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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 4, 2018 23:53:08 GMT
◣◆◢  | It was nighttime but it didn't seem like it. Bright lights and people celebrating seemed to be the norm for the moment. He wasn't sure exactly what had drawn him to come considering he wasn't a big one for crowds but at least the drinks were good and there seemed to be plenty of people having fun. He knew why they were out here. What they were celebrating and he guessed what he was sort of celebrating too. Pride had been a big deal in Goldenrod but with his work schedule he hadn't ever really gotten a chance to go and check it out or anything. But here he didn't have a set schedule for anything. He could get up when he wanted, go to sleep when he wanted, and drink whenever he wanted. And he was taking advantage of all of that. It was a weird sort of rebellious phase that had never come when he was younger. Or maybe it was a midlife crisis that was coming early.
While he wasn't exactly dressed up like the rest of them he had shed the idea of being able to keep his shirt buttoned in heat like this. Between the oncoming summer and the fact that there were so many people around to increase the heat it had been impossible to keep it buttoned properly. But luckily the drink in his head was cold, even though eventually the alcohol would catch up to him. It always made him a little bit hot under the collar when he drank a lot and there really didn't seem to be a reason to hold back tonight. There were plenty of hotels to crash in at this place so he wouldn't need to worry about getting on the road any time soon in the morning either. Maybe he would end up staying for the entire festival? There was literally nothing stopping him. Absolutely nothing. |
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Post by frog on Jun 5, 2018 0:28:27 GMT
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Pride had always had the gravity of a major holiday for Henry and his circle in Jubilife, necessitating a week's worth of preparation and ending with a hang over of roughly the same length. After-all, what happened when you gave a bunch of young, gay artists free reign to be as obnoxious as they wanted? You got a monster. You got Henry, long legs and jean shorts, all pale skin exposed by the rips in his paint splattered tank-top, hair swept back and held into place by a rainbow striped sweatband. Someone had dumped glitter on him earlier in the day, and it dusted his silver strands, catching the light now in shifting hues as he slipped underneath twinkling fairy lights and harsher yellow street lights.
In his hand he held some kind of mixed drink, which he sipped every now and then as he assessed the streets.
It wasn't that Henry was looking for a lay, per se. But it was strange being at pride by himself. He remembered his first pride, hand in hand with Augie as the boy dragged him through the streets, face lit up in excitement, so proud to show Henry the possibilities of being open and free in the city. The word was nostalgia, probably, the man considered to himself as he stopped at a doorway, sipping the beverage.
And it wasn't like Henry hadn't received offers earlier, but the idea of a casual hook-up when stone cold sober had lost all its appeal. Henry wasn't a monster, he appreciated all the eye candy running around, but he knew all too well that hook-ups came with emotional baggage that sober Henry wanted to avoid.
But Henry had a sinking feeling in his chest that came along with being stranded alone in a new region.
So he leaned, pale blue eyes half lidded, skin all pale and lit from blue light from a neon sign when he spotted a familiar form, feeling himself cock his head as a tall, well muscled figure passed. He found his body moving before he thought about it, intercepting the man, what was his name, Kem?
Henry had always had a shred of self-doubt when it came to judging other's sexualities. Too many straight men shaken by their attraction to Henry's delicate features and long silvery hair. But if you came to pride it would pretty safe to assume, right?
"Hey, Kem," Henry said, words feeling stale, somehow, in his mouth. He realized, rational brain one step behind his buzzed brain, that he was actually terrible that this, being the one approaching and not the one being approached. "Didn't expect to find you here." 444 🌺 inari 🌺 henry doesn’t know how flirting works, he is too pretty to need a personality ! |  |
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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 5, 2018 18:31:50 GMT
◣◆◢ | He wasn't exactly planning on being recognized in a place like this. Not when there were so many people and he had managed to meet so few so far. After all it wasn't like he had been out there actively making friends yet. So far he'd only had a couple encounters with people and that included the lab and the coffee shop where he'd embarrassed himself enough for an entire lifetime probably. So hearing his name called out by a familiar voice took him by surprise for a hot moment. The silver hair was what he remembered first, followed by the name of the person that it actually belonged to. "Henry?" He might not have been good with much else but he was good with remembering names to faces and faces to names. It had made life a little bit easier whenever he had to remember who was who when he was dealing with sales and such on the farm. He wasn't in charge of that but he could at least remember who was supposed to be coming in on what day for those sorts of things.
