taxonomites | 052 [text | location: around the island] on the shore just long enough to leave our clothes there

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052 [text | location: around the island] on the shore just long enough to leave our clothes there

Glitch is so very happy to be back on land where he's 100% less useless. Sure it's not the city (or home) but it's better than being on that miserable boat.

In the jungle (the mighty jungle) there is a large hamster idol carved from limestone. It sits up on its haunches and smiles a benevolent hamster smile, and atop its head is a floral headdress. More interestingly: its right paw is definitely a hatch touchpad, and it holds in its left paw the traditional hatch replicator box thing.

Glitch stares at it dubiously, then slaps his hand down and thinks desperately of toothpaste. The box produces a bottle of rum, which gets tucked into the satchel he's fashioned from the sleeves of his giant white pirate shirt. He tries again, this time thinking of ball-peen (...wait, who even came up with that name?) hammer and some nails. The hatch responds with directions for making a shelter with palm fronds and vines.

After some trial and error (and another bottle of rum and some paper umbrellas), the hatch does produce useful things like a length of insulated copper wire, a Hawaiian print shirt and some Bermuda shorts, a pair of pliers, and sunscreen.

"...well, it's a start," Glitch mutters, then hauls everything back to the shady spot he's claimed a little ways from the beach. There he lays the pliers and wire down beside the metal-containing ship debris that had washed up, and set about composing a text to everyone.

NOTES:
- Found a hatch, marked approx. location on map. Temperamental but will give useful stuff (!SUNSCREEN!) plus random items.
- The temple: have not explored, not sure if safe, be careful if you check it out. Do not go alone.
- Swear I heard drumming last night. Might be delusional.
TO DO:
- Work w/tablets. Have more tools & materials now. Power boost? Antenna? Help appreciated.
- Go back to ship for supplies: sailcloth, rope, anything useful. Build raft for this? Volunteers? (~~Not it!~~)
- Build hammock.

That done, he heads back into the jungle for his daily swim. The island is fortunately riddled with cenotes to provide drinking water and places to cool off without getting saltwater sticky. Glitch has found a favorite with a good mix of shade and sun, water crystal clear and deep enough for diving, and just secluded enough that he can get away with skinny dipping.

That last bit is likely inaccurate.

OOC: Oh hey it's another huge note! WELCOME TO THE ISLAND enjoy your naked headcase. He will be out there every day, so go bug him or join in and fret not about continuity. Or bump into him anywhere, godmoding of that nature is go. TABLET FOLKS: there is going to be so much handwaving with this plot I can't even tell you. To the point of "let's congratulate ourselves on how awesome our geniuses and electric lady are" and moving on with end results.

This post can also be used as a log post for non-Glitch related hijinks like setting up shelters, building rafts, and other mingling.
DETAILS ON THE TEMPLE: Think Temple of Doom meets Legends of the Hidden Temple meets The Mummy. There are 100% godmodey deathtraps, the nature and degree of dangerousness is totally up to you. There are also treasures...also godmodey, but a chest stuffed with toiletries is definitely in there somewhere.

DID GLITCH HEAR DRUMMING: Yes. Yes he did, and your folks may have too. ~Details to come~.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There is perhaps one or two things that saves Glitch from bearing the full brunt of Bagoas' ire. For one, he is a foreigner, and as such very probably doesn't know any better (neither did the Macedonians, though they at least didn't sully the water they would draw from unnecessarily). Secondly...

Well.

Secondly, Bagoas is currently otherwise occupied enough that there's little room for upset.

All that (no longer quite so pale) skin and all that water...clinging to all that dark and silvery hair like tiny gem stones.

And Glitch, meanwhile, is distracted by the pure joy of floating around. He disappears under the surface, revels in the weightlessness and the ability to twist in any direction he wants. There's a little familiarity from his time wandering, when a clean pond on a hot day had been a blessing. A little bit of happy.

When he surfaces again it's in hip-deep water and so he stands, pushes his hair back from his face, scrubs at the stubble on his cheek, and glances to the shore.

"Oh!" Glitch blinks in surprise for a moment, then smiles and offers a little wave to Bagoas. "Hi!"

What even is an inhibition.

Caught dead in the act of unintentional ogling, Bagoas does the only thing that comes to mind: he'll excuse himself politely and leave his friend to his ablutions.

