(no subject)

[just_cant_lose]

 
As he suspected he would, Jim caught Sherlock's - heh, Rory's - stupid bloody cold. He went to bed angry, frustrated, and sick to the back teeth of this entire bloody bar.

He wakes up with a Welsh accent, a body that feels weirdly exhausted, and a whooooole lot of surprise at finding himself in a bedroom that is not wallpapered in Laura Ashley, cluttered with years' worth of books and theatre junk. Gethin has never set foot in a room so opulent, and so incomprehensible to him. He spends a good hour looking at the clothes, the books, the...frankly pornographic, yet extremely beautiful...photography on the wall of the library (the centrepiece of which involves his own face, and the blurred figure of a much taller man in the background. He doesn't look at it for long.) Everything is very, very weird.

In short, Gethin Roberts does not have a bloody clue what's going on. But at least there are clothes he recognises - comfortably 80s in style - and if the cold he's got means he can't go searching Jonathan out, at least there appears to be a...bar, downstairs?

What. The Actual. Hell. 


[OOC: getting in under the wire! Open until the end of March. :)]

Comments

[cook_the_rude]

"Yes," Dr. Lecter says. "I wasn't talking about the obvious outliers, but the contested middle ground. Where would you put, say, Victorian porn? Like, say, the novel 'Teleny' ascribed to Oscar Wilde and his circle?"

[just_cant_lose]

'Teleny isn't porn. It's literature. A magazine full of naked men, produced solely for the titillation of other men is porn.'

He sets his cup down, unsure as to how exactly they got on to this.

'And there's nothing wrong with it at all. I like it, my boyfriend likes it. It's just not the focus of my bookshop.'

[cook_the_rude]

"Early photographic pornography from France -- porn or art?" Dr. Lecter asks. "Shunga -- porn or art?"

He seems to like the subject.

[just_cant_lose]

'I think what was considered pornographic when it was first produced, is more likely to be called art now. Mainly because we're less likely to get turned on by it.'

He doesn't mind the topic, it's just weird to be the first thing to discuss with someone you just met. It doesn't occur to him that might be why Hannibal is pursuing the subject in the first place.

'I'd call both of those things art. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.'

[cook_the_rude]

"Absolutely art," Hannibal says. "What about Tom of Finland drawings?"

[just_cant_lose]

There's a small smile at that.

'Skirts the line between the two, possibly. My boyfriend likes his stuff. I'm on the fence, but-'

A shrug. It's not his idea of art, but it's not exactly porn either.

[cook_the_rude]

"Then I guess we found the line," Dr. Lecter says. "By my time, his work is considered quite iconic."

[just_cant_lose]

Gethin gives a tiny shrug.

'It's just my personal preference. I'm not an authority on what constitutes art.'

He picks his drink up again, vaguely unsettled though he's not sure why.

'Are you? Is that what you do? but you said you're a doctor, so-'

[cook_the_rude]

"I am," Dr. Lecter says. "Art is merely one of my favourite pastimes."

[just_cant_lose]

'You probably know more about it than I do.'

He's just trying to live his life. He's no great scholar.

'What sort of doctor are you?'

[cook_the_rude]

"Psychiatrist," Dr. Lecter says. "But I do enjoy -- well, almost anything."

[just_cant_lose]

'Oh.'

Maybe this is the cause of the discomfort. He doesn't really enjoy being looked at too closely.

''Almost anything' is quite a broad spectrum. Isn't there anything you like best?'

[cook_the_rude]

"My friend Will," Dr. Lecter says, "followed by cooking. Well, probably cooking with Will."

He smiles, and winks at Gethin.

[just_cant_lose]

Ohhhh. Well, that explains the lack of judgement. Gethin smiles, and looks down at the floor.

'I'm not allowed to cook with my boyfriend. He kicks me out the kitchen.'

Not that there's really space for both of them anyway. Jonathan takes up a lot of space, even if he's just sitting down.

[cook_the_rude]

"Will is not my partner in that sense -- yet," Dr. Lecter says. "We are getting there."

Beat.

"I hope. But we cook very well together."

[just_cant_lose]

Gethin opens his mouth, then closes it again.

'You hope?'

[cook_the_rude]

"It's complicated," Hannibal says, sighing just a little. "Courtship isn't an easy thing even for many quite pedestrian people; and neither Will nor I are in any way uncomplicated."

[just_cant_lose]

'Pedestrian people,' he repeats, a hint of steel entering his tone.

Because seriously, what? He hates that notion.

'What's so complicated about you two?'

[cook_the_rude]

"We are quite different in our abilities and taste from your ordinary garden variety human," Dr. Lecter says, "and much of our association so far resembled less of a dance, more of a game of snakes and ladders. Mind you, I loved every moment so far, except perhaps the bit with the horse, but it does not exactly make for a harmonious partnership.'

[just_cant_lose]

Gethin does not want to know what story might involve a horse.

'What's an ordinary garden-variety human, then?'

Yep, not liking this man at all.

[cook_the_rude]

"One to follow a straight path, considering themselves normal, and never thinking to doubt their own privileges," Dr. Lecter says

[just_cant_lose]

'What privileges do you mean?'

He's not sure who considers themselves 'normal'. He knows he doesn't, but acknowledges that could just be because he's been called a freak all his life.

[cook_the_rude]

"Male privilege, white privilege, straight privilege, that sort of thing," Dr. Lecter says. "The belief of being the norm, and the majority."

[just_cant_lose]

'That's a wide-ranging set of privileges you're applying to a lot of people.'

And Gethin has been on the receiving end of male, straight, white privilege before - the sort that thinks he should be dead, and they have the right to make that happen - but he's still not comfortable with this. He's also been on the receiving end of male and female, straight, white friendship, acceptance, and love.

'Some of the best people I've ever known would consider themselves normal, and the majority.'

[cook_the_rude]

"But then, they are self-aware and capable of independent thought for some other reason," Dr. Lecter argues. "No ody wholly conventional can ever be more than backdrop, be it pleasant or annoying."