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


gorge: sn (074)

[personal profile] gorge 2025-04-05 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Spoiled, starving (always), and until now, unrestrained. There's a more human-sounding complaint this time, a bratty huff that puffs hair off his face, denied, yet again, with both wrists held back. How dare she! How dare she. ]

Manners? Manners! What is that? You're the impolite one, getting in my bed, watching my body dream and come, dangling a meal right in front of all my mouthsโ€”

[ Frustrated. Rejected. ]

Kiss me again, [ Sucking in his lip, cleaning more blood off with his tongue, he tries to push her mind, manipulate any emotion that might urge her to agree with him: ] You want to.
haggle: (pic#17714780)

[personal profile] haggle 2025-04-06 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
( on the wings of an amused, dry snort: )

Yeah, 'cause I'd be fucking dead.

( there's some things you don't touch — laced product from an unknown source is one of them. she gives it a lingering glance, then — looks away from the temptation. knowing her shitty luck, some kingpin is lurking, waiting for an excuse to break her fingers over it. some highs aren't worth risking anymore.

a hand twists around the ends of her hair, spinning it absently. backtracking to the more concerning point, the reason why a coke-induced fuzz could only be the worst idea she's ever had, in a string of bad ideas:
)

What, so we're in some fuck dungeon? That what you're telling me?
nishtha: by sonea (pic#17468284)

[personal profile] nishtha 2025-04-06 11:51 am (UTC)(link)
[ It doesn't take much. Words murmured into the close quarters between them, intimate and private words. Familiar hands on his bare skin. Armand feels himself relenting, believing it. He trusts the truth he sees in Louis' mind. Clings to the small promises being offered to him, the idea that Louis might one day love him again in all of his imperfection.

Armand tips his head into the press of Louis' brow against his, eyes closing. He draws small circles on Louis' bare shoulders. Chest to chest, stomachs, hips touching.
]

Louis..

[ Breathing his name, Armand opens his eyes to look at him, the beautiful vampire who unlocked his heart, who held him close for so long. His companion, the love of his life. He can't hesitate any longer -- tilting his head, he leans in to kiss him. ]
viver: (019)

[personal profile] viver 2025-04-07 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ *a little less fragile oop ]

What's there for me to do?

[ Turning his head slightly, the snake lifts its body until its mouth touches the tip of his nose. Boop. ]

It'll belong to someone else when it dies. I'll let him decide.

[ Failing to clarify who he means, and probably being a little annoying by creating more and more beings that will go on to become Death's responsibility in such a short amount of time. Then again: ]

He'll probably want to collect this one's bones. I'm not sure about this one.

[ Moving the hand with the moth. ]

Do you keep the dead ones too, Adam?
longlegs: s (419)

[personal profile] longlegs 2025-04-07 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ She's decided his voice is unpleasant and that his smile isโ€ฆ nice? Or maybe she's feeling the opposite effect of what happened when he spoke, and likes his expression better because it's close to how some of the people in her life smile at her, too. Namely a few agents from home.

Her eyes stay on the bracelet when they're not studying his eye color from afar, keeping both arms and hands in place. Instead what reaches for the bracelet is a shadow turned solid matter, something long and gentle plucking it off his hand like an obedient tendril before it returns to the body it's seemingly connected to, like she shaped a new limb from nothing. Cellar uses the tendril-shadow to inspect the bracelet. ]


Cute, [ She decides, shifting her hand just enough to have the moving darkness put the bracelet on without having to expose her chest. Save for a lot of cleavage. Giving the accessory a little shake to let it fall into place, ] Thanks. I take it you didn't like the candy? No one does.
longlegs: n (377)

[personal profile] longlegs 2025-04-07 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ Wincing, swatting at the paper, Cellar makes a face at Saber once it lands on the dirt. How dare he do what she did to him, wow? Anyway. ]

Scrawny?

