Test Drive Meme: The Overflow

[arielmods]

PLEASE CONTINUE YOUR THREADS OVER AT THE LATEST OVERFLOW POST, THANK YOU.

CITY OF ARIEL: THE TEST DRIVE THE OVERFLOW Since the last post is fast approaching 3k comments and getting laggy for some of our players, we have decided to go ahead and stick up the overflow post. Please continue your threads or start new ones here if you'd like. To make this easier on those continuing threads from the last meme, here's a handy form: <small>(<a href="THREAD URL HERE">Continued from here.</a>) between <user name="CHARACTER 1"> & <user name="CHARACTER 2"></small> Response here! Please remember to let your thread partners know you've bumped your threads over here as well! We started the meme early to give you plenty of room to do just that. ◆◆◆◆ With the City of Ariel grand opening only a month away, we are holding our first ever test drive meme. Tag in and see how your character would settle in the game. You're a fresh face in the city, newly processed, and arriving at a bustling time. The city is expanding and you are greeted first in the re-education center by your helpful counselors and then directed out of the building to a large festival. Be puzzled, make friends, have sex, or whatever you want! There are no restrictions on thread types played out here. Your first awareness that something has gone wrong comes during a groggy moment of semi-lucidity when you look around yourself and find that -- instead of wherever you remember being last -- you're in a chair, in a room with a man you don't recognize. He's sitting behind a desk whistling to himself and sorting paperwork. The whole atmosphere might remind you of a high school guidance counselor's office, only with far more comfortable chairs. When your head clears enough to speak and you ask him where you are, he smiles brightly and says, "Welcome to the City of Ariel." You were brought to Ariel during a very special time! There's a large festival going on celebrating the new expansions to the city and everything is decked out for it. Everything is bustling and vibrant in the city today because of the celebrations. There are decorations up, food vendors set up all along the streets, kissing booths, games, and just about anything else you can imagine an event like this would have! The people of Ariel are out and about as well, some are in vibrant costumes and others are just checking out the sights. Some of the more exhibitionist types are even having a little more fun out in public than you may be used to seeing back home. As soon as the grogginess from your arrival passes, you are allowed to leave the re-education center and see it all for yourself. Upon exiting, you are even handed beads of various colors, several of each so you don't worry about running out. Each color has a special meaning listed below: pink - toys blue - oral yellow - watersports green - age play lavender - crossdressing orange - multiples grey - bondage white - hands (mutual masturbation, fingering, handjob) red - blood black - wildcard These are to aid you in making a connection with others. Show your interest in others and tell them exactly what you would like to do with them by sharing the beads. If you would rather take a different approach, feel free to walk around the festival and see what (or who) catches your eye. The point is to relax and get settled in your new home.
TAG IN - Post your character's name, canon, and preferences. - Set up an opener in your comment or leave it blank. - Tag around and have fun!	USEFUL LINKS: [Premise] [Rules] [F.A.Q.] [Locations] [Local Citizens (NPC)] [Taken] [Wanted] [Reserves] [Application] [Main] [Logs] [OOC]

Please note that all CR in this meme can be carried over when the game starts between characters that are accepted into the game.

Threads can also count towards third and first person samples on the application, just provide links.

Take a look at our OOC Meet and Greet post! Meet. Greet. Make friends. Have fun!

Comments

[volatility]

[Mello grinds his teeth and hisses through the pain, but holds on to the blade for a moment longer, watching. He knows that he can't keep his grip on it, because Setsuna will definitely make him, he has no doubt as he watches himself being bled by those teeth. He hears that foreign word, but Arabic isn't one of the languages that Mello knows — although, that hardly matters. He recognizes when he is being called a name without knowledge of the word itself.]

So much for like.

[He says it through clenched teeth before opening his hand and letting the blade drop.

Mello has seen you, Setsuna, but you have also seen him. The words dog or street rat are not far off. Mello left Wammy's at fifteen — no help and no resources. No one to hold his hand when he shut that gate behind him and left any fraction of a support system that he would ever have behind him for good. No one just makes it out on their own after living such a sheltered life — not unless they are willing to make ugly sacrifices. Sure, Mello climbed to the top of the mafia and everyone was so impressed with their new, young boss — but no one just happens to get into the mafia. Even if it were L, he'd have to do things to gain trust, to prove loyalty. Being gifted means everything at Wammy's, but it holds no weight in the real world.

And it all just spiraled from there.

Mello likes to think of himself as a good person despite what he has done. He has morals, sure, but they allow for this one grand loop hole that is the chase for Kira and everything he has done in its name.

But the truth is —

stealing is the least of Mello's sins.]

[bursting]

[ So much for like. But he does like Mello. He'd simply like him even better if he didn't take what didn't belong to him. He knows what it means to survive on scraps and little else, but it's not a past that defines them, or at least he's reluctant to admit it has for himself. Live like a dog for long enough and you become one. A street rat rummaging for scraps just to survive, a kicked, beaten animal with nothing left to lose, until the day everything changed.

