goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"Then you're proving my point about this being really fucked up and you not really doing this because you want to, but because you have to. Victim of Circumstance, just like I said." It's not a point he likes making, but it's true. It makes him wonder what Hargrove has on Carolina. There hadn't been enough time to dig through the data to sort that out.

"Feeling territorial? Or is this a fragment of morality I'm hearing?"

He reaches up to rub the back of his neck, scratching at the scarred skin around the port. Itches. It itches. "Even if that was true, doesn't matter. There's nothing left from before so... I don't know why you keep trying." He should have given up. Stupid York and his stupid honour.

"It's... a breakdown in discipline. I know I've got no claim on you."

"Then don't think about before. Think about what's next. You know- beach house, surfing, pet kitten." THe odds of that were always slim. Now? Even slimmer. But it'd been a nice thought. Another few bites of the stew and he raises his brows, scooping up a spoonfull of the stew and pulling the spoon out of his mouth slow and thoughtful. Faintly dirty.

"So if I was to welcome his advances. If I wanted to invite him or anyone else in. Let them pin me and bite me and come in me. You'd be fine with that?"

"That's never going to happen," he says bluntly. And it hurts to admit. "It was a pretty idea. People like me don't get those things. There's nothing next, I do my job. Eventually I'm probably gonna get killed." Better than doing the job himself.

He presses his lips hard together. "No. Because you're not allowed contact with them. If they agree to that, then they've disobeyed orders."

"If the alternative to your current employment situation is death, it's probably time to look at a different job. Seriously." Just shit to chew on, there. While he chews on his bread and peers at Wash. On his bed. And either trying not to be jealous or trying not to be provoked.

Either way it's kind of cute and a lot funny. Like always he can't help keep poking at it.

"And that's the only thing that bothers you about it."

"And what would you suggest?" is the sour response. There isn't an alternative. He knows there isn't. He's not like York. He can't invest in hopeless causes.

He gives a sharp nod. "Of course. You've got no reason to care what I feel about it anyway. You hate me."

"Find alternative employment. Go into self employment. Retire. Stop this shit before it gets worse." He shrugs and finishes his meal, setting the tray aside in favor of lounging with his mug of coffee.

"I hate what you're doing. I hate that you're stuck in this position. I hate that Carolina's gone off the reservation. I hate hargrove for doing this to you. But the more I see? The more I'm sure neither of you really got a choice."

"You make it sound like that's easy." Like there was anything else that he could do besides killing. Mercenary work was all that he was good for.

"Don't talk about her like that," Wash says, shifting uncomfortably. She was all that he had left. The only person he could trust. "I can't believe you. The fuck does it take to make you less understanding? To make you stop pretending that you care?"

"Her own father tried to make her into a weapon. Hargrove's doing the same damn thing. Holding your rescue of a person over their head will do things to them. It's not her fault." Even if he's still pissed. Especially if he's so goddamn pissed- but she'd given Wash the OK to give him Delta.

That gives her a little leeway.

"Erase Delta. Kill me. Go through with Killing Kimball and the kids. If you really want to burn this bridge you got options. I just don't think you do. If you did? I'd be dead. Or you'd let Sanderson in to have his sweaty way with me."

"It's hardly unfair to expect certain things of people when you've invested in them." Spent time and resources and money on keeping them alive, fixing them up so they're just about functional.Of course he owes Hargrove.

There's a flash of vicious anger and a look towards the door when York mentions the name. Someone to be dealt with later. "We're still going ahead with the plan. It's just... been set back a little." Because of him. Because of York. He can't deny that he's a little relieved. "And I can't erase Delta or kill you. Boss wants you both alive." Perfectly valid excuses.

"You're a person. NOT a product." He mutters. "Both of you. The Project treated us like that and you're getting it all over again. Neither of you deserve it. Let alone for this long."

HE should've kept looking. That's all he can take away from this. That and Wash IS, in fact, jealous. And territorial. Time to keep poking.

"Boss wants to make me comply. He'll hold Delta over me to make it happen. Probably gonna get my suit refitted with an EMP collar or some shit. 'Do as you're told or your green friend gets it'." A beat. "You're really gonna give them shit for looking at me, aren't you?"

"We're weapons," Wash says, his voice thick with frustration and anger and the hurt that's usually buried as far as he can make it. "We're not people. We're weapons and weapons don't... Don't get to make those decisions." And he was terrible at making them anyway. "Had enough freedom to know I can't do it. He let me walk away, York. I tried. And I can't do it. Got picked back up cause I couldn't." Wasn't that evidence enough? He could have walked away but he didn't.

