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rockabye baby [ joining ] - adomania - 09-24-2018
[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]The air was starting to cool with the changing of the seasons, a welcome reprieve from the heat that had plagued the land for months now. She did not mind it as much as others, used to such sweltering temperatures, but that was when droughts were uncommon and she could actually stay hydrated, and, more importantly, she was younger and more capable of withstanding them. Now it took some extra effort on her part to not pass out from fatigue because of a little sun, but thankfully Ana was also fit enough to have it come easier than for others.
She worried most for the children and the elderly who did not spend their entire life training as she had. They were the most susceptible to the violent whims of mother nature, and even as the temperatures fell, with them came the threat of winters that could prove to be just as extreme. Not everyone was as hardy as those in the prime of their age, and even though many creatures that called themselves 'immortal' had started to pop up, there were still some out in the world that still needed to fight to survive. She was among them. Fighting was her lifestyle, and the lines of her face weren't getting any more shallow. Ana was growing old, too, and eventually, she would die as well... but that was how life simply went. There was nothing to fight. She had technically escaped the reaper's door already, and the next time around she suspected she wouldn't put up too much of a fight.
A low sigh escaped the feline's jaws, one eye blinking up at the clouded sky that foretold of rain. The storm was still behind her, but it was quickly catching up, rumbling in the distance. She wasn't afraid of a little bit of weather, but it was always nice to have somewhere to stay when it hit... and right now there was a rather obvious lack of suitable shelter anywhere around her. There was nothing but grass, grass and more grass before her, not even a hole or crevice in sight. No, the only way she had to go was forward, in hopes that there would be something there for her to find.
And she hoped she would find it quickly. The static in the air was starting to rise, the fur on her back mirroring it.
[ yells [member=1479]GABRIEL[/member] ]
Re: rockabye baby [ joining ] - GABRIEL - 09-24-2018
[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]He'd never minded the rain or the heat. Truth be told, he preferred them both at the same time, although with his wings now, he didn't think a downpour would be on his list of likes anymore. Damn feathers took the joy out of a lot, especially when he molted- not a fun experience whatsoever, but it wasn't all so bad. Sure, it was getting a little cooler, but it wasn't too awful yet, still hanging onto summer, and Laz had managed to scrape by in his absence, which was a bona fide miracle. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows in his head, considering that was nothing short of a mess he didn't know how to even begin cleaning yet, but it wouldn't kill him to relax a bit, now that he wasn't as consumed by paranoia as he'd been in The Typhoon. Here, he wasn't going to worry about more than the rain, and that was a damn relief.
He had his gaze skyward, keeping an eye on the coming storm as he took a routine patrol through the territory. Old habits died hard, and all of that. Gabe might've stepped down from his position way back when after burning out, but that wasn't a life he could leave behind him when aspects of it were ingrained, when he was still a soldier. Whether he was as capable of bringing good into the world was debatable, but responsibility and the necessity of checking borders were simple things he'd brought with him. The rest was...hanging around somewhere, packed in boxes in his head and kept in the corner, preferably to remain shut.
The world didn't always allow for that kind of forced closure, though, especially when it wasn't even closure at all. There were just people he didn't expect to see again, moments he would never return to, friendships he couldn't haul along, and Ana- when she'd left, her goodbye weary as she kissed his cheek, he'd felt he might never see her again, and even worse, he'd thought it would be for the best if they didn't. All the shit they'd pushed through, just for the cycle to restart anew. He should've gone with her, but he'd been too stubborn in the foolish way. Gabe had believed he could turn things around, make them better, but Ana had seen what he couldn't. She'd seen it, and she'd told him to be careful.
When he was backed in the corner, his instinct was to seek her out, find her sitting before a cup of tea like usual. He'd always imagined telling her he'd fucked up, and she'd say, "I know," before setting him straight. For obvious reasons, that hadn't been possible, and he'd passed himself over to the eggheads. Proof he couldn't make reasonable decisions without her around, right? Gabe had returned to that moment so many times, especially when he shouldn't, and he couldn't have anticipated that, on a regular day like any other, he'd find her, different yet so undeniably Ana that he couldn't breathe for a few seconds.
"Ana?" His voice was raw, mouth impossibly dry. "Ana, it's- it's Gabe."
[align=right][i]——INFO
Re: rockabye baby [ joining ] - adomania - 09-25-2018
[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]Old habits died hard, or so they said. All that Ana had gone through following her departure only seemed to further prove that theory, each second of her life spent doing nothing short of what she had already been doing before. Like Gabriel, she was a soldier beyond everything else, struggling with a responsibility she couldn't quite shake even after that life seemed to be so far away from her. She had followed her calling even after the fall of their dual organizations, staying true to what she had helped to create… helping those in need and doing her best to not become the villain of the sad story of their life.
It was quite a plot twist to have led her to this moment.
She did not recognize him at first, not in this body and with a lack of identifiable powers that would inherently help her. The hybrid was nothing but another face, a stranger who seemed to spot her all lonesome and perhaps aimed to either help what appeared to be an old lady out, or attempt to bite off more than he could chew by assuming she was weaker than she was. An easy smile was on her lips as he approached nevertheless, shouldering the pack of her meager belongings in preparation for what was to come… yet it dropped almost instantly at his words.
She froze, briefly unable to comprehend them, throat wavering as she swallowed thickly, unable to breathe. It took her a second to return to reality, metaphorical brows furrowing together less in frustration but more in concern, but eventually she found her voice and spoke.
"Gabriel..." her voice was soft yet undeniably charged with emotions she had done her best to never let go of. She had watched too many fade away into the corners of their mind, embittered by the passage of time and it’s constant torrent of suffering that seemed endless, and had done all she could to not become one of them. She still felt. She still ached, but at least she wasn’t numb to it all. Gabriel’s presence was a bittersweet testament to that, tugging at her heartstrings in ways she had not been prepared for.
She was more than prepared for the future. Revisiting the past, especially one as raw as theirs had been… something caught in her throat at the realization that she hadn’t expected this, that it had been so far in the corners of her mind, buried underneath false pretext of reality that urged her to forget this one hope. It had been too long for her to hold on to it so readily.
Perhaps it was wrong of her to assume she was seen well anymore, knowing very well how bitter emotions could get when such a long span of time had passed. Ana had missed him more than she cared to admit, though, and it was only natural that after the initial shock wore down her paws moved of her own accord, face butting gently into Gabriel’s chest, still a good length taller than her despite his significantly smaller size.
"This was the last place I expected to find you," she murmured after a while, a smile sad yet genuine pressed into his fur. Yet the unspoken words hung between them, heavy in their suffocating silence, for in reality it wasn't a stretch to believe that either of them would have died at that point. Life was precious, and as soldiers they both knew just how short it could be. She hadn't expected to see him at all, grizzled with age and in a body that didn't quite seem to fit the image she had memorized of him.
It was still him, though. She could recognize Gabriel from nothing more than his demeanor if that's all she was left with as an identifiable trait. And if he was here…
She pulled back to gaze up at him, faint hope flickering in her eye, although it was still carefully restrained. She shouldn’t get her hopes up. She didn’t know what had transpired between either of them, if they were still as close as they had been before… but she couldn’t help but be curious, especially when it came to matters like these.
”Is Jack with you?”