What actually happens is his eyes pop open while all the blood in his entire body seems to migrate to his face. Then, just like Glitch's sudden loss of inhibition, so too does Bagoas find himself without a brain-to-mouth filter.

"Oh look at the time, I think I forgot to stoke the fire at camp, dear me I'd better get going, you know how it is, pesky fire doesn't stroke-- stoke itself, haah, of course you know that, you're an inventor, silly me." Breathe. Smile. Bow.

"I bid you a good day."

That gets a dismayed look and Glitch wonders what he's done wrong--

Then remembers all the nudity, looks down, and drops back into the water with a little gasp. Well this was a little awkward, last time he'd been seen in the all together was...was...huh. Quite a while, then.

"No no no, it's okay!" For some value of okay. "I-I'm sure there's plenty of people to str- stoke the fire."

Which was a good point actually, since he'd barely seen Bagoas during the time on the ship and when he had there had been much in the was of scurrying off after errands. He really ought to relax a bit.

"You can stay. Take a break...swim if you want, it's nice."

Nudity as such is hardly of any consequence to Bagoas. Of course, he's modest, but there is a time and place for everything, even frivolity. Even nudity.

However, stumbling upon his friend of many months in such a state of undress (and my, what a state) is proving to be rather a big startle.

This is not how he imagined the context of seeing Glitch undressed for the first time. The tanned hands and somewhat tanned arms and that...that face.

Bagoas looks away, considering the offer for what it probably is and what it might entail. These are special circumstances. There are streams throughout the island for gathering water for drink and cooking. And it has been a frightfully long time since his last bath.

It feels like it, at any rate. Surely, special circumstances call for special measures.

He glances up, giving Glitch another, slightly bolder once-over. It might even be considered rude not to accept.

"...would you teach me? To swim?"

Glitch looks at Bagoas looking at him, and it takes several long moments before the notion comes around that it might be for aesthetic reasons. His first impulse is to deny it - maybe Before, when he was all young and unlined and without the severe center part (or hadn't just spent over a week sick and growing a beard) -as it has to have been ages since he got a look like that. Longer than he can remember, surely ~~oh damn you, aliens~~.

And to receive it from someone he cares greatly for, well...he smiles, straightens so his shoulders are out of the water (he'd ducked down to his chin), and nods.

"If you want, I'd be happy to."

The offer is, of course, just an offer. Glitch has been deeply conscious of doing what he can to foster Bagoas' free will, everything is an either/or, with an implicit or not tacked on. Try swimming, bask on the rocks and chat, or head back to camp and throw a stick on the fire, it's entirely his choice.

Oh, to be the water clinging so eagerly to all those dark curls and swirls of hair.

"I can assure you, my dear friend, that I would not ask if unwilling." He knows that's what Glitch means, ever conscious of his inclinations, never asking too much.

He walks closer, following along the edge where one element meets another, letting the cloak of knowing wrap firmly about his shoulders: he stands straighter for it, every move followed to its peak. He knows his assets, and just like modesty so does pride have its place and time.

"Is there somewhere not quite so deep I can join you?"

"All right," Glitch assents and nods to his left before getting back to his feet to walk in that direction. The water gradually gets more shallow as he makes his way around the rock outcropping, and after a quick debate on what to do with his hands decides nothing is a respectable option.

Well, nothing until he's in calf-deep water near the lip of the pool, then he holds his right arm out to Bagoas, who...looks thoroughly elegant and noble and yes.

"The bottom's mostly rock, it's a little slippery in spots so..."

He follows along the edge, taking note of Glitch's movement from the corner of his lowered eyes until they stand face to face. It is time to let fall the veil of modesty, becoming though it may be. He lifts his hands to the travesty of a shirt the hatch onboard gave him when he last tried, unfastening the clasps one by one. It is quick work, efficient, not meant for any type of provocation.

All the same, his eyes don't leave his friend's even as he unties the spacious trousers from his hips and lets them fall. Long black curls falling over broad shoulders, soft chest, narrow waist leading the eye over slightly rounded hips and long legs despite his stature, and barely a hair on his body: he couldn't be more different from Glitch's obvious masculinity if he tried.

But, he supposes with a bold smile as he takes Glitch by the arm and steps into the water, that is rather the point.