Setsuna watches the knife drop, is pleased, and immediately lets go in return. But he's staring at Mello, now boring into him with inhuman eyes, thin pins for pupils, and a perfect return to his neutral expression from earlier save for the blood dripping down his lips. ]

I'm disgusting.

[ A curiously sudden statement to make, and though his gaze is intimidating, insistent, his words are softer, less barbed than that alien insult, almost like an apology for it. He makes no effort to wipe the blood away but he will lean forward, face-to-face and nose-to-nose with Mello again, and this time, he's as blunt as blunt can be, crystal clear in his intentions. ]

I want you. Lie back.

[ He's pushing, prodding insistently before Mello can even answer, because he wants he wants he wants, trying to guide him into place and spread his legs and fuck if he cares anymore, that snap of rage had sapped any reason or remaining self-restraint he had. ]

Let me touch you.

[ And solely because he's desperate: ]

Please.

[volatility]

[Mello stares back, doesn't move away as Setsuna advances and closes the distance between them. His eyes flit down to the blood on Setsuna's lips, just briefly, before he meets the stare again.]

You're not disgusting.

[The words aren't tender. They aren't meant to be a reassurance. Instead, they're harsh — offended. Mello had wanted to see that. He forced that side of Setsuna out. None of it was disgusting, not the reaction and not the way his blood drips from Setsuna's lips.

Mello lets Setsuna push him down and spread his legs. As far as he is concerned, he has already won the game, so there is no point in fighting any further battles. All that has led up to this has been a twisted kind of foreplay — and he wants it. He's wanted it since the beginning — the chip is forgotten. There's only this. Them.

But Mello does glare as Setsuna adds that last word on.]

Don't beg. Take.

[They are beyond permission now.

And to solidify the point — to drive home taking — Mello pulls Setsuna the rest of the way and kisses him once more, only this time it's without an ulterior motive — there will be no more attacks — and Mello can taste his own blood.]

[bursting]

[ You're not disgusting.

He wishes he could believe it. More than anything, maybe. It's a side of himself he keeps shut away, and for very good reason, that volatile, dangerous boy with the empty eyes, the rifle in his hands, the blood on his face and the scowl on his lips. He tries to hide it and deny it's there but it still is and will always be. Granted, Mello only saw it because he pushed him to an extreme, and already the rage is draining away, but it exists, will always exist, he'll never be rid of it and it's a bloody mark of shame upon the man who detests fighting and smiles at flowers and tells strangers he's never met before

I like you

on rooftops, and he really isn't lying, because he does.

The words aren't tender, but they don't have to be. They're past that now. Setsuna is pleased that Mello capitulates to his advances, however, could care less who had won so long as he's willing to share the spoils of victory. A hand creeps back to his recovered blade, presses it to Mello's stomach and starts cutting away his tight top. Starts, because he knows he'll be upset if he ruins his beloved wardrobe so he's giving him a chance to just take it off. Taking or not, an enraged Mello isn't something he wants to deal with.

Of course he's distracted from the task anyway once Mello snaps up his mouth, and he moans because finally they're getting somewhere and just loses himself in the kiss as a result, hard and fast and everything he wants and he breathes another word in Arabic, perfection, as that is what this is. ]

[volatility]

[The kiss is hungry — more passionate than Mello will ever admit — but there has been so much build up, so much holding back and so much fighting it, that giving in is so easy — too easy. He brings his hand to Setsuna's hair, entangling it once more, and then pulls, continuing to move his tongue against Setsuna's as he does so.

Finally, he breaks the kiss — pulls back breathless. He doesn't want to give Setsuna another chance to take that blade to his clothes — he likes his clothes — so he unzips his shirt and shrugs it off, maneuvering deftly despite being under Setsuna. His gloves go next. Those off, he undoes his belt, and then pauses.]

You too.

[He starts pulling at Setsuna's shirt with one hand, sliding the other underneath to run his now-uncovered fingers along his skin, gentle at first — just touching, feeling — but then they find their way to his back and Mello starts to use his nails.]

[bursting]

[ Setsuna very nearly gasps the moment Mello pulls away, needy and denied though he hates himself for sounding such. But the more he sees and feels and tastes of Mello the less he cares about anything, which is why he very willingly obeys the younger man once he pushes his blade back, away from that leather, reveals skin half-charred on one side but it's still beautiful to him, and his hand goes to the burn immediately, enchanted.

He vaguely registers the you too and just nods dumbly, fumbling his way out of his clothes yet mostly failing since it's sensory overload and he can barely stand it but still wants more. More of Mello, more of whatever this is, arcing like a pleased cat into the bite of his fingers, yes, you can mark him, feel free, god knows he'll be doing the same to you. ]

You can use it—

[ he barely manages to breath out, jerking his head towards Mello's flickblade. ]

—but yours, not mine.

