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 Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:49 pm
"No," Roch said slowly. "Tex was right. A liar's a liar, even if half of what he says is true. They were screwed from the moment the door was opened. Now they don't even bother with the gold stuff, y'know? They just grab'em and--" He fell silent, falling back and staring up at his ceiling.
"Hell, I don't know. But I do know we can't trust DETH, and we can't trust the boogies, either. They know about hunters, and they're still keepin' it a secret. I got a mentor--Nox, the trick or treater guy? I don't know if we can trust him, either, honestly. But maybe I'll learn something from him."
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:15 pm
"Mmm," Danny said in response, lightly scratching her head just beneath her horns as she thought through what Roch had said.
Roch had his mind set, but Danny couldn't put all the pieces together and decide. She knew that regardless of what she saw in the trance, she still hated hunters. No amount of sympathy gained from the hunters would replace Rikki being shot in front of her.
The change of subject to mentors was a relief. "So Nox is mentoring you? Rage is mine ... we had a fist fight yesterday and I threw birds at him!" Her eyes sparkled in the memory.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:36 pm
"Yeah? You need healed anywhere?" he asked, looking at her closely. He didn't see any obvious bruises or anything, so he relaxed, snorting at the idea of her being mentored by Rage. "Gonna learn to flip a lot of tables, huh?" he teased. "Hell, I don't know WHAT Nox is gonna teach me. It'll be interesting, at least."
He hesitated for a moment. "Danny... if you knew someone awesome--like, the best person in Halloween--but somethin' happened to them, killed them--would you talk about them even after they were gone?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:56 pm
Danny shook her head. They rough-housed sure, but everything healed overnight. It was fun! She liked fighting.
What the jack Roch you couldn't just change the subject and drop a bomb like that. Danny held her breath for a moment, then said, "Yeah I guess so. It's not like if you don't they just go away." She thought back to May. Even though she was dead, there was a set of parents out there probably still crying over her. There was Danny, who now carried her story.
She didn't just disappear. There was a legacy. "You're thinkin' about Tex, huh." Roch was easy for Danny to read. Like a book, if she read those. "Does he really mean that much to you?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:02 pm
"Yeah..." Roch said quietly. "He means what coulda been," he decided. "What shoulda been. I mean... if he had lived, don't you think he would have had kids? That woulda meant I had cousins. And he woulda been my guitar teacher, y'know? I woulda had more family than a workaholic dad and a granddad that I only saw once before I started school. I wouldn'ta been a gang member, I wouldn'ta been..."
Well... him, pretty much, he finished silently.
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:43 pm
"My best friend," Danny finished for him. "Or a good fighter. Or someone who isn't boring as s**t." She did add, "Though you'd probably know a lot more about snails ..." Danny shuddered in the memory.
She leaned on one of his shoulders with both her arms and said, "Just think how boring you'd be. You'd probably just play guitar in the corner and be nice to everyone and never tell ghouls how you feel- well you kinda do that already... but you wouldn't be ..."
This wasn't working well, huh? Danny sighed. "You wouldn't be Roch.."
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:03 pm
"Danny, you might notta noticed, but half the time I don't LIKE Roch," Roch said bluntly. "Although... y'know... it does sort of help to know I at least got one prospective future out of it. Ain't gonna haveta do those jackin' tables like they did, tryin' to sell my skills."
It was strange, really, he'd been happy when he won the Horseman trials, but he'd also felt weird about it. Like it wasn't somethin' he SHOULD have won. But bein' picked as a guy that could make a living out of prankin' people? It fit. It felt natural, even. He had no idea what he was in for, though. Eh, when had he ever?
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:11 pm
"Well I like Roch so don't take him out, okay?" Danny said, socking his arm for good measure.
Huh. Roch as a ToTer. Somehow, it kinda fit. "Mhmm," Danny agreed. It really was a good option for him. He could play pranks on people and get payed for it. Pretty much what he did now, but with money.
"I still don't know what to do," Danny said, looking down. "I'm not really good at anything. Rage is fun, but we just fight and stuff. It's not a job." It was only dawning on her that soon she'd have to leave Amityville. Find a job. Do things. "At least you'll have somethin' to do after graduation."
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:00 pm
He frowned. "But I HAVE to have somethin' to do, Danny. I'm poor. Gotta get a job, make a living. You, you're a rich demon, you could be a bum for the rest of your life and you'd probably be fine." Great outlook, Roch, just beautiful.
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:17 pm
"All of that is Oersted's," Danny said quietly, "Once my parents are gone ... it all goes to him. I'm sure of it." This was confidential, something she could only admit to Roch and Rikki. For their ears only. "The maid's think I can't hear them..."
She buried her face in Roch's pillow and groaned. "Aaughuhhhh I don't wanna talk about after graduation. It makes me sad." She wanted a subject change. "What'd you find at Tex's place?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:00 pm
"A falling down, ugly as hell mansion full of ghosts that got pissed cuz we didn't bother to fix the roof we'd just collapsed in," Roch said. "And a trunk full of stuff, clothes, mostly, and that box I got. And I bet you'd be a decent trick or treater. You could go around punching people in the face, too!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:51 pm
Danny laughed and said, "That's not what a trick or treater does!" She laughed again. "... Is it?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:54 pm
"They also flip tables," Roch said with a nod. "And TP things and throw rotten eggs," he told her. "Dude, Danny, I think you'd fit RIGHT IN."
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:00 pm
Danny smiled, laughing harder. "You don't want me to be a ToTer Roch. I'll end up being better than you! Well, I'm already better than you at everything, so you're probably used to it." This was much better than their talk before. Danny couldn't stand being serious for long.
Musing, she said, "Hey Roch, you promised me you wouldn't leave anymore, remember?" She was, of course, referring back to Scarentine's when he was kidnapped. The circumstances were different, but the point was the same.
"And you left. How am I ever supposed to trust you ever again?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 7:06 pm
"Danny, when did I ever tell you you could trust me in the first place?" Roch asked her blankly.
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