Yeah, maybe. That ship I told you about was actually a building in the Nevada desert. But everything about the inside looked and felt like a luxury cruiseliner, right down to the flooded floor. So what if it's true? What if inside those buildings are things we can't even predict?
[There's a quirk of his lips.] That's the part that gets you? [He looks at his hands. He hasn't actually told anyone about the Nonary Game, so...give him a sec.]
Like I said, it was a building but at the time we didn't know it. One day last year, I came home after work and a guy in a mask unleashed some sort of white smoke in my apartment and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in a third class cabin on a ship. The room was locked and the floor I was on started flooding, so...I had to solve a puzzle to find the cards needed to activate the sensor myself.
The entire hall was full of water. D Deck was flooding fast, but when I headed up to B Deck that's when I found everyone else. All of us had the same experience. Guy in a mask, kidnapped, shoved into a room with a bracelet on our wrists and forced to find a way out before the room flooded. Once we were all together, a speaker in the corner started playing a broadcast.
[He pauses, digging into his memory to begin reciting.] "Welcome aboard. I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this, my vessel. I am Zero, the captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here. I mean to have you participate in a game. Some of you, I know, are familiar with this game. The Nonary Game. It is a game where you will put your life on the line. The rules of the Nonary Game can be found upon your persons. The purpose of the game is simple. Leave this ship alive. It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out. Seek a door that carries a 9. There is one last thing I must tell you. As you have no doubt surmised, this ship has begun to sink. On April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. 9 hours. That is the time you will be given to make your escape."
We split up and started looking around. Five decks, several locked rooms, puzzles behind all of those locked doors. We couldn't get the windows open and the water had completely submerged D Deck. What else were we supposed to think? Everything about that place made us really think we were going to sink.
As it turns out, it was a building that was used as part of the first Nonary Game nine years before. Building Q, designed to look exactly like the Gigantic, a sister ship of the Titanic. We were there to play a game for something really important, and the setting had to be exact.
I don't think any of us were expecting to find the desert and a car waiting for us when we finally reached the surface, but that's how it happened.
[ this is... a lot. dick listens to him speak the whole time with a light frown on his face. he'd known parts of this from junpei talking vaguely about it, but whole story... honestly, from the description alone, it sounds a bit like something the riddler or some other gotham villain would do. dick doesn't mention that, though.
because there are other things on that that strike him as a lot more important. ]
... So, a boat with multiple decks, puzzles with locked doors and nine hours. [ he raises an eyebrow a bit ] Maybe you were right to assume this was similar to what you'd been through. [ that aside-- ] Is that where you had to use the "morphogenetic field" the first time?
Yeah. Ever hear of Dashiell Gordain? Guy was a survivor of the Titanic's sinking, and because of it he ended up being obsessed with just about everything related to it...including the coffin of an ancient Egyptian Queen. Her bought her from the black market in 1912. About four years later, he bought the Gigantic, the sister ship. He hid the queen, All-Ice, or Alice, inside the bowels of the ship. People searched for her for years, but it wasn't until about nine or ten years ago that someone bought the ship and began searching themselves. But the body was gone. Inside the coffin was a drug called Soporil which was introduced to the market and made the buyer's company, Cradle Pharmaceuticals, rich.
[This is still important to explain the main question.] ...nine years before the Nonary Game I played in, the first Nonary Game was run. Nine people were put on the ship itself that was starting to sink, and nine others were in the building we would find ourselves in nine years later. Nine pairs of siblings, all kids. The purpose of the Nonary Game was to test for telepathy using the Morphogenic Field. [...] You need two factors in order to access the field. The first is epiphany and the second is danger. The game itself was meant to introduce danger and force these kids to access the field to save themselves, to see how easily it could be done to transfer information between pairs. It was life or death, and...a girl died during the experiment.
