Up on the Housetop (Take II) -Open-

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just gonna stand there and watch me b u r n but that’s alright because i like the way it h u r t s At least Edmund could say it was an actual housetop this time. And how appropriate for the recently passed holiday. The day of the year where an alleged Santa came down the chimney. Rooftop...housetop... It reminded him of something seasonal: a song, Up on the Housetop (or at least he remembered that line being in there).  It had been (or was) a popular song, right? Now that he thought of it, it had been so long since he had heard any Christmas songs. They had been shut off by the time he had turned Cinny into a radio. But now that it was an actual housetop, it meant that his time in the barracks were long gone…. almost a year, now that he thought of it. He had left January 25th. 11 months since he had left for Saturn…. more than a year since he had sat on the rooftop of his barrack and (more or less) talked to Mors. More than a month since he had last gone onto the Rogers’s housetop and others’s. Almost two weeks since getting broken out of prison. He and Felicity had joked that they’d have to break him out one day. Edmund just didn’t know that it would come to pass so soon. Besides, if anything, Edmund would’ve thought that he’d have to either get broken out of the Roman or mortal prison, not the…. whoever had them. He sighed slightly, looking up at the sky. How times had changed. From barracks to house. Planes, no planes. Cohort training, Circus Maximus. From ranting about how the gods were scum to… well, what was there to rage about now? That’s what he usually did when he went up to rooftops, after all. A place to escape everyone and silently rage. He’d usually have something… anything, to be angry about, but he just… wasn’t. He just felt… well, he didn’t exactly know. The only other time he felt like this was when he’d sit in silence with Rhia at Orthys or when he was in the holding cells underneath the Principia…. Now that he thought of it, even when he was “housing” on random rooftops, he wouldn’t rage. Not anymore, since, in all reality, nothing and no one to rage about except himself, and that was just a given.   So you’ve suddenly started becoming self aware, huh? He searched his mind, convinced that he’d find the spark in seconds, but nothing came. Nothing to spark up his anger at…. anything, really. Before he had left for Saturn it had been so… easy to come up with something. How long had he been searching for something but never finding it, and then never coming to terms that he couldn’t find it? Just so he could continue his fight. His facade. Whichever. They were pretty much one in the same by now. COMMENTARIUM: Going to keep details hazy until we actually ICC it or whatever. Hope that’s okay ._. Your choice if it’s the Roger’s house or someone else’s or if it’s day/night. IDC and ed’s beyond not caring. VERBA: 491

[Deleted]

Tag: edmundsimons

Word: 421

Notes: I'm stealing this one!! hope it is ok!!

Since all of them got back from their captivity, everything had been so weird and blurry. People seemed to be happy to have them back, then why was it so difficult to believe it? some people were happy, other overly happy, other were indiferent and Chris believed on those more. WHY!? he hadn't been that way before, had he? he had been cocky and pridful, he had treated others like scum for some time also. But he couldn't remember a single moment of distrust in his heart. He knew the legion was family and he had to protect it no matter what. then why he wanted to fry every one they saw that his mind couldn't recognize?!

He hadn't been released of infirmary yet, but he couldn't stand another minute in there, he had to breath fresh air and he knew how to do it. Maybe after that day Tessa, Kyle or Lilith would ask Ronan to put some bars on his window, but that night he could be free. He got up from the bed and opened the window. Then he hopped up over the windowmark and landed on the ground two floors down. it was kind of handy to be capable of flying short distances. He looked around and then simply jumped, testing his legs, testing his flying skills. He flew over camp and smiled realizing it hadn't been wiped from his mind, the air felt so good, the freedom of being outside! then he suddenly saw a guy sitting on the roof of a building. No real reson he descended near the guy.

