TEST DRIVE MEME

[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

[rekhyt]

No, a djinni. I don't exactly float around granting wishes, do I?¹

Go on, pull the other one.

[1: Not strictly accurate, perhaps - some of what I do could certainly be seen as granting wishes, but it seemed easiest to simplify for the sake of avoiding confusion.]

[icy]

[ Is this shadow just repeating words or. ]

Fine, a djinni. Not a genie.

[ Sounds exactly the same. He hefts his staff, tossing it to his other hand with a sweeping gesture, annoyance lacing through the tension in his shoulders. ]

Look, you don't have to believe me and I definitely don't believe you, so why don't we just leave it?

[rekhyt]

I suppose you could also call me a spirit, if it really makes you feel that much better, but please avoid the term 'demon.' That's just plain rude - and not entirely accurate either. It could just as easily mean an imp, or even a mite. And honestly, you were the one who started all this.

[He changed then, into an exact duplicate of Jack himself, gave a cheeky grin and wink, and reclined back crosslegged in mid-air. A moment later he sat up again.]

But seriously, how'd you do the trick with the ice? Is it a fairy thing or something? Because if not, I'd be a bit interested in learning. I can change the temperature, of course, but you didn't seem like you were just pulling heat out of the air, and that's the easiest way I know of doing it.

[icy]

I didn't start — [ Whoa, sure is all kinds of Jokul Frosti up in here. ] It's not a trick and I'm not a fairy.

[ Pacing in front of him, the weirdness of looking at himself is overrun by his temper. ]

I told you, I'm Jack Frost. Spirit of Winter? Stop ... wearing me.

[rekhyt]

[He put his feet on the ground and leaned casually against his staff.]

You're really serious, aren't you? Well, after five thousand seventeen years worth of experience, I guess a new world would be about the only place left to run into something new.

Uh-uh, now you forgot to say the magic word.

[icy]

[ Five-thou— Shit. No, he'll be astounded later; right now, Jack narrows his eyes at the former-shadow-turned-doppelganger. That arrogant attitude, the dismissal that Jack's been real until now —

Can't say he likes him, whoever 'he' is. ]

Change back now or we'll take this outside.

[rekhyt]

[Bartimaeus sounds unspeakably weary.]

Are you really going to try to resort to violence when all I asked you for was a simple 'please'? Manners cost you nothing, you know.

[He's not too worried about the threat - this Jack is only one person, or, erm, thing, and Bartimaeus has survived fighting whole armies.

Frequently with help.

Often, when that help was not available, by running and hiding in the nearest tomb.

But he was still a veteran of many battles, who had faced worse than this stripling, whoever he was. He was nearly positive.]

[icy]

[ Irritably, he starts to feel like he's talking to Pitch. Woe is me, I'm so old and clever and no one has manners. Oh, Jack, you always make a mess, tsk tsk. Fern-frost unfurls around his feet. ]

It won't be violent when you're a popsicle. I'll go on with my life, trust me.

[rekhyt]

You're pretty quick to assume you'd be able to carry out those threats of yours - trying to defeat me is a pretty tall task. And you have no idea who I am.

[icy]

I don't care what you are, you're mostly an asshole.

[ Praise be there aren't any children around. He's stubborn and offended, and willing to start freezing things if he needs to; the whatever-it-is admitted it can only heat things up, but Jack's almost positive he could make it too cold for that to fly in a fight, especially in closed circumstances. ]

You're pretty quick to assume you're anything more than full of tricks yourself.

[rekhyt]

Yes, well, I did fight in the battle of Al Areesh, nearly singlehandedly freed occupied London from the forces of Nouda the Devourer, fought on the walls of Jerico and Karnak, and watched Prague fall to the forces of Gladstone. I have been in wars for or against everyone from Assyria to Great Zimbabwe, so you'll forgive me if you don't strike me as terribly intimidating. I have seen a thousand masters come and go, and have survived them all. You're still in denial that we're all here as slaves.

[He says this more seriously than he has been - he's bragging some, of course, comes with the territory, but also does mean what he says, especially the last bit.]

[icy]

Yeah? Well, I once froze a Starbucks solid and everyone had caffeine-laced icees all weekend, but you don't see me going on about it.

[ The staff levels, as does Jack's tone from purposefully belligerent to something colder. ]

I didn't ask for a sermon or your endless wisdom because, frankly, I don't want it. I asked you to shape-shift out of my body, unless that's too hard for you to understand, what with how many other things must be cluttering up that big brain of yours.

[rekhyt]

You're a human, aren't you? Or were, once upon a time. You lot always get so muddled on that idea. That [he gestures to Jack] isn't you, any more than this [he gestures to himself] is me. Or this, or this, or this, or this, or so on, you get the idea.

[He's quite serious at this point, and as he speaks his form flickers to a gargoyle, then to a bull-headed minotaur with dripping fangs, then to a small greco-egyptian boy, then to a slowly rotating luminous orb, before settling down as a slinky desert cat, whose tail wrapped around its legs as it settled primly down.]

It doesn't change who I am and what I can do, what I look like, any more than it would change you. You won't change just because someone happens to look like you either. But you all do it.

[icy]

[ Or were. ]

Shut up! [ Back-tracking a step, ice begins to peel down the lampshades and tables, crisp and sharp. ] Don't tell me what I am.

[ The gargoyle has his grip tightening on his staff for the duration of the metamorphosis, his guard well and truly up and ire needled. He knows who he is; the Guardians were all people Before. It doesn't fall to a complete stranger to lace Jack with Jackson in the dark, largely because it's such a wide angle to try and hit that he actively neglects to try first-hand himself. ]

I'm nothing like you, you don't know anything about me.

[ As stupid as it seems, he really doesn't want to attack a cat. Even if it's an illusory one. ]

[rekhyt]

Hit a nerve, did I?

[The tip of the cat's tail twitches, and its voice is quite even and serious.]

That's where you're wrong again. I know more than you'd think - besides, we're both here, aren't we? That's enough of a connection to be getting on with, if you ask me.

[icy]

If you know more than I think, then I'm being way too generous.

[ Turning on his heel, he stamps his staff on the ground and sends a nasty rush of ice at the couch on his retreat. ]

I don't have to listen to this.

[rekhyt]

Well, whatever you are, you certainly act like a typical human. Still, that's true enough.

[The air surrounding the cat sparked with warmth, and the ice turned to water and steam without touching it. It yawned and settled down, stretching, opening its jaws in a luxurious yawn, as though to punctuate a point.]