• F • R • A • C • T • U • R • E •

Who: Chase and Kyle, Chase Kyle and Adam, Kyle and Adam
Where: Round the hotel
When: Morning

The last place that Kyle expected to be when he woke up that morning was his bed back in the hotel. It was disorientating, to say the least. For the first few moments, he had no idea where he was - only when he caught sight of the ripped pages of abandoned drawings by the side of the bed did everything come slamming back. He sat bolt up in bed, looking round the room. He was back. He wasn’t going to get lynched and burned at the stake or anything horrible like that. The relief was overwhelming - right up until the moment that it clicked in that he was alone. He scrambled out of bed, throwing on jeans and a shirt. He needed to go check on the others, make sure everyone made it back okay.

( Finding people )

Who: Kyle and Adam
Where: Their tent
When: Morning

Kyle pounded out all of his frustrations on the cart rim the blacksmith had him mending, pounding the strip of metal as if it was personally responsible for the fact he'd barely slept overnight, and that he was pretty sure his boyfriend was pissed off with him right now. Kyle had never been particularly good with dealing with issues and he had fallen back into old habits: he had thrown himself into work. He would have stayed at it all day as well, if the blacksmith hadn't pulled him to one side and indicated that Kyle needed to stop before he fell down, plus he was ruining the cart rim rather than mending it.

Banished from the forge, Kyle made his way back to their tent, wondering what he would find.

Adam hadn't gone looking for Kyle right after talking to Kennedy. He wanted to, but he knew Kyle was at work and really he needed to process things, what Kennedy had said, before he started spouting off questions or accusations. Not that he was going to accuse Kyle of anything, but at the same time Adam was worried. Had Kyle only wanted him because he didn't trust him not to sleep with Kennedy? Had that really been all it was? Professions of how much he cared about Adam, about how Adam was his everything and at the same time, was Kyle still trying to keep him from making his own decisions about things? And was Adam that girl that falls for the first guy who sticks around in the morning?

( The guy and that girl )

Who: Adam and Kennedy
Where: near the tournament grounds
When: morning

The night, while it had initially been okay, turned out to suck hard, sweaty donkey balls. She had wound up being attacked by various animals, though the worst was the fox. It was bigger than the other ones, and shit its bite hurt. The second most awful was the bird, she didn’t know what kind it was, but she had scratches all over her face and peck wounds on her scalp hidden by her hair. She knew she was lucky she kept her eyes.

So, she was having a shit day. And fuckers were continuing the damn tournament. Normally she had a real hard time giving a shit about much of anything, but seeing that she certainly wasn’t the only one who had a shit night...it was dumb. People were bandaged up while trying to wear fancy clothes, and what the shit. She was seated a ways away from the action, glaring daggers at the tournament while she considered making an attempt to shut it down.

Adam had spent the night in the blacksmith’s forge with Kyle and a few others he’d managed to grab and drag back into the forge with him. There were enough of them that Kyle had decided to spend what part of the night people were sleeping on the other side of the place from him which had left both of them anxious. By the time it was morning and things were calmer, he was working through their trampled tent and pulling what was functioning out, trying to get their money together to see if he could get what he needed to fix the tent.

It was a shock that the tournament was still going on, that vendors were trying to make do with trampled and damaged stalls. He was wandering through them until he slowed, seeing a familiar figure. Heading her way he frowned. “You okay? That’s one hell of a look.”
( whatever )

Who: Adam and Kyle
When: Evening
Where: Their Tent

Adam had just barely survived the second match with the giant knight. He'd been faster yes, but it turned out that it was more like 'fast enough to not get killed' instead of fast enough to win. Out of the tournament, he'd slunk back to the tent alone. There he peeled out of his clothes and was doing his best to clean and wrap a cut on his bicep. It wasn't terribly deep but it would definitely scar. He was peppered with bruises too, red marks that were starting to sink to purple, but he wasn't focused on those. Not yet.

