goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"Wash, cuff him."

"Sure thing, boss."

Heavy duty cuffs, new model, difficult to pick, because this is York after all and cuffs had never really been that much of a deterrent to him. He's glad York is wearing armour so he doesn't have to remember the feeling of York's skin beneath his fingers. Fuck, why did he have to get attached?

Carolina's still looking at York though, rests a hand against his cheek, gentle as she looks him over. A searching look. She has the same face, same eyes, and there's something affectionate about the way she looks at him, a little sad.

"It's her," Wash says, and maybe he shouldn't. "They pulled her out of the canyon. And when they wanted to bring down the project, she's the one who came back for me." Unlike everyone else, remains unsaid.

New, sure. Hard? Sure. It's a challenge. One he means to work at slowly as soon as he's left alone. Apparently he can't keep his face from her hand and even if it's a glove it's too damn hot. It's her. it's her it's her and his stomach clenches hot, his eyes feel too dry because he's not glad to see her.

he's not.

His Carolina- his beautiful, vicious, JUST woman died at the bottom of that canyon.

"You're helping Hargrove glass a planet." Effectively. "You're not her. And I fucking TOLD you I looked. They hid you."

She flashes a glare towards Wash, because this meeting could have gone easier if he hadn't spilled everything. He looks awkward, uncomfortable and his hand lingered against York's arm for a moment before he stood up.

"The population were doing a pretty good job of that themselves, long before we ever arrived," Carolina says. She stands up, grabs Wash's shoulder, gives a little shake. "So they could torture him," she says, but it was aimed more at Wash than York. A reminder.

She stepped away, pulled something out,, a strange glowing cube thing. "Grab him. We're heading back to base."

Wash stoops to help pull York to his feet, stays close up against his side. "Try not to... throw up. The ride is a little bumpy."

There's a flash, a lurch, and then they're somewhere else.

"I'm sorry but cutting off radio contact and pulling down ships that might come to help isn't something either side really seems like they'd do. Sure, the conflict was here but you both have done a damn good job of making it worse." And they're gonna keep right on doing it. "I thought we were DONE with this shit!"

He fucking crashed the MOI to be done with it. He nearly died and lost his best friend to be done with it and no. This shit just keeps right on happening.

Fucking bullshit.

On the one hand, he could probably keep his stomach settled. On the other he makes a point of vomiting over their boots just to be an ass. Because he couldn't not and it's a bitch to get the smell off armor. Should've let him keep his helmet.

Carolina steps up close to him, her glare fire and rage. "We are never done with this, York. We never will be. None of us can escape war." So why bother trying when it was what you were built for?

The journey with the cubes honestly sucks. Really. And York is just... a dick. Really? He had to do that out of spite? Fine.

"Wash, take him to holding. I need to collect something for him."

Wash gives her a curious look for that and she just shrugs. "Something we picked up. It'll... help."

She heads off and they're left alone. Wash wraps a hand around the cuffs and nudges York along. "Come on. Got orders. And I want to see what they've recovered."

"I HAD!" He'd been done. He'd been done for years and one fucking favor ruined that. Another will probably kill him. Sure. They haven't tried to do it yet but he'll do something eventually that'll make whatever benefits they want for keeping him around worth less than the trouble he'll make. He can't not. This is NOT what he wanted.

Wash nudges and York? Doesn't move. "I really hate that I bought it."

The act. It was a good act. He'd wanted to believe it so damn bad. It's his own fault, really.

Wash goes still at that, his grip tightening around York's arm. "Wasn't an act," he says quietly. "Isn't an act. I don't know. I really did go intending to blow up the radio tower but... she beat me to it. She knows me better than I do."

The nudge is a little more forceful this time.

"Well she clearly knows you better than I do." To make him turn around on doing the right thing? Yeah.

"How much of what you gave me was actually useful?" How much was a red herring? If he knows that-

Maybe he wouldn't get a rescue, but maybe the Feds and New Republic wouldn't be utterly fucked.

