open | i'll never die, i am a freak

[brushoff]

Who: Dorian Gray & OPEN
What: settling in
When: all throughout the month of March
Where: Milton, with a focus on the community hall, the church, and the outskirts

Content Warnings: drug use, smut, body horror and gore in the form of Dorian's creepyass portrait, others tba

( catch all post for March! full of open and closed starters, dm me if you have an idea~ )

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[brushoff]

"And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids and that dog," Dorian muses. He's already thinking this is Scooby Doo, might as well make the reference. Dressing up to scare away people? Proper children's cartoon nonsense.

"My golem was real," he points out. "Followed all the established golem rules. And it murdered a Nazi which honestly, you can't blame the thing, it should do that more often."

[desperate_times_right]

“Sure, let’s go with that.” Nate can be the dog, here, considering how all of that had ended.

“Also yeah, murdering Nazis is pretty much always the right move. The yetis did that too, but mostly the old-school 1940s ones. They'd wanted the stone back then and found themselves stymied by both the creatures, and a reluctant guide who turned on them once he realised what it was they wanted.”

[brushoff]

"Technically speaking, mine was a Nazi sympathizer but as far as I'm concerned, a Nazi sympathizer is just a Nazi by a different name."

Even more technically speaking, the man probably was a Nazi. Julius Metzger, member of the German American Bund, one of those annoying little fascists popping up in the 1930s with their annoying little talks about building a new Germany and removing some of the riff-raff and undesirables. But Dorian is supposed to be modern. A bright, useless modern young thing, someone in his twenties, someone who wouldn't be mentioning organizations that went the way of the dodo in the 1940s.

"Honestly, even though your yetis got points deducted for not being real yetis, I'm making a decision to re-instate those points based on murdering some Nazis. It's a net positive, at the moment, though possibly not for long."

[desperate_times_right]

“Right? They took out the buyer who’d brought me in, too, and he was a real winner.”

Not a nazi, fortunately for her, but either way he’d still been a guy notorious for mutilating people he didn't like.

“Really I think any monster should get a pass for that.”

[brushoff]

"This is how they'll rehab their image," Dorian muses. "Oh, werewolves are horrible monsters, vampires are bloodsucking fiends. Just eat a Nazi or two and you'll be grand!"

There's a lightness of tone in his voice: Dorian's obviously joking around a bit, but he's also slightly serious. Eat some Nazis! It's a net benefit for the world.

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe snickers. This guy is fun.

“The zombies were worse, since the ones who weren't nazis were conquistadors. But the mummy who cursed them pretty much only took out the worst guys ever so it's still a win.”

[brushoff]

"Oh my God, zombie conquistadors? And I thought my life was insane," he muses. Sure, he did deal with zombies. But they weren't conquistadors! They were the friends and neighbors of the woman he was currently working with which alright, is horrible in it's own way, but let's just compartmentalize out that aspect of it all.

"Mummies are new, though. They probably exist where I'm from? But I've never spent time in Africa."

He sways a little, the off-kilter sway of someone high off his tits, before Dorian firmly leans himself against the nearest wall. Nope nope nope, we are staying upright and not falling over.

[desperate_times_right]

“Oh, I don't do Egypt either. Too much competition. This was a Mesoamerican mummy.”

Clearly a completely different sort of magic!

She almost dives in to grab him when he sways, but he catches himself.

“Easy. We’re almost there.”

[brushoff]

Almost there? Where are they—oh, right.

"The church," Dorian says, as if to remind himself where he's going. Christ, he feels so wonderful at the moment, he damn near forgot. But he's sober enough to realize that after the high comes the crash, and better that happen where he lives.

"Unless, of course, your house is closer. I wouldn't mind having a deeper conversation. After all, you've got a story about a Mesoamerican mummy to tell me."

And, of course, Chloe's hot. Can't forget that part.

[desperate_times_right]

“We’re on the same side of town, then,” Chloe says brightly. “I’m at the farmhouse. At the fork, it's to the left.”

This guy’s fun, but she's not quite sure how long he's going to be able to hold out.

“I’ve got a boiler up there so the house is heated. Pretty sweet.”

[brushoff]

A heated house? A boiler? Dorian's eyes light up as he immediately says,

"You're my new favorite person here."

Chloe. Chloe. Delightful, wonderful amazing Chloe. Let him take a hot shower and run your boiler dry.

[desperate_times_right]

“Beats a musty old church any day.” Who is this guy, Quasimodo? “Want to come up?”

[brushoff]

"Yes please," said with zero hesitation and zero shame. "Lead the way!"

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe grins, heading down the fork in the road toward the farm.

“You wouldn't believe how happy I am to meet you. There are hardly any fun people here.”

[brushoff]

Dorian lets out a low little chuckle before pointing out, "I am nothing but fun. And I'm certainly not going to let our time in some rinky-dink little middle of nowhere town change that."

[desperate_times_right]

“I thought that at first too, you know, but this place wears you down. I used to travel so much that I didn't put down roots anywhere and now I live in a quaint little farmhouse and distribute potatoes to people.” This guy doesn't seem like a British potatoes enjoyer despite the accent.

[brushoff]

"In that case, I have a new goal here!" Dorian says. He raises a hand like he's making a dramatic proclamation, like he's a politician giving a speech. "I shall never settle down! I shall be Peter Pan, Dorian Gray, Koschei the Deathless, only instead of never growing old, I shall never grow boring."

That previous little chuckle changes into full-throated, slightly ridiculous laughter as Dorian just breaks down into a fit of giggles. Laughter at himself, laughter at this situation, laughter at what is undoubtedly a stupid little proclamation that he knows he'll be teased for later. It's when the giggles subside that he continues,

"After all, one of the worst things to be is dull."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe throws her head back and laughs, delighted. “You can keep a portrait in the church that gets more and more boring over time. In fifty years you'll still be kicking and your painting will be a stockbroker!”

[brushoff]

Fortunately, Dorian has enough sense not to say the first thing that runs through his head: the portrait is currently tucked away in the church basement, not the church proper. Instead, he lets out a giggle before,

"Naah, not a stockbroker. An accountant. Or middle management! We'll need something truly dire."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe laughs too, an obnoxious giggle through her nose.

“I don't know, I've never had a job before! What's a middle manager even do?”

[brushoff]

"If you're the one at the bank I used to work at, you send emails and schedule needless meetings." There's a pause before, "I used to work at a bank, by the way. I left as it was tremendously dull. What do you mean you've never had a job before?"

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe shrugs. Pretty much the only person she knows who has ever had a legitimate job is Elena. And Victor had been in the Navy or something, if that counts.

“When I was young, I always had friends who would buy me what I needed. Now I mostly freelance.”

She’d run away at eighteen and spent her early twenties sugaring for rich criminals until she’d picked up the relevant skills.

[brushoff]

"You're a delight. Every question I ask gives me four new questions. It's been a while since someone interested me like this."

And Chloe is very interesting.

"What exactly do you mean by freelance? And I'd like to remind you, considering I'm high off my tits on cocaine, I won't judge."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe laughs. “Everyone’s interested in me.”

She's a little more open about her past here than she is at home, but she tries not to go overboard.

“Freelance like I work for me. I pick the jobs and if I don't like them anymore I un-pick them.”

[brushoff]

"You know that tells me absolutely nothing," Dorian points out, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "But fine. I'll let you keep your secrets and I'll stop prying. I'll simply pry about others and get the hot gossip from them instead."

He's obviously teasing—there's a light tone in his voice as he talks.