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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
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Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Jul 20, 2009 15:30:31 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Jul 20, 2009 15:30:31 GMT -5
Delta blinked as he sat at the controls of the Deliverance, simply adoring the view of the hyperspace tunnel that writhed around the craft like it was some kind of serpent. The serene motley of deep blue and purple hues seemed to soothe the young man's soul as he simply stared out at the wriggling passage. Very few understood this phenomenon, despite the fact that a good deal of the galaxy's inhabitants use it on a daily basis. A hand wandered up to his chin to rub the stubble there gently as he lost himself in thought. All baryonic matter, including Delta, the ship, and the various other things aboard, obeyed the most basic principles of relativity. They increase exponentially in mass as they approach the speed of light, therefore can never break the threshold. Tachyonic matter, however, did not follow the principles of relativity: they existed solely above the speed of light, and could never pass below it. While it is not completely understood by scientists how hyperspace works, it has been surmised that the alternate dimension labeled “hyperspace” is a work around for the principles of relativity and the limits of baryonic matter. His eyes slid closed as he pushed the thoughts of hyperspace and other theoretical physics out of his mind. Trying to figure out such a chillingly beautiful thing like hyperspace via scientific theorem seemed to be a crime. Instead those blue pools flickered about the marvelous scene that wriggled before him, simply enjoying the serenity of the view. Delta's gaze shifted down to the various readouts that his console held, each one was a-okay and fully operational. His eyes then flicked over to the timer, which gave an approximate time until they reached the planet of Ruusan. They didn't have long, but it was far too long to be sitting around at pilot's chair. Ruusan. While he had never been there personally (as far as he knew), the boy had learned a considerable amount about the place through the navicomputers considerable database. One of them being that it was a sparsely populated world that was colonized by the mining guild. Which meant that most of the population, save the native Bouncers (link), would be centered around in cities. Its climate was temperate, and it would actually be a fairly pleasant place to hideout for awhile. He swiveled the chair around and rolled his weight forwards, then straightened out his knees so that he was standing. For some odd reason he wanted to talk with Echo, not about the situation, or about anything professional. The boy just wanted to talk...
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Jul 22, 2009 6:21:42 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Jul 22, 2009 6:21:42 GMT -5
An acrid stench was burning the back of her throat and it stung terribly to breathe in through the nose. She could taste the air around her, smoke tainting the very buds on her tongue. She was choking. And coughing. Her arm was glued across her arms, protecting her eyes from the fumes. Everything crackled in her ear, popping gently but in the imitating way of fire. She was going to be smart this time. She wasn’t going to look. If she didn’t open her eyes, she shouldn’t see anything.
Echo jolted, eyes flickering open as she lifted her head from the stuffy comfort of her pillow. A dimness met her, nearly black. She couldn’t hardly see anything in the room. Nothing would warn her there was a wall nearby she could smash her nose into, or the danger a footlocker presented to her naked feet. She wasn’t in the bed, though. The young woman sat almost upright in the bare corner of the room, where she had remained for who knows how long. The bed had been a hazard these past few sleeps. Even in the beginning of this sleep it had proved to be a fearful component of her restless sleep. Therefore, she had migrated to the corner in her panic, taking her pillow with her. She was curled, knees bent before her and her pillow between her chest and legs, while her arms were braced against her uppermost thigh. Her pillow shielded her arms from her abdomen, and her fingers were gripped into the fabric and material that made up the pillow.
Nothing was there. Delta wasn’t there. He would be in the cockpit, maybe, directing their flight while she tried her turn at getting some rest. She’d take over soon. But she needed the rest first, and what she got was always fitful. She saw too much, too many things. Things that no one should be able to experience. Had she experienced them before?
The air was sweltering. Her body picked up the signature waves of heat flashing across her skin. Her throat closed up when she tried to breathe in again, and Echo gasped and broke out into a hacking fit. Her arm swung down as she doubled over and coughed up a glob of dirtied mucus and saliva, the color dark gray with flecks of black. How long had she been breathing in this terrible air? Her eyes went itchy for a few minutes, and Echo found herself blinking rapidly against the blistering heat. Those gray eyes remained narrowed though. She felt a tug to turn, and she did so, finding her path clear of obstruction and she walked a few paces.
That was when the screaming started. She witnessed a burst of bright light. Sound roared, popping like a crack of thunder exploding simultaneously with a large bomb. It was followed by almost a whisper, and Echo could see flames dance their threatening dance of death. They reached, pining to touch her and she stumbled back and away from the possessed fire, hissing at it as she did so. A shriek cut across the whispering flames. Certain flames danced with a rhythm, flailing everywhere, coming toward her and then falling. Echo stared. Another shape drifted into view, the cries male and full of pain. He fell closer to her, writhing, trying to put out the flames that engulfed his body. And then, after a few seconds, he lay still and his cries silenced.
More followed as she walked along, passing bodies. The screamed, they cried for help, they fell amid the flames they stood in. It claimed their lives. There were so many cries, so many different voices, so many different pleas. They swarmed her, confusing her, making her head spin, making it hurt, making the experience all the more terrible. But then one knew her name. And when she opened her eyes back and removed her hands from her ears, her jaw dropped in a silent cry out to the person, and she wanted to plea to the fire to not take that soul. Not that one. Not Delta, fire, not Delta. He’s what I’ve got…My friend…
“Put it out!” in a flurry, covered and overtaken by overwhelming panic, Echo shrieked. All she saw was fire, even in the darkness in the room. Its seared image still rested in her mind, seized her in an uncontrolled scenario. She had to put the fire out. She had to save Delta! Her hand smacked painfully against the wall and she stood up blinded, stumbling. It accidentally keyed the button to open the door. Light, not dark, she could see better in the light. Unconsciously Echo came out, pillow cradled in one hand. There was a movement and she jumped, throwing the pillow into the movement’s direction.
The pillow hit Delta.
Wait… a pillow hit Delta? That didn’t seem quite right. Even as Echo placed her back against the ship’s wall to stay away from the images, a pillow hitting Delta didn’t seem exactly appropriate. And… and Delta was okay. He wasn’t on fire. Wasn’t burning to his death. Echo’s panic panting became more controlled, her breathing becoming normal. Her fingers released their useless grip on the wall the more her gray eyes flickered across his form, telling her brain he was fine. Alive. Normal. Probably a little confused on why a pillow had gotten launched into his face.
Echo slid down the wall. Her tank top allowed a little more of her back to show, and her sweat covered skin caught on the wall as she slid. She sat there and breathed for a moment, eyes closed. And then, she chuckled. “I threw a pillow at you.” Her head turned, looking at him now, something of a nervous smile on her face. Her heart was still beating something fierce and she was slightly twitchy, but she was okay. “I thought it was a bucket of water for a second.”
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
49 likes
Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Jul 22, 2009 22:23:57 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Jul 22, 2009 22:23:57 GMT -5
Delta walked down the corridor almost lost in thought. The boy was simply pondering the reasons behind his urge to simply talk with Echo, while she may have been a friend... his only friend... it was somewhat disconcerting to him. He had never felt this way about her, or any other sentient, before. It would have been quite different if the urge was to talk to her on a strictly professional level, but this was not the case... far from it, actually. He felt the need to talk with her in a more personal sense. Why? Why did he feel this urge? Furthermore, why did his heart rate double at her smile? Why did his voice stammer every so often when he spoke to her? There were so many reasons as to why he would want to keep his distance from the girl. Yet, he wanted to talk to her.
The frenzied shriek of Echo within her room caused an uncontrollable mixture of concern and fear to wash over his mind. This strange mixture of concern and fear birthed a thing entitled “courage” or “bravery” in the man, and this this state of mind was just as uncontrollable as its parent emotions. So he ran towards the source of the shriek, Echo's room, at his best speed (which was considerable). The boy was barely there when he saw the door swish open and the panting fiery haird woman round the corner, pillow in hand. Wait. A pillow? Surprise was not quite a word that could cover his reaction to the spectacle, though the look of fear was obviously strewn about her face.
