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[reargunner]

ᴛᴇxᴛ | ᴀᴜᴅɪᴏ | ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ | ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ



Leave a message if you want. I'll get back to you when I pick my comm up.

Or I won't.

Comments

[artistinexile]

Good day, Cain.

My name is Thrawn. I work alongside you on custodial duty. If you are interested, I have a one-day experiment for us. Should it succeed, it may reduce your workload there, in half the time. It may also - and this could be either a warning or an additional incentive - irritate Richter Belmont.

Are you interested?

[reargunner]

What makes you think I give a shit about irritating someone I've never fucking heard of?

Do your own dirty work.

[hippie_ninja]

Cain, right?

[reargunner]

[It takes a few hours for a reply to come back.]

Who's asking.

[inthebiblicalsense]

[It's been a few days and Abel has been attempting to write out his homework that Fitz had given him, though he's definitely not gotten it sorted quite yet. He has a list, bulleted with bolded words, and yet the entire rest of the page is empty. Every draft he's started has been scrapped, stripped to the barebones and retooled only to strip it back again. Stuck in-between too clinical and too personal and probably not at all what Fitz asked for, but just a list isn't enough.

It has to be more. Which is why, after practically yelling at himself to just work on it, he saves the barebones list and calls Cain. At the very least he looks the smallest bit better than he had, sleep still difficult, but the nap had been a start to put him back on track.]

You doing anything? I wanted to check in and Alex misses you.

[reargunner]

[Cain hasn't slept much yet, save for when Abel's been with him. It goes deeper than simply being used to having the other man next to him but he'll be damned if he's going to start digging too much into that yet.

When Abel calls, Cain is immediately irritated before noticing who it is. Suffice it to say that the private communications he's received so far haven't been to his liking.]

Nah, not up to anything. [He responds lazily. Abel would recognise the background as Cain's own cabin.]

Alex misses me, does he?

[hippie_ninja]

Hey, this flood has the potential to get very violent very quickly. I have a gun and a knife for you.

[reargunner]

[The message goes unanswered for a few hours.]

I don't want a damn thing from you.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

You're Cain, aren't you?

Not supposed to talk to you, so I guess that means I should.

[reargunner]

[Oh, what now.]

Who the fuck is telling people not to speak to me.

back dated to beginning of september

[inthebiblicalsense]

[Coming down from his session with Malcolm, he still isn't settled with what he'd done. He isn't sure he will be for a while, but aside from Norton, who witnessed it and Malcolm who he'd told about it, he wasn't really wanting to discuss it with many other people.

The last safe option is Cain, not that he thinks no one else wouldn't be safe, but his opinion on it, having known Cook personally? His thoughts on it mattered a little more.]

Hey, do you have a moment? I was hoping I could talk to you about something important, I wanted to get your opinion on it, maybe we could talk in your cabin? [The slightly larger space would do him good, probably.]

[reargunner]

My opinion?

[Funny how he feels so surprised by that, as if his opinion wouldn't be something he would expect Abel to come searching for. Maybe it's the tone of voice he uses to ask. He shakes it off quickly.]

Yeah, sure. I'm there, come right over.

[He'll even leave the door unlocked.]

backdated; after pairing announcement goes up

[iwasrussian]

Hello, Cain. My name is Natasha and I'll be your temp warden this month.

Apart from the introduction, is there any requests for the Admiral you want made on your behalf?

[reargunner]

[Oh, great, this shit again.]

I don't need anything from the fucking Admiral, or from you either. Just stay out of my way and the next few weeks will be easy for both of us.

[audio]

[helluvamess]

Which fucking room is yours again? You in there or somewhere else?

[reargunner]

You forgot where I'm living already? I'm hurt.

Level three, cabin nineteen. And yeah, I'm here.

after November pairings

[callmefives]

Yeah, yeah, we're all busy.

Anyway, I'm sure you saw the pairings, if you need a warden for anything you already know where to reach me, so feel free. Otherwise, I'll see you on Monday for sparring. And I've collected some odds and ends from the cleanup to drop around for fighting dirty.

[reargunner]

Don't need a warden. For anything.

[Very firm on that point.]

And it's a no for Monday. Prefer to keep some distance until the bullshit's done with.

[Voice, some time after the Blitz thing]

[bartenderbitch]

[Someone sounds drunk as shit, but that's fine.]

Thought you'd want to know Blitz threatened me if I ever hurt you, we're fine now, but it was kinda fuckin' intense.

Guys likes you or some shit.

As if I'm gonna do fuck-all to you, hah.

[reargunner]

[... Facepalm.]

I'm gonna fucking kill him.

[(Affectionate.)]

Dootily doot doot, text

[bartenderbitch]

[Should be noted that this is all in written Russian.]

I have a question for you, if you have a moment. It's nothing bad, just easier to write than it is to talk right now.

[reargunner]

[Given Cain's tendency to just leave his comm in his cabin sometimes he doesn't reply for a couple of hours.]

Sure, shoot.

