you magnificent fuck up (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
apostatised) wrote2008-08-26 08:45 pm
apostatised) wrote2008-08-26 08:45 pm
Entry tags:
[log] over and over you make me fall for you
[14:13] * Grif teleports in and takes a look around.
[14:15] * Martel is probably heard before he's seen, coming in--/backing/ in--from the now-usual door that tends to lead from the bar to Arum. "--you're going to sit still or I'm going to carry you back, let me stress--"
[14:16] * Candice is the teeny tiny black woman with long dark hair being toted around. She's moving a bit gingerly and has a cast on her wrist, that's probably related. "I will be very, very still. I promise." :|
[14:17] * Grif looks over, his face still hidden with his helmet on but with a curious tilt to his head.
[14:18] * Martel has an expression of long-suffering consternation, ushering Candice over to the nearest sofa. Oh, hey, that's Grif. He remembers that guy. (The only way this could be odder looking would be if Brody were somehow involved.) "Good evening." :[
[14:15] * Martel is probably heard before he's seen, coming in--/backing/ in--from the now-usual door that tends to lead from the bar to Arum. "--you're going to sit still or I'm going to carry you back, let me stress--"
[14:16] * Candice is the teeny tiny black woman with long dark hair being toted around. She's moving a bit gingerly and has a cast on her wrist, that's probably related. "I will be very, very still. I promise." :|
[14:17] * Grif looks over, his face still hidden with his helmet on but with a curious tilt to his head.
[14:18] * Martel has an expression of long-suffering consternation, ushering Candice over to the nearest sofa. Oh, hey, that's Grif. He remembers that guy. (The only way this could be odder looking would be if Brody were somehow involved.) "Good evening." :[
[14:19] Grif: "Oh, hey." He has no idea who Candice is, but he at least remembers Martel, and waves in greeting before taking his helmet off. "'Sup?"
[14:19] * Candice waves at Grif. "Hi." She settles on the sofa. Obediently. Shut up, Martel.
[14:21] * Martel is wholly incapable of doing so. "Business as usual, in the main." ...he's not good at smalltalk.
[14:21] Martel: (Or introductions.)
[14:22] * Grif nods and heads over to the bar. "Good to hear." Hm. Less dust than he was expecting, since the last time he was around. Interesting. He grabs himself a beer and asks, "Either of you want anything while I'm back here?"
[14:24] Candice: "I'd love a beer, please?" She looks so hopeful. Don't crush her hopes, Martel.
[14:24] Martel: "There should be a halfway decent red wine in there somewhere, if you don't mind." If you squint, he has manners. He eyes Candice, as if debating whether or not to permit that. (Because that's exactly what he's doing.)
[14:26] Grif: "Hmmm. Ah, yeah, here's the stuff, sure." Beer and wine are pulled and carried over, along with his own.
[14:27] Candice: "Thaaank you." She snatches her beer before Martel can tell her no. "I'm Candice, by the way, apparently Martel doesn't see fit to introduce me to people."
[14:28] Martel: "Grif, this is Candice," Martel says without looking up from the wine bottle, "Candice, this is Grif."
[14:30] Candice: "He's extremely tired of me after holding me hostage for four weeks."
[14:30] * Grif chuckles. "Nice to meet you." He'll offer a hand to shake, if it doesn't involve shaking the one with the cast on it.
[14:30] * Candice shakes his hand!
[14:30] Martel: "If I were holding you hostage, I'd get something out of it when I let you go, or at least the sweet release of death." ...Martel. He does look up and smile pleasantly at them both, though. Which does not help.
[14:31] * Grif snrks.
[14:31] Candice: "You're the one instructing me not to /move/ anywhere," she says, accusingly.
[14:32] Grif: "I wouldn't have expected you to be up for the death thing again so soon."
[14:33] Martel: "I'm considering the possibility that I'm only cycling through levels of hell." It's not just that he can joke about it, but that Martel genuinely seems to find this entertaining that is kind of surreal. He's also totally ignoring that accusation.
[14:35] Grif: "Hm. I dunno, my life before the Nexus was a lot shittier than it has been lately. If this is supposed to be Hell, it's been surprisingly not completely horrible."
[14:37] Candice: "He's just whining about having to take care of me--which is not actually a 'have to', you know, Martel." She makes a stern face. Her chiding doesn't seem all that serious, though.
[14:39] Martel: "I'm going to drug your food," he informs her, pleasantly, and then looks at Grif with something resembling interest. "We haven't spoken in a while--how are you defining 'not horrible' lately?"
[14:42] Grif: "Well, compared to several years of stupid fake civil war, complete with regular rations of hate from my Sergeant, just about anything is not horrible, at least on a long scale."
[14:43] Martel: "Deliver us from military hierarchy," Martel murmurs, mock pious.
[14:47] Grif: "No shit. Nowadays, most of my problems are things like when someone in the Nexus does something like unexpectedly teleport a bunch of us into a technicolor crazy land based on the Seven Sins, or like being told that oh, that weird glitch you're having's something we've figured out part of, we might have some surgery available if you want it."
[14:52] Martel: "Fairly unique as problems go. Surgery?" Habits he's probably not going to lose any time soon: curiosity. (Nosiness.)
[14:56] * Grif takes a moment to consider how to explain. "Not everyone's compatible with the SPARTAN-II augmentations, especially when you throw in a random guy you drafted without giving him the tests you give all the volunteers before letting them do it. I'm not *dead*, but there've been a few side effects..."
[14:57] Martel: "'Side-effects' sounds moderately ominous." Martel knows from ominous, and also from well-placed prompts.
[15:00] Grif: "One of the big ones was some damage to my pre-draft memories. That, in turn, seems to be causing some occasional problems that've become more noticeable, a few years on. Things like... the most common one is getting the feeling of being reminded of something, but then not being able to remember what, but there're others."
[15:02] Martel: "Deja vu of a more serious kind." Hrm. "You're being offered a solution, I take it?"
[15:04] Grif: "Partially, anyway. They haven't figure out the memory thing itself yet -- though they at least know how to handle people who get it, like reteaching them language if they need it -- but the secondary effect, yeah, they claim to have that figured out. I'm waiting to get more info before I make a decision."
[15:07] Martel: "Fair." Martel's the type of person who'd stubborn something to death before accepting help even if he /did/ have the information if there was the slightest reason (real or imagined) to distrust it. Nobody is surprised. "My month seems slightly quieter in comparison." Only slightly. Look, there was Maria and Brody and Candice.
[15:07] Grif: "Except for keeping injured chicks hostage, apparently."
[15:08] Martel: "Technically I believe we'd call that kidnapping." He's so blasé with his bland smile and his wine-drinkin'.
[15:09] Candice: "If we're being fair about it, I think he's paid his dues. I'm not really an easy hostage." :]
[15:10] * Grif laughs. "Well, good. I'm always in favor of being a troublesome prisoner. Stick it to The Man and so on."
[15:10] Martel: "Don't give her ideas." :(
[15:13] * Grif looks entirely innocent.
[15:15] Candice: "I don't need ideas. I'm doing well enough on my own. I miss fencing practice, though."
[15:15] Martel: "You can have your run of the training grounds when you can walk in a straight line--legitimately." Placid.
