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10 days ago
Current Who's going to tell them?
3 mos ago
Just discovered Dog TV. My pitbull and I have a new shared hobby.
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8 mos ago
Barbenheimer 2023
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10 mos ago
There's a panhandler who hangs out on the street corner by our dispensary every afternoon with a sign that just says "Green 4 Green?" and tbh, I respect my boy's confidence.
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10 mos ago
As someone who is trans, Pride is celebrating and fighting for life in the face of adversity. Maybe rainbows aren’t going to change the world, but I’m still going to wear mine and be myself 🏳️‍🌈
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Bio

Personal Profile

Name: Taylor
Pronouns: They/them
Age: Mid 20s
Relationship: Married (happily, I might add)
Time Zone: Arizona (we hate daylight savings, so it's MST year-round)
Writing History: I've been on a number of different roleplaying websites for over a decade and a half
Hobbies: Writing, fitness, driving/exploring, hiking, camping, traveling, tabletop games, anything NEW (I love trying things I've never done before)
Roleplayer Profile

Format: 1x1s only. Maybe I'll try a group RP again someday, but I've never had one last longer than a few months
Posting Speed: Depending on my schedule, I can usually post at least once per week
Favorite Genres: Modern, Historical, Romance, Action/Adventure, Horror/Dark, Fantasy, Slice of Life, Dystopian, can be convinced to write some Sci-Fi
Hard 'no's: Fandoms. Sorry, but I can't maintain interest in characters/worlds I didn't build with my partner
Template: Public threads or PMs. I prefer to keep all my RPs in one place, so no emails or G-docs or the like
Rating: Comfortable with 18+ content, but it's not a necessity and I prefer not to center a plot around explicit scenes
Level: Advanced. Will consistently provide around 400-700 words per post, but can occasionally leap to 2000+
Character preference: One main character, but large side casts are greatly enjoyed. Because I write long posts, I prefer not to double
Gender preference: Male. You'll be hard pressed to convince me to play a female that isn't a background character. It's just not my forte
Romantic Relationships: MxF or MxM (currently prefer MxM)
Character Images: Faceclaims or detailed descriptions only. I envision the characters like real people in my mind, so I can't take anime seriously
OOC chat: Yes please! I'm a total extrovert who loves to get to know the amazing minds behind my partners' characters

Most Recent Posts

“Well, if you change your mind.” The words were punctuated with a half-smile and a shrug as Raine turned back toward the TV. With her back to the new arrival, the expression on her face was slightly pained, and she squeezed her hands together in her lap. Caspian hadn’t mentioned there had been someone else. By the look on his face, she could already tell things weren’t over between them though. It was a lot to process, and she was lost in her thoughts when the other woman spoke again, making her jump and immediately close her eyes as she silently chided herself for the lapse in composure. She might have been caught off guard, but she was still a princess. A lady of dignity. Now was the time to act like one.

With a deep breath, she rose from the couch and turned around to face Iris fully, smoothing down the front of her dress. She smiled thinly again and dipped her head in greeting, “I’m Raine Auclair, princess of the Suphate kingdom. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Iris.”

—.—

“You told me she was dead.”

As soon as the door had swung closed behind him, Caspian had rounded on Jacob with venom in his eyes. His hand was still on the knob with a white-knuckled grip, and every ounce of betrayal cut through his features. “I thought you were on my side. Why did you lie to me? Why did you send her away?”

The guard winced, his gaze fixed down somewhere below the prince’s eye-level. “I am on your side, your majesty,” he said quietly. “That’s why I told you she was gone.” He lifted his gaze, his jaw set with pointed resolution. They were here now, so there was no point in beating around the bush anymore. “To be perfectly candid, you need to let her go, Caspian,” he asserted firmly. “I understand that you love her, but you’re the king now. Ruling this country means making difficult decisions, not allowing your feelings to undermine the leader you have the potential to be.

“Iris is a commoner. If that wasn’t already enough to disqualify her from your courtship, she has a known history in this city as a wanted criminal. The people aren’t going to forget that overnight,” he went on, folding his arms across his chest. “No matter how much you care for her, that reputation is going to haunt her for the rest of her days if she stays in the capital, and our allies will always look at you with suspicion for choosing to forgive her of her crimes, welcoming her into society with open arms and even wedding her into the royal line. It’s political suicide, and honestly? I knew that if you knew she was alive, you would still pour every part of yourself into hunting her down to the negligence of your real duties. That is why I lied.”

