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 Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:01 pm
"I don't wanna be a hunter anymore."
It wasn't news. Even if she had never said it quite so bluntly before, her actions had spoken much louder and for much longer to him--maybe as far back as when Merlin had first began to grab ahold of her. But it didn't mean he had any answer ready for it either; some part of him wondered if he too wasn't just tired of the same endless loop of doing just barely enough only to be overwhelmed again.
It was also a vague enough statement. It didn't instill the fear in him that Chel was considering ending her life, nor did it sound like a complaint at the lot she had in life. It was something heavier and closer to the bones.
Slipping his fingers between hers, he gave them a squeeze in his quiet contemplation. "What would you rather be?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:03 pm
"I dunno," Chel mumbled, numb to his fingers, his fears. "Does it matter?"
Vague answers for vague thoughts.
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:09 pm
He supposed not. They were stuck there, for better or for worse. For more worse.
He shifted a little to warn her that he was moving before turning completely to face her, long legs now bumping against the car seats. "Well, yeah," Jack said, giving her arm a small tug, a shake of the lifeline to interpret as she needed--to ignore or to heed and come close. "You were supposed to say 'dragon' there."
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:17 pm
"Oh you got me," she said, lips twitching into a smile, because even if she wasn't feeling happy she had a nervous twitch to continue smiling, an awkward quirk to keep conversations moving.
It was a little awkward to balance on the Jeep's rungs, but she at least leaned a little closer to Jack. "I just ..." She let the thought go with an exasperated breath of air. "I wanna be like you and know I'm the science man or be like Shun and be the ninja leader. Somethin'."
She didn't know how to word it right, but it was a culmination of things. Between loving Halloween and being a hunter, Chel's ideologies didn't really fit on either side of the fence; cradled somewhere between Shun's defense and Gale's declaration of traitorous behavior, Chel wasn't sure where she fit. She'd thought for a while maybe it would be as Jack's protectorate, but even that didn't fit, didn't mix.
And even if she somehow magically escaped the prison island, Jack's question still stood: What would you rather be?
Chel didn't know. The truth was that she never would.
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:29 pm
Jack was struck by deja vu: a similar conversation long ago in the darkness of his room, eyes to the ceiling, bodies curled on the bed. He couldn't remember the specifics anymore, but he did remember that back then he had been insistent on knowing how to plan your future. It hadn't mattered to her at all then, so...
"What's bringing this on?" he couldn't help but ask, adjusting himself to be more stable on the Jeep bars before wrapping his arm around her. Very little shook Chel like this. "S'it from having Penumbra around hunters?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:41 pm
"Yes- No? I don't know." She pushed off of him, not because she wanted a lack of comfort, but because they were in the wrong place for that kind of thing. Balancing on bars was uncomfortable as it was, and with a zombie infestation it was both a comfort and a terror.
"A few of them were callin' traitor earlier." A few. Never names. "Almost got K ******** over 'cause of it. M'gonna die hated by both sides." It was somehow representative that even now she wasn't wearing her coat because she'd given it to another side to potentially trick their own side. "I'd rather be someone who's brain works good like yers." She knocked on the side of his affectionately, like asking to be invited in.
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:00 pm
His eyes narrowed at the word traitor and seemed to become oblivious to the rest of her explanation. "Who? What happened?" Was Evan involved again?
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 12:43 am
The obliviousness irked her. He was doing that thing where he listened but only really listened to what he could fix, what he could attack.
< Kill for you is not the same as die for you. >
"Just some people talkin' s**t on the radio Jack, just like twitter. Rep, the limey, few others. S'whatever it could've been whoever." She gave him a hard look, which was unfortunately softened by the tiredness on her face. Nothing ever looked intimidating when you had a headache.
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 8:27 am
But how were they throwing that accusation around? Was the ruse easy to see, or had Death Division been more stringent on watching her activity in Halloween? Rep he could have guessed would be barking about that s**t, but Gale? The idea that he would have been threatening her...Something dark entered Jack's eyes for a moment. Later, later. He couldn't get side tracked right now. When Jack blinked, the darkness was gone. "I'm not just the science man, you know," he said. "I'm more than that. No-one is any one thing, Chel; you're lucky you can be versatile." He reached out to cup a bloody cheek. "Doesn't matter what they think. I've seen what your relationship is with them: an alliance is good."
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 9:47 am
"Alliance," Chel stuttered in a breatht way. That really did it; she left his grasp completely and emerged from the vehicle, pacing impatiently. "Alliance?"
For whatever reason she summoned her bow and fired it into the nearest car, blowing a hole in the side. Tenebrae was pleased.
"That's all everythin' is to you guys," she muttered. "Alliances." She summoned another arrow, taking aim more carefully this time. "You know what Shun said? He said if we wasn't workin' together he'd off me. Just like that. Poof. Don't matter."
The shot ricocheted off a tail light and into a nearby car; this one didn't explode but it left a long burnt gash along the side of the car's chipped red paint. "And I'm sayin' I can't think like that. Like people are just tools and we're all at war and everythin' is either us or them or humans or horseshit." She wasn't sure why she was ranting this, even less to someone who she knew for a fact couldn't see eye to eye on this matter.
Maybe it was the sun part of Chel that kept her taking shots at cars while she talked, or maybe that was just Chel. "And nobody's with me on this one 'cause everybody's got grudges."
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:38 am
He gave her a head start before hopping off as well, wincing upon landing; he had to plant a hand against the car to keep from swaying for a moment. Only after Chel had let off a few more shots did he put in, "The only grudge I hold is against horsemen."
(Perhaps it was a lie, but other targets were only hunters at this point.)
Though he was a little surprised to hear Shun was that decisive. Jack had only ever met him either in circumstances like these or that one time in Halloween, neither which had been anything more than polite. Although he supposed given what he knew about the reaper's history, it wasn't unheard of.
"You're not off in this alone," he said as he ventured away from the car and after her, though Jack continued to keep his distance. He didn't know what to say, yet he kept opening his mouth. "They are your friends. You of all people should know what one person says isn't everything." There had been Jack himself after all, with his talk of workplace proximity associates and acquaintances and annoyances for ages and ages into their own friendship. "I got to know Estel in particular as a Great Knight, and I can trust the rest of that group if you do. It's..."
He didn't know what he was trying to say. Comfort was never Jack's strong suit, but it hurt him to see her like that and he couldn't stand idle to it. "You've been with them long enough. It's not merely an alliance anymore."
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