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 Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:06 pm
He had spent the first twenty four hours by himself, sitting silently in his room, unwilling to speak to anyone or even acknowledge their existence. The next twenty four hours he'd spent pacing back and forth, lost in thought, using his solitude to figure out the mess of tangled thoughts in his head.
At times Gale just looked at his bare hands, as though he half expected them to burst into flames right from the off. But all he felt was that horrid coldness that seeped into his veins, flooding him with an unnerving chill that made him wish he had not died, that he had not been stupid enough to be caught on fire.
Caught on fire. He'd been burned alive, after all. And if hadn't been for Davey, he might still have been on that battlefield, rotting into dust like the teacher from HalloweenTown.
Which also brought to mind the question of one certain white haired hunter who Gale had yet to talk to.
"I'll tell you later," the look had said.
Which was why Gale found himself standing in front of the door of one Bix on the morning of the third day of their return to the island.
He did not bother to knock, not really caring what the other hunter would say as he stepped into the room, wearing jeans, a teeshirt, and his favorite Manchester United teeshirt.
"Hey," said Gale, and leaned against the wall, folding one bandaged arm over the other. "How goes it?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:15 pm
Bix was sitting at his desk with a ple of neatly stacked books. In fact everything in his room was neat and orderly, which was somehow surprising. His books were lined up straight, his clothing hanging neatly from hangers, his sheets were barely mussed except for the spot where he'd obviously been sitting, the blanket creased in a butt-like circle.
He had a blue and white paper lantern in hanging behind the top of his dresser that came from floresctival. Apparently paper was paper, even in Halloween. The only thing out of the ordinary was the hamper which was piled high with singed and bloodied clothes.
He was wearing what some would recognize to be a ***** tshirt and some plaid pajama bottoms. Apparently he hadn't cared to put on real pants yet today. His own bandages were hidden under his shirt but it was preventing him from leaning back on his chair. He'd apparently been thumbing through a thick comic book.
"Hey.." He blinked, surprised by the arrival but once it sunk in that it was Gale he flashed a grin. "Goes okay.. kinda cold all the time but no worse for wear." Minus the 3 inches of hair.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:36 pm
For some reason, Bix's room was very nearly as neat as Gale's was. He wasn't entirely certain why, though after a bit he realized he hadn't really been in the other hunter's room enough to judge whether or not this was an unusual occurrence or not. But in comparison with Gale's starkly, almost hospital-like clean dorm, Bix's very nearly rivaled his.
Except for the hamper with the burnt clothes. Gale had one of his own, but his own ruined uniform was shoved to the very bottom so it was not visible to anyone, especially Gale.
"Mmm...I know the feeling," he replied dully, eyes flickering around the room and ending at the comic book held in the albino hunter's hands. "I see you're furthering your education."
He knew about Bix's hair, but chose not to mention it. Instead Gale moved over to the bed, sitting down in the spot where the other had vacated it and leaning forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
"You said you'd tell me later," he said.
"It's later."
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 5:55 am
"Well I tried reading these.." He tapped a stack of books that had clearly come from the library. "But I was having a hard time concentrating. Just as many monsters in comic books anyway." He shrugged and followed Gale as his friend sat on the bed.
He turned, peered out the door a second, before shoving it shut with his foot. Normally he would just leave the door wide open but no one had been doing that lately so he followed trend. Bix flipped his comic book shut and yawned for a moment but he was trying to decide where to start.
"Well.. so we were in our pod-sperience right? On the island in the town and stuff?" Bix scratched his head and did his best to remember things properly. "Well our little group, it was me and Before and Bee.. that's Beta-3.. and some others. Well we go into this gym and there's people from another squad. Honestly I couldn't tell you who they were. Is that bad?"
Is it bad he didn't remember the colors of the girl he beat to death?
"So Dr. H was there. He gave us those pendants. Everyone got a red or blue one. One would be the command pendant and one would be the servant pendant. Basically he told us if we didn't have enough pendants we couldn't leave the building. And if we took them off they would slowly kill us." Bix frowned and looked at his feet. "One person on the other team even pulled off their gasmask.." he made an explosion noise and motioned to the head exploding. He had no idea that the person in question was Cass and she lived next door.
"So basically people started ordering others to attack and they were ganging up on people and I was being ordered to attack." Bix clenched his fists. "It's a blur and I know I killed someone. At least one person. Before gave me his pendant when I had enough.. he sacrificed himself for me in that place. Bee and I got out..." Only to be gassed of course, later.
