liburutegiaooc | TDM 1 ⬡ The Oval Portrait

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TDM 1 ⬡ The Oval Portrait

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.

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"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.

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"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.

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"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.

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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.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shang Qinghua has already flopped down on his stomach nearby, holding his own plate in front of him like an altar offering. There are actually tears standing in his eyes. He's spent a literal lifetime away from any world where pizza exists. In all his years of cultivating, this is the closest thing he has ever had to a religious experience.

"Bro, you don't have to tell me. It's been like, decades for me." How many? Hahahaha who knows how old they actually are. Shang Qinghua lifts a slice from his plate to shove it into his mouth, but he stops, his expression shifting into something apprehensive. "Do you get the feeling that something fucked up's gonna happen the second you take a bite? Like, I dunno, this all turns out to be some fucked up illusion and it turns out the pizza was a lie?"

Shen Qingqiu turns his weary gaze on Shang Qinghua, the look in his eyes communicating fairly clearly that while the idea of a decades-long transmigration experience is absolutely fucking nightmarish to him, Shang Qinghua has already negated any sympathy this might have gained him by saying stupid shit.

"No. I think there is real pizza here because at this point there might as well be." He reaches to pick up the slice on his plate, mainly out of contrariness, and then hesitates with a long-suffering sigh. "Ugh, I'm going to get grease on these robes," he says, as if he has ever washed his own laundry even once in his awful life.

Shang Qinghua, whose job it had been to make sure all of Cang Qiong Mountain's laundry got done, does not look particularly daunted. Probably because Shen Qingqiu's laundry isn't his responsibility anymore, hahaha. And he's never going to have to look at another fucking ledger book again. Fuck it, the pizza is real.

"So?" he says around a mouthful of pizza, rolling over onto his side. He props his head up in one hand, lying on the grass in a position that might be cool or dignified if he weren't shoving pizza into his mouth and was anyone but Shang Qinghua. "You are an immortal cultivator. What's a little pizza grease to your golden core?"

Shen Qingqiu wrinkles his nose and turns away to look out at the park so he doesn't have to watch Shang Qinghua talk with his mouth full.

"Yes, and you wrote that immortal cultivators still have to do laundry," he says snippily. Or, well, you know. Immortal cultivators still have to get their laundry done. By someone. Shen Qingqiu is pretty sure Luo Binghe used to handle it, but he never really kept track of what happened to it after that ...

He sighs and tries the pizza. It's a little bit underwhelming.

"... There's no way this is actually the real world, right?"

Shang Qinghua rolls his eyes, but for good measure tosses a balled-up napkin at the back of Shen Qingqiu's head. Which cultivators have to do laundry! Besides, he only wrote that stuff in so he could write those choice post-papapa harem scenes where the girl lovingly washes her new husband's robes, stained with the proof of their...ahem. Anyway.

"Nah," Shang Qinghua says. "We're both dead in the real world, remember? Besides, have you ever read a transmigration novel where someone goes back and brings their new body with them?" I mean, it's possible, Airplane is not as voracious a consumer of that genre. He's not even a particularly attentive consumer of his own fucking genre. He plucks a pepperoni off of his pizza, waving it in demonstration. "No, Cucumber-bro, this is some next-level alternative universe shit."

The napkin beans Shen Qingqiu in the back of the head and he jerks around indignantly to swat Shang Qinghua across the forehead, as is his right. Their conversation just kind of happens around this, it's fine.

"I didn't forget we died," he says, rolling his eyes. "But coming back like this," he gestures at himself, "is the only way we could come back, isn't it? Without just going back to being dead? Obviously some amount of physical interdimensional transport is possible, because wherever this is I'm pretty sure you didn't write about it."

Shang Qinghua slaps Shen Qingqiu's hand away, starting on another slice of pizza. As collateral damage, his hand brushes against Shen Qingqiu's sleeve on the downswing, leaving a little smear of grease. Oh no, look at that, a grease stain. How devastating. How tragic.

