undyingcourt | january tdm/event post

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january tdm/event post

JANUARY TDM - WINTER DREAMS

Welcome to the Undying Court's January Test Drive Meme! This post also functions as the January Event for existing characters, and continues the Winter Season, led by the Blue Court.

New characters may handwave or backdate the previous season's arrival prompt should they wish to, but you may otherwise assume they've been here the whole time! Additionally, all TDM threads can be taken as in-game canon if desired. And remember that apps open February 3-7, with invites opening on January 28, and reserves not long after!

Note that this post will contain: violence, enthrallment, torture, slavery, horror and potentially sexual content. Dreams come in many forms, after all.

This event also features another chance for characters to submit Regains, so make sure to submit after you've posted your top-level or reply to someone else's dream. For characters both new and old, feel free to brush up on the Premise, Vampire Powers, and head over to the FAQ/Game Info page if you have any questions!

Note that this event will be occurring throughout the month of January and into February, so characters are free to forward-date as desired!
For new characters please format your Top-level in this format: Character Name | Canon | Court | Youngblood/Novice | TDM
For existing characters please format your Top-level in this format: Character Name | Court | Youngblood/Novice
If you have any questions specific to the event, ask them in the Plotting Post Q&A section!

Top-Level Directory:

ONCE UPON A DREAM

A quiet falls over the Castle as a new day begins to break. As with every morning, this is a time when vampires must retreat to avoid the rays of the sun, pulling heavy curtains around their beds and windows to block out any light. However, this particular morning is abnormally quiet as the whole of the Castle seems to fall asleep all at once, and all together. After this enchanted sleep, and for the the next thirty days, the Castle's residents will start to experience strange phenomena within their dreams.

During this period, dreams become more vivid, so realistic it feels like the dreamer is awake. Dreamers can pass into each other's dreams without meaning to. Some of these dreams are in fact memories--either those from the lives the characters have lived in the Castle and the outlying lands, or the strange memories they've begun to gain back.

But be careful! For what starts as a regular memory might start to warp into something new. If you're lucky, it'll be something positive, like a dream of a home you've always wanted. But if you're unlucky, the memory might twist and turn into a nightmare, catching you in it and turning your worst fears against you.

Each nightfall, everyone will wake and return to normal. Or at least, most people will.

[Note: Any current characters who participate in the dream event by creating a top level or tagging someone else at least once in this prompt may be rewarded with a free impactful memory, which may be used in the dreamscape. Don't forget to submit for your Regains!]

A NIGHTMARISH CURSE

It turns out that not everyone wakes up. Those who stay in nightmares for too long may find themselves cursed, and unable to wake up. At first, the curse appears no different from regular sleep. But a few hours in the victim will start screaming uncontrollably. No touch will wake them, no amount of calling their name will break the spell. After too long, the victim will start to bleed, slowly at first, and then more and more as they remain afflicted. A victim left unattended will bleed out and die.

The Council works quickly to step in. Kashire (who is looking rather frayed this season) delivers the news that there's no need to panic, but everyone will need to do their part in locating and curing victims. In fact, the youngbloods seem to be taking this as the perfect opportunity for a teaching moment, and students are expected to try and find a cure with the skills that match their Court. Novices and youngbloods alike are encouraged to try and help lift the curse from anyone they can. (Get creative! Blood heals many wounds...) Any victims that have progressed too far will need to be seen to by Revar.

The nightmare curse, however, can spread quickly. Anyone who enters the nightmare of a victim will fall victim to the curse. Additionally, any attempt to reach out to the mind of a curse victim will also spread the curse. With the combined efforts of the students and teachers, the curse can be completely put out. But it will take time and care to ensure everyone is found in time, and cured safely.

ANYWAY, WINTER GAMES!

But a few curses aren't going to stop the Blue Court from making sure everyone has a good time. The days might be short, and weighed down by the threats of nightmares, but winter has hit Castle Courtsheart in full force, and the long nights and snow-covered grounds make for an excellent backdrop to the Inter-Court Winter Games!

