You'll only live once.

Independent Roleplay Blog for Multi-versions (AU) of Ray Narvaez Jr. formerly of Achievement Hunter, currently of Twitch. Mun: James Current M!A: None

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin furrows his brow, and feels his nose twitch and crinkle upwards on his face. The mix of emotions in Ray’s voice, threaded all through his words, prickles Gavin’s ears, and he shifts his position uncomfortably, kneading his elbows into Ray’s stomach.

It’s hard to know what to say. Gavin knew already that Ray came from a different place, that Ray’s perspective was so indelibly different from his, but it’s different to hear it in cold hard words. Gavin’s never been the authority on this; even when his younger brothers needed guidance, he either passed the buck up to his parents, or made something up, and he was never good at the latter.

It’s not like he can just let Ray sling out insults, though.

“Well, that’s not fair, is it?” he asks softly. “It’s not like non-human wolves just hunt all damn day; they’ve got to, like, sleep, and take care of their kids, and all that.

“That’s like saying a dog does nothing but bark, Ray. I mean, if you– if you put it in a cage all the time, of course it’s gonna bloody bark.”

There’s nothing worse than when someone’s voice goes like that.

Ray doesn’t speak for a long while, stuck in silence with the advent of Gavin’s quiet, nearly sad tone and all the things he brings up like they’re common knowledge. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that Ray has never thought of wolves like that- parents and kids and sleeping and more. They’ve always been ‘wild’ and ‘pack’ and ‘danger’ and even ‘belongs in a zoo’- according to one not-so-favorable uncle. The comment about dogs pushes him father into contemplation. He’s never had dogs; he had cats, once.

His father sent them away, after the ‘accident’. Ray had been too scared about what might happen to them. They never came near him any more, anyway- not without hissing. They were better off with someone they’d enjoy the company of. He wonders if his parents have brought them back home now that he’s gone.

Whether he actively decided to or not, Ray’s hand ends up closer to Gavin again, against his arms. Maybe it’s just to try and get him to stop kneading into Ray’s stomach so much- or, maybe it’s for the contact. When he does speak, it seems like he could use some. Gavin’s quiet has seeped into Ray’s voice as solidly as it has weighted down his bones.

“I never want...” He stops himself when he can’t fathom the rest of the words, restarting from the beginning. “Gavin, when that wolf came at me I was seventeen. There was nothing I could have done to provoke it, I didn’t even see it coming. It didn’t have any kids, it chose to be in a campsite instead of the whole national forest around it, It was-” He feels his throat close a bit and decides to stop talking about that when it hits too close to home. “Maybe your family can control it but I’m not gonna risk that I can’t.”

[britishgold]

Pin My Muse Meme: "Watch Out!"

pin the brit down // accepting !

❝  wot !?  ❞   gavin YELLED as he saw ray rushing towards him and was TACKLING him to the ground. now, gavin was OBSERVANT but ray’s sharp sight ( and shooting ) far out did gavin’s and so ray must have caught sight of something gavin had missed and it was LUCKY that he had. a bullet rushed by them, SKIMMING through their hair as they tumbled to the ground, ray ending up on top of gavin but the pair of them QUICKLY scrambling back to their feet to find cover before their attacker could RELOAD.

 ❝  jesuuuus !  ❞   the brit squealed, CLINGING to ray’s sleeve as if that was somehow going to protect him from the fact someone was trying to snipe them.

[knightedrose]

The flash of a minor adjustment, a glass scope glinting in a window far above, is all the warning Ray had. It was enough- thank God it was enough, because otherwise that bullet he feels whizzing by their hair would have been whizzing through Gavin’s skull. There isn’t enough time to think about what he’s doing or how he’s doing it, it’s all reactions- the shout, the tackle, the running... It’s only as Gavin squeals that Ray comes back to focus on what he’s doing and drags them back behind the first cover he can find. 

He pulls his sleeve in and Gavin pulls along with it- squeezing them both into a recessed doorway covered by an awning. It’s a tight fit; aside from his own heart beat Ray’s pretty sure he can feel Gavin’s too.

“  This isn’t ideal . ”

[knightedrose]

sortamaliicious:

Ryan shouldn’t enjoy the way his heart flutters the way Ray speaks. “Y-yeah, it might save you time & materials.” To any outside it might be clear as day that he was head over heels for the other king. He likes that Ray has a preference for him, even if it’s just teasing since they both know how Gavin is. It makes the tip of his ears pink. He coughs to try & hide the embarrassment, keeping his gaze off of him. 

