Ashley Christian Harper (justwithmymind) wrote in darkcarnivale, @ 2011-06-20 22:25:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ashley harper, julian markum |
Who: Ashley and Julian
What: Dropping off a jacket and fretting a little bit
When: Just after this
Where: Julian's trailer
Rating: Low
Crap, crap, crap.
Ashley was coming over and Julian’s trailer? Absolute mess. It wasn’t always a mess and it was in fact one of the neatest trailers on the Carnival block because Julian liked having things in all their right places and he hated - no, wait - he abhorred mess and chaos. It didn’t come to him naturally, not when he was usually so controlled and put together. Or so it would appear. Julian was in fact the most unstable mass of contradictions well hidden beneath a neat suit and a well constructed appearance.
Right now he was currently obsessing over the fact his trailer looked as though it had been turned upside down and inside out. All in the pursuit of his experiment, the same experiment he’d put his body through when he’d been much younger and struggling to understand and control his ability. He’d overexposed himself to various objects and it had built up his tolerance. He planned to do the exact same thing, but with positive objects in the hope that they might go a long way to counteracting all the bad shit running around in the limited space his skull provided.
He wasn’t entirely sure if it would work, but he had to do something because this whole being out of control shit? Not on, especially when it was affecting his ability to be relatively normal around other people. Besides, Jen? Had been pretty cute, but like he was going to call her now. Julian was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of those things.
Julian was dressed rather casually, for him, but the worn jeans, the comfortable fitting t-shirt and dark hooded sweatshirt seemed a better fit for what he intended to do. Ashley would probably notice, but Julian was allowed as much a comfortable day as everybody else, even if he would not be seen dead without a shirt and tie on when he stepped outside of his trailer.
Amongst the items he’d requested from the people he knew the best he’d also rummaged out a few items from his past, items that had serious meaning and held a lot of old memories. Memories that were good and familiar, everything he knew he needed to sort out the mess his head was at this point in time. Rationally he probably should go to Arkady, but Julian wasn’t the sort to go seeking attention, which to normal people was known as reaching out for help, and if he could handle it alone then he was going to do just that.
Julian reluctantly put on the kettle, resisting the urge he had to lock his trailer door.
After declaring that he was going to Julian’s, Ashley pulled his jacket on and grabbed the tan one that he wore almost all of the time off the rack. His outfit was finished with the hat on his head, successfully hiding his hair from the world. His keys jangled as he locked his trailer behind himself, teabags in a ziplock bag in one hand, the tan jacket in the other.
Julian was getting a visit today, whether he wanted one or not. Ashley was worried. Julian hadn’t been on form for quite a while, since that day he’d had a bad object and run into Aubrey and then, Ashley figured everything else just… got compounded on top of it. Though this experiment concerned him. Why did Julian need things that belonged to, well, his best friends and an ex fling? What would that achieve?
It didn’t take him long to get to Julian’s trailer and he let himself in to see the utter chaos that was hidden behind the door. He’d opened the door with a cheerful “Honey I’m- woah.” A low whistle followed and he picked his way carefully into the trailer, pushing the door shut behind him. “What the shit happened in here? Did Hurricane Cole stop by and just- Julian, what happened?!”
Julian leaned back against the nearby counter and shrugged. “Uh, no? I’m… renovating and reorganising. It’s bound to get a little chaotic.” Chaotic was not the word for the mess that his trailer was at this moment in time, but whatever, Julian wasn’t about to worry the small details.
Of course when Julian Markum renovated and reorganised he did it in such an organised completely ordered way that it gave the people closest to him reason to despair.
His eyes caught sight of the tan jacket. “Hey, you brought a jacket. Thanks, man.”
“This is not reorganising or renovating,” Ashley pointed out with a wave of his hand. “This is chaos. When Julian Markum reorganises, he does it with boxes and labels and tape. This? This just- this is just opening every drawer and cupboard and throwing the contents onto the floor and not picking them up again. Did someone ransack your trailer? Who did it? I’ll get them for you.”
He moved a little closer, holding out his jacket as an offering for Julian. He didn’t quite know what was going on, but he was concerned. Julian wouldn’t appreciate it, but Ashley didn’t much care whether or not he did: the fact was, Ashley was worried and Julian would just have to deal with it.
“So, yeah, here’s the jacket. What do you want it for?” he asked, tossing it towards the bed because he needed to focus on picking his way over the stuff all over the floor. “Jay, babe, what’s happening?”
