stilljustandrew | [ainmhianverse] i sang in my chains like the sea

With an armful of books Lucas makes his way back to the castle. There's always research that needs to be done, and while it feels like he's digging at nothing, at least it keeps him busy.

"Oops, sorry!" He nearly careens into the man, looking properly sheepish a moment later. "I wasn't paying attention, uh...You're a new face. Aren't you?"

"Oh, hey --" Andrew makes an automatic grab for one book that seems to be sliding out of the other man's arms, and catches it before it falls.

And promptly looks deeply alarmed, as though he's broken some unknown social rule and expects immediate crushing disapproval. "S-sorry," he says, and holds out the book. "Um. Sorry. Yeah, I ... I just got here a couple days ago."

"Nice catch!" Lucas doesn't miss a beat, grinning until the man looks absolutely panicked. His smile softens with concern.

"You're fine. We're all new once, you didn't hurt me, just startled me is all." He hefts the books in his arms just enough so he can wiggle a hand free. He can't extend it out but if Andrew wants a hand to shake, there it is! "Lucas, by the way. And you're...?"

"Andrew," he says. "Is me. Uh --"

He doesn't go for the handshake; it looks like he's trying to work out how best to hand back the book he caught without toppling the others.

"N-nice to meet you?"

Okay, handshake is no go. Lucas retracts it just as easily, hefting the books in his arms again.

"Is it?" Sorry Andrew, you sound like you're deciding if this is a good idea or not. "I'm not gonna bite, I promise. I know being here is kind of overwhelming, uh, did you get the whole newbie spiel?"

"I, I did, yeah. I ... don't really know yet what I'm doing here, though."

And oh, that could mean so many things: why he was brought here, what his duties are going to be in Max's service, what he's going to do with all the free time Max seems intent on giving him.

He glances down at the book he's still holding, half-involuntarily looking for a title.

"I mean, honestly I'm still trying to figure that out some days."

All the sex stuff aside, there's no real purpose in being a supernatural investigator in a place like this. The fae like to keep their secrets, but he still means to try.

"Oh, uh, these are just some history books. Not sure if they're even from this world or not. Anyways, anyone show you around, or...?"

"... Some? I mean -- Max showed me where the dining hall is, and, and the baths?"

He doesn't really expect to use either of them very much, but it's still good to know; there will be times, he knows, when Max's room with its kitchenette and en-suite bathroom won't be available to him.

"Good places to start," Lucas says encouragingly. Poor guy still seemed so nervous.

"But there's a bunch more in the castle, and the city too! And I'm glad you ran into Max already, he's pretty great, right?" The guy is definitely the best impression anyone can get of being a Favored here. "Let me set these books down. If you want a tour I can show you a few more places around the castle at least?"

"He really is," says Andrew, with no hesitation at all, and with a smile that verges on worshipful. "He, he's been ... really good to me."

The offer probably shouldn't take him by surprise, but somehow it does. Agreeing is nearly automatic, though. "S-sure, yeah -- "

And he's still holding one of those books, so he's ready to follow Lucas to wherever he needs to put them down.

"Yeah?" Lucas raises his brows. Who Max sleeps with his honestly none of his business, but the guy doesn't waste any time does he?

But Lucas doesn't press the issue, there's a tour to give after all. Nodding in the direction he was originally heading Lucas continues to chatter away, feeling Andrew in on the layout of the city and talk about the process of mapping out the castle, which is a slow going project for sure.

It's not long until they make it to the summer lobby, where Lucas stops and indicates a door with a pumpkin on it. "Do you mind grabbing the handle for me? That's my room. We can chuck this stuff in there for now."

"Sure," Andrew says at once, and reaches to open the door. He stands aside to let Lucas through first, and then hovers hesitantly in the doorway, not sure he's welcome to come in.

He can't quite help looking around the room, though, as Lucas enters.

Lucas tosses the books into a haphazard pile, matching the rest of the chaos that exists in the small space. Other books, and clothes, decorate most surfaces as well as the mattress that lays directly on the floor.

"Uuuh...you can come in you know?" Lucas casts a curious glance over his shoulder. "Sorry about the mess. It's always like this."

