|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:01 am
Rep was glad to see the end of the storm. He'd been cooped up out of deference to Harrison's safety lectures, determined not to cause more worry or concern because he couldn't ******** keep away from his thrill seeking cliffs. But now the storm was mostly abated and he could go back out, wandering far along the beach, past the cove where the hoard now nestled - he checked in on it and re-sprung some traps along the way.
Once at the cliffs though he was home. His clothes and phone got left in their usual spot, safe and out of the way and he stalked back to the edge alone. He liked the outdoors, he really did, and at this height he could just take a single deep breath and inhale the rich briny air. The sky was all the roaring pinks of sunrise and it was far earlier than he was normally awake.
Tracey mused earnestly aloud.
<< This is the next best thing >> He said. And he leapt. It wasn't as high as they both were capable of with GC, but it was high, controlled and fluid, closing his eyes against the air as it ripped brutally past and he plummeted, heart thudding in his ears down to the water below. When he hit, stretched out to like a weapon himself he went from cool and dry to ice cold in a millisecond, with no idea of which way was up or down, the primitive fear of the dark and unknown gripping him under the swirling, bubbling water until Tracey pulled to the fore. the weapon was very far from afraid of the dark.
the fallen angel agreed, directing Rep which way to go.
He uncurled and kicked powerfully to the surface, earring blazing vivid in the dim light.
And then hand over hand on the cliff, scrabbling for determined grip, he climbed all the way up to do it all over again.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:20 am
When America woke up that morning, the pain had been gone, truly and fully. At first she hadn't quite trusted it and quietly set about trying to provoke the sensation of icy, stabbing shards to return. It was better for it to be on her own terms if was going to happen. It didn't. And so America found herself in the early hours of the morning, before anyone would be checking up on her, with a healed body and a storm still lingering along her edges. There was work to do and a party to plan, but the morning was her and damn if she wasn't gonna take it.
The jungle route had been a temptation, surely it hadn't been cleared yet, surely it was still a wild and unpredictable obstacle course constantly asking, do you dare? But while she hadn't promised to be more careful, she also didn't want to create a trend of worry or jesus wept, people feeling the need to rescue her from herself. There'd be other, better times for that, times when she truly needed that particular sort of freedom. America would be patient until she couldn't stand to be any longer, simple as that.
So she set out a simple jog on an actual road, wearing shoes, on a clear, beautiful morning. Most innocent thing in the world. Unless you counted the naked man jumping off the cliff. He didn't look innocent at all. Of anything. Ever.
Slowing down, she walked to the edge and looked down. Seeing Rep scaling the rock face, she grinned, "Well this is some Dread Pirate Roberts s**t right here."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:32 am
Rep didn't expect anyone to be around, no one ever was. When America looked over the edge he almost lost his footing in surprise before managing hurriedly to find it again and drag himself up the last few meters and over the rim. Once upon a time he might have been self concious at being completely nude, paranoid about freckles and red hair, but these days he wasn't at all, clad in tattoos and scars anyway that might as well have been attire. As long as he had the dagger around his neck and his earrings, he was lethal and unafraid.
"It's the only thing not ******** boring on this ******** island." he argued. But it wasn't just about the excitement, it was about learning to land, leaning to control his fall, all of which was part and parcel of his fear. Sometimes, rarely he would jump with Tracey summoned, and that was truly dangerous, he'd gotten hurt that way, but he'd learned.
Running a hand through the long half of his hair to get it out of his face he looked her over and stated. "More fun than ******** running." he couldn't keep the disdain out of his voice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:52 am
She looked him over with an admiring eye, partly out of habit but mostly because Rep had a body that read like a story, a good one. It was worth taking a good long moment to look at. The comment about running drew her eyes up to meet his own, and she ******** smirked up at the man. "Depends on the runner. If you think it's boring, that just makes you bad at it, Scotland."
