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 Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 3:43 pm
"Well now you are here, and I think you'll find that most tourist traps fail resoundingly to live up to expectation. Paris smells horrendous, for instance, the leaning tower is tiny, the mona lisa is far away. Everything is disappointing, but perhaps for some people that is the lesson they want to learn by traveling." He laughed almost to himself. "It is all however - much superior to the dismal island."
The wigs were examined as he replied. "Oh yes, I could, it has been getting a little longer these days, I simply don't know if I want to cultivate any more of an erm. Well, eccentric appearance than I currently have. "
The mention of Rin's hair was interesting information which was noted along with all the rest. "- when she took her little vacation." he finished Melvin's sentence for him.
"Do not apologize to me, it is fine. Odd is my livlihood. I forget when I began, it was something I simply stumbled into after a line of other vocations which did not help people as much as I would have liked to." He smiled wolvishly. "I was a vet once, you know."
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 4:21 pm
"still, I don't think it's something I'd tire off. It would be nice to feel like I've done the normal sorta of human goals that people always put on their bucket list to say they have lived life. I don't want to look back and say 'I've been to the Sahara, but only have the memories of pain.'" He gave a heavy sigh before he regarded the wigs and looked back at Jan.
"I don't find your appearance eccentric. I find it rather refreshing when so many people are slovenly and don't care what they wear or how they keep themselves shaved and trim. I know some of the women here are actually very good at it, but so many men on the island don't seem to care. I know times get bad, but even I haven’t allowed myself to not go without a shower." Even if he had a few bags under his eyes. If anything, more time alone made him more obsessive with his routine. At least he forgone the face mask for the trip out.
"Can I ask what places you enjoyed the most after all your traveling?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 5:50 pm
"There are exciting things to be found along the way, just not always where you expect to find them. We have advantages, even if we are prisoners on a long leash. It is always possible to make new memories." He turned away from the store and headed towards the other shops, smiling gratefully. "I am glad at least you don't mind my tastes, I find yours very delightful and fully agree that simply because we are forced to deal with monsters does not mean we must develop the bathing habits of them."
He moved smoothy, his footfalls effortless, like a man used to moving through crowds, and the Christmas shoppers moved around them like a school of fish and he felt like a shark again. "I suppose we can set an example."
Giving Melvin a glance over his shoulder he replied. "The most? Hm that is a tough question. There are some beautiful churches across Europe. I don't think I could choose, they all have their ups and downs pardner, every trail is different and its different every time you travel it."
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 6:10 pm
"Hmm. I guess you are right. You're more traveled than I am on these matters after all." He said, following as best he could behind Jan to try and get next to him. The fluidity the death hunter had was absent in Melvin, who slowed occasionally to look at something that caught his eye before doing a few quick steps to catch up again before repeating the whole process again. Most of all, while Jan moved beside others with ease, Melvin tried his best to avoid brushing up against anyone. He would hate to ruin the spa experience by brushing up against someone with a dirty jacket.
"Churches? Are you religious?" He asked, finally managing to find a spot beside Jan at last among the hustle and bustle of European holiday shoppers. They were nearing a shopping district, the bright lights and decorations giving him the faint heartache of home once again.
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:19 am
Everything about Melvin was subtly noted, from his careful efforts to avoid being touched to what sort of shops held his interest. Most of the world was irrelevant to the Death hunter, a sea of greys and irrelevant, brief people and things that were simply a means to getting exactly what he wanted. It was pleasant like this when something or someone held his attention, when they became part of getting what he wanted, when he permitted them to be part of his life. Melvin would never understand how lucky he was, he thought, even when he was tossed into the jaws of the horsewoman that offered him youth he would still be oblivious to the honor Lawrence did him by allowing him his presence and attention.
"Yes. Not exactly loudly." he said. And he was religious, though it was inherently blasphemous, a religion where the texts and poems he read spoke to and of him. He was the deity of his own religion, a perfect creature that moved upon the face of the earth, that one day would receive the reverence and respect due him, Mevlin was an apostle, as was Horace in his worldveiw. Their reward would be the enlightenment of experiencing the true, deep nature of the world. He was a teacher.
"I enjoy the peaceful sanctuary of holy places. When you can speak to spirits, it is frankly impossible not to be religious in some way or another."
Not long after this, another shop seemed to hold his attention, this time a jewelry shop. "I will just be a moment." he said, heading inside.
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:39 am
He let Jan step inside and wondered who he was buying a gift for. A jewelry place was namely the place a man went to get a watch or a gift for a woman. Melvin stood outside, allowing Jan a moment of piece as the Lifer stood outside looking at the display. His eyes wandered to a few golden necklaces with crosses and thought about religion for a brief moment.
