MOVE-IN DAY
Welcome to Cadelle, cuddlers! The city is — for the most part, at least — very happy with the first wave of volunteers who have chosen to spend time here! To help everyone get settled a little easier, Mayor Drake and her team have put together a series of helpful booths, each staffed by friendly citizen volunteers who are more than ready to answer any questions characters may have.
▸ First things first: visitors will need to visit City Hall to officially enroll as a Cadelle citizen. Once complete, they'll receive their Welcome Packet, which will include all of the most important items for settling in. Characters will find keys to their apartment and associated mail box, their housing assignment, and their pre-activated CuddleCard, ready to go. In addition, the volunteer coordinators have included a newly printed map of the city, as well as contact information for various city-run organizations, just in case!
▸ Due to the influx of energy from all of the new visitors, the city’s computer systems have been experiencing some "minor hiccups". While this is nothing to be concerned about, characters may find themselves mildly inconvenienced — they may have received keys that don’t work in their door, or been issued someone else's room assignment unknowingly!
▸ If they've arrived during regular business hours, characters are, of course, able to visit the maintenance office on the first floor of each building for help switching out their mismatched keys or determining their correct assignment. However, getting settled after hours will require a little extra creative problem solving — like asking a new friend if sharing a bed for the night seems reasonable, sleeping on the couches in the public lounges downstairs, or maybe even roughing it for the night outdoors. (Of course, there's always the frowned-upon methods of breaking and entering... not that you heard it from us!)
▸ As with any move-in day, there’s bound to be lots to see and do. Characters may need help carrying their things, or even just help finding their way around. If they're lucky enough to find their room without problem, they may not be so lucky in their assignment. They may find themselves living underneath someone who's got to be part elephant (who stomps that much at 6 AM?!) or just above someone who insists on burning every batch of popcorn they make! Get out there, meet the neighbors, and see what this city has to offer!
CITY SCAVENGER HUNT
A few days after the big move-in weekend, characters will find an unread message on their CuddlePhone, encouraging them to check out the CuddleTalk network for a very special message from two very special guests. When they do, they’ll find a cute (but admittedly very cheesy) video message from Cadelle’s volunteer coordinators, Flora and Cornelius. The video highlights a few of the most popular destinations in the city — Blaze Pizza, for example, the home of the ninety-second wood-fired pizza, or Dinah’s, where you can enjoy a literal bucket of fries perfect for sharing.
At the end of the video, a link will come up for characters to click if they are so inclined. They’ll be directed to a sign-up page for a city-wide scavenger hunt, with a grand prize promised for the first team to complete the challenge.
Want to participate?
▸ Characters will be able to sign up for the scavenger hunt either on their own or with a friend. (The prizes remain the same regardless of the size of the team, so if your character wants all the money for themselves, they'll either want to race it alone or pick a very generous teammate!)
▸ Among the many delicious dining destinations around Cadelle, characters will discover three venues that the volunteer coordinators have tapped as their current favorites. Somewhere in those three venues, characters will find a beautiful framed photo of Flora and Cornelius.
▸ When characters find the photo, they'll be instructed to take their best selfie, being sure to capture themselves, the framed snapshot, and their teammate (if they chose to bring one along) in the shot.
▸ The first group to send in all three selfies will win the grand prize — one month's stipend worth of extra CuddleBucks! However, all competitors who complete the challenge will be rewarded with a token of appreciation — one week's stipend worth of CuddleBucks, just for playing along!
▸ While characters explore the city, they just might find some "bonus" surprises along the way. Keep your eyes peeled!
Helpful Hint: To find the secret locations (and any hidden bonuses along the way), check out our CITY DIRECTORY for all the amazing destinations your character can explore! Feel free to sort by category on the left, and click your way through your first big adventure in the big city!
Mod Note: For fairness, the "grand prize" winner will be determined by RNG in a drawing on August 4 at 3:00 PM. If your character would like to be eligible to win the grand prize, please be sure to leave us a comment so we can include them in the drawing!
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cuddlemods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
cuddlecity2017-08-01 12:00 pm
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[his confession is quiet. clearly in reference to planning a heist, because the press of three bodies together is most certainly a new sensation. len's fingers touch scars that he already knows all about. there's no need to explain them away, no need to glare and threaten death and dismemberment to someone who gets too curious. no, it's comfortable, leaving a surprising flood of warmth in its wake. or maybe that's the sound of sara's laughter, her shit eating grin, and the tangle of their legs that does it for him. he's not sure, if he's being perfectly honest though, it's likely both.
mick's hand drifts between len and sara, drawing lazy circles on her hip, scratching at the exposed bit of skin just above the waistband of his pants. he's tired even if his brain is whirring away.]
