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TEST DRIVE MEME 002
⚰︎ ⍢ ⌲ ⍚ TEST DRIVE MEME:
Welcome to RUBILYKSKOYE — a dark, horror-smut game where player choices will drive a mod-run storyline about the world and its NPCs. This test drive meme provides a medley of prompts evoking the game's general tone.
THESE THREADS CAN BE GAME CANON if both players are accepted into the game and agree to it. However, if players who'd prefer to start fresh are welcome to reuse these prompts in their own personal logs upon acceptance into the communities. Note: the universal test drive arrival prompt will not be repeated on the coming event log, but players are welcome to reuse the prompt.
CONTENT WARNINGS for this game include: monsters, body horror, dub-con, non-con, religion, blood/violence, and marking/branding, loss of autonomy/self, and mental influences. This log additionally has warnings for: nudity, spiders, character death, and references to children in proximity to sexual situations.
If you have QUESTIONS about the test drive prompts, please ask HERE. Questions about the game itself or the general setting should be directed to the FAQ.
FAQ ✧ SETTING ✧ CALENDAR ✧ RESERVES ✧ APPLICATIONS
THESE THREADS CAN BE GAME CANON if both players are accepted into the game and agree to it. However, if players who'd prefer to start fresh are welcome to reuse these prompts in their own personal logs upon acceptance into the communities. Note: the universal test drive arrival prompt will not be repeated on the coming event log, but players are welcome to reuse the prompt.
CONTENT WARNINGS for this game include: monsters, body horror, dub-con, non-con, religion, blood/violence, and marking/branding, loss of autonomy/self, and mental influences. This log additionally has warnings for: nudity, spiders, character death, and references to children in proximity to sexual situations.
If you have QUESTIONS about the test drive prompts, please ask HERE. Questions about the game itself or the general setting should be directed to the FAQ.
IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE
The chirping of partridges in the treetops rouses you. Light barely filters through the canopy, just enough to suggest daylight. By the time it reaches the forest floor, the light has taken on a sickly green. You lie amongst the frost-covered mosses and ferns, the frozen soil cold and just a little damp on your bare skin. Wherever you were before this moment, whatever you were doing or wearing, when you awaken in this forest, you find yourself naked and helpless as the day you were born. As you sit up and get your bearings, aside from a brief wave of disoriented nausea, you seem to be no worse for wear than you last remember.
You seem to be alone. The gnarled oaks and moss suggest no sign of civilization or sentient life. Just flickers of movement from curious squirrels or brave lizards emerging from a temporary retreat from the wintry weather. With your feet under you, and you'll find the wood is filled with berry bushes and nut trees, though much of the fruit has been picked clean. The freshwater stream that runs north-south, populated by both poisonous toads and delicious crawdads, is running actively again as the weather warms back up from the recent snowstorm.
As you explore, you may run into others with stories just like yours. Some may have already formed clumsy nudist groups, others may still be processing their confusion, with no memory of how they got here. Now is a good time to overcome any hang-ups you have about modesty; it's going to be a long hike, and the weather isn't quite amenable to your lack of.
Turn your back to the darker, shadowy parts of the forest and eventually the glow of manmade lights and the curve of a dirt road may come into view. At the edge of the wood, you'll find a town surrounded by a fifty-foot wall of beige stone. The only entrance is an iron gate positioned on the southern edge. When you arrive, the gate is already open, welcoming people inside.
This quaint, historic town of five-thousand has cobbled street and signs lit by gas lamp. Wooden shutters protect otherwise open-air windows on the buildings, which are all under three stories with gabled roofs. A number of businesses hug the main street — a clockmaker, a cobbler, a grocer — while residential homes sprawl outwards towards the wall. At the far end of the main street, visible about a mile to the north now that the trees and the enormous wall is out of the way, sits a castle with three towers.
When you enter, the streets are full of people, but despite any efforts on your part to hide or make excuses, they don't seem offended by your nakedness. Even families with children don't gawk or look twice. Those determined to find proper clothing regardless will find that modern clothing stores aren't available — the closest this town has is a tailor's shop and a stand in the central marketplace selling scarves and blankets.
breaking and entering
If you intend to have your character break into someone's house or yard to steal some of their clean laundry, please review the info about game laws on the FAQ and give the mods a heads up HERE.
Fortunately, the people of the town are very generous! Anyone who ask the locals will be directed to the boarding house for both clothes and a place to stay. Accessible through an embellished iron garden gate and obscured by hanging plants, trees, and vines, beyond an overgrown yard in the residential sprawl of the town is a bright-red door, which opens to a spacious cottage of several stories. Parts of the house still bear the dust of disuse, gathered on various furnishings — bedding, sofas, curtains, wooden tables. However, it's already full of people! Anyone who's already appeared in the village just as you did today lives here. Once inside, you may notice patchwork repairs have been made, and some scorch marks still linger from a recent fire, and some furniture is still lying around in splinters.
