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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The trouble is this world doesn't always let mistakes rest. I have seen mine played out a number of times when they display our memories. Having my wife suddenly appear as well means that everything can be given, interrupted and taken away within a breath of itself.

If she came back now...

[He let out a sigh. It seemed unlikely though, almost as if it was a gift given once and then never again. If he assumed the powers that be of this land had a reason, it might be to give him the chance to make amends, but that seemed far too convenient and kind.]

I have been trying to start a new life. Becoming someone new, it isn't a clear path for me.

[ As impossible as that sounds, she believes him. After all, how is it that a place can have the ability to bring people in from different realms and worlds and not be able to do other curious things? She stops for a quick moment to wonder how this world will affect her.

She offers Robb an encouraging smile. ]

If you forgive yourself for those mistakes, this world cannot hold them over you anymore. Move forward, Robb. Do not look behind you.

[ She lowers her chin down on his shoulder. ]

You are not going that way.

[It's advice that's appealing. He's tired of lingering in the past or thinking of his guilt, having them wrapped around him like chains. It seemed like there was no way to shake it off and leave it in the dust.

Moving forward seemed to be the only feasible option left to him. Either sink or swim. That wasn't the life he wanted here, not with his family or his last chance at life.

What he did, how he attempted to move on, he would have to find on his own.]

Not going that way?

[He looked down at her, smiling softly.]

Is that a vision you had?

[ The fact he was open enough to tell her anything was something that surprised her and it's nice that he will consider the forward course. The memory of his wife will always be with him, there was no doubt in her mind there and in her mind, she hopes Robb will soon believe that she will forgive him.

A soft laugh sounds between them, shaking her head. ]

Only if you make it a habit to walk backwards. Maybe I can help keep your focus forward.

That seems likely to happen.

[Between his tendency to focus on darker moments, she would have several opportunities to give him a poke forward. In the morning, once his head was fully cleared, he would consider what to do. Right now, he's more focused on her and being in this bed.

He pressed a kiss to her lips.]

There was no one in your world?

[ Going forward, she is going to do her very best to keep him from focusing on them. There is plenty for them to do and talk about, but like him, right now she wants to pay attention to the way he makes her feel.

She shakes her head. ]

No. Not anyone I loved. I was to be married to the jarl of Hedeby.

[ Her brow creases and it's clear she was not at all happy about that. A moment later, it smooths back out. ]

My mother arranged it. I fear of who I might become had I not woke here instead.

The Jarl? Is that like a king?

[It's not something he's surprised by. She's beautiful, charming and clearly noble in some way. She likely was sought after by numerous men. He could picture her with a crown on her head, something made out of coral and shells.]

My mother arranged my marriage as well, but I chose differently.

[And now she has chosen a different way.]

Was your intended fat and ugly and smelly, too?

[ She laughs again, pressing a kiss on the edge of his shoulder, while a free hand began to trail light fingertips across his stomach. She was quickly beginning to grow fond of the feel of his skin under hers. ]

But yes, but a local ruler, more like. Not all countries have them, but Hedeby is an important trading center. I think she only did it to secure her older years.

I couldn't say at the time. The betrothal was made without me seeing the girl. She married my uncle when I wed Jeyne instead, breaking my betrothal. When I saw her later, she was very beautiful and sweet looking.

[But just not the sort of woman that turned his head right away.]

How does one become a Jarl? Through conquest?

I wish that were my case. I don't ever want to go back. He's not a nice man.

[ And judging by the way she looks at him, she's rather frightened of the man.

She nods. ]

Sometimes. They are distinguished by their wealth and how many followers they have. Each one can pass it to their son, or if Karl, one from the main population, challenges and wins then he becomes the next ruler.

Do you have something like it in your world?

Not nice how?

[It worries him to see how frightened she is and to imagine her subjected to someone like that. He gives her a small squeeze in an attempt to remind her she was in this world and nowhere else.

If touch could tether her at all.]

Something similar. There was a Lord Protector of the Seven Kingdoms and a king above them, who ruled the entirety of Westeros, but the North has become independent in my time and named their own king.

[ Armeria doesn't answer right away, but the look on her face isn't one that was setting up to tell false statements about someone. ]

Very cruel. He likes spilling blood.

[ After a moment, she wills the face in her mind away and focuses on Robb and his words. ]

And who is that?

A number of men who climb to power are that way.