“Thanks,” He says lamely. Admittedly, he put a little too much work into the rose. He wants it to mean something more but if he thinks about it now, it only makes him more aware of how he’s acting. He smiles sheepishly. “It works best on flowers though.”

“Even so, I’m sure it has an effect on other things. Just don’t go trying to dip me into some immortality potion.”

As he wraps his cape tighter around himself, tucking the bright red in his clothing away in black in order to hide from the occasional cold wind he’s not used to, Ray isn’t looking for the pink in Ryan’s ears or the slight stutter when he decides on his words too quickly. Ray chooses to enjoy the time without any sign he’s noticed these things, if only to save the awkwardness he’s sure would arise if he reciprocated in return. Sure, he finds Ryan’s company far more pleasant than anyone elses, and yes- he intends to keep this rose in his possession, perhaps in a vase at his bedside when he returns to his own kingdom- but that doesn’t mean he has to be so bold about those affections.

After all, what if he was simply imagining the attraction? That could end badly.

“And as a matter of principle, don’t go dipping yourself in one either. That probably wouldn’t be a pleasant way to go- accidental death via immortality potion.”

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin barks a laugh.

“No? There’s still got to be a turning.”

It might be insensitive, the way Gavin speaks as if all of this is so obvious, so matter-of-fact. At the same time, though, he wiggles childishly on the bed, lifting himself up with his hands just to flop back down length-wise across Ray’s stomach, and Ray’s arms in the way, too – so if his intent is malicious, he’s not doing a terribly good job.

“You can’t just ignore it all the time, that’s when it explodes, innit? You have to figure out what it wants.

“Which is probably ‘out,’ if this is the way you’ve been going at it.”

Ray openly grumbles at Gavin laying all over him but he doesn’t bother lifting his arms or trying to push him off at all. Gavin is the most touchy-feely guy Ray has ever met, and he came from a Puerto Rican family. That’s saying something.

Gavin doesn’t mean any harm by it, but that doesn’t mean this conversation isn’t bordering on the most Ray has discussed his lycanthropy in years. Possibly since the original contraction.

“I don’t want to do what it wants. What it wants is to hunt and bite and kill. It’s a wolf.” Any maybe now it’s clear that Ray’s view of himself, and wolves, and all other werewolves is skewed by what he was taught. He doesn’t mean any harm by what he’s saying, either. It’s as factual to him as Gavin’s argument is to Gavin. “You’re right, it wants out, and I’m not gonna let it. Not unless I have to. The last thing I want is someone else ending up like me.”

Ray stamps down on the bitter edge of the last word and tries to pretend it doesn’t hurt, finally pulling his arms out from under Gavin’s weight. He still doesn’t push Gavin away, but he crosses his arms higher up on his chest rather than leave them trapped under his current werewolf blanket. 

[knightedrose]

gxvin:

          to: xray 🤗 ➢ god.           to: xray 🤗 ➢ ray           to: xray 🤗 ➢ ive got nowhere to go

     he’d driven for a good hour and a half before he decided to stop. a 24 hour diner called to him with a promise of a coffee and a moment to collect himself. the panic truly began to set in then, the thought of what michael would say. how geoff’s lips would curl in anger or annoyance. god, he hadn’t even thought of jeremy.

     but there were always the what ifs that made leaving easier. michael could cut his losses and be short one idiot. maybe jack would heave a sigh of relief, she wouldn’t have to take care of him anymore. ryan was ryan, of course he’d be glad gavin was gone.

     his stomach turned and the only thing that kept him from immediately running back was remembering how his time had been spent. remembering the men who’s secrets he stole only be sacrificing parts of himself. matt was their hacker now, he’d become obsolete.

    [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] Calm down, Gav.     [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] You’ve got plenty of places to go     [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] You could go anywhere.     [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] That’s the point.

    The panic is pretty typical, Ray thinks. He panicked too at first. He remembers curling up in a motel and just shaking at the thought of not having the Crew to back him up any more, of what could happen if someone thought that XRay alone was an easy target, of what they all must be calling him. Coward, or worse.

    Ray also remembers that the thoughts soothed down into relief, eventually. No more senseless violence, no more ‘go here, shoot him’, no more ‘if you don’t do it then what do I even bother paying you for?’. It was like a switch had flipped and he realized that he might have lost something, but in return he’d gotten far more.

    Hopefully Gavin gets that, too.

    [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] Start Planning. You’ve got plenty of options and plenty of time.

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin furrows his brow thoughtfully.

