Fly for Your Lives (MissFluffy)

Sam smiled softly, the grin had been the first sign of actual humanity that she had received from the larger Anthro. She relaxed, she wasn’t a dominate person by nature, and acting like such had been very off putting. “I can promise you that my ability to walk in a straight line has more to do with my clumsiness than my drunken state and it I assure you doesn’t affect my ability to fly.”

The lynx’s red eyes narrowed significantly. “I tend to get that way when my subordinates act like they know everything.” With a lopsided grin, Jackson added “Especially those who demonstrably struggle to get belowdecks without falling over, even while sober.”

Sam glared at him, studying his outstretched hand as if she was sure that he was going to shock her or something, but figuring he still outranked her, she reached out and shook his hand, looking at him for a moment before allowing “Sam Parker” to slip through her hard pressed lips. She ran her eyes over him for a moment, “are you always this moody Captain?”.

The lynx was about to issue a furious reprimand of the fox until she mentioned replacing his wingman. “Wait... you’re Parker.” The feline’s red eyes flashed with recognition as the water rolled off of his fur. She can’t even walk properly. And now I’m supposed to rely on her... the lynx snorted. “I suppose we might as well get acquainted.” He held his wet hand out. “Captain Jackson Walsh.”

Sam huffed impatiently as the male shut down the water and wrapped a towel around his waist, once she was sure she wouldn’t be confronted by any naked appendages again, she turned back around timidly, now a little less confident since he’d approached her. But she forced a glare, “don’t play dumb, is it because I’m replacing whoever your old partner was? Because if that’s the case, you should just have me transferred and stop acting like a child.”

“Jesus Christ-“ Not much caught Jackson off guard, but this seemed to, the male’s tone going from deep and unimpressed to actually startled as the arctic fox blatantly walked around the privacy wall and straight up to the naked lynx. There weren’t stalls in the showers onboard, so she got a full look at the 6 foot male’s toned body in the brief instant before she turned around.

“Maybe It has something to do with whatever the fuck this is!” Snapped the lynx, stepping out of the water and wrapping his towel around the waist before stepping out of the water to speak to her, since she seemed to insist on confronting and annoying him.

Sam lost her nerve when he met her eyes, yet when his seemingly normal harsh tone echoed around the bathroom, she stomped over to him. For a second - she idiotically forgot that he was in the shower, and had been about to confront him, until she felt the splash of water hit her bare ankles, huffing with mortification and embarrassment she quickly spun around, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to pretend she didn’t see anything. But she wasn’t brave enough to wonder the decks of the ship having to live knowing that not only had she seen him naked, but ran when she did. She crossed her arms irritability, trying to seem confident. “What’s your problem with me?” She demanded.

Jackson’s mind had started to slip again thanks to the warmth and silence in the showers. However, the voice of that arctic fox-Parker, that was it- took the lynx out of his zen and caused him to grumble something unkind to himself. The unimpressed feline stuck his head around the wall between the showers and the rest of the bathroom to answer, spotting the fox with her head peeking around the door. “What do you want?” The man asked in an annoyed tone, having to raise his voice over the water coming down onto the tiled floor below his feet.

Sam took a double take when her acquaintance pointed out that the Lynx anthro she continued to run into time and time again was actually the captain. She felt like she needed to be sick, grateful at least that she hadn’t mouthed off to him like she’d wanted to. She winced a little when she’d asked if Sam had met him, unwilling to let any vicious rumours start, she said quickly “uh...kind of...not really” she dismissed the comment with a shrug as if pretended she really didn’t care for the situation. Only relaxing once they returned to the cabin. Although eager as she was to get some much needed rest, her curiousity got the better of her and she slipped out of the cabin, and returned to the showers: poking her head inside timidly, looking to see if he was still inside. Clearing her throat nervously she called quietly “excuse me?” She grimaced still unsure of his name.

Jackson noticed the nod from Sam, but didn’t acknowledge it, looking a little tired and ready to return to his cabin, with his towel slung over his shoulder as he made his way to the showers.

The other female recruit turned and watched the Lynx go past. “That’s the Captain. Did ya see him up on deck earlier?”

