assassin_daddy | Duplicity Inbox

Delivery!

On the morning of December 24th, a package will be delivered to the Broken Hollow. Attached is a ridiculous campy card that reads:

Jacob,
When I said it had to be the right kind... Happy Wintersday!
- Vrenille

Inside the box is a green union suit made of stretchy jersey knit cotton and an easy open snap closure that goes from the chest all the way down and under to the top of the butt. (It's definitely an upgrade from the Victorian models.)

[ On the 25th there's be a carefully wrapped present left for Jacob on the doorstep. When he opens it he'll find a light dark green with his initials at one end surrounded by Jacob's ladder flowers. ]

[Before Dec 25th lands, Jacob gets a delivery along with a simple, handwritten note:]

figured since you're getting on a bit now that we better make sure we're keeping you safe on those dangerous winter streets. happy wintersday!
~H

[At some point on the 24th, Jacob will receive a small package on his doorstep, with a nice pair of lined leather gloves inside. There's a nice little card with a bit of a note tucked into the box:

'Merry Christmas
-Kim Secretan']

[There's a present delivered the last day of the year, marked with a tag that holds the printed picture of a raven on it. A letter inside accompanies the present itself, sealed with silver wax that holds the signet press of two crossed feathers topped with a cluster of three six-pointed stars.]

May I share my bounty with you that you have plenty of your own for this new year.
I know you're not much a man for material things, but I have at least one to give you. There's a whole set of words for stating the intentions of the heart and being under the protection of house Sonom. If you want them, come ask me for them, but for now, I hope you'll accept this favor and wear my colors as your own.
I love you more than my next breath.
Happy Candleglow
-C.S.

[Jacob will find a small velvet box inside the package. Inside is a ring.]

"I'm stubborn and selfish enough not to send you away. Besides, you give as good as you get in a fight." He smiles. They've not pulled far apart from each other, enough so that the words, the smiles, the little gestures are still private and intimate between them and it makes Jacob's heart sing out.

He hasn't even noticed the heavier fall of the snow, it's only when he does catch sight of them landing in Chris' hair that he becomes aware of it at all. But Chris' question makes sure that he is, and he laughs at the suggestion.

"I'm not sure, you should try it. But my money is on the fact you're too warm for that snow to stand a chance."

He gives a small hum and looks up into the snowfall, the flakes falling down into his hair and catching in the stubble along his chin and cheeks. "Probably...but won't hurt to try it."

A thin 'excuse' to kiss Jacob he didn't actually need? Yes. He wasn't sorry about it.

Chris sticks his tongue out to catch a flake and it's instantly cold and melted on his tongue even before he dives in to try and kiss his assassin while the chill lingered. No, probably not detectable, but he doesn't pull away immediately to try again either, his fingers curling in Jacob's overcoat as though to make sure he stayed close.

When he pulls back again, his voice turns low and quiet as though to avoid the snowflakes and trees hearing them. "I think....we should walk a little further, then turn back and take a nice long soak together...and then maybe a long nap by the fire or in your lovely bed. What do you say, Mr. Frye?"

Rosita has been busy for most of December, and that's carried over into the new year; she's not inaccessible to her friends, but she's taking her SIN guard training seriously, in part because she takes everything she sets her mind to seriously and in part because the natives training her are certainly uninterested in doing her any favors. She's worn out and often sore after her days at the academy, but she still comes round to the Hollow to help with repairing or installing the things she promised she would, and it still seems to soothe her even when she's frustrated. She likes it, outside of the city.

Today though she sends Jacob a text to find out where he is for the first time in a few days and she says she'll meet him there, that they need to talk. She's only been to the Spread Eagle briefly in passing once or twice, never stayed for any appreciable time, though it's not because she's worried about the Down or because she isn't curious, but rather - especially now that she's associated with the SIN guards, even if it's still pretty flimsy at this point - to give Jacob his space.

She has a manila folder under one arm when she walks in today though, fresh bruises, and her hair half the length it was the last time she came around. She still smiles - her small, wry one - and waves when she spots him though.

The Eagle is open to all, LIERS and natives, submissives and dominants. But the nature of what is discussed within these walls makes SIN Guards an unwelcome sight. Thankfully she's only a trainee, and not in uniform, so knowledge of her new affiliation isn't widely known, yet. When it is, Jacob may have to ask her not to come to his legitimate businesses, at least by the front entrance.

