【 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.
[ To his words—to say nothing of the hand placed at the small of her back—Aerith raises a brow; when she laughs, it's a pleasant sound, but one lacking her usual warmth. ]
If you truly believe that I did those things out of spite, then you have a lot to learn about me, Mister Shinra.
[ After all, how can it be considered spiteful to avoid a security detail for which she never asked? As to bartering with Tseng... there was no way she was going to leave that little girl in the hands of her once-captors.
Despite her comment, though, and despite the cautiousness shadowing her every move so far, she accepts the halved canapé from him and eats it in turn; her nose wrinkles at the rich, unfamiliar taste. ]
Mm... I can imagine, if something as simple as fruit is to be considered dangerous. Not to mention the clothes... I spent the morning in something that left me practically naked, and now this...
[It's pointed, the name he chooses — not Miss Gainsborough, not the name she'd lived under in the slums of Sector 5, but the one that holds value to Shinra. And why shouldn't he? That's the same one that she chose to call him, herself. Funny how the both of them are alike in that way, worth more to his father and the company for the bloodlines they represent, rather than the people they've become.
Still, he's going to have to play this interaction more carefully than most. Tseng will want to keep watch over her again, now that she's here, so there's no sense in driving her away from all things Shinra with his conduct when he could be enticing her to find them a refuge in the familiar instead.]
Ah, so you did get the customary welcome. Arrive with nothing and work your way up.
[He pauses, gauging. It's difficult to come up with a way to make his next offer in a tone that doesn't sound like an overt bribe, but — well. She'd seemed willing enough to listen to plain reason when he'd offered it at the parade. Maybe she'll be inclined to do it again.]
If there's something you need, I should be able to arrange for it. No strings attached. Consider it my way of offering reparations for...the lacking quality of my company's previous hospitality.
[ Is it an invitation? Perhaps, before she woke up here, Aerith would have said no. Despite some of their interests being aligned of late, she still has a number of reasons not to trust Rufus Shinra, especially on a personal level.
But since waking up here? Well, right now she's thinking she needs to re-evaluate her priorities.
Her smile this time—well, it isn't as friendly as one she'd offer to Cloud or Tifa, or even as friendly as one she'd offer to Tseng—but at least it's something a little fuller, a little realer than before. ]
Sure~. Let's call it an invitation—our circumstances are different here, right? Maybe this is a good chance for us to get to know each other beyond... you know. Everything.
[ Which, she supposes, is similar to what he's offering her, with his "no strings attached" reparations. To which, in the end, she shakes her head a little, places a hand on his forearm. ]
Thank you for your offer. It's kind of you, but.. I can't possibly accept it. We're all in the same situation here, and... [ she waves her hand with a little smile, indicating her wrist. ] Even the starting funds they gave us are more than what I'd have to spend normally, you know? It's nothing you need to worry about.
[ She reaches for one of the mini quiches on the table, holding it up as if o display it, a question in her eyes. ]
[There's something that rings strangely — well, something, in the effortless way she offers her perspective on the resort's idea of starting hospitality. More than what I'd have to spend normally, she says, and for a second the chasm of disparity that opens between their respective expectations is vast. How his own rank has always abraded, just a little — so close to the prestige of royalty, but never quite enough. How easily she talks about having a handful of chips like it's a fortune.
It's a preoccupying enough thought that he isn't really paying attention to what she's selecting from the table, or her intentions with it. A moment's lapse into idle thought. But whatever she'd said, the inflection marks it as a question, so he offers a noncommittal hum without really realizing that it's a sound someone might unthinkingly take as an answer.]
[ Busy with her question about the food, Aerith doesn't immediately notice the pensive way that Rufus's attention wanders from her; hearing the noncommittal hum as an answer in the affirmative, she takes a bite from the quiche, making her own small sound of approval at its taste, rich with cheese and sharp with something smoked, the flaky pastry the perfect accompaniment to the medley of flavors.
She doesn't realize that, amongst the flavors, is something dangerous and undetectable. It will take its time to work its way into her system, but the damage has been done with that one bite alone.
It's not as bad as it could potentially be, of course; she's still holding half of the offending food in her hand though when she does notice that Rufus seems distracted. Nudging him lightly with her other arm, she tilts her head, searching his face. ]
[Oddly enough, that's a question that he doesn't get often — usually because most people wouldn't dare to suggest that anything even could be wrong with him to begin with. It draws him out of his thoughts almost immediately, snapping him back into the present moment — where he abruptly takes stock of the crumbs on her mouth and the half-bitten quiche in her hand, and, well — now it's a dice roll, isn't it.]
[ Aerith nods when Rufus says that he's fine, that he's just thinking. Somehow, she's sure it's more than that, but she's not about to push him on it, not right now. Instead, she lifts the half-eaten quiche, and—
Pauses when he asks for it, the slightest of frowns forming on her brows.
