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pluviooc2024-03-18 02:45 pm
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-03-18 02:45 pm
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TEST DRIVE 02
TEST DRIVE
Hello, and welcome to the second Pluviosa Test Drive!
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 4-12 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 5-8. Currently, character IC housing is not in operation yet; it is expected to open on Day 9 (part of the way through the Test Drive period). Otherwise, the ship is largely in the state described on the Setting page and in other game information.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
You wake up. You remember waking up, right? In another place, another time...
There's blood running down your fingers. Outside, the rain isn't pounding, yet, just a gentle patter...
Or is it?
As characters gain fuller awareness of their surroundings, they will realize that there is, in fact, no blood on their hands (save any that might have already been there). It feels as though they lost focus for a moment and hallucinated, but the hallucination ended with them somewhere else entirely.
There is not actually the sound of rain. If characters are near enough to a window, balcony, or even a hole in the ceiling, they will find that it is cloudless, beaming sunlight outside. The emptiness in the distance rolls on and on, completely absent any signs of life.
That being, of course, because the signs of life are all in here. Characters might wake up on any of the decks on the upper side of the ship - anywhere that isn't the cafeteria or lounge where previous arrivals spend most of their time is free game. This also means, of course, that they have the jungle of plants to contend with...
Most areas in the ship are dark when characters arrive. That doesn't mean that they stay dark. Occasionally, lights overhead flicker on and off for a few minutes at a time.
The problem with this isn't the lights themselves (cool white and kind of industrial). It's the reaction that the addition of the extra light causes the plants in the dark areas of the ship that's cause for alarm. To describe the growth as explosive isn't an understatement - vines, saplings, and even thicker branches surge with growth, pushing outwards towards the distant sunlight and upwards towards the flickering bulbs.
The growth is sudden enough to take all but the most aware characters by surprise, and if they're in the wrong corner of the room, it's very easy to get tangled up, wedged in by a tree trunk, or otherwise trapped against some corner or wall. If you're lucky and skilled, you might be able to cut yourself out from there (or break down the wall you're shoved up against), but otherwise, there's only one solution left.
Yell like your life depends on it, and hope somebody out there can hear you. And that whoever hears is someone who is inclined to help, rather than leaving you there. Or worse.
Oh, and the lights flicker back off after a few minutes, of course. Hopefully you're not waiting for rescue in the dark (with the smell of mold and the general faint dampness of the forest) for too long.
Occasionally, the whole ship tilts.
This is not simply the side to side motion of a ship on the water (or the equivalent motion brought on by the way this particular ship moves); it's an extremely forward or backward tilt that sends things sliding across the floor if they aren't secured by roots or something else. Unlike storm-tossed ships, the tilt is somewhat prolonged - rather than everything sliding back and forth a couple times a minute, the tilt lasts for five, ten, maybe as much as twenty minutes.
Although it's not enough to knock a well-balanced character off their feet, it's quite likely that new arrivals will not be particularly on-balance. And attempting to traverse the ship with the tilt is a tall order... especially when the ship's angle does unexpectedly change... to the exact opposite direction. All that goes up the mountain must go back down, and a glance out the windows reveals that that's exactly what's going on, as the ship progresses across a mountainous landscape without real regard for the concept of mountain passes.
And for characters who have managed to make their way to the "civilized" parts of the ship, namely the cafeteria and the lounge above it... None of the furniture in these areas is secured. The cafeteria carts under the direct control of the Ship don't seem as inclined to go anywhere, but the tables and chairs in the cafeteria and the couches and armchairs upstairs... Well, it's a good thing both spaces are surrounded by railings. Large chunks of tree trunk also still littler the lounge, sliding back and forth and occasionally rolling with great force across the floor.
Better hold on tight.
While wandering around the ship's interior, characters might occasionally hear a person whistling.
The sound always seems to be coming from just around the corner, but it sounds alive in a way that other sounds don't. Maybe more alive, even, than the rustle of leaves, the occasional drip of water, and the sounds of things sliding back and forth across the grimy, leaf-covered floors. The whistler, whoever they are, doesn't actively respond if called out to - but the whistling does pause, as though indicating that the call was heard, before starting up again.
