๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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draino2024-05-13 07:36 am
saltburnmods) wrote in draino2024-05-13 07:36 am
Entry tags:
"๐๐๐๐" โฃ MAY TDM
MAY 2024 TDM
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. 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 isnโt, stay in bed and wallow โ eventually a maid will be in to tear your curtains open, saying, "Breakfast is served," and scurrying out quietly, invisibly. Breakfast? Maybe itโs normal for you. Maybe it isnโt.
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 โ have you been here before? Were you drawn up to this estate in a car? Havenโt 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, who seem just as disgruntled and confused as you. No matter. "The breakfast is self-serve," they say. But not the eggs.
If you want to leave, youโll 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 heโs as good at being invisible as the rest of the house staff. Of course, thereโs no reason why you canโt 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 doesnโt want you to leave. Those more sensitive or fragile might find they canโt 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 doesnโt 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 painkillers are there, just like you remember. In fact, itโs 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. Itโs self serve, naturally. Just not the eggs.
"We dress for dinner," says Portia, with a kind, if discerning smile. "Black tie."
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 โ have you been here before? Were you drawn up to this estate in a car? Havenโt 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, who seem just as disgruntled and confused as you. No matter. "The breakfast is self-serve," they say. But not the eggs.
If you want to leave, youโll 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 heโs as good at being invisible as the rest of the house staff. Of course, thereโs no reason why you canโt 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 doesnโt want you to leave. Those more sensitive or fragile might find they canโt 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 doesnโt 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 painkillers are there, just like you remember. In fact, itโs 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. Itโs self serve, naturally. Just not the eggs.
"We dress for dinner," says Portia, with a kind, if discerning smile. "Black tie."
LET THEM EAT CAKE
CONTENT WARNINGS: sex, drugs, alcohol.
Up until now, the outdoors of Saltburnt have seemed immaculately well groomed, landscaped until not a leaf is out of line. However, on the night of a planned party you were all informed of, the grounds have transformed into a psychedelic fever dream before your eyes, with very little resembling the polished exterior youโve become acquainted with. Large fixtures have been erected around the grounds in a paid homage to Roman architecture, huge columns set up in invitation to the party beyond. Everything is bathed in pastel colors of pink, blue, yellow and green, opulent and gaudy in equal measures, everything decorated with golden filigree. The theme? Rococo. And yes, youโre expected to arrive in costume. (0 points awarded for historical accuracy โ this isnโt school, you arenโt being graded on anything but your appearance.)
Vanilla flavored cocktails line elaborately decorated banquet tables, and while alcohol seems readily in supply, any food other than snacking Doritos and caviar with mother-of-pearl spoons is hard to find. Of course, thatโs other than the dessert table, which is sorted with an arrangement of confections: macaroons of all colors, cupcakes, cookies, and of course, cakes. Some are imperially designed, with frilly icing decorations and sprinkle pearls on top, but the real showstopper cakes are the anatomically correct ones, shaped in the imagine of naked bodies. On first glance, the lifelike realness of them makes the bodies look like peaceful corpses laid flat against the sugary delights โ some, potentially, with an appearance uncannily like a guest like you, currently residing in Saltburnt. But, when someone cuts into one, it's plain to see the flesh is just fondant, the insides all cake and cream and jam. There is enough detail on the inside of the cakes that gives the impression, if you were to cut one horizontally down from head to toe, you'd see the perfect snapshot of the inside of a human body, organs, bones, and all.
Seeking other entertainment? In homage to the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, small diamonds have been hidden around the party, in red solo cups, in full liquor bottles, in plain sight, in trees and bushes. Collect, steal, and pickpocket as many as you can โ anyone with diamonds at the end of the party has been guaranteed a special prize from Portia herself, but you'll have to win to figure out what it is. (A replica of the Queen's necklace, lucky you!)
In addition, on the grounds there is a lifesize version chess, alternating colors between light and hot pink. Anyone interested will quickly be informed, this is SlapKiss Chess, where the rules are simple enough to follow. Chess as usual, only when one piece steps on the square of another piece, the first person to step off the square loses the ground and is kicked from the game. You can knock your opponent off however you like, through whatever means available to you. Naturally, things get pretty bloody and pretty PDA, depending on your poison of choice โ with the name of the game comes two very frequent weapons against your opponent.
