Pagan wobbles a hand and sits up, plucking his drink and towel. "Come along, my boy. We've had enough sun for this morning. Let's go have breakfast. Are you hungry?"
"Enjoying my retirement, my boy," he tells him, slinging an arm around his shoulders to walk back up towards the house. "They told me that I couldn't fucking do it. That I'd get - oh, whatever they said. Bored. I'd want to cause trouble! But fuck 'em. I've had a great time."
He turns a little more sober. "My daughter texted me this morning. She starts classes in a week. A week! She's fucking brilliant."
"You? Never. Your life before this sounded way more boring than getting to be here. Some people don't really understand causing trouble. They just see the outside rather than look into the beating heart."
He smiles, dropping the cut-rate Shakespearean tones for something honest.
"Good for her. It's nice to know there are people out there doing something with their lives so the rest of us can kickback and relax."
"Damn right. Ajay's got himself in trouble already, but I think he's joining the military, so they can kick his ass. Lakshmana, though. She's going to be a doctor. Which is good because I need free fucking healthcare here. I have to fly my doctors in and do you know how expensive that is!" he laments, his hand over his chest.
"Ah, now I know why you wanted a nice island. You needed a place your kid would be willing to go when you need a check up. The beaches are nice, but I'd be sure to make sure Dorian is locked up in an attic or something."
"As if he isn't insufferable enough," he complains and opens the door to a gazebo off of the gardens. Inside is a vast assortment of instruments, including guitars and a piano in the middle. There's a conversation pit in the middle because Pagan is a classy fucker, and a record player off to the side along with a full bar. There's no bartender yet, but there can be in a matter of moments.
An entire wall is dedicated to various records, most of them from the 1960s and the 80s, but there is a particular record on display that Pagan snatches from its perch. It's, almost predictably, from Dorian's band, and Pagan unceremoniously slides it underneath a low table and out of sight.
"I keep hiding it and he keeps finding it to replace it," he explains.
"You're the one that's into that." Fitz is willing to admit (perhaps too willing to cheerfully admit) that that might be one of the reasons that he and Pagan can be friends, too. It's not as if Pagan doesn't have his insufferable side to add to the equation. It comes in many flavors, and there's no shortage of flavors on display.
"You could never find a place far enough to hide it."
But Fitz is mostly lost in exploring the gazebo. As ever, there are few things that can absorb his interest more than music and he wonders the room with assorted commentary (some of it on having met the various performers and having saved them from some alien or similar situation, so Pagan really might have a type) and a proper amount of compliments.
He sits down at the piano, striking up an unfamiliar melody.
He sighs dramatically at each and every story, but he follows him anyway, his hands comfortably in his pockets. He loves the stories and loves hearing about the weird adventures from either Fitz or Dorian, and that makes him so calm to hear.
He sits at the other side of the bench in front of the piano and slides a companionable arm around his waist to listen.
The song isn't completely unfamiliar, there's something to it that pulls at a sense of something familiar but just one step off to the side.
"I got Beatles' songs from across the universe, now," Fitz says, as he starts on another.
"You gotta give that to multiple timelines, there's one or two things that are interesting. I was in this timeline where they didn't invent computers and it was real racist. And I had to give a speech on TV about being a terrorist on threat of something happening to Anji if I didn't." He grins. "I imagine it was sort of like what would've happened if I ever visited your country in the old days."
"More racist than it already is?" he challenges, but he tries to imagine
Fitz in that world and grins. "What country? Hong Kong? Like my mother.
It's a goddamn miracle she wound up with someone - well, not really
upstanding, but he did love her in his own fucked up way."
"Right? You wouldn't think it. And this was England in alternate 2003, so that it stood out lets you know how things were going." He nudges Pagan with an elbow. "Nah, Ky-something. The one you took over. It was the Doctor who got tortured and shit when we went to Hong Kong, but you can't look away for a moment without him being abducted by some secret organization and tortured." He considers a moment. "Apart from that, it was a nice trip. We went to a lot of street fairs."
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timeasmymeasure
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-13 01:56 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-13 01:57 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-13 02:21 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-13 02:22 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-14 03:36 am (UTC)He turns a little more sober. "My daughter texted me this morning. She starts classes in a week. A week! She's fucking brilliant."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-15 02:16 am (UTC)He smiles, dropping the cut-rate Shakespearean tones for something honest.
"Good for her. It's nice to know there are people out there doing something with their lives so the rest of us can kickback and relax."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-16 03:12 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-16 03:14 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-17 03:30 am (UTC)He leads Fitz around the side to the garden.
He is still very much naked. There is no one around. "I had some roses planted here last year."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-17 03:40 am (UTC)Fitz had given up wondering if he was too used to the 'naturalist lifestyle' as the Doctor had announced when they were arrested years ago.
"Really? I thought they were a real bastard. Guess they're something to settle in with. Roses growing above the door and all that."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-17 02:55 pm (UTC)"Oh God, Searching, do you think I fucking take care of them? No. They're just nice to look at."
He rolls his eyes and keeps leading him around, above a robe that had been conveniently placed on a neaby hook off the outside wall.
These naked walks are common.
"Let me show you the music room."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-17 02:58 pm (UTC)He doesn't manage to get through it before starting to laugh. He does manage to stop laughing by the time Pagan has his robe on.
"Now this I do expect to be impressive."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 03:30 am (UTC)"What the fuck does that mean, huh?"
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 03:36 am (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 12:25 pm (UTC)"You do realize I live with Dorian, yes?"
And that means that fhere is a distinct....flair to it. "So keep your goddamn mouth shut or I'll make you stay for dinner with him."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 05:28 pm (UTC)Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 06:13 pm (UTC)An entire wall is dedicated to various records, most of them from the 1960s and the 80s, but there is a particular record on display that Pagan snatches from its perch. It's, almost predictably, from Dorian's band, and Pagan unceremoniously slides it underneath a low table and out of sight.
"I keep hiding it and he keeps finding it to replace it," he explains.
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-18 07:01 pm (UTC)"You could never find a place far enough to hide it."
But Fitz is mostly lost in exploring the gazebo. As ever, there are few things that can absorb his interest more than music and he wonders the room with assorted commentary (some of it on having met the various performers and having saved them from some alien or similar situation, so Pagan really might have a type) and a proper amount of compliments.
He sits down at the piano, striking up an unfamiliar melody.
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-19 03:17 pm (UTC)He sits at the other side of the bench in front of the piano and slides a companionable arm around his waist to listen.
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-19 08:16 pm (UTC)"I got Beatles' songs from across the universe, now," Fitz says, as he starts on another.
"You gotta give that to multiple timelines, there's one or two things that are interesting. I was in this timeline where they didn't invent computers and it was real racist. And I had to give a speech on TV about being a terrorist on threat of something happening to Anji if I didn't." He grins. "I imagine it was sort of like what would've happened if I ever visited your country in the old days."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-22 02:17 am (UTC)"More racist than it already is?" he challenges, but he tries to imagine Fitz in that world and grins. "What country? Hong Kong? Like my mother. It's a goddamn miracle she wound up with someone - well, not really upstanding, but he did love her in his own fucked up way."
Re: for Pagan
Date: 2026-01-22 02:27 am (UTC)