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 Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:13 am
Harrison looked up sullenly from the chair.
"You've still got to ask? Yeah. I'd kill for you. I'd go bankrupt for you. And I'd ******** die for you."
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:23 am
As the words shivered through the night around him, a booming female voice, harsh with disuse, filled the air. The language was unknown, but even as the hunter awoke, the echoes of it fading in his ears, he knew she had accepted the offering. Tracey's blades were swinging toward Harrison smoothly in a way that felt more natural and sure than anything else Rep had done in his life. It felt good. He felt strong. And as the axe swung down, the world finally felt right.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:32 am
Not him, anyone but him. And the world was ******** full of people.
But he couldn't stop it, despite trying with everything he had.
All there was was power and strength. And it would have been wonderful if it wasn't the one person he would never raise a hand to.
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Toshihiko Two rolled 1 10-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-10)
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:38 am
Harrison barely had time for surprise as the axe came down. It was reflex that took it's place, the thoughts themselves all jumbled together- the straps, the bed, Rep needed rest, Rep was hurt, the axe.
B0nez showed up in a flash of pink.
He didn't even have time to ask.
Defending: Self
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:55 am
Rep regained himself fully as Tracey met Harrison's shield squarely, shattered it smoothly and finally stopped. A thin trickle of blood slid down his chest where the blade had started to bite into him.
Marie's presence drew back until only Tracey could still feel her patiently waiting for her just due. The axe would also notice that it hadn't drawn a single bit of FEAR from the destruction of Harrison's shield, the charge had been taken from him.
For a good month after the incident, dreams of that night sky and cold being will haunt Rep, followed closely by scenes of sacrificing Harrison or anyone else who has claimed that they would die for him. Sometimes its just blood, but often it's the heart, the fresh offerings holding the only form of warmth he'll be able to feel, even for a time after waking. Sometimes he'll wake from these dreams to find himself standing above these people, hands outstretched.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 5:31 am
Rep desummoned Tracey as fast as he was able, expecting Harrison to be impaled, for all his worst nightmares to have been realised. It had been too close, much much too ******** close. He'd felt the judder of B0nez shield shattering but had been denyed even a taste of the familiar static fear.
b***h.> Tracey hissed, claws and fangs in the darkness. Rep didn't know if he meant the fear or him.
<>
< I'm making it worse?!? I wasn't the one who grabbed it.>
<Shut up. We can't do anything about it and I can't even think with you ******** yelling at me.>> He was shivering as if he had pneumonia, dazed and horrified, cold and chilled right down to the core. The pain was back and it was claiming on every bit of exertion his swing had just claimed with interest.
"It.... it..." he shivered again bodily. "It was her."
He was back in the start sterile infirmary but he didn't feel safe, still aware on the periphery of his senses of that dark and boundless night sky that was so inherently different from the cloying familiarity of Tracey's own darkness.
His breath came in wracked sobs and he slumped back on the pillows limply. "I couldn't ******** stop her."
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:45 am
The shield folded and broke inside the breadth of that single stroke.
B0nez shrieked, then disappeared, and there was nothing between Harrison and Tracey's edge. It pushed him down against the floor, the chair spinning across the linoleum and clattering against a far wall.
Flat on his back, it wasn't like he hadn't been hit by Tracey before, but he knew immediately it wasn't him- the shape was right, the weight of the axe, but the Fear... it was like having everything sucked right the ******** out of him, without any return on it. There was no deep, dark glass of sweet and poisoned wine. No heady sensations, no muddied senses. It had just taken, and Harrison was afraid.
When he inhaled, the blade pushed in deeper.
He couldn't see Rep's face.
"Shield-" he said hoarse and automatic, like a warning light, "shield's broke."
And just as suddenly, the presence was gone.
Harrison got shakily up to his elbows, and when he touched his chest, it felt wet. He hadn't felt the initial cut. He had felt the shifting, irritating pain. He looked at his red fingers, and back to the bed.
Dealing with trust between the four of them had been one thing.
But now something else had slithered in.
"It wasn't you," Harrison repeated in a whisper, and he felt pretty ******** human. He was frozen, not sure if he should crawl towards the bed or away from it.
A pained silence, then, "Is it you now?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:09 am
Rep brought his hands up to his face, as if covering his eyes could change what he'd just saw, what he'd just done.
"It's me. But she's still here. She's still here. Tracey can feel her." Another shivering intake of breath. "Ace. Ace, I don't want this. I don't want any of this." And finally he cracked, sobbing into his hands as if they were a safe barrier to hide behind.
"I promised I'd never hurt you. And I meant it." Although now he figured that promise held as much water as any he'd ever made - none at all.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:01 pm
Harrison held his chest, and made a testing step towards the wall. His insides didn't fall out, so that was good. It hadn't been deep.
He righted the chair, and dragged it back to the curtain.
Even though at the edges of his instincts, it was like approaching Rosemary's bassinet.
B0nez?
Here, geez.
He needed to rest somewhere safe, he knew that, but the island had been anything but lately. The beaches awash with corpses, the royale, that hunter pinned to a cliffside. Not being dead should have been an easier life goal.
"I'm okay." And he was, for a given value of okay.
Harrison sat down slowly next to Rep's bedside. He reached slow over the bed, and took one of the hands Rep was covering his face with. It was like Rep said, words. And he wasn't good at them either.