[15:16] Grif: "So how did you get injured, anyway, if you don't mind my asking?"
[15:19] * Candice sighs deep at Martel, and then ...winces when it strains her ribs. "Large-scale demonic possession--I was remedying the situation, not personally possessed." That guy's dead now! :D
[15:23] * Grif nods, understandingly. "Not my particular field, but I can imagine."
[15:24] Candice: "I was in the hospital for a little bit, and then Martel decided I needed looking after. For some reason."
[15:25] Martel: "Perhaps so you'll actually /heal/."
[15:25] Grif: "I was gonna ask, would you have stayed in the hospital, if he'd left you there?"
[15:26] * Grif doesn't know Candice that well, but he knows the kind of stubbornness that women who show up here seem prone to, so he can make some guesses.
[15:28] Candice: "If I'd stayed in the hospital they would've inevitably started asking questions I couldn't answer, so no, for practical reasons." :|
[15:31] * Candice likes to rationalize it so she's stubborn with a POINT. "Plus, I hate hospitals. Doesn't everyone?"
[15:34] Grif: "Eh. Haven't ever spent much time in one."
[15:34] Martel: "I disliked it on principle," the principle of 'modern shit is weird'. "But that's not the point and if we're arguing that, you /like/ castles." ...'castles'. Yes.
[15:37] Grif: "Oh, hey, you got a castle?" This is news! Behold turnabout on curiosity, Martel.
[15:38] Candice: "It's a very nice castle. It would be nicer if I got to roam around it once in a while."
[15:38] Martel: "I do indeed," Martel confirms, with a certain amount of self-satisfaction. "The renovations will probably--when you can walk on your own without aggravating your injuries--take the better part of the next few decades, if I go about overhauling the whole thing, outbuildings aside."
[15:39] Grif: "...Decades? Damn. Well, at least you won't lack for a project."
[15:40] Martel: "It's a large castle and I'm only one man." He shrugs. "At the moment, my priorities have been the necessities to living, and my work spaces."
[15:42] Grif: "Well, see, when I wanted to renovate part of my base? I hired people to do the work for me."
[15:43] * Martel laughs. "The clan I bought the castle from have been very helpful." For a tidy fee, yes. Cultural mercenaries; it's fascinating to him! "I suspect we have different resources."
[15:45] * Grif shrugs and nods. "Mm. Aside from the tech differences, it probably helped that I only wanted to redo the floor with the barracks and the mess and such, not the whole building."
[15:47] * Martel inclines his head. "It came at a reduced price as it was only a matter of time away from being classified ruins. I may have cheated a little in places." E.g. with magic.
[15:51] Grif: "Oddly enough, despite having been..." He pauses, then sighs. "Okay, I don't remember if I told you, Martel, but I know Candice hasn't heard it, but the short version is I'm originally from the 26th Century, but there was a wacky accident and now I live in the 34th. Anyway, the base went, presumably, abandoned for 800 years, but when we made it back, it was not only not wrecked, someone had done some upgrades."
[15:53] * Martel cocks his eyebrow. "Not quite so abandoned as you'd thought."
[15:55] Grif: "Mm. It might be that I just haven't asked the right people at Command or something, I dunno."
[15:56] Martel: "Bureaucracy isn't happy unless it's keeping secrets from itself and has rules nobody else understands."
[15:57] * Grif chuckles ruefully. "Turns out that you can get some answers if you use a crowbar, but you might only be allowed to use that trick once, so make sure it's worth it."
[15:58] Martel: "The only real way to understand it is from the inside," Martel allows, amused. "I take it you tried the crowbar method." Not that he's never done that. Uh.
[16:00] Grif: "Last month, in fact. It was worth it."
[16:00] Martel: "Well done."
[16:01] * Candice rolls her eyes at them, good-naturedly.
[16:01] Martel: "Mercenary," he reminds her.
[16:02] Candice: "I should start using 'Catholic' as an excuse for more things, in that case." >_>
[16:02] Grif: "Actually, not so much. I wanted to know if the rumor I'd heard was true, about my sister having enlisted and then had her ship gone missing."
[16:02] Martel: "It won't work," he tells her, blithely. "I've been informed I'm corrupting you."
[16:03] Martel: "--your sister--?"
[16:07] Grif: "Yeah. I'd raised her after Dad and Mom each abandoned us, and word was that, sometime after I'd gotten drafted, she'd enlisted in hopes of being assigned to my squad." He sighs. "I loved her dearly, but she wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer."
[16:07] * Martel is having one of those 'wrapping his mind around foreign concepts' moments.
[16:08] * Candice observes this look. She is kind of guessing what it's for.
[16:09] * Martel is /capable/ of subtlety; he doesn't employ it much lately. "I can understand taking a crowbar around for one's family," he says, eventually, which is somewhere between commiseration and a truly, truly horrifying joke.
[16:15] Grif: "Command appreciated it... less, but it got the attention put on it that I wanted, and some complicated stuff involving the Office of Naval Intelligence kept me from going to the stockade forever, in exchange for some... future considerations."
[16:18] Martel: "Made a deal," Martel surmises, recognizing an opportunity he got and passed over in favor of killing people.
[16:22] Grif: "More that it modified an existing deal, really. Technically, I'm still in the Army, but ONI had already taken an interest in me once they found out about the whole Nexus thing."
[16:24] Martel: "...the implications are fascinating," he drawls, mostly because he's talked to his CIA alternate, okay, the amount of official government business nosing around the nexus and trying to be subtle about it is actually getting funny.
[16:26] * Grif chuckles. "Yeah, well, part of the existing deal is basically that they don't fuck around with it, but if things from the Nexus start trouble back home, I'm on speed-dial. *Hopefully*, that won't be much of a problem." Yes, he still dares to dream.
[16:26] Martel: "You're more optimistic than me." That's not hard, Martel.
[16:29] * Grif shrugs. "Sometimes. I try to maintain a certain ration, just so I don't get completely fucking depressed."
[16:31] * Candice is watching this conversation interestedly. She does in fact move a little to grab a napkin so condensation from her beer doesn't get all over the table. Onoes.
[16:32] * Martel 's eyes track sideways to make sure that's only so far as she's going, although he otherwise doesn't so much as pause. "That seems wise, so far as it goes."
[16:36] Candice: "Personally," she tells them, smiling, "I tend to think of myself as an optimist in most situations."
[16:36] * Martel gives her this look like 'yeah /okay/'. Perhaps he is not convinced, madam.
[16:36] Grif: "Mm. In the meantime, for the most part, they let me do whatever I do, as long as I send them the occasional report, especially if I get into any fights." He rolls his eyes. "They like that, 'cause it gives me experience and they hope that it'll make a better soldier out of me."
[16:38] * Martel actually looks intrigued here. "What sort of experience are they interested in?"
[16:43] Grif: "Anything and everything, pretty much. They understand that barging into the Nexus is a bad idea, but they like that I've come out of stumbling into a couple of things with some new tricks."
[16:48] * Martel has a speculative sort of look. Fear it.
[16:50] Grif: "Though I was mostly talking about 'a better soldier' in terms of being more into the whole 'yay the military' thing."
[16:50] * Martel makes a dismissive gesture. "If you don't have it, you won't develop it because they sit on their thumbs and hope."
