Let's get the party started!

[poor_unlucky_girl]

Who: Everyone including YOU
What: Pride month celebration!
Where: Mess hall
When: First weekend of June, after the brain quest.
Warnings/Notes: Probably alcohol, language, might lead to sexy stuff

Ah yes, Jennifer is in pure delight. Back in her day, this wasn't a thing and now not only she, who will romanticize everything, gets to celebrate love, she gets to witness people be happy as they celebrate with her. She waves happily at whoever enters and nods towards all the available material.

There is indeed lots of booze, which one wouldn't expect from Jennifer but hey, Price helped. There's rainbow cake, and biscuits with the flags on it. Before everyone arrives she innocently asks one of the staff members in the kitchen if she can eat a lesbian one. There's a box with pins and facepaints. Some people are sporting funny or sexy costumes. She is wears her usual hairdo, but decorates it with a rose, paired with a simple white dress. She drinks her tea and is happy, and just a little bit too clueless of what can happen during these kinds of celebrations...

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan's not an idiot; he's aware that anything he says to Price could be later used against him, either played straight or misconstrued to gain some personal advantage Dan can't predict. But that's not all that different than venting to anyone else, Dan figures. You always have to keep some degree of wherewithal because the concept of sharing your opinions with another in secret is inherently so vulnerable.

Dan salutes with his bottle too - the watermelon flavor is, to his delight, Jolly Rancher like the candy, which means it hits his sweet spot of intoxicating and deeply unhealthy on multiple axes. "Sounds like a party to me. Lead the way."

He knows the way to Price's room - he knows the way to everyone's rooms. But Dan gets pretty far by playing clueless.

[myagents]

"Sure."

Price doesn't plan on using anything Dan might say against him, or at least not in the bad way. He has pushed him away many times and Dan has always refused to listen to the warnings. So he's allowed to be his friend, right?
He figures he can at least enjoy it while it lasts, before Dan decides to finally do what he should to protect himself. It's so embarrassing that it has come to this, but if at least for a bit he can have a friend, if only a friend that only cares about him because he doesn't know better, he'll take it.

"Here." he gestures to the room once they arrive.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Mind if I sit?" Dan asks, and if Price does, Dan less sits than flops on the bed. He makes a sheepish expression as he sheds a little glitter, aware that Price is going to be finding that evidence Dan was here for months. Hopefully Price's roommate doesn't give him too hard a time.

"I'm just feeling- I'm feeling very used, and so I don't really want to be around no one. I was real clear on what I was comfortable with, going after Planker, and that killing weren't on the list, and it feels like a lot of folks nodded and smiled and lied to my face."

[myagents]

Price thinks Tucker won't care too much, he seems like an open minded person. Also their way to get along is to actively pretend the other doesn't exist aside from the emotional exchange of "Greetings." and "Sup." that they do every now and then when they accidentally end up in their room, or any room really, at the same time.

"It appears that they believed it to be a valuable strategy because in the long run it would have been beneficial for them and for everyone else including you as well, on a practical level. Sacrificing one or more individuals for the sake of the greater good is a valid reasoning, but what they fail to understand is that the key difference between you and them is that you don't seem to believe there are...Acceptable targets, people that deserve to suffer or die because you deem them as morally bad."

Which is funnily similar to Price, since for him everyone is a potential target but there's no such thing as 'more acceptable', just more convenient. He's just joined because destroying and cleaning up are the things he does best. It's not a big deal.

"You are the one who feels bad for killing monsters, after all. Your friends most likely hid all of that from you to avoid further suffering because this is a sensitive topic for you. While they did hurt you, they aimed to act in your best interest, so I do not disagree with them, but...I don't believe they fully understand how you feel about killing and hurting others, even if they are your friends."

Price raises his hands, he doesn't want it to look like an isolation tactic. Is it an isolation tactic? He doesn't know, he wasn't planning on it, but maybe his past self that was smarter than he is now still lives inside of him somewhere and is giving him hints on how to keep Dan close.
The only thing stopping him is that he is already in enough trouble, really.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say bad things about them. They are good people and I know you value them."

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan listens to Price's diagnosis of the situation, fiddling with the cap on the vodka bottle. Why is he more angry with Stacia over this than he is with Price, when both were involved in this stint and both knew Dan's stance on unnecessary murder? It's because, he thinks, he always knew Price would kill if given the chance, even if it ran directly counter to what Dan was comfortable with, and he believed something else of Stacia.

He really wishes he could believe it had just been Planker's mind unable to handle the psychic load. An accident. He wishes he could be certain.

