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 Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 3:35 pm
Laundry day still made her homesickness flare up like a fever, even months after waking up. The smell of fresh bed sheets and detergent, the rumbling of washers, even the specific way she lined clothes up reminded her of her old life; some things you just couldn't give up no matter where you went.
She'd done pod duty again that day and had slipped in and out to check on her stuff, but for the most part Stormy had busied herself talking to the sleeping candidates again. It had become a slowly reoccurring thing once she realized that talking to no-one at all was better than just holding it in, and when she wasn't talking to them, she was writing it down. Alpha was here somewhere, she just knew it . . . Just taking an extra long sleep, that's all. And Stormy knew how important naps were.
In order to not let herself get down about another week without that familiar voice, she'd thrown her efforts into getting all of her dirty clothes and sheets in, enough that when pod duty was done she still had a basket left: mostly of blankets and towels. It was as she was leaving her room with the last batch that the trainee decided to take a different turn on a whim. Candace had inspired her to try and get to know her division better, even if it was just casual. The only issue was, she didn't know where Nevada's room was located since she'd never asked . . .
Thus began a long series of knocking and asking about which, when tugging along a basket of laundry and a bottle of detergent, was not a walk in the park when stairs had to be navigated. When at last she found Nevada's dorm, she set the basket down with a big sigh and shook her hands out to get feeling back in them. After a pause, Stormy braced herself and knocked.
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Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:14 pm
Stormy, while outside of Nevada's room, would find that the door would probably not be answered. Because Nevada had been in the pod room in her makeshift bed by Alaska's pod.
This time though, she had surfaced not to visit Tuck after his fight but..to retrieve fresh clothing. And she could even smell fresh clothing from...Oh was that Stormy outside her room?
"Hello beautiful..." Nevada waved from down the hallway. Her body a bit stiff from the cold floor but well ..."Did you need something?"
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Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:42 pm
She was thinking about leaving a note somehow (which meant more running around gahhh) when Nevada piped in. Stormy jumped a bit in surprise and then tried to compose herself just as quickly, easily flustered in this state. "Oh! Um. No--Yes, I was just gonna ask if, um . . . You needed to do laundry?"
That's how you made friends, right? Side chatter at parties and missions wasn't enough to constitute it, right?
"I mean, I was just gonna do this last bunch and you were on the way over," except not, "so I figured I'd stop by and ask and uh . . . we do dirty laundry things . . . and talk?"
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Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 11:05 pm
Nevada cocked her head at the girl and then chuckled, her head tilted to hide the bruise left from Roland. "Didn't mean to startle you Hun, was actually surfacing from um...my sleeping spot to get clothes." She blinked and then moved past her, opening the door to a very pristine and untouched dorm room.
And returned with a hamper of clothing.
"I'd love to do Laundry with you hun~" She fell beside her and smiled, again, turning so Stormy didn't see the bruise. Unwanted questions and all. "Do you like the Island so far? And have you made a lot of friends?"
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Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 11:23 pm
She nodded most solemnly: sleeping spots were sacred things after all!
"Um, sort of," Stormy answered as she hefted her basket and began her waddly way down the hall with her. "I had a bad time after the Sahara." To put it lightly. But she quickly moved past it before she could dwell again. "Otherwise just sort of trying to keep quiet, you know? The partying sort of drained me, but it's nice people can still do things like that here. Parties and orientations and stuff like, um . . . Civvies do. That's the word I think. You?"
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Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 11:41 pm
Sleeping spots were very sacred. Nevada shifted the laundry hamper so that she could walk with a slow steady gait and regardless of her shorter stature...well she didn't waddle cutely like Stormy did.
"From the time mission. Yeah that was..." She nodded, "that was bad." And then it was to other things and she sort of laughed. "Kind of have to balance the good with the bad you know? Too much of one could leave to lead to...well gosh I don't know but its always good to have balance right?" Right now, she spoke it...but didn't believe it. She had something good...too good and then it went bad...too bad.
"Parties are my favorite, especially when we drink." She winked at the smaller mist and sighed. "Nothing out of the ordinary...." Slept with Tuck, got found out by Roland, fight, got hit and now sleeping by Alaska's pod cause that's where she felt safe. "Lab work mostly, paperwork. Broke up with my boyfriend."
