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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:04 am
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Following the Mad Science party and an unplanned visit home, Bren had quickly fallen back into his old habits, pushing ever closer to his secret graduation and all of the adult freedoms that came with it. At least, the freedoms he had imagined. He thought nothing of getting an actual job, moving off campus, or being responsible for anyone more needy than Screech, mostly because he didn't plan on doing any of those things. It was why his studies were secret, after all.
Today he had been picking up supplies from town, and he carefully cradled his brown paper bag full of tiny, suspicious vials against his chest as he hurried back to his room. Most of the space in the bag was taken up by a gangly tin robot, oddly enough, and though the toy was meant to hide what was actually inside, its presence did nothing to stop the reaper from looking comically guilty.
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:13 pm
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His stomach dropped when he thought she had guessed his secret, leveling again just as abruptly when it became clear she had immediately ruled out the possibility of him actually breaking the law without even considering it. The whole experience felt a bit like what he imagined a roller coaster might, but he had no time to decide whether he was giddy or nauseous before a reply was spilling out of him, messy and a little petulant.
"Knockout pills, facial morphs, FEAR locking mechanisms... am I truly so uninteresting that the very idea of me doing something exciting is unthinkable?" He opened his mouth, closed it again, then leaned in and whispered, "Some of them are quite illegal, in fact. Litrum. Chendus. Foduren." Brenley smirked as he named the substances, sounding more like he was discussing some teacher's rumored stash of fetish porn than a bunch of chemicals no one had heard of.
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 9:55 am
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Hel had to pause for a moment as Bren listed off the items, but then asked a rather interesting question. The rest of what he said almost went over her head, if not for the key word illegal. Granted, the chemicals he was listing did go over her head, but Hel was still thinking. Actually, more like, still caught on the question he had asked her. Long after speaking, the reaper was still silent before she laughed. It was light at first, before it grew into a hearty sound. She laughed for a moment moments before she grinned at him again, this time wider than before.
"Oh Jack! It is not that you are uninteresting at all!" She cackled. "Is that what you think that I think of you?" She cackled more. "You are very interesting, but you are just so painfully shy and lacking confidence that I do not think you too often step outside of what is comfortable and acceptable." Hel still seemed amused, as she chuckled.
She pointed at the bag. "So you are carrying illegal items then?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:42 pm
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"Oh. Well." Bren lowered the bag and his gaze, scratching at his arm to occupy his free hand and his attention as she laughed. He hadn't meant to whine quite as fervently as he had, and now he felt rather childish in addition to his usual embarrassment. "No. I suppose I haven't thought a lot about how I appear to you in particular, I just know that you and... you're very... vibrant, and sometimes I wonder..." He shook his head. "It's not important. And speaking of vibrancy, since I certainly hope my future does not involve prison, if you could..."
He turned his palm toward the floor, raising and lowering it a couple of times, hoping to indicate that he would appreciate a cease and desist on cackling.
"I do have small amounts of a few prohibited ingredients. I paid for them like anything else, mostly with my future time." Brenley's brows dipped faintly. When he put it like that, he sounded a little like a slave. Or a whore.
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:14 pm
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Brenley was precious. Hel always knew that, but it was definitely reaffirmed as she watched the reaper with keen smile and lidded eyes. She then let out a bark of laughter. "Vibrant, eh?" She echoed. "That is most certainly the kindest anyone has ever described me!" The reaper grinned at him. "You do not need to tread so lightly around me, boyo!" She was used to be called much, much, much worse. She tilted her head. "Sometimes you wonder...what?" Hel waited for him to answer that...but he didn't, and she wasn't going to let it go.
"What do you wonder sometimes? Oh..." She then grinned widely, took a deep breath and--
"WHAT!? YOU WANT TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT THE ILLEGAL INGREDIENTS YOU HAVE IN YOUR CURRENT POSSESSION?" A few nearby residents who were passing by glanced at the sudden abrupt noise, but aside from that, didn't bat an eye lash. Hel laughed, and waved a hand. "You worry too much! You are in the part of town where others do not care! Plus you are in the presence of a Trick or Treater!"
She really didn't care, nor cared what anyone else would think.
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:59 pm
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He squeezed his eyes shut, quite certain he would soon feel rough bogeyman hands bruising his arms as they dragged him away to a dark room somewhere and forced him to bandage lepers or sing sea shanties or strangle scarelings. Nothing happened. The boil relaxed slightly and opened his eyes again, shooting Hel a tight-lipped glare.