[So?] Nine years later, we played the same game. Zero kidnapped us and put our lives in danger. The killings started not long after we got there, and that's about the time we realized Zero was among us. It was revenge for what had happened all those years ago. [...] But...[He pauses, and he looks like he's going to stop outright because he thought about explaining this to someone else and couldn't get far enough to explain. The Nonary Game was an experience that changed everything he knew about himself and about the people around him, and he's still not sure how to feel about it. So. He stares at his feet.]
The purpose of the game was for me to save her. That girl. [Hm.] She saw a timeline where everything went a certain way, but it was a timeline in her future and my present. So. Schrodinger's Girl went through and recreated the vision as she saw it, changing rules as she saw fit. This girl was Zero, and she brought all of us to that building to help save herself and make sure she would exist instead of burning alive in an incinerator nine years in the past.
Timelines are a weird thing, you know? That girl was Zero, but she was also in the past and she was also in the present. [He frowns.] I saved her. There was something there that connected us in the Morphogenetic Field, so she could guide me to help me save her. Even though she died in that timeline, I was able to help her get out of that room and escape from the ship before it sank. Saving her meant that she could exist in the current one. But by the time we figured out how to escape ourselves and got out of the building she and her brother were already gone and I lost track of them.
[...he looks like he might say something else, but he rubs the back of his neck instead.] ...that wasn't, like, any of what you asked. [There's a quiet, unsure laugh like he's aware he's said too much.] Anyway. That's why.
[ wow! he thought the previous a lot was a lot! this is a lot lot!
there's the detective in dick that's taking everything in, filing it away to understand, to go through, to try and see if there's anything junpei wasn't saying so he can see the patterns and get the full picture. to know everything that makes junpei-- well, junpei. that paranoid part of him that's used to knowing everything about everyone.
but it's not the important part of this. junpei seeming awkward and unsure is, and dick isn't sure what to say. he moves, fluid, so that instead of tucked against him he's rolled sort of on top of him-- he's braced against the deck and not junpei himself, but it's still very close. ]
Nope. [ blunt; he figures lightening the mood is in order ] It's fine. You're doing all the sharing at once so now you never have to again, is that it? [ again, he's trying to joke. he leans back a bit, so he's not crowding junpei as much. the guy clearly wants a subject change, but with that on his mind, dick can only really think of one thing: ] Had a kid time travel back in time to change history not that long ago. Forty years in the past, and I keep wondering how he hasn't erased his own existence yet.
[Yeah he very desperately kind of looks like he never wants to talk ever again, but the thing is that when Dick moves he easily follows and brackets himself neatly under Dick. Even if he's not on top of him directly Junpei's going to stay still and watch him closely.]
She explained it once. I'm not explaining it right now. [But there's a strange grin and time travel isn't something he wants to think about. He misses Akane and he's thinking about her, but he's also accepting that somehow this is comfortable, too.
He's already made enough mistakes today, so he pushes at the side of Dick's face instead. It's more like a playful bat than actually trying to push him further away, because he's keeping things light and shoving all of his skeletons back in his closet, but. An attempt.] But yeah, you caught me. That's the last time I'll share ever again.
Please don't. I listened to-- [ there's a beat, only a second long-- ] to a, a friend talk about the scientific theory of that stuff way too much to want another lecture.
[ he's taking the playful bat as a-- not a rejection, there wasn't anything to reject, but a sign he's crowding a bit, so he sits back on his haunches instead in front of him. thinks of the last person he'd listened ramble about time travel and feels that hole again for a little bit. he grins, like it's nothing, like he doesn't-- nope. ]
Knew it. [ he stands back up a bit, holding a hand out for junpei to take to pull himself up ] Hey, how much time have we got left?
[ he's got an idea, but junpei's the one with the watch ]
[He's going to stay down on the deck for now. Crowding was fine, come back here? But he doesn't outright suggest he thinks so, or asks, because sometimes you keep your needy-ass tendencies to yourself and keep people at arm's length. He rolls his eyes.]
I'm not the lecturing kind of guy anyway. [That was always Akane. Akane with scientific lectures, Carlos with shounen speeches, and Junpei just. Along for the ride. Still, he looks at his watch and does the math to the time before taking Dick's hand to stand up.]
