[ It seems both straightforward and incredibly complex, to Alan, in the same way that playing a pianoforte is as straightforward as hitting the keys with your fingers. This doesn't seem to be a particularly difficult spell, though, as far as Alan can understand Tseng's explanations.
May as well try. His brow furrows in concentration as he follows Tseng's instructions -- and tries to think of himself as permeable. Something that magic can flow through freely. He imagines channels running from his heart to his fingertips, fingertips to his eyes, drawing whatever this mana is into the materia and looping it back into himself.
At some point in there, he closes his eyes. When he opens them and looks at Tseng, the first thing he notices is the places where Tseng is suddenly glowing. There's something else, too, dancing around Tseng's head like the spots in your vision after glancing at the sun.
It takes a second for Alan to realize that they're words. They flicker a little when he looks straight at them, but they appear in his own handwriting, so they're reasonably legible. He inhales sharply, trying to take it all in. ]
[ having taught this same usage to caleb before, tseng was at least reasonably sure that the explanation was intelligible—but then again, he was much more familiar with the extent of caleb's familiarity with magic than he is with alan's, so there was always a chance it might not have gone to plan. still, when alan opens his eyes and then inhales that quiet almost-gasp, tseng thinks it's a reasonable guess that he managed to see something after all.
he can guess at the information alan will be able to pick up. erogenous zones including his hands and forearms, his hips, and the nape of his neck; a resort-gifted status effect involving randomly-occurring rut periods; and a whole laundry list of kinks that tseng has participated in and enjoyed, including several types of control and bondage and consent play. his suit mark, as alan already knows, is the tattoo of a snake that wraps around his left forearm, and considering they fucked not an hour beforehand it is unsurprisingly not activated in the least.
tseng stays quiet while alan processes it everything. he's always wondered how an assess materia might present information to someone not from gaia, someone who isn't trained to receive information in the form of a military briefing, but he'll wait for alan to say something before tseng asks any questions at all. ]
[ Alan reaches out to try and pass his fingers through one set of floating words, a few inches from the left side of Tseng's head, but they're untouchable. ]
I'd like to see you in ropes You'll come when I say so, not before or after. Tell me you don't want it. It won't matter.
[ The flickering is starting to make his eyes water. He inhales again, blinks hard, and drops the materia between them. ]
Fuckin' hell!
[ There's a disbelieving laugh bubbling up in his voice. He scrubs tears out of his eyes with the heel of his palm and looks at Tseng. No more of that glow, no more words. Just a lingering ache in his forehead and the memory of what he saw. ]
It worked! It worked, I could see -- words, like. [ The laugh finally bursts free. ] Dialogue. And-- [ He touches his own forearm. ] You like being touched here.
[ even before alan speaks, that little gesture is enough to give tseng half an answer. for him, assess has always been nearly instantaneous, and has presented information very much the way one might see it in a dossier. for alan, clearly less so, as he reaches out to touch... something in the vicinity of tseng's head.
and of course, what he says makes everything clearer. dialogue? that's interesting, and also somehow makes perfect sense for what tseng knows about alan. his enthusiasm is infectious, and tseng finds himself smiling too. ]
I do, [ he confirms. ] I'm glad it worked. Are you all right?
[ tears of emotion or tears of the strain of using a spell for the first time? ]
In theory, yes. There may be some magical types here who could block it.
[ but at least where tseng's from, assess works on everyone, albeit with less titillating results usually. he leaves the materia where it is on the bed for now, in case alan wants to keep playing with it. ]
I have a Lightning one, too, but I'm a little less inclined to let you use that one on me. If you're interested, though, we can find a time to try it out in the Vale.
[ A snort. ] No, I don't think I want to play Zeus indoors. Not even in your bloody enormous room.
[ It's a little unsettling to think that magic could let someone find out that much information about you so easily, but Alan supposes it's a tool, like any other. A knife can cut bread or a person just as easily, depending on who's wielding it. And perhaps he's one of the types who could block it, at least in part. Might be worth experimenting with. ]
One of the things I saw ... [ He runs a hand through his hair, considering Tseng thoughtfully. ]
If I pretended I didn't want it -- would you fuck me anyway? If I asked you.
