Gleam
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 12:08:53 GMT -8
Jacob pushed open the door to his flat, a particularly nonplussed expression on his face. A large bandage was wrapped around his head, and his normally immaculate clothing is ripped and dirty. "Adventure," he said, kicking off his shoes, "is highly overrated."
He tossed his head, rust and chalky dust drifting out of his hair, before he wandered over to the couch and parked himself squarely on it, exhausted. "So it turns out the water plant is bullshit, because there is not even electricity running through the place." he commented. "No breaker boxes or anything. The entire place is just a dodge. And I am inclined to believe you now about the weird species of the island, because I managed to meet a few of my own, and they are distinctly unfriendly."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 12:17:05 GMT -8
Ace came out of the bathroom down the hall like the slob she was, zipping up her jeans after leaving the room, already lighting a new cigarette. "Sorry What?" She called. Her hair hung down messily and she actually raised her brows when she came into the living room. Firstly, she was surprised that she didn't hear him come in, and secondly, she was surprised by whatever happened to him while he was gone.
"I thought I heard you come in." She lied, though acted casually. "So you went through some bad shit too." A half-grin formed at the corner of her mouth, "Damn everyone looks like they came out of hell these days. Did a bitch beat you, instead or something?" She laughed, referencing Rust's recent news that Jacob wouldn't have known about.
"Nah, seriously, what the fuck happened to you." She asked, walking around to the couch to get a better look at him. "You know you shouldn't be fighting, you got an unfair advantage." She observed the bandage on his head and gave it a nod, "Show." She asked.
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Gleam
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 12:27:14 GMT -8
Jacob shook his head and unwound the bandage. Blood, wet and red, shone in his dark hair, running down the side of his head and past an ear. He grunted in irritation. "No. Some kind of crocodilian relative. Had legs around two feet long, though, and looked remarkably awkward. Ran faster than I could, though. I got the scrape from when it mashed me against a wall with its tail. Remarkably strong, I have to admit."
He touched the wound through his hair gently. "I have a first aid kit in my dresser, second shelf down. Can you retrieve it for me? I can stitch this up without much of a problem."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 12:36:38 GMT -8
Ace looked at the wound and winced slightly in empathy, "Fuck..." Her eyebrows furrowed listening to his description of how this happened. She just thought about the creature for a few moments before he made the request. "Sure, no problem..." She said, going to open the second shelf down, searching through the contents until she brought out a little red box with a white plus symbol on it. She brought it over without bothering to close the drawer.
She opened it up in her hands, "Hey need any help?" She offered, "It's awkward to stitch up in a mirror..." She gave him the box anyway, "What you encountered might be the same shit that me and Rust found, like the Sharguanas? I did mention them..." She suggested as a possibility.
"How the fuck can the higher ups actually let this shit live here? I mean shouldn't they fucking go out shooting the fuckers down or something? If someone actually.. ya know... It's bullshit." She said, obviously a bit annoyed by the fact that these things were actually becoming more active, whatever they are.
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Gleam
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 12:47:10 GMT -8
Jacob turned and raised an eyebrow at Ace." Can you stitch?" he asked, curious. "I was planning to do it myself, but it is very true that doing it myself would be rather difficult. Particularly as I do not intend to shave my head to do it. That would be . . . irritating."
He pursed his lips. "Whatever they are, they are heavily reptilian, sturdily built, and universally carnivorous. That's a remarkably small set for the modern world. Therefore we either have a person with powers concerning that group, or there is a natural source of them somewhere on this island, likely underground as there just isn't enough space on the surface for both these predators and their prey."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 13:01:50 GMT -8
Ace gave him a look, "Yeah I can stitch. Where I grew up, if you couldn't take care of it, very few people would. Since I didn't do too much, 'Taught the basics so I could look after 'em." She understood that how she phrased it meant that he wouldn't be able to understand what she meant by any of that last sentence. She gave a sigh, "Basically, if Will got in trouble, he wouldn't have to sign any papers if I helped out at home." She shrugged.
She pulled out the stitching needle and the special thread and told him to hold still. She delicately put her fingers roughly an inch on either side of the wound as she made her way down and across, stitching his head. The look of the wound didn't seem to affect her work, but she did wince a little whenever she pushed the needle through. It didn't take too long to finish up the job, and she brought out the antibacterial ointment to stop any infections, dabbing it as light as she could on the stitched up line.
