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Post by dj1678 on May 17, 2010 23:22:34 GMT -5
Arieta stormed out of her tent positioned in the camp along the coast of South Africa, near where the Llew Llaw Gyffes was parked. A whirlwind of papers followed in her wake, several hitting Aurem in the face as he tried to follow her out the door. "I've had it!" she screamed in the general direction of the command tents, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. The papers started to settle as she stopped a few paces from the tent under a tree. Aurem watched silently, waiting for the right words to come to mind. He thought he should have been used to her occasional emotional outbursts by now, but this one felt a little different. "It'll be alright, we only have a little more to go..." Aurem said quietly. "A little more?" Arieta asked sarcastically while turning to face him. "Oh, sure, maybe a little more paperwork this time, but you know there will be more. Paperwork doesn't win wars." There had been a lot more paperwork to do recently, Aurem admitted to himself, but it wasn't like Arieta to get emotional over something as mundane as that... Usually. Aurem stood silently once again, looking Arieta in the eye, trying to guess what she was really feeling. "That's not what's really bothering you, is it?" He finally asked. Arieta collapsed onto herself into a sitting position on the ground. A cloud of dust rose around her in a ring and slowly settled as she continued to sob. "No..." Aurem ignored the paper that floated past. It was a blank form with no real information on it yet. Probably the same as most of the papers scattered around the area now. Furthermore it was the kind of paperwork that wasn't particularly time sensitive or important. Just the paperwork that needed doing, that those higher up were too busy to deal with. They could print off more when Arieta was ready to work again if they need them. Aurem sat beside Arieta and gently pulled her into a hug, hoping to calm her down enough to talk. She needed to vent. "I'm just so... tired. Tired of you, or me, or us ever getting getting any recognition... for anything. Instead we just get called... Weird." Arieta finally said before burying her face into her knees. Aurem understood now. They had been part of the crowd that had gathered at dawn a few days earlier to witness Lieutenant Ferdinand's outburst. Aurem suspected that the Lieutenant had been under a lot of stress and that his outburst probably sounded worse than he really meant. Much the same as Arieta was feeling right now. But that didn't stop it from hurting all the same. With nothing to say and only his presence to comfort her, Aurem waited patiently for Arieta to regain her composure, while watching the storm clouds on the horizon begin slowly to roll in toward them. It would probably be a long while before that paperwork got done. And I thought he cared... |
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Post by flippmoke on May 18, 2010 14:53:06 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Lt. Nigel Ferdinand was dealing with a similar problem in digging through a pile of paperwork, signing various things, and quickly skimming another pile of papers as he sorted through everything necessary.
"Our other action report from two days ago, said we killed eight Zeek tanks, but this damn thing says we only killed five," muttered Nigel as he sighed at the after action report from one of the members of the 42nd.
"I am pretty sure it was just five," stated Kyle Webb as he was sitting next to Mike Rhea helping dig through a pile of papers they had to deal with as well.
"Alright, well I need to correct this before sending along with our report to the higher ups, they always find something to bitch about," said Nigel as he grabbed a pen to correct the number in an inglorious manner.
"Why the fuck are we always doing this shit anyhow?" bitched Mike as he was putting the final numbers on the medical supplies for the unit into order.
"Because, and this might be a surprise to all of you, but the Federation military is very political," joked Nigel as he pulled out another sheet of paper noting the final count on units killed from their attack on the supply fleet.
"Maybe if they realized we were the best damn unit in the war, they would send us more supplies so we could end this retarded thing," said Kyle with a smile as he too was attempting to finish up a report on the number of causalities the 42nd had received in their capturing of the Hogan.
"Damn straight," continued Mike as he looked up from his work, "If they would have given us the resources we needed we could have kicked the fucking Zeeks off all of Africa by now."
"You guys have no idea how lucky we are to have received the resources we did," said Nigel with a slight laugh as he looked at them as well, "if I didn't have you guys helping me with all this damn paperwork, we wouldn't have gotten jack shit more then likely."
"Maybe its not the paper work but your glowing personality," said Kyle with a thick amount of sarcasm in his voice.
Suddenly the entire group heard some sobbing outside the tent, and Nigel knew pretty much instantly what was occuring.
"Be back guys, I have to go play marriage counsellor," said Nigel as he made his way out of the tent. As he approached the entrance to the tent he saw a set of folding chairs, which he promptly grabbed three of before heading out to Aurem and Arieta who were in the dust.
With out saying a word, Nigel folded out each of the chairs, with two facing each other and one sitting between them as if Nigel was setting up a small office. Sitting down in the middle chair and crossing his legs, Nigel said, "the Doctor is in."
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Post by dj1678 on May 19, 2010 1:02:51 GMT -5
Arieta was just starting to calm down when Lieutenant Ferdinand pulled his chairs up, seeming to invite them to join him for some kind of counseling session. She had her crying under control by now, but when she lifted her face out of her knees, her eyes were red and it pretty clearly said she was not happy with her new visitor.
"You think we need your 'services' right now? We both heard what you said about us while you were belittling poor Private Siggurdson. If we're such a burden on you, then why don't you just have us shipped off to a new unit?" Arieta spat with all the venom of a rattlesnake about to strike.
Without even bothering to wait for a response, she got up, dusted off her skirt and started to walk back toward the tent.
