whenshewasnice | Outside Nonexis Tent, Friday Afternoon

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Outside Nonexis Tent, Friday Afternoon

Natalie was starting to really get fed up with camp living. It was mostly the heat, but it wasn't just the heat. It was the close quarters, the telepath tentmate (as much as she tried not holding that against Toby), the lack of a keyboard to practice on, and the fact that the wifi was crap.

Not that that stopped Natalie from trying. She was sitting in the shade underneath the tree near her tent, clad in a tank top and some shorts (she generally preferred to cover up more but it was either this or feeling even more uncomfortable in jeans), with her laptop in front of her. She'd been in town earlier, so she had some strawberries to snack on, and the remains of a Squishy to drink, but those didn't seem to help much with her mood.

She was even honestly contemplating giving up on being online and heading down to the beach to see whether a swim would be refreshing. And that was not a thought that crossed her mind often. This weather just didn't agree with her.

[ooc: Ooopen.]

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Despite it being ridiculously hot, Jace had managed to get a work out in the salle done. Not because he wanted to, but because he felt the need to be at top form now that another Shadowhunter would be arriving. At least he managed to get a shower in before going back to the campsite.

"Big sister," Jace greeted. "Looking at porn?"

"Tumblr Savior should be blocking most of that," Natalie drawled, not bothering to look up from her screen. "Not that I'm sure anything too interesting would load on this crap connection, anyway."

"I haven't noticed," Jace admitted, sitting down. He was normally the type of person who dressed nicely despite how horrible it was outside but the current living situation made him give in and wear one of those manly white tank tops with his jeans. At least he had the body for it.

"Shadowhunters aren't really the most up to date when it comes to technology." Still knew the internet was for porn though.

Natalie really wouldn't have expected anything else. "How surprising," she said, dryly, as she reached for a strawberry. "I would've thought there would at least be an app for locating Downworlder hotspots."

Yeah that was sarcasm.

"Well we do have Sensors," Jace said. "Sort of like Downworlder sonar. I have one here I just don't carry it around all the time."

"Probably for the best." You know, for people like her boyfriend. "Especially since this is a largely peaceful place."

Jace snorted. "Yeah everyone says that until some Downworlders decide to get cute and try to rid the world of humanity."

Natalie finally glanced over at him. "The island has done just fine without you or your mystical beeper, you know."

"For now," Jace said. "Don't get so touchy, I've never killed someone that didn't deserve it."

"It's more your standards for who deserves it that I'm worried about," Natalie replied flatly as she looked back at her laptop. Only to find the wifi signal had gone completely.

Ugh. "This campground is medieval."

Jace would have pointed out it wasn't his standards he was going by, but he hated to admit that he followed any sort of rules.

"Well that's the whole point of camping, isn't it?" Jace pointed out. "No modern comforts so you get in touch with nature or whatever. Though I can't see why getting in touch with nature is important at all."

"And people might enjoy it more if it wasn't forced."

Or if it hadn't been stupidly hot. She brushed her bangs aside – the rest of her hair was in a high, slighly messier than usual ponytail. Every effort had been made to feel cooler.

"Might as well have cut off the wifi entirely rather than have it be this bad."

"At least it's only for a few more days," he said. "Oh, right, I forgot to say that I received some news from home earlier."

Earlier being a few days ago but he liked to do things in his own time.

Natalie pushed her laptop screen down with a very quiet sigh and reached for another strawberry before turning her attention to him. Mildly interested. "Oh?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine enrolled here," Jace said. "Friend is a loose term, really, he's pretty much my adopted brother. His parents took me in after my father died so we grew up together until I came here."

"Huh." Have some more of that mildness, Jace. Though she did quirk one of her eyebrows a bit. "Well. It's good to be close to your family, eh?"

"Depends on who you ask." His father would not have agreed. "Either way, it will be good for me as a Shadowhunter. Alec's my parabatai, which is a rare bond in our society."

Jace held out his arm and pointed at one of the darker runes engraved in his skin. "We're battle partners that share each other's powers so we're stronger when we fight together. We also share parts of each other's soul but that's more of a bonding thing than a battle thing."

Natalie kept any disparaging remarks she had to make about urban fantasy to herself, and instead leaned towards him just slightly for a closer look at that rune.

Hey, she was a geek. Various things were fascinating to her.

"Sounds convenient," she said. "A little creepy, but convenient."

"How is it creepy?" he asked.

"You share parts of each other's soul?"

And Natalie had her own definition of creepy.

"There are contexts where that's romantic ––" And she wasn't going to elaborate on that. "–– but I don't think this is one of them."

Sorry, Alec.

"It's not romantic. Parabatai are forbidden from having romantic relationships," Jace said. "This isn't two mundanes who think they're in love because, oh wow, they've managed to screw only each other for six months. Romance is fleeting, people will fall in love with dozens of people in a lifetime."

Or dozens of times in a year, depending on how much of a romantic you were.

"This is a once in a lifetime thing. Once your partner dies you can't find another parabatai. You lose a piece of your soul forever. That's why it's so rare for Shadowhunters. It's hard to find someone you're willing to be that close to."

Clearly Jace took insult to being in a romantic anything with anyone.

Natalie gave him a somewhat judgey look throughout most of that. All the judgier for how she didn't have to actually blink at any point.

"Well," she said, dryly, once it seemed he was done. "Seems like you have a lot of thoughts on that. I wasn't trying to insult you, for the record."

"It's a serious thing." Somehow he will forget about this when Clary came along. "Which is why you're going to have to forgive Alec when he inevitably tracks you down."

"Tracks me down?"

Oh yeah, that just sounded promising. Really.

"Am I going to get a stern talking to?"

"Most likely!" Wow, that was almost cheerful. "Alec's older than the rest of us--me and his actual siblings--and he takes the protective older brother position very seriously."

He wasn't going to mention the obvious crush because he had faith in Natalie's ability to figure that out herself.

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