he's a stranger to s o m e {x} shell-belly

[daniel markus thorne]

ON A MOUNTAIN HE SITS
N O T O F G O L D , B U T O F S I N

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A sharp canine pierced his bottom lip. Blood, warm and metallic, flooded Daniel's mouth. He spat it out, swearing under his breath. Judging by how things were going so far, that little wound in his lip would get infected by some life-threatening disease and leave him ridden in a bed that had belonged to a stranger some thirty odd years ago. At least it would be a bed, instead of the sheet of pine needles he was used to. Daniel was so sick of the smell of pine - he didn't know if he could put up with it anymore. He woke up smelling it, fell asleep smelling it, and was forced to coexist with people who smelled exactly the same. A funny thing, the human mind. It could travel from a cut in the lip to one's hatred of the smell of pine in the blink of an eye. Daniel shook his head. He was too easily distracted these days - his mind flitting from one thing to another before he had time to process what the first thought had been. Just the other day, he'd been wondering if building a bridge across the Mississippi river would be a project worth undertaking, and less than a minute later, he was wondering whether the sunlit sky was more of a sunburn pink or a fish-gut pink. He'd seen his fair of both, so it was a valid wonderment.. but still. Random. Deep down, Daniel had a feeling that his brain was concocting these random wonderments to avoid some emotional problem. He knew what the problem was, but even thinking it was enough to send a knife through his heart.

Groaning with effort, Daniel slung three tied-up steel girders off his back and onto the ground. They landed with a metallic thud. The entire frame of the building gave a shudder, as though it would come crashing down any second now. Daniel ignored it. It'd been doing that all morning and hadn't fallen on him yet. Besides, he couldn't let Ta... the fugitives down. They were traveling west, toward the shifter colony. The plan was to attack the shifters during the day, while their forces were weakened and almost even with an ordinary humans'. If they could overthrow the shifters, they'd have a whole army with which to take on the vampires. But, in order to make it west, the fugitives had to cross the country. Daniel, Tally, and their little band of followers originated in the North, so they had quite a distance to travel. Most of that distance had already been covered, but the fugitives were tired. They'd stumbled upon an abandoned city somewhere in the far west of Oklahoma, which was where Daniel was now. He was clearing out the upstairs so the fugitives could sleep there. This was the sturdiest building left in the city, but the three utmost floors had collapsed on the second, leaving it a mess of steel girders and debris. Which.. Daniel had to clean. He stretched, rolling his shoulders. They'd grown sore after five loads of three girders each. Maybe it was time for a break.

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WORDS :: 536
TAGS :: shell-belly
NOTES :: wheeeee, faillll!
MUSIC :: "From Yesterday" - 30 Seconds to Mars

[rochelle elise blanchard]

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Sighing quietly, Rochelle straightened her back, a pencil dangling from between her index and middle fingers. She was supposed to be checking out the building she was in, but she wasn't too excited about traipsing through it right at this very moment, so she had decided to sit down and scribble a note to Asher. Burying the pencil in her hair - which was in a loose, messy bun at the nape of her neck - she read over what she had just written. "Asher. I'm sure you'll find this thing eventually. You always do. I'm thinking I'll tie a ribbon to a branch on whatever tree I stash it in, but if I do, you'd better make sure I get it back, you hear?" Shell paused to chuckle - something she was sure Asher would do as well - then continued. "I only have so many ribbons, and I need every last one. But anyway, I'm off topic. It was decided that we would move East for the Spring. I wish I could tell you exactly why, but I'm pretty sure I'd be in a whole lot of trouble if anyone ever found out I did. The fact that I'm even keeping in touch with you is dangerous for us both, but...well, I won't get into that right now. I just wanted you to know that you'll have to travel a little farther from home if you intend on finding me. Stay safe, Ash." Rochelle smiled faintly and closed the notebook. Asher was going to be pissed that she had moved so far inland, but it wasn't like she had been given a choice - when Melissa or James said that it was time to leave, you left.

