Leslie had a copy of The Little Prince, and was resentfully reading every page at an abnormally slow pace. Even though the ventilation wasn't great, he still had a cigarette lit, but at least he had the courtesy (these days, anyway) of using an ash tray.
He waited for his partner, barely even looking at the water outside, unnerved by the swirling depths and all the lurking horrors they contained.
As someone entered through the portal, Leslie looked up and narrowed his eyes.
"Don't recognize you," he said, sharp. "Rhys, right?"
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Not for the claustrophobic, this is a station submerged underneath the island that floats along with it. Shaped like a giant metal pill, one side is metal, and houses the portal, readout equipment, a console full of observation monitors, and a few pieces of comfort such as a table, chairs, and books. The other half is made of thick, clear plastic, allowing a full and unobstructed view of the local underwater life.
In the distance, it's not unusual to notice massive shapes moving in the distance, and it's the purpose of this station to keep an eye for any of these, or anything else unusual, coming too close to the island. The Island of Deus Ex Machina floats quietly along the edges between this world and that of Halloween, and with that comes certain, calculated, risks.
Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:57 pm
Books weren't exactly his thing. Magazines were a different story, and Rhys was lugging along a small stack of them to pass the time. It was hell to find the portal, but when he finally walked through it he was met with a cramped space and one other person on the other side. Behind the guy, a massive expanse of deep blue. He made a face, mostly at the blue. Partly at the guy seated with a cigarette lit.
"Yep," he said when the non-greeting registered. Rhys flopped onto the seat and dropped his stack of magazines--mostly fitness and one of questionable content seated at the bottom--on the table nearby. "Don't recognize you either. Somethin' with an 'L' though, right?"
He narrowed his eyes some and looked the guy over. "Lou? Lewis? Larry? Am I getting warm?"
Leslie looked at the magazines with open disdain. All of them.
He sighed, rolling his eyes, and blew smoke at the guy, accidentally on purpose. Because: he was a little s**t.
"Leslie," he said, "Mist. Green as all hell, or just been on other bases?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:02 pm
Had the thought been said out loud Rhys would have agreed. It wasn't though, so all he did in response was pick up a magazine and use it to wave off the smoke, coughing a little in the process. Not that it helped much considering the cramped space.
"Right, Leslie," he said as he kicked back. "Me? Still green as all hell, trying not to get killed and all that fun stuff."
He was about ready to open up his magazine when his eyes caught the deep blue beyond, and he nodded toward it instead. "What in the hell are we supposed to be doing here, anyway?"
Leslie snorted, and jerked his thumb at the undersea to the side of them.
"Watching out for that s**t. You look hard enough, you'll see some bigass sea creatures. Sometimes they get cranky, although it's been ages since anything's come this way. So mostly, you sit on your a** and try not to die of boredom."
He flipped a page. "A lot of duties involve waiting around for s**t. Pod duty is waiting around for a new b***h to wake up. Lighthouse duty is sitting and watching portals. Jungle duty is to make sure none of the weird, mutated things there get out of hand. Get used to it."
Leslie paused. "And paperwork. Lots and lots of ******** paperwork."
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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 11:39 pm
Watching and waiting. Just that was enough to have him lose interest in the task at hand, at least so long as all it meant was sitting on his a**. He flipped to the first article of his magazine.
"Guess it's good I brought a stack of these," he said on a sigh as he listened to Leslie list off their duties. Basically it was a lot of waiting. And apparently paperwork.
He made a face and lowered his magazine enough to see the guy across from him. "Paperwork?" he echoed, expression contorted into one of mixed confusion and annoyance. "Well, ********. Does anything happen around here?"
"Yeup," Leslie said, sighing wearily himself. "And no ******** falling asleep, because they always ******** find out. Trust me. The whole island, anywhere inside a building anyway, is basically on camera 24/7. Be prepared for that to be used against you, by the way."
He shrugged. "Sometimes. Dozens of hunters die every time there's a big a** ******** mission, and a few have been killed by a lead, so don't piss off ******** Caelius, by the way. Or Dr. H, I hear he put his fist through some guy's chest and stuck him in a pod, frozen. And then when you patrol abandoned bases, you're gonna find some ******** horsemen that will try and stick their weapon up your a**, since they're hell ******** bent on ******** destruction. And sometimes when you patrol the Haunted House you'll meet shitty students that want to try and take you on because they think we're evil or something, never ******** mind we've tried to save the world a few times, whatever."
Leslie had Feelings, about this, apparently.
"But also, yes. Paperwork. s**t ******** tons of it. Every time you do a mission, you need to fill one out. And I work in the infirmary-- where people ******** are all the goddamned time, jesus s**t-- so I get even more. It's whatever."
