open post / test drive!

[cupnoodles]

FAMILY DINNER

CW: NONE, WARN IN SUBJECT

When Raíz visits, everyone is expected to show up for family dinner a few days later. That's how long you have to show up at the HQ mansion, no matter where you are in the world, no matter how busy or disinclined you are to make an appearance. If you're not there by the time is begins, Raíz will simply show up wherever you are, pick you up and materialize the both of you back at the mansion, tacking on a year or two to your contract.. Everyone is also expected to behave; starting trouble during dinner just gets you mind controlled into behaving to a Stepford Wife degree of compliance.

Since Raíz won't be played ICly, feel free to play this prompt before or after dinner itself takes place. Maybe your character is coming 'home' after a long time away, maybe they're getting ready to leave after it's done, maybe they've decided to stay a few more days or they're just going back to their routine if they already live in the mansion. Play it out as the before or after of any massive family reunion where you're happy to be there or can't wait to get the hell out.

---

OUT ON A MISSION

CW: NONE, WARN IN SUBJECT

From 007 to SCP, Blood Pact missions can vary between retrieving information, retrieving some ancient artifact, fighting full out monsters or even saving the world from some apocalyptic event. Let your imagination dictate the type of mission your characters are on and why they've been paired up. It can be a thread where they're getting briefed, or en route, or staying at some motel, or entering the lair of a beast that can behead them with a single bite if they're not careful. From the banal to the paranormal, Raíz's agents are ready for (almost) anything mom tells them to do. Well - mom lets Great Dane know what she wants them to do, and he's in charge of passing on the message.

---

HALLOWEEN PARTY

CW: NONE, WARN IN SUBJECT

Cellar Spider, much to Great Dane's annoyance, has decided to throw a Halloween party at the mansion! Everyone in the Blood Pact is free to join, and hey - if they really want to, they can even bring a plus one. (Why would you do that, though.) Blue organized the meticulously arranged sweets, Red carved a lot of pumpkins (like a lot), Monarch assembled the playlist, Velvet brought the moonshine, Moon made sure everything looked fucking amazing, and Salamander spiked the punch. Costumes are in fact mandatory! Raíz will not be appearing because she's busy being an eldritch abomination in some other dimension.

---

VOICE / TEXT / VIDEO

CW: NONE, WARN IN SUBJECT

Post something to the massive group chat, or just DM each other gossip. Or Else.

---

PLEASE READ

A NOTE ON CONTENT TO AVOID

Hi there! Nubl here. For my own comfort, please avoid engaging in the following subjects ICly and in introspection: different generation incest (parent-child, uncle/aunt-niece/nephew, grandparent-grandchild, etc.); pregnancy or breeding as a kink or as a horror trope, needles/piercings, watersports, and non-con/rape. You're totally free to play them out elsewhere, I'm just asking to keep it off-comm please! Though this isn't meant to be a smut-heavy post, threads may certainly end up there - just make sure to warn in the subject that it's NSFW! Thank you so much everyone, have fun!!

「RR」

Comments

Fancy Rat | OTA

[p2w]

Arrival

[ Not only has Raíz left a new stray in the mansion, her head literally exploded after getting there. A quick fix later (and some unresolved trauma to go through later) and one Fancy Rat (she hates it, thanks) walks through the main door, looking...like a wet rat, ironically enough. Scared. Shrinking, and also with some blood leftovers that Raíz didn't bother to clean when she grew her head back in (not thinking about that right now).

Fancy takes a few steps in, her sneakers squeaking against the eerie silence of the mansion. There's supposed to be people here, right? People "like her" whatever that means. All she knows is that she doesn't belong anywhere else now, and the place looks amazing, given that she's only seen this level of opulence in hotel lobbies she was never going to stay at anyway.

Still, she doesn't make it past the foyer, frozen in fear. Her benefactor (for lack of a better word) didn't even enter the house, vanishing in thin air. Maybe she should leave. Maybe she should take that big ass, gold trimmed vase in the big table and make a run for it. Maybe...

Well, she's standing there, staring at the vase, chewing on her lower lip. Like a normal person. Totally normal.

