Araman snippets for Araman folks

[downintherookery]

@cr-404 a little treat for you, since you've been giving us so much.

If Bolaire had to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, it was trusting Julien to be a standard he could judge someone else's dosage from. Letting both of them partake, any of them could have refused. Allowing the experiment to happen at all, Bolaire could have cut it off at the idea phase.

The exact problem was that Bolaire measured the dosage for someone who lived clean, enjoyed a good drink on occasion, and had an absurdly high metabolism off of the tolerance of Julien Davinos.

Azune was heavier by a little less than a hundred pounds. They had similar body fat and activity levels. Bolaire gave Azune around half of what Julien took, when Azune liked a couple beers after a long day, and Julien hadn't spent more than four days in a row sober since Bolaire had known him.

Julien was relaxed, taking it easy, starting to get into one of his rants. Fake friends, fake admirers, fake people lying about who they were all over this terrible city. Ah, the troubles of being attractive and wealthy. Poor boy, his life was so hard.

Azune was starting to get... agitated. He was fidgety, kept half getting up, then sitting back down like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing.

"Azune, darling, are you feeling alright?" Bolaire asked.

"Fine. I'm fine." He lied. He kept glancing at Julien out of the corner of his eye like he was waiting for something to explode.

"Julien, can you be quiet for a moment? Please?"

Julien rolled his eyes dramatically. "I suppose, if you are going to be all manners about it."

Azune was edging away from him. He reached the end of the couch and did the awkward half stand of someone looking for anywhere else to be.

"Darling, do you think you can tell me what's upsetting you right now?"

He tensed and folded in on himself. "I can't. I can't tonight. I can't pretend. He can tell."

"Who can tell what?" Julien was blowing spit bubbles on his tongue and hadn't noticed Azune was terrified of him. Azune was inches from darting, eyes traveling between Bolaire, the door, and the bay window that overlooked market street from the third floor.

Bolaire grabbed his elbow before he could do anything stupid and held him still. "Julien, dear, can you do something for me? Can you go chip some ice off of the ice block into a bowl?"

Julien's eyes lit up when he remembered the ice block and realized he could sneak pieces to suck on, right under Bolaire's nose. Bolaire would have to get another new ice block, but that was Julien handled for twenty minutes. Longer if he found the frozen fruit and cheap liquor Bolaire had stashed.

If Bolaire was wrong, he was going to ruin Hal's boy. If he was wrong, he would never see Azune again. If Bolaire was wrong, he would hang himself up in the Archenade, because he knew that face.

Azune was crying, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was locked in a mask of terror. That was the face of someone forced to be a person, who had reached the limit that he could pretend. A slightly too high dose brought it screaming dramatically to the fore, but Bolaire had no doubt this was a regular occurrence.

Bolaire took his arm and opposite hip and moved him back to the couch. He hooked a foot behind his knee to force it to bend, pressed down on the balance point of the hip, and kept his shoulder steady and upright. He moved him the way he did his abandoned bodies when he couldn't dispose of them and needed to set a scene. Azune bent, but there was more than a little resistance.

"Poor thing." He got out his hanky and started wiping tears from Azune's face. Azune tried to help on the opposite side, swiping at his cheek. Bolaire took his hand and put it down on his thigh. "You were brought to me in terrible shape, weren't you. What people won't do." When the other hand came up he did the same, over and over, one hand at a time pressing them back to his thigh until he stopped fighting and kept them there. "What a mess."

"Sorry," Azune gasped. "I'm sorry."

Bolaire continued like he hadn't heard. "One of a kind piece, falling to bits. Because of course a curator can fix anything. Why would anyone bother to maintain something so beautiful? A skilled curator can fix anything." He let sarcasm drip from his voice and rolled his eyes dramatically.

Azune sat still and closed his eyes while Bolaire cleaned tears from his face and neck. Bolaire dipped his hanky in water and wiped down around his nose and the corners of his mouth, under his chin, cleaned a little schmutz from behind his ears.

He stood back and studied Azune. The panic attack had passed. He was breathing deeper and had stopped crying. He still hadn't moved from where Bolaire put him. "Really just in need of a good cleaning. But how would I display it?"

Azune shuddered.

"At attention is lovely, but is it too obvious? Maybe if we put it in repose, let the power inherent in the piece contrast with the styling." He pressed Azune's shoulders back to lie against the couch. He went easily, muscles slack once there were cushions to hold him up. Bolaire moved one of his arms up onto the back of the couch, turned it over so his hand was resting on the cushions. He brought the opposite foot up to rest across his knee.

