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pixieledmemes2025-03-15 08:32 am
Test Drive Meme #2
Welcome to the Pixie Led Test Drive Meme!
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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.
I'm so sorry for the info overload btw, I just wanna have your boy plenty to pull from her brain xD
Someone like her, though, and that puts him leagues ahead of other adults.
Yes, she saved her friends. She closed the gate. She'd ripped it open by accident, and closed it on purpose, a rift into another place, a darker place, with an entity trying to grasp through, push through, build a bridge. Anguish and rage channelled into raw power that is a far cry from unfolding into its full potential yet. ]
Do you save people, too?
[ She'd barely glimpsed the flashes before panicking and trying to scream him out of her mind ]
Not long. I arrived. I ate. Stupid. [ A shrug. ] Like everyone.
no I love it, give me all the info 👀👀👀
He can't even begin to imagine what on earth that was, and he's glad he can't, actually. Good lord. ]
I certainly try to. I'm not always successful.
[ His answer comes with a sad little smile before he launches into lecture mode. ]
In my world, there are a lot of people like us. We call ourselves mutants, and we're born with our abilities as a result of natural genetic evolution. As fantastic as our abilities are, regular humans can be... close-minded, and unaccepting. I run a school for mutant children, where they can be themselves, and flourish. I teach people how to unlock the potential of their abilities, and how to control them -- and also some science and literature, which my students typically find far less interesting.
Just throwing stuff at you like it's candy :D
The reason for that is mostly that he drops a word that holds her attention through everything else she struggles to understand.
So Eleven listens (for the most part), but she does start moving to his side a little. Focuses on the chair. Her fingers trace over it. She hasn't seen a wheelchair before, and it does hold an amount of fascination. She touches the wheels, thinks of clinging to Mike while sitting behind him on his bike, vans on the street behind them.
As he talks, though, Laura flickers through her mind. The first person Eleven met in this place, when she'd stuffed food into her mouth greedily. She thinks of Laura touching her arm, the tattoo of a number on the inside of Eleven's wrist. She thinks of Laura's hand pulling back, and she remembers reaching for that hand, holding on.
"They made me in a facility. Soy mutante. Are you a mutant?"
Eleven doesn't know what she is - but she knows what Laura believes her to be. ]
Mute Ants.
[ Cut her some slack, she's still learning words. ]
You school. Is it a lab?
[ Eleven sounds friendly, but Charles will feel the way her eyes slide back up to him, something sharper in that gaze. He is a sad man, he speaks kindly. But so do bad men, sometimes.
Is he like Papa? Are there electric sticks and collars, white lab coats and dark rooms, tiny? Are there cots without blankets, and beeping machines? Is his school like Hawkins Lab, like Transigen Lab? Does he steal them, the children? ]
no subject
No, Eleven. It's not a lab at all. Nobody is forced to do anything they don't want to. [ Well. Unless you count math homework, or boring essays, or the younger children being gently encouraged that brushing your teeth is a good thing, actually. ] Nobody is kept there against their will. It's a place for protection, education, and community.
[ He taps his fingers against his temple. She has been projecting her own memories so loudly, it's only right that Charles offers something in return. ]
I could show you, if you like. I don't just spy, like you said, I can also project my thoughts into others minds. I can show you images, snapshots of my own memories. I can make them... small, so they're not overwhelming.
no subject
[ It's immediate. Not loud or panicked, but firm. After a moment, Eleven shakes her head, too, as if to add emphasis. Just in case she could be misunderstood. She thinks of Kali for a moment. A girl who'd escaped the lab, who she'd found. Her "sister", projecting glowing butterflies into her mind, making police unable to spot them. Forcing images of Papa into Eleven's mind, too, until she'd cried. Papa is dead (or so Eleven is entirely convinced of anyway), but it had still hurt, and she hadn't liked it.
But... she wants to see. Mike told her about schools. About bullies and mouth breathers, but also about friends and school dances and the AV Club. Eleven is curious. She worries her lower lip between her teeth for a moment, considering. ]
Can I... [ A beat. ] I want to look.
[ She taps her own temple with her index finger. She wants to use her own powers to go into his memories of the school. It's more involved - she doesn't wield her powers like he does. He gets the impression of blindfolds and static noise, of Eleven stepping into the vast darkness gaping within her own mind, where she can find people, watch them, spy on them - and reach for them. She has a tentative, unpractised understanding of this, that she can make her presence known if she chooses, that she can form a connection, reach into a memory or even a dream. It's nothing a normal person could prevent her from doing. Someone like Charles, of course, could likely block her out, control what she can see - and reach back into her, if he so chose. ]
We have to be. Somewhere quiet.
no subject