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 Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 6:55 pm
It was a strange thing to be back into the swing of things after so long locked away. Life on the island had gone on without him, he had (as far as he could fathom) regained most, if all of his missing memories, and on top of it, something strange had happened (unsurprising) over the New Year. He had a lot of thinking. Mostly, it had him wanting to talk to the life labs about getting some explosives, but that would involve actually going to the life labs again, and so he had settled for quiet target practice on the beach with Roar. Jerry had planned to make an afternoon of it, a sandwich and bottle of juice waiting with his guitar on the sand a safe distance away as he would line up coconuts here and there down the stretch and take his time blasting them. It was zenful in it's own way, even if it sent his ears ringing.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:51 pm
Rep on the other hand was on the lowest downswing of his time on the island that he could remember. Things had levelled out to an extent with Jordan and there was a good strong feeling that they would get things back to where they were once they'd dealt with their respective issues.
The only issue was that Rep didn't even begin to know how to deal with what was wrong with him. It was a hole he'd dug himself and that was all there was to it.
He'd taken a walk on the beach, still careful thanks to the O hunter attacks and titans, but allowing himself just a bit of freedom. He heard the explosions from a distance, but there was something distinctly familiar about them. Over the years he'd learned to recognise a Roar explosion versus the other less helpful sort.
He hadn't seen Jerry in ages, not since the christmas party, and even then it had been glancing, with him rambling about being in the labs. Rep hated himself for having missed the other man because from what he could tell the depth of feeling wasn't returned. There'd always been a fundamental disconnect in the way the two of them had always communicated, Jerry was flighty and sporadic, trying to impress his peers and earn gratification and recognition on a permanent basis. He understood friendship as people who were entirely interested in his interests and who praised him for them. It was no wonder, Rep thought as he made his way along the beach, that Jerry didn't understand entirely that Rep considered him his friend, Rep didn't show it in a way he understood and never had.
It wasn't just him though, Jerry didn't understand how sensitive it was possible for him to be, he got wounded all the time around the other clumsy Sun, time and time again feeling superficial and like the loyalty and feeling he carried were never repaid. He didn't know how Jerry could go about making him feel the loyalty was repaid, but being a little less flaky and distractable would always be a start. And he would never ******** know how to explain that to him, that he was his friend and that without him he'd felt alone and vulnerable, like all the snipes and jibes were levelled at him rather than split.
He looked as tired as he felt, half his hair gone, scruffy looking as if he'd been sleeping in a pillow fort rather than a bed and with the weary shadowed eyes of a man on the edge of a meltdown.
He was careful not to creep up on the other Sun, today wasn't a day he wanted blasted by Roar, instead he walked slowly and in Jerry's peripheral vision, aware he probably couldn't hear him either.
And then he stopped, a few meters behind him and just waited to be noticed. You didn't touch someone firing at a gun range, and you sure as ******** didn't touch a Sun while they were training.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:33 pm
For a long time, Jerry didn't notice him. Between the blasts, the ringing in his ears, and the hum he had begun to cover said ringing, he had no clue he wasn't alone beyond his weapon. It was satisfying, so satisfying to see the sand and sea-spray ripple with the unseen shock waves of sound, and the resulting eruption of coconut milk at the end, leaving what would have otherwise been a rather gory scene by fruit terms.
He was just coming up for air, rocking back to his feet to set up some fresh targets when he caught sight of red and his singing stopped, "Oh! Rep, hi! I was just- what on earth happened to you?" He gaped at what was left of the other man's hair.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:43 pm
Rep just looked on unhurried as Jerry obliterated the coconuts, admiring the wanton destruction the other man was capable of. He could say whatever the hell he wanted about Jerry's personal failings, he was a fantastic Sun and that was ultimately what actually mattered.
He cringed a little at the reaction when he was finally spotted, he consistently forgot how striking his appearance was recently. "Erm. Lice. Mutant ******** lice. From the hoard. It fell out." He looked away guiltily. "Doesn't matter though, the guys were all right, that was all that mattered."
He cleared his throat. "Nice shooting man."
