TDM I

[thetonmods]

The Ton Test Drive Meme I

Welcome to the The Ton's first ever Test Drive Meme!

The game will officially open on the 1st of April (lol) and we will announce this via the game's Plurk account. Applications will open on this date - please do not submit an application before then as it will be ignored until the opening date.

Please note that the Test Drive Meme does not require an invite.

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Arrival

I. WELCOME

You don't remember when or where you fell asleep exactly.

Perhaps it's the tickling sensation of a low hanging tree branch brushing against your nose or the feel of the slightly damp grass underneath you that causes you to awaken but when you do you'll find yourself lying amongst a glade of wisteria trees. You're not alone - nymphs of the trees laugh and dance about you, clearly amused at the new arrival. Along with them, your new loyal servant is here on Pheme's bidding. How this servant looks is different to each arrival. Some are saddled with short, stout butlers, others are welcomed by towering, busty maids. Regardless of their appearance, they introduce themselves with a kindness and warmth that is simultaneously reassuring and strangely impossible to resist when they beckon you to follow them from the grove and out into the city of Andovale.

The closest structure within sight is the Palace and its grounds. It is here that the Lady Pheme resides and from here that she rules over the city, your servant explains to you. You have been selected and brought here personally by her. It is she who assigned the servant to guide you through the regency-inspired city that is your new home.

Eventually, they will bring you to your new residence within the outskirts of somewhere called the "Trade Quarter". You are now the resident of a room within one of the many imposing town houses which make up the Grand Crescent. Throughout your stay here the servant will be your own personal butler or maid. This is where all new arrivals will be living for the time being you are told. Your servant will also give you a crash course on life here and the concept of Thumos - the energy or life force that keeps Andovale and all life within it going - including you now that you are here. It's generated through acts of intimacy, whether that be physical or emotional.

Once you have been shown to your room, you are given two things: a network communication device and a letter. The letter reads as follows:

My dearest reader,

Welcome to Andovale.

The delights of our fair city are yours to explore.

I do hope that you make your stay here a most interesting one. I shall be frightfully disappointed if you do not - and we do not want that, do we?

You will hear from me again very soon.

Yours Truly,

Lady Pheme

You are free to wander about and explore the house and its surroundings as you please. It's certainly spacious enough. As well as your own quarters, each of the townhouses of the Grand Crescent have large communal areas, which includes the kitchens (although why you'd like to go there when your servant can fetch any delicacies you'd like for you!), a dining room, a parlour with its own small library, two drawing rooms (somewhere you can go to chill out basically - harp music anyone?) and a generously sized garden. Strangely, unlike most accurate regency townhouses, there do not appear to be any servant's quarters - perhaps these servants don't need to rest? Or they go somewhere else entirely for that.

Why not introduce yourself to your new housemates? Or enjoy some tea and cakes that have been prepared for you personally by your retainer, which they seem to keep insisting on bringing to you?

---

II. AN INVITATION

Your arrival coincides with the beginning of spring and with it the height of the ton's social season. What kind of social event can signify the start of this better than a grand ball?

Coincidentally you won't have long to enjoy your new home in peace and quiet. Wherever you are within the Grand Crescent your house's assigned butler or maid will track you down sometime during the day. They are not empty-handed and they carry a silver tray, upon which is an envelope with a wax seal bearing the letter "P". Inside the envelope is an invitation. An invitation from your benevolent ruler, Lady Pheme herself.

Each character will receive an invitation identical in wording to the one below:

MASKED BALL

YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME HERE


Is requested to attend the ball at THE PALACE, on 25th of March current, at 9 o'clock p. m.


Do not trouble yourself - masks will be provided upon your arrival.

Lady Pheme

You have already been told that an invitation to the Palace from the lady herself is the only way in. So if you want to find out anything about the tyrant lady then you better get yourself gussied up. Your servant can help you find something appropriate to wear - or not appropriate, the choice is entirely yours after all. The ball awaits.

