spherememing | March/April TDM

March/April TDM

MARCH/APRIL TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to Sphere's March/April Test Drive meme! This is a great place to get a feel for the game and how your characters might fit in here. Explore the setting, and get your samples and some starting CR all at the same time!

Applications and Reserves are always open!
Threads on the TDM are considered game canon if both parties agree to it!
Threads on the TDM may be considered for Activity Check if need be!

Spring has Sprung

So everything that’s happened, it’s just all water under the bridge right? I mean some people were infected and Annie had spread the rumors about the new people like spores but it’s all good now right? And the best way to get back into that? A good old fashioned party!

Even though the Sphere itself normally wouldn’t have seasons, according to the people here? It’s definitely spring! Spring has sprung and the apple, cherry and almond trees in the agricultural dome have burst into bloom! The blooms together give off a heady fragrance and the colors are only added to by the addition of pink, white, yellow and pastel green ribbons tied around their branches. At night, the blooms are highlighted by fairy lights, and the lights in the dome themselves have been transformed into star systems that the Sphere has dredged up from the files of people’s home worlds. No, it’s not enough to get people home but it’s definitely lovely isn’t it?

Scattered here and there in clearings are performers, each one of a different type. There’s a violinist, a pair of dancers, a storyteller, a magician and a juggler all giving shows as people stumble into their darkened corners of the domes. Each performance is an EVENT to them, and depending on the people involved, it can be intimate and romantic, or just a little bonkers. The shows are lit by fires that spark when people enter, and when they move on past, the lights dim and go out to create a personal atmosphere for people. It’s all about ambiance.

In the center of the trees, either day or night, there’s food going on. It’s a bit like a cross between a garden party and a tea provided by the Mad Hatter. Smaller tables lit with candles are the normal, having seating for two or four at their linen-covered circles. There’s a tea service on each one, filled with food that silent servers are bringing out in spades. The pastel themes from the trees themselves are in evidence here, with nearly every food being white, yellow, pink, pale purple and pastel green. There’s cucumber, egg salad, and cream cheese sandwiches cut into dainty crustless pieces, there’s small cakes and petit fours, decorated flower cookies and scones and other kinds of things covered in fondant. There’s white chocolate trifles and white berries and fruit.

But there’s also weirder things. There’s some kind of mousse that’s on the sandwich level but that definitely is an interesting shade of purple, isn’t it? And there’s something that looks a bit like a chicken pop, but is definitely green. That’s totally fine, I’m sure. It’s not like anything that shade could be absurdly spicy or anything like that. There are other pastel dishes that are difficult to identify so it all comes down to one thing: are you adventurous or not.

As for the tea itself, there’s a variety of it as well. Normal black teas with milk and sugar or honey and lemon, some varieties of green including jasmine, but there are more wild ones as well. There’s definitely one that shifts from blue to purple with the addition of lemon, which the servers take great delight in showing people. There’s also wine in white and rose, and sangria with a variety of spring fruits in it. All of these drinks are in abundance and free-flowing, and there does not seem to be an end in sight.

Oh aren't you a good egg?

Various times during the day during the Spring festival, there’s fun and games happening too. The people throwing the party have also announced an egg hunt that’s not only open to the younger members of the community (though that probably was the first reasons for it, but they’ve opened it up now) but to everyone who wishes to participate. The eggs are scattered high and low in the orchard, hidden in trees and the ground and anywhere else someone can think to hide an egg.

The eggs are in the same pastel shades, but they’re not actually eggs. Having real eggs on this scale might be difficult given how there’s not actually any animals here at all. Instead, the eggs are a shimmering and hollow plastic, and they are filled with things. There’s handmade chocolates, and small toys, there’s string friendship bracelets, and more expensive silver ones too, and charms to go along with them. Some of the eggs have riddles or sayings inside, not quite like a fortune cookie, but intended to make people smile.

