goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"Or what? You'll shoot me?" D's valuable. They wouldn't hurt him. They wouldn't risk shooting York either, would they?

"Possibly," Wash replies. He checks, and yeah, there's a camera there. Gonna assume York is watching when he slides Delta's chip out, twists it between his fingers. York is valuable too. He'd prefer not to but that isn't as important. Instead, he turns around, brushes his hair aside to that the camera can see the port at the back of his neck, the scarring around it. And then he presses Delta's chip against it. Not inserting it, not yet, and he turns back to the camera, keeping it there.

He's terrified. Tries to hide it. Another AI in his head is not something he's sure he could deal with. But he will, he will if he has to.

Different kind of hurt. Wash's mind is a fucking mess- not that his is much better at the moment and- on the one hand, D could learn a lot if he let it happen.

On the other there's the kneejerk feeling of it being WRONG, of it being a violation for Wash to take HIS AI, his friend, for whatever reason.

The next sound of the room is the thud of the chestplate falling free. Logical? No. Foolish? Yep. He does it anyway. Armor off, in the corner, leaving him in the undersuit that's just as good as being naked.

"You come in. Just you."

The silence drags on and he keeps the chip pressed against the back of his neck. His fingers are shaking. He's killed people, been tortured, and remained calmer than he is now. His hands do not shake. But he can remember Epsilon unspooling in his mind, screaming and tearing him apart with it. Delta is more stable, but who knows how he will react to being in Wash's mind with all of the memories of what happened? But he'll do it. He has orders.

He hears the armour and slowly lowers the chip, putting it back into the AI unit which he passes to one of his subordinates. "Give it to Carolina if anything happens." She could deal better with an AI.

"Alright, York. I'm coming in."

He draws his sidearm and enters slowly.

"Guess I should've been more specific." He's not anywhere near cover, the armor's in the far corner of the room and he's sitting with his back to the terminal, fingers drumming on his thighs. "I was hoping you'd bring D with you."

Hope gets people shot but- he's got no gun, he's going to cooperate, hell, he IS cooperating.

"How? I felt him-" he stops. Grinds his teeth, thinking back to that. "Unwind."

"I'm not stupid, York," he says. "Why would I bring him in here with you?" He isn't giving York the chance to get hold of Delta.

Wash doesn't look away, meets York's eyes squarely. "In the event of a Freelancer dying, we were told the AIs would be destroyed along with us. They lied. The AIs are encrypted instead, locked down into dormancy. Failsafe. If the Freelancers died, they have other agents who can be sent out to recover the armour and AIs. Return them to the project."

"Because it's the easiest way to get me to comply? Seriously, David." Put an AI in a Freelancer and sure- they're more capable. They're also more vulnerable. Anything that happened to him, happened to Delta. Of course Wash never had that kind of relationship with Epsilon, he wouldn't know.

"It's Wash," he says bluntly. He doesn't want to hear that name from York. Not now. He can't, so he just wants to avoid it altogether.

"He's safe. You getting him back is... well, depends how things go."

"He's isolated. He's alone. They weren't ever meant to be alone!" And that rubbed off on him, just a little. Explained how easy it was for him to fall in with Wash, with David. "You can't have him aware and on his own, it's cruel."

"I know that," Wash snapped. "I know more than I ever should have." He remembers being splintered to make them, the kind of thing a human was never built to know. "If I had my way I- would have left him dormant." And that's the truth. It makes him uncomfortable dealing with the fragments.

"Leaving him in there is like leaving you in that fucking padded room." Empathy- if he can get David to empathize with what's being done to Delta right now- maybe he'll get him. That's all he wants right now. To get Delta back. Everything else can come after. "Except they think faster than we do, they live faster than we do. It's like that damn room but years. Decades. I'll what you ask just- give him back."

He tenses at that, goes rigid. He remembers it. He remembers everything. Can't forget that's the problem. Being locked up in there, alone except when they wanted to talk to him. And he doesn't want anyone to feel that, would never want it. And he'd liked Delta. They'd been friends, kind of.

"No," he says after a moment. "You aren't ours. Can't trust you. Carolina or me can take him." Carolina, not him. Never him.

"Without a suit or network access what the hell am I gonna do?" Nothing. Not a damn thing. "I'm unarmed. I'm cut off. I'm stranded."

And the one person he thought he could trust was on the other side of Wash and he'd really not have to do anything to get to him.

"I'm beat. I know when I'm beat. Please, David."

"You think I'm gonna ever believe that you're helpless?" he asks, giving York a derisive look. "It's giving you backup."

His eyes narrow. "I told you, I'm not David. He- he's dead. He died a long time ago. It's Wash."

"You're giving me too much credit." A lot more than he really deserves, here. It's giving him a liability and Wash ought to know that.

