memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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!tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for September! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on September 20, and applications open on September 22.

While you're here...
Take a look at our rules and faq pages to familiarize yourself with the game.
Note that we have a reserve cap of 20, and a (current) application cap of 13 apps this month for new players, as the game has a player cap of 60. An accurate count of current players will always be available on the taken page.
TDM threads can become game canon if both players wish. If the situation isn't something that could happen in-game, you're free to chalk it up to some strange hallucination, a shared dream, or other mysterious circumstance.
Note that this is not limited to new characters threading with characters already in-game. If current players wish to thread out the TDM prompts as canon events, they are welcome to do so. They are welcome to make posts in the main comms for TDM events as well. Please note, however, that actual plot clues or happenings will not occur in TDM prompts.
If you plan to apply, please keep in mind that we do require at least one sample thread on the application to be from our TDM (though it doesn't need to be the current TDM).
You're welcome to use the provided prompts or come up with something on your own, but we do ask that all threads take place in our game's setting.

Thank you again, and we hope you'll choose to join us!

log prompts

GATHER YE ROSEBUDS WHILE YE MAY

With a cloud of mourning having weighed heavy on Beacon over the last month, the Lighthouse Keeper has decided to try and rally the community with a game: a selfie scavenger hunt! With the promise of (secret) prizes for those who play along, she's provided a list of 25 different items to track down and take a picture with. And, of course, all submissions will be public for others to view and comment upon. A town forum, Instagram-style. How fun! Feel like teaming up? Finding a companion to go searching with could make the task go by faster, as there's nothing saying that you can't both submit the same pictures so long as you take them together. And what's a proper game without company?

This prompt is a mini version of this month's Gather Up event.

IT'S RAININ' SIDEWAYS

Overall, the weather has been mild lately. Since Autumn hit, the standard has been overcast darkness blotting the stars and little wind. The rumble of thunder sounds just before the downpour begins, as if a switch has been flipped up in the clouds. If you're in the Invincible, the houses in the village, or any of the other solid establishments, it isn't anything to worry about, really. Mostly, it just means hunkering down until the storm passes. However...it seems that someone opted to build themselves a structure in the square that's proven not to be able to withstand these harsher elements. Whether you're the unfortunate sap in the tent or you're merely a bystander, one way or another, you notice its roof cave in, the beams placed to support it buckling inward and trapping the inhabitant inside. It's not enough to crush someone, but it'll surely be difficult to gather oneself as the wind and the rain bears down without mercy. Call for help and maybe someone will hear you, or be the good Samaritan that runs to their aid.

network prompts

I CAN'T *PBBT* UNDERSTAND *PBBT* YOUR ACCENT

Something's wrong. The things that you type and the things that you speak are transforming themselves upon being posted to the network. Or maybe that's not quite accurate, because everything in your posts are certainly your own words...it's just that indiscernible static has descended upon the page and crept into your audio, blocking out pieces of your statements--just enough to change the overall meaning of what you were originally saying. Efforts to clarify don't seem to be improving the situation, and it's hard to say if there's any way of fixing this. Maybe it's a comfort that the problem isn't isolated on your end; after all, that effectively takes the issue out of your hands to solve. Or maybe it's just the opposite. Maybe knowing that the network is experiencing widespread failures, however mild, fills you with a sense of dread and unease. One thing's clear, at least: you'll need a bit of luck to get your point across for the time being.

THE TITLE EQUIVALENT FOR WHEN YOUR GRANDMA COMMENTS ON YOUR UNRELATED FB STATUS AS IF SHE'S WRITING YOU A PERSONAL LETTER

Sometime in the recent past you had a problem. Maybe it was a dire emergency advertised to the community at large, maybe you became overwhelmed with stress and needed the ear of a close friend, or maybe it was just something embarrassing you were sharing in confidence. Unfortunately, regardless of what the message was, it looks like it disappeared the moment you hit send, as if it had been eaten by the network itself. It's been long enough now that you've brushed it off; you've been able to solve your problem one way or another and moved on. That's when it appears, unprompted, on the network for all to see, regardless of how private it was meant to be. Well, now you might have a bit of explaining to do.