The locals are living for this, so there’s actually a fair amount of competition for the eggs, and people hem and haw and fight over them but in a good natured sort of way. People will climb trees or dart in to steal eggs right under the nose of other people. If called on it, people will point that it’s in good fun and hand them over. Especially if the person appears angry at them.

A good old fashioned barn (school) raising!

So, the (remaining) members of the Council have decided that one of the best things that they could do in order to foster the Community spirit is to have a school raising in the rec dome. The school formerly had been occupied in one of the rooms in the community center, but given that there are enough both children and adults who have interest in it, they’ve decided to give it it’s own generous space. But there’s a catch: the people need to build it themselves.

The school house isn’t quite a one room building, but it’s small and will be sectioned off into five classrooms, a generalized sort of gym/cafeteria/auditorium sort of thing, and several offices and a larger breakroom for the teacher. All of the materials for both the school house and everything inside of it are provided by the council, and the wood is in large piles just over there. Unfortunately no one seems to be jumping in to be in charge quite yet (did you really think Max would do it?) but maybe that’s your character’s jam. Go nuts.

Like every good building raising, there's a pot luck with foods from all over the multiverse, as well as plenty of water, lemonade and beer. People who aren't helping with the actual building labor will be pressed into service, delivering drinks and food to folks who are. No matter how unwillingly. Max is good at that.

wildcard

This is a good place to test out something like the network or an idea of your own! Remember upon waking in The Sphere, each character is fitted with a small golden circle behind their right ear. This is how they are connected to the network through a neural link. Touch and hold the button to create a broadcast of one of three types:

Audio. Your character thinks audible words onto the network.
Writing: Your character thinks text into the network.
Video. Your character projects a broadcast of a video of themselves onto the network.

Replies are determined by the player. The network needs to be accessed by choice, so character broadcasts are not automatically beamed directly into people’s heads. The Sphere isn’t that rude.

Private messages are allowed by pressing and holding and pressing and holding again as you picture the person in your mind. This can be an image or a name, err more on the side of things being more accessible than less.

photo inspiration

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Unfortunately, Lady Brienne is not here. You'll find mostly Starks, my lady. My brother Jon and Sansa are both here, as is Lord Oberyn Martell.

[He doesn't mention Theon, if only because he isn't ready to think about Theon. There's still too much anger there and it was not easily forgotten, no matter how Sansa or Jon seemed to have forgiven him.]

I cannot say. She has mentioned she was treated badly after the Lannisters, but she has said nothing about what happened in the North. She only said she returned to Winterfell. Who did the North belong to after I died?

I rather enjoy Starks. Sansa is a dear friend, both in King's Landing and in Hadriel and there I got to know Jon well enough. And Oberyn Martell, too? Good. He deserved better.

[she knows she's in a bit of a peculiar spot since she knows of things which occurred after her death, secrets she learned and knows she can't simply blurt out]

The Boltons. And they did a rather poor job of it, too, depending on fear of Roose Bolton's madman of a bastard son to keep things in line.

What is Hadriel? Are you saying Sansa and Jon were in another world before coming here?

[He's still learning about everything that happened after his death, but so far, it had been overwhelming. This was at least less painful, hearing about yet another world.]

It would be them. Roose Bolton drove the knife into my heart, little surprise he was rewarded for it.

Another world where I was brought back to life and lived for two years. Over time and through some rather remarkable circumstances, we became quite close, even all of us sharing a house together.

[she has many stories which can be shared about her own experiences while in Hadriel, enough stories for a long time.

and at his description of his death, she ponders for a while on what to say next]

I doubt it helps, but the Lannisters never informed us of their plans for you. Not until after it was over.

My sister speaks about starting over and making a home here. After what happened, it's hard to imagine starting a life anywhere.

[There he goes brooding again.]

I can name the architects, your grace. I know your family wasn't among them. Roose Bolton and Walder Frey had been looking for reasons to turn against me. Tywin Lannister merely provided it. I doubt I was much of a threat in your family's mind.

All the better we never faced in the field. It would be near impossible, given your resources.

