TDM 1 ⬡ The Oval Portrait

[liburuzaina]

	Casting Call The Oval Portrait Edgar Allan Poe »» "Long — long I read — and devoutly, devotedly I gazed." Name: The Aristocrat Casting Call: Characters with a Birthday from September through December Physical Notes: Desperately wounded, to the point of being bedridden, but not losing consciousness. Personality Notes: Curious, and prone to becoming enraptured by the pursuit of learning about whatever has caught their curiosity. Mildly delirious due to injury. Compulsions: To learn about their surroundings, whether through study of the portraits in the chateau apartment, conversation with a companion, or ill-advised exploration. «« »» "We established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments." Name: The Valet Casting Call: Characters with an Unknown Birthday Physical Notes: Older than The Aristocrat by ≥ 5 years. Personality Notes: Willing and able (by force or by cleverness) to break in to a home for the well-being of their employer. A caretaker by nature. Compulsions: To see that The Aristocrat is comfortable for the night and their wounds are tended to, and to get some rest themselves once their duty is complete. In the absence of The Aristocrat, The Valet is free to act as they please. «« »» "She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee." Name: The Maiden Casting Call: Characters with a birthday from May through August Physical Notes: Young, aged from 15-20. Personality Notes: All smiles, loving and cherishing of all things, hating only The Painter's art, for they deprive them of their lover. Compulsions: To live life to the fullest, to love, to be happy... But also to make their husband, The Painter happy, by being a good and willing subject for his portraiture, should he ask. ⬡ Will slowly waste away and die, should they sit and allow themselves to be painted. «« »» "And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter." Name: The Painter Casting Call: Characters with a birthday from January through April Physical Notes: Older than the maiden by ≥ 10 years. Personality Notes: Passionate, studious, austere, wild, moody. More in love with his art than his wife. Compulsions: To paint. To paint, and paint, and paint some more. To ask their lovely wife to be the subject for their next piece, and to throw themselves into the completion of it. ⬡ Unaware they are doing harm with their painting, until it is complete. «« code @ efryndiel The Chateau ⬡ Common Cast Characters most likely to originate in The Chateau are The Aristocrat and The Valet ⬡ Literary Description "To all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned. We established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments. It lay in a remote turret of the building. Its decorations were rich, yet tattered and antique. Its walls were hung with tapestry and bedecked with manifold and multiform armorial trophies, together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern paintings in frames of rich golden arabesque." ⬡ For Your Exploration Characters may attempt to explore the Chateau, but it will be shrouded in darkness, and every room they enter will bring them back to the apartment chosen by The Valet. What decorations may be seen are dark and victorian in design, and the room and halls may be lit by candlelight. The Maiden's portrait is on the wall, and will initially be cloaked in shadow for The Aristocrat to find. It appears remarkably lifelike, almost as though it is a window instead of a portrait. The other paintings on the walls will contain figures that are almost familiar to The Aristocrat and The Valet - as though they could be someone they know, but only if they squint. There is no electricity. Characters will not have access to any powers. The Artist's Tower ⬡ Common Cast Characters most likely to originate in The Artist's Tower are The Maiden and The Painter ⬡ Literary Description "But she was humble and obedient, and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark, high turret-chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead. But he, the painter, took glory in his work, which went on from hour to hour, and from day to day." ⬡ For Your Exploration Should characters leave the Painter's studio, they will immediately be transported outside, to a sprawling field of wildflowers. There won't seem to be anything else around, but there will be a light breeze and the sound of the sea in the distance. Inside the studio, the air is stale and musty, smelling of oil paints and turpentine. It's dim, lit only by a skylight. There is a stool for the subject and an easel with canvas sitting in the light, but everything else - art materials, more canvases, both empty and with the beginnings of paintings, and props - are all pushed to the sides of the room and cloaked in shadow. Like The Chateau, there is no electricity, and characters will not have access to their powers. The Library ⬡ Welcome! Free from their roles, through either death, completion of the Story, or from not being pulled into the tale in the first place, characters will find themselves in the gardens outside of the Library itself. As always, it will look and feel like a temperate, autumn afternoon. As this setting is part of the Library itself, characters will have full access to all their powers. ⬡ Grand Opening Coming Soon! The front door will, unfortunately, be locked, and a sign will be taped on the doors, detailing how the Library will be opening soon, but in the meantime to please enjoy the grounds and the pizza party in the courtyard. ⬡ Pizza party? Pizza party! In the courtyard, there will be tables set up that will be absolutely covered in stacks of paper plates, 2-liter bottles of any soda one could dream of, and stacks and stacks of pizza boxes, containing any flavor combination that could be desired. Opening a random box will provide a random, but popular, flavor. Opening a box with an Intent and a Desire for something specific will provide exactly that. Enjoy! It won't run out. navigation • premise • reserves • faq

