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 Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 9:30 pm
Once life was at least TENOUSLY back to normal (or as normal as it actually got on Deus at any given time) the gravity of the situation really sunk its talons into Rep. Every ******** person he saw could potentially be dead within a few hours if the threat the grail had made came to fruition. It made it worse that Harrison was busy with errands and out of his sight so much of the day. He'd started pacing like an animal in it's cage and jumping at every sound. Some people had shrieked in training fields and he'd summoned his weapon in a panic, only to realise it was some fake bug and some trainees ******** about.
He was deeply, deeply on edge and just to break the constant gnawing fear which was making him more and more of a risk towards anyone who pushed his buttons he decided to go do something that was as far as things went, pretty ******** risky.
With no idea if his majesty was at home (because he lived in his office apparently, imagining Cael in a bed like any other human being was strange to say the least) he made his way up to the Death lead's office and tentatively knocked the door.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 9:47 pm
"The door is ******** open," said a voice reflexively, because when someone lived in the office as long as they did, some things just became habit.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 9:54 pm
Rep shoved the door open with his usual sort of slightly cringing dog posture, as if he expected something horrendous to being going on in the office itself despite the door in question being unlocked. It wasn't an unfounded fear, given some of the s**t he'd seen over the last few months, and he just hoped today didn't bring disembodied limbs with it.
"Er. Sorry to interrupt sir." Rep said with the maximum degree of awkwardness, all thoughts of bravado and being strong, independent and forthright vanishing like the pipe dreams they were. "I er.. I know I have no idea of the bigger picture at play here or what your goals are in the long term and... and." he held up his hands in a placatory fashion. "And I do not think its my place TO know those things. I just wanted to.. to see if I could..help to prepare myself to make decisions which are on our side and not to ..allow horrible things like happened back when Gale made himself a tragic rhyme."
It took all his pride not to flinch as if expecting a sudden launch through a window.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 10:17 pm
The Death lead suddenly stopped writing, and looked up. On an expression of one to irritable, he was definitely leaning heavily on the far end of the spectrum. Mark was also nowhere on sight, there was no relying on panicked visual cues this time. "Rep. Do you consider yourself excessively ******** gullible."
At least he was being straightforward.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 10:26 pm
"Er. Yeah?" he said, apparently giving the question some thought (though not too much, he could practically feel the irritation in the room). "More gullible when I don't know anything but isn't everyone?" He found it pretty appealing personally when people were gullible like Melvin and Al, there was a certain honesty to people who did not have a ******** clue.
"Less than some though." he added, trying to save at least a little face.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 10:40 pm
"That is for me to decide." the Death lead responded, though the look he gave Rep could have been anything from he just had a really intense stare to he really was beginning to wonder if he was going to regret giving even an ounce of lenience. "I do not hold ******** hands. If you came to ask me why events are happening, you should have done a better ******** job managing your personal schedule. It is not in your place to demand to know, and there is nothing you personally can do to prepare what you consider horrible things no more than I can stop people from <******** up repeatedly. Outside of inane politics, we are not on the same side. You have already made a choice."
It was a good thing he was in a bit of lecture mode, so Rep could at least get something out of the conversation.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 10:49 pm
"I'm no asking you to hold my hand sir, nor intervene. I know that the fact I'm ******** lost and that I wasn't aware of the grail is my own shortfall. I've just been chasing the mess it leaves. All I can guess like, about why its happening is because Excalibur ******** off and he kept it in check." And even that he had only guessed because it was that strange encounter with the one who promised protection which had halted his own brutal death by the infection.
"Sorry, I'm no doubt repeating what you already know. I.." he hesitated again, still behaving as if he was walking on glass. "I made a choice? Then I made the wrong one, it is my job to be on the same side as you...or...I.. maybe I never was?" he steeled himself. "All I want to know, I ask, not demand and all I want is to know if you are compliant with that woman and if I should also be. All I ask are orders." And there was something slightly tragic about the way he clung to the word orders.
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 11:10 pm
"Then I will give you orders. And like everyone else on this godforsaken island, I am sure you will do your ******** best to not follow through." He said it so matter-of-factly that it could have passed for any other phrase, such as how is the weather today or maybe can you please just shoot me in the face, if he was that type of person.
Caelius broke eye contact just enough to move everything one stack over, to start another cycle of tedium in the form of paperwork. It was really, an act of waiting and repetition. "You already made a choice. You chose to be a Hunter, you chose to be in this division and you chose to follow a specific legacy. Out of those three choices, I have only specifically made one, so no, we are not on the same side when it comes to investments. I do not waste my time protecting others, but seeing as you do, and that you seem to specifically ask for power that you do not have to protect your personal assets, I would consider this a personal request, and not a mutual goal. Do not ask me what I want. What exactly can you give me in return. "
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 11:22 pm
Rep didn't attempt to argue that he did try to follow orders but that he was just not ultimately, all that good at it, in the end it amounted to the same thing and the same level of general incompetence.