"Oh, that is beautiful. I could cast that in bronze and it would be the most popular bench in the city."

He spent a moment futzing with the fingers, getting them posed just right. Azune's breathing had gone as slow as if he were asleep. There was just the slightest twitch of his ears to show he was awake and listening to Bolaire move around him, fixing his collar to lie flat, playing with the line of his belt against his shirt, getting him rumpled and and positioned just so.

"What an absolute tragedy. People mistreat their things so terribly. I wish I knew who was responsible. There would be words."

[downintherookery]

@cr-404 One of your anons here with a little piece of something I wrote at work last night. Gonna call it Fandom Relay, if we're naming fandom games. This is for your Hal and His Boys au

"There you are, sweet boy. I have something you can do," Hal said. Azune nodded, heart in his throat after it took him almost two minutes to answer Hal's call upstairs. He had to finish the dish he was doing, dry his hands, take off his apron, and get all the way up to the third floor to help with the task Hal had for him. The other boy was tied to the bar with his hands above his head and a gag in his mouth. He still managed to have a sneer on his face. "Julien has decided he wants to be denied tonight." Julien rolled his eyes. Azune focused on Hal, not him, and stood at ease until he knew what his part was. "He's lost the use of his mouth, so I need to be able to see his face, to deny him effectively. Little bit tricky from waist high," Hal said with a smile. Azune mirrored the smile. "Do you think you can pleasure him, and stop exactly when I tell you?" "Yes daddy," Azune said. Hal pulled him by the collar and put him where he wanted. Azune settled in at Julien's feet and looked up the line of his body. He was attractive, a little lean, a little pale, but Azune could appreciate the muscles and how much work they took to maintain. The bruises were a little unsettling. He didn't know how anyone could be that disobedient, or how they could keep it up with Hal's perfect hands shaping them. His cock was nice enough. Not as big as Hal's, but it would be a pleasant mouthful. "You can use your hands," Hal said. Azune had them behind him as a matter of habit. He brought them up and rested them on Julien's hips. "Go ahead, Azune." He started slow, just licking the drop of precum from his tip and tasting the head of his cock. He tasted warm and musky. A little like sweat. Hal must have been working him over hard. Azune held his hips still when he tried to buck and helped him find his balance when it made him stumble. Julien was bound right on the edge of where he could stand without going up on his toes. He kissed the tip and took it into his mouth, just to hold for a moment and tongue at. Azune looked up at Hal through his lashes. Hal was holding Julien's chin in a hard, unforgiving grip, forcing him to look at him. He couldn't read either of their expressions from this angle, but Azune knew Julien still had that sneer on his face. He had his task. All he needed to do was give pleasure and listen for Hal's call to stop. Hal was responsible for Julien and his punishment. Azune was just one of the tools at his disposal. He took Julien deeper and worked him over with his tongue, not offering any suction yet. "It really is my fault. I knew you needed better motivation. Hesitating to bring in my favorite tool was a mistake." He pet over Azune's hair and Azune hummed and preened at the praise, then gripped Julien's hips hard when he started to twist under his hands. "You're just such a little problem, Julien, I was worried you would give him ideas." His hand was still in Azune's hair and he could feel the weight of his attention, even with Hal's eyes on Julien. "I should have known better. My good boy would never disobey me. Stop." Azune opened his mouth and pulled off completely. He sat back on his heels and put his hands on his lap to wait for more instructions. "Perfect," Hal said. "You can touch yourself, if you would like." Azune brushed his fingers over his nipples and looked up at Julien again. Sucking cock always got him warm and tingly, but he didn't want to go straight for his own dick if he was going to be there a while. Being denied could take hours, with Hal at the helm. He only did it to Azune when he was too wound up in his head and not able to pay correct attention. It took a while, but it drove every other thought out and let him focus on Hal, Hal's voice, Hal's hands, how good it felt to be Hal's. There was something else going on with Julien, clearly. His eyes had gone half-lidded and he was panting around the gag. "You see what you could have, if you behaved?"

[cr-404]

Ahhh this one has been gifted More Cake!

There is something dark and delicious about Hal calling Azune his "favorite tool". First, there's the favorite part, which goes up against the dozen examples we've had thus far of Azune's devotion being one way, or at the least him holding people in far higher esteem than they hold him. I think being called favorite anything would hit him so hard, for once he's not second, third, fourth, last place.

