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[propatriamori]

Hello? Hello, this is Edward Courtenay. I believe if you leave a message here, I will get it later and respond.

Comments

[voice] post-radio tower event

[lonedanger]

I am assumin' this message will reach you since it ain't text on a screen, so. Just checking in to see if you're doing all right, after we climbed all those damn towers. Held your own for a fella without the benefit of sight.

[voice]

[propatriamori]

[It is unfair how that accent drives straight through Edward. He's surrounded by Americans, and most of them sound the same, except this one. How Len manages to sound exactly like the cowboy books Edward used to read as a boy, he has no idea, but Len does.]

Thank you for using the voice feature. I've learned how to make the device read aloud to me, but this is easier.

Yes, I'm all right. Glad to be out of the rain. And yourself?

[voice]

[lonedanger]

[ Regrettably, Len noticed as much when they were divvying up duties to mess around with the frequencies. Some people are just particularly susceptible to the novelty of it.

He chuckles. ]

I ain't wet, which is an improvement. 'Fraid we don't get a whole lotta rain where I'm from. Weather's usually dry as a bone.

[voice]

[propatriamori]

[Edward is both very English and had only met a few Americans back in his own world. He was a guaranteed victim to the accent.]

You're from the American West, I presume?

I can't say the same. It's frequently raining in England.

(distinctly uncomfortable) voice

[taediosum]

Hey. It's Arcade. There's something I want to talk to you about. Nothing serious. Just... Uh, let me know when you have some time? If you have some time.

voice;

[propatriamori]

[Thank goodness, someone polite enough to use the voice feature on this contraption. Edward spoke to someone recently who insisted on using text, and it was definitely not his favourite thing.]

Of course, Arcade. What's troubling you?

[taediosum]

Well—

Maybe it's better we talk about it in person.

[ Asking over the radio about, like, personal monster stuff feels kind of rude. ]

Is there somewhere I could meet you?

[propatriamori]

[Intruiging!]

I’m parked at the edge of the convoy, if you’d like to come meet me. I’m near…

[Hold on while he stomps his foot a few times.]

The Turtle Tank. Behind it.

audio, @root

[alittlebeastliness]

[It would not be at all accurate to say that Root has bounced back quickly: the events of the circus still weigh heavily on her heart. But right now, her breezy and upbeat tone betrays none of that.]

Hi, spider-twin. I've decided we should be friends.

audio, @edward

[propatriamori]

[He thought they already were but okay.]

Hello, Root. Have you been settling in all right?

[alittlebeastliness]

[Root is like a stray cat: she has to decide to establish friendship all by herself, on her own terms.]

Oh, you know. One step at a time. The convoy's cute, if you're into communal living.

[The airiness doesn't go away, but it sounds a little more forceful: like she's decided ahead of time what her demeanor in this conversation is going to be, and she's not willing to deviate from that.

She has, needless to say, been sleeping in her truck.]

Do you want to be my mentor too?

[propatriamori]

You get used to it. I can introduce you around a bit, if you like.

[Edward has been hobo-ing around amongst his various friends, hitching rides in other vehicles since he can’t currently ride his motorcycle. Long story short, he might decide to crash in her truck too.]

I would be happy to teach you what I know. If nothing else, practicing the hive mind would benefit us both.

[He’s pretty flattered that she’s asking.]

May I ask if you’ve developed any other new skills?

NSFW spillover

[propatriamori]

[OOC: from here!]

"Ah, I see. I am quite familiar with Murphy's Law, then. And I've heard of the internet. It sounds very complicated."

But also wondrous. He wishes something like that had been around during his own time. Maybe he would have had an easier time adjusting to things, with a source of technology like that at his fingertips.

As for shifting, Edward shakes his head. "No, it's not painful. It probably should be, but it feels more like stretching a muscle than anything else. It only hurts now because of my injury." He tilts his head up a bit. "What about yours? Do you have another form as well?"

Andrew is so far almost entirely human. Besides breathing fire, Edward doesn't know what else he can do, or what he turns into.

But then any curiosity about Andrew's transformations is washed away by that sound he makes, and Edward realises he wants to hear more of those noises. Moreover, he wants to be the one responsible for drawing them from Andrew's throat.