Tonight, a few of the townspeople will help out with the new arrivals. They stock the kitchen and prepare a communal dinner of parsnips, pheasant, and squash. During dinner, they (and those outsiders who've already begun to settle) sit down at the enormous wooden dining room table and help orient the newcomers and answer their questions.
finding roommates
Don't spend too much time in the dining room going for seconds, though. You'll want to claim a bedroom quickly because each one only has two full-size beds, and there aren't enough spaces for everyone. The last people upstairs will need to double up to squeeze in. Roommates will not be mod-assigned; players should coordinate directly with one another to determine their living arrangements.
Get a good night's rest. By the light of day, locals will help get the new arrivals set up on the coal stove with breakfast. You may notice they're dressed in a way you would almost call normal — at least, in a manner befitting 19th century Eastern Europe. As you find your way around town to get your bearings, folks are eager to help you find a place to apply your skills so you can contribute to your new home.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try: naked hiking, acquiring clothing or other inventory items, asking questions at dinner/orientation, or staking your claim on a bedroom!
OFFERINGS FOR ULANTI
The festival starts in the middle of the night, when the sun and the children are safely tucked into bed. The streets come alive with dancing locals, their faces painted red and purple and black and yellow. They all wear revealing clothing that, to your sensibilities, may seem sexually suggestive. Some individuals openly expose their breasts and nipples, while some others may incidentally reveal when they turn around to tend to their errands that their dress is backless — entirely! market stands and kind neighbors will gladly provide clothing befitting the occasion to anyone who asks.Notably, the locals' choice of clothes reveal a mark on their bodies. An astute person will notice that there are four varieties — and a very astute (
In addition to dancing and the lighting of any number of candles, you may stumble upon fighting rings inspired by Terry Silver's basement club, where the locals brawl until they're bloody and unable to move. Elsewhere, amongst the performance of a number of erotic dancers, you might come upon a face you recognize — naked and collared and caged, tongue pressed to the bars to taste anyone who'll stop and give them a little attention.
Temporary night market food stands offer various forms of alcoholic beverages and sweet and savory street food in suggestive shapes — sausages, popsicles, flowering cupcakes. many of them represent hedonistic indulgences and displays of wealth that the town usually does not seem to possess. This bounty, they attribute to the Duchess' patronage — and much of it is dosed with herbs and additives that enhance the sexual appetites and aggression in any who consume them.
Another kind of temporary stand has been erected — while new arrivals may at first mistake these for some kind of bathroom, it becomes apparent upon entry that they are partitioned stalls with gloryholes drilled between them. Some stalls are closed with an anonymous stranger waiting inside for someone to push a part of themselves through the hole to be lavished with mystery touches; others are fully unoccupied, should your character wish to lock themselves in and wait on the small wooden stool for a partner to offer themselves.
Anyone native to Rubilykskoye will take the time to answer questions about the festival of Ulanti, which functions as a way to purge their bad energy ("zadza") and sate their inner beasts ("duchozweirz"). They encourage characters to join the festivities — which range from staged sexual performances to sadism and masochism designed to feed the desire for violence. all appetites are welcome here, and there are only two rules: (1) stay away from the unmarked, which refers to the locals' prepubescent children; (2) hold nothing back.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try entering the fighting rings, watching or joining a live sex performance, or eating some aphro food (deliberately or otherwise)!
the fathomless dark of pajak wood
At the outer edges of the forest, shadows grow long and the air grows thick. Though the sun never grows warm red-gold with sunset, the wood darkens. Birdsong is replaced by the click of mandibles and the skitter of many legs. Anyone who ventures out this way will soon find it difficult to see before them, even in the middle of the day — eventually, even the brightest magical light source or darkvision cannot stretch further than a few inches. In the void, the air feels heavy, as if it were not air at all but some more solid mass. Almost like liquid-smoke, it presses down upon you. Slowing your movements. Characters who push too far into the void may stop being able to move at all, and find themselves given over to insanity if they collapse, unable to draw themselves out. This is just one of many dangers.
Monsters thrive this far out. Huge, blood-red spiders the size of hunting dogs drop from the treetops. In addition to their venomous bite, which contains a fast-acting paralytic, these creatures are clever: they attempt to use their webbing to entangle any trespassers, binding limbs together or to trees. If you're unfortunate to become fully cocooned, you don't have long before this forest will be the last thing you see.
In addition to the spiders, you may come across the sharp-toothed furred yetis that emerged during the snowstorm, still looking for a meal. Each one hunts alone, a fifteen-foot-tall shambling creature that drips black ooze and super-chills the air around it until your skin feels tight and icy. If it gets the drop on you, you're likely to be its dinner. It has emerged from a long summer hibernation to enjoy the colder weather, and it's starving.
Those who seem lucky enough not to run afoul of the monsters here are in for a worse fate. The void can play tricks on your senses. As madness sets in and you lose all sense of direction, you may also lose control of your body — what is that steers your hands to turn against your friends? Why does it sound like your own voice whispering?