If characters choose to follow the whistling, they're inevitably led to the same place - somewhere overlooking the great gap down the middle of the ship, whether an internal suite's balcony, one of the bridges crossing between the two halves, or one of the hallways that runs alongside it. Once they're there, there's no whistler in sight; however, characters will be filled with the overwhelming urge to look over the edge of the railing and down into the lower parts of the ship.
Exactly what they experience after looking down varies. Some will hallucinate that they've fallen over the side, feeling their balance go haywire and seeing the floor rushing up to them right up until the moment of "impact," at which everything returns to normal. Some will feel a stranger's hands on their shoulders, threatening to push them over with a great shove that goes through them with incorporeal fingers. Some will just hear unidentifiable laughter right up close to their ears, and experience the distinct sensation that there's someone laughing at them, in a haha-made-you-look kind of way.
But whatever happens, when they look up, there's no one there - or at least not anyone that physically close to them. The one good thing about being drawn to the middle section of the ship by whatever prankster this is is that it makes it a lot easier to run into people if you're all drawn to the same, highly visible place.
And at least the other person is flesh and blood, right? Probably.
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 4-12 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 5-8. Currently, character IC housing is not in operation yet; it is expected to open on Day 9 (part of the way through the Test Drive period). Otherwise, the ship is largely in the state described on the Setting page and in other game information.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
ARRIVAL - LIKE THE RAIN
You wake up. You remember waking up, right? In another place, another time...
There's blood running down your fingers. Outside, the rain isn't pounding, yet, just a gentle patter...
Or is it?
As characters gain fuller awareness of their surroundings, they will realize that there is, in fact, no blood on their hands (save any that might have already been there). It feels as though they lost focus for a moment and hallucinated, but the hallucination ended with them somewhere else entirely.
There is not actually the sound of rain. If characters are near enough to a window, balcony, or even a hole in the ceiling, they will find that it is cloudless, beaming sunlight outside. The emptiness in the distance rolls on and on, completely absent any signs of life.
That being, of course, because the signs of life are all in here. Characters might wake up on any of the decks on the upper side of the ship - anywhere that isn't the cafeteria or lounge where previous arrivals spend most of their time is free game. This also means, of course, that they have the jungle of plants to contend with...
LIGHTS ON, SHOW START
Most areas in the ship are dark when characters arrive. That doesn't mean that they stay dark. Occasionally, lights overhead flicker on and off for a few minutes at a time.
The problem with this isn't the lights themselves (cool white and kind of industrial). It's the reaction that the addition of the extra light causes the plants in the dark areas of the ship that's cause for alarm. To describe the growth as explosive isn't an understatement - vines, saplings, and even thicker branches surge with growth, pushing outwards towards the distant sunlight and upwards towards the flickering bulbs.
The growth is sudden enough to take all but the most aware characters by surprise, and if they're in the wrong corner of the room, it's very easy to get tangled up, wedged in by a tree trunk, or otherwise trapped against some corner or wall. If you're lucky and skilled, you might be able to cut yourself out from there (or break down the wall you're shoved up against), but otherwise, there's only one solution left.
Yell like your life depends on it, and hope somebody out there can hear you. And that whoever hears is someone who is inclined to help, rather than leaving you there. Or worse.
Oh, and the lights flicker back off after a few minutes, of course. Hopefully you're not waiting for rescue in the dark (with the smell of mold and the general faint dampness of the forest) for too long.
TILT-A-WORLD
Occasionally, the whole ship tilts.
This is not simply the side to side motion of a ship on the water (or the equivalent motion brought on by the way this particular ship moves); it's an extremely forward or backward tilt that sends things sliding across the floor if they aren't secured by roots or something else. Unlike storm-tossed ships, the tilt is somewhat prolonged - rather than everything sliding back and forth a couple times a minute, the tilt lasts for five, ten, maybe as much as twenty minutes.
Although it's not enough to knock a well-balanced character off their feet, it's quite likely that new arrivals will not be particularly on-balance. And attempting to traverse the ship with the tilt is a tall order... especially when the ship's angle does unexpectedly change... to the exact opposite direction. All that goes up the mountain must go back down, and a glance out the windows reveals that that's exactly what's going on, as the ship progresses across a mountainous landscape without real regard for the concept of mountain passes.
