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

3

[assjokes]

( she recognizes the helpful maid-not-maid from before, but she also recognizes the helpful maid-not-maid was not scampering about on all fours prior to this. it was only a few hours ago! or maybe it was days? gideon doesn't know, everything is such a muddled blur, but she knows she's somehow duty bound to help the one who helped her. yes, it was only a tea mishap, but ducky didn't have to help her. she choose to, the same way gideon is choosing to now. )

Alright, girly... Tell me what's gotten into you, yeah?

( she hesitates at first, but then comes to pet the lady square on the forehead. it's a hell of an awkward gesture, but it's not as if there's a manual on what to do when your flatmates become kittens. )

[astraythought]

I'm not sure but...oh, can you scratch behind my ear? That would be the best thing in the world right now.

[Gideon, as someone she's met, gets the sweetest, softest kittenry from Ducky right now, her cheek resting against Gideon's thigh comfortably. She looks up with those dark eyes and smiles slightly, wishing she was capable of purring properly, instead of just making a soft mouth-sound imitating it.]

[assjokes]

( gideon has to glance around to make sure someone isn't having a laugh at her expense. a lady-turned cat is a new one, and a weird one, and she doesn't really see the joke in it, but it's just as likely as being asking to scratch behind a lady's ears like it's the most normal thing in the world, which it isn't. it's weird as hell. she has to be being put on in some way. )

Alright... Yeah. If you're sure.

( is she stalling? just a bit. she's pretty sure you can't come back from a thing like that. touch someone behind their ears and you're bonded for life. she does it, though. she scratches ducky on both sides with both hands, and she's thankful that her mask covers so much of her face because she's fairly sure she's as red as it gets beneath it.

petting ducky also feels weirdly, concerningly good, which probably isn't doing much for the absolute whirlwind of thoughts going through her mind.

that's enough of that. she might die otherwise. )

You always get like this at parties? ( 'cause that's one coping mechanism. gideon felt more partial to hiding in a corner, but to each their own. )

[astraythought]

No, never. Something is wrong here.

[But she leans into the touch regardless, letting out a contented sigh. It is good to be petted, and the camaraderie she'd been feeling with Gideon is strengthened here. Ducky always has had a certain admiration for taller, stronger women (though it is rare to find one who isn't taller than her). She feels safe, despite the problem at hand.]

I can't figure it out in this state, though. My mind is not cooperating with me. All I want to do is...well, you see. Be a cat.

[assjokes]

( somewhere, gideon's bank account is raking in the thumos, because this might be the most physically intimate she's ever been with anyone in her life [unless scrapping with harrowhark counts, and it totally doesn't]. besides, it's not like it was planned. it's not like she woke up this morning with thoughts of scratching a pretty, competent lady behind the ears like a shy kitten.

she's going to need to chug a glass of water before this is all over.

actually. )

If I fetch us some waters, will you knock them off the table like a total brat, or will you actually drink some?

[astraythought]

[There's a moment of thought, eyes closing as she enjoys the touch.]

An excellent question. I'd take a saucer of milk over a glass of water, if one was on offer. I certainly wouldn't knock that over for fun.

[assjokes]

Guess that makes sense.

( there's a question of whether or not she should leave ducky alone in this state. on one hand, it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to track down her butler and get some help getting her hands on some milk. it's a palace; it's gotta have milk somewhere. but she's already seen this lady grind up against some poor sod and paw at his bewildered thighs for attention. fuck this ton nonsense, but she's certain that's the way for ducky to get a demerit on her record. )

Come on with me. Looks like the retainers are all lined up over there... still feels weird to have a retainer at all. Sorta dodgy. I don't like it.

( she stops petting ducky and immediately hates that loss of contact. man, is she touch-starved or what? what the fuck is this? )

[astraythought]

With you?

[Ducky considers for a moment as Gideon turns. There's quite a difference in height between them, and Gideon is well-muscled. Hmmm...

She moves to behind Gideon, puts her hand on the taller woman's shoulders and leaps up to cling to her back, trying to find a way to perch piggyback.]

[assjokes]

( thank the god of this realm that gideon's retainer had somehow managed to keep her sword in the carriage. normally, gideon wouldn't go anywhere without that ghastly thing, with a ball being no exception, but she's not meant to be in cavalier mode here, so there's no reason for it — or something. when she gets back to that carriage, though, she's going to wield that sword so damn tightly...

right, back to the present: )

Aaaa?! ( and once more for the people in the back: ) Aaaa???

( automatically, her hands come down to brace around ducky's legs. it's a reflex, really, like her brain didn't even consult the rest of her before ensuring this crazy cat lady had a tight hold. her brain really should have checked in with her body, though, because gideon feels as if she's on fire, as if the physical contact between them is being mainlined straight into her nerve endings, as if everything is so sensitive, she could collapse. she takes a step forward, and it's ridiculously tottering for her. ducky isn't even heavy! the weight she feels is probably something, blah-blah, the weight of sexual repression in the face of a hot lady all tight and flush against her back. )

You, uh... you alright up there?

( because she's just fine down here. everything is a-okay. no need for concern. )

[astraythought]

[Ducky's lips are close to Gideon's ear in this hold, and she speaks in a languid whisper, apparently not aware of any distress she may be causing, with her chest pressed to Gideon's back.]

I'm perfect. Carry me off to find that milk?

[assjokes]

Yeah. ( and then, more firmly, like she isn't entirely overwhelmed and on the verge of exploding. ) Yeah. I can do that.

( she doesn't get why she's acting this way. she's carried people before. the circumstances were different, more dire, but circumstances alone can't be what has her body feeling like it's at nine-thousand degrees.

one step in front of the other. one step. two steps. inhale. exhale. she's fine. she's totally, entirely fine. never mind that people are looking at them curiously. haven't they seen a chick take care of her cat before? )

...You think they poisoned us, Ducky?

[astraythought]

Drugged? Unlikely. The onset was too quick. The effects vary. What are you feeling right now, Gideon?

[As Ducky makes biscuits with her fingertips in Gideon’s jacket, unaware she’s making the situation worse for her friend housemate.]

[assjokes]

( gideon feels that it's very likely, but ducky's smart about this sort of stuff, and if she says it isn't poison in the punch supply, then it probably isn't. )

Feeling like I want to crawl outta my skin. ( true. ) Like that trial back at Canaan House, only way sexier and less... burny. ( also true. ) Like you're really fucking hot, Ducky.

( if the fact that ducky is being carried didn't give them enough looks, her flagrant, unladylike language is adding to their list of sins. )

[astraythought]

Not usually how people perceive me at all.

[Look, she's just being honest. She's no cold beauty like Lady Hawthorne, or wild redheaded genius like Dame Agatha Sampat. She doesn't have Abbey Quarrel's curves or freckles, nor the height of Madame Ferrier.

But Gideon calls her hot, and again she wants to purr.]

Do you want me to get off your back? Is it unpleasant for you?