saltburnmods: (Default)
๐–˜๐–†๐–‘๐–™๐–‡๐–š๐–—๐–“๐–™ ๐–’๐–”๐–‰๐–˜. ([personal profile] saltburnmods) wrote in [community profile] draino2025-03-01 08:00 am
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๐Œ๐„๐ ๐€๐‘๐„ ๐’๐Ž ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„๐‹๐˜ ๐€๐๐ƒ ๐ƒ๐‘๐˜ โ–ฃ MARCH TDM





MARCH 2025 TDM: RENEWAL


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 โ€” 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 ยซ NEW CHARACTER/IN GAMEยป 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 (THE REMIX)


CONTENT WARNINGS: drugs.

For once, it's not the pounding hangover that stirs you awake. Oh, it's still there, like little shards of glass being shoved through your skull — but your dry, cottony mouth should be the least of your concerns. When you turn over, it's clear that the glitz and glamor of your room has been ... well, neglected, as of late. The sheets are musty, the furniture covered in layers of dust that sets your nose off, the nightstand decorated with a glass of stale water growing a new bacteria culture. If you're looking for room service to cure your headache, you'll have look elsewhere for painkillers โ€” the maid has very generously left you a more traditional form of medicine. A neat little bag of white powder rests at your bedside, for those that need a little extra pep in their step. Don't say the help never did anything for you.

Unfortunately, that's where the perks of your accommodations begin and end. If you thought you had the room all to yourself, think again. Maybe it's a stranger snuggled up to you in bed that first clues you in. Or maybe it's the mattresses laid out on the floor, sleepover style. Complaining to the maid that enters won't get you very far. "We apologize for the inconvenience," she says, clearly a rehearsed script she's had practice delivering. "We're in the middle of repairs. Guests will have to share four to a room." Ask her again, and mumbles out a mousy apology, before scurrying away. Guess you'll have to rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to claim the bed.

Eventually, your curiosity or hunger (or anger) wins out. Entering the corridor, "repairs" suddenly seems like an understatement. A putrid scent sits in the air, maids scrubbing at bits of guts stuck into the carpet like chewing gum. No one looks up from the frantic cleaning as you stroll down the corridors where you might find yourself ending up in the twists and turns of rooms, lost in what they offer. Regardless, seemingly all hallways, covered in priceless artworks that have been ripped from the wall and ancient artifacts knocked down from their rightful places, lead to the dining room in all of its cobwebbed disrepair.

There, Giles ushers guests onto the lawn. "Breakfast will be served outside today," he says, tight lines around his mouth. Traditional gingham blankets have been sprawled out on the lawn, protecting your legs from the thin layer of snowmelt still on the ground, as you're nudged together and urged to share amongst yourselves. Open up the wicker basket to a strange assortment scrounged together last minute by the kitchens: champagne before noon, lobster salad sandwiches, fruit cakes, artisanal cheeses, apples that look questionably rotten, and old Valentine's Day chocolates in plasticky heart boxes to polish it off. Do those taste spiked to you? It's a good thing it's still a crisp day to cool you off, once you start feeling a little warmer under the collar.

For those of you attempting your daring escapes, 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 doesnโ€™t want you to leave. Those more sensitive or fragile might find they canโ€™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 doesnโ€™t dissipate, though โ€” 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 cocaine is there, just like you remember. The strangers in your room are there, just like you remember. In fact, itโ€™s all exactly how you remember, as if you never left an imprint the first time. Walk to the estate lawns, and find everyone there eating away at their breakfast.

Welcome to Saltburnt, esteemed guests. Enjoy your treats while they last.




CUPID'S ARROW STRUCK ME

CONTENT WARNINGS: possible sex, violence, a/b/o themes (pheromones, mating, heat/rut), breeding, body transformation/body horror, aphrodisiacs.

They say all is fair in love and war, but making war instead of love is a tiresome sport. While the help mops blood from the floorboards, the Balfours have kindly arranged for a (very belated!) Lupercalia celebration. What better way to distract yourself from your pesky mortality, if not with the life-giving act of sex? Just ask the Ancient Romans.

For those guests who like to watch (we see you, voyeurs), the lawn's knolls offer a perfect viewing. There, you can participate in a hunt of a more innocent sort. Sprinkled throughout the lawn, hidden in flower pots and tree alcoves, are brightly colored plastic eggs. Pop them open, and you'll find hidden trinkets inside. Those lucky enough might win a new pair of Tiffany's diamonds; some, to your annoyance, explode in your face with glitter and confetti. Others contain chalky conversation hearts, stamped with their own sayings. Some lean more innocent, but there's no mistaking the X-Rated hearts in the bunch.