Distracting's right. I was planning on sleep and you both decided to interrupt. But I'm down with planning a little breaking and entering.Tomorrow, though.
First, you two owe me an apology. [the smile that crosses his face intended for both of them.] I'm not telling you how. Figure it out.
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still probably won't be much of a problem. at least not in comparison to the fact that he apparently has to figure out how to apologize to mick in tandem with sara.
len props himself up on his elbow so he can look down at her and raise an eyebrow. he's open to ideas, here. ]
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mick's probably on her hit list first, considering the way the lazy drag of his nails against her skin makes her squirm against the two of them a little. it's rude. as is his implication that she and leonard owe him something. that smile mick wears is Telling, reminds her a hell of a lot of one he wore when sipping fruity drinks on the beach in eudio, a substitute for aruba, and sara gives him a Look.
but then there's leonard, looking down at her expectantly; she turns her head so she can meet his gaze through the dim light filtering through the blinds, an incredulous kind of smile creeping at the corners of her mouth. god, this is ridiculous. )
If anything, I think Mick owes us an apology for not inviting us in the first place.
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especially if sara's suggesting that he's the one who owes them an apology. puh-lease. he's more likely to kick them them both to the floor so he can coocoon in his sheets than apologize for what? for not offering to cuddle with them both before now?]
I don't do apologies, you both know that. And the digs here are shit. My old bed was bigger. [and since he's tired of pussyfooting around it all...] And maybe I just wanted something nicer than a dorm room before I hit you up for a little roll between the sheets.
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it clicks after a few heartbeats that mick probably means both of them too. that--changes things. he tilts his head to the side and considers. he's well aware that sara and mick can probably see the gears turning in his head, but here in the darkness of dorms, he doesn't really mind.
what he does mind--and what makes his hand spasm a little against mick's arm--is the fact that he didn't think of it. if they were having this conversation somewhere else, it'd be different. 'cause in theory, he's all for it. but in a bed, crushed together, with the weight of some history leonard hasn't experienced pressing down on his shoulders? well, that feels a little like having his back against a wall.
intimacy has never been easy. he doesn't know why he thought this might be. ]
Well. [ he rests his forehead on the curve of sara's shoulder for the space of a heartbeat. gives mick's arm a little squeeze. ] Fit is a little tight. [ he sits up, swings his legs over until he's perched on the edge of the bed, bare feet flat on the carpet. ] And not in a good way.
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Leonard.
( two syllables, punctuated through the near darkness of the room, towards the shadowed figure with his back turned towards her. sara sits up, starts to move towards him with a hand outstretched, ready to give his shoulder an affectionate squeeze and she just —
stops halfway, mouth pulling into a small grimace, brow furrowed, eyes squeezing shut for a brief moment as she withdraws her palm. god damnit. no. he makes it clear that he wants his space, and she has to make herself remember that len's got careful boundaries, walls that he hasn't even begun to let down for her, and understandably so; sara's adamant about not burdening him with the ghosts of past versions of him that she's known. it wouldn't be fair to either of them.
having bitten her tongue for what feels like a moment too long, she sits up onto her knees, tries to reason, ever casual, ) Hey, finder's keepers. You got first dibs. Spot's all yours.
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mick frowns.
then sara goes on about finders keepers as if mick's bed (and by extension mick) is some kind of prize to be won. there's some careful negotiation shit that needs to be done but mick's not the guy to do it, he realizes with a start. that's leonard's area of expertise.
there's a pang in his chest that he's not too familiar with and isn't ready to put words to, not when things seem so dangerously tense. push too hard and it'll shatter kinds of fragile. the ball, for better or for worse, is decidedly in leonard's court. he furrows his brow, pinching the bridge of his nose as he struggles with what to say. finally, after long minutes, he pierces the awkward silence.]
I'm not good at this shit. But I don't want you two fighting on account of me. [his next words are directed specifically at leonard, as he sits up to peer at his best friend.] Offer stands if you want it. Otherwise? I'm gonna go crash on the couch.
[to sara he tosses a pointed look, one that screams, 'how the fuck are we gonna fix this' though he can't bring himself to actually say the words.]
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It's not-- [ you, he swallows down. huffs in something that would be amusement if this situation weren't what it is.
leonard has always been careful with his words. each one chosen so as not to give too much away. he's always been a witty liar, his truths doled out when and how he wants them to be, often wrapped up in something else. that won't help him here. not with his partner. not with his could-have-been. ]
I don't like missing something. [ he says finally. the memories he doesn't share with the two of them make him feel like he's on the other side of a two-way mirror, looking in on something he can't quite touch.
he squashes down the feeling and turns to face sara. expression soft and hands softer, he reaches out to tuck a stray bit of hair behind her ear. glances over at mick, an apology writ across his face. ] Stay. Both of you.