She froze. "Uhm...I'm sorry that last one. Let's not talk about that one."
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 11:04 pm
"Balance, yeah . . ." Focus on the future, but never forget what brought you there. She gave a soft giggle and commented, "I noticed! I mean, I know that and all and like . . . family did that too sometimes. Well every time we visited anyway. Wasn't always as loud or crazy, but y'know . . ." Stormy trailed away when she forgot why she brought that point up, quickly losing the hint of a smile she'd been gathering when Nevada seemed in a tight spot.
She was one who wanted to naturally pry but was not socially confident enough to do so in a way that wasn't offending. Not to mention the closest she had to break ups were funerals, which were . . . a little bit of a leap. But she worked with what experience she had. "You can if you want. I used to know the exact numbers, but expressing yourself helps your emotional health. That's what my therapist told me," she said as a matter of factly. "Doesn't have to be talking to a person. You could write it out too--that's what I do. Miss Candace is letting me borrow her runic iPod too, if you need."
. . . Wait, Nevada had said she didn't want to talk about it. "Sorry. I know we're not super great friends or anything, so I'm not offended if you don't want to talk," Stormy added quickly as she began to navigate the stairs precariously, in case she was talking too much herself. Making friends was a delicate business after all! "We can talk about something else. Um . . ." It was hard to think and not trip, she could barely see over her towel pile. "Maybe . . . Oh! Who's your partner?"
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 10:47 am
Nevada would really have to resist the urge to hug Stormy. The girl was just too cute for her own good. "Family? You had a big family?" Nevada envied that a little, "It was just my parents and my twin for us. I don't even think I really know any other outside family." She frowned, "And us twins aren't quite the loudest family members." True facts. Nevada was pretty relaxed and quieter of the two, Alaska had spoke her mind but never raised her voice. At least thats what she remembered.
She blinked and then laughed. Kind of a more rich, unexpected laugh. "Stormy, did anyone ever tell you that you are too cute for you own good?" She relaxed, toying with the edge of the hamper and thought about how much she could tell the girl. Unlike Stormy, Nevada knew how to phrase things so that it wouldn't truly express the way she felt. That's how she made Roland hate her after all.
"I'd think of you as a good friend hun~ There is so few of us and..." Nevada shrugged, "I don't actually have a lot of friends at all." She had spent so much time worried about Alaska that the only people she had talked to were...and got to know really...were Roland, Otto, Tuck, Eva and Candace. And for obvious reasons, the first was no longer her friend. The second and fourth were dating and she always felt awkward talking to them.
"It was....pretty big. I did something horrible to him, said horrible things. He broke, did something horrible and now we are broken up. I'll recover I just...need time." She blinked as the topic shifted and then smiled into her laundry. seriously Stormy. So cute.
"My partner is Leroy The Snake something fancy named. he says he's a mobster reaper."
"And used to own the whole block. I think thats why he ended up being a tommy gun. Which is pretty nifty weapon, let me tell you."
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 12:39 pm
"Cute? A couple've times," Stormy answered with a blink, unsure how to take her laugh at first. "From people who I think need to look up what that means, 'cause my picture's not there. It's more like closer to, like...Eccentric. Or inscrutable. But without the interesting mysterious bit because I'm very boring in person once you really investigate: all talking without saying anything at all, or saying absolutely nothing and meaning a lot. Cute is like...pets. Cats and dogs and a carnival fish named Ugly just 'cause its gray and has a big mouth and the other one you have is gold and small and looks like the regular goldfish pictures in that old book you read as a kid."
Pause. "Not to say I wouldn't mind being someone's pet. At least they get attention and affection," she added in a thoughtful mumble. "Except when you're a fish. You can't hold or pet them and they can't make noises, and sometimes they're very exotic but it's all stuck in a bowl or tank they can't leave. It's a lonely existence even if you have a school. Only the worst people should become fish in their next life."
< < Ranting. > >
Stormy's cheeks colored mildly as they reached the bottom of the stairs, and she cleared her throat to start over. "Um...I mean I think you're a good friend, too. 'Cause I want us to be, 'cause you're right, there's only a few of us, and I only really know like a few people, and division peeps and all...I-I mean, I'm no twin and don't want to be like getting in the way of that...?" That didn't sound desperate, did it? Jeez, though, that was three people she was friends with who had a twin!
