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 Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:54 am
ReprieveThe nickname made him instinctively dislike it, but at least Jackles was better than Jackie. He didn't answer immediately, compiling the memory again to quickly review. Jack's gaze hovered from one to the other as he spoke. "It was a student that called itself Grixlie," he explained. "It told me that it had made an agreement with you, Craft, to use your body to see Deus in safety and learn more about weaponization; in return, it wouldn't harm your cousin. My attempts to reason with it failed. Our conversation was then cut short by Merlin's punishment." (The hateful look in Chel's eyes isn't hers, but it doesn't diminish the malice he feels radiating from the creature. That part he remembers the best, like shards of blue glass ready to carve him open like a Jack o'lantern.) "You failed to mention a third party before," he said to Chel, brows slightly raised.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:05 pm
Reprieve"That's a lie!" Chel blurted out. "I didn't make a deal with any ******** named Grixlie. I didn't even get told my body was gettin' snatched. He just said I wouldn't have to exist for a while." She glumly crosses her arms. "Grixlie," she muttere, tasting the word with a sort of hatred. "The ******** kinda name is that?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:32 pm
Told You SoEvan frowned as Chel pushed him off onto the Life tech on duty, more upset that she couldn't, physically, tell him herself than that she had delegated such a personal task. His eyes remained on her even as they were cut off, though he was listening to the Life hunter's bored recounting of what they knew about the events that landed Chel in quarantine. The wall between them was still clear, though, and she would be able to see his head whip around to pin the tech in his sights as he came to a point in his story that had surprised Evan--though it was more like angered, evidenced by the tightening of his jaw muscles and the way his spread fingers on the glass slowly curled into a fist. Evan asked questions of the tech, brief and simple, and got shrugs in response. Eventually, the Life tech turned the microphone back on and retreated to his chair, watching the two of them with interest. When Evan turned back to Chel, the pity in his eyes was gone as if it had never been, replaced with disappointment and anger. "What the ******** were you thinking?" Evan asked, his tone harsh with reprimand.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:28 pm
Reprieves**t. She hadn't told him all this had been because of a deal. No matter that it wasn't the deal that Jack had described. She'd still agreed to this, in some fashion. The other guy just took more than had been offered.
Chris looked tired and worn, and he was getting sick of trying to puzzle together this story. He rested his temple on the glass, watching Chel sadly from the corner of his eye. "Why would you agree not to exist? Even for a while. Not cool."
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:35 pm
Reprieve
It's then that Chel is quiet.
She thinks of Evan and his anger, wondering if Chris is just as tumultuous but better at hiding it. She's tired of feeling afraid of those next to her. Chris is the final straw. She needs to be able to trust Chris.
Jack is given a hard look. "Get me out of here Jack. You promised." Chel has had a lot of time to think between Evan, Abbi, Noemi, Jason and many others. She doesn't want to be in the quarantine anymore. She knows she has no choice in the matter.
But Jack does.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:49 pm
Told You So
While they explained, Chel returned to her cot to sit. Standing for so long was tiring her, and it was inevitably a long story.
Chel has spent less than a day in quarantine and the severity of Evan's actions make her jump. She is visibly timid, scared that Evan will somehow break the glass and kill him herself.
"I don't know," she says quietly, squeezing her legs to her chest. Truly, she doesn't know. "Why do you think I did it?" The question isn't accusatory, it is a soft deflection.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:50 pm
Reprieve
It wasn't that Jack didn't believe her: he did. But he also knew that she acted without thought to the extent of consequences, and it had never been more clear than now. Nevertheless, Jack had to repress his satisfaction. Anger was another step up the ladder for her.
"I promised you a meal when you were out," he corrected her as a matter of factly, meeting her gaze. "But I'll see what I can do."
He pulled the reading glasses back on, flipping the page back to Chel's chart on his clipboard. "Axten asked a valid question, though," he commented as he turned to go find the techs on duty, perhaps taking his strides a little too slowly to get to them.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:55 pm
Reprieve
He wasn't sure if Jack backing him up made him feel validated or sick. He was pretty sure it was sick. This wasn't just a random unfortunate happenstance. Chel had actively sought to stop existing.