And for characters who have managed to make their way to the "civilized" parts of the ship, namely the cafeteria and the lounge above it... None of the furniture in these areas is secured. The cafeteria carts under the direct control of the Ship don't seem as inclined to go anywhere, but the tables and chairs in the cafeteria and the couches and armchairs upstairs... Well, it's a good thing both spaces are surrounded by railings. Large chunks of tree trunk also still littler the lounge, sliding back and forth and occasionally rolling with great force across the floor.
Better hold on tight.
SOMETHING WHISTLING
While wandering around the ship's interior, characters might occasionally hear a person whistling.
The sound always seems to be coming from just around the corner, but it sounds alive in a way that other sounds don't. Maybe more alive, even, than the rustle of leaves, the occasional drip of water, and the sounds of things sliding back and forth across the grimy, leaf-covered floors. The whistler, whoever they are, doesn't actively respond if called out to - but the whistling does pause, as though indicating that the call was heard, before starting up again.
If characters choose to follow the whistling, they're inevitably led to the same place - somewhere overlooking the great gap down the middle of the ship, whether an internal suite's balcony, one of the bridges crossing between the two halves, or one of the hallways that runs alongside it. Once they're there, there's no whistler in sight; however, characters will be filled with the overwhelming urge to look over the edge of the railing and down into the lower parts of the ship.
Exactly what they experience after looking down varies. Some will hallucinate that they've fallen over the side, feeling their balance go haywire and seeing the floor rushing up to them right up until the moment of "impact," at which everything returns to normal. Some will feel a stranger's hands on their shoulders, threatening to push them over with a great shove that goes through them with incorporeal fingers. Some will just hear unidentifiable laughter right up close to their ears, and experience the distinct sensation that there's someone laughing at them, in a haha-made-you-look kind of way.
But whatever happens, when they look up, there's no one there - or at least not anyone that physically close to them. The one good thing about being drawn to the middle section of the ship by whatever prankster this is is that it makes it a lot easier to run into people if you're all drawn to the same, highly visible place.
And at least the other person is flesh and blood, right? Probably.
Sure is! But he lives :) And finally eats, thank you
And there's food within reach. His hands tighten on the box instinctually, clinging to the means of survival. He still watches her, of course but...upon tearing into the jerky, he kind of loses track of what she's doing for a bit. He'd...not eaten in a good while. Shang even showed him where the cafeteria was but he just. Didn't go. Stupid. The food is almost overwhelming with how hungry he remembers he is-
His shoulders do tense when chilled hands brush through his hair. It would be...almost nice if he wasn't so on edge. Guilt and fear...? But with her approach and the sharp teeth,...what does someone like her have to fear?
Too little information...and he's too tired. It's fine.
Hes relieved when she kneels in front of him again, hands in her lap. He'd worked through several meat sticks already, and had gotten to the bag. No sign of drugging or poison yet, but it's too soon to tell.
There's also...a hunger in her eyes that has not gone away this entire time. He pauses in chewing.
"These...this can't all be for me...you need to eat too, right? It'd be um. Rude of me to eat the whole thing." He chuckles nervously, suddenly wondering what the price for this might be...
Re: Sure is! But he lives :) And finally eats, thank you
Aurelia doesn't respond, letting the silence fill the room as she peers at him. Thinking it through (and letting him finish eating as well). On the one hand, she's taken from him, and helped him out of her guilt over that. An honest answer would settle the debt and prevent any future misunderstandings.
On the other hand, she's never had to tell anyone about her heritage before. Not from scratch, the fact that he doesn't recognize what she is... after this much interaction? He must be from a rural town, the quality of his clothes consistent with backwater nobility or wealthy merchants. (It's not the strangest she's ever seen, not after some of Absalom's trends, but it's up there).
She's not sure she has the words.
The silence is stretching on long enough that she needs to say something. She's been sitting here motionless and silent for too long. Just. Speak. Force the words out.
