#VERSES. ( pcu. )

[factiousfcrged]

@riverguides sent a meme.

“'Cause all that you are is all that I’ll ever need.”

There was a time that a remark like that would've been met with a derisive scoff, or just flat out ignored. There was a time that a comment like that would've made that weird little hollow that existed in the pit of his stomach, that other, ache because it didn't know what to do with it. What to do with goodness, and kindness, and gentle things. Truth be told ... it still didn't, exactly. But he'd kinda gotten used to the way that ache was a little bit warm and a little bit fuzzy when it was Desi that said those things, that did those things. "You ask me, I still think you should've waited to shoot your shot with somebody prettier," Amos replied, his voice deadpan, but there was the smallest twitch of a smirk at the corner of his mouth as he turned his attention back to the engine that he was in the process of stripping.

[moved-melodiesfcrged]

@somebadguys / wren gets a starter. post staged rescue w/ mikkah & arthur, post melody's resurrection.

She'd startled when she realized she wasn't alone on the patio any longer, a slight blush darting over her cheeks. How long had the other woman been standing there? Clearing her throat softly, she offered a genuine, if somewhat weary smile. It had been a very long few days, and she still was not sure how she was supposed to wrap her mind around this ... new reality that she'd been introduced to. She wasn't even sure what Desi was here to talk to his friends about, but, she hadn't wanted to be alone, and he hadn't seemed to want to leave her alone, so she'd tagged along, until Desi and ... Arthur, had disappeared into the upper floors of the house. She had retreated, with tea, to the first outdoor space that she could find. "Oh, I -- You're --" Brows furrowed as she tried to recall the names and faces. "Wren? Was it? A friend of -- " She hesitated. "Michelle?" She straightened in her seat, gesturing to the empty chair on the other side of the table. "Please, would you like a cup of tea? I made an entire service, I'm .. not sure why." Habit, probably.

[aeternals]

@factiousfcrged said, " i don't wanna be alone tonight ( pt. 2) "

at first ( he hates to admit ) there's a part of him that was attracted to amos because of the spectacle. sadness and honor always kept desi's eyes glued to the media around the time of the reaping and the hunger games. every tribute was either scared or arrogant. very rarely was there an in between.

he used those emotions to fuel his network of information gathering. some got siphoned off for the sake of defiance; a growing spark that just needed the right puff of air to fuel it into full blown rebellion. other bits of it was used as something of a shield for himself. the rest of it was filed away to be used for one or the other later down the line.

amos, however, was the first that had looked extremely neutral about all of it in the arena. what puzzled desi was the continued fighting long after his game had been won. even with all the time they'd spent together ( hard fought on desi's end ), he had no idea whether the other was fighting to get away or to pull closer. the only thing that had become certain between them was that sometimes they fell together for comfort.

sometimes.

they'd bumped into each other at a party. honestly, desiderius wouldn't be able to tell anyone what kind of party it was only that he needed to use the appearance as a cover to speak to a few other individuals. sweets and other snacks were nothing more than a decoration on a plate he carried around to get out of conversation or to divert himself in another direction. the wine, however, was the one thing he indulged in for the evening.

once he'd found amos, however, desiderius found it hard to leave the victor's side. he wasn't a fighter by any stretch of the imagination but he could certainly protect amos from the vultures of society.

despite all that history together, he still can't keep the surprise off his face when the words hit his ears. they were in the back of desi's vehicle, sitting in front of the building where his own accommodations were. he had every intention of letting amos use the car to take him wherever he wanted to go with the night.

" it's always hard watching you go, " he can't help but whisper as he leans in for a kiss on the other's cheek. " not because of who you're with. i could honestly care less. i just...feel complete when you're around. "

[ambitionfcrged]

@somebadguys continued from [x]

He regards her with a gaze that is as cold and calculating as any that he'd ever allowed her to see, that serves to remind her of the validity of his threats, of his promises of what he could, what he would do to her if she failed him again. Especially, in this. She had failed him in the past, and she had suffered for it, had bled and wept for it. She bore the scars of his wrath and disappointment on her skin. She had been so broken, so splintered, when he'd found her. He had molded her, into something that was sharp, and strong, a weapon and a tool, in his hold. His power.