She listened to his words as she was stitching him, and only once done did she reply. "Maybe they came from Perdu or something? Or is that not an option..." She pulled out a tiny mirror from the red box, "How'd I do?" She wondered.
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Gleam
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 13:17:10 GMT -8
Jacob doesn't comment on the unfamilar name. Instead he just smiles. "It is good that you take care of your people." The needle didn't even make him twitch; instead he just laid against the back of the couch and allowed Ace all the time and patience she needed to finish stitching him up.
He tilted his head once she was finished, and took the mirror, carefully inspecting the wound. "Not bad, actually." he said. "Tighten the cross-stitch a bit to help it heal over, but otherwise you've got a good handle on the practice."
Jacob set down the mirror. "There needs to be a stable prey population for those animals to live here, say fifty per predator. Then there has to be enough living members of the predator species to prevent inbreeding, which averages to around two thousand.There is is simply not enough room for two thousand sharguanas or crocodiles on this island."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 13:30:45 GMT -8
Ace's jaw closed for a moment, before she corrected him, "Took care... Not really with them any more, am I." She said simply. She did chuckle a bit at his correction, "Well, I'm glad it's not perfect, that'd be boring, eh?" She laughed. Regardless, she took his advice and tightened the cross-stitch carefully.
"There now Jack, should be better." She said, putting the stuff away. She tried to keep up with his numbers. "Right, okay. So basically, they couldn't survive. So then what the hell is doing it eh? Look anyway, you can't worry about that right now, they're hardly gonna come into the dorms and try and eat us here." She said. She walked over to the kitchen to wash her hands, to wash his blood off her fingers.
"Hey I promised lunch, did I not?" She grinned, having turned around after cleaning her hands. She started rooting for the bread, cheese, butter and mayo.
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Gleam
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 13:50:35 GMT -8
"Fair enough." Jacob agreed, standing up carefully. He watched Ace fiddle with the fridge for a moment before he shook his head and smiled. "Thank you, by the way. That helped."
In the meantime he made his way steadily over to the bathroom, where he took a washcloth, made it slightly damp, and began to dab away the blood that had dried on his forehead and scalp. "What are you going to make?" he called, cheerful. "There is not much I would refuse, right now. In fact I am certain there is nothing I would refuse."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 13:58:26 GMT -8
"A grilled cheese with some corn chips." She called to him simply. She started cutting the cheese into slices roughly. The slices were thick and uneven, but she knew they would melt alright, and as far as Ace was concerned, that's what mattered. After doing that, she search the cabinets for the pan and put it on the stove, setting it on high. She chopped of a bit of butter and threw it on to melt.
"You better do the same for me if I get fucked up, you got that?" She called brashly, almost a threat, though she was grinning out the side of her mouth as usual. She began buttering the bread and then paused.
"Hey, where did I put that cigarette that I was holding a minute ago?" She paused, blinked... Realization dawned on her and she rushed out of the kitchen to the main room, to his drawer where she had got the first aid kit, cursing repeatedly...
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 14:07:10 GMT -8
Jacob paused at the swearing and exited the bathroom to notice that his dresser appeared to have sprouted a small fire.
He considered this for a moment, then walked into the kitchen, reached up, and disabled the smoke alarm. No use in that going off. Then he walked out into the hall, plucked the fire extingusher from its little cubby across from his door, and pulled the tag from it.
He reentered the dorm, extingusher presented at the ready. "Excuse me." he said curteously, and then squirted his burning clothing.
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 14:28:28 GMT -8
Ace had been trying to quench the fire by smothering it with his other clothing. That hadn't seemed to do much good. She saw him go to get the fire extinguisher and bring it back, continuously cursing with greater and greater ferocity. He said excuse me and Ace moved aside, pushing her hair out of her face, looking slightly horrified.
The white smoke made the whole room fog up. Ace went to open the window to let the air out. Her eyes were wide and she looked fairly shocked. Speechless, she went to her pocket to pull out another cigarette and lit it.
In the silence she heard a loud sizzling popping sound and cursed again, going back to the kitchen where she had let the pan overheat on the stove, the butter burnt to it and the actual pan with a large black mark below it, smoke rising. "FUCK!" She shouted, obviously not having the best of luck, despite her power.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 14:42:08 GMT -8
Jacob spends a few moments extingushing his shirts, and then glances over them. They're a total loss, as is the drawer they were contained in. He kicks it out of the dresser without further ado and wanders over to the kitchen to notice the fried butter.