Apparently, Delta surprised Echo just as much as she surprised him, because her reaction to seeing him was to cast the pillow at him fairly fast. It just so happened to hit him in the face, and he was still moving too fast to effectively block or dodge the incoming projectile. The fluffy object slammed into his nose at a fairly quick pace, more than fast enough to lead him to believe that a woman who was endowed with artificially enhanced super-strength threw the thing. Oh wait, she was a woman who was endowed with artificially enhanced super-strength!
The piece of cloth filled with cotton slammed into the surprised man's nose, kicking his head backwards and effectively throwing his still moving body off balance. Well, it wasn't the pillow striking his face that threw him off balance... it was his reaction. The man's arms flung upwards and ripped the pillow (which clung to his face for a few moments) off of his face and to the ground. It was this violent and sudden movement that caused the next set of events to occur. He tumbled to the deck. Though he was only on the cold steel plates for a fraction of a second before he shot back upwards and walked on as if nothing happened.
A massive wave of red crashed across the man's cheeks as he continued towards her, dusting himself off. The concern quickly overcame the fear and embarrassment as he sat down next to her and tilted his head her way. The fire was still alight in his cheeks as he looked at her, offering a false smile in hopes that it could comfort her from whatever fear she felt.
“So you you were going to throw a metal bucket filled with water at my head? Heh... and you probably thought that my little trip was funny.”
He paused for a moment, simply chuckling to himself.
“What happened, Echo? Have another bad dream?... Do you want to talk about it?”
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
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I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Jul 25, 2009 1:25:18 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Jul 25, 2009 1:25:18 GMT -5
The reaction between Delta and the pillow would’ve sparked laughter from Echo if she had been normal at the moment it had occurred. However, the feeling of normal was still a lost knowledge to Echo. It was unknown, though she was believing she was becoming closer to understanding what a normal feeling was nowadays. There was still swarms of emotions that confused her. Confusion would give way to worry or fear. If her fear grew too great, she went into a frenzy for a moment or two before collapsing into a corner somewhere and crying at her fear and frustration. She didn’t quite know why she cried either. And what a horrible feeling crying left her in. Her head felt stuffed and her eyes grew a little sore while they dried. She used to not have reactions to such a thing. She wouldn’t have, really, if she could remember a time she might’ve actually cried. The red stains and the wetness of her cheeks embarrassed her. A feeling she would not have had not too long ago. She’d developed an attitude to such things as well, something that also had not existed in Echo’s life.
She remembered nothing of emotions or feelings or biased opinions toward much of anything. She remembered some things though. She recalled a training. Echo had been trained since she was… very young, she thought. And of course no one can ever say things of their infant years. No one ever remembered being a baby. The last place she remembered about, other than the facility she and Delta had gotten away, was being on a forest moon of Dxun. She knew a creature had attacked her, caused the scar that sat on her chest now. Echo’s mind did play tricks on her, though, and she always thought the Dxun trip was a rather recent experience of a few months. The scar on her chest told her otherwise. An unsettling puzzle. Her scar was still visible, but not nearly as fresh as it would have been had the Dxun trip been more recent. And Delta… she could look at Delta’s face and know something was up, something was different, something didn’t make sense.
Well, a lot of things didn’t make sense.
“No, Delta, I wouldn’t’ve meant for a metal bucket to hit you in the head. You might start seeing things too. That is, if you don’t already. I wouldn’t wish seeing bad things on you though.
“I was really trying to put out a fire that didn’t exist.” Echo shuddered, her arms crossing in front of her chest, the opposite hands grasping at the opposite biceps. Her feet, at the end of her stretched out legs, pointed slightly and her toes curled. Her head was tipped downward, her gray eyes observing the steely colored deck beside her, and locks of her hair hid her face as her cheeks alighted in the hot flame just as she’d seen in her dreams.
“Yeah, it was another bad dream. People running around on fire, dying in flames. Pretty bad.” She rocked her head back, hair swinging away as her nose came around to point her face toward Delta. Red color splotched his cheeks. Echo blinked. “You shouldn’t smile if you’re forcing it. Makes you look like a shaved and depressed teenaged wookiee attempting at a grin.” Exaggeration. The smile really didn’t look good on him. There was… something in his eyes, however, something she hadn’t become accustomed to seeing in others. Well, around the others she had known. “And what have you got to be embarrassed for? Falling down is what beginners do. And attacking pillows helps you practice anyway. At least you didn’t throw the pillow like you were playing hot potatoe with a hand grenade.”
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
49 likes
Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Jul 27, 2009 15:56:18 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Jul 27, 2009 15:56:18 GMT -5
It was almost funny. The Dxun survival training felt like it took place a few meager weeks before, yet Echo looked considerably older. Something didn't add up. Well, many things didn't add up. Why did he suddenly feel these emotions? Why did Echo look older? Why did the face in the mirror carry a more weathered look than he remembered? There were more questions than there were answers... and it frustrated him to no end. At Green Meadows there was always an answer, even if it was a dodgy non-answer.
Delta pointed his head away from echo as she spoke of putting out fires, people dieing in flames, and bad dreams. He began to wonder why her dreams where constantly under the thumb of those nightmares while his slumber was more or less unperturbed. The boy shook his head back and forth ever so lightly.... not another question without an answer, he had enough of those for several lifetimes.
“We are going to have to find something for those nightmares of yours, it can't be nomal.”
Normal. He had no inkling what the word meant. His life was the epitome of “unusual,” as were his current circumstances. Unless most of the galaxy was trained from the meager age of three and trained to be a soldier, not feeling emotions other than those battle related ones (in very small doses) up until but a few days ago. For some odd reason, he felt the need for a little joke... or try at joking. So his tone was playful... hopefully she wouldn't take it seriously.
“Hey! I'm new at this, okay.?”
A little wry smile cracked across his face as the picture of a shaved, depressed, and teenage wookiee forcing a grin crossed his minds eye. Blue eyes flickered over towards the woman and washed over her face, which was strewn with the same red fire that she had apparently seen in her dreams. That little wry smile turned into a full blown grin at her final comment, and a little half chuckle shook the man's diaphragm about. It was a good thing that she didn't understand why he was embarrassed... but then, he didn't even know why he was embarrassed. Delta internally groaned. Another question that he didn't have the answer to.
“Eh... I just got good reactions. Why throw the would be grenade-pillow back at its thrower when you are moving her way?”
The man smiled as he curved his wrist around, looking at the chrono that clung to its bottom. They still had a few minutes before they exited hyperspace, it would probably be a wise idea for someone to be at the helm when they did... just in case they came out of the rift right in front of a warship. Its happened before... while it was a simulation, that still didn't change the fact that it was plausible for the event to occur in reality.
“We should be able to lay low on Ruusan until things cool down. If they cool down. Either way... I seriously doubt that anyone will be able to find us there. If they do,” he shrugged, “we can just shoot 'em... politely.”
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
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I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Jul 31, 2009 4:27:18 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Jul 31, 2009 4:27:18 GMT -5
“I don’t know if there’s something out there that cures nightmares. I mean, what if it is normal?” she didn’t know she was asking that question. It tumbled out before her brain could catch up. “I-I-I mean, I do not want it to be normal, but what if it is? We don’t know that! I’ve never had nightmares before, never in the training, never.” She was hoping she was very much wrong about the theory she’d just proposed. If nightmares were normal, she wanted to be abnormal. Echo didn’t want the nightmares. They kept her awake at times expected to rest. Shaken from a slumber, she might find herself in a sweat or in a hallucination of some kind. It wasn’t exactly joyful, as displayed by Echo throwing the pillow at Delta out of panic. The man had been on FIRE before she threw that pillow. And then he wasn’t. That was the only relief; when Echo recognized what she was seeing was a false reality. Sometimes that recognition came later than this experience.
