OPEN | Ride It by Regard on blast

[aurable]

CHARACTERS: Drift and YOU
LOCATION: Simulation Room
DATE: Late April
CONTENT: Driving lessons! + closed starters
WARNINGS: TBD

SIMULATION ROOM

The important thing to remember is to take things slow. And ask me questions as we're going through this. Keep your left foot on the brake pedal at all times until you're ready to move.

[ Drift 'sat' in the passenger's seat where he and his student were parked in the simulation room. The simulation itself was nothing ostentatious or potentially distracting. They were idling in the middle of a nondescript parking lot in the middle of a forested area on a bright, sunny day. It was the sort of place you could find anywhere in middle America near a big box store, only without the store or any visible buildings. Drift wanted to keep things simple and remove the stimuli for dumb stunts. ]

The first thing is to keep both hands on the wheel until you're ready to shift gears. I'm automatic, thankfully. Think of a twelve-hour clock and put your hands at three and ten o'clock. [ A sigh erupts from Drift if the person receiving those instructions crosses their arms at the wrist to be cheeky. ] Alright, but with the corresponding hands — don't get smart.

Before we drive, you'll see two levers between us — the gear shift and the emergency brake. I want you to tell me which you think is which.

[ Hopefully, this wouldn't be too long of a day and Drift's transmission stays in tact. ]

SUNLIGHT ROOM closed to Yennefer

[ There wasn't much sun in the sunlight room. The artificial sky was a dying red ember splotched in the bruised purple of an early evening winding down into twilight. This late into the season, the full verdant green of the meadow had returned, now a carpet of deep blue in the dying light.

Drift hadn't wanted to meet Yennefer during the height of the illusory afternoon. One last means of him cleaving to the mask he had been hiding behind. It was an idea that was ridiculous once he sat down and thought about it. What Drift hadn't been a secret, or even a well-kept one if he had been. A few of the others had found out embarrassingly late into his time here that the man they knew was only a disguise because he tended to isolate himself out of some misguided need not to be a burden.

— And then the situation with Yennefer had turned into a uniquely well-timed mess. Drift hadn't intended to keep anything from her after that night, just as she hadn't expected naked honesty after one encounter. Compounded by the last mission, where they were out of contact through most of it, all she had to go on was a few alarming and understandably hard to believe text exchanges.

Activating his device, Drift sends out one more text — asking Yennefer to meet him in the sunlight room for the truth as promised. Then 'he' sat on the glossy white hood of the vehicle parked in the meadow just off the brook, half concealed in the grass like a crouching predator. There was enough daylight to spare, and the white sheen of this form could be spotted a mile away. ]

WILDCARED

( please feel free to hmu on pm or bretons if you want to write/receive a starter of running into drift anywhere around the station and don't feel like we need pre-existing CR! )

Comments

[homeostatic]

Sure don't, ( he offers mildly. McCoy proceeds to take a seat at the edge of the mattress instead, continuing the slow progress of that cloth and his cool fingers; sweeping his cheeks and the vents that frame them, tracing the red slashes of his brows up to the points of his finials. )

But I'd be a hypocrite to say so anyway.

[aurable]

[ Intoxicated as he was, Drift chased that comforting touch of hands worn by years of care with cool, dry callouses. The light in his eyes dimmed and his finials flattened out, almost comical in how they stuck out to the side as he relaxed. It wasn't long before that deep, guttural purr of his engines started to rumble through him. ]

Can you stay awhile? [ Drift asked, quietly and barely audible above the self-calming sound thundering in his chest. ]

[homeostatic]

As long as you need me to, ( he told him softly, Drift's throaty purr vibrating through his fingers.

After his divorce, Leonard knew hadn't been the easiest to tolerate. Even sensing it was coming hadn't put a damper on his grief, his failure. He failed his marriage, failed his wife, his daughter, and he failed to keep his professional life together in the wake of his personal failures. Drinking himself stupid and lashing out was par for the course back then, unwilling to move on, even afraid to, until he climbed onto that shuttle.

That wasn't to say he knew what Drift was going through, at all. He did know something of the paradoxical need to push others away just as much as he needed them to be there with him.

Leonard dropped a hand away to tug his boots off, before he shifted into a crosslegged seat, happy to keep up the caresses until Drift asked him to go. )

[aurable]

It could be a while, [ Drift managed with a sound close to a humorless laugh, touched by the carte blanche time Leonard was giving him. It was a kindness he wasn't used to, not when he was this mired in his grief and anger.

Leonard had never spoken much about his personal life, but there was always a hint of familiarity whenever he handled Drift's darker moods. Like he wasn't even surprised to find him belligerently drunk and stewing in this hole that he dug for himself.

— He wanted to ask but wasn't sure, even sober, that he could find the right words. ]

Thank you, [ Drift was learning over the foot of the bed, comfortable situated where he was almost half-curled around Leonard with one arm looped behind his back as he pushed his face against the center of the other's chest. The low thrum of his purr petered into a steady wall of white noise as he steadied himself. ] I don't know what I would do without you sometimes.

[homeostatic]

That's alright, ( Leonard kept his tone light, ) we're in no hurry.

( Even belligerent drunks deserved compassion, as far as he was concerned. Others– namely his folks and Jim, that first year at the Academy –afforded him the same once, when he sure as Hell didn't feel like he deserved it.

He linked his fingers briefly behind Drift's nape, as much a hug as he could give him in their position, while the bot's words rumbled warmly through his chest. )

Without me? You'll get on. ( Leonard leaned back a hair so he could try to meet Drift's gaze. There was nothing dismissive in his voice, just patient, understanding confidence, wanting the best for him, believing in him. )

Maybe it doesn't feel like it right now, which is okay. But it's not gonna feel like that forever.