Chapter Four, B :: Return Flight

[ST]

Okay, since I locked the "State of the Inhumane" thread, all of the characters from that thread should now post here.

Let's say this thread starts with the lab group (Jaime, Van, Reese, Stella & Crying Hostage Lady) all having just reached and boarded the Aegean. They are now aboard the airship just kind of waiting for everyone else to finish their missions and come aboard so they can all fly back to Balamb together.

Obviously Hadrian's group won't be able to join up here because that group is already on their way back to Balamb aboard another airship. So basically all we are now waiting on is for the Broadcast Tower group to escape the collapsing Broadcast Tower and mad-dash it back to the Aegean.

I guess we'll just leave that thread open for everyone to finish their posting, and then whenever someone is comfortable doing it, they can make a big finishing post for that thread summarizing the groups' escape and then all those characters can move to this thread? I wouldn't mind doing the post but I have no idea how much more everyone still wants to post there, so I don't want to cut it short if people still have posts in mind that they want to make...

*shrug* Anyway, this'll be the thread for the return flight, which brings the two groups back together. whenever we're all ready for that ^_^

[Reese]

Reese stepped up into the Aegean at the rear of the group and slid the steel door into place behind him. Jaime and Vanesse half-carried and half-dragged the fainted lab technician to one side of the cabin and sat her down, propping her into a sitting position against the wall.

Reese's eyes lingered on the woman as her head fell forward limply, her chin pressing into her chest. "Get her conscious. Now." He said the words stiffly, almost like an order. He turned away from the doorway and stepped further into the cabin, pulling off his coat as he moved. His movements were slightly jarred, his shoulders tense. Let's hope this scientist was worth the effort, Hyne know she's the only halfway fucking decent accomplishment of this entire mission. he scowled at the thought, holding the coat in one hand as he rummaged through the inner breast pocket with the other.

Now that they were out of harm's way and he could afford to feel anger, he found himself growing angrier and angrier by the second. He couldn't help but chance a glare in Vanesse's direction.

Dumb bitch.

His gaze shifted back downward toward his coat. Maybe he was being volatile, but fuck it. There was so much at stake for him -- too much. He wasn't a part of this mission because it was the 'right' thing to do. He wasn't trying to make a difference in the world and beat the 'bad guys.' He had absolutely no noble intentions. He was in this for himself, period. He was in this to earn back his freedom. If not for the tether Leonhart had on him, Reese wouldn't have any part in this shit. And after this miserable failure, who's to say that tether would be cut?

Seizing it finally, he pulled his silver flask out of the pocket and dropped the coat into one of the cabin seats. He unscrewed the cap on the flask quickly and brought it to his lips, knocking his head back and taking down everything the container had left.

"... Then escape from here."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, her voice echoed. He pulled the flask away from his mouth and screwed the cap back on, remembering that night in the hall outside the ballroom and wondering if she seriously meant the words.

[jaimelewis]

From the moment that hideous monster's head rolled around on the ground after being decapitated by Reese's gunblade, Jaime fell into some kind of trance. It was like her head was encased in a glass bubble and her body was an entirely seperate entity. She barely managed to help Van carry the sobbing hostage who soon became a sagging hostage and they had to bodily drag her up the airship depositing against one of the walls. Was it really over? Despite her reassurances to Lawric that she was 1000% ready for the mission there was still a sliver of doubt that she could pull through intact. She couldn't wait until they were face to face and she could tell him in no uncertain terms that she did it. Maybe he would be proud of her. Fat chance, but one could always hope.

So why was there an insistent little nag at the back of her mind that they had missed something?

"Get her conscious. Now." Reese ordered stiffly.

Jaime stared, raising an eyebrow at his tone. What was he so uptight about?

"Okaaay...Mr. Leader." She mumbled under her breath and crouched down before the unconscious lady releasing a gentle Curaga to rouse and heal her. "It's okay." She tried to sooth the woman with a comforting pat on her back, but the woman cried and cowered from physical contact. "You're safe with us, promise! We ain't gonna do nuthin' to you. Hey Reese! The lady's awa--" She stopped gabbering and gawked at the silver flask in Reese's hand. "What's that? Drinking good stuff all by yourself? Don't you know you should share with your comrades? That's the way you build rapport and teammate bonding."

(Ugh she is so slow and annoying)LOL I can just see Reese's throbbing temple vein.

[Reese]

Reese's gaze flicked over to Jaime, his face a mask of pure annoyance.

"That's the way you build rapport and teammate bonding."

