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 Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 7:47 am
Nevermind, now she was pleased as could be. The series of compliments was unexpected, and by the end of it she was blushing fiercely--more due to the adventurous placing of his kissed than anywhere else. She tried to subtly tug her shirt up to hide the scar near her shoulder, which had begun to peek out amidst all of the affectionate grabbing.
"I, uh--" Stormy cleared her throat to dislodge the words from her throat (speaking was weirdly hard for a moment) as her fingers were held hostage next, which eliciting another giggle. "Well, I like when you do that because it's paying attention to the little things~ And they say hi~"
She wiggled her fingers gently, her expression softening. "But what you did wasn't silly at all. People do different things to honor and remember those that've died. I'm sure Mr. Bix was touched." I know I was.
As Gale curled in, she accommodated him and adjusted her arms until they were holding him in place, one at his back, one around his waist. She hummed thoughtfully as her head fell over his shoulder. "Hmm...It'd be strange, seeing you in something other than blond. But change is okay," she agreed with a smile in her voice. "Change is a part of life. Sometimes it's nice to add a little chaos if you feel stuck~ I went through a couple've phases myself: raccoon stripes, black...." She began to stroke his back. "If you want to do something, though, I'll totally help!"
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Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:11 pm
He'd made her blush, which was one of the great pleasures currently in Gale's life. He loved the way the flush rose in her cheeks, pink and warm, but now his eyes flickered to the way she shifted, attempting to rearrange her shirt into a different position. Briefly, he caught sight of something that might have been a scar.
"Bix told me I was dumb," Gale said dryly, but then his voice grew softer, more serious. "That was the first big fight we ever had, he and I. It was pretty bad; both of us were just so frustrated and angry at each other that we didn't really look at the whole picture."
He felt like an idiot, thinking back on it; on his rash, young self that had jumped to conclusions that had led to pain and frustration and a broken friendship that had taken some time to repair. And Gale had hated not talking to Bix, had hated that they had had that split in their time as friends.
But none of that mattered now, as they were friends once more, and Gale was immensely grateful. Sidetracked, Gale almost missed what Stormy was saying and gave her a little smile.
"I should have liked to see you in raccoon stripes," he said, and once more his eyes flickered to her shoulder. Gale shifted back a little, lifting a hand, his fingers dancing along the edges of her shirt collar, though he didn't move it, merely ran his thumb along the hem and the skin beneath it.
"What's that?" he asked softly. "You tried to hide something here just now...you okay?"ol-j-man cough look I tagged anyway
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Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:34 pm
She found it difficult to picture them arguing: bickering, sure, but not a full-blown fight . . . "But then you made up," she finished helpfully, echoing his thoughts, "like good friends do! Bix's a good influence to have, I think~ I'm happy you two get along."
And then that same eye for details worked against her.
"No, trust me, you dodged a bullet there," Stormy mumbled as he fiddled with the hem of her shirt collar. "Awful, awful period I wish I could forget; practically looked like a wanna be scene girl." When Gale didn't pull back her shirt (an idea that caused her far more nervousness than was probably normal), she took it upon herself to let his curiosity be satisfied. Setting her hand atop his, Stormy placed it over the part of her shirt just above the center of the scar, near the midpoint between her neck and shoulder; she then gently pressed one of his fingers down, revealing that with a little pressure he could make out the basic contours of the wound: something like a gunshot wound, but larger and with a few vein-like striations offshooting from it. Its center went deeper and created a little depression around her collarbone before it wrapped up and over towards her shoulder blade in one single, jagged extension.
"A reminder not to let fear take hold," Stormy replied, shame creeping back into her tone. "About a week before the tournament, Nevada and I decided to have a spar to practice. I'm . . . not very good around guns. Never have been. The noise is so loud, and it's just--cold and metal and compact death with the pull of a trigger, barrel pointed at your face, screaming things faster than you can see, and life just--" She winced and fidgeted uncomfortably, sucking her lips in momentarily before continuing. "I thought I'd gotten better after those other battles, or things like the time we practiced with Jinhai. After you die a few times, you'd think something as small as a gun wouldn't . . ."
She didn't bother finishing the thought and let her gaze fall away. "When she got into a bullet frenzy, I . . . It brought the fear back again. So I used that explosive charge out of instinct, and it scared Nevada enough to retaliate with her own. I remember a bright stream of light and energy hitting me, and since Thane's attack always weakens our shield anyway, it just . . . broke right through, I guess. She knocked me out in one go, and I woke up in the infirmary with that scar." Stormy partially chewed on her lip, reflecting on the events that had happened with a frown. "I didn't want to distract you. 'Look at this, Gale, check out this nasty scar! I can't even keep out of trouble on the home turf!'" she said in a squeakier tone than normal to mock herself. "It wasn't like you could do anything about it, and I don't like bothering people about every little thing . . ."
