"Different can be good." Or Jarring. Or. Stimulating- something to get you to move.
"Might be worth looking into, I dunno. Adding some stuff in here that's just for you but not connected to your time back home? That's sort of worked for me." A little. Then again Locus has a fucking adorable kitten now so that's something.
He's...not much for decorating. Letting things accumulate tended to result in fidgeting, something he'd like to avoid if possible. But York has a point. Something stimulating doesn't sound like so terrible a thing.
"Paintings?" Decorating isn't a thing for him so much as his place was an accumulation of 'what adults with homes have' and some expansions on the same. "Houseplants that won't be bad for her to chew on, cuz some cats do that."
Pissed his mom off something fierce.
"I dunno, man, what do you like that isn't work, training, or getting sloshed on the beach with me and Azucar?" A beat. "Or yelling at Wash?"
"I do not enjoy yelling at him," he replies with an annoyed huff, before considering the matter.
"...I enjoyed playing pool, before." Before everything happened. In that nebulous space between soldier and bounty hunter. The angles involved, the focus required, calmed him. There is room, he supposes after a look around, for a billiards table.
"It's okay to say you do. It's fun. He turns all kinds of shades of purple and his voice gets all squeaky and you think he might pop a blood vessel but he doesn't." Yet. "It's like- a once a month kinda thing to do, not nightly."
That'd get fucking exhausting.
Pool, now- he knows very little about. Other than there are basic rules and angles and Gabe was kind of a beast at it but- "We could find someone planetside that knows what pool is."
"I do not enjoy antagonizing anyone. Pointless squabbling is hardly beneficial to anyone." Alright, maybe getting one in on Felix had been satisfying now and then, only to see that momentary surprise when Locus snapped back.
Not necessarily the healthiest thing to admit to.
"Perhaps...more soft areas for the kitten to relax on."
And maybe more than just the kitten. But Luna serves as good an excuse as any.
"Sometimes it's cathartic. Or how you choose to bond or whatever." He waves a hand vaguely. "Don't expect me to understand your relationship with Wash, man. It's an enigma wrapped in mystery."
That may or may not be romantic.
Maybe.
Probably not but the idea is a little funny to him.
"Sofas and stuff? Throw pillows. Those are a thing, right?"
Clearly. The cat is who this is being considered for, entirely. The same reason York is staying precisely where he is, because the dear sweet kitten could not possibly be moved at this point.
"That doesn't sound like a terrible idea," he admits, after a moment.
"I don't think I've ever seen that." A cat on a leash, kitten or grown. Wash probably wield think you could herd a cat, kinda explains his trend of trying to herd misfits nowadays
"There are a number of things I would have thought impossible before meeting him." Locus shrugs. "He may be onto something. I suppose it costs nothing to try."
That's what all this is supposed to be, right? Trying to push in new directions, seek new horizons. View himself as something else, challenge himself to be capable of new things.
He falls quiet again. It wouldn't do to ramble unnecessarily.
"Fighting for a cause I believed in. Doing things for myself. Making friends, allowing myself to..."
To feel. Or rather, to recognize those feelings and not immediately push them away. Not all of them. To embrace what he's been given rather than risk losing anything that means something to him.
"Be a person rather than a machine of war?" You're never not a soldier- but being someone more than that? It takes time. Takes work. Takes practice and something to ground you and York's pretty sure he's only got that about half the time. But when he's got this?
It's easier to think that maybe he's got it right.
"It's...easier, I think. If you hear it over and over, if it'll take the burden of responsibility from you." The others in the program weren't good enough so they didn't make the cut- that's all. That's bullshit since it was unsafe as fuck but buying into that?
"He knew that. He always knew exactly what to say." He snorts quietly. A fact made even worse now by the fact that he somehow possessed a compelling voice. The last thing on Earth a manipulator like Felix needed.
"Not always. He kinda fucked up when trying to talk me out of fighting him." Namely by invoking Locus but- shit. IT had been kinda hard to shake. "The trick is keeping him off balance. He really doesn't like flashbangs."
