Counselor Aiden Price (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
myagents) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wildestlogs2021-11-05 10:45 pm
myagents) wrote in wildestlogs2021-11-05 10:45 pm
Entry tags:
"I figured you cherished this ring so I took it"
Who: Bunny and Price
What: Dan's lost ring is generously given back
Where: In the team's current gathering spot
When: the morning after the Nigthrenders attack
Warnings/Notes: implied toxic dynamics
[Eventually, with a bit of twisting, the ring did come off. It's honestly beyond him how easily Dan was going to get rid of it, these things are important. Last night's interactions didn't help Price ease the mixed feelings he has towards their complicated friendship. He likes having this ring with him and using it, it gives him some sense of power that makes him look good by technically doing a nice thing worthy of praise by retrieving it while doing it to hurt the feelings of those involved in the process at the same time.
Besides, Dan's way of being nice to him secretly makes him feel like crap most of the time, so he gets to punish him by complicating the situation, if only for a few minutes.]
Um...Excuse me, could I speak to you for a second?
[He approaches Bunny, with an innocent look on his face, making himself small.]
Daniel was going to exchange his wedding ring for weapons during the faire. I...I didn't want this to go lost, I figured you cherished this ring so I took it. I wanted to give it back to him, but we were attacked and I forgot about it.
[He hands the ring to Bunny.]
Hopefully it's fine if I give it back to you.
What: Dan's lost ring is generously given back
Where: In the team's current gathering spot
When: the morning after the Nigthrenders attack
Warnings/Notes: implied toxic dynamics
[Eventually, with a bit of twisting, the ring did come off. It's honestly beyond him how easily Dan was going to get rid of it, these things are important. Last night's interactions didn't help Price ease the mixed feelings he has towards their complicated friendship. He likes having this ring with him and using it, it gives him some sense of power that makes him look good by technically doing a nice thing worthy of praise by retrieving it while doing it to hurt the feelings of those involved in the process at the same time.
Besides, Dan's way of being nice to him secretly makes him feel like crap most of the time, so he gets to punish him by complicating the situation, if only for a few minutes.]
Um...Excuse me, could I speak to you for a second?
[He approaches Bunny, with an innocent look on his face, making himself small.]
Daniel was going to exchange his wedding ring for weapons during the faire. I...I didn't want this to go lost, I figured you cherished this ring so I took it. I wanted to give it back to him, but we were attacked and I forgot about it.
[He hands the ring to Bunny.]
Hopefully it's fine if I give it back to you.
no subject
[Bunny has a little chuckle over that, over how true it is, how good Dan is at caring even at his own expense, when caring means danger, when caring means a harpy will open him up from elbow to wrist and his response won't be to deal a blow back, but to go on patiently caring. Caring that openly invites care in return. Even from someone like Price. That's wholly believable.
His fond smile drops into a raised eyebrow as Price goes on.]
Is that what this is about?
[all the cagey submissive prey-animal body language, like Bunny's a threat and not just someone to return a lost item to, makes sense in that context.]
Mate, I don't make Dan's decisions for him.
[Dan might argue that's not entirely true. Bunny is a steamroller. But he's made decisions Dan's been opposed to all in the name of keeping Dan alive, and - and that's different from telling him who to and not to be friends with, even when those friends are dangerous people.
Anyway, he's not going to get into what he and Dan fight about with Price. Or anyone, really.]
I don't make his friends for him, either. Or unmake them.
[he adds it more than a little astonished to be accused of being that controlling. More than a little astonished that Price believes - if he does believe it - that Dan would stay in any relationship that controlling.]
What, would you try and convince him not to keep his friends if you thought you could?
no subject
[Bunny is a threat. Maybe it's not that likely, but it can happen that he talks some sense into Dan, that Dan heals and becomes better, and what is going to happen then? Who will take care of Price, if only because they are too foolish, when everyone else would rather see him dead? He clenches his fists, the piece of chocolate turns into a few crumbles and mostly stains on his palm.]
Despite the fact that you hate me, this is not personal, not for me. Please don't make this harder than it needs to be.
[He realizes how empty his own threat is, it's so powerless. He hates it, and that humiliation alone activates that mechanism within him, the one that turns any negativity into fuel to go straight for the kill.]
Either way, you are the immortal being, not me. You are the one who is going to have to watch him die, one day.
no subject
Well at least you're honest. [About one thing.
But his half-smirk turns into a full glare of disbelief as he locks eyes on Price crushing and ruining his chocolate, the fragment of the stash he had to pare out carefully to kids who need a little comfort and energy and the occasional adult who needs the same, wasted on someone too determined to hurt to accept comfort with no strings.
He lets Price finish his thought, a moment of silence stretching as he thinks of all the times he's let a little disagreement slip because some day Dan will die and that has been a thought that holds his temper, keeps him present, guides him to treasure every moment he gets Dan's company knowing he won't get it one day, but always, always on his mind. Whether as a centering mantra or a dreadful inevitably.
He lifts his glare from staring at Price's hand to looking him in the eye.] I don't hate you, but you waste one of my gifts like that again and I might get to feeling some strong dislike.
no subject
Bunny might be some sort of omnipotent creature with powers and alleged wisdom, but he's such an adult man when it comes to this, in the worst way. He even has the pretense to regard himself as someone who protects children, too. There's some resurfacing boiling disgust that comes with witnessing that.]
You really think your chocolate is good for something, don't you? Well then.
[He just straight up throws what's left at Bunny.]
You can have it back!
no subject
He doesn't know why Dan enjoys being kind to Price enough not to run hard away from being clung to by him. It's not his job to understand. It's not his job to make Price better. He'll settle for not making Price worse.]
Y'know, I think we've had a full conversation at this point. I'm gonna go keep foraging if you're done.
no subject
[He turns around, starting to walk away.]
Nevermind.
no subject
[Bunny doesn't turn his back on Price. He doesn't trust Price like that. He turns his side instead, crouching down to keep going through the underbrush for edible roots, but watching Price out of the corner of his eye in case he changes his mind about leaving and opts to do something more aggressive.]
no subject
[Bunny is just humiliating him on purpose, isn't he? Begging him wasn't easy and he downright mocked him pretending he doesn't know what this is about, but he knows, and Price knows how he acts. He can perfectly see him gaslight Dan into doing something, perhaps because he himself cannot fathom 'good intentions' coming from something other than prey. It's why Dan deserves everything that is coming to him, anyway.]
That is not what you're doing.
[He walks away angrily.]
no subject
By the way the fur on the back of his neck is still standing up, he quite doubts it. He doesn't let his side-glance leave Price until the man is well out of seeing range, and doesn't turn his ear away from listening after his departure until longer after he's out of hearing range.]