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 Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:53 am
The pod read Austin Lewis Elswood, and the young man inside really hadn't been there all that long: days, maybe a week, a dosing beauty more than the usual full-on sleep. His expression was a crooked sort of frown, a furrowed brow, like he was unsure or unhappy with his situation. But, then, maybe that wasn't all that unusual, in this place. His attitude and his expression certainly wasn't improved by the sudden puff of fresh air into his face, the slow opening of his eyes -- which then narrowed into unhappy slits, a hand going slowly, fumbling, for his front pocket, and the glasses folded carefully into the pocket of his very pale red shirt -- "Son of a b***h." It was soft, as he put them on, because this still wasn't his exact prescription, the world still bent and skewed and blurred around the edges. He narrowed his eyes between them, just a little wobbly as he set a hand on the edge of the pod and stepped out into the pod room. "Goddamn." Less soft, more grumpy, his eyebrows pulled together into an annoyed knot in the middle of his forehead as Austin tried to figure out just where he was, and how he'd gotten here.
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:20 pm
Horace didn't particularly mind pod duty. It was boring, but he could read, or bother people on Twitter. Of course, all he really wanted to do was distract himself and the books he owned had lost some (most) of their appeal. He wondered if, in time, he'd want to read them again. Maybe not. Horace sighed and propped his up unprofessionally on top of the counter. Just as one heel crossed the other, lights began blinking and a small alarm signaled that someone had popped out of a pod. He almost fell out of his chair. It was a close thing, but he caught himself. Horace blinked blearily at the alarm, trying to see which row and pod it was. Then he took off, dodging the overturned chair. Horace figure it was probably best not to make a new trainee wait. So, despite all of Horace's training and how he'd grown more muscular while at Deus, he was still a bit out of breath when he arrived. It was alright, he thought, this was alright. He embraced distraction with both arms. Luckily for Austin, he did not embrace him. "Hey, uh-" Horace peered at the name on the pod. "-Austin. Welcome to Deus. How you feeling? "
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:15 pm
There was a long pause that somehow, without saying a word, positively dripped with disdain. Austin's eyes raked over Horace once, briefly, and then went back around the place, like he was trying to figure out who was really in charge -- or maybe like he was halfway expecting Ashton Kutcher to come leaping out from behind one of the pods. Alas. No such luck. He made a soft, suffering sound, and focused back on the other man. The question: ignored. He worked to take charge, instead. "Where? Deus? Like In Nomine Deus?" It came with a squint. Or maybe just everything came with a squint, right now.
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:59 pm
Horace snorted. "No, like Deus Ex. Do you remember talking to a dude in a white coat and willing your life away to fighting critters? No? Well, that's us." The disdain wasn't lost on Horace and neither was the squint, but he suffered through it. There was a checklist to maintain, but he didn't particularly feel like taking vitals. "And I'm here to answer your questions, more or less."
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 6:44 pm
Austin frowned at him more deeply -- pulled off the glasses to clean them on the hem of his shirt, even though they weren't terribly clean -- and stalled a bit for time. In truth, he didn't quite remember the conversation. Time in the tank had swallowed up some of his experiences and... "I remember fighting zombies for like a month. Does that sound familiar to you?" The glasses went back on and he took a step away, to investigate the room just a bit.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:24 am
"Oh, Delta." Horace looked over Austin with a new eye, trying to piece out the zombie survivor underneath that frown. He couldn't see it. Horace shrugged. "Yeah, got an influx of you guys recently, though I think most are on a different base. You're on the island. Anyway, basically, you signed up to keep fighting things like zombies and whatall so more civilians don't die. You get a cool weapon, too." He noticed Austin's appraising glance around the room. At first look, the room was less than inviting (on second and third look, too), but it wasn't awful. It looked mostly clean. "This is a, uh, kind of containment room. You were sleeping - give you time to bond with your weapon." Normally, Horace had a point-by-point list of things to go through and say, but he was discombobulated lately, and so was forgetting to be thorough. "Feel up to walking?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 6:06 pm
"Walking where?" It was just a touch wary, his eyebrows knitted and one hand sliding into his pocket as he watched Horace -- and it was [almost certainly deliberately] exactly the kind of pose a model in a magazine might strike. Austin, back in his own clothes as opposed to ragged trash, and with a familiar confidence infusing him as he did. Now, if only he could get better glasses. "And what weapon? I seem to be unarmed."
