Deadline

The Thorn King

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† . . . An Endless Night . . . †
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A slow fire crackled in the wake of the woods, a hidden clearing, a parting of trees, bound in mystery, lacquered in the salt of a young man with horns on his head and a dark, forbidden desire; of lust, and longing, and the consequence of his fate.

To some, he was Lucifer. To others, he was a monster. He was the forlorn, forgotten Prince of a dying dynasty. His name lost to the annals of time. He could not be found by mortals, unless he needed to feed. And when his face appeared in their nightmares, they wished only to forget.

There is a saying in the Crossroads: "To wander into the woods is to sacrifice thine self to the will of the Gods." Some say he shelters lonely travellers. Other say he feasts upon everything that binds them. He is unknown; an anomaly. His marks, hidden all about the forest in the form of wooden statues resembling beautiful animals. Deers and doe, songbirds and the occasional barn owl. He leaves his song everywhere he goes. His poetry written in leaves. In truth: he rests in a den of fur and musk, coiled like a serpent, staring out through blackened eyes from sleepless nights dreaming of the lover he was fated to marry; a dowry given; the betrayal that happened; the killing of his mother, and the obscuring of his father. Love. Love is the key of his resurrection, yet he has lost all hope in fate.

I ask you now: will you bring alive his vicious story and stroke the lips of the monster? Will you look up into his eyes and see the horror and the vulnerability that threatens to wake? Will you tempt his passion, kiss his horns, and feel his claws upon you? Or will you die a sweet death to the thought of his peril...

🕈 .. 🕈 .. 🕈

My space.

It is this kiss that makes me weep,
Brings tears to my eyes, uncensored:
I can taste the satisfaction
Of the sadness
The awareness
The sweetness of writing words.

Can you pepper-on the beauty of a musical chord?
Can you speak to the soul and ask it questions?
Are your words latent? Are they magnetic? Are they hinting at the human condition?
Do they beg the question...?

I have met wonderful women,
and powerful men
and gorgeous uncles
and beautiful friends

The human race is an experience; a sincere sequence of events
Pressed upon thine lips and memorised in every kiss.

My space.

They say "you are not allowed to be happy,"
"You are not allowed to be proud."

That you must sit with this inky feeling in your stomach,
This red rock. This burning heat. This eternal damnation;
The artist's anchor, pulling you down, sunken-deep.

There are breathless oceans in your lungs
There is ice and fire and cut glass
There is the Devil in the seed
Doubt. Doubt. Doubt speaks to me

It is this sensation which drives me
For, and against

There is no love without struggle
No duty without responsibility
No recognition without faith
I ask you thus: will you have loyalty?
Or will you sink into something immaterial; into a faded cognition of what you could've seen
Of what I could've been?

So ask me questions...
There is beauty beneath the cloak.

My space.

Fill my marrow with yesterday's notes
For the memory of you has not yet faded
Love notes, love notes.

So sharp your tongue
So wise your words
"Listen to me...?"

I want danger
I want truth
I want your promises
I want you. I want you.

So, forbid me keepsakes
Lock me in your room.

RP Rules & Preferences - What do we look for nowadays?

When you say formatting flair, are you more referring to cells, scroll bars and intense coding like that - or just any and all BBcode a turn off for you? As someone who likes to make things pretty, I can agree that it can be a lot of unwanted, added pressure to make an aesthetic post every time, but I've always been curious where people draw the line on aesthetics.

@Sugar and Spite

Short and to the point: I love BBcode. I think it's rad. It makes threads look incredible. But sometimes I'll find an interesting group role-play, but there are numerous "hurdles" to overcome to participate. Character sheets, a good stream of locations needing inline images to support your character, and oodles of background information/rulesets needed.

e.g. "To post, you need to frame your replies in the style of the thread." ... It ends up becoming more of an exercise in aesthetics than writing. It intimidates me and puts me off. One reply shouldn't take 3 hours to format/proof. But maybe that's because I'm used to IMs/writing on online games (such as Gaia/WoW/DnD) where the replies are instantaneous!

tl:dr: Too much BBcode can be intimidating.

My space.

Another night spent in seclusion;
No exercise. No time in the sun.
I don't remember what it was like. "It" being life. I don't remember a good conversation. I don't recall family. I... Don't.

If I am so badly forgotten, then why exist?
I hope this pain in my side is cancer.

Then it can end.

What Are You Listening To?

RP Rules & Preferences - What do we look for nowadays?

I'll probably be in the minority but I've never really been afraid of that, so the only thing that really turns me off joining a role-play is there being an incredible amount of focus on formatting/style/"flair" over actual hard writing.

I don't really care about character sheets. I'd rather you just describe him/her/they/them in the role-play. I don't care about Pinterest images. They're nice, but I can take them or leave them. I don't even care if you use AI to generate something. As a writer by trade AI doesn't worry me at all. All I want to see is a genuinely good, hard pairing/concept. Show me something I can sink my teeth into; something obsessive, something gritty, and I'll show up every single day to contribute.

I also don't like cliques or rules. More often than not on RP sites (though not this one, as far as I can tell) groups of people form groups and gossip about others. I just don't care about that at all. Toxicity sucks and I just can't get on board with it. I don't care about ego or getting points for following the crowd.

In terms of genres, I like:

Fantasies, mysteries, world-building, or gritty noir dramas. I like lots of conversation. Lots of talking back and forths and accusations. I adore love and romance especially when it doesn't involve any level of OOC. I like gushing with my partners about how incredible the RP is going as we see the characters come to life. Mostly I like drama.

That's it. Truthfully I think most of this is very "head noise" and difficult to pin down. The honest way to say it is: I want the role-play to be genuine. I want to go in for something someone is excited about. If it doesn't have any heart and soul in it, I'm not there for it.

My space.

You can kiss me in the rain and send signals to my pain
Stroke my smoke-carved lungs and take away the discomfort
God; I don't even know your name...

You are angel-clad
Black-haired mystery
Washed in salt, oil and grease
and the occasional rub of alcohol.

Can you still hold me?
Sell me hope?

I just want to know:
If I pray loud enough, can you hear me?
Do you know how badly I need you to show up and come where you should be...?

Angel, baby, mystery:
It gets so cold at night
The wringing-out sensation of my black heart has become too fraught with cancer
Too secluded from nature
To know the truth of women, men, people; I am bereft, star-lost, coupled with misery
This beauty I own is painted in licks of black and red
clashing eternally, battling on, begging for a release.

If only I had, had, had
If only I had, had, had
It's always about needing // never about getting
Because we don't know what we have until it's gone.

What Are You Listening To?