Julian Blackwood (synapticstatic) wrote in nybynightic, @ 2020-10-31 15:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | activity type: log/thread, character: julian blackwood, character: micah lucciano |
Since Julian had apparently torn down his barriers, there had been a subtle shift. A gradual opening up of what was once a shaky, distrustful foundation. Micah had torn down the shambles of that link between Dorian and Julian and built a new one for himself—brick by brick. The process had been laborious, but there were many benefits to having a Malkavian like Julian himself: benefits that even Julian himself was not immediately aware of.
And part of maintaining that meant that Micah had already known what date tonight was, even if he pretended not to over the network. And he had a series of surprises planned to keep Julian entertained while he finished up his responsibilities for the earlier part of the night.
It started with a slew of interruptions. A variety of delivery personnel arriving at specific, timed, intervals apart. Initially with a lag of almost an hour, then half an hour. Delivering everything, it seemed, from red roses to scented candles and leather cuffs. By the time Micah saw fit to arrive, the interval had shortened to a mere five minutes in between, and even the corridor outside Julian’s apartment had filled up with unopened boxes.
He strolled in through the front door of the apartment—unsurprisingly left open, by now—and found more paraphernalia occupying a large portion of the space in the living room, cautiously side-stepping what looked like a rather large dildo on the floor to pick up a feather boa strewn over a bar stool instead, draping it over Julian’s rather vexed-looking back as he came up behind the Malkavian.
“Redecorating, again?” Came the amused question.
“Apparently someone is. Imagine my surprise when I kept getting interrupted by some new delivery at my door while I’m trying to just enjoy my ice cream from my blanket fort.”
Julian had honestly been surprised by it all. He hadn’t expected Micah to know when his birthday was, let alone to do anything about it. Especially hadn’t been expecting the Ventrue himself to take time out of his busy schedule to come over himself.
While Julian hadn’t been lying about not normally spending his birthdays wallowing, at least not this way since normally he’d go out and pick at the mind of kine and remind himself of the mortally and sanity he had lost by pushing their own to the brink, he certainly wasn’t used to having anyone do anything for his birthday let alone spend it with him. “It’s almost as if someone is up to something.”
“How terrible,” Micah replied, entirely unrepentant, from the grin on his face. After a night of entertaining reports about various failures to track any kind of meaningful traces of the St. Leopolds in the city, coming to this kind of an upset was a welcome change.
He trailed the feather boa snuggly around Julian’s neck, giving it a meaningful pat, before shrugging out of his coat and placing it where the feather boa had been before, hanging off a high counter stool. He detoured to get the apartment door—there would be no further deliveries at this point, even if Julian couldn’t know that—and came to the kitchen where a nondescript box sat on the counter.
Reading off a label that only Micah seemed to understand, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and began to open the box.
“Can’t imagine what someone would be up to,” Micah continued in much the same vein, as he retrieved two packets of what appeared to be blood and helped himself to two wine glasses. The apartment had seen less than a visit in a year for the last decade prior to it being turned into a safehouse for Julian. But now, Micah knew where every cup and plate was placed.
Returning to Julian, he offered one of the glasses to the Malkavian. “Cheers to free gifts?”
Accepting the glass, Julian couldn’t help the amused look on his face. “I can’t imagine what someone could be up to as well.” Some of it was certainly straight forward enough that it was easy enough to follow where Micah’s mind was going with it all. Some of it though—like the roses—threw him off. He couldn’t remember anyone buying him flowers before. He really wasn’t sure how to take that gesture.
And that wasn't all either. There had been boxes of other things too--vaguely actual gift-resembling items like shoes and clothes and watches--all of which sat unopened somewhere in the living area.
Deeply buried romantic or just showering a favored mistress on their birthday? It wasn’t something Julian wanted to read too much into least it end up being the latter and make him decide the wallowing was better after all.
For now he had the whole of Micah’s attention and that’s all that mattered. “Cheers to free gifts. Though I can’t imagine that whoever that someone is that sent them all expects me to get through them all. Or do with them all.” He picked up a pair of the leather handcuffs and let them dangle off of one finger.
