spherememing | May/June Test Drive Meme

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May/June Test Drive Meme

All you need is love.

So the Sphere heard that some of you guys are lonely. It doesn’t want you to be lonely so it has decided that even though it’s not really February the people within its confines and connected to them deserve to have a sort of Valentine’s Day anyway. Celebrating love (all sorts of love, definitely not merely the romantic sort) is on display. Think pink and red and white and loads of hearts and rainbows.

all you need is some kind of love.

In the middle of the merchant dome, some of the stalls pushed aside a large pink and white stripped tent is set up. Inside is a series of small tables, each set up with numbers and two seats each. When people go in and register to receive the number, they are given three initial options. Option one is romantic dating with further subcategories based on gender preferences (if any) and orientation. The second option is for friendship. The Sphere wants you to make friends! A third option only open to the adults within the Sphere is for hooking up and no strings attached sex. That is also sectioned by orientation and preferences.

Each option you pick allows people to talk for five minutes before people move onto the next person. At each station is the option for ice breaker cards. Think would you rather or describe your perfect date (date date or a friendship date. Whichever you’re working on.) Should players wish it, there are various unnamed NPCs around for people to chat up, hook up with or whatever. Go a little bit nuts with it.

it's all for a good cause

John put a post up that calls for the option to sign up for (or to be signed up by someone else) for a date that’s auctioned off. She somehow managed to convince Max to host said auction (but don’t ask how. You don’t want to know what she had on him) so he is your MC for the night.

The gala takes place in the same tent as the speed dating, but it’s been made over to look rather gala like. There’s fairy lights and silk on the tables and an open bar with circulating free champagne. And everything else of course. As always with the sphere there’s food in abundance, things that typically one might think of in a romantic context: strawberries and oysters and chocolate and finger foods. It’s that sort of party. None of it has any effect though. Too many people imbibing for that.

There’s a small band playing for people who are interested in dancing, and various NPCs are currently using it. It’s a good party, lively and inviting.

i get by with a little help from my friends.

So, you know how the people within the Sphere tend to force festivals on you? Well, a big part of those is always food and gifts. These particular foods and gifts tend to come in the form of small valentine’s cakes or candy, or flowers for those not inclined for food. The flowers are yellow however, because this isn’t about love. This is about friendship. There’s signs for free hugs, and random people have been hired to go about telling folks that so and so is their friend. Even if they’re not. But they’ll still follow you down the street and spout things like poetry and cheers in the honor of epic friendships. Even if they’re not really all that epic--the friendships or the poetry.

let's go to the movies, let's go see the stars

Some people may remember a few months ago when Alex badgered Max into letting them have an open area movie screening. This time she didn’t need to do it! In the middle of the rec dome, a large screen has been set up, and there’s space for people to have blankets or chairs from home set up in front of the screen. Various vendors have set up carts or stalls here and there, selling the sort of foods that one would expect at the movies (popcorn, homemade candies, soda, juice, wine and beer, nachos and that sort of thing) along with some that one may not expect: (full curry dinners, burgers, basically a bit like a food truck festival. If you can imagine it it’s there.)

Before the movie, there’s cartoons running, some familiar, and some not, and this is an event that people have seemed to have taken to well. Children run around here taken with the idea for the movie, and it’s a fun, summery festive sort of atmosphere with a community vibe, despite the wine and beer for sale.

we're heckling! it's good to be heckling again!

The movie is a buddy movie double feature, and both of them are rated R, but there’s no one checking IDs so go nuts. The movies that are being shown are Hot Fuzz and The Heat because that’s just what buddy comedies happen to be. But movies aren’t to everyone’s taste and there are some people who have taken this to go full on commentary about them. Do you join in or shush them? It’s entirely up to you!

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“It is the name of my boyfried’s wolf,” she says as easy as anything “he is not working tonight, seeing his sister and brother, but he is here most nights. We have a shot named for the wolf- and for the shot that took my life.”

There were others, too, she was working on.

“Do you know him? My sweet Robb?”

Recognition flashes in Jeyne's brown eyes at the name, and she suddenly looks like she's about to cry. Merciful mother, Robb is here, Robb is alive, her sweet Robb—

Wait. My sweet Robb? And just like that, those three words bring a chill to her heart that's almost exactly like what she'd felt that moment during the wedding feast when she realized they'd been betrayed. Just before she'd felt that dark presence behind her and the dagger in her belly, a cold so thick and inescapable. Now she can't remember exactly what the girl had called him. But it sounded had affectionate. My sweet Robb?

