speakscanadian | [truth plot] Asher

Current Mood: pensive

Entry tags:

[truth plot] Asher

In all his time on the island, this was the first that Ray had stood within the orchard overlooking the garden. He'd needed a quiet place to think, where he wouldn't risk questions coming at him left, right and centre. After badgering Danica for twenty minutes in the morning, he'd made the nasty discovery that he too was a pawn in the island's antics today. The trees provided the kind of cover he needed.

Not that he was hiding. He wasn't the one that had been hiding anything.

Groaning when he realised he was still thinking about it, Ray tipped his head back and took a deep breath. Overhanging leaves filled his vision, all fresh and bursting with color. It was pretty depressing, considering how he was feeling inside.

Asher had bitten Stephen and he'd shot a bear. The words had come out of his own mouth. And still he'd lied about Rorshach, despite those confessions. Granted, Ray and he hadn't been on the best of terms back then, but he had had every opportunity to come clean since.

Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. Maybe deep down he'd known all along and had decided it wasn't a big enough deal to stop him getting closer to Asher. If that was the case, then it was all on Ray.

Dropping his head, he walked aimlessly amongst the trees towards the pathway. He'd spent most of his life relying on his hunches but it had only taken one man, this man, to stop him doing what he did best. Instinct was key to avoiding mistakes but Ray had stopped listening to his. He'd thought he'd been following it when he'd brushed aside his uncertainties and let himself fall for Asher but perhaps he'd hadn't. Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If I had just what? You would've pinned me for breathing wrong back then if you could have." And he didn't even think that was an exaggeration. "Why the fuck would I have told you anything? He was long gone by the time anything happened between us, so why bring it up?"

"No reason. I wouldn't have either." Snapping his eyes shut as soon as he'd answered, Ray held up his palms. "That's not what I meant to say. Except it was. That was a lie. No, that was a lie. No-fuck--" His hands clenched into balls. "I don't trust easily, okay? I have problems with it and you have been one of my biggest. But that's only because I have feelings for you."

"Well, then, I frankly don't care what your problems are, not when you just admitted you would've done the same as me." It meant the core of the argument didn't actually exist, and if Ray kept pushing it, that just made him a hypocrite.

"And you should probably consider not talking anymore."

"How do I always end up being the bad guy?!" Ray asked in a fit of frustration, the balled fists crashing straight down to his sides. "I hate it when you do that, when you tell me to stop talking, like what I got to say isn't worthy of your ears. I'll talk if I want to."

"I'm not making you out to be the bad guy, but you're not gonna make me feel like one because I was looking out for my sister and didn't parade myself down to the IPD office after I did it." Luckily, he hadn't been affected by any forced honesty mojo at the time.

"And I'm not telling you to stop talking for my benefit, I'm telling you to do it for yours. Obviously everything you're saying isn't coming out because you want it to."

"Some of it is coming out willingly just fine." Ray thought there was a difference between looking out for his sister and seeking vengeance, but he felt no compulsion to point that out right now. "I'd like to forget that I asked."

"So don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to." It seemed like a simple enough solution to him. "Or don't be a pussy when you get answers you don't like."

"I think you should be quiet now," Ray replied sullenly, folding his arms and dropping his gaze back down to the ground. The entire conversation would have been a lot easier had he really just been looking for a contact.

"Pussy," Asher said, mimicking Ray's stance and crossing his arms over his chest. "Exactly how long do you plan on staying mad about this? If it's going to be a while then I may as well go shoot someone else, that way I'm actually being persecuted for something."

"I don't plan on staying mad, but I was thinking about pretending to be so that I don't seem like such a pushover," Ray answered, pressing his thumb and fingers into his eyes halfway through his reply. It looked like a padlock on his tongue would be the only way to stop the truth coming out.

"Great." For him, not so much for Ray, but that worked out just fine by Asher. "Save myself the bullet."

A crease formed between Ray's eyes. "I hope you're joking." Otherwise his opinion of Asher only using the gun when provoked was completely wrong.

"I hope you're joking." Unlike Ray, Asher didn't seemed compelled to just start spouting the truth randomly, and he wasn't going to dignify that with a proper answer unless forced to. Ray could believe what he wanted until then.

Kicking his foot in the dirt, Ray mumbled something unintelligible even to himself. The grumbling made him feel a little better though.

"Which one d'you...have the issue with," he began slowly, deciding to let it go. "The daylight, the public place or the sand?"

"Sand," Asher answered automatically. The public place and broad daylight thing were probably what other people were more likely to take issue with. "Smooth transition."

"Ahh..." Ray nodded to himself and wandered between the trees, looking back and waiting for Asher to follow. "You can still use sarcasm. That's interesting." And more than Ray could do.

"Is it just questions you can't avoid answering?"

"Yes...," Asher replied through gritted teeth. He'd been through this once before, but that didn't mean he liked it any better this time around.

He followed, but kept a few paces behind Ray to make getting away that much easier if it came to that.

"Whoo..." Ray whistled as if in sympathy, then pumped the air with a fist. "I have the powah."

Like all great superheroes, he would put that power to efficient use.

"Quick, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue. Stop it." Maybe he'd wind up having to use that bullet after all.

Ray turned and gave Asher a look. If he thought that was enough to stop him, he didn't know Ray very well. "But the power..."

His expression turned curious again and he walked backwards, slower.

"What did you think of me when we first met?"

"I thought you were an ass. A well-dressed one, but still." And abusing the current situation the way he was only served to prove the fact.

"Hey..." Ray didn't know anyone else that could offend and compliment at the same time so successfully. "Don't make me up the ante and ask the tough questions." That probably wouldn't be fun for either of them.

"You can ask me something if you want. I'm an open b--an open b--...I'm relatively honest. My favorite color's green."

"I've done this before... It doesn't end well. Granted, we've already slept together, so I'm not sure what else could happen." He was just sure that something would happen, and the chances of it ending well were pretty slim.

Despite it being a day for truths, Asher sure had a knack for making things more cryptic.

"Huh? What do you mean you've done this before?"

Was Ray meant to be having a deja vu? Because he wasn't.

"The forced honesty thing. It happened before." He did his best to block the experience out most days, but the current situation made that sort of impossible to keep up.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject