saltburnmods: (Default)
π–˜π–†π–‘π–™π–‡π–šπ–—π–“π–™ π–’π–”π–‰π–˜. ([personal profile] saltburnmods) wrote in [community profile] draino2024-09-07 10:00 am
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𝐈 πƒπŽπ'𝐓 ππŽπ‘πŒπ€π‹π‹π˜ π‹πˆπŠπ„ π‚π‡πŽπ‚πŽπ‹π€π“π„ π‚π€πŠπ„ β–£ SEPT TDM





SEPTEMBER 2024 TDM: LUGHNASADH


Welcome to SALTBURNT, a panfandom smut/thriller game based off the film Saltburn, where characters are encouraged to indulge their deepest desires. The money never runs out and the liquor never stops pouring, so you may as well indulge from the bounty. Of course, things are rarely what they seem, and the manor itself seems to have a consciousness of its own. Throw parties, trash the house, engage in youthful merriment, but remember β€” dangers come out at night, and no one, no matter how rich you are, is safe from demons lurking in the shadows.

Threads can be considered game canon, provided the players agree. Players can also start fresh upon acceptance into the game. In game characters can post to the TDM directly, using Β« NEW CHARACTER/IN GAMEΒ» in the header. There will be a spot below for new characters to link their toplevels for easy access. Alternatively, prompts on the Test Drive can be used for in game logs.







WELCOME TO SALTBURNT


It's the hangover more than the light streaming in through half drawn curtains that wakes you up, your brain rattling in your skull, your mouth dry and cottony, your stomach churning with whatever it is you drank last night. If self preservation is your strong suit, you might turn over in bed and see a few painkillers laid out for you on a silver dish, accompanied by a glass of water. If it isn’t, stay in bed and wallow β€” eventually a maid will be in to tear your curtains open, saying, "Breakfast is served," and scurrying out quietly, invisibly. Breakfast? Maybe it’s normal for you. Maybe it isn’t.

You're drawn from the room, either by the mystery, or an undefinable urge that could be supernatural in origin, or could be your hunger catching up to you. It's almost nostalgic, the walk to the dining room β€” have you been here before? Were you drawn up to this estate in a car? Haven’t you done all this already? Maybe you mosey around a library, maybe you run into your suite mate in your adjoining bathroom. Regardless, seemingly all hallways, covered in priceless artworks and ancient relics from times long past, lead to the dining room, where a comically long table houses the Balfours and their many guests, some who seem just as disgruntled and confused as you. No matter. "Breakfast will be out in a minute," they say. What's that?

EDIT SEPTEMBER 2024: For those who have attended breakfast with the Balfours before, a change in routine might come as a shock, given how rarely they stray from form. However, as of September, CARMY BERZATTO has taken over Head Chef position, alongside his cousin RICHIE JERIMOVICH and always the bridesmaid never the bride, SANJI. In place of the self-serve style breakfast, there is an elevated menu, including: a self-serve juice bar, with pitchers of various juiced fruit and vegetables, shaved ice, coconut water, green and black tea syrups, potted microherbs, sliced whole berries, and finger limes. There is also, naturally, liquor and champagne available. Guests can make their own drinks, or ask the allocated staff member to serve them one of the "specials" if they're feeling adventurous.

That said, these are world class chefs, so the gold is really in the menu:
THE EGGS

𝐓𝐇𝐄 π‰πŽππ“π˜: one runny boiled egg shelled and recoated in edible gold leaf, seated on a throne of fried bread soldiers, plated with whipped butter and italian parsley.
𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐒 ππ„ππ„πƒπˆπ‚π“: vinegar poached eggs with hollandaise foam on a bed of toasted freekah and baby spinach.
𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐒 π’π‡π€πŠπ€π’π‡πŽπ”πŠπ€: two eggs poached in a ramekin of pureed tomato, served with a crispy grilled cheese cut to dip.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 π’π˜πƒππ„π˜: french omelette with a light cheese filling, topped with crushed potato chips and chives.
πŽπ„π”π…π’ ππ‘πŽπ”πˆπ‹π‹π„π’: fluffy scrambled eggs in brown butter, served on sourdough.
π’ππ€ππˆπ’π‡ 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓: mini-quiche made with caramelized red onions and jamon pata negra ham.
𝐄𝐆𝐆 πŒπ‚π’π€ππƒπ–πˆπ‚π‡: bacon, egg, cheese and sausage breakfast muffin that tastes weirdly like it was made at a popular chain with golden arches.

