InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Shiver me timbers!"

Chris Argent (argentum) wrote in paradisolog,
@ 2016-07-06 17:50:00

Entry tags:

chris argent (argentum), ~inari raith (ofthewhitecourt)

Who: Chris Argent and Inari Raith
What: Can we say "stereotypical walk on the beach"? Yes we can!
When: Wednesday evening
Where: The beach
Warnings: Entirely not sure -- I'll come back to you on this one
Status: Closed/Incomplete

Chris had been in a thoughtful mood ever since Scott had come to talk to him almost a week earlier. It was... strange, thinking of Scott as a father. Not in a bad way, just made him realize how much of a priority shift everyone had undergone. Well, of course everyone had. But it was one of those things that really drove it home -- because he never doubted for a minute what the purpose of it all was. Was still vaguely surprised when someone showed an interest in him, yes. Found some of the ways people paired off interesting, certainly. But doubted things? Never.

He'd wandered down to the beach again, which was where he apparently seemed to wander when he was thoughtful. They weren't bad thoughts by any means, so he was content to let them wander through his head and end up where they would.

His thoughts drifted, and he wandered, and before long there was someone he'd met before but hadn't seen in a while. Which was strange, since it wasn't that big a population on the island. And she was as beautiful as he remembered. Which, he was probably a dirty old man for thinking about her like that, but oh well. If you weren't supposed to notice someone like that in this place of all places, then where were you?

"Inari, hello," he greeted with a warm smile.

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-06 11:14 pm UTC (link)

"Oh! Hello Chris!" Inari responded. He'd told her to call him Chris, right? She was pretty sure he had. She had been raised to use proper titles, but to also use a person's preferred name. Chris was a good, strong name. It suited him well.

"It is good to see you," she said with a warm smile. She was generally a friendly person anyway, but she had talked to Chris a couple times before, and she liked him. Where some might say he was old, she thought he was more mature, and definitely more distinguished than boys her age. He'd lived a hard life, if the lines in his face were any indication.

Inari had never really paid much attention to older guys, but damn. Chris was hot. "How are you? How have you been?"

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argentum
2016-07-06 11:45 pm UTC (link)

"I'm good," he said with a smile. "I've been good. Nothing much going on -- been trying to keep busy around here as best I can." He looked at her curiously. "But what about you? How've you been?"

It was much easier for him to deflect attention, to focus on someone else. And honestly, focusing on her? Wasn't a hardship by any means. It didn't hurt that she was an enigma to him -- he couldn't help wanting to know more about her. Though he would've wanted to know more about her no matter what, he was pretty sure.

And it didn't hurt that he was pretty sure she found him interesting. Because Chris knew how to read people. He'd had to get real good at that real fast, one of the many skills Gerard had impressed upon him even before he was being officially trained. And his skills were telling him that Inari found at least something about him at least a little interesting.

He didn't mind that a bit. After all, what man his age in his right mind would?

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-07 12:09 am UTC (link)

Oh, she definitely found him interesting. Intriguing, even. Something about him reminded her of Harry and Thomas in a way she couldn't exactly put her finger on. It wasn't a bad thing. Not at all. It kept her focused, and curious. She wanted to know more about him, where he came from, what he had seen and done in his life.

He'd lived a lot longer than she had. And from the looks of him, he'd lived a lot more fully than she had. She could just imagine the stories he could tell. She'd be captivated for hours, listening to him. The trick would be getting him to open up, because he didn't seem to like talking about himself.

"I'm all right," she told him. "I have shelter, there's plenty of food, and people to talk to." She smiled a little. She was more than pleased to be here talking to him.

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argentum
2016-07-07 09:11 am UTC (link)

"I'm glad you're doing alright," he said. "I've been wondering about you." He'd known she was alright enough -- he'd seen her around, after all, it was impossible not to at least see someone around -- but it was impossible not to wonder about Inari, to be concerned about her. Not because she was young, no -- though he would worry at least a little about almost any of the younger set on the island if he'd only just met them and they'd only just arrived, admittedly -- but because something about her seemed to call for it.

"And you seem a more social creature than some of us," he said with a faint smile. "I think you need people to talk to." He wasn't entirely sure he was right there, but he was pretty sure he was, yes.

Which meant she probably enjoyed the bonfires. Or at least went to them -- unlike him, who'd only been to something like two. He really needed to make a concerted effort to improve that. Not just for his own personal sake, but in terms of contributing to the whole. Couldn't work on that if he wasn't putting himself out there, after all. And while he was no stranger to difficulties, he was pretty sure that that one? Wasn't something you could actually succeed at.

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-07 10:18 am UTC (link)

She definitely enjoyed the bonfires. She liked to watch the people who gathered at the fire. She liked to try and guess who was going to wander off with who. Sex was pretty much a given, in this place. it was just a matter of who would hook up with who, and she idly wondered if Chris would hook up with her. He probably would, because he was a healthy man, and she knew she was a beautiful young woman.

She wasn't vain, not in the least. She didn't really think she was that beautiful. But she knew others thought she was, because she'd been told enough that it must be true. Beauty didn't even matter here, though, and Inari was grateful no one really made a big deal of it.