QUICKNAV
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pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

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A. Suddenly, a photo of a thumb

[Whether or not Rinea is familiar with this passerby, she offers an inviting smile as she takes a single step forward.]

Oh! May I?

[Seeking permission to capture a photo, she holds her tablet up with both hands. One must wonder if she's ever used the camera app before, however, for she's holding the device backwards.]

B. Wherein an out-of-context reply appears

@rinea
No one should be made to feel alone here. If you ever feel this way, please seek me out. I will be there to listen.

[It's fine and it's cool, because Mary has yet to learn how the camera feature works, herself! She's never had a reason to use it. So she poses, smiling and proper, fanning out her skirt with her hands.]

How's this?

ONE (Scavenger Hunt)

I do not understand this game.

[ She understands the need for it, in a vague sense, but that’s different. She’s paid attention. It’s not hard to determine a great loss took place not long ago. The aftermath has its rituals, and sometimes those include games. A reminder that life that will continue on, regardless. Kettara would prefer to sing, or listen to others do so, but apparently that is not the tradition here.

Dishonoring the dead would be cruel, even if they were human. She’s been led to believe most of them were. Thus, the game.

She’s given it a decent attempt. The scavenging aspect is easy enough. But the rest?

Kettara holds her tablet in both hands, squinting. She’s holding it upside down. ]

No one will explain the importance of a “selfie”.

THREE (Wildcard)

[ After her initial reaction to arriving in Beacon, Kettara has settled into something of a routine. It mostly involves meditating and studiously avoiding anyone and everyone who looks or smells human.

This is proving difficult.

She can be found meditating in front of the bonfire, and white-knuckling her axes.

She will also growl if anyone approaches her. ]

What?

Absolutely lovely. Let me just . . . hm.

[She turns the tablet around to press on the camera feature. Although her smile remains, questions marks all but sprout from her head like daisies until—ah! There's Mary on the screen. Now how does she ask the device to paint this adorable picture?]

This button, perhaps?

[There's a loud shuttering click. In her surprise, Rinea almost drops the tablet.]

Did you get it?

[Mary giggles at her surprise.]

Doesn't it make such funny noises? I'd never seen anything like it before I came here. You can draw pictures, too!

Can you?

[Making a mental note to ask later, she successfully manages to pull the photo up. The lighting and angle aren't the best, but most of Mary is there and that's what matters. Rinea turns the tablet back around to share.]

It isn't very good . . . but you still look wonderful.

A. Scavenger Hunt

[The girl is young. 14, in fact, and still looks the part with soft features and wide eyes, that seem just a little too serious. Her brow is furrowed in concentration, though, and she slowly turns the tablet over in her hands.

Eleven is... confused, that much is obvious.]

How...

[The question is left there, half-formed, and she'll look at the next best person as if they must have all the answers in the world for this conundrum. Her expression is a mixture of plain confusion and regular old frustration with things she cannot find immediate answers for.

For people from a regular, modern day world, her clothes may be just a little outdated, just a little 80s.]

And why scavenge?

[It's not as obvious as it used to be, but her words come a littler slower than one would expect, a little more deliberate. Like she has to place them in her mouth before she speaks. But her face is earnest, and the question more genuinely curious than merely perplexed. She really just does want to know and learn.]

B. Storm Option 1 - You're in the shelter

[Eleven feels list and disoriented in the storm and in the dark, looking for shelter - she needs it, and soon. She's soaked and not above admitting that she's scared, too, clutching the lantern to her and trying to find her bearings in unfamiliar territory.

This isn't Hawkins, that much she knows, and it isn't the upside down. Her friends aren't here. Here might very well be where the Mindflayer put her.

A crashing sound distracts her, and she spins, squints through the dark with her heart hammering against her ribs. There, she thinks - a shack, collapsed, and did she hear someone call out or was that the wind?

At any rate, she takes a first hesitant step, and then shakes her head in determination. She meant what she told Kali - if others can't save her, she can still save them. Still clutching the lantern, Eleven makes her way to the shelter, holds out her hand and concentrates on that well of power in her that is getting harder to pull from as she used to the more often she has to do it. The collapsed beams wobble and start lifting though. The person beneath might have to help push, but she can help with that and make it easy with an outstretched hand, a droplet of blood running from her nose as she taps into her telekinesis, quickly washed away by the downpour. And she calls out, just about audible over the storm:]

You... are you hurt?

