Smut, Gen, Angst, Fluff, Anything, Everything. PFL era, Post war, Pre Canon, AU, ETC, Full starter or pic prompt, drop it like it's hot Brackets or Prose whatever you're comfortable with Tag and go!
"The plan is take a couple shuttles out and poke around! So long as the supposed 'crash site' isn't swarming with military, then I should be fine, and then I decide where to go from there." This isn't like computer code. Computer code has a form and structure that is constant and predictable. This is not that. This is life which is not at all predictable. "If you're trying to talk me out of going, you can't."
"You wanna run recon without having any idea of what you're looking for, what you're up against, and without training." Just- breaking that down for her, the numbers already ticking through in the back of his mind. This is shit he knows how to do. Can do without getting caught. if the UNSC is being a shit again-
He's got a point, several points, and that's...frustrating, because she can either go and maybe die and leave her mother all alone, or she can stay and be wracked with the pain of never knowing.
"I don't have a way to do any of that. Not...currently at my disposal."
"That's when you hire a contractor. Like you had the foresight to do for the ID and background fiddling. You were, like, halfway there which is more than most kids your age. Kudos to you." Not even sarcastic, that, though the slow clap might be. Just a touch.
"Kinda lucky you're with someone that can either give you the hook up or-"
Does he want to get involved that badly. Does he? He might.
She doesn't say anything at first. Not at first. Doesn't know quite how to react, but there's sincerity and sarcasm and...he's...
He's offering?
He's offering. To help her. To do this for and with her? And she is confused. There's probably several expressions that run across her face over the span of a few long moments.
"Probably, but for shit like this? I work for pizza and beer." So, less the beer, more the pizza. He scrubs the back of his neck, grimacing. "Look- you do this? You're gonna die. You have no idea what you're doing and I don't want that on my conscious so just agree before I think better of it and bail, ok?"
"...Pizza and soda I can do. I'd be some kind of idiot to say no to help from a Freelancer." She rubs her chin in thought for a moment. "Or, I could be some kind of idiot to accept help from a Freelancer, depending on the perspective, but I choose to see this as a positive."
"Ex-Freelancer. I bailed." He had good reason, alright? "Sometimes it turns out you sign up for shi- stuff and it's not what you thought it was and you gotta get out before you become more of an as- badguy than you already were."
Not swearing is gonna be hard but, damnit, he'll manage.
Okay, he's got an interesting point, but she finds herself kind of distracted by the way he cuts himself off. Is it possible to treat someone with and also without kid gloves at the same time?
"...I'm not going to burst into flame if you curse around me, you know."
"You are a small human type person." A beat, it'll make sense in a second. "You don't swear around small human type people. It's like a social rule or something?"
He's pretty sure it was a rule, North made it a Rule with a capital R which meant disappointed dad face when you didn't follow it and he made that rule for Theta so it kinda became a habit.
"Human type person," she echoes. Unimpressed. Look at how unimpressed this small human type is. "Look, I mean, generally you don't swear around kids because they'll echo it and they're 'bad words'," yes with air quotes, "and then get in trouble at school, but I'm not a child! You're a shady ex-Freelancer who makes up new identities for people out of a garage with a cool motorcycle. It's not going to surprise me that you swear."
"Your eye twitches when I call you 'kid'." He notices these things. He's observant. You know, sometimes. "I'm an under the table identity operator working out of one of many safe houses."
Not shady at all.
"Look I walked away with a particular set of skills that aren't terribly conductive to a happy civilian lifestyle. So." A beat. "Yeah but I'm gonna try to not anyway. Deal with it."
"Whatever." That is a totally mature way to reply to the situation. Very mature.
"The point is...the point is that we're doing this. Together. Like as a team. Instead of me running off on my own and maybe or maybe not getting shot. Isn't that going to impact your business?" Y'know, the one that isn't shady.
"No maybe about it. You'd get shot." And he'd have to live with it. "I'm an independent contractor. I go where the work is, do the jobs I feel like doing. This? I feel like doing. This needs to be done. Just. Not by a kid on their own that'll get themselves killed before finishing things."
"I didn't say it just to guilt-trip you into helping me out, you know. Or to make you want to get revenge on people who helped screw over your project. This is about my family, and...and I need it to stay about my family. Okay?"
"Very different branches of the UNSC involved in that mess, kid. If they were involved in this I wouldn't help." It'd get him killed and- yeah. Not a fan of dying.
She could mention that if this is a deep enough conspiracy, who knows what branches are involved, but that would probably not be helpful. Don't alienate the only willing aid that's been offered so far. "But as of this moment, you'll help me find my family. You're not, like...one of those crazy conspiracy theorists who think the government's run by lizard people, right? Just so we're on the same page as far as 'probably a conspiracy' versus 'everything is a conspiracy'."
"...No?" Lizard people, what the christ? "Regular people can be pretty fu-messed up all on their own, kid. They don't need to be lizard people. Just. Douchebags."
"I'm just checking! I don't really want to enlist the help of someone who's more likely to wear tin foil hats and blog about how they were right about something really dumb and implausible because of made up evidence they think connects in their own heads." So there.
"You know I'm probably going to make fun of your aborted cursing, right?"
"Yeeeeeah, no? No. How 'bout no." He's a soldier and a security specialist, not a conspiracy theorist. It's not a conspiracy if you KNOW shit is shady and fucked up behind the scenes because you had that shit beamed right to your brain.
"And I'm gonna make fun of you for being short. We're even."
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It's worth looking into.
Discreetly. Distantly.
"I'm pointing out holes in your plan."
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He's got a point, several points, and that's...frustrating, because she can either go and maybe die and leave her mother all alone, or she can stay and be wracked with the pain of never knowing.
"I don't have a way to do any of that. Not...currently at my disposal."
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"Kinda lucky you're with someone that can either give you the hook up or-"
Does he want to get involved that badly. Does he? He might.
"You know. Do it myself."
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He's offering?
He's offering. To help her. To do this for and with her? And she is confused. There's probably several expressions that run across her face over the span of a few long moments.
"...Would I have to pay you more?"
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Not swearing is gonna be hard but, damnit, he'll manage.
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"...I'm not going to burst into flame if you curse around me, you know."
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He's pretty sure it was a rule, North made it a Rule with a capital R which meant disappointed dad face when you didn't follow it and he made that rule for Theta so it kinda became a habit.
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Not shady at all.
"Look I walked away with a particular set of skills that aren't terribly conductive to a happy civilian lifestyle. So." A beat. "Yeah but I'm gonna try to not anyway. Deal with it."
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"The point is...the point is that we're doing this. Together. Like as a team. Instead of me running off on my own and maybe or maybe not getting shot. Isn't that going to impact your business?" Y'know, the one that isn't shady.
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Which the Project had been full of, honestly.
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"You know I'm probably going to make fun of your aborted cursing, right?"
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"And I'm gonna make fun of you for being short. We're even."