"Well, start with a new pan." he instructed, and took the encrusted one to the sink, where he started running warm water over it, adding a bit of dish soap, then taking the scrubber from besides the dishrack to work the butter. "That was probably the only fire likely to start around here, so there should be no more interruptions."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 14:54:33 GMT -8
Ace watched from the kitchen, taking a drag of her cigarette. After letting out the smoke she bit her lip, feeling, honestly, a tad guilty. "Yeah... okay..." She said almost sheepishly, before going to get one out of the cabinet. With a long sigh she put some butter on it and started heating it up.
She glanced over to Jack to see if she could make out his expression. She was surprised he wasn't upset or frustrated. Actually, the more she thought about it, the more it worried her. "Hey, if you're angry, say it." She said forcibly, not wanting him to just brush it off. She just burned most of his shirts. A normal person, she figured, would have something to say about it. When the pan melted all the butter, she buttered the sides of the bread and threw them on the fry up a bit, quickly tossing the cheese on one of the frying slices with some mayo. It was a messy, rushed job, for sure, but to her it was a masterpiece.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 15:10:17 GMT -8
Jacob rolled his eyes. "I am not angry." he said, without obfuscating. "Unless I am terribly mistaken, that was an accident, and you have still consented to make me food." He glances at the shirts. "In any case, I am still growing rapidly, and would have needed to replace most of those shirts soon enough. Perhaps half a year, in fact."
Jacob turned back to Ace and raised an eyebrow as he finished scrubbing the pan and started to wash it off. "Besides, I am not particularly materialistic." he admits.
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 4, 2012 15:18:40 GMT -8
Ace looked over to him with a slight squint, making it obvious she didn't quite believe him. However, he went on to explain how many ways he wasn't angry. Ace, against her judgement of the situation, found herself believing him.
"Yeah it was an accident..." She said easily, folding over the sandwich and flipped it until the cheese melted. She let go of the handle of the pan and took another drag on the cigarette that she had resting in between the knuckles of that hand.
She paused for a moment, "I got cash, if you want. I mean, Can order more for you... Surely that wasn't like all your shirts anyway, right? I mean," She laughed a bit at the notion, "You don't keep all of one type of clothing in the same drawer, that's just stupid."
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Post by Gleam on Jul 4, 2012 15:24:02 GMT -8
Jacob stared down at the now sparklingly clean plate, scrubbing it with a modicum more force than necessary. "Yes. Stupid." he said, with a toothy smile. He left the dish in the dishrack and wandered around to the drawer where his shirts had been, picked it up, and poured the ashes into the garbage can.
He stared at the empty container for a moment before he shrugged and offered it to Ace. "It is probably a bit bigger than usual, but how would you like an extra ashtray?"
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 5, 2012 2:05:47 GMT -8
Ace noticed the way he was scrubbing at the plate. The short response to what she had said. She blinked, "You did, didn't you." She looked at the clothes he was currently wearing, but they were in tatters. Rags didn't suit him. She took another drag of her cigarette, sneakily flicking off a bit of the ash into the pan when he wasn't looking because she doubted it would effect the food, and she just vacuumed the place that morning. She didn't want more work.
A moment later he offered her the 'oversized ashtray', which she accepted, "Sure, put it on the floor and i'll use it later." She said with a shrug. She looked down at the sandwich, paused for a second, and then remembered finally to flip it over. "Hey bring a plate will ya? It's done. There's the chips in the bag over there," She gestured without much effort to the far cupboard.
The cuisine was burnt, a small bit of ash stuck in the cheese on one side, but it smelled alright. I mean, if you got past the burnt-ness.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 5, 2012 3:35:29 GMT -8
Jacob tore into the sandwich without much in the way of hesitation, and finished it in less then ten seconds. He wiped his mouth clean and paused as if in consideration, before he glanced at Ace. "Worthwhile." he judged, with a half-smile, and then bumped her with his hip lightly as he ambled past her back into the living room.
"In the meanwhile, I am going to fix what I can." He declared, extracted a sewing kit from his pack, and exchanged his current shirt for - a gigantic overlarge nightshirt. He set to sewing up the scratches and holes in his previous outfit. "I'll put an order out for more clothing, but in the meantime, I suppose you'll have to tolerate the sight of me in my pajamas."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 5, 2012 3:51:27 GMT -8
Ace grinned a bit at the speed that he finished the sandwich. She drew her grin back a bit, leaving half whenever he glanced at her and gave his verdict. "Good." She replied, right before his hip bumped into her. She didn't understand the gesture whatsoever. "Hey- watch where you're walking." She said to him, confused as to why he would bump into her intentionally. Her eyebrows furrowed at the notion, but regardless she shook her head and carried on. She supposed it might have been some victorian something or another.