[ leonard doesn't move from the bed. ]
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( an almost uncharacteristically quiet response, restrained. sara could tell him that he's not missing anything, but that would be a lie. isn't she already lying, though, by not revealing the true nature of their relationship in eudio, by purposefully withholding things from him?
maybe, maybe not; luckily, sara's always dealt in moral greys. doesn't quite find comfort in them, but at least they're familiar.
len reaches out towards her and sara's eyes close, mercifully hiding the sheer amount of concern and care in her gaze, exhaling slowly as he brushes loose strands of hair behind her ear — sweet, gentle contact initiated by him, a sign of, perhaps, slowly moving past his own boundaries that she's all too familiar with.
even still, she also knows not to push. she simply sits back on her knees, stays, like he tells them to. waits, maybe, for mick's reaction to that, unable to gauge it from where she is right now — or maybe just waits for another sign from leonard himself. )
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he holds his breath as leonard carefully considers how to approach this situation they've landed in. mick waits for the moment to happen, for those words to fall from his lips, but somehow, they never come. instead, leonard talks about the missing bits, about how he doesn't like that there's parts he's been left out of. mick knows a little something about that too, having had his own taste of it when he'd arrived in eudio to friendships he hadn't really established and to sara's damning and vague answers which kept hinting at things he could only guess at.
so, mick gets how he feels, and the look he shoots back as leonard says stay to the two of them is equally soft, full of concern, because above all else, even if this leonard doesn't have memories of eudio, he still has decades of history with mick. he's still the one person who mick has always trusted, implicitly, even to his own detriment.
it's that trust that has mick shifting from his position. after a moment of internal debate, questioning if he should do something or if leonard will up and bolt if he does, he gives in to temptation, hand moving to cover leonard's, his fingers slotting into place in the gaps in between. mick has no answers to this. no guide book or carefully crafted heist notes. all he knows is that he trusts them both and that for those few blissful moments earlier, he'd felt truly content. he nods in reply to leonard's request to stay and his non-verbal apology, after all there's no other place he can think of that he'd like to be. for a few more silent moments, he shifts his gaze between the two of them. his voice sounds rough around the edges when he finally speaks.] Thank god.
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with a shaky exhale, leonard lists to the side, leaning into mick as his free hand comes to settle on sara's thigh. it's more contact than he's initiated with anyone in a long while, but it feels right in the moment. ]
I'm not drunk enough for this shit, [ he mutters, only half-serious. ] Let's just... sleep and deal with this later.
[ it's not the best plan ever, but if he has to deal with his emotions and issues-with-a-capital-i anymore tonight, he just might do something he'll regret. ]
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leonard's hand settles on top of her thigh and sara just lets out a long sigh, more relieved than anything else, finally allows herself to actually relax again, tension easing out of her shoulders. sure, they can deal with this — whatever this actually entails — later, which probably means not discussing anything that happened tonight ever, because not one of them has ever historically been good at the whole "feelings" thing.
... which is flawlessly demonstrated as sara places her hand on top of len's for a moment, meets mick's gaze with a downright dastardly smile, and lays back down (effectively self-sabotaging herself, considering how nice it felt to have leonard finally touch her for real), scoots up so her head can lay against the overlap of pillows, and chirp down at them, ) Come and cuddle with me, assholes.
( after all, they call this place cuddle city, don't they? )
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or he opes not anyway. analyzing it all hurts his head if he's being truthful.
sara proves to be the perfect distraction, her wicked grin beaming up at him and her words beckoning them both to come cuddle.
mick tosses a glance in leonard's direction, murmuring a quiet 'you comin'?' before he collapses back onto the bed, sighing as he settles against the pillows.]
I don't cuddle. [and yet he's already shifting to his side and reaching out for her] Better not snore, Lance, or I might accidentally kick you.
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Shut up and sleep or I'm kicking you both out. [ he says like this is his room and not mick's. like they weren't almost all about to split up because of his uncertainty.
he tucks his face back by sara's shoulder and closes his eyes. emotions are dumb and also draining. between that, the incredibly long day that involved him dying, and also the alcohol, he's ready to sleep like the dead for a little while. if the other two will actually let him. ]
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with a contented sigh, her head turns back to face mick again, mouth curling into a smile as her eyes close.
sleep probably won't come easy for sara, but she sure can pretend; present company means that the act of trying won't prove too difficult, aided by the warmth that a criminal on either side of her provides. it's been a hell of a day — dinosaurs wreaking havoc on a modern day city, being yanked into a new city, familiar faces, a kicked down door, and a break-in might rank pretty high on sara's list of messed up days — which is quite the feat considering all the shit the legends have been through.
this is, all things considered, a better-than-expected ending — or, rather, a beginning. )