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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:33 am
Coming back from the desert there were three things that Cami desperately wanted. One of those was a shower which was the immediate task completed once she had the time and the energy to complete such a task. It was tricky, and honestly more than a little painful (blessedly the bandages were runic and thus waterproof), to manage with the hole in her back and a fractured arm but it didn't matter. She was clean. The second of those things was in his bed looking a little more faraway than Cami would have liked. The third was...complicated. As usual. The Tower was a dark, awful place that had culminated in a battle so gruesome that even seasoned, veteran hunters were having trouble dealing with. That she wasn't screaming and crying likely had to do with the fact that her mind hadn't processed it all yet, hadn't caught up, she reasoned. Still in shock. Without asking or even really thinking about it the redhead snagged her favorite pillow off her own bed, the big dual-colored blanket from on top, and dumped both next to Otto. The blanket was spread over top so that there was more to tent with and, burrowing beneath, she scooped her one good arm around him in a tight cuddle. "Hiya." Her smile was soft, and a little tentative, because she'd never gotten to ask him the question she so desperately wanted to. The question she knew she didn't have to. Instead, she asked another one. "What can I do to help?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:50 am
Otto wasn't sleeping. His injuries made finding a comfy spot difficult. He couldn't sleep on his side. Even his back hurt. Sleeping on his stomach was impossible, which was lame because it was his favourite. Aside from injuries making him uncomfortable, he also had a lot on his mind. The voices from the pitch black labyrinth. The knowledge that someone he knew was no longer alive. Again.
Otto's eyes opened when he heard shuffling, turning his head slightly to watch as Cami came over. "Hey." He murmured back. He enjoyed the cuddle, even if he couldn't give much of one in return.
"Huh?" Help with what? What did she know? Times like these when Otto's mind whirled around in circles made him wish for that cool-headed Horsemen alter ego he'd had for all of ten seconds. "With what?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:04 pm
Know? Cami knew nothing and probably could have been called Jon Snow if that sort of pop culture was her shtick, which it blessedly was not. Still she thought about it for a moment wondering if she ought to mention how faraway and unhappy Otto seemed. Obsessing over her own needs for a moment like the horribly self-centered person she had always been but might not always be and ended up hedging somewhat. "Anything. That mission was...." She shook her head. "There's both a lot of words and no words for it." Cami had almost lost her damned heart. Literally. Otto had been wreathed in chains that was metaphorical in a way that made that nearly-lost heart ache for him. Then there'd been that moment with her and Maebe down near the pools. "But a lot happened and you're always so helpful to me. Like right now!" Smiling, albeit a little more dimly than usual, Cami's cheek lightly rubbed his good shoulder. "I want to help you too but I...I don't know what you need." It was hard to admit it but he was unreadable to her more often than not. Which had a lightbulb going off in her brain. "Or I could distract you with a bit of a quiet game, if you wanted."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:09 pm
Cami was kind. More kind than he deserved. He kept his problems so closed off from others that he lashed out at seemingly random times, forgetting that no one could rightly know what was wrong. But Cami wanted to help, despite her own injuries.
"I dunno... I'm not sure what I need either." He murmured, eyes staring up at the ceiling, lightly lit by the dim glow of night lights.
"A game?" A quiet one. "Sure. I can't really sleep, so.."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:41 pm
Pleased that she'd gotten some kind of response out of her roommate Cami wondered how to make this sound less like the creepy game people played on hookup websites and more like...well, okay maybe just a less creepy version of the same game. Since that's what it was if she was being honest which, didn't seem all that important at the moment. "Well, yanno, I know you but I don't know you. You don't know me. So I'm gonna ask a question, and you can ask a question, and we just go until we're sleepy." Lightly she patted a hand on his ribs, a comforting gesture. "The rules are that you can pass on any question but it has to be for a good reason. You have to at least try to play." Cami'd played this game in college only with a lot more alcohol and a lot more probing questions than the one she was going to lead with. "Like...what did you do before you came here? We all had some kind of life. Outside of school, what'd you spend all your time doing?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:44 pm
He wasn't afraid of Cami. He trusted her. He'd play her game, especially if she was playing too. "Well, for one thing I was home schooled. So I was always home." Otto started, "I mostly just like... played in the cotton fields, bounced a ball against the garage wall or like... drummed if no one was home." Otto breathed out slowly, thinking of a question for her. "Where're you from?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:19 pm
Home-schooled? That sounded like the best worst thing ever. Cami tried to imagine it with her mother and failed entirely though, to be fair, Vanessa had given her daughter a whole type of an education anyway. It also sounded incredibly...solitary. Had Otto always been alone? Cuddling him a little closer, being careful of his arm and her own, she was happy to answer his question. "St. Johns, Antigua. I was born in America but manman moved us to the island when I was very young. She was born in Codrington, which is Barbuda, but it's basically all the same. Figured the island wasn't a bad place to raise a child and she was right. I miss it. It's nice that this place is familiar in its own way but...well we talked about that before, yeah?" Thinking about her next question, trying to not let her thoughts drift too much towards the home she'd left behind, it was a bit of a weak one. "Why the drums?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:34 pm
Otto had indeed, for the most part, always been alone. "Was it like Port Royal?" He asked sassily, knowing full well they both knew he liked the Pirates movies. That was not, however, his real question. "Um... Guitars and stuff looked cool, but like hella delicate and complicated. I saw the drums in the store, and they like... yanno in cartoons when a friggin sun beam shines down? It just felt right. Drummers always looked so badass in music videos." Otto smirked lightly. "I'd always admired Dave Grohl. He's a great drummer. He drummed for Nirvana. He's the lead in Foo Fighters, and plays guitar and sings. But anyway, I kinda wanted to be him when I was a kid." He looked to Cami, idly thinking of another question. "What kind of music you like?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:27 pm
Snorting a bit she shook her head. "Maybe once a long time ago. It's still a port but only cruise ships dock. I hate tourists. You have no idea how much I hate tourists. You could scam 'em out of a good bit of money though if you were smart. A lot of us did as kids for pocket money and stuff." She was wickedly unrepentant and nobody had ever really minded. Every now and then some tourist would get belligerent about the fact they'd gotten swindled and the class at school would get a talking-to as nobody could quite identify who did it.
