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 Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:11 am
The food was delicious but Rep very quickly found that tucking in with immediacy was a bad idea as Clarice made him almost choke on a fry, sputtering and taking a few moments to compose himself before he could even reply, his voice a few scales higher than normal.
"What makes you think that Ace is most at ... " No, no he wasn't even going to go there. "But..no. no pregnancies." The thought of the lurking possibility was still the most awful nightmare, and though part of him suspected it might be some horrible joke, the other part would never ever risk finding out.
"We have been ridiculously careful." he said, grumpily munching another bite. "And no for lack of inconvenience either. I don't know why Life doesn't have its full research budget on eliminating that possibility ********>
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Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:19 am
Relaxing, she bit into a burger roughly the size of her head and made happy sounds at the burger and attempted placating sounds at the man across from her. The results were mixed. Wiping off some ketchup with a napkin, she cleared her throat and reasoned, "We advanced a bit too quickly, it invites a lot of weird s**t in due to the...well....magic aspects of our work outpacing the scientific understanding. With every break-through we've been seeing more odd effects occur with greater frequency."
She paused a moment and admitted, "Also the doctor thinks it's funny."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:06 pm
So safety came at the mercy of progress, he wasn't too keen on that fact but he'd frankly rather have cutting edge weapons against Halloween than remove every little risk. "Fair enough. Though it's no funny. And I doubt Ace or anyone would think it was either. Your boss has one hell of a sense of humour."
He took another mouthful and considered. "I guess I'd better hope he finds me demanding to go back to Sun funny aswell."
Somewhere between their last meal and the present day he'd learned to use a fork, this was progress, though the knife stayed on the table, possibly because he felt it was simply a tool provided for stabbing food thieves rather than and expected implement. "This is good s**t though, have to say. You have really good ******** tastes for a woman."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:29 pm
For a brief moment, all humor left Clarice's face, "Yeah, it's the kind of joke where he's the only one laughing. His favourite sort." And then it was gone, and she was suddenly softer again, smiling wryly and tearing into her ridiculous burger.
The for a woman part had her smirking at him, "Well I hate to defy your gender expectations, guy. Next time I'll take you to a salad bar and make you hold some doors. Maybe talk Cosmo secrets."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:46 pm
Rep had never been able to place why H gave him chills in some discordant animal way. It always felt unreasonable when he hadn't been too harsh directly to Rep and had given him advice which, he realised now was bolstering to his intent. He had said it was important to be decisive and even, and only now he realised he was feeling that way. Still, there was something wrong about the life lead.
He went on, "No many people defy them, you should be honoured. ********, you aren't even a whore. You can't be, being like, a dyke and all. Ye are aw right, I don't want to go within a hundred miles of a ******** salad bar, man. The only thing lower than monsters and s**t is a vegetarian. Vegans are lower than ******** inanimate objects."
He grinned broader, tossing back the last edge of his burger. "I did a quiz in Cosmo once. It said I was an over possessive girlfriend."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:01 pm
Clarice smiled fondly around her last onion ring, eyebrows sassy, "So while all us other lessers were born with the ability to see spooky shadows, you were also born with the ability to see what someone's been doing with their v****a. That's different, good to know."
She took another sip of her shake, sadly on its final few inches. "You could have made bank in the talk show circuit." The quiz had her snorting softly and looking him over, "I can see it. Must be bad when you have to keep an eye on two guys at once."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:07 pm
"Aye. I'm the ******** vag whisperer." he chuckled with a genuine smile. "It's because I'm able to be an unbiased judge and s**t. I can spot a whore at a hundred meters. It's a life skill."
Not about to be outdone by a shake despite it not being a pint of lager, he drained the last of his own in one swig, ignoring the brain freeze as he nodded, long suffering. "It is pretty bad man, neither of them have any ******** judgement. They just go befriending arseholes left right and center." He gestured emphatically. "Especially Ace. I have to keep him on an exceptionally short leash, for a moon, he has the social survival instincts of a ******** lemming."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:14 pm
While she choked on her laughter, Clarice very fortunately did not choke on her shake and was able to finish it with the grace and appreciation it deserved. She nodded in commiseration, eyes bright, "Yeah, not surprising. And he has a certain charm, you know? Even Stephen had a thing for him, and he's really picky about guys."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:33 pm
Rep made a mental note that Stephen was now on his mortal enemy list without actually breaking his smile, the usual twist of paranoia slithering in and boosting his insecurities. Of course everyone wanted his guys, he always knew it was true deep down, why wouldn't they?
Still, awkward as it was for him to give even an inch of his emotions light, he nodded, the deep sharp fear of loss tightly coiled around love. "I know what you mean." he said, grudgingly. "He's something special despite being a complete idiot sometimes." All the things he wanted to say got tangled up, scared to upset their relaxed atmosphere with uncomfortable vulnerability and honesty. "He's like a vital part of me at this point."
