first sortie.

[unbr8kable]

[Six hours previous, everything had been so much simpler. The Eta cohort had made it to live combat training, out in one of the few areas the Tenno had claimed back from the invaders. Xia had been vibrating the whole day, grinning wide as she suited up in the boring steel training mech (hers would be blue, she decided, or maybe black, with bold red stripes on the limbs) and deployed to the field, not even cracking on Wimperson, the Support (not his real name, but it may as well have been).

The Heralds didn't come up on radar until they were practically on top of the trainees. Maybe if there'd been more lead time, it would've been less of a shitshow, but who the hell knows.

The grimy details aren't important, but they aren't great. Damage to all suits, with two damaged beyond repair; the Leader froze under pressure, the Shadow couldn't keep up with the speedy Heralds. Wimperson actually came through. Johnson the Medic went down right there, in front of them.

Xia and Jacob have only just gotten out of their debriefing, another unexpected first for the day.

She and Jacob did good, Xia knows. They kept their heads, were barely hurt, they moved together well. "You'll make a good team," Corporal Kuwahara tells them before turning towards the medical ward to check on Johnson's surgery. "Go get some rest."

But no, rest is pretty much the opposite of what they need right now, Xia thinks. She turns to Jacob, giving her best attempt at a normal expression.]

Wanna get out of here?

Comments

[unbr8kable]

Teaching some rando what's what would be the most important thing. You're gonna drop it, by the way.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Drop what?

[When he turns to look back at her, he nearly does. The oden slips, and he makes a grab for it - curses, and catches it by the lip of the container, just barely.]

...maybe we should find somewhere to sit down and eat this stuff.

[unbr8kable]

Yipes, yeah, yeah. It's a waste if it ends up on the ground! We could head back to the park. Or to the train tracks. Or, I dunno. A roof.

[crossmyheartandhope]

How bout the monorail? It's like train station meets roof.

The best of both worlds.

[unbr8kable]

'Kay. Lead the way, then.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Gives up on fishing out the chocolate pandas for now, in favor of actually getting somewhere. He skirts the edge of the park, takes a shortcut through the bottom floor of a department store, and brings them out by the stairs to the monorail station.]

[Then it's up the stairs to the station itself - and past it, to where the stairs branch off into a cement walkway that leads over the intersection. It's lined with fences to keep dumb kids from getting too close to the edge, so of course he slips out beyond the fence and gets too close to the edge. He shimmies along for about five feet where the gap between the fence itself and the 80-foot fall is dicey, and then slips into an indent that offers a little more wiggle room and sits down, feet dangling. Looks like the monorail tracks will run right below them, from here.]

You coming?

[unbr8kable]

You'll have to try harder if you're thinking you can scare me off.

[she retraces his route, slightly less gracefully and considerably less carefully, too impatient to care about things like slipping and breaking one's neck when there is all the oden to be eaten. And she does miss a step right at the end; for a long instant of vertigo, windmills her arm out over the edge--and then catches the fence, pulling herself back around to plop next to him in one smooth motion.]

...Hah! Hell of a view.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[He watches while she pinwheels, ready to grab her by the jacket if she needs it. But then she's there, in the alcove beside him, and he leans back against the fence, grin easy and open.]

Right?

[He sets the candy-and-gin bag on the other side of him, looping one handle to the fence itself so they don't end up losing anything to the fall. Plainly not his first rodeo - people down on that intersection have had chocolate koalas dropped on them before, that's for sure.]

[Then he sets the oden between them, half on her lap, half on his, and waggles a set of disposable chopsticks at her.]

[todorable]

[maybe they deserved those choco koalas, think about that. for now, Cia is thinking about chopsticks, nabbing the pair with a pleased noise and immediately snapping up a daikon and popping it into her mouth.]

...Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Good call, Blondie.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Snaps his own chopsticks open and steals an egg. Nom nom, oden is amazing.]

They always stick it right by the counter. It's hard to say no.

[todorable]

Yeah, but it's not always so necessary. I mean, like, right now, in this moment, this oden is like. Life-saving.

[Or at least, spins-saving, which, from their current location, could be the same thing. She snags one of those bags of mochi, and rips open the pizza chips as well. The oden bowl sloshes a little as she swings her legs over the edge, but that's hardly the worst thing to happen today.]

Hey...

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Pokes around for some tsukune with his chopsticks while the other hand is already reaching to steal one of those chips.]

Yeah?

[unbr8kable]

[she looks out over the street below, past it, lips pursed. hesitates, starts over.]

...Think you could make it to the station from here? Like the way the monorail goes, I mean. Down the tracks.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[He pops the tsukune into his mouth and then the chip, too. He chews a minute, thinking, and scoots the oden over all the way into her lap. Then he grabs hold of the fence and leans out over the drop, way too far, so he can gauge the distance to the station. When he comes back up, his cheeks are flushed and he's grinning.]

I bet we could.

[unbr8kable]

[she watches him as he looks, casually chewing on chikuwa, because of course he wouldn't lose his balance, so why even worry?]

From here, it's just a matter of aim, right?

[crossmyheartandhope]

Yeah. I mean, we'll want to time it for right after the monorail comes through, but it's a pretty big target, right? All we gotta do is drop down.

[Doesn't seem especially concerned that the drop is the height of a train and a little more besides. Plainly that is a reasonable distance.]

[unbr8kable]

Yeah, if it'd get here sometime this century...

[as if she'd been waiting for it before... and so long as you were within 3x your height, no biggies, right? she scoots closer to the edge, leaning over to judge for herself]

But yeah, there's gotta be a good 18 inches, that's plenty.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Rescues the oden that just about slid off her lap when she leaned over.]

We better finish this before we go. It's gonna get cold.

[unbr8kable]

[it would've been a noble sacrifice, though the passers-by below do appreciate his foresight]

You can kill it. I gotta stay nimble to win this jump.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Salutes with his chopsticks and digs right in.]

You don't even want your egg? The egg's the best part.

[todorable]

I'll get that egg on your face when I beat you to the station!

[grins through another handful of chips, hopping to her feet and dropping one down, watching it waft towards the track]

[crossmyheartandhope]

Oh, you're on.

[Also, he is eating your egg, cause that totally sounded like a no to him.]

[unbr8kable]

Hey!

[It was a no, but that doesn't mean she won't crumble plenty of chips into his hair]

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Squawks and jerks away, batting at her hands. Good thing he tied that bag to the fence, or it would have tumbled eighty feet straight down, onto the heads of those randos down there.]

[Just like the oden just did.]

.....aww, man.

[unbr8kable]

...Ahh-ha ha haw, man! That was awesome!

[said randos do not seem to agree, if the yelling and cursing that is sent their way is anything to go by]