Masked Ball

For the first time tonight, the gates of the Palace are open. Whether you're arriving on horseback, by carriage or on foot, you must travel through those gates and down a wide sweeping roadway, lined with immaculately trimmed hedges and roses bushes.

Stone steps and huge double doors greet you at the other end. Once you go through these doors, you will enter a grand entrance hall. You will see this room and the ballroom only. All other rooms are out of bounds and no amount of physical force or magic powers will get you to them.

In the short time that Andovale has been in existence, Lady Pheme has already built herself a bit of a reputation for being rather erratic when it comes to the Palace's interior. She seems to change it on a whim whenever she feels like it. She does so hate being bored after all. The colour scheme she fancies on this particular evening is black, white and silver. The many servants and attendants milling around are dressed all in white and are of course, wearing masks themselves. Every free surface is covered in grand flower arrangements, also in white.

Upon arrival, you are handed two very important items. The first is your dance card, the second is your mask. You will not be able to enter the Palace ballroom without both of these items.










The delight that is the dance card is key to every regency ball experience. Traditionally held by young women, at this ball everyone gets one. The dance card is used to record the names of those with whom you intend to dance each successive dance with at a formal ball such as this.

Got cold feet? Dancing not your thing? You might find that card being magically filled out for you. One second it's completely blank, the next you look down and find yourself with a list of delightful individuals with whom to show off your dance moves. (You have Pheme to thank for that - she's just looking out for you!)

Curiously, there is no sign of your generous hostess herself. Just a throne sitting empty at the top of the ballroom.

As for the masks, well... they're not quite what they seem too. It isn't as though you'll have any choice but to find that our for yourself. As previously mentioned, there's no entering the ballroom without one on. You might be able to persuade someone to swap masks with you or ask a member of the Palace stuff for another one - but they're all about as chaotic as each other.

Hey, at least the drinks are unlimited.

A typical regency ball usually ends around 5 in the morning so you might be here a while.

Note: The images below are just a guide, you can decide exactly what your mask looks like as long as it fits within the colour/animal category described.

Silver Mask

Simple and classic - unless you go for one of the more elaborately patterned ones.

The wearer of this mask will find themselves experiencing only the most pleasant of hallucinations. We'll leave the interpretation of that up to you.

You're also hungry. Really damn hungry.

Blue Mask

Masks of this hue will leave the wearer with an overwhelming sense of sadness. You're just plain bummed out.

Unless that is, you get yourself someone to dance with. In fact the only way to feel remotely normal or cheerful while you're wearing this mask is to dance the night away and you will feel compelled to do just that. Otherwise you're just going to be a giant sad sack all evening and nobody wants that.

Peacock Mask

Wow, so you like to make a statement, huh? Or maybe it was the only one within reach. Either way, nobody's going to fail to notice you in one of these.

Seriously. No, seriously, is it just you or is everyone staring at you? You know the mask is pretty garish in comparison to the others but this seems like an overreaction...

The truth is this mask makes you irresistible to others. So you have the personality of a shovel? Your problems are over, my chum. All of the ton will now be dazzled by your sparkling wit and the positively flawless way in which you conduct yourself. Everyone's laughing at your jokes, even when you didn't make one. Everyone wants to be the first name on your dance card. You might even find yourself with a couple of marriage proposals by the end of the night.

You lucky thing you.

Pink Mask

Two words: MEET CUTE.

Come on, it's everyone's favorite trope! You know that romcom hero or heroine who is delightfully and cutely clumsy? Always bumping into their future love interest? Well, this mask lets you become just that.

You know, after your third spilled drink of the night this could actually get really annoying.

Harlequin Mask

There is no such thing as privacy for those who end up with a harlequin mask. It may take you a while to realise (unless someone else takes pity enough to point it out to you) but this particular mask projects the wearer's innermost private thoughts onto the front of it for anyone else to read.