At least she avoided the family question.
She let the basket rest against her as Nevada gave a little more information on what happened, a slight frown appearing on the trainee's face. "Horrible's a strong word to use..." It was so hard not to just outright ask her what exactly happened! Nnngggngn. "But time helps. Doing other things does too. Like laundry!" Funerals said remember good times, but was that applicable here? Or would that just be worse? She tapped the edge of her basket in thought before straightening up and leading them onward to the laundry room.
"What's a tommy gun?" Stormy had to ask, because her mental image was a certain Rugrat with a water gun pistol which...was a little funny actually; she had to repress a smile. "Was he really in a mob?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 12:19 pm
"That's good, then you won't mind if I call you it all the time?" Because seriously, the mist huntress was just 2kawaii. "Are you sure? I feel like perhaps you are mistaken." Nevada chuckled again as Stormy ranted, and couldn't help proving the girl right by reaching over and petting her head. "I'll just call you pet then?" She was joking but her tone might've been serious. Might've. Couldn't tell with that lazy smile. "Carnival fish named ugly..." Oh Stormy. The laughing went from chuckling to a full on deep laughter. Something she hadn't yet experienced yet.
"I'd like to think of a couple of people would make really nice fish." Cue more chuckling until she breathed in. At the mention of getting in the way of her twin, Nevada paused and had a minor, very minor mental breakdown as to if someone was to take Alaska's spot. It happened so fast that she wondered perhaps if it was stress and tiredness just getting to her.
Instead she breathed out. "I don't think you have to worry about getting in the way of Alaska and My relationship. We are....I don't know how to explain. On a whole 'nother level of crazy." She blinked again and then nodded, shifting the hamper and wondering if they were close to the laundry room.
"Time, distractions and work will help. So long as I don't have to see him to remind me of it." She nodded. "If we get to the laundry room...maybe I will talk to you about it okay? I can see you are just brimming at the edge with needing to know."
"A tommy gun, my lovely little pet..." Nevada smiled, "Is a gun that mobsters often used for their dispension of bullets. Like a mini machine gun...and much easier to manage than a large rifle."
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:01 pm
Oh! "Pet" was okay, yes! It was a literal pet name, and Stormy smiled to herself at the bad pun, even if she didn't get why Nevada was laughing at her super true story about Ugly. "Crazy is okay! As the Cheshire Cat says: We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad~ For instance, fish is my favorite kind of meat, so I eat bad people! Send them my way and I'll chomp down!" And she made nomming noises as they entered the laundry room at last.
Most of the washers were being used, but there were several leftover open and waiting. Stormy set her basket down to fish for change in her pocket. "Up to you," she answered airily as possible, because whoops her curiosity looked too apparent and now she had to mask it. "We'll have a long wait anyway so . . ." . . . She was not masking it well at all.
So Stormy turned around and addressed Nevada further because out of sight, out of mind.
"Mini-machine gun? Ohhh . . . Yeah, I remember it now!" Thane most helpfully gave her the scattered memories of her time as a fog beast . . . where that gun had been pointing . . . She shuddered. "Guns, um, aren't really my thing, but I bet they hurt a lot. D'you know anything about them?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:21 pm
Well that was certainly one way of putting it. Fish that bad people became, eaten by the adorable Stormy. And she couldn't help but tease. "Pet don't you think if you eat too much bad people, you'll become a bad person yourself?" She was teasing okay, but the lazy smile didn't seem too different then normal conversation. "but if the person I have in mind turns into a fish, I'll cook and fry them up myself." She winked, setting her hamper next to a machine near Stormy's.
She started to pull out her clothing, stuffing it into the washer as she hummed and hawed about what to tell the other mist trainee.
She failed at keeping quiet and instead turned to Stormy. "Have you ever been hit by someone Stormy? Out of anger? Like had your parents ever hit you? A friend?"
"As for guns. Not at all. Leroy walks me through most of it."
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:52 pm
Stormy shook her head emphatically in response. "A candle eats up darkness and never grows dim 'cause of it," she explained. ". . . Well, running out of wick notwithstanding. If that makes sense?" But don't tease her with the image of cooked fish, Nevada, oh God it was so delicious she could smell it . . .
