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 Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:31 pm
Harrison was not in the room again. Jordan didn't really blame him for it; he didn't really think Harrison was quite up for duty rotations in his current frame of mind, but staying in was hot and boring and Jordan wouldn't have stayed put either, especially if he'd thought he was a teenager again.
He headed for the forested area outside the walls of the compound, listening to the dreamlike recollections of the false memories he'd briefly shared in. Not for the first time, he wondered why those memories matched so precisely. As far as he knew, they didn't come from a fragment-self, not the way the Blue Kingdom others had, but so far every "memory" had apparently corresponded with the ones his guys had; at least the ones that should be shared did, as if they'd somehow tapped into selves that had existed together.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 1:24 am
Harrison had been spending a lot of time outdoors.
Bonez kept bugging him about finding a working computer, and he sort of knew what that meant, but nothing that required energy worked. His phone had died a slow death on its own, without him using it much.
The laptop battery had just as slowly and surely leaked away.
Nights they stayed in the same place, but days they had to themselves.
He liked the jungly parts of the island best, because it was sort of like a forest.
Harrison was sitting on the limbs of one of the upper trees, watching something big stir occasionally in the distant water.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 5:28 am
"You know, neither of us can fly up there and help you down right now," Jordan called up when he spotted Harrison. Not that he could have done so even if he'd been the other self, he reflected; that Jordan's wings had been tiny, and he'd been ferociously embarrassed and sensitive about it, enough so that it had taken him a good year to be okay with joking about it, or letting his guys tease him. It was a weird feeling to be thinking about it. "You okay up there?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 10:52 am
"I like being up here," Harrison said, "If either of you could fly, I'd be even higher."
He brought up one knee, resting his cheek on it and looking down at Jordan. He grinned. "Why? It make you nervous?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:09 am
"Maybe." Jordan jumped for the lowest branch, hauled himself up onto it, and started up the tree. Heights made him subtly nervous, and Harrison knew that - his version did, at least. But he wasn't about to let that stop him. If his fingers left dents in the bark of some of the branches, it wasn't likely that anyone was going to notice.
He found a branch a little lower than the one Harrison was currently sitting on and balanced himself on it, gripping another branch nearby to make sure he was stable. He looked sideways at Harrison instead of looking down and thinking about how high up he was. "Just wondered where you got to."
He missed Harrison. This other self currently occupying his fiance's thoughts was similar, but not quite the same, and it made Jordan feel like he was adrift, less well anchored to himself for it. He wasn't about to mention that, either.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:35 am
Harrison sobered, slightly.
"I don't blame you for it. There's a lot more to be nervous about, here."
No second chances.
"Helps to get some perspective. They got us cooped up in there or doing odd jobs, and half of it I don't know what I'm doing. Makes me feel like an idiot. Bonez remembers, at least."
Harrison missed his guys too. But there was nothing else to do except suck it up. He could feel the gap of the isolation, the separation between him and the rest of this world, and the burdened, weathering looks creeple gave him whenever he opened his mouth.
He wasn't sure what he was saying that was wrong, or made him stick out so bad. Maybe it was everything.
"Just wish things could be simple, for once."
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:56 am
"I feel better when I know you're doing okay," Jordan said, and leaned over a little to brush the tips of his fingers across Harrison's arm -- a considered gesture, but a habitual one as well, just something he did.
"I'm feeling pretty cooped up myself," he admitted. "Just knowing I can't get out of here if I want to. It's fine when the option's available. You know? I don't have to be out as long as I can get out."
He sighed. "It's never simple. Well ... almost never." There were some things that were. They were rarely the things he expected to be.
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