"At least you wouldn't be alone anymore," he says and then, without thinking, "Yes. I'm gonna break their fucking faces."

"Never said you'd have to do it alone. Trying to do it alone just- helps you fall back into old patterns. I had D. It made it easier to not." To unwind. To fix the patterns that put him in that spiral. It's work but it's work worth doing. "Nothing saying you both can't walk away now. Try something different."

Well that. That's- almost sweet.

"I'm down here in a skin tight suit. And again, I'm the pretty one. NOt all that surprised they want a piece." Doesn't keep him from moving over to the bed and sitting down, pressing against Wash from hip to thigh.

"You're crazy. We can't just... just leave. Can't just stop." The boss would be unhappy and that didn't usually lead to anything good. Wash was already in trouble, even if he'd come back. "Not all of us have a best friend who can help rewrite our brains and understands everything."

He tenses up when York comes to sit by him, stiff and unhappy. "Everyone's wearing a fucking skin tight suit. They don't get to do that."

"It wasn't rewriting, Wash. Delta's logic based, remember? Patterns and decryptions. He helped me talk through shit. Found the patterns of thought that led to downward spirals and talked me out of them before it got bad." Way better than a therapist, really.

He tilts over enough to lean against Wash a little more, chin tucked on his shoulder. "Yeah but how many have my ass?"

"Well, that's great for you. I can't do that. You're reaching for something that isn't there." He wasn't going to talk through anything, definitely wasn't going to let an AI trash his brain again, no matter how well intentioned.

He hunches up defensively when York touches him, but doesn't push him away. This was already more non-violent physical contact than he got in a year honestly. "I'll have words with them."

"If it wasn't there you would've shot me in the canon instead of murmur my name like you saw a ghost." Kill first, ask questions later. "If it wasn't there we wouldn't have had anything to make you jealous of a dumbass guard's lonely fantasies now."

It's a tentative thing, the looping of his arm around Wash's waist. It's actually pretty chaste- but he wasn't lying earlier. It gets chilly and he sleeps better with someone in the bed with him. "Words or fists? Cuz you punching someone for eyeing me is kind of sweet. And kind of hot."

"You just startled me. I thought you were dead." That would have startled anyone, right? Of course it would. There's no response when York wraps an arm around him either, he holds himself still and unresponsive. "You're an idiot. I'm just doing when I have to."

"Kind of the plan. Being legally dead makes getting work difficult, but I figured it'd be worth it." More cuddling. And nuzzling. "Nah. Admit it. You're jealous over something that's not even gonna happen because A) you kind of terrify the men here by being a badass and B) You're the only one here I want touching me."

He wants to touch back. He'd love that. To curl up with him like they had the past couple of nights. It's like testing himself, he supposes, being here. Throwing himself into the path of temptation and seeing if he can resist. He has to be strong. What about Carolina?" he asks quietly.

He curls closer into Wash's side, nose pressed against his skin. "...it's Complicated. We weren't ever- and last time we met we had a literal fistfight because of my excellent timing. Now she's...worse. Before when she was my CO it was bad enough. Now she's this untouchable thing. Mission first. Orders first. The hell kind of place is there for me in that?"

He's so warm, that's what gets him, and not the artificial warmth of the suit adjusting to optimum temperature. Genuine warmth. "She's not that bad. She's just focussed." It must be nice to have that kind of unswerving conviction. "And I make a nice runner up prize, right?" he says with a brittle smile.

"It kills someone to be that on all the time. Focus like that comes from trauma. From grief. From obsession." The Director had been obsessed and, well. That's how the project happened. He hooks his other arm around Wash's waist just to lean. To feel the solid warmth of him. "You're not a replacement and I'm not settling. I shot ou because I was pissed. I made sure the gun was loaded with lockdown paint because I care about you anyway."

He can't deny that. There's something broken in Carolina that he certainly can't fix, can just try to shore her up as best he can. "Why did you come after me? You'd have been safer staying with the rebels. They needed you and I'm not worth that."

There's the question now, isn't it? Stay with the rebels. Make sure the meeting works. At least he'd told Kimball that if he didn't come back in four hours to consider him captured or dead and beyond rescue. They know not to wait for him. "Because I've lost enough people to not want to lose more. I kinda get stupid over people I care about, David."

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)

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)