【 Thank you for choosing the Golden Peacock, 5-star resort and casino. You are currently registered as a WILDCARD in our system.
Due to a high volume of check-ins, temporary accommodations have been made in our parking garage for all new arrivals. We aim to have all guests moved into their reserved rooms as soon as possible. We deeply apologize for any inconvenience!
All are invited to There Is No Tomorrow, a Phoenix Casino soiree to celebrate our beloved guests. The festivities will begin at 1800 hours on January 20th and end at 1800 hours on January 27th. Please look forward to 168 hours of delight.
In an effort to raise happiness and encourage better guest relationships, attendance is required. The house will assist guests that are too shy to appear of their own accord. Please note that black tie attire is mandatory. As always, we hope you enjoy your stay! 】
PARKING GARAGE
ANY CAR IN A STORM
PHOENIX CASINO HALL
WELCOME TO THE NEXT 168 HOURS
Phoenix Casino is a-flutter with activity and packed to the beak with guests. As a famously ever-changing space, the staff would be remiss if they didn't deck the crown jewel of the Golden Peacock out. The casino glitters from top to bottom, shining brighter than diamonds, rubies, sapphires, opals! Party-goers are shiny and glamorous with picture perfect makeup, fluttering gowns, and sharp suits. Card tables are packed and the slot machines are a-ringing as guests play, play, play! Prizes, luxury, booze, attractive people, it's the place that everyone wants to be at.
Those people being dragged inside by some invisible force...? Silly, they were so excited to come that their bodies moved before they realized what was happening. Those are struggles of joy and definitely not the casino's infamous ghost hands dragging unwilling guests to the party at the behest of the house. Look, they're literally hurling their bodies at the card tables with unrestrained glee!
All clocks indicating day hours and night hours have been removed from the casino. Once a guest has entered, their Watch will jam, making it impossible to keep track of the time. You don't need to worry about that tonight.
▶ All characters on the TDM are WILDCARDS, which means they have not yet been assigned a card value. Suits will not manifest until characters are accepted into the game.
▶ All TDMs are game canon. This TDM acts as the game's January event.
▶ Current characters may top level on the TDM. Any current characters posting to the TDM should note they are current in their subject header.
▶ The top level directory is for new characters only. We want to make sure new characters are prioritized and receive attention! If you would be interested in a game invitation, you can note that in your comment header. This month we also have an ongoing ATP / EMP where players can connect. Please feel free to utilize this for all of your peafowl needs!
▶ If you aren't satisfied with these prompts, please feel free to check out our LOCATIONS to explore more of the resort!
▶ Smut threads that take place on this TDM can be used for rewards. If both parties in the smut thread join the game, you may retroactively apply the character's initial card values to your 52 bank. If one character does not join the game the thread will not be applicable toward rewards (as that character would not have a card value). The character that does join would still receive a small payout for the encounter. Hopefully it was a fun thread regardless!
▶ We ask you to kindly add content warnings to your threads as appropriate.
▶ If you do not currently have permissions and kinks listed in your character’s journal we suggest leaving a note in your top level of any limits or boundaries for other players to reference.
It's been 48 hours and ... Fuuta is not doing as well! The constant noise and bustle and activity are starting to get to him, and even if he's pulled some allnighters here and there for university assignments, all that pales in comparison to all this nonsense.
Which is to say, when yet another staff member shuffles him over to a game table and plunks him down with an encouraging, 'have fun!' he doesn't even really have the energy to protest it. He instead settles for shooting his game partner a weary look across the table, brow furrowed in suspicion.
"Seriously? I've had to play this stupid game before. You usually get, like ... lick knee. Dumb shit like that."
Sorry Hawks, he's tired and cranky and so taking out his anger on you instead of the dice.
[to be fair, Cat also doesn't know why they're in the car. it's fine. he seems remarkably calm for a guy who doesn't know why he is here, though. and he doesn't seem to mind that a stranger is watching him work]
It's a term for starting the car's ignition without its keys.
[a beat. and then, a bit more cheekily]
In simpler terms. . . it's what someone does if they want to steal it.
[ free at last. though he somehow ends up dreading as the trunk flies open in a hurry, letting in a much-needed blast of air. the draft is what finally clues him in on the fact that he's wearing a ridiculous slip of a robe, with a faux feather collar that is just flying everywhere in the disturbance.
oh, to feel as stupid as he looks. who knew he could be forced to be so contrite within minutes. he's supposed to be a tough guy, but she just seemed so relieved. ]
So I am.
[ awkward............. he sits up, tugging his robe up a shoulder as he formulates a response. ]
...Sorry. I didn't expect you to run off so quickly.