"No, it's fine. Don't give them the credit of saying they were trying to spare me any suffering. They hid all that from me because they knew I wouldn't participate if I knew it'd lead to a murder. My best interest didn't mean shit. It was convenient to lie." Dan raises his eyebrows. He lies for convenience all the time. He gets it. With the humidity of the Rig, his shirt is sticking to him all over.

"You'd just think I'd be used to no one understanding how I feel by now, no matter how clear I try to make it."

[myagents]

Price is surprised by that last part.

"...Why, do you believe there have been other instances of them not understanding you? Or do you mean it as a general statement?"

He shifts in his place.

"I do believe that they had your best interest at heart. They care about you. Sometimes demonstrating love is a bit..." he gets distracted by Dan's sticky shirt for a moment "Harsher than the feeling itself."

He'd know about that, he has his own special way of showing the freelancers how much he loves them. They won't let him anymore, though. Which makes him need the Director even more, in a place like this the ranks would be blurred and Price has plans for the eventuality of him showing up: 'everyone is against us but I will always be by your side no matter what, sir', 'I am yours to command, sir', 'nobody else knows our side of the story, we only need each other, sir' and much more that would lead to the Director opening up and giving him orders a reason to live his beautiful soul to feed him and fill him with all those sweet emotions that he can't feel. You know, plans. He's just so hungry for that little something, that little spark...

[hallelujahjunction]

"General statement. Whatever." Dan usually doesn't sound so sour and exasperated - not angry, but just frustrated, frayed. He sighs and finds a place to sit with his back to the wall, taking up half the bed, and drinks.

He sighs, looking at Price. "I don't want them caring about me, you know."

It's hard enough that Bunny cares about him, and how terrible is that, that Dan sees being cared for as a source of distress? That being sincerely loved by someone is as often a burden as it is a blessing?

"It's more uncomplicated that way."

[myagents]

"Perhaps it is."

He wonders if Dan is actually wise in not wanting anyone to care about him. Price wishes he didn't want anyone to care about him, maybe it would be freeing. That thought leaves his mind very soon, though, because he's perfectly aware that it's just a toxic coping mechanism Dan is desperately turning to and that it's not true that he doesn't want others to care, rather he doesn't want anyone to worry or suffer for him.

Price smiles at him. He really is that special.

[hallelujahjunction]

For a moment, Dan just looks at the cap of the bottle that he's playing with, doing little sleight-of-hand tricks with it to make it seems to walk over his knuckles, between his finger-joints. He thinks about how Price isn't committing, not in words, anyway, to actually agreeing, just musing.

"I care about you," Dan says.

[myagents]

"Oh!"

Shut up, no you don't, please don't say that is what immediately comes to his mind as a response.

"Thank you, Daniel, but you don't have to say that."

He knows he doesn't think that. He knows people like him, they might have a noble heart but their intentions are less than noble. They just want to make themselves look like they have it together by actively trying to fix someone they think is worse than them. There's no reason to get one's hopes up.

And even if Dan actually cares about him, it's just because he doesn't know any better. Soon he'll learn and abandon him.

[hallelujahjunction]

“I know I don’t. And I ain’t just saying it.”

Dan cares about everyone. It’s his greatest strength and most destructive flaw. But it’s more than just ambient bonhomie that drives him to care about Price, more than just an overdeveloped muscle for empathy and pity.

“I’ll just take a wild guess here and say that you probably reject being cared for for the same reason I do. Because you don’t think it’ll last.” Dan shrugs. “If that’s the case, us having that in common makes me care more.”

[myagents]

It's funny that Dan said that. Price wants someone to care for him, and he wants it desperately. That reframing is perhaps just a bit too merciful.

"It's not the case." he doesn't explain any further because he just wants to placate him "...But thank you."

Another light smile, this time more awkward. Time to sip some vodka directly from the bottle.

[hallelujahjunction]

“If you say so.” The way Dan says it, and the way he raises his eyebrows, makes it clear he doesn’t believe Price at all. There’s a focused look in his eyes; if he ever meant anyone ill will, it might be considered predatory.

Dan’s much more dangerous than his gentle disposition suggests. He’s smart, good at picking up clues and identifying patterns, and it means he can smell sensitivity like a bloodhound, means he can piece together pictures of the people he’s around quickly and usually quite accurately. He’s had to be, to survive on the margins like he has. Maybe that’s why he’s so upset at Stacia and the others; Dan isn’t used to being surprised by people, isn’t used to misjudging, and it’s threatening to have done so.

So now he’s trying together a read on Price, and there are stakes if he’s wrong. Price has his good looks that he feels are vanishing; Dan feels uncertain about the emotional intelligence he’s always needed to stay alive.

“How’s your vodka?”

[myagents]

"The vodka is alright."

Price shrugs. He looks down at the bottle for a moment and drinks again. He can perceive that Dan is trying to change the topic, somehow.