B. Storm Option 2 - She's in the shelter

[Eleven knows about survival, about shelters, but didn't expect this one to be quite this frail. She remembers a blanket fort feeling like the safest place in the world, and this is much sturdier than that. It doesn't hold against the wind, of course, and anyone nearby might hear the shriek of a girl as the structure collapses. Closer inspection will find the structure still not quite settled - only, actually, it seems that something is trying to push the rubble up out out.

Eleven is hurt, but not badly so, hands shaking as she tries to lift the rubble from herself with her telekinesis, straining to the point of nosebleed and shaking hands.

She's not above calling out for help - still doesn't handle being isolated and trapped in confined spaces very well, and while this isn't fullon panic, there's a hint of it in her voice.]

Wildcard

[It's easy to bump into people in the dark, lantern or not, and Eleven is still trying to get her bearings as she squints into the other person's lantern light to catch a glimpse of a face.

Too many people. It's not allowed, at home, and this isn't like Max taking her to the mall - not fun like it, and not safe like it either. These people are other, this place is other.]

Sorry.

[Immediately followed by a soft, if slightly stilted:]

Hello.

[ Before coming to this place, Kettara had thought she was prepared for death. Hers, the deaths of others, they were all part of the cycle. She trained as a warrior before the elements spoke to her and that education, even more than Master Muln, enforced the great inevitability of it all. And what was the use in fearing something that would come regardless?

It only mattered if hers was a good death.

It was satisfactory, in the end. Master Muln will avenge her.

Still. This was not the afterlife she was promised. For one thing, it's filled with humans.

Kettara peers down at the newest one curiously. She holds her lantern low, so it does not show her face and leaves the green cast of her skin in shadows.

There's no hiding the red of her eyes, though. Not even in the low light.

Kettara leans forward and sniffs the air, scenting the human.

Female. Smaller than expected. No armor that she recognizes. ]

Hello.

[ Kettara's voice is low and rough. She has no way of knowing the woman is only a few years younger than Kettara herself. ]

Why are you alone?

Tee hee.

[She's not surprised. She is, of course, picture-perfect! Dropping her pose, she all but skips the rest of the way over.]

Shall I take your picture, as well?

I. Rosebuds

There's a tall, gangly old man standing in the middle of the church, his skin not so much pale or peach as parchment-white, stripped of color. His shaggy hair looks the same, colorless, clothes plain and gray. Even the corners of his eyes and the inside of his mouth (not that one can see that, really, except in flashes when he talks) are washed out. The only spot of color to him are his eyes, bright blue, though one is clouded over like it's blind.

He keeps turning his tablet around and around, holding it at arms length, scowling and squinting at it. "How do you make this shitting thing work? How do you make it make images?"

He's not very familiar with technology, okay. He's trying to do this scavenger hunt thing, but he can't figure out how the whole selfie portion actually is supposed to work. Doesn't help that he's dreadfully far-sighted and the screen is hard to read.

II. Raining Sideways

The crumbling lean-to gets a sudden reprieve as a large... wing? Opens over it. A creature that looks kind of like a dragon, all scales and spines and long nobbly tail, colored in a kind of ghostly pale gray, leans over the falling walls and roof with his wings spread around it to keep the wind and rain off. If the dragon-creature were standing on his hind legs he might be almost as tall as the Invincible, but he's crouched down, using one foot-long hand to lift one of the pieces up and hopefully free whoever's inside.

If it's any consolation to said person inside, he looks like a pretty fragile dragon, low on muscle mass and skinny in an almost unhealthy-looking way. Even if he's definitely big enough to pick up your average human in his hand.

Don't look at me, I don't get it, either,

[Stone grumbles back at her. He's a tall, gangly old man, skin and hair a colorless white, expression sour. He looks a little delicate, like a stiff wind might knock him over. When he speaks, there's a flash of inhumanly sharp teeth, though he does try not to show them off too much.]

Have you at least figured out what the selfie thing is?