America was grinning wider and wider, chin raised and smug as she bounced on her toes. Everything about her boiled down to the silent request of I want to play.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:58 am
"I'll accept that maybe I'm ******** no good at running. To me runners were always those ******** yuppies who ate vegan and jogged around the town rubbing their ******** hipster status in every c**t's face. So maybe I'm a wee bit biased against it." He shrugged his shoulders. "I prefer taking my life in my hands. There's something ******** transcendental about diving, you get a good ******** sense of your own mortality every ******** time, all it takes is one thing wrong one single thing and you are dead. The only person who can ******** save you is yourself."
He looked back out at the water briefly. "Tracey likes it too." And then back to her. "Ever tried it? There's nae point wearing clothes though, you just ******** lose s**t in the ocean." He'd lost some of the best boxers he had owned trying to cling to paranoid modesty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 3:43 am
"I run," she began, slipping off her shoes and gripping the bottom of her top to pull it up and over, "...because everything gets perfect. The path, the air, but mostly me, every single part of me is perfection. And sometimes..." America's voice grew wistful as she slipped the rest of her clothes down and stepped out of them, enjoying the shivery crisp of morning air by the sea. She didn't bother completing the thought, instead confessing plainly, "I went running in that storm...and I really ******** miss it." She peered over the ledge and the back at Rep, "So show me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 3:58 am
Rep's expression, normally grumpy and irritable seemed to light up at America's words. He knew that feeling, he knew it and sought it every ******** moment of his life, the cliff diving was just another desperate reach for that very thing. And suddenly running didn't seem to bad at all, if it was possible to do it, to feel that elusive perfection. "I know what you mean. I know exactly what you ******** mean." he said, and the mockery was gone. "It's like everything just ********. All the unimportant s**t just burns off, like purifying a metal or something, and all that's left is raw and matters. All that matters is your next ******** breath, being alive." he clenched his hand as he said it, everything about him and the way he talked different when he discussed this, this all important thing.
"Cliff diving might no be what hits it for you, but it is for me, it's the alternative to ********, surviving a completer rammy wae another gang, the alternative to a ******** hit of something or other in a club. It's life and death twisted up close enough you can ******** wave at the reaper. It's being more than ******** human." As he spoke he took her body in himself, not perverted, not some furtive creep grabbing a look, just the lazy eye of someone who treated bodies like weapons, who sized her up on a scale of fitness and found her apt.
He gestured to the edge. "You just walk out, and then you jump. Sounds simple but you can't ******** hesitate, you can't stop for even a ******** second - no that I think you will. But you have to get some air or its too shallow and you are so much smashed brains on the jaggy rocks down there."
He was at the edge himself, looking down. "And when you get under the water, I don't think you will panic. But just a heads up you can't afford to, its ******** deep, you lose which way is up or down, you might not make it through the currents to the top. Take a ******** moment, find your zen place." And even as he said it the phrasing made him cast a flickering glance to the worn, washed out looking friendship bracelet he wore. "And then swim like you've never ******** swum. I'll meet you down there and show you the best ******** way up."
He shrugged. "I don't think you are incapable, you are a sun, you were born for this s**t the same way I was. I just want to make sure you know what you are dealing with. I choose this cliff for a reason, it will chew you up and spit you out if you hesitate or doubt for a single second."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 6:09 am
His sudden enthusiasm brought her own, carefully banked over the past few days, back in full force. Noises of excited agreement accompanied his words as America alternated studying the man's expression as he spoke and back to the water. The drop. The rocks. A world simplified to something as basic as falling. He slipped into language she could barely grasp, but it didn't matter, she was nodding along anyway, because she understood where it all led to.
America closed her eyes for a moment and just took in the sound of the water below, the smell of it carried on a soft morning breeze, and decided she wanted what was being offered.
Nothing fancy.
Simple jump.
Don't run.
Walk.
Grab the sky. It's mine.
The words of warning, but moreso the words of confidence in her, garnered the man a warmly pleased damn right smile and a sincere, "I appreciate it," before she inhaled the fresh air and exhaled everything else in the world beyond her singular, perfect point of existence.
She took one step, and then another, and then the momentum of yes I ******** dare took over and she was leaping powerfully up and out over earth and water and for one brief moment...
