-- ( in the light

[Kieron Somhairle]

THE TRUTH COMES OUT IN THE BREAKDOWNS
( • M E M O R I E S M Y G O D T H E S E M E M O R I E S • )

Out for a walk, it certainly seemed as though Kieron was stretching his multi-tasking skills to the limit. A cup of coffee and a cigarette in one gloved hand and Codi's leash in the other. The snowstorm had been unexpected but welcome, the blustery air was so...comforting, as if the chilly climate could further reassure him that he was not anywhere near desert sands and screaming that had haunted his nightmares for the past several weeks. Felix was dropping hints more frequently about going in for therapy but Kieron carried on as if he had not heard, feigning deafness in order to keep his temper (which had grown considerably) in check. The warmth of the coffee slowly filtering through the insulation of his gloves, palm sweating slightly as snowflakes swirled and landed atop the cup only to melt seconds later.

Codi was in love with the weather, sticking her muzzle into snow banks and attacking the falling snow with playful snaps of her extremely powerful jaws. Kieron knew that he was anthropomorphizing but he swore he could see the smile stretch up from her mouth to touch her highly intelligent amber eyes. The only creature that could successfully make him smile for more than a passing second, her history about as colorful as his own. Really, if anyone knew the story behind how Kieron came to have her in his possession they would probably be thrown for a loop. Codi, full name Codia was a retired bomb detection canine that had once belonged to Kieron's battle buddy, killed in action before Kieron had been shipped home. David and the rest of the squad had been out doing routine patrols of the perimeter when Codi's brother Basco had flagged an area. They had successfully located homemade explosive materials outside an abandoned house and had decided to call it a day shortly after.

On the ride home Kieron and Codi had been writing in the Humvee right behind them when their transport hit the first set of IEDs. The eardrum shattering screech of twisted metal as it flew through the air and the instant snarl of fear and adrenaline cascading down his spine was something the young Marine would never forget. The screams of his comrades as they were ambushed rang in the air as shots fired rata-tat-tat-tat-tat and the scintillating metal that melted the air like an oil pastel. David was crawling away, burned and bleeding with his hand wrapped around Zasko's collar buried under the doggie flak jacket they wore. The poor dog was dead, not that the Marine that was hauling him noticed. He was screaming for help as Kieron and Codi spilled out the Humvee, a harsh command in Dutch stopping the young Malinois from running into the line of fire. Roars of anger in both English and Arabic peppered the air as Kieron picked off men hanging from the ceiling, tears streaming down his face as he scuttled toward David reaching out before a bullet thunked into his head and silenced him forever.

The reinforcements eventually arrived and the uprising was squashed, finding Kieron soaked in David and Zasko's blood with Codi sitting next to him, whining at the inexplicable nature of her handler and brother's deaths. When he was being shipped home he demanded Codi come with him and his commanding officer agreed without argument. She'd been with him through the recuperation, the surgeries to remove the shrapnel from his back and take care of the acid abrasions burns. Where ever he was Codi was never far behind, the quiet support the canine provided just enough that Kieron didn't jump off the nearest bridge or put a gun to his head after delivering the news of David's death to his fiance.

Feeling a tug at his pant leg he snapped out of his reverie to see the dog staring up at him. Smiling ever so slightly he bent down to tousle her ears, watching her tail sweep a path on the sidewalk where they had paused. Remembering his cigarette he attempted to flick the ash away but instead he sent the damn thing flipping down the front of his coat and it was only a moment before it started to burn.

" Fuck! Fuck! " Tossing his coffee and ripping off his jacket he began to shake nearly convulsively trying to get the cigarette out of his shirt.

THEY DON'T MEAN ANYTHING OH THOSE MEMORIES
( • A S Y O U S P O K E Y O U R F O R K E D T O N G U E S H O W E D • )

W O R D S • 750
T A G G E D • Cora <3
L Y R I C S • memories by lion if ido
T E M P L A T E • PANIC! ITS LAUZ of CAUTION
N O T E S • kinda shitteh, i'll get better promise!

[Cora Giovanni]

