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 Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:11 am
It’d taken no small amount of ‘guts’ to convince him to return, to convince himself rather that it was safe to return. He’d started and stopped a handful of times, finding excuses to go, and reasons to delay. In the end he’d still made his way back, hesitating outside the front door, debating if he should head around to the back. What was it Ever had suggested again?
He swept furiously at his bangs, yanking his fingers through them and tucking part behind his ear, most of which immediately made its way free again.
Back, he was fairly sure Ever had said the back, but he was also fairly sure that there had been the word ‘Sneak’ involved. He was this close, he couldn’t turn back now.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 12:40 pm
It is a filthy habit, and certainly one that Ever has taken up since leaving school -- one acquired on the streets, just one more thing that would leave his father horrified, and perhaps that is the point. Or maybe the point is the aesthetic of it, of rolling the paper carefully between his fingers, licking it closed around a small packet of the cheapest, tarriest tobacco on the market, kindling the end, the first slow draw of smoke into his mouth --
And, of course, letting it out again. This will, perhaps, be what draws Zac's attention to the right door, to the shock of white hair, the tousled troublemaker settled against the wall outside the kitchens to smoke, so that he wouldn't offend the sensibilities of the kitchen girls. It's not that the men inside are being gentlemanly, no; the dance room is heavy with cigars and pipes -- but Ever is sent out back, out of sight.
And he doesn't really mind. The show's good once in a while, but he'd just as soon be out here, get a moment's peace --
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:18 pm
“Hey.” He called, just loud enough to be above average speaking volume, a distinct nervous edge to it but he’d still said something, and that alone was still further than he thought he could come.
“As I interrupting?” he asked and gave a small shrug as though he were the one answering the question. “No more trouble from my classmates I hope.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:56 pm
Cigarettes are a poor man's hobby, and with good cause; they stain his fingertips and, in time, will likely do the same to his teeth. Ever hasn't even started thinking about that, about the future, about tomorrow. It will be a long time before he does. Assuming he lives that long.
He is still puffing out smoke as his eyes settle on Zac, and his expression lights up quickly, from distracted thought to wicked amusement. He raises his eyebrows in question. "Around here, I'd be the boss anyway. Here to see the girls?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:15 pm
He rocked backwards slightly on his heels at the last suggestion. “Er…” He hesitated, and had a terrible moment of wondering if Ever was as ‘safe’ for the girls as he’d originally implied before realizing it was likely a tease.
“Did they throw you out?” He asked instead of answering the question.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:18 pm
Not a bad sally, if Zac intends it as such. A little dig in reply to Ever's, a little prod, a little tease. Ever chooses to take it as such, grinning as he taps off his cigarette and considers the remaining stub. Not too long before it'll burn down to his fingertips...
"I don't care about the girls. I've seen the shows a couple times, and I am impressed by their skill, but..." But, he makes a wobbling so-so gesture, and turns a challenging look on Zac as he does. "It is worth seeing, though, if you want to creep in? Just let me finish this."
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:23 pm
He laughed softly and glanced away, thinking. “… Sure…why not.” He said with a small rolling shrug of his shoulders. He’d come this far, why not…why not.
“… Your tobacco smells awful.” He added with a look that was somewhere between amused and critical.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:00 pm
"Mmm, but you'll tolerate it, because I don't have enough money to waste it." Ever raises his eyebrows at that, easy and thoughtless, as he brings the cigarette back up to his mouth. An odd statement, since this is the cheapest way to get the goods, since no one with pennies to rub together usually smokes anything but a proper pipe...
But he works through it, leaning against the wall and considering Zac. "I'm assuming that means you don't want to try it."
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:05 pm
He shook his head no. “I tried a pipe once, it was… disastrous. Apparently I’m a tremendous disappointment when it comes to such things.”
He was a disappointment about a great many things honestly. Still, the pipe hadn’t smelled that awful, not until he tried it, and this rather did smell kind of ‘off’ as far as he was concerned. Somehow coughing and trying to wretch didn’t sound like a good opener for the evening.
“But I’ll tolerate it.” He gave a flicker of a smile, maybe joking or maybe just to say he’d tolerated worse things.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:19 pm
"If you didn't throw up your first time, you're better off than some kids I've seen." It's amused, smoke puffing out of him as Ever looks upward. There's not terribly much left on the cigarette, at least. He works through it all at once before stubbing it out, and is still exhaling as he reaches out to grab Zac's wrist and guide him in through the back door.
They will enter through the familiarity of the kitchens, which is even more bustling now than it was last time Zac was here. There is music, noise, stomping from the other side of the wall. The show has started.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:23 pm
“Close enough I fear.” The idea of staining the fine carpet was possibly the only thing that had saved him from throwing up the way he’d wanted to. He and the servants both would have suffered through that fiasco.
The sound of the boot heels abusing the wood of the stage to the rhythm of the raucous music made his pulse quicken, though if it was nerves or excitement he couldn’t say.
He glanced nervously side-to-side as they passed through the kitchens, buzzing with activity.
“So…the feathers, did they make it to where they were needed?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:30 pm
"Adorning rumps as we speak, I suspect." He flicks a look back toward Zac, amused, and tugs him through a second door as well -- not out into the floor where men gather, drinking around small tables and watching the show with bright eyes, but into a narrow hallway where the music echoes around them. Backstage, then, with lights in the distance.
Ever gestures down that way, still holding Zac's wrist -- his fingers surprisingly cool, just a little clammy, maybe not entirely pleasant. But his expression is more so, all bright and laughing behind his eyes. "At least, judging from the song, I think this is the feathered number. Have you ever actually seen a woman in her skivvies?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:39 pm
“Of Course not!” He said scandalized before he realized how ridiculous that sounded in a place like this. “Well… a few pictures.” There were little cards that sometimes were passed about the school. Women in their skivvies or, some wearing even less, well turned ankles and tightly corseted waists…. But not really as glorious as the others seemed to find them.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:57 pm
Ever's grin says all it needs to -- that Zac has entirely failed this exam. The first answer shows his naivety; the second proves that his morals have wobbled, at least a little, over the years. So he doesn't voice the thoughts, just lets his expression glitter, laughing silently at the young man as he guides him forward.
The hall darkens before it brightens, dark except for the lights from the stage. It will blind Zac, briefly, before his eyes adjust and he gets a sideways view of those feather-adorned rears. The women aren't actually in their undergarments. There are no bloomers here, just corsets and shirts that bare their shoulders, flimsy excuses for skirts that just barely ruffle down to their thighs. These flick up as they dance, in sync, giving brief glimpses of something more.
Ever leans against the wall, though, and watches Zac's expression instead of the dancers.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:26 pm
Showy, quite flashy really, the dancing was more interesting than what they flashed though, scandalous though it was. He tried to be interested, but he wasn’t up to catcalls and wolf whistles.
“They are ahh… they kick very well?” He couldn’t quite bring himself to call it dancing. Dancing was something you did in ballrooms and with stuffy women in dresses that could smother a person if they ever desired it. This, was not dancing.
He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing through the crowed to see if he knew anyone within, anyone from his school that might make this into a nightmare if they knew he’d visited to see the young man who they’d beaten in the alley. It left him a touch, distracted.
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