"I hate you." She said over her shoulder as she paused for a moment, her voice sounding very hurt. Venom delivered.
Aurem sat dumbstruck looking first at Arieta, then at Lieutenant Ferdinand, then back to Arieta. He wanted to help Arieta, he felt as she did, but there had to be better ways to deal with it. Aurem felt like he was about to watch a horrible train-wreck and had no idea who to call an ambulance for first.
Help... Aurem though as he looked back at Kyle Webb who was standing in the command tent's door, observing from a safe distance.
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Post by flippmoke on May 19, 2010 12:15:54 GMT -5
Sure it hurt Nigel a little that Arieta hated him, partially because he did care about the people in his unit, but it wasn't his job to manage the fragile emotions of a woman. It was only his concern that they were able to keep their fighting edge in battle, they would thank him in the long run if they were able to survive the war because of it.
"Arieta my dear, I love you very much and I could care less that you hate me, but you are the giant fairy in a robot to Aurem, he loves you and if you are upset it makes him fight poorly. So then I have to deal with your relationship, so that both of you are the killing machines I need you to be," said Nigel in a very forced calm voice.
Nigel let out a deep breath as he worked very hard to keep his cool, unlike his previous performance knowing that it would get him no where with Arieta. Nigel could tell that Arieta was about to respond and brought his finger up motioning Arieta to give him a second.
"Not a word Arieta, give me a second, I will be right back, I am going to get something," said Nigel as he got up from his chair, before quickly jogging away into the tent, much to the surprise of Kyle Webb who wasn't sure still was going with the entire affair.
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Post by dj1678 on May 19, 2010 15:07:50 GMT -5
Arieta obediently waited as Lieutenant Ferdinand trotted off to retrieve... whatever it was he was retrieving. She glared daggers into the back of his head until he was out of sight, then relaxed and sank back into the dust, tired from all her emotions.
Aurem wondered why Lieutenant Ferdinand thought it was necessary to intervene at all. Sure they occasionally had issues, but so did everyone, and never once had Aurem thought it got in the way of him doing his job on the battlefield. He thought the same was true for Arieta too.
"Perhaps he's bringing you a fish, a re-gift from Private Siggurdson?" Aurem asked her quietly.
"All I wanted was an apology..." Arieta responded almost to herself.
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Threid
Full Member
Tachiagare, GANDAMU!
Posts: 385
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Post by Threid on May 19, 2010 16:56:27 GMT -5
Kyle had just escaped another crew meeting with Lt. Gerard, and was wandering aimlessly about, walking quickly. Wandering quickly around with no particular goal was exactly what he needed to balance the no-nonsense, blinders-on, single-objective focus of Lt. Gerard. Twenty minutes of walking for every hour of crew meeting seemed about right.
He brushed past Lt. Ferdinand, and saluted smartly as the man disappeared between a few tents; his commanding officer obviously had a destination in mind. Ahead, he spied Arieta and Aurem. His memories of the pair were good, on average - even if Arieta was a little crazy, what with the throwing large pieces of glass and all. He was glad that the two had survived this long together. Granted, he was a little angry at them for looking so disappointed when they hadn't really lost anyone important to them in the war - at least, no one that Kyle knew. And even if they had, they still had each other, and that was worth a lot, wasn't it? The thoughts darkened Kyle's mood considerably.
He didn't change course as he caught Aurem's eye, and didn't heed the warning in his eyes when he sat down. Kyle was tired of being sensitive to people's emotions, and tired of bumbling into and out of things. The pair looked less-than-happy, and that was fine with Kyle; he wasn't too happy either. They said that misery loved company, didn't they? Well, Kyle was about to test whether it was true or not. He said nothing as the dust fell around him, only stared at Aurem, half blankly, half accusingly.
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Post by flippmoke on May 24, 2010 9:25:40 GMT -5
It took Nigel a short while shuffling through things in his foot locker to find exactly he was searching as it really had dawned on him that he would ever really want it. However, after enough searching he was able to find what he wanted and soon was trotting back to the two who were waiting for him to return. Nigel slowed down as he approached them both a little embarrassed that he was even lightly jogging and approached Aurem.
Standing between Aurem and Arieta, Nigel leaned over and put a couple things into in Aurem's hands as he whispered into his ear.
"This was my mother's ring, I don't have much of an attachment to it, so I would be happy if you would have it," said Nigel as he pulled his hand back from Aurem's to reveal a massive solitaire diamond ring that once belonged to the Queen.
Turning around as if nothing was different Nigel went and sat down again between the two of them.
"Alright where were we? Ah yes," commented Nigel as he moved to get comfortable once again in the chair.
"You were complaining about me telling the truth, that everyone obviously knows, that you two are in love and that every time you have a problem you make poor Aurem feel like he failed terrible somehow for you and then I have to come sweep up the pieces so that my best shot in the unit is still the best shot in the unit."
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Threid
Full Member
Tachiagare, GANDAMU!
Posts: 385
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Post by Threid on May 24, 2010 21:19:12 GMT -5
This did not look like a fun situation, and Nigel's openness in front of Kyle embarrassed him, in spite of his relatively low social skills. But, since he'd already sat down, and neither Aurem nor Arieta had returned his gaze, or even seemed to notice him, he remained sitting, listening. He'd leave if ordered, or if Aurem or Arieta wanted, but until then, he just didn't feel like it.
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