Backstory: Reminiscing [sggstvish?]

[Ϛ The Inventor]

This backstory is also not at all recent.

If you happened to be inside The Workshop today, and happened to have somehow entered the working area, and happened to be able to hear over the racket being made inside, you would be able to hear The Inventor singing a tune. But of course, you wouldn't happen to have done any of these things, and that was why he didn't mind singing.

I'd like to dance and tap my feet
But they won't keep in rhythm
You see, I washed them both today
And I can't do nothing with 'em

As he sang these words, he tapped a hammer to the beat of the song. Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Ho hum the tune is dumb
The words don't mean a thing
Isn't this a silly song
For anyone to sing?

Screw driving, ratcheting, welding. All to the beat. I don't know how you weld to a beat, but he managed it.

I chased a polecat up a tree
Way out on upon a limb
And when he got the best of me
I got the worst of him

Almost as if he had planned it that way (he probably did, actually) he finished working on his newest device just as he finished the song. It had the rough appearance of a television screen attached to a hard-hat and a rodent's exercise wheel with little wires.

He turned to the little wheel and spun it idly. The screen on the television look-alike lit up. He turned back to the wheel and said whistled, which somehow summoned a squirrel who came running and hopped into it. He gave the squirrel an affectionate little pat.

"Run, little guy! There are nuts in it for you!" he said with smile, but then a confused look came to his face. "Do squirrels really like nuts? I've never actually bothered to look into it..."

As the squirrel started running The Inventor sat cross legged on the ground and placed the hardhat on his head. The screen on the device, which had previously been lit up but completely blank, now displayed a scene The Inventor was quite familiar with. He settled in, ready to watch it, when it abruptly flickered and cut out.

"What the hammer...?"

He had never had an invention fail like this on him. He was thoroughly confused; at least until he noticed the squirrel sitting beside him, staring at the screen.

"Oh, you want to watch too, little guy? Well alright then."

He whistled at a different pitch and another, more determined squirrel showed up to man the wheel, and then he turned back to the screen.

"We should totally watch yours first."

He pulled another, drastically smaller, hardhat out from behind the television portion of the device and placed it on the squirrel's head, who proceeded to shoot The Inventor the squirrel equivalent of a puzzled look.

"What can I say? I know you well, I planned ahead!" he said with a laugh.

He turned back to the screen again to watch.

* * *

"That was messed up. You squirrels sure do get into some crazy adventures!"

The Inventor shook his head as he removed the hardhat from the squirrel's. The squirrel, free of its chapeau, shrugged modestly. I don't know if you've ever seen a squirrel shrug modestly, but it looks pretty darn funny.

The Inventor placed his hardhat back on his head and turned to the squirrel again.

"That's a hard act to follow, little guy, but I'll see what I can do."

[Ϛ The Inventor]

* * *

The thing immediately evident was the colour blue. And the quality of the screen must have been stellar, because the blue was a bluer blue than you ever would see. It was a deep, rich blue, not too dark and not too light, and completely uninterrupted in its azure expanse.

But it didn't remain uninterrupted for long. It was previously impossible to tell if there was any movement due to the lack of a reference, but there were now wisps of white crawling onto the picture, giving a feeling of motion.

As the wisps began moving faster and a bright point of light came into view as well, it became evident that the viewpoint was a panning look at a sky more vivid than would seem possible. The wisps were, of course, clouds, and the point of light was, obviously, the sun, but it looked almost as if this were some alien planet of blazing colour.

The vantage point suddenly dropped away, like a bird of prey swooping in on its future meal, and it revealed a breathtaking panorama; a crystal clear lake that faded to a darker cerulean toward the middle where it was deeper, rolling meadows of bright green grass, long and flowing in the gentle breeze that also caressed the tops of the forest of conifers nearby. Majestic, snow-capped mountains in the distance framed the picture perfect landscape.