It hadn’t taken long for Sam to settle in, given her entire personal belonging could be packed into a square (and heavy by manufacter) bag. She was pretty sure that should she ever find herself in a situation where she needed a defensive weapon, the large backpack could be used an an offensive weapon, she laughed at the mere stupidness of the thought. She’d also dressed in the boring grey ship uniform. Although she was finding the ship rather humid and so had the compulsory jacket tied around her waist, has hair wet and sticking to her as she passed the Lynx Anthro from earlier. Sam wasn’t sure what kind of etiquette was required, she knew every unit was different, and and whilst she knew the colourful Epaulettes on his shoulders were indications of a rank of some kind, she was yet to find out what. As he passed, she had offered him a slight head nod, nothing too dramatic but enough to show respect to an offical.

Jackson had the fortune of having his own cabin. Small as it may be, it beat having a bunk and a few inches of clearance for your head as your entire personal space, as would likely be the case for that fox that had run into him earlier. Jackson reentered the ship after brooding on the deck for a little while longer, stopping at his cabin and making his way to the showers. On the way he passed a pair of female recruits, one of whom was that same fox from earlier. This time around, with the interior of the ship lit much better than the deck outside, he was able to get a clear glance at her name tag: S. Parker. The lynx cast her a brief glance before looking back ahead of him. For some reason, it seemed like he’d read that name somewhere recently...

Sam was struggling to keep control of her tongue, when she’d been training it had been noted that she struggled to keep her mouth shut when it came to people being rude to her. She wanted nothing more than to sharply tell the seemingly high ranking officer when he could shove his superiority but she bit her tongue hard, unwilling to make an enemy this early, with her luck this particular male would have an influential job that could make her life hell. She forced an annoyed smile and managed to grit out through her teeth, “thanks a lot” she snapped and turned on him sharply, heading through the door which he’d so obviously stated was the entrance. She swung her bag over her shoulder again and headed into the carrier down the stairs and eventually getting directed to a group of new recruits like herself, after what seemed like an hour (she was pretty sure she would never find the entrance door again by herself) she’d been showed the showers, (horrified to find that the showers weren’t segregated for male and female) although she was told that there were different times for showering (although female time was reduced to an hour since the population of men to women on the carrier seemed to dominate rather spectacularly). Eventually she was dropped off at her bunk, sighing as she placed her bag down, scanning the room - while she saw no one else in the room, she was aware of personal belongings laying neatly around the room.

The lynx was snapped out of his reminiscing when somebody ran into him. Jackson recovered his own balance quickly enough, but watched as a white fox tumbled to the ground in front of him, yanked down by her overstuffed pack. Sighing, the lynx fixed his piercing, strange red eyes on the fox, keeping his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants and not offering the other anthro a helping hand. Everything about you screams green, thought the feline to himself, absentmindedly listening to the poor rookie before him try and stammer out a request for help.

“Didn’t you see the door? It’s on that side.” The lynx threw his thumb over his shoulder to where the clearly-illuminated entrance into the depths of the ship was. This side was just a bare wall. Why did she even come over here? “Find another female with your rank and follow them. If you’re lucky they’ll be on the way to the deck with your quarters on it.” The man scraped the remnants of his cigarette off the deck into the ocean with the bottom of his boot before looking back at Sam, clearly disinterested. She was below him as far as he was concerned. He had no idea yet that she was to be the replacement for his wingman, somebody he was going to have to trust with his life.

From what she had gathered from being on board the aircraft carrier thus far, she was currently the only new arrival onboard (judging from the lack of other helicopters). For a moment her heart raced, had she been dropped onto an enemy ship? As idiotic as it sounded, even in her head, for a brief few seconds the vixen had convinced herself that she would be shot dead within seconds. Pushing aside her fears and blaming it on her lack of sleep she swung her backpack (which she felt was heavy enough to break her shoulder if not handled correctly). Sam had started to head towards the bulky part of the ship (assuming this is where she would find someone). It hadn’t taken her long to find someone, or rather crash into someone. Sam inhaled sharply when she felt herself crash into a body, whilst whoever she’d run into seemed to stabilise themselves, the heavy back that Sam had been supporting forced her off balance. Sam subsequently dropped the bag and fell back, groaning with embarrassment as she hoisted herself back to her feet, noticing the mans name tag, “I’m sorry-“ she studied his name tag, which read: J. Walsh. Instinctively she assumed that was his last name and unwilling to gamble with butchering his name and pissing off who was potentially a high ranking officer, she took a step back timidly and looked up at him. “Do you happen to know where I’m suppose to be Sir? I wasn’t aware I’d be onboard here and I haven’t been briefed on cabins or any kind of schedule...I know it’s probably not your area” she added quickly.