Jacob is easy to spot- he's still favouring those old-fashioned style clothes, the dark embroidered waistcoat over a white shirt. He still wears the same sort of trousers, the same big boots. Even if she wasn't familiar with his face, with his eyepatch, if someone asked you to point out the Victorian in the room, you could do it.

He nods a greeting to her, and reaches for a bottle kept under the bar. There's a little nook, just off to one side, closed off by panels that go from floor to ceiling, which make it a little room, private to the rest of the bar. He leads her in there, closing the door behind them.

"Thought it better to talk here," He says, sitting down on the bench seat on one side of the table, letting her sit opposite him on the other, or sit next to him if she likes. "Three months goes by quickly, doesn't it?"

It's honestly one of the things she's concerned about today, really; regardless of what her loyalties actually are, she's going to have to take some hits once she's actually wearing the uniform, especially if she ever wants to get in deep enough to ever do any good. People she cares about may not trust her anymore, or may not be able to associate with her for exactly the reason she'd never come here in uniform.

One of those hits may be this contract, so she sits across from him, glancing around the smaller space with a gaze that misses little before returning to him and doing the same.

"Does that go along with that whole time flies, having fun thing?" she answers back, setting the folder between them on the table; a copy of their contract, and the letter of notice about the renewal deadline. "But yeah. It did."

He offers her a smile and a nod- that was certainly what he'd meant. They've made a good team, he thinks. She's come to the Hollow and worked on it just as hard as if it were her own home, she's comforted him when he needed it, and given him a kick in the arse when he needed it too. He doesn't know if he's had as much of an impact on her, but the fact she's here and discussing this means that, as tight lipped as she can be, things have been agreeable for her too.

He sets down the booze on the table, and the two glasses, and pours a finger each. Negotiations of all sorts do better with lubrication after all.

"I think we were a good pair. I think we could continue to be, if you're interested." He says, putting his thoughts out in the open. "But I think we may need to think carefully about the future, and the factors influencing us both."

He looks at her then, not saying the words, but they both know what the elephant in the room is.

"The people who come here, who come to the Arena, the don't like the authorities. I can't guarantee they'll be pleased to see you."

The thing is, as tight lipped as she can be, she's already decided she doesn't like this part of it - this uncertainty that she realizes she's probably going to feel every three months or so as long as they're paired up. She hasn't forgotten that this arrangement serves a specific purpose in this case in particular, and she has no idea how much progress Jacob and Vrenille have managed to make - and if wanting to contract together again might happen as abruptly as breaking apart had. And then there's the matter, much simpler, that Jacob almost brings up.

She smiles and picks up one of the glasses, though she doesn't drink it yet. She's still used to liquor being an extremely rare luxury, and she thinks for a moment she should save it for celebrating - that, or go the other way and slam it back and ask for more. She doesn't, but she does consider it.

"I don't want you to try," she assures him, because she's never been stupid. Her dark eyes do level on him though. "You think they'll be pleased with you, associating with the likes of me?"

There isn't room in the snug for two elephants in the room, but if there were, his relationship with Vrenille would be it. They're talking, even friendly, but it is t what it was. He's come to the realisation it may never be, but he's not spoken those words out loud. He's not about to here, either. It's not the right place for it.

Jacob, for his sins, does take a drink. He doesn't drink nuch when he works- he shouldn't drink at all but that's easier said than done. But he doesn't drain it, just sips it and let's the burn warm him through as he considers the answer to her question.

"I can make it work in my favour. I have an in with the SIN Guards, a useful contact. That's very helpful in my... lines of business." He leaves some things unsaid. Again, it's best not to say things too plainly, even here. "Besides, they all think you're head over heels for me. I've not dissuaded anyone of that notion."

He knows she isn't, but some of the patrons that have seen her come by like to laugh about what she needs from him to come all the way down here. Let then think that, if it keeps them from getting in her way.

Jacob doesn't mind Chris taking any excuse whatsoever to kiss him, and frankly Jacob wouldn't deny him anything, especially not here and now, with the snow falling around them and Chris' cheeks pink with the cold and flakes of snow in his hair and beard.

Jacob's hands move to hold Chris' sides as the blond man catches snow on his tongue, the kiss that comes after as hot and sweet and as wonderful as all the kisses they have shared, and no different for the addition of snow.