Cas clenched his teeth. “So you still think I’m just some irresponsible kid.”

“If you step back out there and choose Iris over Raine, you’ll prove it to me,” Jacob confirmed bluntly.

The king took a sharp step toward the older man, his fists clenched at his sides, but stopped himself with a growl, turning his glower angrily to the floor. Everything in him wanted to punch the guy in the face. He was outraged, insulted, and betrayed. Jacob claimed to understand, but he didn’t. He didn’t get it at all. And obviously, he couldn’t. “The only reason you still have your job right now is her,” he hissed, lifting his scowl to the guard again. “You can keep working for me because I promised her I wouldn’t fire you, but as far as our personal relationship goes, we’re done.”

Opening the door behind him, he inclined his head in gesture for Jacob to exit. “Get out. I need some time to be alone.”

The guard pressed his lips together, but after a moment of hesitation, he bowed. “Your majesty,” he spoke softly, his voice terse and formal once again as he rose and walked out of the room without looking back.
In Caspian’s mind, Iris was anything but “nothing special,” no matter how many times she used words like that to describe herself. Even being objective, he was confident she had value to the rebellion too. Maybe a while ago, before they’d met and he’d fallen head over heels for her, the Scourge wouldn’t have seen her as useful to their operations. But now, she was back in his life; the girlfriend of Aspiria’s king. It wasn’t unrealistic for them to target her again if they ever thought they had the chance—which was why he was never going to give it to them.

For now, she was safe in the bunker with him and the others though, so it wasn’t something to linger on. As they rejoined the group in the common space, that safety was tangible. He casted her a flicker of a glance before his gaze settled on the head of his security team, and he narrowed his eyes. Jacob was about to have a lot of explaining to do.

He took a step in the other man’s direction, but before he could move further, he paused and glanced at Iris again with a frown. She was right that Jacob had saved her. He knew that. The problem was that the guy could have saved her a dozen different ways, and he’d chosen the path to send her back to the districts beyond the capital walls—where the civil war was still raging strong and anything could have happened to her. Where she was a hundred miles away, and he thought she was dead. He wasn’t going to let that slide.

“I know,” he muttered, turning his gaze back to the guard. “But I want to hear it from him.”

He gave her hand one more quick squeeze before letting it fall away, stepping away from her to get the other man’s attention. Jacob looked up from his phone as the king approached, his features as impassive as always. It was difficult to get a gauge on his thoughts, but Cas almost thought he saw the guy wince as he inclined his head toward the room he’d just left and beckoned him over with a subtly tense: “Hey, man. Let’s talk.”

Jacob studied him for a moment before he righted his posture and slipped his phone into his pocket with a nod. “Of course.”

The corner of Cas’s mouth twitched downward, but he held his tongue as he led the older man back to the bedroom and closed the door behind them, leaving Iris alone with the rest of the security team and Raine, who had turned around on the couch to quietly watch them over the back of it. As soon as Caspian and Jacob disappeared, her eyes settled on Iris, and she pursed her lips before calling over in an airy tone: “If it’s food you want, the frozen trays are better than the stuff in the pantry.”
Caspian nodded. It was what he wanted to believe, but at the moment, all he could do was guess. Raine had always seemed to be the understanding sort though. Even when they were kids, he’d thought she was the more level-headed of the two of them, and she had always been pragmatic. After Iris had turned up without any warning, she would have to realize he didn’t mean to give her false hopes, wouldn’t she? He pressed his lips together as he thought about it. Of course, he didn’t expect her to breeze along with the sudden change without any qualms, but hopefully, if his impression of her was right, she wouldn’t hold it over his head once the dust settled.

More important was the matter of the continuing rebellion in the districts. As Iris turned his attention there, the king frowned to himself. She was right that it was strange. There were still plenty of missing pieces, and his intelligence on the situation had been… well, lackluster, even before his father had passed away. They had taken out multiple kingpins amongst the Scourge, and yet the rebels continued to operate like a well-oiled machine. He wasn’t sure who was pulling the strings behind it all, but clearly, there was someone in charge of the operations that they hadn’t managed to take out yet.