We've got a little under two hours. [He came to find him early.]
[ there's time. he thinks on that as he looks over junpei once he stands up. he has a hard time rewiring his brain not to think about how not too long ago he'd sucked him off in about this exact spot. he'd said raincheck and meant it, and they'd gone over so many subjects since he's not as wired up, but. there's a reason he'd been crowding junpei the entire time.
he tilts his head ]
Think there's time for a soak in the hot tub?
[ it's said almost as a joke, like he's not serious. ]
[It's fine, he's also stuck on a loop of how Dick sucked him off not too long ago and how he shot himself in the foot for a raincheck by tripping wires over Akane. Guilt is a strong motivator. But so is survival. Carlos already sort of made him think about how he has to trust people, and...if he can't trust one of his roommates who the fuck can he trust?
And it's probably not even about trust in the end, because he's not blind. He's sort of just remembering what life was like pre-game, when things were normal and he had a healthy sense of thirst.
So. There's an amused look.]
And I thought my propositions needed work. [It's a joke, hahaha, unless...? But he turns around and begins to head across the deck. Is he even bothering with the change rooms? Apparently fucking not. Maybe he'll reconsider if he's redirected, but he figures his underwear is about as much cover as a damn speedo so who cares.]
[ yea dick was never going to go get a speedo so that's fair.
he also follows once junpei heads over. there's a possibility the guy's joking, but. but dick takes more dangerous plunges on the daily-- if he's not afraid of jumping off a building, why would he ever be afraid of potentially being rebuked just because he's feeling a little too much right now? he doesn't want to push, sure, but if junpei's joking about it, then it's not a problem.
so, he grins right back, chirpy: ]
I could always get on my knees again, that one went over better.
[Junpei: really needy and wants attention and/or affection Also Junpei: incapable of fucking saying so and blowing everything off as an awkward joke.
He doesn't look back, but he shrugs as he walks, making sure Dick is following.]
I've had a few people tell me I need to relax this week. [Casually. But also hm.] And I haven't even seen a hot tub for, like, a really long time.
[Work bad. Soaking good. He approaches the closest hot tub though and honest to god perches up on the edge, legs tangling off of the side away from the water while sticking his fingers in to test the temperature.]
[ the lack of direct reaction to his comment makes it really hard to gauge, well, anything, but dick shrugs back himself and starts undressing next to the hot tub with like. no shame, while junpei's testing the waters.
mostly because the way he's perched awkwardly really makes dick want to push him in as a joke but he is being good. ]
Only this week? [ junpei hasn't exactly stricken him as the kind of guy that relaxes much in general. like, yes, pot, kettle, both black, but. he can still make the joke. ] Ah, I get it. The proposition didn't do it for you, but the tub did?
[That happens. But Dick starts undressing and Junpei's eyes wander over his form while he stays where he's at. He kicks his shoes off, at least, and he rolls his eyes at the comment.]
It's only been two weeks. That's a record. [A lazy splash of water inside the tub.] It's like I told Chuuya. Some people like to be treated delicately. [He's not above being pampered even if he's more likely to bend over backwards and do it for someone else. Then again:] And I hate being cold.
[That apparently is the reason the hot tub wins. It's getting later at night and even the barest chill outside isn't great. But with that said, he's moving to strip out of his shirt and unbuckle his belt. He'll have to stand up at some point but eh.]
[ the ocean air feels nice, to dick, though he's going to regret climbing back into his nightwing uniform with wet boxers later, but that's a later problem. he doesn't take long to undress fully, though he does make a show of stretching himself out when he notices junpei's eyes linger. it's only a brief moment before he's sinking into the water almost immediately after. he goes deeper than anyone needs to in a hot tub, lowering himself so only his eyes are peeking out at junpei for a second before shifting to sit in it further back like a normal person.
he doesn't think about his glow in the dark tattoo or how far he is from a weapon when they know there's a demon on the loose. ]
Was Chuuya being too rough with you? [ his smile is sly. ] We could've gone inside, instead.
