(Untitled)

[swatwithdragons]

WHO: Lance Blackthorn, OPEN
WHAT: Being Zen is a good feeling.
WHERE: Joukiryu hotsprings.
WHEN: Saturday 6 August to Saturday 13 August, 2011.
NOTES: If you’d rather have your character come in earlier than this week, just let me know, since Lance’s perspective will be slightly different. Also, there have been network posts regarding the onsen, so

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Saturday, the 13th

[goldn_boy]

Jim was trying.

It meant forcing himself to relax, to stop pushing himself, punishing himself. It meant finding ways to get away from the isolation he'd been wrapping around himself protectively.

The hotsprings seemed like an excellent idea.

He had no idea Lance would be there, just knowing if he could relax anywhere, it would be there, and that human touch without any expectations, without any other meaning, would be welcome. As would the soothing heat.

[swatwithdragons]

Well, Jim was right about one thing: the onsen was an excellent place to relax. Some people thought it was even more so lately, since the new masseur had arrived. Others walked away disappointed the said masseur apparently wasn't all that corruptible.

Fortunately, Lance was taking a break to save his sanity from pushy customers who wanted to turn the onsen into a brothel. He was sitting up in a branch stretching over the path leading up to the buildings and one of the outside springs, a knife and a piece of wood in hand.

Hey, it gave him a good view of the entrance. Not that he was trying to hide himself either.

[goldn_boy]

Jim looked around for a few minutes, taking in the options and the calm atmosphere, before stretching and craning his neck around and, looking up, seeing Lance. It surprised a chuckle out of him, and he waved.

[swatwithdragons]

The movement caught Lance's eye and he glanced over, then smiled and waved back. He folded the knife down and held it and the piece of wood in his lap, looking down toward Jim. The branch wasn't that far overhead--not far enough to make it difficult to talk.

"Hello, Jim," he said, his tone and bearing that of an entirely different man to the one Jim might remember from just a few weeks ago. "How have you been?"

[goldn_boy]

Jim looked up at him, a little surprised by Lance's manner. "I'm..." He wasn't honestly sure how to answer that question. "In need of a vacation. You... you look good, Lance."

[swatwithdragons]

"This is a good place for it," Lance said simply, and then his mouth quirked up at the side. "Although the effectiveness does depend on how many weeks you can spare to give to the vacation."

He nodded, more acceptance and acknowledgement than agreement. "Vacation." A mildly ironic smile. "Three weeks worth of one. It's helped."

[goldn_boy]

"Three weeks." Jim shook his head. "I barely have three hours. But..."

He smiled.

"I'm glad."

Lance had been a mess, when last Jim had seen him. Understandably so.

[swatwithdragons]

"Well, for three hours I can get you a hotspring soak, some sake and a massage," Lance said with a faint, lopsided grin. "Stimulating conversation optional."

He tucked the knife and the carving into the broad fabric belt of his yukata and then shifted so he could drop down from the branch--not so great a height, really.

[goldn_boy]

Jim raised an eyebrow. "You work here?" he asked. "I had no idea. I'll get back to you on the conversation thing, but the rest sounds perfect."

It would do some good, anyway. Even a brief respite.

[swatwithdragons]

"Not usually. They only run on volunteers, and since I needed to get to someplace where I could get away with the city for a while ..." He shrugged and spread his hands, and started leading the way down the path.

"I figured the least I could do was offer something. Did you want to soak first, outside or inside, or the massage?"

[goldn_boy]

So many choices. But the good kind. The kind lives or something similar didn't rely upon. "Soak after, and outside," he said. "I'm probably too tense to enjoy the water as much as I'd like. Do you like it? The work, I mean."

[swatwithdragons]

"Alright. This way." The room he used for the massages was a bit behind the rest, but it was on an even access point for most of the onsen too. "And yes, I do. It's simple and it's necessary, but no one's life depends on my being able to weed a garden properly." He threw a faint grin over his shoulder. "Probably just as well, really."

[goldn_boy]

Jim smiled back. "It's good, having something like that. I've never really had time for a hobby, or anything like that." Lance seemed remarkably better, Jim thought. Maybe too much better. He wondered about it. "Just sparring, I guess."

[swatwithdragons]

"I didn't used to either," Lance admitted. "When I went on vacation I did some woodwork to help finance my hitchhiking across China and Russia, and then just get kept it. Especially at night." Night was where the nightmares came, when things got hard. "I've been doing painting lately, though. Painting the walls, mostly. Or trying to make furniture. Note the 'trying'."

Jim should well wonder: given Lance's state beforehand, it was an extreme flip even in three weeks. He'd had a push, but even so. Some of it, perhaps, was slightly put on--as if he could make it so by having it so. And some of it really was just that he was having his first true vacation in a long time.

The room was open, so Lance stopped beside the door and waved Jim in first. "Back, limbs, or full body?" he asked.

[goldn_boy]

"Oh, god, whatever you've got," Jim said. "I almost feel bad asking you--I don't think I remember how to relax." He figured Lance wouldn't ask if he minded, so he wasn't the type to be squeamish about friends' bodies. He stepped into the room, glancing around. It was so peaceful here.

"I think I could take up carpentry," Jim said absently. "But... I'm sorry, Lance, but are you sure you're all right?"

[swatwithdragons]

"I've got whatever you need." Lance entered in after Jim and closed the door, not that there were many around. He didn't have any objection to nudity, though he did believe it had its place--he had avoided looking around at Sirius's pool party once people started disrobing, for instance. Nudity itself, though, no issue.

"Hm?" He turned around from collecting up his oils and the sheet Jim might want for at least some warmth, if not dignity. "Yes, of course. And I can actually say that without lying, now." Wryly. He had some progress to do, but yes, he was all right.