Of course, the night does come to an end eventually. Pass out where you are or drunkenly make your way up to you room in a drug-induced stupor. Either way, you'll wake up hungover, in bed, trying to fill in all the blanks from last night.
Up until now, the outdoors of Saltburnt have seemed immaculately well groomed, landscaped until not a leaf is out of line. However, on the night of a planned party you were all informed of, the grounds have transformed into a psychedelic fever dream before your eyes, with very little resembling the polished exterior youโve become acquainted with. Large fixtures have been erected around the grounds in a paid homage to Roman architecture, huge columns set up in invitation to the party beyond. Everything is bathed in pastel colors of pink, blue, yellow and green, opulent and gaudy in equal measures, everything decorated with golden filigree. The theme? Rococo. And yes, youโre expected to arrive in costume. (0 points awarded for historical accuracy โ this isnโt school, you arenโt being graded on anything but your appearance.)
Vanilla flavored cocktails line elaborately decorated banquet tables, and while alcohol seems readily in supply, any food other than snacking Doritos and caviar with mother-of-pearl spoons is hard to find. Of course, thatโs other than the dessert table, which is sorted with an arrangement of confections: macaroons of all colors, cupcakes, cookies, and of course, cakes. Some are imperially designed, with frilly icing decorations and sprinkle pearls on top, but the real showstopper cakes are the anatomically correct ones, shaped in the imagine of naked bodies. On first glance, the lifelike realness of them makes the bodies look like peaceful corpses laid flat against the sugary delights โ some, potentially, with an appearance uncannily like a guest like you, currently residing in Saltburnt. But, when someone cuts into one, it's plain to see the flesh is just fondant, the insides all cake and cream and jam. There is enough detail on the inside of the cakes that gives the impression, if you were to cut one horizontally down from head to toe, you'd see the perfect snapshot of the inside of a human body, organs, bones, and all.
Seeking other entertainment? In homage to the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, small diamonds have been hidden around the party, in red solo cups, in full liquor bottles, in plain sight, in trees and bushes. Collect, steal, and pickpocket as many as you can โ anyone with diamonds at the end of the party has been guaranteed a special prize from Portia herself, but you'll have to win to figure out what it is. (A replica of the Queen's necklace, lucky you!)
In addition, on the grounds there is a lifesize version chess, alternating colors between light and hot pink. Anyone interested will quickly be informed, this is SlapKiss Chess, where the rules are simple enough to follow. Chess as usual, only when one piece steps on the square of another piece, the first person to step off the square loses the ground and is kicked from the game. You can knock your opponent off however you like, through whatever means available to you. Naturally, things get pretty bloody and pretty PDA, depending on your poison of choice โ with the name of the game comes two very frequent weapons against your opponent.
Of course, the night does come to an end eventually. Pass out where you are or drunkenly make your way up to you room in a drug-induced stupor. Either way, you'll wake up hungover, in bed, trying to fill in all the blanks from last night.
A MIDNIGHT'S DREAM
CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, cannibalism, sex.
Things feel normal, for awhile. The first day after the party anything brewing inside feels like the byproduct of intoxicants ingested, so it's likely you're expecting to feel a little off. The next day, you wonder just how long this hangover is supposed to last. By the third day, something feels indefinably wrong, and you ache down to your bones.
Did you eat the cake? Probably, yes โ but did you find it a littleโฆ addictive?
There's an urge inside you, to taste it again. What part of the body did you eat before? The fingers? Suddenly, you need to sink teeth into whoever has fingers closest to you, even though you know what'll happen. You'll find flesh, blood, and bone, hardly any of it appetizing. And yet. The compulsion is undeniable, and once you get what you want, you bite down on someone's body where you feel the need and, shockingly, it tastes good. Sweet. Moreover, it feels good to be consumed. Eater and eaten alike, all of you want some more, gluttonous down to your core.
