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 hangman

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[ailerons]

[ Unseen, unreal. Jake brushes it off the way he brushes off the roil of things that happen both in this house and outside of it. But it settles something subconsciously, anyway. The way he feels seconds before being airborne, or when uneven terrain smooths into the long, unending quiet of flight above the seas. A knot loosens. (Tonight, he'll sleep an extra half hour he wouldn't have otherwise.) ]

Sure does
After a while. Maybe a year.
Plenty of things make up the measure of a man after you see combat

[ Which, he supposes, they all have, now. Regardless of what it was like before they woke up in this house. Jake runs his tongue over his teeth and reads It wasn't their fault, they didn't choose to hurt us, but I'm still angry and knows that there is not a soul in this place that would fault Koby for it. And that, he thinks, is perfectly fine. Even if Koby's melts away, Jake's won't. And that's what loyalty is. You pick up what those you owe put down. ]

You know, this is the first time I have ever believed you are a marine
Hooyah
And I'm holding you to that agreement
0430 hours you said?

[kobes]

[koby thinks: there is a boy made of rubber in a world made of ocean and the first time koby saw it, saw the strange, illogical, bizarre magic of that boy, it skipped off the surface of his mind like a stone on still water. he thinks of that, because jake never addresses the unseen nudges and glancing moments of here, but he doesn’t resist them either. he doesn’t quite know how to thank him for that, yet.]

A year? Really?
I mean, I’ve been here for a year, I suppose.
Things that were awful when I arrived don’t feel quite as sharp anymore.

[the nightmares he’d had at the beginning, the ship, the bloodied deck, the pitch and roll of the hull beneath him. now koby only thinks about there, her with a glancing ache, now and again.]

I think it’s “oorah”.
I’m not that sort of Marine, though, Jake, I told you.

0430. I’ll be there. Don’t let me quit after 100 pushups, either.