Test Drive 1

[concierge]

Welcome to All Inclusive's test drive! Anyone is welcome!

Guidelines

• Please make sure you are familiar with how we play and what characters are allowed before participating.


• Writing should be in para/prose just like in the main game. That means no brackets, no asterisks, etc. No network posts, please.


• No anonymous comments.


• We very strongly suggest NOT writing your character's first time at the Nexus, but rather a random scenario once they've gotten more used to the idea of the place. The shock and surprise of new arrivals and subsequent info dump by whomever meets them tends to be one note.


• Entries to the test drive may be of any length. However, if your intro (top-level) comment is of normal post length and you are proud of the quality, you may use it as an example on your application.


• Feel free to tag around the meme with any character you already play or are considering, even if they don't have their own intro comment.


• If your character is accepted into the game and you have permission from the other involved players, you may consider test drive threads as game canon. You may also linkdrop them to the main community if you choose.


• Please use the header below for your intro/top-level comment.

Header

<b>Name:</b> <b>Canon:</b> <b>Location:</b>

Name: The character's name
Canon: The character's canon
Location: Choose: Somewhere in the hotel or grounds or through a door

Comments

[armedagainstlove]

It is a strange thing to find the Queen here in this place. She is still royalty and despite Athos' own background, he has not even the pedigree to touch upon her Grace with a brush of his fingers. He is no longer in that life, however, and is happy to be merely Athos. Still, he feels that his duty extends even in this odd realm and so he stands guard at the library quietly, his attention is barely on her, acting more as furniture than anything else.

He does not wish to interfere in the book she reads, but his own curiosity burns on a low level, ever-present as he remains watchful and cautious.

[somanyopinions]

Used as she was to there forever being someone on her periphery, it was some time before Anne noted that she was anything but alone. Brow creased with concern and confusion over what she had read, she had at last lifted her head and then drew a quick breath, the only indicator that she'd been at all startled to find such a familiar face lingering nearby.

Deeper confusion filled her features as she reached calmly amongst the folds of her skirt and felt the key still heavy in a hidden pocket. She had locked the door behind her, she had been certain of it.

"Have you followed me?" she asked, less accusatory than worried. It was his duty to see to her safety, after all.

[armedagainstlove]

He had been taught long ago how to work the lock of a door by those in the streets while he drank thoroughly and heavily. Locks are not a problem, especially not when he had seen a regent wandering through the hotel. "It is rare to see the Queen of France wandering the halls of a hotel in the midst of nowhere," he remarks, keeping his respectful attention deferred to the side. "Even here, my duty does not stop."

And besides that, Athos does not entirely trust Aramis any longer around the Queen. He is too eager to get them all hung for treason, he worries.

[somanyopinions]

That, Anne had to admit, was certainly true. Her reception had been so thoroughly nondescript before this moment, she had begun to wonder whether her stature mattered at all. The relief she felt at being so acknowledged was, at least, tempered by a measure of guilt over her ridiculous privilege.

"You are to be commended on your loyalty, Athos," she began, carefully closing the book in her lap and setting it aside. "But I meant whether you had followed me here from France itself. You seem remarkably composed for a man finding himself in such a strange, new landscape."

Had he been here all the time, trailing after her on each journey? It seemed unlikely, but what other explanation could there possibly be?

[armedagainstlove]

"I have been coming here from France longer than I would like," he confesses, keeping his language tidy and perfunctory. "It seems as though each week, I find myself here for a lengthened amount of time, often unable to return to France." Perhaps some might see it as a vacation or an escape from life, but Athos has clung to the duty of the Musketeers to maintain his composure through the last five years and it is what he has.

"All in all, I imagine that five to six months of experience has passed in these halls."

[somanyopinions]

"Unable to return?" Anne echoed, the concern sudden and clear in her eyes. "How long are you typically detained?"

Upon her arrival she had been informed, naturally, of the many and varied tricks of the hotel, each more incredible than the last. The information had been thoroughly overwhelming, however, and she could see now that she had not fully absorbed all that she had been told, for she could not account for her belief that being trapped here entailed a few hours at most.

[armedagainstlove]

"The doors fail to release me back there," he says, though he does not say 'home' because he has not felt as though he's had a home for many years. The manor is long ago dead in his memory and the garrison is adequate, but hardly welcoming and inviting. "I find it is often a span of one to two weeks. Consistently."

"It is not a terrible place," he concedes. "You should not fear it, my Lady."

[somanyopinions]

"It is not this place I fear, but separation from my son," Anne swiftly corrected, her voice firm. "Even should time fail to pass in France, it would not stop me missing him."

This very day she had been debating the safety of carrying the Dauphin with her to the Nexus, but this new information threw the argument into a more difficult light. Should they be unable to return, how might she care for him without a wet nurse? What if he fell ill again, and not even Constance was by her side? Yet, would it not do them both immeasurable good to experience the knowledge and freedom such a place could provide?

[armedagainstlove]

"He has not been able to travel here with you?" Athos wonders curiously. He is sure that he has seen mothers with their babes in residence at the hotel, though he has no manner of knowing whether they live here or arrive and no true inclination to find out. That would require the art of polite conversation, something Athos avoids unless the direst circumstances requires otherwise.

At times like these, he begins to wonder about what his life might look like, had his Anne bore him a child. What would have happened when Papa hung the babe's mother? Better for them all that parental affection had been lacking and children had not been produced during their marriage.