Echo rubbed her hands against her arms. There was gooseflesh appearing on them. The ship was cool and she was sitting on the metal floor in sweat moistened tank top and mini-shorts. She was just a little chilly, but she would fix that here shortly.
There was a shift in her eyes. Her previous, aloud musings had allowed her to unconsciously move her gaze around the small hallway she and Delta were sitting in. The furthest she let it slide away was the opposite wall by her feet. Her knee had blocked her sight when she drew up her legs, rocking them gently from side to side as several thoughts meandered into her mind. Delta was speaking again, his voice somewhat fuzzy to her ears, her full attention not focused on him. When she finally looked back across at him, there was a large grin on his face. This time it wasn’t a forced grin, she noted by looking at his face. And the wide smile looked nice this time, creasing his face perfectly. The forced smiles made everything seem stony. Genuine smiles… they were the last pieces to the puzzles faces were.
He flipped his wrist, glancing down at the chrono she noticed was there.
“Ruusan? Oh… right… Ruusan.” She’d almost forgotten. “Ruusan would be nice. Just land somewhere pretty, I guess. No need to land in ancient battlegrounds. Just some place pretty… To… you know, I guess calm down. We need it as much as everyone else does.” Pretty. That was an odd word. There were only certain things Echo might call pretty. She didn’t/hadn’t used the word frequently, and the syllables felt weird on her tongue and lips. At least she hadn’t mispronounced it. “And if we land correctly, we won’t have to shoot anyone. Politely or impolitely.”
Echo used the wall to get back up. Once to her feet, she stepped over Delta’s legs and retrieved her pillow. Hugging the pillow to her, she leaned against the wall as she allowed her partner to pass her. From the hallway wall, her eyes rolled after Delta’s form, catching sight of his back. She almost felt like calling his name out of the heck of it, but fought that nerve. She was fine. Why her heart rate raised was beyond her. Aftershock of the nightmare? That made sense. He disappeared to the cockpit and Echo leaned onto her feet, sliding back into the room to putting on something probably a bit more decent than her night time clothing.
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
49 likes
Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Jul 31, 2009 22:40:04 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Jul 31, 2009 22:40:04 GMT -5
"This whole situation isn't normal, I mean..."
Delta paused for a minute to search for the right word. He couldn't seem to be able to put a name on the things that he'd been feeling ever since Echo woke him up back in the Green Meadows facility. Anger, Happiness, Sadness, Fear, excitement, boredom, and everything inbetween... he had been feeling them so strongly. Feeling. Was that the word? Feelings? It just didn't seem... right. It was a few brief moments before the proper name for the feelings his mind held popped into his brain: Emotion.
"Emotions... we aren't supposed to feel them, are we? Up until only a few days ago we hadn't felt anything at all, short of a little burst of fear or whatever during a fight. This isn't normal... I think that we're broken."
That was an odd prospect. Almost instantly a feeling of fear washed about he man's mind. What if more was broken? And not just his mind. It was now that he regretted running away from the facility, they could fix him. Repair whatever breaks or faults that he had been created. No. They wouldn't stop there. While, yes, he was broken.... if being repaired meant losing these strange things called "emotions" then he didn't want to be repaired.
His eyes flashed over to the woman's form for a minute as he saw her rub her hands agaisnt her arms. Strangely, that was when the man noticed that she was in little more than a slightly moistened tank top and mini shorts tha left little to the imagination. The man allowed his eyes to briefly wander down and about the beautiful curves and articulated muscles of her body before they finally settled on her upper chest. Delta just seemed to gaze down at that area for a few moments, honestly trying to fight the magnetic field that had been put up around his eyes, until he finally managed to tear it upwards towards that face of hers.
Which just happened to be when she got up. His mind tried to make sense of her previous words as she stepped over his legs and grabbed onto the pillow, hugging it close to her body and hiding her form from view. For some odd reason he felt a strange sense of disappointment at this turn of events, which baffled the man to no end. He hadn't felt any kind of... attraction? Yes, attraction. He hadn't felt any kind of attraction towards the woman up until a few days ago. Perhaps it was another indication that he was broken? He nodded slightly at the thought as he passed by Echo.
Oddly, it was that woman that seemed to dominate his thoughts during the trip to the cockpit. He flopped into the pilot's chair and whirled it around so he was facing the scintillating alternate dimension that was labelled "hyperspace." He didn't have to wait too long before he pulled back on one of the many throttles and pressed a few buttons, basically initiating the jump back to normal space.
He watched as the serenity of the worm hole ended only to be replaced by an almost infinitely long line of stars as the ship made the transit from FTL speeds to sub-light speeds. The man slowly rolled the ship over and decended into the upper atmosphere of Ruusan, simply adoring the beautiful view of the temperate world. The man looked up at a few floating dots in the distance... the Bouncers. They were the real reason why he wanted to come to the planet. While, it was undeniable that they needed a place to hide... but the Bouncers were also rumored to have a kind of farsight ability.
They could tell the future.
Delta slowly brought the ship down in a small clearing and flipped a series of switches, shutting down the reactor and neutralizing the pressure on the inside of the cabin so that they weren't blasted with a sudden change in air pressure upon opening the ramp. Now the real work would begin...
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Aug 5, 2009 5:25:50 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Aug 5, 2009 5:25:50 GMT -5
As the door slid back shut, Delta’s words rebounded around in her head. Broken. Echo leaned onto the cool metal door, drawing more gooseflesh along her body and making her shiver. She took no great notice to her body’s reactions to the cold. Her gray eyes focused down at the pillow she held lightly in her arms. Broken… They were broken? It made perfect sense. They weren’t normal. They were outcasts. They were different. They were… broken. Echo rubbed her thumbs over the back of the pillow, then moved a hand to stroke it from the front of the back. Broken. What they had was like a million pieces of clay. But, as she stood there stroking the recently abused pillow, she couldn’t help but reach the same conclusion Delta had: Why hadn’t they stayed then? Back at where they were? Why hadn’t they tried to explain something was wrong with them? Why hadn’t there been an attempt at explaining that they were… broken?
If they had done that she could have been fixed! She would have been repaired, been made all better! And she wouldn’t see these things in her sleep! She wouldn’t have the nightmares! The nightmares were a part of being broke! And. She. Wanted. Them. Gone. She was broken!
Echo’s arms shot up and she buried her face in her pillow, muffling a small sob. Her heart ached, her head and eyes pulsed with held back tears. Her shoulders quaked sharply as she silently forced down audible cries. No, she didn’t want this feeling. This feel always made hot water flow up behind her eyes. More often than not did the water come out and go down her cheeks. Another part of being broken.
Echo forced herself to breath in deeply, inhaling through the pillow, and then lowered her arms. Before she could sigh out the breath however, she was losing her balance and falling backwards into the ship’s hallway with a loud splat sound. She heard and felt her back crunch, but there was something pleasurable about the way it had cracked. Stunned for a moment, Echo stared at the ceiling of the ship. Her elbow had pressed the button. There was another moment of confused silence before Echo spluttered out in laughter. She didn’t know why she was; there was just something ironically humorous about the way she was laying there, half in the hall, half in the room. Her arm flopped to the side, pillow in hand. When she glanced at it, her stomach compressed as she wheezed out hisses. Delta had fallen when the pillow had contacted his face. She had, too.
After a minute of her cackling, Echo was breathing out and unfurling. She rolled to her side, then her abdomen, and pushed herself up. Snatching up the pillow, she called out that she was perfectly fine and retreated back into the room, once more closing the door in her wake.
