<div class="floatleft">(https://cdna.lystit.com/photos/bb62-2016/02/14/criminal-damage-navyblack-nep-t-shirt-product-2-556257935-normal.jpeg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Jasper Jameson (JJ) (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=308599.msg15018215#msg15018215)<br/><strong>Age:</strong>28<br/><strong>Sexuality:</strong>Heterosexual<br/><strong>Hometown:</strong>New York, NY<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>3 July, 2019 | Late Morning<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Villa Competition area<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>This (https://cdna.lystit.com/photos/bb62-2016/02/14/criminal-damage-navyblack-nep-t-shirt-product-2-556257935-normal.jpeg)<br/><strong>Coupled with:</strong>No one<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Everyone<br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>JJ had done his best to remain silent and unobtrusive during the competition.  This wasn’t his normal attitude or nature.<br/><br/>The truth was, though, that he was in a game and as with any game he wanted to win it.  Yes, it was a game where the ultimate prize was ostensibly love, but he was convinced that at least a few of his fellow Islanders were here for the more… practical… prizes.  No doubt some were enticed by the money.  Others by the fame.<br/><br/>Regardless of their reasons, they were all playing a game.  Many games, including this one, hinged strongly on the gathering of information and the shrewd use of it once obtained.  So JJ watched.  He made mental notes of the actions and reactions of the Islanders.  Who was embarrassed by their secret and who wasn’t. Whose opinions seemed shaped by the secrets they heard and whose weren’t.  The grace, or lack thereof, with which each Islander endured their moment of revelation.  Who kissed whom and whether the act was strategic or emotional.  All information was worth having.<br/><br/><em> “Know the enemy and know yourself,” </em>JJ quoted internally,<em>“In a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”</em><br/><br/>He quoted Sun Tzu effortlessly.  He could have done with Clausewitz.  Napoleon.  Marcus Aurelius.  Nietzsche.  Others.  One thing that his youth had taught him…  expensive lessons, given the price he paid… was the haven of books and learning.  At times they were a literal haven, as the one place his aunt almost never sought him out was in his father’s library.  Others they were simply a place where his mind was unbound from the horrors of his life.  The neglect.  The violence.  The pain.<br/><br/>When JJ had graduated from college his father had been surprised, which only showed that his father didn’t know fuck all about him.  All the man saw was the tattoos.  The promiscuity.  The drinking.  The drugs.  He didn’t understand how easy JJ’s classes had been because the tattooed young musclehead already knew much of what the Professor was “teaching” him, which left him plenty of time for the more visible aspects of his life that his father saw.<br/><br/>None of that mattered today, though.  For now the only lesson of his youth that he needed was summoning the laser focus and keen insight into the human animal he’d purchased so dearly.<br/><br/>The entire sordid episode of the day’s game began more pleasantly than he’d hoped, though.  He knew immediately that the secret Caroline read out wasn’t his, but like a bee finding a flower, Cassandra made her way over to him.  He schooled his features to blandness, but welcomed her kiss… the full-body press and her soft, willing lips clearly delighting in his.  He placed one strong hand on her hip to steady her for the few, heady, moments of their kiss and arched a brow at her knowingly as she broke it slowly.  As most men would have, he took in the sight of her as she sauntered away, pleased with herself.  A part of him wanted to laugh, delighted, at her strutting, but he kept his composure as he watched her work that ass.<br/><br/>From beside him he heard someone whisper and turned to see the newest arrival, leaning in to him.  Dude looked like a product of a night of passion between a hipster and a grizzly bear.  But it was what he said that caught JJ’s attention. Especially given the mindset he was in when it came to gathering information. He nodded to the guy and whispered back to him.<br/><br/>“Find me when this is over, then,” he said, keeping an eye on the rest of the group as the game continued.  “We’ll grab a beer.”<br/><br/>When the secret turned out to be the grizzly hispter’s, he shot the man a quick, amused smile then followed his gaze across to where the girl JJ had arrived with was giving him the same sort of amused reaction.  Interesting.  So those two were a thing?  It’d bear watching.<br/><br/>JJ returned his attention fully to the game, which was just as well.  The next secret was one of his own.  In truth he was relieved, though he made certain not to show it.  In fact, he tried to summon a bit of an embarrassed downturn of his features when the truth was revealed, though he’d long since put that episode behind him.  If there were others who were looking to him for information, he would give them what they expected to see and hide the reality.<br/><br/>What he found most interesting was Samantha’s choice, Logan, and how he reacted.  Despite the fact that Sam was a lovely girl, Logan acted as if she was some unwelcome intruder when she tried to deepen their kiss.  It was an embarrassment that she handled well, which was good information to have… but Logan’s immediate glance toward Rhonda and her complicated reaction (was that anger in her eyes?  Toward whom?) were more valuable.<br/><br/>The next two were standard fare.<br/><br/>Corey got blown in the backseat and busted by a cop.  Child’s play.  Though the fact that Grace had gotten his secret did make him wonder in passing whether the producers had manufactured that for the sake of drama.  He restrained the impulse to roll his eyes at her saccharine proclamation, but that was Grace.  Somehow completely devoted to a man she just met.  He scoffed internally.  Emotions so easily bestowed were often the ones most easily retracted… but it wasn’t his business.  Though their date had been an unmitigated disaster, he didn’t bear any ill will for the woman.  He just hoped that she wouldn’t hurt Corey.  He seemed a nice kid.<br/><br/>Then the group found out that Owen nailed a couple lady soccer pros and some B-list tv personalities.  Stunner.  There didn’t seem much information to be gained from that based on the (lack of) reactions from the rest of the Islanders.<br/><br/>The next secret though...<br/><br/>So far all the secrets had been about some sexual indiscretions.  