wordsarerequired

Storm took her time getting back to the medical ward. It was about twenty minutes later when she got there. Jess was sitting next to Storm's bed with a small pile of sheets in front of her. She started as Storm walked in. "Storm! Hi," she said. "I've been waiting here for a while because you were at the memorial funeral thing and Erik forgot to tell me that you wouldn't be here but now you're here so that's good." Storm took a seat on her bed and put the crutches next to her. "Do you always talk this fast or are you just nervous?" she asked. "Most of the time I talk like this but maybe I'm just nervous all the time. I don't really know. S

Erik was sitting at his usual table in the back left hand corner of the café area when Jess got there. She was about ten minutes late. Erik was half done with his coffee and Jess's tea was slowly cooling across from him. The petite Asian woman sat down and primly crossed her legs before taking a sip of her lukewarm tea. "Hello," she said." "Hi," Erik said. "So what do you want to know about Storm?" "Her file's locked to me so anything you can tell me would be really useful in me not being killed or anything because that would be horrible." "Yeah. It would be. She's fighter. Really fighter. She's about as fighter as they come. Don't t

It took a few minutes of walking for Storm to feel like she could talk like a normal person. "What?" she asked. "What'd you want to talk to me about?" "I just want to see how you're holding up," Randall said. "So how're you holding up? And tell me the truth, Storm. I know that fighters don't like to lie." There was a short silence as Storm tried to put her thoughts into words that someone who wasn't a fighter could understand. "I don't want to die like Tomas," she said. "I'm going to die in combat. Don't have a choice." "But you aren't getting someone to help you out with that." "Snowfall won't. Bastard." "I'm sure he has a father. Don

Erik stopped walking once they got a few feet away from the medical ward. He was too shaky to keep walking. He leaned against the wall and rubbed his eyes. It took a few steps for Snowfall to notice he had stopped walking. Once he did he turned and rolled his eyes a bit at the civ. "First time seeing someone die?" he asked. "…Yeah." "It gets easier. If that helps any." "I'm not planning on seeing anyone else…you know." The sentence had started out strong but had dropped down to a whisper by the end. He took a deep breath and let it out over a few seconds. "Storm's pretty damn shaken up, too. Even if you can't tell," Snowfall s

The barracks were in an area of the ship Erik usually didn't go to. The fighters were sequestered away from everyone else in an attempt to keep the noise down. Fighters had no concept of normal hours for people to be asleep and were apt to be up and fighting at all hours. Green squad had barracks near the end of a corridor. There were lots of orange warning signs around and the sound of laser fire was a constant. Erik hesitated at the door. Fighters were scary as hell. Storm all by herself was scary. There was no telling what a group of fighters who had been interrupted by a spare would do. He knocked once and took a few quick steps back. Th

It took a few hours for Erik to come back to the medical ward. Clarissa had wanted him to stay around just to ask about Storm. As her file wasn't widely available it was Clarissa's only opportunity to learn anything about the fighter. Erik had told Clarissa what he knew which wasn't much. The fighters were notorious for not filling out forms on time and when they were filled out they had grammatical and spelling errors, used multiple languages which hadn't been spoken for hundreds of years, and used slang terms which only fighters understood. It was a trial trying to get anything out of them. Clarissa's file was much better kept but it was sp

The pace was slow. Not being allowed to walk hadn't helped Storm's strength any and one of the medications was supposed to keep her a bit weaker than normal. There was a procedure to follow with fighters and medication depending on the severity of the injury. Most doctors never had to use it and it was buried deep in one file or another. Fighters had basic skills in first aid and tried to patch their squadmates up before going over to a doctor. Things that weren't so common like acid or broken bones required the attention of a doctor and most of the time the fighters realized that. "How far?" Storm asked. "It's not too much farther," Erik s

Sometimes I couldn't tell what was a dream and what was real. I used to be able to tell. They used to be worse at hiding the imperfections and keeping me from remembering. But when I woke up in that alcove and felt the stark absence of Violet's mind I knew that something was wrong. It might have been that it was a dream but Violet's voice wasn't one I could hear and I could always hear her voice even through the perpetual rain. That was more important. I sat up and moved out of my alcove in an attempt to find her like moving around would help. I eased onto the platform and stood up. The platform was a bit like a balcony and a bit like a wal