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

[crossmyheartandhope]

Comes of hanging out with Yoshioka, I guess. It just kinda creeps in.

[unbr8kable]

That's why you've gotta be careful! Constant vigilance! Don't get old before your time!

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Gives a sloppy little mock-salute.]

Consider my vigilance constant.

[unbr8kable]

[sticks out her tongue, but can't help but smile a bit]

That's more like it.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Anyway - [Nudges at her.] -really, what're we drinking?

Otherwise we're just gonna be walking in circles all night.

[unbr8kable]

[nudges back]

Gentleman's choice. Prove out that youthful exuberance.

[crossmyheartandhope]

You say that like there's any chance I'll pick anything but the place that does parfaits.

[unbr8kable]

Maybe I thought I'd be nice, for once.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Griiiin.]

Then let's go to the place that does parfaits!

[unbr8kable]

Okay, okay. If we must.

[she sticks out her tongue, turning parfait-wards]

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Parfait-wards we go, then. This particular place is even farther from the Tenno building, through a warren of streets riddled with low-hanging electric wires, flashy pachinko parlours, and arcades lined with claw-catcher machines.]

[Most of the restaurants are closed, but there's one lone ramen place with lights still on in the windows.]

[unbr8kable]

[ramen parfaits are the best parfaits. she breezes into the smallish shop, nabbing the counter seat near the window and flopping out one of the sticky, laminated menus]

There it is, the Mega Chocosplosion with your name on it.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Slides onto the next seat down.]

No way, it's gotta be the one with the whole pudding in it.

[unbr8kable]

Haven't we had this conversation before? Chocolate is better than pudding, the end. It's got Pocky AND chocolate chips.

[crossmyheartandhope]

But if I get the pudding one, I can put chocolate koalas on it, and then it'll have pudding and chocolate.

[Sticks his tongue out.]

[unbr8kable]

Gross. [she sticks her tongue out back, then waves her free hand airily.] You and your DIY parfait. Whatever, get what you want!

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Just looking over her shoulder instead of getting his own menu.]

I'm gonna.

What are you getting? The Choco-Mega-whatsit?

[unbr8kable]

Choco-Megasplosion II. Apparently version 1 was discontinued a year ago. But I might just get a melon soda, leave the corn flakes to you.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Aw, c'mon. At least get the melon soda float. Where's your sense of ice cream adventure?

[unbr8kable]

Of course it'd be the float, why else would you drink melon soda?

...What, you think there's something more adventurous out there?

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Grabby hands for the menu. He flips through a couple of pages and points at the greyed-out cutout of a parfait with question marks all around it.]

That thing.

[unbr8kable]

...The "This Is Parfait?" ...What kind of food has a question mark in the title...and what's that in th silhouette, a test tube??

[crossmyheartandhope]

You did ask for adventurous.

[unbr8kable]

Siiiiiiiigh.

--Hey, old man! We wanna order! It's parfait time!

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Grinning like crazy the whole (very slow) time it takes for the crotchety old dude to make his way over to their end of the counter. He is so stoked that you are going for the mystery parfait.]

After you.