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 Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:45 pm
Repodded.
She'd been repodded.
Whether it was for the lack of age or lack of performance the teen did not know. Nor did she mind much. Who was she to argue with those that knew better than her. This entire operation was not about her or her wants it was about humanities. And as much as it annoyed her to be sent to another base like before or even repodded as of now .. she would grin and bare it. There was no I in team any ways.
Atti, on the other hand, disagreed completely with the fact their duo had been separated for so long and out of the action.
"How does this not bother you one bit? You were repodded. Disgraced. Unfit. I know it wasn't all that surprising that you were but.. Aren't you even the tiniest bit angry?"
"What use is it to be angry? Thats not going to solve anything." Tikaanis's voice was a low mumble. A headache was brewing in her temples. Atti had been at this for hours trying to get a reaction from her. All the former ice demon seemed to accomplish was to give Tikaanis a slight twitch of her temple.
"Really? You're just gonna take it then." His tone was growing more and more flat with annoyance.
"Yeeeeup." Tikaanis chewed on tooth pick. Every once in a while she'd flip the small piece of wood with her tongue. Most she kept her mouth busy so she wouldn't have to talk to Atti about this tired subject. After all there wasn't really much else to talk about. She was a soldier. She had signed her life away for something much greater than her self. If they wanted to save her for later that was fine by her.
Atti seemed to have quieted a bit. At least for the moment. Tikaanises temples were still twitching. Possibly the on coming headache was the reason she decided she'd step out for some fresh air. Fresh air usually cured head aches. Or at least it was relaxing.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:03 pm
Apparently not everyone felt as strongly about the virtues of fresh air as Tikaanis did. The trainee ambling along the walls, hand in his pocket and shoulders hunched up like he was trying to escape an imaginary chill, had made acquisition of nicotine a top priority and he accompanied a cloud of smoke that dispelled any hope of truly-fresh air pretty much as soon as he slowed down upon noticing her. He hadn't been here long--not long enough to recognize anyone but a few faces--but whether it Tikaanis betraying her rising headache in her face or just raw instinct, he felt compelled to stop. He had an unsettling stare about him, like a wild animal too nervous to look away, and he eyed her with it. He needed a shave and about a dozen good meals and to judge from the dark circles under his eyes, several good nights' sleep. "You new here?" He didn't know the nuances of uniforms and rank; typically he guessed who'd been here by how comfortable they acted. Naturally, if he was wrong on this count he was getting off on a spectacularly bad foot, but Taym had a knack for getting off on the wrong foot anyway, so why not? He was surprisingly soft-spoken, quiet but with a whisky-rough edge.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:24 pm
That feeling you get when you know you're being stared at. That chill where you look up and some ones looking right at you. That particular chill had Tikaanis returning a strange young mans gaze back. Not sure what to make of the sudden pause she simply flicked her tooth pick in her mouth for a moment until he asked her a question. " Kinda." "Might as well be."Tikaanis ignored Atii. "I got repodded and its been a while since I've been out." She stated her position very matter of fact. She even managed to give a small smile despite the on coming headache and tooth pick. "Sorry. Names Tikaanis. Mist hunter. Uh...." There was a pause, "I take it we've never met."
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:31 pm
"Obadiah Thompson,," he returned, taking up station about four feet away and averting his eyes, finally. He apparently had two modes: unrelenting stare and careful avoidance of looking at someone. There was no comfortable middle ground. He eyed the bottom of her coat from the corner of his eye, eyed her hands, and took an uneasy drag. "And I doubt it, since I've only been here..." how long had he been here? "A very short time," he settled. "They uh... they do that? Repodding." He fairly reeked of new himself. He was, with pathetic transparency, teetering on the brink of asking her what she'd done to deserve that.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:42 pm
Tikaanis took note of the cigarette. She unconsciously mimicked Obadiah smoking with her tooth pick by placing her fingers around it. "Not long huh." Tikaanis wasn't really asking a question. She twirled the tooth pick. "Yeah if they aren't ready for you I suppose. Or you're not ready for them. One or the other." She shrugged, "Not my place to ask why. So.... Obadiah," She gave him an inquiring smirk. "Are you out here on a walk or somethin? Or are you on some kind of super secret mission." Tikaanis leaned in.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:52 pm
He interpreted the tone, as he always interpreted anything he did not understand, as hostility. The grin he shot her was a jackal baring its teeth, intentions ambiguous. "In your absence the inner compound walls have become a gauntlet of unspeakable horrors. It's amazing you haven't been devoured by a hellbeast yet. Nowhere is safe. I'm supposed to be cleaning up stragglers. Cleaning up literally, I mean, so you're good until I have to scrape you off of something and put you into a hazmat bag." He lofted what was left of the cigarette. "Thanks for holding off on the spectacular demise until I had a chance to finish my smoke."