THE SWEETS

❖ momofuku's "cereal milk" ❖
❖ fette biscottate with a sour cherry jam and peanut floss ❖
❖ a warm cinnamon bun served with a shot of espresso coffee for dipping ❖
❖ a macadamia-marzipan croissant with a wattleseed and burnt-honey filling ❖
❖ poffertjes with a liquid nutella injection ❖


If you want to leave, you’ll have to tell Giles, the housekeeper, who will arrange a car for you that mysteriously, or perhaps suspiciously, never arrives. Unfortunately, confronting Giles about it is near impossible, as he’s as good at being invisible as the rest of the house staff. Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t just walk out. The front gates are easy enough to jump over, even if the walk towards them gives you a strange sense of foreboding, or just outright discomfort, as if the ground itself doesn’t want you to leave. Those more sensitive or fragile might find they can’t make the jump, no matter how physically able, or desperately wanting. Still, a strong person could continue on, over the fence and into the lush English countryside. The feeling doesn’t dissipate, though β€” this sense of wrongness, almost sickness, like a weight on your back. Walk into the evergreen, carry on, but the strongest will make it perhaps a mile or so before the weight of dread and paranoia brings you to your knees, and then to your face, flat in the middle of a dirt road. What were you thinking? Is this really better?

Wake up with a hangover, in a bed, the curtains drawn, the maid saying, "Breakfast is served," before scurrying out. The painkillers are there, just like you remember. In fact, it’s all exactly how you remember, as if you never left an imprint the first time, or any mess you made was cleared away while your back was turned. Walk to the dining room, find everyone there eating away at their breakfast.

"We dress for dinner," says Portia, with a kind, if discerning smile. "Black tie."




ITSY BITSY TEENIE WEENIE

CONTENT WARNINGS: drugs, alcohol, nudity, potential for nsfw.
POOLSIDE PLAYLIST courtesy of Robin

It's an innocent enough, offhand suggestion from the mouth of one (1) DIARMUID about wanting to learn how to paint, and honestly, the house couldn't agree more: a party is necessary. As August winds down, it's important to go out with a bang, and what better way than through an explosive end of summer pool party? To say goodbye to the waning summer nights, the manor is throwing a pool party with an artistic neon twist. Per the growing complications of everyone's relationship status in this new age of bisexuality, polygamy, and pegging, glow-in-the-dark bracelets with matching solo cups have been set out with the appropriate labels β€”Β TAKEN, SINGLE, OPEN, and IT'S COMPLICATED, depending on your interest. Lounge by the water in your cutest bikini or trunks or nothing at all and engage in some very relaxing full-body painting using the supplies provided β€” that is, the paint is supplied, though brushes and sponges are few and far between. Better just to use your own body to paint your masterpiece. Put yourself on display as a model by the pool, or engage in a brutally competitive game of chicken fights, wherein the loser loses their clothes and the winner gets to keep them.

Not your style? Sneak off somewhere more private like the twinkling gardens illuminated with multicolored tiki lamps, lakeside decorated with bio-luminescent rocks, or the (perfectly safe, wolfless, we promise) maze to indulge in your inner desires. You might find that certain colors glow beneath the moonlight and unlock desires you’ve kept tightly under lock and key. It's hard not to feel impulsive or unrestrained under the full moon's light, with your body paint as armor. People might appear more attractive to you under this witching light like a magic spell cast β€” but really, you haven’t had any trouble with that, here. Have you?

If you’re thirsty, the house has tasked RICHIE, CARMY, and SANJI (dressed as cabana boys) with an extensive poolside drinks menu, since they’ve been so helpful with breakfast. Thanks, boys. Ask them for anything. In fact, ask them for everything. They're here to serve.

As the night closes out, turn your eyes heavenward for a spectacular fireworks show. Many apologies to those of you who suffer from PTSD; you can head inside for an early night and cover your ears with a pillow, but do be careful not to suffocate yourself, unless you're into that. The fireworks shimmer and shatter, and those watching closely might start to see hidden messages written in the stars for you, though is that your eyes playing tricks? Better ask that friend you’re snuggled up with. As anxiety weighs a little heavier on your heart, you might feel compelled to confess a few secrets on this last night of summer, big or small, something loving or not. Seek out that destructive habit, or take some steps toward healing. Let the fireworks drown out the noise.