[ once again, operating on the assumption that zeus is some kind of deity, perhaps roughly equivalent to ramuh in terms of association with lightning— ]
It doesn't have to be destructive. Once you learn to control the spells they can be very interesting during sex, for example.
[ but hey, electrostim isn't everyone's thing, so tseng is more than happy to let the conversation turn to something else—something that is most certainly tseng's thing, and judging by the tone of alan's question, perhaps his thing too.
really, tseng should have known that would show up. ]
Yes. [ straightforward. ] As long as there was a way for me to know if you really needed me to stop. I... enjoy that kind of play quite a bit.
[ tseng does, indeed, know what kind of thing alan thinks about. he doesn't need an assess materia to figure out that alan might be into this. ]
It would be my pleasure to make those thoughts into a reality, [ he says. ] As long as I have a way to tell the difference between "stop, but keep going" and "stop, and actually stop."
[ He's very serious about this, despite the sudden heat and excitement curling under his breastbone. ]
With -- mm. With the man I--
[ Fucking hell. He's never had to describe what he and Jack are to each other. The hesitation probably makes it abundantly clear that he's understating when he decides on: ]
With my friend Jack, he knows to stop when I use his name. Anything else I call him, he can ignore. [ A slight smile. ] But then, he's a baron. He's got titles to spare. I don't suppose you're secretly an earl or something else that's got a proper honorific attached?
[ tseng doesn't press the topic. it's clear from the way alan starts, then stops, starts again, and then continues on a different tack that he's either not entirely sure how to describe their relationship, or he's underselling it on purpose; whatever his reasons for either, it doesn't seem like tseng's place to pry unless alan offers more. ]
Unfortunately, no. "Tseng" isn't even my real name, actually.
[ so not only does he not have titles or names to spare, he doesn't even really have a name of his own! ]
You could pick a safe word. A word or phrase that you think would never naturally come up during sex, so I know if I hear it that you need me to stop.
No, I thought not. Be a bit contrived if you were secret royalty, wouldn't it?
Something that wouldn't come up naturally during sex. Well, there's "God save the king." [ He chuckles. ] Or "The Lord be with you." "Et cum spíritu tuo."? Can't be the Hail Mary, if I'm lucky you'll have me praying for mercy.
[ All his Catholic jokes are so goddamn wasted here. Also, all of these are probably too long, he knows. ]
[ it really is a shame the catholic jokes are wasted because tseng would probably find them funny if he understood,,, alas, most of what he can pick up is that these would be comical comments were he the kind of person who knew anything about catholics. ]
Mmm, it could be. I would just hate to stop on a word that sounded too much like "red" but isn't, or even worse, to ignore it because I mistook it for something else.
[ tseng doesn't really think that would happen—he's too fastidious and alan would probably kick him in the nuts—but his philosophy has always been to remove all avenues for doubt. still... ]
It's your safe word, though. If you're confident in "red" we can go with red. [ a pause, and then, ] Mine is "juniper." For the record.
"Juniper." [ He raises his eyebrows, amused. ] Like gin.
I wouldn't like you to be worrying about it when you could be thinking about how to fuck me. What about "rowan", then? Or is that too close to things like "own"?
[ and like the juniper trees that grew everywhere in the village where he was born, but they're not quite at the point of talking about their childhoods yet.
tseng considers the question, then says, ] I think "rowan" would be fine.
[ there are words that sound like it, sure, but tseng can't imagine any of them being said outside a context where he could guess what alan actually meant. e.g. "you don't own me," which he can certainly imagine alan spitting at him venomously, but which tseng would also be able to tell isn't meant as an invocation of the safeword. ]
In my experience, part of the appeal of this sort of play is that you might not necessarily know exactly when it's coming, [ tseng adds. ] I'd like to discuss your preferences ahead of time. How you'll know when the scene starts and ends, anything you particularly want or don't want... Ways for me to tell when is a good time to begin, that sort of thing. Would you rather talk about that now or later?
