Fic: Questions and Answers
Monday, October 15th, 2012 07:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveCouldn't sleep, so I've been watching vids and writing. Forgive any typos. The next installment of Altverse, K/Z. Usual disclaimers, this is just my story.
"So, what changed your mind about taking on a Super Hostile challenge?" Zisteau asked with some curiosity.
Kurt turned slightly pink at the question, shoving his hands further into his coat pockets. "Well, ah... it was Brian's idea, really. We hadn't done anything as a team since Race For the Wool, he thought it'd be fun.. and the others wanted to, I couldn't really say no."
Zisteau glanced at him as they walked further down the road through the spawn village, enjoying the late afternoon sun. He'd been more than a little bit surprised when Kurt's latest co-op venture had turned out to be Spellbound Caves. Everyone had been a bit surprised in fact, Kurt had never shown any interest in CTM maps and Zisteau clearly remembered him saying once that they 'just weren't his thing'.
"I thought you might have been a bit burned out on co-ops lately."
Kurt grinned slightly. "I thought I would be, too. But mostly I've been enjoying it. Maybe I'm a bit better with people now, or maybe it's just being with people who know me better." He shrugged.
Zisteau grinned back. "I was just pleasantly surprised to see you taking on a Vechs map. If I'd known you wanted to make the leap into that sort of challenge I'd have offered to show you the ropes in Inferno Mines, when it's finally finished."
Kurt ducked his head slightly. "That would have just been embarrassing." He muttered.
Zisteau paused. "Why?"
"Because you'd probably spend the whole time rescuing me while I wander into trouble like an idiot. I mean... you're an expert at these things, I wouldn't be much use to you. I'm new to this stuff after all." He shrugged again, glancing down at his feet.
"Kurt..."
"I mean, it's not that I wouldn't want to... because I would... but, ah..."
"...But?" Zisteau coaxed, ducking into Kurt's line of vision.
"...I'd.... well, I'd want to know what I was doing first. At least. Because then maybe we could enjoy it." Kurt glanced up, looking embarrassed.
"But you're enjoying it now with the KGB's. Why would it be different with me?"
Kurt ran a hand awkwardly through his hair. "... I guess it doesn't matter quite so much with them if I mess up."
"It wouldn't matter to me either, you know."
"It would to me. I... I'd want to feel like I was bringing something." He scratched the back of his neck. "Because it matters a lot what you think of me." He added quietly.
Zisteau smiled softly. "I thought you knew how I think of you."
Kurt blushed slightly. "I do. That's why it matters." His expression was so honest and serious that Zisteau thought his heart stopped for a second. To know he meant that much...
A sudden crack of thunder made them both start and look up. The sky was now overcast and darkening rapidly as the first drops of rain began to fall.
"Damn storms." Zisteau muttered as they ducked into the nearest building, which happened to be BDoubleO's remodelled spawn house. Kurt propped himself against the wall with a small sigh. Zisteau leant beside him, shaking some water droplets from his sleeve. After a moment, Kurt turned towards him.
"Zisteau, since we were on the subject of Super Hostile... can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
Kurt bit his lip thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. "Why does Vechs call you 'Zistykins'? Was there, I mean... were you..."
"Ah." While the question of either of their past relationships hadn't come up before now, Zisteau wanted to be nothing less than completely honest. "...Yes, we did, a while ago."
"Oh." Kurt didn't seem to know quite what to do with that information now he had it.
"It was while I was taking on Kaizo. I wouldn't have called it dating, but we were more than friends, although we weren't... well, we weren't exclusive. The name... started as just something silly he said one day and it stuck. We went on to other projects, stayed friends."
Kurt nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. I just wanted to know. You seemed... well-matched, I suppose, and I wondered about it." He half-smiled, somewhat embarrassed to admit that fact.
Zisteau grinned at him, shifting to prop his hand on the wall beside Kurt's shoulder. "I wondered about you too, you know. I didn't want to step on any toes if you were already taken."