"I am... not alive, in the way you are. I need very little physical substance." Her tone is as flat as it's been, the hunger in her eyes flaring as her subconscious howls in the back of her mind. The last traces of stolen life from Aventurine's panicked screaming finally fading from her body and leaving her cold and quiet.
no subject
And she keeps staring at him. Her eyes are red, like blood, searching, staring as if into his soul. He fidgets, awkwardly taking more food and shoving it in his mouth. Rations are rations, but aeons are they helping. She seems keen on him eating. Part of him is loathe to share, but…it just doesn’t make sense to him, which makes the skin on his neck prickle.
But she’s staying quiet, and he figures she’s not budging on this. Not one for conversation, is she…?
Why would a hunter want to talk with their food-He shakes his head, eating away at the rations, the precious sustenance given him. Guilt and fear, she’d said…he turns it over and over in his head. Had they met before…?
He twitches when she does speak, his hands instinctively tightening on the box, on the food.
“Not…alive?” He asks, curiosity winning out over fear now. He’d met many kinds of people as he worked…is she an emanator of some sort? No, he’d probably be able to pick that up…probably. His powers are on the fritz. But that coldness from before…maybe an android? A robot like Screwllum…?
Her eyes flash in a way that makes him want to run run run get away you are going to die-
He takes a shuddering breath, working up another smile. A smaller shield of sorts… “This is probably rude of me to say, but you…look rather hungry, yourself. ‘Very little’ is still something. Or do you…um. Need to eat something not physical?” He thinks of a being he’d heard about, an enemy of the Xianzhou Alliance…they fed on thoughts and stuff. Or something. But heliobi lacked physical form themselves…
no subject
Aurelia flinches back, turning away from Aventurine and staring into the darkness at the other end of the hall. It's always harder to control the hunger when it's been acknowledged, when it's been fed, when she has to think about it; and Aventurine has forced all of those conditions to be true.
She needs a minute just to wrestle her howling subconscious back into control. Still and silent. Then she begins to think again, once she's removed her heritage from her thoughts and can once again think as herself (because she is not the hunger, not like her grandfather, not like her cousins, she's better than that. She is. She must be). She can tell the truth, explain her heritage to Aventurine, build trust. Form a party, as the pathfinder society would say. (And the Society is a pile of pretentious overachievers one and all, but they know their stuff). (It's not really relevant that Aventurine is clearly weak now, weak adventurers always get stronger.) Or she could deny him. Walk away.
Thoughts turn, are reflected on themselves within the ice, and she's surprised to admit to herself that she doesn't want to cut ties. Practically, Aventurine is a powerful caster who she has a rapport with, from a longer point of view cutting ties in a dungeon is rank foolishness. But... someone who does not know, doesn't already think she's a monster.
It would be nice, to keep him from thinking of her that way. One step on her path to changing the world.
"Yes." She admits, without looking at him directly. Watching the colors shift from the corner of her eyes. "My kind feed on the emotions and thoughts of living beings. As such, I have a sixth sense for them. My hunger is manageable. I appreciate your concern." Controlled diction, keeping the walls tight, even as tension coils in her body. She's ready to run, if she needs to. Or fight, if it comes to that. It has before. "I'm surprised you don't already know. It's very obvious"
Gambler making a dumb gamble once again
the hunterthe woman flinches…away from him. And that’s…that’s surprising. He’s finishing up the last of the rations. He doesn’t…feel any drugs or poisons taking effect. Some have delayed responses, but…He could run. He could run right now, when she's not looking.
But the pain in the moment keeps him still. He’d…struck a weak point, hadn’t he…
If nothing else, that’s probably a safer angle to play than running, right now. The trembling in his limbs has lessened, but he knows he’s still in a feeble state…
So he waits for Aurelia to wrestle with whatever is haunting her, the hunger and indecision flashing in her eyes, in the tenseness of her body. ‘Not alive’…she seemed alive to him, right now. And he gets the feeling these silences are normal for her, to collect her thoughts.
And then she speaks, and it all makes more sense. His smile morphs a bit into surprise. It brings up more questions for him, but…ah. Huh. So…like a heliobus indeed. ‘My kind’…are there more of her?
“Ahhhh I get it…that’s how you caught onto…” his fear, his pain…in a way it was a bit of a relief. So his poker face hadn’t been slipping as much as he’d thought. Not that it would help him much here, in the face of actual terror if she can sense it. Embarrassing, actually. “Well…isn’t that an unexpected complication in the ways of a gambler,” he chuckles softly. She was a living lie detector, in a way. Fascinating.
