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 Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:26 pm
ghosts
It was 3am the night after the mission, and she couldn't sleep for the constant itching. Her nails kept scratching at the same branches of marks along her arm where a raised bump had been just a split second before. It was impossible to tell in the darkness, but the area was now very red, like the frozen lightning bolt in her arm was carving a way out. At least she wasn't digging her nails in quite as hard anymore. It was more of a restless motion, something to anchor her in the real world by reminding herself that this was her arm, her scars, her reality.
But the boys must be dealing with so much worse. That was all she could think about when she tried to escape the black claws of the nightmare. Even with Gale safe at her side, uninfected and with one of a pair of antivirus solutions to boot, all Stormy could think about was what she had done.
The itch moved suddenly to the inside of her wrist. Without thinking she began to scratch anew with sweaty palms and bitten nails.
I tried that before, said Nevada. You need something sharper if you want it to all go away.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:29 pm
tea time
Earl Grey got her heart racing, but that wasn't the reason it did so that afternoon. She leaned against the kitchen counter, contemplated the now half-empty cup with a troubled look, and then without warning asked, "Gale, how much is a life worth?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:51 pm
ghosts
From behind Stormy came an arm, and a gentle hand curled light fingers around her own, drawing them away from the inside of her wrist. Gale's voice came out of the dark of the room, tired, and still thick with a sleep he had just pulled himself out of, but soft as well.
"You're going to bleed if you're not careful."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:55 pm
tea time
He was sitting at the kitchen table when she asked. Slowly he lowered his own cup of Earl Grey, until it rested back in the saucer in front of him (one dash of milk (not cream, cream was too thick sometimes, though occasionally he didn't mind it), one teaspoon of sugar, stirred gently). A careful, wary expression had taken place on Gale's face.
"Hard to say," he said finally. " 'Worth' is a pretty subjective term."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:05 pm
ghosts
Her fingers automatically curled around his. "Maybe I should," she whispered before she could stop herself.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:14 pm
tea time
That had been too open to start with, but more direct methods escaped her. (She ran from them more like, as she did from everything else.) Stormy tapped her cup in thought, sucking her lower lip in.
"Okay, I'll try to be more specific. Um..." She frowned for a few moments as she mulled over this suddenly incredibly difficult task. "If in order to save Bix you had to sacrifice people, people you know at least a little about, how many would you be willing to put up for his sake?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:23 pm
ghosts
His grip on her hand tightened, just a little.
"No," he said, still in the same soft voice, and the bed dipped slightly as he shifted a little, Gale pressing his lips very gently to the back of Stormy's neck, his eyes closed. He laced their fingers together.
"Do you need anything?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:30 pm
tea time
He mulled over this for several moments, though the question itself made his stomach twist uncomfortably. Hypothetical situation or not, there was still a terribly high percentage that it would one day become a reality.
Gale absently stirred his tea with his spoon.
"...maybe one," he answered finally, hating himself for every word. "Or two. But it would also depend on what Bix would say, I think. If he was the one telling me that it was the right path to take, then it would be a tiny bit less complicated."
A faint, slightly sardonic smile touched his lips. "But there would also of course be me trying to get around it someway, if possible, but that's just the easy answer."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:39 pm
tea time
"There's no getting around it," Stormy told him in a dispirited tone. "You can't escape it if you stay there. It asks and you have no choice but to make a choice if you want anyone to live at all." She sucked her lip again, not in thought but to keep it from trembling, and drank the rest of her tea. Then she straightened up and poured herself another cup, grabbing cream and several packs of sugar.
Apologizing in her own way, Stormy settled herself beside him this time instead of across, slowly pouring the creamer in and watching as it plumed and billowed inside. She never grew tired of watching it settle itself around its new confines, spreading and taking over until it was inseparable from the tea.
It almost made her a little envious.
"What if you had to bargain for your life?" She chanced a glance at Gale now that she felt less teary. "How many would it take?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:49 pm
ghosts
Stormy shivered at the contact and made a soft sound in her throat. She didn't deserve it, but it didn't mean she wouldn't take everything she could get.
"No."
(Yes.)
"Right now, just you being here's enough."
(The trite answer couldn't begin to cover the list of things she needed, though it was a good start.)
She brought their hands up and kissed his. "Did I wake you up? Sorry."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:56 am
monsters inside me
The pile that was Esperanza, Leonardo, and Michelangelo (their children, she called them) was scattered at an unthinkable hour of night. She swayed on thin legs inches from the foot of the bed, feverish and sweating, and stared blankly at the wall ahead, mumbling.
"Nnnn...no...no no..."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:24 am
ghosts
Her lips felt cold against his skin, her body too thin, dark circles too hollowed beneath her eyes. He couldn't see her face in the dark, and from behind, but he could still remember the gaunt expression that had been on her face since the start of the mission.
Gale pressed another sleepy kiss, this one just behind her ear. "It's fine, I wasn't really entirely asleep anyway."
I was staying awake to make sure you were still breathing.
"Bad dreams?" he asked her softly, thumb smoothing over the back of her hand.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:28 am
monsters inside me
He wasn't asleep; he sat on the edge of the bed, dressed in a pair of faded gray sweatpants and a plain blue teeshirt, a carefully guarded expression on his face. His eyes flickered towards the animals, then back to Stormy again, and she looked so terribly fragile in the faint moonlight.
He didn't know what time it was.
"Stormy," said Gale quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "Stormy."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:35 am
tea time
He winced without really intending to. "Sounds like a lose-lose situation altogether. No choice would be right in that sort of time, but no choice would be wrong, either. You'd have to pick the lesser of two evils."
She had sat beside him, and Gale leaned slightly to the side, letting their shoulders brush together. His free arm lifted and settled across the back of her chair, his fingers idly brushing lightly over the back of her shoulder.
"My own life?" he asked, and stirred his tea again, his expression conflicted. "...depends, I suppose. I know that's not really an answer, and that's kind of unfair, since you asked the question, but it's not that easy to decide what I'd do unless I'm actually in that situation."
A pause, and then, "Maybe the same. Maybe one or two."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:42 pm
tea time
It wasn't a fair question to ask right now, she agreed. But she had to know.
At Gale's answer she nodded to herself as if confirming something, stirred her tea, and sipped. At least she was getting around to talking about it at all, she thought. At least she could still have his arm around her while doing so. Stormy didn't want a repeat of the three week isolation incidents. No more pushing away, no more bottling it all up. Her nightmares had her alone, unwanted, and dying—the only way she thought to combat it was to bring people closer. Even if it meant going against her base instincts of don't burden them. Even if it meant trusting she wouldn't be left out in the cold afterwards.
Her heart fluttered with a mixture of caffeine and anxiety.
"And me?" Stormy asked, turning to face him with morbid curiosity. "How many lives would you take to save me, Galestorm?"
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