FRUITS OF LABOUR


CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, gore, cannibalism.

Saying goodbye to summer means welcoming in the new season, and as August nights turn into September mornings, the landscape of the grounds changes from verdant greens to egg yolk yellow and sunburnt orange, a gradient of autumnal colors. To that end, a week long festival erects outside to enjoy the last of the year's good weather β€” a generous harvest bounty fills up tables and tables of ample displays, full of ripened fruits and fresh baked breads, baked potatoes roasted in the coals of a bonfire, sausages, wheels of cheese, marshmallows, cider and apple juice, tomato soup, apple and blackberry compote, rhubarb crumble, all richly decorated in sunset hues. Among the servings, anyone with a birthday in August or September will find themselves a individualized cake, perhaps with some motif to define them, otherwise just with the harvest decorations of gourds, leaves, wheat, and fruit. Alongside that, a new smaller maze has been made from hay bales on the lawn. During the day it's just a silly and fun maze, but at night it takes on a new form and characters can easily become lost and find themselves in a maze that seems to go on forever, with the ominous lowing of a bull somewhere in the distance. Luckily, everyone is released at daybreak, maybe a little traumatized, but all in one piece.

What would a festival be, without some games to indulge in? Around the celebratory grounds, there are four pumpkins painted gold, hidden around the festival. Anyone who finds one is entitled to a boon from your very generous hosts (join the race HERE). Hunting not to your tastes after the last few goose chases? No worries, there's plenty still to do β€” from apple bobbing, jumping over bonfires, throwing discus/shotput, horseshoes, and more, it's a festival jam packed with games and prizes to be won, from little jars of handmade jam from France, to stuffed chicken plushies, to tin cans with the labels ripped off, full of ... well, it's anyone's guess, really. Crack it open and find out!

In honor of the handfasting ceremony, characters are selected at random and tied together at the wrist, much to everyone's amusement. Once knotted, the ribbon will not give way under any physical or magical duress, meaning you'll be stuck together until the tie undoes on its own. It could be day, a night, two nights, or more, but it seems like the ribbon is waiting for something in particular β€”Β a genuine heart to heart, maybe? Consummating the marriage? Hopefully you like the person you're tied to, because you're going to be spending a lot of time with your temporary spouse, in immediately close quarters.

At the end of the week, there's a final end of summer ceremony, wherein the vampire ARMAND is given special homage for being an especially adored guest, donned in floral regalia and ordained with crowns of flowers, much to his growing malcontent. In fact, he and all the vampires present in house seem to be given the regal treatment from the staff with less grand flower crowns of their own, honored at the head of the festival's final gluttonous table, lined with naked, giggling bodies covered in autumnal produce, sprouting mushrooms, blooming flowers, and distinctly meaty dishes β€” steak and kidney pie, blood sausage, pumpkins stuffed with zebra meat. It's only after you drink the wildflower tea and locally (Very, Locally) crafted beer that things start to feel a little off. The happy bodies used as serving platters look sometimes, between one blink and the next, like masticated corpses, the gourds and fruits set more deeply in the cornucopia their opened chest cavities make. Despite that, there's no real sense of death in the air β€” get a better look, and you might find the veins of the dead work more like the vines for the plants, giving them life.

The question becomes: which is the hallucination? The smiling faces or the blooming corpses?

Though hysteria rankles through the crowd the more people come to terms with the visions they're seeing, given the population at the head of the table, it's a fairly easy riddle to crack. Can vampires eat the cursed food? In short: yes, they can. Sorry we made you eat people again.



DIRECTORY


venatoris: nidavellir @ ij (pic#15237640)

[personal profile] venatoris 2024-09-14 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Uh.

[ He’s good at being offensive, isn’t he. Dammit. ]

I mean, you don’t want to be married to an old geezer like me. [ mid thirties, scruffy, old man tired. ]

Do you?
semicharmed: (chiaroscuro)

wildcard πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯

[personal profile] semicharmed 2024-09-14 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ The pool party was fun, with its abundance of paints and expression, its opportunities to inscribe beautiful things onto equally beautiful canvases. But Matt finds that amid the carnival atmosphere of the harvest festival, his mood has started to sour.

Some of it is time going by. Summer felt like an eternal moment, unchanging amber globule of sweat and sex and discovery (and sometimes cannibalism). The chill in the evening air reminds him he won't be starting over anytime soon. No school, no internship, no harnessing his magic to serve the city he lives in. He's still trapped. On a simpler level, the changes to the grounds remind him that something's coming. And if past is prelude, it'll probably be something bad.

