessary know that fact. In any event, he offers up a hand.]
Hi, Pete. I'm Clint.
[Maybe they can try to start off on a more normal foot?]
no subject
He reaches his hand out in turn, offers up a shake — the steady kind, not the compensating for something kind.
A little wryly, he volleys bacK )
Hi, Clint. I'm Frank.
( Don't bother calling him Pete, the cat's already out of the bag. Normal's fine. He can do normal.
When their hands fall away, his expression's back to being something grim, something tense — but it's aimed entirely at the people who brought them here. )
What do you make of all this? I guess this kinda shit must be normal for you, but uh- this isn't really my thing. Kinda outta my wheelhouse.
no subject
So. Frank it is. Normal people in a normal situation having a normal handshake. God, how did all this end up happening?]
Wouldn't call it normal, exactly. [For Thor, sure. Carol, definitely. Strange, absolutely. He's just the guy with the sticks and strings.] Best guess is another planet or some kind of alternate dimension, and I'm really hoping it's the planet one, because then the only issue with getting back is a spaceship and knowing what direction to go in. And I wish that was the craziest thing I've ever said.
[He doesn't really like admitting 'I have no fucking clue', but he'll call shit like he sees it.]
Guessing you were in the middle of something when suddenly you were here? Not even a flash of light or a warning of any kind?