Let's hope you're not thinking anything too insulting. Otherwise, we might have a fight on our hands.

Cat Mask

This mask causes the wearer to start acting... well, like a cat.

Chasing shiny objects, randomly knocking glasses off the drinks table, rubbing yourself against somebody else's legs... all of that. You weirdo. What will it take to ward you off? A spray from a water bottle? A laser pointer? If only those had been invented...

Golden Mask

This mask will really amp up your Thumos production. When we say really, we mean really.

The slightest touch from another will suddenly feel like ecstasy to you. Even something as simple and bland as someone tapping you on the shoulder is liable to have you feeling weak at the knees.

Naturally this could get a little awkward if you've never even met the other person before. Oh well, at least they can't see your face properly.

Red Mask

Red is the colour of passion. That must be why you're passionately angry at that person. Specifically the first person you lay eyes on once you enter the ballroom. You might even say that they are your nemesis.

Does this person even know that they're your nemesis? Probably not. (Unless they just happen to also put on a red mask and lay their eyes on you at exactly the same moment!) It doesn't matter. Clearly they must be stopped.

Now no decent, upstanding member of the ton would condone actual violence of any kind. Particularly not at a high society soirée such as this. Your fighting must be sneaky, subtle - make them feel like they're simply not welcome here! Throw thinly veiled insults at their attire, literally throw one of the vol-au-vents at them when their back is turned, accidentlly spill your glass of lemonade in their lap... Do whatever it takes. Well, within reason.

How do you like them apples?

The bustling market of Andovale's Trade Quarter is known for having only the finest produce. This week there is a new stall that has never appeared before and it does not specialise in your run of the mill fruit and vegetables.

This particular stall is selling golden apples. In appearance they appear to be literally made of solid gold yet the beautiful woman minding the stall demonstrates that they are perfectly edible. In fact, they're downright delicious - you just can't stop yourself taking a bite. We would venture to say that they are probably the most delicious apples you have ever tasted.

They also come with side effects.

The legendary Golden Apples of the Garden of Hesperides were a wedding present to the goddess Hera from Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life. The apples promised immortality and anyone who ate them would never again experience hunger, thirst, suffering or illness... well, these apples are but a pale imitation of that. No, you won't become immortal but for exactly twenty-four hours after you've taken your first bite you will find that you don't need to eat, drink or rest. Your strength and stamina will increase tenfold and things that would normally cause harm to you cannot. Optionally, you may also be feeling extremely concupiscent, as the locals would put it - aka horny to you and me.

Somehow there's always a bad apple in the bunch though, right? Or several.

Unfortunately some of these apples are Apples of Discord. If you happen to pick one of these, one bite will still give you all of the traits mentioned above but for the next twenty-four hours you will find that unluckiness and chaos seems to shadow your every step...

So maybe you're passing beneath an open window and a maid accidentally empties a vase of water and some dead flowers on your head. Maybe you're in your local inn just trying to have a quiet drink but find that others are constantly trying to start a fight with you. Trying to get lucky with that special someone? Maybe certain parts of your anatomy just will not get with the program. And we advise you to maybe avoid carrying anything delicate and breakable for the next short while.

Wildcard

To assist you with inspiration our full list of Andovale's locations can be found here.

Want to play something that isn't listed here? Go ahead!

Please note that TDMs are considered game canon.

Both prospective and current characters who are already in game will be permitted to top-level on TDMs.

As your first port of call, we would recommend having a read of the premise page, as well as our rules. For any general game questions you may have which are not answered by the FAQ then please leave a comment on the FAQ page - for any questions specific to this TDM then please respond to the questions comment below.

Most importantly - have fun!

Comments

[knife2meetu]

And just like that, they've broken the ice. Leon smiles, lopsided enough to call roguish, a fair mirror to her own smirk. He sees her, another outsider like him, trying to get a grip on the situation. It's good to see. Too often, he's seen complacency bite decent, innocent people in the ass, and he sees trouble all over. Not a mentality terribly conducive to enjoying what might otherwise be that coveted vacation he's always wanted.