"She rescued me. Got me out when I was- I was insane and suicidal. Kind of brings you together. And Control knows... pretty much everything there is to know. About all of us." Stuff that had never been on their public files, or their private files.

He pauses for a moment. Wants to give him this if nothing else. "All of it. I didn't give you bad information. That wasn't a trap."

"Control knows fuck and all about me." Who he'd been during the project? Is not who he is now. He's moved past it. Or at the very least has been trying real fucking hard to do so. "You know, after all this? I'm having a hard time believing you. Must be the cuffs."

That he still can't quite manage but not for lack of trying. He'll get them. Just needs to keep Wash off balance.

"Seriously, David, if you wanted to get kinky you should've said something."

"Then why bother asking?" It isn't as though he's going to take the damn cuffs off. He's not that stupid. Not that York has anywhere he can go really. The base is a fair way away from Armonia or the rebel base.

He flinches at that comment, although his grip doesn't falter. "That's not my name. Don't-" Don't what? Don't joke about it. Don't play it down. Because none of that at least had been an act.

"If you're gonna fuck me over one last time I'm gonna use your name." He's not even getting a reach around here and that's just unkind, man. The flinch lets him know the barb stuck and gives him just enough leeway to play with the cuffs and loosen one. Not by much, but it's better than it was earlier.

"So tell me, Taylor," he says, and there's a hint of a growl to his voice, "why did you leave me behind? Was I just not good enough to bother telling about your little coup? Worried I'd slow you down? You know North was there when I woke up after having my mind torn apart, and as soon as the alarms went off, he left me there. Kind of makes someone wonder if any friendship we had was worth a damn back then."

"I didn't tell Carolina. If I didn't tell her, why would I have told you? We didn't know if you'd wake up a vegetable or not, we didn't know if you'd wake up at ALL, and I didn't exactly get any time to make any FUCKING calls on that op! You worked with Tex, you know how she was, and that was her op. I was her number two and I didn't get any room to say or save a damn thing." Don't get mad. Don't get mad, get snippy, get snide, get vicious- but don't get mad.

he can't work the cuffs if he's angry. But if wash is angry? Wash is distracted enough for him to get another little bit of room. "North's priority was always Theta and his sister."

"Because everyone knew she'd do whatever it took to bring Tex down. She said you still spoke to her though, back then. Tried to persuade her." He was getting mad he knew it. Stupid emotions that he'd never had chance to voice. Not to York at least. He snorts derisively when he mentions North. "Yeah, I was never anyone's first priority. Maybe Maine but we know how that turned out. Oh and the Director's when he wanted to figure out what I knew. I know. Your priorities were always Carolina and Delta."

"In the middle of it, like an idiot. Like when the alert was blaring and I was, to her mind, playing traitor she'd TOTALLY follow me if I asked her." He hadn't trusted her then when he'd found out. Hadn't trusted anyone. He'd tried to talk to her when he had because he'd thought there was something there- and while it might have been? He didn't go about it in the right way. It'd been the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong scene.

He thought he was some kind of hero offering to take her away from everything.

Honestly? He'd been a douche. A selfish one. And he's trying so damn hard to not be now and Wash is NOT HELPING. "My priorities were get mine and get out. Idiot that I was, I counted her in that. Shouldn't have. It was stupid and selfish."

Another centimeter on the left cuff, fuck yeah. Who's still got it? York's still got it.

There's a weight against York for a moment, Wash pressing up against his back, warm breath against his neck. "Freelancer was the first real home, the first real family I've ever had. And they abandoned and betrayed me. I wake up sometimes and don't even remember who I am, Wash or Alpha. Thy tortured him too you know? And I remember every moment of what they did. So why shouldn't I be loyal to the only person who'd given a damn about me?"

"Because that's how I ended up in the project, and we both know how well that turned out." Family gone, squad dead, gorgeous woman that he thought he'd follow into hell and- well. After a fashion? He had. He'd been too gone to notice what he'd been giving up or giving into and Wash is right where he was but so much worse.