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 5:44 am
He might have "dodged a bullet," as she'd said, but that didn't stop him from being curious about what scars Stormy might have had. Gale felt his heart beat a little faster as she took his hand, moving it to settle over what felt to be a wound of some sort. His fingers were gentle as they pressed down, sliding over the shape of it, though his eyes were fixed on Stormy's, lips pressed together.
He felt his face flush a little because in spite of what she was saying, he couldn't help feel just a little ashamed of his own weapon which was, unlike Nevada's smaller rifle, much bigger, much louder, and much colder. He kept his hand where it was, thumb brushing over the scar again, as though to remind himself to stay where he was, in the present, listening to Stormy.
But her eyes didn't stay as fixed, and she had slanted her gaze away from him, and something in Gale's face softened. He bit his lower lip hesitantly; his hand that had been still before now moved, just a little, tugging at the collar of her shirt so that he could pull it silently to the side and see the wound in question, his eyes tracing the lines of it. Without saying a word, he leaned his head over her neck, kissing the place where he neck slid into her shoulder, and then slid sideways, skimming his lips over the scar in a light, gentle kiss before he pulled away, settling her shirt back into place.
"I'll only worry more if you don't tell me these things," he mumbled, his face against her hair, arms around her waist, holding her close. "I don't like hearing you've gotten hurt, of course, but that's not a distraction that's unwelcome, nor is it really a distraction at all."
He couldn't really put into words everything that he wanted to, because words weren't his strong suit, so he just sat there, exhaling a long breath.
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 8:40 am
She could imagine he was feeling guilty about his weapon right about now, like Nevada had, which she had wanted to avoid. Stormy was ready to give him a peptalk too, but the words died in her throat when he decided to peel back her shirt anyway. Nervousness rose up instead, and her hands twitched briefly with the beginning of a bid to stop him--but it was too late. The scar was lighter than her skin by a few shades overall, but it still had hints of an angry red hue towards the center.
She felt vulnerable, like her top had been a piece of armor removed. Stormy had been growing more conservative in her wear out of self-consciousness lately; to expose more skin again after that almost felt sinful. Normally comfortable with silence, she fought not to fidget as Gale examined the scar more closely, fought not to blurt out something awkward or apologetic to distract him. The wound was a reminder that she had panicked when facing her fear, and it shamed her that she'd always be branded by it.
A soft noise left her at the first kiss, something warm and confusing against her nervousness rising in her chest. The second kiss, in contrast, was unexpected and made her tense just a little on instinct. It didn't hurt by any means, but she still felt like she was being judged in that silence--that it was the equivalent of a long-suffering sigh.
She was relieved once her shirt was tugged up and they were back into embracing: it was easier to hide her guilty expression. What would Gale say if he knew just how blindly she went into things, or just how unlucky she got? Deep under the pile of darkness inside was that cold little knot still, distant but ever present since the encounter underground. Stormy wanted to tell him so desperately what had happened and what she had chosen to do because she hated keeping a secret like this. What if one day she had to do something that would hurt him but that she couldn't explain? Nevada's voice warned her in her head as did Aria's, though: their leader had made it clear they were better off not knowing what would happen if they tried to talk. Nowhere in Deus, no-one in Deus, was safe or trustworthy.
But...
She squeezed him closer. "After all the times I have gotten in trouble, I guess it's less 'distraction' and more 'routine'," she joked weakly. "Maybe one day I'll get swallowed by a large snake with a frill of poisonous spines and strong stomach acids, and you'll just sigh and say 'Really?' Y'know, if you don't already do that..."
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 11:30 am
He knew he might have made her nervous, doing what he had done, but it was entirely out of a desire to make Stormy feel more comfortable, less like she had done something wrong and more as though she should remember that he was not going to sit here and judge her for losing herself during a spar.
Gale leaned back, his expression less tired now, more sharp and alert. He took Stormy's face between his hands and said, with a voice like iron, "That's not how I would ever respond to something like that, and you know it."
It came out sounding a little harsher than he had intended. Gale's expression softened a little, and gently he brushed his thumbs along the sides of her cheeks, his face pained. "There's only one useless emotion in this world," he said quietly. "And that's worry. Everyone does it, regardless, myself included, but out of all of the feelings that human beings have, worry is the only emotion that serves no purpose. Fear makes us act differently in situations we might not expect. Anger is a coping mechanism. Worry, however, is an entirely useless emotion. So worrying about whether or not I'll think differently about you if you have a few incidents like the one with Nevada is baseless."
He leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closed, trying to express without words what he was feeling. A part of him knew, but a part of him couldn't say it, wasn't quite sure if he should even feel it, but he swallowed that part down and instead focused on Stormy.
"I learned long ago that expecting us all to stay safe isn't an intelligent way of thinking," Gale said softly. "This isn't a life where we have the luxury of staying safe. But I can at least be there for you in the times that we aren't safe."
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:17 pm
What did it say about her, then, when she was so often filled with little worries over this or that? When it was her anxieties that sometimes kept her up at night or made it hard to sleep? She'd always had a big heart, that was no secret; but the downsides of it ran deeper than just being naive about people.
She knew, she knew Gale wouldn't ever act like that, because he had boundless understanding when it came to her that she didn't quite understand herself, and because under that dry humor he was a good person. It was only that lately Stormy had been feeling heavier than usual: like a weight on others. A liability that couldn't go anywhere without finding trouble. She was aware she wasn't the first or last casualty to occur on a mission, but...lately she had begun to wonder if her presence was slowly becoming a cosmic joke and an injury or trauma the punchline.
Nevertheless, the conviction in his voice was necessary to her. A little harsh, maybe, but it got through to her more than a soft tone did, because reality was not soft at all--it was hard earth and crisp air, vivid colors and noise. A strong wind could not be ignored like a breeze could.
Maybe it was wrong of her to joke about her bad luck on the past few missions, but Stormy couldn't see another way to deal with those memories without railing at her fate (which was useless) or seeing a counselor (which she refused to do). It was either humor or horror to get over it herself, and if the former brought out Gale's seriousness about the matter, well...That was something she could hold onto. That was something she could keep close and greedily take in: a strong voice and sharp eyes and protective hands and arms. Maybe, in the end, the only courage she could truly muster was that which she derived from others first.
Stormy sighed at herself. Almost a year since she had been unpodded, and it was still far, far too easy to write herself off.
"You would think that," she said in an equally soft tone, a hint of affection underlying it. "Very logical and true in a way. On missions, some emotions don't have a place to go. Worrying just distracts, happiness is fleeting. Even natural things like fear and anger can get out of control if you aren't careful. But..." Her hands found his face before sinking to curl around his jaw, to help keep him there, keep him steady. "To me, all emotions are validated. Someone might not understand, someone might disagree with you, someone might say you shouldn't feel this way in a situation--but that doesn't make it wrong or useless. Worrying means you care. It makes you human in a place that doesn't want you to be; and I think that's the greatest battle we fight here."
It's not just Nevada, though. It's not just been a few incidents. But then they were touching foreheads and her eyes were falling closed automatically, and Stormy wanted nothing more than to wave the topic away and just sit there like that until they were forced to acknowledge reality again sometime later. In her own little world, this right here was safe, if nothing else could be.
< < He will be there for you to watch you be taken, > > Thane corrected in a drawl, still fuming over the impromptu Sahara trip. Stormy did not visibly react because giving that more than a second's thought would make a crack in her already fragile heart.
"I believe you," she said gently, peeling away to press a kiss to him. "I do. It's just...For once, I wouldn't mind being the hero instead of the damsel everyone's watching out for. I want to save someone, not be saved..."
kurotomato when posts take more than an hour to make..........
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 3:19 pm
Sometimes, it seemed, that their feelings were the same, except they kept rebounding, kept moving in endless circles around each other instead of colliding and melding together the way they were supposed to. A part of that was why Gale had liked her in the first place, but another part of him was frustrated that sometimes he couldn't seem to make Stormy understand that she was important and that acting as though her life was meaningless made his stomach twist with anxiety. And sometimes she tried too hard to prove herself when he already knew just how capable she was.
He felt her move and then she had kissed him, and Gale closed his eyes automatically, his expression a pained one. He slid his hands from her face to cover the ones on his own face, closing his fingers around hers and squeezing gently, unwilling to let go. A part of him felt that if he let go, she would drift away from him, that she would be lost to him, and his fingers trembled slightly as they tightened around hers.
"You're always my hero," Gale mumbled, and one hand slid to the front of her shirt, clenching in the fabric as he pulled her towards him, his return kiss unexpectedly firm, searing as he breathed her in, sank into it and a part of him seemed to have realized that one day he might lose her, that he might have to watch her disappear from his life.
Three months was both an extremely long and an extremely short time to fall for someone.
His fingers were still trembling slightly when he pulled away, Gale dropping his head back against hers, foreheads together in that little space that was just their own, just meant for the two of them and no one else; an entire world in such a small amount of space.
