Checking Up (p)

Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:00 pm

April 08th, 2016...

The then sixteen-year-old legionnaire, Thurmond Porter tilted his head over to look over at his fellow guard at the tunnel, Dean Basilone. It had been a week since the son of Securitas returned from his quest and things had been a bit bizarre. Prior to this, Thurmond had known about the budding relationship between Dean and Fay, but now it seemed things had gone south. Thurmond and Dean hadn't been able to have a real conversation in that amount of time so, to him, it was refreshing to be on guard duty again. The son of Salus hesitated for a brief moment before speaking

"I'm glad to see that you came back in one piece, Dean," he began, "I was afraid that I would come and save you." He teased, looking over at him full on. He chewed on his bottom lip in thought. He didn't want to ask about him and Fay, but at the same time, Thurmond wasn't the one to beat around the bush.

Sat Apr 20, 2019 5:49 pm

Sixteen and decorated, legionnaire Dean Basilone stood guard at the mouth of the Caldecott. Compared to the prior week, watching cars zip by was a nice change of pace from dodging monsters and dissecting the questionable messages of love goddesses. Flanked by cohort mate and longtime friend Thurmond Porter on his left, the officers back at base could rest easy knowing that whatever threats may come their way would not find passage into Camp Jupiter without a solid fight.

But as it stood, no monsters were sulking in the distance. The son of Securitas knew this because instead of watching for threats all about, he was just staring off toward Oakland and the horizon. Lost in his thoughts, he failed to hear Thurmond speaking to him.

“...Oh, what? Sorry,” he replied a beat and a half later, breaking his gaze and looking at the legionnaire beside him. “I was just thinking about stuff. You mind repeating what you said?”

Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:24 pm

Yep, there was something incredibly worrisome about Dean's demeanor. Of course, they were supposed to be at attention and focus on guarding the Caldecott tunnel, but the son of Securitas didn't seem very aware right now. "Are you okay, Dean? You're concerning me a little and you know how I get when I'm concerned." Thurmond gave a quick glance of the horizon before focusing back on his guard partner. "What all happened on the quest?"

Mon Apr 22, 2019 12:23 am

“Oh nothing,” Dean replied. “We went to Portland and found Venus her flower. It wasn’t much.”

“But I was thinking,” he continued, striking a grave tone. “You ever think of running?”

“Like, think about it.” He pointed west down the highway. “Down that way is this BART station. If you can dodge the cars and survive the tracks, you have a free ride through the whole system. You can take that shit all the way down to Coliseum and hop on a train or skip on over to O-A-K and fly all the way out to, like, Tahiti some place. And they just leave us here, staring right down the barrel of that damn station with the gate to the world.”

He slowly rolled his head to the left, staring straight on at the son of Salus.

“And all you gotta do is f***ing run.”

Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:25 am

Thurmond did a slow blink.

"What are you talking about, Dean? Running from what the Legion?" Thurmond immediately made his way over to Dean. "This isn't you -- where is your head? I need to get you checked out as soon as possible. After this shift, I'm taking you to the infirmary to have you checked out." The then sixteen-year-old let out a sigh through his nose. "You're talking nonsense."

Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:31 am

Dean kept his gaze locked, adjusting to account for the now much closer Thurmond. The son of Securitas chose not to reply, letting the moment stand for itself.

After all, when you get this deep into a bit you cannot just break it that fast.

Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:50 pm

"...Dean!" Thurmond had half the mind to slap him upside the head. "What has gotten into you, huh? Why are you acting like Lady Minvera hasn't blessed you with good sense?" The son of Salus' dark brown eyes looked his friend over as he was a certified physician.Thurmond needed answers. Now.

Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:53 pm

Dean’s response would provide Thurmond with the remaining half-mind.

“Gotta commit to the bit, man.”

Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:25 am

"..." Thurmond slumped his shoulders paired with a near quiet exhale of carbon dioxide. "Joking or not, I'm going to make sure you get checked out. All of this," the son of Salus gestured in Dean's general direction while backing up to get into position again, "is stressing me out."

Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:46 am

“Not my problem if you genuinely believe I’m prepared to go dance in the freeway, but whatever.”

The bit over, Dean returned to his spot beside the busy SR 24. He grabbed at his gladius for a bit before looking back over at Thurmond.

“You know, I spent a week working on that. And the quest went along fine; like I said we got the flower and left. Not exactly the most fascinating story, but that’s life.”

Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:18 pm

All Thurmond could do at that point was to shake his head. Dean usually stressed him out, but with him feeling that there was more going on, Thurmond couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"Yes, I'm happy about that, but Dean you're acting strange. You haven't mentioned Fay to me not once. After all, you two were sort of a thing, right? Before the quest?" Thurmond shifted his weight so it was balanced on each leg equally. He thought about it. "...Did you meet Lady Venus?"

Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:03 pm

”Venus? Yeah, we saw her. She said some things and thanked us for the work. Or, well, it was something like that. You know how the gods can be.

“And what do you want me to say about Fay? She’s a nice person who pulled her weight on the quest. Are there some rumors going around about her or something? You looking for the latest Fay dirt?”

