Holy freaking hell. So much in such a small amount of time. Again. I really hope this isn’t indicative of things to come. We do get days off….right?
Collectively, we decided to stay in a hotel while renovations are happening. It’s this real fancy place someone Billy knows hooked us up with, and we’ve been….well…I guess typical unsupervised teenagers having fun in a penthouse suite.
We decided this on Monday…after Billy kicked Emmi out for being a snoop, and after he made us all sit down and talk things out. His reasoning is pretty simple, to be honest – we’re family, and we need open communication so we’re all on the same page. So…feelings were discussed. In short, for Billy’s part, he loves all of us. He doesn’t differentiate between types of love, because he wasn’t really raised that way – love is love, end of story.
Sayuri is curious to know what it’s like to be with other people (which I already knew), and Tony is apparently feeling experimental. I silently encouraged him with a thumbs up, because hey – why deny yourself something you might like? The big thing though, was probably talking through the me/Dave/Billy tangle.
Billy pointed out how, although we had already talked, and I’d conceded more or less, that it wasn’t really fair to me. Dave spoke up about how he felt, and it seems that it’s more a secrecy kind of thing that bothers him. We settled on him still being present when I’m with Billy, though it wasn’t specified for sexual reasons or otherwise. This puts me more at ease and with any luck, Dave will eventually be more okay with things as time goes on.
Afterward, things went pretty much back to normal, and at some point I asked Sayuri about her tattoo – why did she get it, did it hurt, etc. I was encouraged to go along with her for her next one, and maybe get one of my own. I admit, I like the idea, though I’m reluctant…mostly because I wasn’t sure what my Dad would thing, especially when I need his permission. Topic shift, and I gave Sayuri a heads up about Billy’s…endowment? I guess is the right term. Prepare her, and whatnot. I think I stunned her into silence with the mental image I sent. Personally, I’m a fan.
Umm…where was I?
Anyway, Emmi messaged Billy later in the day, apologizing for her behavior and placing an order for edibles. I agreed to make them, but was not expecting so much extra to be added to the brownie mix. Emmi was appreciative though, so there’s that. She apparently also prefers the company of women, as was highly evidenced by both word and stare when Sayuri, for whatever reason, decided to flash the others in the kitchen.
Later that evening, our work supervisor showed up to go over several things with us. I think I was more interested in the fact that he’s a vampire then what he had to say, at least initially. To be honest, he’s less of a supervisor and more of a liason, it would seem. Still, he seems a decent enough guy. I wonder how many other vampires I’ll encounter in my lifetime to change my opinion on them as a whole? Because let’s face it, it didn’t take much to turn me off of faeries….
Earlier in the day, it had been left up to the guys to determine the evening’s activities. They had gone out to shop for it, and when they came back they would not let us look at anything so as not to ruin the surprise. Once we got into the hotel, the guys set up while Sayuri, Emmi and myself soaked in the jacuzzi. Activity 1 was karaoke, while Activity 2 was apparently a dance pole. I don’t think Sayuri has a shell anymore – she just stripped and danced like she’d done it wholeheartedly in a past life or something.
The final activity was Sayuri-centric. Tony tied her down to the coffee table and blindfolded her, and explained to the room that this was something she wanted, a fantasy she had told him about. Anyone could do anything they wanted, though she still had the right to stop it at any time. After explanation, we went off into one of the bedrooms to raise the suspense on her part and talk among ourselves a little bit. Nothing major, unless you count Dave making sure I was okay with him participating. Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been with others, so why not him too?
I didn’t want to participate though. For one, I’m not sure I want to try anything for Sayuri. For two, I didn’t feel comfortable watching. Mostly, I think it was a thing where I didn’t feel comfortable being watched. It’s one thing to be in a small, intimate setting, but this was another thing entirely. A ménage à trois? Sure. But we’re talking a situation where there’s five people other than myself, and I just was not mentally prepared for anything like that, so I declined.
Bear in mind, I have no issue with any of this. It’s consensual, and not my place to say anything. Myself, I stayed behind in the room and just idly did this or that, checking on the genealogy or sketching a tat design before deciding to see if Reyr was available. I called because I was feeling alone, and I don’t like feeling alone. We talked, and I just…kind of dumped on him without meaning to, but he listened and gave his advice.
If I’m always walking on eggshells to avoid problems with Dave, then maybe I shouldn’t be in a relationship with him, was the primary thing. The other being to stop trying to take care of everyone and everything – be a kid and have fun. Bothered me a little to have him call me a kid, but it’s not like he’s wrong either.
