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 Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:41 am
Fred didn't see it coming even though he knew somewhere distant that it was a possibility.
He went down but not after he was sent careening horizontally, hitting the ground in a way that would have resulted in some pretty severe road rash if not for the shield. It knocked the air out of him as well as most of the fight, and as he tried to get back up to keep fighting, his weapon cut in.
<>
And he took its word for it, simply laying where he'd fallen in the sand, soaked to the skin, cold and wet and in a world where in no time at all everything had completely changed. He didn't want to stop, he wanted to fight until there was not even a fraction of energy left in him.
"He says its almost out. So close." He closed his eyes and exhaled.
"You win, as usual."
HP: 1/40
DMG: nope
Charge: 2/3
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:46 am
Roswell was in a better mood, more on account of the fight than the result. He smiled, mopping his hair completely out of his face (a rarity, but Fred was one of the few people he wasn't shy with his eye about), and offering Fred a hand up.
"You took to it all immediately. I'm still getting used to it. I thought it was drugs, too. Here. You get a room, but the meals and showers are communal."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:54 am
Fred took the offered hand with a groan of effort, finding himself utterly exhausted and drained as he stood. What had felt like being able to go all day had turned into the same sort of feeling you had the day after outrunning the police or some other major physical exertion. Work out hangovers usually waited till the next day, but right now it seemed like it was going to hit him ******** hate communal showers." he said irritably, it always reminded him of prison, being treated like a number in amongst a bunch of animals. "Drugs are better than this place." And they were, for a little while they'd been the best thing in the world, but the cost had been too steep.
"I'll live. I'll do better than that, I'll thrive here and next time it'll be me dragging you up and down the beach."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:08 am
Roswell frowned at that. "I don't know if there's a difference," he said. "I don't know which way is up. They did it to you too, didn't they? Where they took our memories and ordered us to execute each other. It's been worse, here. And they all act like it's normal. Like something everyone gets used to. For a while, I thought I was a- it's hard to explain. One of the things they fight. I had an entire life, a home, a job. An evil job, but a job. I lived for several hundred days on a deserted island, and when we returned, only three days had passed. I've had a hard time of all of it," Roswell said wearily, the relaxed feeling from the fight staying with him regardless.
"You can try," he said, but the challenge was friendly.
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:26 am
"Did you actually listen to that ******** crazy thing you just said?" Fred said, sounding hopelessly amused by the whole thing. "A few hundred days in three days. Another life. Are you sure you've no been on hallucinogens cause I've had a few trips where s**t felt a bit like that. Do the walls ever move in your ******** crazy adventures?"
It was enough to have him laugh giddily. "Well I think I'll like it here, if it can make you admit truly ******** mad things, I think I'll get along just fine."
He sighed. "I'm ******** soaked and I need my goddamn hat."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:47 am
"Yes, I know! I've felt...so alone, here, it's all absolutely mad. No one will admit it! Lysander's just avoiding it."
He didn't bother with the umbrella. They couldn't get any wetter. He felt a little on edge during the walk. He'd brought Fred down to the cave so he didn't have to worry about him, and promptly pressed his shield to the point of breaking. He soothed the worry by listing off the next item in their itinerary.
"There'll be supplies with the quartermaster. They have a box with your things, too. I just thought you should get this done first, in case anything...happened. We heal quickly. Just be careful, and give Myx the time to get the both of you together."
Roswell was quiet, and then said, "They didn't tell me you were here. They didn't think that was important. They knew, but- we just...found you, and until now, there was nothing I could do about it. It's dangerous here, Fred. It's dangerous and awful and Lysander wants to start seeing people, except he doesn't want to date anyone, and he's been very clear it's none of my business and I'm at the end of my rope."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:59 am
"Lysander avoiding things? I'm really ******** shocked, that's so unlike him." The small amount he'd ever heard about the dark haired man was a lot of him shirking every responsibility he'd ever had.
The idea of getting his possessions back was better though, he'd been really concerned all his expensive clothes were missing and hearing it was all just waiting for him was a real boost to his spirits.
He got derailed again by the unexpected barrage of comments about what almost seemed like relationships. He stared.
"Look I thought you said that you were too busy for dating and s**t like that. What does it matter to you if he sees people, it's not like both of you are together."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:18 am
"I said I was too busy for dating."
Roswell hiked back to the beaten path, where buildings and lights were coming into view again. Both of them were soaked to the bone.
"When we were younger. I'm currently available. But we're not dating, because, as he said while coerced to tell the truth by magic, he would never date me, and, although this is unconfirmed by magical means, possibly never date anyone ever again after his divorce, and this whole business has been some kind of panicked result of enforcing that."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:37 am
Fred looked really disturbed about this development, moreso than anything else.
"Some a*****e said they'd never date you and yet you inexplicably still want to date them?" He shook his head, hair flat and clinging to his skin. "Why is there even an issue here? If he said he doesn't want to date you that's that? I mean if someone says they aren't interested you leave it at that?"