"I've never thought you were a damsel in distress," he said quietly. "And you've already saved me, even if it's not physically."
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:18 pm
She was moving too slow again; the air was thick and charged with unspoken emotion.
That was a persistent problem of hers: it was always doing things too much or not enough, impatient as a runner on the track or as calm and methodical as a clock maker, trying too hard to keep the spotlight off her or trying too hard to prove she had earned it back, one moment saying she wasn't worth what people said she was, the next scouring for ways to show she was an equal. There was no sense of balance, not when she had been Lina, not while she was Stormy. In fact, the very existence of associating under two names was a perfect example of how she did not know how to compromise, only how to move from one thing to the next, adapting as the situation called for. It meant being something, but not always how to be herself.
By the time she had come to that sad but well-worn conclusion, she became abruptly aware of a moment where he was holding her hands tight, of being pulled forward, of losing herself in that heated kiss; and if that was how it felt to be lost, then she hoped she wouldn't be found for hours more. Let them hide in the shadows of empty houses, in one of the only places she felt safe and sound, and let them take the happiness that they could from it.
But his hands were shaking, and she didn't understand. Was afraid to ask, really. Talking had suddenly turned dangerously emotional to her, because her eyes were starting to turn misty at his words despite having done so well up until now. When had she saved him? Her mind, muddled with a host of emotions, did a hazy but quick search of her memories. As far as she could tell, there hadn't been a moment like that...But it was also getting increasingly hard to think past the need to throw herself into another kiss.
His hands were shaking and she had to fix that.
"A-Am I?" Stormy asked absently, taking his hands into hers and rubbing them gently (they were shaking because they were cold, of course, that had to be it). "Have I...?" She sagged just a little against his forehead, relieved by that knowledge even if she didn't remember the incident bestowing upon her such a title, still trying to hold back tears as she closed her eyes again. "That sounds nice..." She paused, then brought one of Gale's hands up and lightly kissed his knuckles, just as he had done to her before, one by one, and still finding it difficult not to cry despite her focus on it.
"I'm sorry," she whispered with a strained expression. "I-I'm so sorry I brought us to this..." Place, topic, state of mind, all of the above.
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 6:42 pm
There was no thinking too little in Gale's case. Instead, it was directly the opposite; he thought too much most of the time, his mind constantly moving, constantly sorting through every single little detail of every single little piece of information. He couldn't control it; he was just naturally disposed towards over thinking, and so far he'd had yet to find a way to simply let go.
How did one just "let go" after all? In the case of Jack, who Gale was rapidly coming to dislike, how could he just let it go and let things go the way they were supposed to? He didn't know how to do that, he didn't know how to just give everything up without causing himself or anyone else pain.
He hated feeling this way - it was a terrible way to live.
Gale felt Stormy's hands close over his, and his eyes were still closed but he heard the slight tremor in her voice, felt the gentle press of her lips against his fingers. He curled his own around hers and brought them to his own mouth so that he could kiss her fingertips, the palm of her hand.
"You save me," he said quietly. "By merely existing in my world."
It was slightly ambiguous whether he meant physical or mental, but either one was true, Gale exhaling a long breath. He finally opened his eyes again, caught the tears glimmering in her eyes, and leaned forward, kissing the corner of her left eye first and then the corner of her right eye. Then her forehead, her nose, and finally her lips, gentle and brief.
"Don't be sorry," he told her. "I'm happy you're here."
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:44 pm
By existing. What a wonderful and terrible pressure.
Her emotions seemed to congregate into a tight ball in her chest that made it hard to breathe. Blinking only seemed to invite the tears, not deter them, and her jaw was clenched to try and stop its trembling. Laid bare was the process of one Stormy Ortega trying to keep it together when it was clear her body was rebellion at every instance--and for once it was overpowering even her willpower.
And if one day she didn't exist? Would the guilt cross the barriers of life and death and haunt her spirit? She cursed under her breath for even touching that territory, but so much of her attention was bent on trying to keep herself physically in check that her mind was left to wander to places it shouldn't. Her eyes stung more.
And then quite simply, as if every little kiss was a key opening a lock, she came undone.
Stormy got as far as "happy" before she was surging forward, her lips grazing his chin in their haste to find his. Almost immediately the tears began to fall once she had, but she was pressing herself so firmly to him that she hoped he somehow wouldn't notice; crying while kissing wasn't just amateurish, it wasn't attractive either. Then again, if she'd been looking to go for attractive, she'd lost the chance ages ago today. All she could do now was ride out the wave of emotion and hope it didn't reflect too badly on her afterwards.