[ Your knife, but never, ever his. No one touches his. They'd established that. And now he'll be using his knife on that skin, cutting a thin, red line along his torso and watching it well, because he's disgusting and never pretended to be anything but. ]

[volatility]

[Mello doesn't flinch or tense up when Setsuna touches his marred flesh, but it is a strange sensation, the mostly-dead numbness of pressure he feels when palm meets scar. There is only one other person who has ever touched Mello's burn, and even that was only to scrape off melted leather. He has no shame regarding the scar — he did what he had to do — and it is helpful in some ways, causing people to take him seriously instead of looking at him like a scrawny still-teen without power. It'll be especially helpful here, in a place like this, where he has no connections (yet). People might think twice before propositioning a man with half of his face disfigured — and hopefully for those who aren't, his attitude can do the rest.

But this — this is intimate. Mello doesn't need intimacy. The giving and taking of pain is better than the exchange of soft foreign words and this.

So he continues to rake his nails down Setsuna's back, hoping to distract him, to pull him out of that enchantment that he seems to have with the scar — with his body — to bring him back into wanting to fuck, not merely feel.

It's the knife that really distracts Setsuna. Mello glances at his flick blade — eases up on Setsuna's back to reach for it — but then he is being cut. He inhales hissingly, but makes no other sound, glancing down to watch it, too, before looking back up at Setsuna. Setsuna who still hasn't quite managed to get his shirt off.

Mello reaches forward with his own blade, dragging it lightly up Setsuna's stomach without actually breaking the skin, stopping once it disappears under the shirt.]

You too.

[Firmer, this time, and Mello turns the blade on the shirt from the inside, instead of on skin.]

[bursting]

[ Mello doesn't flinch and Setsuna honestly doesn't expect to, but he's again silently grateful that he's been granted the privilege of grazing the scar. Even without being told, he knows not many have. He knows there's a story there, it's a touchy one, and it involves feelings, not exactly Mello's strong suit. He doesn't push for details but Mello can probably see it in his eyes anyway, that spark of curiosity. He's going to ask eventually, but not now.

Yet it is intimate, which isn't something Setsuna understands, either. He understands little touches, little smiles, but nothing like this. While he's had sex before, this is all new, soft words and it's alright you're not disgusting and shuddering breaths and fingers on his skin. This is all new yet he likes it, loves it anyway. Mello has gone from complete stranger to trusted ally within the scope of just a few hours because that's just how Setsuna is. Trust is hard to earn and yet it can be earned quickly, just like that, and permanently. It may make him naive, but again, that's the difference between them. Setsuna trusts in humanity. Mello does not.

Setsuna allows Mello to snatch up his blade, and shudders at the cool sensation of metal to his skin. If Mello was worried about Setsuna reacting poorly to it, he need not be; the lusty expression blooming across his face gives him all the unspoken permission he needs. He does get the message regarding removal of his clothes though, and chuckling quietly, he stops what he's doing to properly remove his top and start on everything else. ]

You're impatient.

[ But it's light, casual, jokingly stated, a positive sign. Setsuna's grown comfortable around Mello. Not complacent, but comfortable. Almost as if they were friends.

Almost, because he knows in Mello's world, it's something of an impossibility. ]

[volatility]

[Even now, like this — a cut etched into his torso, his own knife held against Setsuna's body — Mello would argue that this is not trust. It's certainly not distrust, as Mello would not allow someone to cut open his body — to touch him — so easily, but in his mind, there is plenty of gray matter between the two ends of the spectrum. This is acknowledgement — having seen and accepted sides of each other that would otherwise have gone undisclosed. This is an exchange, a way of communicating beyond words. This is too much, but it is not trust, and Mello will remain stubborn on that point. Trust is handing someone the plans to achieve the one goal for which he's been working for years, not offering up the blueprints of his body.]

And?

[But it's not a biting comment — it's not exactly friendly, either, but it isn't irritated. Mello pulls back the knife to let Setsuna finish removing his shirt and as he gets to work on the rest of his clothes, Mello brings it back against his skin, watching the indentation of the knife — the pressure-but-not-quite-cutting as he uses it to tease from neck to chest. He might be distracting Setsuna from what he's doing again, but Mello likes the way the metal looks against his skin, especially as he finally puts enough pressure to draw a little bit of blood — just a small line that eases its way down Setsuna's chest.

He's calculating. Mello's mind is always working, even now — half-naked and underneath a man who has torn into his wrist, who has held a blade to his throat, who has literally cut him open — and because of that, Mello watches with a kind of detachment, more fascination than losing himself in the way Setsuna looks, smeared skin and blood and the very image of someone you wouldn't expect to throw around words about liking and flowers. But it's almost too-easy, that temptation to fall back into the hunger demonstrated by his previous kiss, to just lose himself to this — to another person.]