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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 13, 2008 23:23:34 GMT -5
"No," he said quickly, a bit harsher than he intended. He softened his voice. "No."
His pain was his last connection to her; he wasn't ready to give it up. When he was ready, he'd let it go on his own terms.
"That sounds really miserable," he said, honestly concerned. "What about... Real World?"
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Post by Jules on Sept 13, 2008 23:41:32 GMT -5
Camilla shook her head, deciding to let the subject of his ex drop for his sake. "Mortals are worse then Nightmares and Dreams. Their wants are so mundane most of the time. 'I want to win the lottery' ten million times over." She pulled at her skirt and suddenly wished she had a cigarette in her hand although she'd never smoked a day in her life.
"And I'm not so good at roughing it. Taking a vacation is harder for me. Besides, what does someone do on a vacation? I imagine I'd get lonely."
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 13, 2008 23:56:29 GMT -5
He sighed. "I'm not much help. I haven't taken many vacations myself."
He lived, shallowly, did aristocratic like things, played with his shiny gun, kissed his pretty girl. And then the war came and everything changed. All that pain and death and loss, and he was ill-equipped to handle it. Now, he tried to keep his life as simple and uattached as possible. Perhaps James and Diaspro weren't the best role models of family, but he could hardly imagine breaking the routine of them for something else.
"Why don't you take your friend?" he asked.
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 0:00:30 GMT -5
"Oh who am I kidding?" She said. In her mind she stopped out her cigarette in frustration. "I can't go on a vacation, who would deal with the hospital? And the backlog when I got back would be overwhelming. The closest thing I'll ever get is six feet under." She said rather morbidly and then cracked a bitter laugh at her own joke.
"I can't stop, or my life will bulldoze over me, swallow me whole." Camilla ran two hands through her curls and pulled them over her shoulder to fret with. "Take my friend and that's half the hospital staff right there."
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 14, 2008 18:55:37 GMT -5
He watched her, quiet, for several minutes. "I think if you don't stop, your life will bulldoze over you and swallow you whole," he reasoned.
It was almost like talking to Charlie Brown. Problem after problem after problem; depressing, really, to listen to, and she was less than optimistic. Again, he was not the right person to be preaching to anyone about being a happier person and how to get there, but he couldn't help the sympathy, to at least do what he could.
"Take someone else then," he offered in rebuke to at least one of her reasons why it couldn't happen. "I don't believe you have just one. You had an entire brigade coming to your rescue earlier."
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 19:40:55 GMT -5
"I don't know whats wrong with me. I usually love my life." Camilla was frustrating herself; why was she being so sentimental? It was like her biological clock or whatever had started ticking. She didn't want kids, but she couldn't help the thought it would be nice to have something more meaningful than work in her life.
She laughed, "You would think, wouldn't you? But Jack and I are just old colleagues, same with the 'brigade' really. We never got very close. Certainly not close enough to go on a vacation with. I really and honestly only have one."
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 14, 2008 20:40:13 GMT -5
"We're not friends?" he asked, raising a brow, only half-kidding. Who could tell? Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.
He shrugged, a tiny smile at the corner of his lips. "You are pretty intimidating. No offense."
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 20:43:48 GMT -5
"I did sleep in your bed for a few weeks." She joked. It wasn't like she hadn't figured out it was his mattress. After the first few nights she'd sensed his want for a new back (not everyone could be as hardcore as Kel and sleep on boxsprings without noticing). "Hey, compared to most everyone else in my life, we're the best of buds."
Camilla nodded, "So they tell me." She didn't really know what she did to give off that impression, but it was one that had dogged her her entire life. "I don't mean to be."
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 14, 2008 20:53:27 GMT -5
He shook his head, on the verge of laughing. "It's not something you project," he said. "It's something you are. You are, without trying, more attractive, purpose-driven and intelligent than most people. It's scary."
He plucked a weed from the ground, tossing it absently into the hotspring. "You just need to find a guy that can adjust his bra strap, man up and deal with you."
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 21:13:51 GMT -5
Camilla looked at him intently for a moment and smiled softly. It seemed she was hearing that a lot recently, how pretty she was, while also being informed how terrifying. It wasn't her fault, and she did have a softer side...maybe. It had been so long since she'd had cause to show it it might have just withered up and died of neglect.
He made her laugh though, and that was like some kind of pressure off her chest. "I'd like to meet this man." She said earnestly and flopped back onto the grass, curls immediately tangling with the grass like curls had the tendency of doing. "Lately, all I do is alienate them."
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 14, 2008 22:25:06 GMT -5
"You won't alienate the right one," he said with a soft smile, and then felt proud of himself. He was being a decent, even talkative, human being.
He eased himself back onto the grass next to her, propping his hands behind his head. His already sleepy eyes drooped a little more. This felt like vacation.
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 22:44:22 GMT -5
"How come he gets to chose if he's the right one? Hmm? Why can't I decide who I don't want to alienate?" She flicked an ant off the back of her hand and stared up at the thick canopy. The way the trees bowed over the clearing, the way there branches were so close it was hard to tell which ones came from what tree gave Camilla the sense of being cradled, of safety.
"I could stay here forever." She murmured softly, not really meaning it. Because as much as the forest cut her off from the outside world, her responsibilities still waited to drop back on her shoulders the moment she stepped outside.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 14, 2008 22:53:38 GMT -5
He sighed. "You won't choose not to alienate him, and he won't choose to be the right one. It will just fit, naturally."
He glanced over at her. The steam rising off the spring hit them whenever the light breeze shifted in their direction. "It's even better in the water."
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Post by Jules on Sept 14, 2008 23:11:19 GMT -5
"Oh ya?" She asked, sitting upright and pulled her blouse over her head and then her undershirt, before standing up and slipping out of her skirt and heels. Firstly, Camilla was rather confident about the way she looked, secondly, she was a doctor, which left her with a very blaisee attitude towards nudity (which she wasn't, besides it was just like wearing a bikini except with lace).
She walked over to the hot spring and dipped a toe into the water before slowly easing herself in. Closing her eyes to luxuriate for a moment, she sank up to her chin and then looked back at Jasper, expecting him to have stuck his head in the mud or something.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 16, 2008 23:11:01 GMT -5
He followed her movements as she stood, not guessing at her intent until she grabbed the hem of her blouse and began pulling it off. His eyes popped, and although he felt he should look away, he didn't. He watched shamelessly, his face growing warm and faintly pink beneath his sun-dried skin. When she met his gaze, he didn't even attempt to quickly avert his eyes. He hesitated, not saying anything, breathing deeply, and then asked, "Did you want company?"
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