“Nobody ransacked my trailer,” Julian remarked with a shake of his head. His hands were clasped around the counter he was leaning against and it was as if he was using that grip alone to steady himself.
It was only when the jacket was offered that his gaze left Ashley’s face and Julian’s eyebrow lifted. “Is that your jacket? As in the one you wear every day?” If so, definitely a big thing as he couldn’t recall a day when he hadn’t seen the other man wearing any other jacket.
He pushed away from the counter and stepped over a small pile of clothing, shaking his head. “Nothing, Ash. I told you I’m fine.”
“Yeah, because every day you ask to borrow something from my wardrobe that you constantly criticise,” Ashley drawled, obviously not believing anything that was coming out of Julian’s mouth. He moved a little closer, nudging something out of the way with his foot. “This is dangerous, mate.”
He wet his lower lip and grabbed a couple of cups from the cupboard above where the kettle was, dropping a teabag into one cup and some coffee granules into the other, mixing it with a little cold water to not burn them. Into his own cup? Six sugars went in and he stirred it as the hot water was added.
Fixing Julian’s coffee the way he liked it, Ashley passed the mug over. “Here. Coffee and talking. You’re not fine; you’ve not been fine for ages now, mate and I’m not letting you fob me off any more. I’m not expecting your life story or anything like that, but I’m worried about you ‘cause you’re pulling this weird thing with all these objects that don’t belong to you and I don’t know why.” He didn’t comment on the fact that it was the jacket he wore almost every day. The expression on his face and the shrug of his shoulders was answer enough for him not to need words.
Julian accepted the coffee gratefully and took a sip from it, casting a gaze into the dark liquid as he listened to Ashley talk. He wet his lower lip and then exhaled an obviously frustrated breath. “I’m trying to see if positive objects can shift the leftover residue from some rather unpleasant items I’ve touched in short succession.” There, experiment out, Ashley knew and Julian? Just took another sip of his coffee and looked away for his smokes.
He’d done it when he was younger, overexposed himself to different objects to better his control until eventually it had worked. He hoped the same could be done again and he might be able to get a better handle on himself and his ability. This whole touching shit and seeing everything about anything was really beginning to wear on his last nerve.
“Also? I’m never going out again, ever.”
Ashley watched Julian for a moment before he lifted his shoulders. “Okay. But you’re not doing it alone. I’ll sit there.” He pointed at the countertop near where Julian was standing, watching the man sipping his coffee and staring into the dark depths of the cup like that might answer all his questions. “Because I don’t want you slipping into a coma, you know?” There was worry behind Ashley’s eyes as he looked at his best friend. “C’mon, mate, don’t you dare tell me I can’t sit in because I’ll come in anyway and you know it.”
He hesitated before continuing, “Just let me do this, okay?” adding a moment later, “And you’re not? Why? Did you not have fun with Riley?” He dragged the Puck’s name out, not that he’d been jealous or anything. Nope. He didn’t care: Julian could go out with however he wanted.
Julian’s eyes cut upwards when Ashley insisted on being there when Julian experimented with the objects he’d requested and his mouth opened to voice his resistance to the idea, but he bit his tongue. His thoughts going back to the conversation he’d had with Arkady, about his life being short. “Fine,” he bit out between his teeth, his very gritted teeth. “But whatever happens you let me handle it.”
He sipped at his coffee and shook his head. “I had fun, but after what happened? I’m thinking I’ll be better off at the Carnival until I have better control.”
Ashley rolled his eyes though didn’t comment at Julian’s borderline bitchy comeback. “I will, I’m not gonna interfere and you know it. But I will get involved if you actually start, I dunno, foaming at the mouth or some shit like that because seriously. I can’t just sit back and watch you turn your brain to soup.”
He sipped at his tea and stood with his hands curled around the mug, feeling the warmth seeping into his palms, probably burning a little. His hands would be red by the time he let go. “And it’s less about avoiding situations than handling them properly, right? I mean- you- the- what happened when you were out with Riley? I mean, obviously you touched something, but was it unexpected?” He reached out, too-warm fingers curling around Julian’s wrist and squeezing gently. “Long as we just go out to eat or something rather than clubbing like teenagers we should be okay?”
