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pixieledmemes2025-03-15 08:32 am
Test Drive Meme #2
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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
"Not Venom specifically, and definitely not Maui," Teddy answered with a shake of his head. It had been a wonderful belated honeymoon but... "Listen, Loki already warned me you were here, and Billy too. But not from even his point in time. So I have to warn you. I'll answer any questions you have. I'm not him. So make sure you want to know before you ask, okay?"
Because while he gave his word without reserve to Billy to always be honest, he was willing to be evasive with Tommy if the speedster needed that. He's pretty resistant to being annoyed after all.
no subject
And he doesn't because then they really are talking about Loki and time travel, and if Teddy makes Tommy trade favors for answers about the future, Tommy's going to lose it. He's barely holding "it" right now, mostly for Billy's sake, and also because he can just rant at superspeed whenever he needs to and nobody knows. "I swear if you start with the gatekeeping the future crap, I'm going to make Attuma look calm. And he flooded multiple cities. I don't know what to ask. YOU know what to tell me: tell me. I'm only going to be more pissed if I find out from someone else later."
Because he trusts Teddy to tell him what he'd need to know with the most care. Tommy doesn't want to know if he's dead, but he also doesn't want some rando throwing it in his face.
no subject
"I'm happy to tell you anything," Teddy promises. "Causality is weird anyway, no matter what Nate said. But 'everything' is a lot. An hour and change ago I was at my twenty-second birthday party."
Please let that sink in, Tommy. Years. That's a lot for a non-speedster to cover.
"Important bullet points I guess. You and your family: all alive. Young Avengers? Healthy."
Then Teddy hesitates. He shouldn't report on David or America or Noh-Varr but...
Oh god. Tommy probably doesn't know. Or maybe he does. But Teddy needs to be sure Tommy does.
"Tommy. Cassie's alive."
no subject
No, it's okay. He's good. This is fine. Teddy can be older and it doesn't necessarily mean that everything has gone to hell. Their lives don't have to go to hell every two mon-
...
Tommy goes about four shades paler and his voice is frigid because it's better than brittle. "That's not funny."
Because it has to be a joke, right? Then the confliction settles in on his face because Teddy wouldn't joke about that. Ever. And Tommy doesn't know what to do with that knowledge. That backbone tone he has, usually laced through everything he says, wilts. "How?"
no subject
"I'm going to say a lot of words that make about as much sense as things in our world ever do, but bear with me, okay? I'm not telling a joke. Cassie was at my wedding. Well, weddings. Before you ask, one in secret with just the team and the Kaplans video-calling in, one for the whole political thing."
Because clearly what Teddy does now is absolutely political. Which of course isn't the point at this second.
"There was this spell, inverted the morality of a lot of heroes and villains for a time. Doom got hit. He decided he wanted to right the greatest wrongs of his life. Made his own Avenger team and everything. He did some science-magic stuff and basically mimicked some of Wanda's powers. When he figured out he only had juice to fix one sin, he chose Cassie. He gave her back to us. Still the same age, so she's a bit younger than the group now. A lot of stuff has happened since, but she goes by Stinger now when in the field. She lives in Miami."
Which of course is a special sort of punishment, but she's doing well. Really well. Teddy is just so proud of her as she grows. And she does get to come to parties and celebrations, no matter how much her mother hates it.
no subject
It was only a few months ago. Tommy spent their multiverse-hopping year hopped - well, out of the multiverse, maybe, or just falling through time in a blink. And yeah, yeah, he has the benefit of subjective time when he's putting his mind to faster, but the thing is... subjective time doesn't work that way. It doesn't make him forget on a faster timeline, because nothing else happens as fast as he does and there's only so much distraction he can cram in before he sees something that reminds him of -
Everything. Cass dying ruined his life. Cass dying took her life, shit, and that wasn't fair. None of it was fucking fair. Billy crawling up his own ass and letting his light or whatever die wasn't fair. They all had the rug pulled out from them, Tommy handled it better than most in his opinion, and then Teddy walks in with a stupid tiara and says she's fine. In Florida.
And now he's sitting down like Teddy's scared that Tommy's gonna faint. Tommy's brains are still considering it an option. "You better be married to Billy."
He doesn't finish the threat. Doesn't want to say 'because Billy's here and a 22-year-old-you who's married someone else is going to fuck him up'.
no subject
Teddy was about to point out that he did say it. But when he thinks back... well damn.