[ Maybe it's because she was just thinking about Iggy, but. How can that not make her think about Iggy? ]

What was his hair like?
longlegs: n k s (433)

[personal profile] longlegs 2025-04-07 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Every time she feels him on her she forgets everything else; every time he stops she's cruelly reawakened to the pain of not being his. He seems so large then, getting on top of her, mouth slick from all that time spent leaving his mark on her skin, from the softer curves to where it's most sensitive near the bones. She's slick too, fluid running between her legs, palms flat and fingers clawing at the ground underneath, both a comfort and a prison of the forest that's spinning her thoughts and twisting her insides.

Grabbing his hand, needy and anxious, Cellar sucks two fingers into an obedient mouth. There's a muffled whimper as they slide deep, as soft as a flicker of light, eyes shutting slowly. Saber wants them wet, so she'll get them wet โ€” she'll suck, in and out, studying every detail with an indulgent tongue. Legs part slightly, hips moving from one side to another and arching back, seeking relief before another terrible spasm hits. ]
preborns: ([neutral] let me ponder)

[personal profile] preborns 2025-04-07 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
Mmmhm. [alia tips her head towards the touch on her hair, smoothing away the strand of sodden hair, letting her perch against his knee, look up at him, through him, like she wants nothing more than to sink her fingers into the soft meat of his mind and take him apart. or like she wants to swallow him whole. or somewhere in-between. but she nudges her temple against his palm, then closes her eyes as homelander's fingertip settles on the center of her forehead.] I know. She's Alicent.

[that suffices, just as she's alina or he's paul might. their essence, their magnetism captured in the name, insufficient in it's simplicity, but closer to describing what's contained than anything else could be. she understands homelander's attachment, the cord tying him to alicent now, always, since the games, perhaps. she reads it in the quickening of his pulse, the tang of his sweat, the flicker in his eyes when she opens hers once more and meets his gaze.

they're quiet for a moment, homelander's mouth twisting, alia's quiet, before he asks the question. alia's pale shoulders raise, fall, rising above, then sinking beneath the water.
] It was a change. [neutral, disinterested -- the truth is one she will not allow herself to ponder for long. what does it matter if she misses the simplicity of her mind being her own? she cannot return to that. she is as she is.

turning suddenly, alia presses her bare back to homelander's shins, tips her head upside-down onto his lap to regard him that way instead.
] Would you miss being ordinary? If you could become it?
missed: (louis-peaked10)

[personal profile] missed 2025-04-07 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
I got you.

[ he leans into the kiss with a soft hum, letting his arms wrap around the small of armand's waist, molding their bodies together. they have so much to wade through and even kissing armand he can feel the ugly wound in his chest sting, hurt. no, they won't be reconciled completely for a long time, he thinks. but this? this is not unlike a homecoming.

he presses, letting the kiss go slow and languorous, yearning in a softer way than the hunger they've known for years and years now. and only when he draws away, their noses touching, does he let out a soft little laugh. ]


Careful, got plenty we can get up to in the lake.

[ it's a small tease, a hint at something warm, and louis for all the warning bells in his head - he ignores them. he kisses armand again, one hand splaying wide at the low of armand's bare back. ]
recruit: (johnny47)

[personal profile] recruit 2025-04-07 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
It's bad enough, I suppose. Rich people and their money โ€” they never come together quite right, do they?

[ some acknowledgement worth giving a damn over, perhaps. what is material fortune that is earned righteously? did jesus not curse the monied men who prayed and preyed at the temples of old? the son casts out the greedy and the covetous; the father burns the earth and buries salt in the ashes. nothing grows in excess.

the woman's thinking is right, if johnny had a way to know her mind: can't trust this crowd.

so she can't trust this pretty, pretty lady either.
]

Are you coming or going? I hear they're serving meals out on the grass.
nishtha: (pic#17201910)

[personal profile] nishtha 2025-04-07 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's bittersweet. Armand wants to clutch at him, fingernails punched into Louis like pins through to a board, to keep him forever. Impossible, of course, for so many reasons. And impossible not to want, with Louis sweet and strong, kissing him like they're back on the banks of the Seine. It would be so easy to let himself go into it, to touch Louis in the ways he knows he likes to be touched. Too easy. ]

Louis.

