🇷🇦🇻🇪🇳 🇷🇪🇾🇪🇸 (mechabadass) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-02-21 21:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, john murphy, raven reyes |
Who: John Murphy and Raven Reyes
When: Backdated to 2/14
Where: Just outside Hobbiton
What: Making up
Rating: Eh, some cursing, otherwise nothing more than PG
Status: Complete gdoc
If there was one thing that could be said of Raven’s and Murphy’ relationship it was that it was extremely volatile. They were both snarky in their own right, and they were experts at getting a rise out of each other. That had been proven over the last few weeks after Raven’s arrival on the ship. More than once Murphy had done something to piss her off and like clockwork, he had managed to piss her off yet again the other day. This time it had been much worse than usual. She honestly hadn’t been sure if she could forgive that kind of grievance, even if he did apologize and promise never to do that again. Maybe if she didn’t trust him the way she did it wouldn’t have been as bad. Maybe if she hadn’t considered him one of her closest friends she’d probably just roll her eyes and move along, but that was not the case and she felt exceptionally embarrassed by his actions. At least she hadn’t been approached by anyone except for Laura to give her a heads up about the situation. The matter had been all but dropped after her own post to call Murphy out.
Ever since, Raven had done as she promised Bellamy: She hadn’t left her cabin. She hadn’t shown her face since she and Murphy had watched those movies, and frankly she wasn’t all that interested in leaving the ship at all. Instead, she had hidden herself away in her room, making her trackers. She had gone with the idea of using those fitbits, having reprogrammed several of them to show the locations of the others and had given them the ability to communicate with each other like a comm system. She had given them all the option of being able to turn off the tracking system so that it looked like nothing more than a normal watch. And finally, she had given them the ability to to send out an S.O.S. signal in case the wearer was in danger or hurt and needed assistance. Maybe only she, Clarke, and Bellamy would ultimately use them, but Raven had ended up with a dozen of them.
When she was finished, she carefully put them all away in a secured box in her closet. By the time she was finished it was already Tuesday evening. That time to herself, to work and focus on something besides her anger, had helped. She knew she needed to take everything Murphy did with a grain of salt. Okay, so he was just trying to help her out, but he had just gone about it the wrong way. Oh, so very wrong. She had taken a moment to consider what she would say to him, and then decided to send him a text.
Meet me in Hobbiton tomorrow, 3 pm
A few minutes later and she received a reply: Okay.
The response he gave wasn’t met with anything. She just knew she needed to see him face to face and clear up this entire situation. If he showed, great. If not… well, she’d work on that if it came to it. Raven knew very little of fiction. Her mind was so focused on being productive, on building useful things, or else on making explosives to keep her people safe. So much of her was work, work work, that finding time to just enjoy herself was almost unheard of now. She knew she needed to take breaks, she knew she needed to eat and sleep, but beyond that she didn’t really have anything she enjoyed doing. She had already discovered that drinking was a no-go and even if she did decide to go out for drinks she needed to have a buddy with her so she didn’t wander off and try making out with the first hot guy she saw. Clearly, she needed someone to keep an eye on her so she wouldn’t do that again. She also didn’t plan on drinking again in general. (Not something she would end up following through on, if she was being honest with herself.)
When 3 o’clock rolled around, Raven had already planted herself near the entrance to the little town. She had rented some rangers clothes from the Grey Havens. (Okay, so she thought it was really cool how she looked like a badass ranger right now. Too bad her leg couldn’t be healed, but she thought it added some authenticity to it to look.) With her arms crossed, she looked this way and that for any sign of Murphy. Her stomach turned from the nerves, a combination of anxiety from the upcoming conversation and some anger that was still beneath the surface.
It was 3 o’clock and Murphy was lingering around the outskirts of Hobbiton. There was an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach that he just couldn’t shake off since getting the text from Raven just a day ago. He wasn’t expecting it; he wasn’t expecting her to want to talk to him this soon. People would have told him that he should be relieved, that this was a good sign and that their friendship was repairable.
Murphy looked down at himself and nervously patted down any visibly wrinkles in his own ranger-esque attire he had been donning. Murphy felt look a fool, probably looked like a fool, but none of the locals gave him a glance of suspicion. Hell, most of them were overly cheery and didn’t shy away from bidding him a good afternoon.
In the back of his mind he heard his own tell him to get the hell going. Minutes were passing and he didn’t want to make Raven think that he had left her high and dry. Something he would never do unless she herself gave him strict orders to leave her. He did that once and really wasn’t planning on doing that ever again.
Through puckered lips he drew in a sharp inhale, and exhaled quickly through his nose before taking that daring step into the quaint little town. The ground was lush was grass, and dipped and rose with shallow and steep drops. Houses were made directly into the hills and for some reason Murphy found it fascinating. The round doors were painted with vibrant colors that matched the personalities of the people who dwelled here, hobbits.
“Sorry,” Murphy muttered, nearly walking directly into a hobbit. The short man gave him a squinted look before huffing past Murphy.
“Raven,” was the next thing he said, cautiously approaching her. He offered her a quick glance and his eyes quickly flitted away from her face to look down at the ground her nervously toed with the tip of his boot.
Raven wasn’t entirely sure how she intended to begin their conversation. She just knew they needed to figure out a solution and move on like they had in the past. She also began to feel a little agitated that Murphy was taking his sweet time showing up. She glanced at her device for the time and smirked. Late. She’d give him a few more minutes before leaving.
Dark eyes scanned the area, occasionally watching the Hobbits in the distance. They were indeed childlike. She had been met some personally and it was obvious they were grown adults. They were just much smaller than humans. This place was so strange. Raven was used to meeting different kinds of people, but elves, dwarves, hobbits, everything in between? That was new to her.
