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

Victoria Lowell - The Confessions of Dorian Gray

[shewasvery]

Victoria doesn't have to like the fairies that brought her here to appreciate the fact that she's not...elsewhere. Or nowhere, as the case may be. She's initially cautious about the food—she knows her legends, after all—but finally admits to herself that under the circumstances, the effects of fairy food are the very least of her problems. So she accepts a glass of wine and begins to make her way around the hall.

A solicitous fairy settles on her shoulder, buzzing in her ear.

"Shoo," she says sharply, flicking at it with her fingers. At the last minute she holds back and refrains from actually hitting it, mindful of her manners, and changes her tone. "I'm terribly sorry. I'm quite all right, thank you. No, I don't need anything."

[depicted]

"They mean no harm, I assure you." Dorian smiles at the stranger. He knows it can be difficult to adjust, so he wants to help those who are newly arrived himself. "They are merely tasked to help. Truthfully, they seem much more kind and helpful than the fairies that appear in Celtic stories." (Dorian thinks this because he hasn't been paying attention.)

He offers Victoria his hand, doing his best to be welcoming. "You are newly arrived, I take it? I am Dorian Gray. It is a pleasure to meet you."

[shewasvery]

She freezes, just for a moment.

Because that's a face and a name she knows very well indeed, and they parted in far less than salubrious circumstances. And here he is, talking to her as if she never hunted him, never double-crossed him, never poisoned him—

He could be toying with her. But some prickle of intuition at the back of her neck suggests that his disingenuousness is genuine.

And so she smiles, warmly even, willing away that moment of astonishment, and shakes his hand firmly. "Victoria Lowell. The pleasure is all mine, Mr Gray. You've been here a while, I gather?"

[depicted]

"Only a few months, but I find that I have not had much difficulty settling here. The castle is very welcoming." Indicating the seat beside her, he asks, "Is this seat taken?"

(The two months have done much for him. The flustered looks and stuttering words have mostly been washed out of his system. Fewer blushes, fewer hesitations—more social grace and confidence. He would not have been able to ask her that so easily on his arrival.)

[shewasvery]

"Only by you. Please." A make-yourself-comfortable gesture at the chair. "So where do you hail from, Mr Gray? And I suppose 'when' is an apposite question as well."

She watches him carefully; his face is just as she remembers, of course, but his voice and manner seem subtly different. How and why—that's the important thing to figure out before she says anything that might cause trouble.

[depicted]

He takes the place, and when she proposes the question of time, he must laugh. "It is, I've found. London, 1881. The summer of. I've been caught up on a few things, up to the very early 21st century, but I tend to feel a little behind when people are of a more—modern make." A pause, and then he adds, perhaps with a hint of a pout, "One young woman from that time period suggested only school teachers and elderly women address others in a manner I would consider rude to avoid. So I must ask if you would rather be Victoria or Mrs Lowell, as I find I can't tell any longer."

[shewasvery]

Now it's Victoria's turn to laugh, whilst at the same time being enormously relieved, for this Dorian will be a much simpler proposition than the one that she knows. And who knows—this younger self may shed some interesting light on the man he will become. Pity there isn't a way to get this knowledge back home. Or perhaps there is and she only needs to find it.

No matter. Social niceties first. "I am neither a school-teacher nor elderly—at least I like to think I'm not." Teasing, a faint suggestion that he may have inadvertently insulted her, though he really hasn't. "Do call me Victoria, if you like, and might I call you Dorian?"

[depicted]

Of course it turns him red with embarrassment, gets a ducked head, breaks the confident he has built up over the past couple months so he blurts out a flustered, "No, of course not, you don't seem like either—" and if he weren't inclined to agree with her suggestion already, the possibility of offending her would have made him insist, "Yes, of course, you may call me whatever you like."

A much simpler problem to handle.

[monstrous]

Of course, of all the realms in all the worlds, Victoria Lowell had to walk into the same one as Toby. And there had to be fairies, too, because why not?

"Learned your lesson about mixing it up with supernatural beings then?"

Toby sidles up to Victoria like an old friend. There is an urge to cause pain, but there is also a small terrible relief at seeing a familiar face, even if it's a face he preferred seeing with its eyes beyond repair.

[shewasvery]

Well, isn't that just her luck.

She does her level best not to show her chagrin, instead smiling at him as if she's just met an old pal she hasn't seen in a decade. "Tobias Matthews, as I live and breathe," she says pleasantly. Of course she's aware of the ironies of the cliché. "How marvellous to see you here."

It's said in that arch tone that you could easily take either way—as genuine pleasure or the driest of sarcasm.

[monstrous]

"That's one word for it," Toby says, not quite as pleasant as Victoria, but doing his best to keep up the act. He stands shoulder to shoulder with her, gazing out at the crowd around them, not minding the fairy still on Victoria's shoulder. He raises his glass to his lips and takes a sip. He leans closer to her, like close friends sharing some side conversation.