( I'm not a hero )

Who: Adam and Mazie
Where: outside the tournament
When: midday

Adam had made it through his first match! There wasn’t even anything he could lie about it. He’d won. It was incredible. Of course it had been incredibly close and he’d almost been hurt pretty bad, but you know what? He’d won. And maybe he could do it again. He’d have to do it again because he had a break, but he had another match coming up before too long. He was sitting off to the side, trying to catch his breath, trying not to grin too much because of what Brett had warned against.

( don't chicken out )

Who: Adam and Brett
Where: Near the arena
When: Morning

For all his talk, Adam was nervous about this competition now. He'd seen more than one bleeding person carted off the pitch and he was starting realize that while he was deceptively strong, he was still smaller than the other knights. It made him jittery, which dressed in his armor was obvious as it clattered some with every bounce he made. His original goal had been to do good, but now he was pretty sure it was shifting to not dying and not throwing up before he went out there.

Brett had positioned himself off to one side, away from people yet in a position to be obvious and visible. Intimidation was part of who he was now. He generally didn't talk to anyone, not unless it was to his advantage. And as he saw the green around the gills newbie passing by, he saw something to his advantage. Not rising from his seated position, in full, dark armour, he dropped his broadsword into Adam's path. Close enough to shock, but not enough to hurt.

( Halt )

Who: Adam and Kennedy
Where: The banquet
When: evening

Adam was still fighting to keep the grin off his face, tugging at his hair to try and get it under control, but in general he just seemed happy with himself. Though who could blame him? He had a boyfriend. An actual, real live, boyfriend. The Kind that wanted to be with him. It was ridiculous. That was ignoring everything else as well, the sex, the attention, that sort of deep connected feeling that only came with a significant other. All of that was halfway to plastered across his face as he snuck back into the party, trying to seem like he’d been the there whole time.

( how do you feel? )

Who: Adam and Kyle
Where: the castle
When: evening
Warning: NSFW

( and secret gardens )

Who: OPEN TO ALL
Where: The castle banquet
When: evening

Mickey was still adjusting to the knightly business of things, but the banquet made it easier. Just like everything else, he blended into his surroundings, making casual small talk and letting others talk about themselves, all the while winning their favor like he usually did. It wasn't until he arrived at the banquet that he realized his breeches, tunic, and boots were some of the nicer clothes that were there to see, the tunic in a warm colored gold with a black lion across his chest and upon seeing him he was treated as if he were one of the more well off knights. It was more attention than he would have expected, but he didn't hate it.

Who: Kyle, Mazie and Adam
Where: Lavel
When: Morning

Kyle swam into consciousness feeling disorientated, lost and… cold. He pulled the itchy blanket further around his form and tried to cuddle up more - only to find that there wasn’t a body within easy reach. He grumbled. He didn’t like this. And the bed was hard. Far harder than he remembered. Prising his eyes open, he looked around. “Oh fuck,” he cursed. Not another damn day where he woke up somewhere he certainly didn’t go to sleep. “Seriously?? I have had enough of this bullshit!” he exclaimed, jumping up and looking around - and then down at himself. “And what the hell am I wearing???” Some kind of oversized, knee length white shirt and baggy, been washed too many times, brown woollen leggings and who the hell wore something like that outside of a Shakespeare play anyhow.

The yelling woke Adam out of a deep, sated slumber. Though because it was yelling he jolted out of his bed, not realizing it was smaller and he fell off one side of it, winding up flat on his face on the floor with a groan. Only it wasn't the floor. It was ground. "What is..." He pushed himself up, looking around. "What the hell?"

( Misunderstanding, breakdown and blacksmith )

Who: Kyle and Adam
Where: The bar, their rooms
When: Evening/night

Kyle was weirdly nervous. ‘Weirdly’ because he didn’t think there was any chance that he would be badly received in his date, but still, the feeling was there. Throughout the day, it had been building - the feeling that it was of utmost importance that he made more than a good impression tonight. He wanted to leave Adam speechless, entirely floored. Kyle needed to be perfect. Nothing less was good enough.