It seems a curse has overtaken Saltburnt, turning everyone who ate cake into cake. Bones turn to cracked caramel, blood into loose icing. Oddly, it seems the only people safe from the curse, other than the people who didnโt eat anything, are the ones who won and wear their gifted diamond necklace, though that doesn't necessarily mean people won't try to take a bite out of them anyway, and it doesn't mean they wouldn't like being eaten too, depending on what they're into. It's all a frenzy, a fever dream. You eat and eat and eat and are eaten, shocked by how much flesh โ well, cake โ someone can lose.
On the fourth day, you wake up in your room again, as you have every other day, whole and unblemished, offended by the scent coming from outside your windows. Look, and find the sight of rotting cake abandoned in heaps, taking the form of errant limbs, spotted with mold and decorated with buzzing flies. Look for long enough, and you might once again find some weirdly similar to your own body, feeding hornets that flock to your sugary sweet flesh.
Weird dream, right?
Things feel normal, for awhile. The first day after the party anything brewing inside feels like the byproduct of intoxicants ingested, so it's likely you're expecting to feel a little off. The next day, you wonder just how long this hangover is supposed to last. By the third day, something feels indefinably wrong, and you ache down to your bones.
Did you eat the cake? Probably, yes โ but did you find it a littleโฆ addictive?
There's an urge inside you, to taste it again. What part of the body did you eat before? The fingers? Suddenly, you need to sink teeth into whoever has fingers closest to you, even though you know what'll happen. You'll find flesh, blood, and bone, hardly any of it appetizing. And yet. The compulsion is undeniable, and once you get what you want, you bite down on someone's body where you feel the need and, shockingly, it tastes good. Sweet. Moreover, it feels good to be consumed. Eater and eaten alike, all of you want some more, gluttonous down to your core.
It seems a curse has overtaken Saltburnt, turning everyone who ate cake into cake. Bones turn to cracked caramel, blood into loose icing. Oddly, it seems the only people safe from the curse, other than the people who didnโt eat anything, are the ones who won and wear their gifted diamond necklace, though that doesn't necessarily mean people won't try to take a bite out of them anyway, and it doesn't mean they wouldn't like being eaten too, depending on what they're into. It's all a frenzy, a fever dream. You eat and eat and eat and are eaten, shocked by how much flesh โ well, cake โ someone can lose.
On the fourth day, you wake up in your room again, as you have every other day, whole and unblemished, offended by the scent coming from outside your windows. Look, and find the sight of rotting cake abandoned in heaps, taking the form of errant limbs, spotted with mold and decorated with buzzing flies. Look for long enough, and you might once again find some weirdly similar to your own body, feeding hornets that flock to your sugary sweet flesh.
Weird dream, right?
DIRECTORY
no subject
[ in a different life, louis might have grinned toothily and made the easy, southern drawl of a joke with dead-eyed confidence: free food, indeed. this place has him remembering older tongues and older days, and maybe it's the electric energy of the party or the unsettling itch of something dangerous here but seeing a familiar face soothes the dissonance of it all. ]
You drive up yesterday then? It's a long way from Dubai.
[ there's an elegant zippo that'd he'd picked off of some drunken partygoer, and he flicks it with ease and lights the older man's cigarette. no, neither of them should be smoking, but here they are. a man and a vampire at a wild sex party. how ironic.
he can feel the presence of others in this place that feel familiar, too, but he doesn't trust it. the house has his head a little off kilter as it is, but seeing daniel only confirms his suspicions. a long drag on his cigarette, a deep exhale and then - a boon: ]
Don't eat the cake. Bad enough we have to eat the eggs in the morning, but the cake - something's not right about all that.
no subject
He takes the breath anyway. Asshole. ]
They flew me out. Chauffeur picked me up from the airport. Rich people, they're all the same.
[ A kind of emphasis, a side glance, that makes it clear Louis' included in that: the flight and drive hadn't really been all that different to the one Rashid-or-Armand arranged to pluck him outta New York. It's a power flex, an intimidation tactic, he's seen it dozens of times.
Anyway, he waves his hand, dismissing that comment idly as though it's the smoke spooling blue ribbons into the night air. He doesn't begrudge Louis his wealth, what would be the point? Besides, he wants to follow that little titbit, journalistic senses tingling. ]
And why's that.
