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 Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 11:50 am
"Guess we know where Mikael gets it." Shifting, America brings her feet up onto the couch, getting comfortable in the childish, animal way her clone had always seemed to exist in.
"Red Eye targets mostly remote bases, but sometimes civilian areas as well. First timers have just about everything turned off and replaced with..." she gestures vaguely, "...rage, hatred, destruction, and a vicious sort of cunning. The longer it goes the worse things get, wanting to just hit someone, kill them, turns to wanting to torture before you do it, turns to s**t like cannibalism. It hit this base last year, I'd gotten it once prior so I had a small edge. More you go under its effect the more you're making choices 'stead of just following..."
She pauses here, brow furrowed and eyes sneaking back to the mirrors before relaxing with a nod, "Compulsion. That's the word. Anyway, taking care of it means I'm to either beat folks out of the Red if it hits again or put them down if need be. That's why I'm here."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 12:14 pm
There was a definite twitch of irritation at the comparison to Mikael, struck with a sudden desire to rise and stride across the room to the other hunter's throat, he pushed it aside, aware that this would result in no real success given the disparity in their strength and might only serve to lose him this chance to be around her. He endured it and it was clearly a bitter pill as his eyes flashed, looking sharply away from her only to meet her yet again in the mirrors.
Nevertheless he listened and found himself somewhat concerned at the mention of what the state entailed for first timers, aware that there were quite a few people around who would love nothing more than to justify killing him off as self defence. It didn't matter that they'd be quite right to do so, he did not actually fancy dying just yet.
"So they sent you back here simply because you have built up the equivalent of an antibody response to whatever it might be. It sounds to me however that it might also be a sacrificial post, an entire base full of turned hunters sounds like it might be more even than you could handle."
Picking idly at a stray bit of fluff on his jacket, he added as if in an afterthought. "Is there any other way to diminish the impact of whatever it is? Asking for a friend you understand."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:06 pm
Shifting again to make room, America pats the space beside her. "Come here." She smiles to herself and adds, "You can rest your head on my lap."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:17 pm
There was no real hesitation at the request from America, no flicker of self preservation or uncertainty, he merely stood and removed his hat, setting it aside, smoothing out his hair and moving to do exactly as she offered.
"I will take that as a no." he said with a shallow sigh. If being murdered in the middle of Russia was how he was going to die, it was how he was going to die.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 7:14 pm
She's so rarely gentle with him, but the hand that stokes his hair doesn't tug or roughly handle the man. "If you're hurt enough, your weapon's healing gets triggered and it'll disrupt those urges, clear your head, at least until the next time." Her voice is quiet as she speaks, but there's a fairy tale air to it, a lesson passed down in sweet tones. "When you're you, run. Run down into the labyrinth and hide. There's water down in Kitzeh, and food now too. You're good at surviving, Lawrence, haven't you always said? So just run and hide and only trust me." She bends over him to meet that empty gaze and smiles again, "Don't try to win the game. You don't have those limits anyway."
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:17 am
He listened, looking up at her with the kind of distant fixation he could reserve only for her, hanging on her every word as he simultaneously hated and loved her. She was an unanswerable question, something he could not understand at all and he was content simply to let her stay that way and to guess in the dark at why she tolerated him at all. Still, he took her words as truth because it was her and found it grim to think that it would take severe injury to knock him back into his right mind (his body was both important and fragile and scars were not an option). Still, close enough to her that he could feel her body heat against the back of his neck it was hard to realistically think of any sort of peril as imminent, sprawled like a cat which had finally found the singular lap it sought.
More harrowing than the thought of harm was the idea that to have control there had to be a moment when he was himself, a concept which was difficult for him at all times. How would he know? Lately he was not entirely sure who he even was, nor why being called Lawrence no longer caused a bristling dissonance but felt familiar, normal and correct instead. He exhaled shallowly and his words were a languid drawl when he spoke.
"I was so hoping that I would no longer be forced to test the extent of my survival abilities. Perhaps it will never come, perhaps this base has had its fill of whatever it was which struck it initially. Perhaps our time here will be peaceful."
He could hope at least. There was no question of suspecting her, of a situation where he did not trust her, he could not escape her and was resigned to it.
"And I rather suspect my definitions of "winning" are different from whatever this game is anyway." he added.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 12:18 pm
"The winner, the last one standing, gets taken away." She winds his hair around her finger, still gentle, still holding some semblance of affection. "We haven't been able to capture any winner that's left, even though they've been spotted. You'd be free." A pause and then, "If you lived." She was there, after all, for a reason.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:40 pm
"Sounds like you are trying to tempt me missy." Lawr said with a faint smile, normally bristly about being touched anywhere let alone his well-kept hair but completely at ease with it when it was her. "You'll find that I am unfortunately not that ambitious. I am quite boring on the ambition front, I pursue my own agendas."
He sighed. "And I'd be free at what cost? Running and running and running. There are people out there who offer a great deal more for a great deal less."
His smile turned a little toothy. "Oh you'd kill me missy? How would you do it? Do tell me."
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:10 pm
Callused fingers pat his cheek. "Quickly. I'd make it quick as I could, painless as possible." To someone else it might be a reassurance, but for him it was likely just a reminder of her odd values, and possibly a warning that if he sought out some sublime, prolonged melodramatic moment between them, he'd be sorely disappointed. "You're free to come down and visit my rooms, but I'd appreciate it if you left off the stalking s**t. You were getting better about it on the island, shouldn't be hard here."
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:19 pm
Lawrence closed his eyes with a slow exhalation of breath. Part of him was disappointed in the answer, denied exactly the intimate torture and torment he felt he was owed, yet another part of him found it apt and somehow more markedly stamped with her personality and inclinations, rendered more intimate with how close it ran to the things he suspected about her attitude towards murder. It made him only all the more attached. "You know already what I would do, if you were in my hand." And this was a bluff, because he had no idea himself what he'd do if he had her, or at this point if he would even be able to sever the attachment that caused him so much hassle and yet had become such a lifeline of late.
"And I can't promise anything missy." he said with a faint little smile and opened his eyes. "I can never promise anything when it comes to that."
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:16 pm
There's a huff of irritation, the roll of eyes, and then she's abruptly standing up and nevermind his head. Brushing off her hands, America smiles down at him with grim humor. "Well, do you best. Can't ask for more than that from anybody, now can I?"
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