"So, what have you been up to lately?"

[hallelujahjunction]

“This one’s good, if you want to try it. Tastes like candy. Don’t worry about swapping spit, I don’t backwash or nothing.” He holds his bottle out to Price.

“Honestly? Wishing I could just take off and be five thousand miles from almost everyone else on here. And keeping my sharp shooting skills honed. You have to be real calm and steady to do trick shots, so it’s good meditation.”

[myagents]

Price swaps his bottle with Dan. He tastes the candy flavoured one, and his face crumples a bit.

"It's very sweet."

He swallows loudly.

"Oh. Well, it's good that you are practising. Focusing on one's skills can be productive and healthy."

[hallelujahjunction]

"You say that like it's a bad thing." He takes the bottle back and swigs from it. "Reckon it gets me into less trouble than hooking up with every Jorg employee with a key to the storage rooms."

He sounds rueful about that. Dan prefers getting into trouble.

"I wasn't joking about being open to hooking up, you know," he says, deciding to just get direct.

[myagents]

Price just freezes on the spot.

"ExCUse me?!" his voice gets louder for just a moment.

He tries to say something else but just mumbles incoherently. He's flustered, this is very wrong, it has to be.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan puts his hands up in a placating gesture. "Sorry, I must have just misread the tone of the room. Nothing meant by it."

[myagents]

"Th-the tone of the room?!"

Price blushes incontrollably. Yes, he's shy. Believe it or not, he's more comfortable hooking up with who makes it clear from the beginning they see him as prey. It's just how it works, how it's supposed to work. Dan is kind of a wild card, under certain aspects. The fact that he even said that he cared is just-- It's strange. Doesn't help that Dan is so handsome and if only Price was thirty or at least twenty-five years younger they'd be a perfect match for the night.

"I...Ah...I see. Don't worry, it's fine, it's fi--"

The nervousness makes him drop the bottle, spilling its content pretty much everywhere.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Shit!"

Dan near leaps out of his skin at the bottle falling. He's always so much jumpier than his laidback demeanor hints at, and he hops off the bed and grabs a towel and starts to sop up the alcohol.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. Just the Pride party put ideas in my head, I reckon. Didn't mean to waste good liquor."

[myagents]

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Price gets on his knees and starts picking up the shards of broken glass "Besides, this is why I brought two bottles."

The Pride party put ideas in his head? What's that supposed to mean? Price has never even thought of trying to seduce him in any way. He has noticed Dan's attractive everything, of course, he's not blind, but there are several factors (Dan being younger, his powers, having to walk on eggshells because of him, and Price just feeling repulsive in general) that make this situation a turn off and overall he thinks that this would be something best fulfilled with an alone time fantasy rather than the actual deal. It would complicate so many things. Basically it's a no but he actually wants it, it's a 'it's better if we don't do it' rather than 'I don't want to do it', but the reasons for it concern him too much and he would rather stay silent than voice said concerns and be vulnerable even if it leads to false reassurance.

"It's just that I did not expect that."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Thinking ahead. I like it."

Dan generally doesn't push a rejection; that is, after all, a fantastic way to cross the line between interested in others and rude, uncomfortable, objectifying. He usually just signals his interest and, if it isn't picked up immediately, moves on to the next person who might be down.

"Why didn't you expect it?" Dan puts some more pieces of glass in the trashcan. There's no accusation embedded; he isn't accusing Price of leading him on, simply explaining so Price can tell him off for misreading in the most accurate place. "You know what I'm like, I've offered before, you're attractive, we're both drinking, you invited me back to your room."

[myagents]

"I thought you wanted to discuss what happened with Stacia. I'm sorry I gave you the impression that I was not going to actually listen to what you have to say and bring you here for something else."

He tries to deflect. He feels silly looking at himself panic like this, but who knows. He wants to secure a bond, but also to destroy it, he likes everyone but also hates everyone, there are so many polar opposites of emotions inside of him and nothing that is even remotely balanced. Curiosity, boredom, anger, sadness, whatever feeling he gets? It's just a basic feeling that spirals and becomes bigger, perhaps to compensate for some of the smaller nuanced ones that he isn't capable of feeling. So in a situation where there is no concrete goal or side, what is he supposed to base his decisions on? Everything is so fickle.

"Ah!" he hisses and then whines softly as he hurts himself with a shard of glass in an attempt to pick it up.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Nah. You didn't give any impression. Reckon I just projected what I wanted." Dan bites his lip.

"Let me finish cleaning up." Dan shows his hand to Price, his hand that's covered in pocks from gunpowder and scars from decades of manual labor. "You got nice hands. Mine can take a bit of a beating."