Her lips parting in a yawn, the brunette unzipped her hoodie halfway, making sure her sunglasses were still in the right pocket as she did so. It was colder here than it was closer to the coast, but not so cold that she had to stay bundled up to the nose. Stretching, she got to her feet, her mouth pulling into a grin when she caught a glimpse of her shoes. Shell had found them the last time she and a couple of her friends had gone to check out an abandoned mall in what had once been Los Angeles. Gavin hadn't understood why she was so excited about a pair of shoes, and she had promptly sat him down and explained that even though their lives were really really dangerous, it was little things like adorable baby brothers, delicious chocolate, awesome sunglasses, and kick-ass Converse that made almost everything bearable. She wasn't sure if he had gotten the concept, but he had been pretty happy to be called adorable, so she just left it alone. Rochelle was happy as long as Gavin was safe and well taken care of. Drawing a deep breath, she slid her notebook inside her jacket and headed further into the building she had been sent to check out. It was the sturdiest looking place in the whole city, and it was still crappy. Her senses flicked to high alert seconds later when she heard the sound of clanging metal. On tiptoe, she crept in the direction of the sound, her eyes landing on a tall brunette when she peeked around a corner. "Who are you?"

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TAGGED! Duh-duh-duh-daniel <3 STATUS! finished~ WORDS! 560 NOTES! i could have done a third paragraph, but i decided to be nice. xP LYRICS! Kotov Syndrome, by Rise Against OUTFIT! click hurr babes CREDIT! moi, aka ellie or ELLIEPANTS FTW ?! of Caution 2.0. i put a lot of hard work into perfecting this layout - steal it, and you can bet i'll grab a spork and hunt you down.

[daniel markus thorne]

ON A MOUNTAIN HE SITS
N O T O F G O L D , B U T O F S I N

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Big, bad, raised-in-the-wild-since-birth Daniel gave a start when he heard the voice of a woman. He whipped around to see who stood behind him, a hand flying to his heart. He breathed a sigh of relief, trying to calm his now racing pulse, when he saw a woman at least three years younger than himself watching him intently, having just asked who he was. To say that Daniel had been a bit... well.. on edge since he was attacked by a shifter would be a gross understatement. The encounter had left him more shaken than he cared to admit. So shaken that being alone in a room made him feel vulnerable to the clashes and bangs.. and occasional voices. But this girl, or woman, or whatever she was, wouldn't know of this, so he plaid it off like your average young adult man would: like a joke. "God, you scared me," he offered, the quip swimming in sarcasm. It was then that he recalled the girl's earlier question. "I could ask you the same thing," he retorted, doing his best not to come off as snappy. After growing up with a person,- not going to name any names tally -, they started to rub off on you. Tally's stick was to be harsh and abrasive with anyone she didn't know, thus there was the rare occasion when Daniel acted the same way. Rest assured he was working to correct this behavioral issue -- it was just taking some time. Daniel had never liked it when Tally acted that way; he thought it scared off potential friends. And here was as potential friend. Or so he thought.

She could be a shifter, seeking out shelter. She might have been a vampire doing likewise, but considering the hour, that option was ruled out by the fact that the girl wasn't already a pile of ashes. Something inside him - call it a intuition or stupidity - led him to believe that she wasn't a shifter. If she were, wouldn't she have jumped him by now? Unless she was debating whether or not he was a shifter as well. But no.. she was too pale to be a shifter. Then again, there were some tan vampires. It all had to with skin pigmentation at birth. Some people were born so naturally tan, turning made them look normal. If she is a monster, you're giving her the perfect opportunity to decapitate you, he reminded himself. Daniel gave his head a good shake to clear it. He decided to listen to the nagging feeling urging him to reach out to her. For all he knew, she was a new fugitive, on the run and hopelessly confused. But no.. she didn't have that crazed look in her eyes that suggested she was running for her life. Okay. New fugitive was no longer an option either. You could ask, his voice of reason patiently reminded. Oh. He could, couldn't he? "Oh, I'm sorry," he began. "Where are my manners? I'm Daniel." He stepped forward, extending a hand for the girl to shake. "I'm traveling with a band of eastern fugitives. We're on our way to wage war on the shifters. And you?" There. If she were a shifter, she'd attempt to finish him then. Even though he was sore and tired, Daniel was sure he had a good chance of whooping her ass if she chose to fight him. Male advantage and all that sexist bull.