And then she talks about managing her hunger, and he can’t help but twitch. That’s…
”Take it, Kakavasha. I already ate. I’ll be okay. You need to eat so you can grow up big and strong!”
He knew. He knew this was his sister’s portion. He may not have known then but he does now. Mama was gone, and Sister was trying to be Mama in her place, in this terrifying world, just the two of them…he’d listened to her stomach growl as they held each other in the night- if he insisted she ate, would she have been able to outrun the Katicans that day? Would she have lived—
Aventurine breathes. That’s…not what this is, but it bothers him all the same. The last of the food feels stale in his mouth, now. So he smiles for the girl before him. “Well that won’t do, will it, Lady Aurelia? Watching me stuff my face while you starve?” He tsks, closing the now empty box with a click. “I believe I’ve never met one of your kind, so forgive me for not realizing. Thank you for taking the time to clear my ignorance." It must have been hard for her to say. He's gotten mostly used to the prejudice against Sigonians but, it can still sting.
He pauses. What he's about to offer could pose a huge risk. But, that's how he likes it, right? And it would even out a possible debt with her...
"As I’m sure you've noticed, I've got plenty of...emotion to go around. It wouldn't kill me to offer some to you for sustenance, would it?" He gives his best, most charming smile, even though his heart races, and his hand shakes with the risk of it all. And…it could be beneficial, wouldn’t it? To have less of this fear… “Everyone needs to eat, right?”
If it doesn’t kill him, he’s willing to try.
Bwuh
His words catch up to her, and everything she was thinking just stops. Her line of thought ending as abruptly as though he'd pulled out a sword and shoved it into her chest.
He must be lying. But he's not, she knows what a lie looks like. What did he call himself? A gambler? Her gaze flicks around the dark room, eyes twitching and searching without moving her head at all. Was that a death's head moth she'd seen in the shadows? No. Just her imagination.
Is he just insane? "You - " She starts before going silent, staring at him with an empty expression. She has no idea what to say. "What. You have no idea what you're offering"
Blind bet! Blind bet!! Everyone needs to eat!!
She looks…distressed. Pained? No…there’s some sort of intense desperation…and fear? Why? He’s the one that should be scared here. A yet her unease only seems to bolster his own confidence. He sighs.
“Look. While I won’t pretend to understand your dietary needs, I do understand hunger. You gave me food when I really needed it. You may have your own reasons, but in my book, that leaves me in debt to you.” He scratches at the bar code on his neck, clearly uncomfortable with the notion. “I don’t like being in debt, so I’d like to pay it off quickly if I can.”
He smiles again, hoping to appear kinder. “And I just…don’t like leaving people who help me to starve, I suppose. As I’ve said, as long as you don’t…say, drain me of all emotion forever or something— I don’t know how it works,” he waves a hand in the air. Semantics. “I think that’s something I can repay you with, don’t you? Consider it a business transaction, if that helps.”
Woops Aven has triggered a trap card!
Her thoughts bounce around the frozen labyrinth of her thoughts as she falls silent again, eyes dimming and breaths slowing as she tries to untangle them from one another. Why, why is it impossible? Isn't this what she's worked for. Acceptance, trust, so easily? (He must be a merchant's son after all another, reads another tangled thread, no one else would speak of debt so easily) (What is that mark on his neck? It means something. What) (Hunger hunger hunger prey walking willingly into her path what is she doing just SITTING) (How _dare_ she even _think_ of -)
Ah.
A parade of faces streams under her minds eyes. She'd known, hadn't she, that she'd been breathing in fear and contempt for years (decades). Ever since she'd left home, tried to make a life, the living of Avistan have bombarded her with their feelings for the undead and she'd soaked them in. She'd stopped noticing, until she'd come to the boat and was no longer surrounded by the aura's of a population she wasn't welcome in. (Is that why she rushed to Aventurine, his fear the first familiar thing in this strange dungeon? She isn't sure she wants to answer that). That prejudice, it had stained her mind, sunk into the foundation of her thoughts. (You are what you eat)
So. What to do with that. She blinks, and refocuses on Aventurine after however long a silence she let him stew in. Peering into his eyes as she leans forward. "I don't believe in debt. Those with the means to provide should. But... I can't deny that principle works in return."