Has she made a mistake? She feels fine, but... ]
Of course.
[ She masks her concern with a smile before it can grow too big to do so, passes the remainder of the food to him. ]
[He takes it carefully in his hand, turning it over and frowning slightly; there's arguably no way to tell for certain when something at the resort is doctored other than to try it, but one can make reasoned guesses. Fruit is usually dangerous. Alcohol and sweets are as well. The sorts of things that entice others to try them...
He eyes the table, gauging how many of the little treats have been taken already, then briskly folds the remains of the quiche into a napkin and finds a bin to discreetly dispose of it in.]
Enough of this. Let's go dance.
[If it was laced with something, moving around ought to bring about the onset more quickly — and the quicker they can identify and deal with it. All the better to be careful, he thinks, as he makes to lead her away from the refreshments.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goldmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
peacockstop2025-01-15 09:00 pm
no subject
If you truly believe that I did those things out of spite, then you have a lot to learn about me, Mister Shinra.
[ After all, how can it be considered spiteful to avoid a security detail for which she never asked? As to bartering with Tseng... there was no way she was going to leave that little girl in the hands of her once-captors.
Despite her comment, though, and despite the cautiousness shadowing her every move so far, she accepts the halved canapé from him and eats it in turn; her nose wrinkles at the rich, unfamiliar taste. ]
Mm... I can imagine, if something as simple as fruit is to be considered dangerous. Not to mention the clothes... I spent the morning in something that left me practically naked, and now this...
no subject
[It's pointed, the name he chooses — not Miss Gainsborough, not the name she'd lived under in the slums of Sector 5, but the one that holds value to Shinra. And why shouldn't he? That's the same one that she chose to call him, herself. Funny how the both of them are alike in that way, worth more to his father and the company for the bloodlines they represent, rather than the people they've become.
Still, he's going to have to play this interaction more carefully than most. Tseng will want to keep watch over her again, now that she's here, so there's no sense in driving her away from all things Shinra with his conduct when he could be enticing her to find them a refuge in the familiar instead.]
Ah, so you did get the customary welcome. Arrive with nothing and work your way up.
[He pauses, gauging. It's difficult to come up with a way to make his next offer in a tone that doesn't sound like an overt bribe, but — well. She'd seemed willing enough to listen to plain reason when he'd offered it at the parade. Maybe she'll be inclined to do it again.]
If there's something you need, I should be able to arrange for it. No strings attached. Consider it my way of offering reparations for...the lacking quality of my company's previous hospitality.
no subject
But since waking up here? Well, right now she's thinking she needs to re-evaluate her priorities.
Her smile this time—well, it isn't as friendly as one she'd offer to Cloud or Tifa, or even as friendly as one she'd offer to Tseng—but at least it's something a little fuller, a little realer than before. ]
Sure~. Let's call it an invitation—our circumstances are different here, right? Maybe this is a good chance for us to get to know each other beyond... you know. Everything.
[ Which, she supposes, is similar to what he's offering her, with his "no strings attached" reparations. To which, in the end, she shakes her head a little, places a hand on his forearm. ]
Thank you for your offer. It's kind of you, but.. I can't possibly accept it. We're all in the same situation here, and... [ she waves her hand with a little smile, indicating her wrist. ] Even the starting funds they gave us are more than what I'd have to spend normally, you know? It's nothing you need to worry about.
[ She reaches for one of the mini quiches on the table, holding it up as if o display it, a question in her eyes. ]
Is this safe?
no subject
It's a preoccupying enough thought that he isn't really paying attention to what she's selecting from the table, or her intentions with it. A moment's lapse into idle thought. But whatever she'd said, the inflection marks it as a question, so he offers a noncommittal hum without really realizing that it's a sound someone might unthinkingly take as an answer.]
no subject
She doesn't realize that, amongst the flavors, is something dangerous and undetectable. It will take its time to work its way into her system, but the damage has been done with that one bite alone.
It's not as bad as it could potentially be, of course; she's still holding half of the offending food in her hand though when she does notice that Rufus seems distracted. Nudging him lightly with her other arm, she tilts her head, searching his face. ]
Hey... are you alright?
no subject
Fine. Just thinking.
[He nods slightly at the remains of the quiche.]
Let me have that. I assume you're done with it.
no subject
Pauses when he asks for it, the slightest of frowns forming on her brows.
Has she made a mistake? She feels fine, but... ]
Of course.
[ She masks her concern with a smile before it can grow too big to do so, passes the remainder of the food to him. ]
Here.
no subject
He eyes the table, gauging how many of the little treats have been taken already, then briskly folds the remains of the quiche into a napkin and finds a bin to discreetly dispose of it in.]
Enough of this. Let's go dance.
[If it was laced with something, moving around ought to bring about the onset more quickly — and the quicker they can identify and deal with it. All the better to be careful, he thinks, as he makes to lead her away from the refreshments.]
no subject