[Suddenly, the piece of sideboard she's trying to lift is picked up and tossed away. Staring down at her is a ghostly... dragon? His face is mostly humanoid, with a nose and mouth and two eyes (bright blue, one clouded over like it's blind), but everything else... decidedly not. His scales are a pale gray, with an almost translucent quality, and his head is framed not by hair but by a bunch of flexible spines and frills, mostly raised now like the crest on a cockateil. There's a wing open, too, over the top of the fallen shelter to help block the wind and rain.

The clawed hand holding the piece of Eleven's shelter up away from her head is a good foot across the palm.

The rumble he makes, though, has the sound of concern to it. If she's not too busy freaking out to register that.]

As soon as he frees her, Mary reaches for him, not seeming to mind his size or appearance as she holds on, crying and shaken. Clearly, his help has been well appreciated. The sound of the rain had blocked out the sounds of her sobbing, so she's lucky that someone had noticed her hiding place at all. Now, with his wings giving the little girl shelter, it's much easier to hear.

"I didn't know it would rain...I didn't know!"

i. gather ye rosebuds (cw: suicidal ideation)

[ he can't really remember the last time he actually wanted to take a photo of himself, when he'd felt worry free enough to simply complete the mindless self indulgent task of leaning back and holding up a phone, even smiling into the camera. had it been with shelley? he isn't even sure he remembers her face anymore.

he manages a shot, his black silhouette standing close to the bonfire, the flames filling the rest of the screen. he can feel the heat through his back, almost wonders how it would feel to simply leap in and what it actually means to even feel right now when he's supposed to be dead. he can't go back. whatever this fucked up place is, it's nothing like hemlock grove or anywhere he knows of, and he can't go back. does the fact his infant daughter is alone now even matter? he can't do anything about it. and for once he's finally just done. with everything his mother had forced on him, his life filled with lies and web after web, betrayal after betrayal.

except he still has the hunger.

19. Something Beautiful, he posts after staring at the screen way too long. but even then, he can't draw away, opening the attachment again to stare and wonder. ]

(( feel free to reply on the network for this or interrupt his awkward brooding! ))

ii. i can't understand your accent (@godfrey)

Why are the forest spirits so tasty?

iii. network on the fritz (@godfrey)

You're not good enough. You should just accept that.

iv. wildcard

(( roman can be run into (literally) anywhere, observing others with a condescending look. feel free to ruin his new dead life. 🙃 or pm me if you have any other ideas! ))

disembarking.

[ He thinks, when he opens his eyes, that it's fucking typical he'd try to end it all just to wake back up again. He thinks, when the ferry pulls up on the dark shores of what must be the afterlife, that his aunt would piss herself to be right that they really do cross a river to get there.

But what leaves him with a sinking feeling in his chest is the realization that death hasn't really brought him any peace. Not the way it's supposed to. He can still feel an ache in his chest the shape of Simon Snow. He can still feel the humilation of all he knows his mother wouldn't want from a monster like him. He can feel the growing regret of taking his own life when there'd been so many other things he still had left to do.

And worst of all, he can still feel the thirst. Maybe someone that was dead can't really die again? And wouldn't that be the kind of thing they'd love to study if anyone gave the time of day to things like him.

Baz steps off the ferry with a straight back, still dressed in his expensive, black-green suit. It looks like the fire hadn't touched it at all, which is a kind of magic he can't really understand— but speaking of magic, he narrows his eyes into the darkness. Normally, he can see much better than this, especially with a moon so full. ]

Who knew the afterlife would be so dark?

[ There's a wry turn to his mouth as he says it, and casts an almost commiserating look at the person next to him. ]

lemme take a selfie.

A. [ Baz, while more than capable of using a mobile or a computer, still finds some novelty in this task they've been given. Watford's magic prevents the use of this kind of thing on school grounds, and while photography was never one of the skills Baz sunk his time in to, he was born in a time that he can enjoy it for what it is.

He pulls his tablet down for probably the fifth time in a row, tabbing through the photos he's been trying to take of the lighthouse on the far shore and deleting them in sequence. ]

This isn't working at all.