[ the bed is warmer, what with three people sharing it. not that dick's been doing a lot of being in it this week. ]
[Glad that neither of these idiots thought about towels or had a shred of foresight. He doesn't even seem alarmed about being noticed, openly watching every movement Dick makes even as he stretches and disappears into the water.
They should maybe be smart, but...curfew's in a few hours. They can pause for a minute, regroup, and then go back to talking about the plot of the game. He balances on the edge long enough to get out of his jeans and remove his socks, shifting to slide into the water almost equally far. The difference is that he stays submerged longer to warm up. His own tattoo's still along his ribs, but he's ignoring it. The only reason he sits up again is to answer Dick.]
Chuuya's funny that way. [Zero explanation because he thinks it's funny and doesn't warrant an answer. But he shakes his head.] Pretty sure I prefer this...bed's nice but not warm enough.
[Given the fact his eyes are pretty much immediately closing, he's very content with this choice.] We'll have to be inside all night anyway. This was better.
[ two dudes! sitting in a hot tub! five feet apart 'cause they're idiots.
there's a bit of a thrill when junpei keeps openly watching, but then that moment's over, they're both sitting in the tub and dick's the only one with his eyes open. he thinks back to the relaxing comment but it's not like letting junpei fall asleep in the tub is a good idea, either, so. ]
So, unsubtle proposition, but ultimately a good idea? I'll take it. [ he pushes himself a bit closer, just enough that he can nudge junpei's leg with his foot. he thinks the words testing the waters to himself and lets out a soft huff out loud, like an idiot. ]
[He feels the nudge and the subtle sway of water, and it means he cracks open an eye to watch. Dick's progressively getting closer, and even though he thinks about keeping his distance he figures maybe it's fine. So. He shifts over to also draw closer, kind of swimming his way through so he doesn't have to get out of the water very much before settling next to him. Hewwo.]
I'm not really good with propositions. [He could continue, but. He waits.]
So what are you good with? [ it's as much an offer as a genuine question, and junpei is sitting right there, so-- dick nudges their legs together, a bit, leaning towards him and putting a hand down so it brushes against his skin on the bench. ] 'Cause we've established I'm pretty flexible.
[He's still going to stare at him because even while he's cozy and next to a hot dude his brain's running a million miles an hour. Still, that touch is a little more deliberate and that seems to help kickstart whatever he was thinking.]
I noticed. [He doesn't exactly answer the question because he has no fucking idea. Or, at least, an answer that's acceptable.]
If I had to guess? Impulse. [Which is why he sits up a little further and leans in closer. He's nose to nose with him, not quite in kissing reach but with a very firm intention here.] Some people are into that.
Yeah? If I start jumping you whenever I feel like it, it's gonna make our living situation kinda awkward.
[ he says that, but he's the one who leans in and closes the gap between them, kissing him with no inhibition, open-mouthed and soft. he brings the hand that wasn't near junpei's leg up to grip the back of his neck loosely, fingers playing with the strands of hair on his neck. ]
[There's obviously no verbal reply because kissing sure is happening, but there's a murmur of what's probably agreement and also "jump me, it's fine." He meets him for the kiss that he's been avoiding and leans as close as possible.
Still trying not to get out of the water too much, but sometimes you make sacrifices. Dick has the back of his head and Junpei's hands move under the water to rest one on his hip and the other over his shoulder to keep him there. He doesn't seem inclined to pull back anytime soon, but he's also not inclined to speed things up?
[ dick's fine continuing with the kiss for a while, smiling into it when he hears the verbal agreement. neat.
he's not trying to necessarily speed anything up, but he's got this one hand close to a leg that's doing nothing but balancing himself, and he doesn't need it at all if junpei's holding onto him? so he moves it to junpei's thigh but doesn't make any move otherwise, just resting it there instead. he likes slow and soft, too.
he pulls back just enough to murmur-- ]
Tell me when it stops being relaxing.