This time she set about changing herself. She tousled her auburn hair a little, combing and raking it with her fingers. As she stared at herself in the small mirror mounted on the wall, she thought about again how the gray eyed face staring back at her was broken. Again, the word bounded around freely within the confinement of her mind, Delta’s voice surrounding it. Broken… Then her lips pushed themselves together, giving her sort of a pouting look. Now that she thought over it, being broken made her sound like a lowly droid or some other machine. She was not a machine! She was some kind of living being! She had a heart, had a pulse. Had blood that would trickle through small cuts. She could get bruises, like the one that sat high on her forehead currently, half of the purple splotch masked by the short red locks of hair sitting high and mighty up there. But, machines got broke. Machines were able to be repaired. She was something breathing. Maybe she couldn’t be repaired. Maybe her nightmares were permanent.
Her heart skipped to her throat. Maybe being abnormal was permanent. And she would always be an outcast and always have her nightmares.
Echo fumbled to turn on the tap to run some water. No thoughts, just get ready, she told herself. She washed her face and neck in water just as cold as the metal of the ship. From there it was replacing the shorts with trousers and the tank top with a different one, of white color as opposed to her red colored “pajama”. Beneath her bare feet she could feel as the ship angled for a descent, feel a change on the ship’s speed. When Echo finally made her way toward the cockpit of the ship, she had a belt slung over her shoulder and her boots were unlaced. The laces skidded around the toes of her shoes, and she managed to catch one with the heel of one of her feet. Echo fell into the co-pilot’s seat, legs kicked up over the armrest.
Instead of letting the position go to waste, she lifted a foot up and began to tie up the laces using strict movements. This way it looked like she meant to fall over. She had already made a fool of herself by throwing the pillow at Delta, and even afterward collapsing into the hallway. It made her cheeks warm just thinking about it. “Maybe he just thinks you’re a foolish gal anyway, Echo. You are always howling at late times when he’s trying to rest. Always bugging him. Always doing stupid stuff. Why do you do stupid stuff, Echo? Huh?” She scooted and twisted suddenly, throwing the other leg over the other and laced up that boot, keeping a close eye on whether Delta could see her softly shaded cheeks. She hoped not, for some odd reason.
She finished up the final knot and grabbed onto the back and the bottom of the chair. Applying some strength and she sat herself up a bit more, her legs now hanging off the armrest at the knees rather than halfway up her bottom. Her arm rested across her stomach.
“Pretty planet,” she commented as he landed the transport ship. “I said it would be.” She could see a river that snaked it’s way across the plains. It was a few hundred meters from the ship, worth maybe a jog or two. A pulsing had entered her veins, a shout to an instinct to simply run. An sub-conscious voice whispered to her, reminding her the plains were fast and flat with plenty of room to roam. There was plenty other pretty to see, to look at, to feel. For a moment, Echo fantasized of a wind slicking back her hair, tossing it around. She was definitely just going to have to run, sprint, get away, lose herself but not her direction. Some ancestral part of her blood and soul was demanding it from her.
As the ship settled and the necessities of preparation upon landing a ship and going on planet were dealt with, Echo stood from the chair. There was a small sigh from her and then she looked up at Delta. “Ruusan is known for it’s old battlegrounds, and it tends to get visitors. Most of it is out of the way. Ruusan might eventually come up on a list if they decide to try and find us. It won’t be with places such as Tatooine or Nar Shadda, but, it’ll be in there somewhere.
“So, why are we here? You have a mission expression on your face.”
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
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Have dakka will travel
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Aug 7, 2009 17:28:00 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Aug 7, 2009 17:28:00 GMT -5
A quiet sigh left Delta's lips as he gazed out through the view port at the beauty of the forest that surrounded the ship. Those blue eyes slowly scanned past the tops of the majestic pine and oak trees, looking for something in the beautiful cloud-stained skies of Ruusan. The objects that he searched for were two almost infinitesimal dots high up in the sky. As said before, these were bouncers... and the true reason as to why he and Echo made this little sojourn to the planet. Though, he never did tell his partner that he came here because the medicine-ball like sentients were said to have future sight, she would have laughed at him. For some odd reason, the idea of Echo thinking that he was crazy stirred up a bit of sadness in his heart.
Delta didn't have time to wallow in this, however, as Echo seemed to appear from nowhere and stand up. He was so wrapped up in the mixture of flying the ship and his thoughts that he hadn't quite noticed that his fiery-haired companion fell into the chair next to him and spoke a few words. Nor did he notice her get up and sigh. So, naturally, when she spoke to him he nearly had a heart attack. Or three. He jumped out of his seat as he spun his head around to see his companion looking back down at him, no doubt she thought he was some wound up fool. His cheek grew warm as he quickly realized that he had, yet again, made a complete fool of himself in the company of Echo. It took but a few moments of this quiet blushing before he finally gathered up the resolve to answer her question without tripping over his own tongue.
"Ruusan may be on the list of possible planets for them to search, but you are right... it is a far better place to hide than Nar Shadaa, Balosar, or Tatooine. Anyways, I figured we could just hide out here until the heat dies down some..."
He paused. Why was he lieing to her? She would, no doubt, be able to see through his lie like a plate glass window. The warmth in his cheeks didn't die down any, the slight dart of his eyes away from her form, and the fact that he couldn't quite look her in the eye would all have given away the fact that he was lieing. A sigh forced its way up his throat and out of his mouth.
"... but then, I dug deeper into the holo-net for information on this planet. It turns out that there are these medicine-ball looking things, bouncers."
Delta ceased talking only to turn around and point up at the sky, then looked back at Echo. The warmth in his cheeks would turn to a searing heat by the end of his next statement to her. He hoped beyond hope that she didn't take him for a fool because of his little ridiculous plan.
"They like to fly up in the skies up there... anyways... I saw that they had a rare gift. They can see the future. I, well, hoped to contact one of these creatures, and get him to tell our future. Namely... when we will be found by those that hunt us. So that we can avoid the situation altogether."
The boy mentally groaned as he looked at Echo. He just knew what she was thinking: "Why did I pair up with such an idiot? He's such a fool, why would I ever want to be with him?" He blinked. Now where did that last part come into play? Be with him? "What is that supposed to mean, Delta? She already is with you, schutta. Unless... you meant relationship wise. Why, would you care about that again, Delta?" He wished that he knew. He really did.
After a few scant seconds he stood up and swiveled the pilot's chair around so that he could get up and out of the chair without running into the console, or Echo, and rolled his weight off of the chair once more. He simply wanted to cry from the spectacle he'd made himself. First, he got knocked over by the pillow that she threw at him. Really? He was trained from birth to be some kind of super soldier or something, Green meadows put millions of dollars into him so that he could be super-human, and he is smarter than nintey percent of the galaxy's humans... and he gets knocked over by a flying pillow. That's beyond embarrassing. Its humilitating. Second, that radical reaction that she had recieved by him after merely speaking. She didn't have to think that he was a fool. He was a fool.
"I...uhh... have to go and suit up."
A lump in his throat threatenend to break his words even before he began to speak, and he quickly slid around Echo before she had the chance to respond. The man quickly made his way to the room that served as their armory with tears of humilitation welling up in those deep blue eyes of his. It wasn't long before he made it through the sliding door, which closed behind him, and once he did the man quickly slumped back against it. His body slowly slid down the plastisteel door like it a piece of wet bacon until he reached the sitting postition.
That is when the hot water that had gathered in his eyes spewed out onto his cheeks.
He had to be broken. He had to be. What other explanation could there be? He had never cried before, let alone cried because of something so foolish. What man cried because he was embarrassed? What man cried because he was humilitated? What man cried at all? It took him more than a few minutes before he finally regained his composure. It took a quick sniffle and a self-slap to the cheeks, but he finally got up and slipped into his matte-black form fitting armor. After fitting on all the little equipment onto the combat webbing, and the said harness onto his body, he grabbed his rifle and slung it over his shoulder.
The man then proceeded to walk out of the "armory" and head towards the landing ramp, he wouldn't leave the Deliverance without Echo.
