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 Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:08 pm
When and if Rep ever returned to his and Harrison's room, in the off hours that an underage Harrison happened to be running his business in the bar, there would be someone else in the room, fast asleep on the couch wrapped in the Pikachu blanket.
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:12 pm
Rep expected to be the only one in the room, he'd let Harrison go to the bar while he intended to do a patrol of the island to make sure nothing dangerous got out of hand while everyone was age-compromised. He didn't expect to see Carl on his couch, he hadn't expected to see that ever again if he was honest.
Setting down the laptop he'd been carrying he made his way quietly over to the couch and sat down opposite, he had no idea how long the kid had been there. He didn't want to wake him, but he was also in spite of himself concerned how he was doing.
"Hey." he said uncertainly. "You doing okay?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:18 pm
For a moment he didn't stir, and then without any transition he turned to look at Rep and sat up, in a very jagged nature like someone piloting a doll.
"Hello Rep," he said very calmly, maintaining level eye contact.
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:22 pm
Rep froze up immediately, almost forgetting to breathe at the way he sat up, he couldn't explain why it unnerved him so much, but the tone was the icing on the absolute unease he felt.
"Hi." he said, more formally and politely than the friendly greeting from before.
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:43 pm
It was hard to determine the expression, but there was definitely a strange, small smile quite unbecoming of him. His fingers tightened around the blanket, gazing at them briefly.
"Memories sometimes linger stronger than just words." Something about the way he talked was jarring as if treating him like someone familiar. "I had no choice but to take them upon his request to help you."
There he looked at Rep again and it felt piercing.
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:49 pm
At first Rep was uncomprehending, but bit by bit he realised what was happening and who he was talking to. He looked away.
"Did you need to take them?" he asked. "They were so small, surely they were insignificant to you."
He couldn't hide the hurt, always someone who wore his emotions on his sleeve. "I don't want to sound ungrateful."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:00 pm
And then it was impossible not to see her sitting here and she looked amused, as always. "Humans by nature are ungrateful. Yet they are also protective, loyal, fearsome in their own right, and determined. Without them this world would have been much different."
The room was turning white and it was difficult not to remember how much she could take. "There are always paths to choose. A closed path leads to inevitability. An open path leads to possibility. If you truly desire something, then make it possible and I will not deny you of this right."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:10 pm
Rep's initial unease built up to discomfort bordering on flightiness as the room began to fade around him. He found himself scrabbling for what he wanted, weighing it up as quickly as he could.
What he wanted was for her to give back the memories she had taken but at the same time there was the logical counterbalance, Caelius wouldn't have any use for memories of a time which would no doubt simply be embarrassing for him when he went back to normal, it was a wholly selfish request, a fledgeling hope that he'd held, only to find his resolve faltering under closer inspection.
She took so much of him, and it was her right ultimately, some sort of exchange for power or something else, and in the end he didn't know if it was what Cael himself had chosen and that Carl was and had always been an echo of someone who no longer existed. Still, it hurt him to think about it and he found himself feeling selfish for feeling emotions at all when he had the luxury.
He faltered a little. "Did he choose you?" he asked. "Knowing what you are and what you do?" Because that was what defined so much else.
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:18 pm
To her, it was just a question. "Not everyone has the comfort of choice. The consequences of the prices we paid were much higher than even now."
A slow smile. "Would you have chosen me?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:25 pm
Rep sighed and looked away, unable to look at her while he replied.
"Depends when you'd asked. If you'd asked me before, when I wanted nothing more than to get away from my past at any cost." Drugs, violence, alcohol, he'd tried everything. "I'd have said yes in a heartbeat. Now, while Ace exists, I couldn't leave him behind. If he didn't any longer, if anything happened. Yes." he sighed.
"I want him to remember the things that happened, but I think it's just selfish of me. I think at best it would bother him and at worst it might leave him vulnerable when he can't afford to be, even for a heartbeat."
"You know him best." he said. "Maybe the person I know never really existed."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:37 pm
"Then you understand now this possibility," she seemed satisfied at the answer, "Your being selfish is the very reason possibility was changed, and yet, it is not a wrong choice. Those memories that were created are as powerful as the ones that would occur without change. Yet, let us consider for this path that you asked me to return those memories. Where do you think this would take us?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:44 pm
"If you gave them back." he said thoughtfully, clearly considering it as best he could. "I'd owe you again." Which was a prospect he wasn't afraid of, there was very little he could offer her, it was like owing a debt to an impossibly wealthy empress. "And then.. I'm not sure, things would be like they were? For a time anyway, until we can set everything right again. He might get hurt, he's curious, and trusting. But he'd live, the way he's been living this last while."
He shrugged."And when he goes back to how he was." Because it did not bear thinking that he didn't and that H found out. "Then it would either be an unpleasant memory of weakness and silliness or just something that was irrelevant in the scheme of more important things. Beyond that, I don't know."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:32 pm
"You would owe me again," she agreed, always agreeable, "and the price to pay you already know." The white around them was solidifying, gaining colour. From the splashes of grey formed towering marble statues and overly saturated fountains. Next to her was still a small bird in a cage, just watching them very quietly. "Yet, is it really that terrible to owe someone when you are already prepared to offer what is due?"
Very carefully, she took the cage and passed it to Rep. From around her neck she pulled out a long golden key. "That is your possibility."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:39 pm
He took the cage and eyed it sympathetically. In the end his instincts, the very core of him said that this was what he should do.
"Can you promise me that you will leave me Ace? You don't have to, I know I can't bargain with you or demand anything from you, but it makes all the difference in the path I take. He's not mine to give."
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Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:57 pm
The mention of Ace caused a small shift in her expression, as if expecting one result and gaining a second one for free. Honestly it was probably better if Rep had never mentioned Harrison. "For now," she agreed, and that was probably as good an answer as Rep would ever get.
The world was fading again and it was just Rep and the birdcage and her. "Now is a good time for me to rest," and here her form looked translucent, "play with the memories as you wish, or keep them sealed, they both come with the same conditions. The first is my obligation to serve my master, the second is your obligation to return the key when it is time. If the return is overdue, then I will collect it instead."
She stretched, pulling her long braided hair behind her before standing up and waving one wrist covered in gold to Rep. It wasn't exactly a dismissal but more a parting. "Your current path has no resolution. It would be my advice you find one, as you are still, quite useful."
Then she was gone and it was just Rep holding a birdcage. The bird didn't move, just tilting its head to look at him.
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