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 Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:40 am
He shrugged again, eyes a bit more distant as he was brought back to his hellish memories of growing up. If he had to guess it was probably about as pleasant as the next person on the island, but that didn't make it any easier to think about. "If you're visiting it's probably pretty great, but living there kinda depends on how much you make. I mean I liked it, but life was hell so I couldn't really enjoy a lot of it."
‹ You're oddly open about this to someone you barely know. ›
The trainee flinched at the sound of Zephira's voice in his head, and in that tone of surprise that he wasn't at all familiar with, too. He held his tongue and made a note of her words, then turned to Seren when she asked about the golems.
"They're just annoying little shits most of the time. Consider yourself lucky" he said, clearing his throat. "Anyway, wait. So you're from Cali? Tell me 'bout it."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 4:11 pm
She sighed, and nodded, understanding that view on life. "Can't recommend my home town much, but it was semi-Rural Central Valley California, so it's not like there's much reason to go to that shithole anyways." She patted his shoulder in a gentle way, more of an apology at bringing up the past then anything, then dropped her hands. "Maybe some day you can go visit it again, when you can get leave, and see it from the better side. If you actually wanted. I know I'm never going near home again." She blinked when he flinched, and tilted her head at him, but when nothing was forthcoming about why, she left it alone. He was entitled to his secrets, and if he wanted to tell her, he would. "I'll keep it in mind, and try to avoid the ******** outa them, then." His question earned a sigh and a half shrug. "Like I said, I lived in Semi-Rural California." Her eyes went to the windows, and she spoke quietly. "I never was given a chance to leave my hometown, until I turned 18, when I fled to San Francisco. If my family went out of town, I was at home to watch it, that kind of thing. And I only spent a little over a week in SF, trying to find a job and failing." She paused, and added in a darker tone "Well failing at finding one that wasn't prostitution which no thank you, pimps, I didn't raise me stupid."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 4:48 pm
The pat on his shoulder wasn't unwelcome, but he hadn't expected it either so at first he shied away at the sudden comforting contact, and then he relaxed and let it play out while listening to her. His eyes were distant again, looking toward the horizon.
‹ You should come here more often. Your memories are pretty fascinating. ›
He shut his eyes and took a breath, zoning out for just a moment while he had a private little...head chat...with Zephira. It was, as expected, short but riddled with expletives. When he came back Seren was just finishing up talking about home and something about...
"Prostitution?" The brunette raised a brow when he looked at her, not in a judging way but more...surprised. "Good you dodged that bullet. Knew some girls that weren't either as smart or as lucky."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 4:59 pm
She almost apologized for the pat, due to his shying away, but when he relaxed, she did too. The last thing she wanted was to upset him, or cause him discomfort when she intended the exact opposite. His comment in reply to all of it caused her a small, sad smile. "Yeah, no I understand that. I... Saw the results of that during my short time in the city, and heard too many tales of what can happen." She shook her head, her eyes dark with sadness at the memories of some of it, like finding an O/D'd prostitute when going back to her hotel. "It's amazing how much you can see in a week... But I saw enough to know exactly how evil much of the prostitution industry is. I'd almost think is was run by some of those Horsemen things, given the misery and horror it causes the victims trapped in it." She then shook her head, hard, going "UGH. Let's... find something less depressing to talk about then the past, yeah? Unless you wanted to talk about it. Which, if so, I'll listen, but I can totally get not wanting to as well."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 5:04 pm
Rhys nodded along in total agreement with her thoughts on that line of work, but snorted at the idea of the head honcho actually being a horseman of some kind. "That'd be a hell of a thing to see."
The picture lifted his mood some if only because it was pretty amusing, then clicked his tongue at the suggestion to move on to better topics. "Agreed. It's why I took up Deus's offer anyway, to leave all that s**t behind. Problem is..." and he paused and gestured at their current situation. "We're kinda stuck here, and I don't have playing cards. So what do we do?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:32 pm
"And yet it's so fitting. Don't they feed off our pain and fear and misery?" Her eyes stared hard into the distance, a slight frown on her face. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had a hidden hand in ugly businesses like that for the pure pleasure of it." She had no idea, really, but her mental image of them fit with this idea. "Exactly. Why come start a new life if you're just going to be reliving the old one over and over?" She mentally stomped on the memories to stop their attempts at escape, and then frowned at his words. "Damn. That's... a good question. It's not like we can spar in this space... Diwata'd get stuck on the ceiling or something, given the size of the room, and that just would make it pointless." She looked around at the stupidly sparse room, and sighed in annoyance. "This is ridiculously bare, in here. The ******** do they expect sentries to do for hours? Sit and stare til they fall asleep? Stupid!"