[16:52] Grif: "Well, they tried pounding it into me by putting me in a squad whose Sergeant was All For The Cause, and that didn't work, so now they're trying the carrot instead of the stick."
[16:55] * Martel shrugs. "Would you be interested in something more formal than tumbling into nexus fights?"
[16:56] Grif: "What kind of 'more formal'?"
[16:59] Martel: "I'm in the midst of establishing a...slightly /in/formal training school of sorts on my property," he says, carefully. "Granted, not everything I can offer the Arums will be relevant or useful to you. Swordwork, though, is worth the time."
[17:04] * Grif looks thoughtful. "As it happens, I do some work training some kids from the Nexus, myself. Mostly hand-to-hand and firearms..."
[17:05] Martel: "Trade you," Martel suggests, with a slight smile, but he's not kidding.
[17:06] Grif: "The stuff I'm trained in does include some sword stuff, for... weird unlikely reasons, but it's really basic 'a few slashes, a lunge maneuver, and a little parrying,' so..." He chuckles and shrugs when Martel makes the offer. "I think I could be up for that, sure."
[17:07] Martel: "'A little parrying'," Martel half-laughs. "Good man. I'll admit to a certain ulterior motive." ...what, like he doesn't always have like...five of those.
[17:08] Grif: "You're lookin' to try out the guns, aren't you." Why else would Mr. Medieval be lookin' to get into training with Mr. Shiny Future?
[17:09] Martel: "That's not even ulterior," Martel dismisses it because it's true and more like the obvious motive. "You have height, strength and probably speed advantage. I get bored." ...yep.
[17:10] Grif: "Ah. You're looking for a challenge, then."
[17:10] Martel: "One that won't kill me. Ideally."
[17:11] Grif: "I try to avoid killing people who aren't trying to kill me first, yeah."
[17:12] * Martel makes a kind of 'precisely, yes' gesture. There's...more detail underlying, but why get into that if they don't have to.
[17:16] Grif: "Anyway, yeah, as it happens, I have been at least vaguely interested..." He pauses for a moment to roll back a bit mentally. "As far as I know, the reason why UNSC combat training includes any sword-like stuff at all is because the higher-level Covenant Elites, back during our war with them, had these energy swords, and hey, who wouldn't want to use one of those?"
[17:18] Grif: "But since then, those things are just about *impossible* to find, *anywhere.* So I've been at least vaguely interested in learning how to use a regular sword, which probably requires a bit more finesse than techniques meant for blades made of super-heated plasma."
[17:25] Martel: "I suspect so," he says, dryly. "It's my livelihood, though, I may be biased."
[17:29] * Grif shrugs. "Nothing wrong with that. By the same token, despite how a lot of folks think of it, there's a bit more to proper gun use than 'point and shoot.'"
[17:31] Martel: "I've picked up on that, some."
[17:36] * Grif raises his beer bottle. "Well, then, here's to it."
[17:49] * Martel clinks his glass against Grif's bottle, pleased.
[17:53] Grif: "I'll have to look at the schedule, work out what times I'm available. At the very least, I suspect that dropping you in with my existing students proooobably wouldn't be fun for either of you."
[17:54] * Martel snorts laughter. "No, that'd end badly. I wasn't much fun for the other novices when I /was/ a novice." Because he was /good/ and full of ego.
[17:57] * Grif looks thoughtful. "Although, once we'd been at this long enough... how fight-y is your magic whatever? Not looking to teach, but it miiight possibly be interesting someday to see how they deal with it. Maybe, I dunno, I'm just brainstorming."
[17:58] Martel: "It depends," Martel says, after a moment, slightly more tight. "There are combat spells, of course--that was the point of forming the Church Knights, to fight fire with fire, as it were."
[18:02] * Grif nods. "Mm. Well, we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it. I figure we'll have enough on our hands just getting each other started to last us a while."
[18:02] Martel: "More than likely." It's not really relaxing, but he does...breathe slightly easier. Not that Martel has issues.
[18:03] * Candice is STILL HERE...maybe she's reading something, who knows. Her typist is doing a trillion things.
[18:09] Grif: "Anyway..." He finishes his beer and stands up. "I'll check my calendar, you check yours, we'll touch base after that. Meanwhile, I should be getting back to base."
[18:10] * Martel offers his hand--hey, shaking on it is practically multiversal--as he rises just out of habit. (If you scratch at the surface a bit, the 'knight' is a little less 'ex'.) "We'll arrange details when we have them," he agrees. "Goodnight, Grif."
[18:12] * Grif will shake, sure. "Cool. Good talking to you, Martel. Nice to meet you, Candice." He puts his helmet back on and teleports out.
[18:43] * Candice glances over at Martel, amused. "So I heard something about plasma weaponry?"
[18:44] Martel: "I'm not entirely sure what that means but it sounds fascinating," he says, cheerful.
[18:45] Candice: "Plasma is--heat, I think, it's incredibly destructive. You know, I think Grif thinks you're a little annoyed with me."
[18:46] Martel: "I don't think Grif's seen me /not/ a little annoyed."
[18:46] Candice: "True. But you've been stressed out the past few weeks. Fortunately, I've come up with a way of alleviating that."
[18:47] Martel: "I'm not sure I want to ask. But?"
[18:48] Candice: "There's a therapeutic means of fixing broken bones that I've read about. It'll cut the rest of my recovery time in half. I can be out of your hair in a week, if you like."
[18:48] Martel: "'Out of my hair'," he echoes, with a sort of odd note.
[18:48] * Candice raises her eyebrows. "What?"
[18:50] * Martel gestures--with his glass, so carefully, or carefully and the glass is a good excuse. Hard to tell. "Never mind."
[18:50] Candice: "No, no nevermind. What is it?"
[18:52] Martel: "I wouldn't have phrased it that way."
[18:53] Candice: "Well, I mean I'll hopefully stop driving you crazy at all hours of the day because I'm in your bed twenty-four seven." She's genuinely kind of confused, becaaause...Candice is slow at this sort of thing, maybe she'll twig to it in a minute.
[18:54] * Martel laughs into his glass. "Will you give me a bit, Candice? I can't reorder this quickly."
[18:55] * Candice is even more puzzled now. "Sure?"
[18:55] * Martel actually can, it's a noted skill of his, but he's stalling.
[18:56] * Candice will only be patient for so long :|
[18:56] Martel: "I--truly--have no real problem, conceptually, with having you in my bed all hours of the day."
[18:58] * Candice ...goes a little pink, because there are obvious connotations there, but more than that--well, it's nice to hear, okay? "So it's the--keeping a close eye on my health that's bothering you?"
[19:01] Martel: "In a manner of speaking."
[19:02] * Candice raises her eyebrows. "What does /that/ mean?"
[19:08] * Martel pinches the bridge of his nose, with an expression on his face like 'seriously, my life'. "I want to touch you," he says, going for 'impossible to misunderstand'. He hopes.
[19:10] Candice: "...are you going to laugh if I tell you that's half the reason I'm getting the treatment?" >____>
[19:15] Martel: "I'm going to say thank you, nicely."
[19:18] Candice: "/You're/ saying thank you? I've been in your bed and not able to--" She blushes again. "Well, it's a little selfish, too, I won't lie. Or a lot selfish."