She poured what she could into it without breaking: the several days of quiet anxiety, the guilt of her old baggage coming alive, the relief that she had mattered enough to change someone's world even a little, the gratefulness of having him right there and right now, and a small mix of something more raw and powerful that she couldn't put a name to if she tried. And when she ran out of breath and could only suck it back in between coughs and sobs, Stormy crumpled forward and buried her face in his shirt, her shoulders rising and falling shakily as she cried against him. One hand gripped the front, the other curled around his back, neither discriminating between skin and fabric as they held fast and anchored her--as if she too had come across the silent fear of drifting away.
For an indeterminate amount of time, Stormy stayed like that, gradually growing more quiet though her grip remained tight enough to make her fists twitch and tremble. Even when it had finally trickled down to sniffling, though, she didn't remove her face from his shirt. There were mumbled words being spoken into the cloth, low and heavy and strained.
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:15 pm
He had a split second to note the tensing of her shoulders, the tears that made her eyes brighter, but then Stormy was pushing forward, and Gale felt her lips against his chin and then his own and he responded without pausing to think, without hesitation, one hand lifting to cradle her face. His fingers were wet; she was crying, but he didn't break away to ask her why, or to wipe the tears away, instead taking everything she was giving him and giving it right back, sinking into it.
He broke away with a gasp, his chest heaving, and heard a sob. Stormy had collapsed against him, and Gale's arms went instinctively around her, his arms so tight he wasn't sure she could even breathe properly, but she was holding onto him just as tightly, and it was as though they were simultaneously breaking apart and being put back together all at once.
Somehow they had ended up on the floor. In the amount of time that passed - Gale had no idea how much or how little - he had slid off the couch, Stormy still cradled in his lap, and he couldn't recall how they had gotten here in the first place, his face buried in Stormy's shoulder, just holding her. They were both exhausted, both weary with the emotions laid into them, but he made no motion to move away just yet.
He lifted his head now, and through the window across the room, he could vaguely make out that it had grown darker outside, descending into evening. Gale lifted a hand, tenderly stroking Stormy's hair.
"Hey," he said softly, his voice slightly hoarse. "Beautiful."
He didn't ask if she was okay, because the question seemed trite at this point, Gale just gently sliding his fingers through her short hair, his other hand resting against her back.
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:36 pm
The mumbling continued up until he spoke, at which point it was cut off with a small hitch in her throat, like she had forgotten she'd planted her face against another human being and not an inanimate object. Physically and emotionally drained, she almost didn't want to answer. The silence was weighing on her like a blanket and, wrapped in Gale's warm arms as she was, she felt the greatest of urges just to curl up and fall asleep until the rest of the aches inside went away. She didn't feel beautiful: just tired. Maybe a little weepy and pathetic, too.
But stroking her hair was nice (beyond nice, really), and in the natural humming Stormy did to show her pleasure, she managed turn some of it into an "Mm?" to show she was listening, or at least sentient. Her neck protested as she turned her head just a little to give herself some breathing room, the heat accumulated from burying her face slowly evaporating. Her hands were starting to become less like hooks in his shirt, but her grip on it still remained.
Bleary vision told her they'd managed to slide off the couch somewhere during her little drama. "Sorry," she mumbled in a sandpaper voice of her own, involuntary and instinctive as an answer, her mouth still half-way pressed to his clothes.
kurotomato look at these intelligent posts
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:04 pm
He continued to tenderly brush his fingers through her hair in slow movements, waiting for her to move herself instead of him being the one to force her to move. Gently, Gale shifted, sliding further down until he was entirely on the floor, and he reached a hand up, fumbling on the couch until he found the throw pillows he had stacked haphazardly on one side. He dragged them down, positioned one beneath his head and rolled so that he was lying on his side, Stormy still cradled against him. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face into her hair, closing his eyes.
"Not sorry," he mumbled, and kissed the top of her head, exhaling a long breath.
"Thank you."Ol-j-man what a terribly short post /flings self off cliff
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:30 pm
Surprised he was joining her on the ground, she followed each movement and tried to accommodate herself in tandem, though by the end of it Stormy had curled up a bit: her legs had been brought up out of habit but not enough to really put space between them. It would have been too hard to maintain the position and breathe anyway, and she needed every gulp of air she could get. If she hadn't grown so tired, she would have just turned and let them spoon, but that required energy.
"For what?" she asked his neck in a murmur, as that was where her eyes had landed for the moment, barely open as they were. Her fingers felt stiff after holding onto Gale so tightly, but even when relaxed they refused to leave him, either slightly curled or gently pressing on him. "For existing? You could thank the sky for being there too . . ."
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