There isn't really a reward for the winning house besides bragging rights and maybe a trophy that doubles as a chalice, but youngbloods and novices alike are invited to join in the festivities and compete against one another in the spirit of glory and the chance to lord over your Court's superiority. Even Council members and mature vampires of each court seem to enjoy cheering on their respective teams from the stands. Everything is fine! Forget your troubles and go play in the snow.

What kind of sports do vampires play? Feel free to get creative, but here are some examples:

Thrall-Curling: Since vampiric strength proves to be a little too much for this sport otherwise, teams of novices (or youngbloods) of the same Court can team up to gently compel their thralls to play the thrilling sport of curling. Coax that stone across the ice with care, and take out the opposing team! Or, well, the thralls will do that, assuming they're guided well. Try not to break them. (The thralls, that is.)

Figure skating: Practicing your pirouettes? For a vampire, a quadruple-axel is hardly worth breaking a sweat over. Favored for its beauty and almost seductive grace, the figure skating competition will be scored and judged by a multi-court panel. Participants might get extra points for incorporating bladework and masking into their sets, so these performances are sure to wow the judges.

Ice Hockey: Yes, the high-contact sport transcends time and space, but vampires don't need silly things like helmets or padded safety gear. Don your court's colors and hit the ice to toss the puck around and score as many points against the opposing team as you can before the time runs out. Violence is encouraged! Everyone likes to see a bit of blood on the ice this time of year. (Shadowstepping is considered cheating, but only if you get caught.)

And more! Snowball fighting may not be a sport, but there's no better time to enjoy the outdoors and stretch those growing fangs and muscles than the dead of winter. So whether you're cheering on your Court or watching from the sidelines, there's something here for everyone. Just because the castle is full of the the undead doesn't mean they can't have a little winter fun.

CLASS NOTES

Other notable happenings for the early winter season include:

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and maybe it's time to find or make gifts for that special blood claim in your life. This season blood jewelry is the hot ticket item. These are pieces made from precious metal and glass, which hold the blood of a vampire in them. Carry a lover's blood to show how much you love them, or carry your own to force down the throat of your enemies so you can influence them.

Whispers around school start to say that Black Court lost a novice this month. Not murder this time! He simply unmade himself trying to mistwalk. Eh, these things happen.

As a result of a tie in last month's pumpkin carving contest, members of the Black and Red Courts will find small packages outside their doors. They are gifted silver letter openers, with the handle inlaid with pumpkins and leaves, and a note from Revar with a little drawing of a pumpkin and their signature. How nice!

Lady Whisperfangs is quiet for now, but her time is yet to come... This month's check-in will have a field to submit gossip about your characters! Vampires do so love their drama.

Once again, characters are free to talk to the NPCs as well: Revar & Kashire. For any questions regarding this month's prompts, please comment in the Plotting Post. For general game questions, please check the FAQ/Game Info. In the meantime, remember to submit your Regains for this month's free reward, and keep an eye out for our AC Check-in next week, starting on January 25-31.

The new year has brought us plenty of thirsty vampires, so we're glad you're here to share them with you!

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Once Upon a Dream

The dream always starts the same way. Trilla's at home -- one of her homes, anyway, the house she and her mother had stayed in the Red Court lands. She'd been young then. The memory is hazy but for the sense that she's waiting. Waiting and waiting until she begins to truly worry, for her mother has never left for so long before, even having told Trilla to lock the doors and draw the curtains and not make a single peep until she returns. If he finds them he'll take her away and she won't be able to come back, not ever.

Trilla's still young enough that the desire to see her father again isn't strong enough to overcome the fear that her mother has instilled into her. So she waits. There's someone with her; someone she's forgotten until just now, in the strange way that dreams can change. She glances over to the other person with a frown, tries to work out how they've come to be here, and if they are friend or foe.

"Did she send you? I don't need protection, if that's why you're here."

A Nightmarish Curse [ cw: kidnapping, torture ]

One moment she's waiting, and the next rough hands are grabbing her, tearing her away from her hiding place and the person she'd been quietly whispering to in the dark. She tries to fight but her hands are bound and they've done something to her, something that makes her feel weak and dizzy. She struggles blindly, kicks and screams until everything goes dark.