[ He pulls back, not wanting to. His fingertips stroke across Louis' shoulder; he looks at them against Louis' skin, to keep himself from looking into those green eyes and seeing understanding there. He's not sure if he could stand it. ]

Will you stay with me in coffin today? Not to -- I wouldn't expect anything of you. It's only that I'm not used to being alone. Always, before, there were others. The coven. You. Daniel. And now.. [ Only silence, and his own thoughts. ]
missed: (pic#16099780)

[personal profile] missed 2025-04-07 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it would be easy to fall back into everything they were, but as armand pulls back he lets out a little sigh, leaning forward once more to press a kiss to his forehead, lingering. how different things are now that the truth is out in front of them. ]

Yeah. [ he will have to explain to lestat, something that stirs unease in the pit of his stomach, but things have changed between them, too. so he simply nods again, reaching to tip armand's chin so their eyes meet. ]

Let's get back to the room, yeah? Get dried off, warmed up. We can go to coffin, the rest we can figure out when we get there.

[ he touches armand's cheek, thumb brushing over the rise of his cheekbone, still marveling to see him well again, as alive as a vampire can be. ]
redsoil: (pic#16220739)

[personal profile] redsoil 2025-04-07 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Blood splatters forth from his nose, as the force of Sebastian's clever blow splits the flesh and bruises the interior workings โ€” it's a smart little attack, and Set blinks the bright spots from his vision as quickly as he can, only to rapidly find himself spilling onto the ground as his leg is swept out from below him. Tactically, he knows there are several ways that he could circumvent landing on his back ( the number one rule being "never let them get you on your back" ), including a complete physical transformation into sand โ€” but some part of him wants to toy hard with this servile man.

Rather than give away his own little tricks, Set twists to fall onto his front instead. An articulate and inhuman motion that defeats the laws of physics, forcing him to drop into a loose plank position before he presses force through the heels of his palms and curls his knees to his chest. It places him in a low crouch, the same as Sebastian โ€” allowing him to extend a leg out like a spear, aiming to drive the knife edge of his bare foot toward the other man's throat. Yay! Fun!

They're both a little too graceful to be human, and Set's own precision speaks to extensive training; the expression upon his face, brilliantly red-eyed and luminous with feral excitement, is entirely at odds with the perplexed knit of his brows, as if he's trying hard to figure out WHY he's gone in on a technical??? stranger?? to begin with. ]
agoniser: (pic#17734408)

[personal profile] agoniser 2025-04-08 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ Her eagerness just drives him in turn. The taste of her sweat and blood might as well be a wine for how intoxicating he finds it. She yields to his sharp teeth and strong hands so easily and sweetly that not for the first time, he wishes that he had more Drukhari pleasures at his disposal.

He doesnโ€™t dwell on it for once, though. Itโ€™s merely a passing fancy, since it feels ridiculous for once to yearn for it when he has her in his arms. She asks for more, and though he thinks he could make her begโ€” ]


Not tonight, dear cousin. I would not deny you nor myself.

[ He murmurs it lowly like a promise, but the implication is there. Another night, absolutely. But now, he acquiesces easily, since the mutual impatience makes anything else seem like too much of a wait. Instead his focus is finding a soft, tender part of her breast. Itโ€™s there that he bites, and this one is sharp enough that itโ€™ll absolutely remain for longer. ]

Each time it throbs and stingsโ€” [ Marazhai lowers her just a bit as he cants his hips up. He can feel the heat and slide of her sex, but he doesnโ€™t try to enter her just yet while he speaks. ] I would hope you are as wanting as this. That perhaps you may even call me to you for more, and I will gladly give it.

