May/June Test Drive Meme

[sphererpmod]

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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[prumia]

It's... that night at the Crag all over again, only it's so many times worse because of everything that they've been through together by now. His grief, his pain, swallowing him whole; she can't let him drown, she can't let him fall into that void. Not again. Never again, as she'd quietly sworn to herself and to their gods when they'd married. He was her sword, and she was his shield.

"Stop it," she says, her voice thick with emotion despite it being so deathly quiet, and she lifts her hands to cup both sides of his face, dropping the flowers she'd been holding. They don't matter. Nothing, no one else matters. She knows that there are far too many people around them, that they should take this conversation to someplace more private, but these are things he needs to her. She can't let him walk away still smothered by his grief. "It wasn't your fault. None of it was your fault." Tears are welling in her eyes now, and she knows she won't be able to hold her ground for long. She never could, not with him. She loved him far too much. "You were honorable and true, and they betrayed you for it." What is it they say about good men? Ned Stark had been a good man, and they'd killed him, too.

"I'm here now." Will it make a difference? Does it matter? She doesn't know. "And I am glad. I thought of you to the very end, my love. How happy you made me, even in the little time we had together. You are my King, Robb Stark, now and always, and I love you."

[kingnamedstark]

He can feel some looking at them, casting them a glance as they pass. Tears and grief seemed to attract attention, but so far, there was no one close enough to hear their conversation. As soon as her hands were on his cheeks, he forgot all the rest. He was held by her kindness and warmth, just as he had been during that night when they first lay together. He heaved a sigh, letting the weight of his mistakes drop for a moment, needing to simply be surrounded by the woman he loved. Others might have wondered if it was simply honor that pushed her to marry him, but in truth, he needed her. He needed her comfort, love and the peace she brought him. "I should have seen- I should have known."

They were the feeble protests that existed in his mind, no matter how often he reminded himself that even his father was betrayed. His guilt would not relinquish its hold, even with Jeyne present. "You are my queen, my wife. I love you, do you remember? I told you the night you shared you were with child. I love you."

She's here, as she said. The nightmares might increase or abate, he couldn't say. Everything hadn't become easier, as much as he hated to admit it. His guilt felt even closer and sharper than before, simply looking at her and her flat stomach. "I fear I have disappointed you in the end."

[prumia]

"You could not have." Her retort is gentle, but there's steel in it, too. She'd proven herself to be far more resilient than anyone had expected, and she'd learned a lot from watching and spending time with Lady Catelyn, too. "They had fooled us all." Perhaps if she had been more political-minded, she would've been able to help him, but even then it wasn't her place to question his men's loyalty, either. "It was only when I heard..." she trails off, stopping herself. She doesn't need to remind him of that wretched song, and what it had meant.

Be patient. Be understanding. It's all she can do in the face of his grief, and she will do this for him, every day and every night, for as long as he would have her. Gently, she brushes his tears away, ignoring her own. "Aye, my love, I remember." She smiles. "I have only died, Robb. I have not forgotten." Well, there's some grim sense of humor she hadn't been aware she had.

"You could never disappoint me," she tells him quietly. Perhaps love has blinded her that she could see no wrong in anything he does, but it is what it is. Noticing the glances now being thrown their way, however, she feels compelled to accept his earlier offer for a private conversation. "Shall we speak further in your quarters?"

[kingnamedstark]

He nodded, grateful that she seemed to forgive him and care for him still, despite everything. It left him reeling, as though he had drank something strong. It was a better feeling than ale had left him of late, and perhaps for once, he felt a measure of peace, despite all that had happened. He reached for her hand, pulling her close again. His arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly as he buried his face in her hair. Just a moment more, a moment more before he turned away to lead her to his rooms, risking the chance that she might disappear again.

His sphere wasn't overly decorated. So far, it had served his purpose. It wasn't as if he slept there at night. He only visited, dressing and eating there before leaving. It wasn't a home to him, not that any place in this world was home. At least until now. With Jeyne, that might change. The one factor he had been missing, aside from his mother, was his wife.

It was at least clean. He could say that much. "I know this place is strange. I wish I could explain it better to you. I still have no sense of where we are or why we're here. For some time, I thought I was in one of the Seven Hells."