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 Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:24 pm
It was true, he hated it but it was true. He wanted to be able to detach himself, he wanted not to care, to be able to just switch off emotion would be the greatest and most blissful thing. But the fact remained that he couldn't. He cared, he cared deeply about every single person he met, if he hated them he only cared more. Their opinions of him defined him, meant everything. And he hated it. He was willing to give everything of himself to those who persevered far enough to reach it, but even then the nearer the got to him the more likely they could hurt him, the more easily they could get burned.
"I want people to make it. In an ideal ******** world I want all of us to get out of this alive, to see the end of this s**t. I want people to get along but not be ******** false all the time, false niceness is worse than me being ******** honesty."
He wasn't sure how to respond to being what he could only assume was ordered to get dressed. He hadn't summoned Tracey since he hit Rin with him. He might have pouted. Just a little.
"What if I say no?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:32 pm
Melvin looked at him. "Then I'm going to fire at you. I'm going to fire over and over again, and if you don't defend yourself, I'll fire till eventually I break your own fear shield. Then I'm going to call the techs to drag you to the Infirmary to heal. I might injure a leg just enough to keep you immobile for a while and since I work in the infirmary from time to time, I'm going to see if there is a way to get you placed in that empty room right next to Rin's room." He waited.
Then he raised his weapon and fired.
When he chops off your arm, tell him to go for the one you don't use to fire me. Okay?
I don't think he'd be taking requests.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:46 pm
Rep met the other man's gaze coolly, absolute challenge in his expression. He made no move to defend himself in the least, simply let the hit ricochet off of his fear shield, sapping a little of his energy as it did. It was a bluff, it had to be a bluff. He didn't uncross his arms.
"You don't have the balls. You are just a nerd."
He refused to summon Tracey. He wouldn't ******** up again. If he did shoot him out, he could explain to them what had happened, Rep wouldn't give them reason to pin it on him.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:53 pm
Melvin smiled. "I'm a nerd with a clean slate. I wonder what it would be like to tell everyone I beat you. A Life member only a few months in sending You of all people to the infirmary." He smiled. Rep had buttons, but he also learned about different buttons that the hunters took personally. That being defeated in a spar meant something, and that weapons were a big deal.
Well at least this is target practice. Saliva watched.
"If you want to get along, then we all have to get better, fix our problems, and be there to help. Everyone has to act like a family here." Then again, everyone he spoke to didn't really seem to ever have had a family before. Rep, Rin, Ofelia. All of them had a hard life.
"We're not going to make it out alive together if we break up." He fired again. It was rather exciting to actually not miss because he was this close. Sure, Rep wasn't even dodging, but Melvin was still saying the hits counted in his book. "I could go all day, William."
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:01 pm
Rep flinched as the next shot collided with his shield but still made no move at all to move away or defend himself.
"If it makes you feel good, do it. I couldn't give a s**t if you sent me to the infirmary, I don't care about being someone's trophy." Pain and humiliation were nothing, he didn't fear either of them in the slightest, even the slights to his pride, normally enough to make him lose it, he let slide off him. He wouldn't mess up again. He liked Melvin, he wouldn't risk maiming him. If he couldn't use Tracey right, he wouldn't use him at all.
<...>
"Go all day if you think your stamina is better than mine."
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:08 pm
"Oh, I don't need two boyfriends to know that I can hold out longer than you." Nevermind how winded he had been scaling his way up here. That was a different matter.
He fired again.
"I guess if you don't care, that dumb a** weapon you call Tracey doesn't care either. Gaudy as hell weapon anyway. A bunch of twisted scrap metal to make an over-sized bread knife." He was clearly poking at this point, but he had to show Rep he did care more than in just words.
He fired again, each time the egg hit it splattered and sizzled a dark, green smoke.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:31 pm
The words hurt but at this point, Rep found the pain satisfying, the bullets nothing in comparison to the words.
When Melvin turned tact to insulting Tracey it became obvious he was fishing for a rise out of him. But even with this knowledge it was so very difficult not to react, not to let the rage overcome him. Tracey hadn't done anything wrong, he'd simply allowed himself to be used. It hurt Rep to hear him belittled and there was an almost motherly response as he reached up to the earrings that were the axe's desummoned form as if he could somehow shield them him with his hands from the words.
Every shot whittled at his shield dangerously, and he wondered, as he regained his thrown off balance, if the acid when it gave out, would ruin his good towel.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:41 pm
He went quiet, still holding the gun up. He'd never broken a shield with his weapon, and his wasn't something that cut or smashed. It burned. Rep's body was already covered in scars and despite that, he knew no one wanted to be harmed. No one wanted to be subjected to something that could disfigure them.
"Did you loose your temper when you fought her or was it just a charge? How was it any different from the other charges you had? You've had your weapon a while and last I heard, you haven't been promoted." He fired again.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:55 pm
Rep eyed the gun evenly, as if simply daring Melvin to keep shooting him.
"It was just a charge. I hadn't seen her in a while, I missed her. I brought her a jumper, we went to spar to get hands on reacquainted. The spar broke her shield. I couldn't stop it. It was different only in that it lined up. Sometimes I feel like Tracey and me bleed over. I felt it then. And that was all."
The mention of promotion stung, old wounds that never really healed, the idea that Jordan and Harrison would be promoted where he couldn't follow. "They won't promote me." he said coolly. Because I killed someone and turned on my team.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:57 pm
Melvin paused, looking at him. "You...you killed someone?" He knew Rep had marks, but he never heard of him killing anyone. He paused firing for now to give time for Rep to speak.
"Who?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:00 pm
"A civilian. And old woman. Defending the monsters." He had regretted the consequences, the backlash on his team mates, his poor decisions on the mission. But he did not regret her death. Monsters didn't deserve a mother when so many humans went without.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:08 pm
He raised his gun again. "She didn't sound right in the head." He didn't know the full story and it was one he'd have to address later. Getting sidetracked now would be a bad idea. Keep focused.
"How long have you been friends with Rin?" He asked, still not firing but pointing his gun.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:13 pm
"She wasn't." He'd tasted what was in her head too. That had been pretty ******** unpleasant.
"And I've been friends with her since we got to this shithole. Hell we were friends with ******** benefits for a while, until I decided my tastes didn't run that way. She's important to me."
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:22 pm
Melvin didn't lower his gun, but hadn't fired for a while now. He did look surprised when Rep told her that her and Rin - that they together - he just wasn't going to think about that at all right now. Nope. Not at all.
Keep focused.
"Th-Then you are her best friend too, and she's going to need that. She's going to need you. Not just one of her friends, but all of her friends. Everyone she holds dear. She told me it was an accident. You are telling me this was an accident." He had needed that assurance though. To know that Rep hadn't just been stupid and lost his temper.
"She's going to need people to help her fight again if they put her back on the field." He wasn't sure what decision would be made. "She's going to need people to protect her if they don't. To make sure this island doesn't get overrun when we are attacked by another fog dragon or wave of horsemen." He had only recently learned what their names were. "You are needed. Not up here, but down there." He pointed his gun back down the hill towards Deus. "Even if things are messy at first, you just have to take those hits as they come."
"Okay?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:31 pm
Rep nodded. That much at least made sense. The only way to make this s**t right was to deal with it. It was just strange to hear it from such an unlikely messenger. Melvin was and apparently would always be a baffling enigma to Rep.
He frowned a bit. "Yeah okay. Just. I guess. One thing."
He looked away at the cliffs, but it was his turn to ask the questions. "Why come all the way out here to tell me this? For Rin's sake? What's even in it for you?"
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