In the fog, you may also hear the voices of those familiar to you — people you know from the town, or people whom you know with almost perfect certainty aren't here. these figments may recreate unhappy memories or force trespassers to hallucinate their worst nightmares. Nothing is as it seems in the void, and when you swing at these figments, desperate to silence them, it might not be a figment at all, but a friend in the flesh trying to help you. By the time you see their true face, it could be too late to stop yourself.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try fighting a monster, hallucinating your worst nightmares, and/or attacking a friend or stranger!
HIDING INSIDE EACH OF US
Uh oh spaghetti-os.
The marks worn by all residents of Rubilykskoye aren't just cool body art, as it turns out. The town is full of rumors, whispered in shadows and over candles of a starving creature hiding in the dark corners of your chest. Feed your inner beast, they say, before it finds a way to feed itself.
Alas, its emergence is inevitable — sooner or later, the horrible things that happen here pile up and make someone repulsed by the idea of human contact. Someone holds themselves back, bites their tongue, or simply does not believe the stories. Today, for one reason or another, that creature is coming out. Someone hasn't been keeping it sated.
Symptoms escalate over weeks, from monstrous irritability to full-blown body horror transformation, where people physically shed their human forms and evolve into the monsters this place made them. Once a person becomes something more (or less) than human there's only one way to go back — sate the beast.
The baker, Nile Yoren, is a likable, middle-aged woman who can fill any request — wheat, rye, even nut breads. She boasts that her sourdough starter belonged to her grandmother. Today, when you enter her shop — to help out or to get a muffin or a bag of rolls — something is off. Her smiling face isn't behind the counter.
Around the back wall, you hear the crackling of the oven. But when you call, she doesn't come out. You have to go back and look for her. What you find is not just the oven crackling, but nile herself — twisted into an incandescent monster of human flame, the flickers of dark orange light like a face howling in agony amidst the yellows and reds and whites. Before you can scramble away, the creature lunges at you. Defend yourself or flee, or her inner beast will be feeding itself on you.
(There are other monsters lurking in every townsperson — feel free to invent your own npc monsters and scenarios!)
The marks worn by all residents of Rubilykskoye aren't just cool body art, as it turns out. The town is full of rumors, whispered in shadows and over candles of a starving creature hiding in the dark corners of your chest. Feed your inner beast, they say, before it finds a way to feed itself.
Alas, its emergence is inevitable — sooner or later, the horrible things that happen here pile up and make someone repulsed by the idea of human contact. Someone holds themselves back, bites their tongue, or simply does not believe the stories. Today, for one reason or another, that creature is coming out. Someone hasn't been keeping it sated.
Symptoms escalate over weeks, from monstrous irritability to full-blown body horror transformation, where people physically shed their human forms and evolve into the monsters this place made them. Once a person becomes something more (or less) than human there's only one way to go back — sate the beast.
someone else transforms
The baker, Nile Yoren, is a likable, middle-aged woman who can fill any request — wheat, rye, even nut breads. She boasts that her sourdough starter belonged to her grandmother. Today, when you enter her shop — to help out or to get a muffin or a bag of rolls — something is off. Her smiling face isn't behind the counter. Around the back wall, you hear the crackling of the oven. But when you call, she doesn't come out. You have to go back and look for her. What you find is not just the oven crackling, but nile herself — twisted into an incandescent monster of human flame, the flickers of dark orange light like a face howling in agony amidst the yellows and reds and whites. Before you can scramble away, the creature lunges at you. Defend yourself or flee, or her inner beast will be feeding itself on you.
(There are other monsters lurking in every townsperson — feel free to invent your own npc monsters and scenarios!)
you waited too long
At first, as you hide yourself from your darker impulses, a subtle itch develops under your skin. An irritability that makes you snap at the person who bumps into you on the stairs because all those fleeting emotions that you've been repressing bubble to the surface. Every dark thought you've had about being here, all the fears of never getting home, of being surrounded by ticking time bombs, the anxiety of wondering who you might hurt or what relationships you might betray by doing what you have to do. The anger. Oh, the anger.
Maybe you shut yourself in your room or run into the woods to hide away, but there's only so much you can do to deny the itch that grows into hunger like a spark catching and growing to wildfire. Someone comes to check on you. That knock on the door or crunch of leaves in the wood that fills you with dread at what you might do and hope that you will be sated.
As claws and fangs and scales and spines and fur grow and your body transforms with a sickening crunch of bones and peeling of skin, so do your appetites. If you won't sate them, you'll lose yourself to your beastly impulses sooner or later, mauling friends and taking your fill. Is it better or worse if only your claws get inside of them?
Maybe you shut yourself in your room or run into the woods to hide away, but there's only so much you can do to deny the itch that grows into hunger like a spark catching and growing to wildfire. Someone comes to check on you. That knock on the door or crunch of leaves in the wood that fills you with dread at what you might do and hope that you will be sated.
