pixieledmemes | 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

ｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

code

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Silco. The name surfaces in his mind shaped by another voice, echoes from another time, when the man next to him looked younger. Happier. Free. Viktor holds very still as he's seized by Vander's memory, a flash of the two of them together. It's so sudden and intense that he summons the wrong bottle into his hands when bid.

Exhaling his own irritation, he reaches instead for the right one. ] Magic is useful for some things, I've found, but not all. [ There's a slight tremble in his hand as he sets the new bottle down in front of Silco. ] Perhaps I am too practical for it after all.

[ He tips his head a little to gaze at him, curious. ] Hello, Silco.

Magic. [ Silco scoffs. Magic is an uppercity problem, except those gemstones had been a chance to bridge the gap between them, to drag themselves out from beneath and sit on top. That fresh air had been so close. ] That's a lesson in not using bomb when a knife would do. [ Taking the bottle, he uncorks it and pours himself a drink. It has no legs, but he can make do. All he needed was something stronger than what he'd been served. ]

Ah, yes. Mirka's son. Viktor. [ A pause, one to put the pressure on the tension in the air. ] Didn't want to be a clockmaker like her, I see. What did you grow up to be?

What is the saying — [ Viktor hummed. ] — measure twice, cut once? [ It felt so familiar, almost comforting to be speaking to another Zaunite. Perhaps too familiar, since Silco apparently knew him. That was surprising, and it showed on his face.

He was silent for a brief moment, looking away. ] I am not certain. [ Glancing at Silco again, the curiosity returned. ] How did you know each other?

[ Silco laughs. It's a hard-edged thing, but warm, the way forged steel was scalding and stronger than its base parts. ] The easiest way to avoid mistakes.

[ Nursing that drink, Silco assesses him and makes no effort to disguise that fact. ] You should figure that out. [ He holds that gaze as he takes something out of his pocket and slides it across the table — it's a watch, old but carefully maintained, with the maker's mark facing up. ] I know everyone.

[ He made a habit out of it. ] She was the only one I trusted to fix it.

[ This time, Viktor's surprise is a sharp intake of breath as he gazes down at the watch. It feels like ages since he'd seen that symbol, and the shock of it sends a wave of grief washing over him that he isn't at all prepared for. ]

May I? [ His voice is hoarse, but he manages to hold himself in check. Really, Viktor isn't sure what he's asking — to hold it for just a moment, to commit it memory somehow — but the words are out of his mouth before he can stop it. ]

[ Silco gestures to the watch as he brings his drink to his lips. He's studying him — the way those eyes move, the lines on his face — but he doesn't say anything. ]

[ It was with great care that Viktor set aside his staff in order to gently — almost reverently — lift the watch from the table. He recognized the craftsmanship as easily as a birth mark, so intimately familiar with his mother's skill that it felt like he was seeing her again for the first time since her death. What would she think of him now? Would she be pleased or horrified? His face twisted into a frown.

Shaking his head a little as if to clear it, Viktor placed the watch back on the table very delicately, but deliberately. ] Thank you. I did not expect to see my mother's work again. [ Ever. Still, it was a helpful reminder of where he came from — and where, apparently, he would return to sooner than he'd anticipated. ]

[ Quietly, Silco sipped his drink and he observed. There was a lot of Mirka in her son, that same quickness, the same lines on their faces, and Silco suspected, he might have shared her talent for detail at the risk of losing the larger picture.

Leaning forward, he tapped the glass face of the watch with his fingertip, holding it there as he looked across the table at Viktor. ] It's important to remember where we come from. It keeps us from losing sight of what we're fighting for. [ Silco picked up the watch, but instead of tucking it away again, he held it out. ] Keep it. You need the reminder.

[ Viktor was aware that he was being carefully watched. He hadn't survived growing up utterly powerless without developing observation skills of his own. But the offer of his mother's watch was like a siren call, and he felt helpless against the pull of temptation. Not that he ever managed to fight too hard against his impulses. ]

I think you may be right. [ Grasping the watch, Viktor covered it with his hand and drew it close, almost protectively. ] Even here, Zaun is with us. Your arrival is proof of that.

[ Silco was being deliberate, suspecting Viktor too smart for a simple deception, and Silco was more interested in the hook than the hammer, finding a way to draw people in instead of obliterate them. Resourceful to the last, Silco understood the benefit of surrounding himself with connections, allies, power, and in a place like this, back in the dirt and the filth, he needed every advantage he could get.

Seeing the way Viktor cradled that watch, he felt the tug of that hook and he settled into his chair. All he needed to do now was tug, when the time came. ]

Zaun is us. And I intend to show them how indomitable we can be.

Test Drive Meme #2

— the party

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject