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]

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.

[desperate_times_right]

“Tells you that I don't like men telling me what to do,” Chloe teases back. No hard feelings.

“This place is full of gossip, though. If that's your thing, you at least probably won't die of boredom.”

[brushoff]

"I am a notorious gossip and a reprobate of the highest order. Now, who should I pay attention to for the best, most thrilling sort of gossip?"

Spill, new bestie!

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe tilts her head, thinking.

“The sailors always have something going on, so I'd definitely keep an eye on them. They've got everything: romance, backstabbing, public town square drama, victims of cannibalism being alive now…” It's not usually so fun for Chloe because a lot of it involves her friends but as drama it's objectively good.

“I’d keep an eye on Lestat too, he's great. Always who I go to first with my own exploits. There's a new saloon in town and the people who run it just broke up or something. There are two guys named Alan Wake who hate each other.”

There’s also all the supernatural creatures, but Chloe has promised most of them not to tell people directly.

[brushoff]

The sailors, Lestat, Alan Wake. Dorian commits those names to memory. After all, he's going to be bored here sooner rather than later. He'll need someone to bother, new gossip to get, things like that. After all, he'll want entertainment. Lord knows there's nothing else to do here.

One part of that statement, however, absolutely gets his interest.

"A saloon? This place has alcohol?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Chloe warns. “It sucks. Distilled pine extract or something. Tastes like furniture cleaner, but it does the job.”

[brushoff]

"Is it alcoholic?" Dorian asks. "Does it get you fucked up? If so, I can happily overlook the taste. I've drunk worse things than distilled pine extract or whatever it is."

[desperate_times_right]

“It does get you fucked up,” Chloe concedes. “And no one’s gone blind yet.”

[brushoff]

"Then that is perfectly fine with me. I would prefer the top shelf stuff, but if it gets me fucked up but doesn't kill me? Well, beggars can't be choosers. And I know I am going to need a decent amount of alcohol to help survive this place."

The wilderness sucks.

[desperate_times_right]

“You might be able to get something else from the pig next Christmas, but it only lets you get one thing.”

There might be something he wants more, like non-haunted cocaine.

[brushoff]

"I realize that this is probably a perfectly normal thing here and you'll respond with something like 'everybody knows about the pig,' but I have to ask: what pig?"