[ a half joke, half serious comment, before leaning in again. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ the kaleidoscope dimension, ]
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I'm sorry, can we go back to where a ship was in the middle of the Nevada desert?
[ DICK CANT TALK ABOUT THINGS BEING WEIRD BUT ???? ]
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Like I said, it was a building but at the time we didn't know it. One day last year, I came home after work and a guy in a mask unleashed some sort of white smoke in my apartment and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in a third class cabin on a ship. The room was locked and the floor I was on started flooding, so...I had to solve a puzzle to find the cards needed to activate the sensor myself.
The entire hall was full of water. D Deck was flooding fast, but when I headed up to B Deck that's when I found everyone else. All of us had the same experience. Guy in a mask, kidnapped, shoved into a room with a bracelet on our wrists and forced to find a way out before the room flooded. Once we were all together, a speaker in the corner started playing a broadcast.
[He pauses, digging into his memory to begin reciting.] "Welcome aboard. I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this, my vessel. I am Zero, the captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here. I mean to have you participate in a game. Some of you, I know, are familiar with this game. The Nonary Game. It is a game where you will put your life on the line. The rules of the Nonary Game can be found upon your persons. The purpose of the game is simple. Leave this ship alive. It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out. Seek a door that carries a 9. There is one last thing I must tell you. As you have no doubt surmised, this ship has begun to sink. On April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. 9 hours. That is the time you will be given to make your escape."
We split up and started looking around. Five decks, several locked rooms, puzzles behind all of those locked doors. We couldn't get the windows open and the water had completely submerged D Deck. What else were we supposed to think? Everything about that place made us really think we were going to sink.
As it turns out, it was a building that was used as part of the first Nonary Game nine years before. Building Q, designed to look exactly like the Gigantic, a sister ship of the Titanic. We were there to play a game for something really important, and the setting had to be exact.
I don't think any of us were expecting to find the desert and a car waiting for us when we finally reached the surface, but that's how it happened.
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because there are other things on that that strike him as a lot more important. ]
... So, a boat with multiple decks, puzzles with locked doors and nine hours. [ he raises an eyebrow a bit ] Maybe you were right to assume this was similar to what you'd been through. [ that aside-- ] Is that where you had to use the "morphogenetic field" the first time?
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[This is still important to explain the main question.] ...nine years before the Nonary Game I played in, the first Nonary Game was run. Nine people were put on the ship itself that was starting to sink, and nine others were in the building we would find ourselves in nine years later. Nine pairs of siblings, all kids. The purpose of the Nonary Game was to test for telepathy using the Morphogenic Field. [...] You need two factors in order to access the field. The first is epiphany and the second is danger. The game itself was meant to introduce danger and force these kids to access the field to save themselves, to see how easily it could be done to transfer information between pairs. It was life or death, and...a girl died during the experiment.
[So?] Nine years later, we played the same game. Zero kidnapped us and put our lives in danger. The killings started not long after we got there, and that's about the time we realized Zero was among us. It was revenge for what had happened all those years ago. [...] But...[He pauses, and he looks like he's going to stop outright because he thought about explaining this to someone else and couldn't get far enough to explain. The Nonary Game was an experience that changed everything he knew about himself and about the people around him, and he's still not sure how to feel about it. So. He stares at his feet.]
The purpose of the game was for me to save her. That girl. [Hm.] She saw a timeline where everything went a certain way, but it was a timeline in her future and my present. So. Schrodinger's Girl went through and recreated the vision as she saw it, changing rules as she saw fit. This girl was Zero, and she brought all of us to that building to help save herself and make sure she would exist instead of burning alive in an incinerator nine years in the past.
Timelines are a weird thing, you know? That girl was Zero, but she was also in the past and she was also in the present. [He frowns.] I saved her. There was something there that connected us in the Morphogenetic Field, so she could guide me to help me save her. Even though she died in that timeline, I was able to help her get out of that room and escape from the ship before it sank. Saving her meant that she could exist in the current one. But by the time we figured out how to escape ourselves and got out of the building she and her brother were already gone and I lost track of them.
