TEST DRIVE #6

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

Comments

Mary Crawley | Downton Abbey | Seelie

[thequitecontrary]

[One could never accuse Mary Crawley of being fanciful, but she had followed the fairies here. Yes, fairies. She should have realized how ridiculous the whole exercise was before she started, but by the time she was truly questioning it she had come too far to go back. Now she was here, in a castle bigger than Downton in a time long before hers. If she wasn't seeing it with her own eyes, she would have thought she had gone mad. But she feels quite sane, thank you. Minus the momentary lapse of fairy following.

She's pleased to find that this place has ladies' maids who are willing to help in any way that they can. They're not Anna, to be sure, but they'll do until she figures out exactly what's going on here and how to get back where she came from. Mary has dressed for dinner, but is dismayed that so many others seem to not have. And then there's the matter of the feast itself. While it does look delicious, the plates of food are simply piled on serving trays on one long table. She stares at it, then up and around, looking for a footman, then back at the trays. Is she supposed to serve herself?

This is a most uncivilized place.]

[ikols]

[ One man certainly has dressed for dinner, or at least he appears to have shortly after catching sight of her; and he does want to help, he's just feeling as dapper inside as he could look outside too; it makes sense to indulge. Before he approaches, his horned helm and scalemail shifts into an appropriate dinner jacket with all the ensuing, appropriate attire, and his hair is combed back in the time it takes for him to step around a pillar nearby, loitering on her peripheral vision like a twenty-something from the twenties.

It's a lot like cosplay, he thinks delightedly. ]

Rowdy, isn't it?

[thequitecontrary]

[The sight of the man in tails calms her a bit. At least not everyone here is so unfamiliar looking.]

Quite. It's not what I'm used to.

[Mary looks back at the feast again and sighs. Obviously one is supposed to help oneself, and no matter how irritated it makes her, she's hungry. She carefully picks up a plate and serving fork, trying very hard not to stain her white gloves.]

[ikols]

[ You make that abundantly clear, he thinks, and he offers to take the plate and fork off her. ]

Shall I be mother? A lack of tea abounds, but I can fill in quite nicely if you'll make a few concessions. [ See? He can help!! Also, this is riotous fun. What better way to fit in? ] Just tell me what you don't like and I'll steer well clear.

[thequitecontrary]

[The 'mother' bit puts her off somewhat but she soldiers on. At least he's being polite.]

You needn't be my mother, but I thank you for you help. I'd like a bit of the ham and some potatoes, please.

[ikols]

Certainly. My name is Loki, by the way. Loki Laufeyson. Who might my fashionable companion for dinner be?

[ Ham and potatoes acquired, he finds a spot at the table and clears it off for her to be able to sit. ]

[thequitecontrary]

[Loki Laufeyson. That doesn't sound at all British and it was not what she was expecting from this nicely dressed young man. This truly is a strange place. She appreciates his help though, and his proper manners.]

Lady Mary Crawley. I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Laufeyson. Tell me, where do you originate from?

[bindsthedead]

[The woman's clothes remind her of Ancelstierre... and while Sabriel no longer considers herself a denizen of that country, she suspects the whole thing must come as a shock to someone from there.

And while Sabriel herself is dressed in a hauberk and surcoat, she's eating her food wit the utmost delicacy before she stops and turns to Mary with a sympathetic look.]

This place must be a surprise to you, isn't it?

[thequitecontrary]

Yes, indeed. [She takes in the woman's chainmail, surprised to see it on a female. Did females wear the garb of knights in the Middle Ages? Then again, nothing makes sense about this place anyway.] I'm unaccustomed to meals taken in this manner.

[bindsthedead]

Neither am I, but I assume it's the custom here?

Although with people from so many different places, we might all be accustomed to different place settings anyway.

[thequitecontrary]

Different worlds, they say. I cannot believe it. Are there really any other worlds besides the one in which one is living?

[Obviously yes.]

[bindsthedead]

Previously, I was only familiar with two- but it seems there are innumerable ones. And this place lies between all of them.