She wants to scream. ]

At the Halloween party

[ Sitting by a corner, sipping her punch, wearing the mouse ears some smiling lady dressed in red gave her, but otherwise wearing her usual jeans and black tee. There's a lot of people now, all different, all extremely attractive. Any confidence of her belonging vanishes, she can't compete with these people! And they all can do things...amazing things, terrifying things. And that means that so can she, and that only scares her the most. She could go sleep under a bridge and not have to fear suddenly causing a disaster. But then again, the food is good and the beds are soft. Doesn't take much to win her over.

Maybe she should try socializing?

Nah, she feels like she would show her entire ass immediately and make everyone hate her. Better be ignored than despised. ]

Texting

@ fancy

so um

what do you all do in your every daily lives? i'm just sitting here, i need a hobby

please don't say kill people

Halloween

[thisisgonnahurt]

[Is he dressed as The Dude or is he just refusing to get out of his bathrobe? The world may never know.

Mouse ambles over, sipping his punch.]

Hey, fresh meat. How's it hanging?

[p2w]

[ Her eyes shoot up, surprised that someone is actually talking to her. ]

O-oh. Um. It's- it's hanging, I guess.

[ And then they dart down, back to her punch. ]

Just waiting until it feels right to leave.

[thisisgonnahurt]

Tell me about it. I attend strictly as long as is considered acceptable; Mom is two big on family get-togethers. And Shep'll kick my ass if I don't show.

[He'd rather be in bed okay.]

Which one are you?

[p2w]

Mom? Oh, you mean... Raíz? Is she actually your mother? She looks really young.

[ But to his question, she sqints. ]

Which one of what?

[thisisgonnahurt]

Yeah. And no, a lot of us just call her that.

Which one of the kids. You're brand new, I think. I dunno, I was away for a while, there might be a dozen of you by now.

[p2w]

Is it a- [ She leans in, hand over her mouth in an attempt to direct her voice to him. ] -a sex thing?

Oh, um. Fancy. [ She looks down. ] Fancy Rat.

Yeah, I know.

[thisisgonnahurt]

Uhh... maybe? Not for me, but some of these people are freaks.

[He grins.] Welcome to the rodent club. I'm Spiny Mouse.

[p2w]

Are they really?

[ She sounds sincerely scared about that.

To his introduction, she smiles, perhaps for the first time this night. ]

Oh- oh. It's...kind of cute. I didn't even know rats could be fancy.

[thisisgonnahurt]

Oh yeah.

Hey, they have fancy pigeons, why not fancy rats? Anyway, everyone calls me Mouse. I think because I'm what the kids call "a short king."

[He's only 5'5, but the 'king' part is highly debatable.]

They assign you to anyone?

[p2w]

I'm gonna have to google that.

[ She wants to argue against that nonsense he's spouting, but Mouse is the first person to speak with her tonight and he doesn't feel like a serial killer, so she'll let him have it. She simply lowers her raised hand and sighs. ]

I don't know? Maybe? Raíz, she... talked. A lot. And then my head exploded.

[thisisgonnahurt]

...wow. Exploded? That hurts like hell.

[p2w]

It was- well, it was weird. Started with a headache, and then I just felt really bad. Then my nose started bleeding. I don't remember the actual explosion.

[ She shudders. ]

Something about my power needed a few limits for now.

arrival

[upbitch]

(There are, in fact, people here — well, now there are, when the front doors open up behind the newcomer to admit a woman similarly wet from the rain and trying in vain to juggle an umbrella, suitcase and a motorcycle helmet (currently wedged underneath of her arm). She swears when the umbrella, open but flagging pathetically against the wind, gets stuck in the doorway.) Tabarnak.

Can you help? (Baz can't tell who is standing there but it's obviously somebody standing around doing nothing so:) Grab the helmet. Aweille, aweille! (Quick quick, it's slipping out.)

[p2w]

[ Fancy yelps, not expecting the door to open behind her, leave alone someone giving her something of a verbal lashing without even looking at her. She stumbles forward, getting a hold of the helmet, holding it tight so that she doesn't drop it. ]

S-sorry, I've got it.

[ She steps up, letting the woman sort herself out, standing there awkwardly. ]

[upbitch]

(At the response she looks over properly, registers the presence of a total stranger at her elbow — holding on tight to her motorcycle helmet as demanded — and softens instantly, suddenly awkward even as she continues to wrestle the umbrella. Some part of it went inside out when a spoke snapped. Eventually she gets it closed and hauls the door shut completely, sweeping her wet hair back from her face.

The broken umbrella finds a new home in the gold-trimmed display vase on the table. It's more than large enough to hide it.)