As claws and fangs and scales and spines and fur grow and your body transforms with a sickening crunch of bones and peeling of skin, so do your appetites. If you won't sate them, you'll lose yourself to your beastly impulses sooner or later, mauling friends and taking your fill. Is it better or worse if only your claws get inside of them?
daniel larusso | cobra kai | wilk
[ If you're also new - or just happened to be at the boarding house during dinner - you may have witnessed one of the new arrivals growing more and more pale during the explanation from the locals, tan skin growing more and more white, like the man was about to be sick. Or maybe you just noticed him not even too much of the food, only managing to get a few bites in after the explanation and question session before he got up, suddenly moving out of the dining room a little too quickly.
Maybe you were curious enough to follow him to see what's up, or maybe you just happened to be wandering the streets and passed by, considering it seems Daniel moved all the way out of the boarding house for the moment, standing right outside its door, leaning against the wall. The man looks somewhere right in the middle of sick and exhausted, though his actual physical nausea doesn't really go beyond what he felt when he first woke up in the woods. It's much more an emotional thing that twists his features, going from what felt like his highest moment to trekking through an entire forest naked to hearing all of this, that has the man leaning against the wall as if he's about to fall over if he doesn't. His eyes are tightly shut, and if you happen to pass by or are nearby, you can definitely hear him saying to himself out loud: ]
It's just a dream. Just a dream.
[ Maybe you want to tell him it's not. Or check if he's okay, since he looks pretty miserable. Or, you know, play a prank on him, also totally valid. ]
(2. finding a room)
[ Of course Daniel's little semi-panic attack meant that he sure is late in actually heading back into the boarding house and towards the rooms. It feels like all of them are already taken at this point, leaving the man no choice but to go around and see if there's space left anywhere, especially when they mentioned the rooms have multiple beds.
.. not that there isn't something embarrassing in it. A middle-aged man, wearing clothes that feel like they belong more at a carnival or a faire than in actual real life, going around knocking on doors to see if he can sleep anywhere.
Still, it's not like he has a choice, so Daniel tries to bite down the shame. Maybe he's knocking on your door, and you find him on the other side of the door if you decide to open after hearing that knock. The man still is looking kind of miserable, but he at least sucks in a breath and tries to summon some friendliness into his demeanour and expression when he speaks up to ask: ]
All the rooms are taken. Do you happen to have some space left? [ His expression shifts into something more sympathetic, adding: ] I know it's inconvenient.
[ Look, just because it's a necessity and this place seems like a nightmare, that doesn't mean he can't at least try to be polite about it? Even if it's taking a lot out of him right now. ]
(3. festival)
[ It's hard to ignore the festival, even at night, when it's all so loud. It's easier to give in and just go out there and explore. There's the tiniest part of Daniel that's still hopeful maybe he'll find some way out of this, some way home - a hopeful part he sure needs as he explores the festival and realises what it's themed after.
The sexual stuff is one thing - perhaps a touch embarrassing with how open it all is, but it's not like Daniel is a sexless being despite his age - but it's the other aspect of it that catches the man's attention more, leaving him standing as part of the crowd around one of the fighting rings. At first there's a hint of interest in his facial expression, but as the battle processes and gets much more bloody with absolutely no one interfering, the expression soon fades, replaced with something more horrified. ]
Is it always like this here..?
[ Maybe you notice him saying it out loud to himself, or maybe you also happen to be in the crowd, and he turns his head to look over at you and ask. ]
2
In the meantime, he's rolling with it. The alternative is, what, wallowing? And at least there's beer and the sort of outfits the strippers back home would've been creaming themselves for.
Unfortunately, he woke up worse than naked in the woods: he woke up bare ass naked, hungover as shit, and with his prosthetics gone. Which means every motherfucker who bothers looking him straight in the face can see his eyes aren't fucking there.
That last part is a problem. One of the locals gave him a pair of ye old sunglasses and he's wearing them indoors like a douchebag, explaining it away as the most badass hangover the world's ever known. He won't be able to keep that excuse up forever, but it's what he's got and he commits to the bit like a man with no other choice. Nobody around here needs to know about the tech he's got on board, that he can navigate better than a blind man should.
In the meantime, he pulls the door open, flashing his teeth at the stranger on the other side. He cuts a certain figure on purpose: small and skinny, ink all up both his arms. Dressed in loose pants and a tunic, neither of them his style, but awake and alert. Weight evenly spread. And of course the fucking steampunk sunglasses. He's going for idiot drunk - people ignore idiot drunks, don't think too deeply about them. ]
Depends. You gonna bribe me with booze, stranger?
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It's not the sort of company Daniel would usually choose - look, interacting with Johnny Lawrence back home isn't a choice, it's just part of the package at this point - but the man is also well aware that he can't really be picky here in his situation. At this point he'll take someone who won't kill him in his sleep.
.. jury's still out on that one when it comes to this guy, but at least he doesn't look exactly like a serial killer, so Daniel will take it. ]
You want some? [ It's a question that doesn't exactly sound eager. It's a little more exasperated instead, but it mostly just sounds tired. Apparently Daniel isn't asking around for a room for no reason - the guy really does look like he needs a good night's sleep in a way that had nothing to do with what was going on before he found himself getting dumped here, and everything with the events since he woke up naked in the forest.