And in that moment, Jaime was to Reese as a splash of gasoline would be to fire. His eyes narrowed at her and he felt his pent-up anger burn a few degrees hotter. "Are you seriously always like this?" He spat at her incredulously. "Give it a rest. Do I look like I want to be your fucking friend? I don't."

He looked away, grabbing his coat up and shoving the empty flask back into its' pocket. He dropped it into the seat again and pulled a small silver tin out of one of his back pant pockets, then took a cigarette out of the tin and stuck it between his lips. He didn't so much as glance in her direction as he struck a match and lit it. She was probably either shocked, offended or hurt by his rudeness, maybe all of the above, and he didn't care to see the look on her face. He turned his body and fell down into one of the seats, still avoiding her gaze as he exhaled a stream of smoke.

Jaime's intentions were good, sure, and maybe under other circumstances he would be able to see that, but right now he was too deep in his mood to care about hurting someone else's feelings. And he didn't; he really didn't care.

[jaimelewis]

Jaime blinked slowly a couple of times at Reese's outburst. What the hell was wrong with him? He acted like a pregnant woman in the middle of an emotional rollercoaster. Jaime knew about pregnant women and their fits well enough. One of her lady boss at the cafeteria she used to work in was pregnant, and one fine day she screamed in the middle of serving a customer and dumped spaghetti on his head. Was it hormonal imbalance plaguing Reese? Or maybe it was constipation. He sure looked like he needed some purging.

Jaime stood up suddenly and stalked to where he was sitting. He had a cigarette in his mouth.

"Hey, you know, if you're acting cranky cos your body isn't well, you should drink some detox juice. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. We can still be friends after you've solved your problem and calmed down." She beamed at him, tilting her head at a childish angle and waited for his response.

---

Man I'm gonna miss RPing her

[Reese]

This girl was unbelievable. She chirped when she spoke, she grinned at every single feasible opportunity. She cocked her head to the side like a five year-old and had a bounce in her step like she'd just drank ten cups of coffee. She was cheerful to the point of being awkward and unnerving.

But it wasn't just these mannerisms that bothered him; no, there was much more to it. See, not only was she all of the above, but she pursued him. She had been at his heels since the start of the mission, reciting optimistic phrases like his own personal cheerleader robot and trying incessantly to 'make friends.' In fact -- and he never thought he would feel like this about someone -- but it was almost worst than having to work with Blaze. At least with Blaze he would glare, she would glare back, there might be an argument with some heavy language involved, but then it would die down and they would leave eachother alone while silently hating eachother until their next altercation. Blaze was a frequent pain in the ass, but not a constant one.

Jaime Lewis was definitely a constant one, and after that last nonsensical phrase he wasn't sure how he was going to keep from killing either her and himself. He looked up at her, positively glaring. "Calmed down?" His voice was hard-edged. He took a long drag off of his cigarette, then stood from the seat and didn't bother turning his head to the side as he blew all the smoke from his lungs. He got some small piece of satisfaction watching it rush straight at her through the air between their faces.

"Move," he said. He only gave her half a second to respond to the command before he lost patience and shoulder passed her and into the aisle. He walked toward ascending staircase at the back of the ship's cabin. "I'm going up to the cockpit to try and make contact with Leonhart at the Nobleman."

---

Reese sat in the pilot's seat with a headset on his head. He'd been able to fire up the communications system, but hadn't figured anything out beyond that. He didn't know the first thing about airships, so he didn't know how to search for another signal, let alone make contact with a hotel.

It wasn't long, however, before someone made contact with him.

"Ae--ean, do--copy?"

Leonhart? The sudden break in solid static almost startled him. He touched the headset button at his ear.

"Copy Sir, but I can barely understand you. Sir?"

There were several moments of static before he heard the voice again. "Aegean, do you copy?"

"Copy Sir, Amearick speaking." he replied loudly.

"Ridean will not be available to pilot the return flight. Program the ship's autopilot for Balamb Airstation and lift off as quickly as possible -- we need to get out of Timber. After the ship is landed, rendevous at the Nobleman. Understood?"

He frowned down at the control panel thoughtfully. Fucking hell... "Yes Sir." he responded distractedly.

[vanesse]

Vanesse stayed with the woman, absently fixing her clothes and hair. In all honesty, she was afraid to come near Reese. He looked like he was ready to punch her. She probably knew the reason why but was just playing dumb.

I did the right thing. We saved a person, didn't we? she thought to herself. She saw Reese angrily brush past them towards the cockpit, and she exhaled. She poked her head up the headseats for Jaime.

"Psst, Jaime," Vanesse called, lowering her voice. "It's me, isn't it? He's mad at me cuz of that Tornado spell."