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 Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:35 pm
"That is exactly the problem!" Roswell said. "I wasn't even asking for commitment, or anything of the sort. I wouldn't have said it, if my free will was involved! And he's not...a jerk, exactly, he's just out of his element, and I've been, well, obviously out of mine. In any case."
Roswell lead Fred down a set of stone steps, into a windowless section of the building that looked like it had been carved in medieval times, and only up-kept with the barest minimum of amenities. Lights had been strung down the gloomy hall, and their addition was recent. There were grates, for blood or water, it wasn't clear, and there was the distant sound of dripping onto stone. The rooms themselves had ancient doors, and Roswell travelled a good way down the bowels of what must have once been a castle to arrive at his own room.
The set of keys he had to his too-heavy and too-old door looked similarly archaic.
"Cozy," he said dryly. There was no bed, but there was a full set of medieval torture equipment. A rack, of course, and several chains and places for people(?) to be strung up, some cages, and some metallic devices that looked like they wouldn't be very pleasant to insert. Other items hung from pegs that were carved into the wall, as if someone had decided to mix their coat rack with their gardening shed.
"And can you believe!" Roswell said, "It came with the furniture."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:43 pm
Fred didn't comment on the not a jerk thing at all, just carefully sidestepping it entirely. "No kidding, I've never seen you so out of your element in my life. Talking about magic and all sorts of insane things. It pleases me so much."
He followed down into the dungeon, looking truly impressed by how completely messed up it was. "This place is old as hell." he said with laughter that rang in the echoing stone. "Not even any tapestries to eat the echoes."
The room itself made him laugh even more, almost jubilant in how completely out there it was. "Oh my ******** god." he said. "It's a ******** BDSM dungeon, you have an honest to god ******** torture chamber as a room. It has ******** grates and everything. I wonder if any of this s**t was ever used?? Man this place is ******** moved over to shake the rack a little bit. "I cannot believe you don't sleep here." he said sarcastically.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:47 pm
"It is not a BDSM dungeon," Roswell said, very firmly. "It's rusted and splintered and filthy. It is a regular dungeon. With...sanitation issues."
Roswell gestured.
"What am I supposed to do with all this? These items belong in a museum. Can I donate them? And yes, Fred. It was used. Very bloodily. And not cleaned afterwards, or possibly ever."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:51 pm
"If I wasn't wearing this good jacket, I'd climb up on that thing." he said. "Some chances only happen once in a lifetime. And it's totally ******** BDSM s**t, this is like something from one of those shitty romance movies. Is this where you are going to get your dumb boss to bring you?"
This seemed to crack him up even more. "Who would you donate them to? Maybe you can put up fliers like kinksters if you need some torture equipment just give me a ******** call." he grinned.
"Even the guys back home didn't do s**t this ******** up. This really is some private army bullshit isn't it?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:01 pm
Roswell turned red. "No," he said again. "He only said I wasn't sleeping down here. Honestly. I would never use any of this, even on an enemy. Although it's my understanding that the lack of sanitation was a part of the filthy, pre-medical torture process. And I have no idea what the organisation gets up to. The most I've seen of their inner workings is scrubbing the inside of tanks. Maybe this is where they dealt with deserters. Maybe they thought it was funny to give me. I don't know, Fred.
Maybe the room had a little potential, in an entirely made of rock with a history of letting screams echo off the hallways kind of way.
"If I was here alone, I would have made do somehow. The worst part is that if you knock on some of these doors, people answer. I have neighbors. Or I would. If I'd decided to do some very extreme home makeovering."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:59 pm
"I'm surprised" he said. "I always figured he'd have been all over this. Wasn't this his aesthetic and s**t?" he shrugged. "I'm amazed he didn't make you sleep here though, that was generous. What if you wanted to? Would have have let you?" He was still trying to get a handle on Lysander.
"I mean, nevermind if it's private s**t." It had been a long time and it was hard not to just fall into familiarity with Tom, as if he'd never been away.
"Yeah I heard like people have to live here, I just got lucky because there were some rooms up top that were empty. Glad, because this place would just play hell with clothes. God they'd get that mildew smell in them, maybe moths. I don't know if I could handle that."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:16 pm
"It isn't," Roswell said, not saying that Lysander's aesthetic was closer to stables. "It's not private. I could live here if I liked, but why on earth would I? Unless there were worse alternatives. I don't think there is a closet."
Roswell huffed, then gestured back out.
"If we're done contemplating our life choices?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:20 pm
"True. Though I fully support you thinking long and hard about some of your life choices just in case."
And then abruptly, seemingly apropos of nothing.
"I thought about mine for a long time and I'm sorry. I don't think I ever said it. Properly."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:32 pm
Roswell stiffened at that.
"You're..." He locked up, finding that his hands were shaking. "No," he said quietly, "you hadn't." If only he could find the stupid lock.
He looked up and down the hallway, and lowered his voice.
"Look, I knew, Fred. I knew you quit using over it. You're my brother, of course I know it effected...both of us. And I was yes, angry over it. It separated us. Not just between the two of us, but for everyone else, too. There was no going back, after it."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:40 pm
Fred tensed up himself, and for a moment there was something genuine and heartbroken in his expression but like a mere ghost it was gone again and his smile was back, as if it hadn't bothered him, as if it was all no big deal, just another thing along the way.
"Yeah, I know." he said. "I know we can't go back."
And there had been crazed times when he'd found himself utterly alone where he'd stood in front of a mirror with a knife aimed at his own eye and hadn't been able to do it.
"I just wanted to say it mate, no big deal or whatever, just a thing I never got to say. And it ..bothered me. Never saying it."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:50 pm
Roswell nodded.
He found the lock, finally, turning it in place.
"I, ah." He tested the handle. "I'm sorry. It's been several years."
It hadn't only been that, but both of them knew it had been the breaking point.
An unraveled thread that they couldn't rewind. When they stopped being Roswells, and started being Tom and Fred.
He'd gone back to Roswell, and it was a very singular name.
It wasn't like either of them had other family to think fondly on. Other brothers or sisters or moms or dads. Just them.
"But, thank you for saying it."
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 4:21 am
Fred nodded back, he wanted to say a lot more, to address all the things left unsaid after the s**t went down. At the time he'd been unapologetic in some respects, too wrapped up in his addiction to do anything about it. He'd gone out and gotten high to ignore it and only over time had the gravity of it all hit him. Quitting had been hard, but the thought that he could repair something of their relationship had been prime motivation.
He couldn't though.
"Yeah. And it's no problem." he said, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Should have said it sooner."
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:00 am
Even though Fred attacked him regularly, and caused all manner of problems, Roswell still felt oddly more balanced having him around. For both of them, it was easy to fall into step.
Easier now that he felt so completely out of step with everything else.
Fred had always been suited for dealing with madness.
"I was worried that they found you because of me," Roswell said.
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:10 am
"Still ******** taking credit for my achievements." Fred said with a big grin. "I think they just found me cause I wanted to be found. I dunno if I'd have joined if I wasn't in the place I was in."
He cleared his throat. "Another girlfriend had just ******** off." he said."This one took my apartment. I dunno why I thought to trust her with the lease but."
He shrugged. "They definitely found me because of me."
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:14 am
"Regardless, we both seem to have found our way here."
It would probably be very little time before there was another girlfriend.
"There's nobody to date here except coworkers."
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