Author Topic: Rollin' in the deeeeeeep! [Tally-poo!] (Read 35353 times)

Rhi-Rhi · « **on:** October 21, 2012, 11:17:14 pm »

Needless to say, shit got done.

Cyrus got the approval of the head of his Outfit, three council members, and the warden, and Temple was moved out of the facility and into his place. Temple wasn't exactly free and likely never would be, not completely, but he was placed under Cyrus's supervision along with a list of restrictions that weren't nearly as restrictive as before. He'd proven himself back there in the tunnels, earned a certain degree of trust, and with it a certain degree of freedom.

And what better way to celebrate this unlikely victory than to go on a hunting excursion?

Temple had said he wanted to learn! And Cyrus decided to kick-start those lessons and put his words to the test. Besides, they needed more meat; Temple had eaten up a lot of what Cyrus had, and with two of them living there, they'd need to bring in more to compensate. Time for Temple to start earning his keep.

It was too risky for Temple to go topside (and it was one of those Restricted Activities, anyway) so Cyrus took Temple down into the subterrain, down into the tunnels that were created not by people, but by burrowing animals. It was dark and dank and musty and the only light they had came from the bio-luminescent vines that grew along the walls and their own flashlights. The air was a little thinner down there, too, though the plants provided enough. It took some getting used to.

Cyrus paused and knelt down, examining small scrape patterns in the soil. He motioned Temple closer. "Fresh tracks. Know how I know that?" So far, they hadn't encountered any critters, but they had come upon plenty of tracks and scat, old and new, and Cyrus was taking it upon himself to quiz Temple whenever they did.

Tally · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2012, 11:29:18 pm »

Cold, damp, and harsh as the subterrain was, Temple was thrilled to be out in it. Not because of where he was, but because of what he was doing. His work in Teinar may have been useful, but it was boring and tame as hell. Out here it was all real, all immediate, and it was a welcome relief.

The first thing he noticed was how it wasn't pitch black, even away from the city, even without any lights on. So many things glowed down here there was often this subtle light source that came from everywhere and nowhere. Not enough to really see by, but enough to pick your way over the rocks and through the tunnels.

Thankfully they had real lights, and plenty of them. It was one of the first things Cyrus impressed upon him. Lantern bobbing at his hip, Temple followed behind the soldier and joined him when he hunkered down.

Even on close inspection, Temple couldn't see what they were looking at. "It's all just...the same. How can you tell one little mark in the dust from all the others?"

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2012, 11:48:05 pm »

Cyrus let out a sigh. He'd heaved that same sigh several times already on this trip and had a feeling he'd be doing a lot more sighing before this adventure was up.

"It's not all the same, princess. How many times I gotta tell ya that? Okay. Okay, look." Reaching out, he grabbed Temple by the collar of his shirt and hauled him down even closer. He wanted him to get a real good view. "Just open your damned eyes and look. See how the impression's all sharp and clean? See how the earth around it's all soft and freshly churned? That's how ya can tell it's fresh. Make sense?"

Tally · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2012, 12:26:18 am »

There it was, that sigh again. How many times was he going to have to hear that?

Temple didn't protest when Cyrus hauled him down by his collar, but he did shoot him a pointed look. One might even say a challenging one. Cyrus liked to throw his weight around. It was going to come to a head one of these days—they still hadn't had that fight they'd talked about—and the only question was when.

"Y'know," he said, not looking at the tracks, or whatever they were, "there's a real easy way to speed this up."

Like the last time he'd brought this up, he didn't expect to get anywhere with this. He just figured it didn't hurt to ask. If Cyrus would just let him follow his train of thought, get Cyrus's perspective on this from inside Cyrus's own head, it would go a long way to giving Temple the knowledge he needed now instead of waiting for him to comprehend it himself.

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2012, 12:50:54 am »

"An easy way? Ya mean like you payin' fucking attention, genius?" Cyrus said, releasing Temple's shirt with a shove and an exasperated sound.

"Ya can't just...magic your way through life, ya know! So we're doin' this right and we're doin' it my way and we ain't leavin' this spot until ya can tell me what made those tracks. We've gone over it. We've seen these tracks before. What animal did it and how can ya tell. Go on. Ya wanted to learn this shit so we're gonna do it the right way."

Not some weird, unnatural way that involved Temple going into his head, because that was definitely off limits and the kid knew it.

Tally · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2012, 01:04:04 am »

Temple let Cyrus finish. It was the least he could do before he picked a fight.

