latino_menace | OOM: Black tie evening

Entry tags:

argentina,
random

OOM: Black tie evening

So, it hasn't been the best vacation so far. It had had potential, and then it had sucked. But Ramon is determined that the time away isn't going to be a complete waste - and he's rather good at sweeping emotion under the rug and ignoring it, when he wants to.

And so, the sight in their dingy little motel room is rather innocuous. The place is more used to seeing hookers and junkies - but tonight, it gets two men getting ready to go out and dressing in tuxedos.

If the good mood is a little forced, then Ramon hopes it'll be better once they're out. Is determined to try.

'Nearly ready?'

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"Delinquent."

Random grits his teeth and smiles at the woman, who gives them a dark look.

"You can dress them up, but you can't take them out, can you?"

"Quite."

And she goes, leaving Random to give Ramon an amused look.

'I feel like such an animal.'

Yeah. Right. Ramon moves on to the next painting with an expression of pure glee.

'What do you think of this one?'

"It's boring."

It's a landscape. What is there to say about a landscape?

"Lets go see if they have any Salvador Dali. You'd like him."

'Doesn't make you want to fly?'

He's only teasing, and he nods.

'OK. Why will I like him? Is he any good?'

He has heard of Dali, of course. Never seen any of his work.

It's a bit of a walk over to the 'batshit crazy' section, but Random spots one almost immediately.

"That's a knock-off, I think, but close enough."

Ramon blinks at it.

'Right.'

And stares.

'Well, it definitely holds interest. I don't know if 'like' is the right word, but I don't mind looking at these.'

'Batshit crazy' is most definitely more his thing.

'I should buy this and hang it in the bathroom at home. Think Martin would like it?'

Hang it in Martin's room maybe, he thinks. The kid would probably love it.

"Well, it freaks me out, so no."

Ugh.

Random glances away.

"This one's 'Soft Construction with Baked Beans.' Or something like that. I don't remember."

'Aw, does it?'

He'd ruffle Random's hair, if he could do it without getting stared at.

'Poor baby. OK well, I won't buy it then. Why do they have syupid name like that? What have baked beans got to do with it?'

"Look at the ground under the... thing."

There are indeed beans.

"It's actually about civil revolution."

'They don't look much like beans to me.'

It takes him a minute to realise he's looking at the wrong bit.

'OK, right, beans. I don't know what that has to do with civil revolution though, unless people are complaining about having to eat them.'

He wouldn't blame them, really.

"I think it's something about exploitation. Look at the breast. A mother nature kind of thing."

He gestures.

"I, personally, have never seen anything so unnatractive."

'Well, I've never seen anything more gorgeous.'

Ramon is not looking at the picture anymore. His attention has been caught by the play of light on blonde hair over a black collar. It's quite transfixing.

A woman laughs loudly across the room then and he looks away, taking a drink of champagne instead.

'Lets move on.'

"Okay. D'you like the religious paintings? Or a few more of these first?"

Another Dali. Just as dark, just as morbid.

"If there's any Klimt around here we should find it."

'Anything you like, Random. I got us tickets so you'd have a good time - it's all the same to me. Lets look at what you like.'

Art is an alien world to him and he's just fine with that.

'What does Klimt paint then?'

"Pretty things. I doubt this place'll have any. Maybe we can get ourselves a Klimt print for Haven, he's one of my favourites."

Random leads him, instead, over to sculptures. There's a set here made out of grey stone that definitely draw his eye.

Ramon privately thinks that they should get themselves a Klimt original, but doesn't say anything. He just snags more champagne from a passing waiter and follows after Random.

'I didn't know you liked sculpture as well. Have you ever done any?'

"Nah. Nothing serious. I mean, I attack wood with a knife sometimes when there's something to wait for, but that's just for fun."

He tilts his head sideways, examining the angles of a face half carved out of stone.

"She's beautiful."

'When you look at that, is it better than the first painting you liked? Or do you like paintings better?'

The art is more interesting for the response it gets out of Random, to his mind. Apart from the photographs that the man's always taking, he doesn't get to see him appreciate ths kind of thing very often.

"It's better. It's more interesting. I like the way it's half-carved."

Most of the stone is rough hewn.

"Like she's trying to escape. There's emotion the other one doesn't have."

He almost asks, does escape dpeak to you? And then considering the topic that's dominated their lives for the last few days, he doesn't. Instead, he laughs.

'Honestly, it's a mystery. Emotion from a block of stone - do people just see what they want to see, or something?'

If he were the type to feel envious, he would. But he's quite happy staying within his own sphere of interest.

He points to another sculpture - again, mostly just rough hewn stone. But this one has a hand reaching out of it, as though it's stretching for something. It's male, and rather beautifully carved.

'What about that one? You like it too?'

He's quite surprised to find that he does.

He looks at it, and winces.

"No. It makes me feel like the walls are closing in."

He can't reach for Ramon's hand, he tells himself. Can't.

Ramon has another drink and glances at him.

'Yeah.'

The pause feels somewhat awkward to him, so he moves on to the next.

'This one better?'

A child's face, a girl, laughing. The block it sits in is completely square. From the back, it just looks like a block of stone. There's just the one side that has expression, everything else is blank.

"It depends. I don't know. She's either content within her prison, which is a little morbid, or she's protected."

He angles his head.

"I... think it's nice."

He wonders, for a moment, why Random has prisons on the brain. And escape. Then he wonders if he's just being paranoid.

And then he considers that if Random likes it, he must have gone with the thought that she was protected. Which is better, isn't it?

He glances back at the first one, of the woman that Random likes.

'Yeah. It's OK.

...I'll be right back, I have to find the bathroom. Won't be long.'

"Come back fast, please? My spanish just isn't that good, not with the dialect thrown in."

He doesn't tear his eyes away from the laughing face.

"Je t'aime."

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