[ He huffs out a hot, yearning breath against her skin before he laps his tongue against the little wounds. He spreads the blood across his teeth like heโ€™s a creature that needs sanguine pleasures, but itโ€™s purely macabre, hedonistic enjoyment for the moment. His eyes flick back to hers, and the question is almost comically polite for him, butโ€ฆ She is a small thing, even if she enjoys pain as he does. ]

How much of me would you take, Lauralae?
cutlery: (Default)

[personal profile] cutlery 2025-04-08 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
[ โ€ฆRight away, Sebastian recognizes that such a move shouldnโ€™t exactly be possible. Heโ€™s carefully studied the limits of human strength and flexibility, and thus, he knows its limits and where to believeably push past them. To a human eye, they would both be incredible fighters and acrobats. But to a creature thatโ€™s so studiously tried to emulate them?

His fist is just a little faster in turn as he swings the non-brush weilding fist up at Setโ€™s ankle. Itโ€™s not meant to damage so much as deflect, but thereโ€™s a similar force in it that Set had delivered to Sebastianโ€™s back. In fact, itโ€™s precisely the same. Is this someone thatโ€™s very cautious or simply petty?

(It can be two things.)

He expects itโ€™ll throw the man slightly off balance for the moment, which he tries to use to roll out of the way and his immediate reach so that he can get on his feet. Itโ€™s all an agile, quite impressive show, but itโ€™s too bad Sebastian doesnโ€™t seem all that amused. ]


I should be asking you that, sir. [ Yes, sir. Even trading blows and blood, heโ€™s exceptionally polite. ] What is this about?
honorism: (hotd0798)

Tidying Up - II

[personal profile] honorism 2025-04-08 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
[Honestly she'd thought him a member of staff himself, despite the nicer clothing. She glances curiously at him as she tries to skirt by, entomology book tucked under her arm, but when he speaks to her she pulls herself short, blinking owlishly at him a moment]

Oh--

[She looks around, violet eyes wide, as if not sure Sebastian is truly asking her, but there's no one else around so. She pauses and straightens, rubbing her hands together and wringing them in a self-soothing motion.] There was...a snowstorm. Hungry guests arrived. [She speaks vaguely, distantly, before she shakes her head. He's clearly new and she wants to at least attempt to be more helpful.]

The snow fell so hard we were all trapped inside for the month. And creatures appeared that hungered for flesh. Everyone not bundled up in the library was fighting them out here and they were breaking in from everywhere. [She looks at the blood splatters with a small frown] They killed most of the staff, I'm afraid. I'm sure others have been trying to pitch in for clean-up efforts too. [Not her because she wouldn't know the first thing about where to begin but like. Someone, besides Sebastian. Surely.]
nishtha: (pic#17423042)

[personal profile] nishtha 2025-04-08 09:00 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[ Smiling, eyelashes fanned over his cheek as Louis touches him, he repeats it for the pleasure of repeating it. Remembers Daniel in the Americanism. Daniel, who would probably be rolling his eyes to see the two of them treading far too close to dangerous territory again. Yeah, and then what?

Still, Armand doesn't stop himself. He wades out of the water with Louis and fetches his clothes from where they're piled neatly on the shore, drying himself off a little and dressing only enough to be decent for the walk back to the house, leaving his shirt hanging open. He's quiet and thoughtful, not reaching for Louis unless his hand is taken, allowing his companion to set the pace and the tone.

His room is the same as it was before, the suit they used to share, having moved back into it after Daniel left. Daniel's laptop is still on the desk, the pile of books he was reading still on the table next to the bed. The coffin is open, Santiago sprawled on the bed. The rabbit hops over to greet Louis when they arrive, floating into the air to sniff at him while Armand lights candles and fetches towels from the bathroom.
]

Would you like to wash off the lake?
viver: lady zephir (287)

[personal profile] viver 2025-04-08 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I do.

[ A fond smile. But Zephir is unsatisfied with Theo's answer, wants to keep pressing into that discomfort. She loves the idea of disruption a little too much. ]

It was just the two of us, in the beginning.
viver: (245)

[personal profile] viver 2025-04-08 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't need a reason to hurt you.

