[center][color=00a99d][h2]Ernest Mars[/h2][/color][/center]
[center][img]http://i68.tinypic.com/63x8xz.jpg[/img][/center][center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center][hr][center][color=silver]𝕄: 𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟙𝟜, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥   / /   𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔹  / /  𝟘𝟞𝟘𝟘[/color][/center][hr]
[quote][i]Pathetic fallacy.

Thomas Mars, the movie junkie he was, had tried to explain that fancy-sounding term to a half-asleep Ernest some million years ago. They were watching some film about real estate, something with way too many adults and way too much talking for a kid to care about. Lots of swearing, but still talk he didn’t understand. Ernest hadn’t been paying attention. But even so, the memory of being tickled awake by his laughing father was prominent enough to brand those words into Ernie’s mental dictionary.

His father had gotten yelled at for showing a nine-year-old a movie with so much profanity. They laughed about it afterwards.[/i][/quote]
Shitty weather for his shitty mood. Ernie didn’t like it. If he was going to be miserable and afraid, he wanted to do it in the sunshine. Sunday was spent holed up in his dorm, blankly sorting through the requisitions he had received earlier in the week. By the time he was rudely awoken by the persistent guards on Monday, the paralysing fear had thinned out to something manageable. USARILN staff ruining his sleep hours before class with no warning? It probably only meant one thing. Ernie yawned as he changed and reached for that weighty backpack he kept in his closet, the one he never used except for occasions like today.

[color=f7976a]“You’re not leaving yet. It’s just a briefing right now.”[/color]

[color=00a99d]“Oh. Right.”[/color]

With five missions under his belt, Ernie naturally assumed that he had the most combat experience in the room, though the word ‘experience’ was a stretch. All he’d done in those battles was stand in the back and shoot from a distance. Guard duty for the less offensively inclined in his team. In the end, experience was jackshit compared to power or skill, and he’d gained neither of the latter from his missions. But it was that deadweight duty that had kept him alive to this day. Not a really good achievement, considering his current circumstances. 

Ernie didn’t realise he’d zoned out until his name was called out with the rest of his team. Christmas and Zoe, huh? Geez, someone in the higher ups had a cute sense of humor, putting a bully and his victim in the same team. Not only that, they were going to be grouped with a psychotic face-melter. Ernie recalled Savannah’s summary of the redhead’s powers. Living things only. So with the complete lack of organic enemies (and from that, their team’s complete lack of offensive ability) Ernie and Zoe were just deadweight. A glorified taxi service for the precious healer. They’d be starting on the backlines, something Ernie was grateful for, but as the battle raged they’d have to navigate the battlefield, praying that they’d reach their injured classmate before a monster robot slaughtered the lot of them; casualties, escorts, healers, and all. 

[color=00a99d][i]Slaughtered… Battlefield…[/i][/color]

Ernie clamped his hands together, interlocking his fingers to hide the uncontrollable shaking in his palms. Had he known that it would come so soon he wouldn’t have spent the week prancing around and acting like such a piece of garbage. Maybe spending his last week in ignorance was infinitely better than the knowledge that the class would be facing death against that brass monster. But for Ernie, for the past few days, Death had loomed around a little blond boy. Whether the dark-haired Aberration’s life came to an end inside or outside of USARILN grounds was of little importance. The cold dread in his heart told him the end would be here soon.

[i][color=00a99d]God, don’t let me die while I’m like this…[/color][/i]

Like this? Like the selfish coward he’d been since he’d gotten shot and captured on that filthy, cold street in Reno? Ernie shook his head, berating himself silently.

Empty hopes. Words with no substance. It was fucking pathetic to start wishing for something like that at a time like this. Wishes triggered by such primal emotions had no real meaning. The intentions behind them would dissipate along with whatever danger that created them in the first place.

As they were dismissed, Ernie fiddled with his umbrella. He’d need to talk to the decay mage soon. Preparation and communication were going to be absolutely vital. The rain created a noisy barrage against his umbrella as it hit and Ernie was reminded of that old conversation, back before the roof had collapsed and his father’s DVD collection had been shattered to pieces. Ernie had never found the nerve to look for his parents under all that rubble. He’d never found the nerve to do many things.

[color=00a99d][i]I can’t see you yet. Not while I’m still like this.[/i][/color]

He shook the intrusive thoughts out of his head once more. Thinking could come later. Right now he just wanted to eat.