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 Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:29 am
Sighing, he pocketed his phone. Horace was overly conscious of the delicate balance between too little and too much. He liked Jan, found him relaxing and yet not, so he didn't want to outstay his welcome. Jan had, of course, never even hinted that he did not appreciate Horace's desire to visit. But, unfortunately, Horace was a boy who, if he let them, his own vague insecurities would well up and halt his movements, stutter his speech. Such weaknesses had no place here, he insisted to himself. No indecisiveness, no insecurties - he was here to be someone else. {nothing useful comes of this thinking. assume you are wanted because you are needed. I should not have to tell you this. do not be weak.} It was strange, but this was the Doctor's dry hiss of reassurance. Horace rolled his eyes as he jogged down the hall. Stopping in front of Jan's door, he ran his hands through his hair once, straightened his shirt, and knocked precisely thrice. "Hey, it's Horace. Can I come in?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:36 am
"It's unlocked." Lawr said, his door always was when he was at home, it was a dare of sorts, if anyone wanted to come in unheralded, he wanted to know about it and understand why. No one typically did.
The room itself was very very tidy and very clean. A foldable table stood off to one side piled with various skincare products and other odds and ends. The bedsheets looked expensive and luxuriant, a rich violet and trimmed with silk and satin. On the wall there hung an etching or at least a print of one which depicted a dark angel being turned away by a group of other angels. The room overall was sparse but opulent and expensive in the items which were there. The only exception to this seemed to be a lamp which had been glued back together into a deliberately sculptural and contorted shape.
Jan sat on the bed, dressed only in a white sarong and loose white shirt which hung off one shoulder. His throat was bare, the raw and healing cuts open to the air.
"I am glad you came" he said and gestured to the bed and a soft antique looking chair. "Pick your poison. "
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:20 am
Horace opened the door, looking around with marked interest. Rooms were private spaces, and surely Jan had been here long enough to leave bits of himself in every corner. Horace was not disaapointed, necessarily, with what he saw. The room itself was full understated finery; he admitted it seemed very like the man in front of him. He wanted to put a slash of color across one wall. All in all, Horace wasn't sure what he had expected, anyway. But, more than the room, it was Jan who caught his atention the most. The corners of his lips tightened and turned down; the angry lines of the other man's wounds were startlingly vivid against all that whiteness. It was a little like when he'd discovered old Roman statues, resplendent in their colorless marble, had originally been painted brightly - it did not ruin them; it was only different, uncomfortable. He wondered who had hurt him; his fingers itched. Without a word, he sat down on the bed next to Jan, shoulders touching slightly.
"What happened? Are you hurt elsewhere?" Horace's voice was a little tight, a little worried. It didn't look like a normal sparring wound, if Horace had to hazard a guess, but he could be wrong. He was new still, after all, and had to remind himself that he knew nothing, not really. One of his tanned hands reached up to tilt Jan's head to the side gently, exposing the slashes to better, harsher light. The pale skin was pink around the wounds - it was healing, of course, one of the hunters' perks - but it had to hurt. Horace's hand slipped down Jan's jaw to his throat, thumb idly stroking the skin just past the marks.
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 3:11 pm
Lawrence all but basked in the sudden attention at his throat, allowing the man to look over the gouges, rent slightly oddly for simple blade slices. "No, just there. It was my own fault, I tend to train at night, you can't always see what you are doing and once you are outside the wards and shield less, anything can happen. Don't worry about it pardner, it will heal, it just might leave a scar or two. Had to happen sometime."
Almost like a cat he leaned slightly into the contact. "You should always be wary when you are wandering around alone here. Monsters aren't all we need to worry about. " He smiled softly, reaching up to run a fingertip along the inside of the other man's wrist. "Also, I appreciate you defending me on twitter more than I was able to say, it is not often people stand up to that particular group of bullies."