.. still, as Daniel sighs, he realises that.. honestly, he could use a drink right now too. It makes him glance backwards over his shoulder before looking over at Gabe. ]
I could grab some from the dining room. There's probably some left. [ Considering how much food and drinks they had supplied them with, even if Daniel hasn't exactly touched a whole lot of it.
Drinking with a total stranger isn't his usual m.o., but some situations break convention, right. Like ending up in a living nightmare. ]
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[ He grins. Hi, stranger. Because it turns out acting like the sort of drunken fool who wears sunglasses inside comes pretty easy when you've got so much experience to draw on. And when you understand the stakes involved. Shit like this, nobody wants to ally with the blind guy with no gear and no friends.
So. Lying through his teeth it is. ]
So, we gonna do this? Don't make me slam the door in your face, man, that'd hurt my soul.
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The quiet kind, apparently, in this case. But it doesn't last too long before he's saying: ]
Five minutes.
[ He holds up a hand. Five fingers. (Not that the clarification was really needed, and honestly, he isn't sure if the other can even see through that ridiculous thing he's wearing, but-- it's what happens when you're half-Italian. The gestures come automatic.)
Daniel does wander off after that, but exactly as promised, after about five minutes there's another knock at the door. If Gabe opens the door, it's Daniel once more, except this time he's got his hands full. One hand is holding two bottles - one with wine, one with something a little stronger, considering he forgot once he was actually grabbing some of the bottles from the dining room that he never asked Gabe what kind of drink he was looking for - and the other hand two glasses.
Because, sure, he might now be stuck in some awful place he can't quite wrap his head around where apparently wild sex and wild violence are both not just tolerated, but encouraged, but that doesn't mean he's going to let anyone drink straight out of the bottle like a caveman. And Gabe seems like the type who might, given the chance. ]
There. Is this enough in the middle for you? I even brought variety.
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It's a melancholy thought. He tucks it away into a neat little box and decides not to touch it again. He works on the paper cat instead - mountain fold, valley fold, everything in sequence, everything done just so - and he's almost done when there's a knock on the door again. And a stranger back in the doorway, both hands full.
Gabe tilts his head, grinning. And then he steps back, tucking the finished cat away back onto the nightstand next to the series of flowers and frogs he's been working on. ]
Variety. Forward thinking. All right, then. Hi, roomie. You're lucky I'm nice. Hell, I don't even snore.
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So he opts to just not comment on it at all as he enters the room, finding the other bed's nightstand to put down the two glasses and the bottles on - and then already pouring himself a glass of wine, because boy, it sure is time for some wine. Usually he likes pretending he has things a little more put together, but his usual situation also doesn't involve getting dumped into a messed up city after a naked hike through the woods, so he feels like he deserves a glass of wine.
He'll leave the bottles and the other glass right there for Gabe to take though, even as Daniel moves to sit down with his own glass - his attention inevitably drawn towards what the other guy put on the other nightstand.
It's nothing he really expected to find here, and so it makes Daniel's eyes grow a little wider in surprise and interest after he's sipped from his glass already. ]
Are you into origami?
[ Or Gabe could just be bored, but no one knows all those different shapes from memory if they haven't regularly done it before, Daniel thinks. ]
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So, he takes the whole damn bottle. Pops the cork and takes a swing, keeping his back deliberately to the wall.
Drunken asshole is an easy mask to pull. A safer one, too, under the circumstances. People wonder what sets drunken motherfuckers off. They take steps to avoid it, and they don't get too close. ]
I can do a whole bunch. It's one of my party tricks. Hmm. This shit isn't half bad, [ he adds, lifting the bottle in salute. ] You new?
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[ The answer is a little slow. Not because the question is complicated - really, it's the easiest one possible here - or because Daniel isn't sure whether he wants to try and lie about it - which might be safer, but also not an easy bluff to get away with, considering the circumstances - but mostly because Daniel is watching Gabe drink from that bottle for a moment.
It feels oddly familiar, and though today's hectic events don't make it click right away, it happens a moment later. Yes, Daniel sure has seen this before. Someone kind of weird? Kind of an asshole? Drinking straight from the bottle like the concept of class just doesn't exist? Classic Johnny Lawrence.
(God, he must be lightheaded after all this, that he's thinking about Johnny of all people.)
At least it makes him feel like he's got a better idea of what Gabe is like. ]
Just showed up earlier today. [ It would explain the way Daniel kind of looks and sounds like he's vaguely out of it, his mind still not able to even comprehend all of this. ] What about you?
[ That feels like the safest question to ask, everything considered. ]
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He lets his composure slip as he breaks out into a wild grin. This is a true pleasure and he can barely keep himself from dragging Daniel back to his room whether he likes it or not. Never has he wanted to sink his claws into someone more than he does now. ]
No need to keep troubling these nice people, Danny boy. [ Terry says, seeing Daniel about to try knocking on another door. ] There's plenty of room with me.