“Someone else, maybe,” he sighed, running a hand over his hair. “Or maybe the same someone… I don’t know. We’re working on it.” Meeting her gaze again, his dark eyes flitted between her blue. “Whoever it is, they’re done using you though. I promise. No one’s going to be taking you away again.”

Perhaps it was brazen to make a promise like that when he hadn’t been able to stop Ethan from kidnapping her last time, but he meant it regardless. Now that she was back, he was going to do everything in his power to keep her safe from the rebellion. Right now, that meant keeping her close in the bunker. Later, he planned to do the same in the palace. The hotel he’d hidden her away in before hadn’t had the same level of security as either of those places, so at the very least, he could rest in the knowledge that his security team would be looking out for her alongside him.

As she rested her hand in his, Cas laced his fingers with hers with a smile, happy with the simple pleasure of being able to touch her again. However, the expression disappeared quickly when she admitted it had been a while since she’d last fed herself. Days?” he echoed, gawking at her incredulously. “Jesus, Iris. We need to get some food in you right now.”

Getting up from the bed, he ushered her with him by a tug to her hand, only to pause momentarily at her next question. “It will be,” he assured her with a nod. The other people in the bunker might have mixed feelings about her presence there, but he was in charge, and that meant they had to set those feelings aside if he asked them to make her feel welcome.

It might not happen right away, but he was confident the dust would settle. With that thought in mind, he led her with him back out of the room and down the hall until they could rejoin the others. When they stepped back into the room, most of the team was still crowded around their monitors, while Raine was seated on the couch by the silently playing TV, and Jacob was standing aside with his phone in hand, his eyes fixed on the screen as if busy.

It was the latter who Caspian fixated on, his eyes narrowing as the sting of his guard’s betrayal cut through him again. He’d promised Iris he wouldn’t fire the other man, but he couldn’t bring himself to pretend like Jacob hadn’t kept her hidden from him—let him think she was dead—for an entire month. His grip tightened on her hand, and he glanced at her sideways. “Take whatever you want from the pantry… I need a minute to talk to Jacob.”
Caspian lifted his shoulders noncommittally. “If it’s a problem, I’ll deal with it,” he assured her quietly. There was a high chance it would be. Plenty of people in the capital had seen Iris’s face on wanted ads when his father had listed her among the bountied rebels in Aspiria, so it wouldn’t be surprising if anyone recognized her when he took her with him to live in the palace. When word got around that the nation’s king was in a relationship with a former member of the scourge, it would be nothing short of a scandal.

But it didn’t change the fact that he wanted to be with her, and that he was done letting the woman he loved slip through his fingers.

So, when she said she still wanted to share a room with him, he brightened. After everything they’d been through, it was a relief to know that she wanted to pick things up where they’d left off. However, the expression didn’t last long as their conversation circled to Raine. It was a lot more complicated now, he knew. Even though he and the Suphate princess hadn’t signed any documents, he had technically already talked to her father about courting her, so if he backed out now, there was a chance there would be hard feelings between their families. He still had no intention of following through now that Iris was back, but he was going to have to tread carefully when he eventually left the safe house.

“I’m just happy you’re back,” he shook his head with a sigh. “Besides, even if there’s drama, it’ll blow over. It always does.” The upper echelon of Aspiria were a fickle people. That was something he could count on, at least. Whether his relationship with Iris caused quiet whispers or an all-out uproar in the capital, he was sure it would die down whenever the other high borns found something else to gawk at. The only lasting impact, perhaps, would be the fact that he wasn’t a bachelor anymore. Marriage was off the table as a negotiation tool with the kingdom’s sister nations.

And right now, it was way too soon to be worrying about anything like that. Instead, he shifted his weight when Iris brought up a more immediate problem, glancing uncomfortably at the bedroom door. She had a point. “Well… I’m sure she’ll understand,” he justified with a tentative frown. “We’ve been friends for a long time. That hasn’t changed just because we started thinking about courtship.” At least, he hoped not. Technically, he knew he couldn’t speak for Raine, but just because he wasn’t going to marry her didn’t mean he wanted to completely sever ties.