In some ways, what Ray says is familiar to him. In other ways, however, it strikes him with worry – and maybe that’s hypocritical of him, but it’s hard to shake how he was raised.

“No it’s not,” he argues, as if offended. “That’s not the point at all.

“Plenty of people learn how to control theirs, Ray. I mean, you don’t have to meet it if it’s you, right?”

Gavin won’t admit he’s spitballing.

“You’ve just got to pay better attention, innit?”

“Of course that’s the point-”

Ray’s cut off by Gavin’s expressive argument and he feels like grumbling, regretting opening the door to the other man already. He’s been raised in a world where what he is is considered a disease, and a dangerously contagious one at that. He’s learned not to trust his wolf, how to force it down in every day situations, how to try and stave off the change on the full moon as though an extra hour of painfully writing around as a human is going to save a life.

Get to know it? Control it? None of those options make sense to Ray. It’s a wolf, it’s not him... Right?

“I don’t want to pay better attention, the more I think about it the stronger it is.” Ray says, staring at the ceiling again. He pulls his arms in so he’s no longer star-fished, laying them over his waist. “And it’s not me. If it was me there wouldn’t be a change at all.”

[knightedrose]

Called by the Classifieds ☒ Closed

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin catches glimpses of Ray’s papers, and that cold feeling creeps up his spine again.

It creates a war in his brain, one that consumes his attention and pales the light in his eyes while Ray and Ryan hash out the details of the two wolves’ employment. Even after catching evidence in writing – or at least, some hinting at it, who could really say what he saw, right, it could have been anything, yeah – he still tries to think of ways that it might be incorrect.

Ray doesn’t act like a wild wolf – obviously wild wolves have normal human sides, too, idiot – and he doesn’t smell like one, either – but how would Gavin know? To Gavin, Ray smells like an American; even if he had the scent of a wild wolf to compare him to, how would he know it was all the same?

Maybe that’s the only kind of wolf America has.

Gavin shivers all over, and he disguises it by pushing the paperwork across the table in an exaggerated motion of ‘All done!’

Gavin forces a smile. Ray looks normal. Ray smells normal. Gavin scoots himself a little closer, takes a big whiff of the smells in the room just to remind himself, and decides that, at least for now, he can make no assumptions. Even a new wolf, if that’s what Ray is, is still a wolf – and if he needs Gavin to show him the ropes, well. There are probably worse options.

“Yeah, that’s tippy-top,” he chimes in, pretending he’d been paying attention the whole time.

“Is there anywhere around here to go for a run? Give the four legs a stretch?” Gavin asks, as nonchalant as he can manage. “I saw the great big hedge out front – does that go ‘round the yard?”

Ray is glad that Gavin agrees to the terms that Ryan set out, because he’s worried that a deal this good can only be offered once. He’s not in the practice of bartering for more money or demanding more of anything, really. He takes what he’s given; this is more than he’s been offered in a while. He won’t have to worry about food, won’t have to be hungry, has a roof and a whole month, maybe longer, to figure out what to do next. This is a hell of a load off of his mind.

Gavin’s paperwork is finished so Ray gets back into signing things as quickly as he can to catch up. He breezes by the next few pages, not caring about reading them any more, and sets his pen down on top of the file. He lays that down on top of Gavin’s, washing his hands of the situation. It’s signed, now- he’ll deal with what comes next.

Which is apparently Gavin asking to be let out for a walk.

Ryan doesn’t seem deterred at all, glancing at the food on the stove. “Oh yeah, I hate nosy neighbors; not that anyone else lives close. Hedge goes all the way around, perfectly safe. back door’s right through there-” He points towards the entrance to the kitchen. “And to the right.” He glances at his cooking again, waffles popping up suddenly. He grabs them with tongs to lay them on a plate and then sticks a few more in to toast. “Feel free to go, breakfast should take a little longer... Maybe ten minutes.” He pokes at the eggs, which up until now hadn’t been cooking at all. “Forgot to turn on the burner...”

Ray hasn’t ever known a werewolf who actively chooses to change shape just to stretch their legs; Ray avoids changing like the plague. He avoids situations where it’s possible, avoids crowds, avoids too much stress, too much danger. He never wants to turn and cause someone the same trouble he’s been caused.

But he does wonder what that looks like, changing by choice. He doesn’t know if it’s any different from the bone crunching, muscle tensing change of a full moon against his will.

Gavin seems excited about it.

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

For a moment, Gavin thinks Ray won’t let him in.