B. [ Whether he gets the lighthouse picture or not, there are more the checklist requires. Many of them Baz hasn't the faintest idea of where to start, but some are more easily achieved than others. For example, he doesn't know anyone in this dark town, which makes one task very easy. ]

Pardon me, [ He sounds very proper, even around his already posh English accent. Baz holds up the tablet, demonstrative. ] Do you mind? For the scavenger hunt.

network.
@ baz
Are there any ---- in this town?

wildcard

[ Open to anything not listed, or network prompts, or getting stuck in the rain! Also, Baz is a vampire, if there are other characters in game that can sense that sort of thing. ]

Shit, that was a child in there. Poor kid. Also, not afraid of him, which is a big bonus in this situation. You never know with groundlings.

Stone gathers her up onto the palm of his hand, and then holds her up to his narrow (proportionately, anyway) chest. He makes a rumbling sort of croon, trying to sound comforting even though in this form he can't actually make words, letting his wings fold around them to keep the storm out.

Mary continues to cry for a moment, but as she huddles against his chest, her small body starts to relax. While she continues to shake, it seems to be more out of a response to the cold than to her fear of the situation. After all, she feels much, much safer now. "Thank you," she hiccups, wiping her face. "I thought I was going to be trapped all alone."

A. there's worse ways to go; arrival.
[ But he can't say he ever thought he'd end up in a place like this.

Truth be told, he hadn't had a damn clue what was waiting for him when he stared off into that rising sun and gently wished for the young King to rule well before slipping away from life itself. Maybe he'd be greeted with a job well done from those old Kings but nah, that didn't really seem their style, did it? Maybe his own King, the one he had stuck beside and served as a glaive until the bitter end. Or maybe his sister... the one he couldn't protect. Maybe he'd see her smile again. Would have been nice.

Instead, he's met with the gentle rocking of a boat, the alarm of a horn sounding distant but yet so close at the same time, and darkness. A whole lot of darkness. ]

What the hell..?

[ Having more than likely not been the first to have such a reaction to all of this, when the boat comes to dock and the people begin to depart, Nyx follows in a sort of daze with device in one hand and a lantern in the other. Scarring from what appears to be burning from the inside run across his throat and crawl along the side of his face, skin ashen, moreso on his left arm, and clothing disheveled, torn in various places. Doesn't exactly look like the belle of the ball with his arrival here but hey, not like he packed anything with him prior to winding up here.

But rather than continue on with the crowd, he finds himself pausing, a glance given off in the direction of the shore and he steps off to the side of the docks, standing there as he takes in just how much darkness there is around him here. Great. Just great. That actually gets a sigh out of him and his jaw grows tight. ]

Not exactly sure what I expected, but I can't really say this is it.

B. it's rainin' sideways.
( 1 ) [ The thunder is enough to rattle the windows in shops and cabins and you would think that would serve as fair warning for what's to come and encourage anyone to take immediate shelter. Apparently it's not enough for one Nyx Ulric as he sloshes through the wind and downpour. Honestly? Could be worse, plus, great way to finally get a shower, right? Silver linings, silver linings.

But even Nyx has to admit this is a little much (it's that wind above all else) and it's why he rounds the first corner he sees and ducks himself into the doorway of whatever shop or establishment this may be, all for a chance to get out of the wind and the rain. As it turns out? Looks like he's not alone there and as he rubs his hand over his face to hold his chin, he chuckles some then, hand dropping as he presses a shoulder to the door, staring off into the storm. ]

Looks like I'm not the only idiot out here, huh?

( 2 ) [ The thunder is enough to rattle the windows in shops and cabins and you would think that would serve as fair warning for what's to come and encourage anyone to take immediate shelter. Apparently it's not enough for one Nyx Ulric as he sloshes through the wind and downpour. Honestly? Could be worse, plus, great way to finally get a shower, right? Silver linings, silver linings.

But what might not be worse for him, seems to be for another because in his trudging through the storm, he catches sight of the pisspoor attempt at a form of shelter cave in and hurries his way over at what sounds like a cry for help. Little hard to tell with the wind and the rain and that thunder rattling everything.

Placing a hand on a broken beam, he pushes the one stacked beside it, enough to wedge himself through just a bit. ]

You sure picked a helluva place to take shelter in.

