Masks

[Vecilea]

Spoiler: Theme

Hotchkiss retreated back to her 'bedroom' inside of the camp. Hidden and out of sight she removed her helmet and lightly tossed it onto the sleeping bag as she unfastened the sling of her rifle. Gently it was propped up against the wall while she took the moment to remove her vest and the CCA trench coat to hang up to dry from her sweat from the day. Hotchkiss took a second to rub her face in a useless attempt to wipe the stress and exhaustion from her face away, an exhausted sigh escaping her lips as they sat down. Slowly unfastening her boots and letting her sore feet breathe finally from twelve hours of work.

Without thought she unbuttoned her uniform and folded it, setting it down neatly next to her bedroll before she finally allowed herself a moment to lie down on her back and think while in a state of minor relaxation. Again she tried to wipe away the stress from her face, wrinkles forming under her eyes and across her forehead from overthinking the past few days. "Merde." They muttered, closing their eyes and lightly taping a closed fist against their forehead. Her mind raced with all the information she had been given the past few days. Trey's sudden regression back into the unions clutches frightened her, although she would never admit it. Her eyes weakly opened as her hand slipped off of her face and onto the wooden flooring.

"What am I even doing here?" she thought to herself as her eyes peered down over her lips towards the ladder that lead to her hidden space. "Fucking Christ Eloise.... think, could you have been mem-repped?" she asked herself, softly groaning, shutting her eyes and flipping onto her side to curl up into a loose fetal position as she interrogated her own mind more and more. Her vocal state increased in intensity but not volume until she bit down on her tongue to silence herself. Seconds blurred with the minutes, minutes with the hours as she tossed and turned for what felt like eternity

"Enough!" she said out loud, sitting up in a hurry and checking the watch on her wrist.

'03:00'

She stared at her watch for several seconds before looking away and to the helmet in the corner beside her. Slowly she reached out and drug it across the fabric into her lap. The faint blue glow of the visor caught her attention like an angler light in the depths. Her fingers tapped along the dirty faceplate, then slipping the helmet back onto her head. The claustrophobic space calmed her as the familiar white noise from the ear acted as her lullaby. She scooted back into the wall, crossing her legs and grabbed her AKM. They checked the mag and the chamber before holding it tight to her chest like a toy for a child. Her nerves slowly faded, their breathing grew slow and heavy.

"Nine fucking years, and I still can't sleep without this helmet on." she whispered to herself. The vocoder spiking and producing soft static as the words were barely transmitted. They fell asleep shortly after.