He's not entirely sure why he's here beyond that it's been too long since he's had his last intimate encounter with anyone and he's noticed recently that his attention has been drawn to... Well. More than just women. He's not sure if it's from his career settling down into something more consistent or it's interest he's ignored since his youth given how clear his father had made his opinions on such relationships.
But he's here on Beta Colony and in the office of a male licensed sexual practitioner. If anyone's going to judge him, he's not going to find them on Beta Colony. He's even found earrings to blend in after careful research, something along the lines of 'still figuring things out with a professional, please don't ask until I'm done,' to help himself blend in. Why the whole planet felt the need to use the damn things, he's not sure, but it's helped him avoid advances he knows he'd get otherwise here.
He'd made it clear when he set up the appointment that he wanted to see where his interest went and needed help in a controlled environment. Despite the boundaries being clear, he can't help but fidget in his seat. It'd be an outright lie to say he hadn't picked this LSP based on appearances and reviews -- if he's going to experiment and pay for it, he may as well get someone he might enjoy. But he can't shake the nerves that have settled in his stomach. One-night stands had never been something he enjoyed and he avoided them. Yet...
Yet here he was. Not a one-time thing, but clearly not a 'relationship' in the traditional sense. Just however long their sessions were deemed necessary. God, he could use a drink about now.
Most of the time, Ivan doesn't ever think about where he's from. It's Betan first, and then whenever the looks of no, really, where are you from that he divulges the usual 'Barrayaran refugee, with asylum' spiel that gets sympathy in response, but also incredulity as well. Yeah, he knows, that planet is a hot mess right now, whatever. Ivan's very far away from it, his mother doesn't talk about it, and whatever family he had on it is probably dead or leading the ongoing civil war. Instead of that mess, Ivan finds himself with a job he's mostly good at; there's several reviews that mention his lack of tact. Ivan -- and apparently his bosses -- keep him around for his skill and for his handsome good looks and easy charm.
But getting a Komarran in his office makes him think of Barrayar -- how that planet had lost Komarr, how no one really cares about what's going on in that part of the Nexus unless it's to sell them weapons the moment it springs to a space conflict. It hasn't yet.
The man looks like he's about to jump out from his seat is Ivan's first impression when he enters his office -- older, and his file made it clear that he was attempting to see if he really was bisexual or just in a confused phase of life. Which Ivan sees a lot at this point. He gives the man an open, affable smile as he slides into his seat behind the desk. "David Galen? I'm Ivan. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Yes, he had made a good choice. Seeing Ivan in person was much better than what he had viewed when making his decision. Charming and hopefully as experienced as he seemed given how little David knew what he was doing. He doesn't look any less prepared, but he's at least not jumping out of his seat and even manages to relax a little at the smile.
And at least David isn't staring as his forces his gaze to shift from Ivan's face to the man's desk.
"Ah, yes, it's nice to meet you too," he says and clears his throat. "I was told you could help me?"
"I've read your file, so we don't need to go over any of the introductory awkwardness that comes with trying to explain yourself," Ivan says, waving away what he assumes are his primary concerns. "But yeah, I think we can help you out. It says here you're uncertain -- did you want to take one of the introductory tests to find out? It says here you haven't, and we normally advise everyone to try. Or you can just-- talk about what you want, what you expect."
And Ivan can work from there, although that's the part he's the worst at. The sex? Yeah, he's great at that. Walking people through their emerging sexuality crisis? Not so much. But he's getting paid, so.
The 'homework' he'd been given had been more difficult than he expected. It's only been a week since his first appointment to give him time to look over the materials given and he's not sure he's really ready for his next session. The masturbating hadn't even been the hard part, it had been the careful consideration of every damn sex act described in the pamphlet that he had to rate an interest in that gave him pause. This was going to be seen by someone. A professional, but still a someone.
In the end, he forces himself to be brutally honest. There was no point in paying for help from a LSP if he was going to lie to them. That's what he told himself and it had kept him calm right up until he's outside the man's door.
If he survived graduate school, he can survive figuring out his sex life. He takes a deep breath and heads into the office to settle in for his first real meeting.
This time Ivan's already sitting at his desk, going through flimsies with a lightpen -- scribbling a note here and there, like you can't market me as a 'galactic', I've lived here for twenty-seven out of twenty-eight years. He looks up when David enters, setting aside his work and smiling.
"David, hey. Take a seat," he says, gesturing to one of the ones in front of the desk.
"Hello, Ivan." He takes a deep breath as he sits down, flimsies in his lap for the moment. "I brought that flimsy back."