[ And frankly, doesn't that sound like a fun thing to spit or have spat at one? ]
Later, [ Alan decides, after a moment's thought. ] I want some time to think about it.
[ And maybe put on some clothes to have the conversation. Even if he suspects that having the conversation will make him want to get those clothes off with a quickness. You never know, though, maybe that will be part of it, in the end. ]
You're a damned interesting man, Tseng, [ he adds, a little abruptly but smiling. ] Do you know that?
[ tseng trusts that alan will bring it up when he's ready, and is content to lay the subject aside for now. he is not, however, expecting the way alan follows up, and it makes tseng blink once before he laughs, a little bemused. ]
Thank you, [ he says. it's a little funny to hear, for a guy who has been trained at length on how to be the least noticeable person in any given space, but he finds alan breathlessly fascinating, so he takes it as a compliment. ] I'm glad you think so.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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May as well try. His brow furrows in concentration as he follows Tseng's instructions -- and tries to think of himself as permeable. Something that magic can flow through freely. He imagines channels running from his heart to his fingertips, fingertips to his eyes, drawing whatever this mana is into the materia and looping it back into himself.
At some point in there, he closes his eyes. When he opens them and looks at Tseng, the first thing he notices is the places where Tseng is suddenly glowing. There's something else, too, dancing around Tseng's head like the spots in your vision after glancing at the sun.
It takes a second for Alan to realize that they're words. They flicker a little when he looks straight at them, but they appear in his own handwriting, so they're reasonably legible. He inhales sharply, trying to take it all in. ]
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he can guess at the information alan will be able to pick up. erogenous zones including his hands and forearms, his hips, and the nape of his neck; a resort-gifted status effect involving randomly-occurring rut periods; and a whole laundry list of kinks that tseng has participated in and enjoyed, including several types of control and bondage and consent play. his suit mark, as alan already knows, is the tattoo of a snake that wraps around his left forearm, and considering they fucked not an hour beforehand it is unsurprisingly not activated in the least.
tseng stays quiet while alan processes it everything. he's always wondered how an assess materia might present information to someone not from gaia, someone who isn't trained to receive information in the form of a military briefing, but he'll wait for alan to say something before tseng asks any questions at all. ]
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[ Alan reaches out to try and pass his fingers through one set of floating words, a few inches from the left side of Tseng's head, but they're untouchable. ][ The flickering is starting to make his eyes water. He inhales again, blinks hard, and drops the materia between them. ]
Fuckin' hell!
[ There's a disbelieving laugh bubbling up in his voice. He scrubs tears out of his eyes with the heel of his palm and looks at Tseng. No more of that glow, no more words. Just a lingering ache in his forehead and the memory of what he saw. ]
It worked! It worked, I could see -- words, like. [ The laugh finally bursts free. ] Dialogue. And-- [ He touches his own forearm. ] You like being touched here.
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and of course, what he says makes everything clearer. dialogue? that's interesting, and also somehow makes perfect sense for what tseng knows about alan. his enthusiasm is infectious, and tseng finds himself smiling too. ]
I do, [ he confirms. ] I'm glad it worked. Are you all right?
[ tears of emotion or tears of the strain of using a spell for the first time? ]
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[ but at least where tseng's from, assess works on everyone, albeit with less titillating results usually. he leaves the materia where it is on the bed for now, in case alan wants to keep playing with it. ]
I have a Lightning one, too, but I'm a little less inclined to let you use that one on me. If you're interested, though, we can find a time to try it out in the Vale.
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[ It's a little unsettling to think that magic could let someone find out that much information about you so easily, but Alan supposes it's a tool, like any other. A knife can cut bread or a person just as easily, depending on who's wielding it. And perhaps he's one of the types who could block it, at least in part. Might be worth experimenting with. ]
One of the things I saw ... [ He runs a hand through his hair, considering Tseng thoughtfully. ]
If I pretended I didn't want it -- would you fuck me anyway? If I asked you.
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It doesn't have to be destructive. Once you learn to control the spells they can be very interesting during sex, for example.