His family had only gone to church on Sundays, celebrated the main holidays, but they went as everyone else went. He never was "touched" in any way, and the act of going to church and the holidays had always translated to a family event to him and not a religious one. There were times when he was younger where he asked for things from God, but they grew few and far between when he started to depend on himself for what he wanted. When science and classwork because the only resources he had to get the answers to his shadow visions.
He had only recently asked one thing of any higher power a few months ago – the first night he was alone.
He never got that answer, but now he wondered if this was the response. Jan.
He looked to a set of rings shown for the holiday season with names like "Forever" and "Eternity." He looked at the rings for a while and pulled down the sleeve of his sweater enough to brush his fingers again against the scar on his wrist.
He didn't want her gone again. Maybe someone crazy was in order when she came back.
Wondering, he took a few steps down to look at the next shop which, to his surprise, was a woman's lingerie boutique. Headless mannequins wearing red teddies with white-fur trimmed underthings made him smile of another gift idea. It certainly would be more up her alley, but then again, it probably was more a gift to him in the end.
To which he remembered her body, pale from blood loss, cold from the freezers, and lined with stitches during her autopsy, sliding into the rusted furnace to nothing but ashes.
Would he ever get to touch that body again? When she came back, would a replacement be there for her? Would she be born again whole?
He gripped his wrist and gave it a squeeze.
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 12:04 pm
Jan emerged not long after from the jewelry shop, a bag in hand. One of the cards he'd pilfered had been successfully transaction maxed but he'd also done his shopping for people. Melvin got a cheery smile as he made his way over.
"All done." he said triumphantly. "Anywhere you'd like to stop off before we go see to dinner?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 12:23 pm
"Just a few stops." He said, and with Jan's help, headed out. His list was small, both to funding and to knowing so few people. He decided he'd go get a few bags of coffee for Jordan's stash to allow him to have something for the long winter season. For Noah, who he didn't know that well, he decided to get him a new set of gloves for gardening, a book on plants, and then some candies because well, he didn't want to get him stuff that just seemed like work. He could only hope the man liked chocolate. He got some knickknacks in case he had anyone else sprung up in his mind last minute that he didn't remember.
In the end, he was still left with one person, and wasn't sure how to go about it. All things he wanted to give her belonged to a woman's body. It wasn't something he felt Jan would want to have on his person. Would a necklace work or would he be better off just giving Rin chocolates to eat. He was stressing too much over it. Rin was here and he wanted to give her something, but he wasn't sure exactly how to please her when she wasn't physically here to spoil her. She loved plants though, but she had an entire greenhouse for that. He wanted something that would make her current situation seem less glum.
He still wasn't sure what to do before he told Jan to wait a while and returned later with another bag. It probably was stupid, but if Rin did come back reborn, he wanted her to feel better. Maybe it was best if he just left it in his room and let her have it later.
"We can go eat now." He said, tucking the smaller bag into the others and adjusting his coat.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:20 am
While Melvin shopped privately, Jan picked up a few extra things of his own, using up the other card until its limit on various things that he had been meaning to get. Melvin got a pleased smile as he returned.
"Let's go, I have a place in mind."
The restaurant was high class and decidedly expensive, but the food itself was very much worth the price. Jan chatted animatedly the whole time about the food they were having, evidently very keen on experiences, whether they were culinary or otherwise. He did not seem to have many reservations about spending Melvin's money on it either. At the very least, his manners were impeccable and it was evident he was used to this sort of high living.
When they were fed - and wined, Lawr had managed to drink a good portion of a bottle of wine through the meal - he waited until they were outside the restaurant to ask. "Do you have a preference of hotel?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:29 pm
Melvin thrived off of others talking. It was the defense to avoid being the one to talk, as he was awkward when he had to choose what to say, and he became defensive when asked too many questions (with all questions being too much). Jan was a threat in his easy and comfortable way and it put Melvin at ease in turn. He was also aware that he hadn't really had a conversation that wasn't a few minutes with coworkers and despite his tendency to ask more than talk, he would still ask and say a bit more than usual. He couldn't tell if he was more comfortable talking to Jan because of the man's personality and like mindedness or because Melvin was in some way just having a conversation with Rin. In the end, it had been a treat. The bill however did make him wince, but he considered it nothing when it was for Rin. It was money after all and not anything he was using since she had left him - or as Jan said, gone in "vacation."
Out in the streets, Melvin was lost in thought before he moved up beside the man, jerking his hand back a moment when it brushed up against Jan's. "Uh - well you have the same standards as I do and I don't know the place. You decide. I trust you won't steer me wrong."