[19:22] * Martel laughs, low.
[19:23] Candice: "I'm not being a very good Catholic woman right now, am I."
[19:23] Martel: "I don't mind."
[19:25] Candice: "You better not. It's your fault." She beckons him closer. "I'd ordinarily go to you, but..."
[19:26] * Martel moves, making a little pretense of obedience.
[19:35] * Candice leans in and kisses him. Possibly more than she should, given her current physical state, and the fact that they've just been over the mutual frustration.
[20:44] * Candice ...also needs to retake her painkillers. Sigh. Ribs.
[22:37] * Martel exists a thousand years later. "That's not helpful." And that wasn't...REALLY a complaint.
[22:39] Candice: "Consider it incentive?" She asks, shrugging. And then biting her lip. "Ow. Did I bring my percocet--"
[22:39] Martel: "/I/ did," and he's grabbing it now, also, swiping her beer. "I'll get you water."
[22:41] Candice: "Ah, right. Even I know better than to take painkillers with alcohol. You paid attention to the doctors' orders."
[22:44] Martel: "I pay attention to everything." This is and is not true. He's up and getting her a glass of water, now.
[22:52] Candice: "Everything. That must get awfully distracting. You should focus the whole of your attention on one thing." She nods, seriously.
[22:53] Martel: "I intend to." The words may leave his meaning open to interpretation; the delivery does not.
[22:56] Candice: "You know, I thought my previous relationships were with dangerous men, but when you say things like that, I realize you take the cake."
[22:58] Martel: "I've always performed above par." He offers her the glass and the percocet. "Is that an opening line or are you going to leave me in suspense?"
[22:59] Candice: "Are you curious? Because I've got stories, although most of them are very nostalgic." She pauses to down her percocet, wincing. "Thank you."
[22:59] Martel: "I suppose I am, if you don't mind. You're welcome."
[23:01] Candice: "Ah. Let's see, working backwards..." She beckons him to come sit again. "Matthias, when I was twenty-seven. He was a drug addict, I think. When he got clean, he told me he was married and was going back to his wife. Fortunately it's not like I slept with him, but." She shrugs.
[23:01] * Martel joins her--closer, this time.
[23:02] Candice: "I still don't really know the name of my ritual partner, but I don't do that any more, so I suppose it doesn't matter. Damon, in college, but we broke up because I wouldn't--well."
[23:03] Martel: "Well?" He can guess, but you NEVER KNOW.
[23:04] Candice: "I wouldn't sleep with him," she clarifies, "Not even--the, um, alternatives. I suppose he thought I'd come around, but I understand why it didn't work out for him."
[23:04] Martel: "Ah." He nods.
[23:06] Candice: "And, mm...then there was Zachary. My first. I think he was eighteen, and I was--God, barely past fourteen. Very inexperienced, very shy--though I know you don't believe I was ever that bad about it." She grins at him.
[23:07] Martel: "I'm sure the nexus will prove me wrong one day." He's met EVERYONE ELSE.
[23:07] Candice: "Ugh, I hope not." She grimaces slightly. "Zachary was pretty--he would've been better for someone who knew how to handle him, I guess. He convinced me to do all sorts of things."
[23:09] * Martel raises his eyebrow. "Did he."
[23:11] * Candice is reminiscing now. "One time he got me to sneak out at three AM. Enfys almost had a fit, but he picked me up, so that was all right. And--he had little tricks to get me to kiss him, to--well, he was sick, he'd had all sorts of health problems in the past, and he knew how to make me want to feel better."
[23:11] * Candice leans against Martel. "I really wanted to help him. The car thing was probably a sign I couldn't."
[23:11] Martel: "The 'car' thing...?" He shifts slightly to get comfortable with her.
[23:13] Candice: "He'd do things to frighten me. Going too fast in traffic. One time he almost crashed just to make me scream."
[23:18] Martel: "What a charming young man."
[23:20] Candice: "He was just a kid,," she protests, but she's distant, now, remembering.
[23:21] * Martel snorts, not dismissive but ... disagreeing, maybe. He brushes his fingertips over the nearest part of her /not/ bruised or broken.
[23:26] Candice: "I suppose I'm slightly biased." She turns her head toward him. "Do you want to know something really weird?"
[23:26] Martel: "Do tell."
[23:29] Candice: "I know I'm driving you sort of crazy lately, and I am sorry I'm such a bad patient, really, but I'm not...tired--of this. Being this close." She presses her face into his shoulder. "Is that too weird?"
[23:29] Martel: "I don't /want/ you to be tired of that."
[23:30] Candice: "I'm glad, then. It's sort of new for me. Little scary, I guess." She dares a glance up at his expression.
[23:32] * Martel is sort of...pleased in a quiet and comfortable way. "Not quite how I usually strike fear into the hearts of...women." :]?
[23:33] * Candice laughs a tiiny bit. "No, I bet you ordinarily do that looming thing. ...and then I wouldn't quite call it 'fear', on my part." >___>
[23:34] Martel: "'That looming thing'." He's not really taking offense, but he must submit token protest.
[23:36] Candice: "You know what I mean. I refuse to believe it's accidental."
[23:37] Martel: "I know exactly what you mean."
[23:39] * Candice is considering something. "Why do you do that, anyway? Not that I mind, like I said."
[23:39] Martel: "Habit," he suggests.
[23:39] Candice: "Really. I ought to get a habit like that, except I'd have to grow a foot."
[23:40] Martel: "It comes in useful now and again."
[23:40] Candice: "I suppose I have other means." She looks surprisingly impish, at that.
[23:40] Martel: "I /suppose/ you do."
[23:43] * Candice chooses, then, to bite him. This is entirely, completely, alarmingly unfair of her.
[23:44] * Martel makes a protesting sound to the effect of that. "You're supposed to have a better sense of fairplay than I am," he informs her.
[23:45] Candice: "Says /who/? I'm responsible for all sorts of terrible things."
[23:46] Martel: "You /know/ I'll win that." He kisses her, equally unfairly (if not moreso due to practice), and disentangles. "If you can't behave, I'm going to have to sit elsewhere."
[23:51] Candice: "And kissing me like /that/ is unfair?" Candice demands, amused. "I'll be good. I'll be better when I'm healed, though."
[23:56] Martel: "I'm not expected to play fair," he says, helpfully.
[23:58] Candice: "Mm. Are you going to sleep in the armchair again tonight?"
[23:59] Martel: "Maybe this time I'll take advantage of a guestroom."
[23:59] Candice: "Why?" :(
[00:05] * Candice is dumb sometimes, hi.
[00:05] Martel: "Because I might actually sleep that way."
[00:06] Candice: "...it can't possibly be that bad. Are all men this--" She waves a hand. "Or am I just extremely lucky?" And she totally appreciates this luck, BTW.
[00:06] Martel: "A little of this and a little of that."
[00:08] Candice: "I don't mean to--disturb your sleep. You know I could sleep in a guestroom instead, since I am, in fact, a guest, and I've got a suite."
[00:08] Martel: "You're perfectly fine where you are."
[00:10] Candice: "I'm kicking you out of your own bed." She's distressed in that 'I'm from the midwest and have had manners drilled into my brain' way.
[00:10] Martel: "If you kick anything, you may actually break another bone."
