The (Second) Unpopping of Teatime ((open RP!))

[marvelousfacets]

Waking up feeling as though one has just stepped out from a vat of warm butter is a very curious sensation. Waking up feeling as though one has just stepped out from a vat of warm butter for the second time in one's life is stranger still.

After a quick pat down to make sure that he was still intact, or as intact as he last recalled himself being,

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[waste_lock]

The castle was as familiar to Nny as any place had ever been, by now. The role of 'caretaker' had even sunk in to some degree; there were small nuisances he saw to on a daily basis and no-one the wiser. The throngs of students swelled, shrank, swelled. There was a rhythm to the place that some days he could almost decipher.

He could tell, somehow, when he walked down a nearby corridor, that there'd been an unpopping, even before he smelled fresh butter. His first reaction was to slink past, avoiding the doubtless confused and bleating arrival, but at the last moment he turned the corner, looking to see who'd just emerged from the realm of snacks.

He stopped in his tracks as if flash-frozen.

[marvelousfacets]

How fascinating - if mildly irritating - that Teatime could remember these walls and floors and the distinctly magical feel of the air and still be unable to determine his exact location. Someplace foreign, he knew, someplace far from Ankh-Morpork and... yes, even the Disc itself, he's certain of that. Curious, it's all very curious, and he wanted very much to get some answers.

He halted barely two steps down the hall, not hearing or seeing but Seeing another nearby. The smile on his face hitched up further at the corners, and he whirled neatly around, already prepared to greet and interrogate whomever had happened upon him.

Until, that is, he saw whom exactly it was who had happened upon him.

(Who, exactly, his brain whispered eagerly, is it?)

Teatime tilted his head to the side, just a touch. He caught himself after just a moment's hesitation, and in a flash he was standing scant inches from this not-stranger, all friendly, too-wide smiles. "Hi! What is your name?"

[waste_lock]

It....

It was Teatime. Nny wanted to grab him by the collar, search him for the scars his former self had worn, but was transfixed by that smile.

Exciting. One way or another, it would be exciting.

"You don't know?" he murmured. "Use your training and intuition, and tell me who I am."

[marvelousfacets]

The absence of a fear reaction whilst in such close proximity to That Smile was very interesting indeed, but Teatime wasn't surprised. No, of course this man wouldn't be scared. That much he knew.

Standing very still, he examined his face with an eager sort of curiosity. "You're my friend," he said after a moment, with absolute certainty. And not his usual sort of 'friend', the kind that he often had quick and bloody falling outs with. A slight narrowing of those mismatched eyes, searching, grasping, and then the fog cleared, just slightly, just for a moment. Teatime's smile widened. "Nny."

[waste_lock]

Nny leaned even closer, their faces almost touching. "A name, Teatime," he said, "A word. We can both say a word. What. What else."

[marvelousfacets]

Flawless pronunciation, that's certainly nice, but moreso is the way it's said, the feeling behind it. There have been dozens of people who have managed to pronounce his surname correctly, but only one who has ever said it like that.

Teatime shifted almost imperceptibly, feeling the way his shirt caught ever-so-slightly on some raised bit of flesh that didn't exist in the distant or the crystal clear, and the memories stirred by that sensation made him shiver.

Closing the already minimal gap between them, Teatime grabbed Nny by the arms and pushed him into the nearest wall, flush and grinning ear to ear now. There's a wonder in his unblinking expression, and he touched their foreheads together with no small amount of fondness. "Mine."

[waste_lock]

He gasped faintly at the moment of contact. It would be easy to struggle, and a fight would be very satisfying and could lead to some delicious and potentially gratifying grappling, but Teatime being possessive was halfway to the things he'd never hoped, to things that had been so close only for him to have vanished again.

Hope wasn't in Nny's general emotional palette, but Teatime had a way of broadening his outlook, and catching a glimpse of a familiar tracery of scarring at Teatime's throat emboldened him to dart out his tngue, licking the scum of butter from the glossy surface of Teatime's glass eye. That would test his recall rather keenly. "Mine," he insisted in return.

