As it grew closer to complete darkness, Josh began poking at his fire to stir it a bit more in order to provide light and warmth as he sat in the cold outdoors. He scribbled drawings of his long lost toilet paper in the dirt to pass the time, the expression of an insane man plastered on his face. This was peaceful; he could tolerate it. If only there was REAL toilet paper.
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Evan finally dragged his lethargic self out of the town inn. He did desire to attempt to free load from the local saloon, however another matter took precedent over that. The Hannibal Lector wannabe was making peculiar claims about Dylan. Honestly, some part of Evan was worried Dylan had some kind of ties to Josh Myers. The kiss may have not meant anything, but it was suspicious in its own right. Evan's incredibly tall frame stepped into the clearing of the woods. He was still clad in his pajamas from before, not making any attempt at getting work or 1800s clothes. "I guess you really did slaughter a deer," Evan remarked, looking at the kill and then at Josh.
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"I wouldn't say slaughter," Josh grinned, hiding his surprise upon seeing the other young man. "But I had to kill it when I had the opportunity. It was a creative use for a roll of toilet paper, and that was a sacrifice that I was willing to make." He ceased his art project in the dirt, snatching the carved stick that he used as a knife, and playfully swung it in Evan's direction. The fire cast light on "tall, dark and brooding," and Myers was able to determine that it wasn't an odd chap from the unhygienic town, but Evan Issac. He stood, extending his hand, and wiped off dust from the clothes he'd stolen off the back of a pedestrian.
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The morbid, bizarre killing did not faze the goth in the slightest. "An opportunist, I see," Evan concluded in his usual monotone. The gloomy young man never seized any of the chances that came his way. He excelled at doing absolutely nothing. Evan flinched when the light from the fire hit him and when Josh swang his sharpened stick. He was already longing for the dark room at the inn. Evan took a few more steps towards Josh and did not shake his hand. "I don't do conformist pleasantries," he informed dryly. Afterward, he took a seat on a hollowed out log by the fire.
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"An opportunist, maybe, or perhaps that is what I want you to think," Myers smirked, using his response as an attempt to creep Evan out in his own ways. "Survival of the fittest, Issac. That was the case when we were on the island weeks ago, and the same is true out in the wilderness. Ah, everything is a competition." Josh proceeded to move closer to the other man knowing that Evan was easy to aggravate. He sought out to get under his skin, as he always did with everyone. Taking a seat beside Evan on the log, he pulled his hand back, grinning, "I see. As I expected. Hm, tell me. Why did you choose to come here after all?"
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Evan quirked his eyebrow. There went Lecter with his mind games. Evan's stoic facade remained. If he felt any uneasiness, he would not allow such to be plain on his face. He systematically began to click his tongue stud on the back of his front teeth, one of his many bad habits. "Maybe for you, but I don't give a fuck about the common laws." His gaze burned into Josh's as the other invaded his personal space. "Where's Dylan?" was the question Evan offered as an answer.
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Stan continued to trek on through the woods. He looked like shit. He felt like it too; pale and gaunt, annoyed, slightly feverish, but probably just pissed off enough to keep on going. Shit like this happened all the time, and it wasn't exactly the first situation he'd been sick for it. Everything was falling apart and of course they'd ended up here, in the goddamn past, rather than something as...well, "pleasant" as a cruise. He was still highly doubting it would have been a whole lot better. Stan sighed, coughing, pushing his phone out again in case Kyle had responded, which, well, he hadn't. His head was too heavy, congested, and he was too griped to even bother with doing much more than moving foreword and mentally cursing this entire situation it.
It was only heaven's light that a camp fire shown on ahead, the crackling sound and familair voices probably the first real relief Stan had had in a long time. Pushing through the brush, and hoping like hell Kyle was there so he could actually stop the damn search, Stan found himself standing right in front of both Josh and Evan; to the right of the camp fire and....indeed, a dead animal. Looking at it, probably a deer.
"Right....of course." The boy deadpanned, interrupting the flow of conversation, eyes still wearily on the corpse.
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Josh remained smiling eerily, staring down Evan with an intense look that couldn't be seen from the shadows. Where was Dylan? He shrugged, honestly knowing where the other boy was, but he wasn't about to let Mr. Issac know as well, not when it was more fun seeing him concerned with Dylan's whereabouts. His head jerked up at the sight of Stan, and he waved tauntingly, "Would you care to join us, Stanley. You just look /so/ disoriented."