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 7:01 pm
Wowee, wasn't he fancy? He was attractive and blond and Horace looked away, clearing his throat. Blonds were bad for Horace's blood. "Walking to, incidentally, get your weapon." With a dry hissing noise, he summoned Jannisari and just as quickly de-summoned her. "You are bonded, which is why you're awake now, more or less. So now you go into a cave and you find one that talks to you and it's yours. Sounds crazy, right?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:51 pm
"I guess." He frowned, though, thinking about it, and then took one step in a random direction. Damned if he knew which way was actually out in this crazy maze of Bacta tanks, but he wasn't just going to stand around and wait. At least Austin wasn't too far off, not enough to be terribly embarrassing -- "Is it weirder than zombies, though? We'll have to see about that."
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 10:41 am
"Is having someone constantly in your head weirder than zombies?" Horace mumbled and stepped past Austin to begin walking. By some coincidence, Austin had been going in (mostly) the right direction. Horace walked backward, speaking to Austin as he went. "So you go down in the cave, find a weapon - you will know which one is yours- and hop back up and get your room. Here." Horace held out a Deus Ex pamphlet. "You'll get a white coat, too, luckily won't clash with your pink shirt. And yeah, everything you need to know is technically in the pamphlet. I can tell you more, but I don't wanna overload you."
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:05 pm
There was another of those pregnant, judgmental pauses, before Austin reached out to take the pamphlet -- trailing a bit behind Horace, and staring down at it like he didn't know what to do with it, now. He sure as hell didn't want to read it. Finally, he tucked it into his back pocket, in a slow and dismissive sort of way. "Where's this cave?" He could have asked why a cave and how will I know, or a dozen more things. Instead, he just looked at Horace in an impatient sort of way.
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:54 am
"Well, it's uh..." Horace turned around, certain it should be - ah. "Just up here! See those doors? You go down a flight of stairs, flights of stairs, until you're in the cave." They were close enough now that Horace slowed. He had been deliberately ignoring Austin's pauses and his taciturnity, or trying. He decided that, especially if this guy turned out to be a sun, he would very much like to spar him. Not because of any sort of anger - but because it might be fun. He looked over Austin slowly, mimicking the other man, just a bit. "I can't go in the cave with you, but do ya want me to hold your hand while you open the door?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 8:11 pm
Austin practically scowled back at him -- fair brows furrowed and eyes narrowed behind those ill-suited glasses, his head tipped up and just a little bit away in an attempt to give himself some height. Not that it did him any good. Even tall as he was, Austin was fighting a losing battle against that six foot marker. "I think I can manage." It was stiff, and it meant he didn't say thank you -- though he might not have anyway -- before he stepped past Horace to the stairs, a hand resting lightly against the wall as he peered down. Maybe, for just a moment, he hesitated, gave it a good long look -- and then started down them, slowly into the cave beneath. He didn't even throw a glance back over his shoulder. Though, before he was even halfway down, the annoyed grumbling would probably waft back up to Horace: the sound of a young man who was thoroughly unhappy with just how many stairs it turned out to be. xx the semblance of unity
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 9:10 pm
Well, that could have gone better, Horace thought. There were judging looks and no thank you and really, he didn't deserve a thank you. But Austin got added to Horace's 'rile-up' list. He stayed until he could no longer hear Austin's mutters, smother his chuckles. It was a lot of stairs. The worst part was coming back up.
With a whistle, he went back to the duty room.
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