This time, Ronan really likes Sampremi [open]

[somnioergosum]

Who: Ronan, Adam, Gansey, Ivar, and open
What: Ronan takes care of his dogs, takes care of his busted knee, and runs into some old friends (and also his boyfriend)
When: Early March
Where: A park and a city street
Notes: The thread with Adam will be very NSFW on account of Sampremi, violence in the thread with Ivar

a. Dogs at the Park

While Ronan’s land wasn’t small by most standards, ever since he had to fence his home off from the world, he didn’t felt sorry for his dogs, all still in the puppy stage. They needed something new. They needed stimulation. They needed to stop barking at the damn chickens.

So he packed them all in his BMW, took them for a joyride, and let them all out at a park. His raven, Chainsaw joined. She kept flying over them, catching their attention, and then landing somewhere just out of reach.

“Hey! Pavlov!” Ronan snapped his fingers to get the dog’s attention. “Off!”

The dog, his front feet still on the bench, turned and stared at him.

“Off-- God damn it. I should’ve never let you on the bed.” He stood just as Pavlov ran off to say hello to a newcomer he’d smelled.


b. Don’t dance on a broken leg

Ronan checked out the street markets, his eyes passing over food he might check out later. He wanted to see the fair first, but his knee started to give.

He rolled his eyes. “Damn it,” he muttered. It looked like a detour was called for.

Ducking out of the way, he tried to find some place to sit. Fortunately, most everyone was celebrating, so few people were actually on the side streets. His raven Chainsaw was the one who selected the right bench. Taking a seat, he rolled up his pants leg. He undid the brace on his knee so he could adjust it.

The bone was almost fully healed and it still hurt. He’d probably fucked up the muscles by doing walking around like normal. That dance might have had something to do with it.

“Fuck Ivar,” he hissed under his breath.

Comments

a

[quiddities]

Ronan is never particularly hard for Gansey to find, except when he's being particularly difficult. But Ronan is not particularly difficult at the moment and so Gansey is able to find him in the park where he has a mini zoo of sorts which shouldn't surprise the teen either. It doesn't really.

"Did you name this dog?" is Gansey's first question even as he's dropping down to greet it properly. For the record, his guess is that Ronan didn't name the dog.

[somnioergosum]

"Adam. I'm insulted you had to ask." Ronan dreamed that Dalmatian just for him. Adam didn't have a chance of beating that Valentine's day present and absolutely no one was going to know about it.

"That one there is Newton." He pointed at one of the other dogs who was now coming up to greet Gansey, then pointed at another, who was doing much the same. "And that's Tesla. The only one with a decent name is..." He looked around and found the last dog whining at Chainsaw. "Thorpedo!" he called.

Thorpedo didn't move.

Ronan looked back at Gansey. "Little bastard's got an attitude problem."

[quiddities]

"that's what I thought. Just making sure he hasn't managed to rub off on you too awful much," Gansey retorts with a smile. He's more than happy to greet all the dogs with affectionate pets and a customized hello for each of them. They're more fun to pet than Chainsaw though he's wise enough not to say that out loud.

"That's the worst name, Lynch," Gansey looks amused and it's clear that is likely the only one that Ronan has named. It also, apparently, had Ronan's attitude problems.

"When did you get so many dogs?"

[somnioergosum]

"Come on! Thorpedo? it's Thor and torpedo! You're just jealous cause he's not a 'Dick the third.' I thought you were better than that."

Ronan whistled and Thorpedo finally ran over. Chainsaw flapped her wings and bobbed her head while she made a cackling sound. Looked like the bird won this round.

Ronan watched as Thorpedo tried to wriggle close enough to lie down on Gansey's feet. "We got them a couple months ago," he said. "People were rounding up strays before winter. I took a few home. Except that one," he pointed at Pavlov, the only one that wasn't some type of mutt. "I dreamed him."

[quiddities]

"Dick the third would also be a terrible dog name," Gansey laughs and shakes his head. The explanation didn't really make the name seem any better to him. He did smile when the dog finally did come over and is quickly petting him as well. He needs more hands, clearly.

"You dreamed him?" Gansey questioned with a rise of a brow. If there were dogs to adopt he didn't really understand dreaming up a new one -- but then again, Ronan didn't always do things the normal way.

[somnioergosum]

"No one has any taste." Ronan would never apologize for his badass names.

Ronan reached for Pavlov. He didn't pull him closer, but the dog got the message and went to stand in front of him. As hard as he'd tried to make him a normal dog, there were still odd patterns in his spots, if you knew where to look.

"Yeah. He was a gift for Adam. He likes Dalmatians." That was to say, he'd made an offhand comment about it a while back. Ronan could be a little too focused on his boyfriend. "I didn't find any here, so I had to get creative."

