It's Hot
Log Info
- Title: It's Hot
- Emitter: Dolan
- Place: Andelena and Dolan's apartment
- Summary: It's a hot summer day, and Dolan's prepping for the journey to Desolation when Andelena comes out of the water closet after a bath. While Dolan's appreciating the view, Andelena asks him if he's heard of the Iron Book before. They participate in the careful dance of not confirming nor denying anything, but they both know each other mean. Andelena consoles Dolan about their latest escapade in dealing with wights, and then the sun couple get into some mischief.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Dramatis Personae =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Andelena 6'0" 180 Lb Human Female Redhead with steel-grey eyes and powerful build. Dolan 5'10" 174 Lb Human Male Brown-haired human with scars down his face. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Provisions and gear are scattered around the small apartment that the sun couple share, making the place even more of a mess than usual. Most of it, though, is concentrated around a shirtless Dolan, the back of his neck beaded with sweat against the heat of an incipient Alexandrian summer despite the unshuttered windows. He's sitting on the floor, two empty travel packs in front of him, organizing the mess around him into a pair of travel packs that will provision them for a journey into the Desolation.
He's been quietish since the return from the wight encounter, even after the Temple had seen to his injuries, and now is no different. At least now isn't horribly unusual, for he seems to be entirely focused on his task.
Andelena looks worse for wear, too, albeit in the way she keeps staring out windows like something's going to go wrong and in the way her mouth keeps pressing into a hard line when she can't find anything to say. The events in the city have seen her guard shifts increase in number as of late, and there's been a quiet sort of resignation in her attitude towards the whole thing--the words "it can't be helped" have left her lips more often than not lately.
Today, though, it hasn't been said. Not yet. And there's been an uncomfortable amount of silence in the apartment.
Andelena emerges from the water closet with only a towel wrapped around her. Normally this would be the prelude for some sort of banter between the two--probably prompted by Andelena just tossing the towel to the floor--but she just leans against the wall as she looks down at Dolan.
Finally, she comes up with an icebreaker. "It's fucking hot out today, ain't it," she says. Yup. The weather.
"Yup." Dolan doesn't look up immediately, and goes on counting out rations for each of them. He seems to have selected some early dried fruits and dried chunks of fish, along with a bold white cheese from a local creamery that they both favor. There isn't any bread in evidence, but that's not unusual. Dolan isn't into crackers or hard bread, so he usually adds that last, on the way out of town.
Once he's got the wrapped parcels of dried fruit parceled out, he looks up, and lets out a wolf whistle. "Not the only heat in here, though." For the first time in about three days, he actually cracks the beginnings of a cheeky grin.
That not only cracks a grin on Andelena's face, too--she snickers, as she usually does in a fashion like they've been caught whisper-flirting to each other as teenagers who should have been paying attention in Temple classes. "Damn, guess I shouldn't rush to get dressed yet," she says.
Mission accomplished, she looks over at the selection of rations that Dolan's counting--her eyes do linger on the cheeses, and she nods in approval, but her attention returns to Dolan quickly enough. "So," she says. "I've been meaning to ask you, but never been a good time to ask."
There's a moment before she asks, "Heard of the Iron Book before?"
Dolan's had more than a few guard stints himself, of late, given those self-same events, and this is the first afternoon in a while that they've both had off. Both of them know that the Redeemer is a terrible liar. He actually draws power from it, and doesn't shy from Daeus' truth when it's right in front of them. He starts, and freezes for half a breath, his flesh-and-blood eye widening and the scarred side of his face moving just enough to suggest that they both would have, if they were capable of it.
That would be a yes.
He relaxes, though, and nods, the cheeky grin gone. "Yeah. You talk to Balderdan, then?" Oh yes, he knows something.
Andelena nods, shifting her weight slightly on her legs as she folds her arms across her towel-clad chest. "Yup. I talked to him and he fessed up about the Iron Book. Told me he couldn't confirm nor deny anyone's membership save for his own. And we worked out a deal. I give him info, he gives me info."
She smiles at Dolan. "Now, I get it. We both do, Bry. Gods know how many 'secret societies' we busted back in the Kingdoms that were just wrinkly old-ass noblemen humping each other. So I ain't gonna ask you to confirm nor deny shit--but I just want to let you know."
That cheeky grin is back on her face. "Hypothetically speaking--and I know, that's a big fuckin' word for me--if you were involved with the Iron Book, that's fine by me, and it seems like a noble enough group."
Strangely, Dolan relaxes, and winks at her, leaning back against the wooden seat's edge. His usual grin is back in full force, as if he'd let go of something he didn't realize he was holding. "Good. Yeah, they're a good bunch, aimed in the right direction, and with as many damned demons as there are running around in this city, I ain't blame 'em for being quiet. You know that if who they were, or the information they hold, got into the wrong hands, they'd be fucked." The grin fades as he says that, though. "It's dangerous shit, Andie, but if you were to decide to join up, I'd get it."
