[DRP] The Second Hand Unwinds (Preacher & Chester)

[The Semblance of Unity]

john jacob jingleheimer schmidt

"Maybe I should use Slaughter as m'middle name. Orrrr, I could be Preacher Nicholas Maria, since yer intent on abandonin' it." She snorted. "Well, yer still Chester, so your mane is gon git tamed."

She stood up abruptly so that both of her hands could reach his head and began to fuss with his hair. Then, she thrust both hands into his hair, nails lightly scratching against his scalp, making it stick up in all kinds of directions. Her lips twitched. "Like... like a...unkempt lion." The last word dissolved into a laugh.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

broken

She slowly looked up at him, eyes wide in her face. "I like Hickory," was all she could think to say. He was awfully close. "I'm... I'm sorry."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

broken

He was quite close, though he only just seemed to realize it. He wanted to fix things somehow, her timid voice and the grey in her eyes, and in his mind the quickest way to do so was to fix Hickory. His hand dropped slowly back to his lap as he refocused on his patient, his gaze flicking toward Preacher's lips in the moment before he turned.

"You don't have to be sorry. I like him too," Chester said, voice low. "You know, it's okay for you to mess around with him. We can even leave him out somewhere, so you don't have to come into this pit to see him." 'This pit' was remarkably clean for a room, its only point of clutter a medium sized pile of clothes on a rack near the closet. "Not that I'm saying you can't come in here, it's just... I don't see why you would want to."

He was rambling a bit, his concentration on the creature as he examined its detached legs one at a time. The all-seeing eye was tucked into his left palm, leaving his fingers free to tweeze out bent gears and choose replacements.  

[Smerdle]

john jacob jingleheimer schmidt

She might have been laughing, but Chester was busy suppressing a shudder and trying not to squirm. He was still smiling, though it went a little goofy for a second as her nails scraped just so. If this was even half of what her washing his hair would be like, he would have to consider reversing his stance.

"I can't imagine I look even remotely like a lion," he said, watching her laugh. "An electrocuted chimpanzee, more like." Chester carefully looked away from her face, extending his arm toward his phone. "Give me that, Slaughter." It was for viewing purposes only. There would definitely not be any selfies.  

[Smerdle]

ready, set, go

"Makes sense." Whether or not he could remember all of this in the moment was another thing, but in his head he was a more impressive fighter already.

When she took his hand, there was a split second before she did what she did when Chester knew what she was going to do. His fingers tensed until he very deliberately relaxed them, adding muay thai to the list of activities during which it was okay to touch Preacher Maria like this. The problem was, there was nothing else on the list. And he had only ever put his hands near a woman's chest when he'd had other things on his mind.

"Y-yes. Yes. Okay." He went back into the opening stance from before, desperately searching for something else to focus on. "I'm going to punch." Chester did smile a little at that, because who announced when they were going to hit someone?  

[Smerdle]

french girls

Okay, that was just silly. He shook his head like he was scolding her, taking the time to respond rather than simply react. "You start with the face and work your way to... the package. Oh my god, this is ridiculous." He chuckled, pushing his fingers under his glasses to rub at his eyes. "I'm just... I'm not at the stage in my life where nude modeling is a thing."  

[Smerdle]

hands on

A faint panic rose in his chest at the sound of Preacher making such a racket. She was usually so quiet that her reason for doing so must have been dire: a stabbing or a magical blow dart, perhaps. Chester was poised to get up and find her when she lurched into his room, gifting him with a beer and... her. In his lap. He had thought about this before, and in some ways it was quite a bit better than he'd imagined. And then there was the alcohol.

"Thank you," he said with a wary little smile. "Where did you get it?"

His hands, which had flared dramatically when she'd made him her throne, settled a little, one on the desk and one at the small of her back so she wouldn't lean her way into a concussion.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

french girls

"Stingy," she said, but she was grinning. "I'll take ya up on tha top part some time, though. If ya promise not to trash it too much when it don' look like ya."  

[The Semblance of Unity]

john jacob jingleheimer schmidt

"Yessir, King Lion.... Lion King." that brought about another giggle as she reached out with one hand for his phone. "Slaughter.... my true name..." Preacher handed it to him and proceeded to mess around with his hair just a bit more. It wasn't nearly crazy enough for her, yet.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

ready, set, go

Abruptly, Preacher realized that was probably an awkward place to put a guy's hand. However, in fighting, she couldn't afford to be flustered by weird proximity and grabs and whatnot, so she pushed it down viciously. Her lips quirked at his announcement.

"A'ight, jus' take it slow for now." And when his fist moved forward, she countered as before, but slowly, waiting for him to follow through with his end.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

broken

Preacher dropped into a cross-legged sit once he turned back to work, swallowing hard. She stared at her hands for a few moments, flexing them. She was so used to people getting mad that she wasn't sure how to respond when they... weren't. She knew she was shitty for going into his room and taking Hickory and managing to break Hickory...

Then she raised her eyes to watch him work, latching on to one of the innocuous things he'd said. "Ya room's not a pit. No snakes, no dragons, not even messy. I ain't never tripped on anything in here."  

[The Semblance of Unity]

hands on

She grinned widely. "Girl 'fore me bought it n' forgooooot it. So s'mine now. N' yours." Preacher poked him in the chest. It was good that his hand rested on her, as she was liable to topple over any minute. In fact, she did, but she toppled into his chest, knocking her head against his shoulder.

"Oww." But her head stayed on his shoulder. One of her hands rose up to circle around the back of his neck and poke at the skin there consideringly. "I'm graceful, 'kay. N' youuu should open that, ya."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

french girls

"I'll be more likely to balk because it looks too much like me." Just because he had agreed didn't mean he was looking forward to seeing his geeky face tainting the pages of her sketchbook. To be fair, she had made his Court-granted collar look really nice. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"But I promise. I'm not going to trash your work."  

[Smerdle]

john jacob jingleheimer schmidt

Chester turned it on, navigating to the camera and flipping the screen. Then, he just stared.

"Not Simba or a chimp. An orangutan. An experiment gone wrong." He lowered the phone. "Style me." Nevermind that she was actually making things worse. He was having fun.  

[Smerdle]

ready, set, go

He chose the countering thing, not quite ready to grope her again, even with a valid reason. The slowness helped. Chester pushed her elbow away from his throat with a swipe of his forearm, smirking as he did.

"The student becomes the master." He snorted.