Everyone was done after two or three hours, and it was really late by this point, so I just went to bed, with Dave beside me. I was comfortable, everyone else had enjoyed themselves, everything was fine.
In the morning, Sayuri announced she had enjoyed the previous evening, and had thought of something. She developed this choker system, wherein if she were wearing her normal heart choker, she was only Tony’s that day. If she was wearing her other choker, anyone could do what they wanted with her, though, again, she reserved the right to refuse. No one objected. Why would they?
That afternoon, we went to Kyle’s wake. I didn’t want to stay long – I just wanted to be respectful, apologize to Kyle, and give condolences to his family. I spoke with his father for a bit. Just….wow…the man not only insulted me outright with racist slang, but had apparently been forcing his ideals onto Kyle rather than let him explore his own interests. But then! Then, he actually started hitting on me! In the sleaziest way too, suggesting I could help him through the grieving process. I neither accepted nor denied, just said I would keep the offer in mind, and walked away to gather everyone else and get out of there.
We headed back to the house to check on how things were going, and when I went back to my room to change, I saw, very briefly, a ghostly Kyle, who thanked me for the things I had said about him. Upon relay to the group, Sayuri decided to see if she could find him on the other side, and took Billy with her, as well as Emmi, who has apparently mapped out that whole other world they can go to. With our permission, he’s going to hang out around the house. I wonder what kind of person he could have been, had he benefited from our friendship? Or, better yet, if someone else had raised him?
I later called and spoke with Machiko on the tattoo idea. She was for it, and had offered to be with me when I spoke to Dad about it. I thought about it for a bit, and decided to just do it that day, and take Sayuri with me. We’d never really had a time where it was just the four of us who sat down and talked, as the time that was supposed to happen we had Danny with us.
At the meeting, Dad was fairly vocal about tattoos being painful. It was curious enough that I asked how he knew, which Sayuri followed up with asking if he had one – and he did! It was just….mind boggling to me, and I just had to see, so he showed us. It was this elaborate irezumi back piece of an oni with two hammers. Turns out he got it when he had gone undercover with the yakuza many years back, when I was just a baby. He was undercover two years, apparently. He’s okay with me getting one, and said he’d sign what was necessary for it.
I don’t even remember how things started, but somewhere in the course of conversation i decided I was trying to get revenge on Sayuri for ‘helping’ with Dave the other day. I wish I hadn’t…I didn’t need to know that Dad was well-versed in shibari.
Back at the hotel, we took some time to relax in the jacuzzi for a while, before my phone rang. It was Carter, returning my call (I had called earlier to ask about classes, equipment, and etc). The kinds of things you can requisition are just…ridiculous. Good to know though.
While everyone else soaked, I fleshed out the sketch I had been working on. I’m not really sure where the idea came from, but I was liking it. An asian style dragon, styled more towards a Japanese flair than a Chinese one, with snapdragon blossoms about. It’s a pretty piece, but it has deeper meaning. See, in Japan, dragons are symbolic of magic powers, transformation, and adaptability, as well as overall mysticism. To add, they are an ultimate representation of yang energy which is associated with leadership, activity and creativity. Even the snapdragons have meaning (though I didn’t realize it when drawing what was coming to mind, and had to look it up later). They symbolize grace, are believed to ward off evil (be it deception or curse), as well as energy and strength.
As for placement? More and more I’m thinking on my back, stretching from top to bottom and overlaying my spine. They symbolism is strong, and it feels appropriate to have it over the core support of my body. I showed the brief sketch to the others, but not the defined version. I think I’ll wait, and let them see after it’s actually on me. Dad said his took a multitude of hours over the course of a couple of weeks to get done, but that could just be because it was done using the irezumi method.
Emmi was off who knew where, having disappeared after the Sayuri stuff the previous evening, so everybody was comfortable doing the party games. It wasn’t the Emmi was bad or anything that we didn’t want her to participate – just that we don’t know each other very well yet. So, a variant of spin-the-bottle was played, whereupon if we spun ourselves, someone got to dare us or ask a question we had to answer. It was fine for a while, but Dave got bored eventually. I will say that Tony performing oral on Billy was…well, anyway.