Kurt gave him a slightly incredulous look, and Zisteau laughed out loud, shaking his head at Kurt's self-depreciativeness that was patently obvious without him saying a word. He was glad to hear Kurt chuckling quietly along with him.
"Does it bother you?" He asked, becoming serious for a moment.
"Does what?"
"The whole Zistykins thing. Does it bother you?"
Kurt looked at him, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Only if he wants another fling while you're on the next map."
Zisteau grinned. "Not happening."
"Good."
Zisteau leaned a little closer, reaching out to brush Kurt's cheek. "It wasn't like this." He said softly. "This is different." He watched the muscles in Kurt's throat move as he swallowed.
"Yeah, it is." His smile softened, eyes darting briefly to Zisteau's mouth.
Not needing any other encouragement, Zisteau kissed him. It was soft, sweet, one gentle kiss leading into another. He couldn't help a quiet murmur of approval when Kurt slowly curled a hand around to cup the back of his neck. When he stopped worrying and thinking too much, his shy, hesitant Kurt was really a very good kisser, as he'd been gradually finding out for the last couple of weeks. It was frighteningly easy to lose himself in the moment when it was like this.
What are you doing to me, Kurt?
His hand was just slipping down towards Kurt's hip, wanting to tug him closer, feel more contact; when a burst of laughter and the rattle of the door startled them, a thoroughly drenched Guude and BDoubleO falling in through it. Kurt almost leapt backwards through the wall.
"Goddamn it Guude, we're soaked!" Bdubs laughed, trying to wipe the water from his face.
"It was your damn idea to go out that far!" Guude flicked his hands, sending more droplets over him, giggling when Bdubs muttered under his breath.
"Well I got towels here somewhere.... oh. Hey." He suddenly noticed the other two men in the room. Zisteau had dropped his hands but didn't move away from Kurt, who looked like he was trying to hide under his overcoat. He cursed OOG's lousy timing, not because of what they'd interrupted, as wonderful as it was, but he had no idea whether Kurt was ready to let people know about them yet. He suspected not, and it made him put his defences up slightly.
"Uh, are we interrupting something?" Guude asked, looking from one of them to the other. Beside him, Bdubs was just grinning like an idiot.
Well, that's the look of someone who just had their suspicions confirmed.
Kurt shifted awkwardly. "Um... "
"Well it's about damn time!" Exclaimed Bdubs. "I thought I was gonna have to do something about you two if you didn't sort yourselves out. C'mon, I'll get the coffee started." He beamed at them, rummaging in a chest for a couple of towels and chucking one over Guude's head. "Thought you'd never get round to it..." He strolled towards the kitchen, still talking.
Guude shrugged, grinned at them and followed after him, scrubbing himself with the towel.
Zisteau looked at Kurt. He was blushing to the tips of his ears, but the small smile he gave was one of relief.
"You okay?" Zisteau asked, rubbing his shoulder gently. "Looks like they know."
"Yeah." Kurt took a deep breath. "I think I'd have rather waited a bit, but... yeah. I'm okay." He straightened himself up.
"Let's have that coffee."
"So, what changed your mind about taking on a Super Hostile challenge?" Zisteau asked with some curiosity.
Kurt turned slightly pink at the question, shoving his hands further into his coat pockets. "Well, ah... it was Brian's idea, really. We hadn't done anything as a team since Race For the Wool, he thought it'd be fun.. and the others wanted to, I couldn't really say no."
Zisteau glanced at him as they walked further down the road through the spawn village, enjoying the late afternoon sun. He'd been more than a little bit surprised when Kurt's latest co-op venture had turned out to be Spellbound Caves. Everyone had been a bit surprised in fact, Kurt had never shown any interest in CTM maps and Zisteau clearly remembered him saying once that they 'just weren't his thing'.
"I thought you might have been a bit burned out on co-ops lately."
Kurt grinned slightly. "I thought I would be, too. But mostly I've been enjoying it. Maybe I'm a bit better with people now, or maybe it's just being with people who know me better." He shrugged.