When the bonfires are lit, Matt wanders among them, but not to partake. He finds himself looking to the base of the fires, superstitiously afraid he'll catch a glimpse of charred bone or familiar clothes.

What he notices first is paper.

Matt blinks, staring as the pages glow orange, then blacken and curl. A moment later, he looks up to see-- ]


Koby?
butwearenotmen: (Default)

[personal profile] butwearenotmen 2024-09-14 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
I think that advisable.

[While it would be highly unlikely that she would just marry so simply, she also doesn't want to just be out here now like this. Better to try and figure this out together, on what to do, what it might mean for them now. She is not worried if it may be more long lasting than thought, but they can worry about that.]

Should we get a bottle to go? I have a room to myself. [No roommate that she shares the bathroom with if they need space. Which may now become more his anyway now that they have been brought together.]
venatoris: nidavellir @ ij (pic#15237645)

[personal profile] venatoris 2024-09-14 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ That’s kinda what he’s thinking. They’re out in the open, things are weird, he’s randomly married (or something), and he’d like some damn privacy to figure this shit out. ]

That’s a good idea. Bottle each, even.

[ He doesn’t have a shared bathroom space either just yet, but he has a feeling she’s probably be more comfortable in her own space. ]

Let’s get the hell outta here.
butwearenotmen: (f i g u r i n g)

[personal profile] butwearenotmen 2024-09-14 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Well she doesn't need to really take his hand, and they kind of take up enough space when they walk side by side through the group of people, still going about the festival as if their lives have not been completely changed. And it doesn't take too long for them to get to the bar area where they both get a bottle. Most of them are completely foreign to her, but a drink is a drink right now, and she just wants to be alone with him right now to come to terms with the next steps here.

The second they get back inside the manor though, she is already exhaling.]


I am sorry it has come about this way, [She admits quietly. It is not the first time she has been married off, though this one was unexpected when the ceremony she thought was for the bounty, the harvest, and she was simply chosen with this man she had never seen before.]

You should know though. It is not my first. At least I was not traded this time. [Her brother's doing. This is somehow is less invasive than her first, and that does mean something. Even if she could never bare the man children. Something else that may have to come out if this is truly legitimate.]
sonatinas: (bridgertons3ep3-19)

[personal profile] sonatinas 2024-09-14 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
[He definitely sounds different, but that doesn't stop her from still holding to him. She looks back from where she's come before moving behind him like whatever might be out there is still coming. She doesn't know, but she feels like it's there. There's some animal like noise in the far distance, and she looks back to him frantically, almost begging that he has heard that, too.]

I do not know it. But I felt as if it was stalking me through there. Please, please. We must keep going.

[His question is likely answered in that she is physically okay, but she's not okay from the thought of this thing attacking them just out like this. They must keep moving.]
sonatinas: (pic#17281353)

[personal profile] sonatinas 2024-09-14 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
You are not old. [Said so abruptly like he must not know what he is talking about. She shakes her had at him as if that is just preposterous. Where she is from his age is right around where a lot of men who have gone and done what they needed to in the world, made more fortune, probably fucked a lot, and now wish to have a family and heirs anyway.]

There are lords well into their sixties that have wed girls younger than I. [Not very common, but enough that no one bats an eyelash at that.]

I am of marriageable age and out in society. [Though here she had not thought that was something important, had thought she needn't wed to get away, but then she does not think everything may need joining? It is certainly a different matter than what she is used to back home.]

Would you not have me? Have I done something?
holyposition: (so I know i'm not)

[personal profile] holyposition 2024-09-14 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ His initial reaction is shock, his eyes going wide behind his glasses, and in the moment he feels Danny tangling their fingers together, it's not because it feels dangerous. Tim has taken eagerly to the new norms of this place, so profoundly different from 1950s Washington that it feels like a different universe entirely, but despite adapting quickly, he is keenly aware of the fact that he's never held another man's hand out in broad daylight. Maybe even outside at all. It should be alarming that it's Danny, but he's a little too swept up in it, the novelty and the attention and the atmosphere (end of summer, approaching the cooler months, his favorite time of year).

