open } hiding wolves in wicked skins their darkest sides preserved

[krmvgivv]

Who: YOU
Where: Wonderland
When: 11/11 - 11/13
Rating: Will vary a lot depending on the thread
Summary: Catch-all log for anyone who wants to do stuff post-challenges but still during the event.
The Story:

[Congratulations, you solved all three challenges! Now you get to hang out and wait for your friends to also finish. Plus, you still get to turn into neat animals. Have fun!]

Comments

[theothermrgray]

Worse?

[How could it possibly be worse than a labyrinth filled with enemies and your worst nightmares?]

What do you mean?

[postictal]

Give it a few months. You'll see.

[That's a hunch, but given the way things have been going, he thinks it's a pretty good one.]

[theothermrgray]

... Ah.

[Dorian takes another drag of his cigarette, deciding to try making little smoke rings as he ponders the possibilities.]

At least it's over for now.

[postictal]

I guess.

[It's not, though, is it? If it were over he wouldn't have a tape in his pocket and a dozen reminds for something he doesn't wanna think about.

It's never over for him.]

[theothermrgray]

[Dorian glances over at Tim, and notes the tired look in the other man's eyes. There is a sense of pity, now, but the memory of the frightened boy from Neverland lingers.]

[Better to not address the issue directly. This man wouldn't take too kindly to that.]

... Do you drink?

[postictal]

No.

[It's more of an issue of can't drink, but saying so tends to raise a lot of awkward questions. He needs to keep those to a minimum. So instead he flicks ash off the end of his cigarette, wryly.]

One vice at a time.

[theothermrgray]

Of course, of course.

[You can juggle more than one vice at a time, Dorian's living proof of that. However, some people just can't hold their liquor and there is nothing wrong with that.]

[The next thing he could think of suggesting were carnal pleasures, but he refrains from asking. There's an unspoken rule about society, and that is "all men prefer women unless proven otherwise." Though, Dorian could easily get the proof he needed once the man trusted him enough...]

... Going to watch a movie isn't a sin, is it? Just to get our minds off things.

[postictal]

[Tim considers the words blankly for about fifteen straight seconds. The air is silent but for the slow, bracing inhalation of smoke and nicotine.

Is he...]

What, um. [Is it egotistical to presume as much? That'd be laughable, seeing as Tim lacks pretty much anything related to an ego, but now that he's thinking about it he's having trouble really pinning down what the guy is even asking.] Are you, like...asking me out?

[theothermrgray]

... What?

[Wait. Ask me out = date.]

No! No, it's nothing like that at all. I just thought it would be something to do now that awful ordeal is done for.

Like I said, to get our minds off things.

[He leisurely takes another drag, hoping Tim isn't getting the wrong idea.]

[postictal]

I'm not a movie guy.

[An easy excuse. He can say - what, movies remind him of the friends he lost, the friends he killed, implicitly and explicitly, the pretentious jerk who ruined his life by dragging everything through the dirt, just when he thought he was safe from it?

Yeah right. He's not about to say a goddamn thing.]

[theothermrgray]

Oh? I thought you would like them...

[Movies are a staple of modern culture, right?]

... Though I suppose the library is just as good. Really, I'm more used to reading a novel than watching a movie.

[Dorian is still from the 19th century. He'd try new things, but he also appreciates familiar things.]

[postictal]

If that's what you like to do.

[The guy is trying, he can admit that much, but Tim's also pretty firmly of the mind that no one should be getting to know him at all. If he can stonewall him at every turn, lead him to believe that there's genuinely nothing worth knowing there - then that'd be for the best.]

[theothermrgray]

[This fellow is more stubborn than Victor. Quite a challenge, indeed.]

I could recommend a few good stories if you're interested.

[postictal]

[Of course he'd take Tim's reticence as a personal challenge. At least until he inevitably gets bored and disinterested. It says a lot that that's really the best ending Tim thinks he could hope for.]

Didn't the library get all burned up a few weeks ago?

[theothermrgray]

[Dorian raises an eyebrow.]

I'm not too sure. I went to the library a few days before this event started, and it looked good as new. No scorch marks or anything.

[Yeah... Dorian kind of missed the library war zone of 2016.]

[postictal]

Lucky you.

[He takes another drag of his cigarette to buy himself time, ignoring the phantom tingle of a shotgun barrel colliding with the side of his head. He's had worse. He's definitely had worse.

Still hurt like a bastard.]

Not real eager to go back there after the last time.

[theothermrgray]

Oh?

[Finally, something Dorian can work with. He seems awfully concerned when he asks...] What happened the last time you went there?

[postictal]

Some guy molotoved the place and hit me in the head with his shotgun.

[All said utterly deadpan. It's your choice whether you'd like to interpret it literally, Dorian.]

[theothermrgray]

[... How do you NOT interpret that literally.]

I'm not familiar with the term "molotov," but that sounds absolutely horrible!

Thank goodness somebody cleaned the mess up after the lunatic came to his senses.

[postictal]

It's like a flaming grenade in a bottle.

[Tim sounds incredibly calm about the entire ordeal, all things considered. Mostly because that was far from the worst he's endured.]

[theothermrgray]

[Dorian pictured the American invention being lit on fire and placed in a bottle. Just as horrifying as the real thing.]

Goodness! What sort of madman throws bombs in a library? The very thought is barbaric!

[postictal]

He'd just arrived, far as I can tell. Thought he was someplace else.

[He hasn't really got any latent resentment toward the perpetrator. He can understand doing terrible things while being discombobulated.]

[theothermrgray]

[Why is Tim being so calm about this? Normal people aren't calm about arsonists attacking people unless...]

Was the man taken from the middle of a war?

[Dorian puffs on his cigarette, wondering if Tim was also in the military. As far as he knew, soldiers have different views on life and death.]

[postictal]

I have no idea.

[He didn't really ask. He could've gathered more information based on context, but it didn't really matter, huh?

Not a whole lot, no.]

[theothermrgray]

Hopefully, he's calmed down a bit since then.

[He'd rather not have a gun pointed at him today, thank you very much.]

... Anyway, I could probably loan you a book if you like. You don't have to read everything in the library if you don't feel comfortable there.

[Seriously. Free books. Not a bad thing at all.]