spherememing | 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.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She doesn't let go of him, not fully. Steps back, but keeps touching him. She's not ashamed of him. She's more proud of him than she can imagine. He made stupid decisions, terrible things happened, and he was murdered. But that did not mean he had lost in shame.

The Freys, after all, had betrayed them. They'd broken courtesy.]

Yes. Jon, for one, he is here, with Ghost as well. [For two...] It's... a form of magic. We're not fully sure. But we're taken from our worlds, and brought here for a time.

You've missed so much, Robb. [She can't stop smiling at him, shining with love and adoration for her older brother.] But we can take it easy. You're here now. And not going anywhere.

[The list of his mistakes were engraved on his heart. He didn't need to be told that he was stupid or foolish. He had thought he was doing what was right, trying to follow his father's example, but in the end, too many things were out of his control. One misstep and a dozen problems appeared, only growing worse as he tried to deal with them.

Lord Karstark was the one that haunted him the most.]

Jon?

[Gods, it would be good to see his brother again. They hadn't spoken since he left for the Night's Watch. Had Jon been at his side, what would have happened? Would some of those bad decisions have been made or would Jon have been killed as well?]

Is it possible to be taken from death and be here alive?

If you mean Ser Jon Snow, he's here. He'll be so happy to see you.

[it's a huge turn from her usual opinion of Jon. They were closer than they'd ever been, something that would surely please him.]

It is- you're not the only person pulled here from death. You can find a second life here. There are no crowns or wars to fight. We're at peace, here.

[That...he doesn't know what to make of that. Men of the Night's Watch couldn't be knighted, hold lands or any other honors beyond what they earned at their post. Unfortunately, he is too foggy headed to question what she means by that or what might have happened since his death.]

You think to make this a home, Sansa?

[What other options did she have? King's Landing? The Imp?]

I didn't ask for this.

I have. I've been here for nearly a year. I've made friends here, such as I've never had. It is a home until I am sent back to ours. There are opportunities here I cannot afford to squander. People here I will never see again.

[Y'know. T H E O N]

None of us did. But we are so glad to see you, Robb. I've missed you more than I can say.

[She squeezes him again.] And you were so right, about Joffrey. [She has to laugh, just a little. It's been so long and she's had so many worse men in her life.]

[He lets out a rush of air, something between a laugh and a sigh. It seemed so long ago that he had tried to warn her about Joffrey or even seen her. She was older and more womanly. Obviously, she survived King's Landing.

All of it without him.]

I'm sorry the way you had to learn that.

[There was word she had appealed for their father, but Joffrey had cut off his head. It wasn't something she should have seen, but it seemed likely the little shit forced her to.]

Did they hurt you?

I was a little girl then. I wanted so much to be a princess, to have my own Florian.

He is dead now. [Said firmly and confidently.] As are all those that sought to hurt us.

They did. But others did worse.

He is? [He perks up at that. Gods be good, so there was some rescue for Sansa? Maybe not he or Renly Baratheon, but maybe Stannis or even Tyrion. As much as he disliked and mistrusted the Imp, maybe one of them had removed Joffrey and saw him pay for his actions?] How? When?

[But that hope is crushed by what she adds and the realization that her pain is his fault.]

I'm sorry, Sansa. The things I chose to do, the promises I broke. It's my fault. All of it.

His wedding to Margaery Tyrell. [She says, and she can't help smile.] He was poisoned-- and in the confusion I was able to escape.

No. Do not blame yourself, Robb. You would have come for me. I never doubted you, not for an instance. [She won't tell him how she was punished for his victories over the Lannisters, or any of the other ways she was treated in King's Landing. He doesn't need to know what had happened to her.]

[Continued HERE]

March/April TDM

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