[ There's no doubt in his mind that he's the last person Daniel wants to see right now, and that delights him even more. He chuckles to himself, like he's laughing at a joke that only he can hear. ]
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It's mostly a surprise because he didn't expect to see anyone at all he knows in this living nightmare. If it wasn't for that fact, it honestly shouldn't be a surprise that Terry Silver of all people is here. If anyone would reside in a place where - as the locals explained - excessive sex and violence are considered natural, surely it'd be him of all people. (Terry seems a whole lot more put together again than what feels like only a few hours ago at this point, Daniel's brain can't help but note to itself.)
Still doesn't mean he has to like it, though.
Daniel's face seems to shift through a mix of emotions before his expression seems to settle into something that mostly just seems thoroughly unamused, in contrast of Terry's own grin. ]
And you're assuming I'd want to sleep in the same room as you? [ It's a thought that might have utterly terrified him only a little while ago, being that close in proximity to Terry - especially after the incident in Raymond's apartment.
The fear isn't gone, though it's at least lessened quite a bit after recent events-- yet still leaving that thought as the last thing he'd want to do here. ]
I'm not looking to give you a convenient excuse to indulge in that "excessive violence" everyone is talking about.
[ There's not a part of Daniel that doubts the other would want revenge for the last fight they had, after all. For the humiliation, even if that wasn't Daniel's own sole doing. ]
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Do we have to carry our old grudges to this new world? That's a bit much, even for you.
[ Terry's not actually thinking about violence right now. Well, not more than he usually does. It was the first thing that came to mind; he's still sore about that last beatdown. But this world is not their world, and it plays by different rules. He gets that little rush of thirst he always feels when he's face to face with Daniel and considers something that seemed impossible up until now: that perhaps he could seduce him like he should have done thirty years ago. Danny boy has always been his forbidden fruit (and god if that didn't drive him even wilder), but a lot of things that were forbidden back home are possible here. He smirks at the thought of it, running his tongue over his teeth.
Would that scare Daniel more than a fight, he wonders. Probably. So he can't be too upfront about it. Good things come with patience. ]
I'm the only one you know from home. Plenty of people here are more dangerous than me. Better the devil you know, hm? [ Though Daniel doesn't know how much of a literal devil Terry can be here, when his urges get the better of him. ] I don't want to fight you. I tired myself out earlier today. And if I did want to, I'd do it out in the open.
[ He may have lost their last fight, but he wasn't exactly at his peak performance after having to deal with Johnny, Chozen, and Mike. If they fought again, he's sure he'd win. ]
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The devil you know, indeed. For everything Daniel dislikes about Terry, and for the mess of complicated emotions he's carried for the other over the decades, Daniel knows Terry. Even though Daniel was going around the rooms trying to find a spot, in his mind the possibility of ending up rooming with someone who's extremely messed up was still high in a place like this. Worryingly so.
Rooming with Terry also means rooming with someone messed up, sure, but at least Daniel won't be tempted to let his guard down even for a minute around him. At least he knows what he's dealing with.
(Besides, the part about not wanting to fight him sounds - though he hates to admit it - not like a lie. Mostly because it's logical. If the past while back home proved anything, it's that Terry Silver isn't particularly concerned about fighting in public when he truly wants to, and most likely even less so in a place where that sort of thing is encouraged.) ]
.. then why?
[ Daniel takes a step away from the door he was standing in front of, which means a step closer towards Terry.
Everything about him, from his tone to his body language, is still very much guarded. But there's something a little more in his eyes when he looks directly at the other, something Terry might recognize from long ago, if he looks. Even if Daniel is guarded, he's also listening, rather than looking like he's only ready to dismiss everything thrown his way. ]
Why would you want to share a room with me?
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I've been alone here for months now. Even your company is a comfort to me at this point.
[ And I want to have you, he thinks, I always have. Even if he keeps his distance and watches him with one eye open the entire night, he still has Daniel in his room with him. ]
Besides that, I'm the one best equipped to explain our current situation, aren't I? [ Someone from the same world as Daniel - and someone who knows a lot about him - will know what needs to be explained. Someone from a different world might take certain things for granted, especially people who have experience with magic or monsters. ] There are certain things you have to keep under control here, and it'll hurt me as much as it hurts you if you don't.
[ There's a part of Terry that longs to see Daniel transform into some terrible beast, just to show the boy that he's not too good to have a darker side. But if he did transform, Terry's likely going to be his first target, and he isn't eager to die again. ]
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This might be the only way in which it is a good thing that Daniel arrived relatively late to the hunt for a bedroom. It means the hallways are more quiet, no people awkwardly having to squeeze past the two of them as they're standing there in the middle of the space.
He slowly breathes in, and when Daniel slowly breathes out, a word flows out along with the air. ]
.. fine. [ Seems like he made his decision, even if he feels like he'll regret this later on. ] I'll come.
[ A few weeks ago he probably would've rather slept out on the streets if he had to, but the collapsed form at the end of their fight back home did teach Daniel one thing - Terry Silver is also just human, rather than some invulnerable boogeyman haunting Daniel's every nightmare. Not that Daniel assumes he could win a fight with the other by default if necessary after winning once - especially considering the circumstances surrounding his win back home -, but at least it keeps him from getting paralyzed by fear.