"You're right, can't leave them starving. Let's give 'em something to talk about."

He puts out a gloved hand, swinging his head into a tilt as he lifts his eyebrows. Don't be fooled, Leon might be easy on the eyes, but that smart mouth can deliver some groan-worthy, terminally 90s corny lines. It's just part of the package. So are the callouses on his fingers, the tactile evidence of a fighter.

"Leon Kennedy," he introduces, asking as his eyes flit over her face, noting the pale streaks in her hair. "Ma'am?"

[ofwovenstone]

Fortunately, having never experienced the 90s herself, Cassandra will have to judge his lines on general corniness alone. She takes the gloved hand he puts out, her smirk shifting into an amused, playful smile. There are callouses on her own hands, a sign that she’s a woman who knows her way around a weapon. “Oh, I’m sure they already are, undoubtedly. Walking along the shore unchaperoned as we are. Assuming there’s anyone watching.” Which, she wouldn’t be surprised of, to be honest. After all, Lady Pheme does expect them to be interesting. This isn’t her first experience with the… societal expectations of this era, either, even if it had been on another planet, and for the moment she’s more amused by it all than anything. (No doubt that will change, shortly.)

“Cassandra de Rolo,” she replies, gazing up at him, “at your service. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Leon.” She would have preferred it involve less kidnapping, but you can’t have everything. That’s one thing that’s always been something she’s appreciated about galivanting between worlds with varying levels of say in the matter. The opportunity to meet those she probably never would have had a chance to. (Even if it did sometimes break her heart in the end.)

[knife2meetu]

"Chaperones, god," Leon says with an incredulous shake of his head, "We're not in Kansas anymore." Having shook hands and gleaned a little more interesting observations about her at the same time, the former cop attempts to keep her talking, to get some more. His interest, he tells himself, is purely professional. Maybe there's some untruth to that. She is easy on the eyes, with a playful, upbeat personality tempered by what seems like experience.

Yeah, he can't help but notice she isn't too worked up about being here, "Though I'm gonna guess this isn't your first rodeo. You get swept off to lands unknown like this often, Cassandra?" Leon is thinking more a traveler, not necessarily worlds-and-universes-hopping heroine.

[ofwovenstone]

A reference she actually gets, and not for the first time Cassandra silently thanks Claire for her education in Earth movies. “We’ve gone straight over the rainbow and are probably going to have a hell of a time getting back.” Particularly if Lady Pheme has any say in the matter.

“Not my first rodeo in the slightest.” That he noticed that she’s not all that bothered by the strange new world thing is interesting. It means he’s observant. “And it’s happened more often than you’d think, actually,” she answers with an amused laugh. “This isn’t my first time getting drawn to another world. And I was already somewhat accustomed to what would no doubt seem strange to some, given my world of origin.” Not her home. Whitestone hadn’t been home in a very long time. She’d found her home in the worlds that had come after. With the people that had come after. “I’ve learned that not every world has dragons. Or magic.”

That was absolutely a casual mention of dragons. And magic. All in the same breath.

[knife2meetu]

Looks like sharing in his uniquely Earth-bound cultural reference goes over well, judging from the way he eases into a more casual posture, smile lingering. He always appreciates a pretty face with a sharp wit and a sense of humor. Moments like this — to talk about anything without lives on the line — are rare, so he indulges in the reprieve.

Even if this involves the mind-blowing revelation that, on at least one world, all that fantasy stuff like dragons and magic exists, and cases like Earth are more rare.

"Really," he breathes, "Wow. You're actually serious." Leon isn't sure he's that surprised. In the last six years, he's seen some crazy, unbelievable shit, and now he can add transported to another universe/world, where magic is real and actual goddesses walk among the people, looking to dig up the dirt on people just living the life they've got.