-----The snow was a big surprise, particularly when it decided to precariously descend in Southern California, of all places. The natives of the state were marveling in the white blanket that was slowly creeping down to the earth, kids catching the flakes on their tongues, sledding, teenagers shoveling sidewalks for money. It all looked like it should be on the front of a postcard, pulled right out of a Hallmark movie. It was picturesque in every sense of the word, and most of the people were taking advantage of it since this type of weather didn't come around all too often on the west coast. Cora Giovanni was amongst those cheerful souls embracing the rarely cold temperatures. She’d always loved snow, ever since she was a little girl, but since she’d come to the United States from her home of Florence, Italy, she hadn’t been exposed to it much. When she first came here she was living in Miami, Florida; and to snow there? Well that would have been even more amazing than snowing on this side of the country. Then from Miami she moved to Valkyrie, and those were really the only two places she’d been in the U.S.A. for longer than twenty-four hours, Los Angeles excluded since she had family there. It was blissful to finally see some cold weather again. When she lived in Italy, her and her brothers, Rafael and Arturo, would travel to pleasant wintry scenes such as the one now before her, but that all ended when she’d met Matthias. She hadn’t really been on good terms with Rafael since, and Arturo, being younger, followed his lead in giving her a cold shoulder. They were still loving, but colder, and not very happy. Especially Rafael. He was one hundred percent behind the powerful mafia business her family was behind, and while Cora wasn’t against it, she wasn’t so dedicated that she was going to sacrifice her chance at love for it. Matthias was in the American Army, and that didn’t sit well with most of her family. Some of them were neutral, not really angry with her for it, but disappointed. Others weren’t very happy at all. As far as she could recall, Tony, her uncle who was a year older than she was, had been the only one to be, well, happy for her when she met him. But he disappeared shortly afterwards, and she hadn’t seen him since. So she dealt with the criticisms. It wasn’t that bad. They couldn’t have been that upset with her, because they did accept her back amongst them afterwards. They didn’t disown her, and she wasn’t talked about poorly by anybody but Rafael, who still didn’t say anything too harsh. She was still his baby sister, and he was still extremely protective over her. He came to the funeral when Matthias died, so that was a form of support, though he was probably the happiest person there. It didn’t bother her at the time, mainly because that was the beginning of Cora’s own personal dark ages. Nothing had mattered then. It was like she was drowning and she didn’t resurface until the moment she met Arietta.

-----Oh, Arietta. She really was the light of Cora’s life. Those nine months she was pregnant and alone without Matthias because he’d died, well, she was a different person then. Darker, more dead than alive. It was amazing to her how far the love for one little girl could take her, how it could it could pull her up and out of the deepest hole she’d ever gotten herself into. Looking back, she regrets those days. She has always felt guilty for considering the extreme measures she did and the neglect she’d given her family, the endless weeks of no contact where they’d been so worried but she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing she was okay, that she was alive. She’d kept in touch with Josie, Matthias’s cousin, and now Arietta’s godmother, but only vaguely. After Arietta was born though, she’d confided in her closest cousin, Violetta, about how drastically depressed she really had been. It made her stronger though, and she wouldn’t go back and change anything. Cora had reached her happy place in life, and though it almost hurt her to think it, happier than she’d ever felt with Matthias alive. It was all Arietta’s doing though. She owed the little girl so much. Arietta was her biggest fan, her hero, her best friend, and her savior. When she says the little girl rescued her or saved her life, she really isn’t exaggerating. She can’t imagine how different things would have ended up without Arietta. It sends chills down her spine to even consider her own fate, what she may have done in the moment of reckless sadness she had been experiencing. Her daughter was somebody she would do anything for, anything. It didn’t matter if that meant traveling across the Sahara desert barefoot. Of course, that was a little extreme, but she felt such an undeniable love for the girl that she was convinced she would, no matter what.

-----Christmas was closing in on her, and Cora was beginning to feel the stress. When you had only around seven million family members, or so, it was a long and slow process to managed to find a present for every single one of them. She wasn’t sure they’d all bring presents around, but Cora wanted to. She was extremely devoted to her family and wanted to show them her love through little objects that mimicked their personalities. She’d been Christmas shopping since July and still had presents to buy. Not to mention, she’d thought she heard one of her cousins mention Tony was somewhere in the area a few days ago, and she had full intentions of hunting him down like a helpless animal and having a some sort of celebration. She knew he wasn’t entirely on good terms with the rest of the family, but Cora genuinely liked him. No need to get carried away though, she had to have that little rumor confirmed before she got all excited about what she was planning for that. For all she knew, Tony was in Persia, homeless and having a monkey stealing money for him… though that seemed fairly unlikely. Her parents and brothers were coming for the holidays, and she was extremely happy about that, hopefully Rafael will have warmed up to her again and they could be best friends as they used to be. She’d just been out shopping for them and a few friends from the university. Lord, how she loved Christmas. It was always such a happy, peaceful time, the atmosphere filled with joy. Her big family would come together, and then it would be a real party. Not to mention she loved what Christmas celebrated; the birth of Jesus Christ. Cora had always been religious, though she refused to belong to a particular religion. Christ’s birth was one of her favorite stories, and it had been since she had gone to that private Catholic school as a teenager. That was when she first really got into her whole “I love God” trend. She disagreed with a lot of religions, and agreed with a lot of them too, so she just considered herself part everything. It was nice to think some greater good was always out there watching over her, that somebody loved her so much to give their life for her. Christmas was love. That was really the definition that played out in her mind for the word. Love. And she loved shopping. Her and Arietta had been in the process of walking home from their Christmas shopping when the strangest thing occurred.