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Aug 9, 2009 3:25:22 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Aug 9, 2009 3:25:22 GMT -5
“Delta…” The last vowel dragged out in a crescendo, Echo’s voice rising from a low thrum to an average talking voice. She must’ve startled him. She hadn’t meant to. If she had realized he was stuck within the realm of his own thoughts, she would have left him be. However, the young woman would have thought he had noticed her before just now. She had managed to stumble and fall into the seat beside him. While lounging sideways in her chair, Echo knew she had shifted quite a bit, trussing up her shoes. There had been spoken words exiting from her lips, although she had kept her voice light and soft; an awe tone as she had gazed upon the pretty scene Ruusan had presented outside the viewport.
In managing to startle him, it had reflected back on the auburn. Her eyes had noticed a sharp, sudden motion and she was quick to take half a step back. Her knees had bent somewhat as her foot had slid against the wall. The mind that belonged to her registered a tiny space and her arms had moved accordingly. Her hands kept rather low as she adopted a form of stance, her fingers forming illusions of claws and hovering between upper chest and shoulder. Her eyes flashed, noting the position of his hands, his feet, the way his body was turned, the way his eyes had widened, the tautness of his muscle, the nice blue shade of his eyes, the way the light stubble across his jaw made his face all the more appealing to gaze upon…
“Wait, what?” Echo blinked in surprise of herself. Those were weird thoughts! She hadn’t had those thoughts before! Where had they come from? It had to do with something being broken. Despite the way the word made her feel mechanical every time it crossed her mind, Delta had put it best; they were simply thoughts of being broken. The flutter between her ribs must have also stemmed from whatever was broke, as well as the light pitter patter of her heart tapping in her throat and echoing broadly in her ears. That same warmth she had felt earlier stained her cheeks, making the poised woman blush like a school girl. That’s when she noticed she was still in that same stance, staring at him. ACK! Slowly Echo eased out of the stance she had instinctively dropped into. Hopefully she wouldn’t be that jumpy next time as she realized she didn’t like falling back into her training. Not to Delta at least. He was supposed to be her partner, and no one freaks out over their partner moving suddenly.
As Delta began to speak about the reasons behind choosing Ruusan as their runaway planet, Echo hooked a thumb in a pocket of her trousers and ran the other hand through her hair. Stop blushing, stop it, stop it, stop it… She picked up a handful of words, her eyes focused on his lips. She wanted to groan as her cheeks reddened a bit further, jerking her eyes upward to his eyes. Or she would’ve anyway if he hadn’t been darting his gaze to and fro. That got her attention, as he appeared mildly uncomfortable and keeping his head slightly tilted down. Some alert jingled at the back of Echo’s mind, drawing to her attention the fact that he wasn’t completely telling her something. Her lips twitched, ready to call him out on it when he spoke first, spilling the sentences out.
For a moment, she just looked at him. Her eyes followed his hand as he pointed out at the sky, but she saw nothing of what he was describing. As he finished telling her his… his… ridiculous plan, Echo’s hand dropped to her side and she turned an incredulous expression to him. The redness in her face had thinned out, thank goodness, and her mouth was twisted into a sort of an amused smirk. “What?” she asked with tremors of laughter on her vocal cords, “And you really believe this? Really? You really believe that these… Bouncers can tell the future?” She started to snicker, and that’s when he rose and pushed passed her, muttering under his breath about suiting up.
Her smirk faltered, vanishing quickly as she heard the strain his words were strung out on. Uh oh. Her companion all but flew from the cockpit, avoiding her in every way possible. As he went through the corridors of the ship, Echo leaned out into the hallway, gazing after the set of stiff shoulders. “Delta, I…” “Shut it, Echo. Just shut up. You probably did that to him anyway.” And she stopped talking and stood there in the doorway for a moment. A silent pause later, after he had completely left her sight, Echo followed after his footsteps.
The door to their “armory” was closed. Echo halted and stared at the door and its controls, wondering on opening or not. He could be upset, angry or sad. She hadn’t been able to assess what kind of strain his tightened voice had carried. She touched the door, the metal cool to her palm. Instead of opening it maybe she could hear something; and so she pressed the side of her head against the door. At first Echo couldn’t detect any sound and she moved her ear to a different spot. And then yet another spot and slowly, though it seemed silly to Echo when she thought maybe sound traveled low, she lowered herself into a crouch. Here she heard a faint sound, like soft sniffling, and Echo’s heart sank to the bottom of her stomach. A frown creased her features. So she had made him feel bad, and not in anger. Her fingertips stroked the door where she had picked up the sound. She sighed, standing straight up and only commanded the door to open just enough so she could be heard clearly.
“Delta, would you just bring my pistols out when you come out. I’m going out on the ramp.” She keyed the door to close, hoping she had sounded strong and not upset that she had made him upset. As she turned and walked off to tell the ramp to lower, Echo wondered why she even cared about the way he acting. Why was she being conscious of her actions and words? She had noticed this the first night they had escaped Green Meadows. There were no answers, other than the one Delta had given her: Broken.
The ramp lowered before her and Echo crept semi-cautiously down the ramp, staring at her surroundings. At resting her gaze upon the far plain, the muscles in her thighs twitched. That same urge she had felt up in the cockpit, when the Deliverance had landed, rose and entwined itself around the cords of her physique, tugging at her. Stars and planets did she want to run. Her thoughts were surrounded with what sprinting across the clearing would feel like, how exhilarating it would be. Echo walked several steps from the ramp, turning so she could see the ship to her left, smiling as she took in Ruusan’s beauty with the conflicting feelings battling for control within her mind and heart.
“Why sad? … Why mad? Why confused?”
“Calm… peace… hush…”
That didn’t belong to her. Echo quickly turned around and instantly let out a surprised and strangled cry. Her hand came up and forcefully pushed, more like slapped the reaching tentacle away. The floating thing gave out a puzzled warble, and the second one extended its tendril out to her. Thoughts pushed their way into her mind, making the already very confused and surprised Echo come close to panic. She was hardly used to her own voice whispering things to her, let along another creatures!
“Peace… shh… peace.”
“DELTA!”
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
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Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Aug 10, 2009 13:36:12 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Aug 10, 2009 13:36:12 GMT -5
Laughter. She had laughed at him, and his outlandish idea. That thought only made the weeping man cry harder. The idea of he being some kind of joke to the woman caused the lump in his throat to swell, so much so that it actually hurt. It hurt. Hot tears burned at his eyes adn streaked down the boy's cheeks as he sat there, his arm braced against his knee and forhead, leaning against the wall.
He nearly had a heart attack as he felt the cool metallic door slide against the weight of his back, it seemed that Echo came to laugh at him again. Well, she could laugh for all he cared. She could poke fun at how his plan was simply idiotic and childish, and then go on to poke fun at him for crying over nothing. He didn't care. Delta sighed. Who was he kidding? Of course he cared. The slight strain in Echo's voice went unnoticed by the still weeping assassin... he only nodded and forced himself to speak. It was obvious in his voice that he'd been crying.
"O-okay, Echo."
"What're you, some little kid, Delta? Crying because some girl laughed at your outlandish plan?" Delta shook his head at the thought. She wasn't just some girl... she was Echo. After a few moments he more or less regained his composure and stood up, then moved to the rack that held his armor and weapons...
~~~~~
Delta walked out of the armory and wiped his armored forearm against his still wet cheek. After readjusting the rifle that sat slung to his black-clad shoulder, he headed off towards the ramp. He scruntched his eyelids together as he walked out towards the ramp, hoping to remoisten his now dry eyes. Then Echo screamed Delta's name. This caused the boy to rush forward, sprinting at hsi fastest pace. He only barely made it to the ramp when his hand latched onto the lower-end of his rifle's stock, then whipped it forwards. The sling caught his rifle as it spun itself around and caused it to fly upwards, then he caught it and pressed the rifle into his shoulder, finally flipping the power switch "on" and the saftey to "off."