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Evan had an inkling that Josh knew more than he let on. Frankly, he was not certain of what irritated him more--the way Josh kept his lips so tight or the fact that he may have cared about somebody. Evan put those worries on the back burner as Stan came into view. "Chasing after your girlfriend, sunshine?"
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Josh merely let out a snicker, adding to Evan's questioning.
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Stan stared at the two, somewhat in a distance, sighing and abruptly collapsing onto one of the logs; not even bothering to hide the flask as he pulled it out of his pocket. "...Man. Even in 1864 I can't get away from you two." Grunting in response to Evan's comment, the boy downed a good dose of alcohol, screwing the lid back on with clammy hands, clearly irritable. "What the hell were you talking about before I got here, anyways?"
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"I have plenty of meat here if you haven't eaten anything, Marsh. Unless you're a vegetarian, in which case I have nothing to offer you," Josh disregarded Stan's first comment, checking out the flask that he carried. Suspicious! "Evan is exhibiting signs of actual concern and possibly acknowledging his unlocked feelings. Would you like to stick around to watch?"
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"It's not as if I was ever pursuing you," Evan reminded in his bland tone. He rolled his eyes at Josh's statement. "You should shut your mouth while you're ahead, Lecter. The only thing I experience is apathy."
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"Well, you definitely experience more than apathy." Stan commented a little dryly, glancing Josh's way. "Uh, and well yea I wish...if I ever stop eating meat altogether I might end up...." With a pause he decided to forgo mentioning his last experience with this, instead adding dully, "I might get sick." The boy sighed, deciding on actually reopening his flask in this mental note, "I'm kind of impressed actually...on how quick you managed to set up camp."
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"I am quite skilled, thank you. And I would prefer if you didn't puke at all on my hard work, if you do feel faint," Josh replied, casually flicking a fly off of his deer.
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"You're so smart, sunshine," Evan remarked in a sarcastic tone of voice. He was beginning to regret coming to the campsite in the first place. Dylan was nowhere, and he was not feeling hungry enough to sink his teeth into a decaying deer that was soon to be full of maggots. "This sucks."
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A few branches and bushes behind the group rustled, Dylan's soft voice speaking up. ''Everything sucks, let it be up to you to point it out at random...'' He came strolling out, plopping down next to Evan, ''Why is there a dead deer and how is it we've managed to form our dorm once more?''
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Smiling, Myers quipped, "There you are, Dylan. Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise, he's right."
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"Oh jesus..." Stan muttered, pressing a few fingers against his forehead.
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"Stan, I was wondering, what were you doing in the woods? Searching for something, were you?" Josh continued questioning, ignoring anything else taking place.
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Stan glanced over, sighing. "Yea. Yea, I'm looking for Kyle. He won't answer his damn phone." At that point he rifled his out again, checking it in a still irritated fashion.
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"Worried about another's safety as well? Mr. Issac over here knows what you are going through." Josh smirked, gesturing towards Dylan, though no one may have noticed.
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Stan glanced up, "Well, yea, Dylan and Evan are together." He said blandly. "To be honest, I'd really rather avoid anyone dying because of where we are."
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"They are?" Josh felt so misinformed at that moment, turning to the other two sitting beside him, "Are you?" He went back to feverishly doodling in the dirt with his stick, replying to Stan without looking up, "Yes, it is a good idea to stay in a group. Perhaps not this group, however. Hah."
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"Yea, they are. They have been." Stan commented, still offhandedly. "And dude, I think coming up with a plan for survival's the best way to go at this point. Make sure no one ends up dying because of something stupid, you know?" He paused, still distracted,"Right now I'm most concerned about Georgie and Sheila, though...a part of me is pretty sure Sheila will actually be a lot. More. At home here." He sighed.
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The sudden voice of his fellow, tortured soul perked Evan's ears up. His eyes left the campsite and zeroed in on Dylan. "Hannibal Lecter hunted it like it was people," he explained casually to Dylan, tone suggesting he was not bothered. He had been ignoring the conversation between sunshine and Lector until the topic of them came up. "We're not conformists. We don't have a sunshine fairy tale," Evan explained. "We're damaged people drawn together by subtleties we are not aware of," he offered, acting like that was different than being an item.
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Dylan nodded in agreement, deciding right then that the ground was terribly uncomfortable and that, obviously, Evan was more comfortable. Obviously. So, like the nonconformist he was, refusing to conform and just remain on the ground, he crawled closer to Evan and plopped down in his lap, wrapping his arms around his neck. ''We were pulled together. It wasn't chosen and we're not.. together.''
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"But you want to be, yes?"
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"Well, that is pretty much what being together is, isn't it." He glanced to Josh, still frowning.
