aaron paul without the swearing

[servitor]

( Since we're all supposed to be real close and buddy buddy around here, anyone care to fill me in on your skills or training?

I'm not going to drill you and ask you to run laps, I promise. Not today at least.

... Unless you're with me, then you better be on the tenth lap and not a nap )

[You know who you are.]

Comments

[earthborn]

[Shepard is getting better at this, at pushing her impressions at people, and so she lets the sense of amusement sit at the forefront for a long, incredulous while. She listens. Twelve years a soldier, sure, but that's not... a lot to go on. Technically Traynor was a soldier, but you didn't compare snipers and information engineers, no matter how vital they both were to the ongoing operations.]

( Alright, I'll bite. )

[There is a sense of gathering oneself, a prepared speech, the kind of thing you deliver on command, when it's asked. Assuming the asking party deserves to know, of course.]

( Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. I enlisted in 2170, I am designated N-7 by the Interplanetary Combatives, and in 2183 I was appointed the first human-species Spectre agent in the service of the Galactic Council. As a combat biotic, my primary field of experience is in small-unit operations, and I have led hundreds of three-man missions in active combat zones. Previous to joining the Nest I was CO of the stealth frigate Normandy SR-2, and operating on various classified missions in a theater of war spanning most of the Milky Way Galaxy. Black ops. I'm also licensed to pilot atmospheric craft. Not that anyone could stop me. )

[There is a brief, almost nasty little pause.]

( And you are? )

[servitor]

[He suspects, given the long-winded soliloquy and the pause, that he's supposed to be more than impressed. He suspects he's supposed to be somehow intimidated by all that she's done.

And sure, he's impressed alright. Unfortunately for all parties involved, he doesn't know when to show reverence or deference. Probably something to do with the fact that he's your big damn hero who doesn't know when to stop or shut up.]

( Nyx Ulric, soldier, member of the Kingsglaive. )

[He knows it doesn't mean shit to her, or anyone really outside of Noctis, but that's what he's going to keep it at. Kingsglaive.

And there's a tinge of amusement to the fact that the one title encompasses everything that he is and isn't: an expendable nothing who can do a whole lot of damage in one go when he puts his mind to it. Because, the thing is? There wasn't anything really glamorous or longwinded about being part of an all-refugee force designed to fight in a rapidly losing war.]

( First to join the Glaive, that's all I've got going for me. )

[Now the amusement grows, more of a self-deprecating sort of humor that shines every so often. Yeah, that's something, isn't it? Signing up for war the day after your country gets blown to shit and your sister dies?]

[earthborn]

[If Shepard picks up on any of that, it's with a grim sort of smile. She meant it to sound impressive, but also to sound confusing. They were all fish out of water here, and asking for credentials was... a hard road. She knows a thing or two about fighting a losing war for an increasingly desperate survival.]

( You worked with Noctis, then? )

[It's not like they're friends or anything, but Shepard knows the guy. Hard not to, after Shril.]

( You usually punctuate your threats with rhymes? Lap and not a nap, that's cute. )

[servitor]

( I worked for King Regis, his father. He formed the Kingsglaive after my home was destroyed and I joined the next day. Been at it ever since. It sort of fell to me to fight for Noctis here and now. )

[The truth of it, really. Facts that still stung a little long after the fact.

Facts that have yet to take their final, deadly sting.]

( I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. )

[Shut up Nyx Ulric.]

[earthborn]

( I've heard worse reasons for enlisting. )

[He's looking at the Harvester and not seeing the Klixen. That's going to be a rude awakening... but it's not Shepard's problem. She's always been a fan of letting tomorrow's problems happen tomorrow.]

( You're an ass. ) [She says it without malice. If anything, it's a point in his favor.] ( But I already knew that. )

[servitor]

[He's already had the rude awakening, in the form of his corpse, ice blue, veins black and spindling out from the hollows of his eyes, hanging from thick chains over the throne.

He's going to die. It's set and done. Sometime in the future, he's going to cease to exist and it's already been put into motion. He already knows that the entire Glaive has been used up to the last as pawns.

Still, he goes on. Unlike Shepard, Nyx has no past, and no future for himself. The problems of tomorrow are the problems to sort out today, to make sure there's a tomorrow for everyone else.]

( I get that sometimes. )

[earthborn]

[There is the impression of a long, tired sigh. Sometimes, just sometimes, you meet someone who makes waking up in the morning feel like nothing more than a way to ruin the previous night's sleep.]

( Look, with all due respect, can I make a suggestion? )

[servitor]

( I'm thinking it's not going to be a respectful suggestion but yeah. )

[Since, you know, he does the exact same thing, but without asking permission or offering apologies.]

[earthborn]

( Can you cut back on the nihilism a little bit? We're all gonna die some day, but until then we're all sharing a certain amount of close quarters, so to speak. )

[If she's not comforting Seviilia that she is in fact mortal, it's this guy with his deathwish. Is the Nest just attracted to goth poetry or something?]

( I'm just trying to get through the week, alright? )

[servitor]

( I'm just trying to get back and make sure no one dies here in the process. )

[Not that he won't try to cut back. It's that seeing your own corpse from someone who's ten years ahead of your time kind of fucks you up a little. Hard to not track back to that entire scenario.]

( I'm not used to the whole brain thing. I'll try to keep my not-so-private thoughts private. )

[At least he's sincerely apologetic? At least he's the most normal one from Insomnia?]

[earthborn]

[Shepard holds fast to her own shielding, putting the memory of her own death firmly out of mind. Suffering isn't a competition, but even if it were... Then letting two old soldiers trigger flashbacks at one another all night would not help anyone win anything.]

( Thanks. ) [It's perfunctory, gratitude in the automatic, socially acceptable way, meant more for the intention than the inevitable result.] ( You actually think any of us are going back. )

[servitor]

( It's not that I think, it's that I have to get back. No matter what. )

[Such a hero, this one. It's just duty, though. Duty to get back and make sure it gets worse for it to get better.]

( Whether or not it happens is another story but I can't sit back and not try. )

[earthborn]

[Well, she had asked for less nihilism. This is technically the opposite of that. Sort of.]

( I mean, you could. But I get it. )

[servitor]

[People are fun like that.]

( At least you're the first one not to be openly hostile for that train of thought,
so thanks for that. )

[Kind of a nice change of pace, despite that he's used to it by now since the start of his service.]

[earthborn]

( What, really? For fuck's sake. )

[Looks like he's not the only one who needs to cut down on the depression coffee what the hell]

welcome to kingsglaive

[servitor]

[And then, there it is. Just a laugh, if a quiet one. It's true, all of it.

But he takes it all in stride. It's difficult to actually piss him off, and then it takes a lot more effort to goad him to break his composure.]

( Yeah, really. Everyone here thinks I've got an agenda and so far you'e the only one who's not blaming me for anything. Good going. )