"So that's it. That's why Before was freaking out about wearing the pendants."
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:26 pm
He should've known it was something like this, though now that he looked back on it, he could not quite have imagined that it was nearly as bad as what Bix was telling him. Gale had been there, on the island - he'd been slaughtered by the Epsilons, beaten down, stabbed and shot at until he was nothing more than a corpse, disappearing into nothingness.
He could not recall what had happened between that time and then waking up in the tent. But he remembered the pain - he remembered the sharpness of the blades as they drove into his skin, remembered the feel of the bullets whipping through his body.
He remembered, even if the former Epsilons didn't.
Gale did not hold grudges; seeking revenge was not part of who he was, and was much too time consuming as it was. But it didn't change the fact that he still remembered everything.
He could not pretend to know what Bix had gone through, nor could he pretend that he had ever really been a part of that team. Though he had been Beta Five, he had always been standing on the outside, looking in.
Like he was now.
"Seems like you had a rougher time than I," said Gale quietly, his voice low. He gave a small sigh, exhaling slowly. "I didn't know that the pendants had done that."
A long pause.
"I'm, er...sorry that I didn't believe you before. Or rather, that I didn't trust you knew what you guys were talking about then."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:26 am
"Hey it's okay man." he shrugged and put his arms behind his head with another yawn. "We're supposed to be past that stuff now right? Before has a tendency to fly off the handle a little bit sometimes."
Understatement.
"Plus we are on the other side of that now, right? We're now the people out of the pods letting the people still in them go through that stuff. We might not be superiors but we signed up for this and all the things that come along with it." They didn't have to approve of it, but all the hunters had to pass a trial to get here. Some was guaranteed to be worse than others.
"There was no question that we needed to use the pendants and I'm sure refusing Dr. H is a really bad idea."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 1:05 pm
"Before has a tendency to fly off the handle a little bit sometimes."
Gale had not even considered that before; he had seen the other hunter when he was flailing, being ridiculous, and generally like a dork most of the time, but the serious Before - the angry, standoffish Before - that was something he had never seen before.
Which meant that Gale knew even less about the other hunters than he had thought he had.
"You think there'll be more soon?' he asked, shoving the rest of his thoughts out of his head and absently twisting the ring on his left index finger. "I mean, it seems like there's the same group of trainees since we exited the pods. I haven't seen any new ones - at least not yet."
<< Perhaps you just haven't looked close enough. >>
No one asked you, Ginny.
"I'm sure doing anything not Doctor H approved of would make him good into a conniption," muttered Gale, rolling his eyes.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:17 am
"I hope so. New blood!" Bix smirked a bit. "We can't be the low men on the totem pole forever. But I don't have any idea how long they went without trainess before us. You know.. we really did sign on to this thing with absolutely no information." Was that a good or bad thing? Sometimes he found it better not to know.
Bix scratched his ankle idly. "I was thinking though. We suck." He was being a bit harsh maybe, as he and Gale had done some of the most good with their ranged weapons during the battle, but overall there was definite improvement to be made. "I want to start training, like seriously. Maybe running maybe using the gym with climbing. I feel like I should be able to run and jump away a lot quicker than I can. What good is a bow if someone runs up in your face?"
Maybe some hand to hand combat. "Maybe that Leon guy can teach me how to punch?" He was talking about himself but there was definitely an implication that he'd like his friend to join him.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:46 pm
"Or low women," said Gale with a shrug. "Though in that area we're..."
He stopped abruptly, clamping his lips together. It was difficult enough being the youngest Hunter; it was even more difficult being around a host of older female Hunters, especially when they saw you as some sort of kid.
"I signed up because there was no information," Gale continued idly, picking at a stray thread in the bedsheets. His fingers still for a moment, thoughts churning, and then he resumed his tugging, not really looking at the other. "I figured it was a good way out."
Though out of "what," exactly, he didn't say, instead turning a golden eyed gaze to the albino with a vague sort of exasperation and indignation on his face. He opened his mouth to deny the accusation, but then closed it. Bix was right; they could have done better.
"Not entirely," Gale mumbled irritatedly, mostly with himself. He did not like looking back at his failures, after all.