Shit he learned while trying not to get stabbed worse.
"His pride is his weakness. He overstretches, allows himself to become too reckless."
And for years he'd been the one to pull him back when he got too close to the edge. Now, tetherless, there's no telling what he'd be capable of. A sobering thought.
"I can work with that." Or at least try to work with that. When it comes to compelling words- Felix has him beat. But they're equally lucky AND York's got his grenades, backup, and a solid reason to want that asshole in jail.
"He got a lucky shot in the first time, it won't happen again." Delta will be with him, that counts, right? Right. Just gotta play over the footage of those voice clips and see if it's a harmonic thing or a magic thing.
He might be half blind and more than a little paranoid but one squirrley fuck with a fetish for knives? He can take.
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"Might be worth looking into, I dunno. Adding some stuff in here that's just for you but not connected to your time back home? That's sort of worked for me." A little. Then again Locus has a fucking adorable kitten now so that's something.
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He's...not much for decorating. Letting things accumulate tended to result in fidgeting, something he'd like to avoid if possible. But York has a point. Something stimulating doesn't sound like so terrible a thing.
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Pissed his mom off something fierce.
"I dunno, man, what do you like that isn't work, training, or getting sloshed on the beach with me and Azucar?" A beat. "Or yelling at Wash?"
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"...I enjoyed playing pool, before." Before everything happened. In that nebulous space between soldier and bounty hunter. The angles involved, the focus required, calmed him. There is room, he supposes after a look around, for a billiards table.
Provided they could find one.
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That'd get fucking exhausting.
Pool, now- he knows very little about. Other than there are basic rules and angles and Gabe was kind of a beast at it but- "We could find someone planetside that knows what pool is."
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Not necessarily the healthiest thing to admit to.
"Perhaps...more soft areas for the kitten to relax on."
And maybe more than just the kitten. But Luna serves as good an excuse as any.
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That may or may not be romantic.
Maybe.
Probably not but the idea is a little funny to him.
"Sofas and stuff? Throw pillows. Those are a thing, right?"
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Locus makes a considering noise. "Perhaps things with texture. They would feel nice against her paws."
Again, maybe projecting here, but it's a little less weird when they're talking about the cat.
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Just Luna, not for Locus.
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"That doesn't sound like a terrible idea," he admits, after a moment.
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"He seriously got you a harness for her?" Walking a cat- how's that for an image m
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It's the oddest thing, but Wash seems to know a good deal about cats. Perhaps he ought to take some of it into account.
"I believe the idea was training her at a young age, so it wasn't strange to her later on."
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That's what all this is supposed to be, right? Trying to push in new directions, seek new horizons. View himself as something else, challenge himself to be capable of new things.
Which apparently includes cats on leashes, now.
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How they got from there to here? Blanks in the pattern. And a curious guy like him can't levee them empty.
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"Fighting for a cause I believed in. Doing things for myself. Making friends, allowing myself to..."
To feel. Or rather, to recognize those feelings and not immediately push them away. Not all of them. To embrace what he's been given rather than risk losing anything that means something to him.
Couldn't lose what you didn't have, didn't claim.
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It's easier to think that maybe he's got it right.
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Something pulls the edges of his eyes tight, mouth thinning into a rigid line.
"Felix...wasn't entirely responsible for that. I wanted to believe him. To believe that's all I was."
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Made losing them easier.
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"Nowso more than ever."
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Shit he learned while trying not to get stabbed worse.
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And for years he'd been the one to pull him back when he got too close to the edge. Now, tetherless, there's no telling what he'd be capable of. A sobering thought.
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Petty, vengeful, and utterly merciless, he knows exactly how far Felix would go to prove a point. His stomach clenches uncomfortably.
"Don't face him alone."
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He might be half blind and more than a little paranoid but one squirrley fuck with a fetish for knives? He can take.
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