Zisteau grinned back. "I was just pleasantly surprised to see you taking on a Vechs map. If I'd known you wanted to make the leap into that sort of challenge I'd have offered to show you the ropes in Inferno Mines, when it's finally finished."
Kurt ducked his head slightly. "That would have just been embarrassing." He muttered.
Zisteau paused. "Why?"
"Because you'd probably spend the whole time rescuing me while I wander into trouble like an idiot. I mean... you're an expert at these things, I wouldn't be much use to you. I'm new to this stuff after all." He shrugged again, glancing down at his feet.
"Kurt..."
"I mean, it's not that I wouldn't want to... because I would... but, ah..."
"...But?" Zisteau coaxed, ducking into Kurt's line of vision.
"...I'd.... well, I'd want to know what I was doing first. At least. Because then maybe we could enjoy it." Kurt glanced up, looking embarrassed.
"But you're enjoying it now with the KGB's. Why would it be different with me?"
Kurt ran a hand awkwardly through his hair. "... I guess it doesn't matter quite so much with them if I mess up."
"It wouldn't matter to me either, you know."
"It would to me. I... I'd want to feel like I was bringing something." He scratched the back of his neck. "Because it matters a lot what you think of me." He added quietly.
Zisteau smiled softly. "I thought you knew how I think of you."
Kurt blushed slightly. "I do. That's why it matters." His expression was so honest and serious that Zisteau thought his heart stopped for a second. To know he meant that much...
A sudden crack of thunder made them both start and look up. The sky was now overcast and darkening rapidly as the first drops of rain began to fall.
"Damn storms." Zisteau muttered as they ducked into the nearest building, which happened to be BDoubleO's remodelled spawn house. Kurt propped himself against the wall with a small sigh. Zisteau leant beside him, shaking some water droplets from his sleeve. After a moment, Kurt turned towards him.
"Zisteau, since we were on the subject of Super Hostile... can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
Kurt bit his lip thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. "Why does Vechs call you 'Zistykins'? Was there, I mean... were you..."
"Ah." While the question of either of their past relationships hadn't come up before now, Zisteau wanted to be nothing less than completely honest. "...Yes, we did, a while ago."
"Oh." Kurt didn't seem to know quite what to do with that information now he had it.
"It was while I was taking on Kaizo. I wouldn't have called it dating, but we were more than friends, although we weren't... well, we weren't exclusive. The name... started as just something silly he said one day and it stuck. We went on to other projects, stayed friends."
Kurt nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. I just wanted to know. You seemed... well-matched, I suppose, and I wondered about it." He half-smiled, somewhat embarrassed to admit that fact.
Zisteau grinned at him, shifting to prop his hand on the wall beside Kurt's shoulder. "I wondered about you too, you know. I didn't want to step on any toes if you were already taken."
Kurt gave him a slightly incredulous look, and Zisteau laughed out loud, shaking his head at Kurt's self-depreciativeness that was patently obvious without him saying a word. He was glad to hear Kurt chuckling quietly along with him.
"Does it bother you?" He asked, becoming serious for a moment.
"Does what?"
"The whole Zistykins thing. Does it bother you?"
Kurt looked at him, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Only if he wants another fling while you're on the next map."
Zisteau grinned. "Not happening."
"Good."
Zisteau leaned a little closer, reaching out to brush Kurt's cheek. "It wasn't like this." He said softly. "This is different." He watched the muscles in Kurt's throat move as he swallowed.
"Yeah, it is." His smile softened, eyes darting briefly to Zisteau's mouth.
Not needing any other encouragement, Zisteau kissed him. It was soft, sweet, one gentle kiss leading into another. He couldn't help a quiet murmur of approval when Kurt slowly curled a hand around to cup the back of his neck. When he stopped worrying and thinking too much, his shy, hesitant Kurt was really a very good kisser, as he'd been gradually finding out for the last couple of weeks. It was frighteningly easy to lose himself in the moment when it was like this.
What are you doing to me, Kurt?
