Alternative Methods.

[doubletap]

Has sex become repetitious? Feeling sore in certain areas? Well, good news! Your boyfriend has sent you on a quest to find different ways of having fun gay sex. Yay!

Find the following people and seek out their knowledge:

• Arcade Israel Gannon (=D)
  
• Jimmy (Westside)
  
• Old Ben (Freeside)
  
• Doctor Alex Richards (Novac)
  
• Ignacio Rivas (Helios One)

Good luck, Wanderer!

Comments

[doubletap]

"There's still something penetrating, though." A blink of remembrance. "Unless you're less against penetration and more against me coming inside of you."

[goodfight]

He stammers. "Well, uh. I mean, coming isn't that...bad."

But it is pretty bad. Neil breathes out. "It just gets uncomfortable later."

[doubletap]

Another weighted beat. "But what about penetration in general? After stuff aside."

[goodfight]

Neil blinks. His face takes on a look of awkward. "...Kinda weird at first. Then it gets kinda nice."

[doubletap]

"...You know," he starts, beginning to get mildly amused. "If you would have just said you had a problem afterwards, we could have sex and I just finish outside of you. You wouldn't have had to go on this quest."

[goodfight]

There's a beat of silence, heavy as the weight of the realization pressing into the wrinkles of Neil Park's brain.

Then-- "Oh. I...didn't know that was...an option."

[doubletap]

He leans forward, kissing Neil's head. "Everything is an option when you don't like something or are uncomfortable. But let's not ignore your efforts. You mentioned--"

Something about California. Oh, right that was--

Uh. Hm.

"...Toys. I think."

[goodfight]

He shakes off the recent epiphany for the subject of...toys. The one subject Neil had hoped to bypass. Oh, well.

"Toys. Yeah. I don't really get that so you're going to have to explain it to me."

[doubletap]

"...That, we'll probably have to both find out. If we finish our California trip, we could probably find a shop or two in Reno or the Den and see if it's interesting. It probably involves phalluses..."

Wait. Wait wait wait.

Alex perks up. "Maybe ropes and collars? I wonder if they market that stuff."

GLEE.

[goodfight]

Okay. Neil raises a hand.

"Hold up. What're the ropes and collars for?" asks the clueless twenty-five-year-old.

[doubletap]

GLEE--

"Me!" he chirps happily.

[goodfight]

Alex looks happy, and Neil is confused.

"...But for what?"

[doubletap]

The confusion tempers Alex's cheer, and he quiets, looking sheepish. "Ah, never mind. I'm just being myself."

Strange, that is.

[goodfight]

Alex retreats, and Neil refuses to back down. He touches the other man's cheek.

"Or you could just explain," he says.

[doubletap]

"Ropes to tie people," he responds. "Collars to claim. Maybe things like whips? Or blinders. Fun things."

A beat.

"...I told you I'm a masochist. Those are the tools of the trade."

A beat.

"...That I've never experienced."

[goodfight]

There's quite a bit of questions Neil has for Alex Seattle Geer: (1) How do collars claim? (2) What are the whips for? (3) What the fuck are blinders? (4) How are these items "tools of the trade?" (5) Why has Alex never experienced them?

Neil again raises his hand. "Why haven't you experienced them?"

[doubletap]

Alex again seems a version of shy. It's slightly different from the norm. "...It's mine?"

That explains nothing, Alex Seattle Geer.

"Um. It's something I really enjoy. A lot. It's not something to share with just anyone. It's a whole thing of trust and control, and can be really intimate, and I wouldn't share it... with people who wouldn't care about me."

Instead he shares it with his asexual boyfriend. Another waning want....

[goodfight]

Ah. More and more, the picture grows clearer.

"I get it," Neil speaks quietly. "It's something you would like to have but not indiscriminately. You know I'm not so knowledgeable about this stuff; if you can explain it, I might be able to understand. Also--"

He feels the heat in his cheeks. "I would always be up for trying."

[doubletap]

If Alex had fox ears they would be perking forward at this singular moment. Instead he stares full force at Neil with an intensity unmatched.

"...What?"

[goodfight]

Boy, is it just him, or are there lasers shooting out of Alex's eyes?

"I'd be up for trying," Neil repeats slowly.

[doubletap]

"Um."

Words. Words.

"I thought you thought it was weird. When we talked. In Illinois."

[goodfight]

"When we talked in Illinois?"

Memory sparks a lonely little campfire, tainted by an ugly bruise and a kid who was struggling to win a losing fight. They had a conversation back then, when Alex asked for the younger's assistance.

"Masochist," Neil had retorted at the time. "Just because you might like pain doesn't mean I'm going to inflict it."

"...I am." A masochist, Alex had meant. "But you're not going to hurt me. That's why I can accept it from you."

Neil smiles tiredly, as the other had on that night. "Weird is my life," he replies. "I just didn't understand. I still don't understand, but I know it's a part of you. I'd be willing to try."

[doubletap]

"--Ohgod," he says in a quick exhale. He inhales deeply, then attempts composure.

"I wonder if I'm dead. Maybe I'm dead. You've promised me deep throating and bondage and more sex and I can't, this is just--"

Dead. Just dead.

[goodfight]

Neil stifles the urge to repeat bondage in a questioning tone and moves to gently pet the other's hair. "You're alive. You're not dreaming. This--" He nods to reference the conversation. "--is very much real."

[doubletap]

More seriously but just as incredulously, Alex asks, "Why are you promising me all of this?"