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 Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:19 pm
"Was that her name? ...Ginerva...there was something wrong with her...a coupl'a beers short of a six-pack, a few bricks short of a building, choose your analogy but she's ********' nuts." Tommy shakes his head and runs a palm through his hair, his long fingers reaching the small of his back.
"You take any medicine for the pain yet?" he asks, looking concerned at the older man, "'cause I know how much that s**t can hurt." Tommy hooks a thumb under the neck of his t-shirt and pulls it to the side to show off his shoulder. It's scarred to all hell from Alec's bite. "The shark-man took a chunk out of my shoulder a while ago...some of the worst pain I've felt...other than the broken ribs," he says with a shrug as he reajusts his shirt.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:37 pm
Richard only nods at Tommy's description of Ginerva. No need to get into what was quite obivious. Richard wondered what the rest of the staff thought of her. If they were all like that then the labs would implode before long.
As for the medicine, Richard had taken some already, he wasn't macho to the point of stupidity. He had gotten up earlier to eat breakfast, something that would have been very difficult without the double dose of advil in his system.
"I took some pills a bit earlier, I ain't that stubborn."
If Tommy's eyes spend much time looking at Richard's chest he might notice that Richard's "man boobs" seem a bit large for the size of his gut which had thinned during his first transformation. It could just be the position though.
He looks at his injuried shoulder with a scowl. "Heh, it isn't that bad. You should have seen what I did to my leg a couple years ago."
Richard looks at Tommy's scars with interest. "Oh, ouch, that must have taken months to heal. Wait. An islander did that?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:46 pm
Tommy grins at that, "Heh, you'd be surprised...some people I know hate medicine so much that they'd rather suffer through anything rather than take a pill...me on the other hand, heh...my dad's a doctor and my mom was a nurse, so I took a pill for the smallest thing." He smiles at the memory of his parents which turns into a sigh.
Tommy does indeed notice the larger size of Richard's chest but doesn't say anything...could be swelling from an infection maybe he thinks, trying to rationalize it.
"s**t man, you don't look it but if I'd have to wager you've lived enough of an exciting life for three men."
"Yeah...Alec, I dunno if you've met him. He's in all honesty a good guy...it's just...well, he uh...he was my accomplice in trying to take down Moreau. He blames me for what happened afterward...and really...I see why he would. Anyway, after we were exiled to the jungle, I came to check on him...see how he's holding up. Well...as you can imagine, he didn't take to seeing me very kindly...words were said that shouldn't have by both parties...and as I was walking away, he ran up behind me and took a chunk out of my shoulder...I don't remember much after that...I think I was able to defend myself until the labs shocked us both. And no...that's the weird thing. The transformations...they heal you as well as change you. It mended my broken ribs and my shoulder."
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:07 pm
Richard sees Tommy's sigh sigh and tries to think of a good way to spin the memory. "Just be thankful they arn't here. They're safe Tommy."
Richard grins at Tommy's comment. "A spent a year reporting in the Congo and two in Baghdad." He was very proud of that. He wished he had been able to do more there. "After Erica died, I couldn't just sit at home anymore." At the mention of Erica, Richard attempt to touch the rings that he usually wore around his neck. His face turned into a grimace when he tried to move his right arm. Recovering he used his left. Only to find it wasn't there.
His face fell like a stone.
On the desk, neatly coiled on the corner was a gold chain with a woman's engagement ring and wedding band on it.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:30 pm
Tommy smirks. "Yeah...thank God for small favors, eh?" he says, though the smirk falls, "I just hope they think I'm dead by now...not that hard the believe though with the way I got here...I'm just worried about my brother, is all."
"Really? Goddamn, quite the world traveler, eh? Were you there for Desert Storm?"
Tommy sees Richard's clear change in mood at the mention of what he's supposing was the man's wife. He frowns as he moves his arm toward his chest...
"You alright, man?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:58 pm
"Its.. Nothing." Richard forces his hand back down. The rings, his keep sake his memories of her... He always kept them with him. For ten years they'd never left his neck, except for the heart surgery. His eyes dart around the room. Would the staff take them? Ginvera she'd do it. But she couldn't understand things like that.