"A-Aye." Her voice is breaking, and she hates it, so she tries to draw herself up in the way she's seen Lady Catelyn do. She only succeeds at stopping her tears from falling. "Robb Stark, he..." Who else has a wolf named Grey Wind? Only he doesn't sound like the man she'd married now. "He's the King in the North," she manages, ducking her head and reaching for the cup of wine she's left unattended with her shaking hands.

“He is!” Eponine beams. She was correct, this woman was from Westeros! She didn’t recognize her from Robb’s memories, as she’d been far more Focused on her new love.

“He told me all about his crown, that it was not beautiful, but he bought me this dress! Look!” Eponine gives a twirl. A dire wolf is embroidered at the nape of her neck, Sansa knowing exactly who it was for as she’d made the dress. “He says it is fit for a lady. Yet we own a tavern.” She giggles, proud of their investment. “I would not have this place if not for him.”

For the first time in her life, Jeyne Westerling empties a glass of wine in one swig. Raynald would've been equal parts proud and appalled; for a beat she thinks about her brother, and she sends a quick prayer to the gods, wishing that he made it out of the ambush alive.

And the more Eponine speaks, the smaller she feels. Robb said his crown wasn't beautiful? And he'd gifted another woman a dress with a direwolf sigil, as though she's a lady of the House, his House? It's almost too much to bear, especially since the memory of losing their child is still so fresh, just lingering at the edge of her consciousness.

But, somehow, she manages to keep herself steady, to not break down in the way she'd done when she'd woken up in her pod, schooling her features into something amicable but resilient. She's become a queen without even realizing it. "He is a good man," she agrees. And, even though she knows the answer will only break what's left of her heart, she presses on and asks, "Are you... are you his lady wife?"

"His wife!" Eponine laughs, though there is clear delight at the very idea in her eyes and demeanor. "No, no, he is my boyfriend. I do not know if there is marriage down here." She would love the very idea, but she knows Robb still mourns his wife and child. She was the one that kept the nightmares away from his bed, simply by drinking and holding Robb, fucking him. He was a handsome, good man, and she was proud to say she loved him.

Of course, sweet Eponine tended to fall in love with any man who looked her way and remembered her name, but her connection with Robb was a real one.

"We are certainly together. We have not spent a night apart since his arrival. He is more than good, madame, he is the best. No man has treated me with such kindness and love as my Robb, my King. It was he who had the idea to purchase our tavern, to name it for my brother." She gestures at the painting that served as a centerpiece above the bar. It's the closest to what Gavroche looked like that she could find, and every time she saw it she wished he'd gotten out of the barricade.

But she'll never know how many survived the night.

"I do not know what I would do without him. I love him, so very much." She's smiling at the very thought of the man waiting for her to close up shop.

While Jeyne isn't familiar with a term so modern as boyfriend, she knows it doesn't just mean a friend that's a boy, because Eponine's face and demeanor lights up as though she's speaking of a lover. Which the other girl only proves a moment later, without missing a beat, sharing the sordid details of her love life as if they're not in a public place. As if she's not speaking about someone who was married—

Well, if Jeyne had died and Robb did not — and one of her hands unconsciously slip off the table to rest on her belly, to where there should've been signs of life but now was none — then he was a free man, wasn't he? So he had every right to do anything he wanted. And, well, he's King, isn't he? He can do whatever he wants. She'd already heard it whispered around her before; that someday he would grow tired of her, that he only married her to save face, that kings were insatiable and, like Robert Baratheon, he would have bastard children with other women soon enough.

How could she have lost everything in a single day? Is she to blame for the misfortunes that have fallen on him? Or are the gods just cruel?

She feels tears come to her eyes. I love him, so very much. So does she. "He sounds wonderful, my Lady." Her voice is thick with emotion. "I... I am glad, that you are happy." It's pride that keeps her from bolting or breaking down or causing a scene, desperately holding on to what's left of her dignity. She's learned much since they'd married.

She switches the subject, looking for a way to extract herself quietly. "So there is no wolf lurking in the streets, other than this wolf you say your... boyfriend is?" She stumbles a little at that strange word. Boyfriend seems so... inadequate, if not said with the same conviction and fondness as Eponine had. "We are safe here?"