“Either until those rebels are caught or the military decides the palace is secure enough for me to go back,” he replied, turning to Iris again. For a moment, he studied her thoughtfully, then offered her a hand. “Have you had anything to eat? There’s more than enough food to go around in the kitchen if you want some.”
In Mahz's Dev Journal 10 mos ago Forum: News
@Mahz As a note from a 1x1 role-player, most of our RPs take place over PMs, so having emails for any "post" in that section would be a nice feature.

Thanks for all the other updates so far too!
Bump
Cas smiled when Iris reaffirmed that she wanted to be with him. He would never get tired of hearing it. However, the expression didn’t last long as she went on to tell him what she knew about the rebels in the city. His brows furrowed in thought at the mention that they weren’t far from the safe house. That was interesting, since they weren’t very far from the harbor. He wondered if the rebels had been using the waterway to get into the capital and made a mental note to have his security team follow up on that hunch later. There were enough security cameras in the area that one of them had to have picked up something near the docks if he was right.

“One of a few,” he said with a half-smile, giving her hands a squeeze. He didn’t know where all of the safe houses were off the top of his head, since he’d been a kid when his father had flown him around to see them, but he did know there were at least four of them both in and outside of the capital city. The one they’d ended up using was one of the smallest too.

At her question, he lifted his shoulders. “I was, but not around here,” he replied, sidling closer to her on the bed to wrap an arm around her waist. Now that she was back, he couldn’t help wanting to be as close to her as he could get. “Right now, I have a couple guys looking into some officers in the military… but it doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “You’re not going back to prison, Iris. Never again. And… after we get out of here, I want you to come back to the palace with me.”

As he pulled her in against his side, he held her gaze earnestly. In his head, it wasn’t even a question. They’d spent too much time apart, and no matter what anyone else thought about it, he had more than enough space with all the vacant rooms his family hadn’t occupied since his father had evicted them. “If it’s still too soon to share the master room with me, you can stay in one of the other bedrooms down the hall,” he offered. Honestly, he did want her as close as possible, but he wasn’t going to push it after everything she’d been through. As much as he wanted to pick up right where they’d left off, he didn’t know if she was ready for that or not.

And there was still the matter of his almost-fiancée. He could see on Iris’s face that she wasn’t happy to find out that he’d started seeing someone else while he’d thought she was dead. A part of him wished he’d waited just a little longer too—but there was no way he could have known he’d see her again. “You have nothing to be jealous of,” he promised. “Nothing happened, and we never even got far enough into it to start courting. We just talked about it.” He winced a little, shuffling his feet as he glanced away from her. “She’s, um… the princess of the Suphate kingdom. Her name’s Raine, and the only reason we even considered courting was because we were friends when we were kids. But really,” he turned back to her insistently. “Now that you’re back, everything is different. I don’t want to be with her, Iris. I want to be with you. I love you.”
When Iris apologized again, Caspian shook his head. He did wish she’d spoken to him instead of taking matters into her own hands, but right now, he didn’t want her to feel guilty about it when they’d found their way back to each other. That was all he cared about. The path to get there had been messy, but now that she was here again, they could move forward together. The rest, they could figure out along the way.

“I am,” he nodded, holding her gaze earnestly. He could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe him. The uncertainty on her face stung a little, since he did mean what he was saying to her. He wanted to forgive and forget and pick up where they’d left off before she had gone back to the districts. Maybe she would say it was naive to try and move on just like that, and maybe it wasn’t going to be as easy as he was hoping, but after everything he’d been through recently, he didn’t have the capacity to really sit down and process what things were going to look like between them going forward. He just needed her to know his intentions.

As she laid her hands over his, Cas turned his palms over to take them, stroking his thumbs gently against her skin. Her touch was comforting, and he could feel warmth spread through him as they held each other. Even though there were going to be challenges ahead, he was glad she was back. And apparently, she’d returned with useful information about the rebels too. His brows arched in surprise when she told him she had a possible lead to their hideout. “Really?” He gawked. “My team’s been looking for two days, and they haven’t turned up anything.”