I'd made plans to start over in another world but Hadriel, but I found myself here instead. I can only assume that I wasn't quite ready to move on yet.

Roose Bolton, Walder Frey, and Tywin Lannister. Three of the most odious men in Westeros. I suppose it may be a small comfort that Tywin at least is dead. Killed in the privy by his own son. I'm grateful we didn't as well. Honestly, over the past two years I've had to do a lot of thinking about what I've done in the past and there's a great deal I wish I had done differently.

So these worlds will make that decision? I thought it was only someone with magic who brought us here, but that seems to exist in so many different realms. I have no desire to be pulled to another.

Did he? His own son became a kinslayer? He at least received some sort of indignity, given how much he tortured the people of the realm. The things I saw in the Riverlands, it was horrifying how the smallfolk were tortured.

Your grace, you did nothing that anyone would not do. You were trying to protect your family.

Honestly, I can't say for certain. In Hadriel, the so-called gods told me they were sending me to a place called New York City on Earth, but either they lied or the forces which run this place intervened. He did. Tyrion was accused of Joffrey's murder and lost his trial by combat, so his own father was going to have him killed. Instead, he mysteriously got loose of his cell and repaid his father for the indignities he'd done. I had heard...rumors of what became of the Riverlands, given that he sent his pet brute, Gregor Clegane, to do what he does best. Wreak havoc and make people suffer. Grandmother was as well. She was the one who poisoned Joffrey, after all.

Supposedly we are here for a reason, not that it makes matters much better. It's just another cage. Unless this is one of the Seven Hells?

Sansa mentioned that she was suspected as well for his murder. [He refrains from mentioning Sansa suggesting that it was Margaery's grandmother that committed the actual murder. It didn't matter to him either way. Tyrion never was high in his regard, but he was the better Lannister than the rest. If he killed another Lannister, he did Robb a favor.] Gregor Clegane made a point of scorching the soil and salting it so nothing would grow again.

[And then she admitted it straight to him. He's shocked, but only at her nonchalance.]Why did she?

We're always taken for a reason. It may not be one we want or appreciate, but there's always some kind of method to their madness. She was and I'm sorry for that. [but given that she herself was ignorant of the plot at the time, there was nothing she could do to defend her friend] I wish I could tell you he paid for that, but after Clegane was mortally wounded, Cersei enlisted her pet Maester to transform him into another kind of monster. She thought Joffrey was a madman. She'd seen and heard how he treated your sister and didn't want me to be put in the same position.

If they have their reason, there are better men than me that they could choose.

Our world rarely punishes those who deserve it. It doesn't surprise me that Clegane managed to live and was continually rewarded by Cersei Lannister. Even Tywin had triumphs before being killed. I didn't have that chance.

You deserve a better man than him. I understand her impulse.

I think you give yourself too little credit. You were winning in the field again and again and Tywin Lannister had to resort to treachery from the Boltons and Freys to stop you from winning everything. It does seem to have little justice to it. The fact that Cersei Lannister was alive and well, complete with her besotted fool of a brother when so many others were dead. Well. It's enough to make me abandon gods completely. In time, I wed Tommen. Who was sweet, but had no stomach to rule or to stand up to his mother.

It's possible to win several battles, but lose the war. If I hadn't trusted the wrong men, I might not have ended in the trap. Tywin was right though, I was too much of a fool.

No, he wouldn't. His mother seemed as spoiled and absorbed as her oldest child. Any woman that tried to take her spot, she would hate. The people loved you, I hear. That must have galled her.

You trusted the wrong people. Granted, were I in your shoes, I never would have trusted the Freys, but I was given to understand that you'd broken a marriage alliance with them. No family takes that well. They did love me and that did infuriate her. That's what led to her plotting my death, my brother's death, my father's death, and the deaths of countless others to get to us. And then Tommen tossed himself out of a window of the Red Keep and Cersei had the throne in the palm of her hand.