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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:16 am
He shivered when Jan touched his wrist. "The people on twitter are all too ready to believe hearsay, I think. Everyone speaks in vagueness or says thing that are 'facts', but don't bother to bring up any actual facts. I suspect only you and America know what really went one between you two..." Horace trailed off. He did want to know, and he didn't. "Though I'm not right sure why people just go and believed her first. I don't like it." He was halfway to a joke about Jan showing his appreciation when the marks caught his eyes again. "And you're telling me you did this to yourself," he said flatly, one eyebrow arching. It was a little hard to believe the oddly restrained Jan had been so careless. Horace sighed. He enjoyed the way the other man leaned into his hands, enjoyed the contrast between the pale skin and his ruddy hands. He could fall for him, hard, he thought. Or fall for the Jan didn't push him away, fall for the man Horace thought he saw in him. And the appreciation Jan seemed to hold for his company, his words. It was easy. As he spoke, Horace slid his hand from Jan's throat to ghost over the wounds before settling back into his own lap.
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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:08 pm
"Yes. That is the way it is on twitter. A lot of people insinuating things they know nothing about and making their decisions on others based entirely on that very public face they construct. Someone might be completely pleasant face-to-face but come across as a rude heel on twitter. They would find it difficult to establish themselves outside that realm." He smiled. "And people always want to believe a pretty girl, one of life's rules you'll find. Don't worry too much about it."
At the attention once more on the wound he shook his head subtly, still savoring the attention. "No, it was an accident outside the wards while sparring, simply a random accident, our work is dangerous and weapons are dangerous." Besides the gouges if one looked very very closely, very closely indeed, there was a subtle purple cast about his throat where the chain had been. He had masked it as best he could with makeup but it was still present, though much faded compared to when it was first inflicted.
"It's very rough on this island but is nothing compared to what we are expected to fight. I am a pacifist generally. I will do whatever I can to avoid active combat."
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:08 pm
Horace laughed a little at the 'rude heel' comment. "Yeah, I know so far I've tended to make more friends than enemies on twitter. I don't mind it if I make enemies of the people who hate you, but..." With a disgruntled noise, Horace flopped onto his back and rolled on the bed until he was curled around Jan like a very large housecat. He stretched out one arm to lay it across Jan's thigh. He peeked up at the other hunter from somewhere around his hip. "Makes me almost wish I was a pretty girl." It was a silly, pointless observation, he knew. "It's kinda funny how you're still a hunter and a pacifist - it must not be easy. Although I don't really like violence, I'd use it to protect others." He squeezed Jan's leg, just a bit. Jan probably (almost certainly) didn't need to be protected, but Horace would ******** do it, all the same. Horace sighed sheepishly. "I'm being a terrible nurse, I know. D'you want me to do anything for you? I can't cook like you, so I'm sadly not much more good than a lap dog, but I'll do whatever."
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 9:17 am
Jan did not appreciate physical contact in the emotional sense, in fact it was often too much to handle, as a child he had been notoriously aversive to touch, recoiling even from the most subtle contact, over-sensitive to the fabric of clothing and other similar quirks. He had mellowed out in his adulthood a great deal, but still as a rule tolerated only what he had to to further his gain. This was not unpleasant however, Horace was warm and importantly - clean - and there was nothing grating about the lazy closeness.
"It would be an advantage on this island I am sure." he mused. "But I would surmise you would need to also develop a much more sycophantic and much less morally sound personality pardner to fit in around here."
The pale man smiled subtly. "It is much easier than you might well think. There is a general culture of brutality and viciousness within this organisation, and I suppose that is acceptable to those that accepted the cause as their own. I do not particularly judge it. But I did not sign up for this, I never agreed to anything, I was kidnapped."
He trailed his fingertips through Horace's hair gently. "You are certainly not being a terrible nurse. Your company has me feeling much better already."
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 2:14 pm
"Hmmm," he hummed against Jan's hip. "I kinda thought we were supposed to be the good guys, you know? Shining beacons of morality, or something. I guess armies don't really work that way." It was a little disheartening, but it's not like Horace could return. He didn't want to, either. Withdrawing his arm from Jan's lap, he propped himself up on one elbow. Sighing, he captured Jan's hand in his own, bringing it to his lips briefly, but frown creased between his brows as the other man's words processed.
