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 Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:58 am
It had started with a single dark and malty beer. "Local beer" was relative, since they could go anywhere in a portal, and the island didn't have any brewerys. Staring at the bottom of the mug, Rodney pushed it to the side and asked for something cheaper and stronger.
He was wealthier now. Lawrence, who was constantly collecting money from friends and relatives, had never touched a cent of Rodney's earnings. Back to being...not together, he wasn't responsible for Lawrence's debt. He wasn't going to sleep with Lawrence again. He wasn't going to sleep with anyone again. The ring he had tattooed around his finger felt hot, even though he knew it wasn't.
Every time he got a drink, he found himself looking at an empty glass, and asking miserably for another.
He wasn't drinking with water. He wasn't counting how much. He wished briefly for live music, but that had all been Lawrence too. He wished he was dead.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:38 am
Rep was a pretty good bartender all told. Unlike twitter (where he cast judgement on just about everyone’s personal life and looked for fights with anyone who’d rise to his comments) Rep was willing to just let people have their sadness. Rodney was usually sad, he knew that much, but tonight he seemed to be drinking with intent rather than simply in his usual craft beer sampling manner. He knew the look well at this point, able to spot someone out to drown their sorrows from quite a distance. Sometimes people like that appreciated a friendly ear, sometimes they didn’t, but you never knew until you tested the waters. Sometimes someone to talk to was what Rep needed more than what the other person needed, and this was just an excuse to have that.
He was doing some cleaning up, wiping down a few cups he’d washed in the sink, a task which always took a while when he wasn’t entirely sure why cleaning things was important in the first place.
“Hard day?” he asked Rodney gently.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:55 pm
"He cheated," Rodney said, very simply, "again. He can...be with whoever he likes, now. Except me." He looked miserably at his drink, draining the whole thing in an impressive swig. "I know I'm the only one who's surprised. But I really... I really thought we could-" He collapsed into a sobbing heap on the bar, burying his face in his folded arms.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:56 pm
Rep paused in his polishing of the cup as Rodney spoke up, his expression freezing somewhat at what the other man had to say. There were a few sorts of people that Rep couldn’t tolerate in any capacity. Cheaters were one of the worst. The hardening of his heart against the one who’d done such a thing to Rodney not once but twice was immediate and absolute, there could be no worse betrayal of trust and no more unforgivable crime. He moved nearer almost out of reflex, reaching out a hand to touch the other man’s shoulder before he could stop himself.
His life had been riddled with encounters with the kind of people who cheated and every single one of them to a man had been scumbags. It was a symptom of a lack of concern for people which ran deep into the very core of the person, something permanent and irredeemable. “I’m really ******** sorry that happened to you man.” he said earnestly.
“Some people just don’t change and you can’t love it out of them, no matter how much both of you wish you could.” And it was something delicate and personal for him, something he’d been trying to deal with for most of his life.
"I wish there was something I could do for you mate."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:31 pm
"It's over," Rodney cried, not flinching from the touch, "and I can n-never have a family. He only had to wait until I was dead. I can't fight, I wasn't asking for long. But it was...too long, for him. Even that much. Even a few m-months. That's...as much as I was worth."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:32 pm
Rep gave Rodney a puzzled look for this one. "Do you have a disease?" he said, looking alarmed.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:35 pm
"Yes," Rodney said, lifting his head and wiping his eyes to reach for another glass, "I'm infertile. It was okay, if he...was going to be my family, but that's all...it was all just a lie."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:39 pm
Rep looked really really confused at this. Infertility wasn't a terminal disease at all and he couldn't quite get where Rodney was coming from on it. He'd been talking like he was guaranteed to die in a few months minutes before and now it was all about how fruity his juice was?
He went back to polishing the glass, trying to follow the other man's train of thought. "Well, if it's any consolation, a lot of us are. I am. All of the women are. I mean, you are in good company? I don't know how that means you'll die soon though? Why would you die soon? There's loads of really strong people here to ******** like, defend you and s**t, and you are in Death, you can do paperwork and never need to see anything nasty."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 1:47 pm
"We're in a military," Rodney said very grimly, "we're...we're conscripted until death. It was all...in the paper we signed, coming here. A...a marriage outside, that's been for fifty years- that's a long marriage. Here, two or three years..."
He swished the ice around.
"November 12th. Five months today. That's...that's how long..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:57 pm
"I've been here five years and I'll be here even more. We are in an army but that doesn't mean we just die after a few years or months." he shrugged. "It's a narrow way to look at s**t. I don't think I need to rush my life with Ace because I'm on some shorter ******** timer. That's no way to exist." he shook his head.
"It just sounds to me like you guys had some differences you couldn't work out." He didn't want to diminish it, but he also couldn't be fair. He couldn't say oh maybe they needed to talk about it, maybe there was a misunderstanding, there was no misunderstandings when it came to ******** with a relationship that way.
"Five months is better than some people do, I guess." he said, shrugging.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:33 pm
"It was my first time, with anyone. My...only time. He t-took that, and my name, and maybe that's...all he wanted."
Rodney looked back up at Rep.
"When he was with me, we were happy. And when he wasn't, it's as if I...didn't exist. He never disappeared, for me, I was always thinking of him. If...if you call that a difference."
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:04 am
Rep usually felt like he had to take the side of the negative figure in a relationship, but right now he couldn't put his mind into Lawrence's.
"That's even more shitty. It's like theft when it happens like that. Was it all the ******** wanted? He seems like the kind of shitbag who'd do that."
"I sure as ******** call that a difference though, thats uneven, it's someone no returning what they have. You gave ******** so much and that ******** couldnae even respect it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:09 pm
"We'd just talked about everything. I thought we'd...we'd straightened it out. I thought if we- we kept talking to each other- he said if he was in a situation like that, he'd call me. I'd come get him. Why did he...let go of me."
Rodney pushed the glasses to the side.
"Could I get...another one?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:22 pm
"I think the problem with ******** like that like. They talk but its all what people want to hear, it's all lies and it comes easy. They don't like..mean what they say cause who they are when they say it to you and who they are in the moment with someone else is like..it's another person." He sighed and came back with a large glass of water and another drink.
"It's nothing to do with anything you did or didn't do."
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:40 pm
"It was all lies," Rodney repeated miserably, ignoring the water and taking the drink.
"You...think we were never even friends?"
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