Neither confirm nor deny, but there aren't too many ways he'd know that much.
"I'm on the fence about it," Andie replies, the grin still on her face to see that Dolan's actually relaxing again. "Again, to use words almost as big as your dick, hypothetically speaking--it's probably safer if one of us was to remain a non-member. Assuming one of us already is. They catch one of us and compel us via magic to say the truth, we can protect ourselves a bit by being able to say which one of us isn't the member."
She gives him a wink as she walks to his side, sitting down on the floor. "Now that's out of the bag, you look like you've taken a load off your back. What else is on your mind?" she asks, putting her hand on his bare shoulder. She has an idea--that look in her eyes suggests as much--but it's the words spoken aloud that often prompt the truth.
Dolan's eyes follow Andelena hungrily as she moves towards him. There isn't a lot of room on the floor, with the two packs and the survival gear spread around them. "Here, babe, there's more room on the couch," he says, pushing himself up to sit on the couch proper, spreading his legs and gesturing for her to sit between them. "Dunno, Andie," he says hesitantly. "You don't know for sure that I am, and I don't know for sure that you are. Might be best if we leave it at that."
He sighs, then, and goes quiet. "Thinking that spell that makes people bigger is better for fucking than for fighting, yeah?"
Andelena grins wickedly at Dolan's suggestion. "I dunno, Bry, if I sit down where you want me to, I have a feeling there's not gonna be a whole lot of room on that couch a split second later."
But she does anyway, and she runs her hand through his hair in that placating manner. Andelena rolls her eyes when he mentions the spell. "Yeah, you said it. Remember when we went out to the country and I had that exact same spell put on me, and I ended up almost getting my daylights knocked out? No more of that shit for us, I think--unless, like you said, it's for making the beast with two backs."
At any other time, Dolan might have come back with an even cruder come-on, a playful response that would have been an unmistakable invitation to activities that might be better done after they re-shutter the window, heat or not. Today, though, he looks up at her fingers in his hair. "It was worse, this time, Andie. I ... I couldn't protect any of 'em. Looked like a right little shit getting flattened that fast." So that's it. His ego took a bigger knock than his ass did.
Andelena smiles tenderly at Dolan, that compassionate warmth lit up in her eyes again whenever her man's exposing his vulnerable parts. "I know, Bry--but they didn't have that kind of shit back in the Kingdoms for us to deal with. We weren't pitted up against... soul-sucking creatures of darkness. Remember how the first time we were dealing with the werewolves, we were like, 'What the fuck, what're we doing?' But we're actually finding our footing, Bry. Next time we fight wights, we know how to approach them better. Because you hitting the ground was also a mistake for me, too, you know that? It's my job to make sure you get off that battlefield safe and sound--I was too far behind when you were charging in, and I was too far ahead when you were trying to retreat."
The color in Dolan's cheeks says that he's not quite letting himself off the hook yet. "More defenses, that's for damn sure. Don't let 'em touch you. Just touching you's enough." A shudder ripples through him, at the memory of soul-sucking cold. "But, I guess so. They touch you at all?" He does finally look up and meet her eyes at the question, all trace of smile gone.
"They tried to. They missed. I unleashed the light of Daeus onto them and they fell--should've done that sooner, but I just couldn't get close enough quickly enough for it. Was so focused on making sure those oruch got out of there." Andelena sighs a little. "I knew you would have given me shit if I let any of them fall on my watch once I could get to them."
She mulls over her last sentence for a second. "No, more accurately, I would have given myself shit. I hate leaving common people alone to fend for themselves. You and I--we can handle some things. Villagers? People who've maybe gotten themselves into schoolyard fights and bar brawls, ever? No. Not if I can damn well help it. That's why I focused on them and... Shit, should I have?"
This time, it's Dolan who reaches up with a soft smile that is totally unlike his cheeky grin, the smile he uses when his own compassion is real and willing to show itself. This fingers reach to trail over her cheek. "No, baby. You did right. If you don't think I'm a little shit for going down that fast, that's all I need to hear. You're right. Remember what Master Ollanath used to tell us. Good judgment comes from experience, which comes from bad judgement. You fuck up, you learn from it. Guess we both did that."
"Now..." The cheeky grin returns, along with a wicked light that only appears in one circumstance, and the fingers drift down the side of her neck, trailing down in the direction of that towel.
Andelena grins just as wickedly at him. "Lemme help you with that," she says, knowing that he's been holding it in for an awfully long time.
And the sun couple engage in activity that will earn them a noise complaint later from a neighbor. Will they actually apologize for that? Who knows. They're too busy focusing on letting off some steam.