He squeezes, his softer hand forming a ball along with Danny's. Tim's eyes are almost always gentle, and it's no exception now. ]


That's a relief. Your sight is probably better than mine. Lead the way?
rationalism: (92)

[personal profile] rationalism 2024-09-14 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ the tell-tale tickle in her nose has her closing her eyes. she is not going to cry because there is only so much humiliation she can bear in front of a stranger and honestly she's at her limit. already. over and done with from the start.

blindly her thumb presses into her palm, massaging her mangled hand like the knots of scar tissue will do anything to ground her panic in some way. instead her fingers catch on the ring she still can't manage of give up despite everything and the rush of fury burns away the threat of tears and most of the anxiety.

her nose is still pink. ]


Sorry.

[ she doesn't sound sorry, grit out between a jaw so tight she might break a tooth, but it doesn't have a sarcastic edge to it. she just doesn't have the wherewithal to consider someone else's comfort when her own is in outer fucking space at the moment. it's too fucking much in a place like this.

"you wanted to get married, grace." ]
bubblegumheart: (pic#15950993)

I do enjoy noticing word omissions about a hundred years too late lol

[personal profile] bubblegumheart 2024-09-14 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
She's in the middle of some very important lounging when a voice she doesn't recognize interrupts to ask about paint, and Chrissy opens her eyes to apologize for not paying much attention to the paint supply- when she realizes that the paint-splattered guy inquiring about it is vaguely familiar.

It takes her a solid minute to make the connection, though, and she spends entirely too long gawking at him in the meantime.

"They let you out of the hospital!" It's likely not the answer he's hoping for. "Sorry, no. I haven't seen either of those, but I could help you look if you want."
queenking: ([up] he said WHAT)

groovin

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:08 am (UTC)(link)
β€œOhhh, gimme, gimme, that looks like it’ll knock me on my ass.” The scantily-clad blonde sort of lunges off the lounger, one hand grabbing for the watermelon shots, sunglasses slipping off her head to tangle in her hair as she does so. She doesn’t entirely wait for the guy to stop, just scoops up one of the shots and downs it easily, tongue clicking a couple times as she savors the aftertaste, seeking out the individual flavor notes, trying to figure out what’s in the drink.

β€œMmmm – schnapps and rum? Bad boy, you’re gonna give an heiress a coronary.” Saxsice grins wide, toothy, plucking a second shot from the tray and gesturing at it. β€œMore’n you’re already gonna, with them little shorts, I mean. Better have some White Claws stowed in the back for the next whiny bitch who complains the drinks’re β€œtoo strong”, yeah?”

A wink, then she downs the second shot, placing the empty shot glass on top of an alarming stack on a nearby table. Surprisingly, she seems – not the least bit drunk. β€œGot anything harder?”
queenking: ([up] little pep talks)

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
which one the guy who marries the hot brunette??
wait no nevermind i only saw like two seasons of that show before my free subscription cancelled, no spoilers, bitch.

hah, monk-sounding ass name. sick, tho, you could chant like a motherfucker with that.
uh since when ur talking to my dumb ass and you don't even know me???
queenking: ([up] awww baby)

fall festival

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, isn’t he adorable. Saxsice laughs a little at the glass thrust into her face, sniffing once to identify that – yep, that’s just regular old juice, nothing fancy. But she’s still smiling as she gently reaches up to steer the guy’s hand away, nodding earnestly so he doesn’t feel too put out. β€œMmmm-hm, yep, that’s the good shit, punkin, you ain’t wrong. Wait’ll you let it sit in the barrel for a few months, get nice n’ fermented, you’ll go outta your head over it.”

Then, frowning, she plucks the glass from his hand. β€œWell, not you you. Don’t go makin’ bathtub moonshine when they got perfectly good Everclear in the fridge. Ever have an apple pie shot, sweetie?”

The mention of chocolate makes her wince a little, sipping at the juice, then shaking her head – needs liquor, stat. β€œSorry, punkin, I’m allergic. You better tell me all about it, though, ya hear? C’mon, I want a shot myself, let’s go raid the fridge while you wax poetic n’ shit.”
queenking: ([up] double eyebrow arch)

potential catastrophe

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
β€œYeah.”

It comes immediately, before Saxsice has even completely swallowed her latest drink – she’s somewhere in the double digits now, but the booze burns off just as reliably here as at home. Which is…sort of reassuring? Maybe? Who knows, she’s really over this shit.