It’s for this reason that Gavin is ecstatic when the door opens. Ray is barely on the bed before Gavin is running over the threshold and leaping higher than a man of his age and build ought be able to on such short notice. He comes down onto the bed like a cannonball, narrowly missing Ray’s body and barely managing to control his momentum enough to not go tumbling over the edge.

It’s not a complete invasion of personal space, but Gavin’s head ends up less than a foot from Ray’s, propped up on his elbow with Ray’s arm passing underneath. Gavin grins.

“I’m sorry I called you weird,” he says the moment the bed stops bouncing. He doesn’t really sound terribly sorry, but at least he knows it’s the thing he should say.

“Ray,” he leaps right into it, much like some other things, “if you don’t remember anything, how do you know what your wolf’s like?”

While Gavin plays acrobat Ray tries his best to ignore him, though it’s absolutely impossible with him tumbling all over the fucking bed like a madman. Ray feels himself bounce along with the bed and purposely keeps his head to the ceiling, staring at a particular shape in the molding around the wall above until the bed has stopped rocking and there’s no chance of getting sea sickness in his bedroom.

Gavin is grinning at him.

Ray sighs at the apology and rolls his eyes, not really all that upset about being called weird. He figures there’s something Gavin knows about wolves that he doesn’t- which seems par for the course as far as this week has gone. Every question Gavin seems to have an answer, Ray fails to know even a little about his own condition. This is just more of the same.

“I don’t, Gavin.” He admits. His eyes return to the ceiling. “It’s not like I can meet the thing; I kind of disappear on the full moon. That’s the whole point.”

[knightedrose]

gxvin:

     gavin doesn’t really need to be told twice. he’d fantasized about this too many times and now it was here so he was ready. hell, he was already half-packed. he had been for months.

     it had taken a while to press the guilt down, but at the end of the day he needed out. there was a bag at the bottom of his closet that only took ten more minutes to pack. 

        to: xray 🤗 ➢ ha. you’re right.         to: xray 🤗 ➢ don’t fancy being alone out there.         to: xray 🤗 ➢ but

     the penthouse was quiet. he tiptoed through the living room. for once ryan wasn’t lurking on the couch at an unreasonable hour. gav really wasn’t sure of what he would have said had he been there. maybe he wouldn’t even ask. this was probably for the best after all - to have gavin out of their hair.

     he took a smaller car, not anything too flashy. nothing that would be missed. in less than half an hour he was tearing out of the city, windows down. the crisp air pulled at his hair and he felt like he could breathe. he kept his phone face up in the passenger seat, ready to respond to any message that came through. or ignore if it happened to be from the crew.

     the city melted away behind him and he almost felt like crying. instead he let out a shout and bumped the volume on the radio. 

    Ray watches the texts messages come in and feels the same adrenaline he felt when he first decided to leave. His was a long, drawn out farewell compared to what Gavin is attempting. Gavin is taking the world by storm and Ray wishes he’d been that sure when he went.

    He also doesn’t envy Gavin at all, because if he’s doing what Ray thinks he’s doing when the messages trail off and no longer keep coming in the average amount of time then he’s in for a world of trouble. Michael won’t take losing Gavin lightly. Geoff probably won’t either- he’s endlessly fond of Gavin despite all the shit he talks about him.

    Unable to sleep now, for sure, Ray sits in his living room and stares at his phone and wonders what the world looks like for Gavin now that he’s free.

    It probably looks a little bit like the view out of Ray’s window.

    [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] Atta boy.

[knightedrose]

Called by the Classifieds ☒ Closed

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

“Well I hope he doesn’t use my blood for that.”

Gavin is reasonably certain he could speculate and make remarks for several minutes more, but, like Ray, he’s smart enough to stop when he hears Ryan coming back, even if it’s a warning that comes overly far in advance. Gavin keeps his thoughts about what an absolute mess of a dog his DNA would make to himself, and sits tall and pretty when Dr. Haywood walks back in and sets the paperwork in front of him.

Gavin feels better about thumbing through the papers when he sees that Ray also thinks it’s a good idea to read through before signing. It will take longer this way, but it’s safer, too.

The questions, at least, are easy. For Gavin, more than a few can be answered in two letters – and a few more with just one word, and not much thought. ‘Type of Contraction?’ N/A. ‘Date of Contraction?’ Birth.

Of course, the questions being easy doesn’t keep Gavin from glancing sideways at Ray, and Ray’s own paperwork. He looks for any change in Ray’s facial expression, any hesitation anywhere – a sign that something is off, or even just that Gavin has filled his in wrong. He’s not worried about anything in particular, but who knows; he could have misspelled Homo sapiens lupus for all he knows.