"I can do that." He leans in, pressing their lips together, and he's much less shy this time, his tongue teasing over Andrew's lower lip. One of his upper hands lifts and entangles itself in Andrew's hair, giving it a tug to try and elicit that gasping, needy response again. The other upper hand slides around from where it had been on Andrew's back to move over his chest, feeling along the line of one pectoral muscle, learning the shape and curve and texture of his skin.

The lower two hands, always braver and more enthusiastic, drop to Andrew's belt. The left one drops even lower, cupping Andrew's bulge through his pants and giving it a gentle, appreciative squeeze, before rejoining its partner and making short work of opening his belt. The zipper follows, and then Edward tries to work Andrew's pants down over his hips.

He pauses, leaning back a fraction of an inch from their kiss. "Still good?"

[hauntcursed]

Andrew was sure there were a lot of people who would agree about the internet being complicated. He'd grown up with it though, and sometimes he still forgot he couldn't just pop open Google or something here.

Stretching a muscle was sort of how he'd describe his own shifting, if he had to put words to it, though he didn't know if he would've been able to come up with that description on his own. But he was glad shifting wasn't painful for Edward. "Yeah. I can turn into a dog. I'll tell you all about it, later." Just not right now, because everything about turning into a dog--as much fun as he'd had the first time, after he'd settled down from his time on the carousel--wasn't something he could manage to focus on when there was so much else going on.

Almost without thinking about it, Andrew leaned in too, meeting Edward halfway with the kiss. Cooperative, eager, he parted his lips at nearly the same moment Edward tugged on his hair, so Andrew groaned against his mouth. His nails grazed ever so lightly along the backs of Edward's shoulders, mindful of the sharp points so he wouldn't cause any accidental injuries. Sometimes, his claws annoyed him, but at least he hadn't scratched himself accidentally in a while, either.

His attention split between kissing and all of Edward's hands on him, the warmth of his touch. Andrew's pulse spiked when his hands dropped to his belt, heat spreading across his skin; his anticipation was nearly palpable. It would be impossible to miss how hard he was when that left hand cupped him through his pants and squeezed, and there was also no missing the way Andrew gasped, a not-so-quiet moan following close behind. He felt like he could vibrate to pieces, but not from nerves. It was all need and eager enthusiasm.

He did his best to lift his hips to assist, even as he worked on breathlessly stringing words together. "Yeah. Better than good." A whole lot better.

[propatriamori]

"I look forward to seeing it, then." And Edward does! He wants to see Andrew's transformation, and maybe scratch behind some dog ears. But not right now. Right now, he has other things on his mind, so much so that it escapes his attention that he's just referred to the vibrations as seeing for the first time.

The scratch of Andrew's nails across his back feels surprisingly good, and Edward pants into Andrew's mouth as he does it. It wasn't hard enough to break the skin, but Edward thinks, much to his surprise, that he wouldn't mind if Andrew clawed him. Not enough that he'd be incapacitated, but enough that he'd have the marks under his shirt and jacket for a few days, enough that moving his arms would stretch the healing tissue and make it tingle. That, he thinks he would enjoy a great deal.

If Edward had had any doubts that Andrew wasn't enjoying this, they fall away when he palms him. No one gets that hard if he's not enjoying himself, and that is an enormous boost to Edward's self-confidence. He might not have any idea what he's doing, be making this up as he goes along, but the results are speaking for themselves. It makes something stir in the spider abdomen, where Edward's pelvis has snapped back and been buried under spider flesh, but he does the best he can to ignore it.

"Good." Edward catches Andrew's lower lip between his teeth and gently tugs on it before releasing him. At the same time, the hand in Andrew's hair tightens and pulls his head back, so Edward can kiss along his throat again. "I'm glad."

With Andrew's help, Edward is able to shove his jeans down off his hips and past his knees. He gives up at that point, figuring it won't matter if his trousers are caught on his ankles. Then Edward kisses clumsily down Andrew's throat and collarbones to his chest, exploring it with both his mouth and one hand. The lower two hands move back to Andrew's groin, the left one stroking fingertips up the length of his cock, the right one gently pushing his thighs open.