"Oh? Will I be spending a long while on my feet?"

Edited 2012-06-27 13:04 (UTC)

And Glitch watches, and also looks, because he's fascinated and ~~can't not~~ curious and turnabout is fair play and...congratulations Bagoas, that question gets some eyebrow action.

"No longer than I will," he retorts with a cheeky grin and edges toward slightly deeper water. "Now I've investigated thoroughly, and the only critters in here are some fish, a few snails, and--" He points to the far bank where a log rests half out of the water. "A turtle nest over there. Haven't seen Mama around yet but she might be shy."

If he knew French, he might say touché: it's precisely that sentiment he expresses in the space between his smile and fluttering lashes.

"We would do well not to disturb her humble abode," he notes softly, the fingers of his hand that isn't holding on tight skimming the water's surface.

"It's warmer than I expected it to be. Cool, but pleasantly so."

Ice sufficiently broken, Glitch nods. "It's really nice. Spring fed, I think, that helps it maintain the temperature...this'll do."

The water was about a meter deep, and Glitch turns to face Bagoas with an encouraging smile.

"First we'll get down in the water so you can start getting used to it. It's okay to be anxious, you've got every reason to be, but we'll work on that. So." Pause. "We'll go down when you're ready."

A wordless, oh-shaped breath and Bagoas' eyebrows do a little dance of their own. "If I have to decide, I don't think I'll ever be ready." He smiles up at Glitch, and at a whim lets his hand drift up to scratch under his stubbly chin.

"You would suit a beard," he notes, as if remarking (very favourably) on an especially clement springtime afternoon.

Glitch is, as has been established, basically an overgrown affection-starved housecat so he inclines his head toward the touch with a delighted smile. Well, this is a new and different sensation.

"You think?" he remarked, now a bit distracted from the task at hand. "I don't remember ever having one, so that'd probably be new."

"Oh yes," he says eagerly, eyes shining with mirrored joyfulness as his hand drifts up over Glitch's cheek, fingers moving delicately through the short, bristly hairs. "Where I come from a man is king of his beard. It is a sign of manhood," he goes on, allowing himself a brief downward glance over Glitch's torso and arms.

"Just like scars are distinguishing, though that is more a personal opinion of mine. Growing up, scarcely anyone who would call himself man went without. They were badges, you see. Badges of honour and victory over one's enemies."

Yes, new and different and nice and Glitch is totally attentive to the words. Sign of manhood? Back in the O.Z. it was a sign of shiftlessness; unsavory types wore beards. He'd even carried a razor while indigent and somehow managed to not cut his own throat--

And he follows Bagoas' gaze, over the strange webbing left by a shock stick, the mottled burn, the...mess of his left flank. He's made his peace with it all (mostly), knowing that he'll likely never remember and that was all right. It is a case of it not mattering if he understands the when, how, and why, so long as he knows what they are. Badges.

"And survival," Glitch adds softly. He's not sure if that's considered manly, whatever that was supposed to entail and someday he's going to have to sit Bagoas down and explain Ozian gender politics.

Point of the matter being, there's no revulsion in Bagoas' eyes. On the contrary, he is intrigued, and quietly appreciative of what scars like this mean. Survival, he had wrongly assumed, goes without saying; it means more to Glitch than honour and victory both, for him to name it.

"Naturally," he says, watching his own hand continue the journey over Glitch's cheek, sinking his long fingers into the dark, heavy curls above his ear.

"I am very intimately acquainted with survival," he notes softly, the seriousness belied by the attentive glint in his eyes. "Perhaps where survival is concerned, we could each be mentor and pupil, one to the other."

Honour, maybe. Victory? Quite the opposite, but the (fractured) fullness of that tale can be saved for another time and place. For now Glitch places a hand on Bagoas' shoulder, tilts his head, and smiles.

"I'm sure we could, and will," he replies, thumb drifting across skin of its own volition. "And though you have driven me to complete distraction--" And continues to do so because the fingers in his hair thing is crossing a line into a massive demonstration of trust. "We should do the swimming thing too. Which is also survivaly."

"Me, distracting? Hardly," he whispers, trailing his hand down Glitch's arm to take hold of his hand. "Distracted, yes, and you are entirely the cause of it."