-----A burly, somewhat familiar looking, she figured she’d seen him at the U or something, man had been walking in her direction with his dog, and looked pretty dazed for a minute, then all of a sudden it looked like he suddenly, and intentionally, flicked his cigarette into his coat. And then he started break dancing and threw his coffee. Arietta began giggling uncontrollably. It was convenient these days now that she could walk. Cora set her down muttering, ”Che diavolo idiota?” in Italian (which translated to What the hell you idiot? in English)under her breath, and jogged over to the man, seeing the glow of the cancer stick easily from here third person standing. She reached over at him, trying to avoid being attacked by his frantic jerking, snatched the little burning thing, and threw it over her shoulder. Then she jumped back and gave the man an Are you stupid? look, ”Huh, you’re like a walking hazard for my daughter. Jerking, cigarettes, cussing, and throwing coffee? Avrei preso a calci nel culo, se avesse fatto male...”

[/color] she snapped in a fiery, thickly accented tone, adding in an I would have kicked your ass if it hurt her, in Italian. She looked around all of a sudden, and Arietta was standing near the dog, just staring at her, ”Mama? Can I pet de doggy?” she asked very quietly. Cora looked at the man, raising an eyebrow.
[/blockquote][/blockquote]

TAGGED!Kiera or Coran. xD I have no clue.
STATUS! Complete!
MUSE MUSIC! ---
NOTES! woooo.

[Kieron Somhairle]

THE TRUTH COMES OUT IN THE BREAKDOWNS
( • M E M O R I E S M Y G O D T H E S E M E M O R I E S • )

He is a moving, churning disaster of a person. There is nothing about him that hints to the contrary, he is not organized and he is not full of plans for the future because he can barely get through the day. Kieron does not say anything to betray the fact that there is something wrong, he knows that everyone is falling apart at the seams, they just don't notice it or they are better at hiding it than he might be. Sometimes he thought that maybe he could control these flashbacks, the sounds that brought him back to that awful place...that horrible day in particular. In the back of his mind he knows that someday he might actually hurt someone and there's no coming back from that. You're a ticking time bomb. And now his life is tick, tick, ticking away as he waits for some kind of absolution--a spark to reignite the dying embers.

There were so many pieces to pick up and glue back together that he had no idea how he was ever going to find them all. Large chunks of the man he used to be had long since been buried in the deserts of some god-forsaken country where men used religion as an excuse to cut away life and launch war. Humanity seemed like a sinking ship and Kieron was just another dumb fuck without a life vest.

The snow whirls around them, Codi's expression one of doggy confusion at her human's antics. He barely noticed the two figures that were approaching him, a short bark of laughter escaping his lips at the ridiculous nature of his dance. Cigarettes: 1, Kieron: 0. And the worst part was that he no longer had any coffee to ease the pain of embarrassment as the woman and her child drew closer and were witness to the queer dance. They probably thought he had some kind of standing epilepsy or something. Awesome.

And to add insult to injury the little girl was giggling at him and he was sure that if Codi was a human she might be doing the same thing at this point. A blur of dark honey hair flew across his line of vision as the woman drew near, plucking the burning cigarette out of his jacket, stopping the path of further burn holes from wreaking more havoc on his clothes. Add a smattering of Italian in there and the woman was suddenly rather familiar to him. His lips twitched imperceptibly as he took a moment to recover himself, jerking his clothing back in place in an attempt to make himself look more presentable. A boyish grin tweaked and stretched itself over his mouth, " I feel like I know you, have I pissed you off before? "

A chuckle reverberated in his throat as something clicked and he wisely took a step back, just in case he got a smack. " Hey, I can't control where my cigarette wants to go...mind of it's own an all that. "

His attention drawn down to the rosy-cheeked little girl that was now staring with interest at Codi. A more revealing smile briefly flitted across his face before it fell away and he nodded, [color=5c9b63]" Go right ahead, Codi's a friendly girl. "

[/color] Unlike some broads I know. The canine was now made aware of the human child's interest and started forward, tongue lolling and a lazy wag of her tail heralding her friendly intent.

Most people didn't know this but a wagging tail was not always friendly, it all depends on the placement of the tail. If it's high and fast the dog is aroused and predatory, middle height and slow languid strokes meant relaxed and friendly, tucked under was highly submissive and almost fearful. Kieron had learned these things from David, his passion for training dogs had somewhat rubbed off on Kieron and now he was almost entertaining the idea of taking his female and putting her through protection training trials. Malinois were normally very high energy, very high strung in general. Kieron had been forced to read up on them, most of his pets from the past where simply domesticated furballs in the form of labs and golden retrievers. He had never had a dog that never seemed to tire, never seemed to slow down. Codi was moving at a mile a minute, always investigating and introducing herself to people as if she sensed that he needed people as much as he tried to avoid them.

Watching Codi inspect the little girl he could not help but smile slightly, wishing that he still had that sense of wonderment that only children and animals seemed to possess. The world was so big to them, the things he found trivial were shiny and new. Every experience a new adventure.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]
THEY DON'T MEAN ANYTHING OH THOSE MEMORIES
( • A S Y O U S P O K E Y O U R F O R K E D T O N G U E S H O W E D • )[/center]

W O R D S • 822
T A G G E D • Cora <3
L Y R I C S • memories by lion if ido
T E M P L A T E • PANIC! ITS LAUZ of CAUTION
N O T E S • awww, little kids are so cutee!