He saw the glitter shining on him and realized that all in all the other guy probably had more experience with this entire thing. Where Kem was just trying to nose around a little bit and get his footing there were people here who probably did this all the time. He wondered if he looked stupid and really stood out that much. He wasn't wearing bright colors or anything flashy like a large chunk of the population. Black leather pants didn't exactly scream anything other than he had a mildly limited in color wardrobe. But it wasn't something that really bothered him too much. Probably the flashiest part of his existence was the large tattoos on his arms and even they were colored black. "I wasn' expecting to be here..." He hadn't even known there was a pride festival here but he wasn't surprised either.
"You alone?" There was a mild tone of confusion in Kem's question whenever he voiced it. Not that confusion was anything new to him. But Henry seemed like the sort of person that would have a lot of friends to do this sort of thing with. He seemed like he would be popular and surrounded by people who wanted to spend time with him. So it surprised Kem more than he thought that the other man would be alone at what was essentially a party. It made sense for Kem to be alone considering he wasn't exactly personable but... His mind couldn't wrap around the idea of Henry being by himself. |
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Post by frog on Jun 6, 2018 0:20:47 GMT
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Kem recognized him, which caused a flood of relief to enter Henry's system, unraveling in his chest and reaching all the way down to his fingers. Henry smiled a bit, which wasn't much for many people, barely a shift of his pale lips. But he himself knew what it meant, so he forced it off his face, trained himself into the same impassive expression as he glanced at Kem, pointedly ignoring the black leather pants, because wearing black leather to pride was a power move in and of itself that Henry was not about to linger on.
Henry sipped his drink with a hum. Didn't expect to be here? What was that supposed to mean? Not many people accidentally ended up at pride, especially not in their what, thirties? Or was he so isolated, wherever he came from, that this was his first chance at seeing all the brilliance that was a pride festival.
"Oh? This isn't really your scene?" Henry said with special emphasis on the word scene, finally turning his eyes away to look briefly down at the pavement, with its flecks of discarded glitter and half-soaked confetti. It was fine, just strange. Henry expected he would be safe from accidentally flirting with straight men at pride of all places, but arceus knows he has been wrong before.
Was Henry alone? Henry let out a short huff at that, turning his pale eyes back up to Kem. (Up, because the man was so damned tall it wasn't fair.) "Yup," he said, popping the "p" with his mouth and then taking a swig of his drink. "I'm pretty new to the region, and people don't generally like me," he spoke honestly, plainly.
It was the truth. If people liked Henry it was because they liked to bang Henry, or because they knew him through an anonymous internet persona, or they liked him until he couldn't provide the same level of warm words and casual touch they needed. He was surprised things were going so well with Simon, his shuckle, but bug pokemon had always comforted him, drew out something gentler that Henry just didn't have the patience or the heart to offer any humans.
"You seem like the charming, every man sort. What are you doing here alone?" Henry asked, wanting to change the subject away from himself. 389 🌺 inari 🌺 awkward henry boy ! | |
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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 7, 2018 2:49:48 GMT
◣◆◢ | His scene? His scene generally ended up being hard work at four in the morning in the pasture making sure that the Miltank weren't roaming out too far come milk time. His scene was tossing hay bales across a truck and into a pile to be stacked into a barn. It was hard to imagine that a place covered in glitter and loud music. He'd never imagined that anything like this would be his scene. But he didn't hate it. He felt mild comfort in a strange way. The amount of support here was overwhelming even if it wasn't for him. There were guys everywhere just being themselves and it felt good. All of this... Felt good? "Y'ain't got much time for parties when you work on a ranch. Miltank don' stop producing just because y'wanna celebrate. I kinda like it though." It wasn't exactly his scene but he wasn't exactly dismissing it as a place he felt comfortable either.
It still shocked Kem to think that people wouldn't like Henry. After all every encounter he'd had with him so far had been positive. All two of them. He'd given him a hand at the coffee shop and now he'd been kind enough to talk with him. So all he could do was give a shrug and shake his head. "Well, m' not sure how much it means to ya but I like ya." He was a good enough guy in his book. Then again he was pretty basic with his judgement of character. Kem had been called a lot of things in his life. Most of them not quite pleasant and in relation to his intelligence... Or lack thereof sometimes. Charming was something he'd never really heard from someone else about him. It caught him off guard like a deer in a headlights.
"C-charming?" He took a sip of his drink and chewed a bit on the straw. "I ain' really had time to make many friends. Ain' much for introducin' myself..." So it kind of made it hard to make friends. If people from the ranch could see him now they might've had a laugh. Either over his reactions or the fact that he was having such a hard time with it all. At least he had some alcohol to calm his nerves a bit.