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 3:02 pm
There was a rush of feelings. Mostly shock. Had she been depodded at this moment as a joke or was this for real? Atti hadn't even mentioned any danger in his bickering. Though the last time she had been sent to a different base and returned... her room had been completely destroyed. The life of a hunter wasn't an easy one. "No one said anything about hell beasts." She excused the tone for stress. Clean up duty was something she was all too familiar with. "I assure you I will hold out until you finish your pack of cigerettes," It was an attempt at humor. Not a good one but an attempt. The shock was still very much there. The thought about who was still around and who had bit the dust. Being a hunter didn't come with a very long life expectancy. She kept her concerns and worries to her self though. Now was not the time. "Mind... explaining?" She managed finally. What had happened?
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 3:10 pm
He was startled, and actually experienced an incredibly fleeting moment of guilt, thinking back over Twitter and losing hands and the admonition to take everything literally. But he was more astonished than guilty and more entertained than astonished, and he laughed a laugh that was like a bark. "They keep telling me to take everything at face value around here," he said, stooping to put his cigarette out on the ground so he could stuff the butt into his pocket, "but I keep forgetting. If there's hell beasts, no one thought to brief me on them."
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 3:21 pm
Tikaanis was a girl who could take a joke usually but this. This was just mean. Her face turned red and she felt her eyes watering. No tears fell. This was just a reminder of how real things could get. Her hands were now fists and they were shaking. "Hell beasts. I think I'm one of those kinda. What is it with your kind and what they have against hell beasts?"Atti was ignored. "I've seen team mates attacked. I've seen people actually die. And you think its okay to laugh about something like that." Her tone was still pretty flat and some how threateningly calm. "I assure you that hell beasts are very real and that our bases have been attacked. It is a very real threat at every moment." Her face was very serious, not angry, but serious. Tikaanis held her hand out. "Please give me one of your cigarettes." She was still shaking. Thoughts of losing hunters close to her... She really could have lost team members and not known. At the very least her headache had been all but forgotten.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 3:52 pm
"Jesus Christ," he said, obligingly handing one over. "Judging from everyone else's nonchalant attitudes toward everything I figured this was a get-a-sense-of-humor-or-go-crazy type of situation. Like M*A*S*H." (She didn't know it, of course, but getting a pop culture reference out of Taym, even one that dated, was a small miracle.) "Maybe that's why they--" He didn't finish. Accusing her of being crazy was probably not a great tactic, even for him. Instead, he reached over to offer her a light. His lighter was neon pink.
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:08 pm
Shakily, Tikaanis accepted the lighter and lit the donated cigarette. Shortly after puffing on the thing she coughed and smoke escaped her nose. "You've never smoked one of those in your life. KEKEKE"It was true but Tikaanis ignored her weapon as he joyfully echoed laughter through her head. But the coughing had helped to calm her down some at the very least. She held up the cigarette and inhaled again, this time holding the smoke in her mouth and blowing it out. Not really how one was supposed to smoke but Tikaanis didn't care. She wanted to calm down. Her eyes watered now from the smoke and not her nerves. " These -coughcough- things..." She held the half smoked thing up. "Thanks," She coughed again. But she had asked for the cigarette so she continued to suck it down to the filter. She smoked the cigarette too fast and too wrong but put it out in her hand like a badass. "Thanks." She repeated, "Not sure why people like those things... But I think I feel better. Sorry." She hung her head a bit, "I just got out of the pod and I haven't been briefed on much."
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:28 pm
He watched her maul his precious cigarette, his face shutting down after the first few moments of raw horror painted there. The old metaphor about trainwrecks applied: he couldn't look away, no matter how much he wanted to. "Do you know how hard," he said finally, "it is to get cigarettes here? Jesus Christ, if you needed a break that bad we could have gotten you some coffee or something." But he grinned, suddenly. Not at her, so much as at some inward joke. Watching her splutter had been funny enough to compensate for the insult, almost. "The usual objective is to get some in your lungs," he said helpfully. "If it's the dopamine you're after."
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Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:42 pm
Tikaanis still had the filter in her palm. She was looking at it rather than at the other hunter. She had no idea that a cigarette would be so hard to smoke and that there was an actual technique to smoking those things. She coughed quietly in her throat. Tikaanis looked up. "Hold it in your lungs huh." She coughed once more. "Thanks that is helpful." She wasn't sure if she'd try smoking in the imitate future again or if she would ever consider smoking again. There were still remnants of tears from her earlier attempt hidden away in the corner of her eyes. "Well ... I suppose I owe you one for later than." She looked him dead in the eye quite serious about the fact she would repay him later. The teen placed the lighter back in his palm. "I have a lot of briefing and .. catching up to do but I will probably run in to you again at some point. You know they love puttin us trainees on clean up duty," There was a hint of a smile. She was attempting humor again. "See you around. I'm sure." Tikaanis rubbed her temples as she continued on her way.
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