How could he forget about it? Not that he's eager to hand it over to the man. His hands toy with the edges of it for a moment before he slides it onto the desk.
He wonders if this is how his students often feel when they remember their homework late. When he had left his last appointment, he had stopped to pick up something if only to see if it would increase his interest, only for the toy to be forgotten in a drawer somewhere in his pre-furnished flat. The rest of his 'homework,' if masturbation could be called that, was only remembered as he was going to bed the night before his third appointment.
Which left him with the decision to get up and attempt it or confess to his LSP that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. With a light groan, he decides to go with the latter. Maybe it would be helpful in some sense to talk about this failing than try to correct it with some half-assed measure. If only my students thought alone these lines. It's the last thought he has as he finally drifts off to sleep.
At the time of his appointment, he's led into Ivan's office and heads for the man's desk. He's at least read the materials he was given which should count for something in all of this.
"Good afternoon, David." Ivan says when he hears David come in, getting to his feet to steer him to the couch instead of the chairs in front of his desk. Something more casual, more relaxed to help encourage the man, yes. Especially if he's going to react the same way as he did with a hand massage. "Let's start on the couch today," he continues, ushering him down and settling next to him -- a respectable distance apart.
"How have the past few days been?" Did you do what I said, did you read what I gave you?
He blinks in slight surprise, but he supposes this is the natural progression of things. There's a slight duck of his head as he heads towards the couch instead, taking a seat on the same end he had before. He can feel the unspoken questions underlying that one and sighs lightly.
"Fine. I got through all of the material you gave me." The reading had been easy to remember given how much he did normally. The rest... Well. He's sure Ivan will ask about it when it's time to talk about it.
Well, he can't say anything poor about his homework this time. For the most part anyway. After he had left his previous session, pleasing himself afterwards had been far easier than it had ever been for him. Remembering Ivan's warm touch, how his hands had skillfully caused him to relax, and his hands had taken care of the rest. Not that it's a tale he wants to recount play-by-play to his LSP, using the man as mental fodder for his personal time had seemed a step over the line. None of the materials given to before about previous client experiences had mentioned this bit and he's unsure if this is common or not.
Embarrassed or not, he won't miss his next session and when he steps into Ivan's office, he's already heading towards the couch. He's gotten the gist of things and unless the man wants to direct him towards the massage chair again so soon, he has a feeling they'll be starting off here once more. 'Creating an intimate space' the pamphlets called it, he thinks.
It's doing a lot more for him than that and he's starting to get more comfortable in the now-familiar office.
Seeing David automatically take a seat on the couch gets Ivan to smile as he looks up from his desk. "Good afternoon, David." He seems to have settled into the routine, and Ivan takes up his place beside him, meeting his gaze with an encouraging smile. "You know what I'm going to ask," he starts with a wave, encouraging him to continue on his own.
At least he'll give his plan one thing: it seems to be working.
Yes, he knows exactly what Ivan's going to ask and he's already averting his gaze as his hands fidget.
"I, ah, gave the toy I bought a try though I'm afraid it may have been too much." Money wasted, which makes part of his Komarran heart twinge. There's a long pause before he finally continues. No point in hiding anything if he's going to keep making progress, if that's what this can be called. "I had a good time pleasuring myself after our last session. Without the toy."
He's started looking forward to the times David is scheduled to visit -- the other man is decent company, if hesitant and unsure about much of what Ivan's paid to teach him. Looking up from where he's seated on the couch, Ivan stops David before he can get close to him. No, today he had a different plan. After the events of last session, Ivan feels as if they could do something else to help encourage that closeness his client wanted. Massages were good, giving him a hand job was fine, but there's still something else.
"I thought we could start with something different," he says, and gestures to the other piece of furniture in his main office -- a tasteful fainting couch. "Physical intimacy doesn't require sex, so I thought we could cuddle. Your pick on how you'd like to proceed and before I ask you the usual questions."
The session before had given him more than enough to think about. For some reason, he feels a lot more anxious about this next session than he had about the first one he had attended. Part of him contemplates calling up the front office and canceling, but that would only put off the inevitable. Why was he so nervous about seeing Ivan again after what they had done? It was the man's job.
He sighs and braces himself before he enters the man's office. He is far too old to be dreading working through his issues whatever they seem to be now. And then Ivan's talking to him and he finds himself immediately redirected.
"Cuddling?" he asks surprised as he blinks and takes in the couch. That isn't what he expected when he came in and he slowly changes directions towards the couch. "I didn't realize there were several ways to proceed."
