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 Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:11 pm
Jordan picked his way cautiously though the maze, watching his steps by the light of Ferros's stone and B0nez's runes. It wasn't a simple maze, but neither was it a complex one.
There was no response to Harrison's inquiry. "Should I open it?" Jordan asked after a moment; he didn't wait for a response, though, already moving to get a grip on the edge of the stone slab so he could pull it aside.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:20 pm
Harrison just joined him, getting a grip on the rock.
If he was sure Rep was in there, and not hurt, or somewhere else...he'd have just been willing to wait outside all night.
But, as it was-
The scrape of the rock was in sharp contrast to the wind and waves.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:42 pm
"Rep?" Jordan called, and made his way slowly into the cavern, holding his hand up to let the dim red glow light his path. The hoard smelled like sand and stone and the lingering remnants of cleaning products now, the faint trace of rot almost entirely gone under the smell of the cave and the objects themselves. It was neutral, kind of nice, and the clutter and mess that had repelled him was muted into some kind of organization. The faint echoes of the ocean filtered into the cave from the tunnel that led into it, covering any sound of breathing, and he wasn't familiar enough with the hoard to be able to tell if the sound of his voice and the faint muffled sound of footsteps in sand were altered by anyone's presence.
"Rep?" he called again.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:03 pm
Rep just stayed stock still, refusing to reply, unable to reply, simultaneously afraid they would leave him here and hoping they might.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:15 pm
Harrison found the dark uncanny, even more so because they should see the glow of Rep's earring.
Anyone could have sent a message from the phone... no, that was stupid. There were the traps, and they wouldn't know- stupid. He was overthinking it. And he felt like Rep was here.
He picked up a trinket off a stacked box, and looked over the shelves he and B0nez had carved.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:22 pm
There were piles of things on the shelves, but Jordan didn't really think that Rep would have climbed up to hide; he moved slowly through the cave, making his way around the perimeter, around the shelves, checking things piled on the floor, one by one. Rep had to be here. Nobody else would know to send a message stating Rep would be here, and if Rep had left in the interim there would have been some sign; Jordan didn't think Rep would have left, anyway. Once he'd gone to ground, he would have stayed, nursing his pain like a wounded animal.
He didn't really expect an answer now. If Rep was conscious, he'd chosen to stay silent, and they'd have to track him down.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:48 pm
Harrison knelt on the cave floor, pushing aside boxes. His hand paused at the pelts. He lifted the thick fur, and there, a hint of blue, the digging became more frantic, and he pulled the fur aside in rapid succession, then wrapped his arms furiously and tightly around the man inside.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:34 am
Rustling, and then a blue glow, the familiar light of the artifact that was Rep's earring. Harrison had found him. Jordan hesitated only a moment before slipping in to curl around Rep from the other side, silently joining the embrace. Rep had been prickly and skittish lately, pushing Jordan away half the time when he went to touch, but if Rep didn't want to be held now he could damn well push him away. Jordan wasn't going to hang back on the off-chance. Not now.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:46 am
Rep didn't want to be found, but he wanted to be found. He didn't deserve to be found. Back and forth he went on an endless ping pong of emotion, simultaneously frustrated and heartened by the persistence of the two other hunters.
When he found himself wrapped in Harrison's arms it was that same maelstrom of complicated feeling. He didn't deserve him and he couldn't escape what he was. He felt disgusting, a creature which shouldn't ******** exist, wrong in every possible way. He relaxed but it was slight, and the words wouldn't come.
But once again when Jordan joined the hug it was as if Rep found a direction to twist his pain and anger, his body tensing up entirely at the contact, frigid and robotic.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:29 pm
"Rep," Jordan said, tired and hurting, all the frustration and pain of being held at arm's length and made to reveal things he didn't like to expose squashing into the single syllable along with the care and the worry and the love that had sent him out into the evening to search. He didn't let go, just resting his forehead against the back of Rep's neck.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:33 pm
Rep didn't relax. He wanted to squirm away, but he couldn't initially. Instead his skin crawled and he tolerated the gesture with all the pleasure a feral tiger might enjoy a hug. He didn't like it one bit. "No." he snarled, twisted up, wrong. Everything felt wrong, already on the edge of panic to begin with, tangled up with hurt and distress it pushed him over.
"I wanted to be left alone."
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:41 pm
"You can't stay out here alone." The tension transferred into Jordan as though by osmosis, knotting his shoulders up tight. When and how had they lost the easy affection that was so important to him, turned it into this struggle? If he left Rep alone, the cold standoff got worse; if he didn't, it wound up like this, more like a restraint than an embrace.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:44 pm
"I ******** can." he snarled, resenting the implication he was weak, as if left alone he'd somehow come to ruin. He still wanted to get free, contact almost painful when he felt the way he did, especially when all he felt in it from Jordan lately was control, it wasn't what he wanted but it was apparently what Jordan did, and so he was supposed to tolerate it. He didn't ******** want to. "Let go of me for ******** sake."
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:53 pm
"We were worried about you, you a*****e," Jordan said, still in that same tired, almost resigned tone of voice. "If I got pissed and took off, would you just let me run off, maybe run into a titan or the O hunters or whatever else has been killing people? ********, maybe you would. Why don't you want me touching you?" he demanded suddenly, the skulking anger that seemed like his constant companion lately flaring up. "It's like you don't want me around, don't want me at all."
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:56 pm
"Aye I ******** would." he growled. "I don't want you touching me because I don't ******** want you touching me. I don't need a ******** reason, you aren't gods ******** gift. You keep touching me when I don't want you to so you ******** lost your privileges at all." He curled up a little further, still nursing the hurt and despair, stopped only by Harrison from curling into foetal position.
"And if I said I ******** didn't?"
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