"unless you fly I don't think it is a good idea to sit so close to the edge" he said in his usal tone, that voice of command, of leadership that being a son of Jupiter implied. He didn't remember the guy's face, as he couldn't remember the face of anyone else in camp. Still he remembered Edmund Simons, member of his cohort, traitor some said, and he believed it firmly too while his trail. Weird it was that he could remember all of that, but the experiments in captivity had taken all the memory of the faces of the people he used to know. He walked closer, in his cocky way, but he wasn't threatening the guy, he wanted to simply be outside and be himself, discover if he could be himself again, if even with all what they did to him he could be again the son of Jupiter that he used to be.

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just gonna stand there and watch me b u r n but that's alright because i like the way it h u r t s The gods? Em? The people who imprisoned everyone? Everyone who got imprisoned? The gods? ….nah. More indifferent than angry. Em? Just doing her job… The people? Same thing… although I did find people who hated me properly. The others? Well… they got out, didn’t they? No deaths… just, healing, and time. C’mon, dude. Giving up your grudges? You gotta get ticked. Only way to keep yourself going here. Too tired… Well, go to sleep. Idiot. Don’t want to… Part of his mind wouldn't give up. Wouldn't give up the idea that somewhere he was willing to fight this out... like always. Maybe he would... one day. Maybe. But today was not that day. He was exhausted, yet cringed at the very idea of sleep... When did he ever want to go to sleep? He remembered three times: after the fire, after getting injured during the third war, and after landing in the Field of Mars. All three times could be said that he wasn't in his right mind... so they didn't count. He took a breath, trying to smother out the flashbacks that started playing in his head. Think of something else. Anything else. He should've been training, but he flinched every time something came at him. He should've been in the forge, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to cope with fire yet. Hell, he should've been inside tinkering things that he could make in the house, but he wasn't. He used to be able to do it for hours and hours on end. No breaks. It used to keep him fascinated and busy for however long it took. Now though, he couldn't concentrate for long. Maybe four hours at best. After that, he had to walk away for a bit... only to end up drowning in everything he used forging and training to forget. He tensed slightly as he heard a voice on the roof behind him. Not a quest member. Not Josh or Rhia. Not Redpath or Silverwood. His brain scrambled for an answer. For a few seconds he couldn't come up with anything. He had almost started panicking before his brain finally clicked and pinned a name to the voice: Ashby. His old centurion. Edmund hadn't known that Ashby had been taken as well. The first time he realized that was when he turned up at the gathering place after the break out. He heard footsteps walking closer to him, yet still didn't turn around to face him. Talk and it'll be over quicker. No you're at camp. Still, his mouth moved faster than his mind was able to reassure him. "Flying'sthesameasfalling.... justmorepermanant." (Flying's the same as falling, just more permanent) He definitely needed a filter repair. COMMENTARIUM: Of course I don't mind <33 VERBA: 449

[Deleted]

Tag: edmundsimons

Word: 415

Notes: Sorry short. XD

Since he had woken up, he had seen very different effect from whatever those monsters did to them back there in the Governments facility. He had seen people in panic, others severely ill, other simply absent from life, as if their minds were in other place. But he had also seen the people who hadn't been taken and some of them had also severe problems. He remembered war, he remembered how bad it had been, so when he saw the people that survived it, with scars and amputations, he couldn't tell who were survivors of war from the survivors of the government facility's torture. So when he just flew over that roof and listened talking to the guy sitting there, he didn't know if the speed and urgency of his speech was because of a trauma from war, a unthinkable torture in the facility or if he was just maybe a son of the god of Speed and travelers, among many other things.

He looked at the guy there and for some reason he felt as if he had seen him before, as if for some reason he had wanted to kick his butt hard from the fields of Mars to Principia to make him understand some basic principles of the roman Legion. But he didn't know if that was accurate or not, he couldn't relay his knowledge and confidence from what he felt or thought he knew by simply looking at someone, not as long as he couldn't remember the faces to match them to the names and memories that he had. "Excuse me lad?" he asked and then simply sat on the roof, by a side of the guy, facing him and trying to reach any slight memory of his face. "Have we met before?... because I have this weird feeling to have beat up your arsh pretty hard at some points in a training." He mentioned in his usual and deep Irish accent.

