Dorian Montoir
March 05, 2020 5:41 AM
Back to normal (tag Vlad) by Dorian Montoir
The first day of term felt like it had been going on for several weeks, and it was far from over. It was mid to late afternoon. Dorian had survived all his classes for the day, the last of which had been made easier by Professor Wright allowing them a research period in the library. He had taken it, and then just… stayed on. Safely wrapped in his little castle of books, shutting the world out. He had not made very notable progress on his essay during the assigned lesson period, but during the additional time he had spent there, he felt he had scraped a lesson’s worth of effort together, and was going to count that for the day, even if he still felt guilty that overall, he clearly hadn’t been very productive.He had partially stayed in the library because it seemed easier to simply… continue being where he was than to force himself in a new direction, but eventually small things started to chip away. He became fidgety with sitting too long. He wasn’t comfortable any more. He wanted tea - and, whilst of course he had it about his person, he could not drink it there.
He had set off back to Teppenpaw, finding it felt good to move. Finding that, instead of the dread he thought he might feel at forcing himself back through the world, it felt better with every step. Maybe, he reasoned, because – cosy as the library was – this was actually going home. The promise of tea, as ever, helped.
He opened the door to his and Vlad’s room, finding that he’d stayed long enough in the library that Vlad was back from his classes, sitting on his own bed.
“Hey,” Dorian greeted him, swinging his satchel off his shoulder, tucking it neatly into the space under his nightstand, finding that he wasn’t sorry to find to the room occupied. There was a lot going on. There was a lot he was going to have to explain, again, at some stage. And he simultaneously didn’t want to do that right now but was also glad that Vlad was there. He tucked the strap of his satchel under the table, taking the moment that this gave him to compose his thoughts a little. Only a little. He knew he had to acknowledge the previous evening, but he also knew that it was, on some fundamental level, alright. It always was. And this was less about him, and more about just being polite.
“Do I have you or the elves to thank for looking after me last night and this morning?” he asked, looking over. “And I will make tea,” he added, crossing to his trunk to retrieve the little teapot with its small brushstroke rabbits flitting across the sides, “Maybe green or jasmine… Do you want any?”
13
Dorian Montoir
Back to normal (tag Vlad)
1401
1
5
Vladimir Brockert
March 28, 2020 5:27 AM
Normal. Right. by Vladimir Brockert
“Oh, Melodie,” Vlad sighed, running his fingers over the length of the cat. He never had a cat - Mama always had her hounds, and the combination didn’t seem like the best choice for when he would be home - but sharing his room with the extra furry roommate had always been a definite perk. He remembered how excited he was when he first got to meet her when she arrived with her master Dorian all those years ago.Oh, Dorian.
Vlad sighed again and leaned over, folding flat across his own folded legs to rest his head on Melodie. Her softness was a comfort. Vlad read once that purring had a healing effect. He liked that; it was like cats had their own kind of magic. So he hoped that Melodie could heal him.
He straightened up somewhat abruptly as he heard the door. “Hey,” he returned, trying to look casual. Vlad gave a stretch, to suggest that maybe he had just fallen asleep on Melodie. Because he was cool and casual like that, and everything was fine.
“Heh,” Vlad smiled. “Well, what do you think?” he posed playfully. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to admit anything quite yet - taking care of your roommate to that extent felt somehow a little less than platonic. Or maybe he was just overanalyzing himself. Again. “I’ll have some if you do jasmine,” he added in regards to the offer of tea. He’d never had any before Sonora. Mama lived and died by coffee. But thanks to Dorian and Tatya, Vladimir had tried quite a few varieties of tea over the years here and found that florals agreed with him.
12
Vladimir Brockert
Normal. Right.
