Week 5

[grimgrinningghosts]

[...So that was a mess. All of it was a mess, and things don't look to be improving any time soon. With tensions at an all-time high and conditions worsened, it seems pretty safe to say that this whole week promises a great deal of foreboding atmosphere.

But, hey, things aren't entirely bad. Just as Randall promised, you're now able to leave the Manor! 

Just don't stay out there for too long. There's still a lot of you, and you just can't afford to lose numbers.

24 guests remain]

[SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY]

[OOC: and don't forget to fill out this week's activity check!]

Comments

[stanbyme]

[He doesn’t know anything about braiding, but he’s a sailor so to him it looks almost like she’s tying intricate knots. He watches her like he’s trying to take in every detail he can, and ignores the way it feels so intimate to be watching her do something she normally does alone.]

No kidding. So only about twenty years, then.

[He says, teasingly.]

[hasit]

[She blinks a couple of times, and once the joke sinks in she rolls her eyes in a good-natured way.]

Try forty. [Or near enough, anyway.]

Actually, I should ask: how old are you?

[stanbyme]

Aw, maybe you should, but did you have to?

[He doesn’t sound upset about it or anything, maybe a little...sheepish?]

I’m, uh...pushing 70.

[hasit]

[She doesn’t look bothered in the least; quite to the contrary, she leans over with her fingers still tangled in her hair and bumps her shoulder against his.]

Lucky for you I’ve always had a thing for older men.

[stanbyme]

[He pauses, then smiles and bumps lightly back.]

Well, maybe I do got a lucky star after all. And definitely the best looking one there is.

[Get it, cause she’s from space,]

[hasit]

Oh, Stanley.

[He really is too much, but she enjoys being around him far too much to really care. He’d gotten on her nerves a little at the start, but that’s been overridden by endearment and fondness.

Her fingers finish up the last few strands of hair from the back of her neck, tucking them neatly into her coiffure, and then she places a few strategic pins to keep everything in place. Then, she turns to look at him fully. ]

I’d tell you to knock it off, but I really don’t want you to.

[stanbyme]

Good. [When she turns to face him she gets a smile, and he scrootches closer.]

‘Cause I ain’t ever been good at quitting while I’m ahead.

[And he goes in for a kiss.]

[hasit]

[It's when he says things like that, that he truly tugs at her heart strings. It's exactly the sort of thing Han would have said. She lets him kiss her, soft and slow and sweet, and when she pulls back it's only to press her face into his broad shoulder to hide her smile.]

Where'd you get the idea to kiss me, anyway? To wake me up?

[stanbyme]

[When she leans into his shoulder, he leans back a little to open his posture up to make more room for her to lean, bracing one hand against the mattress behind her back.

He scratches at his beard with the other hand, and looks into the corner of the room.]

Uhhh... One of the girls recognized what it was that poisoned you.

[hasit]

[While they're being gross, she might as well go ahead and nuzzle her cheek into his shoulder a little. It's nice. Sue her.

But the hesitance in his voice makes her draw back, looking doubtful.]

And they knew it had to be a kiss, huh?

[stanbyme]

Yeah, it was... It was some real fairytale stuff...

[He looks down at her when she pulls back.]

I, uh... I didn't think it worked like that in real life.

[hasit]

Fairytale? [The word isn't familiar to her, but the tone is.] What, like kids' stories?

Forgive me, but we don't have quite the same lore as you Earthlings. Is kissing someone to wake them up a common theme?

[stanbyme]

[save him he's dying.]

It's, uh... Yeah, now that you mention it, I guess it kinda is. There's... one about a girl who gets poisoned by a witch, and she falls into a deep, deathlike sleep. And the only thing that can wake her up is a prince who comes riding by and gives her...

[He mumbles something that halfway sounds like "truelove'skiss"]

[hasit]

[She blinks.]

Stanley, hon, you're going to have to speak up. My hearing's not what it used to be.

[stanbyme]

[Hon. Something long-neglected deep in his curmudgeonly soul swells and shines at that nickname, but the words still stick in his throat.]

Well, I mean in the story they say that... It's called... You know, I think the original's probably in a different language or something, so maybe it just got translated the way someone wanted to hear it...

But in the story it's... True love's kiss?

[hasit]

[She's starting to get the gist of it just from how long it's taking him to spit it out, but she waits patiently for him to get the words out right. And when he finally admits to it, she merely nods, smiling, her expression restrained, but there's no turmoil in it.]

Really? Well that's interesting, isn't it? Funny, the stories people tell each other.

[stanbyme]

[Oh. Oh thank god, it's like a gun has been pulled away from his head. He breathes out a sigh of relief, and then gives a forced kind of chuckle.]

Hey, I'm just glad at least something worked. Any longer and I might've had to start acting like a responsible adult.

[hasit]

Well, we certainly wouldn't want that. [She winks.] That's my job, right?

[The backs of her knuckles graze across the scruff on his jaw.] Can't have you putting me out of work.

[stanbyme]

[He leans into her knuckles brushing against his jaw with a smile that's definitely not forced.]

I ain't been responsible a day in my life yet, and I'm too old to start now.

[hasit]

I wouldn't dream of asking.

[She seems to remember something, and cocks her head at him.]

Was there something you needed, by the way? When you came in?

[stanbyme]

Uh, not really, I just... thought I'd check on ya, since your door was open, and then I got... wrapped up watching you.

[hasit]

[She smiles to herself, looking down at her lap, and then looks back up at him.]

Sorry to have distracted you so thoroughly. I'd offer to do your hair, too, but—

[reaches up, fluffs up his mullet]

It's not quite long enough yet.

[stanbyme]

[He chuckles when she reaches up to fluff his hair.]

If it gets long enough to hold a braid, I'll have to ask you to teach me.

[And then something occurs to him, and he looks away, scratching at his beard bashfully.]

You, uh... You think Mabel would like having her hair done up like that?

[hasit]

[It's cute, how bashful he gets the minute he's thinking of doing something nice for someone else. Seems that's a new development in his life, which is...endearing. Especially where his niece is concerned. She nods, looking a little amused.]

I do. You've seen the way she looks at me, and how much she hangs around the Beast with all that silky fur of his. I bet she'd feel just like a princess.

[stanbyme]

Think you could... [There's a hesitant pause, where his taught masculinity goes to war with his soft side at the idea of asking her to teach him how to braid hair.] ...do it up for her, sometime?

[His soft side slinks off to lick its wounds and come back out next time.]