Weird how he hadn't recognize Marie by looks but when she touched his hand, when she kissed his cheek, tender sweet moments. But he recognized this guy by his attittude? why or better asked was how was that possible?! Maybe that was the key! Maybe he only need to talk to people and let his inner memory, his deepest memories linked with something real? He looked at the guy waiting for a reply, was it even normal that he still wanted to kick his butt for some weird reason?

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just gonna stand there and watch me b u r n but that's alright because i like the way it h u r t s New Goal: Slow down your speech pattern. He wasn't exactly sure how many people would buy into the "I've been hanging around Josh too long" crap. Rhiannon had been by his side longer and wasn't talking that fast. All he knew was that the faster he spewed nonsense or talked back, it'd usually end quicker. (Being quiet wasn't as effective.) Down side to that: he went in more often. If anything, his BS and lying repertoire had gotten larger and better. That was, if they could even understand him. Seriously dude, it's been over a week. Your calm down time's overdue. Yes, he had to go back to talking normally. Along with make stuff, get back in the forge, and get back to training. Josh said to take it slow, but Ed didn't do waiting. As of now, he'd just stay and make things that didn't require fire... but he'd have to go back... one day. Other than that, he tried helping take care of Art, tried not to have a complete metal break down, and would go wandering around New Rome or sit on rooftops. Back to his habits when both Josh and Felicity disappeared. From his peripheal vision, he saw Ashby sit down near him. Edmund forced himself to stay still, but still didn't look directly at him. Chris wouldn't hurt him... at least he didn't think he would... Not unmercifully or unintentionally... Then again, he had seven years of training in first to prove him wrong on that. So yeah, no, never mind. "Hm?" At his continuation, Ed's face snapped around to look directly at him. More from shock than anything else. Gods, what had they done to him? This was Felicity all over again. Ashby had lost his memory. However, unlike Felicity had, Ashby did seem to have a small preconception of Ed. Still though, Ed decided to treat it as he had with Felicity. At his question Edmund paused, keeping his speech pattern in mind and forcefully trying to slow it down. "Yes. My name'sEdmund... Simons. You...usedtobe my centurion. Firstcohort." It was easier to calm down around Josh, Rhia, Felicity, and Ethan, but this would have to do for the moment. First cohort. Gods it seemed so long ago... Orthys and a betrayal, a war, and getting shoved in a government cell... had it only been under a year ago since he had left for Saturn? Plus the six months he had spent on the quest... he had only really stayed in camp for a little over a month before leaving again for Orthys. Jolly and Ashby must've had been happy to have him out. Happy to be able to run a tighter ship with no one bluntly calling them out or questioning orders. Even if it meant a physical altercation (one that Ed always didn't win, but it never deterred him). No more rebellion, disobedience, constant fighting (physical and verbal), eye rolls, backtalk, sarcasm, or sass. Gods, was that how he used to act? It was so far away... like a distant memory. COMMENTARIUM: It was great <33 VERBA: 500

[Deleted]

Tag: edmundsimons

Word: 438

Notes: sorry the wait!!

sitting up there, christopher felt the cool wind that it remained in camp those days of Winter. He liked the cold winds, they reminded him of his Ireland. Yes he hadn't been there in a very long time, but he still remembered it, he could still close his eyes and remember the smell of the green soaked hills after a rainy afternoon. He could remember the warmth of the people, how all of them tried to help each other and how all of them were nice among them. Not so much with foreigners, but it was something normal, his people had been beaten up too much for too long, so they didn't trust easy on strangers.