And that, in turn, makes the absurdity of this place feel like a far worse threat. ]
Show me to your room.
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Good boy. [ He turns and starts walking towards his room his voice low and his smile warm and approving, like when Daniel listened to his lessons way back when.
It tickles him to recall how far Daniel was willing to go to gain his approval, how he used to tremble when Terry put his hands on him to correct his posture. Whether or not Daniel was aware of it, Terry certainly was.
When they get to Terry's room he opens the door and holds it so Daniel can go in first. It's nothing too special, but there's enough space for two people to feel comfortable in. And only one bed. Terry will offer it to Daniel at some point (even if it hurts his back to sleep on the floor) but right now he'll just let him think that they might be sharing it. ]
Here we are. My humble abode.
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Apparently it is, since that sure is the expression Daniel is wearing as he hears the other say that. The way it's so reminiscent of the way Terry spoke to him so long ago isn't lost on him in the slightest, and Daniel is very much aware of how well that exact kind of praise worked on him before he realised that every single part of it had been fake all along. A lie.
It makes the bridge of his nose wrinkle as he follows Terry, a near-pout that makes him look younger than his actual age on his face, immediately trying to scrub the words from his mind before they have a chance to linger there, to fester or take hold in any way.
Instead he busies himself with looking around as they go, making sure to memorize the way. Daniel isn't expecting an emergency fleeing situation to happen, since the logical side of him has to believe what Terry said earlier about not looking for a fight, but like hell is he going to be caught unaware all the same. Some might call it paranoia, Daniel would like to call it being careful.
It also means that he's sure to take a good look at Terry's room when he steps in, almost feeling the impact of the older man looming behind him the moment Daniel notices the most obvious thing about the room.
After all, he's pretty sure people were talking about the rooms having two beds--
Of course Daniel ought to play this cool, but somewhere in the combination of his arrival in the strangest and worst possible city, Terry's presence, and Daniel's natural lack of any ability to deal with rising emotions the words spill out before he has a chance to stop them.
His head turns so he can look at Terry, eyes wide amidst the obviously startled expression on his face as he asks the other: ]
You only have one bed?
[ Maybe one day Daniel will learn that giving instinctive reactions like this only feeds Terry and try to put more effort into trying to not show them. Today is not that day. ]
cw: just unhealthy manipulative relationship stuff from here on out really
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cw: reference in narration to attraction of a teenager towards an older man
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3.
John has heard variants on this before: baffled, horrified, embarrassed. Playing it as a joke, to cover their discomfort. But it's rare that horror is for the fighting and not, say, the guys in gimp masks and the food shaped like dicks.
Is it always like this here? ]
Sometimes it's worse.
[ Since people beating the shit out of each other for fun seems harmless after watching the way people treat an outcast, how when the townsfolk have a whipping boy they don't spare that rod. Or worse still, the chaos of the monsters that all this sex and violence is an attempt to avoid.
John turns to the new arrival — ordinary face, warm smile, uncanny eclipses for eyes, and he's as underdressed and glittery as any local, throwing himself thoroughly into the hedonism of the Festival of Ulanti. ]
I take it you're not a fan of fighting?
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Instead the man only looks more horrified in the light of John's initial statement - that sometimes it's worse. Daniel can hardly imagine it, feels his stomach turning right over inside of him.
It might be why his answer is just a beat or two delayed, belatedly registering that John's even asking him something to begin with.
He decides to tear his gaze away from the ring, instead looking over at the other. ]
Not this kind of fighting. [ Mister Miyagi would find this horrific too. It's the only thought Daniel finds solace in at the moment, though it is also just a touch relieving to find someone speaking to him in a relatively warm and friendly way. Not that a lack of friendliness is a problem in the local populace - if anything, they're almost too friendly, but about the wrong things entirely. ] It isn't supposed to be about-- about this.
[ It feels so basic to him that Daniel has trouble putting it even into words, his hands trying to carry what words can't, gesturing without any real meaning. ]
This isn't how anyone is supposed to treat other people.
[ There's something a little desperate in his gaze, like he's truly hoping John will actually understand. It feels like no one else in this crowd does, and it's maddening to feel like the only sane person in a space. ]
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Everyone standing in that ring is there willingly. That has to be better than a scenario where that's not true?
[ His pitch has lowered, the kind of tones you use to soothe a restless horse. His hands spread in air that's damp with bloody sweat, thick with thanergy, and he doesn't touch Daniel but he's all open palms and careful movement. ]
They don't know any other way to fight.
[ And they aren't going to learn in a night. He thinks it might be time to encourage Daniel away from here. ]
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His gaze drops, and despite all the loud noises from the shouts of the crowd and the fights in the ring, John may be relatively close enough to hear Daniel mutter, seemingly to himself: ]
No such thing as a bad student. [ (Does that apply here? He doesn't know, but-- if he can't cling to mister Miyagi's words in this situation, it feels like he might just go insane on the sheer energy in the air here, so contradictory to who Daniel is as a person.)