She started making her own sandwich next. Looking over the bar to see him in the living room already starting to fix up a shirt. She raised an eyebrow at him. "That's stupid too! God you're full of such stupid ideas. Here." She left her sandwich on the stove, and went to the drawers on her side of the room. She threw him a few plaid shirts that were far too big for her, which she wore anyway. "Wear these. They're designed for guys anyway, they're just more comfortable." She said. "Don't sew, it makes you look like a total pussy." She said simply, going back to turn over her grilled cheese.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 5, 2012 4:09:14 GMT -8
Jacob shook his head and smiled at Ace's total confusion about his gesture. "Bumping hips is a friends thing, as I understand it." he commented. "Of course I am old and out of style, not as fashionable as you up-and-coming sort, so my swag is probably outdated." He managed to say that with a straight face.
Then he turned back with a half-smile. "What is wrong with sewing?" he said, honestly curious. "You just sewed my head back together. Now I am doing it for my clothes. What part of either is unmasculine?"
Nevertheless, he slipped out of his current shirt . . . again . . . and tried on the nightshirt. It was a little small - there was like a eight inch difference in height between him and Ace - but it did fit, and he rolled his shoulders for a moment before nodding. "This does work, I admit."
Then he went back to sewing anyway.
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 5, 2012 4:18:00 GMT -8
Ace took a final drag on her cigarette and put it out on the counter top. She listened to his explanation on bumping hips, and blinked. "Ah, okay.... whatever..." Then he said the word 'swag'. Ace couldn't stop herself. She burst out laughing, "Oh god, you're such a stereotypical old man!" She laughed brashly. She turned her sandwich over onto a plate, having finished it. Eventually, she managed to stop laughing, though she still found that hilarious. She poured some corn chips onto her plate beside the sandwhich.
"Sewing?" She managed, "Hah, it's alright, I guess, but there's a difference between sewing closed a gorey bloody open war scar and what you're doing." She said, leaving it at that. She went to the futon and took a seat with her plate.
She watched as he tried on the shirt she had offered him. "Yeah it ain't too bad." She agreed between mouthfuls.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 5, 2012 4:40:21 GMT -8
"I may as well act the part of the role I play." Jacob said, mild, even though a gigantic smile had planted itself firmly on his mug, his instinctive habit of repressing amusement coming to the fore. "After all, I am clearly not young anymore."
He took the remote up and switched on the TV, though he left it on the infomercials again. "Here, your favorite channel." he comments wryly, and finishes sewing up a little tear on the left side of his shirt. "No-stick frying pan for 11.99. What a coincidence. It is a possibility you would find great use for such an object."
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Post by 'Ace' Julia Dale on Jul 5, 2012 5:02:34 GMT -8
Ace snickered a bit at his words, and gave him a once over, "Well, clearly you aren't whatever age your meant to be either." She informed him. She honestly didn't know what age he was actually.
Her eyes were drawn to the infomercials, and a half-grin grew on her face. She noticed his wry comment and gave him a look, but didn't deny it. "It's better than a lot of shit you find on TV these days. I might not know much about popular culture, but I know marketing." She said in her defense.
She threw a nearby cigarette butt at him for mentioning the frying pan burn. "Fuck off." She laughed. She watched as the end of the cigarette fell among the folds in the shirt he was working on. Ace grinned a little at this, but said nothing of it.
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Post by Gleam on Jul 5, 2012 5:10:28 GMT -8
"This one is fifteen." Jacob said carelessly, as he flicked a hand at himself. "A bit large for my tastes, but there are worse things to possess than size, I suppose. It could have been mildly autistic, for example. I have never had that experience. I suspect I would not enjoy it."
He picked up the cigarette butt and gave Ace a long-suffering look. "What is the grudge you bear against my shirts?" he asks plainitively. "Did you lose money at a casino belonging to them? Did a family of them live down the street from you and throw garbage by your door? Or are you just irresistibly enchanted with the sight of my bare chest and thus dead-set on setting fire to anything I might use to cover it with?"
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