This was the first one, aside from his if he was being fair, that spoke to underlying character traits.  So Logan apparently didn’t have the balls to break up with girls on his own.  Huh.  Kind of a chickenshit way to handle his business.  What little he knew of the guy made it seem like he was a pretty stand-up dude, so it was surprising.  He’d definitely keep that one in his back pocket and study it later.<br/><br/>The next couple of secrets were fairly tame stuff.  Guy writes porn under a woman’s name.  Well, why not?  Guy’s dick has a mind of its own when dancing with his best friend’s mom?  Who hasn’t had that happen to them?  Or some variation on the theme, anyway.  He was mildly amused to hear that it was Logan’s secret, though.  JJ wondered inwardly whether the guy had found a way to blame his twin so he could avoid an unpleasant reality.<br/><br/>The last secret… yikes.  Talk about a turd in the punch bowl.<br/><br/>JJ watched the reactions around the group but the one that really stood out, of all people’s, was Caroline’s.  Of course, it could all be a put on for the cameras… but there seemed to be real pain in her eyes.  He’d put real money on the fact that she’d been burned in a very similar way to the unfortunate Devon who’s reaction was exactly what JJ would have expected.  The dude had sunglasses on, but every line in his body was tense.  The secret clearly bothered him a great deal.  JJ made a mental note to grab a third beer before his talk with the grizzly hipster and toss it to Devon.  That shit had to sting.<br/><br/>Finally, mercifully, all the guys secrets were done.  The ladies had finished with three points, which was more than he’d thought they’d get when things had kicked off.  Given that two of the secrets had been given to the lady coupled with the guy who owned them, JJ did wonder if the thing had been staged a bit.  He didn’t mind one way or the other.  In fact, for his money he’d rather be inside the Villa meeting his competition.  After all, he’d spent the entirety of Day 2 outside the Villa with his three dates, so he was significantly behind on building relationships with everyone but those three women.  Well… two.  He’d managed, somehow, to make a hash with Grace in spite of their date.  Because of it, really.<br/><br/>In any case, it was the girls’ turn to be on the pillory and JJ was looking forward to it.  He suspected there wouldn’t be a better way of learning a lot about them in such a brief time as putting them under the particular brand of stress they were going to be under for the next few minutes.<br/><br/>The first secret wasn’t much of a surprise, but it was something of a bombshell.  These days he’d give even odds for any of the ladies in the Villa that they would have something salacious on video.  Wasn’t that all the rage now?  He’d dated women casually who, after a couple dates, were sending him nudes, presumably in the hopes of keeping his interest piqued.  To be fair, they’d succeeded.  No straight man would ever turn down that kind of open sexuality.  Indeed, he found himself looking over the ladies precisely because he knew that he’d be looking for that video eventually.<br/><br/>James appeared to take a few moments to ponder his choice, but then gave one of the chastest kisses JJ had ever seen.  What was with people in this place?  Had they never seen the show before signing up for it?  JJ had binged every season when he was considering applying, if for no other reason than to get an idea how the game was played.  Sure, there had been a couple times where an original pairing had lasted the entire season, but it was vanishingly rare and, so far as he knew, few of them had worked out once the couple left the Island.  Even those that did, he sincerely doubted they'd end up stable long term. So he was more than a little baffled why people were treating this so preciously.  Kiss the girl, dude!  Kiss ALL the girls!  At least until you’ve spent more than a couple nights and a few hours of conversation with one that you really like.  Ah well.  Not his circus, not his monkeys.<br/><br/>When it came his turn to pick, JJ was all business.  The problem, if you could call it that, was that he had been busy for the entire day yesterday dating beautiful women.  While a wonderful way to spend a day, it was a piss poor one for learning who the rest of the Islanders were.  Certainly he didn’t know anyone well enough to confidently choose which woman would not only date fraternal twins at the same time, but then have the stones (or lack the common sense?) to be able to keep them separate in her mind during sex.  He had to admit, the details of that one had him curious.  Did the siblings know she was boning both of them?  Did they share her?  Craziness.<br/><br/>Without much to go on, he was forced to basically guess.  He pursed his lips, made a show of looking over the ladies, and strode over to Grace.  For a moment he stood there looking at her, giving every impression that he was about to kiss her, then gave her a cheeky wink and walked over to Elsa.<br/><br/>With one smooth, confident movement his left hand snaked behind her head, cupping the base of her skull warmly, solidly.  His right hand found her waist and pulled her into him… closely but not close enough to be too risque.  He’d never even talked with the woman, after all.<br/><br/>His kiss was firm, sensuous and lasted for a few heartbeats too long for her to believe it was all a game to him. His lips were surprisingly soft given his exterior persona and it was clear that he was comfortable with using them in such intimate ways. When he felt her respond, falling into the kiss in a way that was deeply familiar to him, he took a chance and let the tip of his tongue glide lightly over her lower lip.  When she met it with her own, he smiled slightly into the kiss and let his tongue flirt with hers for a few heated moments, teasingly.<br/><br/>JJ was about the break the kiss when he felt her press against him, eager for more and after a split second of indecision he decided to go for it.  The hand on her waist pulled her firmly against him, allowing her to feel the furnace beneath his skin radiating into her... or perhaps that was just her own feverish response.  Their tongues twined and twirled as JJ squeezed her tightly against him, but a few more moments of passion was all they would get.  He broke the kiss slowly, grinning into her lips, and gave her waist a pleasant little squeeze.<br/><br/><strong>“Worth it,”</strong>he said with a wink,<strong>“even if I’m wrong.”</strong><br/><br/>JJ walked back to the guys with a smile on his face and a pep to his step.<br/><br/><br/>((The kiss was written in conjunction with Sarita.))<br/>