[hauntcursed]

He would make a mental note of that and tuck it aside for safekeeping, about his canine form. He'd thought it was better at the time, during his first shift, because he hadn't been able to talk, and so he couldn't screw anything up. That opinion had been reinforced when he'd shifted back and immediately made a mess of things. Sometimes, he really thought it was better to keep his mouth occupied, and he could think of a few fun ways already, for the future.

Andrew didn't realize, either, that Edward had said he looked forward to seeing his dog form. He was so focused on the physical, on Edward, on any and every sound he made, without necessarily paying attention to the word choice. Andrew also didn't know what he was doing. He'd been with plenty of girls, and he supposed he was decent enough there, but all of this? It was new and so much more, and he knew, already, that he was going to remember everything, all of the best moments and everything in between--the exact opposite of almost every other past experience.

A shiver worked its way down his spine between Edward's teeth on his lip and his hand in his hair, and Andrew moved easily with the motion, letting Edward tug his head back. "Fuck." His hands shifted on Edward's shoulders, eager and restless both, and his claws scraped against his skin, enough to scratch but not too seriously. Just enough that Andrew might feel bad about doing it accidentally, if he realized.

He did his best to help a bit with his jeans, which ended up involving him kicking off one sneaker and freeing one leg and, well. That was good enough to not be awkwardly confining at any point, and that was all he really cared about there. It was forgotten about in the next heartbeat, with Edward's hand on his cock. There was no such thing as a simple touch right now, and Andrew's heart felt like it was in his throat, even as he moaned, letting his thighs tip open.

His hands tightened on Edward's shoulders, like he needed the support--and he would have, if he'd had to rely on his legs to hold him up. Good thing that he didn't; his legs weren't to be trusted right now.

[Action]

[hauntcursed]

Would they ever get back to a point where Andrew wasn't perpetually cold, and the air didn't hurt to breathe because it was too fucking cold? He sure hoped so. Right now he had other concerns too, which felt more important than 'how cold was the tip of his nose or his fingertips?'. Technically he just had one concern, but it branched off into a cluster of other concerns too; he had horns. Pitch black, but like an oil slick, shimmering with rainbow colors here and there in the light. They hadn't been the most fun when they'd come in, but the ache had mostly faded, making room for his nerves.

"Edward?" Andrew called his name as he made his way towards the motorcycle and trailer, listening for the sounds of the cuccos, and his boyfriend. "Are you here? There's- there's just. Something." Wow, he was doing fantastic with words again. To be fair, he hadn't been prepared for something like this and how to talk about it, at least not right now.

[propatriamori]

Edward has a few ideas to help Andrew deal with the cold.

He's out behind the trailer, feeding the cuccos, but the vibrations tell him Andrew is approaching, even before he hears his name being called. They also show him Andrew's new addition, and when Edward steps out from behind the trailer, he's already reaching up towards Andrew's new horns.

"They're not painful, are they?" He won't touch them in case they are, but it's clear from the way his hands are moving that he wants to.

[hauntcursed]

He would no doubt like those ideas.

He was relieved to see Edward, even as his stomach twisted into a new pretzel shape. He appreciated that Edward asked first, and that his first reaction was to check if Andrew as okay. Rather than what his own first reaction had been, which was fear and dismay and thinking about how highly fucking unfair it would be if this stopped him from being able to tuck his face into his favorite places (against Edward's shoulder or the crook of his neck).

Maybe the last point was an over-reaction, maybe it wasn't. But he'd been happier here the last few months than he'd been in such a long time. He didn't want to lose that, any of it. He didn't want to think about what it might mean if Nirvana was drawing near--or, if they were nearing it. Whatever. He didn't want to think.

Maybe he did have more than one concern and its branch offs.

"No. I mean, not anymore. They weren't fun coming in, but-" he waved a hand, vague and dismissive. "You can touch them." And he would try to stop fidgeting, restless energy and worries chasing each other in circles. "Guess I'd been thinking all I'd end up with were the claws and the ears, and-" Rather than finishing, he shrugged.

He didn't know what to do with his hands, fingers drumming against his thighs. The habit he usually fell into, touching his tattoo, digging fingers into it, was something he hadn't done in...weeks, maybe months. He'd forgotten what to do with himself to wrangle the fidgeting without that.