It was Murphy’s voice that pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked over to him and simply nodded. It took a moment for her to say anything, because she wasn’t sure what to say. It was usually better to just get to the point and move on. The look on her face was more than enough to hike up his heart rate. Each step he took closer to her, the more anxious he felt. Murphy stopped just out of her reach, just in case she was thinking about punching him.
“Listen, I’m not pissed anymore. Maybe a little annoyed, but I’ve had time to get over most of my anger.” She sighed, “Look, you can’t do that again. I’m not looking for love and I don’t need anyone trying to find someone for me.” Her tone was very matter-of-fact. She didn’t sound angry, but boy had she been a few days before. At least she wasn’t trying to punch him.
He felt the muscles along his jaw tighten. Murphy wanted to tell her, remind her that out of everyone, she had every right to still be pissed at him. “I know,” he said after clearing the lump in his throat. It seemed to come back a moment later, making it that much harder for words to come out. “I won’t do it again. I won’t do anything.”
“You’re damn right you won’t do that again,” she interrupted before pausing and giving him a chance to continue.
Murphy hadn’t looked directly at Raven yet, his eyes looking down at his scuffed boots. “I was just trying to help and I did it in a really stupid way,” he muttered at the ground.
Raven frowned, “Yeah. It was stupid and you weren’t thinking. Why would you do that anyway?” She crossed her arms then, feeling like this was quickly turning into an interrogation. She didn’t mean for that, but it was probably impossible to get around that given the topic of conversation.
Murphy had a reason, it sounded like a good reason at the time. “I guess I’m just not good at helping people,” he said before even answering her question.  His tongue flicked out from mouth to moisten his lips, giving him those few seconds to think about what he was going to tell her. “Like I said before, I thought I heard you say you wanted to be loved like the stupid characters in the movie.”
Raven shook her head, “So? I’ve wanted that for years and I’ve done fine without it. It’s a stupid movie, Murphy. It’s not real and it makes love look attainable, and I’m sure as hell won’t find it on a boat with a bunch of strangers.”
“Love is attainable,” he muttered almost inaudibly, mostly to himself. He had enough courage built up to lift his gaze, searching for her brown eyes. “What I did was out of line. And I’ve done enough shit to you, you don’t need to forgive me. I fucked up again.”
Raven frowned, her forehead wrinkled as he spoke. She nodded, “Yeah.” She sighed and threw up a hand as though to indicate surrender. “This is something I can get over, Murphy. We’ve been through a lot worse. I just…” she sighed, “Don’t let it happen again. I don’t need strangers hitting on me, and I don’t need people thinking I’m desperate”.
Through his nose, Murphy let out his held breath. He hadn’t much else to say, didn’t know how many times someone had to say sorry for it to be worth anything. What was the number of fuck ups one person could do before Raven would finally see him as the piece of trash he knew that he was?
He hoped it was never.
“I know you’re not desperate,” Murphy reminded her. “It’s not going to happen ever. Trust me?” She had every right not to trust him, but there was another hope that she would.
Raven had every reason not to trust him. She could just say she didn’t believe him and leave it at that, but she wasn’t like that. She couldn’t not give him another chance. It was a stupid move on his part, he saw how pissed it had made her, and he seemed to be sincere in his promise not to do it again.
She nodded, “I trust you, Murphy.” She glanced over her shoulder back to the tiny town behind her. “I’m gonna go explore a little. You should go find Johanna.”
He sighed, deeply and heavily. It was as though Murphy had expected her to tell him that he broke her trust for the last time. Murphy nodded, a small smile (of relief) blossomed over his lips. “Thanks, Raven. You know that really means a lot to me,” he said, trying to pour every ounce of sincerity into his words.
Maybe it would have been best for Raven to have told him that he had had enough chances. That this had been his very last chance to prove to her he could be trusted. Sure, he had done some things that would have made anyone else stop talking to him altogether, but he had more redeeming qualities than anyone (and Murphy) realized. Instead, she forgave him because no matter how frustrated and angry he made her, Murphy didn’t deserve to be cut off. She simply nodded at his response without saying anything in return.
“Yeah, she’s around here somewhere.” He bounced a step backwards. “You look like an elf, you know.” The smile had quickly turned into a smirk. He was walking away from her, backwards. Murphy was about to turn around when he paused “Raven. I’ll wear that damn tracker.”
Raven smirked, “An elf without the height and the pointy ears.” She had seen what some of the clothes had been doing to the others and Raven had zero interest in becoming any of them. The Ranger seemed the safest bet.
“Yeah, well, you can’t have it all,” Murphy quipped. His smirk growing more distinct.
She had taken a step to turn around and head into Hobbiton to check out this adorable little town, then she stopped and turned back to look at him. She hadn’t expected that. “You sure about that?”
Slowly Murphy had come to a pause. The smirk on his face vanished and he took on a more thoughtful look. “I thought about it and yeah, I’m sure. Just don’t make it look like those metal trackers.” Casually, Murphy took a step backwards. “Make one for Johanna too, okay?”
Raven studied him for a moment before nodding. “I’ve already made twelve. I used those FitBits, so they look like ordinary watches. Got one for each of you,” she said with a nod.
“Alright.” He nodded his head in return. “I’ll catch you in a day or two. Going camping tonight in Fanghorn Forest.” Instead of his usual smirk, a genuine smile touched his lips. It was brief because Murphy was already spinning around on the heels of his boots so that his back was now facing her. He outstretched his arm high above his head and gave her a wave before he eventually dipped from her sight.