The grip on her throat tightened, watching, waiting. Ensuring that she would not struggle, that she knew her life was in his hands, and that she had accepted her fate, whatever it might be, and her end, whenever he might require it. He could feel her pulse racing beneath his fingers, could feel the shortened, shallow gasps. Slowly, finally, his hold loosened, and fell away.

"There is ... a woman." It's spoken callously, almost dismissively. "Someone I once knew. Someone who once served me, whose ... abilities and wit are a vital component of what I hope to achieve. But for all her skills, and talents, she lacks one very important quality. One that you have in spades, my dear." A rare delicacy, an endearment such as that. "Loyalty."

"To take her by force, now, would be... unnecessarily difficult. I need to get her away from her ..." An almost sneer. "Companions." Her lover, and his knights. "It will take someone who can be cunning, and vulnerable, who can play the victim for her to rescue, to give her the opportunity to play hero, someone that can wile their way into her trust. And her heart, and her bed, if need be." His hand draws up, playing with a strand of disheveled hair that framed her face.

[lifefcrged]

@somebadguys / wren sent a meme.

"I love your hair like that."

"Oh -- it's --" Her hand fluttered up to catch the loose blonde curls that framed her face, self consciously tucking them back behind one ear before her fingers dropped back to curl around the coffee cup on the table in front of her. "Thank you," Mikkah added, trying to ignore the barest hint of pink on her cheeks at the compliment. "I don't usually bother trying to do anything with it when I'm on call, honestly, it tends to just end up stuck under a surgery cap before the day's out --" She was over sharing. Compensating for the fact that she might have taken the extra time that morning to curl her hair only after receiving Wren's text asking if she had time for a coffee before work. No, they weren't going to talk about that. It wasn't as if they even knew each other that well -- and it wasn't as if Wren was at all in a place that she would be looking for anything other than a friend. She was dealing with far too much. She knew all of that, logically. Logic didn't seem to mean much to the butterflies in her stomach.

[aeternals]

" a dream, " david found himself so lost in thought that someone ended up pushing past him in order to get by. he muttered an apology before going back to what he'd been wondering. " maybe that's it. " very rarely did he remember them when he woke up, let alone all this time later. what he did know was that both her voice and face were as familiar to him as what he saw in the mirror. almost as if she was a long lost friend.

looking around, a sheepish smile tugs at his lips. having to explain the story out loud makes it sound a little more impulsive and even more irrational. not only that, he was willing to tell a complete stranger all his secrets just because his heart told him they'd already built a trust between them.

" no no, you're fine. i just....i guess i feel silly saying it out loud. " reaching up, he rubs the back of his neck before continuing. " my father passed a few months ago but before he did he... " the hand slides from his neck up to his forehead. saying it out loud felt...weird. almost like a lie. which, technically, it had been. " everything i knew about my mother had been a lie in order to protect both of us, i guess. i thought...maybe...coming here would help me get to know her. now that i'm here i... " david can't help but look up and around. " i honestly have no idea what i was thinking. what about you? " between the dreams and the blue on her tunic, he couldn't help wonder if that meant what he thought it meant. " do you have any sight seeing suggestions? "

With most, even those she considered dear to her, she might have shied away from the touch - or almost touch - but she was surprised to note that from him, she did not flinch or retreat. If anything, she recognized, surprisingly enough, a moment of disappointment when his fingers fell short. A shift of items to combine then both into one hand allows a gloved touch against the back of his hand, a warm, albeit somewhat shy smile offered as he speaks. "I've dreamed of you," the seer confesses, even though she knows he may only think her mad for such things. "I dream a great many things, so few of them are real, or that I see come to pass --"

Had he dreamed of her too, then? Her wanderings in the realm of the dreaming was one of the rare gifts among the sisters, which made it as potentially dangerous as it left her with little in the way of guidance. There were still, after all these lifetimes of sisters in service to the light, many questions they did not know the answers to. "My name is Reese. I.... " There is a moment of hesitation, then, a flicker to the tower that rises above the city proper before her eyes find his again. "How are you here? -- Why?"

A sudden blush creeps across her cheeks, and her gaze drops, abashed at the realization of her intrusion. "Forgive me, I ... I have no right to pry."