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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 3:12 am
Paperwork and candid camera. Rhys snorted and flipped the page, eyes falling on an ad with a rather busty babe that cheered him up momentarily before Leslie started to mention dying hunters and such. He cast his sea green gaze over at the other man, an expression that likely read "you have got to be ******** kidding me" all over his face. The two names mentioned were the only two so far he was certain to never forget...
Then talk of horsemen and students or something and he got a little lost but he'd honestly lost all manner of curiosity as soon as the topic of dying came up. Not that he was squeamish at all, or even that he was particularly scared of dying (he'd never admit it even if he was), but it wasn't exactly a light topic either. And not one he was prepared to hear just yet. Being so new and barely able to handle his weapon, he had a feeling he'd be among the first to go if he was suddenly assigned to go on some obscure mission or something.
He'd rather hear about the paperwork, so he was glad when Leslie jumped right back to it.
"Well, guess I know which place to avoid if I don't want a ******** of that s**t," he said as he flipped to the next page. It was an article about some celebrity's workout regimen, and one he was familiar with so only skimmed momentarily before he regarded Leslie again. "So how long you been here?"
"It could be worse," Leslie grudgingly admitted. "I hate looking after ******** minipets. I'd rather fix a human than clean up fake-animal s**t. Literally."
At the question, Leslie sort of began counting the months on his fingers. "Huh. Almost two years, in January."
Christ, how had it been that long?
"Not full yet, but probably early next year, so long as I don't ******** anything up too badly. It's better than where I came from, so." He shrugged. "You take the good with the bad, and s**t."
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Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:32 pm
He almost asked. He actually raised a brow at the mention of minipets and fake-animal s**t, but he didn't. He didn't really wanna know...at least not until he was faced with the task of cleaning up said s**t on his own. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he said. He kind of hated the idea of paperwork more.
He left it alone and flipped to the next page of the article.
"Two years, huh?" he repeated, "never done anything for that long my whole life, not counting school."
Silence followed for a while until Rhys lowered his magazine some, eyes narrowed at the other. "This is boring as s**t, man," he finally said after a beat. "Do you guys do anything to make this more interesting?
"Right?" Leslie replied in kind, equally incredulous. "Longer than I was in ******** high school, that's for ******** sure."
He was-- well. Alarmingly young. Or he had been, at least-- barely the age limit when recruited.
"Honestly? No. I just read and s**t. I think some others play poker." Leslie leaned back in his chair, scrutinizing Rhys, tapping his arm, which rang oddly metallic. "If you want something livelier, come work infirmary. The shifts will brutally ******** you in the a**, and it's exhausting as s**t, and frankly pretty thankless-- but it's interesting as s**t. Usually. Unless everyone has ice crotch."
Leslie gave Rhys another appraising look. "Did anyone tell you what that is."
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:52 pm
Rhys didn't get a chance to comment on the metallic sound as Leslie went on about infirmary duties, which he found at least a little amusing since the guy was complaining about all the paperwork infirmary duties came with just earlier. Granted, being interesting and enjoyable didn't necessarily go hand in hand. He was about to decide between the lesser of the two evils--too much paperwork versus being more interesting than watching the deep blue beyond the little observation room--when the words "ice crotch" came out of the other guy's mouth.
The brunette returned the look being given him with one that was a mix between scared and confused. "No," he answered slowly, "but I hope it isn't guys goin' and freezin' their balls off for shits and giggles."
The idea made him shift uncomfortably in his chair.
"Ice crotch," he began, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forward, "is what happens if you decide to stick your d**k in, or get dicked by-- or whatever kinda junk they got cos that s**t isn't normal and it defies nature and s**t-- a creature of Halloween. If they banged a normal human they'd just keel over and die due to the Fear concentration. We've got a shield, so it uh, protects us some. But seriously, ice crotch. We have runic hair dryers just to defrost people."
He snorted. "But that's just external threats. Never trust a god damned runic thing from any life tech. ESPECIALLY condoms. That's how you get banana d**k."
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:01 am
Rhys lowered his magazine a little more, wanting to pay attention but not wanting to be so obvious about it. The idea of ******** something not human, never mind something from Halloween, caused his brows to scrunch up in even more confusion. "Guess I ********' underestimate that fetish s**t, man" he muttered. "I mean I almost wanna laugh it's kinda sick, but I mean, what? Not enough tail around here?"
The warning about the condoms finally had him drop his magazine on the table. "And what in the <********> is banana d**k?"
Leslie shrugged. "Some of them have human illusions, too. So just, don't ******** anything in the haunted house, even if she looks like a normal hot lady. But yeah, some people uh, get a taste for it I guess."
Cackling, he held up his hands for a demonstration. "So," Leslie said, "you put on the condom. And then it sort of liquefies it, like a banana gone soft." He squeezed his hands in the air. "Splerch. So yeah, runic s**t is uh, not for use on the body usually. Apparently."