At Lucas's invitation, he takes a few hesitant steps in -- and then shakes his head hurriedly at the apology.

"No, it's okay, it ..." He swallows, manages a smile. "Looks a lot like my room, back where I come from."

(He doesn't really think about not saying back home.)

"Oh yeah? Same organizational skills," Lucas's laugh echoes in the room. "I can find anything I need, you know."

Taking the book from Andrew he sets it upon a different stack for the time being. "So, where do you come from? A version of Earth or somewhere else?"

His eyes follow the book, like a hungry man tracking a sandwich, before flicking back to Lucas. "Um ... yeah, a version of Earth? Originally?"

He almost leaves it at that, but finds himself continuing. "I'm ... I've been staying at this place called Milliways, recently. It's sort of a multiverse crossroads inn? And I ... that's where I was, before I wound up here."

Lucas glances from book to Andrew and back again. A version of Earth is such an interesting way for a newbie to put things, but the context is soon revealed. This isn't Andrew's first rodeo.

"...Dude, for real?" He's surprised but not as much as he might have been, "There's someone else here who's come from another place that pulled people in, too."

Pursing his lips, Lucas is already mulling over the possibilities, "You said it's like an inn? Was there any, uh...dinosaurs?"

"Uh -- once, I think? Pack of velociraptors got in and tried to eat everyone at the Thanksgiving buffet, and a bunch of us had to fight them off. Unless you mean like as patrons, cause then um ... not that I remember."

(Something Lucas may or may not notice: he grows a little more animated as he starts to tell the story of the raptor attack, and then subdued again as he trails off.)

"...Huh."

His mind is spinning and he wants to ask a million questions! It's easy when he notices Andrew's deamnor changes, too. Caught up in that energy he bounds onto the next question, "Were they running experiments? Murder science? Who was it run by? Sorry, I have like a bajillion questions, this is...this is wild. Did you come here straight from the inn?"

"I -- I mean I didn't come here, not on purpose? But yeah. I -- was who running experiments, the raptors?"

Too many questions too quickly, apparently; he's gotten a bit confused.

Lucas snorts, choking down a laugh. "Sorry, dude. let's uh...let's try again. I can really let my mouth run wild sometimes."

But they do have a city tour to get to, so Lucas beckons for Andrew to follow. "Walk and talk? So you came here from the inn, right? No going home and coming here first?"

He falls into step following Lucas, to his left and a half-pace behind.

"Yeah," he says, "right from there, no ... no going anywhere else. I mean I pretty much live there these days, so. Or, or I did, I guess."

At first Lucas turns to adjust, so he can better watch the man while he speaks and keep an eye on where he's heading, too.

"Huh? Like...you could go home anytime when you were at the inn?" The way Andrew said that was just so odd to Lucas. Maybe he's reading too much into that or missing the point entirely, but better to ask and not dig that hole any deeper.

"..." He opens his mouth, closes it, tries again. "It kind of ... varies there? From person to person, but also from time to time? Like, sometimes you can come and go whenever you want, but sometimes the front door just sort of disappears. Or it's there, but you can't open it. They call it being Bound."

General. General is safer.

"Being Bound," Lucas repeats softly, still guiding them through the hallways in the general direction of the dining hall. He hopes.

"Man, this is some wild stuff! Who's they? Whoever's running it?" So many questions buzz in his brain again it's hard to keep his dumb mouth shut. "Like here we can get sent home on a whim of our patron...or I guess we can ask but I'm not sure you can just decide to go."

"Nobody's ever figured out who runs Milliways," he says, still following along behind Lucas. "I mean like, who decides who comes there and when, and whether they can leave or not. Someone started calling them the Landlord, but nobody's ever met them, and ... we don't really know if they even exist."

"The Landlord makes them sound pretty ominous." It's already creepy that no one had ever met them, though. Unlike here, even if the fae court kept their distance, they could still go and petition for things.

"Uuh, so this is the dining hall." Lucas says when they finally arrive. "They only have out out at certain hours but there's plenty of places around the city that sell some good things to eat. Oh, and don't annoy the cook, he can be...kinda gruff."

That's putting it mildly.