So much more has happened to him.

There's a moment of hesitation- he needs more space in the cuffs before he makes a move but Wash is right there, his helmet's off, and the hall looks relatively abandoned. He doesn't mutter an apology no matter how much he'd want to when he dips his head forward and slams it back as hard as he can.

"You know I understand why Alpha fragmented himself. Broke off parts of himself because he couldn't deal. Wish I could do the same." Break off his logic so that he wouldn't understand that York was making sense. His anger because it was exhausting and anger just showed you cared too much. Memory...

He should have seen it coming. York is a master of dirty tricks. The blow hits him I the face, blinding pain and blood and sends him reeling back clutching at his face.

Dirty tricks are how he survived without being known for years. What's a few more between old friends? Wash stumbles and he sprints- unfamiliar with the layout, unarmed and without a helmet, sure.

He's managed in worse situations. Maybe. None come to mind, he'll get back to that.

For now he focuses on working the cuffs loose while sprinting the everloving fuck away, trying to find somewhere to hole up till he has the lay of the land. This being a base in full operation? That's unlikely to happen. But hey, he's always been lucky.

Fuck. Fuck! He thinks his nose is broken. There's blood dripping down his face, in his eyes and how could he have been so fucking stupid? He should have shot York back then. Should never have got close. Why did he never learn?

And there's part of him that wants to hang back, let York get away. But he can't. He can't and then he's chasing after him. He'll try to hold up somewhere. Still has the cuffs so he'll be slower though.

Two lefts and a right, ventilation shaft, ventilation shaft where the hell are the ventilation shafts? Or the fucking storage closets? or ANYTHING? This base is bullshit and he starts taking his turns in- well. The Fibonacci sequence. Something he and Delta sorted out as a mental shorthand for getting shit done, even was left, odd was right, every third even or odd was straight.

Convoluted- yes. Seemingly random with a logical progression they and only they understood? Definitely. Wash doesn't have D- Delta's dead.

So it's a safe enough habit to fall back into while he works the cuffs open bit by agonizing bit.

He's got people searching. But York is tricky and the base is large and rambling. It helps in theory. Means York isn't likely to find his way out. Also means it's a bitch to find him even if they've got the secure areas locked down. Stupid. Stupid fucking kid, still making the same mistakes. Trusting.

"What happened Wash?" Carolina. She's go that note of frustration in her voice because can't one goddam thing go simply?

"He surprised me," Wash snaps, wiping the blood off his nose.

"I have an idea. Didn't want to break it out too soon but it'll have to do to flush him out." She holds up an AI storage unit. "Old friend of his."

Wash stares. "They managed to recover him?"

"Yeah. Control sent him over when you found York. You know how the boss's likes collecting Freelancer tech. And Freelancers."

Ha. Locks. It's cute. Sure he doesn't have his hud or a weapon but after three minutes holed up in an alcove he managed to remove the cuffs and clip them onto the maglock on his belt before moving in what he hoped to be the direction of the motorpool. The idiots he was shadowing seemed to be the mechanic type. It was still a really long, winding walk and it's hard for him to remember every fucking turn they take as they meander their way like there isn't an alert going off. Either they're keeping it quite (unlikely) or he's not a threat (Insulting but useful).

Obfuscating ineptitude helped him in the past. No reason he can't roll with it now. If only they'd GET WHERE THE FUCK THEY NEEDED TO GO oh fuck this.

He finds a side room. Finds a terminal. And starts poking. A map would be great. Really, REALLY fucking great.

They have a pretty big card in their hands with this. He'd known that the AI were probably supposed to survive the death of a Freelancer but he's never put it to the test, but here Delta is.

There's been network access, which is t a definite signal, but it's the best they've got now so they head in that direction. "You know York," he says, the speakers across the base crackling to life, "the thing about AIs, even fragments, is that they're really expensive. Valuable enough that do you really believe the Director would let them die alongside a human that could be replaced?"

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)