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 Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:49 am
Earlier that morning, with the air of a five star general inspecting an elite fighting force, Julie had given the Christmas decorations a narrow, calculating look and pronounced, "We're gonna need a bigger tree."
To which Clarice responded with, "No we won't. We have tons of Christmas trees up already."
"They aren't big enough."
"They are."
"Not."
"Are."
The eventual scuffle and hair-pulling conflict was fortunately postponed via compromise: if she goes and gets a bigger tree, Clarice can be in charge of wardrobe. But it better be a really big tree. Julie wanted the other assistant to impress her. Julie was willing to take hostages if it came to that. Because some things were worth tense hostage situations, and the Perfect Christmas Romance happened to be one of them. It didn't matter. Clarice was on this. She just needed one other person to help with transport and then she'd be free and clear and never have to worry about wearing a penguin costume again. Until next year.
Her first thought was Leon. He used a fricken chainsaw for Pete's sake! But Hraegar took exception to this. If anyone was going to be knocking down trees of ridiculous size it was going to be him. Other hunters knew well enough to stay out of the way when the two assistant's were fighting, and all the trainees she was familiar with were either injured, shopping, on missions, dumb assholes, or difficult to look in the eye right now. Bix, you seemed so normal whateventhehell. So it was onto plan B: wait outside the portal room for someone to pass by. Use charm and/or brute strength. Don't take no for an answer.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:25 am
While Clarice was catfighting with Julie, Gale was busy trying to figure out what he was going to do for the Christmas Gala.
He didn't really want to go (was that a bad thing?), but one look at that word - date - and a rather disgruntled, sullen expression crossed his face, Gale sinking into a state of sulking. Jinhai had made fun of him for several moments now, cackling to himself with amused sounding laughter, and Gale had just sighed, debating whether it would be a good idea to throw the phone at the wall or not.
Date. A snort escaped his lips. Like I'll ever get one of those.
That, and he didn't really want one - or to even go to the gala where it would just be a bunch of people standing around awkwardly. He'd been to school dances before; they never turned out well.
But, at least with the upcoming holidays, Gale found he was in just a slight better mood. The decorations made him feel somewhat like he was back at home - though without the constant nagging of his manager at the grocers.
Now he just had to deal with the constant PMS'ing of Caelius.
....He decided he'd rather have the nagging.
At any rate, Gale was taking a walk across the Deus Ex grounds, without any real sort of idea of where he was going or what he was doing. Humming absently to himself, he didn't even realize he'd somehow stumbled across the portal room and the young woman standing outside of it.
"Oh," said Gale, slightly surprised, though he offered her a nod in greeting with the full intention of continuing on his walk. "Morning, Clarice."
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:05 pm
The assistant's eyes took on a dangerous gleam at the sight of Gale, though her expression swiftly switched to wide-eyed pleading as her hands quickly caught at Gale's elbow. "Gale, you're perfect. I need someone with a bit of experience to help me out on small..." it wasn't quite a mission, and she wasn't to the point of lying.... yet, "... project. nothing dangerous. It shouldn't even take too long, just a few hours at the very most. If you have a couple to spare? Please?" She wasn't to the point of outright pleading yet, and her hands remained relatively gentle rather than in the terrible death grip they were fully capable of.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:52 pm
"Er," said Gale, slightly disturbed by the look in Clarice's eyes. Maybe he was just imagining it, however, because a split second later they were big and almost watery, Clarice's hands clamped around his arm in a surprisingly gentle grip.
What is she doing.
<< Recruiting you to be a member of Dr. H's harem, clearly. >>
Hah hah bloody hah.
"Er," said Gale again, sounding relatively stupid as he blinked up at the Hunter. He debated on whether or not he actually wanted to help, but Clarice just looked so desperate...
After a moment he said, resignedly, "What can I help you with?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:00 pm
She beamed at him, and began pulling him into the portal room. "Great! I just need some help finding and moving an item for the Christmas Gala." Dropping his arm, Clarice picked up a large bundle of...winter clothes, and handed them to Gale. "It's a bit cold where we're going, but sometimes you've got to go the distance to do a thing right, you know?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:08 pm
"Sure....." said Gale, now sounding slightly suspicious. He held out his arms automatically and Clarice plopped a large bundle of what might have been winter clothes into his arms.
Dusty winter clothes. Gale held up one sweater in particular, a horrified expression on his face.
What the...
But then he sighed, realizing he had already agreed, and began pulling on some of the things she had handed him.
After a moment of sorting out things, Gale said, in a slightly muffled voice "Well. I'm ready now."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:52 pm
She'd been busy pulling on her own bright pink, Hello Kitty snowsuit, so when Clarice glanced over to Gale, if was a definite struggle to keep a straight face. Oh god, it was a cross between horrible and adorable, she must have grabbed Julie's gear instead of a regular spare set. "Oh that's.... that's great!" She pulled on a hat and some gloves, and keyed in the portal location. "Let's get going then!" Stepping through the portal revealed a snow covered forest, stretching far into the horizon. Huge tree towered above them and around them, with not a single sign of civilization in sight. "Right, so...we need to find the biggest, best, and most beautiful pine tree possible. Otherwise...otherwise terrible things will happen at that Christmas party, Gale." Her voice was slightly haunted, "Terrible things. You don't know what Julie is capable of..."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:03 pm
With every passing second Gale was starting to really, really regret this decision.
Especially since Clarice was giving him a look as though she were trying very, very hard not to laugh.
Gale sighed. And then tried to ignore Jinhai cackling in his head.
On the other side of the portal was a large...forest. With snow.