[Initially, when Baptiste had drawn an Ace of Clubs - he argued it as a mistake. As a 2 of Spades, he received the expected treatment of being ushered along in to play the game with his newly attained 'Submissive' status. Any petulance he'd had with his luck of the draw had left by the time he found himself ushered in with others - unable to contain himself when it comes to the chance of entertaining.
And so he takes to flittering from Dom to Dom - ready to playfully size each one up. Some of the 'Dominant' players are a little too meek to contain this fiery soul, leaving him to take his party tricks to and from. One exchange was nearly promising... until the two found they were both Submissives and had to pass like ships in the night-- The other person stands and leaves, and Baptiste chuckles to himself as he takes to shuffling a deck of his own cards.
This is when Baptiste's eyes meet Troy's. The other man approaches him and an easy confidence that already brings a bubble of laughter from Baptiste's throat.]
It always takes new guests a moment to adjust. You'll find them walking around a little dazed for a few days. Though perhaps you and I can handle the knife together, hm?
[Baptiste winks before fanning the cards out in a display that is clearly meant to catch the other's interest. What sort of showman would he be, if he weren't constantly trying to grasp someone's attention, after all?]
[ Yeah, right there on the bicep. Beowulf clenches his fingers around his other wrist and tightens his muscles just a little bit more. It's been.. such a long time since he's really gotten somebody to marvel at his muscles like this. The mediocre acting gig he landed after his retirement really didnt show off his physique like this. Granted.. it was for a child's TV show, but Beowulf would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy people being impressed by his body. In fact, while we are just waiting here, he's going to open up his robe a little bit more to show off his chest, just as muscular as the rest of him and with a thin sheet of dark body hair covering his skin. ]
Don't just stop at my arms, pretty boy. You can touch more if you want.
[ But he's asking a sincere question here, and Beowulf gives Wei Wuxian a bright smile. He won't spill his secrets drugs, probably but he will answer him with something. ]
Easy! Lots of protein, lots of strengthening exercises. I had to maintain a certain weight to qualify in the fights I engaged in. It's a sport! Get it? People pay big, big money to watch me kick some ass! I can't let them down.
[ oh, that's kind of her, to place the blankets around his shoulders. it's definitely a little chilly with no clothes on.. and dan heng is a bit sensitive to cold. she'll feel that his skin is a little more cool than most, if her fingers brush against him. ]
Is that so..
[ he tugs the blankets a little more tightly around his shoulders. ]
[Dirty Dice is supposed to be the game with the least damning consequences for its loser. That's why Charlie settled at a table with some weirdly giddy looking guy. Should the man's demeanor be foreboding? Maybe - but he'll accept a certain amount of risk to make a new acquaintance.
And then he gets slapped upside the fucking head.
Still maybe less awful than losing all of his chips or being mandated to perform a tedious sexual task, but-
He's absolutely going to complain.
Charlie's voice snaps - high pitched - in a startled yell before he raises a hand in reflex to his battered ear. Really, his hair style has suffered more than his body. There isn't even any reddning left in the blow's wake.] What the hell are you doin'!? You wanna fuckin-
[No. Actually. There's a better way to deal with this. Charlie's griping shifts to a grin sharp with solely devious intent. His finger taps the dice, hard enough to roll the body part but only slide the 'slap' side-up die across the table a bit.
Slap Thigh]
Gimme your leg- [He could reach under the table and complete the task, but this isn't about the dice. Charlie's blood roils with the need for obedience atop of petty violence. Besides, if this guy stretches his thigh out from under the table, Charlie can get better momentum to hit it harder.]
[ dan heng watches as the man carefully extracts a card. it looks as if beating him at this game might prove difficult. dan heng is a very careful, measured man, dexterous and cautious, but still, it may not be enough.
but only time will tell. at that question, he arches a brow, because damn. that's rough, buddy. ]
Oh. Well..
[ he doesn't need to answer if he would rather not, of course, but that would be tantamount to forfeiting, yes? dan heng tilts his head. ]
[that's his nose!! with a scowl, Akira whacks at this mysterious stranger's hands in an attempt to free himself. that's not cute!! not cute at all!!!]
-- and I got that part! Clearly, my subconscious is telling me I've been repressed.
[he can't really blame himself, though. . . he's had a lot going on. single for a very long time thanks to CERTAIN reputation-ruining rumors, focused more on saving the world a few times over, defeating a couple of wayward gods. . . not much time for anything else amidst those kind of responsibilities]
[I promise he'll realize it's not a dream soon, help]
[ that's normally the case for people who choose to get augmentations for any reason, but dante's just built different. literally. but that's not ishmael's story to tell, is it? instead, it's this one. ]
...No. It was already dead when we caught it, and we were going to harvest its oil when I slipped and fell into its belly.
[ she can't help but frown slightly just thinking of that memory. ]
I was ready to accept my fate down there. I could've turned into a Mermaid, had I stayed in any longer.