And that, as they say, is that. "I think I'm ready to tread deeper waters now."

Is that some additional color on Glitch's cheeks? Yes, it is.

"...let's call it mutual distraction," he says, eyes widening just a little as he squeezes Bagoas' fingers. "All right then, here we go."

And he bends his knees to sink into the water, gentle pressure on his friends' shoulder to guide them down together.

"Yes, let's," Bagoas agrees, smiling brightly at his friend despite his own trepidation about submerging even partially. However, his feet stand sure enough on the bottom, his knees bend and his skin suddenly prickles from chills.

It is a nice change from the stifling heat outside, though he's always been fond of the hot summers spent in his ancestral home.

Glitch's hands ground him more than the slick pebbles between his toes, his touch warm and soothing. "I admit I have my reservations about this," he offers quietly.

"I keep seeing gigantic eyes and teeth and wriggling extremities whenever I close my eyes. I've only heard tell of monsters like that. Mythical creatures...legends, long since slumbering at the bottom of the Sea."

Glitch keeps eye contact and maneuvers to clasp Bagoas' other hand as well, and so they arrive in the water. He listens, purses his lips, and nods faintly.

"It was terrifying," he confesses. "And I-- there's no sea where I'm from, so no monster tales and I was still scared to jump in. But this place..."

He looks up and around at the rocks, the trees rustling in the wind, then back down to the clear blue water. "If it weren't for the one sun it could be home-ish, I think. And I dunno if it helps you but I feel safe here."

"Of course it helps." He ducks his head, smiling at the water and their hands, one pair so pale against the other; just like that he decides to throw the die. As the wise man looks for a bridge, the fool crosses the river.

Bagoas is no fool, having always known to use his eyes. He thinks there is a bridge there, in his friend's warm, friendly countenance. Safe passing, if not a bridge. He must tread carefully.

Looking up, he gives Glitch's hands a soft pressing. "You are my...my sounding board for all manner of things. Is that right? 'Sounding board'?"

Things Glitch hasn't allowed himself to think too hard on until now: that little downward smile, and how it could probably be the death of him. A quick, painless, and happy death to be sure but still. And don't bother pointing out that he does the exact same thing all the ruddy time, this is different.

All of that aside (or perhaps in light of it), there is a bridge, or a harbor. Or just a man entranced, curious, and accepting, but also reserved. Thought...not so reserved that it keeps him from twisting one hand around to press a thumb to Bagoas' palm in response.

"It's right, I think," he says, blinking slowly. "Anything you need to say, I'll listen."

Anything? A promise made so easily can never be of good and good alone. Glitch may listen, but unwillingly, or he might recoil at something unspoken. There are so many things still shrouded in mystery, things to do with freedom and love and claim. No one concept is ever simple: not freedom, for which he is starting to develop an appetite. Not even love, and certainly not laying claim.

To go from his former station, to being completely free to choose with whom to spend his time is like stepping into another world altogether. Nevertheless, he has understood one thing long before setting foot in Taxon, long before finding himself short of breath and frozen to the spot at the sight of his friend enjoying the cool water without reservation: Openness is both beginning and end; if he is ever to find a way into Glitch's heart, he must be upfront.

He thinks he sees an opening, but he might as well be a camel passing through the entryway.* If he breathes heavier for the sudden weight of the moment, then so be it.

"You have always made me feel safe, ever since the first time I laid eyes upon you. There were moments I was overwhelmed, but it was never your doing, just a variety of elements conspiring against me. You've never disappointed me, despite your own misgivings on the matter."

He takes half a breath, steeling himself. "...when we return to the city proper, I should like to tell you many things. For now, I'll gladly settle for lessons in anything you could think of teaching me...and if it please you, ask to sleep beside you when night falls."

* 'a camel passing through the eye of the needle' is an old but fairly cemented, faulty translation. what the needle refers to is the smaller door beside the larger gates into the city, which you would go through after closing time, so to speak. makes it seem like a slightly less insurmountable task, doesn't it? ~~and shhh I know he predates the Bible by several hundred years.~~

052 [text | location: around the island] on the shore just long enough to leave our clothes there

[skinny dipping you say?]

[i do say yes]

[well of course you do]

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[you did that just to get this icon]

[well I had to do something! XD it's adorable! USE IT]

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