[ OPEN ] Just like that Highschool Class about childcare.

[goddamngrenades]

Who| York, Delta, and YOU! (special guest star: egg)
What| Knocking around Legion World, carting about a mysterious egg.
Where| Observation Deck, Mess, Training Rooms
When| After THATH/OM/GOU
Warnings/Notes| N/A



(A) - Observation Deck

All this calm quiet is oppressive on occasion- too familiar to the absolute nothing that he can distantly recall with a chill down his spine when things are too still. Too dark. But after long days full of people and noise and life? When he's almost overworked and overstimulated, all but vibrating out of his skin? It's soothing. As long as he doesn't stare too much. Today between monitor duty and Flight Ring training and his own programs running around in the back of his mind he needs that quiet space. His most recent meeting with Dr. Ry'kerr's left him with a lot to think about and a small package he's been told to keep warm.

So.

Sitting in the middle of all this quiet with a handheld heater wrapped in a green scarf as he contemplates both the stars and the strange football sized egg now in his care. Delta perches on his shoulder, running through a few encryption puzzles.


(B) - Mess Hall

Vague countdowns with indefinite deadlines are the worst. Not knowing when or how this thing'll hatch is killing York- but not so much that he'll obsess with research too much. He carries both the wrapped egg and Delta to grab lunch, minding it with one hand while poking through a catalog of cybernetic eyes. Medical tech being what it is he could just get a new one grown or...something? He's not familiar enough and the idea gives him an odd sense of vertigo he thinks about it too hard. Something that'll let him see without trying to be his? That's easier to hold onto. D offers his two cents here and there between dissecting a platter of fruit for York's perusal, nudging his hand away from the things that are probably some kind of caustic.

(C) - Training Room

Delta's in charge of keeping the temperature even around the egg, sitting next to it, not on it, despite York's promising that the egg can probably take it and that it'd be damn cute. York focuses on range time. It's not entirely unlike the leaderboard drills for speed and accuracy at close, mid, and long range. He alternates between his charged, thrown marbles, handguns, shotguns, and a stun variant of a battle rifle that has the right weight and kick to it. Running these numbers against Delta's on board backups of his scores when he had both eyes and just comparing the two.

Gathering data, more or less. Trying to make up his mind.

Comments

[agnominal]

"Growing quickly. It won't be long before she no longer fits in my pocket." The corner of his lip curls upwards slightly. She'll be a kitten a while longer, but not forever. Nothing lasts forever.

[goddamngrenades]

"You'll just have to wear shirts with bigger pockets." Obviously. A kitten might grow up, but adorable habits? Don't really need to end. Especially when it suits them both so damn well.

[agnominal]

"Are you suggesting a shopping excursion?"

He rumbles quietly for a moment, thinking it over, before giving a mild shrug. He's got an assortment of 'civilian' clothes by now, but a few adjustments to keep Luna happy are well within his budget. He doesn't exactly do a lot of big spending.

[goddamngrenades]

"If I'm gonna take you out later tonight, yeah. You'll need something new." Is that an offhand way of asking him out a la the Azucar friend date? It is. "I probably will too."

Nothing as...intense as dinner and dancing but- something that'd they both enjoyed. Low key.

[agnominal]

That catches him slightly off-guard, brow knitting. "Tonight?" This is news to him, of course, but it slowly dawns on him that no, he hasn't forgotten something, this is a new proposition being offered up.

After that settles in, he looks a little lost, glancing down quizzically at Delta before looking to York once more. "And where precisely were we going?"

[goddamngrenades]

"Or tomorrow night if you'd rather." Sooner would be better than later, he feels bad for waiting this long to have his 'bro night' with Locus after the weird curt whatever it'd been when he'd taken out Azucar. Delta remains silent for the moment.

"It's a surprise." A beat. "I promise nowhere you'll be uncomfortable. Dinner and pool, no dancing."

[agnominal]

Some part of him seems to relax at that. There is definitely implication to be taken with dancing, nevermind that he's rubbish at it. Pool and food seems a much safer bet.

"No. I had no plans. Tonight will suffice."

[goddamngrenades]

"Good, cuz I found an honest to god little taqueria earthside and they think I'm adorable there for not entirely mangling Spanish when I order." Comfort food. Hole in the wall, nothing fancy, but not a place for dark colors and spartan attire.

"There's a laid back bar just down the street that serves buckets of cheap beer and has a well worn pool table." He'll lose a lot, but he won't really mind it.

[agnominal]

It sounds...well, it sounds like a perfect evening. The beer excluded, he's never been a fan, but comfort food and pool? Of course York would just casually rattle off the bullet points of everything Locus could have asked for, like it took no effort at all.