[moved-melodiesfcrged]

@riverguides gets a starter.

She can't help but feel like an intruder. An interloper. She didn't know these people, or this house, or anything in it -- it was all foreign, and she felt like an invader. It wasn't that they hadn't been gracious, and welcoming enough. It was just clear that they were all on edge. So was she, so that seemed ... fair.

Desi had been secreted away upstairs for hours. She'd seen the woman, Wren, briefly. And Amos had come down once or twice. She was fairly certain he'd been making up excuses, just to make sure she was still there. She'd grown restless, and had wandered through the downstairs rooms. The study, the games room, the massive kitchen and pantry, living room and a few, what she guessed to be, guest bedrooms by their general feel of lack of lived in. They were cozy, but there were no personal effects to be seen.

And then she'd found the library. But it wasn't the massive amount of books, old and new, that could've filled an actual library, that caught her attention. It was the black grand piano that sat in the middle of the room. While it wasn't dusty (nothing in the house was), it felt ... abandoned. Lonely. She found herself hesitating, when she grew closer to it.

It had only been .... five days? Six? She'd lost track of the nights and days since the accident. Her hands hadn't held an instrument since. Some part of her felt anxious, in a way she couldn't quite name. She was something else now, wasn't she? Something different than who and what she'd been before. What if this new ... body of hers, what if it had forgotten? What if the years of muscle memory and training and the hours and hours and hours of practice were just ... gone?

She sat, hesitantly pulling open the cover over the keys, fingertips gliding feather light over the ivory and black. A lifetime of memories. Of practices and lessons and rehearsals and performances. Would she remember them, in ten years, in twenty? In a hundred? How long before all the memories of who she was now were just ... gone? A deep breath is drawn in, fingertips poised over the keys. Lashes sank closed, and she let herself feel. Feel the ivory beneath her fingers. Feel the pedals beneath her toes. Back straight, shoulders straight. Find the heartbeat. Find the rhythm. Hear the music.

She loses time, in a way that she finds comforting. Familiar. Music flows, fingers dancing across the keys like they were made for it. Perhaps they were. One song ends, and another begins, until finally, minutes? Hours later, the last soft note is plucked, and held by the pedal, humming softly in the air around her.

[moved-nomadicfcrged]

Dante's thought drifted as he made his way through the back room, gathering the various bottles and garnishes he'd need to restock the bartender's stations. Part of his thoughts lingered on that task, running a mental checklist of what Hale had told him they'd need, versus what he'd recalled running on the side of low from last night's shifts. Another part of him grumbled at the low level disarray on the stock shelves - he'd have to make some time one of these nights to come in and do an overhaul. He wasn't as obsessed with everything being in its' place as he had been ten years ago, freshly discharged, but this was a bit too much chaos for him, even now.

Then there was Hale. He was ... probably? A good five, ten years younger than Dante, though that still put him square into the 'old enough to make up his own mind' category, and definitely old enough to know what he wanted category. Honestly, there was a lot about Hale that he didn't know. But that was okay, too. He didn't have to know all the details of a person's life to assess what kind of person they were. And Hale? Hale, for all his cocky sass, and lone wolf attitude, had a good heart. And ... from what Dante had seen so far? A penchant for making very bad decisions. The telltale signs of trauma, though ... what kind? Was anyone's guess.

He was startled out of his thoughts by the sudden awareness of a presence -- had he been so far lost in thought he'd missed any signs of the approach? He glances up, his expression quizzical, but the questions that rose to mind were silenced at the tantalizingly tender touch against his jaw. He stills, if only to not frighten the man away -- which seems absurd, given Hale's height, and musculature - but part o him knows one wrong move would send Hale bolting like a deer at a gunshot. His features soften, at the look that lingers between them in that moment, his breath coming slow and quiet as Hale leans in, a flush of heat spreading through him at the kiss -- at the words that follow.

He's still, and quiet for a moment longer - almost too long, Hale is already moving away - he reaches out, fingertips closing lightly around the other's wrist, not enough to stop him if he didn't want to be stopped. "Hale -- I --" Whatever spell the moment had broke in that moment, the harsh jangle of the bells over the front door of the bar, the loud shouts and cheers of a group of people spilled in front the parking lot, calls for beer! and shots! intruding in a way that felt greusome to him in that exact second. His touch lingered, and he offers a quiet smile and the smallest squeeze of pressure to Hale's wrist, and fingers as his touch drifts away. "Okay."