His hand was just slipping down towards Kurt's hip, wanting to tug him closer, feel more contact; when a burst of laughter and the rattle of the door startled them, a thoroughly drenched Guude and BDoubleO falling in through it. Kurt almost leapt backwards through the wall.
"Goddamn it Guude, we're soaked!" Bdubs laughed, trying to wipe the water from his face.
"It was your damn idea to go out that far!" Guude flicked his hands, sending more droplets over him, giggling when Bdubs muttered under his breath.
"Well I got towels here somewhere.... oh. Hey." He suddenly noticed the other two men in the room. Zisteau had dropped his hands but didn't move away from Kurt, who looked like he was trying to hide under his overcoat. He cursed OOG's lousy timing, not because of what they'd interrupted, as wonderful as it was, but he had no idea whether Kurt was ready to let people know about them yet. He suspected not, and it made him put his defences up slightly.
"Uh, are we interrupting something?" Guude asked, looking from one of them to the other. Beside him, Bdubs was just grinning like an idiot.
Well, that's the look of someone who just had their suspicions confirmed.
Kurt shifted awkwardly. "Um... "
"Well it's about damn time!" Exclaimed Bdubs. "I thought I was gonna have to do something about you two if you didn't sort yourselves out. C'mon, I'll get the coffee started." He beamed at them, rummaging in a chest for a couple of towels and chucking one over Guude's head. "Thought you'd never get round to it..." He strolled towards the kitchen, still talking.
Guude shrugged, grinned at them and followed after him, scrubbing himself with the towel.
Zisteau looked at Kurt. He was blushing to the tips of his ears, but the small smile he gave was one of relief.
"You okay?" Zisteau asked, rubbing his shoulder gently. "Looks like they know."
"Yeah." Kurt took a deep breath. "I think I'd have rather waited a bit, but... yeah. I'm okay." He straightened himself up.
"Let's have that coffee."
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:34 am (UTC)But seriously, nicely done. I was grinning like a maniac through the whole thing. And ahaha, Bdubs with his "it's about damn time."
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:59 am (UTC)Thankyou. :D
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:55 am (UTC)Altverse basically makes an "alternate Mindcrack" assumption: the people invovled are actually "in" the games they play, and sort of transport themselves around by magic. They are still streaming/recording to outside fans in a "Truman Show" kind of way, but we never see the "metagame". So there was a physical guy named Zisteau traversing through various Vechs maps recording his progress and flirting with the mapmaker inside those worlds, not a guy behind a screen playing those maps on a computer and flirting with the mapmaker over the Internet. Kurt, Bdubs, and Beef actually went to the moon in Moonbase Alpha. Get the picture?
"To Hear the Words" kind of riffs on that - what if a "real person" entered a world with that assumption - though at least at first I wasn't planning on being able to go between maps and keeping everyone within Mindcrack. Of course, that was before GenerikB joined the server, and Genny isn't Genny without his Hermits, so that's subject to change...
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:54 am (UTC)-incoherent flailing about in utter glee and delight- <3
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 10:22 am (UTC)On topic: this was sweet, beautiful, and adorable, and I love everything you write.
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 02:07 pm (UTC)<3 Aww.
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 06:57 pm (UTC)Looking forward to Inferno Mines too. *hee*
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 04:10 pm (UTC)AAAAAAAWWWWWWW -flail-
Yeah that's still pretty much all I could think of. I kept sitting in class and just sometimes the mental image of the kisses would come back to me and I would just smile stupidly at this pile of dirt in a plant pot or at my population dynamics notes. Certainly made my Monday more cute and adorable. Looooove it!
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Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 07:14 pm (UTC)Really cute and sweet, heading every so slightly toward hot -- all in the imagination, you know? But yummy.
If I could ask for anything that you're overall not doing, it would be for just a little bit more Zisteau-style snarkiness, because I love it so.
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Date: Sunday, October 28th, 2012 12:12 pm (UTC)But on a more serious note, I really liked this. Especially since in some parts I could read the dialouge in their voice. :)