Now he moves, pushes away from where he's sitting, cuffs in his hand. he slides them across the floor to Wash and- well. Kneels. Head up, eyes imploring. Nevermind the bruising and blood he caused. "Please."

The move surprises him. He glances down at the cuffs for a moment then back up at York, scrutinising his face. He doesn't trust him, can't. Watches as York kneels on the floor. Defeated. Like a prisoner. And he doesn't like that. Hates that he's put that look on York's face, but... it means they've won right? For now anyway.

"Get up," he says. "Get on your goddam feet and we'll see if you can even make it to your cell without being cuffed. Then we'll see."

Part of him wants to argue. If he lets Wash dangle Delta in front of him like that now- he'll just keep doing it. Forever. It'll always be 'do this, then we'll see. Do this, and we'll think about it'.

That's how the goddamn project ran. He needs more than a 'maybe'. For him and for Delta.

"I'll do whatever you want. Just let me have him. Compliance would be the most logical course, here. D'll understand."

"You're practically the patron saint of trying to redeem lost causes, York, no matter what's most logical," Wash says, and despite everything there's a painful hint of a smile on his lips.

He lets out a slow breath, then calls out. "Give me the AI unit. And a new pair of cuffs." York has already broken these. Needs a new pair. "I swear, if I have to hunt you down again, next time you'll be in a fucking straightjacket, and those... they really suck."

"Like I said before, I'm the pretty one. Not the smart one." He shrugs and a little of that hopelessness leaves. He's getting D. He can still talk to David.

Maybe he could- he doesn't know. Just holds his hands up and waits for what was coming. "Only if you can't dislocate your shoulders on command."

A beat.

"Then again it depends on the model. What? I got bored on the run."

He snorts at that, rolls his eyes. Doesn't believe it for a second. York is smart. The guy worked on puzzle locks for fun in his spare time.

He raises an eyebrow, gaze running along his shoulders. The shoulders he's seen naked and bowed and slick with sweat. "Well, if you wanted to try something kinky..." he says, the sourness of his voice only just undercut by a hint of humour.

One of the mercenaries in black enters, hands over Delta and the cuffs. Cuffs first, drags his arms behind him and cuffs them and he swear he will start using tape as well as more cuffs if he has to.

And then there's the chip, holds it in between his fingers. It's a tiny thing, insignificant looking for such an important thing.

"Is this where I call red?" Dislocations mid fuck aren't exactly his idea of a good time- but he goes still and quiet when the other merc enters. Notes the armor, the loadout, the posture. Career merc, follows orders. Not going to be someone he can flip.

He'll work on it.

He lets Wash cuff him without fuss, even going so far as to lace his fingers together behind him. Not that it stops the idle drumming of his thumbs against his hands. Random patterns- well. Seemingly random. Binary. Habits tend to stick after so long.

There's a flicker of confusion that makes him look very young before he figures out what that is actually supposed to mean. "I don't think calling Carolina would really help you," he says instead.

The guard takes out the armour along with him, leaves just the two of them. Wash pulls off his gauntlets to better hold the chip, then rests one hand against the back of York's neck, just neck to the port. His skin is very warm, can't resist rubbing his thumb against it. And then he slides the chip home.

"Red. Safeword, dude. You never really had a chance to explore the scene, huh?" Not like most of them did but- to get out of his own head sometimes he needed to. It hasn't been safe in for fucking ever but then it's a hand on his skin and it'd be so easy for Wash to snap his neck and be done with it. Just the fucking night before he'd had his hands all over him, had his fingers in him, slick and desperate and now?

Now York understands some of that desperation. He's always been a thief but Wash was stealing whatever time he could for as long as possible.

Then his head is awash with a familiar shade of green and he can't keep himself from sobbing.

sorry i'm sorry i'm so sorry i thought you were gone i thought you were dead i thought i thought i thought i'm sorry-

"Didn't really know there was any kind of... scene." He can't believe he's having this conversation right now. But he supposes it's the kind of thing that comes up with someone you've fucked and... he hadn't lied in his message, his confession. He hadn't. That had been true.

He hears that sob from York, the relief and grief in it when he gets Delta back. It hurts to hear. He hates it. It's a wash of feelings that he shouldn't have; hurt and loss and jealousy, maybe happiness too. York and Delta just fitted together.

He gives himself, on the outside, five seconds. it's easy to keep track. In the mind though, oh, in the mind? The speed of thought and the gaping ache where Delta had been filled and full to the brim with soothing code and a familiar voice? It feels like a year. York doesn't care about the tears dripping hot down his cheeks, the way his hands clench tight behind his back like Delta's something he can hold onto.

he's back.

He's alive.

And that makes him whole.

Five seconds before he sucks in a breath and slowly makes his way to his feet. "After you, Wash."

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)

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)