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 Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:18 pm
When someone in the infirmary found out (he supposed she was the equivalent of a nurse, all busy-as-a-bee and just as harsh - he had not looked up her name because he didn't care) that Horace had received no infirmary training, she flipped. Without even a session under his belt, she'd huffed and muttered about how it 'about time'. It was a wonder that he knew how to do anything except bleed, she'd said. Horace tactfully refrained from pointing out that he was exceptionally good at bleeding. Obediently, he listened to her talk (her irritation with him often interrupted as other hunters came by to collect infirmary supplies), and wondered when he could get on with this duty. Horace knew it would be good to have some experience in the infirmary - so far, he'd only been in it to be treated or to bother a friend. He had no desire to revisit it. His fingers pulled at a stray thread on the edge of his tank top as he waited for her to finish. Eventually, he was told to wait and someone would be along to collect him. So he waited patiently, hooking his thumbs into his pockets and thinking about just how he'd decorate. A c**k made out of garland was sadly too tacky. Horace sighed. When was he supposed to find time to do all this? When he wasn't on duty or training he just felt... tired. All the time. If he could sleep for three days, that'd be nice. Jannisari, at least, perked up while in the infirmary; he could feel her watching from the corners of his eyes, even if she still wasn't speaking much to him. He picked up a scalpel and tried twirling it like a pen in his fingers.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:24 pm
Lawrence didn't think anything of giving anyone the basic run-down of infirmary duties generally, he was used to giving various green trainees the basic once over on infirmary protocols and hygiene and safety procedures, it was always wise to do, even if they weren't normally based in the infirmary at any point, when things really hit the fan it helped to have people versed in the fact that you had to wash your damn hands before you touched an open wound.
He did not expect the individual to be Horace and stopped in his tracks, considering for a moment what his next plan of action would be.
He took a deep breath and smiled, making his way over to the other man, all brightness and hair much longer than the last time they had met in person. "Horaaaace." he crooned as if the other man was an old friend and nothing of any consequence had passed between them. "Fancy seeing you here. Have you come to get the basics? It's been quiet lately darling, you'll be lucky to find anything exciting to strike your fancy" he automatically patted the other man's shoulder amicably - using the arm with the missing hand.
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2015 1:05 pm
He dropped the scalpel. It fell to the floor with a clatter and Horace might have picked it up if Jan wasn't right there, all amicably smiling and patting his shoulder. It was one thing to speak to Jan over twitter, to go round and round in the same circles of thought until it felt as though he was arguing with himself... And it was another thing altogether to see him in person again. They had met, of course, in bits and spurts since then - there was that awkward mission with the two of them and Rodney, for example. So far, Horace had run the great luck of not being assigned on duty with the other man, likely because Jan worked predominantly in the infirmary. He swallowed harshly, but did not flick at Jan's arm. "Hello, Lawrence," he said, trying out a name that foreign on his tongue as though with a different name he could pretend this was a different person. "They... they said I should have done this before, but I guess I missed that memo." He tried on a smile. "Your hair's gotten long." His own had, too - the unshaven part. "I'm not your darling."
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2015 4:29 pm
Lawrence maintained his easy affability right up until the point where Horace reminded him that he was not his darling, then he hurriedly withdrew his hand, looking stung and for a moment, vulnerable and derailed. He blinked, took a step back.
"Oh." he said. "Sorry. And er. Yes. It has. I don't er..I..you know why I can let it grow now." he said, smoothing out the fine and pale hair with his hand as if it had become ruffled by his surprise. "I. Well. I was supposed to do the brief tour, it's been quiet and I had time until room three needs turned and I was sent to do it. But I can get someone else to help you if you like?"
He looked around the quiet room. "Leslie is normally around.. but I think he is on his break."
Stooping without thinking he picked up the scalpel with a startling familiarity and ease. "Can't leave these lying around either." he said, and smiled brightly, setting it back.
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2015 5:06 pm
Horace almost averted his eyes from the stung look on Jan's face. It was a lie, he told himself. that was what the other man did: lied. He didn't feel things, even if he was exceptionally good at faking it, so good that Horace had... He blinked. It was better not to think about some things. Horace was glad Jan wasn't touching him anymore. "Why don't you tie it back or braid it?" Horace almost took Jan up on the offer to use someone use for a tour guide - anyone else. But it made him feel weak. He had to, someday, be able to function about this man without flashbacks to a cave, to a scalpel, or worse, to a warm bed. He swallowed as Jan picked up the scalpel and finally looked away. "It's fine... you can still show me around. N-no hard feelings, right?" After this, he was going to need a drink.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:41 am
Lawr seemed to seize onto the suggestion, touching his hair again. "I ..never really think to do much with it other than care for it." he said. "You were always imaginative that way. Not me."
He nodded. "And. ..er oh. Yes. Certainly. I can show you around. I just assumed you would not want it."
