Page 24 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
“Richard says we should have weekends,” Collin grinned ruefully, going in for a hug, “But he’s not having one either.”
Damian embraced Collin back, squeezing firmly. Their kitten was more confident in his place again, eagerly reaching for the physical comfort he craved. After Collin stepped back, Jun moved forward, sliding his hands up the sides of Damian’s face and kissing him. Damian wrapped his hands around Jun’s waist, using the loops on his pants to bring their hips together.
“Richard will make sure we all rest afterwards,” Damian finally responded.
Collin nodded, the light still in his eyes. He waved at the plans. “At least this is fun work.”
“I should leave it all to the two of you.” Damian sighed. He stepped up to the altar. “I’m going to be traveling for a lot of the next two months. You both have my power of attorney now.”
Collin nodded. Jun’s lips thinned, probably from worry, but neither argued. They both knew why he needed them to represent him. Damian was going to be using his work as an excuse to visit major players in their scheme. Richard and Émeric would be doing much of the same. Not only was the railway project truly taking off, but Damian couldn’t put off his actual work any longer and fighting the Merchari was taking everything the three senior members of the Residency had.
At points, Jun was going to be the most dominant member of the Residency at home, even though he was the newest. They would try to keep it as rare as possible, but it was entirely possible that Jun would be alone with Collin on occasion.
Damian rubbed his hands together. “After today, I’m hoping you two can take point on most of the decisions.”
Collin and Jun traded looks. “Collin has point. He knows more than I do. I’m support,” Jun said. “We have some ideas and a few decisions to make.”
“Jun knows what performances need.” Collin nodded at his kink brother. “I’m working with the professors and the architect to make as much of it happen as possible. Now that we have the last round of funding nailed down, we can actually start getting plans approved.” He put his hands on some of the printouts. It was a decision tree. He placed it in front of Damian.
“Don’t read too far ahead. Right now, it’s only one decision at time. Each decision you make will get rid of some of these papers.”
Leave it to Collin to be on top of everything.
Collin placed two mocked up visions of the inside of the Church sanctuary on top. One looked very much like the space as it was but cleaned up. The pews were missing and everything had been closed up but it looked as it had before. Changes were minimal: The altar space had been extended. There was an overlay for the ceiling. Damian flipped it up and down. One overlay showed the open ceiling concept being preserved and one showed it closed up in the traditional manner.
It was right and it was wrong all at the same time. Damian’s gut clenched. This was just a cleaned up version of the thing he hated. He preferred the ruin in which they were standing to this sanitized hall on the printout.
Collin tapped the edge of paper. “Pros: This is the cheapest version of getting a large community/performance space.”
Damian nodded numbly.
“The cons,” Jun prompted Collin.
“Right.” Collin tapped another print out. “Cons. The dungeon will be cramped. Most of it will be limited in height, even if we put the floor on the very lowest level and run all utilities on the walls.”
“What’s the other option?” Damian said. He tried to smile for Collin but his Residency brother read him.
Collin pressed his lips together. “It’s much more expensive. I’m already looking into getting grants to help. We have a team at the college willing to do the plans for free, as long as they get credit.” He took away the first set of printouts and replaced them with four more. The first one was the sanctuary. Except it was very different. It didn’t look like the space they were in. The floor floated eight or nine feet above the original height, putting it on level with the bottom of the stained glass windows. The ceiling remained open in places, covered artistically in glass.
Collin tapped the second sketch, one that made less sense. “This is the stage. We have a few ideas. With this raised version, we could have a solid stage. Or we could have a modular stage that collapses in and out. With the stage collapsed, a vaulted space below here would have access to the highest ceiling. With or without a modular stage, we could preserve the altar and religious area here, either to use in the dungeon, or to preserve for some other use or historical purpose.”
Damian pulled the floating floor sketch towards him. There was so much light. The upper stained glass windows on the same level as people walking in and out felt right, in a way, as if everyone had been pulled upwards. They would be suspended above the grounds and streets outside. “It’s beautiful.”
Collin nodded. “The pros for this is that the dungeon and lower spaces could have raised ceilings. We’d have to rip out much of the original floor, though a lot of it needs that, anyway.”
“Raise the performance space floor or keep the space in it’s original form,” Damian tapped the print out decisively. “That’s the decision here?”
Collin nodded.
“Option two,” Damian said. “I don’t care if it costs more.”
Collin swept some of the printouts to the side and marked his decision tree.
Damian’s head ached by the time Collin reached the end of his chart. But it had been easier than it should have been. Jun, Collin, and the team of experts Émeric had found them had thought of more things than Damian could have imagined.
“I’m going to step out,” Collin said. He held up his phone, showing his security detail on his phone. “Just going to run all this back to the Parsonage.”
Damian nodded him off.