Micah had the nerve to look at the handcuffs speculatively. "Perhaps several, at the same time?" As if the thought had just only occurred to him. Then, his voice turning light, walking the edge of teasing and playful. “Why, have you got other places to be, Mr Blackwood?”
He slipped an arm around Julian’s waist as he spoke, his eyes glittering with the same amused, playful cheer that had been very apparent since he set foot into the apartment awhile ago. Then, waiting until Julian had taken a sip from his own glass, Micah very pointedly smiled. “Like your drink?”
It was a loaded question, if ever there was such a thing. The contents of the packet had been a new product. Something that Micah was trying out not just as part of his efforts to revitalise the Circulatory System, but a special project to draw the big spenders—the Kindred did love their entertainment, after all. And blood containing kine substances to stoke desires was Micah’s latest toy.
Not just intoxication, or even the standard recreational drugs. This was more. Blood distilled from kine stimulated with all of their senses, lost in the throes of passion—the ultimate aphrodisiac. It was still some time away from hitting the markets, but Micah was giving Julian a little sneak preview for his special night.
As a former party boy drug addict when he had been a kine, Julian could very much tell that whatever was starting to course through his system now was not your normal recreational drugs. He had tried them all and this was—different. Then it started to hit him just what the possibility of what it was. “That’s a very interesting roofie you’re slipping me there, Mr. Lucciano,” Julian teased even though he knew that was not at all what was happening here.
“So is this like vampire viagra for the elder Kindred who just can’t keep up anymore.” Okay, so Julian still couldn’t help but continue to be a sassy ass about it even as he could feel it starting to take a fuller effort on him. He was starting to get a whole new idea of just where Micah was going with all the gifts that were currently littering the apartment. “Because I thought you’ve been doing just well keeping up with me but if that’s not been the case—” The amusement lingered and danced in his eyes even as he licked his lips. He was sassing now but it wouldn’t be for much longer.
Micah smirked, running a hand up Julian’s shirt, stroking the hard abdominals under. “Given that I just slipped you the ‘viagra’, I do think that makes it you who can’t keep it up, don’t you think?” But he definitely had other ideas about this too, judging from the way he backed Julian up against the couch. “Better drink up, old man, you’re going to need your strength tonight.” And even if nothing else was true, that last certainly was.
Without giving Julian a chance to respond, Micah polished off the rest of his glass and pressed their lips together, feeding Julian a large majority of the blood between them, before carefully licking off any drops that trailed down the Malkavian’s lips and jaw.
The effect was swift, kicking in mere minutes, much like his researchers had assured him it would, with the wave of kine hormones flooding their system along with the blood, feeling alive in a way that he’d long forgotten. Micah reached down to find the evidence of it between Julian’s firm thighs, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Although this does feel like it’s more or less ready.”
Feeling desire, need, want as a Kindred was one thing. It was something that the older you got the easier it was to turn on and off. Even then when you let it turn on, even letting the blush of life take over for a young Kindred such as him so that he could breath or have a heartbeat for a while, this was different. Julian hadn’t felt like this in a long time.
With kine hormones—fuck, Julian wasn’t even sure how it was that they still had any clothes on right now. “Okay, that is much better than my blood ice cream could ever dream of being. Unless of course we poured it on the ice cream. Or better yet on you to lick off,” he suggested before pressing up against Micah’s hand with a moan. He was more than ready.
Considering how eager and ready Julian usually was, it was hard to imagine him being even more so, but he couldn’t help but curl his fingers into Micah’s shirt and pulled him in closer to kiss before those fingers moved to start undoing buttons. “Too many clothes,” he pointed out.
Pressing Julian up against the couch was the first step. The next was a mess of fumbling fingers, making short work of those pants—thankfully without any fancy buttons to slow the process by much, given that Julian had truly been lazing around in simple attire—and getting rid of Julian’s shirt. Micah’s own required a little more effort however.