He got to the base of the ramp and saw what was threatening Echo. They were a pair of Bouncers. His rifle instantly leveled itself on the one to her side, but he didn ot fire. He simply took his left hand off of the forward grip of his rifle and pointed at the creature. His yell was loud and commanding, it was most certainly owned by the tall and muscular assassin.
"STOP! BACK AWAY!!"
"Calm... peace... no hurt..."
The voices in his head only unsettled the boy as he looked on. His voice was considerably less commanding this time, but he was still closing on Echo.
"If you harmed her in any way..."
"No hurt... help... weapon... down"
Delta slowly lowered his weapon so that it pointed down at the ground at a fourty-five degree angle as he drew close to Echo. He slowly put his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. His own were still red from the weeping, as were his cheeks.
"Echo... a-are you okay?"
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Aug 13, 2009 0:06:40 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Aug 13, 2009 0:06:40 GMT -5
Their voices were simply too much. The multiple voices that cluttered her mind, stimulating the already strained brain, making it start to throb quite painfully. Though the words whispered calmly and serenely too her, gentle words very much opposite of pain and despair, anger, sadness, hate, bewilderment took over Echo. Her brain was overloaded, and a painful stab shot its way down the centre, shaking down to the roots of her neck buried just under the curve of the back of her skull.
She was angry at herself at the same time. She was near to panic, which made her angry as her heart beat high in her throat as she swatted at the extending tentacles belonging to these creatures. If only she knew what to do, how to react, just as she had when Delta had startled in the cockpit of the ship! If only, if only, IF ONLY they looked like humans, even remotely! But, they didn’t have hands. There was no defined neck or shoulders! No legs, feet, knees, hips, and it was all so confusing. She could see eyes, but not a nose or mouth, and didn’t understand how she was hearing voices. Echo was frustrated at herself because she did not have the slightest clue on how to deal with this problem.
There was anger because she had called out to her partner. She hadn’t tried anything. Hadn’t tried to tolerate the voices and bat the floating, hairy balls away from her, kill them, or, hell, even try to dropkick them to the other side of the clearing. Instead, she smacked at the tendrils, getting warbles that she couldn’t tell were inside her head or if they were actually entering via her ears. The creatures bobbed, turned their fronts to each other, exchanging what Echo helped was confusion. Maybe they would just leave her alone because she had yelled. Maybe they didn’t understand that it was her partner that she had directed the cry for. Maybe they did and didn’t care.
Their words continued and Echo braced her palms to either side of her head, whimpering as another split seared through head. More warbles. One of the creatures finally touched her and Echo shut her eyes and cringed away, confused, scared, frustrated. Her chest felt tight and she began to choke over her heart, voice cracking softly, tears for her confusion and frustration and pain beginning to roll down her cheeks.
Why!? Of all times to have the eye water to pour, why right now? Why right after she had called for Delta? If he was in range of her shout, he would come, instantly, as he always had when she needed help. Another ache added itself, burning at the temples, and the knife once more carved done the center. She heard a shout, knowing it was Delta, but didn’t open her eyes or look up. The voices spoke, but the pauses were longer, providing some relief to the overloaded Echo.
Outside Echo’s body, Delta was approaching the bouncers with a weapon trained on them. Very hurriedly, the two bouncers there turned their attention on the threatening assassin, reaching out to him to quickly push calming intentions to him, reassure him they meant no harm to him or the other. More floated up around the ship, giving little sounds, bouncing gently off the side of the ship to give them a little momentum toward the two strangers, offering their voices of gentleness to the two previous. They floated up beside, whispering kindness telepathically.
“No stop!” Echo suddenly cried out, shaking her head and crouching down, arms enveloping over the top of her head. Concerned, as always, the bouncers lowered themselves after the hurting girl, trying to understand what was wrong so that they could help to soothe. “Too much, too many, stop!” Her hands trembled slightly, and the voices instantly stopped chattering one after another. There was a long, blissful silence that followed. It dragged out long enough for Echo to stow her tears, sniffling some. When she thought she could withstand it, she removed her arms slowly and looked up, a sore red around her eyes from the crying. Carefully, she stood up, an ache at her temples, and the throbbing down the center slowly receded. Echo sniffed again and then sighed.
One voice penetrated through this time.
“Better? No hurt? Better?”
Echo nodded gently, not quite sure which had the voice. And then Delta’s voice seemed rather loud to her hearing sensitive because of the aching brain. His hand fell on her shoulder, turning her slightly to gaze into his eyes. His were red too. Why were his eyes all red? It took her a moment, rebooting her mind to thinking levels after the claws that had just raked painfully at her. Of course. He had been sniffling in the armory, crying. They would be red for a little bit, just as hers were. She rubbed a palm against one gray eye, staring up at him.
“Y-y-yes, Delta.” Dammit, stutter. “I’m good now. I’m fine. Better. “ She inhaled deeply, releasing it in an uncontrolled shudder, wanting to kick herself in the butt for it, aggravated that she did such a thing before Delta. “J-ju-just… too many voices at one. There’s… there’s only one now.” And then she hiccupped. Her face flashed brilliant, the flame across her cheeks flamed as if someone had stoked a fire. He must think she was a ridiculous sight. A sorry person who couldn’t even get rid of floating balls. The hiccups continue and she looked to their feet.
“Worry… not…”
“Are these… these those… -hiccup- bouncer things you were –hiccup- telling me about?”
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
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Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
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Aug 13, 2009 23:29:52 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Aug 13, 2009 23:29:52 GMT -5
Delta heard a noise behind him. The soft thud of flesh on metal as the bouncers bounced off of the ship gave them away. He almost instantly whipped around, his non-trigger hand held out past the muzzle of the gun, silently warning them not to draw any closer. Delta pushed his rifle out towards the creatures, the sling tightened against his back with the motion... this would make it worlds easier to shoot with one hand. The man slowly turned around in a circle, keeping his rifle leveled on each and every one of the creatures. Their attempts to calm him via telepathy were all in vain, his emotions were running far too strong and fast to be considered anything other than near-irrational.
And then Echo cried out.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
He yelled at the creatures as they descended upon Echo, who were only trying to help his partner. Yet... it was quite obvious that they were doing something unsavory, whether they knew it or not. The boy pointed his rifle up in the air and pumped a quick burst of three hypersonic slugs into the sky. The gunfire was not loud, barely louder than a cork in a wine bottle popping in an empty room, yet it still seemed to get the message across to these bouncers: Hurt Echo any further and the next three won't be pointed up.
A thought that wasn't his own crept into the man's mind, along with a wave of calm, serenity, and peace. It seemed that their new efforts to keep the over-emotional ex-assassin calm were working, he slowly dropped the muzzle of his rifle so that it pointed towards the ground.
"Mean to hurt we didn't. Help we tried."
He sighed after a few moments, after looking back at his actions with a calmer mind he realized that he was acting rashly. To say the least. They had been simply radiating good intentions and binevolence, yet he still treated them like they were trying to kill Echo. Delta read up on these creatures, they believed that all life was valuable and worth saving, no matter how evil or wretched that life may be. Not that Echo's life was wretched, of course, he valued it far more than his own.
Blue eyes peered into Echo's grey eyes as she returned their gaze, her eyes were red. An evidence of the crying she'd been doing but a few moments before... and it took all he had not to curl his back and wrap her up in an embr-... wait. What? He wanted to hug her? His eyebrows scruntched towards the area inbetween them at the thought. Why? His eyes involuntarily slid down to her lips as she stuttered, yet he didn't notice the stammer in her words. All that he could hear was the thumping of his own heart in his ears.
A fire rekindled in his cheeks as his gaze refused to tear itself away from the beautifully plush vestibules that were her lips. The flame grew so bad that he believed his face to be on fire, though his hands refused to move up and squelch the fire before it consumed him. "Stop. Delta... she won't like you staring at her lips while she's talking. She'd much rather have you listen to her words," a few moments passed, he was still staring, "really, Delta, stop it. You're embarrassing yourself again. Delta... STOP IT!" That final thought seemed to have enough weight within his brain to force his eyes back up into those beautiful gray pools in her head.