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Post by frog on Jun 7, 2018 15:42:10 GMT
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Ah, so he was a ranch hand? That made sense, Henry thought belatedly to himself as he cast his eyes out towards the streets. The crowds had died down but groups and couples still thronged the side walk, darting in and out of bars, sometimes laughing loudly with each other. That's probably where all the muscles came from, manual labor. And here Henry was hoping he could write Kem off as just another air-headed gym rat. But that would be too easy right?
Damn, the man was just too wholesome to handle.
But it didn't answer his question. It made Henry want to groan a little bit frustration, especially with alcohol making the tips of his fingers fuzzy, working in his system. Instead he hummed to himself. "It sounds nice," Henry said. He wanted to follow it up with 'why did you leave' but every one had their reasons, and Henry didn't want to pry.
Especially because he didn't particularly like his own reasons for leaving Sinnoh.
What caught him off guard though, was the genuine earnestness with which he said he liked him. Henry felt a flush rise up on his cheeks, tinging even the tips of his ears in pink. His pale skin was the worst, sometimes, always showing his emotions. He could only hope that Kem wasn't looking close enough to notice, that the darkness was covering him. "Well..." Henry said, avoiding looking too closely at Kem's face. "I do appreciate that actually. You're not too bad yourself."
Before he could cringe at himself. Because this is why he didn't talk to people, he sipped at his drink, noticing, with dismay, that it was quickly disappearing. He groaned as he lifted it up to the light, noting the small amount that still swirled at the bottom.
Belatedly he turned his eyes back to Kem, which was a mistake because the man always had the expression like a puppy. "Introducing yourself is what pride's all about," Henry said, pausing for a moment. "Its about being who you are, or a version of yourself you aren't normally. There's something in there for everyone, even if you aren't gay." He flicked his eye away. "Not sure what sort of "friends" you're looking to make, but I'm sure you'd be popular around here." The words came out low, deadpanned.
Perhaps not the most polite of conversation. But well, fuck it. Right? 400 🌺 inari 🌺 my poor boy ! | |
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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 7, 2018 16:17:05 GMT
◣◆◢ | Talking about the ranch was something he could do pretty easily. It wasn't really about him so he didn't really have the same discomfort he normally did with conversation. He knew that not everyone enjoyed the stories about how he'd had to wrestle a Tauros down to the ground to make sure he had his vaccination on time. The bull hadn't been fond of a needle and Kem wasn't about to let him go without it. If he thought hard about it, it was probably doing things like that which had ended up ruining his shoulder even further. "It was nice, not a lotta work for someone who ain' got much else to offer." He'd always been a big guy so going into manual labor just seemed like the right thing to do. Plus he'd enjoyed it so that made it all the sweeter.
He noticed of course that Henry was down to the bottom of the barrel with his drink, something that probably disappointed the other man. He could feel his own drink growing a bit light as well as he sipped on it. Now was a better time than any to refill if they were both having trouble keeping their cups full. He was making a friend. He was becoming more comfortable. He was probably on his way to being very drunk. But none of that mattered because he was doing alright out here. Someone who at least thought that he wasn't too bad. That was something right? "Do y'wanna go get a drink?" Of course they already had drinks. And he meant to ask if he wanted to get a refill.
But it came out weirder than he intended. At least he thought it came out weird. Or maybe that was just how you were supposed to ask a friend to come and get a drink. There were plenty of bars open that they could just pop into. Booths that were probably still serving alcohol even though it was getting later into the night. "I ain' never really thought much about the whole gay or straight thing to be honest. Ain' never really had the time to date'n stuff beyond a coupla things in high school." And that hadn't ever been anything serious. Though Henry was probably going to laugh at him for that. He knew that most people at least had a bit of experience but he wasn't someone who had wanted to rush it.
It was something that had never really ever crossed his mind. How was he supposed to know if what he was feeling was romantic or platonic if he'd never really thought about it? He just figured that whatever feelings he had were the ones that everyone had towards people. "I ain' worried about being popular, just wanna make friends that don' mind me too much." He of course meant the fact that he wasn't that bright and that he didn't really care to share as much as he should with friends about himself. Though alcohol had loosened his tongue a bit and he was feeling a bit more relaxed he couldn't help but hold on to his insecurity. "Y'don' mind me too much, right?" He held onto the hope that Henry was at least his friend. Even if they weren't that close yet. |
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Post by frog on Jun 9, 2018 18:46:32 GMT
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Henry frowned at the not much else to offer. It sounded like there was some baggage there, but despite having chosen art as his career, he wasn't prone to long talks about his feelings. "There's nothing wrong with hard work," was what he said instead. And that was true, something Henry lived by. Order, control, practice. That was why his appearance, even in this first night of pride glow was over-all neat. He had a schedule, was planning even now, in the back of his head, the start of potential training and coordinating routines to run through with Simon.