Whether yours are PG or NC-17, they share one thing in common: you're compelled by the spirit of whatever heart you munch on, whether it be embodying its mood or acting out its instructions with a partner.

For those guests who are a little more daring (helped along by the chocolates that might have you feeling bolder than normal), Jonty has agreed to lend his expertise to leading a hunt — of sorts. With his expert knowledge on nature, HALSIN has been appointed to lead the charge alongside him, calmly watching over those who take an interest in signing up. By the edge of the forest, volunteers are divided into various groups and given all they need to transform. Masked hunters browse through an assortment of flogs, bindings, collars, leashes, and riding crops for the pleasure (or pain) of their captured prey. As for guests who draw the short end of the stick? You're the prized catch of the day. You best run, rabbit, and hope the wolves don't catch your scent.

PREY is, at least, given the mercy of a head start — we're not complete animals, here. Stripped naked and vulnerable, with only a mask to protect you, the only goal on your mind is to outlast the hunters. It's all in good fun, at first. Women and men alike are dragged laughing and kicking by their ankles, a reward for their captor to do with as they please. Eventually, the thrill in your stomach turns to dread, and the dread turns into a cramping ache that leaves you gasping on the forest floor, unbearable pain wrenching through your insides. For a horrifying moment, you're certain your bones are going to split apart from your flesh. You burn and burn and burn with no relief, caught between your desire to run and your need to fill the emptiness within you.

HUNTERS aren't immune, either. There's something animal within you, clawing for escape. Instincts overtake all sense and logic, leaving behind the natural, predatory drive to claim. Participants gradually lose themselves in their roles, reduced to nothing more than a mess of base instincts. Your fellow hunters, perhaps once friends, are nothing more than competition to you now; you snap, violent and territorial, at any who cross your path. Your senses grow stronger, scenting the sweetness of your prey on the wind, single-mindedly chasing their trail.

Think that's the worst of it? Think again. You might become so absorbed in your role that your body follows suit, transforming before your very eyes. Furry ears sprout, tails emerge, fangs descend, claws sharpen, mating glands throb in your throat beg for attention, your anatomy grows new changes to accommodate your fun, compatible mates smell especially enticing — all determined by the mask you don, now trapped in your new form.

Happy hunting, dearests. Don't let your prey be the one who got away. You never know who might get to them first.






A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME


CONTENT WARNINGS: nsfw (exhibitionism, ritual sex, orgy), dubious consent via magical compulsion.

After a debauched weekend, the Balfours eventually get sick of cleaning cum and blood off of their expensive Tuscan curtains courtesy of their guests' constant animal urges, and search for a solution. It starts with a magic pull in the pit of your stomach one night, guiding you further into the woods, back to where it all began. The further you step into the darkened forest, the more that feeling unspools, until you find yourself at the base of an altar. Branches and flowers decorate its sides, but it's the whorling sigils that draw your eye. To even the most educated eye, they're indiscernible, like nothing you've ever seen — yet they seem to soothe you, as if you know this is where you were meant to be.

Gentle hands from servants shed your clothing. The night air is a balm on your overheated skin as countless hands paint the same symbols ritualistically over your stomach, your chest, your neck, imbuing you with a sudden overwhelming burst of ... something. Something ancient and powerful, a vessel for magic growing root in your belly. Regardless of gender, they name you LORD or MAIDEN as they step aside to form a holy circle, watching you with reverent stares.

As a Lord, you don't know how you know, but you're aware you must choose your Maiden from the crowd. Maybe it's your mate, if you've taken one; maybe it's a stranger, inexplicably calling to you. But the magic leads you to them, unable to deny the call, as you bed them on the altar for all to see. Others around you do the same, pairing off or joining couples with wandering hands, smudging lines of paint in their ecstasy. Upon completing the rite with your chosen (or several chosens), magic releases itself into the land like a ripple, urging on the fertile beginnings of springtime. Trees sprout full leaves. Rose bushes come into full bloom. Those who suffered transformations come back to themselves, losing all of their animal features, and regaining their minds.

To fully embrace the season's change, you're invited to the lakeside festivities that follow. Several fires flicker warmly, dancers in various states of undress beckoning you to join them as they twirl themselves around. Some call for you to leap over the flames, showing you how it's done with a bit of drunken grace. All guests are urged to "purify" themselves in the spirit of rebirth, starting with your fears and hang-ups and rancid vibes. Choose a sentimental item to sacrifice, and release yourself from the bad memories attached, by feeding it to the flames. Or pen those letters you can't bring yourself to send, pouring out those emotions you've kept inside, and watch the pages burn away the baggage they contain.