It took his brain a few moments to process her question... and a few more to formulate an answer that was stammer-free. It failed creating at creating a stutter free answer, but that didn't stop it. Ohh no, never.
"Umm... y-yes, t-th-these are the b-bouncers I-I was t-talking a-ab-about."
He fought back the tears as the memory of her laughing at him entered his mind. How foolish she must think he is. First, he brought her to a planet so that some floating medicine balls could tell them their future, than the said medicine balls unintentionally harm Echo, and he nearly kills the whole lot of them. Needless to say... he was going to let her plan the trips from here on in.
"Sad be not."
He sighed as the calming thought entered his mind. Now was the time for two things. First and foremost; an apology for his rash actions. Second; his future... if they'd give it to him. If they could. That thought nearly made him cry yet again... after going through all of this it turns out that the Bouncers couldn't even tell the future. Chalk another point up for the "Delta fails" category. Blue eyes flickered over and across the Bouncers as they peered at him and Echo, almost like they were waiting for him to speak. They probably were.
"Ummm... I'm sorry for acting so rashly, I thought that you were trying to hurt my partner. Now... the reason why we came here... we need our future. Places to avoid... people to see... anything. Thank you... so much."
The green creatures looked amongst each other at Delta's words, almost as if they were going "guy's crazy." His heart sank. They couldn't tell the future, and he was a complete fool. But then the first bouncer to speak to Echo floated forwards towards the two ex-assassins. The bouncer had a female voice... odd... he didn't think that these creatures had a gender.
"Dreamt about you two I have. About strange dark places, and that one..."
She pointed a tentacle at Echo.
"A pool of red water laying in. Huddled over her weeping you were."
Delta blinked. A pool of red wa-... blood. The bouncer probably did not realize that humans had red blood. It meant that Echo was laying in a pool of her own blood, while he was hovering over her. The thought of her dieing sent shivers down his spine, and turned his breath ragged. it was then that he got an idea. What if... what if they simply avoid the planet that this Bouncer dreamed that she would die on? That would ensure that, not only she wouldn't die there... but also that she couldn't die. Not unless it was on that planet.
"Wh... where did... will... this happen?"
"The name of this dark place I do not know. Only that I've never seen a place like it I know."
His heart sank. She was going to die... and he only knew that she'd die in a 'dark and terrible place.' Bah. he was regretting ever coming up with the idiotic idea of coming here. At least if he wouldn't have gone to Ruusan he wouldn't have the burden of knowledge resting on his shoulders. Unless... perhaps these things could place imagies in his head? They could do words, after all...
"Yo-you... you can put thoughts in my head, can you put this dream in my head?"
"The name of this dark place I do not know. Only that I've never seen a place like it I know."
A few moments later Delta's was struck with the image. He almost instantly crumpled to his knees from the emotional pain that he felt... it was his own... but it wasn't. It was odd. He saw Echo laying there, obviously dead, with a single blaster wound to the chest. Delta saw himself huddled over her form, crying on her body. The hot tears quickly began to build up behind his eyelids as the image persisted, refusing to leave his mind's eye. It lingered even after the bouncer told him that she had withdrawn her dream from his brain... luckily. Had it not he wouldn't have noticed the structure of the buildings. The grungy look of them. The trash. It was obviously Nar Shadaa... the smuggler's moon. It was one of the first planets that he thought of taking Echo to after escaping.
Was he ever so glad that he didn't take her there.
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
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Aug 26, 2009 22:44:49 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Aug 26, 2009 22:44:49 GMT -5
The stutter cracking from Delta made Echo feel a bit better. At least she wasn’t the only one messing up her words and sentences. Her cheeks were still flushed with red, reaching a point of warmth and brightness almost as hot as her hair color. She still hiccupped, feeling mighty silly about the uncontrolled spasms that caught in her chest. Some of them hurt, like a bubble forming in the center, between her lungs. Some of them were strong enough to let the sound chirp from her, which only succeeded in deepening her already embarrassing blush. Some of them felt normal. Hiccups were natural reactions, occurring when… something in the body happened, just little sharp contractions of the diaphragm. She knew what a normal hiccup was.
Heck, she recalled many times going through an exercise or two during her… had it been training(maybe)? And one of the many instructors would walk by her while she was practicing her slicing techniques and squawk at her to knock off the hiccupping. Sometimes it was bad enough she had to drop the slicing and return to it later in the day because the practice or the teachings required steady hands. Her martial arts instructor often complained the hiccupping was not only an annoyance but throwing her off balance or unsteadying her, if but barely the older she got. There had been a few scenarios she had Delta had been drilled and she had been hiccupping, often catching ice blue glances from her partner every time a burble of noise escaped her would have been thinly pressed lips.
She still had her moments, and recently too. If she cried after a nightmare, she might spend some time sniffling and hiccupping. Then, it wasn’t so bad.
But, this was one of the first times she had felt a conflicting motion against it. Instead of just concentrating on keeping her mouth quiet with her head and shoulders still, Echo was fighting such a troubling emotion. “I don’t get it. I want to stop. It’s… it’s… oh my goodness, just, not before Delta, come on. Stop…” She sounded whiny to herself, but, at least it was just to herself and not out loud. She hiccupped again, the click forcing its way out. “No. Stop.” Hiccup. “Please?” What an awkward word, but the natural force of her body refused to bend to plea. “All right, fine then. See if I care…” Yet another hiccup. “Force damn it!”
“Calm.”
“You know what, little green ball of… of… I don’t know what, screw you!”
Echo decided to ignore it, taking a bit of will to do so, and risked a nervous glance upward. Her ears tuned into her surroundings again as her eyes peeled away from her boots. Delta was in the middle of talking, wait… apologizing to the bouncers. Echo resisted snorting at his actions, remembering clearly the look on his face when she had laughed at him about his belief in the bouncers in the first place. She didn’t want to see it again, because then he would cry again.
Why was she so concerned about him leaking water from his eyes?
What did it matter if he did?
… That would mean you hurt him, Echo, Logic said.
“No! Stop it!”
One of the floating green things was pointing a hair covered, worm-like tentacle at her. Echo blinked again, flinching slightly as she jerked out of her world of musings. Her hand lifted up a little, her nose crinkling as she let out a hiss. She could be mistaken as disgusted by the creature’s actions. She lowered her arm after a second, blinking rapidly and trying to adopt a “I meant to do that” expression. Her remaining blush stained her face still, and the edge of her cheekbone darkened. Otherwise, she might have been able to pull off the perfect feline maneuver.
She remained standing there, glaring at the bobbing bouncers as Delta conversed with them. While one voice continued to rattle off that she should embrace peace and steady calm, she found she was merely only irritated by the creature. Thoughts of coolness tried radiating behind the voice each time. Echo was having some issues ignoring the soothing voice then though she did continue to fight against it. She only came out neutral; neither relaxed nor stiff.
“Delta, do you think it’s such a good idea that they try to put pictures in your head?”
She completed that sentence a fraction too late. He stumbled, flailing as if his knees had been taken out. Echo felt something flare in her, she snarled viciously at the bouncers, her turn to warn the balls not to harm her partner. She had already taken a step closer to Delta, reaching out and hooking a hand just above his elbow. “Delta? Delta, did they hurt you?”
“Not mean any harm, ever.”
“You know what? Zip it! Take your voices from my brain and stay the hell out. Delta? Get whatever you put in his brain out, too. And I mean NOW.”
Delta was a pretty big boy. Echo was a slight woman. There wasn’t much she could do by holding on firm with her hand. She did the best thing she could think: slipping her head under his arm. He could push down on her shoulders, and she could take the weight better in case he tumbled. She rested a hand on the back of his shoulder, the other against his torso.