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:44 pm
Jan did not recoil from the contact, smiling softly instead. "I am very grateful for you letting me choose where we go. I will do my best to find us a good hotel." He knew where he wanted to go, he'd been there before, on some of his many trips down south to get into the midst of the city.
The place was quiet and secluded but with a very clean modern charm, it appeared to have been recently renovated, different than even Lawr remembered it, he requested only one room, citing the price as the reason, and it was expensive indeed, but when they opened the door into the pleasant smelling, clean room with its expansive bathroom and shower, it was clear why.
"Much much larger than my room on the island." he remarked approvingly. "And a shower." He couldn't help but exclaim shower with the same sort of reverence he'd reserved for the mention of churches earlier.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:50 pm
He hadn't been at a hotel since Valentine's Day with Rin, and he wasn't sure what Jan had intended by it before but hadn't asked – which was saying something in and of itself. The spa, the shopping, and the meal had relaxed him and had left him with plenty of questions and thoughts that had him zoning out occasionally throughout the day, but not that Jan was ordering the room, he was brought back to attention about what was happening.
The room was one, for the two of them, and that alone had implications to the hotel concierge who was directing Jan to the hotel sign-in ledger. Their names were fake of course, and Melvin showed Jan his card to make sure he used the right name. That might have also made the encounter a bit stranger to outside observers. That aside, he had to consider that they were sharing a expensive room, but he remembered that it was because for the standards Jan and Melvin both enjoyed, getting two rooms probably would have been too steep. If anything, Jan was being as comfortable as he seemed throughout the day with life gained from being worldly and traveling, and Melvin was just a uptight stiff who couldn't relax a fraction. Jan was being NICE to consider his paycheck.
In the room, he set the shopping bags down and shut the door with a 'click of the automatic locks before moving around. For one room, it was massive, and it carried the scent of clean linens. As Jan mentioned 'showers' with the holy grace a sanctuary of clean deserved, Melvin looked in and gave a whistle. "I can see where the money went." The bath was large with jets on the sides, and the shower was pane glass on either side with jets as well. Something that allowed steam and water to work again stress and muscle tension – which he was started to feel right about now when he caught the sight of the lone master bed further off.
"Did you want to take a shower first?" He asked, turning on a few lights to light up their room. "I can wait. I don't think this place is like back home where we have to worry about the hot water going away. Bet we could take a bath for hours and never get lukewarm water."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:44 am
Jan seemed to be at complete ease wherever he found himself, there was no awkwardness or shyness about the way he moved through the room, setting his things down before inspecting the layout and cleanliness of the place in a cursory sort of way, the bed caused him no hesitation. Insofar as the man was capable of moods, he was in a good one today.
"I could." he said thoughtfully. "Though it is very large shower. We could share it though. I am not particularly body shy and it is always pleasant to have company with standards." he waved his hand vaguely. "Rin misses you too, she is very enthusiastic about this whole situation."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:34 am
While Jan moved with fluidity about the room as if he had lived in the suite for months, Melvin stood as a stiff lamppost at the mention of sharing a shower. It was spoken with such ease and with no concern to any of the implications, and he had to wonder what even made Jan uncomfortable if he could move through a foreign city, have a foreign entity in him, and invite a man he barely knew into a shower with him as if he had done it a million times before. Well, he probably had done the first two, but what of the last?
The tie in to the question was that if he took it, the mention of Rin proposed she would make an appearance, but that also mean that any appearance with Rin in the shower could have him reenacting the video he lent Jan. Would he be able to keep himself from that – and should he?
Well, he should. That wasn't the question, clearly. Right?
It was more that – did he want to?
Would it be better to keep himself separate from Jan in moments like this, or take on the invitation when Rin seemed nothing but approving of the situation. What would she make of it if he tiptoes too close to Jan and Rin and worse, what would happen if he mistook signs and stepped over the line with Jan? If the man became alarmed or offended by any of his actions, than his relationship and tie to Rin would be taken from him. He'd ruin his only chance.
What does Rin want? What will help keep her here and keep the tie stronger?
If Jan's body was his temple, his reactions to an invasion could be taken with the utmost insult, but his temple held the sole goddess missing from Melvin's life. The thing that could keep it moving and complete again from before.
He couldn't turn himself away from that.
"If you don't mind…" he managed, his voice pinched as he felt his thudding at the danger he was taking on. He tried to sound as casual and as unnerved by the situation as Jan, but he failed as miserable at mimicking his attitude as he did with anything else Jan had done.
"…and if she doesn't mind." He added.
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