He doesn’t get much information from Ray’s sheet – Gavin already a few questions ahead by the time he leans to look. And it’s hard to focus on much of anything when the smell of cooking sausages and eggs consumes his nose.

Gavin doesn’t even realize he’s leaning on Ray’s shoulder, until it becomes difficult for him to lift his arm to write. He barely scoots back into his own space.

“Is this it?” he asks, suddenly, lifting his head to speak to the doctor. “You’ll be paying us cash, right? Just like donating blood?”

It’s a bit late to think about it, but Gavin doubts the U.S. government would grant him a work visa for… any of this.

Supernatural Genus: ‘Werewolf’ Type of Contraction: ‘Infected Bite and Blood’ Date of Contraction: ‘July 17th 2006′

These questions take ages for Ray to get to, ages for him to fill them in. It’s no wonder Gavin is ahead by at least a page by the time Ray has. He finishes the rest of the page as quickly as he can and then shoves it under the rest so he doesn’t have to look at it so long. He always hated filling in that form any time he had to visit a clinic- the look on people’s faces was never particularly kind. At least he knows Ryan wants him for that blood, even if that’s creepy too.

Ray doesn’t notice Gavin’s weight on his shoulder until it’s gone, and he turns his head to glance at him wondering first why he left, then why he’d ever been close at all. The though unsettles him enough that he gives a half-hearted scoot away from the other werewolf. It hardly does anything to put space between them.

Gavin’s question seems to startle Ryan out of the stupor he fell into while frying up eggs and sticking some waffles in the toaster. He blinks at him a moment before he looks a little ashamed. “Well, yes, if that’s okay?” He seems unsure of it, suddenly. “It’s just, if I do it direct deposit or by check I’ve gotta get forms from the city, start up a payroll, a thousand other things and that’s just such a waste of time.” He nearly groans. “But if that’s not good for you...”

“It’s fine by me.” Ray breaks in, knowing that cash means less showing on his taxes and there’s less reason for the IRS to come after him while he continues to live life on the road. “I mean, room and board still included, right? We get rooms?” Hopefully not the same one.

“You can have your pick of them.” Ryan agrees. “There’s eight, and only two are spoken for right now. I’ll show you to them later.” He seems relieved they both seem to plan on staying. “And I need you for at least a month, month and a half if you could, but I’ll pay you two-fifty a week. Nothing taken out of it for the rooms. Or for food;” He gestures at the breakfast nearly done on the stove. “I’ve got a good deal going with the grocer, I did his wife’s cataract surgery for free.” Ryan smiles.

“Does That sound alright?”

Ray’s nodding his head before Ryan has even finished the question.

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

[SMS] That’s weird.

Maybe that’s a little much, Gavin considers; it’s not as if he has a terribly good grasp on what is ‘standard.’ He’s just about to type up a message to either apologize, or deflect away from what he’s said, when another message pops the notification bar on his phone.

[You’re approaching your roaming text messaging limit for this month. If you would like to adjust your worldwide plan, call or text … .]

Gavin sighs, a bit exaggerated for being alone in a room by himself. He rolls out of bed, plants his feet on the floor, and shoves his phone into his pocket.

A few minutes later, he’s knocking at Ray’s door, and, shortly after, trying the handle.

“Ray, my text plan isn’t good enough, Ray.”

Ray frowns at his phone when Gavin calls him weird, not really thinking that he’s that odd. He’s pretty sure that back when he ran in Central Park the other wolves talked about missing time and forgetting things. Maybe it was just because every last one of them were homeless and didn’t want to remember- Ray knows he didn’t really want to, either.

He’s still pondering how to answer when he hears shuffling outside of his door, which turns to knocking, which turns to wiggling the handle on the locked door. Ray sighs, expressively, before he ever moves to get up.

“Gavin it’s because your phone has a British brain, like you.” The wiggling of the handle finally gets to him. “Hold on! I’m coming, it’s locked.”

Ray shoves himself out of bed and lazily takes the least amount of steps he can to unlock the door. He presses on the mechanism in the handle and turns around while Gavin’s still opening it, heading back to starfish on his bed. It’s the biggest and most comfortable bed he’s ever had, which is kind of annoying. 