"Isn't that ******** illegal? What happened - I mean.. they can't just kidnap anyone they wish, can they?" If there was a normal system of justice on this island, Horace would know what to do, who to report to, how to make it so Jan could go back home if he wished. But there wasn't and this wasn't a normal place.
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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:02 pm
"Unfortunately not." Lawrence said. "I feel like the positive moral spin on the organization originates almost entirely at the point of recruitment. And perhaps in the minds of some of the more idealistic hunters on the island. Essentially no one is the good guys anywhere in the world."
His eyes subtly half-lidded at the attention on his hand. He savored any reverential actions from the other man more than he would readily admit.
"And as I said, nothing is illegal here. I feel I was some kind of special case though, I was visiting a theme park centered around rumoured monsters. It was a...curiosity. The creatures got loose. Most people died. Deus made sure the creatures did too. I was one of the fortunate survivors. I don't think they go snatching people off the street."
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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 5:52 pm
Horace had wanted to believe, and maybe he still did believe - just a little bit, that hunters were the good guys and the monsters bad. And in that comparison, they were the good guys. It wasn't so hard to look good when everything else was so, so much worse than them. "I will try anyway, maybe, to be good. Or good enough." For Deus, for Jannisari, for him. Abruptly, he straightened even further, leaning just a bit into Jan's back, breath ghosting along his neck. "I think," he said, and paused to press a short, biting kiss to the nape of Jan's neck. He sucked just until the skin reddened - not enough to mark for long, but just for a while. "-if I could, I'd try to take you from this, Jan." He straightened even further and dropped another kiss: this time on Jan's exposed shoulder. Horace would do it, if he could. He did not think he could leave, not when he thought of how, maybe if dues had been there, he wouldn't have been plagued as a little boy. Or when he heard the other hunters tell that they saw reapers carrying away the essence of a human. Horace wanted to save people. But he thought that, in a better world, he could save Jan, or free him. It was a silly thought. His fingers traced patterns along that pale skin, loathe to lose that contact. Leaning over, he kissed Jan's jawline.
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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:13 pm
"I think if anyone can manage it, you can." he said fondly, shivering and evidently pleased by the proximity even despite his injury. "You have a tenacity so few people have, and a fairness they lack."
The ice blue eyes fluttered closed and his breathing grew more shallow, the pale chest rising and falling effortlessly. "Mmm." he hummed, as if tasting some new and delightful dish, exhaling in a breathless purr. "Oh I would like that. If we were out of here, the things I could show you. The life I could give you." He reached up to twine his fingers in Horace's hair and across his skin, shifting as he always did with his eyes closed to paying attention almost exclusively to scent.
"Perhaps when you get clearance you will be able to take me from this, albeit...for only a little while on leave. Maybe one day though, when you are strong - as you will be - maybe you will be the one to help me escape this island prison. I am...so very glad I met you."
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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:28 pm
Jan's words lifted him up, the tiny shivers even more so. The other hunter looked like some colorless hothouse flower, but he was a hurricane. Horace loved it. Every hitch in his breathing, every shudder sent a thrill down his spine. The fingers in his hair drew a startled, pleased noise out of his mouth. "I'm glad I met you," he breathed. "Whatever you want - we'll go."
He titled Jan's head slightly, mindful of the painful-looking wounds on his neck. Although the movement was gentle, the kiss that followed was not. Horace was all teeth and insistent tongue and the faint mint of toothpaste; because even though he wasn't a clean freak, he always wanted to come to Jan clean. It seemed fitting. His hand cupped Jan's face before slipping down to the soft skin of his throat, his chest, and finally, Horace slid off the bed in one smooth motion as well. He knelt in front of Jan, a grin dimpling his cheeks, hair falling slightly into his eyes..
"I aim to please," he said breathlessly. His hands stole up to the knot of the white sarong Jan wore, pausing only to stroke along the bare skin just above it. Horace tugged on the knot once, then deftly undid it.
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