"No, this was definitely not in any of my outlines," he agrees, looking around. None of this is familiar, although he is grateful to whoever wrote it for the pizza and the underwear. He looks thoughtful for a moment, going a little squinty-eyed and scrunch-nosed. Then he suddenly slaps Shen Qingqiu's arm repeatedly. "Oh! Hey! What if we've transmigrated into, like, the Zhongdian Dimension? Like hammerspace but for stories?" He casts a curious glance at the closed library. "You think Proud Immortal Demon Way is in there? I wonder which version?"

So close.

Shen Qingqiu pulls a face. "Fuck, I hope not. If I have to read that shit again I am taking it out on you." A pause, as he glances down at his embroidered sleeve. "Did you just get pizza grease on my robes–"

"Why would we read it?" Shang Qinghua, of course, went back and reread his own writing all the time. Although, it would be kind of different if it were the version he and Shen Qingqiu have been living...actually, he's kind of curious? Would it still sound like it was written by Airplane? Anyway-- "But if it's in there, other people could read it."

This prospect is way less daunting to him than it probably is for Shen Qingqiu because Shang Qinghua doesn't bother with silly little things like dignity. He glances at the offending sleeve and shrugs with an easy smile.

"Relax, bro, it's just a tiny little smear. No one else is even gonna notice."

Does Shang Qinghua already have a little smudge of pizza sauce on one sleeve? Absolutely. Welcome to the club, buddy

Shen Qingqiu rolls his eyes, irritably tucking his sleeve to the side, but what Shang Qingqhua just said about other people reading it is kind of haunting him.

"... D'you think there is a written version. Of the one we were in."

"That's what I'm curious about," Shang Qinghua says, pausing to lick a bit of pizza sauce from his fingers. "There's gotta be, right? I mean, the System makes it sound like there's an audience, anyway. What would be the point of you changing the story if no one was around to read it?"

He thinks on this for another moment, squinting up at the sky. "But I guess it's still a WIP, so maybe we wouldn't be able to find our version anyway. Unless --" He suddenly sits up straight. "Shit, do you think the System's been posting under my Zhongdian ID?"

Maybe this wouldn't matter to anyone but him, but Shang Qinghua feels he has a certain reputation to uphold! Who knows what shoddy work the System could be uploading in his place! Yes, he's dead in that world, but still! He can care!

"Huh... I don't know, dude," Shen Qingqiu looks uneasy, "I don't think this version would get much of an audience over there if it's still from Luo Binghe's POV..."

"Maybe a different audience," Shang Qinghua says. Does he look...a little bit wistful? Hahaha no of course not. He folds up the pizza crust in his hand and shoves the rest of it into his mouth. Hmmm. "What about if it was from your POV?"

Shen Qingqiu grimaces around his pizza. "Are you kidding? That wouldn't even be interesting, all I do is try not to get killed. There's hardly any action, no gratification, no romance, I don't even have a character arc."

"Yet," Shang Qinghua says helpfully, as though this is supposed to be encouraging. "I don't know, I think it'd make for a pretty funny read so far. There's value in good comedy mixed with drama! The story's not even close to over, at least by original timeline standards. Besides."

He wipes his hands off on a paper napkin and tosses it careless over his shoulder. He's pretty sure there's a trash can behind him somewhere.

"Don't you think finally realizing the nature of Bing-ge's true feelings counts as some kind of character development?"

Shen Qingqiu's grimace intensifies.

"Learning new information isn't character development." He puts his paper plate down, mainly so he can take out his fan. He doesn't want his entire face visible for this conversation, thank you very much! "If anything that makes it less exciting, now the tension of whether or not he's going to kill me is gone, and if it's from my POV then there's no romantic tension either because the reader knows it's one-sided!"

Aww, c'mon, bro, give yourself some credit. Learning to read the room for the first time in your life is totally character development.