[ Without the context of ghosts and meta brackets to go off of, Nehan is left only to wonder what sort of person would snark with a man instead of freeing him from a trunk and playing hero. but he supposes there is no such thing as an overabundance of caution in a place that would abduct people and stuff them into limos.
He doesn't have much room to move, but still shifts onto his side, as properly face-to-face as one can be. ]
Well, I don't recall dying.
[ He could stand to treat this more seriously, but it's an absurd situation. ]
Besides—no offense, but I don't really want your soul.
Yes! What are you, stupid?! MOVE IT!! [And move it he does, scrambling backwards behind the hybrid thing. Bakugo narrows his eyes on the man's movements. Fast, but deliberately avoiding sight. Duh. If he woke up as naked as he is, of course he's gonna be staying hidden. Bakugo grumbles to himself as he finally cinches the sash around his waist with a vicious jerk. Tighten up, abs! Otherwise he'll crush his stomach with that damn belt!]
Haa?! [Where does he get off ordering him around? He sounds so frantic.] Don't run into anymore cars, dammit!
[Bakugo steps out of the limo, but doesn't move any closer, instead looking around the area at other vehicles. Apart from the one behind him and the one this guy kicked a damn door into, they're not blaring. He turns and wrenches the lock on the driver's side, then yanks the door open and climbs in. Rummaging his hands around the cabin without giving a shit what he's disturbing in effort to find the keys and stop the alarm from going off. Normally you'd just shut all the doors but...
[The clap's acoustics are perfect. A man of theater of showmanship would sit in awe of such a perfect reverberation of sound as it is precisely what the audience would want.
Granted, stage hits are telegraphed. Clearly practiced exchanges so that the two participants could roll with the act again and again- This smack held no such fantasy. Instead a crack of sharp pain sends Baptiste's eyes wide. His head tilts to the side - body so accustomed to performance that it still reacts in a way to give every gawker exactly what they'd expect: an overacted sway and the tilts of a head. Mouth frozen in a perfect circle, his lashes flutter before he slowly turns to glance to the man at who had dove into action before Baptiste could even bother to read the dice on the table.
He smiles as he takes the dice in hand and begins to shake them.]
You're all in, aren't you? What a dedicated player!
[Baptiste throws the dice - hoping for something far more retaliatory than he would receive. He tempers his disappointment with the ever innocuous CARESS NOSE makes an appearance. Not to be upstaged, he commits quickly - leaning over to drag his second knuckle down the bridge Getou's nose. He disconnects at the tip with a flourish - lips pressing together to blow a kiss.
... Nah, even behind his showman ship, there's a spark of yearning annoyance for petty revenge.]
[ he frowns, clearly disapproving. that party had been.. so much. so, so much. dan heng feels as if he could sleep for days after so much forced socialization. also he has horns too, by the way, and a tail beneath the blankets.. out of sight for now, but jae ha may very well see movement beneath the covers. ]
It was certainly very.. loud.
[ a soft sigh, and he shakes his head. ]
Better that it's over, though it's troubling that we cannot recall certain events.
[That's the POINT. It's supposed to hurt. You're not supposed to get hurt in a dream...! Kazuya doesn't let himself be swatted off too easily, but does relent after a bit of a tussle.
Prickly, isn't he.]
It's not cute, it's a fact. I'm incredibly powerful. And also, you're not dreaming. That's why I pinched you.
[ — this again. That crawling, miasmic power that pours through his emotions as if in reverse, like the way blood might ooze from a wound, if it was never his to begin with. Except now, it's barefaced in its panic, taking what Kizuna thought would be a harmless encounter and throwing it right into reverse. Immediately, his gut lurches, but his hand hesitates to leave the door handle, gaze flaring in its shock as it darts from tinted glass to the dull pitch of weight coming from the trunk? ]
...ah, hah. [ His breath hurts in his lungs as if wrung by a fist. ] Out, I can get you out! Hang on!
[ Finally, he leaves one passenger side handle for the driver's side, but just as he'd jimmied the first door handle to no avail, that one is also locked, turning the enchanted car into a grueling furnace, a secondary coffin of metal now that the stone one has been shed. ]
I have the feeling that many if not most of these questions may be vague. We'll simply have to do the best that we can with them.
[ make assumptions based around their own knowledge and experiences. hmm. dan heng's clear teal eyes are unmoving as he regards the person before him. ]
Changing yourself for another, however.. that is a big ask. What if you not being paid for it? If there was no price? What if it were for someone you care about, would you still agree even if the terms were not agreeable?
honestly loving the idea of "trunk" being a verb now...