And then he's stepping away, reluctantly, perhaps, but he has a job to do, and he knows, left unattended, the clientele would not hesitate to climb over the bar and help themselves.

dante was a deceptively soothing presence on his soul. honestly, that was part of what scared hale so much. when they worked together he craved that stability that seemed to radiate off the other man. oh, there were demons there, hale smelled them every now and then with no discernible pattern as to what triggered them. all fine and good. it wasn't hale's place to ask about anyone's past. and, to be completely fucking honest, anyone that ended up in this piece of shit dive bar deserved their privacy.

still, as hale remains pressed against the door frame he can't help but watch the way dante moves. he wonders, briefly, what stability would look like. would he be able to wear commitment like another layer? or would decades of guilt force him to self sabotage in completely new ways.

he has no idea how long it takes but when the wolf finally pushes off the wood he wanders over to the warm space dante's body is occupying. hiding in the office wasn't a half bad idea, especially with the way the tips of his fingers were tingling.

they slide unhindered through the other man's beard, up chiseled cheeks, and land gently on the line of dante's jaw. hale leans down that distance that separates them for a gentle, unassuming kiss at the corner of his cheek. he's too scared for teeth or desperation. he's too scared to let any sliver of his heart see the light of day. but, hale can't stop himself from a featherlight taste of what could be.

of what shouldn't be.

" you, " he takes a step back. " i need to look after you. "

and with that, he turns on his heel to find somewhere to hide.

[aeternals]

@factiousfcrged said, ❝ i want you to feel safe with me. ❞

truth be told, something was on the air that had desiderius bristling. he had no idea what it was, only that it wasn't coming from his connection to amos. being in or near the tower put him on edge but that didn't seem to be it, either. more like something was coming. people had been whispering of the oncoming prophecy but this was the first time he had to wonder if it was more than just talk.

so, he'd been a little more flustered and on edge. several times he'd gone completely silent on amos because all his walls flew up. in the days they'd spent travelling back to the white tower desi barely said a word. unfortunately, the change in demeanor made people look at him a certain way. that way. the way people looked at others who acted far too important and above the status quo. he felt bad and had considering trying to ease those feelings but he couldn't find the words to do much more than nod in response.

after a bath and a refusal to touch dinner, desi slipped into a loose pair of pants to walk around their room until the desire to sleep pulled at him. he'd started leaning against the carved window frame, looking at the bustling street below. the movement helped but it also prevented him from realizing a gentle hand was going to pull him back and away.

he was guided several steps to the edge of the bed. almost on instinct he straddles over amos's waist. arms rest on his warder's shoulders with several fingers starting to idly stretch at the base of his skull. was that worry he felt coming from the other man? confusion, maybe? hard to tell since there was very little experience there.

eyebrows pinch together, almost as if the words have a hard time registering. " i do feel safe with you, lion, " he leaned in for a light kiss against the tip of the other's nose. they'd come a long way from the initial argument they had in his living quarters and that thought along managed to cut through everything to bring out a smile. " i've never felt safer with anyone. why do you think i don't? is it because i've been too deep in my own head? "

[advancement-made]

hello! I have a question having to do with the plague doctor-verse and the exclamation-verse, you don’t have to answer if ya don’t wanna ^^

Would you guys be friends? Would you at least be acquaintances? And a question from a friend of mine, would the plague doctor suits that some of us them have be made up of corpses of y’all exclamation verse people?

I asked the !CU discord because these are actually decent questions.

General consensus among those of us who are awake is that we'd be acquaintances, and we're not quite sure if exclam even have corpses.

I'm kind of curious what the PDCU thinks about relations between them and us PCU folks now-

[lifefcrged]

okay so .... in this like ... one little group of tangled mess of roleplay that somehow got dubbed penny's cinematic universe (and not by me which makes it absolutely hilarious to me)

we have mikkah here. mutant.

and then we have mikhail, her twin brother at @intcthatgoodnight also mutant/ superhuman.

and then we have william at @ambitionfcrged who was their handler / trainer / whatever back in the day. also mutant / superhuman.

then we have arthur over at @valiantsword who is mikkah's 'canon' ship (though there are bouts of polyamory or what not that come and go as time passes) tog loosely based immortal.

in connection to that we have desi who is at @aeternals (or @riverguides ) who is one of arthur's long time friends, and a fellow immortal.