And just then, something shocked her senses, assaulting and seizing some part of her. A kind of smell she recognized wafted around her nose. It was the kind of scent she could pick up when he comforted her after a nightmare, a fallback point of security, of comfort.
However, comfort couldn’t describe how it affected her now. Her pulse quickened.
“You’re a silly woman, Echo.”
“You all right?” she asked him once again.
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Dire Wolf
So who's ready to help me sock ol Adolf on the jaw?!
2,894 posts
49 likes
Have dakka will travel
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last online May 6, 2020 18:55:51 GMT -5
Master
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Aug 28, 2009 21:25:46 GMT -5
Post by Dire Wolf on Aug 28, 2009 21:25:46 GMT -5
Delta could feel something save him from the short fall to his knees, the image that was seared into his minds eye didn't allow him to see anything. Anything but the image. The tears that had begun to build up in his eyes threatened to burst forth and squeeze themselves out of his tightly shut eyelids. Why? Why Echo? He only shook his head, he didn't know... no one could. But the boy did know one thing: He would die before he'd allow his partner to die.
It didn't take long for the tears behind his eyelids to seep out and down his face. The emotions he saw in that dream would have been powerful even for a 'normal' person, but for him... they were beyond overwhelming. The image that was burned into his mind seemed to wash away from his tears as he looked down at the thing that saved him from falling on his knees. It was Echo. He could smell her, he could smell the shampoo that she used in her hair, the soap on her skin... her very essence. It still managed to waft up through his stuffed up nose.
It took the woman's words a few moments to register in his clouded mind. All that his clouded mind could really think about was the image that had previously seared itself into his mind like a red hot cattle branding iron. After a quick sniffle he began to try to formulate a comprehensible response to her. Not that it was possible at that particular time, but hey... a guy could try.
"I-i.... I'm a-alright..."
The lump in his throat made his words little more than a stuttering croak as he veinly tried to support his weight with his legs again. But his knees still wanted to do little more than crumple like a deck of cards under his weight. The flaming hot tears burned their way down his bright red cheeks, he simply couldn't allow her to see him fall. It was bad enough that she saw him cry... but to see him actually fall to his knees... it would be terrible. Delta had to be strong. He had to be strong for Echo.
"W-we s-sh-should tr-... try to set up c-camp."
The blush that stained his cheeks only spread as he stuttered in front of Echo. It still escaped him why he cared if she saw him cry, fall, or stutter... but he did. It took him a few moments, but he eventually managed to force his knees to support his weight. The large man moved away from Echo slowly and shakily. Something in him didn't want to move away... it wanted him to just stay there, close to her. Close enough to take in the wafts of her scent.
His armored forearm rubbed against his cheek, freeing his cheek of the tears that stained it. They needed to set up a camp, even if it was just going to be around the ship. After thanking the bouncer's he turned around and mumbled something about gathering firewood. Despite the fact that their ship, the Deliverance, was right there and could provide considerably heat and shelter than anything they could ever construct.
Delta pointed his feet in a random direction and hurried off at power walk speeds. After a few minutes of walking he fell back against the tree and sunk down to a sitting position. After a long sigh he buried his face into his knees and allowed the tears to flow from the oceanic blue eyes that he held.
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Squee
The Keeper
2,286 posts
95 likes
I am Deception, and I defy your holiest moralities.
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last online Oct 24, 2016 0:33:56 GMT -5
Master
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Sept 1, 2009 1:50:39 GMT -5
Post by Squee on Sept 1, 2009 1:50:39 GMT -5
“You’re sure?” A different sound coated her voice and her brows furrowed slightly as her gray eyes filled up with concern. The bouncers had floated backward away from the pair, thanks to Echo’s snarled commands that they do so. Her hands pressed gently against his chest and his shoulder as she gazed at the side of his face. There was water, salty as an ocean, running past the ridges of his cheekbones, departed from their reservoir behind his eyes. She heard and felt herself swallow, as a pang, dull as if was, begun to ache in her chest as she saw those tears peel down against his skin. A frown crept across her lips and her brow uncoiled, though her gray eyes were crystal balls bearing her mellowed emotions.
For a brief moment, she felt compelled to reach over and wipe the water stains from his face. Maybe it would reassure him? Maybe it would take away whatever fear or pain he felt if she just touched his face and cleaned his tears. Echo didn’t notice much about the color of his cheeks, just the tears… She restrained herself from touching his face. The thought suddenly felt so alien that Echo hardly believed she had dared considered it.
He found strength to support him once again, though the tears continued to flow across his cheeks. She let him stand, her hands dropping from his chest and then falling free from his shoulder. He moved away from her, shying in the different direction from her. His arm came off of her as he stood, thanking the bouncers. He mumbled something between making camp and gathering firewood, and then he wandered away from her, not allowing her a chance to speak about Deliverance being their perfect shelter.
She stood there for several confused moments, glancing between Diliverance’s open ramp and the rapidly shrinking of Delta’s back. Why would he say something like setting up a camp? Why collect firewood? And in a few more silent moments, with the dull green bouncers hovering behind her, one voice gently whispering to her, Echo blinked in realization. It had to be her. It had to be her fault again. Not long before, she had laughed at him and he had cried. He had been upset. He had gone away from her, much like he was doing now. It had to be her fault. The tears had only started to flow when she touched him.
Had she insulted him some way? No, if she had insulted him, he might be angrier. Then again, he might’ve been more upset. But how had she insulted him? Maybe it wasn’t an insult, but maybe hurt him in some way. How? It could not have been by physical touch. She remembered a Delta so tolerant of physical pain, bearing and enduring strains long before Echo would have cracked. It could not have been physical… emotional, maybe. But, she didn’t know how to explain how she might have harmed him emotionally. She hardly understood these things herself! How did she hurt him? Why wouldn’t he tell her so? What did she do? How could she fix it?
She could not answer these questions based on her lack of knowledge. Her lip pursed, a large lump forming within her own throat. The bouncers warbled between one another and that one voice spoke to her, trying to smooth out the conflicting feelings it sensed from her. Echo looked at the ground and wrung her hands together, still so very clueless. Her head pulsed harshly as she felt her sore eyes try to conjure up tears to level her frustration at her stupid carelessness and cluelessness.
And then her hands fumbled for her belt, unbuckling it and tossing it into the tall grass a couple of feet from the ramp. She glanced at the bouncers, asking them about any local action. They appeared confused at this, the reply returning as a simple statement of clearness, grasses, plains, and forests. They described scenic areas over urban and Echo nodded, thanking them for that information. That meant there were no other sentient beings, besides the bouncers and Delta and herself. It was perfect.
She stepped away from the bouncers, untucking her shirt. Her pace increased from a mediocre walk, to briskly striding, to a light jog. For a few minutes she jogged along, heading in the opposite direction as Delta. The jog increased to a steady run. From there, she lengthened her stride and threw her arms back and forth as her run peaked at a full-on sprint. Her feet hit shorter grass, barely taller than her ankle, and Echo flew across the ground, breathing heavily as she ran. Sweat pelted on her forehead, gathering in her eyebrows, and rolling over the side of her face. The air stirred around her, driving her auburn hair sailing with the finicky twists and wild decisions of the air particles.
It was a long time before Echo stopped running. She would slow her sprint to light runs and occasionally to a slow jog. She rested at the edge of a running brook and looked back, Deliverance seeming so small from all the way out here. She had to go back, find Delta, and apologize to him. Her breath was caught up to speed, and she pivoted on her feet. Slow jog, light run, heavy run, sprint.
Once again Echo had wings on her feet as she raced back to her ship with night settling in behind each step she took.
No matter how much darkness longed to devour her whole, he wouldn't catch her. He would not pull a cloth over her eyes and blind her. She would see through some day. She would see and understand her dark confusions and horrors.
She was a goddess of speed.
The impeding night sky shall not defeat her.
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