He nods, face serious. "So the food here actually gets cooked? Not produced by magic?"

"Oh, yeah! For the most part, seems like it's done the old fashioned way. Can't rule out some fae mischief from time to time, though."

Lucas frowns thoughtfully. "They like to 'encourage' people to get together so sometimes the food and drink has something in it to...uh, get the blood flowing, you know."

It sounds awful no matter how he puts it honestly.

"... Oh," he says, a little uncertainly.

And, after a moment of contemplating it further: "Oh."

"Yeaaaah," It's kinda bad, but also kinda not.

"It seems like that's only from time to time, though. Spice things up I guess?" Not that it makes it any better, mind you. "Usually at events and stuff. You'll know what I mean when you run across one. Like we had this whole like festival thing, like a renaissance faire? Or one time a tent rolled into the city and it had all sorts of kinky things for people to get into. So...there's that."

And if he hadn't totally spooked poor Andrew off yet...time to head out again! Lucas ushers the poor man forward.

Andrew follows him without any sign of being spooked off, although he does look a little ... puzzled, perhaps. Something between puzzled and worried.

"But they -- they don't make anyone participate? Max said ... he said nobody ever has to if they don't want to, here."

“Right, they don’t make anyone. They just...uh. Encourage them. I just steer clear of anything at the fae’s little festivities and usually it’s fine.” It also helps that Lucas is down to bone practically anytime, but he’ll keep that to himself.

“There’s a little library in the castle, uuh, the wine cellar, a magic workshop, a movie theater...or do you want to see some of the city itself?”

If Lucas is paying close attention, he'll see a tiny light kindle in Andrew's eyes twice during that litany: once at library and once at workshop. Both times it's shuttered quickly, as though he doesn't want to be seen showing even the smallest enthusiasm for anything.

But his self-discipline fails him at the last item, eyes widening. "A movie theater? How -- ?"

There's no missing Andrew's reaction to the movie theater, although he did catch the others. Lucas figures it's nerves holding the poor man back. After all the city can be really overwhelming, especially to newcomers.

"Yeah, for real! If you curry enough favor you can ask your Patron for gifts. So someone, Daisy I think, did that awhile ago and boom! Movie theater." Lucas had been just as stoked to see it when he arrived, too. "They rotate what's playing all the time so it's...a nice reminder of home honestly."

But he'll steer them in the direction of the little library nook first. A fellow nerd can always suss out another fellow nerd.

(Another reaction he can't quite hide: the smallest flinch, at the phrase reminder of home.)

He follows along to the library, eager to see what's there, and on sight of the shelves immediately cants his head in the typical reader's stance to read the titles.

Lucas catches that once again and wonders at it. Twice time might just be coincidence, but better to play it safe. He's only just met the poor guy, sometimes it's better to let someone spill the beans when they feel more comfortable.

"Any genre you like in particular?" Lucas asks, stifling a quiet snicker at the way Andrew cants his head. It's cute!

"Oh, I ... I dunno," he says hesitantly. "I used to be really into science fiction and fantasy? And comics? But ... it's been a long time since I ..."

He gives himself a little shake. "Anything that's new is good, really."

"Since you...?" Lucas starts. No way he's missing that. "I mean, there's no going wrong with a good comic book. Sometimes you can find some good ones when the fae are feeling generous, otherwise it's all porn."

Might as well give Andrew a heads up at any rate. "I mean, that's still not a bad thing, mind you, but..."

Lucas shrugs, sweeping his arms out at the books around them. "You never know what you're gonna get."

Edited 2021-04-27 03:03 (UTC)

Andrew's gaze follows Lucas's sweeping gesture at the books, and he smiles -- hesitant and uncertain, but still a smile. "Like a box of chocolates."

A beat, and he asks in a slightly lowered tone, as though afraid somebody might overhear: "What kind of good comic books?"

That gets a laugh put of the Medium, "Yeah! Exactly like that!" Man, it's good to get a reference like that from back home.

"I mean, I'm not a huge comic book nerd but all the classics. Superman, Batman, Justice League, Avengers, and stuff I've never even heard of to be honest." Lucas leans back, almost whispering, "No one's gonna say anything I promise."