He worriedly rubbed his arm with his only good hand. "If you are absolutely certain."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:22 am
He remembered putting tiny braids in Jan's hair - a silly gesture. He remembered Jan telling him they were uneven. "Well, you could ask Melvin, I guess. I've sure he has some ideas." It was meant to be a flippant comment, but it came out a little strained and he cleared his throat. "Yes, of course I'm certain." He wasn't. "I wouldn't have it any other way." A lie. "Lead the way, min läkare."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:55 pm
"Melvin's ideas lie less in the realm of whimsy and more in the realm of efficient ways to clean things. He is a very imaginative man but within his very specialised and narrow domains. You were always specialist in other areas." It was unfortunate that he could not feasibly have them both, he could be well groomed and extremely clean and soft at the same time.
He was about to keep speaking but Horace using Swedish completely derailed him from what he had been saying as if the man had reached into his head and changed gear and stalled the whole thing.
He raised an eyebrow and forced himself back to focus..
"Du var aldrig patienten." he crooned with a slight smile. "But just this way, it is normally a tour of the facilities initially. It is primarily tents at the moment, even still, very primitive, so there is not a great deal to show. If it was the old infirmary you could show me where you woke up on the various occaisions."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 5:16 pm
"Hmm, I was somewhat less cleaner before I met you." He still used that shampoo he'd picked out with the intention of pleasing Jan. Horace had gone with Melvin; he grimaced. He should just throw it away. His brow furrowed for a second as he puzzled out the words... ah. Patienten could only mean patient. Something twisted in his gut. Well, Jan wasn't wrong. "Ja, I prefer gratification. I'm not sure I could even remember which room it was, after all." He could. Horace remembered the room and the way his back itched as it healed and how he'd wanted to tear off the bandages covering his chest. He trailed alongside Jan obediently. "It's a shame that I learned to speak so much." He was, of course, referring to Swedish. "Do you want to hear other things I've learned?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 5:36 pm
"You cleaned up rather well." he said. "I am partial to good hygiene, but I find myself fascinated by extremes in general."
He couldn't help the edge of the twang of his accent coming through wiith the switching between languages, finding himself thinking more in Swedish than English. He led the way to the store cupboard and had to stop himself introducing it as förrådsrum.
"This is where the materials are kept, anything checked out has to be recorded, same as the rest of the store rooms on the island, but you know how that works already."
He raised a brow. "What other things?" he asked.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 5:52 pm
"Yeah, they like to keep a tight leash on supplies. Though I've never been tempted to raid cabinets." Horace tended to pick up things left behind - lighters, unattended frozen fruit, pencils, bits of wire. Finders keepers, losers weepers, and all that. He propped a hip against a low table. "Um, you know, normal things like: Hallå, Jan. Hur mår du, läkare?" He'd learned other, less useful phrases, too. "Rövgöka mig för fan." Horace swallowed, and then shrugged. "Things I thought would be useful."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:04 pm
"Given the lack of funding across half of the divisions, most of the cabinets would be empty." Lawr said slightly tetchily. "I am not certain where most of the budget goes but it is likely directly into the coffers of Dr H."
He was about to go over the different basic materials when he stared at Horace initially for his first comment and then went wide eyed and scandalized for his second.
"Horace." he yelped before looking around them and remembering that most hunters were not fluent in much other than twitter insults. He exhaled, smoothing over his ruffled sensibilities.
"Well. Ja." he said, giving the word a deliberate twang. "They would have been."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:34 pm
"Is it weird - hearing it spoken?" Horace watched Jan intently. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing. "I learned a lot, actually, while I away. Funny to learn it all in Belgium; I'm not sure why I did it." Jan's Swedish accent lingered interestingly on the English words. Maybe he was doing it because he wanted to see if he could flustered the other man, get under his skin the same way Jan got under his. "Other words, too. Torrjucka. Var snäll och använd mig." He ran a hand through his hair. "What phrases do you think I should know?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 12:12 pm
"Very." Lawrence said, "It takes me back to before the island, even before I lived in Florida." It did not help with the strange sense of slipping he had lately, that he was lapsing into the old Lawrence who had known Maja and tried to be human and failed.
He stared in shocked silence at Horace before licking his lips and staring off into space, apparently looking for something to say.
"If only I had seen this side of you when I could have acted on it." he said, finally seeming to settle on a smile, a smile which ran against the grain of the slowly building frustration nestling in his gut at having his libido baited, frustration which was apt to strike like a slow charge of electricity looking for a lightning rod.
"I would not be the one to tell you, certainly not in public. I would have taught you before in a very hands on manner, now things are more civil and I am sure most pertinent phrases you could learn from a book. I suppose all you really need to know these days is hejdå. Goodbye."
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:08 pm
Horace watched Lawr's reactions with a hawkish intensity. He didn't really know what he was doing, but everything felt dangerous, somehow. "Hejda? Haven't you already taught me the meaning of goodbye?" He brushed past Lawr, deliberately touching shoulders and ghosting his fingers along Lawr's wrist.
"Weren't you going to show me the rest of it?" He gestured to the outside tents. "And I find I like other words, like snälla and ta mig dit, där du kan göra vad du vill." That last one was a song lyric - he wondered idly if that was cheating.
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