"It was just a question and don't shove me." He punctuated the word by shoving Cyrus. Not hard, about as hard as Cyrus had shoved him. Which, for Cyrus, might be enough to be insulting. He didn't care. He wasn't doing it out of spite, he was doing it to prove a point. No one shoved him and got away with it, not even Cyrus.

If Cyrus let it go then Temple would stare at those stupid little marks in the sand until his eyes bled. If not, then he was ready for that, too.

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2012, 01:27:00 am »

Cyrus caught Temple's wrist before he could pull away and glowered at him, a warning look, just barely keeping himself in check. Temple was pushing him, though, and hitting all the wrong buttons. "Act like a punkass brat, expect to be treated like one. So maybe start actin' like a grown-up and ya won't get pushed around like a kid."

Okay, so he was riding the razor's edge of his temper, after having been down here for gods knew how long with a stubborn priss. But goddamn! Temple wanted to learn, so here he was trying to teach him, and the brat wasn't even trying!

Tally · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2012, 01:34:28 am »

Temple glared right back, not a hint of submission in his gaze or posture. He wasn't backing down from Cyrus, not in any way, and especially not here with both their nerves frazzled. If he gave in just because of circumstance, it would just open the door to more weakness.

"Fine. Just don't expect to push me around a not get pushed back." Temple gave a tug at Cyrus's hold on him. "You wanna hold my hand while I do this, Amadori, or what?"

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #8 on:** November 29, 2012, 02:00:20 pm »

Realizing he was still holding Temple's wrist, Cyrus gave a start and released him with a grunt. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he nodded to marks. "Just get on with it, Violet."

Clearing his throat and trying to regain some semblance of dignity, he continued. "Now what do ya think made it?"

Tally · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2012, 09:57:10 pm »

Temple leaned over the tracks that Cyrus insisted were there, even though it all just looked like a bunch of random scratches and scuffs in the dust to him. He could sort of see what Cyrus meant if he really looked for it, but honestly? How the hell could Cyrus just pick this stuff out at a glance? Temple had to be nearly on top of it and know that it was there before he could even see it.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "One of those little...y'know like with the three segments and all the legs. The orange guys."

He made a scurrying motion with his fingers to indicate their movement pattern, because damned if he could remember what every freaky bug down here was called.

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2013, 02:33:45 pm »

"Ya mean the scuttlers?" Cyrus said, and let out a low sigh.

"Now you're just sayin' things. Look at those tracks. They seriously look like they could be made by the little scuttlers to ya? Ain't they a little big for that? Ah, for fuck's sake, never mind. These were made by the grimants. See how the claw marks make a cross shape? Now, if they was scuttlers, there'd be a shitton more marks for all those little feet, don'tcha think? You'd also see drag marks, 'cause their bodies sorta drag. Grimants don't drag their bodies, and they just got four legs, despite their name."

He paused to let it sink in. "Got it, Violet? Ya takin' mental notes there with your freakish mind? Put it to use."

Tally · « **Reply #11 on:** March 09, 2013, 06:12:39 pm »

"Scuttlers, right." Temple fell back to plop himself on the ground while Cyrus ranted. He tuned most of it out. He wanted to learn, but he also had a limit to how much of Cyrus he could take, and he was reaching that limit now.

"Yeah, got it." He scrubbed a hand down his face. "Look, can we take a break?"

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #12 on:** April 28, 2013, 01:56:38 pm »

Even Cyrus knew when he was beating a dead horse and fighting a losing battle. With another sigh, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine. Sure," he muttered, and followed Temple's lead to plop down on the ground with a grunt. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a canteen and thrust it at Temple.

"You city folk, I swear."

Tally · « **Reply #13 on:** June 27, 2013, 02:58:00 pm »

Temple heaved out a sigh and stretched his back out. It was rough down here in ways he hadn't thought. All the crouching and crawling and climbing has his back perpetually aching.

"Thanks." He ran a hand down his spine. Nothing helped, so he resorted to laying out flat on his back on the hard stone beneath them. "This is killing my back out here. How do you deal with that?"

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #14 on:** August 25, 2013, 01:35:13 pm »

That statement was followed by a long, blank stare. Blank because that was the kind of statement that was so out there, it didn't even warrant an, "Are you fucking kidding me?" stare.

"You're...a Pilot," Cyrus finally said, blinking slowly. "What the bloody fuck were ya even--oh hell, I don't know why I ask. You don't remember."