Looks like keeping her back turned didn't work, though. She busied herself shoving coins in the slot and tossing her clothes into the empty one by Nevada's, not answering at first; for a moment, she just had a prickling sensation down her neck, something a little stronger than goosebumps. "That angry, huh," she mumbled as she closed the door and let it start up. "Was it just once? Or did he keep going?" She wasn't sure she could trust looking her over for an answer, what with Hunters' speed healing.
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 11:43 pm
Nevada thought that over and debated its meaning. "Well...when you're pet, you're right. I suppose someone naturally bubbly and good like yourself would have plenty of wick to rely on." Nevada smiled as she placed her own coins in, shutting the top of the washer after it filled with water and soap and...was Stormy drooling. "Like fish that much do you? I'm a ice cream fan myself." She winked.
For a moment...Silence filled the room. She wasn't sure how to answer Stormy because...well...
"I made him that angry..." Nevada seemed conflicted, "Tuck says that's no right for him to hit. But when you're so angry, its seems like control fades." She waited, "Only once. The bruise is still there, just really light now. He caught Leroy by surprise so my weapon couldn't deflect it, And since it hit directly...its a normal bruise." She shrugged now, so many mixed feelings on it. "We spar with each other all the time, men vs women. Do I treat it like that? That if it was a spar, and I hit back...it would be okay?" The problem was she hadn't hit back. She cowered by Alaska's pod. And she berated herself for getting in the mess she created. She felt the guilt of hurting Roland more than the sting of the weapon he had hit her with. "Sorry, this is so heavy for friendship." Nevada ran a hand through her hair, not allowing the tears that had gathered fall and thought of a way to change the subject, to something lighter. Easier to talk about...and something that didn't have her blubbering all over Stormy.
"Who's your favorite disney princess?"Ol-j-Man Hi these are feels. We have a lot of them.
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Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 12:22 am
She thought to correct Nevada, that this so-called bubbly attitude was a carefully learned facade created from her old life and egged on by the concern of two adopted brothers who probably thought she didn't know how sex worked, let alone how to take care of herself--but that would be ruining the moment. It was about Nevada, not Stormy today. And boy it seemed there was some stuff to work through here.
The trainee listened attentively, clasping her hands and letting them hang in front of her as she observed Nevada. She had learned, after years and years of miscommunication and misinterpretation, a little habit that was enacted when encountering a raw topic: First she kept her mouth shut until it looked like her friend--her friend!-- was finished talking. Then Stormy watched for tells of how put together the person was about it. Sometimes it was obvious, like watering eyes or a coloring of the cheeks or ears, or a fidget of the left foot in and out at angles, or (like one time) a literal, bulging vein in someone's arm. In this case, the first thing that tipped her off was the shrug, which was a vague motion but still a sign of unrest. The second was when she combed a hand through her hair, something Stormy was intimately familiar with on the rare occasion she wanted to cry in public and thus felt a pang of sympathy for. And the third was the deflecting question at the end which, all things considered, was terribly tough and needed more time than a simple "this" or "that", but for which Stormy now concluded was off topic enough that Nevada was probably ready to crack.
. . . Or she was legitimately curious and Stormy had wasted about fifteen seconds of silence making her uncomfortable. It wouldn't be the first time she had thought too hard about the little things.
"Sparring's mutual," she finally replied, twisting her fingers around with a conflicted look. "Spar's the better word 'cause it has a different meaning behind it: you and someone else decide to whack each other until you call it a day, but you agreed to do it and that's what matters. And if people get hurt, you agree to help fix them up because that's part of the deal; that's what decent people do. You guys had a fight. That's different . . . You didn't agree to fight, you didn't agree to get hit. A fight and a spar are different, you shouldn't treat them the same . . ." How to word this? She had a jumble of thoughts as usual, and no pen and paper to clarify them, and God did she want to look like a good voice of reason.
There was no point in hiding how morbidly curious she was about this affair now, especially with Nevada name dropping Tuck. Stormy shuffled over past her, keeping her movements slow and deliberate like Nevada was a frightened animal ready to bolt, and closed the door for privacy either way; a closed room always felt safer to her. "Can I ask what happened? You don't have to give names or anything, but what was he angry about?" she asked softly.
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