When she wakes she's in a place she doesn't understand; figures in black, all with helmets, flank her on the left and right of the contraption she's strapped into. She can't make out what they're saying. They're asking her questions. They're saying a name she doesn't recognize but she understands in the way of dreams that this is who she was waiting for back in her other home. Not mother. Mother hadn't left her alone. She hadn't been the one to betray Trilla and leave her to this pain. This is what she'd warned her about, isn't it? That it would hurt, and that she would never come home?

A part of the machine she's strapped to descends upon her face and the pain begins. Trilla screams until her voice is gone and just keeps screaming; if she has no voice she cannot tell them what they want to hear. She cannot truly break. If she breaks she can never go home.

Winter Games

The curse may have been broken leaving her physically not that much worse for wear, but Trilla was particularly snappish and sullen in the weeks that followed, and kept to herself more often than not outside of required classwork. So it's a rare thing to see her watching the figure skating competition with a look of rapt enjoyment that looks a little like longing.

She has a cup of something warm, and for the first time in weeks she seems like she might be making her way back down to something like calm. Feel free to ruin it by approaching her and pointing it out, however.

[ Oh if it isn't his favorite Black Court novice! And looking so longingly at something decidedly not Black Court-ish. He will absolutely approach her and ruin it. ]

You could have participated, you know.

[ She eyes him frostily; she hasn't quite forgiven him for biting her, or for the fact that she enjoyed it. ]

I wasn't waiting for permission.

[ She wasn't ready. She hadn't skated since she was a child, and Trilla didn't like participating in things she wasn't fairly assured of performing well at. ]

No, you're too busy holding yourself back from pleasure.

[ she did not ask and yet here he is, providing his honest opinion! ]

That seems to be a trend with you.

I don't have time to indulge in pointless distraction.

[ Who told you to try for Black Court, Trilla? You could be having fun right now if you weren't obsessed with trying to impress Vader. ]

Maybe next winter.

[ Of course it figures he'd up in the dream of a girl without a father. Bones can't know that yet, but fate has a way of doing that to people. He doesn't need to dwell on it now, he's in some weird dream and there's a girl who might be his daughter's age here and she's waiting for... something. Of course she is.

Question is, when's that something gonna come? Leonard's not a vampire in this dream. Just a man. Just a doctor. Just trying to get stock of this thing and figure out if he needs to intervene. ]

That's real funny, cause I'm pretty sure people who get hurt don't think they need protectin', either.

[ Trilla tucks her legs up beneath her on the chair she's curled into and shoots another quick glance toward the door. She wouldn't have opened it to anyone without proof they were a friend, like the one who had helped them get away when she was a baby. Still, she's wary. ]

Did mother send you? It's not safe for you to be here if he shows up.

[ Leonard is having to pull a lot of things from context here, but he's dealt with scared kids, angry families and unresponsive patients for years and years. He thinks he can handle this.

He leans down to make himself less noticeable—at least he's figured that much might help. Better not answer about the mom, since he doesn't know her. Just stick to what he knows, or what he doesn't. ]

How'll you know when he shows? If I ain't safe, then neither are you.

[ She remembers this night; she's been here before. It's not the first night she's contemplated defying her mother's orders only to talk herself out of it. She's only just been deemed worthy of a truth she wasn't yet sure how to trust. How is she meant to trust this stranger? ]

I think I'd recognize my own father. He won't appreciate it if you've come to hide me again.

[ She hopes she'd recognize him. Mother said he'd been badly injured, that he'd changed -- but she thinks she'd know him either way. ]

A young Trilla does not register as the driven, sullen young woman who regularly wipes the floor with Reyson in combat class. He's working out how much of this is reality and where it is coming from and is not, at this point, convinced she is a real person and not some sort of. Internal symbolism of his own struggles.

"No. I sensed that I was meant to come here - where is here? It's so gloomy; you might at least let in some light."

Honestly, the Trilla from her waking hours might not be convinced this version of her is real, either. It hasn't been so very long, but already she feels as though the child she had been is a distant dream. In this moment, however, the dream feels very familiar -- almost comforting, despite the implication of danger somewhere beyond these walls.

She eyes Reyson with some uncertainty, given that she's reasonably sure he isn't meant to be here.

"It's my home, and we can't. Not until it's safe."