Second 'tool', both de-personalizing (thing vs person) but also affirming and reassuring (i will never not be of use)?

There's also the option that Hal is very deliberately trying to mold Azune away from being a "weapon" but can't just take that away from him because SO much of that boy's psyche is based on it so he's trying to shift him to "tool" as a baby step.

[downintherookery]

I was thinking about this all night at work.

What I was going for was an Azune who's struggling with personhood and what it means for him to be a person. If he's a person, he has to bear the weight of what he did happened in the falconer's rebellion. Hal gives him space where he doesn't have to try to pretend to be a person, but there's no room for a weapon. Thinking of himself as a tool, as something that can make things and do anything in the right hands, is a good step toward thinking of himself as someone who can do something other than be a soldier.

[downintherookery]

@cr-404 One of your anons here with a little piece of something I wrote at work last night. Gonna call it Fandom Relay, if we're naming fandom games. This is for your Hal and His Boys au

"There you are, sweet boy. I have something you can do," Hal said. Azune nodded, heart in his throat after it took him almost two minutes to answer Hal's call upstairs. He had to finish the dish he was doing, dry his hands, take off his apron, and get all the way up to the third floor to help with the task Hal had for him. The other boy was tied to the bar with his hands above his head and a gag in his mouth. He still managed to have a sneer on his face. "Julien has decided he wants to be denied tonight." Julien rolled his eyes. Azune focused on Hal, not him, and stood at ease until he knew what his part was. "He's lost the use of his mouth, so I need to be able to see his face, to deny him effectively. Little bit tricky from waist high," Hal said with a smile. Azune mirrored the smile. "Do you think you can pleasure him, and stop exactly when I tell you?" "Yes daddy," Azune said. Hal pulled him by the collar and put him where he wanted. Azune settled in at Julien's feet and looked up the line of his body. He was attractive, a little lean, a little pale, but Azune could appreciate the muscles and how much work they took to maintain. The bruises were a little unsettling. He didn't know how anyone could be that disobedient, or how they could keep it up with Hal's perfect hands shaping them. His cock was nice enough. Not as big as Hal's, but it would be a pleasant mouthful. "You can use your hands," Hal said. Azune had them behind him as a matter of habit. He brought them up and rested them on Julien's hips. "Go ahead, Azune." He started slow, just licking the drop of precum from his tip and tasting the head of his cock. He tasted warm and musky. A little like sweat. Hal must have been working him over hard. Azune held his hips still when he tried to buck and helped him find his balance when it made him stumble. Julien was bound right on the edge of where he could stand without going up on his toes. He kissed the tip and took it into his mouth, just to hold for a moment and tongue at. Azune looked up at Hal through his lashes. Hal was holding Julien's chin in a hard, unforgiving grip, forcing him to look at him. He couldn't read either of their expressions from this angle, but Azune knew Julien still had that sneer on his face. He had his task. All he needed to do was give pleasure and listen for Hal's call to stop. Hal was responsible for Julien and his punishment. Azune was just one of the tools at his disposal. He took Julien deeper and worked him over with his tongue, not offering any suction yet. "It really is my fault. I knew you needed better motivation. Hesitating to bring in my favorite tool was a mistake." He pet over Azune's hair and Azune hummed and preened at the praise, then gripped Julien's hips hard when he started to twist under his hands. "You're just such a little problem, Julien, I was worried you would give him ideas." His hand was still in Azune's hair and he could feel the weight of his attention, even with Hal's eyes on Julien. "I should have known better. My good boy would never disobey me. Stop." Azune opened his mouth and pulled off completely. He sat back on his heels and put his hands on his lap to wait for more instructions. "Perfect," Hal said. "You can touch yourself, if you would like." Azune brushed his fingers over his nipples and looked up at Julien again. Sucking cock always got him warm and tingly, but he didn't want to go straight for his own dick if he was going to be there a while. Being denied could take hours, with Hal at the helm. He only did it to Azune when he was too wound up in his head and not able to pay correct attention. It took a while, but it drove every other thought out and let him focus on Hal, Hal's voice, Hal's hands, how good it felt to be Hal's. There was something else going on with Julien, clearly. His eyes had gone half-lidded and he was panting around the gag. "You see what you could have, if you behaved?"