Be careful with them, however — those letters are delivered to rooms the very next day, airing out your dirty laundry to their intended (or unintended, oops) recipient. You might even find they've been left in very public view, carelessly strewn onto the dining table or hung up in the corridors, for anyone to read. Those text drafts you also never meant to see the light of day? Fired off to the person you thought better of sending them to. Did you mean for those to stay private? Too bad, so sad. Part of purification is making amends with yourself and your loved ones, so get to it if you want to clean your dirty soul.

More of a "wash that guy right out of your hair" kind of person? Come join the communal bathing in the lake, where you're encouraged to give your neighbor a helpful hand. Is it just the moonlight, or do they look much more irresistibly beautiful? Whatever the case, pouring a palmful of water over each other seems to wash away old pains, whether physical or mental. Scars begin to fade as complexions become brighter. Your anxieties melt away until you can't remember ever having them. Festering grudges disappear. You are well and truly free for the night, unburdened by what came before. Nothing can hold you back.

If you're not looking to get your toes wet, you can participate in love fortune-telling at the seed planting and flower-making station. Individuals are paired off and led to a patch of garden where they can plant new life for the upcoming season, encouraged to write down their intentions and hopes for the upcoming spring, and share them by burying them alongside their seed. In another area, supplies have been left out to twine together your own flowering wreaths, which are then sent to float in the lake. Whoever picks up your wreath is rumored to be your soulmate, and if you didn't believe in them before — you do now. As if struck by Cupid's arrow, you fall head over heels for them, no matter how you felt about them before.

As you sip on tea and munch on sweet dumplings, be sure to make your final stop the Wishing Tree. Ribbons hang from its branches in delicate pastel colors, each of them bearing someone's desire. Blank scraps wait nearby, encouraging you to write and share your own. Who knows? It might just come true.



DIRECTORY


lightandjoy: (pic#17686066)

[personal profile] lightandjoy 2025-03-23 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ Dorian is a welcome sight in more ways than one. Halsin allows himself a fond smile at the kiss, though the gaze he rests on his lover is a little guarded, and the brightness fades somewhat from his face as Dorian continues. ]

I found it difficult to stay in trance. I thought it better to rise and begin my day early than toss and turn beside you.

[ Nightmares are a rare problem for elves in trance, the state requiring a degree of mental control that naturally guards against intrusive thoughts, being suspended somewhere between meditation and lucid dreaming instead. Halsin had long ago learned how to conjure the gentle green landscapes that allowed him to rest almost as well as any mortal. He hadn't anticipated the darkness and cold creeping in along the edges, the way he'd found himself walking through rotten snow and slush rather than the summer forest of his home, looking down to find his hands turning black with bitter frostbite --

He blinks, pulling his thoughts back to the present, and tries to summon a smile.
]

If you like, we can return there after breakfast, and I can make sure you and it are thoroughly warmed.
smudgy: (๐Ÿ’— 167)

[personal profile] smudgy 2025-03-23 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ whatever namiโ€™s trying for seems irrelevant for the fact of her, rubbing along the length of jinxโ€™s bare body. jinx looses a stuttery exhale, hitching up and then back as nami touches her. sheโ€™d had the upper hand with everyone else, boys with big eyes and girls shuddering against the trees. of course nami is different โ€” she was always going to be, more vibrant than anyone from the fissures. more brilliant than most people sheโ€™s known, not in some booksmart way but in some essential, wily sense. she gasps her name, when nami bites down on her breasts, catches her nipple between her teeth, a little pain making her pleasure all the brighter.

jinx fists one hand in the grass and the other in namiโ€™s hair, nails carding back to scratch her scalp, fingers twisting to anchor herself. unable to pull hard without that soft start.

i like you makes her head spin, unmoored not in time or space but in feeling. people donโ€™t like jinx. they tolerate her. maybe they love her. they donโ€™t enjoy her humour and company and bitey kisses โ€” ]


I like you, too.

[ low and breathless, tapering off into a whine that she buries in namiโ€™s throat. even her slender finger feels unreasonably good, reaching inside her to find something she thought lost. sweet and slick and easy. jinx pushes to take her to the knuckle and sucks a mark (or two or three) onto namiโ€™s collarbone in between little puffs of breath. ]

Nami, I like you so much.
smudgy: (๐Ÿ˜ข 045)

[personal profile] smudgy 2025-03-23 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Itโ€™s bliss, for him to listen to her after all this time โ€” to obey her orders, after years of skirting and reinventing his to suit her whims. Her name in his mouth, his hands digging into her hips, his cock pushing and bursting inside her, painting her insides like she has every part of him. His office, his mug, his life, now his very flesh, splattered with colours so vibrant and otherwise unknown to him. Proof of her influence, her mark. Forever changed because she decided she wanted him, not the other way around. She held him first, tears staining his waistcoat. She loved him first.

And last.