I pulled Sayuri into the other room. I swear, I don’t know what gets into me sometimes. I think Sayuri is a bad influence. In any event, we grabbed her blindfold from the night before, and made two makeshift ones, returned to the main room and blindfolded the guys. The idea was simple – have fun and make them feel good, but they weren’t allowed to touch themselves. I got to know what it was like to be with Tony and, I’m just going to say, although he doesn’t have a lot of experience, he has more than the rest of us (well, he and Sayuri), so he’s got a better idea of what to try and do. I also think he may have been reading or watching things and taking mental notes. That would be a very him thing to do, now that I think about it – find out how something works and keep tinkering until it can be the best whatever it can be.
Anyway.
It was fun, it was messy, and after I pulled Sayuri with me to shower together. The original intent was just to give the guys something interesting to think about, but Sayuri talked me into experimenting with her, citing that I’d never know if I liked it if I didn’t try. I relented – I didn’t have the energy to argue or try to find reservations, and anyway, she was right. Fortunately, it was just the two of us. I know earlier had been a group thing, but the only one watching was Sayuri. I didn’t do much to her, but boy was she incredibly enthusiastic on me.
After, I needed help getting back to everyone else. Come to find out (or remember, to be more accurate, as Sayuri had told me she was doing it) that Sayuri had broadcast what she was doing to the guys. Talk about your POV porn…
That night I was super tired, and barely remember talking to Dave, let alone what I had said. Evidently, I had said something that weighed on his mind (more on that in a minute), as he brought it up at breakfast – after we had all discussed having nightmares again. Well….I guess mine wasn’t really a nightmare….just a very confusing ‘what the hell’ kind of thing. I had dreamt that Dave left me for Billy; Billy had dreamt that we all had a big fight and went our separate ways; Sayri had a dream-within-a-dream in that she dreamt Tony had left her for me, and when she woke and confessed to him, he’d stabbed her and she woke up for real; and Dave dreamt that I had another accident, but didn’t make it this time.
This is too weird, and the second weird dream incident we’ve had. I didn’t think about it at the time, but now that I’m writing this, I think Danny needs to be slapped around a fair bit for fucking with us and violating our dreams.
Back to Dave, though. Apparently, last night, he had joked about how he wasn’t going to run off and become a vampire, and I had apparently said good, because I can’t go through that again, and he wanted to know more about that. I didn’t want to jeep using the visions excuse any more, so I told him, with the other filling in the gaps. He agreed that it was an extreme reaction, and all in all, the morning was really kind of a downer.
Later, we headed out to the training facility at work, where we met up with a lackey of Carter’s who showed us around. We sat in on a informative class on lycanthropes and took a test before wandering around and trying an obstacle course for fun. I took in a fair bit of information, and did see a class I was interested in – it was a martial arts class, but the kills were applied differently. They had a werewolf there who was, I think, the teacher, showing tactics and how to defend against them shifting mid-combat and feinting and such. That, I feel, would be very useful to know.
Around lunch we ate in the cafeteria, and saw a wide variety of our co-workers; some normal, some shifter types, and some genetically enhanced. One such guy approached us. He was odd looking, in the he had an insect-like carapace, but I was able to look past that quickly enough, because he was genuinely a nice guy. He’d approached us to meet the new guys – seems we were already known, as it had gotten around that we had been fast-tracked and had taken out a Thunderwyrm.
The initial conversation was brief, but I had gone back over to him later to talk more, asking about his comment on the Wyrm (it’s a religious thing, and kind of interesting, really), as well as other things. Admittedly, I asked about others’ opinions of my Dad. He hadn’t put two-and-two together until that point, connecting our names and realizing we were related until that point. I guess Dad was highly liked and respected, and talked about me a lot.
I think Tony was in a heaven of sorts with all the tech that was about, and Dave confessed to being kind of interested in the modifications that had been mentioned. We stressed getting more info first, and to help with this, since we knew my Dad had had an implant, we suggested talking to him. Sayuri set up a family dinner later for us to discuss work related things, so we all planned on that for later. Dinner went much better than the brief visit with my Dad the day before (that got really awkward for me, when I had wholly intended for Sayuri to be the one that got embarrassed).
On the way back to the hotel after dinner, we had stopped to pick up snacks, and it was later that night that I pulled Sayuri off to the side. I had decided that, if I was going to experiment, I might as well do it right. We excused ourselves, and Billy kept the guys occupied – something about a Lord of the Rings extended edition drinking game.
I had picked up whip cream, and used it to good effect while experimenting with Sayuri in any manner I could think of. Honestly, my ultimate goal was just to see how loud she could get.
I think I can still hear?
Anyway, sleep calls.