He was glad that those experiments in the government facility hadn't taken that from him, that would have also been a tragedy. As it was to not be able to remember the faces of the people that he had known his whole life, like Charlie, like the people in his cohort, like Erich... like his Marie that he hadn't known his whole life, but she already was His life in that moment. He just hoped he got all of that back soon, he was tired of bumping into people that he supposed to know and not even say a hello to them, that was rude, memory loss or not!

Like in that very moment, when the guy next to him just confirmed that they used to know each other, and not only know from greetings in the morning in the mess hall, NO! He used to be the guy's centurion!! How on Earth was that acceptable that he had just forgotten him! well... not JUST forgotten him, but still he couldn't remember him! not until he gave him his name. Edmund simons... YES!! he knew that guy! problematic and chaotic member of first cohort. "I do know you... I'm sorry I couldn't remember you... It's complicated..." he wasn't sure if the news of his weird loss of memory was of public domain or not. So he just left it like that. He remembered everything about Edmund, all of him! well, all that he had seen and known while he had been in the cohort.

"We have missed you in the cohort trainings. you always give us an extra training to perform every day." he smiled remembering how Charlie and himself ran after him. He used to electrocute the guy when he got him hitting the ceiling for some stupid reason. "how have you been? I've heard you also got... abducted." maybe the weird way of talking was something to do with it.

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just gonna stand there and watch me b u r n but that's alright because i like the way it h u r t s Cool air at high altitudes.... the the only think Ed could associate that with was Orthys. He would say his barrack top meeting with Mors, but that just seemed too far away for it to have really been him. He probably shouldn't be up here, close to the edge and all, but it had become more of a habit now than anything. Almost fourth nature (beside fighting, forging, and breathing). He felt both trapped and sort of free up here. It got confusing after a while, but he knew he could escape up here. ....so, where had that habit come from, anyway? Surely before Orthys (since that had been him on the barrack top, even if felt foreign). So... his life before the Legion? Probably. But that was way too far away. What had he been doing on the rooftops as a kid? Probably escaping from Em (post closet stage). It obviously hadn't worked well. He didn't remember Em's roof; he more remembered her closet and his room. She'd find him and yell. Her yelling at him for being on the rooftop had rubbed him the wrong way. At least, that's what he remembered feeling like... why would it make him upset? Sure, it'd raise a few flags if an adult saw a kid sitting on the roof with no supervision, but it still didn't justify him feeling so... hurt by it? Angry, yeah, but not hurt.  "It's fine," he said with a slight shrug. If that's all Chris wanted to say, then fine. No pushing or prodding. His choice on how much he wanted to tell people. Ed didn't know half of what was done to them while captured, and to be completely honest, he didn't want to know. If he did know, he had probably repressed it, just so he wouldn't shatter into a couple of thousand pieces again. That was his MO, wasn't it? Just repress it until he forgot... which never really happened to the extent he wanted. Anything and everything he went into denial about always creeped in the back of his mind, threatening to overtake and consume him. Maybe it had, just not in the tsunami wave way he thought it would. Maybe it had done it gradually, in tiny changes over a long period of time, starting with the quest and then continuing to present day, slowly changing him. Slowly killing the him he had once been. What was it? Good? Bad? Neither? He didn't know. Edmund looked back over the rooftops as Ashby continued talking. He highly doubted they missed him. Jolly and Ashby probably liked the fact that they could run Ed and the rest of the cohort to the ground because of his blatant rebellions. The rest of the cohort hadn't liked him so much for that, but did Ed care? No. He just got used to "extra" training that just became part of regular training since his disobedience would usually be a daily thing. Speaking of training. Ed really needed to start again... before he really got out of shape. "Notgetting...shocked's a plusfor me," he muttered. "'m fine." Well, Ashby should've seen that one coming. At his question, he gave a slight nod. COMMENTARIUM: Wow I'm horrible *flops* Sorry ._. VERBA: 535

[Deleted]