"Sounds like a hell of a story," adds Leon, noticing an opportunity, a little leery of going for it. What's the harm? Might even learn something.

[ofwovenstone]

There’s something a little… wonderous, about his reaction to learning that dragons and magic exist in her world. It reminds her that there are still wonderous things in Tal’dorei, though she might find it difficult to see them, to find them, anymore. She can’t help but give him a little grin. “Quite serious.”

There are a hundred tales she could tell, and plenty of those are safe to share without revealing… too much. Without talking about the Briarwoods. She might like him, she might find herself surprisingly comfortable around him despite only having just met… but there are some things she carries close to her chest.

No matter how much being away from Whitestone has done for her.

“Oh, very much so.” And where Leon is a little leery she is just a touch brazen and steps right into the opportunity he’s noticed. “One I’ll happily share, even. Care to join me for a walk?” What would their non-existent chaperones say, her inviting a strange man to walk with her along the shore so soon after meeting him? Somewhere there are magically appointed (and possibly magic themselves) butlers and maids feeling vaguely scandalised with no idea to the cause. They'll be even more scandalised by her intentions of asking him to dinner, after.

Fortunately she cares not at all.

[knife2meetu]

A kind of normal, rare enough to treasure, sits comfortably in the space between them, even with the talk of dragons and magic. The weather is fine, just a little bit raw enough to warrant layers, there's no stink of smoke or blood on the breeze, no dread-inducing sounds creeping around corners. The unimpeded, sweeping view of their surroundings is a comfort under daylight.

"Unchaperoned? The scandal," he jokes, a callback to barely minutes ago, "Love to."

Funny how minds like theirs think alike, Leon's been entertaining the idea of dinner, too. Not one of those fussy affairs like these guys like to do around here. Like a pot of homemade pasta and a bottle of wine to share, except it isn't really about him, so for all he knows she might like fussy. He's got his doubts, though, already marveling at this unexpected thing he thinks is too early to call kinship.

"Your 'world of origin'," he begins to ask, using her phrase, "What's it called?"

[ofwovenstone]

“Somewhere our keepers are feeling shocked and vaguely horrified and have no idea as to the cause,” she replies with a huff of laughter, echoing her thoughts from a moment ago aloud. She can’t help the delighted smile at his answer, blue-grey eyes sparkling as she gazes up at him.

Fussy has its place, but they’ll be dealing with plenty of fussy and proper here without seeking more of it out on their own. She far prefers something lowkey and comfortable, anyway. Perhaps they can commandeer the kitchens for a bit. And then steal away to somewhere away from all their minders so they can eat without an audience. “It’s called Exandria,” she starts. “My…” she falters for a moment, as she always does when speaking of Whitestone. “The city I called home is Whitestone, on the continent of Tal’dorei.” It’s past tense, for her, now. In part, because she’s been gone some time. But more because it just… hasn’t been home in a very long time.

[knife2meetu]

"Exandria," his eyes flit towards the sky thoughtfully for a moment. Very C.S. Lewis. Or was that Tolkien? He doesn't care enough to make sure he's got it right, most of this stuff was picked up just knowing people who were more interested in it than he was. Wilder still, some of the strange trivia he picked up as if through osmosis came in serendipitously handy. "I'm never gonna remember these names, you know that, right?" An apology without strings attached.

"You called it home. Whitestone," Leon observes, "Doesn't sound like it's been home for a while. When were you there last?"

If it sounds like Leon's attempting to keep her talking, he is, and maybe it even has the trappings of how he'd have done this as a cop, encouraging people to communicate with him. His interest, however, is genuine.

[ofwovenstone]

She laughs, and it’s an amused, bright noise. “I do, yes.” And she isn’t offended in the slightest by that, either. It’s all a bit of a mouthful, probably, to anyone who wasn’t raised there. (And he hasn’t even heard her full name, yet.)