A faint smile tugs at the edge of his mouth, though it's quickly tempered back down into place. "I see. Then it sounds as if you have it all planned out."

[goddamngrenades]

"They also-" Because beer is not really Locus' bag. "Have a house made cider."

Which may or may not be against regs but hey, a treat's a treat. He tips his head up to grin at Locus, infinitely pleased that, well, he's pleased. He knows his audience, after all. "You'll probably need something warm, it's cold down there this time of year."

[agnominal]

"Hm. Then I will prepare accordingly. I have clothing that will suffice."

He pauses after that, just looking at York, at that grin, and his brow earns a faint little wrinkle. Nothing comes out, however. He just stares, a little awkwardly but maybe not as intense or as intimidating as his usual stare.

Maybe, a little softer. Maybe.

[goddamngrenades]

"Guess I'm shopping alone, then, cuz I got nothing." Not for that level of laid back chill. He'll figure something out, easy. For a moment he's content to sit and lean and not think about the implications of sitting and leaning. He's tactile, Locus doesn't mind.

There's that softness around his eyes that rings a very distant bell- but it's distant. "How'd your last op go? Mine was- a ride."

Odd, pretending to be married.

[agnominal]

"Preventing an assassination is nothing new. It went well enough."

One eyebrow raises, however.

"Yours required...more subterfuge than I generally like."

Lying about being married to anyone was not his preference. And if it was to someone he actually had feelings for? The problem would have only compounded itself. No. Better to avoid that entirely, stick to what he knew.

[goddamngrenades]

"Apparently I play 'bumbling but well meaning spouse' pretty well. Reminds me why I quit dating." Keeping up with the girls had been exhausting. Parker can lie easy as breathing and Marjara? He'd been out of his depth in more ways than one.

"It was kinda fun, though. Pretending to be in a relationship. All the fun, none of the anxiety." And it is an anxious thing, being with someone, trying to keep them happy.

[agnominal]

"I will take your word for it."

Locus immediately frowns, glancing back to the egg as though he suddenly found it intensely fascinating. Absolutely for the best he'd had nothing to do with that entire mess then.

[goddamngrenades]

"It was a nice change of pace, really." From the sneaky spy shit and the eldritch horrors and the ghosts of christmas past crawling up their collective asses. He wouldn't mind another relatively chill operation like this again. "Did feel like a bad rom-com though."

[agnominal]

"So, a rom-com."

Someone apparently had very strong feelings about that genre of movie.

And while he could understand wanting a break, while he never wanted to face Felix again in any form and would happily never encounter anything like Silent Horizon again? He understandably favored missions that required his particular skill set.

A mission like that? He would have only been a liability.

[goddamngrenades]

"Hey- some are enjoyably bad." Some. Not all, but some. "French Kiss is pretty good."

Old as hell but- a cunning con man, Meg Ryan at her most Meg Ryan, good music? His kinda bag.

[agnominal]

Locus just gives him a disbelieving look before shaking his head. "As long as you are pleased with the results, it is just as well."

Something else caught his notice, however. Something that might prove of interest. "You are no longer engaging in romantic relations?"

[goddamngrenades]

"You saw my Legacy, right?" When everything's laid out so neat and plain it's enough for a guy to take a good look at the pattern. The variables, the constants. And the one constant? Wasn't that hard to pick out.

[agnominal]

"I did."

That's...something of a relief, actually. He remembers Sombra's warning, his duty to keep York from getting himself hurt, but he's already disinclined to do so? That makes the task that much easier.

[goddamngrenades]

"I'm good how I am. I got Delta, I got my bros, and yeah maybe I'll get an itch for something physical down the line but I'm not a twenty year old fuck truck of a human being anymore. Shouldn't be hard to just dip out and find someone for a night." Easy peasy. He's not unattractive, he's funny, he can probably swing it without getting attached.

[agnominal]

"No doubt there would be many interested parties. Be wary of whom you select, should it come to that."

Not that he's got any personal stake in this, oh no. This is just a 'bro' looking out for his friend. Nothing more.

[goddamngrenades]

"This is where I say 'I know how to be careful' but again- you've seen my Legacy." Clearly he does not have the best judgement. Looking back the best relationships he'd had were with Jack and, well. North.

But North is solidly a 'bro' and changing the comfortable solidity of what they got is...it's scary. He's not willing to risk that.

[agnominal]

"We'd all like to think so, wouldn't we?" He's had his share of trusting the wrong people, getting involved more than he should. No. No point in any of that.

He values what he has. That's more than enough.