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 Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:23 pm
Varu was what? Fifteen-sixteen-seventeen? Had he really been in the game that long? God, no wonder he had so many powers! Tepin wasn’t sure she could hold out that long before getting anything; that just wasn’t fair.
But she could vividly imagine the world he described. It was like the old pictures that littered classroom textbooks, or the plastic recreations that movie-makers used to describe paradise. With splashes of colour everywhere, animals actually roaming the earth without being confined to zoos or preservation homes. It sounded exactly like how the jungle islands had been explained in history class; the paradise that the world was before things got too scarce.
“Jaguars?” No, now he had to be joking. Now it sounded too far fetched, like the story tales he had read her before bed. There was no way that jaguars actually existed where humans could encounter them. That was just crazy. “Now I know you’re lying!”
She felt particularly proud of herself, calling him on his bluff. There was no way a God could make a realm, let alone bring real people to it. If they could do that, there was no point to fighting over the world-- they already had their own little world right there.
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:33 pm
He grinned amusedly, though trying to frown at her.
"I am not! Ee't ee's all true." He could prove it, too. "You know the scratches Mr. Slinky leaves?"
He set her down on the couch with a ruffle of hair, turning around to pull his shirt up and bare his back.
"Jaguars are very big Mr. Slinkies," he informed her, proudly showing off the scars that lined his back. It was hard to imagine that they could've been made by anything else; deep, jagged, slashed across and down and turned white by age.
"You think I am still lying now, da?" he laughed, rolling his shirt back down.
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:49 pm
“You are!” She protested, her bottom lip jutting out as she scowled at him. “You gotta be!”
She knew the scratches that Mr. Slinky left; oh, she knew them well. They littered her arms-- the sign that the girl had tried to cuddle that poor cat one too many times. Once she had moved on to making him dance… Well, the line had been crossed.
Apparently, Varu had done far worse than trying to make a kitty dance. While she had the occasional scratch on her arm-- His back was a mess of scars.
She couldn’t even count them all-- they seemed to mix into one another, a complete checkerboard of pain.
“No,” She was murmuring now, her voice quiet as her fingers timidly reached for the man’s back. They were real…
He had really gotten hurt, because of what his god did.
She moved in closer, pushing his front away from her as her hands rolled his shirt up once more; both hands resting on the sides of his back as she got a better look.
The wounds were old, but they had to have hurt so badly. And Varu… She knew he wouldn’t have stopped… if he was really in that jungle, he couldn’t have. It must have been torture for him.
Silently, embarrassment coating her face as she leaned in, she planted a small kiss upon the first scar, on the nape of his neck. She moved down, each getting their kiss in turn, each just as deserving as the last, no matter how small or large they were.
When she was finished, she pulled back, hiding her face behind her cupped hands.
“There--” Her voice was muffled through her hands, she was far too embarrassed to look at him, “They’re all better now.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:06 am
He was surprised.
Stunned, even.
He didn't expect her to want to get an extended look. But he could never have predicted the kisses that followed. Like when Sydni had kissed his broken leg to make it better (he had to reassure her that healing kisses transferred through thick casts, don't worry Sydni!), here Tepin was doing the same for him.
For the first time, his instincts hadn't jumped at having somebody to his back - hadn't even twitched when she'd come closer to investigate. And then, then--!
He was going to die from the sweetness, he knew it. Tepin was secretly out to get him - ready to kill him with a diabetes attack.
Gah! He wanted to hug her to death in return. It was too adorable for an older brother to take!
Twisting back around, he scooped her up in a bear hug, grinning more happily. Her embarrassment be damned, he was going to hug her and she was going to have to squirm for air.
"Thank you, Tepin." He loosened his hug, setting her back down to kiss her forehead. "They are definitely all better."
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:22 am
Squirm she did. Passionately, at that. Her hands were still clutched to her face when he grabbed her, making it all the harder to breathe even despite the bear hug. At that moment, she might not have minded his death by diabetes-- at least then she wouldn’t die of suffocation!
While he kissed her, she gasped for air, her face a bright red from a mixture of the blood that had rushed to her head and the sheer embarrassment she felt from his gesture. She was going to die. The beating of her heart in her ears made that clear. Her breathing was still quick as she clawed her way to the freedom of the couch, pulling herself into a more dignified seating position and calming herself down somewhat.
She thought she was going to die, for a minute, there. It was enough to remind her of the original topic.
“Wait!” She dared it, her heart stepping up a few beats, though now from fear, “I’m not done yet!”
“You said you were going to kill Quinn… And that everyone else had to get in line.” Her toes wriggled-- she stared at them intently, “Is that true?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:33 am
Now it was his turn to blush, leaning back against the couch and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Ee't ee's...complicated." He said that way too much whenever someone asked him about Quinn.
"V'e v'ere enemies, once. For a little v'hile. Our gods are still enemies, too." He hesitated - even he didn't understand his own feelings enough to explain. "Ee't...the Game ee's dangerous, and Quinn tends to make enemies. And I...I do not v'ant to lose him. He ee's mine. Nobody else can take him away from me."
He pulled his legs up, ears flicking back. "I do not v'ant him to die." He frowned, mussing his hair thoughtfully. "He v'ill not die. Not unless I say so. Not unless ee't ee's by my hand." He flushed again, nervously - it sounded an awful lot like he was protecting Quinn. Was he?
"I am sorry. That probably does not make much sense. I just...v'ant him to be v'ith me, until the very end." He didn't want their time cut short.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:47 am
It sounded complicated… But not so much. Varu was only trying to keep Quinn from getting hurt. So long as no one knew that they were together… Then no one would touch Quinn, thinking that Varu had dibs… So why was Quinn such an idiot?! Parading around with Varu out in public, as if they didn’t have this intricate plan laid to assure his safety!