C. wildcard; bonfire.
[ The entire time he's been here, he's felt a little out of sorts with everything. Who wouldn't when you find out this is where you've apparently landed rather than some heaven in the sky for the afterlife? The actual being dead thing doesn't really bother him, truth be told; his life couldn't even compare to the future and those who deserved a chance to see it. It's just all this darkness is a little too close to home with what he's left behind and what the others - what the young King - have to prevent from happening. So to be in a place where it sort of feels like what could very well happen if everything goes to shit back home? Little unsettling, just a bit. But hey, not like he had much of a say in coming here to begin with, right? So he intends to just sit in front of the bonfire on one of these benches here and listen to the crackles that come off it while trying not to have thoughts wander too far. Just enough to call out to whoever might be closest to the flames. ]

Wouldn't really poke that too much if I were you.

[ From what he's gathered? Seems to be pretty damn important around here ]

Stone's other hand comes up and he brushes at a couple of her tears with the back of one big finger (claw carefully sheathed, so it's just feather-light scales over papery skin). He brushes the remains of the little girl's shelter off against the wall of a building with his tail to keep it out of other people's way, then turns to lower the girl carefully down in the doorway of the Invincible. Her back end gets a gentle little pat to encourage her to go inside where it's dry.

Safe in the doorway, Mary flashes him a red-eyed smile, but doesn't immediately retreat too far. "Are you too big to come inside, too?" She hopes he doesn't have to stay out in the rain all alone. Wouldn't that be just awful? Her poor, new friend!

[It's hard not to notice him sitting there, so quiet and alone, when everyone's out and about searching for pictures to take that fit the different listed criteria. Maybe it's just because of the dark, but Mary always feels so sad when she sees people sitting all alone. So, she comes over, carting a backpack in one hand and her lantern in the other.]

Do you need help taking pictures?

[ Allie stands some ten feet from him, the light from the fire dancing along the blond highlights of her straw-colored hair. Her gaze cast downward, staring at something in her hand - her device - before she looks up at the person clearly responsible for the image on her screen. ]

I'd have said it looks lonely. Beautiful in its own way, I guess. But still lonely.

[ She shoves her device back into the pocket of a worn, winter coat. Allie trying to burrow into it to keep the chill in the air from seeping into her bones. The heat from the fire licking at her features as she watches them dance around the branches, keeping an eye on Roman in her periphery. ]

[ Of all the people around here? Scarlett was probably considered the one most likely to know better than to go out in weather like this. Traipsing around during the day when there was a downpour was a fool move no matter where you were, but in the dark? When you've got nothing but a lantern that your life depends on being kept going? He might have had a point. Only an idiot would be out in this. Idiots and suckers who are looking for little girls who don't know how to stay put.

It's hard to see just how drenched Scarlett is, her fitted black clothes not giving much away. It's the short, brackish hair that she has plastered to her face, neck and head that indicates she's soaked through. A scowl on her features like she could scare the damn storm away just by staring it down. ]

I prefer the term intellectually challenged. [ Her tone dry, the slice of sarcasm falling a little flat given Scarlett's inability to ever come across as anything other than an asshole. Granted? The pair of katanas she's wearing strapped to her back? Probably don't help much. ]

[ It's true she doesn't know this man or exactly what he is, but the fact that he doesn't smell human is a comfort. Kettara shakes her head, turning the tablet this way and that. ] No. I believe it is done with this device, though.

[ She pauses, giving him a curious look. ]

You're different from the others. I thought I was the only one who wasn't human.

[ he hears someone approaching but doesn't bother looking up until he's spoken to. while the shuffle of the backpack had been apparent as they'd come, when he does look up, he doesn't expect to see a young girl. his lips part faintly in surprise before he presses them shut again. ]

No. [ it's not as cold as his words usually are. maybe because seeing someone so young and vulnerable reminds him of shelley and how much he misses her. ] I know how to take pictures.

[ it doesn't really occur to him that he could collaborate with others. ]

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TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Rinea | Fire Emblem Echoes

A

Kettara Bloodthirst | World of Warcraft | OTA

no subject

no subject

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Eleven | Stranger Things | ota

Wildcard

no subject

Stone of Indigo Cloud | Books of the Raksura | OTA

One

B. Storm Option 2. Ready to scare the poor kid?

II

roman godfrey | hemlock grove

tyrannus basilton grimm-pitch | carry on

no subject

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nyx ulric ( ffxv: kingsglaive )

no subject

no subject

i

no subject

B-1

no subject

no subject