[quiddities]

"You mean you don't have any tastes but can't admit it," Gansey teases Ronan. It's something he doesn't do often, not so frankly anyway. But gansey's happier than he'd been not long before. He sleeps a bit more now regularly than he used to as well. Things are well with Blue and Ronan seems happy and that lifts a weight from his shoulders.

"Well, I'm sure he appreciated that," Gansey said and he looks vaguely amused again and he's still petting Thorpedo thoughtfully for a moment.

"How long have you been here, Ronan?"

[somnioergosum]

Ronan stared at a cluster of spots on Pavlov's side that resembled a flower. "A year," he said, absent any real emotion. "Sampremi was my first festival here. That was before Adam showed up."

He didn't like thinking about how hard it had been those first few months. He didn't have anyone, only a psychopathic viking he'd called a friend knew his secret, and he could no longer take refuge in the Barns. It got better after Adam, but there was that stupid Gansey shaped hole in his heart life. He'd missed his best friend.

[quiddities]

Gansey studies Ronan and glances at Pavlov again and he thinks about it. He doesn't think that it could have been easy for Ronan to be here without Adam, without him or any of his friends. Ronan pretends to be strong, to not care but Gansey thinks he probably cares more deeply than just about anyone he knows -- just not in the way that people expect or want.

"How long were you alone?" Gansey is frowning as if he's managed to fail Ronan, even though this is clearly not something he could have controlled.

b

[ragnarsson]

The source of misery in question has been watching Ronan for about fifteen minutes, wondering if he should approach or not. Things didn't end well between them before he left and Ivar really doesn't know how to pick up the pieces once he's fucked something up badly. He already did that at home with his brothers.

Finally, he just says fuck it, and comes up just in time to hear what Ronan is hissing under his breath. There's two main differences to the last time Ronan saw him. One is that he looks older now by a year or two. The other is that he's walking, at least after a fashion. He's got a pair of the most archaic leg braces on this side of 818 and hand crutch that he's using to help limp about. He looks down at Ronan, their usual positions reversed, noting the leg that he'd broken still wasn't fully healed.

"I heard that," he said by way of greeting. There's still a hard, angry look in his eyes, but there's something new there, something sad that most people would miss. Ivar's been through some shit in his time away.

[somnioergosum]

Ronan tensed the moment he heard Ivar's voice. Letting go of his brace, he sat back. He took a few moments to note all the changes his former friend had gone through. He'd heard that Ivar had gone home and ignored any regret he felt at not saying goodbye. Well, Ivar was back now and Ronan could tell that something had happened during that time, something other than the fact that he could walk.

"I told you to stay away," he said but as a comment instead of an implied threat or order. He jerked his pants leg. He gave the leg braces a pointed look before standing. "Who came up with that idea?"

[ragnarsson]

"Do I ever listen?" Really, Ronan, he was not one of your puppies, where you tell him to stay, and he did so. Ivar would be Ivar no matter what. At least some of Ivar's usual fury towards Ronan and by extension Adam seemed to have subsided in his time away. Anger was easy to hold onto, but it got wearisome after a while to hate someone he'd had a friendship with.

Ivar noted they were around the same height when Ronan stood up. It was something he noticed a lot more now that he constantly wasn't looking up at everyone. "I did. It makes it easier to go into battle." He was looking into getting new, more modern ones from one of the Tony Starks, but for right now, ninth-century gear was all he had.

[somnioergosum]

"You should this time." Not that Ronan expected it of him. He himself wasn't exactly listening to Adam at the moment. But if Ivar had been gone for so long, he needed to size him up and see if he was still keen on murdering his boyfriend.

"Looks like it's about to fall apart." Honestly, he was a little annoyed he hadn't thought of it earlier. Now that would have been a gift better than a wheelchair, but it would have been too complicated. There was the design to invent, the size had to fit exactly, it needed to be flexible, and so on. Whatever Ronan said, he was impressed. "I liked the chariot better."

[ragnarsson]

Nope, Ivar was still ignoring Ronan's words. He was basically like the cat form he liked to take from time to time: he did what he wanted to and fuck all the rest. At least he didn't seem in any hurry to beat up Ronan again.

Ivar looked down at the ancient leg braces and shrugged. "All I had to work with was a blacksmith." Which made the devices positively barbaric. "This is as good as it gets where I'm from. I'm working with Tony Stark to get some new ones." Nothing bad could come from this, except for the fact it seemed like Ivar got crazier the more mobile he was. "The chariot is for battle and running people over. Braces are for day to day getting around."

Ronan hadn't insulted him or chewed him out yet, so really, all things considered, this was a better reunion than Ivar had been prepared for.

[somnioergosum]

"Why bother? You stab people just fine without them." There was a harsher bite to his words, one that wouldn't have been there back when they were friends. But it was not as openly hostile as before.

Ronan had no idea what the hell he was feeling right now. If it were just him, he could get past a broken knee. But there was Adam involved, and now more of his friends were here.