"Yes. Twice. I'm Teddy Kaplan-Altman now. And I love him so much," Teddy promises. "He's my prince-consort. It's amazing to finally be connected like that. Which makes you not only my best friend, but my brother. Which I'm grateful for. To be part of your family."
He is grateful for all of the people he loves actually.
no subject
But the reassurances - that Tommy's still there, under that umbrella term as family. Feels great, if he could be honest. He can't though. But he doesn't brush it off either, or pull a face.
Just whirls back to the other important thing. "Prince-consort. So you ran off to lead the Skrulls."
no subject
He sighs, shaking his head.
"Short version? I had to leave Earth to take up my throne while he was on another sort of work. We had one last evening together. He'd been dancing around the marriage for a long while. I finally convinced him to elope. Only the team and the Kaplans knew about it. Space stuff happened, lots of conflict, war with the Cotati, and finally I got to have our marriage ceremony repeated, in Jewish and Skrull traditions at the same time this time, in space. You were there both times. The Kaplans came too, and Wanda and Vision, and a lot of other people. Kate cried both times. It was embarrassing."
And wonderful, if the beaming look on his face said anything.
"So we're brothers twice over now, and you're still my best friend. Or, from your perspective in time, you will be my best friend. I don't know if you felt the same."
But he didn't care. Tommy was there for him and Teddy liked that. A lot. As for Prince consort, well, Teddy takes off his crown and twists it around in his fingers.
"Sort of became necessary to finally see to the unification. No other way to deal with what needed dealt with. No one was going to believe the Skrull or Kree about the threat of the Cotati and what they wanted to do to the universe. By taking the throne I united two of the most powerful spacefaring races out there into the greatest fleet ever known. I could try and protect their worlds, and I could bring them all to Earth to save us all. And it's not a weight that, once I picked it up, I could ever put down. That throne is tied to me as long as the Alliance stands, until the day I pass it on to my own children. It will be generations before anyone will accept the idea of a government of elected representatives."
no subject
He gets a small smile when he finds out Kate cried at both weddings, and it never quite falls off his face. He can't make himself answer the implied question about whether or not their best friends nicely, but... "The matching necklaces got eaten by the dragon. 's funny. I mentioned you to somebody a couple days aago and they asked who you were. I said that and then I was where the hell did that come from."
Didn't take it back, though. That should mean something. That does mean something. Let's not shine a light on it. "OK, is there something I don't know about half-Skrull, half-Kree? Cause last time I checked, you and Billy aren't gonna make that happen outside of a lab, and isn't it going to cause massive political issues if you pick an egg donor that's Skrull or Kree?"
no subject
He only smiles wider at Tommy having mentioned him.
"I'm glad to get mentioned as something other than Billy's other half. Not that I have a problem with that status. But it's good for the two of us to not just be referenced only in relation to each other."
As for the other thing, congratulations Tommy, you're getting to learn how a Skrull blushes. WHich is apparently with a darkening shade of green over their face and ears in Teddy's case. Wow, you really had to ask that?
"I, um... I'm not up enough on Skrull biology to answer that fully for you. But I mean, there's always the fact that Billy is, well, Billy."
There had been thoughts in that direction that he doesn't know how to explain and wow it would be awkward.
"Let's just say there isn't really going to need to be a donor, we'll figure it out, and leave it at that."
no subject
The rest of it - uh, there's a lot in a little, and most of it is very uncomfortable. "We're going to come back to Billy is Billy, because people don't like it so much when Wanda is Wanda so there are problems there. But you don't know the possibilities of your own body? Teddy."
The look that Tommy gives him. "Do I actually have to explain why you need to know if you should be on Skrull birth control? Becxause so help me, I will."
no subject
So Teddy is really in the dark here because he's been too embarrassed to ask. Which he knows he needs to remedy eventually. And now Tommy's going on about birth control and Teddy's blushing like that is an actual issue.
"It... doesn't come up as often. The need to worry. Oh my god. No. This conversation is ending. I have no intention of talking about my sex life with you. Oh god. Nope. I would seriously rather talk to David or Kate about it, no offense. You're my best friend and all but he's your brother. Wow. Um..."
Yeah, the Emperor, all poised and strong, is now flustered and blushing a deep shade of green.