[knightedrose]

gxvin:

     huh. imagine that. gavin’s chest felt a bit tight and he’d paused for a moment, eyes training on a far away spot for a moment. ray meant it. he had no response for that, anything would be too clingy, too wanting.

     he didn’t have an outlet like michael and it hit him hard. maybe michael and ray were always the better friends out of the lads but gavin still spent nights sleepless after ray’s departure. he’d only had him for a few years and those short years were undeniably unmatched. sure, ryan and others would indulge his games and michael was his boi. but ray was a wildfire that tore through the city and found the way out.

     and gavin wanted access to that fire escape.

         to: xray 🤗 ➢ its not the same without you          to: xray 🤗 ➢ definitely worth the hype          to: xray 🤗 ➢ i          to: xray 🤗 ➢ i hate this place

   Ray wonders if he should stop texting, now.

    It’s not that he wants to- because God, is it refreshing to see someone else admit so simply that they hate Los Santos. That place is a hell hole and Ray had to get out, he knew he was burning up there as surely as he’ll burn in hell later in life. He just wants to enjoy what he has left, before he burns, that’s all. He can’t do that in Los Santos. The problem is, neither can Gavin.

    And if Ray agrees with him on that, Gavin might leave too.

    That would be good for him, but horrible for the crew. It would be another hit, a shattering; Geoff said as much when Ray left, that if he went he might start trouble for the crew that never ended. Ray had said he didn’t care, which was a lie. He also said that was their problem, not his. That was the truth.

  [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] Get out, then.   [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] Pack it all up, hell, just jump in a car and go.   [SMS: Gold Sunglasses] You’ve got the money, Gavin, and you’ve risked enough. What else do you owe them?

   He feels no regret.

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin rolls himself over, resting his elbows on the mattress and holding his phone only a few inches from his nose. He can’t help how his interest piques. Few people ever want to talk about what happens to a werewolf’s brain when they turn, and of course he has an idea, theories and suggestions, about himself – but he knows it’s not normal.

[SMS] It doesn’t happen to me all the time. [SMS] Sometimes I remember everything. Usually when it’s something small, like I got mad for a bit. [SMS] I tend to tune out when it’s a long one though. [SMS] What about you? X

It’s stupid to be doing this only bedrooms away from each other, but laziness wins out over Ray’s brief thought to go and knock on Gavin’s door. It’s hard not to think like that when he’s finally in relatively close quarters to other people after traveling alone for so long. He’s not exactly gonna slide up to Doctor Haywood; he thinks Gavin is the safer bet. In theory.

[SMS] I never remember everything. [SMS] I just get flashes. You know, like I was dreaming. [SMS] Can always feel it the next morning though.

[knightedrose]

Called by the Classifieds ☒ Closed

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

It takes an immense amount of self-control not to attack the pan the moment the sausage hits it.

Gavin waits about fourty-five seconds before scooting out of his chair. It takes another fifteen for him to find a fork, opening and closing drawers with as much gentleness as he can manage in the current mindset. He pokes one sausage, rolling it over in the pan.

“Sounds a bloody lot like zombies to me,” he muses under his breath, to be shared with Ray and Ray alone. “If it comes back from the dead, it’s a zombie. Nobody says– you can’t brand the word zombie. Everyone knows what zombie means.”

For his complaints, however, Gavin doesn’t seem to mind so much – not even when he’s pulling a raw sausage out of the pan, shaking a little of the butter off before lowering it pink side first onto his tongue. The bloody meat squelches uncomfortably, and even Gavin seems to flinch a little. He chews quickly, swallows quicker, and overall tries to down it before he can taste it, nose crinkled.

He also, however, eats the whole thing.

“But it’s a job, right?” he says, licking his lips and coming back to the breakfast nook to sit down next to Ray. He sits a bit closer than he was before, and unlike Ray, holds no illusions about why he does so: wolves are pack animals, and this far from home, Gavin’s glad for even this small comfort.

“What do you think? It’s probably not biological weapons, so I reckon we’re in the clear for that one.”

Ray thinks about The Absent Minded Professor for most of the time Ryan is responding to him, because Ryan flakes just as easily and seems to be in three places at once no matter what he’s doing. Even when he dashes off to go find his forms for them to sign their life away he’s shouting to that Edgar again. Must be his lab assistant or something. Weird that he didn’t offer him any breakfast- or maybe he just forgot.

Gavin is out of his chair quicker than Ray could have imagined him going, on a mission from the looks of it. Ray thinks he’s snooping around drawers like a detective until he realizes that he’s just as incensed by the smell of sausage as he is and simply finding a way to grab one. He has a fork and, momentarily, Ray thinks about asking for him to toss one his way. He only stops himself by the thought of Ryan coming back sooner than expected. Gavin’s conversation is also a distraction.