"I guess so," she shrugged at Chris' comment. "I come from a pretty big family, so I mean, there was always someone to talk to." Which was mostly her only brother, Thomas. Thomas wasn't like the rest of them. He was gorgeous, anyone could see that. But he wasn't vain, he wasn't self absorbed. Or at least not as much as Lara and the others. He actually took the time to talk to Inari, and he tried to mentor her to some degree.

She missed him. She was drawn to Chris because of the things about thim that reminded her for Thomas.

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argentum
2016-07-07 10:37 am UTC (link)

Chris also tried to guess who was going to wander off with who, as he saw people around the island. Sometimes he guessed correctly, and sometimes not. In this place, people could make the decision based on options other than the usual and that was a nice change of pace. Or at least an interesting one, he supposed was probably a better way of looking at it.

And he actually wouldn't mind hooking up with Inari. He wasn't entirely sure what that said about him, given how old he was pretty sure that she was, but he didn't think he was going to argue with it.

Much. Because really. She seemed to be interested in him and he had to admit he was interested in her. And who didn't have needs? Which he was pretty sure made him an absolute heel, but he'd deal with those moral issues later.

"Walk with me?" he invited. "I wouldn't mind just spending a little time alone, honestly." The 'with you' part was completely obvious and he was pretty sure didn't need to be said. And he was a big believer in, why say words that didn't need to be said? Why waste time that could better be put towards other efforts? He wasn't at all sure what those other efforts might end up being -- he'd enjoy them, whatever they ended up being, with her -- but the point still stood.

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-07 12:03 pm UTC (link)

"Of course," Inari smiled and put her hand out to him. Because it seemed like holding hands was the thing to do here. And she wanted to. She wanted to be close to him. She wanted him to know, without question, that she was interested. He was a good looking man, rugged and rough, and yet there was a tenderness about him.

Her sexual experiences were limited, despite working on a porn movie set. She'd been with Bobby, and that one friend he'd brought home. And then Eddie and Octavia here. She had a feeling any sexual experience with Chris Argent would be entirely different. And she kind of wanted to know, exactly, what it would be like.

She had a feeling he knew how to please a woman. She just wondered how he would respond if he knew she wanted to fool around with him.

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argentum
2016-07-08 12:49 am UTC (link)

Chris' response, though, was to pull her towards him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and tugging her against his side. It just felt right, somehow, to be walking with her like that. And he didn't feel like he had to talk, which was nice. He was perfectly willing to talk, of course, but it was kind of nice feeling like they could just walk and not have any pressure there to make conversation.

"Tell me something," he said idly as they walked. "What would you say if I told you I wanted to kiss you?" Because he wanted to judge how much interest was there, and because he really did so he saw no need to hide the fact and dance around it. And if it made things awkward between them, well, they'd have to deal with it because the island wasn't that big.

He'd dealt with far more awkward things, though, he could deal with that. Somehow, though, he was pretty sure that even if she wasn't interested she'd at least react kindly. And that? Would be perfectly acceptable to his ego, thank you.

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-08 08:56 am UTC (link)

Inari stopped walking and tugged on his arm to get him to turn and face hef there. She smiled as she looked into his bright eyes. Her eyes were dark and focused and she held his gaze without blinking. There was a coy shyness, but no hesitation.

"I think that would bo okay," she said after a moment. Her voice didn't waver, her eyes didn't avert, there was nothing but honesty in her response. She wanted him. "And I wouldn't say no to more than kissing, Chris."

She wasn't stroking his ego. Her interest in him was sincere.

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argentum
2016-07-08 10:39 am UTC (link)

He looked at her for a moment -- how could he not? She was young and beautiful and how could he not want to look at that? But then he was tipping her head up slightly and brushing his lips against hers and thinking was a thing that stopped happening.

Because how could he think when he had a beautiful young woman in his arms, perfectly willing to be kissed by him? It'd been a long time -- in general, that was, since obviously there had been Patty and Ruby. But before Inari, before them, it had been Victoria for a long time. And Victoria had been an entirely different experience. A woman he had loved deeply but had after a while seen the passion turn into a deep understanding that was no less intense than anything else but wasn't quite the same.

He pulled back after a moment, smiling at Inari faintly. "I'm probably not quite what you were expecting, but I haven't had any complaints yet," he said with a laugh. But of course he wouldn't. He knew what he was doing -- and not in an arrogant way. He'd just been through enough in life to know that when you had the chance to be with someone, you wanted to make it good for them. You wanted to make it the best you could, because you didn't know if it was going to be the last moment they had or the last time you'd see someone -- hunters did not necessarily have long life spans, as a rule, even some of the women in their culture -- and you wanted to give people a good last memory, go out with a good one.

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ofthewhitecourt
2016-07-09 08:40 pm UTC (link)

"I'm not going to be the first," Inari told him. "No, seriously. I have no complaints," she said. She looked up at him, looked up to meet his eyes. Her fingers drifted along his jawline. "You're really very handsome," she said. She had a feeling he didn't particularly think that was true. She wondered what had happened in his life to make him think he wasn't beautiful.

Maybe someday she would find out. "I wouldn't mind if you did it again," she told him."

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