And, here was the truth. Art took dedication, time, practice, and discipline. People who complained about how little talent they had bothered him in a relentless sort of way. They were almost as bad as people who hated bug type pokemon.
Henry didn't voice all of these, thoughts, only stared deeply into his near empty drink while he tried to control the flush on his skin and the trouble-making something else he could feel in his bloodstream every time he looked over at the man. He talked about his sexuality, and his relationships, which only made things worse. Because now Henry, a little bit drunk and a whole lot gay, had the small inkling of hope that perhaps Kem was coming on to him. That maybe he wanted to "experiment."
Henry didn't know if that made things better or worse. But to be fair, Henry wasn't looking for a relationship. He had his fill of relationships.
"Relationships are, in my experience, over-rated. But they're important, I suppose, to figuring things out. Its hard," Henry started, wondering if he was oversharing at the same moment that his tongue decided to continue, "when you don't fit what society tells you a gay man should be. Y'know. Loud, and confident, and catty and fashionable and feminine. 'Fun'" Henry was lucky to find a welcoming online community, but it sounds like Kem missed that opportunity.
"But sexuality is over-rated anyways, and you should just kiss whoever you want without worrying about it," Henry said as a way of driving the conversation away from him, looking at Kem from the side of his eye when he said it.
When Kem invited him for a drink though, Henry's brain shortcircuted. Didn't they just have the conversation about how Kem was basically a newborn foal trying to learn how to walk when it came to his sexuality. But Kem was so earnest, and nice, and all that. So Henry found himself, the blush he was trying to force down all aflame again, accepting.
"Uh, yeah sure. We can do that. I don't mind you," Henry said, casting his eyes to the streets, spotting a street vendor still open. They had to be selling something alcoholic at this time of night right? Without thinking he reached out to gently tap Kem's arm while he gestured in that direction.
And Henry did his best to ignore the feeling of muscle and warmth that radiated off of him. 507 🌺 inari 🌺 Henry is a disaster child ! | |
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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 13, 2018 22:58:47 GMT
◣◆◢ | To be entirely honest, Kem enjoyed hard work. He enjoyed working with his hands. And he enjoyed being outdoors to do it all. So hearing that someone else thought it was an okay thing made him feel a bit better. After all if other people thought it was a good thing then it couldn't be weird that he did too. It couldn't be weird that it was what he had enjoyed doing with his life up until now. But he supposed that he was on a different path of life now or whatever. Having to become a Pokemon trainer or whatever even though he wasn't exactly sure what that meant. He wasn't really sure where to begin with training a Pokemon considering he'd mostly dealt with ranch ones but he was sure he could figure it out on the go. "It wasn' all work. You ever seen someone wrestle a Tauros by the horns?" For the first time in a long time Kem gave a small, but earnest, grin in Henry's direction.
He wasn't really much of a braggart when it came to things he had done in the past but for some reason the accomplishment slipped out of his lips that were more than slightly loosened by the alcohol he had been consuming. To be honest he wasn't sure how much more he should drink but he'd already invited Henry to another and if nothing else he was definitely a man of his word. Besides one or two more couldn't hurt. He was a sturdy man and was pretty sure that he could handle it. If not there were plenty of places to sleep it off for the night probably. "Can' miss what I ain' had I reckon." If he hadn't ever really had a relationship he wasn't really sure what the big deal about it was. His friends on the ranch had girls come and go but it hadn't ever been his cup of tea. He focused on his work and kept his head down.
He didn't comment on the kissing. His brain still trying to digest and pick it apart. He should kiss who he wanted to? He'd kind of figured that was the case when it came to his sexuality but the desire to kiss someone hadn't exactly come along whenever he'd been in the dating scene and thoughts of kissing didn't last long when you were exhausted by farm work. You didn't fall asleep thinking about kissing when you fell asleep the moment you hit your pillow. You didn't wake up wanting to think about kissing when you needed to worry about the work to be done in the fields. But maybe now that he didn't have to worry about those things he could start thinking about others.