And as the vantage point shifted once more, a pair of people came slowly into view. They were sprawled out on the lush carpet of grass, looking quite comfortable. One of the pair would be easily recognizable to both, as he was sitting there watching the memory. The other---

* * *

"Ow!" yelped The Inventor. "What??"

The squirrel at his side had been trying to get his attention for awhile now, and had resorted to biting his finger. It apparently had worked. He motioned to the screen with his little forearms like a madman, or mad squirrel I suppose, and mimed flying, and perhaps a camera.

"It's complicated, but basically, humanoid brains store more information in their memories than the person can tell. So basically, unlike in your memory, in mine you can fool around with the 'camera angles' and get all sorts of cool effects."

The Inventor looked mighty proud of himself for figuring this out. And he totally was.

"Now be quiet. She's going to say something."

The squirrel seemed to accept this explanation and settled back down to watch.

* * *

[will]

* * *

The other, was a girl who looked younger than she did currently; she certainly looked more happier than she ever had before. In the memory, she was lying beside the Inventor on her back, her head tilted to the side near his. Her hair fanned out beneath her, and unlike today, she didn't care that her locks were getting entangled with the occasional weed. Similarly, the skirts of her yellow sun-dress fell in in-between her knees; thankfully, it wasn't too immodest, although those days, the girl, William, didn't know what it meant to be immodest. Actually, even in the current day, she still didn't know what it meant.

There was an absent smile on her face, and her eyes seemed a little dazed, even as she followed the clouds. Unknown to her, at least consciously, she was fidgeting; her legs were unable to stay stay as she moved them from side to side, and her fingers were clasped together on her stomach, and then they were unclasped, and then re-clasped again.

"Eadmund," she began, in a tone that suggested that perhaps she hadn't been following the clouds as closely as she appeared. Rolling over so that she lying half on him, William crossed her arms on his chest, and rested her chin there, looking up at him in interest, no trace of being abashed at all.
"Do you think you can invent anything without using your tools?" she asked, but her gaze was now diverted and she started idly poking at a spot on his neck that she found to be distracting.

What was it? William wracked her mind trying to remember whether Eadmund had a birth mark on his neck or not; but she couldn't remember that far back when she couldn't even remember if she had seen it there only a few hours ago. Frowning now, the girl leant in closer, trying to inspect whether it was dirt or not, and not a second later, her lips covered the spot, tasting his skin exploratively before raising her head and giving him a thoughtful look.

"Hmm, you taste funny," she told him, teasing, and in more ways than one by the small smirk she had hidden away.

* * *

[Ϛ The Inventor]

The Inventor had a similarly absent smile on his face as he watched the clouds as well, though, apparently, he was concentrating a lot more on the task. Well sort of. He wasn't fidgeting, but the comfort of the soft grass and the warm sun and the lazily drifting clouds and the cozy clothes and the beautiful girl were beginning to lull him into a near-sleeping trance state.

Thus he went unaware of William's fidgeting, until the point that she called one of his many names and rolled onto him. His eye slowly slid down from looking at the sky to looking at his chest, but his head did not move and it gave him a sort of cross-eyed look. He figured there was more than just his name to come, so he listened some more.

He smiled at her question; it was nice that she took some interest in what he did. He sure liked it, after all, and if the two things he liked most got along, then what more could he ask for?

"Course I can," he answered proudly. "I had to invent my tools, didn't I?" He offered a wink with this statement, though it proved awkward to wink while nearly cross-eyed, so he pulled his arms back and used his elbows to raise his head and chest from the ground, and William along with him.

It seemed, however, that William was not in the least interested in his answer. At least not at the moment. He shot her a curious look when she poked his neck, wondering what is was that she was up to. And then she frowned, seemingly in concentration. It was at about this point that The Inventor truly wondered what was going on. But before he had time to question her, she attacked his neck.