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:18 pm
Jerry simply gaped, slowly lowering Roar as he did so. "Lice." He took a step backward. "W-what... sort of lice does THAT??" A mutant sort, apparently. Even so, it took some effort to stop staring. "And... and they gave me beef about my couch! You had MONSTER LICE living in your... your... storage room and didn't notice??"
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:23 pm
Rep gave Jerry a grim look. "Aye, your couch turned out no to be a problem but my hoard did. The hoard was ******** fine where it was in my room. H took it away and hid it in the basement because it was stinking up the place. It got infested with s**t down there." He self consciously ran a hand across the short stubbly fuzz that was all that remained of his hair on one side. "I didn't notice how ******** itchy I was, I used to be itchy all the time before the island and s**t. And I was looking after the guys at the time.."
He shrugged, realising he was rhyming off excuses he'd already made a million times. "I'm clean now. I'm no itchy any more."
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:02 pm
Roar was outright desummoned as Jerry took a tentative half-step closer, eyes narrowed, "You sure?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:05 am
"I'm sure." he said grimly. "I had the infirmary check me over to make sure I wasn't contagious. The worm is dead and the lice are dead. You are safe man, I'm not going to infect you, I already infected everyone else." He found the idea of Jerry scared and horrified by the internal parasite and scratching himself half to death extra tragic. He really didn't need that kind of s**t in his life after ******** knew what the labs had already done to him. "So aye, I'm extra sure. I've even been showering extra in case."
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:10 am
Jerry relaxed just a bit more. "Th-that's... that's good, then," He managed, voice wavering only slightly. He cleared his throat. "W-well... a bit early for spring cleaning but ah... always... always good to do, yeah?" He wiggled a finger in his ear to try to calm down the ring, "Um. Want half my sandwich? It's just peanut butter and something I really hope is strawberry jelly-"
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:27 am
"No really, I lost a lot of s**t moving it from the basement to where it is now. But it's awright I'm - it's stable again, safe. No one will get bothered by it or take it away from me again." Rep considered the offer of a sandwich, normally he would have been completely aversive to the idea of jam and peanut butter, but he really hadn't been eating much at all since the famine worm relented. "Sure man, if you aren't hungry."
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:32 am
"H-help yourself!" Jerry smiled weakly, moving to fish it out of it's bag and offer it over, picking up his guitar in the process. He cleared his throat again, mulling over what Rep had explained, brows furrowing in concern, "What about er... your um. Collection of... of er... drink?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:36 am
Rep took the sandwich gratefully and sat down on a stray beach rock to eat it. Between bites he looked up and added. "Most of the s**t in my really secure crates was all right. It was mostly the perishable and edible s**t like carcasses and whatever the bugs went after, the booze is mostly awright. Which is good since apparently I won't be getting any ******** wages for most of a year." The thought of not being able to restock the horde made him almost panic all over again but he pushed it aside. He took another bite and added. "So I need to make it last."
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:58 am
"No wages??" He hit a discord as he started to tune the guitar, sitting on the sand to gape at his friend. "Are... you still allowed leave?" He hesitated, brows furrowed in thought. "I mean... I'm not allowed to er... leave the island until they're sure everything's kosher er, here," He knocked on the side of his head with an embarrassed look, "But... if you're allowed to go, I have a few things I'd need, I'm happy to er... pay you for the run! Or lend some to you-" Although now he was considering fumigating his couch again just to be sure.
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 1:35 pm
"Nope. No wages, I ******** up Mark's s**t and he's docking it out of my ******** pay." Rep spat irritably. "As for leave I'm no really allowed leave unless I'm supervised, I have to take one of the guys with me and then it cuts into their leave time too, it sucks."
He gave Jerry a weak smile. "I appreciate the offer dude, but I'd need to check first before I could promise you anything like that, like I say, not just my leave that'd be on the line."
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 2:02 pm
"Oh," Jerry sighed, while his intentions for the proposal had generally been to help cheer Rep up with a useful task and hopefully some extra income, there had been a selfish goal, "I'm just never going to get a new like, am I?"
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