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 Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 2:00 pm
"S'fine. S'just when people put pressure on it and s**t. "
A long silence ensued again, the only sound being Jack's breath keeping meter beside hers. "What are y'thinkin' captain boss?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:27 pm
"You should consider physical therapy," he suggested, adding with pale humor, "It'd help not having to worry about it for once when we get rough."
He didn't know how to answer her question. His emotional state was somehow both in flux and yet steady: the clone and the reaper had both stirred up an undercurrent, but he was used to keeping the surface still. He wanted to leave and he wanted to stay and he wanted to talk about what he thought about these things wearing his face and he wanted to talk about a hundred other things he had yet to tell her because Chel was frighteningly easy to talk to when he was receptive to the idea of another human being understanding him and he wanted something else to gnaw on from outside himself because that inner restlessness wasn't welcome right now.
"Wished we had time for another bath," Jack eventually replied.
Two beats later, there was a rap on the door. Room service had arrived with the dinner he had ordered just before heading out to drop off the clone: cheese pizza, Greek salad, a small bottle of soda, and coffee.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:51 pm
Physical therapy was something that, in the past, she would've denied. To accept any kind of help with her personal problems was a no-no for sure. But now, having lived in an environment where failing to seek help had screwed her over on not one, but many occasions, she actually entertained the idea. She did give him a pinch when he mentioned getting rough though; just for spite.
Chel was about to make a crack about the bath when the noise interrupted them. There was a strange disconnect between Jack getting up to answer the door and the food arriving. While yesterday she had been gung ho to goof off, now it felt disjointed to go from contention to personal conversation to pizza and soda. She stretched her mind far enough to encompass all of the behaviors.
But her kneejerk response was to gasp and roll her eyes at the sight of the pizza. "Really?" she scolded once the room service deliverer was well out of earshot, "Pizza 'fore a mission Jackles? We gotta get you a cookbook I swear." But it was good-natured and she helped him move it onto the coffee table (while she had no qualms with eating in bed, she hated pizza grease on sheets). "You know the horseman we fought too?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:16 pm
Tearing the packet of vinaigrette open, he poured it over his salad and began to mix up the vegetables. "Everything else had meat," was all he said about the meal. The whole pizza, ordered off the child's menu given its size it seemed, was for her.
"I didn't know the horseman, no. That one looked like War, mine was definitely from Famine." Otherwise, he wouldn't have let it get away so easily. "It liked eyes," he added as he moved around the feta cheese cubes with his fork, frowning slightly at them. "Thought they could be preserved like jewels."
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:31 pm
"Jack Hawthorn, god put cows on the earth for us to eat 'em," she said, shaking her head. "Don't you dare go p***y on me." Vegetarianism and veganism; utter betrayal.
But she ate, occasionally offering him a bite or taking some from his salad. It only added to her discomfort that they were discussing murder and vengeance over pizza and salad. Surreal.
The comment about eyes was weird, but she was relieved to hear that it wasn't his. As much as she wanted to offer Jack revenge she also didn't want to put him near any part of that experience. "You want me to try and find 'im?" she said quietly. "Once I get my bracelet off I could probably lead a few bands down there." Chel underestimated how powerful Nest was, having never interacted with them beyond Jack's stories. Above all she wanted to offer her hands, even if it meant as balled fists.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:50 pm
He swallowed down the <******** you with several gulps of coffee. "No," he replied, calm, terse. "No point. If we find it while out on a job then we deal with it." Jack harbored no illusions that it was a priority, whatever his gut impulse was. Hitting and getting hit was a fact of life now; he'd simply reserve that energy for his fantasies unless reality gave him a chance to fight back.
Withdrawing inwardly, he began collecting tomatoes and bell peppers and romaine on his fork to eat.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:57 pm
Jack withdrew, Chel poked.
"Why? Wouldn't it make y'feel better knowin' it's dead?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:04 pm
"Of course I would," he replied. "That doesn't mean I have the time or the resources to track down one ********," he stabbed more salad with the word, "cockroach when we've got a whole infestation to crush."
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:07 pm
"Well I do," she retorted, leaning over the bowl he was stabbing so that he'd have to look at her. "I got nothin' but time and resources."
She'd play knight so he could play important Grecian god scientist.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:11 pm
He paused with the fork hovering in the bowl and looked her in the eyes, wondering. "You're making it sound like you want to clear my whole list," Jack said, and while there was a hint of his usual wry humor, it didn't color his gaze.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:13 pm
"F'it makes you happy and gets stuff off your chest, sure." She leaned back into the pillows, far too casual for such a conversation. "I'm nothin' but a walkin' weapon. F'I can use it for some good, why not?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:26 pm
Normally her casual attitude in the middle of what he considered a serious conversation irritated him. This time, however, he found that as Chel leaned back against the pillows, an unbidden, uneven smile began to twist its way up. "Well, you do have a bombshell of a body," he said, for now pushing the topic onwards. This pleasant if dubiously generous surprise would get revisited later. "You finished eating?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:32 pm
"Now that's just sly," she said with a laugh, crossing her legs and sticking out her tongue. There was a small disparity that crossed her face as she looked away for a moment. For Jack it was pushed away, but for Chel it was one more thing on her plate now.
Always one more thing.
"Bruh I had a slice and some fists of leaves. I'm a growin' girl," she grumbled, reaching over for a second slice. "Chill."
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:39 pm
"Chill," he echoed with a soft scoff. "Sure. I'll get right on that."
The salad wasn't filling enough. He stole another slice of pizza and dabbed it on the napkins to get rid of most of the grease first.
"I just want this done and over with," he muttered as he ate.
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:50 pm
"Y'said two hours. Gotta have at least ten minutes left." Despite this, she was wolfing down her pizza now. There was probably some part of her that wanted it done too.
---
Some time later she came out of the bathroom, with a surprising twist on her face. To the best of her ability, she'd used every concealer product known to man to cover her scars (at least the visible ones). It had taken some time and some of them were still obvious (particularly her facial ones considering the contours and ridges), but she had done the best she could given time constraints. "Tadah~" she announced herself, moving towards her bag.
"Tired of bein' a 'combat veteran' here," she explained shortly, shoving for a new set of bandages to replace the ones she'd used before. "We'll blend in better this way anyways."
Reequipped and readjusted, she straightened and finally looked at Jack. "M'ready now."
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