Comments

hello... im also here for the pizza party

[acquaint]

[ the pizza may have been unfamiliar at first, but the concept of melted cheese on bread isn't so foreign in the end; anything tastes good if you put cheese on it, and these pizzas are novel enough that he's pretty into it for the most part. the sodas though, are a new thing, fizzy and sweet, and sylvain knows that felix would absolutely hate the stuff. but what of his other best friend?

maybe it's his dimitri senses tingling, that little niggling at the back of his head after spending years with him; or maybe it's the loud hiss of air that escapes and the startled sounds of people nearby that gets him to investigate. ]

Whoa— Your Highness? [ seiros... that's a mess. the soda bottle falls uselessly to the ground as sylvain approaches dimitri and the table, lifting pizza boxes to move them out of the way of the large puddle of coke now covering the surface. the napkins are unfortunately soaked, but sylvain offers a handkerchief for him to wipe his face with. ] You alright?

who doesn't wanna get sprayed by soda i tell you what

[royalboar]

[What a mess, what an embarrassment — once again, his strength getting the better of him, though feels as though he can hardly be blamed this time. The bottle had done little more than startle the life out of him when it hissed and sprayed with no warning whatsoever. Good thing no one he knows saw that.

And then Sylvain slips into his periphery as Dimitri raises his arms to flick away excess soda, like some kind of animal shaking away water. He stops mid-gesture, eye gone a little wider upon recognition of that shock of ginger hair.]

Sylvain?

[Whoops. Hello.

Surprise, relief, and plain embarrassment wind through him all at once, and it’s an altogether uncomfortable feeling even if he didn’t have soda running into the cracks of his armor. He takes the handkerchief via instinct, as though the little white cloth should be enough to clean up the mess he’s made.]

I am fine, it is just… This drink exploded. [He doesn’t know how else to explain it. It exploded, it startled him, and now he’s here. Uselessly, a hand comes up to wipe at his cheek, splotching it with soda.] Of course you had to witness it…

[Not that this is the most unflattering state that anyone from home has seen him in, but. Ah, that’s not the point.]

Perhaps it was someone’s idea of a prank.

[acquaint]

[ it's not the first time he's seen that look on dimitri's face, but it's been a long enough time since the last that it makes sylvain grin a little, more fond than actually making fun of him. ]

Come on, like you've never seen me make a fool out of myself before. [ he can't remember how many times dimitri had caught him coming back to the monastery late after a night out in the town, or how often he's seen him taking a girl back to his room. he certainly doesn't miss those days. ] It's only fair that I caught you this time, right?

[ he winks, laying down some paper towels on the table for the slim chance that it will soak up some of the soda. probably not, but at least they tried. ]

[royalboar]

I would not exactly consider it a competition.

[But again, who is he to say that this is the worst that Sylvain's ever seen him? It is nothing compared to those darker days back at the monastery after he was found again, and so maybe he'll simply accept his soda-sprayed fate, because with Dimitri, the following statement is always undeniably true: It could always be worse. It has been.

He grabs a paper towel or two in turn, patting down the chest portion of his armor.]

Though despite the circumstances, it is good to see you. Baffling, but good. I am still at a loss as to how we... arrived in this place, and what we are to make of it.