He held it between both of his own hands, even though there was still blood on the fingers.
"Just scared is all," he said, quiet and awkward, "Been scared since we went down to that field."
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:28 pm
Rep couldn't cope. Time and time again he picked himself up and kept going, doggedly dusted himself off after every hurdle and staggered onwards, but this was too ******** much. The punishment itself had been reasonable, even fair given that it could have been so much worse, but what hurt more than anything else was that it had taken from him one of the few things he'd managed to hold onto all this time.
In the Sahara he'd lashed out in anger at Harrison and he had made clear that it was never acceptable to hurt him physically, no wiggle room permitted. And he had understood and doggedly adhered to that ******** promise, even when Harrison attacked him in the strange distortion minipets world, even when he'd been told the only way to free him was to attack his blue kingdom self. He'd struggled but every time he'd made it, it had been one solid thing, one thing he could hold to himself and say he'd succeeded. A small victory, not one other people would understand but one which had meant so much to him.
And now just like that he'd lost that too. Nothing was safe, nothing was sacred. Love had felt wonderful, like a tether keeping him close to the people he wouldn't ever harm, who would keep him safe and make him feel human, more than the monster so many people made him out to be. Now it felt like he'd left other people contractually obligated to him and he could never repay his side of the bargain, too useless and inept to make it up, and it broke his heart in a way it was hard to articulate.
Harrison was ok but he saw the blood on his hand when he reached out, blood he'd put there, and the tears wouldn't stop, even though he tried. He hated himself for the way he was soothed by the contact, feeling as if he was stealing by taking comfort from Harrison after what had been said. It felt like stealing. It left him feeling more distraught and alone than he knew what to do with.
"I'm scared too." he said, "But I'm always scared. Scared of what will happen if I don't do something, scared of what will happen if I do. I could handle it better when I thought I had someone to take shelter behind who didn't think I was using them."
He frowned helplessly. "Taym said some s**t to Jordan in the pod room while I was in there and I'm starting to think he was right. He was saying I'm broken. I'll never get better, I'm just hard wired to never be able to be what people want me to be. Called me a psychopath. Said people'd be better off without me. I guess I made the mistake of letting those same people convince me otherwise."
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:31 am
"You're just strong, is all. You're the only guy that doesn't see it."
Rep got scared because for him, not being strong meant you'd get everything taken from you. But he was strong.
Harrison liked what Rep was, even if the fact that he took everything so personal made Rep in some ways a softer touch. For Harrison, it wasn't personal. Bribery, theft, killing, (legal and otherwise), it was all in the context, and he didn't begrudge anybody as long as they weren't sanctimonious assholes about it. In another time and place, he'd executed friends. Tortured enemies. Sent his best to their deaths, in the gamble that he could get it all back. When it was kill or be killed, you needed a killer, and they were all playing for high stakes.
They hadn't lost out, but here they were on the edge again, because Rep had put killing over surviving. It was up to Harrison to put surviving over killing, and he hadn't done his part in it, because he'd counted on Rep to put him, at least-
It was about value. About what mattered, when it mattered. Still.
"Dunno why everybody always feels like they gotta weigh in on that s**t."
Harrison didn't like so many fingers in his personal business. He didn't even know who Taym was. When it came down to it, in spite of all the stupid s**t...
Harrison rested his head on the collection of hands. Marie was still here, and the room felt cold and dark, and Harrison knew he oughta clean up, and if he left...Marie was still going to be here. For how long, he didn't know. While they slept, while they showered, while they ate. When they fought.
"You're my best friend," he said softly.
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:38 am
"If I was strong I'd be able to do the right thing and not always be afraid that if I don't overkill that people will take me down. People are smart, I'm not ******** smart, I can't play mind games and trick people, all I have is violence to make people back off. I know a lot of them would kill me if they could, if they could get away with it. They weigh in because they know I can't not listen to them and that I'm afraid what they say will get through eventually."
He squeezed Harrison's hands but what little strength he had just made his own hand shake with the effort.
Best friend. It was reassuring, but at the same time it felt like a demotion.
"You're my everything."
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:34 pm
"You're smart with people. You're stupid when it comes to being practical, which, I guess being practical isn't ******** everything. So."
He smiled wanly.
"Heh. Except in your case. Me being everything and all." It was a bad joke. "********, I'm tired. Everything's the tip of the iceburg. If you hadn't woken up, I'd- I think I would have lost it."
Maybe he had, for a while.
What came after wouldn't have been anything nice.
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:02 pm
"Aye, I just can't do practical, as much as I wish I could - it would make life easier."
Tracey was still hissing and complaining in his thoughts, restless and unhappy at the intruder he could feel waiting there behind him, tangled up and indifferent to his complaints.
He gave Harrison another look, wiping his eyes with his free hand. "If it wasn't for you and Jordan I wouldn't have cared if I woke up at all. I don't have any other reason to be here other than to annoy some ******** people and be hated by others."
He shook his head, slowly and carefully. "I'm tired too. But I don't want to sleep, it wouldn't rest me, not ******** here in his domain." he closed his eyes and could still feel the cold of that sky overhead. "I don't think my dreams would be nice either. When I grabbed her I saw things. I don't want to see them again."
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