[00:12] Candice: "You know what I mean. It's not like I'm going to seduce you or anything, you know. Although that's an idea for later, I suppose." She blushes just after she's said it, but...really, Candice. Martel, this is your fault.
[00:13] * Martel is pretty okay with that, in comparison to the many and varied things that are also his fault. "I do and you can't win this argument."
[00:15] Candice: "...all right," she relents, with a tiny sigh, "In your bed I'll stay--alone, apparently." She's not...quite pouting about that, but it's a near thing.
[00:17] Martel: "A few nights out of a month are a terrible hardship," he agrees, seriously.
[00:18] Candice: "I don't know," she says, mildly, but there's something in her tone, "I've gotten used to you. I miss you when you're not around. It's funny how that works."
[00:19] Martel: "Is it? I suppose it ties into..." He shrugs.
[00:20] Candice: "...into?"
[00:20] * Martel shakes his head. "Tangenting thoughts."
[14:19] * Candice waves at Grif. "Hi." She settles on the sofa. Obediently. Shut up, Martel.
[14:21] * Martel is wholly incapable of doing so. "Business as usual, in the main." ...he's not good at smalltalk.
[14:21] Martel: (Or introductions.)
[14:22] * Grif nods and heads over to the bar. "Good to hear." Hm. Less dust than he was expecting, since the last time he was around. Interesting. He grabs himself a beer and asks, "Either of you want anything while I'm back here?"
[14:24] Candice: "I'd love a beer, please?" She looks so hopeful. Don't crush her hopes, Martel.
[14:24] Martel: "There should be a halfway decent red wine in there somewhere, if you don't mind." If you squint, he has manners. He eyes Candice, as if debating whether or not to permit that. (Because that's exactly what he's doing.)
[14:26] Grif: "Hmmm. Ah, yeah, here's the stuff, sure." Beer and wine are pulled and carried over, along with his own.
[14:27] Candice: "Thaaank you." She snatches her beer before Martel can tell her no. "I'm Candice, by the way, apparently Martel doesn't see fit to introduce me to people."
[14:28] Martel: "Grif, this is Candice," Martel says without looking up from the wine bottle, "Candice, this is Grif."
[14:30] Candice: "He's extremely tired of me after holding me hostage for four weeks."
[14:30] * Grif chuckles. "Nice to meet you." He'll offer a hand to shake, if it doesn't involve shaking the one with the cast on it.
[14:30] * Candice shakes his hand!
[14:30] Martel: "If I were holding you hostage, I'd get something out of it when I let you go, or at least the sweet release of death." ...Martel. He does look up and smile pleasantly at them both, though. Which does not help.
[14:31] * Grif snrks.
[14:31] Candice: "You're the one instructing me not to /move/ anywhere," she says, accusingly.
[14:32] Grif: "I wouldn't have expected you to be up for the death thing again so soon."
[14:33] Martel: "I'm considering the possibility that I'm only cycling through levels of hell." It's not just that he can joke about it, but that Martel genuinely seems to find this entertaining that is kind of surreal. He's also totally ignoring that accusation.
[14:35] Grif: "Hm. I dunno, my life before the Nexus was a lot shittier than it has been lately. If this is supposed to be Hell, it's been surprisingly not completely horrible."
[14:37] Candice: "He's just whining about having to take care of me--which is not actually a 'have to', you know, Martel." She makes a stern face. Her chiding doesn't seem all that serious, though.
[14:39] Martel: "I'm going to drug your food," he informs her, pleasantly, and then looks at Grif with something resembling interest. "We haven't spoken in a while--how are you defining 'not horrible' lately?"
[14:42] Grif: "Well, compared to several years of stupid fake civil war, complete with regular rations of hate from my Sergeant, just about anything is not horrible, at least on a long scale."
[14:43] Martel: "Deliver us from military hierarchy," Martel murmurs, mock pious.
[14:47] Grif: "No shit. Nowadays, most of my problems are things like when someone in the Nexus does something like unexpectedly teleport a bunch of us into a technicolor crazy land based on the Seven Sins, or like being told that oh, that weird glitch you're having's something we've figured out part of, we might have some surgery available if you want it."
[14:52] Martel: "Fairly unique as problems go. Surgery?" Habits he's probably not going to lose any time soon: curiosity. (Nosiness.)
[14:56] * Grif takes a moment to consider how to explain. "Not everyone's compatible with the SPARTAN-II augmentations, especially when you throw in a random guy you drafted without giving him the tests you give all the volunteers before letting them do it. I'm not *dead*, but there've been a few side effects..."
[14:57] Martel: "'Side-effects' sounds moderately ominous." Martel knows from ominous, and also from well-placed prompts.
[15:00] Grif: "One of the big ones was some damage to my pre-draft memories. That, in turn, seems to be causing some occasional problems that've become more noticeable, a few years on. Things like... the most common one is getting the feeling of being reminded of something, but then not being able to remember what, but there're others."
[15:02] Martel: "Deja vu of a more serious kind." Hrm. "You're being offered a solution, I take it?"
[15:04] Grif: "Partially, anyway. They haven't figure out the memory thing itself yet -- though they at least know how to handle people who get it, like reteaching them language if they need it -- but the secondary effect, yeah, they claim to have that figured out. I'm waiting to get more info before I make a decision."
[15:07] Martel: "Fair." Martel's the type of person who'd stubborn something to death before accepting help even if he /did/ have the information if there was the slightest reason (real or imagined) to distrust it. Nobody is surprised. "My month seems slightly quieter in comparison." Only slightly. Look, there was Maria and Brody and Candice.
[15:07] Grif: "Except for keeping injured chicks hostage, apparently."
[15:08] Martel: "Technically I believe we'd call that kidnapping." He's so blasé with his bland smile and his wine-drinkin'.
[15:09] Candice: "If we're being fair about it, I think he's paid his dues. I'm not really an easy hostage." :]
[15:10] * Grif laughs. "Well, good. I'm always in favor of being a troublesome prisoner. Stick it to The Man and so on."
[15:10] Martel: "Don't give her ideas." :(
[15:13] * Grif looks entirely innocent.
[15:15] Candice: "I don't need ideas. I'm doing well enough on my own. I miss fencing practice, though."
[15:15] Martel: "You can have your run of the training grounds when you can walk in a straight line--legitimately." Placid.
[15:16] Grif: "So how did you get injured, anyway, if you don't mind my asking?"
[15:19] * Candice sighs deep at Martel, and then ...winces when it strains her ribs. "Large-scale demonic possession--I was remedying the situation, not personally possessed." That guy's dead now! :D
[15:23] * Grif nods, understandingly. "Not my particular field, but I can imagine."
[15:24] Candice: "I was in the hospital for a little bit, and then Martel decided I needed looking after. For some reason."
[15:25] Martel: "Perhaps so you'll actually /heal/."
[15:25] Grif: "I was gonna ask, would you have stayed in the hospital, if he'd left you there?"
[15:26] * Grif doesn't know Candice that well, but he knows the kind of stubbornness that women who show up here seem prone to, so he can make some guesses.
[15:28] Candice: "If I'd stayed in the hospital they would've inevitably started asking questions I couldn't answer, so no, for practical reasons." :|
[15:31] * Candice likes to rationalize it so she's stubborn with a POINT. "Plus, I hate hospitals. Doesn't everyone?"