Wed Apr 24, 2019 11:58 am

"I'm only asking, Dean, because you and she were a thing. At least, that's what I assumed." Thurmond looked over at the son of Securitas and studied his face for some time. "There isn't anything going on between you two?" He questioned again, but slower. "I thought there was."

Fri Apr 26, 2019 10:46 am

Dean looked out toward the oncoming traffic, counting the cars that passed. At least four Chevy’s, six Honda’s and one Highway Patrol Dodge passed in the last minute. How quaint.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Fay is nice and all, but I’m not really feeling it anymore, you know? Like, you ever get that feeling where you realize you have a good thing going and you don’t want to make it too awkward so you want to slow it down a bit? I guess that’s what we’re in right now.

“But what have you been up to since I left?”

Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:26 pm

Thurmond took in a deep breath in held it. He thought for a moment about Dean's question before slowly nodding. He exhaled through his nose and gave the son of Securitas an answer. "Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about." There was one guy that Thurmond had his eye on but didn't really doing anything about it. He was a son of Letus which interested Thurmond. But that was for another day and another conversation. Thurmond fell silent and looked out at the passing cars.

"Oh? Oh, nothing, really. I don't really have anything going for me right now. Which, I guess shouldn't be a shock?" He found himself chuckling a bit. Thurmond shrugged his shoulders. "Still getting on everyone's nerves, I'm sure."

Tue Apr 30, 2019 8:32 am

“Really? The illustrious Thurmond Porter is not busy,” Dean asked almost jokingly. “Are campers just not getting injured like they used to?”

Hardening back to Dean’s comments about fleeing the camp, two figures strolled along the median barrier, attracting the honks, jeers and thrown trash of fast-lane motorists. They did not seem deterred by this reception, continuing their steady march forward.

“But seriously, you had to be doing something while I was gone.”

Thu May 02, 2019 11:37 pm

"I mean, of course, I'm kept on my knees at the infirmary, but nothing extremely extraordinary.." He paused for a moment. "What can I say? I'm boring. I'm a boring Roman that only has two friends." Thurmond gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "Oh, of course, and not dying."
' Thurmond took in a deep breath and turned his head to look over at Dean, then back at the two figures. "...Are they headed this way?"

Fri May 03, 2019 12:45 am

"Well I wouldn't say you're that boring," Dean chimed back. "It's not like you're just weaving baskets or anyth—”

“Oh.”

Dean looked down the median, taking notice of the two freaks walking (!) up to the tunnel. Demigods typically stuck to the sides of the roads.

“Yeah, yeah they look like they’re coming our way,” he said as he turned to Thurmond. “Get ready; if they're dancing in traffic like that they're probably stupid or crazy.”

Tue May 07, 2019 1:59 pm

"...Or monsters." He added underneath his breath. Thurmond straightened his back and let out a sigh. As the beings continued their march forward, Thurmond was starting to get a little antsy. His muscles tightened and the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up. He wasn't liking this feeling at all. "I definitely think that they are --." Thurmond was cut off by his eyes rolling back into his head and his body doing a sway from side to side.

Damn, he needed to get better control over that.

When the son of Salus snapped back to normal, the two "men" appeared to have gotten closer. The longer he stared at them, the more attractive they became. One of them was muscular with deeply tanned skin and bright green eyes. His dark hair was curly and seemingly bounced around every time he took a step.

"Greetings...my, my do I enjoy a man in uniform. We were hoping to gain some guidance. We're...lost." The monster hissed, his voice charming around in Thurmond's head. He quickly gave himself a mental shake and tightened his grip on his gladius.

He took in a deep breath.

Then released.

Wed May 08, 2019 12:39 am

Dean drew his gladius a bit, exposing the blade but keeping it within the sheath. “Hey,” he said in an uncharacteristic but expected authoritative tone, “identify yourself or your guts are painting the freeway.”

Nobody in their right mind walked in a highway, and nobody good stopped to chat with the tunnel guards. It did not take spidey sense to know that something was about to go down.

“Frankly, I’d rather have you beat it back to Oakland and save us the trouble.”

Thu May 23, 2019 1:31 am

"Aw," the vocal one pouted. "That isn't very nice, now is it?" He questioned, then turned his attention onto Thurmond, his eyes slid over his frame as if deciding whether or not to kiss him or kill him. Or both. "He knows." The monster hissed. "He looks like he wants to have fun.

Thurmond started to nervous sweat. There was a very personal secret that not even Dean knew about. Taking in a deep breath, he drew his gladius fully. "You aren't welcomed here, monsters. We know who you are."

"...Is that a no?"

"Yes. It is."

"Too bad. You're the one I wanted to play with most." And with that, the facade was over. The two monsters shifted into the true creatures that they were. Incubi.

"Basilone!" Thurmond called out, "you got the one on the right?"

Fri May 24, 2019 5:26 pm

With a lift of his shield and the draw of his sword, Dean shot back with a “Yeah, no sh¡t!”

Of course he had the one on the right, it was right there in front of him like come on Thurmond this isn’t rocket science. Like yeah he was more of a book-smart than a battle guy but that question was just super obvious.

But hey, no stupid questions.

Basilone kept his shield lifted, deflecting a kick from the right one’s donkey leg — denting his auxiliary shield. Asshole.

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