"I think that's a very good idea, Lord Sonom." He says, chuckling at what seems to be an unnecessarily formal tone. "And perhaps on the way, we can try your experiment again once or twice more? Perhaps that snow flake wasn't as cold as the others."

Because Jacob is happy to have an excuse for more kisses too, if that's the game they're playing.

Both eyebrows go up when she hears that, because Rosita is clever enough to keep her mouth shut when it's prudent, she can sway people one way or another when she really wants to sometimes, but she'd much rather be direct and she hates letting rumors about herself fly. Especially those.

It's not funny, but she sees the sense in not spreading too much of their business so she won't demand it change. It does rankle just enough though that she doesn't stop herself from asking, "And does that make you the big dick playboy then?"

"It certainly doesn't."

He can tell that she doesn't like it even before her eyebrows rise up to the ceiling, and truthfully, he doesn't like it much either. But people everywhere- here, home, in the millions of other universes and worlds there might well be, seem to make these assumptions about a man and a woman who talk to each other.

"I'm sorry. I should have had the presence of mind to deflect it." He says, and he does mean that. He doesn't want to swagger and posture around like people are falling over themselves to sleep with him. "But if they think you're here for that, they don't think you're here on SIN Guard business, trying to investigate them and their business, or that I'm selling them out."

He doesn't want either of them to face an angry gang of criminals.

She doesn't want that either, which is why she won't do anything to change it. But she's not so great at subversion that she can just not feel any kind of way about it, especially when it's more or less just the two of them.

"Why can't it be that you ask me to come by because you're head over heels for me?" she poses instead, although it's rhetorical. She knows. As the dealer between them he can't be asking her for anything, she supposes. But she's been in too many of these conversations throughout her life - she's been the side slut too often - to ignore it altogether.

"Jacob, it's fine. I just won't come here anymore and it'll solve it. But the contract can't go away so easily if someone decides to try and go after you."

Now that suggestion makes him smile, but it's not the wide grin of a good joke. It's something tinged with something deeper than that.

"Rosita, if you heard a rumour that I was in love with you, you'd run a mile."

Besides, if people thought he was so utterly besotted, they might think he'd be all the more willing to sell them out. And that puts them both in a dangerous position.

Her solution is the better one, and he nods to consent.

"I think that's best. For both of us- your superiors aren't going to like you coming down here, the Rubies won't want SIN guards on their patch, and no one here starts getting suspicious. But I still want a contract with you, if you'll have me."

She has no idea, really, what to do with the odd expression he pulls first; her brow furrows and she points out, "I do know the difference between a rumor and the truth," but there's still... something there.

Maybe it doesn't matter. There's only the one solution regardless, and the one major decision to make with that resolved.

"Yeah," she says, clipped. Obviously, all of that. She reaches down and taps the folder with her finger. "Any changes?"

Chris chuckles and steals another, simple and quick kiss before turning to lead them back onto their path. "I think that sounds perfect, love. Gotta be sure of these things, of course."

It sounded like an excellent way to spend a day. Slow, simple, with no other aim than to be near the man he loved. The man he'd sort of exchanged vows with? In a very loose fashion. The thought makes him smile in a way he doesn't think will be going away any time soon and his fingers find their way to the coin necklace he's never without more than once as they walk.

Yes, no better way to spend a day, really.

[ A digital invite arrives! It's a photo of a very nice looking butt wearing lacy red lingerie, pulled up to show off a tattoo of a red heart with devil horns and a spade-tipped tail. Some might recognise said butt and tattoo as belonging to Harley Quinn.

Underneath, in flowy font, is written: ]

PLEASE COME TO OUR
TOTALLY ROMANTIC VALENTINE'S ORGY!

FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS AND +1'S WELCOME
BYOT (BRING YOUR OWN TOYS)
AT THE WAREHOUSE, VALENTINE'S WEEKEND (ALL WEEKEND!!)

~ LOVE AND KISSES,
HARLEY & HELLBOY ~
XOXOXOXOX

[ And another message just for Jacob: ]

and an extra kiss from me x

How many gallons of lube have you ordered?

I'm pretty sure if we have any left over we could fill up one of those inflatable kiddie pools and go to town

I seem to recall Oswald did that for a Fight Night a while back- couldn't get it out of my hair for days.

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Delivery; 12/25

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Delivery 12/31

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wrap! we'll start something new soon <3

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