For more reasons than one, he fell backward onto the ground again, glad for the cushioning of the blow the grass offered. The fall still caused him to make a sort of 'oof' noise, but he went uninjured. Her 'attack' had caught him quite off-guard, and he had raised his hands in surprise, thus losing the support his arms offered in keeping him inclined. But even had he been expecting it, his neck was devilishly ticklish, and he squirmed a good deal as more or less kissed his neck. Luckily it was a good sort of tickle, the kind that made him want to kiss the girl back to make her stop. Well, not only to make her stop...

But she stopped on her own. He wasn't sure whether to be sad or happy about this fact.

"Well I should hope I taste funny. If you enjoy the taste of flesh we've got a problem," he teased back, putting a hand behind his head to raise it a small amount, and placing his other tenderly upon her back, where it resigned itself to tracing soothing and intricate patterns on the fabric of her dress.

[will]

Not quite put out, William pouted anyway and managed to look somewhat disappointed by his response. She was pretty much sitting astride him now and leaning forward, hands fisted in his shirt, she peered at him with wide, beseeching eyes; a terribly innocent look that was unusual for her but she pulled it off anyway. At the back of her mind, she noted that perhaps she should have been in the entertainment industry; she was so good at this.

"Does that mean I can't anymore?" she questioned sadly. She was looking directly into his eyes now, her hair hanging in a canopy around them. She paused, holding his gaze for another moment, and in her over active mind, the level of non-existent anticipation rose a little.
"Don't you like me tasting you?" William murmured, suddenly quite somber when she realized how cruel she was being. She could have kissed him; the distance between them immeasurable because there hardly was any. Thinking that perhaps she wasn't as good as she thought she was, if her heart palpitations were anything to go by, William dropped to his side before bounding up to her feet.

"In that case, maybe I should leave!" She declared dramatically, sighing in a long-suffering fashion as if she was bestowing upon him an act of great mercy and it pained her to do so. She busied herself by dusting off stray grass strands, dirt and the occasional lady bug. Carefully avoiding his gaze, she fixed her hair while mourning a grass stain on her dress.
"There's something I have to do at once," she explained, ignoring how she had the rest of her immortal life to do anything she wanted. Forgetting her earlier efforts to correct her clothing, William kneeled beside him to press a kiss to his cheek.
"I'll see you later, Eadmund."

[Ϛ The Inventor]

"Yes, that's exactly what it means," The Inventor informed William matter-of-factly. He met her eyes with a prim and proper old lady smile, looking quite happy with himself. He enjoyed it endlessly when William toyed with him as such, if only because it meant he got to play too. And if there was one thing he enjoyed nearly as much as inventing and William, it was messing with people's minds.

He did not offer a single word of confirmation or disapproval at her successive comments. He did not even move, other than to swivel his head to follow her every movement with the bemused smile still on his face. He continued to behave in such a fashion even as she announced that she was leaving due to some urgent thing she had to do, and even still when she knelt to kiss him goodbye.

But the very moment her lips left his cheek, he sprung into motion. He sat up, clasped her hand in his, slid his arm around her waist, bringing his head close enough to hers that their noses were side by side.

"Yes it means you can't do that any more. No, I do not not like it when you don't not 'taste me'. It is definitely never not a bad idea to not leave, and you never should not proceed to not decide to part ways. And I don't not have the opposite of no doubts that you never could not find time to do whatever it is you must do, at a later date."

The entire passage was spoke in an unfaltering, blindingly quick pace. He flashed his most infuriating grin for a moment, but didn't bother wasting its use for long, considering they were far too close for William to see it anyway. He moved the hand clasping hers to her back to support her.

"Because it's my turn now. It's only fair that you stick around."

With that, he touched his nose lightly to her cheek, right beside hers, and slowly lowered his head, softly moving his nose across her cheek and down her jawbone. He reached the end of her face and broke contact momentarily, but by now his lips had reached her neck and were brushing gently across the sensitive skin there, moving farther down until they reached the edge of William's sun dress. Progress impeded, he switched directions, and moved toward her face once more, pulling his bottom lip across her skin until he reached her jaw again.