"So what do we think of this place? The natives seem friendly enough."

[shewasvery]

The fairy is gently plaiting a lock of Victoria's hair, in fact. She shrugs her shoulder, like a horse trying to twitch off a fly, but the damn thing has no interest in going anywhere.

Resigned to that, she raises her eyebrows just a little bit at Tobias's question. "I wouldn't want to speak for you, Tobias, but I find it all very fascinating. The sort of thing that makes you wonder if Yeats wasn't on to something."

She tilts her head slightly as she speaks, seemingly unconscious of the motion, and the fact that it makes her hair fall back slightly and expose just a bit more of her throat.

[monstrous]

He can't help but cast a sideways glance at her throat. He knows she knows what she's doing. They've both danced around this sort of exchange before. Last time it had left him frustrated, to put it kindly.

Exhaling a breath from behind clenched teeth, he purposely looks away from her, downing the rest of his drink in one go. He puts it down on a passing tray, and grabs another drink. Taking another sip he braces himself, before smiling at her again, all teeth. "Isn't it just? Brings to mind "The Rape of the Lock." Good old Pope."

[shewasvery]

She's not going to laugh at his reaction. She's just going to enjoy it quietly.

"I'm glad I can rely on someone for an apt literary reference," she says, knowing quite well that there are more than a few references to Tobias Matthews's literary tastes in the Foundation's (disturbingly) capacious files. "I was afraid I was going to be quite homesick without that sort of thing."

[monstrous]

"Really?" Toby asked, spotting an opening he could take to escape the temptation of Victoria's very pretty little neck. "Yearning for home would be the last thing I'd expect from you, considering what's waiting for you if you do return."

Toby signaled to one of the feast's servers with his empty glass, a clear invitation to bring him another drink.

"Your superiors can't be happy with the mess you made of things. I wonder, even if this place by some miracle did decide to bring you back, what would that Foundation of yours do with you? Dodgy group like that? I shudder to think."

Toby does a small shudder for effect. When the server appears with his new drink, he hands over the old one with a smiles. "Cheers."

[cagedinflesh]

In spotting Victoria's near-assault of the poor creature, Jekyll is very ready to be up in arms over something so needlessly cruel. But she stops, and so he sees there is no need to react badly. Instead he takes a few steps closer, carrying a glass of wine himself, and offers a smile.

"There's no need. They are terribly persistent, no matter how you ask, they shall do as they please. Yet they are utterly harmless nonetheless."

[shewasvery]

The fairy that was trying to get her attention seems to make a little huffing noise, and just for spite it musses her hair as it zooms off. Victoria purses her lips slightly and smooths her hair back.

"Call it an instinctive reaction against things buzzing in my ear," she says. "I didn't mean to hurt the silly thing, of course. Decency aside, it certainly wouldn't do to offend our hosts."

In fact, decency doesn't really enter into it much for her, but she can pretend.

[cagedinflesh]

"They are unlikely to notice something to small, truthfully. I think the rulers pay little attention to us, apart from what directly relates to them, or their cause."

But of course, he's glad to see people demonstrating such manners! "Really the imps are the worser."

[shewasvery]

"I don't think I've had the pleasure yet," she says of the imps, and makes a bit of a face. Then, as if that reminds her: "I'm sorry, where are my manners." She offers her hand, a forthright and businesslike gesture. "Victoria Lowell."

[cagedinflesh]

"You shall know when you do, immediately."

Jekyll smiles all the more for the introduction, and graciously accepts the offered hand. Far more warmth. "I'm known as Berserker. You must excuse me for not initiating the gesture! It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lowell. I take it you are quite new!"

[shewasvery]

Berserker? Victoria's long-practiced composure actually slips a little at that and her eyebrows go up in surprise—she can't square the looks of the gent in front of her with the...archaic name.

"Quite new, yes," she says, carrying on nevertheless. "I've only just arrived. You, I gather, are a more veteran resident?"

HELLO

[badlysocialized]

Reese sees the motion, and her politeness afterward, and it amuses him enough to hold up a roll and wave it in front of the little creature.

"Give her back her shoulder, it's all yours."

Either the fae has forgotten the bread came from a platter or it doesn't care. It seizes on the gift and darts away. Reese raises his glass very slightly to Victoria. It has something bubbly and non-alcoholic. "Cheers."

HIIIII

[shewasvery]

"To your health," she replies, raising her own glass and smirking. "Thank you. Very nicely played." She offers her hand. "Victoria Lowell. A pleasure to meet you. Does that always work?"

HI HI sorry this took ten years

[badlysocialized]

He takes a sip, just enough to make the toast and not a fraction more. He shakes her hand. "John Reese. No idea. Pretty sure that was beginner's luck."

<3

[shewasvery]

"Are you new here as well, then?" She's quietly sizing him up as she speaks, noting details of his clothes, his general manner. "I've only just arrived. It is all, dare I say, a bit much."