Test Drive Meme #2

[changelinged]

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

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Comments

[microbrobotics]

Dude wanted a protégé to raise after he leveled the city. He stalked me for, like, months before I finally built the power amplifier he was looking for and then he kidnapped me.

[ He says it sort of flippantly, but there's real hurt and trauma under. Hiro's never stopped looking over his shoulder for Obake since. ]

time to start decimating more teenagers with max insight checks

[steepwithdead]

[Hey, what the heck? That tone sure doesn't match the story. Or the underlying mood. He's gonna... file that one away, just in case. Kid sure is downplaying something truly serious.]

I'm sorry you had to go through that. Were you able to get away?

LMAOOO good. get his ass. one day.

[microbrobotics]

[ Yup. That seems to be this kid's mood in general: flippant tone, real problems underneath. ]

Yeah. One of his flunkies betrayed him. Didn't get the memo about the city exploding part, so he changed his mind.

already rolling 25 tbh

[steepwithdead]

[He's clockin' you, boyo.]

Suppose it's good to hear someone involved had a line he wouldn't cross. [His tone is dry. Shame that line didn't stop at kidnapping children.]

jesus christ

[microbrobotics]

[ WOW. RUDE? This kid seems like the kind of guy who deals with all of his trauma by being flippant and also avoiding it by working on something else. He's been doing it for a while now. ]

Yeah, well. Globby's pretty decent as far as superheroes go. He and his boyfriend help us out sometimes.

he was getting 27 with akechi on the reg

[steepwithdead]

[Not even close to being the only one Cad's been around who does this. Good luck, Hiro. (You are probably doomed.)

Oh, there's that word again.]

Heroes, villains... what makes them super?

[microbrobotics]

Uh - superpowers? Mostly artificial. I don't think I've met anyone who got 'em naturally.

[steepwithdead]

Oh. ...Like magic?

[microbrobotics]

Dude, magic doesn't exist.

[ He says, taking another cookie from the MAGICAL FAE BUFFET while continuing to talk to the FIRBOLG. ]

[steepwithdead]

[Oh kiddo you've never been more incorrect in your LIFE.]

Hmm... are you sure about that?

[microbrobotics]

Uh, yeah? I mean - okay you're pretty weird looking, but I've seen weirder.

[ rude ]

[steepwithdead]

[rude!!]

You're kinda strange looking, yourself. [Normal-ass human, actually, but the good news is, those are easy to mimic. He murmurs something under his breath, and with a brief gesture of a hand across his face, his form shifts- into a copy of Hiro.

...he's still six feet tall, so. Kind of UPSIZED Hiro, but still.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Uh?

UHHHHH???

Hiro was gonna say something, but his mouth drops open as he stares, goggling. ]

Holy -

[steepwithdead]

Not bad, right?

[He points to his (Hiro's) face, needlessly. He still sounds like himself, though.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro rrreaches out ... and pinches Cad's chin. ]

[steepwithdead]

[Caduceus chuckles. You have solved his riddle, you riddle master!

His chin still has the same soft fuzzy fur feeling as the ear, and Hiro will be able to feel the beard his own doppelganger very obviously doesn't have, at least visually.]

[microbrobotics]

Ha. I knew it. Hologram.

[ no, ]

Pretty fancy hologram, but still a hologram.

[steepwithdead]

[No, sir-]

What's a hologram?

[microbrobotics]

It's a 3-D projected image. Like an illusion.

[ Now he's peering at Cad a little closer. ]

Where's your projectors...

[steepwithdead]

[Cheerfully:] I don't know what those are either.

[microbrobotics]

… then how’d you do that.

[steepwithdead]

Where I'm from, magic is very real. And I think you'll find plenty in this world, too.

[Hmm. If only he had a more real spell (that wasn't healing or harmful or require something to be busted) to- oh, wait. Actually, he does have one now.]

[microbrobotics]

Yeah, okay, sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.

[ Get his ass ]

[steepwithdead]

[He could just leave it here, let the kid be flummoxed when magic he can't explain appears. But it's also very fun to watch someone be wowed (and a little schooled). Plus it would be a very bad idea for him to be caught off guard in the middle of, say, another dragon attack.]

Hmm. Is there a kind of animal you're fond of?

[microbrobotics]

[ Exactly. This is for his own good. Also he seems like the kinda kid who would enjoy a good polymorph after the initial shock anyway.

He’s totally confused at that question though. ]

Uh - I dunno. We have a cat at the cafe, but I always thought birds were cool? Like - there’s a crow that hangs out on the SFIT roof I tried to bribe with dried squid once. Didn’t work.

[ a beat. ]

Why?