Audio;

[vaultless]

[It took Lucy some work and finagling, possibly some talking to people, to find out who had interrupted her conversation -- perhaps not polite, but considering the subject matter, fully understandable in Lucy's mind -- and then had so abruptly ended it too.

Lucy is not upset with him. She's upset, yes, but only with herself for delivering such an unhappy message. She knows firsthand how painful it can be to have to confront a sudden truth about your life, your world, everything you thought you knew. To her, this might be very old history, but clearly it was something alive and painful to him.

And well, the worst thing you could do in the Vault was not saying you were sorry.]

Mr Courtenay?

[Slightly rushed, as if she is scared he might hang up without listening to her.]

You don't have to respond. Or-- or ever talk to me again, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry. What I said-- I should've said it differently. Or maybe not at all. Or, at least checked if you wanted to know first. You don't have to do anything with this. But I clearly hurt you and I wanted to say sorry.

Audio;

[propatriamori]

[Edward hadn't expected the young lady to track him down. Nor was he expecting any kind of apology. Really, what happened was his own fault, for listening in on someone else's conversation. The next time he runs into Vox, he needs to apologise to him for interrupting.]

It's not your fault, miss.

[Someone else might have hung up on her, but Edward is too British and too polite to do that. He's already been a rude boor once today, no point in making it worse.]

I shouldn't have been listening in. You had no way of knowing my situation or the time I'm from. In fact, you wouldn't be wrong in thinking that the Great War, or World War One, is old news to most of the people in the convoy.

[He takes a breath that isn't shaky at all, you're imagining things.]

I'm the exception, rather than the rule.

I'm afraid you've caught me on my back foot, though. You appear to know my name, but I don't know yours?

Audio;

[vaultless]

Lucy. Lucy Maclean but just Lucy is fine.

Even if you were the only one who didn't know, I still wish I could've told you in a different manner. It's not the same, but... I do know what it feels like to find out things that everybody else already seems to know.

horny overflow; sometime in March

[propatriamori]

[OOC: continued from here!]

"Did you know that you flush all over?"

Sorry, Andrew, Edward is seeing this for the first time and he is going to comment on it. You will be getting a full commentary about everything Edward can see for however long this lasts.

"Do you, now..." The gremlin left hand gives Andrew an affectionate squeeze before coming out from under his pants. It promptly burrows into his back pocket, and stays there. It seems even the left hand has its limits, and shameless under-the-clothes groping in public is apparently too much. Cheerful ass cupping through jeans, though? Totatlly acceptable.

"I can't wait to find out what they are."

Even with Edward's halting, stumbling pace, they get to the trailer fairly quickly.

[hauntcursed]

"I do now." Honestly, he thought Edward's commentary was sweet and charming, and he was curious to find out what sort of things would end up being note worthy.

The left hand's gremlin activities also never ceased to be charming--and often the kind of actions that were already on Andrew's mind. He approved of it, especially right now. Even if he kept on blushing. It wasn't like there were people out and about to pass by, and it wasn't like they'd know everything going through his mind, and yet-

"I think you'll like them." And while Andrew might have been trying to keep the lid on nerves to stop them from getting out of hand, he still, genuinely, thought Edward would like his ideas. And enjoy his first attempts at certain things.

He kept an ear out the whole way to the trailer, almost subconsciously, and not because he was concerned about people, but more to make sure the night remained quiet. Considering how Revan could be, and how it had been, he just wanted them to be safe. He worried for nothing though, because everything did, in fact, stay quiet, and eventually he was pulling open the trailer door for Edward.

[propatriamori]

There are so many noteworthy things Edward is seeing, but he's trying to keep most of them to himself, lest Andrew get assaulted with a barrage of commentary about his appearance. This is all new for him, and he's drinking it all in like a man finding an oasis in the middle of a desert.

"I'm sure I will." There have been no complaints so far! Everything they've done previously has been met with great enthusiasm, and Edward is excited to find out what Andrew has in mind.

Once they're at the trailer, Edward climbs slowly and laboriously into it. He stands in the middle of it, turning around so he can watch as Andrew enters.

"Let's get these tied back and out of the way." Using both sets of hands, Edward starts carefully tucking his exposed guts back into his abdominal cavity.