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While they showed their affection in strange ways Candace did consider Rep a good friend as long as she could trust him to trust her and to tell her if she stepped over any lines. She was used to him being stupid, to getting himself and the others around him hurt in some way, but never had she heard of him becoming temporarily...disabled. Blind? What had happened? He said it was Jerry's fault which brought up even more questions. How? Why? When? What? These were things best asked in person and not over something so public or in a character-limited text.

But apparently finding Rep was more difficult than she had originally anticipated. She had thought he would be in one of his usual haunts but he appeared to be missing from them. Strange..

She stopped looking when she heard a passing pair of Life Hunters say his name. Candace blinked, casually following them to the labs and eavesdropping on their conversation. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was no way Rep would..would he? No, that had to be a rumor. It was too weird. She had to find him now.

It took some listening and some outright asking but she did eventually find Rep hiding away in the building, the click of her heels on the floor announcing her presence before she spoke. "So how long until I can drag you out for off-island fun?" It was a genuine concern, she liked going shopping and the like with Rep.

That coat was the wrong color. Red was more suited for Rep than blue, it was just one of those things..like Lance had said; when you think of a person on the island you associate them with their color, pink for Harrison, purple for Candace, red for Jordan and red for Rep. Not this sweet, precious sky blue that didn't fit him at all. Though the pink scarf made her smile. "Incidents? What did you do this ti--" She finally caught the new scar on his face and just stared, her eyes wide. That looked..painful. He'd blamed Jerry for that? "Glad to see you kept both your eyes. Feeling better, I hope?" She would ease into it like gaining the trust of an injured animal. Those branches looked so odd on Rep in comparison to the usual Sun emblem.

No ******** shield? That..that didn't sound like Jerry at all.

Wait, no. That sounded like the old Jerry.

Candace frowned and stepped closer to get a better look at the scars, a small frown on her face, but she looked more concerned than judgmental. That was so close. "Did he..disassociate or something?" He hadn't done that in so long, this was worrying. She instinctively reached up to brush Rep's bangs out of the way to see the scars better but stopped halfway, dropping her hand away.

"You need to stop getting grounded. I can't take you out on dates if you do." The date part was a joke, a stupid attempt at trying to lighten the mood.

Candace winced at the comparison of the beating being like smashing a cheap vase. She hadn't seen Jerry since she'd bailed him out of jail with Rep and Melvin. That had been interesting to say the least, though seeing Jordan blow up had been less fun than she had hoped.

Rep telling her he wouldn't flinch away from her actually surprised Candace. But didn't he hate being touched? She thought only Jordan and Harrison were allowed to touch him. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn't think of how to reply to that. It was something she understood, him not wanting to be touched, though she did sometimes get upset that she couldn't hug him or console him whenever she saw him upset. "I'm glad." She finally answered, not wanting to look too enthusiastic and go right in for a hug or unimpressed and wave it off like it was nothing.

Candace couldn't help but grin now as he lamented over not being able to leave the island with her, putting her hand on her hips with a mournful sigh and shaking her head, looking terribly disappointed. "It's a shame, I really know how to treat a lady properly, too." If he was going to wear girly pastel colors like pink and sky blue Rep was going to be the lady here.

Success. That comment could have gone two ways, badly and he would flip out at her claiming to call him a b***h lady, or light and joking how it was meant to be. Good, good. This was progress. Candace smirked. "I don't take out cheap whores, so I prefer it that way anyway. But since our options are limited we could see about what we can get done on the island." She glanced at the minipets. They were cute and all but sometimes it got boring working with them unless you got a really good one like her Alice or Harrison's Killer. "I mean, I'd hate to take you from this terribly exciting work but..." He'd mentioned a couple appealing options on twitter.

To be honest Candace was pleasantly surprised that Rep wasn't rising into any kind of angry defense or telling her off. This was progress, definitely progress. She liked it. "Pricier than me? I dunno...I was given a pair of two thousand dollar shoes recently.." Okay so she took them but they were meant for her to begin with. It still counted. "Though I guess all those fur coats do cost a lot.." She eyed Rep's coat as she said this, reaching out to pick at it. Not even a fur lining...this was so weird. Candace actually frowned. "I don't like this, seeing you in a color that isn't red.." The frown became a childish pout. This wasn't Rep, this plain sky blue coat that lacked any kind of flourish or fur trim, and a Life emblem instead of a Sun. She wanted to ask but she would wait, not wanting to completely overwhelm Rep with all the questions she had at once.

At Rep's complaints about minipets she shrugged. "I agree, especially when Molly keeps volunteering to clean up the cannon cat tanks. There's so many of them I can't even be in the same room as her until she takes a shower. But I like taking Alice for walks when I can, she's a sweet girl." She gestured to the fire wolf pup barking and pawing at the wall of her tank that now pranced in circles around her little house when her master finally looked her way. Candace grinned and finally walked over to the tank to drop a few treats in. The minipet ate them right up. "Good girl."

She turned back to Rep after giving the pup a scratch behind the ears, brightening up considerably at his suggestion. "Yes, please. It's been forever since I went swimming with someone, it gets boring by myself."

But you're never alone, Candace~. Atropos sang. Candace shook her head.

I'm not taking a golem into the water. I don't know how well it'll hold up. The weapon sighed mournfully. Fine, fine.

Ah, yes. Bail and breakages. Candace couldn't help but snort with laughter at the memory of that night...pre-Jordan blow up, of course. "You'll make that money back, don't worry. Luckily this island isn't terribly demanding of money. In my case it just sets back my closet renovations until Melvin and Jerry pay me back, which is fine.." But they would be paying her back. Candace would make damn sure of that. "So...you broke a table..?" She wouldn't lie, she was very curious about what had happened to get them arrested. There was only so much she could get from their arguing.

"Sounds good to me. I'll need to change anyway." She agreed with a nod, turning to give Alice a wave and to blow her a little goodbye kiss. Mommy would come back to give you walkies later, sweetie. "I'll see you in a bit, Rep." Candace called over her shoulder, giving a little wave as she walked out.

When Rep arrived at the beach he'd find Candace waiting with a surprising amount of patience for a woman who didn't like to be kept waiting for things, idly burying her feet in the sand with a small smile. There were some pretty nice memories attached to this beach, it was nice to think back to them every now and then as long as she ignored what happened right after them.

Candace looked up at Rep as he called out to her, giving a nod and standing to take off a simple t-shirt and jeans she'd tossed on over her swimsuit, kicking off her sandals. She looked Rep over, stopping at his scars. She didn't really have any scars herself, small pale healing scratches here and there where she had been stabbed a little harder than usual but..eugh. She'd never seen his scars like this before. "A shame about your tattoo. It looks nice.." Candace put her hair up, tying it back and clipping it in place. "Okay, let's go."