Lounging on the grass, cut-offs and tied-up shirt like a bad Daisy Duke cosplay, she tilts her head back and looks up and up and up at the stranger with a thoughtful squint. His scent is – well, it’s fine, it’s just fine, no glaring red flags that would make Saxsice want to skedaddle. And he’s right, this place goes real fast from cool to boring.

Still, before she goes through the effort of standing: β€œWas the guy you punched like, god? Or the sun or somethin’? Cause you’re built like a brick shithouse, my guy, and I can definitely believe you punched god. And I dunno if I’m up for that, my body’s like 95% jello shots right now. But!” One finger held up for emphasis. β€œIf it isn’t god, I’m definitely down.”
queenking: ([up] ya rly)

itsy bitsy teenie weenie

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
β€œDo I have a cigarette, hah.” Saxsice snorts, perched on the lip of the pool, swishing her legs back and forth, staring over at Portia and her wealthy friends giggling and chattering, blonde and pink and tanned. She wants to lunge across the length of the artificial, chlorine-scented water and tear their throats out.

She doesn’t. Instead, leaning back, she plucks a pack of cigarettes from her abandoned, slightly damp towel on a nearly chair, shaking one out and offering it to the other woman. β€œCourse I do. Doin’ this place without nicotine or booze is a fuckin’ crime, if you ask me.” A pause, as she fishes out a pack of matches as well, careful to not drop them in the pool. β€œMore’n the crime of, y’know. Kidnappin’ us.

β€œYou look like you could use some relaxin’, though. No offense.”
queenking: ([down] biiiiitch)

fireworks

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Twice, huh. [Saxsice has been looking up at the starry, firework-strewn sky, grimacing at the sharp, acrid scent of the powder, the way the smoky sky is lit up with each dying blast. The mud of the lakebed is nice on her bare feet, hands jabbed into the back pockets of her cut-offs, short enough that the breeze off the lake has her thighs breaking out in goosebumps.

She hadn’t expected anyone lingering around the waterline to talk. Everyone still out after dark is various states of drunk – hell, the entire damn house is in various states of drunk, and she can’t fucking blame them, because look at this place. It’s a goddamn horror movie with Prada sunglasses on. But the guy perched on a bright rock speaks, and she turns, taking in the curls, the red stain of his mouth in the darkness. Too much wine, too much thinking. Saxsice knows that feeling.

So, sloshing back through the water, she sits on a nearby pink-paint-splattered rock, wincing at the cool feel against her bare legs.
] Different people? Or the same one, who didn’t know when to quit? [She reaches out, grabbing for the wine bottle. If it’s sharing feelings time, it’s also sharing booze time.]
bubblegumheart: (pic#16998109)

[personal profile] bubblegumheart 2024-09-14 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
"I'd just call someone like that smooth." Simple. Effective. She's from the 80s, Iggy- she's had a lot to get used to since coming here.

His admission makes her laugh, though, and she shakes her head. "Trust me, you're not missing much. If you've seen one cute little town where weird things happen occasionally, you've probably seen them all."

Truthfully, she's heard some things about this place, but Chrissy doesn't want to tell him that because she's not sure how true any of those things are.

"You're welcome. And I can't really tell your mother that her hair looks great, so you'll have to give her the message for me."

That's definitely how that works! "I feel like now would be a good time to ask if you want to try to find your way through the maze, or if you want me to show you." She's found her way to the center plenty of times, but a big draw of the maze is finding one's way through. So she's asking.

"I don't, actually. My mom would have had my head for it." She laughs, in an attempt to pass it off as a joke, but there's no doubt in her mind that her mother wouldn't have tolerated that for even a second.
dead_tongue: (voila)

[personal profile] dead_tongue 2024-09-14 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
uhhh Matthew! that's his name!

omfg shit uppp I was named after the guy who made up Sherlock!
well no, but I can tell you're cool. I bet you know how to party.
peasant: (pic#17081855)

[personal profile] peasant 2024-09-14 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
( it's a quick, unsubtle disappearing act — an amateur illusionist, trying to scramble to put a magician's rabbit back into a hat. alina's light absconds like a snuffed candle, there and gone in a single breath, as she stumbles back from the hedge in one sweeping step. disappointingly, all she's earned for her trouble is a pricked palm and a frantic pulse in her chest, pivoting to face koby with clammy palms.