He pressed yet another kiss to Julian’s lips, delving and tasting, not at all allowing a single moment for Julian to pause and wonder how he had gotten from ice cream and netflix to this point. And that was a skill in itself too. “Better get to work, then. I don’t think the blood does anything to slow your thinking, so if you can’t function from how turned on you are, that’s entirely on you.” A hint of a smirk, and the ever-present teasing.
“Or entirely on you,” Julian countered since the Ventrue had a way of making the Malkavian forget that anything else existed but his desire for him. At times it swallowed him up whole, threatened to devour him, but that was usually what he needed. It helped force Julian to focus on just the two of them and nothing else. Which was very much what was starting to happen here as Julian pushed Micah back just enough so he started to kiss his way down Micah’s body and dropped down on his knees in front of him.
Micah’s answer was a smirk and his fingers threading through Julian’s hair. “I think I can live with that.”
In the aftermath of their earlier exertions, the apartment was a wreckage. Clothes, toys and empty packets of drained blood littered the floor. The dining table had one leg dented, their combined force of their gyrations had seen to that—”did it just” and a breathy laugh “yeah that’s broken now”. The bed had collapsed at one corner, but neither of them paid it any heed beyond a laugh between hitched breaths and the sounds of “yes, there, harder” drowning out the ominous creaking of the wood.
But now they lay on the lopsided bed, Julian’s exhausted form pillowed against Micah’s chest. “I assume this takes the edge off the coming Blue Moon somewhat.”
"Well, I'm certainly not sure which is currently more wrecked, me or the apartment," Julian mused out loud from where he lay against Micah. " For the moment all was quiet and calm. After all of that it would have been quite the feat if his mind wasn't quieted.
It was the nice thing about the apartment as well, that there was nothing about it that caused extra stress on his mind. "For now. The actual night of though will likely be a different story."
Micah traced a finger down the line of Julian’s bicep thoughtfully. “What will it be like?”
He wasn’t a Malkavian. He would probably never understand fully the mind of one, the complexities that came with the Auspex. But he knew Julian. He could see the way that Julian behaved when it came to certain emotionally charged issues, the way he fell apart at certain times and seemed absent at others. And they were close together often enough times that Micah wanted to understand better.
Julian thought about it for a moment. They did call it once in a blue moon for a reason and it had been nineteen years since one had fallen on this date. He had been Kindred then but younger, without the same control. Yet now he was even more powerful Auspex wise, more open to it all thanks to the choices he made.
"It’s hard to tell. It may set me off more. Already Connie is slipping into more and more madness and while I don't see the things he does, I can hear them. Like at the church. Which is why I had to come back here." The support of other Malks was great until you started feeding into each other. Then it really did become a madhouse. Kind of like lunatics on a full moon.
"Or I could end up going catatonic if it gets to be too overwhelming."
Micah considered this. “That would not be ideal.” Like they were discussing the weather. Although he wondered what catatonic Julian would be like. Would he be still as a statue? More lifeless than they already were? Julian, given the talents that he had, often came across as a Kindred elder than his years. It was easy to forget that he was only less than a century old. Micah very much preferred his warmer, more pliable body, and only during times like this—Micah was very readily reminded of this fact.
“How do the rest deal with it?”
"No, it wouldn’t but you may be able to draw me out of it if it comes to that." Julian had a feeling that if anyone could it would be Micah. He had already proven not only capable of doing so but willing to. It was a stark difference than what the Malkavian was used to.
Dealing was not a word that Julian was sure he'd go with. "Cian seems more disconnected than usual and Connie—" There was a heavy sigh there. "He's locked himself away. We have to make sure he's eating, so lost in the ghosts that haunt him."
The gifts of the Ventrue were great. In many ways, they were better off than the other clans. Micah liked to think that out of all the possible clans that he could have fallen into the way he had, Venture was one that he could make the most out of. He didn’t understand the other clans as well, but centuries worth of his existence necessarily meant that he had dealings with all clans of the Kindred, and amongst them—the Malkavians were the hardest to pin down.
Julian’s other roommates were not people that Micah associated with on a regular basis. He knew of them, that was certainly true. It was difficult to find a Kindred elder in the city that Micah didn’t know of in some capacity. But oftentimes, Malkavians were… unstable. Finicky. Even in the best of times, Micah never knew if they were going to hold up their end of a business deal, lost in their own madness as they were often prone to being.