[normally bakugo's an early riser. stalks off to his room around 9, asleep by 10, and wakes around 5:30 for his morning exercise or jog. he likes to keep his schedule. doesn't mean he's a morning person by any means. talking to him before he's awake and comfortable usually gets a cranky explosion all the same. now add a headache to that...
bakugo drops his hand to the bed again, smoke drifting up from his fingers as if that'll put an end to any incessant prodding with a damn icy pack. seems content his display shut the bed invader up and he can get back to-
... oh my god shut the fuck up why are you still talking to him!?
glaring. at. the wall.]
Cause you shoved a freezing chunk of ice on my face and woke me up.
[let him come around to the bed part later. once he's more alert and can realize this is indeed his own room. or not.]
[They put him at a table. Sunday's struggling refusals have fallen on deaf ears since he was brought in by an invisible force, surrounded by revelry and indulgence, left to wilt in the shadows at the fringe of the room. Yet as much as he's tried to stay out of the way, it doesn't take long before he is seen and hauled into a game — pushed down by a shoulder into a chair.
And across from him is... a face he recognizes. The first, among all of these others he's seen, passing before his eyes in a blur of color and intoxication and excessive luxury.]
Mr. Aventurine.
[The name comes tightly, golden eyes fixed across the table, studying the other man through the perfect triangle at the peak of the house of cards. Like a window, he can see the IPC Ambassador's expression, as perfectly composed as any gambler in their element. Sunday cannot even claim that where they are isn't also familiar to him. Isn't the Golden Hour constructed to serve a similar purpose as the Golden Peacock? Perhaps not so obtrusively, but there's a clear parallel to be drawn.
The only difference, Sunday was not here in the chair but somewhere in an office, tucked away, above.]
Is this your doing? ... Bringing me to the table, that is. I understand this is exactly the sort of place you would seek out. [His mouth presses into a line, gaze falling between them. He should choose his words carefully.] What are the rules of your game?
[he rubs at his poor nose once it is freed, quirking a brow at this stranger's claim of superior physical prowess. and honestly? that just makes Akira want to pick a fight even more, just to see how truthful that claim really is. one can never go wrong with a good scrap, whether they're on the winning or losing side of it!! and he does like a good challenge. . . the Shadows of the Metaverse have only been able to push him so far, and technically he doesn't have access to them anymore. how is he supposed to let off his pent-up energy now!!]
[but that is probably a challenge for another time. . . so for now, he just rolls his eyes and lowers his hand, satisfied that his nose is still in one piece]
[ she watches him closely, from the way his ears twitch idly to how his hands expertly glide across the kettle as the tea steeps. the brew smells divine, if a little spicy, but there's no telling how spicy it is until she puts her tastebuds to the test eventually. fortunately, she is able to handle her spice -- for the most part.
she sits up straighter on the bed, hand coming up to comb through her massive mane of orange hair. ]
Well, that depends. If you have any ill intentions towards me, what would you even gain for poisoning me right here and now? I don't really have anything on me.
[ a noncommittal shrug. ]
Honestly, after everything I ate and drunk the nights prior, I'd rather take my chances with what you brewed up. Just saying.
Yeah, no one does. It's like we've all been thrown into an R-rated isekai.
[He'll glance behind him at the buffet table... Hm... What's left in one piece after that incredible crash landing...? Well, there's some macarons. Hold on, he's snagging one like this isn't horrific life changing information he just bludgeoned Akira with.]
My name is Minegishi Kazuya, by the way. And I already know you're Kurusu Akira.
No... No, that's now how it is. Not usually, at least.
[ also, a dog? why does she keep attracting canines somehow. ]
In my case, there are times where people will corrode whenever they overuse too much of their E.G.O -- er, the armor and weaponry extracted from the human mind, but I don't think they're the same thing as your deal.
[Has anyone — ever — so brazenly flirted with Sunday in his life? Most handsome man of Penacony he may be called, the answer is absolutely not. That statement locks him into place, mind caught in a snare of disbelief and keeping it from his expression only through sheer will and discipline. His gaze drifts, as if to physically look away might wipe the image of the man in front of him: pale skin, dark hair, severely underdressed beneath the cover of sheets.
Sheets... on a bed it appears they slept in together. If he wasn't still fully dressed, he would wonder if he had done something, unknowingly, last night. A thought that fills him with horror.
Sunday attempts to gather himself. While he's pointedly not looking at the man, he adjusts the halo that had become displaced in slumber, fixing it above his head in a shimmer of gold. Unfortunately, it also means he notices a long black strand of hair on his shoulder. He dusts it off.]
You are that shameless. [In case any internal monologue wasn't enough.] If it's all the same to you, I don't want to leave this room, since it's the first... peace I've found in the resort. Apart from your presence. [sorry wei wuxian] I would ask that you please put your clothing back on.
Page 31 of 213