[15:34] Grif: "Eh. Haven't ever spent much time in one."
[15:34] Martel: "I disliked it on principle," the principle of 'modern shit is weird'. "But that's not the point and if we're arguing that, you /like/ castles." ...'castles'. Yes.
[15:37] Grif: "Oh, hey, you got a castle?" This is news! Behold turnabout on curiosity, Martel.
[15:38] Candice: "It's a very nice castle. It would be nicer if I got to roam around it once in a while."
[15:38] Martel: "I do indeed," Martel confirms, with a certain amount of self-satisfaction. "The renovations will probably--when you can walk on your own without aggravating your injuries--take the better part of the next few decades, if I go about overhauling the whole thing, outbuildings aside."
[15:39] Grif: "...Decades? Damn. Well, at least you won't lack for a project."
[15:40] Martel: "It's a large castle and I'm only one man." He shrugs. "At the moment, my priorities have been the necessities to living, and my work spaces."
[15:42] Grif: "Well, see, when I wanted to renovate part of my base? I hired people to do the work for me."
[15:43] * Martel laughs. "The clan I bought the castle from have been very helpful." For a tidy fee, yes. Cultural mercenaries; it's fascinating to him! "I suspect we have different resources."
[15:45] * Grif shrugs and nods. "Mm. Aside from the tech differences, it probably helped that I only wanted to redo the floor with the barracks and the mess and such, not the whole building."
[15:47] * Martel inclines his head. "It came at a reduced price as it was only a matter of time away from being classified ruins. I may have cheated a little in places." E.g. with magic.
[15:51] Grif: "Oddly enough, despite having been..." He pauses, then sighs. "Okay, I don't remember if I told you, Martel, but I know Candice hasn't heard it, but the short version is I'm originally from the 26th Century, but there was a wacky accident and now I live in the 34th. Anyway, the base went, presumably, abandoned for 800 years, but when we made it back, it was not only not wrecked, someone had done some upgrades."
[15:53] * Martel cocks his eyebrow. "Not quite so abandoned as you'd thought."
[15:55] Grif: "Mm. It might be that I just haven't asked the right people at Command or something, I dunno."
[15:56] Martel: "Bureaucracy isn't happy unless it's keeping secrets from itself and has rules nobody else understands."
[15:57] * Grif chuckles ruefully. "Turns out that you can get some answers if you use a crowbar, but you might only be allowed to use that trick once, so make sure it's worth it."
[15:58] Martel: "The only real way to understand it is from the inside," Martel allows, amused. "I take it you tried the crowbar method." Not that he's never done that. Uh.
[16:00] Grif: "Last month, in fact. It was worth it."
[16:00] Martel: "Well done."
[16:01] * Candice rolls her eyes at them, good-naturedly.
[16:01] Martel: "Mercenary," he reminds her.
[16:02] Candice: "I should start using 'Catholic' as an excuse for more things, in that case." >_>
[16:02] Grif: "Actually, not so much. I wanted to know if the rumor I'd heard was true, about my sister having enlisted and then had her ship gone missing."
[16:02] Martel: "It won't work," he tells her, blithely. "I've been informed I'm corrupting you."
[16:03] Martel: "--your sister--?"
[16:07] Grif: "Yeah. I'd raised her after Dad and Mom each abandoned us, and word was that, sometime after I'd gotten drafted, she'd enlisted in hopes of being assigned to my squad." He sighs. "I loved her dearly, but she wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer."
[16:07] * Martel is having one of those 'wrapping his mind around foreign concepts' moments.
[16:08] * Candice observes this look. She is kind of guessing what it's for.
[16:09] * Martel is /capable/ of subtlety; he doesn't employ it much lately. "I can understand taking a crowbar around for one's family," he says, eventually, which is somewhere between commiseration and a truly, truly horrifying joke.
[16:15] Grif: "Command appreciated it... less, but it got the attention put on it that I wanted, and some complicated stuff involving the Office of Naval Intelligence kept me from going to the stockade forever, in exchange for some... future considerations."
[16:18] Martel: "Made a deal," Martel surmises, recognizing an opportunity he got and passed over in favor of killing people.
[16:22] Grif: "More that it modified an existing deal, really. Technically, I'm still in the Army, but ONI had already taken an interest in me once they found out about the whole Nexus thing."
[16:24] Martel: "...the implications are fascinating," he drawls, mostly because he's talked to his CIA alternate, okay, the amount of official government business nosing around the nexus and trying to be subtle about it is actually getting funny.
[16:26] * Grif chuckles. "Yeah, well, part of the existing deal is basically that they don't fuck around with it, but if things from the Nexus start trouble back home, I'm on speed-dial. *Hopefully*, that won't be much of a problem." Yes, he still dares to dream.
[16:26] Martel: "You're more optimistic than me." That's not hard, Martel.
[16:29] * Grif shrugs. "Sometimes. I try to maintain a certain ration, just so I don't get completely fucking depressed."
[16:31] * Candice is watching this conversation interestedly. She does in fact move a little to grab a napkin so condensation from her beer doesn't get all over the table. Onoes.
[16:32] * Martel 's eyes track sideways to make sure that's only so far as she's going, although he otherwise doesn't so much as pause. "That seems wise, so far as it goes."
[16:36] Candice: "Personally," she tells them, smiling, "I tend to think of myself as an optimist in most situations."
[16:36] * Martel gives her this look like 'yeah /okay/'. Perhaps he is not convinced, madam.
[16:36] Grif: "Mm. In the meantime, for the most part, they let me do whatever I do, as long as I send them the occasional report, especially if I get into any fights." He rolls his eyes. "They like that, 'cause it gives me experience and they hope that it'll make a better soldier out of me."
[16:38] * Martel actually looks intrigued here. "What sort of experience are they interested in?"
[16:43] Grif: "Anything and everything, pretty much. They understand that barging into the Nexus is a bad idea, but they like that I've come out of stumbling into a couple of things with some new tricks."
[16:48] * Martel has a speculative sort of look. Fear it.
[16:50] Grif: "Though I was mostly talking about 'a better soldier' in terms of being more into the whole 'yay the military' thing."
[16:50] * Martel makes a dismissive gesture. "If you don't have it, you won't develop it because they sit on their thumbs and hope."
[16:52] Grif: "Well, they tried pounding it into me by putting me in a squad whose Sergeant was All For The Cause, and that didn't work, so now they're trying the carrot instead of the stick."
[16:55] * Martel shrugs. "Would you be interested in something more formal than tumbling into nexus fights?"
[16:56] Grif: "What kind of 'more formal'?"
[16:59] Martel: "I'm in the midst of establishing a...slightly /in/formal training school of sorts on my property," he says, carefully. "Granted, not everything I can offer the Arums will be relevant or useful to you. Swordwork, though, is worth the time."
[17:04] * Grif looks thoughtful. "As it happens, I do some work training some kids from the Nexus, myself. Mostly hand-to-hand and firearms..."
[17:05] Martel: "Trade you," Martel suggests, with a slight smile, but he's not kidding.