[ He definitely ate one of those eggs. Tomorrow maybe he'll try and sneak one off for lab testing. But a vampire's senses are stronger, and he's wondering what exactly put Louis off. ]
no subject
[ admitting that while he remembers being put on a flight and being driven up to the house, the why is still too elusive would be too vulnerable. it would reveal one hole in the story he'd been trying his best to tell (and to reform), no matter his trust in daniel. even skimming his thoughts daniel, though not outwardly transparent, is at least straight forward. doesn't mince words.
louis appreciates that. mostly. but to get anything from the man is to appeal to the reporterly cogs of his brain - just as appealing to louis is all in nostalgia, humanity. he takes another long drag of the cigarette, reveling in the burn in his lungs and the lazy way the smoke drifts in the open air between them.
someone inside loses another game of chess - there's an uproar of violence, a fist swung, a yelp, and the lingering smell of blood, tangy and fresh wafting onto the air. his nose wrinkles and he turns to look at daniel directly this time, blocking out the noise. ]
But the cake - it's just a hunch. The smell, maybe - of the people who had it, before and after. Like an itch you should be able to scratch, but it's always too deep under the skin. Nagging.
no subject
[ That's definitely raising his reporterly hackles, the idea that there's something in the food. It says something he doesn't want to examine that he doesn't push further, accepts that Louis' hunch is as good as his word even if the man's instincts aren't... well, he's made some bad choices. ]
I feel like we're being played with.
[ Dropping his voice now, low enough that it would be hard even for Louis to hear it if he was human; he'll have to pick the thoughts out of Daniel's head as he speaks them. ]
Can't be a coincidence, right? They bring me out here to write, Armand for some art, and then you're, what, on a British fucking vacation? And they're drugging the food? Someone's fucking with us.
no subject
[ innocuous enough, like a joke among old friends should any passersby overhear him. it's even said with a pull of his mouth to one side - louis was (and is, in some ways) a business man with a practiced poker face. it's as important to keep it here as it was anywhere else.
and so he does pick the thoughts out of daniel's mind, what with how quietly he speaks. the party's noise inside could turn any murmuring to blurred, white-noise. it's very much why, when daniel hears louis' voice again? it's certainly not out loud, but thrumming in his mind. ]
There's something wrong about this place, whatever it is. No coincidence that you, Armand, and myself were called here. Among others.
[ it's best not to mention lestat. not right now. not here. ]
I don't recall the reason they invited me here - likely under the guise of an investment. But an investor should be able to leave if the deal goes sour. They never send a car.
no subject
[ As Louis well knows. Daniel is still muttering but the thought of Rashid-Armand is loud and clear. ]
I'll look into it. That's what I do. But if I'm putting my ass on the line you've gotta look out for me.
[ If there's a new coven here, if it's vampire stuff, then he doesn't want to end up dead. He still has too much stuff to do. A book to finish. He can keep working for Louis, but they don't have the safety of the penthouse isolation here. ]
no subject
the very humanness of daniel molloy endears him further to louis, even if he would swear otherwise. there's no sense in wasting his energy - if daniel has to speak out loud, he might as well do the same. louis closes some of the distance between them as he takes another drag of his cigarette. not touching, but enough that he can feel the warmth of the blood pumping in daniel's veins. ]
I warned you about the cake, didn't I? [ a tilt of his head and his eyes shift to peer at the man. ] It smells like rot.
[ and he can only imagine what it does. he doesn't want to know. ]
Perhaps the walls of my penthouse kept us safe before, but here? My eyes and ears are open. I don't know what the dangers are, but I can assure you, Daniel, that I will watch your back as well as I can. If you think otherwise, then, well. I suppose we got off on the wrong foot.
[ understatement of the year, louis. ]
no subject
[ Dry. Something about that furrows his brow a little, but he puts it aside for now, mentally pencilled to return to later. ]
No, I trust you.
[ Not entirely true, but the have grown closer over the course of the interview, and he feels like he understands Louis, could maybe even predict him. And part of that understanding is knowing he'll like to hear that, to be seen as trustworthy, as capable of looking out. ]
Pretty sure my laptop is back in Dubai, but I'd still like to help you keep remembering. Wrap up Paris, maybe.