[ Awful words delivered so sweetly. Poor Iggy was so brutalized the first time they ever met โ€” perhaps last month's incident was simply the universe handing him the conditions to retaliate. Whether Iggy wanted to or not. ]

Revenge means nothing to me, that's all.
longlegs: n u (422)

[personal profile] longlegs 2025-04-08 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She almost doesn't catch it, clapped between her palms before she goes back to a cover-y position with her arms, heart closed in one hand long enough to turn it up and open, picking the heart to read the tiny message. ]

'Suck it'โ€” yeah, okay.

[ And here she'd mostly just picked up eggs with more generic valentine's messages in them, but this place is what it is, and she just left the woods after being possessed by an even hornier mind-warp than Saltburnt is already known for providing, so who is she to be surprised.

Cellar rolls her eyes and lets it get crushed between her molars with a snappy crunch. Looking off while she chews, sounding unmotivated, she makes a face. ]


I'm actually pretty hungry.
cutlery: (Default)

(please excuse the comment format as I'm being cheap and not re-upping my paid lmf)

[personal profile] cutlery 2025-04-08 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Subtly enough as not to be noticed, he quickly takes in the little details of the woman he calls out to. Her bright, unsusual eyes, her nervous temperament, and —ah, an unusual book, if heโ€™s reading most of that cover correctly. Itโ€™s nothing more than the glance one stranger would give to another to assess if she were open for his question, but heโ€™s sharp and observant in ways that are truly inhuman.

โ€ฆHowever, itโ€™s not like thatโ€™s strictly necessary, he quickly finds. The surprise is clear and genuine in his expression as he sits back a little bit to take a pause in the work to speak to her. Heโ€™s not sure what he expected this all to be from, exactly, but a situation like (or involvingโ€ฆ?) the Bizarre Dolls certainly wasnโ€™t it. Was this all something to do with the Undertaker and separating him from Ciel? Itโ€™s a thought to consider later. ]


My goodnessโ€ฆ I had no idea it was soโ€ฆ [ He glances to the blood and clears his throat lightly before he dips to start to scrub at that spot instead. Itโ€™s a bit of ingrained etiquette, since it feels correct to remove the filth from her sight. ] —I scarcely know the word for it. Supernatural even seems too light a word for such a thing. It must have been terribly frightening.
dead_tongue: (hug)

[personal profile] dead_tongue 2025-04-08 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[That statement really ought to be one of those red flags people are always telling him about, but Iggy just smiles and hugs Zephir tight again.]

Yay.
chokedout: (077)

[personal profile] chokedout 2025-04-09 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
[He knows what that's like - less literally, of course. Once upon a time only he and Wil mattered, too.]

Yeah? What was that like? How... did you meet? Or grow?
breeding: (pic#17404310)

[personal profile] breeding 2025-04-09 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ I know, Alia says, and Homelander believes her. (He doesn't, often โ€” I know has typically been, in his experience, the territory of suck-ups, of those who claim understanding without even beginning to think about whether or not it's the truth.) So the thought closes itself like a parenthetical, opened and ended.

His features are quick to shift at her question โ€” as though there'd been no strange equilibrium between them just moments before โ€” practically answering it before the words,
] Jesus, no, [ leave his mouth. ]

Why would I ever want to be ordinary?

[ And maybe it's a little hypocritical, given the fact that he'd just asked her essentially the same thing while expecting a different response, butโ€” they're not the same person, nor of the same mind. She wouldn't look at him the way she does if they were.

Still frowning, he looks down at Alia, moving more damp strands of her hair to shift it into a middle part.
]

Is that the way it works? You stop hearing the voices, you can't use the Voice anymore?
thirsted: (pic#17655983)

[personal profile] thirsted 2025-04-09 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ Softly, ] Of course.

[ They understood that about each other from nearly the first moment they'd spoken, he thinks. That they'd both been formed in loneliness, that accepting anything else, even if they wanted to, was still an obstacle to surmount. And yet, here they are. ]

Well, you know who to come to, should you need a sympathetic ear in figuring this all out.

[ He tilts his head, peering past the curtain of her hair. ]

Learning needn't be done alone.

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