[Text lmfao]

[bartenderbitch]

[Safe to say this is all coming in in Russian, just in case anyone tries to see it.]

ALEXEI

I THINK I FUCKED UP

[reargunner]

Oh for fuck's sake what did you do

[inthebiblicalsense]

[Having had to talk himself out of asking one more person about proceeding, Abel can't tell if he's feeling sick or elated, absently petting Alex on the couch as he stares at a message he's typed out on his comm. The moment he sends this, he's probably going to have to wait the ten minutes to a few hours for Cain to reply, and god sometimes he hates that he does that, and yet he does like that he can. That he doesn't feel chained to it, or obligated to do anything he didn't want to.

Which- He exhales and decides that this was it, Alexei wouldn't do anything he didn't want to, they could talk like adults, it was going to be fine, and if it wasn't? It would be... A conversation can't be any worse than anything else they'd been through. He'd practically killed himself to save them both, Cain had done the same when he didn't have to. This part, they'll endure. It would be fine eventually even if it wasn't in the near future.]

Alexei, do you think I could come over when you're free? Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to talk about us, if you're open to it? I've been wanting to for a while but you know me, I don't like going into anything blind and I've never done this before. Hopefully you'll give me some grace if I manage to royally fuck this up.

ANYWAYS, If I keep typing I'm never going to press send, and that's just pathetic.

[And after hitting send finally, he realizes that sounds weird at at the end, all of it does and sends off another short message after, fighting the urge to suffocate himself with a pillow.]

Looking forward to seeing you!

[What ever. That's fine. At least Alexei knows where the bar is now as far as his attempt at being open and communicative. Could only go up from here, right?]

[reargunner]

[Unfortunately for Abel he does have to wait about an hour for Cain to get back to him. Forty minutes of that had been the span of time before he got back to his comm. The rest... had been Cain reading the message repeatedly and trying to calm the creeping sense of alarm clawing at the back of his mind.

'Talk about us'? The fuck was there to talk about? Hadn't they done all of that? And just what was he thinking he was going to mess up?

He can't put it off for too long, so he sends a brief message back before he heads to the other man's room. Though he could just walk in... he elects to knock instead.]

not long after checking on Abel

[greatoldjohn]

John isn't going to ask him about what Abel said.

He's not going to tell him what Abel decided.

He's not even going to intimate that he's involved in that at all.

But he is going to bring over the extra cookies he finished up earlier to see if Alexei wants some.

Knock knock.

[reargunner]

He hasn't been around as much as usual. Leaving his cabin to go and do the things he's been doing to keep himself busy feels like more of a chore and he's been keeping a bit more to himself, not even really realising that anyone else might notice.

When there's a knock on the door he almost ignores it, but he does answer after a brief pause and blinks in surprise as he sees who's standing there. He peers behind the man briefly, looking down the corridor, then looks up at him with a quizzical expression.

"Not late for a session or something am I? Didn't think we had one today."

after talking to Abel

[a_titanum]

[ He makes his way from the fourth floor back down to his own and walks in, looking for Alexei.]

[reargunner]

[Alexei is there, of course, sipping on some tea he made for himself. He glances over to the door when Florian walks in and then raises an eyebrow, setting the cup down.]

That was quick.

[Not that he knows where the man went, but he definitely wasn't gone for long.]

[inthebiblicalsense]

[He waits a good long while before he calls. His own frustration, being critiqued by someone outside of their bubble and not knowing how much of the long history he actually knows doesn't help the fact that he knows something is wrong. Florian potentially knowing more than he does about Cain and how he's feeling isn't the kind of place he'd expected to be in, but with how they've been communicating, or not communicating he should have known he'd find himself feeling like that again.

Regardless, if it's enough that someone feels the need to intervene, he's waited too long and he isn't going to be so stubborn that he doesn't take the hint. He's at the very least better than that.

Clearing his throat, the call is short, simple. A request if Alexei wants to accept it.]

I'd like to talk, if and when you're available. I've made you wait longer than I should have for this and I'm sorry.

[reargunner]

[It's been long enough that Florian has left for his shift and Alexei himself has spent some time able to think about how things might go. His mind goes to several places, of course. How this might end up if things don't go well being one of them.

He thinks about the things Florian has said, too. Not just in the last couple of hours but in the entire time since this began. Though he's not sure he can express himself with such grace... he thinks he's as ready as he can be.

So this time, when he's messaged, he returns it almost immediately.]

Your place. I'll be there in ten minutes.

After all this bullshit - Audio

[inthebiblicalsense]

[Abel still isn't fine, but he's working on it. He's reached out, he's made plans, he's talked about it. Something completely different, something easy and relaxing is a desperate need, and he feels like that's probably the same for Alexei.

He's not that into movies, but Maggie had introduced him to the Fast and Furious series and maybe the second one in a ridiculous franchise would do them good.]

Hey, I don't know what you've got on your agenda today, but I got a hold of some popcorn, baked some cookies. Do you want to come by, watch a movie?