[...he looks like he might say something else, but he rubs the back of his neck instead.] ...that wasn't, like, any of what you asked. [There's a quiet, unsure laugh like he's aware he's said too much.] Anyway. That's why.
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there's the detective in dick that's taking everything in, filing it away to understand, to go through, to try and see if there's anything junpei wasn't saying so he can see the patterns and get the full picture. to know everything that makes junpei-- well, junpei. that paranoid part of him that's used to knowing everything about everyone.
but it's not the important part of this. junpei seeming awkward and unsure is, and dick isn't sure what to say. he moves, fluid, so that instead of tucked against him he's rolled sort of on top of him-- he's braced against the deck and not junpei himself, but it's still very close. ]
Nope. [ blunt; he figures lightening the mood is in order ] It's fine. You're doing all the sharing at once so now you never have to again, is that it? [ again, he's trying to joke. he leans back a bit, so he's not crowding junpei as much. the guy clearly wants a subject change, but with that on his mind, dick can only really think of one thing: ] Had a kid time travel back in time to change history not that long ago. Forty years in the past, and I keep wondering how he hasn't erased his own existence yet.
[ ... time travel is wild, is his point. ]
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She explained it once. I'm not explaining it right now. [But there's a strange grin and time travel isn't something he wants to think about. He misses Akane and he's thinking about her, but he's also accepting that somehow this is comfortable, too.
He's already made enough mistakes today, so he pushes at the side of Dick's face instead. It's more like a playful bat than actually trying to push him further away, because he's keeping things light and shoving all of his skeletons back in his closet, but. An attempt.] But yeah, you caught me. That's the last time I'll share ever again.
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[ he's taking the playful bat as a-- not a rejection, there wasn't anything to reject, but a sign he's crowding a bit, so he sits back on his haunches instead in front of him. thinks of the last person he'd listened ramble about time travel and feels that hole again for a little bit. he grins, like it's nothing, like he doesn't-- nope. ]
Knew it. [ he stands back up a bit, holding a hand out for junpei to take to pull himself up ] Hey, how much time have we got left?
[ he's got an idea, but junpei's the one with the watch ]
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I'm not the lecturing kind of guy anyway. [That was always Akane. Akane with scientific lectures, Carlos with shounen speeches, and Junpei just. Along for the ride. Still, he looks at his watch and does the math to the time before taking Dick's hand to stand up.]
We've got a little under two hours. [He came to find him early.]
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he tilts his head ]
Think there's time for a soak in the hot tub?
[ it's said almost as a joke, like he's not serious. ]
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And it's probably not even about trust in the end, because he's not blind. He's sort of just remembering what life was like pre-game, when things were normal and he had a healthy sense of thirst.
So. There's an amused look.]
And I thought my propositions needed work. [It's a joke, hahaha, unless...? But he turns around and begins to head across the deck. Is he even bothering with the change rooms? Apparently fucking not. Maybe he'll reconsider if he's redirected, but he figures his underwear is about as much cover as a damn speedo so who cares.]
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he also follows once junpei heads over. there's a possibility the guy's joking, but. but dick takes more dangerous plunges on the daily-- if he's not afraid of jumping off a building, why would he ever be afraid of potentially being rebuked just because he's feeling a little too much right now? he doesn't want to push, sure, but if junpei's joking about it, then it's not a problem.
so, he grins right back, chirpy: ]
I could always get on my knees again, that one went over better.
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Also Junpei: incapable of fucking saying so and blowing everything off as an awkward joke.
He doesn't look back, but he shrugs as he walks, making sure Dick is following.]
I've had a few people tell me I need to relax this week. [Casually. But also hm.] And I haven't even seen a hot tub for, like, a really long time.
[Work bad. Soaking good. He approaches the closest hot tub though and honest to god perches up on the edge, legs tangling off of the side away from the water while sticking his fingers in to test the temperature.]