He flopped back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. "Who's Leon again?" he asked. "The bloke with the chainsaw?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:40 am
"Oh women." Bix got a little starry eyed. "I hope we get some women around here.. or if I can meet some women that are already around." Unfortunately their group of trainees seemed a bit alienated from the already existing ranks. He wondered why that was. "There's some nice ladies around for you though.." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Right in your age bracket, bro."
"Way out of what?" Bix wasn't one for mincing words or trying to be sneaky. He just came right out with it. He also wondered if Gale was still missing that sister of his.
"Yeah Leon is the guy with the arms as big as my whole body. I figure if he's that big he's got to have some workout tips."
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:26 pm
Gold eyes rolled around, then slanted towards Bix.
"Put your eyes back in your head, you prat," he said dryly. "There are plenty of girls around here - just none that are interested in you.
Not that he would even know; really, he was just needling Bix to be obnoxious.
Except his last comment caused a red flush to dust across Gale's feet..
"What the devil are you talking about? Every single person in this facility is older than me. That is not 'in my age bracket.'"
And he didn't particularly care for any of them either, though Gale refrained from saying that. They were either like older sisters to him (Ariane) or just treated him like he didn't belong there (every other female Hunter, save for Tika).
"A way out of everything," replied Gale evasively, absently twisting a strand of his hair around his finger, then linking them behind his head.
"And you can have fun working out with Macho Man. I'll just train solo."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:20 pm
Bix's voice got higher, defensive but amused, "Hey that is not true.. I am a highly desirable manhokaymaybenot." He rushed the end of the statement into a guilty admission. "These girls are young though.. and Candace is kinda scary." He nodded emphatically. "She gets this crazy look in her eyes sometimes. I'm just waiting for your sister to wake up. OOOoooooooh" Bix burst into loud laughter and playfully shoved Gale a whole punch of times. "And all the girls are like 16-17.. thats not too much to ask. Kick enough a** in a fight and I don't think they will care about a 1-2 year age gap." Bix made kissy faces at Gale and started to talk in a high voice, using his hands to act like he had boobs. "Oh Galllle what a nice sniper rifle you have.. you kill so many monsters. Your hair is so pretty.. and you are so macho you train all by yourself."
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:14 pm
Gale gave Bix a look that clearly said You are ridiculous and I am not even sure what to do with you anymore.
This was then followed by a derisive snort. "Candace is one of them," said Gale, sitting back up and pulling one leg up to rest his foot on the bed, linking his fingers at his ankle. "The ones that consider me too young to be here, or too 'childish'. As for my sister..."
He trailed off, his face closing off into an unreadable expression. "I don't want to talk about Leslie," said Gale tensely, then lifted his foot in an attempt to pry the other Hunter away from him and stop the punching on his arm. "You're quite loony, do you realize that? No girl in their right mind is going to go for someone younger than they are; it's just a fact of life. And I don't really want any of them, to be perfectly honest"
"And you should talk in that voice more often," Gale added dryly, rolling his eyes. "It fits you better."
There was a pause.
"How did we even get on this topic of conversation, anyway?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:49 am
"Well I don't know if you noticed.." Bix looked around as if he was revealing a secret. "Candace seems like a psycho. I CAN TELL. You ever see a girl with crazy eyes? She has crazy eyes." He tapped his nose, a sign for 'on the nosey'.
Bix didn't mean to bring up Gale's sister in a bad way. Just a bit of ribbing, but the other seemed to be bothered by the talk. He had no idea what it was like to be a twin. "I think I have been burned by enough women to know a thing or two.. I've touched some lady parts in my day." he laughed. "TRUST ME.. Girls like guys that are cute and you kill enough monsters and save them enough times? They won't even remember how old you are."
"OoooOOooo..." He started back with the voice again. "Do you like this voice? HEE.. This is my lady voice." Hopefully they got the voice features in the golems fixed because this was genuinely awful. "NEVER NOT GIRLS GALE. REMEMBER THAT."
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:03 am
Gale rolled his eyes, but he didn't deny the "crazy eyes" part, instead giving Bix a somewhat incredulous look.
"Did you really just say 'I've touched some lady parts in my day?' Because I think I might just go throw up now."
His face, which had been slightly red before, was now burning a bright scarlet, Gale folding his arms across his chest and studiously turning away from Bix. There had been a girl he'd rather liked back in London, but considering he was never going to see her again...
As for the girls here...Gale's face, if possible, turned even redder.
"How about we get on a new topic of conversation now?" he said hastily, wondering if it were possible to just sink into the floor and disappear now.
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