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"You wouldn't understand," Evan remarked simply enough. His body was somewhat tense with their accusations, though he yielded all the same as Dylan flopped into his lap. The tall one draped his arms around the small one's waist in a lazy fashion. "And don't assume what we want."
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"Alright. Whatever dude." Stan sighed, pulling his phone out again and rubbing his head harder.
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Josh continued his drawing, and began doodling little hearts in the dirt that pointed towards Evan and Dylan in a very childish, teasing manner.
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Evan extended his leg and kicked at the dirt, ruining the hearts that Josh etched into the soft dirt. "Still no word from Judas, I see," he concluded, watching Stan rather than Josh.
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Josh's eye unnoticeably twitched as he gripped his sharpened stick tighter, glancing over at Evan, but he kept himself calm and wandered several feet away to tend to the fire in silence.
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Evan's piercing blue eyes bored into Josh's back. He half-expected Hannibal to go serial killer on him and tab him with the stick, or perhaps do worse somehow. "Conformist," Evan tsked, expecting Dylan to concur out of routine, even though it was not his Dylan.
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"No. No reply..." Stan scrubbed his face, not even making any jarred comments about the nickname, "Honestly, I'm starting to get worried."
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Myers raised and eyebrow in response, rolling his eyes at the behavior. "Oh, Evan, why not explain to me why everyone other than yourself and your dark friends of the night is a conformist? Are you using that term properly?" He stared down at the deer, and decided to try cooking part of it in his fire. "Do you worry because you love him, Stanley? Or is he still your closest... friend. Hm, I suppose you would be concerned either way, regardless of the relationship. You are quite the caring person, after all."
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"Why should I go through that effort?" Evan inquired, feeling as unambitious as ever. "He's probably off pleasuring the fat conformist or whatever," he added towards Stan, mostly ignoring Josh.
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The phone slipped out of Stan's hands at Josh's sudden comment, looking at Josh incredulously. "W-what--dude."
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Dylan chimed in softly, though the word felt odd on his tongue. Must've been rubbing off on him after all... ''... you people have such boring conversations, did you know that?'' he muttered, nuzzling up against Evan lightly.
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Glancing back away again, shutting his mouth, Stan moved to pick it back up, brushing the dirt off and not looking up, looking again irritated. His face was burning beyond a will of it's own as well, angry and embarrassed, something that reflected on the fire light with his still too sickly form.
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Myers continued turning a hunk of meat over the fire, getting his hands red, "I know I'm correct, Marsh. My comment caught you off guard. As for the lack of amusement in this conversation, I agree. I'm going to rest once I've eaten, and by rest, I mean that I'm choosing to avoid the lot of you in the solitude of my shelter," he grinned, excited by the crackle of the dying flame.
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Stan glanced over, not commenting, but turning his eyes on Josh's hands. He decided not to exactly comment on that either. Sighing and caught on a bad cough, he looked to the others. "You know what. It might be smart if we made camp too. I might come back here again after I've looked a little more around for Kyle."
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"Don't be an idiot. It's dangerous out here at night. Your dependency on Kyle can wait for a few hours, can't it?" Josh asked.
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Stan looked over to Josh, pretty caught off guard. He looked at the boy as if he hadn't really seen him properly before, opening his mouth before shutting it again. "...What--? I mean..." He paused a second, glancing back to the screen of his phone uneasily. "Uh..." Rubbing his head, he continued, "Yea...I just..." His words kind of trailed off, he was tired, sick, and honestly it was just his desire to move this foreword and make sure everyone was alright that had kept him standing at all. He hesitated a second, "Maybe."
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Josh smiled, this time more genuine than creepy, and suddenly ripped a piece of cooked meat with his teeth, thus ruining his peaceful moment of deep thought. He chewed the disgusting substance, swallowed, and spoke, "Stan, your co-dependent nature is showing. I've watched Kyle long enough to know that he is fine without you. He'll survive." He took another bite casually. "If you fellas are staying close to my camp, then so be it. As for myself, I'm taking refuge. Take care, gentlemen." And with one last smile, "Don't let the flies bite!"
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Stan didn't reply, still pressing his head against one hand, but not exactly putting up a fight. When Josh moved to leave he gave a kind of muttered, "Night, Myers." Before pushing himself up to start making camp for the rest of them.
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"Yes... Goodnight, Marsh," Josh whispered, "and goodnight star-crossed lovers." His voice echoed, and he assumed that no one else heard him. With that, Myers took refuge beneath his stick shelter uncomfortably.