He was definitely nauseous. "If you don't want to, you don't have to answer."
He wasn't even sure he was ready for the answer.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:11 pm
Reprieve
Chel still doesn't know why she loves the man twisting the knife in her side.
There is a mixture of disgust and dissatisfaction in her eyes as she follows Jack out the door. When he's finally gone, she admits to Chris, "I was tired of always being the one who ******** up." She isn't sure how to explain it to Chris. "Just wanted to stop having to prove myself for a while."
With that her mouth becomes a thin line.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:47 pm
In Conclusion
Two days later, bright and early, the door unlocks. The block begins to be cleared, swept along in a soft murmur of hunters, rustled paper, and equipment. Someone eventually tells her in passing that she's free to go.
The personal effects on her from the stormy night as well as her clothes lie in a pile away from the commotion, clean but forgotten. Someone stays to help Chel, mostly out of compassion but also just to make sure nothing happens last minute. She assures the Sun she can get her clean bandages if she likes, maybe help her to her room even if necessary.
Jack isn't there. Nevertheless, at some point that day if Chel decides to look at her phone, there's a text.
Quote: Text to Coffee b***h No. 1:Let me know if you're still interested/when you're good for food. Get some rest.
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:08 am
Misplaced
She is nonplussed to see Jack is missing. He probably had more important things to do.
It still kind of stings.
She's happy to throw the hospital gown off, but the shorts and bra remain all she wears. She throws her hunter's coat over the barebones outfit- it doesn't feel right to change into her old clothes just yet.
Somewhat baffled is the descriptor Chel would use if she had such a lexicon. They were letting her go free- which made no sense to her- and they were doing it without pretense. Everything about it seemed very wrong. It was too nice. It went against every mentality Deus Ex Machina had conditioned her to possess. Useless things were thrown away, not kept around.
She walks out the door nonetheless.
"No ... thanks," she tells the flightier life tech. "What's happenin' to me after this?"
It bothers her that the life techs shared perplexed looks, as though they hadn't thought that far ahead.
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:20 am
Roped
Causation arrives, though it is late to step through the door. She rotates the metal bracelet lightly, afraid to touch it, but having a human need to adjust it until it settles into what could be considered a comfortable position.
She tries to listen to what they're telling her, but a lot of the terminology goes over her head.
< They are explaining the mechanism that blocks my receptors for neural condensation. >
Chel nods.
Tenebrae sighs lightly. < You can't summon me now. >
"What?" She blurts this aloud, and the death hunter blinks as though she's asked him a deeply personal question. "How 'm I supposed to fight and s**t?" She desperately grabs his sleeve. She needs to fight.
"You could um ... maybe get cleared for a runic weapon in a few days ... I don't really know." His tone very clearly implied he also did not care.
She kicks her fear against the examination bench. The final stop before she can be officially cleared from the quarantine. She knew there would be a catch. It was too easy.
An ugly metal band now covered her left wrist. There was a tiny red light on it, which normally remained off but angrily lit up every few seconds as an indicator that the device was indeed working. Chel didn't understand it fully, but Tenebrae later explained to her that her FEAR was now blocked from summoning him.
What she did understand was that there was a bomb on her wrist.
And she was terrified of it.
The first two nights she locks herself in her room and doesn't allow anyone to approach.
The rest is relatively unsurprising. She can't leave without supervision. They are monitoring her, watching her. She is weaker, every movement taking more of her effort to perform. Mundane punishment that she has been used to her whole life. Deus Ex is just a larger form of parental care.
What surprises her is how routine it all feels.
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:21 am
Boundmedigel Text to beanstalk: i dont think tnats a good idea medigel Text to beanstalk: bomb on the wrist n all
She stays locked in her room a third night.
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:56 pm
Bound
medigel Text to beanstalk: still interested tho
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:22 pm
boundHe doesn't answer after she informs him of the bomb. Silence is probably the best thing he can offer about it. Her later text is answered belatedly, close to an hour after it is received. chiickadee Text to Coffee b***h No. 1:Can't today. Stuck in the infirmary all day. Recovering this time, not on a shift. Everything is still work to him either way: breathing, sleeping, dreaming, aching, everything.
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