There’s a wry smile playing on her lips, a little sad, a little tired. She’s amused, though. He’s as observant as she’d suspected he was. But she has to think a minute, because it’s been some time since she’s been there at all. “Years, I think. I’ve lost track.” Nor had she cared, really. It had been enough to free of its walls. She pauses there, so brief he might miss it if he’s not paying attention. “But it wasn’t home a long time before I ever left it.” And I agreed to fight a war for the gods to escape it.

The truth. She hadn’t considered Whitestone home long before she’d left it that first time. It had spent too long as her prison, her torture chamber, for it to be her home anymore. She’d thought that there might have been a chance for it to be home again, someday… but Percy had made certain that wasn’t the case. Would never be the case. He’d made that quite clear in Rome.

[knife2meetu]

Leon has always found a draw in ladies with confidence, especially in a sparkling smile and genuine laughter. He finds an implicit compliment in making a pretty, worldly girl like Cassandra laugh. It feels good, makes him feel pretty alright with himself while it lasts. No exception here, only it's made bittersweet by the tinge of fatigue, of sadness that Leon recognizes in her wry smile.

There's nowhere else Leon's attention could be, so of course he's thinking about the possible significance of that pause. He isn't getting the whole story, he suspects, but that's fine. Everyone has their secrets. The women in his life especially.

"Where'd you go after you left?" he asks.

[ofwovenstone]

Cassandra has been more honest with Leon than she perhaps meant to be. Her confession that Whitestone had ceased to be home long before she left it that first time is something she’s scarcely spoken aloud. The truth, in secret. Known only to herself. And now him. She’s oddly all right with that.

“A lot of places,” she murmurs softly. “Ancient Rome, to fight a war for the gods. There was time spent in the Feywild, I think, but my memories of that are… hazy, at best.” She still carries the gifts the Fey gave her, and she knows she was there… but her memories beyond all of that are foggy, and distant, to where she doesn’t know when her time there fell. Was it before Rome? After? The life of another Cassandra who was kidnapped by the Fey rather than volunteering to fight for gods? It doesn’t truly matter, the gifts are hers and the hazy memories are hers. Whenever they may have occurred.

There were other places too, but she speaks of the pertinent ones. “A spaceship, in an unfamiliar world, travelling among stars I didn’t recognize.” She glances up at him. “It was there that Lady Pheme found me, and brought me here.” Or nearly so. They’d been leaving the ship, she’d been leaving the ship for somewhere else when the goddess had apparently had other plans.

[knife2meetu]

Ancient Rome? Earth? As in the Ancient Rome in his own world's history books? If Pheme could pluck him right off his own world and plant him back down in her little Wonderland, what's to say some other being on her level couldn't take someone like Cassandra out of her own world and put her in his, albeit in its distant past. It's crazy to think about, a little, like centuries could have separated them at one point. It's insane.

Never heard of anyplace called Feywild. Sounds like something he'd see on a book spine at a Barnes & Noble in its Fantasy section, or in the hands of a college student chewing on a sandwich, soaking up the free Wifi.

"Hazy?" he asks, aware that there might be little point in inquiring if she can't remember. Leon shakes his head again in wonder. A spaceship, too? "Think you hit every hit genre on your way here," he jokes, "Space... Jesus. What was that like?"

[ofwovenstone]

Cassandra nods. “I can remember… bits and pieces, I remember being brought there, the different courts of the Fey. How beautiful it was. Little flickers of other things. But details, the people I met there, what happened day to day… all hazy.”

His comment makes her laugh. “I think I might have. At least it made for a little variety.” And she’d been free. Freed.

“It was fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. Getting to see stars I’ve never seen in any sky I’ve stood under, visit planets I’d never dreamed of, before.” Her blue-grey eyes are alight as she tells him about it, and there is wonder in her voice, a fondness for all her adventures. For the freedom they’d given her. “Also discovering technology more advanced than any world I’d been to.”