- Recurrance

*Tick-e-tack-a-tick-e-tack-a-tick-e-tack…*

The three blades of the beclad stealth chopper spinning could be heard throughout the chopper itself as a thumping heart beating, loud, deep, yet sounding muted, the blades were more than audible to all within, but not quite so loud that one couldn't be heard if they were speaking clearly. The cockpit had two sections to it, the centre, which held a bench, and not much else, aside from the people in the chopper, most of which were on this side of the division, rather than the other. If one were sitting on the bench, they'd face a compartment of the chopper that could open up, removing a part of the chopper's wall and even a bit of the floor, which was sometimes not appreciated a lot by people with a fear of heights. To the left of the bench was a flat wall, it had some equipment on it that had been put in compartments built into the wall itself, though the equipment had been mostly collecting dust for years now. On the right was another wall, but this one had just a door in it, a door that led to the other division of the cockpit, where the pilot would sit, in front of the control panel. There was also one other seat, but that seat didn't really have access to the control panel, it was mostly for a potential co-pilot or just company for the person flying the machine. Two seats there were in the division, and yet, for the first time in a long time, there were three people in it, and that while it was flying a few dozen metres above the ground. "So, what do you think we should do with the lad?" Layla spoke, not paying much attention to flying the vehicle she was to be in control of, there was an auto-pilot AI to do most of the work for her anyway, she figured. She was speaking to the man standing against the corner of the glass dome-like structure that allowed whoever was flying the thing to actually see where they were going, and the wall separating the pilot's part of the cockpit from the part that had the bench. Layla never really knew if there was an official name or task for that part, she concluded that it was probably the soldier's cabin or something along those lines, seeing as stealth choppers were mostly used for military purposes. "I… don't know yet. I wasn't expecting to find…" The man in black looked from Layla to the boy, still as asleep as when they first found him, with but a shred of disbelief in his eyes, which would show through his irises whenever he glanced upon the stranger, as if he was studying him, looking for something that may or may not be there. Oscar wasn't sure himself. "...a person." A moment of silence between the two passed, only filled up by the blades of the chopper spinning still, then Oscar stood up, no longer leaning against the corner of the walls, took less than a step over towards the boy in the passenger's seat, and adjusted him slightly.

"You sure being in here is safe for him? Because of the sound, I mean." Layla looked back at the control panel and started adjusting various sliders, buttons and variables, not looking at either of the two men to her right "I mean, are you fine?" "Yeah." Layla smiled, adjusted one last thing, then turned to face Oscar, her chair turning with her as she leaned against its side lazily "Then he is too!" The man standing simply stared at her, from far above as she was both laying on a chair and already had a shorter stature, his eyes appearing somewhat menacing to the pilot, though he didn't mean to overcome that way. "Well, he's probably fine, anyway." In the silence, Layla elected to look through the window at her front, or her current left, as her chair was still turned to face the two next to her. "I mean, lookin' at him, you probably know more of his health and safety than I do, no?" As her last word stung Oscar's ears, hidden behind his scarf, she made eye contact with him once more, but with more confidence than earlier, to try and communicate her point to the man clearly. The man looked out ahead of himself now, too, as his arms stilted on the dashboard, he was submersed in thought, stimulated by the droning on, and on, and on, and on, of the chopping blades, a constant, a sort of peace among the loud chaos that the noise itself was. 

"Ya know, Basil, I do hope you know that I can see what's goin' on with ya. Maybe you can hide it from everyone else but I know you too well for that, I've known you for too lo-""Don't call me that, Layla." With just one word, Oscar had been taken out of his trance, but was staring ahead still, his eyes focused with the stress they were experiencing, pushing them down, yet they remained clear open. "Sorry." Layla looked away from the glass, from the lights of the city, to the left, which was mostly darkness, but it was mostly not in the general direction of the man with her. She breathed in, then breathed out. "But that's my point, ya know!" She turned back to the front, and spoke again with her previous confidence, "I've known you for too long not to notice." The two made eye contact, one with a look of strange form of pity, and the other a far more regular sense of exhaustion. "And frankly, it kinda worries me that we have to notice by reading your movements." She looked down at the control panel to check everything was still alright, then spoke up as she faced Oscar, who was gazing at the city once more, its lights piercing through the dark in the distance. "I know that I would appreciate it if you just let me know how you feel sometimes." Oscar sighed, his breath taking his focus away from all else, into a silence not even the blades could sound through "I try."

