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]

Uhh... Isn't there generally lots of smoke and stuff? Maybe I could do a light show.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Ohhh, yeah. I bet you could project images on those weird clouds.

[unbr8kable]

Might be interesting, right? Wonder if those things like lasers.

[crossmyheartandhope]

There's one good way to find out.

[Nudges the parfait closer.]

You gonna eat, or not? The soft cream's melting.

[unbr8kable]

[shrugs, but takes a spoonful]

I like it melty. It's like cereal. Didn't wanna get in-between you and pudding, anyway.

[crossmyheartandhope]

But the pudding's the best part. You gotta have some.

[Pauses a beat, thinking something through.]

...and more importantly, what kind of weird cereal are you eating that's melty?

[unbr8kable]

Milk is melty. And you've got these crunchy bits in it. Like Cocoa Flakes or something.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Milk is only melty if you freeze the milk. And then it's mostly ice cream.

[Wagging the spoon at her.]

[unbr8kable]

[sticking out her tongue]

No way! Frozen milk is only ice milk, not ice cream, duh.

[crossmyheartandhope]

What if you froze cream and put that in your cereal?

What if you froze the cream with the cereal in it? You'd have like a cereal ice pop.

[unbr8kable]

Whoa... I can't believe those don't already exist. Would you eat that for breakfast or for dessert?

[crossmyheartandhope]

Both. Everything. Always.

I'm trying that when we get back.

[unbr8kable]

What if you made one out of waffles? Desserts need more waffles. ...Did you want to go back?

[crossmyheartandhope]

It's gotta be pretty close to morning.

We could make cereal-cream-waffle pops and then watch the sun come up from the fire escape. The view's not bad.

[unbr8kable]

Yeah... Yeah, I guess that's true. We'll catch hell if they find us out here again, too.

[a brief wave of irritation fading back to blank]

...Yeah, we'd better go back.

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Watching her for a second. :|a]

...ah, screw it. They can look for us a little longer.

I bet the sun's just as good coming up from the observation deck of Sunshine 60.

[unbr8kable]

[she gives him a look this time, eyebrows creased as she debates a response]

...Did they ever get the Sunshine 60 elevators fixed?

[crossmyheartandhope]

Even if they didn't, I'd like to see a couple of stairs try and stop us.

[unbr8kable]

They wouldn't.

...Next time. Your record doesn't need anymore black marks, does it?

[hers doesn't, anyway...]

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Makes a face.]

Yeah. I guess you're right.

[unbr8kable]

Of course. I'm pretty much always right.

[slight exaggeration here, but hey]

Anyway, you'll be cranky if you don't get enough sleep. Remember that time you snapped at Corporal Fielding?

[crossmyheartandhope]

[Handwave, handwave.]

Eh, sleep is overrated.

[Says the kid who subsists on three hours a night, sugar, and coffee.]

[unbr8kable]

If you say so.

[shrugs, uninterested in bickering for once. unfortunately, thanks to the booze or the hour or whatever the reason, now that the idea of closing one's eyes has been posited, it sounds as incredibly attractive as returning to the Tenno training dorms doesn't, an she stifles a yawn.]

...Let's do something, then. All this sitting around's getting boring.

[crossmyheartandhope]

I thought we were going back?

Like you said, Sunshine 60'll wait for another day.

[He's flagging the ramen guy over so they can pay for their food, though.]

[unbr8kable]

Uh, right, I did say that.

[hhhandwave, who can remember what they said like 5 seconds ago anyway?]

...Wonder if there really are gangs of wild dogs in east Ikebukuro. Dogs are cool.

[during this apparent sidebar, the old man moseys over to drop off their bill; he scoffs at their lack of eating his parfait creation, kids today]