Alex was a rigger working fourteen to twenty weeks at a time marooned on a multistorey platform island, salt rusted and mollusc encrusted, pumping oil both day and night - the plant never skipped a beat.
And, partly because there was nowhere to go to, the men settled into their relentless routines stationed atop the thumping waves and vibrating motors, with the noise being so impossibly loud, it may has well have been a silent retreat for the little conversation it afforded.
It changes a man to live at sea for any length of time: they become other-worldly by instinct, after a while.
When Alex had first met Romulus he fell for him instantly. Superficially one might say the attraction was little more than desire, given the beauty of the man-demon; however, in truth, it was Alex becoming of this man.
In essence most love affairs begin with the ineffable sense of the unknown to be known - the enchanted promise of anticipation and the expectation of something absolutely thrillingly wonderful to come. But as it turned out this experience of getting to know Romulus had become as dark and painful as the hidden character himself.
And yet Alex stayed with him, abused, and often screwed, he came when he was called, tortured by a sadist who had no real affection for him, or anyone else at all.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
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