Cami thought about the kind of music she liked. "I have two favorites. First are what I call the wubs for when I'm really up. Dubstep, EHM, Trance sorts of things. But then I also really like sad pop/folksy stuff like Mumford and Sons, Ed Sheeran, Birdy. Awful hipster music for when I need to think or just wallow or something. It's so addicting. There's some stuff from home too, native islander stuff that you can't really find a CD of because they only exist as burnt copies of recordings people make at parties and stuff. I like that." Homesickness was strong but she had a new home, a home that she loved, and it was not at all a bad place to be.
Looking out the windows of the dorm towards the rest of the compound she nibbled her lip a bit. "What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you as part of Deus? Not like, scary or awful, just...weird."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:35 pm
"You'll have to recommend some s**t. If you got any cds, add'em to the rack in the living room. I like a lot of music." He preferred metal and rock, as well as alternative. That didn't stop him from enjoying everything else. A guilty pleasure resided in any and all current top 40s in America. Pop music included. He was guilty of singing along to Lady Gaga and Carly Rae Jepson at times when he was alone.
"Weirdest...." It was hard to differentiate between all weird stuff he'd experienced. Bringing up any one memory was trying. "Uh... being a kitten was odd. Woke up naked. We also all got turned into girls with double D breasts and ended up in bikinis at some tropical beach party."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:25 pm
Nodding thoughtfully she made a hmming sound. "I've got some stuff still shoved in a box downstairs in my basement room. I haven't had a way to use it so I just sorta left it down there so it didn't take up space." Eyes darted to the side for a moment as she told the white lie. Initially, when moving up into Otto's room, she hadn't believed that someone could be so randomly kind to her. That he really wanted to share his space and his life with her on an every-day basis and the fact he had made her only love him that much more. What the weirdest thing was, however, had her spluttering with laughter. At least Cami had the courtesy to turn her mouth away from his ear as she hooted like some kind of deranged owl. "Are you kidding me?! And I missed that sort of thing?! Oh my God that had to have been..." Trailing off she looked down at her own breasts pointedly, thinking of the many hells that came with them. "Uncomfortable. To say the least." Lightly, she poked his side. "You gotta ask a question."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:07 pm
Otto cracked a smile, because hearing Cami laugh was the sound Heaven made.
"Oh, right um.... What made you come to Deus?" A dark question, but why would a bright star like Cami come to this wasteland? Likely desperation.
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:16 pm
Cami was so happy that she couldn't read minds. Bursting into tears all over Otto was something that she'd said she could do, but would not be something she was comfortable with for some time yet. Granted they would have been somewhat-happy tears but...still. Tears! "Uhm, well, I nearly died which I guess should have been foreshadowing. I don't ever go out at night because it's dark. It's scary. But I was like Cami you are twenty-one grow up and I'd never been to one of the eight billion parties on campus." Thinking back it really did seem like another life and another place. "So Halloween comes. I get dressed up cute and go to a party, get really sloshed, get ditched by the guy I was hoping to hook up with and...honestly? It's all a blur. I got attacked though and out of nowhere this guy in white starts beating the crap out of the thing trying to get me. Mist Hunter. So, still drunk as hell, I demand to know who he is. What he's doing. He actually tells me and I demand to go with him. Pack up my things and three days later I get picked up." She shook her head. "I signed up. Demanded to be let in." Pausing in the midst of her semi-rant she looked up and smiled. "But you're here so it's good. Why did you join?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:34 pm
"That's pretty damn spontaneous. What'd you go to College for? Did you have like.. plans or somethin'?" Obviously nothing solid, giving it all away for Deus. Otto shifted a little bit as she asked her question. "I... ran away from home, if we're being honest. I was desperate, and the hunter gave me an out."
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:14 pm
She could see it. Growing up alone in the middle of nowhere, home-schooled, and wanting something bigger and greater out of life? Cami had grown up on a tropical island that people paid thousands of dollars to visit and she still couldn't have gotten out of there fast enough. For all that she missed it now, could think kindly of it now, it had been stifling to her at seventeen. God, Otto hadn't been much older than that when he got here, had he? She frowned slightly. "Actually I was in the process of applying to the masters program at my school. Caribbean Studies is a pretty narrow area and there aren't a lot of schools but also not a lot of applicants. I'm native, fluent in English, one of the Creole dialects, and Spanish. Pretty much a shoo-in but I don't have my bachelor's finished so there's that." It didn't bother as much as she thought it would. Education had always been a nice thing to have and she loved learning, would have loved teaching people about her heritage and her culture, but this was a higher calling in a way. "Do you think if you could change what kind of weapon Tenya was, you would? It'd still be Tenya just...like a sword or something." She loved Kidana but the more and more she fought the more she began to realize that a distance attacker, without a Moon to stand in her way, was a fighter at a disadvantage.
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