[17:06] Grif: "The stuff I'm trained in does include some sword stuff, for... weird unlikely reasons, but it's really basic 'a few slashes, a lunge maneuver, and a little parrying,' so..." He chuckles and shrugs when Martel makes the offer. "I think I could be up for that, sure."
[17:07] Martel: "'A little parrying'," Martel half-laughs. "Good man. I'll admit to a certain ulterior motive." ...what, like he doesn't always have like...five of those.
[17:08] Grif: "You're lookin' to try out the guns, aren't you." Why else would Mr. Medieval be lookin' to get into training with Mr. Shiny Future?
[17:09] Martel: "That's not even ulterior," Martel dismisses it because it's true and more like the obvious motive. "You have height, strength and probably speed advantage. I get bored." ...yep.
[17:10] Grif: "Ah. You're looking for a challenge, then."
[17:10] Martel: "One that won't kill me. Ideally."
[17:11] Grif: "I try to avoid killing people who aren't trying to kill me first, yeah."
[17:12] * Martel makes a kind of 'precisely, yes' gesture. There's...more detail underlying, but why get into that if they don't have to.
[17:16] Grif: "Anyway, yeah, as it happens, I have been at least vaguely interested..." He pauses for a moment to roll back a bit mentally. "As far as I know, the reason why UNSC combat training includes any sword-like stuff at all is because the higher-level Covenant Elites, back during our war with them, had these energy swords, and hey, who wouldn't want to use one of those?"
[17:18] Grif: "But since then, those things are just about *impossible* to find, *anywhere.* So I've been at least vaguely interested in learning how to use a regular sword, which probably requires a bit more finesse than techniques meant for blades made of super-heated plasma."
[17:25] Martel: "I suspect so," he says, dryly. "It's my livelihood, though, I may be biased."
[17:29] * Grif shrugs. "Nothing wrong with that. By the same token, despite how a lot of folks think of it, there's a bit more to proper gun use than 'point and shoot.'"
[17:31] Martel: "I've picked up on that, some."
[17:36] * Grif raises his beer bottle. "Well, then, here's to it."
[17:49] * Martel clinks his glass against Grif's bottle, pleased.
[17:53] Grif: "I'll have to look at the schedule, work out what times I'm available. At the very least, I suspect that dropping you in with my existing students proooobably wouldn't be fun for either of you."
[17:54] * Martel snorts laughter. "No, that'd end badly. I wasn't much fun for the other novices when I /was/ a novice." Because he was /good/ and full of ego.
[17:57] * Grif looks thoughtful. "Although, once we'd been at this long enough... how fight-y is your magic whatever? Not looking to teach, but it miiight possibly be interesting someday to see how they deal with it. Maybe, I dunno, I'm just brainstorming."
[17:58] Martel: "It depends," Martel says, after a moment, slightly more tight. "There are combat spells, of course--that was the point of forming the Church Knights, to fight fire with fire, as it were."
[18:02] * Grif nods. "Mm. Well, we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it. I figure we'll have enough on our hands just getting each other started to last us a while."
[18:02] Martel: "More than likely." It's not really relaxing, but he does...breathe slightly easier. Not that Martel has issues.
[18:03] * Candice is STILL HERE...maybe she's reading something, who knows. Her typist is doing a trillion things.
[18:09] Grif: "Anyway..." He finishes his beer and stands up. "I'll check my calendar, you check yours, we'll touch base after that. Meanwhile, I should be getting back to base."
[18:10] * Martel offers his hand--hey, shaking on it is practically multiversal--as he rises just out of habit. (If you scratch at the surface a bit, the 'knight' is a little less 'ex'.) "We'll arrange details when we have them," he agrees. "Goodnight, Grif."
[18:12] * Grif will shake, sure. "Cool. Good talking to you, Martel. Nice to meet you, Candice." He puts his helmet back on and teleports out.
[18:43] * Candice glances over at Martel, amused. "So I heard something about plasma weaponry?"
[18:44] Martel: "I'm not entirely sure what that means but it sounds fascinating," he says, cheerful.
[18:45] Candice: "Plasma is--heat, I think, it's incredibly destructive. You know, I think Grif thinks you're a little annoyed with me."
[18:46] Martel: "I don't think Grif's seen me /not/ a little annoyed."
[18:46] Candice: "True. But you've been stressed out the past few weeks. Fortunately, I've come up with a way of alleviating that."
[18:47] Martel: "I'm not sure I want to ask. But?"
[18:48] Candice: "There's a therapeutic means of fixing broken bones that I've read about. It'll cut the rest of my recovery time in half. I can be out of your hair in a week, if you like."
[18:48] Martel: "'Out of my hair'," he echoes, with a sort of odd note.
[18:48] * Candice raises her eyebrows. "What?"
[18:50] * Martel gestures--with his glass, so carefully, or carefully and the glass is a good excuse. Hard to tell. "Never mind."
[18:50] Candice: "No, no nevermind. What is it?"
[18:52] Martel: "I wouldn't have phrased it that way."
[18:53] Candice: "Well, I mean I'll hopefully stop driving you crazy at all hours of the day because I'm in your bed twenty-four seven." She's genuinely kind of confused, becaaause...Candice is slow at this sort of thing, maybe she'll twig to it in a minute.
[18:54] * Martel laughs into his glass. "Will you give me a bit, Candice? I can't reorder this quickly."
[18:55] * Candice is even more puzzled now. "Sure?"
[18:55] * Martel actually can, it's a noted skill of his, but he's stalling.
[18:56] * Candice will only be patient for so long :|
[18:56] Martel: "I--truly--have no real problem, conceptually, with having you in my bed all hours of the day."
[18:58] * Candice ...goes a little pink, because there are obvious connotations there, but more than that--well, it's nice to hear, okay? "So it's the--keeping a close eye on my health that's bothering you?"
[19:01] Martel: "In a manner of speaking."
[19:02] * Candice raises her eyebrows. "What does /that/ mean?"
[19:08] * Martel pinches the bridge of his nose, with an expression on his face like 'seriously, my life'. "I want to touch you," he says, going for 'impossible to misunderstand'. He hopes.
[19:10] Candice: "...are you going to laugh if I tell you that's half the reason I'm getting the treatment?" >____>
[19:15] Martel: "I'm going to say thank you, nicely."
[19:18] Candice: "/You're/ saying thank you? I've been in your bed and not able to--" She blushes again. "Well, it's a little selfish, too, I won't lie. Or a lot selfish."
[19:22] * Martel laughs, low.
[19:23] Candice: "I'm not being a very good Catholic woman right now, am I."
[19:23] Martel: "I don't mind."
[19:25] Candice: "You better not. It's your fault." She beckons him closer. "I'd ordinarily go to you, but..."
[19:26] * Martel moves, making a little pretense of obedience.
[19:35] * Candice leans in and kisses him. Possibly more than she should, given her current physical state, and the fact that they've just been over the mutual frustration.
[20:44] * Candice ...also needs to retake her painkillers. Sigh. Ribs.
[22:37] * Martel exists a thousand years later. "That's not helpful." And that wasn't...REALLY a complaint.
[22:39] Candice: "Consider it incentive?" She asks, shrugging. And then biting her lip. "Ow. Did I bring my percocet--"
[22:39] Martel: "/I/ did," and he's grabbing it now, also, swiping her beer. "I'll get you water."