What a depressing place for a child to grow up in. He looks at the walls - are there decorations, or portraits?

"Thank you for hosting, I suppose. What is the danger?"

He's self-aware enough to know that he's not really equipped to fight off a serious threat. He could certainly take a baseline human or two, though. It would be nice to be on the other end of a rescue for a change.

They've always kept their belongings to what could be easily packed away and brought with them, but the small house is comfortable enough, even in the dark. No family portraits, but a few plants, a bookshelf with a carefully curated selection of well-loved books. Some knick-knacks here and there. Nothing overly identifying, but a reasonably normal living space for all that it's darkened at the moment.

"My father is looking for me. He's a vampire."

Saying it out loud made it true, and Trilla still feels a small thrill at the knowledge even though it's been years since she'd confirmed it for herself in her waking life. The child she was, however, still feels as though she's told a naughty secret, and glances about furtively to confirm that the man in question isn't about to break down the door now that she's told.

Gloomy, but maybe not terrible-

Oh, that's actually rather unheard of?

"That's allowed?! ...No, I suppose plenty of them have families before they're vampires. But it's still not something I hear anyone talk about. Does he want to turn you into one too?"

They definitely don't allow child vampires. Reyson also suspiciously eyes the door. What does she know that he doesn't?

Trilla looks at him like he's an absolute idiot.

"Where do you think new vampires come from? They were all human once, weren't they?"

This may be the dream of her childhood self, but even tiny Trilla would have grasped that much, regardless of how her mother spun things in order to keep her from learning too much.

"She says he'll take us away. She used to say there was a man who wanted us dead, but that wasn't the truth."

The door is locked and double-bolted, though of course it would only buy Trilla time to escape or hide should someone with superhuman strength come knocking. She doesn't seem bothered by the fact that the locks clearly aren't doing a very good job of keeping intruders out, judging by the coolness with which she regards both the stranger and the door.

Reyson didn't really come to vampirism the standard way, and hasn't really... asked about anyone elses' families, and that's kind of dawning on him. And now he has to process this in front of a child who is looking down on him and probably does not come from his own head.

"It sounds like that's going to happen eventually. You can only avoid fate for so long."

He's not going to lie to a child to make her feel better, what kind of asshole would do that.

"I know if I could see my family again, I'd be willing to go to great lengths to do so, and none of them were my children. I'd search the world, I'd kill people for stopping me - whatever it took."

Trilla finds honesty refreshing, given the number of lies she's been told and has had to perpetuate to remain undiscovered by her father for so long. Besides, even at this age she was more curious than fearful; she had simply never wanted to risk losing the security she had for an unknown that would mean leaving her old life behind. Not until she was certain it would be worth it.

"I only need to avoid it for a while longer. Once I'm old enough to join him I will. Mother won't, though. She says she'd prefer to die, and I don't want that."

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Whatever dream Cal had been fizzles out into something dreary and dark. Ominous, and it leaves a sense of dread in the pit of Cal's stomach as a voice reaches his ears. Screaming. When he looks up it's Trilla, only she's strapped down to some horrific looking device and whatever it's doing to her is --

-- awful, from the sounds she's making. It's horrible and makes him sick to hear, to see. Who would do something like this?

What is this?

Still, he moves forward and reaches out towards her, touching her face to try to get her attention.

"Hey, hey. Trilla, it's me. I don't know what this is but I'll get you out, okay?" And then she'll wake up and be okay, because he wont accept anything otherwise.

A familiar voice breaks through the pain and for a moment it stops; long enough for her to suck in a gasping breath that comes back out as a half-sob. She forces her eyes open; they'd been shut tight against the all-consuming pain, but the touch doesn't hurt and she needs to know who's come for her.

"... Cal?"

She frowns; this is wrong somehow. He hadn't been here. Isn't meant to be here, not yet.

"You can't--"

She tries to get the warning out, but as immediately as it had stopped the pain returns, and her words are cut off into a long agonized howl as her faceless, nameless captors decide a demonstration is worth more than her words.

Cal bites his lip, hard, as the -- machine activates again. He doesn't know what it is, only that it's causing her pain and he's not sure what he should do, only that there's not a lot of time to do it.