1400
0
5
Dorian Montoir
April 02, 2020 3:27 AM
Right. Good. by Dorian Montoir
"You two were having cat naps?" he asked. He wasn't sure Melodie was actually patient enough to allow someone to use her as a pillow, but perhaps they'd been sleeping side by side, or just snuggling. It was a cosy image either way. Although, of course, along came a worry to puncture that, "I did not disturb you in the night?" he checked anxiously. He had come to briefly, but not even really long enough to register that he was not properly in bed, so he didn't think he would have done anything to disturb Vlad. The one and only time he had got really weird in his sleep had been when he'd had that stupid fever - he seemed to remember that, in American terms, it had been over a hundred, which had sounded melodramatic enough for how awful he'd felt. He sometimes had bad dreams. He thought everyone probably did, and he hoped that he didn't more than most. If they were enough to wake him with a start, that was usually enough to startle Vlad awake too, though only temporarily. Staying asleep was usually less of an issue for Dorian than getting to sleep. It was more in that that he tried to be respectful of Vlad's light sleeping. He could not, short of constantly drugging himself, control whether he had bad dreams. But, when he couldn't sleep, he could control whether he tossed and turned, disturbing Vlad's sleep. He tried his best not to. He tried instead to match his own breathing to Vlad's steady sleeper's rhythm. It usually worked to calm him off to sleep too and, when it didn't, at least reminded him he wasn't alone.Regarding his other question, Vlad did not give a direct answer. Dorian was slightly confused and was about to answer 'Probably you?' But once the question of who had looked after him was answered, the next logical step for that conversation was why he had needed looking after. Why he had been passed out fully dressed. What was wrong...
"Hm. I shall have to consider," he replied, his tone playful as Vlad's had been. It was superficial, in his case. It felt a little like an odd mask he was putting on. He did not feel playful inside. It was, however, the first conversation he had had in days though that didn't feel like he was pulling himself further to pieces by having it. He would have to tell Vlad. He knew that. But it could be 'eventually' rather than 'now.'
"Do the elves know me well enough to know I like tea?" he considered, as he pulled the jasmine Vlad had requested out of his trunk, all the tea things being conveniently near the top. He surveyed the rest of the contents. It had been the first time he had ever not unpacked on his first night back. Really, it would only take him five minutes but that felt like five too long when he just wanted to sit and just... be. Calm and quiet, somewhere soft. He closed the lid with a guilty sigh, padding over to stand by Vlad's bed.
"Probably," he concluded, "I think elves know many things about us, and I am probably so well known for this," He put the leaves in, conjured the water at the perfect eighty degrees for jasmine (he was pretty proud of the degree of control he was getting over water spells and their temperatures) and tapped the sand timer with a murmured incantation. The sand turned pale, creamy yellow - a pure affectation but he liked to co-ordinate to what he was brewing. The most important thing was that it would run for the necessary three minutes.
"But it started last night, with the blanket," he pointed out, wandering around the room a little as he spoke. Vlad's shoes were kicked off at the end of his bed. They weren't messy or in the way, and they didn't bother him like that, but he straightened them up anyway with a flick of his wand. He noticed as he did so that one of the laces was knotted, and so another quick charm sorted that out.
"And I think they are too busy with the feast. So yes, je t'accuse, Vladimir Brockert," he concluded, leaning against the post of Vlad's bed, a soft smile behind the dramatic words as he stared down at him. "And thank you."
13
Dorian Montoir
Right. Good.
1401
0
5
Vladimir Brockert
April 05, 2020 5:00 PM
Good. Right. by Vladimir Brockert
For a moment when Dorian addressed Vlad’s proximity to Melodie, the latter boy felt a surge of panic. What had he been doing? Being comforted for his Big Gay Sad by a soft kitty, but he obviously couldn’t tell Dorian that. But fortunately, Dorian moved on. “Oh, no, you didn’t bother me at all,” Vlad answered quickly. He was something of a light sleeper, but he had always found Dorian’s presence comforting. He liked having a roommate. When they were younger, he had a lot of sleep overs with Ivy and Peyton, but now that they were older it wasn’t as acceptable for him to join them. Vlad liked having someone else there, especially someone like Dorian.He watched Dorian make the tea and pace a bit, playfully contemplating the mystery with which Vlad had provided him, silently commanding his rapidly bounding heart to shut the heck up as the ever-considerate Dorian tidied his shoes. So casual and kind. At the pinnacle j’accus-ation, Vlad lost his cool and couldn’t stop the laughter. “Okay, you’ve got me,” he grinned. “And you’re welcome.”
Honestly, he wasn’t sure what to say next. He did wonder if Dorian was alright - asleep in his clothes was unusual, and he hadn’t unpacked, which was also unusual for him. Dorian was pretty neat and ordered generally. Maybe Vladimir was just reading into things too much, but he had to ask. “Were you…? I mean… Is everything okay, by the way?” he posed, cursing his ineloquence in his head. “You don’t usually… I mean, it just seemed unusual that you…. Did you not sleep very well over break?”
12
Vladimir Brockert
Good. Right.
1400
0
5