He felt like there was something he was missing but he had no idea what it was.
"Even my ******** girlfriends all wanted to date me, if I asked someone out and they said no they'd never date me then I'd go look somewhere ********, why does it have to be men? That's so gross. I was hoping that one day when you actually got over yourself and wanted to settle down that I'd be giving you advice on normal dating. Normal ******** dating with women."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:56 am
"I don't necessarily want to date him," Roswell said defensively. "This isn't about dating. He said we were so beyond dating, that we have a close relationship, that I'm the only one that understood him. The only person he wanted to be beside."
Roswell could not believe Fred was giving him a lecture on what kind of dating was gross, when the women he dated had all belonged in the garbage, and being very generous, occasionally the recycling bin. Someone could have repurposed them into paper for a tabloid.
"And then immediately followed up with, by the way, I'm going to have sex with so-and-so, it's not up for debate. What do you take from that? Is it the commitment thing? How did he get married in the first place?"
Roswell rescued Fred's paperwork from where he'd left it, and placed the clipboard down for the quartermaster to retrieve Fred's belongings. Roswell could almost tell what Fred had brought with him without looking.
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 11:15 am
Fred couldn't hide how completely incredulous he was at what he was hearing. It had been fine that his girlfriends had been a little needy, a little bit clingy, a little bit demanding. After all they were hot and that came with a tax, the sort of thing they deserved. Lysander was neither hot nor apparently clingy, if anything it sounded like he wanted nothing to do with Roswell.
"A close relationship, so close that he won't even date you? Sounds like complete bullshit to me. That sounds like code for I want to do whatever the ******** I want and I don't care what you think." he gestured emphatically. "Your problem is you are dealing with guys, guys are a fundamentally different thing from women and I don't know how you can't ******** see it. I mean, you used to work for guys. How many people we worked for would have wanted to take us on for a forever contract?? None. They just wanted one off jobs. Your pal just wants one off jobs in the romantic sense. He's just your average guy and that's all it is. Maybe he got married because he felt like he had to, now he's been there worn the t-shirt he's just going to do whatever he wants and its ******** gross."
He wrinkled his nose. "I hope you haven't let him ******** touch you. What a creep."
Fred had pushed the boundaries of the sheer amount that was allowed to be brought to Deus, primarily in the shape of an enormous amount of very expensive clothes. He made big wages and they were always spent on looking as good as he possibly could, fashion and tattoos were his hobbies and it was reflected in his belongings. Perched on top of the pile in pride of place was a tall hat box which contained his precious hat. There was a coat he'd never seen before though which looked like it'd probably fit him.
"Help me carry this stuff." he said as the quartermaster also gave him a key to a room number on the first floor. "It's too much for me to." He gave Tom the handle of a large purple suitcase which was full to the brim. "And show me where the ******** we are going, put the umbrella on top."
When they had everything piled up he followed along. "I'm ******** serious you better no have let him touch you without at least a ******** hefty amount of money on top of your wages."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:38 pm
"Everyone is always so concerned about my salary. I was very well paid, thank you. But we're friends. We've both fallen into the same bad situation. It's not about the money."
Roswell carried the pile anyway, having a similar stack himself.
He hadn't been quite as sold on the idea as Fred, however, and had done his best to pick and choose. He had some favorite pieces he severely regretted leaving to whatever charity organisation scoured his apartment. Wherever they were sent, he doubted they would be appreciated.
"Yes, alright. This place is murder on a sensible wardrobe. It's up this way. You're fortunate to have avoided the dungeon arrangements. And if you're asking if we have been physical, I have some sense of discretion. ...Barring one game of Dare or Dare. But you know how I feel about that."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:47 pm
"Not about the money." For a while it had been about the money, but it seemed like Tom had gone and found some ******** higher calling which dressed in suits and was really ******** stupid.
"I had to work so hard to ******** fit it all in. It took hours. Hours and hours, and even then like, god. I had to leave my really nice boots and s**t like that, it was a real ******** sacrifice coming here." he patted the suitcase in front of him. "I'll just need to work hard and build my s**t right back up again, can't walk around looking like a tramp."
He raised a brow. "Do I even want to know what you mean about dungeons? And well, obviously dares are vegas rules, you do what you gotta do."
They hadn't been reigning dare champions for nothing.
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:49 pm
"Yes, exactly," he agreed regarding any and all dare-related games.
"I'm not exaggerating. After your things are dropped off, I'll show you my room.
...I'm staying with Lysander, obviously. It is literally a dungeon. There's a torture rack in it. And it's been used."
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:53 pm
Fred gave Tom another slow concerned look. "You live with Lysander." he said. "That's kind of blurring the employment boundaries a bit isn't it? No wonder he thinks he can do whatever he wants with you and not date you, you've already moved in and everything." he shook his head.
"You should come ******** live with me." he said. "Like the old days, get away from that creep, he'll need to come crawling back to you, no entitlement."
A thought occurred to him. "Who the ******** would use the torture rack here?"
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