[Yes, Sabriel decides, this woman is definitely from Ancelstierre.]

You're from Ancelstierre, aren't you? I attended school there myself- Wyverley College.

[thequitecontrary]

No, I'm afraid not. I don't believe I've heard of either of those places. I'm from Yorkshire, Downton. My name is Lady Mary Crawley.

[bindsthedead]

And I can't recall ever hearing of Yorkshire or Downton, so we are equally ignorant in that regard. [Sabriel cracks a smile though.]

My name is Abhorsen Sabriel, fifty third Abhorsen of the Old Kingdom, since our hosts seem so interested in the titles we possess. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Mary.

[thequitecontrary]

[How strange that someone has never heard of Yorkshire before, although she's never heard of an Abhorsen before.]

I'm pleased to meet you as well. If you don't mind, I'm not familiar with the title of 'Abhorsen'. Would you be able to tell me what that means?

[Mostly so Mary knows how to address her.]

[stickanarrowinureye]

[Sera takes one look, just the one. And boy is she judging.]

Ugh. Another fancy tit.

Hey. You. The food? You eat it. Not stare at it.

[thequitecontrary]

[Mary also has exceptional posture, and at Sera's comment she unfurls to her tallest hight, her voice deadpan.]

Goodness, and here I was thinking they set it all out for us to play with.

[stickanarrowinureye]

[She giggles at the thought.]

Right? That'd be brilliant if they did.

Wait. Hey! No. Why are you funny?

[You're ruining her logic against you.]

[thequitecontrary]

Even we fancy tits can have a sense of humor.

[Mama forgive her for the language, it was necessary to prove a point. And so as to prove another point, Mary carefully picks up a plate from the end of the buffet line and looks for the serving fork next to the tray of ham.]

[stickanarrowinureye]

Huh.

[Sera will follow in kind, but go straight for the pies not too far off. Rather than take a slice, however, she takes the whole pie for her plate. She points at the woman with her fork.]

You're a weirdy, you. But once a fancy tit, always a fancy tit. Being funny doesn't make your head smaller.

[thequitecontrary]

[Mary stares at the woman's plate, trying not to be appalled at the fact that 1) she has taken an entire pie for herself and 2) she used a fork to point at her. Zero manners. But not everyone is raised in polite society.]

And what pains you so much about ladies of society that it has forced you to place them all in the same box?

[She could say something about the woman's ears being smaller but that just seems rude.]

[stickanarrowinureye]

Pffft. Like a box could fit all of you.

[She'll take a bite of her pie. Mmn, pie. Don't mind the chewing, I hope. She was going to grab a second but chances are they wouldn't do well stacked. So may as well finish one and then grab another.]

And I'm not the one pained. I'm just the one they tell it to. Your little people. You have plenty of people under you, don't you? Your servants or whatever. I know the type. Hard, getting food yourself, fixing your own hair-what's-it. Ever been a pain to them? Some aren't. Some big arses aren't so bad, fair and stuff. But the bad ones? Always hear about those.

[thequitecontrary]

Obviously none of the staff is here to speak for themselves, but my family does not mistreat those who work for us. Certainly there are those families that do, but not all members of the gentry are monsters. That would be like saying that all common folk are ignorant and dull.

[inafadingcrown]

[Oh, Mary. Have a sympathetic smile from a nearby elf who is dressed for dinner- albeit in a rather different manner. Galadriel recognizes that expression; even without confusion over dinner etiquette, there's a characteristic mixture of puzzlement and mild alarm that seems to mark most new arrivals. She's learned to look for it, especially at these feasts.]

We all have difficulty at first; I daresay not a soul passes through these halls who is not puzzled by one custom or another.

[thequitecontrary]

[Mary is momentarily preoccupied with the dress. She has never seen such a beautiful fabric in her life. It's quite as mysterious as the woman who wears it, one who keeps her long hair down across her chest.]

Thank you for your kind words. Dinner is usually served differently where I come from.