(which is also where @melodyfcrged comes into play as a baby immortal who was doing nothing but living her happy music teacher life when she literally just died in time to get dragged into all this chaos bc ^^^^ is the only one dreaming about her and vice versa - tog immortal based) (and also, involved in this is @factiousfcrged who is desi's long time lover / partner)

then we also have hale, over at @wolfisheart who is one of william's ... playthings i guess is the nicest way to put that who is a werewolf that runs a bar for william outside of the city where william lives with -->

@tornmemory who is (currently) unbenkownst to mikkah, mikkah's daughter - that she thought died as an infant, which was one of the events that led to her breaking free of her control and escaping. rosalie is also a mutant / superhuman, and has a programmed split personality, nadya.

then we have wren, at @somebadguys, who is a relatively 'normal' human slightly psychopathic woman that has been recruited by william to worm her way into mikkah's current circle

we also have rowan, who is an old pack mate of hale's who has been hunting him down for revenge bc she thinks he's responsible for the death of most of their pack way back when -- also at somebadguys.

and somewhere in there we have a random ass normal, human, ex military guy who stumbled into william's bar one day and got hired on as a bartender. which would be, dante, over at @nomadfcrged who sometimes sleeps with hale.

and also in there somewhere we have william sinking his claw back into mikhail and sending mikhail to lure mikkah away from all her immortal friends / bodyguards and everyone else so that he can snatch mikhail and mikkah back up.

and for good measure we have dark verse andy at @ofbloodandbullets who just flat out said fuck it i'm done after quynh was lost and disappeared into the wind. spy network / weapons dealer / the whole shtick.

her liaison for her group and william is @seismicplay (wip)

????? talk about a tangled web we weave how did this even happen ROFL. but also, wanted to kind of get this into one place and also to loop @intcthatgoodnight in in case you want to jump into the chaos and scheme with some of the other parties involved - but ABSOLUTELY ONLY IF YOU WANT TO i just wanted to get this written out and see if i've missed anything.

also this is the 'pcu' verse. for my record keeping purposes.

anyways that's the chaos that's been brewing the last couple days but it is literally just one verse for all these blogs and every character listed here is available for plots, potential ships, and angst outside of this verse !

[moved-melodiesfcrged]

Long fingers twist, pausing in their silent performance to curl in, and flex out, a habit from years of dull throbs and aches from overuse. It doesn't occur to her, yet, that those familiar pangs are no longer present -- she'd probably just equate it to whatever meds were being pumped into her system. One hand breaks free, rubbing agitatedly around the iv at the bend of her elbow. It was uncomfortable, painful, but she'd given up asking the nurses if they could take it out for her.

There were question - lots of questions, that formed as she listened to him, so many she didn't know if she'd even remember half of them. "No, I ... I wouldn't do that," she replied, a faint grimace twisting her expression. "I've ... recently come to understand how un-fun that is, so ... " Teeth pinched her lower lip, painfully, at his question, her gaze dropping down, and up to a random reflection of a headlight glancing through the pulled shades of the hospital room. Was it night time already?

I dreamed of you -- her gaze pulled up, searching his. She didn't know what she was looking for. "You mean ... before the hospital?" She already had a pretty good idea that's what he meant, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to be dismissed out of hand again. Somehow, she found herself doubting if he would do that though. She hesitated anyways. "I'm not sure what I can tell you will help -- it's --- " Lips pinched thin again. "The doctors say that I am probably suffering some form of ... trauma induced processing disorder, that I'm -- not remembering things accurately."

truth be told, desiderius was going to take the opportunity of ice chips or snacks to check on amos. he wanted to offer his lover a little affection, which he still planned on doing. only it would have to be delayed a minute or two until some of her questions were answered. something inside him also wanted a sounding board on how exactly to go over the whole immortal conversation while in a hospital. proving it with death, as arthur had done with him, wasn't going to be the easiest thing. watching the way her body twitched while she slept also made the idea seem extremely callous.