Andrew is just nervous about taking one right?

His smile broadens when Lucas laughs, but oddly at the same time so does his look of fear, as though somebody might hear them and -- and what? Punish them for laughing?

"If ... if they have anything I've never heard of," he says, "that ... I'd like that."

"Well then, let's see what we can find!" Lucas hopes his enthusiasm helps put Andrew at ease, if only a little bit. Poor looks like he'd rather slink into the floor at a moment's notice than enjoy himself, but soon enough Lucas is pulling comics from the bookshelves and amassing small piles of them for Andrew to peruse. It's hours later before he realizes how fast time is slipping by, and unfortunately he has to get to work...

Days later, Lucas is pacing the little library nook, figuring this is one of the places Max or Rowan is least likely to be. His fretting could wear a hole in the floor as he goes back and forth.

Investigation is practically in his blood but Max's worry about him being sent home over it is finally bubbling to the surface, eating away at the Medium. He doesn't want to go home and lose everything here! It's not fair. Maybe it'd be better to ask the fae to take away his abilities all together, then he could more easily resist the temptation. But, his mind spins again, it's in his nature to be curious...and around and around he goes.

With his thoughts drawn inward Lucas doesn't even notice that someone else has arrived. Instead he whirls on his heels again, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "Arrrgh, why can't things be easy!?"

Andrew takes a startled step back as Lucas delivers the complaint, apparently directly at him. He takes a better grip on the little stack of comics that he's brought back, to keep them from sliding out of his arms.

"A-are you ... is everything okay?"

"Gah!?" Andrew's voice startles Lu as right out of his thoughts and nearly out of his skin. He clutches his chest, lungs heaving, wide eyes latching onto the other man's presence. It takes a good minute for the Medium to sort himself out.

"Yes?" It's not a convincing answer. Lucas throws his hands up in the air and begins to pace again. "Maybe! Not really!?"

At this rate he might cut a path in the floor.

"I'm sorry --"

He's torn between offering to leave and offering to help, and ends up hovering in miserable uncertainty.

"Dude, I'm not mad at you, I'm just--!"

The pacing increases. Powered by general aggravation with no real outlet he turns and stomps out another lap, close enough to Andrew to reach out and grab him. Which, after a long pause, Lucas actually does without thinking. Whipped up emotions cloud the usually strong mental barriers that keep out unwanted memories, leaving the Medium unwittingly defenseless.

"Sorry, I'm just...worked..." The apology slows down as a memory sweeps over him like a wave.

"So, look," Nita Callahan is saying, "we thought you must be getting pretty bored in there --"

You look up then, through the translucent cell wall, still rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, and see her straightening up from the stack of books she's just set down on the floor. Books, familiar ones, yours, and the sight of them is like a blow that knocks the air from your lungs, and something bound and buried deep inside you struggles awake trying desperately to scream.

No. No, you can't, you can't -- you smother it up, shove it back down --

"We got them from your room," Nita's saying, with a kind of hopeful attempt to smile. "It seemed we'd have better luck there finding stuff you liked? I mean, I could've raided my shelves, but books are so -- individual, you know?"

"Oh." You can barely hear yourself. You can't look away from the stack of books, you can't see the titles at this angle but you barely need to: that's a volume of Lord of the Rings (just one?), and a Heinlein juvenile, and the scuffed and taped-up spine of The Last Unicorn, and two Star Trek novels, and --

"Is this," and the dread is almost choking you, this is wrong, you shouldn't ask, but "Do I ... do I have to do something?"

(And if she says yes,) murmurs the memory of Lucifer's voice, your master's voice, and the sound of it makes you want to weep with dread and fear and longing, (if she names a price, Andrew, will you pay it? Do you still want these toys so badly as that?)

"No! No," Nita says in alarm and swift reassurance, too swift to tell whether you would be able to answer with that same no.

She's still talking as the understanding settles on you slowly, softly, like falling snow, like despair: you don't get to take the books back. Not ever again. Not ever --

Andrew's blinking at Lucas, waiting for him to finish the sentence.

[ainmhianverse] i sang in my chains like the sea

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