[He sounded like Ramsay Snow or Joffrey. It turned his stomach how easy it was for men torture others for their own amusement.

He considers the answer, but in truth, he is no longer king. Why should he claim the title when his life was over?]

My brother was pulled when he was named king, but my sister apparently will also hold the title.

[ It was true. But not all Jarl's in her time and world murdered their wives.

Armeria decides she doesn't want to talk any more about it.

She shifts her body right up against his left side, propping her head in one hand and listens intently to him speak. ]

What about you? Did you not hold the title when you were still alive?

[He hesitates to answer before suddenly catching on her words.]

How did you know I died?

Your scar.

[ Her hand slides directly above his heart, moving the edge of her thumb across the length of it. ]

It was a mortal wound.

My loyal bannerman gifted me that. In exchange for the title that was my father's, he allied with our enemies.

[He knows Sansa and Jon hate Ramsay with all of their heart and recognizes the man was a monster, but compared to the father, he was just a Joffrey.

Roose Bolton was a cancer that had been nurtured at his breast.]

My wife and mother were killed at the same time. It was supposed to be a wedding celebration for my uncle.

[ What a betrayal. She wants to say something, but what Robb has just told her can not be eased with words. So, she sits there in silence, looking at him and doing what she can to convey her sympathy through touch. ]

I hope they will be paid in kind when it is their time. Slow, agonizing, dishonourable deaths.

I am sorry.

[ She can't help but share his loss. ]

Justice and revenge aren't very satisfying when you can't see it. I've seen as well that it rarely falls into place for the right person at the perfect moment. I thought I would avenge my father's execution, but his murderer was poisoned at his wedding.

Roose Bolton was apparently killed by his son and his son was killed by my siblings. It should be satisfying but it isn't.

[He shook his head.]

My world is not kind.

No, it isn't. I could say that you are better not being in it, though it is and will be apart of you for as long as you are able to think about it, even despite all the pain that is associated with it.

[ She takes the side of his face and brings it to look at her. ]

Be angry if you must, but don't let it consume you.

It is. [He hesitated, finally able to give voice to so many things.] I think what I hate most is that everything I did or contributed was worthless. I mattered so little. My war, my cause, what was the point of it in the end?

My siblings did it all without me and I'm nothing but a shadow in my world.

[He's not angry anymore, he's frustrated and exhausted, but can't feel much of anything else.

Still, he leaned into her touch.]

They tell me to use this as my new chance, but I think they don't understand that the first chance was failure and defeat.

[ Armeria lets him release and listens closely as he does. It was clear to her that he had been carrying this for as long as he had been in the Sphere, impossibly frustrated with the lack of answers the universe was willing to give to the questions that he desperately needs answers to.

When he's finished speaking, Armeria pauses and offers something she is unsure will make much sense, but it is the best way she can offer an explanation. ]

In my world, we leave everything up to the gods and trust that they know exactly why each person is who they are and for what purpose they will fulfill. Everyone has a fate and sometimes that fate is unsatisfying. And sometimes it's for a greater cause.

I don't think coming here is apart of it. What if it is meant to give you something that you did not get when you were alive? Maybe it is happiness or maybe it is a chance to realize that your death is significant to a lot more than you might expect.

If it is significant, I haven't seen it yet. [But he doesn't want to talk about this, not while he is in bed with her. He'll face it tomorrow, something he had been telling himself a number of times after Jeyne left. Being a failure was difficult pill to swallow and he needed to find his way out of that.] The gods are hard to find here.

[He pressed a kiss to her temple, preferring to focus on the here and now.]

You're welcome to stay the night.

[ Armeria can sense him closing the topic for the time being. If it came up again, she would listen, but it was time to let it go for now.

She lingers there in his arms quietly for a moment before shifting to lay on top of him, her smile turning devious. ]

And do what? I am not tired yet.

[ No, sleep was the farthest thing from her mind right then. As she says it, she's slowly moving down his body and disappearing under a white sheet where he will feel her lips on him. ]

Edited 2021-01-13 22:57 (UTC)

[He was about to answer her when she disappeared under the sheet, stunning him speechless. Thoughts disappeared as her lips wrapped around him, stirring his sleeping member to life.

He took a sharp breath as his fingers curled in her hair, his eyes closing as he basked in the sensation.

He couldn't help but groan, already overwhelmed by her and the warmth of her mouth.]

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May/June Test Drive Meme

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