Fuck it. He might as well come right out and ask.

"You get any less crazy while you were gone or do I still have to watch my back?"

[ragnarsson]

"Only when people deserve it." Yes, he considered it fair turnaround that he'd stabbed Ronan in their last fight. He'd started it, so it was his fault that he'd ended up with a broken leg. Frankly, he'd gotten off lightly compared to most of the people Ivar fought, who usually ended up in the permanent state of dead.

Ivar scowled at Ronan's next words. "I am not crazy."

Well, he most definitely was, but more crazy like a fox than an out-and-out lunatic. It just hit his buttons considering the last person who had called him crazy had been his brother Sigurd, right before Ivar had killed him by throwing an axe into his chest. If anything, Ivar was probably less stable than when he'd left. Becoming leader of the Great Heathen Army and having a fallout with his brothers that had led them to fighting in a civil war against one another had done nothing good for his state of mind.

"The only reason you had to watch your back in the first place was because you and your idiot boyfriend started things." Yes, he was completely blaming everything that had happened between them solely on Ronan and Adam.

[somnioergosum]

Ronan's anger never went away entirely. It was always waiting for the opportunity to be unleashed. Ivar had just given it that chance.

"Started things?" Now his voice turned venomous. His face flushed and his eyes hardened. "You threatened him. You kissed him. If you're not crazy, What's your real problem? That he defended me from you or that he's dating me?"

It was a low blow if his guess was right. But even if it weren't, it was a shitty thing to say. Shittier, maybe. And he didn't care.

sampremi (cw: sexual content)

[antietam]

Adam hadn't been around for the festival the first time, so he was curious once he started seeing the set-up and hearing excitement for it. He wandered through the street market on his own and passed by the building with the expos. A part of him was interested in the sexual aspects of the festival, but he was too embarrassed to try it alone. The only problem was that he was fairly sure this had been the orgy festival Ronan was so against.

He decided to try his luck, figuring that Ronan had a year to get used to the strangeness of the city. He took Ronan out with him to the market and bought them a dessert to share in an attempt to ease him as they got closer to the convention center.

As they finished their dessert and Adam sucked the remaining stickiness off his fingers, he casually mentioned, "Have you been to the tech expo yet?"

[somnioergosum]

Ronan watched Adam press his fingers to his mouth with a hunger that was inappropriate in public. Well, it would be inappropriate if they were any place else. Considering where he first suspected and now knew Adam was taking him, it fit right in.

"It's not my thing even without the sex stuff." Having glanced at expos like this in the past, Ronan usually walked away bored. Why be impressed by robots when he'd grown up surrounded by things not bound by the laws of physics, let alone created them?

Though this time, he didn't think Adam was talking about robots.

[antietam]

Adam slowed his pace, uncertain if this was the right idea. He didn't want to drag Ronan somewhere he didn't want to go, and he didn't want his boyfriend judging him for being interested in it.

"I was thinking about seeing what they have. Probably a bunch of sci-fi tools." It wasn't a lie, he really was interested in looking at new technology. He just wouldn't bring Ronan along with him for something like that.

"But I can do it some other time."

[somnioergosum]

Ronan snorted at the idea of Adam checking out a bunch of weird robot sex toys or whatever was sexual scientific wonders were available to public viewing.

"Yeah, what kind of 'tools' do you think they have? I'm not letting you look at that alone." Walking alongside him, he stretched out his hand for Adam to take, sticky fingers or no.

[antietam]

Adam scowled at him but took his hand anyway, gripping tight. "It's not all sex stuff. Most of it is new technological advances." At least that was how it was advertised. He wouldn't be surprised if it was a trap.

"What exactly do you think the danger is in letting me look alone?" Not that he wanted to go alone, but he didn't appreciate the wording.

[somnioergosum]

Ronan kept his hand on Adam's, but he swung it so he swatted Adam's thigh. "It's called a joke. You want me to say I won't let you go alone today?" What was he saying? Of course Adam did. They were both equally touchy about certain things and certain words.

"It's not like I think you're gonna leave me for a giant vibrating dildo-bot." If it hadn't been clear before that Ronan had never checked it out, it certainly was now. Another fact was less evident: he was a little curious himself and he was the one who would never look at it alone.

[antietam]

Adam nudged Ronan back with his hip, keeping close enough to press their shoulders together. He couldn't help but grin.

"Well, I mean, it'd depend on the price." Adam squeezed Ronan's hand again. "You're a cheap date."

He laughed and pulled Ronan into the convention center once they arrived.

[somnioergosum]

"You really know how to make a guy feel loved," Ronan said dryly though the words themselves were true, regardless of the joke.

He stepped into the center willingly and with no resistance. That didn't mean he was comfortable with it. He glanced around warily at the place. So far it seemed fine. The more-- interesting-- technology must be hidden away.

"This is your idea. You lead."