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

[sidenote]

[Nothing in him compels Felassan to help this stranger, whoever he is; he is not Felassan's esteemed employer, therefore he's on his own in finding his husband. That's certainly why Felassan hasn't bothered to speak up until now, several wandering loops of the Chateau in, and for a moment he's prepared to casually refuse and go back to sitting around in this room. Lost husbands are not his problem!

But-- now that he looks up, properly, and can place the the profile of the stranger with one of the portraits... well, intrigued would be an exaggeration, but Felassan might consider himself mildly curious? That's enough. He considers for a long moment before he sighs and stands, shrugging.]

If it will keep you from disturbing this room any further, why not.

[This room that he broke into in what is most definitely this wayward wanderer's house, but details! Leave it in peace! He gestures for the door.]

Go. I'll follow.

[anbu]

[Motivations aside, the aid is appreciated. Itachi hasn't yet lost his civility streak, and so comes a quietly murmured:] Thank you, [before the urgency returns to him like a prickling sting across his nerves. He needs to find his husband. He should not be here.

He should not be here—a thought that sticks longer in his mind than absolutely necessary, before Itachi cards it away. Everything else has become secondary to the driving need to find his husband, whoever that actually happens to be.]

This way. [In silence, Itachi leads the valet through the door and into the next room, then the next one—until they're swarmed in shadow and walking back into the main entryway beside the place Felassan had just been sitting idly as though they'd never left.] ... It continues by this pattern, no matter which route I choose. It seems to be a loop. My husband, he's... [Who? The blanks are slow to fill.] A painter. He has a studio, somewhere.

Are you here with anyone else?

[sidenote]

[Felassan follows, expecting little-- he's not wandered far from his chosen post, himself, but watching enough people get lost and pass by has at least lowered his hopes for making sense of this house. Whether it's simply constructed too strangely or earnest magic escapes him; idly he thinks he should be able to do something about that, to shed some light on it, but the thought frays and fades almost as soon as he thinks it.

So it's probably fine. He leans one shoulder against the wall when they've come back into sight of that same room, nodding towards it.]

My esteemed employer, [he says, with only a dab of facetiousness. There's some kind of figure buried in the sheets in there, or at least there was an hour or so ago; also probably fine.]

Full disclosure: we did break in, some hours ago. My apologies to you and your painter, but the situation was becoming urgent.

[This apology is slightly more facetious, but look, The Employer can pay for whichever window Felassan busted to get in, surely? Don't worry about it.]