With a touch on his arm Kem looked down the way to where Henry was indicating. It was a good a place as any to find another drink. "Sounds good to me." Not wanting to lose Henry in the thinning crowd and rowdy groups he casually tried to throw an arm around him. It was a friendly gesture that he'd done many times with the other men on the ranch and it didn't even cross his mind to think that the other man might have minded. Then again things rarely crossed Kem's mind in any serious manner. He took a few tentative steps forward, hoping that he wouldn't end up knocking the other man to the ground if for some reason he decided he didn't want to move when he did. |
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Post by frog on Jun 18, 2018 0:10:23 GMT
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Henry couldn't help but smile when Kem joked about the tauros. And of course it was followed by the vivid image of Kem, grappled with a tauros by the horn. And of course in this particular image Kem was shirtless, tan skin, muscles the whole nine yards. They may even be a shine of sweat, glistening in the sun. But Henry was struggling to admit this to his alcohol induced brain because damn, he had convinced himself earlier in the evening he wouldn't be interested in this sort of thing, that he was over older men and their baggage. That he wouldn't throw himself into quick fits of desperate casual relationships.
But it was hard, when you had alcohol in your system, and it was giving you a pleasant buzz.
"No, actually. Wouldn't mind seeing it, though," Henry said, a hint of a laugh in his voice, something to break through the usual stoic monotony. Another thing to blame on the alcohol.
Instead of looking up at Kem, because goodness he was trying to have a shred of self control, and with all these revelations of sexuality and emotional history the lines were being blurred.
Was it normal to just talk about these things? Or did it mean more? Henry was never good at ready people, barely knew how to read himself, but he couldn't help the thoughts that crossed his mind as he tugged gently at Kem's sleeve, focused on the next drink he could get in his system because he was terribly aware of a flush on his pale cheeks.
And then he felt something heavy, and warm thrown over his shoulder, realizing as he tugged up against a solid body that it was Kem's arm and yes, there was certainly muscle there. Because this man was solid, like hugging a warm brick wall. And then Kem was walking, and Henry, half-drunk stumbled under the weight and the way his brain stopped working for a couple moments there.
He only saved himself from face planting on the ground by clutching at the waist of Kem, face fully red now. Henry let out a nervous laugh, retracting his hands like he's been burned and shuffling forward towards the still open stand. "Sorry about that," he mumbled. "I may be a little drunk," he said, finally back, up into Kem's face.
And he was struck by the urge to kiss him, which clutched his heart because damn this boy was just figuring it out, but what else does side hugging a queer boy on the eve of pride mean? Henry's alcohol added brain couldn't figure it that puzzle. 438 🌺 inari 🌺 may henry rest in pieces ! | |
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Post by 🌺 inari 🌺 on Jun 23, 2018 22:49:21 GMT
◣◆◢ | For some reason all of a sudden Kem had the urge to go and find a Tauros immediately and challenge it to a wrestling match. Regardless of anything else he was doing his mind said that it was obviously the best course of action since Henry wanted to see it done. Of course he wasn't in any shape to do something like that and with his arm around the other man he wasn't going to be going far without him. After all they were going to have a drink together. So wrestling a Tauros would just have to wait. Until... Next time? This being the second time that he had run into the man was strange enough on his own but the idea that he might run into him on accident a third time seemed improbable. If they met again it might very well be because the both of them agreed to it. He didn't really find that he had too much to say now though. With the lull in conversation he was free to slip back into his comfortably quiet self.
The alcohol gave him a gentle warmth and nice tingly feeling. After all that was the point of drinking in a place like this. To feel nice an relaxed while somewhat floundering in an unfamiliar setting. It wasn't until he felt Henry begin to fall did he let anything break his calm. Concerned worried his face as he reached out a hand to help steady him. After all it wouldn't be any good if he fell and hurt himself. Kem would feel awful about that, especially if it ended up being his fault. He didn't mind being used as a pillar to stabilize Henry. After all his bulk had to be good for something in a situation like this. "If you're having trouble walkin' I don' mind carrying you." It was a normal enough offer wasn't it? If someone couldn't walk then the obvious thing to do was to help them somehow.
His skin was warm, almost burning where Henry had grabbed at him to keep steady. He figured it was just the alcohol. The weather. It was just something. Something that was perfectly normal and explainable. And maybe it was what Henry had been trying to explain to him all along? He didn't mind the heat but it wouldn't go away and he couldn't tell why. Offering his hands he opened his arms to lift Henry up if he really needed it. Even drunk he was probably sturdy enough to walk with them both. It would take more than some alcohol to knock him on his ass. |
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