"Sure. Would you like to be held or do the holding?" That's the easiest way to go about this in Ivan's opinion, and he doesn't move to gesture David forward or move himself until he hears his answer.
There's a momentary flash of regret when he realizes he's surprised the other man -- that wasn't his intention at all. Still, he hopes that the physical intimacy part of all this will help put the other man at ease, if only for a little. It was something Ivan thought he liked, although he hadn't said as much.
Well, his practice flirting hadn't gone as horribly as he had expected. Things had gotten more intense than he could handle when he tried wandering about with his glasses, but their removal had pulled things back into a realm he could handle.
When he enters Ivan's office, it's glasses-less and still wearing his new earrings that the man had helped him put on a week before. There's a slight glance around the room until his gaze settles upon Ivan. They'd been all over the damn room at this point and while they'd tended towards the couch recently, he's not sure what Ivan's revised plans have in store for him.
Damn, and here Ivan hoped the other man would have led with the glasses. Still, Ivan can dream -- no one's stopping him from that -- and he gives David a searching look when the other man comes in. "That depends. What do you want to do today?" See if the other man has any preferences. Ivan figures they've gotten to a point in this relationship where the other man will at least tell him if he's comfortable with anything that Ivan's getting paid to do. Eventually.
There's a small shrug as David scans the room trying to make a decision. Flashes of what they had done only a few sessions back behind the partition drift through his mind and there's not much he can do to hide the faint blush that's on his cheeks. That's far, far too forward of a request to start with despite where David's latest fantasies have been taking him.
All right. His date had gone better than he could have anticipated. A local Betan he had spoken to a week before agreed to meet him at a local museum. No expectations or pressure. David wearing his glasses had certainly helped add to his appeal, as his LSPT predicted.
The timing had worked out well. He was able to excuse himself to go to his appointment since before had been the soonest time they could arrange to meet. Thank God for the earrings, he didn't have to give any explanation for his having a LSPT in the first place. It seemed to be understood here without it.
He's faintly smiling as he comes into Ivan's office. The date had put him in a good mood to start with and his appointments with Ivan always helped.
Ivan, in the last moments of their last meeting, had found himself with the inexplicable urge to kiss David goodbye. Perhaps it was the moment of intimacy they were pulled out of and the lingering effects that made things seem different than they were. Tempted to put in a buffer of a half an hour between David's and the next, Ivan decides he shouldn't -- that was a one time, well. Near-one time thing, surely.
That's his thought until he looks up from his dest to see the other man, and something in his brain hits the breaks and guns something into high gear. He's wearing glasses and smiling. Ivan wouldn't have classified David Galen as an attractive man, but with the glasses he's definitely moved into a category that makes him someone Ivan might have attempted to pick up. Galactics, you know?
Swallowing, and definitely trying to look like he's not both taken aback and suddenly, overwhelmingly unprofessional, Ivan nods. "Couch, unless you have any other suggestion?"
"The couch is fine." More than fine, really. He doesn't hesitate before he makes his way over there and waits for the other man to join him. Should he settle against him? Or provide some kind of warning? He opts for the later, figuring that asking outright is the Betan way to go about things.
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garrulously2016-05-25 07:47 pm
TIMELINE & SUMMARY
NPC LIST
WORLDBUILDING
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But he's here on Beta Colony and in the office of a male licensed sexual practitioner. If anyone's going to judge him, he's not going to find them on Beta Colony. He's even found earrings to blend in after careful research, something along the lines of 'still figuring things out with a professional, please don't ask until I'm done,' to help himself blend in. Why the whole planet felt the need to use the damn things, he's not sure, but it's helped him avoid advances he knows he'd get otherwise here.
He'd made it clear when he set up the appointment that he wanted to see where his interest went and needed help in a controlled environment. Despite the boundaries being clear, he can't help but fidget in his seat. It'd be an outright lie to say he hadn't picked this LSP based on appearances and reviews -- if he's going to experiment and pay for it, he may as well get someone he might enjoy. But he can't shake the nerves that have settled in his stomach. One-night stands had never been something he enjoyed and he avoided them. Yet...
Yet here he was. Not a one-time thing, but clearly not a 'relationship' in the traditional sense. Just however long their sessions were deemed necessary. God, he could use a drink about now.
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But getting a Komarran in his office makes him think of Barrayar -- how that planet had lost Komarr, how no one really cares about what's going on in that part of the Nexus unless it's to sell them weapons the moment it springs to a space conflict. It hasn't yet.
