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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 25, 2007 22:58:16 GMT
Felix stopped again. He had been unaware that he and Oliver were being followed, until the person had spoken. Now he saw that the younger man was still with them, clearly eager to not be left behind. "What, kid-- you wanna join in on the camping too?" He grinned with satisfaction. "The scenery ain't gonna change for a while, probably. You better get used to it if you're gonna come our way." He neglected to mention that the other man was welcome to travel with them. It would be more fun to watch him work it out for himself. "Rules of the club are, though, that you have to tell us your name."
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Otzlowe
Enigmatic Horror
How many miles to heaven? I think I'm getting close.
Posts: 669
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Post by Otzlowe on Aug 25, 2007 23:04:47 GMT
As Angelus had mentioned that the scenery wasn't going to change any time soon, he looked down at the flowers and grunted, "Figures." He watched the skinny man, looking as his knife, as he and Angelus talked with each other. Apparently this new-comer had decided to want to come along, this was all well and fine by Oliver until he heard Angelus say something about the 'rules of the club.' In his mind, he'd seen a man holding a large club over his head, reading out an infraction to a man, before beaming him over the head with it. He looked curiously around Aneglus' back, wondering how he was managing to hide such a club. "Ah, well, the only problem with all this camping is that it never rains." He frowned, "I always liked the rain..."
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 25, 2007 23:06:38 GMT
"Oh, joy," Jack muttered sarcastically. The scenery would drive him crazy, but he'd have to put up with it, he decided. "My name's Jack," he said, continuing to play around with the knife, not really looking the Angelus in the eye. He found looking people in the eye a bit difficult a lot of the time. It made him feel rather uneasy.
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Seph
Forum Chap
Living In A Dream
Posts: 176
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Post by Seph on Aug 25, 2007 23:14:10 GMT
Peneii had been walking for a few minutes and he was feeling as though his head was going to explode. He was walking all alone in what seemed to be a world full of nothingness and couldn't help wondering if there were any other people there besides him. The idea of this place being hell went through his head a few times but he then decided that it was just a stupid thing for him to think. He stopped for a second and looked at his shoulder. "The knife is still there" he thought. "It will be probably be painfull to remove it by myself... Besides, it looks cool...". And he kept on walking...
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 25, 2007 23:22:15 GMT
"You never know, you might be lucky," Angelus told Oliver. "I dunno' what it was like in your mountains, but the weather's fairly random in the parts of this world that I've travelled, from what I've worked out." That was certainly true. Felix had experienced many a freakish meteorological happening; one moment, the sky would be bright blue, filled with a golden sun; and the next, it would be almost pitch black and hailing hailstones the size of conkers. He grinned mischievously at Jack. "Don't be shy, kid. And don't worry too much about all these fields. I'll find us a way out of them sooner or later." He felt better about his journey, now that he knew he could get on with it, even if he did suddenly have extra companions. He clapped Jack on the back, urging him on. "Shall we continue, then?"
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 26, 2007 9:51:19 GMT
Jack trundled along the long road, the yellow scene becoming increasingly annoying. He just wanted to run into them and cut up the plants with his knife like some deranged, crazy man. That particular desire, he withheld, though. He didn't think Angelus completely wanted him around and running about waving his knife would only make things worse.
"Hm. So. If you don't mind me asking ... how did you die?"
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 26, 2007 10:14:37 GMT
Felix felt his spine stiffen, but continued walking, trying not to let his discomfort show. It was fair enough that, if you were to be travelling with strangers, you would at least want to know how they came to be in the same place as you, but from what Felix had experienced, very few people dared ask that most intimate of details, unless the stranger's circumstances were already very clear, such as in the case of Jack. Felix had no qualms with being asked personal questions, but nevertheless, he had never answered that particular one truthfully. This time, nonchalance was the way to go. "Y'know, kid, it's not how you died that's important, but what you do with yourself once you get here."
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 26, 2007 10:27:34 GMT
Jack knew immediately that Angelus had avoided the question for a reason. Something he wanted to hide perhaps? He cocked his eyebrow and peered at Angelus out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to be trying to hide a shift in his discomfort, but Jack had always been good at reading others' body language. He wished he had learned from this and learned to hide his own, but he couldn't. Looking people in the eye made him uneasy, showing obvious shyness to anyone. And the fact he was constantly playing with the knife showed he felt edgy and uneasy, he realised. Instinctively, he tried to hold his hands still at his sides, upon thinking about that.
