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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 7:00 pm
She stands well above him, a shadow back-lit by the desert sun. His footing is a crumbling tenuous thing and fall will be effective should his arms, those wasted, abused limbs, fail him here as he had failed them for years on end. "You killed me, Thompson. That's two you've killed," Jane states calmly, voice moderate and friendly, "from blindly sharing information as if you understand its value."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 7:02 pm
He does not understand. He wants, very much, to let go. "I haven't killed anyone," he rasps.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:42 pm
"Ignorant enough to not realize what you've done, but arrogant enough to create pleasant facts to obscure the gaps in your understanding." The shadow shifts slightly, but there's nothing restless or impatient in the motion. "I gave you a chance to die a hero, and already your pissing that one shining moment away. You won't get another chance, not really. The next ones are always going to have someone else in danger, someone else getting hurt to set the stage of your so-called heroism." She crouches down, face impassive as she gets a closer look, "You could have had something clean, or near enough."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:47 pm
"Would it make you feel better," he says, arms shaking with the effort of supporting his feather weight, "if I told you how often I regret not cutting the noose?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:02 pm
"That would require having feelings concerning you," Jane stated simply.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:09 pm
"I didn't kill you, though." A pause broken by labored breathing, and eventually the wet sound of air passing through a bloodied windpipe, a ruin that would have killed an animal more human than this one, half flesh and half ghost. "I thought Caelius knew. This," he gasps, "is what happens when there is a basic lack of communication. Where is my daughter?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:25 pm
"Right where I left her."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:47 pm
Another long, rasping pause, but maybe this is simply because his focus is equally divided between his failing arms and his attempts to salvage his throat. "Did Caelius know about that? I never did trust you but I thought," he manages, "that was me being an idiot. I don't trust you or him."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:21 pm
Jane smiled and for a moment skin stretched tight over bone, revealing something hungry and inhuman.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:40 pm
A pause that seemed longer than it was. "If I cut the rope," he whispered, "will you leave her alone?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:49 pm
"How would that benefit anyone save yourself? Deus has a pod waiting for her already, and it will only be a matter of time." Jane gave a thoughtful little hum, "Maybe not even that much time. Caelius Innis likes them young." She reached down and the distance compressed until it seemed she might pull him up by hand. Oil black slicks had replaced her eyes, "Or maybe she'll be fortunate, and I'll take her as one of my own, instead. Her father has done such excellent work for me, afterall."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:55 pm
He reached up as if to accept her offer, to let himself be hauled free at whatever price she might later name, his hand slick with blood commingling with the tattooed red as it closed hard around her wrist and he pulled, white-knuckled and refusing to let go. There was no more information to be gotten out of her and this was, he reasoned, not real. In the same instant Fiona came to hand, strangely silent, and the noose gave far more easily under her edge than the real one had.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:37 am
Her hands had blackened and wasted into a skeletal appearance as they fell. The darkness of her eyes began spilling out, over her face, splashing into his mouth. The last thing he would see is her very white teeth grinning between charcoal lips. The last thing he'd hear would be, "I think I like her other father better."
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