Still, he listened with the kind of rapt attentiveness he always paid to other people to everything Cael had to say, as if oblivious to the irritation and obvious dislike. He wasn't oblivious, but it felt correct, as if he was dealing with someone who actually was aware of his real shortcomings and who didn't make that horrible mistake some people did of thinking he was a decent good person underneath.
"I chose to be in the same division as you." he said, his words carefully softened to defuse any perceived insolence within them. "If someone else was in charge, there is a good chance I wouldn't have wanted to be here and the legacy.." He had chosen protection because of Harrison, because Harrison mattered and it was a weakness in a way, an inexcusable one and he couldn't help but feel ashamed of his dependence on the other man in the face of what seemed to be a life without loyalty and ties, simply a raw pursuit of power, obviously Cael would have no use for Excalibur and did not need to commit to anyone.
"I only have one investment." he said, but sounded defeated as he said it. "If it wasn't for that I'd have no use for that legacy either. Sorry. Excuses. Worthless excuses but I'm alive by virtue of those choices and I can't and wouldn't cut him loose."
He eyed the paperwork distantly, not reading it, simply resting his eyes somewhere that was not the other man. "The only thing I can give you sir, is the same thing I always have and that is what little my absolute loyalty is worth. There's nothing I have you don't already have and more. "
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 11:39 pm
"You are repeating yourself, Rep," Caelius's tone came dangerously low, reaching the end of his limits of patience, of lack thereof, "You are repeating me. How the <********> does hearing about you being worthless actually benefit my or, in political terms, this division, in any way. My words are not for your mutual discussion, I want to hear results. What is it that you think I want, and how do you plan to approach it. I would consider what you say next carefully."
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 11:54 pm
Rep froze up, cutting his rambling dead. What he thought Cael wanted was a huge leap to make, the other man was almost impossible to gauge or guess and as independent as a wild animal.
"I think you want the legacies. Controlled." he almost said ours, assuming the organisation, but Cael considered everyone within the organisation (and possibly without) utterly inept, and to be fair, most of them ******** were, giving them the legacies would be like giving a nuclear bomb to a kid. He corrected it to. "Yours. I want to help, somehow. Be it helping to find Protection or stop the grail. It feels wrong leaving it in that b***h's hands, but it sounded like it was going to come here anyway once Gale grabbed it."
But even at that something didn't sit right about Cael wanting the legacies at all, certainly they were powerful, but so was he and ruling the entire world didn't look like something on his agenda either, ruling everything would be like suddenly realising the whole human race were your incompetent trainees. But for the time being, it was all he had, he couldn't fathom what else Cael could possibly want.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:36 am
"I had your direct assistance once," Caelius repeated, "and I ended up pretty ******** close to dead. Samantha does not own the Grail, she simply ended up with it temporarily. Everything runs on time. Gale wasted his time, Lucky chose indecision, you chose confrontation. When all of you decided, I already had results. At least have the common sense to not be in the ******** way."
He was however, slightly placated. It seemed that Rep had said something, though like a rampant wildfire, it was difficult to tell what it was that had stalled it just temporarily. "I spent some time considering what it was that made most of you unable to simply die, and the answer is you are all protected. That is the only thing you grasped correctly. The Grail will return to us regardless, as long as you are protected. Your singular useful point is simply existing. Everything else is just words. I wanted to see how much information you had gathered with your vast experience, and the end result is so painfully small. Do yourself a ******** favour and find a way to use what you have been given with what little time you have left. It might just lead to a mutual goal. This Island has rules, it has missions, it has goals. Until the legacy manifests again, these rules are meant to be obeyed."
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:03 am
Rep looked at the floor like a guilty child as Cael recounted the events of the mission and rightly condemned his previous ******** ups. But if anything, rather than break his spirit, it made him want to do more, to fight harder and work harder until he was capable of attaining any measure of results himself. If Cael had applauded him in any way (a terrifying thought) he would have been dispirited and defeated by the gesture. This, oddly was what he needed to hear, they had not been sent for their competence or any faith in them, they were sent because they were simply there.
He nodded, accepting that what he knew was practically nothing but heartened by the thought that it was the protection that might draw the grail there anyway, it would come to him even if he ran. It freed him from the need to run, the need to panic and left nothing but resolve in its wake. "I will do what I can sir myself and rely on Life division to be making damn antidotes in bulk" he said. "Sorry to waste your time."
He could still fight the corruption when he got the chance, he could still run against the clock.
And anything, anything he ******** did would be greater than the nothing that Cael considered him, and that made every effort feel like net gain. Dwight was wrong, they weren't running his energy out, they just didn't care.
He did not wait to be dismissed (because he wasn't that stupid) but headed hurriedly towards the door.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:37 am
It was a good thing Rep couldn't see Caelius's reaction to antidotes, because that would be another long lecture on priorities and ignorance, probably with the word gullible sprinkled on there for good measure.
The door closed behind them. The Death lead continued to work. He waited.
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