"Okay. So, what have you done, then?" He asked, trying to sound calm.
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 26, 2007 10:37:28 GMT
Felix hadn't expected Jack to take him seriously, let alone keep asking questions. He turned away, focusing on the road straight ahead, so that the others could not see his expression. "Well, I stayed holed up in some little town for the first few months so I could start to get used to everything, then I left, and even since then, I've been on the move." The settlement he'd Awoken in was far from where they were now; he'd travelled a great distance in the past two years, never staying long in one place unless it provided something of interest for him.
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 26, 2007 10:48:29 GMT
Jack laughed at how what he had heard had sounded to him. Angelus must've had a better time whilst living or else he wouldn't have had to get used to it. For himself, it had been much the opposite. Jack hadn't enjoyed most of his life and here he felt he could. Strangely, getting murdered had been a very good thing, he realised. And that realisation scared him.
Jack then realised he had laughed and went red in the face. He didn't want to come off as rude and it was obvious he probably did do in laughing. "I ... Err ... So. Angelus, is there anything interesting here?" He asked as he uncontrollably played about with the knife in his hands again.
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 26, 2007 11:03:23 GMT
Felix shrugged. "It depends on what your idea of interesting is and what you mean by 'here'. If you mean locally, then I don't know much about the area, to be honest. The town I just came from had a hotel. That was certainly welcome. And I saw a dog in the street." He was used now to the tone of surprise he always found himself using whenever he talked of animals. He hadn't seen a dog for almost a year, so when he found himself faced by a small terrier the previous evening, he had grinned at the young boy playing with it, envying the child's luck. "You can see the forest to the west of here--" he pointed to their left, "and just slightly futher is a lake. On the other side is another town. Nice place. The location invites all sorts of nature, so I even saw a goat there. And they've got a small shop." He grinned, indicating his chest. "I got a new t-shirt from there."
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 26, 2007 11:08:58 GMT
Jack didn't understand what was so interesting about a goat and a dog. Much less a hotel. All of these things were commonplace. Well, in the living world, at least.
"Can I ask ... why do you find dogs, goats and hotels interesting?" He didn't mean to come across as rude or patronising, but the sentence reeked of those things in his mind and it made him feel apprehensive after saying it. In any case, he waited for an answer, peering out the corner of his eye and walking a little stiffly.
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 26, 2007 11:28:36 GMT
Felix sneered slightly at how naive his companion was, but quickly remembered that the kid had barely Awoken. He'd barely seen the world; he'd not yet had the chance to adapt. "Things are different, here," he told both of his companions - he figured that, having lived as a recluse for so long, Oliver probably knew as little as the younger man did about the world they were now in. "Nothing gets born in this place; it's where the dead go, not where new life starts. An' from what I've read, only humans get brought here when they die. Maybe there's a doggie heaven," he smirked. "Who knows? But the point is that only a few animals come here. They get brought if the person carrying them dies. An' as for hotels and the like; we don't have a whole lot of machinery here, so it's much more difficult to build decent houses and so on. We've gotta make do with what we've got." That was the philosophy that most people had resigned themselves to, although of course there were always a few who went out of their way to make things just that little bit more luxurious for everyone.
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Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 26, 2007 11:39:42 GMT
At hearing "nothing gets born", Jack's mind suddenly filled with perverted thoughts and ideas. Which he then realised were useless since he wasn't even very good at speaking to men, let alone women. He still grinned a little at the thought, though.
Pushing away his thoughts for another time, he continued questioning Angelus. This new world seemed very odd - and exciting - to him. Life - or death - had suddenly become so much better. "So, I'm guessing we don't age here, either, right? And, how do plants come to be about, then? If nothing is born, wouldn't it be the same way for plants, not growing?" Jack actually looked Angelus in the eye, now. All of the excitement made him feel a little more at ease.
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 26, 2007 11:52:40 GMT
"I honestly can't say I know," Felix admitted. "I've read a lot of books during my time here--" he tapped his beltpouch, which currently held a small leather-bound notebook, "-- but so far I haven't found anyone who knows how the plants and trees and so on actually get here. I've tried a few experiments, though." Those had produced middling results. Occasionally he had found a flower where he knew there had been nothing the previous day, but he doubted that had anything to do with him. "You can put seeds in the ground and water them every day and nothing will happen. They won't even rot; they just are. And even if the plants were properly living, the sun isn't real anyway, so that wouldn't help them grow. I'm no gardener, but I at least understand what's required, y'know."
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