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

[killful]

[Upon seeing Okuni's latest work, pervert hellion Yan Qing bursts into laughter.]

Cool! I like how I'm dead. Nice killing intent!

[He should probably get out of here fast. But he still has business here, okay! Let him live for five seconds!!]

Now I don't wanna part with my life too quickly, but I'm sure you're even less inclined to part with another painting. Why don't we compromise?

[osuni]

[if it's only for five seconds... but thanks for validating her artistry, yan qing. her mood like immediately improves?? whiplash who?]

Hm. [HM...] I'm listening. What exactly are you offering?

[hope it's eternal servitude]

[killful]

Not eternal servitude.

[An answer that says more about Yan Qing than Okuni, tbh.]

I just wanna know what your deal is. Like, why you gotta paint all these paintings? Is something gonna happen if you don't? As for what I can offer, hmm, let's see... I guess I could be a good boy and leave you alone? [He snaps.] I'll pose for a painting!

I'll pose nude for a painting.

[osuni]

[you know what

this isn't a bad offer/proposition?? even if it isn't eternal servitude?? hm]

Really? You'll pose nude for me just for that? [WOW.... just for telling him the plot of this entire scenario?] ...But is it worth painting you in the nude? What if you're too scrawny? Or too chiseled? What if you're so pale you just blend into the canvas? Flash me your shoulder at least so I can know!

[let her see the goods ig]

[killful]

Damn, okay, okay...

[Knowledge is power! And he's always wanted to be painted. Servants like him don't really have the chance to be.

And god, she sounds like Li Shishi — but fine. It's not like he hasn't stripped for other people before. That sounds bad without context, but it doesn't really get any better otherwise. He turns with his back toward her, slips out of his jacket, and starts undoing the buttons of his shirt. He throws her a look over his shoulder, says,]

Tell me if it's too much.

[and pulls his top off altogether, revealing skin covered in tattoos: dragons around his arms, yin-yang symbols on the back of his palms, red peonies on his stomach and chest, and the character for righteousness painted in big bold strokes on his back. It's the work of a professional tattoo artist, but getting the details down on canvas will be hard.]

[osuni]

[can't believe Okuni just asked for a shoulder and she gets a whole back... Nice. Also, she was expecting something more along the lines of a very sexy but normal back, not an interesting one??

She immediately scoots from her painter stool to take a closer look. The tattoos really are quite nice -- there's an artistry here that even she, with her own obnoxious pride, can appreciate.]

My, this is much better than I expected!

[There's something about the dragons curling up his arms that reminds her of something important -- but surely, not as important as Painting? She'll circle around him once like some kind of artistic vulture, then fly back to her stool.]

I'll do it! I'll paint you! And I suppose I can answer your questions too, but for now, I think... posing from the back would be best? I want to see the kanji more clearly!

[okuni and her circle of chaos as she grabs a new canvas and palette... She just gets right to it, momentarily forgetting that she has to ANSWER YAN QING'S QUESTIONS?? it's fine right she'll get to it!!]

[killful]

[ Well, when people want a peek, they want more and annoy him for it, so he figures it's best to take the whole thing off and get it over with? Good thing artists and horny courtesans are two totally different kinds of people. ]

Haha! Sure thing, miss. I'll grab a chair and try to sit really still! I'm good at that.

[ So he does just that. It's the sort of wooden chair with a backrest, and he's sitting on it backwards, so you can already tell how interesting this painting is going to be. A painting of him! For free! How nice. But it gets too quiet, and this is the problem with artists like Hokusai. They just get so engrossed in their work that they forget everyone around them, no matter how hot they are! So he speaks up. ]

Were you always a painter, or are they just telling you to do that? What do you really do for a living?