" you're welcome, " he finds his smile stretching more than he'd intended. gods, she was beautiful. based on what the article said she was also heavily into music. would it be weird to ask? he wasn't sure.

desi sets the plastic cup back down on the nearby table then stands tall. hands slide into his front pockets because he's not quite sure what to do with them. " not technically, " the immortal scrunches the tip of his nose. would it be too late to call arthur to see if he'd dreamed about her, too? even if he hadn't it might be nice to get another opinion on how to approach the coming conversation. " i dreamed of you, though. " felt like the least odd of everything he wanted to say. best not to head right into the well, you died part of the conversation. " and i'm fairly certain you know me because you dreamed of me, too. usually, in my experience, that always means a particularly special connection. but, before you brush me off as crazy would you mind telling me about the last thing you remember? "

[consequencesofargentdawn]

Hey CoAD, I hope the team is well!

I was wondering if any of the editor team have ever played the CRPG game named Tyranny? I have recently been playing it and couldn't help but think that the world state in that game is something that the PCU would've tried to enforce on Argent Dawn if they ever had the capability to. It's a positive think that they don't have that they don't have the kind of power to oppress and enforce their will on the community.

Even some of the villainous archons and their constant plotting against one another despite being part of the same oppressive faction reminds me of several PCU leaders and officers who treat each other with constant suspicion. The Voices of Nerat and Graven Ashe were reminding me of Shewp and Morsteth respectively the entire time I was playing.

I'm glad their organisation is crumbling, good riddance.

It is not a game we are well versed in, though we did a bit of a look up on it to assess the analogy. It is always rather amusing to see people find parallels in other media to this, be it in Star Wars, Game of Thrones or now this. From what we understand the 'Kyros' figure would obviously be the position of Perroy before his departure. Morsteth definitely has the 'swarm wrangler' vibe that 'Voices of Nerat' shows while it was a no brainer to see the comparison of 'Graven Ashe' to Coalburnt (even the name tickled a few of us), one who likes to project authority and gravitas while instead looking like an insecure pompous despot who fears shadows on every wall.

We certainly look forward to any other analogies given to us, though we cant' assure you all that we will agree with them!

[underworldfcrged]

Okay so for Lucian, my main verses for him post Underworld are that Raze injected him with some of Amelia's blood before taking off after the vampires, just in case he would work to resurrect him, and this is successful. I do have an au of this in pcu verse where it's Arthur that feeds him and it also works because Arthur is 2nd gen, which is the same power level as Amelia. With the events of Evolution taking place that night and the night after, he hasn't had time to catch up with what's going on - what happens between then and Blood Wars is undecided, I'll be watching that one tomorrow and then will come up with some plot that works.

[neopronouns]

pickencineversic: a gender related to the pickens cinematic universe by call me kevin

for anon! the top stripe is from kevin’s youtube icon to represent his godlike status in the pcu, the middle three are from jim pickens, and the bottom is from the sims plumbob to represent how most of the pcu is in the sims. the term is ‘picken’ from ‘pickens’, ‘cine’ from ‘cinematic’, ‘verse’ from ‘universe’, + ‘ic’!

flag id: a flag with 5 stripes. in order, they are faded sky blue, very light orange, silver, dark faded blue, and green. end id.

banner id: a 1500x150 teal banner with the words ‘please read my dni before interacting’ in large white text in the center. end id.

dni link

[factiousfcrged]

@riverguides sent a meme.

[ REST ] sender places their head in receiver’s lap. 

Bare feet propped up on the edge of the coffee table in front of him, a cup of hot chocolate on the end table, and Desi sprawled out across the couch next to him, his head and shoulders burrowing into Amos' side, resting on his thigh while Amos' fingers wandered aimlessly through the just slightly tousled curls. There wasn't much else he could ask for on days like this.

He'd tried to stop wondering what other shoe was going to drop when they had their moments of calm like this. It didn't always work. His free hand shifted, turning down the volume of the tv just a smidge before trading the remote for his cup to take a sip of the dark chocolate with extra marshmallows cocoa. He was only halfway paying attention to whatever old black and white Desi had put on. He was enjoying the whole not having to really think at all about it all. Just ... being.