( Didn't intend is to go like this! )

Who: Adam and Kennedy
Where: Around the hotel
When: afternoon

Kennedy had been wandering around, but that got old fast and she was bored. She tried to leave a few times, but only wound up spit out somewhere else in the hotel, and sadly, nowhere all that fascinating. She'd found the courtyard, however, and was sitting on one of the benches, painting her toenails bright red.

Adam had gone through an entire game of Magic with Norman and he was pretty sure he still didn’t understand it any, but he did try. After a while he managed to get away, but still had too many hours before he was supposed to meet Kyle, which led him back to the lobby, wandering around until he found a door he hadn’t tried and wound up in the courtyard. It was overwhelming at first, the roses, the overgrown feeling of it, like something out of a movie or a book, and he didn’t even notice the other person there as he walked around, one hand rubbing the back of his neck while he looked up, taking in all of it.

( tell me you're joking )

Who: Adam and Kyle
Where: Kyle’s room
When: Early

Adam had barely slept. He’d tried. He really had. But the hotel thing was weird. And eventually he had passed out, at first surprised to wake up in the bed. Or the same bed at least. For a long moment he waited to make sure it wasn’t a dream and then he was up again, getting showered properly, putting in his contacts and getting dressed. His things were packed neatly, the way he always had and eventually he found the nicest shirt he had - something in a dark green plaid that he wore over an undershirt and his best pair of jeans. Really, he looked the same as he always did, even with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, but he felt like he looked nice.

The whole process took about fifteen minutes as he rushed through it and then rushing down to Kyle’s room, very aware that it was early. Really early. Yeah he probably needed to wait, but he didn’t want the dream to go away. He was very aware of another fact, the one that Kyle might not want a repeat of what had happened the night before. So all Adam could do was hope as he knocked on Kyle’s door, bouncing on his feet, too eager and nervous to stand still.

( you should have brought coffee )

Who: Norman and Adam
When: Late morning
Where: Lobby area

( Must explore. )

Who: Adam and Ella
Where: The Throne Room
When: Evening

After Ella spoke with Lindsey she felt she needed a drink badly. All of this was too overwhelming for her and it still didn't make any sense. She returned to her room to look through her bag and see if anything useful had been packed in there. The more she looked through the bag the more she realized she didn't remember packing it, yet another strange thing to add to the list of things she couldn't explain. Unfortunately there was nothing in her bag that could help her get out of the hotel. In fact she didn't even have her laptop in her bag, which she chalked up to her forgetfulness. She was always leaving it behind in different places and so it made sense that she wouldn't have packed it.

Luckily she had her iPhone on her and she proceeded to call her job to explain her situation, but the phone just kept ringing. Why was no one picking up her call? After a minute or two she gave up and dialed her parents. The same thing happened. She ended up calling two more before she realized there was something wrong with her phone or maybe it was the place she was in; either way she felt frustrated and so she proceeded to explore the hotel some more. It didn't take her long to stumble upon the ballroom and more importantly the bar within. She didn't see anyone around so she proceeded to make herself a sex on the beach. She usually drank cape cods but she was in the mood for a change in drink choice.

( unwinding one drink at a time )

Who: Adam and Kyle
Where: around the hotel
When: afternoon

This was the worst day of Kyle's life. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how he got here. He hurt all over. And he was fairly sure that since apparently he wasn't dreaming, he really had had some kind of a psychotic break. The only thing which was nice about today was the bubble bath which he had taken. Oh, and the room number he had for Adam - who was the closest thing he had to a friend around here. That was assuming that Adam was even real and not a figment of his imagination. Either way, he was a glow of certainty in this uncertain world, and so Kyle was going toward that light. Even dressed as he was in a borrowed white robe, fastened over a towel which he had slung round his hips. He hadn't actually bothered to dry himself after getting out of the bath. He had nothing on his feet, and his clothes were bundled under his arm as he walked through the hotel and up to Adam's room. He knocked on the door.