[He sounds hopeful which is probably a good thing following how hopeless he'd been feeling this past week.]

[reargunner]

[Alexei has definitely not been doing well. He's frustrated and angry, the only step he's taken towards anything productive being making sure that the warden now in charge of that mangy asshole cat knows that if he sees him he's going to kill him, so he better not see him at all.

He hasn't talked to anyone because he can't go too deeply into it without telling too much about Abel, so... he's been stewing over it instead.

Mostly.]

Okay.

[He sounds a bit tired, but the way he immediately replies more or less indicates he was probably in his cabin when he got the call.]

I'll be over in a bit.

The morning after his conversation with Florian

[inthebiblicalsense]

[He doesn't try to give himself too much time to think about it. Being desperate makes trying new things easier, but nothing has been going right now for months and he swears if he can at least get through this calmly, it was worth not taking more time to figure it out.

The text is even short, not something long and drawn out like he normally might.]

If you're free this morning, come over?

[reargunner]

[After around an hour—]

Yeah I'm free. I'll come over after I've taken a shower.

After Thrawn

[a_titanum]

When Florian went out, his apartment had been empty for the moment. He comes back not long after, but he's more than delighted to hear Alexei's heartbeat, smell his scent, as he walks through the door that he goes unnaturally fast to where he is, seeming to appear like a fey spirit in front of him.

He'll give him a moment, of course, make sure Alexei knows it's him, but that's all the hesitation he has in him before he reaches up and pulls Alexei gently down to kiss him in joyful greeting.

[reargunner]

He barely uses his own cabin these days. It's for sleeping (sometimes) and whiling away idle hours, but outside of that he would much rather either be with Abel or here, in this strangely lavish space that is so familiar to him now.

Familiar, too, is the light step and bright smile of a certain fey gentleman who pops up in front of him as he turns away from a shelf with a book in his hand.

Alexei does jump slightly, ever wary of being snuck up on, but this is a safe place and he quickly relaxes to laugh softly into the space between their lips after that greeting kiss.

"Wow, you're in a good mood."

[notsoblackbeard]

Heya, I don't think we've ever formally met, but I'm Ed and I'll be your temp warden for the month.

[reargunner]

[Given his voicemail message, Ed just gets a [read] notification and nothing further.]

after the talent show

[greatoldjohn]

[ There's a knock knock. He said he'd be by, and here he is. ]

[reargunner]

[He did indeed, and he doesn't have to wait out in the corridor for long before the door gets opened.]

Hope you didn't rush away on my account.

Stockwood port

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

It's Mae who finds him first, nudging her nose against his leg as Jacob comes behind her after a few seconds. "Hey Alexei," he calls out cautiously. The sun is getting low on the festival, everyone is high or drunk or both, and he doesn't want to startle anyone who might be a little on edge.

[reargunner]

Alexei is honestly a little of both, though not enough to be startled by either Mae's curious nudging or Jacob's voice. He looks at the man for a moment, his fingers finding their way absent-mindedly into Mae's fur, and he hooks the thumb of his free hand into one of his belt loops.

"Jacob."

Has he been avoiding him? Sort of. Is he going to admit to that? Absolutely not.

Stockwood port

[inthebiblicalsense]

Abel's been enjoying himself despite not exactly appreciating a loud, unruly crowd. He's tried some things, explored, worked, listened, but the thing that has brought him the most joy in this sea of people, listening to a band he isn't entirely familiar with, it's the fact that he can see that Alexei is enjoying himself.

At some point Abel had managed to squeeze his way to the front where Alexei had left for a while back, pressed into his side from the flow of the crowd. The set is finishing up, but he doesn't mind being here for a little while longer, getting his time in the sun, shoulder to shoulder.

[reargunner]

Rowdy crowds are a familiar scene and Alexei knows how to navigate them. He was never going to be a wallflower on the edges of this and when the band playing started putting out songs that he liked he pushed his way to the front of the crowd with ease and without a single apology.

He's not sure how long he's up there before someone leans in close enough to his side to draw his attention. Alexei looks over and grins as he sees Ethan there, grabbing hold of his hand without a care in the world.

"Took you long enough."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Hey. You up for a drink?

[reargunner]

[Huff. He could be shitty about it, but he won't.]

Sure.

after the announcement

[a_titanum]

[ Once he wakes up- ]

Alexei?

...if you want me to give you some space, this is your chance to tell me as such.

Otherwise, I'll be coming to find you by daybreak.

I want to respect your desires, Hübscher, but I'm not about to leave you alone with this by default.

[reargunner]

[He doesn't reply, mostly because he doesn't really want to be left alone but doesn't want to say that (and isn't even sure if he knows how to right now), but after a few hours have gone by and he's burned the damned file to ashes he's already heading to the Speakeasy to get as drunk as he can manage without outright passing out.

It's just that kind of day, and were he in the frame of mind for it he would imagine Jacob wasn't doing much better.

As it is, thinking about Jacob just makes him want to hit something.]