His gaze flutters back up after he speaks, opting to look at John, rather than back at the violence. The image lingers in his mind though, threatening to make him feel sick. ]
I-- I think I need to get out of here.
[ It feels a little pathetic to admit that to a stranger, like he can't just walk off by himself with his own feet. But the crowd is so thick, and all of Daniel's senses are so overwhelmed, and it's all just too much, his heart pounding in his throat.
At least John is right with his guess about this being culture shock - especially when Daniel even looks so much like a newcomer to this place, the way his outfit practically covers all his skin below the neck as if he were a Victorian lady standing out for sure among the locals, or even next to John himself. ]
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Mercy always hated it when he tried to ease her panic attacks with theorems, so none of his lemon-acrid magic touches Daniel, only the broad warm palm of his hand, sturdy embrace of his arm. He doesn't understand Daniel's disgust, but he has a pathologic need to make a good first impression, so he likes to help gently acclimate new arrivals to the terrible state of their sudden circumstances.
They leave the stench of blood and fear sweat behind in that enclosed little room, the shouts of encouragement to crude violence fading to the disorientingly wholesome sounds of the festival in the streets: people laughing and chatting, the smell of fried dough and grilled meat, distant music. This close to the town square they're near the main well, and John leads them there, to the cool mossy stone. ]
Want a drink? Something not dosed with aphrodisiacs.
[ A wry smile, not sure if Daniel has already experienced the way the townsfolk flavour their food and drink with more than just spices on Ulanti. ]
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And yet he doesn't protest. He doesn't even try to escape it. The man just obediently allows himself to be lead right along, like the way he leaves the room isn't nearly as important as leaving the room itself. He just has to get away from here, so badly that the details don't really seem to matter. It's hard to tell whether the fact that John was guiding him through the crowd by the waist even registered with Daniel, considering how exhausted the man looks by the time they reach the well. It's only there that he escapes the other's grasp, if not just so he can turn and lean his back against the well's stone wall, needing it to support him as he raises his hands to rub his eyes.
Pathetic. He feels pathetic, and that's definitely not the first impression he wants to give off here to someone he's only just meeting - especially someone who seems like he's trying to help him out. ]
There's--
[ Just the surprise in his tone is enough to indicate where that question was most likely going-- asking if there's really aphrodisiacs in every drink here at the festival, but Daniel guesses it makes sense.
As much as anything makes sense in this twisted world.
He lets out a breath, deciding to not throw a fit over this. This feels closest to the most normal conversation he's had so far - even if the townspeople are relatively kind, the things they say are much too wild - and he would like to keep it that way. ]
.. yes, I'd like that. Thank you. [ He makes sure to add those last two words, wanting to show some gratitude and politeness in return for John's help.
He breathes in, turning his head to meet the other's gaze. ]
Sorry. I must seem.. [ Daniel pauses, and then makes a very vague hand gesture. Though he seems to realise it's hard to interpret, since he verbally explains: ] .. you know. Crazy, maybe.
[ Because everyone else here sure seems to think this is all normal. Even John himself seems very calm under all of this. ]
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[ It's rare here — rarer still for it to last. Daniel really could be just any guy, maybe someone John would have played footie with or met at a bank, collabed on a project at university. It's hard to get guys like him anymore on the Nine Houses, and there's not exactly a lot of normalcy here. This is a village where he's seen the cobbler he bought his shoes from in the middle of a fetish display, gagged and beaten.
Anyway, he's going to get Daniel that water, dropping the bucket down into the long dark and then hauling it up again — he does a lot of hauling these days, he's started to develop muscles instead of looking like he spends all his time in meetings on his tablet. (Though he still sort of look like that; the Some Guy air never really fades even long after the sanity is gone.) ]
Listen. You've got a grace period. Enough of us have shown up now that the locals are getting used to people that don't vibe with their culture. But you've fallen down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, and if you don't make your peace with the insanity you're going to have a bad time. A really bad time.
[ It's not like he was all touchy-feely back home, but when in Rome!
John thunks the bucket on the edge of the stone — there's no cups but there's a wooden dipper chained to the side that they can share. The wood is dark and wet, but not mildewed; the water tastes like earth and stone, bore water, no additives and probably a healthy dose of bacteria. ]
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Hence why he doesn't hesitate too much before he's already using the wooden dipper to have some of the water. After getting in a few sips, he's holding the wooden device out to John instead.
He isn't even sure whether the other was thirsty, but he's not talking like a guy who just ingested a whole bunch of aphrodisiacs from what Daniel can see. Which means he might not really have been drinking much here at the festival so far - and that means that offering him a drink in turn is the least Daniel can do after John was kind enough to haul up the water in the first place.
Even if he doesn't necessarily likes the words the other man is saying. But that's exactly why Daniel started drinking first. It let him stall for time, give him a few more moments to think about those words before having to reply. ]
So you made peace with it?
[ Daniel wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, staring at John. ]
How?
[ Because the idea of doing so mostly just sounds baffling and impossible to Daniel. Wonderland's a good name for it, with how little seems to make sense here. ]
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