She comes on his cock, her walls clamping down on him as if to keep him there evermore. A wounded animal sound torn from her throat. She folds over him, into him, half-riding him through the aftershocks with her twitching hips. With his throat barred for her, thereโ€™s only one thing to do. Her head fits into the hollow of his throat, like a bullet in the barrel of a gun, and she bites down on the tender flesh, canines sinking deep enough to bleed. Not cruel, though, never cruel โ€” merely impulsive, tongue laving over the wound. Mouth forming a seal, marks upon marks.

My darling soothes the beast within, though all she manages is his name in response. No longer crying but still whimpering. Her hands cup his cheek, thread through his hair, keep him close. Finally, all her needs met. The hunt, won. ]


Yours.

[ The same way heโ€™s hers, a deal inked in blood. ]
chipped: (pic#17719338)

[personal profile] chipped 2025-03-23 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Spike hasn't been intimate much since the bot, and then--

One real kiss. Buffy's body, broken in the rubble. The bot torn to pieces in the road.

If he'd woken up alone here, he'd probably stick to being alone. He doesn't know what to do about having her back and being ripped from her again, but it's maybe for the best that this girl isn't giving him much time to brood over it.

Spike's jaw works against the pain at his scalp, gaze flicking to Jinx's mouth. Voice low, ]


What do you feel like, then?

[ With an upward roll of his hips to meet her downward grind, cock stirring awake against the tight restriction of leather. Spike does move to kiss her, too tantalizingly close not to try. ]
breeding: (pic#17404257)

[personal profile] breeding 2025-03-24 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ He should be annoyed โ€” and he is, a little, the current of it pricking at his skin like an itch โ€” but the thing is that she's so fucking weird, weird in a way that differs from the crunchy hipsters or woo-woo hippies or wannabe edgelords he's come across before. The fact that her strangeness is genuine is what makes it difficult to deal with. Or maybe it's a kind of jealousy. He's arguably unabashedly himself, but he's plagued by an insecurity that she doesn't seem to feel at all.

So as she looks at him, he just looks back, his brow pinching as he attempts to divine anything from her expression. It's tempting to look away, but stubbornness wins out, at least until Alia speaks again.

(It's unsettling, to be looked at like he's truly known. It's one thing to bare himself willingly, but another entirely to be looked through the way she manages it. He still remembers their first text conversation, remembers the thought that they might be kindred in some way. Could she read his mind, if she tried?)
]

You could have gotten it, yourself, [ he says, a little halting. ]

Why'd you want me?
volkarin: (pic#17517497)

[personal profile] volkarin 2025-03-24 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
You know, I couldn't rightly say.

[ He hovers a moment longer before taking a seat next to her with a polite, ] May I?

[ It only takes him a little shifting to make himself comfortable, tucking his knees underneath himself, his plate on one knee and his teacup balanced in his other hand. ]

But my experience is that it's all somewhat cyclical. A season of festivity and merriment followed by a season of violence and loss. Fortunately, we've just endured the latter.

[ (His expression falters only briefly โ€” no real need to bring up what had transpired now, he thinks, unless she asks.) ]

โ€”I don't believe we've met. Emmrich Volkarin, at your service.
nightsung: (pic#17707588)

[personal profile] nightsung 2025-03-24 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Alicent. [ Echoed, as Shadowheart tests the soft shape of it on her tongue. There's no rudeness meant in the lack of title: only her Lady Shar and the Mother Superior have earned them, from her. ]

A queen far from home, then? I suppose we're all equals here, by way of kidnapping. [ Made more so while stripped bare--or close to it--in the lake, and in the dark.

There's a simplicity in the pleasure of having her hair undone, and Shadowheart allows herself to relax into the loosening of tension at her scalp, the strange tenderness of this act. For a moment, she caves to the weak desire of trying to remember: whether anyone did this for her as a girl, who they may have been to her. Whether they cared for her, or even loved her.

It's pointless, she knows, but still she feels the twinge of emptiness where memory should be. Shadowheart trails her fingertips through the water, watching their gentle wake. ]


I'm Shadowheart.
powerhungry: (pic#17699474)

[personal profile] powerhungry 2025-03-24 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Impressive.

[ It doesn't cost him anything to say, and maybe more to the point, it's not exactly difficult to tell that it's a point of pride for the man standing in front of him. (Though mutation is a funny word, one that โ€” at least by Erik's enunciation โ€” is free of any negative connotations, the total lack of control he's seen in the aftermath of a dose of Shimmer.)