[marvelousfacets]

Teatime had, of course, been prepared for a fight, but this sort of surrender was just as beautiful, if not more. "Yours," he agreed, giggling dizzily at the electric-wild-spinning shock of sensation that rattled through his brain at that lick.

There was still a maddening fog clouding over memories that had always been pin-sharp before (before before, at least, before death number one-point-five; things seemed to have gotten terribly muddled after that), but there was a familiar rightness in the way his arms slipped to curl around Nny's waist. It was a possession, a control, it was... a four-lettered emotion that did not often pop into his head, but, well, there it was.

"We do need to stop meeting like this," Teatime added. "I'm getting very tired of smelling like butter."

[waste_lock]

"Tired of you leaving," Nny said in a low, intent tone. "What do you remember? What do you know?" He looked at Teatime's face intently. "If you're not trying to trick me, or fight me. Not trying to deny me or escape me. Do you have all the scars I gave you, or do I need to mark you all over again?" He was shaking a bit with disbelief, eyes wide, grinning breathlessly.

[marvelousfacets]

"Some, but not everything," Teatime admitted. "Little snippets. I remember having a little, ah, spat with you when I woke up before. And making up in an enjoyable fashion. And..." He trailed off at the mention of scars, hesitating, wondering whether or not he wanted to let Nny go for even a moment. Deciding it would be worth it, he freed up his left arm for examination. He hadn't really had much time in his quick once-over of himself earlier to notice the winding chains and cogs peeking out from the cuff of his shirt to twine their way down his fingertips. But he certainly noticed them now, and his face lit up in an expression of absolute delight. "Oh, I remember these!"

[waste_lock]

Teatime's reaction was promising. He could be faking, of course, it could be a trick, but there would be time to deal with that if it was, with appropriately satisfying violence.

But it could be better. If he dared to try, it could be better.

"We. We could go out. Take a broom up under the stars. Be the only things under the sky. Or find a busy street and leave a trail of wet moaning things broken in our wake. Or I could take you to the shower and wash all that butter from you." He laughed a bit nervously.

[marvelousfacets]

Teatime almost didn't to tear his eyes away from the work of art so lovingly etched into his own skin. It really was so very beautiful, and the memories of blood and tenderness that came with the creation of the scars filled him with the same sort elation a teenage girl gets from scribbling "Mrs. So-And-So" in little hearts in the pages of her journal. But there would be time to truly appreciate them later.

He looked back to Nny and smiled wider. "Must I really choose only one of those options?"

[waste_lock]

It had been a long time since Nny had let himself remember, really remember the heartstopping glory of Teatime's smile. Truly, he was unique among all the people Nny had met, a dark jewel to be cherished for all time and fought for as needed.

"All of them and more," Nny promised. "It's all waiting for us. But there has to be a first and an next and a next." He eyed Teatime's dripping garments. "Being slippery might make getting 'coffee' more difficult."

Would he remember the term? It was a little exciting, finding out.

[marvelousfacets]

"Coffee?" Teatime canted his head slightly. The word invoked a feeling of excitement and an itching under his skin that normally came with being assigned a new commission. "I'm afraid you may have to remind me what you mean by 'coffee', assuming, of course, you are not speaking of the brewed beverage."

[waste_lock]

Nny had a rising sense of anticipation, an uncharacteristically gleeful surge of energy. Teatime was by his side, was pleased to see him, and if he wasn't entirely sure how their little dance would unfold this time, for this one person he could be optimistic.

"Coffee," he said firmly, "as in finding a concentration of unpleasant individuals and working off a bit of nervous energy doing... pest control."

[marvelousfacets]

Oh. Oh. So the sudden itching to take a blade in hand was apt, then. Teatime had been mildly concerned that he had wanted to stab his (new? old? very dear, all the same) friend for no real reason. Good to know that wasn't the case. He'd really like to keep this one.

"How wonderful," he said earnestly. "In that case, I do believe I have a taste for 'coffee'." A pause, then Teatime added, "After that shower, of course. It would be terribly embarrassing if I were to slip on all this butter in front of the pests."