If she could even help them narrow down their search parameters, it would have been impressive. The rebels were getting better at hiding under the soldiers’ noses, and he was starting to suspect that they had at least one point of intelligence within the capital’s military. He wasn’t sure what to do about it yet, waffling between openly interrogating the soldiers for traitors and quietly sniffing out the double agents to use them against the Scourge, but either way, it was getting more difficult to weed out rebels in the city lately.

So, when Iris explained that she’d found evidence of the insurgents’ hideout, the king stared at her incredulously and then shook his head, running a hand over his hair. “Man, sometimes I forget you used to work with them,” he exhaled, meeting her gaze again more solemnly. “Whatever you think you know, you should pass along to the team in the kitchen. They can direct the men and women on the ground to check it out and see if you’re right about that location.”

It would be a good way to help convince the security team that Iris wasn’t a threat too, but before he could say so, he faltered when she suddenly asked about Raine. At the question, he winced slightly and averted his gaze. The Suphate princes was the elephant in the room, but he’d still been hoping not to talk about her.

“She’s, um… someone I was going to start courting,” he admitted under his breath. Forcing himself to look her in the eyes, he swallowed. “I thought you were dead for a long time, Iris. Now that I’ve taken over my dad’s position, people have been expecting me to find a queen, and there’s been pressure to restrengthen the royal line, and I thought…” Trailing off, he took a breath. “It doesn’t matter. Now that you’re back, I’m calling things off with her. I promise. You’re the one I want to be with, Iris.”
None of that mattered. Caspian clenched his jaw to stop himself from arguing with her. Iris was too kind to pin blame on his security head, but her mercy didn’t stop him from feeling angry and betrayed by a man he was supposed to have been able to trust. All this time, Jacob had known she was alive and knew exactly where she was, and yet he’d pretended she was dead to keep him from going after her. He wasn’t going to break his word to Iris and fire the other man, but he definitely had a few choice words he planned on sharing with him later.

Hearing her say that she still loved him sent a wave of relief washing over him, and he pulled her in as tightly to his chest as he could without suffocating her. “I’m not letting you go again,” he promised, his own voice partially muffled behind the curtain of her long hair. And he meant it. Of course, there were still a lot of things he was going to have to work out now that she was back. He was king now, laden with new responsibilities and expectations as he stepped up to manage Aspiria in his late father’s place. If he became publicly involved with a former member of the rebellion, it wasn’t going to be a popular move with the people of the capital.

Even though nothing had been put down in writing, there was also the problem of his prospective courtship with Raine. The Suphate princess had seen his reunion with Iris, and he was sure she was upset and confused. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but when he’d begun to spend time with her and entertain the idea of a future marriage between their kingdoms, he hadn’t believed he would ever see his “dead” girlfriend again. Everything had changed now that she was here again, and the princess’s feelings weren’t enough to stop him from choosing the woman he hadn’t stopped loving since they’d parted months ago. He was going to find a way to be with Iris no matter what.

You’re what’s better for me, Iris,” Cas insisted, pulling back from their embrace so that he could meet her eyes. “While you were gone… I could barely get through each day. I could barely even think straight sometimes.” He shook his head. “I was surviving, but I was never doing well. Please… if you ever get it in your head again that I’m better off without you, just know that you’re everything to me.” Holding her gaze earnestly, he brought a hand up to gently caress her cheek.

When she brought up the attack at the castle, he winced. The memory was still raw, and he hadn’t yet had time to process all of it, but he managed a flicker of a smile at her compliment. He hadn’t realized she’d seen him that night. The expression gave way to one of interest when she added that she had something to give him, and he pulled her back into his chest, slipping his arms around the small of her back and resting his chin on her shoulder. “I love you too,” he whispered, turning to press a kiss to her cheek. “And I forgive you—for everything.”

Giving her one more squeeze, he drew back once more and let his hands trail down to rest on her legs, searching her eyes with knitted brows. “Now… what did you mean when you said you wanted to give me something to take down the rebels?”
In Beta Testers Needed 12 mos ago Forum: News
Does Safari qualify? I typically run RPG on my Mac, but I'd be happy to help out too.
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