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]

[Rich people in this house hang up confusing paintings of elf-shaped people, don't worry about it... Is there a wolfsona in these portraits somewhere? Untapped creative energy, Okuni, take notes.

Or: Felassan spares her a glance over his shoulder that is not at all withering, but has the perfect ratio of raised eyebrow to knowing smirk to imply that he-told-her-so. You know, about sitting down.]

Doesn't paint take some time to dry? [do not art lecture him please] You will have plenty of time to charge back to your canvas.

[Anyway back to this mysterious painting... Hmm!]

This isn't your house, is that right?

[osuni]

[Okuni takes in that perfect ratio of eyebrow to smirk and flashes him a Cool Look of her own... That she promptly ruins by swinging her legs over the arm of the couch she's on, so now she's just draped over it like an ailing................ painter.]

Time I'm not willing to spare...!

[don't mind okuni grumbling audibly in the background, fefe. She peeks out from behind the hand she's dramatically draped over her face. IS there a wolfsona? Felassan's blocking her view, and she's feeling too lazy to lean over...]

I'm not a gloomy shut-in who likes to live in the shadows. [please... she does not Own this Cave-Chateau!]

[sidenote]

[There is definitely a wolfsona, please don't think about it too deeply. Felassan hums, evidently pleased to know she doesn't own this house--]

In that case-- [--he can just start taking portraits straight off the wall to peer at them more closely? Zero respect for the arts, but at least it's not her art, right?? He pops one particularly portable (read: like letter paper sized for the sake of the dumb thing that's about to happen) oval-shaped portrait off the wall, hefting it for a moment before he turns.]

Tell me, do you recognize any of these folk?

[He tosses the whole goddamn frame at her. Catch, lazy!!]

[osuni]

[Despite Okuni's compulsion to Care about Art, her gremlin personality only compels her to go so far as to care about... her own art, so Felassan is right on the money that she doesn't mind his Zero Respect. In fact, this ~act of violence~ could very possibly be a form of art in itself? She can respect that. In fact, she can feel an idea blooming somewhere deep in her soul -- that gets promptly interrupted by the frame football.

WOW...

She deftly catches the picture at least, then rotates it around a couple of times as she looks down at it, frowning]

I thought I made it clear --

[that this isn't her house?? not her paintings, not her people?? Then, quite suddenly, she claps her jaw shut, eyes focused on the figure sketched out in front of her... She places it down facedown on her lap, looking both annoyed and unsettled.]

...One of them looks familiar, but also not. [it could be a trick?? but Okuni knows Baren like the back of her hand not to pick up on a few troubling details] Why are you asking?

[tell her about the wolfsona!!!]

[sidenote]

[Please, trust in his expert plans involving throwing artwork around the room. He gives her another Look when she starts to object, plucking an even tinier portrait off the wall to turn over in his hands as he comes over now to lean against the back of her chair.

Did he have to throw the first painting. No. He came over anyway. And yet.]

I thought I saw something familiar. But it couldn't be possible, as this is not my house, either.

[There's nothing else in this painting but a nebulous Dog Shape, don't come for him.]

A trick of the light, perhaps.

[osuni]

[nice to know that elves are also chaotic gremlins at heart...

Okuni tilts her head up to look at him,]

Perhaps, but for us both? [felassan... have a Look of your own!!!] My eyesight is excellent, even if it is annoyingly dark here, and anyway, isn't the house itself strange? It won't even let me leave this room!

[why IS that... Okuni would be more worried about it, but she's just concerned about getting to paint,]

[sidenote]

[He shrugs, because that sure is strange! But is it not more important that he stay here, in this room he's chosen for some purpose or another? Hmm! Pulling paintings off the wall likely only works because he's meant to be in here, but he's not going to think about that right now.]

Did the house paint these portraits? You might have some competition.

[If only this house + these idiots were not ye oldes and had a sharpie to improve these paintings, am I right.....]

[osuni]

[u know what.... laura...

Okuni straightens in her chair, and then slowly turns to face Felassan... Artistic Passion aka Extreme Annoyance shining in her eyes. It's even easier baiting Okuni when she has something to be so Passionate about, and she just vigorously shakes her sleeves until a

paintbrush slides out of one, and a palette falls out of the other.]

Don't move. I'm going to paint something so stupendously wonderful and tear-inducingly brilliant that you'll eat your words, cry, and apologize to me, personally.

[she'll EVEN WAVE HER BRUSH AT HIM!!! probably narrowly missing a few of his polished valet buttons]

[sidenote]

[She can paint his buttons all she wants, this outfit is stuffy!!! Who does this story think he is, some other character I'd play.....

Or: he raises an eyebrow, equal parts curious and ready to egg her on to this surely ridiculous thing she's about to do.]

In that order? I can't wait to see it.

[He leans both his elbows on the back of the chair, to better peer critically at Art. Please, do the Art.]