With a huff, he fumbled around in the pack and brought out another package, unwrapped it, and offered it to Temple: dried meat of dubious origins. "Here, eat up before ya faint or something."

Tally · « **Reply #15 on:** October 01, 2013, 11:33:02 pm »

Well that was different. Cyrus actually mentioned Temple's memory lapses without implying it was all some elaborate conspiracy. With an assumption Temple was being truthful. He wanted to bring that up, maybe tease Cyrus about it, but it'd just get them fighting again and he'd finally gotten a moment of peace here. Still, it made him smile, there in the darkness.

"Thanks." He took the...whatever it was. Food of some kind, probably about as edible as shoe leather, but it made his stomach grumble just the same. He rolled over onto his stomach.

"You should give me more, what with me being so delicate and all. I need the extra strength right?" He aimed a look up at Cyrus through his long, dark lashes, exaggeratedly innocent. Oh, he knew perfectly well the particular nature of his eyes—big and pretty, of a near-luminescent violet. What was the point of eyes like that if not to weigh his words with calculated glances?

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #16 on:** October 02, 2013, 12:24:08 am »

Cyrus rolled his eyes at Temple, about to tell him he was being absurd, that he'd rationed their food down to the hour and he'd just have to suck it up, princess, but then he saw Temple's face. Or more accurately, his eyes. Even in the faint glow of the subterranean plants he could make out his eyes, for they caught the light in just the right way. And while he'd given him hell about his girly, flowery eyes before (never mind that his own eyes were some shade of purple), this time, he couldn't help but stare. They were interesting eyes. Intense, the color far brighter than his own, framed with lashes any woman would kill for and set in a face that was--

Hold up. Why the fuck was he noticing this.

He jerked his eyes away and stared up toward the darkness above. "No. Stop that. Don't gimme that look, with the eyes and the creepy fluttering and shit. Ain't gonna work. You wanna eat all our rations in one day, that what ya want?"

Yet even as he said it, he broke off a piece of his own jerky and shoved it at Temple without looking at him. "There. For the whiny baby. Happy? Now shut up and eat your jerky and be happy with what ya got."

Not that Temple had been talking much, but his eyes sure had! And Cyrus found himself oddly glad that it was dark here.

Tally · « **Reply #17 on:** October 02, 2013, 11:14:25 pm »

Temple knew that look. It was hard to mistake it for anything else, especially with how unsubtle Cyrus was. It caught him pretty well off guard—froze him in place for a bit even. When he could move again, he drifted his eyes back down the the rock.

"I didn't actually flutter," he said, half way listening to Cyrus and half way in his own thoughts. "I can, and it's a sight to see, let me tell you, but I didn't just then."

He even took the extra jerky with nary a smart word otherwise. "Thank you."

It probably sounded way more sincere than Cyrus would ever have expected, but Temple's mind was elsewhere. Cyrus was attracted to him. Or well...found him attractive at least, which wasn't exactly the same thing. Still.

How far could he push that, he wondered?

He popped the jerky into his mouth and decided he wanted to find out.

Rhi-Rhi · « **Reply #18 on:** October 03, 2013, 12:02:39 am »

"Whatever, you might as well've been," Cyrus said around his own jerky, still not looking at Temple. He grunted in response to Temple's thanks, slid backwards until he could lean against the tunnel wall, and then went back to being very interested in his food.

That had unsettled him, and he wasn't sure why. Didn't care to know why, didn't want to dig any deeper because he wasn't into the whole introspection thing. It was just, the guy had weird-ass eyes, was all. Soul-piercing. And since he was a psychic, that made things weird. Yeah, sure, sounded about right. Made some sort of sense. Maybe.

He grabbed the canteen a took a swig. It was time for a major subject change. "Ya know, the longer the break, the harder it is to get started again," he said. "Gonna be able to move again after this? Or is your tough, military ass all tuckered out?"

Tally · « **Reply #19 on:** October 03, 2013, 12:14:02 am »

He wanted to get Cyrus into bed. That thought hit him with both the crushing weight of dismay and the chilly thrill of challenge. Dismay because this was Cyrus, who still dwelled just on this side of the homicidal line when it came to Temple. Challenge because he rather thought he could win this one. He hadn't imagined that look Cyrus gave him.

Temple stretched out like a cat next to Cyrus. He wasn't trying to be enticing, not yet. Too much of that in such a short space of time and it would send Cyrus reeling in the opposite direction. No, here he was only engaging in the mutual trolling they pulled on each other all the time.

"Carry me?"