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mostly because the way he's perched awkwardly really makes dick want to push him in as a joke but he is being good. ]
Only this week? [ junpei hasn't exactly stricken him as the kind of guy that relaxes much in general. like, yes, pot, kettle, both black, but. he can still make the joke. ] Ah, I get it. The proposition didn't do it for you, but the tub did?
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It's only been two weeks. That's a record. [A lazy splash of water inside the tub.] It's like I told Chuuya. Some people like to be treated delicately. [He's not above being pampered even if he's more likely to bend over backwards and do it for someone else. Then again:] And I hate being cold.
[That apparently is the reason the hot tub wins. It's getting later at night and even the barest chill outside isn't great. But with that said, he's moving to strip out of his shirt and unbuckle his belt. He'll have to stand up at some point but eh.]
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he doesn't think about his glow in the dark tattoo or how far he is from a weapon when they know there's a demon on the loose. ]
Was Chuuya being too rough with you? [ his smile is sly. ] We could've gone inside, instead.
[ the bed is warmer, what with three people sharing it. not that dick's been doing a lot of being in it this week. ]
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They should maybe be smart, but...curfew's in a few hours. They can pause for a minute, regroup, and then go back to talking about the plot of the game. He balances on the edge long enough to get out of his jeans and remove his socks, shifting to slide into the water almost equally far. The difference is that he stays submerged longer to warm up. His own tattoo's still along his ribs, but he's ignoring it. The only reason he sits up again is to answer Dick.]
Chuuya's funny that way. [Zero explanation because he thinks it's funny and doesn't warrant an answer. But he shakes his head.] Pretty sure I prefer this...bed's nice but not warm enough.
[Given the fact his eyes are pretty much immediately closing, he's very content with this choice.] We'll have to be inside all night anyway. This was better.
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there's a bit of a thrill when junpei keeps openly watching, but then that moment's over, they're both sitting in the tub and dick's the only one with his eyes open. he thinks back to the relaxing comment but it's not like letting junpei fall asleep in the tub is a good idea, either, so. ]
So, unsubtle proposition, but ultimately a good idea? I'll take it. [ he pushes himself a bit closer, just enough that he can nudge junpei's leg with his foot. he thinks the words testing the waters to himself and lets out a soft huff out loud, like an idiot. ]
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I'm not really good with propositions. [He could continue, but. He waits.]
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So what are you good with? [ it's as much an offer as a genuine question, and junpei is sitting right there, so-- dick nudges their legs together, a bit, leaning towards him and putting a hand down so it brushes against his skin on the bench. ] 'Cause we've established I'm pretty flexible.
[ literally and metaphorically! bonus. ]
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I noticed. [He doesn't exactly answer the question because he has no fucking idea. Or, at least, an answer that's acceptable.]
If I had to guess? Impulse. [Which is why he sits up a little further and leans in closer. He's nose to nose with him, not quite in kissing reach but with a very firm intention here.] Some people are into that.
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[ he says that, but he's the one who leans in and closes the gap between them, kissing him with no inhibition, open-mouthed and soft. he brings the hand that wasn't near junpei's leg up to grip the back of his neck loosely, fingers playing with the strands of hair on his neck. ]
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Still trying not to get out of the water too much, but sometimes you make sacrifices. Dick has the back of his head and Junpei's hands move under the water to rest one on his hip and the other over his shoulder to keep him there. He doesn't seem inclined to pull back anytime soon, but he's also not inclined to speed things up?
~Relaxing~]
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he's not trying to necessarily speed anything up, but he's got this one hand close to a leg that's doing nothing but balancing himself, and he doesn't need it at all if junpei's holding onto him? so he moves it to junpei's thigh but doesn't make any move otherwise, just resting it there instead. he likes slow and soft, too.
he pulls back just enough to murmur-- ]
Tell me when it stops being relaxing.
[ a half joke, half serious comment, before leaning in again. ]
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