“Doesn’t he have a ghoul for this very purpose?”
"He does. She's still learning but she's making do." Nevermind that Julian knew of the fact that Connie had ate some of his ghouls in the past. That was just a risk one took when they ghouled themselves to a madman.
It made Julian wonder for a moment though and he lifted his head up enough so he could peer up at Micah with those blue eyes. Was Micah possibly already getting tired of dealing with Julian himself. "Should I be thinking of getting a ghoul for that purpose?"
That caused Micah to arch a brow, glancing back at Julian to see the genuine question there; uncertainty, not a mind game. Julian was not the first that had attached himself to Micah, he wasn’t even among the first hundred. But the others, when they had fallen from grace, had always been for similar reasons—trying to read into Micah’s intentions, trying to insinuate themselves into positions they weren’t allowed and most of all, attempting to restrict Micah.
There was a refreshing lack of that here. Just a simple curiosity.
“Would a ghoul satisfy you?” Micah asked instead. Julian had admitted as much to him, multiple times, that his addiction to Dorian had more reasons than one. So calling him out on that bluff seemed only logical.
"No," Julian answered without even thinking about it. He knew one wouldn't be able to handle him either. Not the way that Micah did. Still that moment of insecurity was there. It seemed a silly thing to think of in light of how the rest of their night had gone, of everything Micah had done for him tonight when he didn't have to, but it had crept in anyway.
Micah ran his fingers down the side of Julian’s chest, brushing upwards against a sore nipple—proof of Micah’s rather pointed attentions earlier—and toyed with it as he answered the question Julian had posed. A warning, of sorts. Julian was playing with fire with this line of questioning. “Then you should ask what you really mean, Julian.”
He rubbed the red and swollen nub between his thumb and index, gently at first, then with increasing pressure, bending slightly to speak directly against the shell of Julian’s ear, “Will I spend that night with you, fucking you absolutely out of your mind so you don’t have to deal with the demons in them?”
This right here proved that no one else would satisfy him. Not with the needy moan that Micah managed to draw out of him with such a simple act, knowing which buttons of Julian’s buttons to push to get a response.
"Will you? I know you have other responsibilities than just me." What would his fellow Primogen think if Micah skipped her party so that he could instead spend it fucking his Malkavian senseless instead. Any other night Julian would offer to go with him, be at his side if the Ventrue so desired, but of all the nights, that was the one that would be the worst one to even consider doing such a thing.
It was his duty. There were certain things that Micah had to do now that he was Primogen. Thanks to Amadeus, but also it was a position that had seemed inevitable. Especially after the massive disappointment that had been their previous Primogen. But the role came with responsibilities that Micah was not entirely incognizant of.
But then there were times when Micah tired of responsibilities.
“Responsibilities that could be fulfilled by a brief appearance.” As opposed to a prolonged stay. It was rare that Micah didn’t stay long for the Toreador party of the year. In many years past, this was the event that he had frequently picked up new toys—entertainments for several nights down the road that chose this happy occasion to throw themselves in his path. Regardless of the networking and politicking that would doubtless take place at an event like this, the entertainment was that other, rather big draw.
And yet.
Fingers digging into the unhealed bruise on Julian’s hip even as he continued to torture the Malkavian’s poor, abused nipples, moving on from one to the next; Micah realised that there was no draw in it for him this year. As Julian had asked, and he had considered, coming to the inevitable conclusion—”I think the idea of being here and making you scream rather appeals to me, yes.”
Julian would be lying if he said that Micah’s answer didn't please him. He may not have ever been to one of the Toreadors hosted Halloween parties here, but he had seen enough of them over the years to know what happened at one.
The fact that Micah kept choosing him when he could so easily choose another was not lost on Julian.
And Julian had no doubt that Micah would make him scream. Even now he managed to pull more whimpers and moans from him. "I think the only other question is should we replace the bed now or later?" Though it was already questionable if it was even going to survive the rest of this night considering the state it was in.