[22:41] Candice: "Ah, right. Even I know better than to take painkillers with alcohol. You paid attention to the doctors' orders."
[22:44] Martel: "I pay attention to everything." This is and is not true. He's up and getting her a glass of water, now.
[22:52] Candice: "Everything. That must get awfully distracting. You should focus the whole of your attention on one thing." She nods, seriously.
[22:53] Martel: "I intend to." The words may leave his meaning open to interpretation; the delivery does not.
[22:56] Candice: "You know, I thought my previous relationships were with dangerous men, but when you say things like that, I realize you take the cake."
[22:58] Martel: "I've always performed above par." He offers her the glass and the percocet. "Is that an opening line or are you going to leave me in suspense?"
[22:59] Candice: "Are you curious? Because I've got stories, although most of them are very nostalgic." She pauses to down her percocet, wincing. "Thank you."
[22:59] Martel: "I suppose I am, if you don't mind. You're welcome."
[23:01] Candice: "Ah. Let's see, working backwards..." She beckons him to come sit again. "Matthias, when I was twenty-seven. He was a drug addict, I think. When he got clean, he told me he was married and was going back to his wife. Fortunately it's not like I slept with him, but." She shrugs.
[23:01] * Martel joins her--closer, this time.
[23:02] Candice: "I still don't really know the name of my ritual partner, but I don't do that any more, so I suppose it doesn't matter. Damon, in college, but we broke up because I wouldn't--well."
[23:03] Martel: "Well?" He can guess, but you NEVER KNOW.
[23:04] Candice: "I wouldn't sleep with him," she clarifies, "Not even--the, um, alternatives. I suppose he thought I'd come around, but I understand why it didn't work out for him."
[23:04] Martel: "Ah." He nods.
[23:06] Candice: "And, mm...then there was Zachary. My first. I think he was eighteen, and I was--God, barely past fourteen. Very inexperienced, very shy--though I know you don't believe I was ever that bad about it." She grins at him.
[23:07] Martel: "I'm sure the nexus will prove me wrong one day." He's met EVERYONE ELSE.
[23:07] Candice: "Ugh, I hope not." She grimaces slightly. "Zachary was pretty--he would've been better for someone who knew how to handle him, I guess. He convinced me to do all sorts of things."
[23:09] * Martel raises his eyebrow. "Did he."
[23:11] * Candice is reminiscing now. "One time he got me to sneak out at three AM. Enfys almost had a fit, but he picked me up, so that was all right. And--he had little tricks to get me to kiss him, to--well, he was sick, he'd had all sorts of health problems in the past, and he knew how to make me want to feel better."
[23:11] * Candice leans against Martel. "I really wanted to help him. The car thing was probably a sign I couldn't."
[23:11] Martel: "The 'car' thing...?" He shifts slightly to get comfortable with her.
[23:13] Candice: "He'd do things to frighten me. Going too fast in traffic. One time he almost crashed just to make me scream."
[23:18] Martel: "What a charming young man."
[23:20] Candice: "He was just a kid,," she protests, but she's distant, now, remembering.
[23:21] * Martel snorts, not dismissive but ... disagreeing, maybe. He brushes his fingertips over the nearest part of her /not/ bruised or broken.
[23:26] Candice: "I suppose I'm slightly biased." She turns her head toward him. "Do you want to know something really weird?"
[23:26] Martel: "Do tell."
[23:29] Candice: "I know I'm driving you sort of crazy lately, and I am sorry I'm such a bad patient, really, but I'm not...tired--of this. Being this close." She presses her face into his shoulder. "Is that too weird?"
[23:29] Martel: "I don't /want/ you to be tired of that."
[23:30] Candice: "I'm glad, then. It's sort of new for me. Little scary, I guess." She dares a glance up at his expression.
[23:32] * Martel is sort of...pleased in a quiet and comfortable way. "Not quite how I usually strike fear into the hearts of...women." :]?
[23:33] * Candice laughs a tiiny bit. "No, I bet you ordinarily do that looming thing. ...and then I wouldn't quite call it 'fear', on my part." >___>
[23:34] Martel: "'That looming thing'." He's not really taking offense, but he must submit token protest.
[23:36] Candice: "You know what I mean. I refuse to believe it's accidental."
[23:37] Martel: "I know exactly what you mean."
[23:39] * Candice is considering something. "Why do you do that, anyway? Not that I mind, like I said."
[23:39] Martel: "Habit," he suggests.
[23:39] Candice: "Really. I ought to get a habit like that, except I'd have to grow a foot."
[23:40] Martel: "It comes in useful now and again."
[23:40] Candice: "I suppose I have other means." She looks surprisingly impish, at that.
[23:40] Martel: "I /suppose/ you do."
[23:43] * Candice chooses, then, to bite him. This is entirely, completely, alarmingly unfair of her.
[23:44] * Martel makes a protesting sound to the effect of that. "You're supposed to have a better sense of fairplay than I am," he informs her.
[23:45] Candice: "Says /who/? I'm responsible for all sorts of terrible things."
[23:46] Martel: "You /know/ I'll win that." He kisses her, equally unfairly (if not moreso due to practice), and disentangles. "If you can't behave, I'm going to have to sit elsewhere."
[23:51] Candice: "And kissing me like /that/ is unfair?" Candice demands, amused. "I'll be good. I'll be better when I'm healed, though."
[23:56] Martel: "I'm not expected to play fair," he says, helpfully.
[23:58] Candice: "Mm. Are you going to sleep in the armchair again tonight?"
[23:59] Martel: "Maybe this time I'll take advantage of a guestroom."
[23:59] Candice: "Why?" :(
[00:05] * Candice is dumb sometimes, hi.
[00:05] Martel: "Because I might actually sleep that way."
[00:06] Candice: "...it can't possibly be that bad. Are all men this--" She waves a hand. "Or am I just extremely lucky?" And she totally appreciates this luck, BTW.
[00:06] Martel: "A little of this and a little of that."
[00:08] Candice: "I don't mean to--disturb your sleep. You know I could sleep in a guestroom instead, since I am, in fact, a guest, and I've got a suite."
[00:08] Martel: "You're perfectly fine where you are."
[00:10] Candice: "I'm kicking you out of your own bed." She's distressed in that 'I'm from the midwest and have had manners drilled into my brain' way.
[00:10] Martel: "If you kick anything, you may actually break another bone."
[00:12] Candice: "You know what I mean. It's not like I'm going to seduce you or anything, you know. Although that's an idea for later, I suppose." She blushes just after she's said it, but...really, Candice. Martel, this is your fault.
[00:13] * Martel is pretty okay with that, in comparison to the many and varied things that are also his fault. "I do and you can't win this argument."
[00:15] Candice: "...all right," she relents, with a tiny sigh, "In your bed I'll stay--alone, apparently." She's not...quite pouting about that, but it's a near thing.
[00:17] Martel: "A few nights out of a month are a terrible hardship," he agrees, seriously.
[00:18] Candice: "I don't know," she says, mildly, but there's something in her tone, "I've gotten used to you. I miss you when you're not around. It's funny how that works."
[00:19] Martel: "Is it? I suppose it ties into..." He shrugs.
[00:20] Candice: "...into?"
[00:20] * Martel shakes his head. "Tangenting thoughts."