Almost.
And then America fell into what felt like a flash of hurricane as a punishing wind stripped her every excess and a watery sheet of stark cold of smashed into her, swallowing her whole with an ease that could have been terrifying if she were still capable of anything beyond survive. The rhythmic pounding of her heart filled her ears, and following the sound (perfect, everything worked so perfectly together even here) helped curb any instinct to thrash or flail.
Gotta swim.
Now.
This way.
Up. Up.
Reaching the surface felt like winning a battle against something bigger, stronger, and more ancient that she could possibly ever want to bother imagining, and after the first shocked gasp of air, America let out a loud whoop. She couldn't contain the laughter that followed, bright and pleased with Rep, the jump, and her existence within this world. Objectively, the landing was a bit sloppy, not a painful flop but definitely lacking experience. Her wrist would be bruised for the rest of the day, for all that she didn't notice it now. But when she did, the only thought she'd put to the matter would be worth it.
"I ******** love..." she panted loudly, reaching the cliff rocks, "...being so much more!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 11:27 am
It was always more fun to dive with other people, it was the same as on the battlefield, when it came to exercise and feats of danger, you caught glimpses of people you never got access to at any other time. He'd guessed that her confidence extended further than just a front, that it ran bone-deep the way it did with Harrison, a certainty that the world was a known factor and assured of her place in it.The way she grasped at the unknown without fear and trusted the words of a man who most people on the island wouldn't trust with even a small thing in turn leant him a little of that true confidence.
With him everything was a sham. A lie he told himself over and over again until he believed it. The cliffs were simply a mantra of that lie. I am invincible, I am strong, I am not afraid. Repeated until he could almost believe it was true. He had hesitated at first, and he had hated himself for it, and it was why he always came here alone, because he didn't want the world to be able to read those truths written in his actions, he confessed them to the sea and sky alone.
But he didn't feel paranoid with America, the same way he didn't feel afraid with Harrison. She wouldn't be looking for weaknesses in him to tear out, if his guesses were correct, it was only strengths that interested her.
And strength was something he was told he had.
He leapt from the cliff again, letting Tracey lead the way he always did, as if it was battle, handing the controls to the fallen angel enough that his form was disciplined and neat as he hit the water, as again the cold embraced him, shocked his body and cleared his thoughts.
His thoughts were narrowed to a perfect pinpoint as he struck upwards for the surface, breaking in a splash of salt water, seeking in the cold for the other hunter, he swam to the side, to her side, with ease and grace he didn't display on land, the earring once again blazing with the enthusiasm of the ocean.
"And it gets better." he said, earnestly. "It gets better and better the closer you get to them." He struck out to climb the cliff, a path up he'd learned with practice and a little bit of whittling out the rock himself for footholds. His hands as he climbed felt like they should have been claws, as always that remnant of sensation that lingered when he let himself lose himself too completely in Tracey. "I think they call it Sun division because we fly so ******** close to it sometimes. But I don't regret it, and I wouldn't ******** change it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 1:13 am
Lifting herself out of the water, America studied the rocks, placing a hand against one particular outcrop and imagined what it would be like to drop past it, close enough to touch without having to reach. It would take so much precision and control, the sheer amount of unhesitating trust you'd have to have in your own ability made her hand tighten and breath catch. Well dang.
She began to follow Rep up and it never occurred to her to imagine herself hitting those rocks. Imagined failure was even more worthless than experiencing the actuality. At least really failing meant you gained experience, maybe learned something for it.
America watched Rep climb up his path, noting the good holds but especially the ones that would require some maneuvering for someone several inches shorter than he. Climbing up turned out to be a wonderful counter to the jump, allowing herself to stretch and pull, and exertion of strength rather than will.
"I thought it was because we're all so darn cheerful and charismatic, myself." She grinned into the rock face for a moment before continuing more thoughtfully, "Stryker says it's because we can burn and burn and burn and when we're down to ashes, we'll still rise again the next day to do it again. He's a phoenix and hella dramatic, and we're both just starting really, but it doesn't seem wrong."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