koby, who never relents once he's gotten a scent, a hound with a bone in his mouth. of course he would be the one to find her, as if sniffing out a secret in the air. alina's smile shakes at the edges before it slips into some measure of a mask, though there's a hawkish sharpness to her stare. perceptive, watchful, focused on the creases of koby's face. it doesn't matter how puppyish koby has always looked, soft and big-eyed — she's seen even the gentlest faces warp themselves with cruel judgement, when looking upon her.
)

Well, I found you. That has to be a stroke of good fortune. ( she does not, in fact, feel lucky — but there's something to be said for misery loving company. of not being entirely trapped with just herself for company, terrible as she feels for finding some sliver of comfort in it. painfully honest, she admits, a little more quiet, a lot less optimistic in its dread and gloom: ) I was beginning to worry I would be alone in this place forever. I doubt anyone has even come looking for me.

( which is what she had wanted, isn't it? as the fables often warn: be careful what you wish for. )
Edited 2024-09-14 04:38 (UTC)
queenking: (Default)

[personal profile] queenking 2024-09-14 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
YEAH that guy!! how come that show got him and we get fuckin BUNNY.
ugh.

wasn't that shakespeare
are you literally telling me right now it wasn't shakespeare????
everyone knows how to party it's in our bones like doggy paddling and having to take a dump in a marshalls.
dead_tongue: (city walk)

[personal profile] dead_tongue 2024-09-14 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
"That works too," Iggy agrees. He still likes rizz, though.

Iggy smiles, his eyes betraying a caution that wasn't there previously. "I can handle weird," he says breezily.

His smile turns down at the corners a little. "I would," he says, "if she were talking to me." He digs a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and offers her one. "Sounds like you might understand how that goes."

He lights up. "You can lead me, I'm pretty hopeless."
thenovice: (pic#12682910)

[personal profile] thenovice 2024-09-14 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
[Diarmuid looks slightly worried, glancing over and seeing the jut of her eyelashes only, where she rests against him. He cannot help turning a little pink at even just the touch of a fair woman; no one in the monastery would have ever rested against him like this, and he cannot help but feel a little embarrassed at how striking it is for him to be this unused to women.

But he settles into the discomfort comfortably enough.]


Alia, you needn't win me all of the prizes; I value the time I can spend with new friends above all else. [A pause, as he purses his lips. Amused, a little.] You're a very competitive person, aren't you?
Edited (i am sleepy ignore my edits) 2024-09-14 05:01 (UTC)
dead_tongue: (what is this hoodie)

[personal profile] dead_tongue 2024-09-14 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
omg right?!?!

nah shakespeare had like, rhymes. he did romeo and juliet, with leonardo dicaprio?

OK I've never been in a marshall's but I believe you.
preborns: ([down] don't call me child)

[personal profile] preborns 2024-09-14 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
[Alia huffs softly, indignant, nearly, even as she buries her face against the man’s chest, breathes in the unfamiliar scent of him, the unfamiliar shape pressed to her own body. She doesn’t pull away, just jerks up her hands to cover her ears after another resonating crack of the fireworks overhead. Her mind knows it can’t be stone burners, it can’t, those are for Arrakis and the galaxy she knows.

But her body still shivers, presses closer.
] He was never meant to be happy. Neither of us were. [Alia squeezes her eyes closed, thinks of the children, of the desert, of the empty space after her brother had vanished among the sands.] But he’s my brother. It isn’t fair.

[Tipping her chin upwards, Alia’s wide eyes catch the man’s, distraught and pained and helpless.] Why not someone else? Why him?
preborns: ([up] mischief)

[personal profile] preborns 2024-09-14 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
[Alia finds that small, glimmering spark immediately, snatches it up like a scrap of gold amongst the sands, turning it over in her mind and caressing it’s bright surface. Like calls to like, Alina had said once, and she believes it, believes there is something resonating beneath her breastbone that sings in delight whenever it finds a similar soul.

So she tucks back into her seat, watches the broad-shouldered shape of the man cross to the bar, make a selection, explain it to the bartender and ensure her requested umbrella is plopped into the bright liquid before his return. Alia’s mind reaches out eagerly as he does, fearless and warm, curling purring around the shape of his thoughts like a satisfied cat.
]

There’s no faulting your service, at the very least. [She teases it, accepting the drink and sipping at the vivid pink, eyes immediately brightening at the unexpected warmth of spices curling over her tongue. An approving hum, and Alia reaches out her free hand to gesture at the nearby seat.]

Sit, sit. I’ll tell you my vision of the sea, of the starchild that fell to it’s waves. Sit.