Name: Jackson ‘Wildfire’ Walsh
Age: 29, soon to be 30
Species: Anthro lynx
Appearance: Dark brown fur with black markings and white belly/chest/groin fur. Unusually, he has red eyes that almost seem to be alight when he’s angry or serious, part of the reason for his nickname.
Occupation: Fighter pilot with extensive service record of nearly 10 years in various conflicts. Lead pilot of the four members in Wardog squadron.

Captain Jackson Walsh was, against the advice and stern warnings from his superiors, out on deck smoking a cigarette. Allegedly, the ban on smoking on the part of the deck where it was normally allowed had come from a blackout policy, but the lynx knew better than that. The carrier was lit up like Christmas for the helicopters currently landing, almost surely carrying replacements for the losses from the previous week of the fighting. The feline couldn’t help but scoff at the futility of it all. Chances were, the majority of these inexperienced, young flyers would be shot down within a few months or so, lost to enemy fire or mechanical failure or disappeared by sheer bad luck without a trace. That was ok. The new guys were always replaceable with more. It was losing the veterans that hurt.

He knew that well. His thoughts swirled for a moment as he ground his cigarette down into the deck, putting out the tiny flame that nonetheless could kill every single anthro on the ship in the right conditions. He leaned against the bulkhead behind him, looking disinterested and not busy, and the insignia on his shoulder betrayed his relatively high rank. Maybe he was a good source for directions.

Name: Sam Parker
Age: 26
Species: Anthro (arctic fox)
Appearance: pure white coat, with speckles of black peppered all over her body.
Occupation: Fighter pilot (specialist in short range aerial combat, trained in both jet and helicopter flight).

I’ll start here:

Sam’s eyes were heavy from lack of sleep. It had only been a few days since she was deployed, and it seemed she been thrown into the deep end as far a surprise modern warefare went. The vixen was barely awake enough to register that the helicopter she was in, wasn’t heading for the south coast of Afghanistan where her briefing stated she would be deployed. Instead, it was heading for a large (probably the largest she’d ever seen) aircraft carrier. Which seemed to host several dozen large jets and also held prime positions for helicopter landing and arrival (judging from eight large pillars with distinctive H symbols edged into the top). She reached forward and tapped the pilot on the shower - which in hindsight probably wasn’t the safest option to get his attention. The pilot swiveled in his chair, as if about to look back at her but thinking better of it, instead he said gruffly “What is it?” Sam but her lip, understanding the Snake Anthro in front of her was only the delivery boy and would probably know nothing, but her eagerness to get her questions answered seemed to disrupt her rantionallity enough for her to seemingly believe this reptile had the answers to world hunger. “Why am I here? My briefing didn’t say anything about a aircraft carrier...” she prompted hoping he knew something, “as far a seat I know, the ally territory on the coast has been compromised and all troops were recalled this morning for further briefing about the situation...all new recruits are being brought here aswell, don’t panic, just talk to the Sargent or whoever is in charge, they’ll catch you up.” With that, the helecopter landed on the waiting pad, flashing lights giving her a headache as she got out and grabbed her heavy bag. Swinging it over her shoulder and ducking for cover and running lowing as the helecopter started to take off again, her hair (that she’d neglected to tie up) was flying around her face. It was night, and so she really couldn’t see any shadows out on deck, but she was eager to find her cabin, and get some rest, but she doubted very much she’d be able to fight any Sargents or commanders or even a deckhand. She groaned, looking around confused.

(...and here’s for the MxF plot!)