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:42 pm
"Exactly," he said with a very solid nod. "They should at least assign hunters with a bit more range in their arsenal. The two of us have ********' swords--if something in the sky decided to get close we're basically s**t outta luck unless they come up close and personal."
The answer was probably just run and warn the rest of the island, but that was stupid and lacked a lot of action. The trainee heaved another sigh and looked around, eyes landing on the bookshelf. "We could...read?" he said, brows knit together. He gave it a second and realized that he was actually being serious, so he got up and actually went to take a look at what their options would be. "Know any good books?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:49 pm
"THANK YOU. I was thinking that myself, just before you scared a few years out of my life. Utterly ridiculous. And I'm not even sure I could help if they DID come up close and personal, I'd be seriously concerned I'd accidentally chop YOUR head off if I tried to swing Di!" She snorted in irritation at that, and she wouldn't even BEGIN to want to abandon her post to warn people. She was supposed to be right up in the fight, not running from it. Running was abandoning her duty. She watched him go over to the bookshelf, and tilted her head. "I mean reading's great, and I love it. I do know some good authors, if you're into fantasy... But it can also put some people to sleep, I've noticed." That said, she hopped up to wander over and browse. "Wonder if they have any Lackey stuff..."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:05 pm
He crouched down and started looking through the bottom shelf around the time she came over, trying his damnedest to remember the few books that he'd read throughout high school. None of the names he saw were at all familiar so he sort of gave up and just skimmed for a little while, but eventually he turned his eyes to the thinner spines of the magazines. "Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated...c'mon..."
Still nothing, and his failure at finding something to read was starting to irritate him so he just pulled one out at random. "National Geographic," he deadpanned. "How the hell does anyone up here stay the ******** awake?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:11 pm
She lifted her brows, hearing his chanting of the magazine name, and lightly shook her head, trying not to laugh at him. What he pulled out, though, got an amused snortchuckle. "Oh man. I wonder..." She leaned in, carefully NOT leaning on him, her eyes going along the titles curiously, before she gave a soft 'hah!' and her hand darted out to grab a book. "Man I love this author... But I don't recognize this title... Discount Armageddon?" She eyed the cover, brows almost to her hairline at the picture on it. "This isn't... what I associate with this author..." She paused, then added to Rhys "I bet if they've been here before they come prepared, but like to give first timers like us hell via 'No Warning Have Fun you little shits' or something like that."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:27 pm
The brunette shoved the magazine none too gently back where he found it and kept up with the search until Seren pulled a book out. Out of curiosity he craned his head to try could make out the cover, but when his balance shifted slightly he sort of used her foot for support. "Looks alright to me. You don't associate what looks like a hot nurse with that author?" He was messing with her somewhat, the grin being proof of that. With a sigh directed at her comment, he slowly got up and straightened himself out.
"Wouldn't put it past them. Makes me wanna do the same to other newbies now, too. Damn..."
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:33 pm
"Hot nurse? I see naughty school girl, myself, with that plaid." She made a goofy face at him, and then shook her head. "But no, I don't associate either naughty school girls nor hot nurses with McGuire. I associate modern Mystery/Fantasy novels with her, ones that focus on literal fairies and elves living in and around San Francisco, and the stuff they get up to." She considered, then shrugged, and slipped the book into a pocket for later. "I'm borrowing this, whether some one complains or not. They don't provide much, I feel no shame in making sure I get a chance to read something by an author I adore." She wandered back to the table and leaned against it, watching him get out of the crouch. "Nor would I, from what I've seen. People here can be pretty ******** up, yeah? And really? Oh that's meaaaaaan." She was laughing as she said it, though, and shaking her head.
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:43 pm
Rhys grinned and took his place atop the desk again, eyes on the horizon as he tried to think of something--anything--to do. The more he came up empty the more he realized that it was gonna be a long, long...long night of sentry duty. But a couple of hours with someone he already considered a buddy of sorts couldn't possibly be all that bad.
"I guess we can just...talk?" he said in kind of a lame, questioning tone. If she was up for it there was probably a lot they could talk about if they actually tried, and since they had nothing better to do...
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