The two went silent, as Layla slowly started sitting more and more up right, taking a proper breath once her back was aligned with the seat's, and it was facing the front once more. "On a brighter note, that was actually a pretty big first real step!" Oscar focused his eyes on her for a moment in her sentence, then back to his front as he nodded to himself, rocking back and forth a little "Yeah, I guess it was." Layla was astounded at this, or at least she arched her back and flexed the various muscles in her face to make it appear so "Guess? Guess!? Man everything went off perfectly! Here I thought we were gunna lose Nord!" Oscar didn't turn or change his mood, so she continued "I mean, the van went so smooth, and Nord's jump worked, there weren't any ambushes from those Legionnairries after the thing crashed, Anna actually did her job, and Red didn't have to step in, I mean everything went according to plan!" To this, the man standing simply looked at her, then looked downwards, towards the hair-filled-head of the stranger next to him, then back at Layla "Oh yeah, aside from that." Oscar pushed himself off the dashboard, standing up fully, and his contours turned from the optimism inspired by the purple-haired lady on his left, to a starker look, a common one for the man. "Do you think that he would approve?" "Who knows." 

For the duo, and possibly the young lad with them, the conversation was clear as day, yet on the opposite side of the division, the conversation was far more quiet, so much so, that it might as well not have existed due to the chopper blades, sounding more loudly in the back than the front, and the engine, which only the four in that part of the cockpit could hear, it being far closer to them than the pilot and entourage. "And then! I looked up, and could you believe it? These guys were playing my favourite song, so I was like "Oh hell yeah" and I started singing, and the two were so nervous, I mean at that point Red was there! So, like makes sense, And then I said ohman you can just sing along if youu wantman I mean why bother,even if I shoot chu, you gotta g'out inglory youknowandsohestartedsingingadnhteotherguyfeltpressuredtoo-" In the midst of Anna's story, a heavy, rough, hand was placed on her shoulder "Anna?" "-like'welcometohot-" she felt the hand on her shoulder, "Yes?" "You're spiralling, Anna, we can't understand a word you're saying." "Oh, right, sorry, I'll just go from the beginning again, then! So, you guys were there, and" once more the hand exerted pressure on the girl's right shoulder "Anna." "Yeah?" "I appreciate you, and we all love your enthusiasm, but we get the story, we were there when the plot twist at the end happened." Anna looked at the giant figure next to her, who was gently trying to nudge her to talk about something else, and understanding this, she decided to do so. "Well, alright." She put her hands behind her head, using them as a sort of cushion, as she leaned against the wall behind her, putting her legs up in the process "That went pretty well if you ask me!" The man on the right edge of the bench spoke up "I told you I wouldn't die!" Anna shrugged, "Guess I owe Feather 30 bucks." The small man on the rightmost seat burst into laughter at this comment "My life is only worth thirty bucks to you?" "Or cleaning for a week! Though honestly if I was him I'd've asked for more cash if that's what I'd have to do if I lost a bet." The girl defended herself from the man's accusatory joke. "Like, at least... 50 bucks, dude." Nord just shook his head to himself, the golem next to him chuckling a bit. 

For once, the figure on the opposite side of the bench to Nord spoke up with a gruff voice "...Riki definitely won't like this, now that I think about it." The girl next to her looked to her side a bit surprised at first, given that Red almost never spoke "Oh, yeah, no, Ricky definitely won't take this one easy." The larger man next to her was silent for a moment "It's- it's Riki." Anna looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, then just rolled her eyes "Who cares? He isn't here right now, anyway." "Yes, but it can hurt people if you don't get their names right." The man waited for confirmation, then continued "And, Anna, you have to keep in mind that names are important in his culture, so if he is there, it may be important to him if you get his name right." Once more, Anna looked over to the man next to her, but more with a shocked face than her last "His culture? The guy doesn't even wear his mask anymore." She looked to her side, where there was still someone, but, as it was just Red, Anna didn't really care "He doesn't give a damn." "Well, it might at least anger him, and nobody wants him angry." "...whatever."