“That’s what I thought.” He agrees, the subtleties of Zombie Categorization lost to him as well. “The South had a big problem with it in the 2000′s they were trying to cover up. That’s all anyone could talk about.”

Watching Gavin devour the sausage has hunger and jealousy at war in Ray’s stomach; he looks away so he doesn’t act out and tries to figure out how Gavin could look so disgusted at the same time as he’s doing something he purposely did. Getting a fork and stealing a sausage is a multi-step process; you can’t accidentally do that. At least it’s only the one sausage- Gavin comes back and sits with Ray even closer than before. Ray doesn’t fight him off or scoot away.

“It’s a job.” Ray agrees, hoping that it’s one that’ll last long enough to keep him housed for at least a month, enough time to try and find something else. Sometimes shorter jobs suck just because he’s so tired from working he can’t try and find something else and then by the end of it he’s at a loss. Nowhere to go and on finite resources. “Hopefully it’s enough, I guess.”

Ray hums at the question, leaning back. “It’s freaky, whatever it is, but it kind of seems legit now. He’s weird.” Ray says it with all the emotion he can muster. “And that made it easier to believe, I guess. He doesn’t seem evil? So maybe it’s not dangerous.” He sighs while the sausage in the pan sizzles. “Maybe he’s just trying to bring his old dog back to life or something.”

Ryan returns with enough noise to warn Ray and Gavin to stop guessing, a few minutes later; the files he’s holding are far more organizes than Ray expected. They look pre-made; ten sheets of paper with less fine print than most, agreements about not speaking about any material discussed throughout the employment and a sheet of medical jargon that Ray nearly ignores but knows he should read. All the paperwork involved in being a human pin cushion, his rights, a few questions; among them: ‘To which Genus of Supernatural do you belong’ and ‘Type of Contraction (if applicable)’ and ‘Date of contraction (if applicable)’. Ray sighs at the thought of filling it in like he has on a hundred doctor’s office forms before.

It’s suggested that they read the material and start signing while Ryan finishes breakfast, catching the sausages just before they burn and turning them over. He doesn’t notice any missing; or if he does, he doesn’t mention it. Ray grabs a pen while Ryan cracks eggs and reads up, mumbling the harder to pronounce words to himself.

[knightedrose]

michaaeljones:

          Well fuck – he apparently misread how they parted ways. Michael had ASSUMED his visit would be welcomed with their usual banter, followed closely by a HUG, maybe, but it seemed Ray was pissed for some fuckin’ reason. Michael was taken aback at his outburst. Especially when Ray began to take steps backwards. What the FUCK was even happening.

          “Come on, Ray…” He began, drawing out his name in a TIRED plea as he kicked himself off of his car. Unfolding his arms to look less threatening – because APPARENTLY thats what he needs to do now with, who he thought, was his best fuckin’ friend. “Please just get in the car – this has nothing to do with Geoff.” Irritation in his natural lack of patience riddled his tone as he went as far as to open the passenger door for the other.

    "You came here without any warning, after I asked all of you-” Even Michael, despite how badly he didn’t want to. “-to leave me out of anything you were planning. You came here and immediately started asking me if I still know how to shoot!” Ray whispers the last few words as people pass by, staring at the open car door and Michael like he’s waiting for the trap. If this isn’t about Geoff and it isn’t about the crew then what the fuck could it possibly be about, because Ray really wasn’t expecting a social visit today.

     As fucking amazing as it is to see Michael, whole and in one piece, Ray is worried about what kind of shit he’s about to get dragged out of retirement for.

    Ray doesn’t move, not yet. He may not be as strong as Michael but he knows he could try to run if he had to. He doesn’t know what this is about and Michael avoiding the question he keeps trying to ask isn’t making him look any more favorably on this conversation. “I’m not getting in your car unless I know what you’re planning.”

[knightedrose]

Called by the Classifieds ☒ Closed

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

Gavin doesn’t feel safe to lower his shirt from around his nose until they reach the kitchen. Even then, he doesn’t quite take the initiative until he notices Ray’s nose move. It’s not a motion that most people would notice, especially not with how Ray skirts around it – Gavin expects to see Ray’s eyes shift back and forth cartoonishly as he does it.

Gavin, however, was raised in a house of wolves. Even outside of that form, you pick up social cues – it’s easy to form a habit of watching a person’s nose as much as you watch their eyes. When Ray doesn’t recoil from the sink, doesn’t huff out another breath to push the smell from his nostrils, Gavin takes it as safe, and lowers his collar back down to where it belongs.