He looked up from the table where he'd been staring, giving her a grin. "He thinks you are just about the coolest ******** person anywhere. Any problems? We should ask Clarice. Need something? Ask Clarice. Badasses you know? Clarice." He twirled his fork. "You knew him before I was even awake." And he suspected from what he'd been told she'd always kept an eye on Harrison. "I'm grateful."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:05 pm
At Rep's words, Clarice's cheeks gained a flush and she looked away, her posture suddenly becoming a bit awkward. There was a long silence that followed, only breaking when she took a deep breathe and finally looked back at the hunter. "I...for a long time, I felt I was just...toxic, you know? I was careful to keep everyone at a safe distance. And then, one day I was a little bored in the pod room, and one of the sleeps started to wake up. Usually you're supposed to grab one of the leaders to help coax and cajole them into initiating the weapon bond, because things can go wrong. But I was bored, and overconfident, and wanted to play god for a few minutes."
She paused and sighed, "I treated it like a joke and then he..." another pause and then in a painful rush, "...he didn't wake up. Not right away, not like he should have. He did, eventually and he ******** me later, when we met in person. I just, at first I just wanted to make up for it, for treating his life lightly like that. But...I couldn't keep that safe distance, and ended up getting attached. He wasn't just some trainee I should help out sometimes, he was my trainee, and someone I wanted to be...I don't know...better, for?"
A small, chagrined laugh escaped her as she continued, "And that just...ruined my ability to stay away from people, to actively not care about them on a personal level. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him, maybe I'd be alive, but I certainly wouldn't be happy about it. He has just, no clue, but whatever I've done for him? He's done for me twice-over."
The bill came and Clarice seemed to file herself away, certain emotions were placed back in their assigned sections and shut out of sight once more. Turning back to Rep she gave him a playfully pained look, "Ugh, let's not talk feelings for another year or so, kay?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:33 pm
Rep listened to what Clarice had to say with that rare and respectful silence that he afforded only the people in his life that he respected. He wantonly assaulted the weak spots of strong people on a regular basis and meted out his own sort of justice as he tore down their walls. But when he was faced with any degree of emotion or frailty in others, shown in good faith, he treated it with positively un-Rep like gentleness. He knew the feeling of being toxic, it had been instilled in him from such a young age that everything he touched was tainted and doomed to fail. And he knew what it meant to make those dire mistakes borne of overconfidence.
He had no idea it had been Clarice who had brought Harrison onto the island, into his world. A mistake narrowly averted. It explained so much, and yet he was still grateful. He hadn't died, as far as he was concerned that meant somehow it was supposed to happen, because sometimes things just did. When she mentioned that feeling, the desire to be better for someone. He knew that too, and it almost ached to think about it, to feel it out.
"He has that effect on people. He's like. He's so simple and steady, focused and s**t. Like a single straight line in a world of ******** chaos and pain and hurt. He has never ******** once asked me to be a better person, but made me one just by being right ******** there beside me. I don't need to bring people down to my low, dark place cause I'm not ******** there anymore." He didn't want to make it sound as if it was about him, but he was always so afraid to ask the Life hunter about things, because sometimes it felt redundant, like they were both walking along the edge of a chasm, same paths, opposite sides and just here and now in this fleeting moment the bridge was Harrison.
"There's a lot he is pretty ******** clueless about too. But I'm glad. I'm glad you woke him up, I'm glad s**t changed for you and I'm glad for all the s**t you've done for me to date, even though you never once had to." And he felt the shift in tone, the edge away from emotions, and followed, the canyon returned. "Especially this badass ******** meal. And nae bother." He gave her a big bold grin. "Nae sappy unmanly feelings here, might hurt both of our ******** reputations."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:22 pm
The waitress returned with two more shakes to go, and Clarice slid Rep one with a pleased grin. Then she placed a hand over his and squeezed, hard, before letting go. It could have been a thank you, or an I'm sorry, or you've done okay, guy. As far as shows of emotion went, it was vague but acceptably manly. With a smile she stood up and groaned, "I'm gonna have to take a ******** nap, I had forgotten what these things do to you." Lifting her eyebrows playfully, she joked, "Hopefully we can go for a day or two without some weird apocalypse going down."
Despite her words, she was already sipping on her new shake. There's always room for a good chocolate shake, after all.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:50 pm
Wordlessly, he eyed her hand as she squeezed his, interpreting her gesture as all of the uncertain potentials it could represent, and resenting not a single one of them. The strength in her hands was still staggering, his knuckles singing with pain before the shield kicked in, but somehow that pain itself made the gesture even more affirming.
He smiled, bright and genuine, not the usual smirks he hid behind.
"If ******** only." he said jokingly. "I think I'll bring home some spoils of war." He held up the shake with a grin. "There's some good side benefits in spontaneous gifts."
He stretched with a crack of sinew before giving her a wink.
"Thanks again Clarice. I look forward to the next time."
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