[ Eventually, if they can find somewhere private to talk. Daniel's interested, of course, and still piecing some stuff together, and... he thinks it's probably good for Louis. Therapy makes for shitty journalism but he's been overinvested from the start, he's not gonna be winning another Pulitzer for this one. ]
no subject
no less from a man like daniel molloy. they both have their secrets, but there's an honesty to the things they say out loud. or, rather - louis tries his best. he looks at daniel for a long few seconds, silent, until: ]
We could wrap up Paris, yes.
[ his brow furrows and he takes the final drag off this cigarette, flicking the butt out into the damp of the yard. he shouldn't pursue the interview further, not without armand, not without the laptop and the recording and everything else to make it official. but daniel says remembering, and it strikes at something entirely human in louis. ]
Remembering. [ he looks out over the lawn, to the high hedges of the maze in the distance. ] Makes you wonder how you could forget at all. Everything coming back in stark relief, detail so vivid that - [ a beat. a regathering of his resolve. ]
I'd like to continue our talk. When we can.
no subject
[ It's easier if he keeps framing as an interview, but it's not about that. He can't work without his laptop and its notes and recordings. Maybe, sure, he could get the rest of the story down here, ready for when he's reunited with his stuff, but it's kinda stupid, and he knows it is, to proceed. Without preparation, without the safety of their routine. Part of why he prefers to talk in a subject's own space is because they're more willing to be vulnerable when they think they have everything around them under their control. That's not gonna be the case here.
And yet. ]
Yeah, me too. You know, I've got some hazy memories of my own I'd like some help clarifying.
[ He stubs out his own cigarette hard. Dares to knock his shoulder very lightly, just a brush, against Louis'. ]
We'll get there.
[ Old men on that odyssey together. ]
no subject
how is it that of all those who presumably know him, love him, care for him - only unsettle the disquiet in his mind, and this human being, again - the reporter he hired - manages to bring him back down into himself once more. it's no different than dubai, no different than san francisco.
but there won't be blood here. not daniel's. not again. and when louis speaks, there's the rasp of something old in it, rounded and almost creole at its edges. not the restrained, perfect thing he'd made himself to be. ]
I don't know if I can help with all of it, but I'm willing to try.
[ the bump against the shoulder surprises him and he tips his head up to look at daniel in the small space between them. ]
It's the least I could do.
[ there's a little lean of his own when he braces his hands on the balcony railing, bringing their elbows to brush together, briefly. ]
I have the feeling we'll have plenty of time. In the meantime? I'll watch your back. The way things are looking, I might need you to watch mine.
[ there's a lilt of a dry joke there, but it doesn't reach his eyes. something tells him they'll both need a little protecting, when the time comes. ]
no subject
Usually in the past when he's wanted that, it's been a quiet spite. Wanting oligarchs and patriarchs to flinch from their own portrait. Maybe all that time listening to the stories of evil men has inured him to what it means. Regardless, he isn't scared of Louis, even if he probably should be. ]
I can do that. I can offer perspective, at least.
[ A reporter with a point of view. It's not like he's a physical threat to anyone, but he can help Louis navigate being free of the Dubai penthouse for the first time in a while. ]
no subject
[ how many pointed questions, how many times has daniel picked him apart and spread him thin enough that the truth even he hadn't known tumbles from his lips? it's no different now, is it? louis sighs. ]
But it's appreciated. I think I'll need it. We're not in Dubai anymore, Toto.
[ there's a wry, tired joke in it, but there's also apprehension. there are too many movers from his life at play in this haunted little mansion. having an ally, even if they're not friends, might work in his favor. ]
๐
That's who you hired. That's who I am now.
[ Better than "and then what happened" for drawing out the truth like a splinter from sepsis. He's glad, too, that Louis appreciates it, that he hasn't pushed too hard.
Something thrums there between them, a complicated feeling, Daniel meeting his uncanny eyes with his own gaze warm, a little of the adoring interest he'd had as a youth peeking through. And then he breaks it. They're done smoking; he's done indulging this party; he's leaving this on a rare high note and heading inside. ]
I'm turning in. Room adjoining mine's free, by the way.
[ One last piece of info tossed back over his shoulder. Since they're watching each others' backs. ]