This time, Eponine doesn't wave the title of lady away. She welcomes it, with a bright, hungry smile. "Yes, I am now, aren't I?" She says, more to herself than the woman in front of her.

Without waiting for any sort of hint, Eponine picks up the bottle of pink wine again and pours the woman some more. "I am happy- for the first time in quite some time, madame. I was a sad thing, sickly and poor. I knew what it was to walk through over crowded streets and have not one person notice you. But here- I have had such a wonderful welcome, such a beautiful man who understands so much." She knew what they had now was all they could have. She was as low class as they came, thrown half-naked into a mass-grave. And Robb was a King.

"No, his brother has a wolf. He is large and white, and truly fluffy. Ghost, he is called. The wolf. The brother is called Jon Snow, and he is a brave knight. Westeros pronounces it differently. Ser, not Sir as we would in France." She sets the bottle down and leans on her bar.

"We are quite safe here. There are no wars or hunger here. No death. Even those of us who have felt its icy touch in life need not fear here."

And just like that, her glass is full again. So much for leaving.

Which leaves her no choice but to listen to Eponine prattle on about her life and her romantic affairs; the other woman doesn't seem to mind pouring her heart out to a complete stranger, shameless and... admirable in her own sort of way. And while jealousy twists Jeyne's heart in knots, she also feels it go out for this girl, so she decides to hear her out instead of simply getting up and walking away. How awful, to be so rarely happy, to be just another face in the crowd, to be sickly and poor.

She tries not to show recognition at what she hears next. Ghost, Jon Snow; they've never met, but she knows of them, having been told many stories about them by Robb. Ser, a knight; yes, just like her brother, Raynald. Oh, she hopes Raynald had survived—

Even those of us who have felt its icy touch. Us. This girl had been dead, too? Is this what this place is, a refuge for those who have fallen, who have been slain? It would explain why Robb would be here, too. "I see. We are in a most curious place, it seems... but that is good to know. I have had enough of war." And death. She can ignore the thought of her own death, but that of her child, their child? It's still so raw.

And she's not sure she should be asking, but she does, anyway: "What is your name, my Lady?"

"We are! It is under the sea, and filled with a magic they call technology. It lets us take small rain showers with the turn of a button! And lights that turn on with a flick of a switch. I am happy to be here, and I hope you are, too." Eponine was not necessarily nice but she was kind.

"My name is Éponine. And yours, madam?"

Jeyne blinks repeatedly as she struggles to catch up. Techa... what? She's never heard of that sort of magic before. Small rain showers? Lights that just appear? A place that's safe, that's freed them from death? Perhaps there is some merit to being here, as strange as the circumstances might be.

She only hopes she can find happiness, too. Her hand rests on her belly for a moment before she catches herself and draws it away. She can't think about that right now.

"Eponine, that is a lovely name." She means it. It sounds something from beyond the seas. "I..." Gods, her name. She can't bring herself to say it, suddenly afraid, though she's not sure what might hurt her more: that the girl would recognize it and what it means, or that she wouldn't? "I am Talisa Maegyr," Jeyne offers instead. It's... not exactly a lie. It had been an alias they'd agreed on for her, just in case the turn of the war would require her to run and disappear. "It is good to meet you."

"thank you! So many here have liked it. It is a fancy name back home, one that does not fit a girl of my station. Here, though, it fits. Eponine Thenardier, if you wish to know my family name." Though why Talisa would wish for such a thing she didn't know. She was her own person here now, at long last.

"Your name is beautiful as well. Talisa Maegyr. You are welcome here any time you wish, Talisa. I hope we become friends."

Eponine Thenardier. The name rolls off the girl's lips beautifully.

Jeyne doesn't want to think what else rolls beautifully off her lips. Or whose lips her name would roll off beautifully.

"Thank you. I hope so, too." Because what else could she say to that, without giving herself away? Gods, if only the circumstances had been different. Maybe, in another life, one that doesn't involve Robb Stark, they could've been friends.

A lot of names and things roll off her lips beautifully. Robb is many of those names and things.

"You must tell me if you wish a respectable job here. Not all here work, but I know Robb's sister makes such beautiful dresses here, and embroiders anything you could imagine. But I could always use more help here. We can get quite busy and I only have two hands." And sometimes one of them was occupied with Robb's butt.

Look, it was a really cute butt.

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May/June Test Drive Meme

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