( Better this time...kinda )

Who: Justin and Adam
When: Morning
Where: Lobby, second floor

Adam had watched Kyle go and loitered for a little bit, like the other man might come back through the door and explain just what the hell had happened between them, but after a few minutes, no such luck. Sure Kyle had said stuff about liking him, like more than friends liking him, but at the same time he'd paired it with not wanting to see him ever again. Which was downright confusing and made Adam wonder if the liking him part was supposed to soften the leaving blow and not a real thing. If Kyle was going though, he was going and Adam didn't have much of a reason to keep dwelling too much. Not when there were more important matters at hand, like finding Jeffrey.

Adam went back to wandering the hotel, trying out the public rooms on the lobby floor, looking for his friend, calling out his name here and there, but so far no such luck. After going around in circles he found himself back in the lobby again, checking a phone with no messages, feeling panic starting to rise. How had they gotten separated? They never got this separated. Even if one of them hooked up with a girl, the other always messaged him to let him know where he was. And now Adam was wondering if Jeffrey was worried, or worse, if he wasn't.

Justin had risen early and it had taken him a few minutes to get to grips with what was going on. Waking up in a strange hotel room wasn't really an issue, since he had gone to sleep in a strange hotel room - though far less sober and far less alone. And he was fairly convinced that last night's hotel room had a view over white sands and palm trees with floor to ceiling windows to make the most of that far. This hotel room... Didn't. He wasn't one to panic though, and a quick look around revealed the note which... was weirdly cryptic. Still, it was what it was. He had taken a shower, found the bag of his things - all present and correct, he was pleased to note. He had dressed - knee length khaki shorts, collared t-shirt, shoes without socks, fleece jacket. He pocketed his folding knife which he invariably carried. Then he decided he was going to go exploring. He hit the lobby and was about to ring at the front desk for service when he saw another guy. "Hey," he called out. "You any idea what's going on around here?"

( This is the part where the axe-wielding maniac appears )

who: Monica, Justin and Adam
where: the lobby
when: right after this!

By the time she got down to the lobby, she was still freaking out. God, was he crazy? Were they going to have to haul him away in a straight jacket? She got to the desk and looked around, seeing no one. Finding the bell, she started ringing it hard. Once. Twice, three times. No one appeared. "I need heee-eeelp!!!" she shouted, going back to incessantly ringing the desk bell. "For real, people! Come on, I think there's an escaped mental patient in my room! Doesn't anybody work here?!"

DING DING DING DING DING DING DINGDINGDING!

Who: Kyle and Adam
When: First thing
Where: All over

Comfort. Warmth. Soft covers that were pulled up around his neck.

Those were the first sensations Kyle encountered when he woke. Safe, secure, warm, wonderful. And entirely unexpected. He opened his eyes, awake in an instant. This was wrong. He saw up, light spilling in through the curtains. A strange room. Where was he? Some kind of a hotel. He hadn’t gone to sleep in a hotel. He didn’t have the money on him for this kind of thing. He had finally gone to sleep in the park, on a bench. It hadn’t been that cold out and he had been so tired and where was he?

Kyle stumbled out of bed. He was still in his clothes from yesterday. He could feel the remnants of tears and snot on his face from crying too much last night, when the reality of Nelson’s death and what he had caused had caught up with him. Feel the bruises on his body from where Harry had hauled him out of the apartment. He reached up and touched his face. A split lip, maybe.

None of it compared to the question of Where am I?. He groped for the door, missing the note in his room entirely. Opening it, he stepped outside. A corridor. Clearly an hotel. Where am I?

( What We Want )

Who: Adam and Kyle
Where: A diner in NYC
When: flashback - 5 months ago, night

The next time Kyle walked into the diner when Adam was working, he was soaked to the skin. It was dark, cold and very definitely raining. Kyle had been wandering the streets for a couple of hours regardless. Harry had told him to make himself scarce, which meant that he couldn't go home. So, he'd wandered for a while, until the rain became too heavy.

The diner was just as dead. The weather had kept people at home which meant Adam was bored out of his mind. It was warm in the diner though, bright lights and grill keeping it that way. Adam was mopping, which he hated, but what else could he do to avoid it? When the door chimed he glanced that way and grinned at first sight of the guy only wound up frowning. "You're drenched."

( call it quits, or get a grip )