Every god was an enemy, as far as she could tell. It meant that if she were to come out, he would have to kill her. And Tepin wasn’t so sure that she had earned the same amount of protection that Quinn had from Varu.
Even if he really didn’t deserve it.
“What about me?” She asked, her fingers interlacing with her toes, still refusing to look at him.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:54 am
He smiled, leaning down to hug her again, ruffling her hair and pulling her up to cuddle.
"I am selfish. I v'ant you to stay beside me forever, too. Every prince needs his princess, da?" His lips curled more affectionately. "And being selfish, I need two."
Though he knew what would eventually happen, just as he knew it with Sydni. They started growing up, growing away. There was the rest of the world to explore, and big brothers were not as fun to live with when there were boys to date and a life to live.
He knew. He'd probably end up alone.
It wouldn't be so bad if they visited once in a while.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:09 am
The cuddling was welcomed, even after she had almost died by hugging. Cuddling was different-- it was tamer.
Though in reality, Tepin knew that Varu’s real ‘princess’ was actually Quinn. No matter what sweet words he may use to dress his girls up, the one he really saw as his ‘destined one’ was none other than Quinn. It was he who Varu would rescue, riding on his white horse, and not Tepin or Sydni.
“You can’t want us that bad!” She scolded, feeling even more angry. The more she thought, the more she remembered, and the more she remembered, the angrier she got. “Because we’re gunna get the baby sitter again when you go with that guy,” who you were planning on fighting when you first met.
She frowned up at him, her expression softening as her hands reached for his, “Don’t go. Don‘t go see him. Don‘t fight.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:20 am
"I do. Never doubt that." He was serious, taking her hands in his. "You are both very precious to me. I have to fight. I v'ant to."
How to explain it? It wasn't just his instincts, no. It wasn't just his boredom, or his restlessness within the City. Brushing her hair back, he remembered - it was far more than that.
"Blacksuits, the government people V'rit v'as talking about....they are dangerous. Not only to players. My friend," and he could call Ciro a friend now, for sure, "his father v'as killed by them. His girlfriend, too, ee'f v'hat that other godling says ee's true."
And he didn't want the same thing to happen to Tepin, or Sydni. To people who weren't directly involved, who didn't need to be involved.
"V'e have to strike first. I do not v'ant you two ee'n danger."
There was a problem with that logic. Attacking the Blacksuits would draw their attention to him, to his girls. But if he didn't attack, they would strike sooner or later.
He didn't want the next Echo to be Tepin. The next victim to be Sydni. He didn't want to be like Ciro had been, driven by rage and misery to extract revenge rather than do it for the protection of his loved ones.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:07 pm
Her fingers looked so small and light next to his, her skin so smooth compared to his work-burdened hands.
He obviously knew for more than her, and he obviously worked much harder than she ever had. Her small fingertips brushed over the tight skin on his hands, her mind thinking for some sort of thoughtful reply.
She didn’t really know how to respond to that. The government really had no business interfering in their game in the first place. So long as no innocent people were hurt, it should be none of their business.
But it were the blacksuits that were hurting the innocent people, not the players.
That didn’t make sense, not at all.
“How do you know that guy was telling the truth?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:19 pm
"I didn't." It was an easy enough admission to make, and he chuckled humorlessly. "I am not good at knowing v'hen people are lying. Terrible at ee't, actually."
He stretched his legs out, tail tip flicking back and forth as he explained. "Ee't does not matter, really. Ee'n the end, there ee's going to be a fight. But ee't ee's a good idea to ally v'ith older players v'hen the opportunity arises, no matter how brief."
He knew he could be walking into a trap. Writ really had presented no proof, only a proposition. Ciro hated him, as well - and that was more than enough for Valeriu to treat the man with caution. Ambush or not, he would keep his guard up.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:19 pm
She frowned-- boys were really violent, weren’t they? Even with Varu’s plans to win, he seemed all too much like he enjoyed what he was doing.
“Are you going to kill them? The blacksuits?” She hoped not-- then, really, he was no different from them.
There was no reason to kill them. The government kept the normal people in line, harming them would only cause chaos, resulting in the very sort of world that Varu wanted to avoid.
She continued her examination of his hands, taking time to poke and prod the calloused skin of his palms.
Really, he’d be much better suited to a housewife.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:30 pm
He paused at her question, eyebrows furrowing.
"I do not know," the more she asked, the more he realized he didn't have a clue. "I have, have never--"
Never killed a person. Sure, he'd beaten up turtle boy. Sure, he'd killed animals before (meat did not grow on trees, after all, and fish from the river only went so far when it came down to it).
But he'd never killed a human being. He didn't know if he could right now; Ciro was supposed to help him with that. Help him find the magical trick, the key to slaughtering a person in cold blood like he would have to do.
Even as the thought made the thing inside of him perk up in excitement, he felt a bit sick.
"I don't v'ant to."
Sick and miserable. It was one thing to beat up other players, to fight adults. But killing? Even Blacksuits, as corrupt as they were -- they had families, too.
"But to protect v'hat I care about, I v'ill."
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:48 pm
He was uneasy, she saw that. And honestly… She was glad. If he had said yes… if he had ever killed someone…
She didn’t know if she could stay there.
But he hadn’t. He wasn’t the murderous man she had seen earlier that day. He was kind, and not a heartless killer. He didn’t plan on slaughtering his lover, or hurting people without a reason.
He was who she thought he was after all.
That earned a reward. The fact that he did not have blood on his hands made her happier than anything else he could have said.
“Good,” She smiled, pressing into his side for a tighter snuggle, “You’re a good person, after all.”
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