Richard forced himself back to the conversation. They were only bits of metal... God damnit where are they! "I got there shortly after we invaded actually. I speak some Arabic so it made me quite valuable to news crews." As Richard talks his eyes are scanning to room, still searching.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:06 pm
Tommy nods a few times but eyes Richard as the older man's gaze sweeps the room. He turns his head to also look around from his higher vantage point, "What're you looking for?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:11 pm
"Just a gold chain and with two rings on it." Richard responded, he was struggling to keep the panic out of his voice. Can't let the staff know how attached he was to them. They could be watching. He started to sit up.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:18 pm
Tommy gives Richard a reassuring smile, trying his best to hide his teeth. "C'mon Richard...lay back down, don't get your tentacles in a bunch," he says, hoping the comment gets his friend to calm down. "Just...lemme take a look around...not like these room are really all that big anyway." He begins searching around and seemingly without thinking he raises his head up and lets a quick breath out through his nose. Tommy's eyes go wide first and then clench shut, "Jesus..." he mutters, "I ******** hate that..." he shakes his head and then stops and looks as if he's trying to remember something.
Tommy quickly walks over to Richard's desk, eyes concerned for a moment. "Holy s**t..." he mutters as he picks up the chain with a spindly finger. He slowly brings it over to Richard, "I uh...I think I found it." He sounds a bit unnerved.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:32 pm
For a split second Richard resembles Gollum when his eyes first sees the rings in Tommy, his tentacles start to draw themselves up from where they lay. He reaches forward, ignoring the pain, the take the rings from Tommy. Relief floods his face as his fist closes around it. The tentacles imeddiately still and relax. He falls back into the pillows with a heavy sigh. The rings are transfered to his right hand where they are clenched in a white knuckled fist, sending dagger like pain up through his shoulder. He ignores it, accepting it as confirmation that the rings are safe.
"Thirty years." Mumbled like prayer. Richard wasn't without his own buttons to press.
"Thanks." He smiled tiredly.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:37 pm
Tommy just steps back once the chain is pulled off of the end of a distended finger. He nods a few times, watching Richard with worry. He's not sure what to say...this is obviously a tender subject for the old man. He chuckles to himself mentally. Some psychiatrist you'd make...goddamn I wish I majored in English instead of Behavioral Science...
"Well...I uh..." he looks down a bit, and then back to Richard, "Goddamn I'm glad you're okay, man..." He sits back down on the chair, "I mean...s**t, you're one of the few people here I can have an intelligent conversation with." He grins, jokingly, "Have you noticed that too?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:53 pm
Eventually, Richard returns Tommy's grin. Visably pulling himself out of his memories.
"I've met over a dozen islanders now. Most were rational. Except the ones who hadn't changed yet. They won't accept whats in front of their noses." Richard remembers the halloween party, Shenzi and Oz. "I think I might have hurt one of them at the party." His loss of control. Would that happen again? His eyes fades off again. Lost in his own thoughts. "I'll have to apologize to her."
His eyes closed, opened for a moment and then closed again. Weariness and worry etched into evey line of his face.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:04 pm
Tommy nods a few times, "Yeah..." Goddamn the guy looks beat...s**t, and here I am, keeping him up with my complaining...I've gotta let him get some sleep.
"Listen...I um...I'm heading over to the chow hall right now...um...you want me to bring anything back for you?"
Please don't pick up on the fact that I've no reason at all to go to the chow hall...I just need a reason to politely leave without drawing attention to the fact that Richard is in a weakened state...
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:10 pm
His eyes fluttered open. "Wha? ..... Oh yeah sure. Maybe later." Trying to keep is eyes open had felt like an epic struggle. One that he was losing. "Gooood. seeeing-- ya." He gave up. Richard's head fell againist the pillow and a quiet snore filled the room.
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Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:17 pm
Tommy just smiles sadly and shakes his head, "Seeya 'ol man." He heads out the door, wondering what he's going to do now.
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