I did and I should have understood that the offer of my uncle wasn't the same as a king. I thought that they would remain loyal to their liege lord. I did wrong dishonoring my alliance, but I don't forget my choice of wife. Jeyne was a good woman.

You died?

Loyalties can be bought all too easily. The Freys were likely up for sale no matter what you did. It's a harsh truth, but it seems a likely one. Yes. Cersei apparently found a cache of wildfire underneath the Sept of Baelor. She was to be put on trial for her deeds by the Faith, so all of her enemies were assembled in one place. And so, she killed us all.

I thought all lords follow the same loyalty and honor my father did. I was naive.

Gods be good. That is a horrific way to die. I'm sorry, my lady. I didn't know.

How have you managed with the aftermath?

Perhaps. Everyone knows how honorable the Starks are. Unfortunately, it's all too easy for dishonorable people to use that against you. I won't say that it's all right because it's not and it never will be. If I was ever so unfortunate as to meet Cersei again, she'd not last long. But I've accepted that I can never go home again. A lot of time, a lot of self-reflection. It hasn't always been easy.

So I've learned. I was twice a fool and it was a hard lesson to learn.

That would be a fight I would want to see.

It's time and self-reflection I face now. I fear what the night will bring and the ghosts in the shadows. I fear the nightmares I'll have and the loneliness that will hold my life. Death was easier than this.

But now you've learned it. You can go forward with that knowledge and use it well. It actually wouldn't take that long. While in the other world, I was taught to fight, to use a sword. It was necessary and served me well on many occasions. But you don't have to be lonely. Your brother and sister are here. They'll help you in whatever ways you need.

I don't know where to use it now. I have no plans to return to that sort of life.

You use a sword, my lady? [He's smiling at the thought of Margaery in Westerosi silks wielding a sword.] You will have to spar with me.

They are, but it is a bit different. There is something that separates me from them and my guilt makes it hard for me to feel we are on even footing.

They live, they succeeded and they lived up to father's hopes. I never did.

Nor do I plan to return to the sort of life I'd lived back home. I achieved every one of my goals and in the end, they destroyed me and my entire House. I do! [and she actually does wield it while wearing dresses as close to the ones she'd had back home as possible] I would love to, thank you! I'd imagine that they're more glad to have their brother back than anything. I'd certainly give anything to see Loras or Grandmother one more time. I miss them terribly. But now you have a second chance. Those aren't given out lightly.

What sort of life do you want to live down, my lady?

[He smiles at her response and eagerness to spar with him, unable to think of another woman, save for Arya, that would show that level of enthusiasm.]

You will go easy on me, my lady? I may be out of practice.

[He's teasing, that being an easier and better quip than simply assuming he should go easy on her.]

I never had the chance to meet your brother. I regret that. My mother said he was very loyal to Renly.

I suppose you're right.

The heedless life. Where the only thing that mattered to me were my goals, what I wanted. I want to go back and follow Loras' advice to go back to Highgarden and stay there. For in the end, all the crown is is a pretty piece of metal you place on your head and you pretend it matters.[she'd be thrilled to show off what she can do with a sword while wearing silks]

Of course! My style is significantly different than the usual Westerosi methods of swordplay, but I'm sure that you'll do fine. After all, we both had the chance to practice our skills in battle.

Loras loved Renly very much. When Renly died, something of my little brother died as well. Thank you for your kind words. I know I'm right. I've seen it so many times.

Even if you stayed in Highgarden, my lady, the struggles would have found their way to you. The Reach is too fruitful and the Tyrells too powerful to remain neutral. You House would never have the luxury or the selfishness of my aunt Lysa. Survival meant picking a side and that is what you did.

Seeking a place in this world isn't a terrible thing.

You will have to show me this new method? I only know the Westerosi style.

[It's probably one of the few genuine moments of cheer he's felt in some time. The prospect of sparring and playing as he did as a boy, it eased the pressure in his chest.]

How often are you right, my lady? I get the sense that you are more than most, like your grandmother is reported to be.

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March/April TDM

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(cw: suicide mention)

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