There are other questions that naturally follow, but Silco allows himself to just watch for a moment longer, eyes fixed on the way the material shifts under Erik's influence as easily as though one were molding putty.
]

It doesn't strain you at all?
thirsted: (pic#17656313)

[personal profile] thirsted 2025-03-24 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The further Gale wades into the water, the more intensely Astarion finds he draws his attention. There are endless other tangents โ€” the pursuit of the instinct to photograph their shoes side by side, the impulse to look through the various wreaths that now populate the surface of the lake โ€” and yet his focus never wavers. It's not out of anxiety (far from it, he feels oddly at ease, ready to accept any outcome) but his arms still fold over his chest, his hands cupping his own elbows.

Perhaps it's to combat the pull he feels โ€” the urge to follow Gale into the water just for the sake of staying close despite the fact that he's only just begun to get used to swimming again โ€” or perhaps it's a point of focus to help keep his expression relatively still. No flinches, no nods, nothing that would give away the game despite the electric currents that flicker through his nerves.

He thinks, suddenly, that he ought to have brought a towel, maybe even a change of clothes. (Acts of service, more and more both second nature and clear declarations of affection.) So much for best-laid plans. At the very least, he spots little such preparation around them, with some even wading into the water alone.

And besides, the worry evaporates completely as soon as he spots the wreath he'd woven that morning, his fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt at the thrill of recognition. The ends of the ribbon he'd tied through it trail in the water, sending gold shimmers up through to the surface as the delicate construction comes to a slow stop near Gale's ankle, blinking for his attention.
]
thirsted: (pic#17655940)

[personal profile] thirsted 2025-03-25 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's telling that, when he looks at her (when he sees her smile, even before she looks up at him again), he's already resolving to be more diligent. For all that he understands that things are just things, that pictures cannot truly replicate a moment, it's still better to have them than not. Mementos, objects for their memories to anchor themselves to as time threatens to make them hazy. ]

I'm glad for you.

[ To have her here, to know her. A rare piece of earnest sentiment, in lieu of what she already knows โ€” that he appreciates her efforts, and will treasure whatever she illustrates.

Hesitatingly,
] You've been well? Aside from the last month, of course.
haggle: (pic#17714777)

[personal profile] haggle 2025-03-25 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Uh huh. ( breezily. the cynicism comes as naturally as breathing. ) Sure.

( sure that he's full of shit — no one is good for the profit of being a decent fucking human. altruism is a quick way to make the heart go bankrupt, optimism in the red, trust depleted. if it isn't an act, then — he's as naive as a goddamn newborn, waiting for someone to rip the candy right out of his mouth. he'll learn, the way ani has learned, nothing — not help, or love, or marriage — ever comes free, no strings attached. she sniffs, covertly pocketing the ring back into a hoodie pocket, as if it isn't burning a hole into her awareness — as if it doesn't feel like it weighs her down like a concrete slab. )

Acrylics wouldn't catch on fire, dumbass. They would melt. ( it's toothless, anger as deflated as a popped balloon, left with nothing but the sad misery of having the air sucked out of her. rage had felt right, had felt good, had felt strong — this? it just feels fucking pathetic to be back under the watch of another self-imposed babysitter waiting for her to stick a knife in a toaster. she flashes the tip of her middle finger, flippantly rude, the charm painted orange in the firelit glow. ) You like 'em? Yours look like shit.
Edited 2025-03-25 02:17 (UTC)
corporeity: (016)

[personal profile] corporeity 2025-03-25 07:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ A final near miss, with a wreath of pale peonies, better suited to Astarionโ€™s marbled complexion. His hand twitches, arm outstretched, but he merely dips his fingers into the water alongside it. Not quite right, something missing from the arrangement.

Itโ€™s at that moment of contemplation, of almost puzzling out a solution, that Astarionโ€™s wreath nudges his ankle. Gale peers down, bewilderment tipping into surprise at a wreath having found him. Only as he reaches for it does he begin to comprehend the treasure in hand, sunlight sparkling on the water. Awe stretches his features. The missing piece from the wreath of white now evident: Lavender, of course, because Astarion didnโ€™t make it for himself alone but for Gale, too. Oh.

He lifts the wreath from the water with both hands, mindful of its finer elements. His pointer finger traces a shimmering ribbon to its end, curling the damp fabric around his knuckle. Not unlike the invisible strings that guide him back Astarion, always. A tether that keeps him grounded on this plane, when he might otherwise float away.

His eyes sting as he realises what it means. Proof that Gale is not only chosen but beloved. Thereโ€™s no doubt in his mind that heโ€™s found the one, in every sense of the word. He turns to meet Astarionโ€™s gaze across the water, soft (touched) where he thought heโ€™d be triumphant. As Gale makes his way back, his pace quickens, eager to present Astarion with their prize. The once neat fold of his trouser legs has become uneven, damp from his foray into the shallows, but it hardly bothers him โ€” nothing could, really. ]


Thought I might have to swim out for it. [ murmured with a tip of his head within kissing distance, wreath held in one hand between them while the other cups Astarionโ€™s elbow, brushing where his cool fingertips have come to rest. ] Which I wouldโ€™ve done, in case youโ€™ve any doubt.