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WORDS :: 593
TAGS :: shell-belly
NOTES :: I'll take that.
MUSIC :: "From Yesterday" - 30 Seconds to Mars

[rochelle elise blanchard]

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Seconds after speaking up, Rochelle had the brilliant ( applying a large amount of sarcasm to the word brilliant ) thought that maybe alerting a complete and total stranger to her presence wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. Then again, she wasn't known for making smart decisions when she was cold, exhausted, and thoroughly annoyed. The first two of her problems were attributed to where she was and the trip it had taken to get there, but the third...the third was Jeremy's fault. Ever since the raid at the pack caves, he had gotten it into his head that she was quite suddenly incapable of protecting herself, and had insisted on dogging her every step. Yes, Shell had been the one to get caught by shifters before even making all the way inside, but she hadn't been hurt, only badly frightened, so it wasn't as if he had proof that she needed someone around to keep her safe. Of course, Cameron was the only one who knew that the only reason she hadn't been turned into shifter food or dragged back to the breeder colony was because of one Asher Rinehart. If Jeremy knew about her personal guard dog in shining fur ( wow, lame joke ), he probably would have taken up carrying Rochelle wherever they went and scowling at every guy he saw. Anyway, when he overheard James telling her that she would be scouting out one of the nearby buildings by herself, he had thrown an absolute fit. That had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Being the stubborn thing that she was, she had ( quite loudly ) announced that she would go by herself, thank you very much, despite the fact that she hadn't even wanted to go in the first place. Which brought her back full circle to her current predicament. The fact that she had managed to startle the young man, however, was a definite plus. The way Shell figured it, if he was a shifter - vampire was out, given that it was daytime and the guy was standing in a patch of sunlight and had yet to burn to a crisp - he would have heard her coming. Considering his reaction to hearing her voice, he hadn't. Of course, there was still a slim possibility that he really was a shifter, and he was merely pretending that she had caught him off guard, but the flash of panic she had seen cross his face as he turned towards her had been real. Not even the best actor on the planet could perfectly mimic genuine emotion. Rochelle remained motionless as various other thoughts ran through her head, hardly daring to breathe, as if she was afraid that so much as a twitch of her fingers would send things rapidly spiraling out of control. And then the young man finally spoke. Unable to help herself, she grinned at the sarcasm coloring his words. If the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, then the way to the brunette's heart was through her ears. Anyone who was sarcastic ( in a good, funny way ) or knew how to tell a good joke was alright in her book.

However, rather than apologize for scaring him - as he claimed she had - Shell simply quirked an eyebrow at him and folded her arms over her abdomen, her reaction to his retort nothing more than an 'I asked you first' look. She wasn't going to say a word until she got some information out of him first. The silence stretched out between them, and just when she was beginning to think that she might actually have to supply her name, he spoke again. Daniel. His name was Daniel. Relaxing the slightest bit, she grasped his much larger hand and gave it a firm shake, a brilliant smile blooming on her face. "Rochelle. You can call me She - - " The last bit died on her tongue as he admitted that he was traveling with a band of eastern fugitives who planned to attack the shifters. Her blue eyes widened just slightly as she immediately thought of Asher, but then the implication of Daniel's words fully set in, and her grin returned full blast. Releasing his hand, she threw her arms around his neck ( no easy feat, since Daniel was at least six inches taller than she was ). "Holy hell, are you freaking kidding me?!" She practically squealed. "Everyone else is gonna be so frickin' excited about this!" Realizing what she was doing seconds later, Shell was quick to let go of Daniel, her face bright red. "Err, sorry..." She mumbled, stepping back and running a hand through her hair. "It's just...we've been searching for other fugitives for ages..."

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TAGGED! Duh-duh-duh-daniel <3 STATUS! finished~ WORDS! 802 NOTES! I knew I could do it! LYRICS! Kotov Syndrome, by Rise Against OUTFIT! click hurr babes CREDIT! moi, aka ellie or ELLIEPANTS FTW ?! of Caution 2.0. i put a lot of hard work into perfecting this layout - steal it, and you can bet i'll grab a spork and hunt you down.