He then pulled back a little, smiling, and planted a small kiss like a warm breeze on her lips before sitting back in a more comfortable talking position. His hands now rested on the sides of her hips, his thumbs tracing gentle circles in the fabric there.

"You taste... anything but funny," he concluded with a devious grin.

[will]

The only thought she could fathom at that particular moment was that Eadmund, the great cheat, was playing extremely unfair. William would never admit it, probably because she didn't know for sure herself, but she had issues with being in a submissive position. It irked her like nothing else whenever she felt like she had no control, and unfortunately, depending on the perspective, the stupid Inventor before her managed to make her feel ridiculously susceptible on a regular basis.

Because William was still under the pretense of being an over-dramatic damsel in farewell, her attempts to remain unaffected lasted approximately a second, maybe two if she was being partial to herself. Her flimsy resolve, though it could have been steely if she had wanted it to, crumbled and with it went her sense of propriety. William summoned every ounce of strength she possessed, mentally speaking, and pushed the smirking man away from her and back down onto the grass. She fervently hoped he got grass strands stuck in his hair; see if she'd help him then!

Resuming their previous debauched position, she only had a small moment to entertain the prospect of decking him for his audaciousness before her hands wound themselves in his hair and her lips covered his. To shut him up, she reasoned, and it was a shame that she wasn't half as convincing to herself, or Eadmund for that matter, as she was to other people.

"I need to go," she mumbled incoherently, somewhat babbling and somewhat distracted. William didn't make a move to get up though, and instead began to press kisses along the side of his neck, her hands skimming down to tug at the front of his shirt.

[Ϛ The Inventor]

The only thought The Inventor could fathom at that particular moment was that William, the lovable fool, was falling for his tricks once again. He would never admit it, probably because she didn't know for sure herself, and because doing so would ruin his fun, but he knew she had issues with being in a submissive position. The fact that it irked her like nothing else whenever she felt like she had no control was very useful, and The Inventor did his best to make her feel ridiculously susceptible on a regular basis.

This was beneficial to him, of course, because it meant that whenever he tried to be the dominant one, she would feel like it meant she had something to prove. And the points she had to prove? Well, let's just say he wouldn't have complained even if his mouth hadn't been covered by hers just then. He returned the kiss whole-heartedly, though whether to get a rise out of her or out of his own desire was questionable at this time. Most likely was that it accomplished one on purpose and the other was just an added benefit, though the order was hazy.

However, he decided he must protest (and he squirmed then) when she decided to launch an assault on his neck with her beautiful lips. Beautiful and deadly, he reminded himself. They would take out his calm facade in mere moments if he didn't remedy the situation, and quick. He cursed the one who invented the concept of ticklishness, thought for a moment to ensure it wasn't he that had done so, and upon remembering that he hadn't, cursed with renewed vigour.

He tried to push the volley of blows from William's lips further south to a safer area, his chest perhaps, but he found that his hands wanted to do little more than caress her back with fervour. Trying to compensate, he let one hand caress while the other gently but insistently guided her head to the area she had just freed of his shirt's tyrannical rule. But he found that each hand quickly grew jealous of the other, and so he decided that he had better switch them. So he let the pusher do the caressing, and the caresser do the pushing. This basically resulted in William getting a very sensual head massage that directed her downward and a very sexual back rub that didn't really care what happened as long as she didn't stop what she was doing. His squirming body was equally indecisive; one part 'please no' and one part 'oh yes'.

Quite the cornucopia of mixed messages; though it was clear, to him anyway, that none of these messages consisted of 'go away'. However, he thought that maybe this wasn't quite as clear to William as it was to him at this time, so he decided to let her know in a slightly more obvious and decidedly less subtle manner.

"Don't leave," he breathed, one part quietly on purpose, one part seductively by honest happenstance. The fact that his words would serve as a reply to hers didn't even occur to him. Her actions were the far more pressing issue at this time. "Things are a lot more interesting here anyway," he reasoned.