She's bound in from what he can see.

The message is clear and simple as day, but Cal isn't here to just give up. He grabs one of the arms, wincing as a jolt of sharp pain travels up his arm, causing him to recoil and cry out. No, no that's not going to work. If only someone else who should be here was here, someone who could turn off the machine without needing to touch it...

Who?

There's an odd device at his belt. He'd had it in the dream he'd come from before this one. Long and cylinder shaped. He's not sure where it came from except something tells him to grab it. Hit the switch. A blue beam of light springs forth from the hilt, a buzz fills the air. This belongs to him, use it. He raises it high. Swings at the outstretched arm that hung in front of Trilla, dropping it to the ground. Still crackling and sizzling with power.

It's a dream, it doesn't need to follow any kind of logic, there's no time to question any of it. Of course he'd turned his back on the two guards...

The pain stops again, abruptly, and for a moment Trilla can do nothing but lie there and try to breathe through the aftershocks and the anticipation of more to come. When nothing does, when she hears a sizzle and crash of broken machinery, she forces herself to move because she knows with all the certainty in the world that she will get no further chances.

Wrenching an arm free with a vehemence that would've left her with flayed skin if this were any sort of reality, Trilla just sees the guard closest to Cal move in time to throw a hand up as though she knew how to push him away with her sheer will.

"Cal, move!"

She claws the restraint off her other wrist and throws herself in the path of the guard's strange weapon, flinging Cal and herself to the ground a moment before the stroke can land. The impact is jarring to her already rattled nerves, but there's no time to stop. She's already trying to struggle too-slowly back up again.

"Can't... fight them. Run."

Cal has the briefest moment of being stunned that worked and not sure what the hell was going on here before Trilla was on the move, knocking the other guard to the ground -- did she throw him without even touching him? There's no time to wonder as she knocks him to the ground to avoid the second guard.

Moving on autopilot, he's already up on his feet as she struggles to get up. Without missing a beat he grabs her arm and hauls her up none too gently (he'll apologize later, when they're both safe) grabbing her around the waist, he's moving. Running, like their lives depend on it.

"Who's is that?" He's seen them before, in his own dream -- the one in the rain, and he'd watched that dark figure cut down another.

Trilla shakes her head, still reeling from the aftershocks of whatever they'd done to her. She'd never imagined pain like that was survivable, much less endurable. If not for Cal's arm around her waist she would've struggled to keep going in spite of the fact that running was surely the only way of getting out of here alive.

The hallways shouldn't make sense to her, but somehow she knows which way to turn to catch a door sliding open in a way she's never seen before in life.

"Through here. There's a way out."

She can't tell which one of them hauls the other into the enclosed space with sliding doors, the one that will move them to the surface where there will just as likely be another group waiting to drag them back here for round two, or worse. She slams her hand into a glowing white panel which slides the door closed again just as shouts and footsteps draw nearer, and then slides down the wall to draw her knees to her chest and simply try to keep the panic from overtaking her.

Cal lets Trilla lead on where to go, the metal hallways are vast and unfamiliar and instill nothing but a deep sense of fear; of course they should after what he'd witnessed in that room with those guards and the chair he'd found her in.

He doesn't want to know what kind of pain could draw a scream from someone like that, and he wishes he'd gotten here sooner to spare her some of it. The least he could do is see to it that they escape this nightmare.

The door slides open and he has no time to wonder how it worked before she slides down against the wall. Cal finds himself pacing back and forth in the confined space. What if there were more of them? The ground shifts and the floor is rising - it's a lift.

Metal hilt still held in hand, he has about a thousand questions right now.

"Do you know this place?"

"No. I don't know."

She shakes her head again, hard, trying to clear it of the fog that seems to lie between herself and her understanding of what's happening here. She can't remember how she got here, or what she knew that her captors wanted so desperately as to attempt to wring it from her so violently.

Her eyes land on the odd weapon in Cal's hand and she jumps at the opportunity to focus on something other than the impending breakdown she'd like to have.

"Where'd you get that?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

january tdm/event post

Trilla Suduri | Black | Novice

winter games;

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once upon a dream

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Once Upon a Dream

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curse

[cw torture]

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