With the smells of a kitchen flooding his nose, Gavin’s hunger only worsens. When Ryan opens the fridge, it’s easy to get distracted, that momentary, Pavlovian fridge interior smell giving way quickly to sausage, sausage moreso than anything else, and Gavin licks his lips. Ray says something to him, but he’s busy claiming his spot at the nearest surface suitable for eating on, leaning on the edge while his eyes watch every move Ryan makes.

He blinks back to reality somewhere at the end of Ryan’s speech, and while Ray gives his dazed response, Gavin retroactively recalls what was said, running it over in his brain again.

“Reanimation?” he echoes. “What are you trying to reanimate?”

If it didn’t sound all so ridiculous, Gavin thinks he’d be feeling that ice in his veins again. If ever there were a Dr. Frankenstein, Gavin doesn’t think he’d look like Ryan – but if there were a Frankenstein Manor, it would surely be identical.

Gavin can’t help but ask, incredulously, “You’ve already done animals?”

Ray may have finished high school but it was New York Public School and he doesn’t give a lot of credit to the learning he did. He had at least three classes he passed purely because of his ‘accident’ in his senior year, the one that kept him in the hospital for three weeks, the one that happened on one stupid family camping trip that he’s never going to be able to forget... So anyway pity- pity got him through high school graduation on time, not paying attention in Biology. At least Gavin seems to know what the hell Ryan is talking about.

Wandering off to follow Gavin seems like the best idea, so Ray walks past Ryan and slides into another hair at the table in the nook in the kitchen, leaving some space between them but not straying too far. It still feels like it’s an ‘us against them’ sort of moment, here, and he’s not sure why. Maybe it’s just the thought that he doesn’t really get what Gavin and Ryan are discussing. Maybe he’s just gotten used to Gavin, by now.

He tells himself it’s not because it’s nice to have someone like him around, even if they’re not quite on the same page. Or from the same country.

"Oh, about halfway...” Ryan says, opening a cabinet above his head. The wood in the door is slightly gouged, as though something sharp and heavy once knocked into it. Ryan pulls two frying pans out from inside. “Animals... Only about half way.” He smirks, as though that’s the truth but not the whole story. “But you’ll learn more about that once you sign the stuff that says you wont go talking about it.”

Ryan gets to setting up the stove and Ray leans back, tapping his fingers on the table to keep them busy. He understands ‘reanimation’ at least and that has ideas in his head. Bringing dead things back to life... That’s pretty weird. “So you’re like, making more zombies now?”

“What?” Ryan asks, without turning around. Something nutty, butter Ray realizes, hits the pan and sizzles. 

“Zombies. They’re back from the dead. You’re making zombies.”

Ryan sighs, as though he’s had to explain this before. “No; Zombies are humans who have suffered a viral infection, there’s a viroid causing them to act the way they do, and their body isn’t technically dead. Not at first at least. No, I’m...” He stops himself, turning around to point his spatula at Ray. “I’m going to go get the paperwork, before I say something I cannot take back.”

With that Ryan dumps all the sausage into the pan at once, sending up an even louder sizzle and an amazing, meaty smell into the kitchen, before dashing away to the next room with an “Edgar?! Where’d I leave my work stupid consent forms?!” Shouted ahead of him as he goes.

[knightedrose]

shoothappy:

[SMS] Yeah, I mostly run along the countryside. [SMS] If you go parallel to the roads it’s all right. [SMS] I can’t imagine going wild in a park. Someone would get hurt for sure.

In all honesty, Gavin thinks it would probably be him – but it could always go the other way. Every wolf has a story about how the turning is difficult, about feeling out of control, but most in Gavin’s family learn to control it, boasting about their willpower, their mastery over their wolf side.

Gavin gives his advice sometimes, he supposes.

[SMS] It’s a bit like being drunk I guess. [SMS] Blacking out and waking up somewhere else, I mean.

That’s an uncomfortable thought. Someone would get hurt for sure-- Ray’s never wanted to think too hard on that. There was more than one morning in his early days he woke up covered in blood and spent the day trying to convince himself it was squirrel or rabbit or house cat. He thinks he was right, back then; but he can’t know for sure. Leaving people, leaving the city, had been the right choice. 

He taps on his phone without answering Gavin’s messages about the park, forcing himself past the uglier thoughts. Taking up the subject about the change is better, even if that’s also hard to fathom.

[SMS] I've never been drunk. [SMS] I guess though, sort of. [SMS] We still get the vague stuff, at least. Whatever our fucking weird brain remembers when we get all toothy.