A lot of snow. Gale pulled the horrible and itchy sweater more tightly around himself and folded his arms across his chest. Despite the fact that he was feeling distinctly idiotic in these clothes, he couldn't deny that they at least kept his head and torso warm.
And at least it isn't Hello Kitty, thought Gale, eying Clarice's neon pink suit.
".....a tree?" Gale repeated. "Er..."
He stared out at the vast and seemingly endless forest around them.
".....that might take a while."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:03 pm
"Right! So keep an eye out. If you see one and like, a chorus of angels ushers you toward it, give me a heads up and we'll chop that mother down." Clarice smiled brightly at this. Possibly because Rhaegar was doing the Goliath version of the Snoopy Dance in the back of her head.
With the exception of their clumping through the snow, it was quiet. So quiet. So very, very quiet. "Um, so how have you..." need a topic, need a topic, need a topic, "...been liking the rank up? First one of your group, right? Caelius must have been pretty happy...in his...way."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:32 pm
Gale kind of just stared at Clarice as if to say are you being serious.
Except since it was Clarice and she worked with Doctor H., and they were on this island, chances were they were all a little.......er, differently wired.
He sighed. Then started going through the trees, hearing nothing but the sound of his own boots clonking noisily in the wet snow.
Too small...too skinny...way too small...ew, no...
Clarice's question caught him off guard, and Gale's gaze flicked back to the other hunter as he gave a sort of uncertain shrug.
"Yeah, first one," he said. "It doesn't feel any different, except, you know, new uniform, and Jinhai - that's my rifle - has gotten a nice fine tuning."
A snort of laughter escaped his lips before he could stop it, Gale bypassing a tree that looked like the one in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
"Caelius reprimanded me," he said, shaking his head. "One of the trainees gave me my coat and said he 'accidentally dropped it' on his way out from lecturing me."
There was a slight pause.
"Not that I really expected him to be all happy happy joy joy. I mean, he wouldn't be Caelius if he weren't, er......his own way."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:08 pm
Clarice shuddered at the thought of Caelius being all happy-happy joy-joy, "He was definitely happy, on the inside." She paused a moment, as Raeg got excited over a tree that was, while decidedly huge, was ugly as hell. Unacceptable. "I try to avoid him, for the most part. I um...irritated him a couple times when I was a trainee. But...well, after you're around him for awhile, you'll see he gets angriest at you when he probably blames himself. But can't say so, because of division politics and all. Also he's a big egotistical jerk. So..." she trailed off for a moment, wondering where she was going with this. TREES."TREES. I mean..." goddammit Raeg, she flushed and cleared her throat, "...just...don't take his s**t too personally." She concluded lamely.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:40 pm
Gale could not quite contain the small burst of laughter that slipped from his throat, echoing oddly loud in the empty, dull forest full of snow.
"I'm, er...quite certain that he wasn't," he said, in a voice full of mirth as he bypassed a tree that was rather pathetic looking, its branches drooping miserably onto the ground.
Clarice's appraisal of Caelius surprised him; Gale paused in his tree perusing to peer curiously over at the other hunter, tilting his head as though scrutinizing her.
"More angry when he blames himself, hmmm..." mused Gale, half to himself. After a moment, however, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to stomping through the woods in his horrid jumper and woollen cap.
"Personally?" he said as he looked, and shook his head. "No, not personal. I've gotten used to him enough to know that he always has a stick up his arse over something or other."
There was a slight pause.
"What about you?" asked Gale, with a glance over at Clarice. "What's your story? Er," he added hastily, raising a hand. "If that's not too intrusive, I mean."
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:44 pm
One particular tree looked fairly inviting, until something moved, causing it's branches to shake. Clarice wasn't exactly sentimental, but somehow the idea of trashing some chipmunk's or whatever's home right before Christmas didn't seem quite kosher. Gale's question caught her a little off guard, but she just shrugged and batted a few branches out of her way, "Same as most hunters. Saw bad things I couldn't understand, coped for a long time the way I thought best. Turned out my way wasn't so great, and I got pretty hurt. The doctor decided it was time to give me the whole big hunter and prey spiel. I didn't have anything or anyone else, so it's not like it was a hard decision, beyond the initial oh god I don't want to get into this guy's van moment that H tends to inspire. Honestly? He's been my mentor for over five years, and I would still refuse to take candy offered by that man." Clarice's smile was wry as her eyes slid back to the younger hunter, "Or did you mean the reason I avoid Caelius? Four words: small hallway, big sword."
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:53 pm
The next tree Gale came to was...not really all that great. He had thought it was rather tall and imposing, but upon moving around to the other side, he discovered it was rotting and blackened.
No thanks.
"Hmm, sounds familiar," said Gale dryly as he stepped up to another tree, peering around it. "Er," he added, with a slightly amused look in his eyes as he glanced over at Clarice. "The 'whole big hunter and prey spiel.' The candy and Doctor H spiel...er, not so much. I would really rather not be under his thumb if I can help it - though I'm quite certain I'm not his type."
He shuddered at the very thought.
A small, half choked laugh caught in Gale's throat. "I'm guessing that didn't go well," he said, shaking his head. "I've been on the receiving end of Caelius' scythe, however, and that wasn't really all that pleasant either..."
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:03 am
She returned his glance with a look of rather grim amusement, "His type...well, I guess that depends on what he wants at any given time." Well that was pretty vague and not at all reassuring, but...well, kind of the point. At the mention of Circe, Clarice gave an awkward little laugh, "Yeah...he was pretty irritated the first time it happened..." By the third time, she was pretty sure he thought she was part of some Life Division assassination plot. "So..." Change of subject needed stat!
TREES."TREES. I mean... Christmas!" Hraegar knew his priorities. Small talk was not included among them. "Have you planned anything for the Gala yet?"
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