"All right. Nobody cares." He couldn't see what her being a Trick or Treater had to do with anything, but then again, he still didn't know all that much about the position. They were chaos incarnate in the human world, but did that privilege extend to Halloween? It seemed so.
With some obvious effort, Brenley relaxed further. He curled the top of his bag more tightly around its contents and stuck it under his arm, eying Hel cautiously when he was done. "For the record, I wasn't treading all that lightly. Vibrant really is the first word I would choose to describe you, but I can come up with a second or third if you'd like." The corners of his mouth lifted for a breath. "What I wonder is if you and... vibrant people like yourself... mind people like me. Painfully shy and lacking in confidence." He wasn't thrilled by her assessment, but he didn't dwell. "Am I... boring?" It was almost as if he was no longer speaking to her, and he certainly wasn't speaking entirely about her. His focus sharpened and he faced her with nervous determination.
"What is the craziest thing you could think of to do right now?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:50 pm
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Hel just gave Brenley a fox eyed grin as he shot her a glare, and bobbed her head in agreement to his assessment. She then took to leaning against the door frame, since it seemed like it was conversation time for the most part. She chuckled, and idly waved her head. "Certainly! I am interested to hear your second and third choice of words for me!" Because it was about her, and that was pretty awesome. He was also continuing to ask her the most interesting questions! She was having a lot of fun answering him.
"I can not speak for other vibrant people, only myself." Hel said cheerfully. "After all there is no one else like me." This was said both in truth, and in boast. Hel was, to a a degree, full of herself. "I only mind people like you, Brenley, when there is something you desire, and you do not reach out for it. You let your fear of failure and rejection stop you, as well as the limitations to place upon yourself, falsely so. That is when I mind people like you." She tilted her head. "Did I not say before I did not find you boring? I just find you safe."
Hel then blinked at his question. She stared at him for a long moment before her lips curled up in a 'C' shaped smile. "Oh. I can think of many crazy things to do right now." She continued to stare at him with that all to wide smile and lidded gaze. "But you want a crazy thing?" One hand left her hip to point at his bag. "Slip one of those concoctions you were speaking about, like facial altering or FEAR locking, into the beverages of the boogeymen at the nearest precinct."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:42 am
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"Safe. Okay."
Safe was perfectly respectable. It was also several degrees less personally mortifying than boring. He knew she hadn't actually ever called him that, but he found himself coming back to it even so. This time last year he had been tentatively on his way toward adopting cocky arrogance as his default approach to life, but he had learned since the kind of trouble being spontaneous caused. It did frighten him, and while it continued to, he supposed it would keep on crippling him. He wasn't ready to try recklessness right now, no matter what question he had just posed. Thankfully, circumstances seemed to support his reluctance.
"Well, most of these ingredients don't do a lot by themselves." Nor would they ever, if his track record mixing and enchanting them was any indication. "Using them alone would be like making a meal when your only ingredient is flour... or salt. So, I can't."
He chuckled. Safe. He was safe.
Unless...
The moment he realized there was something he could do it was evident in his eyes and the way he stood a little taller. Rummaging through a pouch secured to his forearm, he came away with a small blue gem that glittered as he turned over his hand. He had taken inspiration from Ignatius with this incantation, and unsurprisingly, it had worked.
"Though this one does give a minor electric shock," he said with hesitant disbelief, as if he had been betrayed by his own hand. He shouldn't be doing this, but in the grand scheme of things, what was a little shock? With any luck, his victim would hardly feel it. And if this helped him take a few more risks in life, maybe it would be worth the heart attack he was currently having.
He closed his hand around the jewel and tried to force his voice level. "Which way is the precinct?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 2:19 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 8:22 am
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He had hoped she wouldn't actually answer. He should have known better.
"Okay." Bren stared off in the direction she had jabbed for what felt like forever, his hand going a little clammy around the gem. He knew very well he was inching toward an outcome he wouldn't like, but mindless determination overrode his common sense, at least for a little while. Off he strode, left, six blocks, another left. Just short of three additional blocks he stopped, staring at the precinct that was now across the street. He brought his hand up to his face, forgetting the jewel for a moment and scrambling to grab it again as he dropped it.
"Okay... no," he sighed to himself, unsure as to whether she had even followed. "I can't do this." The realization was a bit of a relief.
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