She stares into his eyes, for the first time noticing their shape and color and injecting as much seriousness into her tone as she can. "You don't have to. You owe me nothing. And you will suffer, if you do." She can't deny that, no one really understands what it means to be hollow unless they've felt it before. "But not forever."
What did he call himself again? A gambler. It takes two to bet, and perhaps this one is safe enough for her to try and help him and herself at the same time.
Good thing he likes card games and trap cards-
It’s little things like this that make her seem less of a prowling hunter and more…like a person. He’s not sure what’s requiring so much thought, but he’ll wait. To him, this deal makes sense.
High risk, high reward.
She leans forward, and while he does twitch away a fraction, he watches her in turn, his mind made up. A gambler does not shy from the bet. “Don’t believe in debt? My dear lady, you have… much more generous morals than I’d ever experienced, it seems.” Debt is all he’s been allowed. Betting is how he lived. He briefly thinks of Ratio, scoffing at him once upon a time, insisting that if one has the means to cure an ailment, then it’s only logical that one should. Idealists, the lot of them.
And there it is. This won’t kill him, so she says. He feels that familiar rush of anxiety mixed with excitement, the curiosity over what might happen, where the chips will fall. “What’s a little more suffering? I’m familiar with it, I’ll be fine.” And if it squared away a debt? Secured an ally, perhaps?
If it could help him not be so scared all the time-’They only see your big bets, your bravado, the full house, the straight flush. They don't know the other hand is below the table, clutching your chips for dear life.’
He keeps his eyes locked on her own, which are full of barely restrained hunger and…something else he can’t quite read. Deep crimson red…Beautiful. Terrifying. Like pools of blood, reminding him of when he took the shackles around his wrists and—and-ended his master’s life, of when his sister’s life ended right in front of him, while all he could do was hold in the screams to not make her death in vain. His hand shakes, and he shoves it behind his back. He smiles, wide, a bit manic. “Seems like we’ve reached an agreement, Lady Aurelia. Go ahead and eat up.”
Well you asked for it.
Before his hand can make it behind his back, her own darts out and catches it by the wrist. She considers scolding him for his levity, but it doesn't really matter. From the moment her fingers touch the skin of his wrist, the flow shifts. The sensation of gravity shifting, pulling the stream of emotions underneath his skin off course, to rush out through their point of contact and into her waiting mind. The red surges, howls, the hunger hiding beneath the ocean opening it's maw and drinking deep.
Fear, like rich red meat served at the highest functions of the land. She savors it, funnels it through the labyrinth and feels the ice begin to melt and reaches deeper. Grief and guilt and old sorrows, a blend of spices rarely separated, that burns the inside of her mouth and rushes through her blood, warms her to the core. Pain and frustration like fruit bursting under her fangs, light and sweet. More. She plucks curiosity and excitement out of him like ripping fish from the river, swallows them and savors the sugary taste of chocolate that lingers in the back of her mind. The flow is slowing, she needs to be careful, the red of her eyes leaps out and plunges into the thinning ocean of his thoughts reaching for -
Something burns, and the red recoils in hatefearpainpainpain her mental grasp only brushing against his memories. A young woman (his sister), face pinched with hunger. Shackles around her (his) wrists, chains snapping. Death. Dead men dead sisters dead family. An older man, purple hair and a strong jaw, a meal shared with exasperation and frustration (and affection, right? she can't be sure, he wasn't). A golden halo, blinding as (it dissolves into static, someone was here before her, who?)
The feeling of rushing... nothing. Nothing filling her mouth and cutting of her air but she dosen't need to breathe but (he does)
She pulls away, taking the fragments of memory with her and retreating faster than he can see into the shadows around them. Red eyes blazing as she lets out a low laugh, musical and full of feeling. She's never felt this alive before, and it's taking all of her willpower not to pounce on her weakened (not prey not prey) friend and rip his throat out. She looks away, keep an eye on him from the corner of her eye as she sways back and forth.