Sorry. (Baz flashes a quick grin backward, acting as if she hasn't gone red in the face from the misunderstanding.) Mistook you for a useless sibling. Merci bien— (the helmet. She'll take that back now.)

[p2w]

[ Her change of attitude only makes her shrink more; someone being nice?? To her?? She might be in the wrong house.

It takes her a moment to pass back the helmet (wow, that vase was really big, how was she going to carry it?) but she eventually does. ]

S-sibling? I don't- I'm not...

She just got left me here.

[upbitch]

Oh, god. You're new? (Is Raíz here?

She looks up immediately, casting a wary gaze around, but they are well and truly alone in the foyer together. Baz is the would-be welcomer it seems, still dripping wet from the rain outside. She tsks, tucking the helmet securely underneath her arm. The suitcase she'll leave by the door.)

That won't do — c'mon. With me.

(And Baz will take her through the first door on the left. It opens into a hallway; the kitchen is down the end of it. She says over her shoulder,) What's your name? Your new one, I mean.

[p2w]

Yeah...

[ She shrugs apologetically. This is her fault, somehow. But rather than continued verbal lashing, she's told to follow. And follow she will, meekly going behind the pretty woman with the accent she can't quite place (not that she could place any accent anyway).

And then she asks the question, the one she actually has the answer for, but is at odds whether she wants to actually answer. Raíz didn't make much sense for most of what she said, but she made it pretty clear on a few things, her new name among those. ]

Uh, Fancy Rat. [ She purses her lips, shrugging again. ]

[upbitch]

(Listen. It's a good thing she's walking behind and not beside because Baz makes a face instantly; Fancy Rat is crazy. Raíz is getting so out of pocket with these.) Mine's Dobermann Pinscher. You can shorten that any way you want.

(The kitchen, like the new name, is fancy too. Everything is state of the art but still inline with Raíz's carefully curated aesthetic; incredibly tasteful. It makes Baz's motorcycle helmet look even more out of place when she puts it on the kitchen counter.)

Grab a seat — we need hot drinks. Tea, coffee? I could probably find some cocoa.

[p2w]

[ She can't see her, but she knows. Fucking interdimensional, seemingly all powerful woman of wealth and style.

Fancy makes a noncommittal "huh" noise at Doberman (Ms. Doberman?), but doesn't offer her thoughts just yet. Talking to her feels a bit intimidating, as it is.

And surely enough, the kitchen is bigger than her old room, perhaps her old living room. She sits awkwardly on a chair too expensive for her old jeans, and immediately slumps forward, hands on her chin; was she always this tired? ]

Ah, tea? Tea is fine.

[upbitch]

(Baz nods and for a few minutes it's quiet while she fills the kettle and turns it on, takes a white teapot down from a high shelf to set on the counter before Fancy. She's right to feel some intimidation — for all her attempts to come off as calm and supportive there's an air of tired grouchiness to each movement, the thunk of the kettle down onto the base and the way Baz watches it boil with her hands shoved in her pockets. She's tall and dark, and her mouth settles naturally into an unimpressed line.

Thankfully, hunting in the cupboards produces a little jar of loose leaf that smells agreeable to her. She spoons it twice into the wire basket, tops it up with water.)

Where are you joining us from?

[p2w]

[ Fancy straightens; she's so going to fall asleep if she stays huddled like that. ]

Ah... New Jersey? [ That's what she meant, right? ]

Staying home was...not an option anymore.

[ Just another thing to add to the list of shit life has thrown her way. ]

[upbitch]

(Baz snorts before she can stop herself and doesn't quite manage to turn it into a cough. She mumbles,) Pardon, (And fills the mugs with hot water next to warm them up.)

Okay. And you're going to stay here?

(Hmm, who is staying here right now? She's a little out of touch, admittedly.) I can help you pick a room later. Some will make much better neighbours than others.

[p2w]

[ Good thing she's not looking at her, because Fancy looks like a kicked puppy for a solid minute. ]

...pardoned, or whatever.

[ Admittedly, it is NJ, so what else did she expect? ]

I- can I?

[ The alleged owner of the house doesn't even reside here, so maybe she has to clear it with someone else. Maybe they're full. Maybe she's just not cool enough to fit in. ]

I won't make any noise, promise.

[ All she owns is the wet backpack she has been carrying around. Heavy enough to be a burden, yet too light to hold a lifetime. ]