“Yeah,” Julian muttered with a nod of his head. “I wasn’t paying attention.” That right there could be a source of a headache, one that was persistent and lingering. He’d practically carried it with him all his life. “Object imbued with years upon years of history of a family line. The last ending with cancer.”
He turned away and placed his cup down, fingertips questing for the nearby cigarettes and lighter. It was only when Ashley’s warm fingers closed around his wrist that he turned his head, eyes flicking up to meet the other man’s. “Yeah, I guess so.” Clubbing had never really been Julian’s thing, but that night? He’d just been so desperate to escape and feel something or anything that was his own and didn’t belong to another person.
Julian offered a terse smile before leaning back against the nearby countertop, scrubbing at his hair.
Ashley just looked at Julian for a moment before he put his tea down, gently took Julian’s coffee from him and put it down on the tabletop before his hand clasped the back of Julian’s neck and pulled him into a hug. Ashley had very little on around his neck that might touch Julian and set him off, with a flick of his fingers he knocked his hat off so that wouldn’t get to Julian.
“Holy fuck,” he muttered as his arms went around Julian (after he’d guided Julian’s arms to hug him back because Julian tended to freeze under physical affection and Ashley often had to prompt him). “What can I do to help?” he asked, “Y’know, to- help stop this happening again apart from you doing the whole… lying down and rolling around in things that are familiar to you.”
Julian was momentarily confused and somewhat bewildered when Ashley took his coffee away from him, but all became apparent when there was a hug. And Ashley was right about Julian, he did tend to freeze up under affection. That? He blamed his parents for, entirely.
“You make me sound like a dog,” Julian pointed out somewhat dryly. “And just for the record? I don’t intend on lying down and rolling around in things that are familiar to me.”
He cleared his throat and leaned back a little. “The hat removing thing helps.”
“That’s kinda what I pictured you doing, yanno. So what will it entail, just sitting there and having them all touching you? Will you be in your pants? Sorry- underwear?” Ashley wasn’t making light of it, that much was obvious because he knew how making light of something like this at a moment as crucial as this would just put Julian on the defensive. He was already being hugged, how much more uncomfortable did Ashley want to make him?
When Julian leaned back, Ashley did a little too, though he didn’t let go.
“Why? ‘Cause it makes me look like the wild man of Borneo?” he asked, this time making light of the fact that he had actually been really considerate in taking the hat off so it didn’t touch Julian. Couldn’t let it be known he was all soft and mushy and sensitive, now. Even if Julian probably already knew, Ashley was convinced (or mostly, anyway, because no one could be as emotionally retarded as Julian made himself out to be) that Julian was emotionally retarded enough not to have realised that was what Ashley was like.
Julian’s eyebrow lifted. “In my underwear?” He repeated, wondering how exactly Ashley’s brain worked. “Uh, no. I’ll be in my regular clothes.” He gave Ashley a playful shove and just shook his head with a soft laugh. “So no you’ll not be seeing me in my underwear.”
He rolled his eyes a second or so later, picking up his coffee. “Well, it does have that effect. It’s always amusing.” Julian’s lips curled into a smirk before his lips closed around the rim of the cup, taking a few sips.
“Hopefully it won’t be too weird to watch.”
Ashley pouted, “Bugger, and here I was hoping for the chance to perv on you whilst you were all… zoning out and stuff.” He chuckled and leaned forwards, pressing a kiss to Julian’s forehead before reclaiming his tea and taking something approaching a gulp.
The pout didn’t go away, either, when Julian teased him about his hair. He turned and picked up his hat, replacing it on his head, glad that the thoughtful moment hadn’t been picked up on but at the same feeling randomly bothered that Julian hadn’t felt the need to tell him that he didn’t look that bad without his hat on.
“I’m sure it won’t be. Even if it is, it’s fine, man, I’d rather be here.” He held his other hand up as a mark of honesty, “I’ll not even tease you about it, promise.”
Julian snorted at Ashley’s teasing and simply took to folding his arms across his chest. “Tease me about it and I swear you’ll never see that jacket again.” And he had noticed it was the jacket Ashley wore every day so he knew exactly how much it meant that his friend was willing to give it up for Julian’s experiment.
He scrubbed his hand through his hair and breathed out. “Just need the watch and bracelet then I’m all set to go.” Hopefully this would do the trick and Julian could return to his regular scheduled programming during which he kept his shit together and no longer feared new objects like Yuriko feared headlights.