[ but hey, electrostim isn't everyone's thing, so tseng is more than happy to let the conversation turn to something else—something that is most certainly tseng's thing, and judging by the tone of alan's question, perhaps his thing too.
really, tseng should have known that would show up. ]
Yes. [ straightforward. ] As long as there was a way for me to know if you really needed me to stop. I... enjoy that kind of play quite a bit.
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I don't get as much of it as I'd like. [ He laughs softly. ] It's hard to ask for. But you've read my work, you know the kind of thing I think about.
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It would be my pleasure to make those thoughts into a reality, [ he says. ] As long as I have a way to tell the difference between "stop, but keep going" and "stop, and actually stop."
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[ He's very serious about this, despite the sudden heat and excitement curling under his breastbone. ]
With -- mm. With the man I--
[ Fucking hell. He's never had to describe what he and Jack are to each other. The hesitation probably makes it abundantly clear that he's understating when he decides on: ]
With my friend Jack, he knows to stop when I use his name. Anything else I call him, he can ignore. [ A slight smile. ] But then, he's a baron. He's got titles to spare. I don't suppose you're secretly an earl or something else that's got a proper honorific attached?
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Unfortunately, no. "Tseng" isn't even my real name, actually.
[ so not only does he not have titles or names to spare, he doesn't even really have a name of his own! ]
You could pick a safe word. A word or phrase that you think would never naturally come up during sex, so I know if I hear it that you need me to stop.
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[ Tseng ..... that is, nameless buddy ...... ]
No, I thought not. Be a bit contrived if you were secret royalty, wouldn't it?
Something that wouldn't come up naturally during sex. Well, there's "God save the king." [ He chuckles. ] Or "The Lord be with you." "Et cum spíritu tuo."? Can't be the Hail Mary, if I'm lucky you'll have me praying for mercy.
[ All his Catholic jokes are so goddamn wasted here. Also, all of these are probably too long, he knows. ]
Wouldn't "red" be enough?
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Mmm, it could be. I would just hate to stop on a word that sounded too much like "red" but isn't, or even worse, to ignore it because I mistook it for something else.
[ tseng doesn't really think that would happen—he's too fastidious and alan would probably kick him in the nuts—but his philosophy has always been to remove all avenues for doubt. still... ]
It's your safe word, though. If you're confident in "red" we can go with red. [ a pause, and then, ] Mine is "juniper." For the record.
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I wouldn't like you to be worrying about it when you could be thinking about how to fuck me. What about "rowan", then? Or is that too close to things like "own"?
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[ and like the juniper trees that grew everywhere in the village where he was born, but they're not quite at the point of talking about their childhoods yet.
tseng considers the question, then says, ] I think "rowan" would be fine.
[ there are words that sound like it, sure, but tseng can't imagine any of them being said outside a context where he could guess what alan actually meant. e.g. "you don't own me," which he can certainly imagine alan spitting at him venomously, but which tseng would also be able to tell isn't meant as an invocation of the safeword. ]
In my experience, part of the appeal of this sort of play is that you might not necessarily know exactly when it's coming, [ tseng adds. ] I'd like to discuss your preferences ahead of time. How you'll know when the scene starts and ends, anything you particularly want or don't want... Ways for me to tell when is a good time to begin, that sort of thing. Would you rather talk about that now or later?
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Later, [ Alan decides, after a moment's thought. ] I want some time to think about it.
[ And maybe put on some clothes to have the conversation. Even if he suspects that having the conversation will make him want to get those clothes off with a quickness. You never know, though, maybe that will be part of it, in the end. ]
You're a damned interesting man, Tseng, [ he adds, a little abruptly but smiling. ] Do you know that?
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[ tseng trusts that alan will bring it up when he's ready, and is content to lay the subject aside for now. he is not, however, expecting the way alan follows up, and it makes tseng blink once before he laughs, a little bemused. ]
Thank you, [ he says. it's a little funny to hear, for a guy who has been trained at length on how to be the least noticeable person in any given space, but he finds alan breathlessly fascinating, so he takes it as a compliment. ] I'm glad you think so.