Tag: edmundsimons

Word: 410

Notes: Sorry the delay!! >_<

Chris looked at the young man sitting next to him, He knew he had invaded the space and moment of personal meditation, but he needed so many answers for the thousands of questions he had in his mind and meeting someone that had known him in the past, before his own abduction, was good and even necessary. By that moment he remembered that he hadn't used to be friends to the guy sitting there. In fact they fought and discussed everyday. Gods! he had the ability to make him mad, to get him ready to explode and in many occassions he had exploded by electrocuting the guy, and edmund confirmed it when he said that it had been good to not being electrocuted lately. chris felt bad on a side, because he hardly ever had felt what it was, still he knew he had enjoyed Electrocuting Ed, making sure the poor guy would never forget it.

"My apologies..." he barely said about how the guy had been electrocuted. He knew there wasn't other in Camp that could do that, not for real, so he knew he had done that to the guy next to him. He needed to apologize, for sosme reason he needed to do it, why? well, he wasn't that sure, because deeply inside, he knew it had been justified, still he wanted to get off his soul. "But I do remember that you had given me very good reasons in the past to do that, am I right about it?" He hoped the guy, Edmund didn't lie to him in that moment, he knew about it and he was sure of those memories, so why would the kid lie to him? Well, maybe only for the thrill?

"the retirement didn't force you to work for the senate? I mean, forging again?" He thought that all those that had been forced to leave the legion, had some social service, like a forced work for the Legion, for the senate, for New rome. Maybe he was mistaken about it, but he was almost sure that he wasn't. and what other thing could a son of Vulcan do for social service than forging once more, right? besides he could still remember the work of Edmund Simons, besides being a pain in the arsh, he had been such an skilled man with trinkets, metals, weapons, all of that! without mentioning those kind of robots that he built from time to time.

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just gonna stand there and watch me b u r n but that's alright because i like the way it h u r t s Edmund's list of friends wasn't that extensive. It certainly didn't cover Jolly or Ashby. They had both been Edmund's centurions, authority figures which warranted immediate hate. They fell under the "neutrals", although these days the lines between relationship categories had begun to blur and warp. Ed couldn't concentrate long enough to really think about it, nor did he really want to. Examining just how much things had changed for him in a little over a year would be a bit much at the moment. No no, he was not one for self examination. Any time he did try... well, it didn't ever end to well. The only times he had decided to do it was when there was nothing else to do: mainly at Orthys or in prison cells. Not good association. In a sick, ironic twist of things, Ed spent years fighting against Camp and all their authorities to turn traitor spy during the war and then to keep his mouth shut around the government. No wonder people stopped trying to understand what went on his head. They didn't know the extent of the first situation, but still. Even he had given up on trying to figure out himself. At Ashby's apology, Ed just shrugged. "'s fine. Did whatyou neededt'do." Which was true. As his centurion, Ashby was just giving the appropriate punishment to an out of line soldier. One that wouldn't give up rebelling, no matter how many times he got shocked. Interesting... he had come to fear fire, needles, and (now) punches and physical contact, but hadn't developed any qualms about lightning or electricity. Ed's mouth twitched slightly. "Yeah... Iwas...quite th'rebel." Past tense. How times had changed. Ed just figured to tell the truth... these circumstances of lost memory sort of mandated it. He may've been cruel, but he wasn't as cruel as lying to people with amnesia. Besides, he just lied about his personal emotions, not about factual events or relationships.... well... uh... never mind, it was more complicated than that. "'m still...supposed t'be workingn'the forge..." he muttered, looking at some point in the sky. "Jus'... haven't gone back.... yet." Ever since getting captured. He didn't even want to think about how he'd react to fire again. This in/out of the forge really had to stop, because it was just a nightmare to get himself back in each time he left. The fears and the nightmares and the flashbacks... Baby steps... baby steps... I'll get back there... soon. One day. He'd make himself. He had to. It was the only way he could be a smidge useful. COMMENTARIUM: All good! Sorry about mine xD VERBA: 434