The man looks like he's about to jump out from his seat is Ivan's first impression when he enters his office -- older, and his file made it clear that he was attempting to see if he really was bisexual or just in a confused phase of life. Which Ivan sees a lot at this point. He gives the man an open, affable smile as he slides into his seat behind the desk. "David Galen? I'm Ivan. It's a pleasure to meet you."
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And at least David isn't staring as his forces his gaze to shift from Ivan's face to the man's desk.
"Ah, yes, it's nice to meet you too," he says and clears his throat. "I was told you could help me?"
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And Ivan can work from there, although that's the part he's the worst at. The sex? Yeah, he's great at that. Walking people through their emerging sexuality crisis? Not so much. But he's getting paid, so.
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In the end, he forces himself to be brutally honest. There was no point in paying for help from a LSP if he was going to lie to them. That's what he told himself and it had kept him calm right up until he's outside the man's door.
If he survived graduate school, he can survive figuring out his sex life. He takes a deep breath and heads into the office to settle in for his first real meeting.
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"David, hey. Take a seat," he says, gesturing to one of the ones in front of the desk.
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How could he forget about it? Not that he's eager to hand it over to the man. His hands toy with the edges of it for a moment before he slides it onto the desk.
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Which left him with the decision to get up and attempt it or confess to his LSP that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. With a light groan, he decides to go with the latter. Maybe it would be helpful in some sense to talk about this failing than try to correct it with some half-assed measure. If only my students thought alone these lines. It's the last thought he has as he finally drifts off to sleep.
At the time of his appointment, he's led into Ivan's office and heads for the man's desk. He's at least read the materials he was given which should count for something in all of this.
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"How have the past few days been?" Did you do what I said, did you read what I gave you?
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"Fine. I got through all of the material you gave me." The reading had been easy to remember given how much he did normally. The rest... Well. He's sure Ivan will ask about it when it's time to talk about it.
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Embarrassed or not, he won't miss his next session and when he steps into Ivan's office, he's already heading towards the couch. He's gotten the gist of things and unless the man wants to direct him towards the massage chair again so soon, he has a feeling they'll be starting off here once more. 'Creating an intimate space' the pamphlets called it, he thinks.
It's doing a lot more for him than that and he's starting to get more comfortable in the now-familiar office.
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At least he'll give his plan one thing: it seems to be working.
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"I, ah, gave the toy I bought a try though I'm afraid it may have been too much." Money wasted, which makes part of his Komarran heart twinge. There's a long pause before he finally continues. No point in hiding anything if he's going to keep making progress, if that's what this can be called. "I had a good time pleasuring myself after our last session. Without the toy."
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"I thought we could start with something different," he says, and gestures to the other piece of furniture in his main office -- a tasteful fainting couch. "Physical intimacy doesn't require sex, so I thought we could cuddle. Your pick on how you'd like to proceed and before I ask you the usual questions."
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He sighs and braces himself before he enters the man's office. He is far too old to be dreading working through his issues whatever they seem to be now. And then Ivan's talking to him and he finds himself immediately redirected.
"Cuddling?" he asks surprised as he blinks and takes in the couch. That isn't what he expected when he came in and he slowly changes directions towards the couch. "I didn't realize there were several ways to proceed."
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There's a momentary flash of regret when he realizes he's surprised the other man -- that wasn't his intention at all. Still, he hopes that the physical intimacy part of all this will help put the other man at ease, if only for a little. It was something Ivan thought he liked, although he hadn't said as much.
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When he enters Ivan's office, it's glasses-less and still wearing his new earrings that the man had helped him put on a week before. There's a slight glance around the room until his gaze settles upon Ivan. They'd been all over the damn room at this point and while they'd tended towards the couch recently, he's not sure what Ivan's revised plans have in store for him.
"Where did you want us today?"
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"I suppose cuddling," he finally decides.
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The timing had worked out well. He was able to excuse himself to go to his appointment since before had been the soonest time they could arrange to meet. Thank God for the earrings, he didn't have to give any explanation for his having a LSPT in the first place. It seemed to be understood here without it.
He's faintly smiling as he comes into Ivan's office. The date had put him in a good mood to start with and his appointments with Ivan always helped.
"Are we sitting on the couch today?"
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That's his thought until he looks up from his dest to see the other man, and something in his brain hits the breaks and guns something into high gear. He's wearing glasses and smiling. Ivan wouldn't have classified David Galen as an attractive man, but with the glasses he's definitely moved into a category that makes him someone Ivan might have attempted to pick up. Galactics, you know?
Swallowing, and definitely trying to look like he's not both taken aback and suddenly, overwhelmingly unprofessional, Ivan nods. "Couch, unless you have any other suggestion?"
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"Is cuddling all right?"
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