[ Mouth tugging high on one side. He wouldโ€™ve dove to the bottom of the lake. The sea. Wherever Astarion led him. ]

Itโ€™s beautiful. [ adoring, ] Youโ€™re so beautiful.
nishtha: (pic#17235222)

[personal profile] nishtha 2025-03-25 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She tastes just as sweet as before, sparkling magic shivering and electric on his tongue and down his throat in counterpoint to the curse inked on her skin. Here, he thinks, is her true self, untouched by her queen's cruelty -- perfect and bright as sunshine. Like champagne, she fizzes into his mouth, swallows of blood lighting him from within. He can taste her love in it, her devotion to him, her memories and thoughts and being, drowning in her with every throb and thrust, as if for a few pure moments they've become the same person --

He groans against her neck, drinking, rocking with her to slide into her body and back again, feeling her wet and willing and open to him. Without hesitation, he gives the feeling back again, pouring his own pleasure into her mind and body, letting her experience it as a heightening of her own responsiveness.

Still moving, he pulls himself off of her neck with a gasp, licking blood from his fangs -- not sated, but wanting to lean in and kiss those words from her lips, coppery and tasting of her. Then, after, pressing his brow to hers as he fucks her in languid rolls of his hips, body throbbing with the blood he's taken from her.
]

Eternity. [ For she has it, the immortality in her blood and magic, given the curse of forever along with the gifts of her people. He doesn't need to kill her to imagine her at his side.

He groans softly, chasing the edge of release as it builds inside him, letting it flow into Lauralae through their connection. Moving faster, faster. Again, pressed to her lips:
]

Eternity, eternity.
missed: (024)

[personal profile] missed 2025-03-25 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ in all the bad times they shared there were good in equal measure. there was love under the anger and loneliness, fondness where resentment tried to take root and squash it out. louis feels the sting of hurt all the same - the lies, the way things could have been so, so different.

but it's different here, too. armand speaks and his body responds, moving to wrap arms around him, pull him into his chest and hold him just as he held him when he was shivering and dying in the dark and cold of the house. ]


I'm sorry.

[ because there is little else he can say - because there are no balms for a memory like that. instead he turns his head and presses a kiss against armand's temple, letting his lips linger, keeping his arms tight around him. ]

I tried. [ to save him. to nurse him back into health. to cure the shivers and the pains. but to no avail. ] I'm here. I got you
masticated: (pic#17630224)

cw nsfw

[personal profile] masticated 2025-03-25 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[heart a steadily growing pace under his thumbs, intermingling with his own. if he focuses hard enough, he can imagine how they'd sound at the same pace, if they'd ever meet that pace to begin with. he does a lot of imagining: what she'd let him do to her (especially as she welcomes the embrace), what sounds would leave her mouth, what she tastes like. skin to skin, water droplets trailing down his face from his hair and trickling onto her shoulder, he thinks she'd let him take her.]

Who wouldn't be lucky to look at you?

[because shadowheart looks to be someone who knows how beautiful she is. his hands linger around hers. this time it's his heart that does an excited jump in his chest. usually no one is familiar with his particular set of skills, or magic - he doesn't know what to call it these days. just is. gingerly, he pulls one hand away from hers (she can keep hold of the other one, he likes how she feels) and wraps his arm around her waist, entrapping her.]

You didn't wanna tell me about your scar, or, well - it wasn't a scar, was it? [casual talk while his free hand roams her belly, snaking up to palm over a breast, catching her nipple between his fingers.] What about what you know? Tell me while I touch you.

[not a question anymore with her kept in his arms, but his tone remains the same. enticing, challenging. he wants to get as much information out of her as he can.]
rakta: (pic#16248455)

[personal profile] rakta 2025-03-25 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
For each other, perhaps? That we have both found something worth our affections.

[ The urge to reach out and hold his hands is as paramount as ever, and she hesitates for a moment before she reaches out, flexing her fingers. If he takes them, she will be happy, and if he does not? She will be fine with it either way. Astarion and her share sentiments on touch and what is involved with it, and flow together like water on a beach.

His question, though...

Her cheeks flush a little as she glances away. ]


I was concerned, when the monsters came, that I was too alike to them, but... I was soothed.

[ Lifting her hand, she draws a necklace from around her neck - a wedding ring, of sorts, it seems. She's not spoken of this to anyone, and Astarion seems someone she can trust. ]

I had a husband to protect me from them, when my magic was taken.
metalkinetic: (pic#17247545)

[personal profile] metalkinetic 2025-03-25 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Erik nods his head; he knows it is.