Everything is so very bright now. How delightful!
SURE DID!! Bone apple teeth, girlie
He shudders, his terror suddenly surging forward to the forefront. She'd pulled his trembling hand back out into the open, she knows she knows he's going to die-
Of course she knows. This is what he'd offered her.
And something...drains out, and he finds himself hazily wondering...why he'd been so scared just now...
This was part of their deal, and they both get something to eat. It only makes sense. The lack of terror gives way to a strange peace of sorts, even as he feels...something...tear deeper into him, consuming, ripping something important away...something about that should be worrying, but instead his muscles relax. He sways in place, as he starts to lean into her strengthening grip.
There's a giddiness bubbling up in his chest. Finally. He's not...scared anymore. Why would he ever be? He's just helping someone not starve anymore like he did. It feels...good. The excitement of the new sensation makes him giggle before that all drains away too, leaving him a little woozy. Thing is, that gets sucked into the current too.
And then...something blood colored and warm, a shared meal...? It's slipping from his grasp. A tiny voice tells him this is bad, he needs to hold onto this- but the voice sinks quickly into the numbing rush flowing into the now warm hand around his wrist. What was...someone would be...cross with him for doing this...
Who...? He literally can't find any means within him to care...
The hand pulls away, and he slumps to the side, against some metal railing without that support. His limbs feel like lead. He can barely keep his eyes open. There's a heavy...nothingness over his thoughts, a hollowness in his chest he'd...never quite experienced before. Wow. He's taken "medicine" nowhere close to this effective.
He hears a laugh somewhere nearby. The faintest note of satisfaction drifts up to his attention then pops like a bubble. He's...really tired...he gives a sleepy smile, only because you're supposed to smile when someone laughs. He can't really recall why, but that he should.
"Hmm...taste good...?" He mumbles, his head drooping down toward his chest. All alarm bells that would go off at going unconscious in front of someone are effectively silenced at the moment. He's just...exhausted...
Aventurine doesn't realize that, without apparent danger, his overtired body is starting to shut itself down into a recovery mode of sorts. His eyes close, and a darkness spreads over his mind like numbing static before he loses consciousness, going fully limp against the bridge's railing.
This leaves his hand hanging over the darkness below. Before, this would have terrified him. Now he's not even aware.
He can't keep getting away with this.
Aurelia is chewing on her stolen memories, letting names and faces float together in the melting pool of her mind when Aventurine starts to slip, and like any predator would goes still and fixes her attention on him.
He's trying to laugh, his facial muscles twitching rapidly as he sways drunkenly. (She could kill him, with stolen life force burning in her veins she could tear his throat open between the heavy blinks he can't resist.) His eyes have the glassy hollow look she was expecting, but no one ever acted like this when she fed on them before (not that she has a huge sample pool really and maybe she should just finish him before - )
He falls over, slumped against the railing. He's slipping down it and she crosses the bridge in a flash to keep him from bashing his head against the ground, catching him by the scruff of his jacket as she tilts her head down at him curiously. Well. Fuck. He's asleep. "You know, I really should have seen this one coming" she muses quietly, voice rich and with a musical accent, "With how tired he was he probably forgot he was running on Adrenaline"
Considering the tenor of his stolen memories, he's probably been running on adrenaline for most of his life. Wherever he's from. (she can't pin down even a region from the fragments she stole, somewhere with a lot of sand maybe?) "Well now what am I going to do with you?" She asks rhetorically, looking around the bridge to see if someone had materialized now that she's assaulted another passenger and knocked him out.
No? Well. Shit. She takes a deep breath, reaches for calm and control, and tries to freeze the glowing river of her thoughts back into place. She needs to take him somewhere safe, it's the responsible thing to do. (She needs to take him to her lair, her heritage reflects back at her, so she can finish her meal in peace). "We're gonna ignore that."
She's talking to herself out loud, as she pulls him up with one hand and settles him across her shoulders with a casual ease. "Alright alright, you're gonna be a consistent problem for someone around here I'm sure, let's take you upstairs hmm?" Something in her stolen memories drags her in the direction Aventurine approached from. The quiet call of like to like against enhanced senses. Slipping away from the bridge and deeper into the ship.
Bet won?