"But it's replaced with the tension of 'what will he do next in his quest to make the Resentment of Chunshan canon'!" Shang Qinghua doesn't want to bend to the idea that any version of Proud Immortal Demon Way could be that boring. "Besides, you were at kind of a turning point in the plot, you know? You don't know what might've happened. Maybe Bing-ge was about to get NTR'd or something. That'd be pretty tragic for him."

It's not Airplane if there isn't pointless pathos, right?

"Absolutely not!" says Shen Qingqiu, stiff with outrage. "There is no way I am hooking up with anyone from your stupid novel when it's practically a guarantee the protagonist will murder them! No way! Do you think I'm an idiot?"

He fans himself a little harder. "Anyway this is all irrelevant now unless somebody makes us go back."

"Hey, it's not just my stupid novel anymore," Shang Qinghua says with some serious side-eye. "I'm not the one who raised him to be such a tender-hearted maiden. That's on you! Welcome to the collab life, Cucumber-bro."

He wants to say that it's Shen Qingqiu's fault that Bing-ge turned out to be such a yandere, but he is honest with himself: that was kind of the appeal, okay? But he'd managed to make the yandere angle a point of coolness, whereas with Shen Qingqiu's tampering...well, the result was a little pathetic.

But he flops back onto the ground with an explosive breath. "Yeah, you're right. And while it was cool living in my own novel for a while -- " Even if he had to hustle for every second of it, so calling most of it fun would be a stretch. " -- I think I can deal with living in a universe with pizza again. Free of the System and being a royal punching bag. And we're still cultivators! I'm good here."

"He's your character," Shen Qingiu huffs into his fan. "You're the one who came up with him so ultimately all of this is your fault."

He does take a moment, though, to contemplate how glad he is to be out of there -- only to round on Shang Qinghua again as he remembers exactly why he's so glad about that. "Hey, and speaking of things that are your fault -- you know I just got kidnapped before I wound up here? Again? By your fucking side characters who you never even put in the damn book?"

"It's not all my fault," Shang Qinghua starts to whine, but Shen Qingqiu has his attention, actually. He sits up, keenly interested. He doesn't seem to be, like, concerned though. Obviously Shen Qingqiu is fine now. "Wait, seriously? What happened? Who was it? Where'd they take you?"

Dish, Cucumber-bro!!

"Yeah, dude," says Shen Qingqiu, annoyed, "Why do you think I look like this again? That bastard Zhuzhi-Lang took this body to the Holy Mausoleum to bring it back to life so they could... ugh, I guess to lure Luo Binghe there?" He rolls his eyes. "It's Tianlang-Jun, I'm pretty sure he wants to possess Luo Binghe's body or something because the one he's in is falling apart, and you're lucky this isn't my problem any more because if it was I would knock your head off your idiot shoulders for not bothering! To ever write down what his deal is!"

OK like the thing is he hadn't actually thought super hard about Shen Qingqiu's appearance! He's been kind of focused on the pizza but yeah okay that does make sense.

"Whoa, Tianlang-Jun?" Shang Qinghua looks like he's getting deets on an early episode leak and not the firsthand account of a kidnapping. "Damn, I never thought the plot would go that far off track. And anyway, you can't blame me for everything! There was a lot of stuff I was going to put in, but then I lost my original outline. You can't fault me for not having an encyclopedic memory!"

He stops and frowns thoughtfully.

"...Who's Zhuzhi-Lang?"

"..."

Shen Qingqiu gives him a sharp smack across the forehead, to jog his memory.

"Tianlang-Jun's nephew! The snake demon!"

"Ow!"

Shang Qinghua rolls away, clutching his forehead like he's just been dealt a blow with spiritual energy instead of just a little slap. Betrayal!! He gives Shen Qingqiu a horrible kicked puppy dog look.

"I just told you, I don't remember all of my old notes, okay! Don't hit me!" He rubs his forehead with a little pout. "Zhuzhi-Lang, huh? Yeah, that kinda sounds familiar." No it doesn't. "Man, you get all the interesting plot stuff."

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