This isn't the same level as turning a giant satellite, or quite as impressive as lifting a submarine from the water, but it's still new to people who are unfamiliar with it. His mutation isn't one that people find as frightening or uncertain as something like Charles', not digging into their minds and taking their thoughts, so it's easier to digest.

As if it matters.

Absently, he flicks his fingers, and lets any metal on Silco's clothes vibrate gently. ]


Not particularly. Metal this small barely even registers most days. If it was larger, like the gates, or a handful of cars...?

[ Well, then he might have problems. ]
psilocybe: s02 winter (j) (012)

[personal profile] psilocybe 2025-03-25 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[travis swallows down the questions that immediately jump to leave his mouth. the furrowing of his brow and slight narrowing of his eyes gives away enough already. keep him, did she ever want to keep him? maybe dead and gutted, or with her teeth sharp in his lip. does all she ever want to do is draw blood? but her tone tells him that she yearns for some kind of normalcy. that she's trying to be normal with him.

he has a hard time burying his curiosity. staring at her, eyes searching her face for an answer that he isn't sure that she'll give him. shauna is secretive and cunning, smart in ways that he won't ever be. all of them are filled to the brim with complexities, shaped by the trauma they share. are they ever going to reach normal, travis thinks, or will normal feel so far away and foreign that they won't be able to grasp it?

that could be why standing naked and breathless and flushed in a forest doesn't feel as strange as it should.
]

What? Keep me? [still cautious, half wondering if asking is even worth it, half trying to make a joke out of it.] I was joking, Shauna. Obviously you can't keep me here.

[he tries to smile. smiling will help, won't it? it's partial, a lopsided attempt to lighten the mood.]
thirsted: (pic#17656050)

[personal profile] thirsted 2025-03-25 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[ To be a vampire is to experience an eternal hunger, to be cursed to feel the pang of emptiness for years that stretch into decades into centuries. Yet, as Astarion watches Gale pluck the wreath from the surface of the lake, the droplets of water along the leaves and petals catching the warm light of the sun, he feels full, as though his heart might burst. He's not sure when his feet begin to carry him forward โ€” worried, for a fraction of a second, that Gale might slip again โ€” coming to meet him in the early shallows as though pulled by the same tether.

Even the rise and fall of Gale's words are like magic. Had he really been so unmoved by that current, when they'd first met โ€” when now his expression opens and blooms on the ring of each consonant and vowel?
]

I never doubted you.

[ Quiet, even a little rough around the edges. His own spell broken, the heavy peaks and valleys of his usual speech smoothed out and made painfully earnest. No artifice, not when it's not necessary, not when he knows Gale could see through it as easily as a pane of glass.

It's that thought that causes Astarion's brow to crumple at Gale's invocation of beauty. Beauty, a curse under Cazador's reign, yet raised into something near-holy in Gale's hands, not least because Astarion understands the scope of it, accounting not just for his outward appearance but for every silly, ugly part of himself that he's revealed over the course of the past several months. All of it patiently endured, tolerated, accepted.

His eyes have begun to shine by the time he averts his gaze, looking down as he fishes into his pocket with a trembling hand, a kiss foregone out of buzzing nerves.
]

A prize, for the intrepid wizard.

[ And, after a pause โ€” a slight jump of his eyebrows โ€” he reveals what he's been carrying: nestled in the center of his palm is a silver pocket watch, the same one Gale had given to Astarion as his favor during the faire, ticking where it had been silent before. ]

โ€”A token of my love for you.
rakta: (pic#17688553)

[personal profile] rakta 2025-03-25 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Lauralae cannot describe how it feels for her, to be bitten, to share her blood with another and see how it fuels them, how much they enjoy it. Each time she has offered herself to a vampire, no matter who it might be, the bliss of it had been overwhelming. The scent of it in the air, the burn of want and desire that floods her, the spark of magic and the way that her own sharp, tiny fangs clash and snap in her own attempt to claim something in return...

It is primal, and wonderful, and she does not think she has ever felt more herself than in moments like this.

The kiss draws her in, twinned with the shared experience, the ease with which they slip into one another and offer it without pause. She trusts him, she loves him, she desires him, a craving that fills some strange void in her, and it feels so perfectly right to do this. They are kin, they are together, they are warmth in each other's arms, and she would do anything in her power to please him.

Armand has her love. She wants to see his joy, wants to taste her blood on his tongue and let her own flick over his fangs to chase the sensation of it.

It's impossible not to lose herself to it then, to bask in the sensation, arching as she rocks against him and lets herself sink into the enjoyment. The sparks of pleasure are only heightened by the way he leans into her, whispers to her, and she nods, breathless as she comes around him, lost in it all.

They can be together for as long as she breathes, and after that, still. Even if she lost her immortality, she can live here. She can live with him, and love him as he deserves. ]
corporeity: (102)

[personal profile] corporeity 2025-03-25 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Astarionโ€™s voice rings all the lovelier for its lack of practiced notes. Uneven in a way Gale finds terribly attractive, a song that differs every time itโ€™s performed. Each tell of honest affection better than the last, the way his candlelit eyes stretch wide, the tremble in his hand that Gale steadies on instinct, cupping it from below. ]

You โ€”

[ Kept it, already astonishing on its own, when Gale hadnโ€™t done anything worthy of Astarionโ€™s affection back then. Fixed it, when it tick, tick, ticks on, rescued from a lonely death in disrepair, not unlike Gale himself. Gale leans forward, not to kiss him โ€” though he considers it, hazel eyes flicking to Astarionโ€™s parted, pink lips โ€” but to press their foreheads together. His lashes dust his cheek as he steels himself, eyes gleaming when they cast upward to meet their match. ]

I love you, too. [ Wonder and appreciation in every syllable. His thumb strays over the watchโ€™s face, incontrovertible evidence of Astarionโ€™s devotion. He canโ€™t help the tear that slips from the corner of his eye. And with the utmost surety โ€” ] As Iโ€™ve never loved another.

[ For all Astarion preens, Gale knows he falls victim to comparatives, and it costs him nothing to speak the truth of his place in Galeโ€™s heart, exalted above all others. His goddess, forgotten. His inadequacies, deemed irrelevant. Having felt so imperfect, so unsuitable, for so long, he hadnโ€™t dared contemplate the alternative. Now, it overwhelms. ]
masticated: (pic#17630301)

[personal profile] masticated 2025-03-25 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh. What a bummer.

[but his tone is anything but sympathetic, bordering on sarcastic. brows up, big sigh, eyes rolling to really drive in that he doesn't care. the letter is tossed back (discarded) into the pile. he's not thinking about the letters or the people that passed, more about how his leg is between hers again and if he shifts it just so, their limbs knock gently.]

Lots of people died. [thoughtfully:] I think I killed a couple of 'em. They all started lookin' the same, y'know?
masticated: (pic#17630325)

[personal profile] masticated 2025-03-25 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[shauna's voice gets tight from the smoke and he thinks she's going to cough, surely. but she's tougher than that. wants to look tougher than that in his eyes, reflecting back down to her in irises so dark they could be a mirror.]

Wow, takin' it like a champ.

[he does take the cigarette back, sure to brush their fingers together. accident? absolutely not with the intensity in which he holds her gaze.]

It's insane, yeah. You missed some zombies, [a quick drag and he's stepping back to give her more space] murder, death. While we wait for more? You can do whatever you want, Shauna.
powerhungry: (pic#17699390)

๐ŸŽ€

[personal profile] powerhungry 2025-03-25 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Impulsive, as always, a rolling blue tide he's never truly tried to stem despite the occasional spark of frustration or disapproval. They wouldn't be here if not for her. She held him first, throwing open a door โ€” a world of possibility โ€” he'd kept carefully closed, turning the knife in his hand into an afterthought, a tool to wield for her sake rather than against her. He doesn't even think to stop her or pull away as her teeth puncture his skin. Good โ€” let the world know the claim they've staked upon each other. Let pain serve some other purpose than to remind him of a ticking clock.

It'd be a ways off the mark to say that the forest's magic begins to dissipate once the intended ritual is complete. There's no longer that clench in his stomach, nor the sense that his legs would buckle if he tried to get to his feet, but there's still a slight daze in his eyes each time their gazes meet, in between breaths that fall and collect like the leaves at his back. It's all new โ€” tenderness of a different timbre than what he's given her before.

Her hands pull him close โ€” his roam, slow, hushing each whimper, the occasional press of his fingers marking a last, ebbing rush of sensation. She chose him when no one else would.

(He thinks of it as a debt, a contract, where anyone else would term it love. Yours, mine, always, amounting to the same burning thing.)
]
preborns: ([down] in profile)

[personal profile] preborns 2025-03-26 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Mmmm, he must needs be the expert, yes. [alia says it sweetly, sedately, as she wades out of the water slowly, plucking a bit of pond weed out of her trailing, tangled hair. sheโ€™s calmly unconcerned with her nudity, dripping lake water as she climbs up onto the bank and perches on the muddy expanse of it, looking upwards at him thoughtfully.]

Was it very unpleasant? To die? I do not recall my other-memoryโ€™s deaths, only the events leading up to them. [a bit faraway, a glassy look in those strange, unblinking eyes, before she refocuses and smiles sweetly.] Will you enact revenge, do you think?

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