[week of the 46th]

[circumspector]

CHARACTERS: Angel & You!
WHERE: Bearings, Around Concordia
WHEN: From 45 until whenever really.
SUMMARY: Just doing things around the Bearings, tech stuff, lion stuff, angry video gaming. If you want to do something different, just drop me a message, or just go ahead with whatever takes your fancy.
WARNINGS: None to be thought of yet, apart from Borderlands as normal, copious attempts at swearing but failing miserably at them.

360 no scope heatshot

[ She's plugged in yet again. Which is probably done better sitting up? But she doesn't exactly have to use her hands, and nor is she. There's two sets of cords that are snaking around the common room floor, looping discreetly to dodge the coffee table, and follow them from the screen long enough and they reach her head. Plugged in directly to her skull where the metal grates are flipped open to expose the internal ports. The black wire settled that little bit into it seems, her skull. Sure, she's got one hell of a wifi signal, but why bother when she can just plug it straight? Better response time between her brain and her very serious work she is totally doing - ]

Come on, come on, there's like five minutes left in the level.

[ - or not. Where her legs are hooked over the back of the couch and her heads tilted up and backwards to look at the screen. She's playing video games, something with lots of running and shooting and heavy amounts of simulated violence. With her brain, because why the hell not? That's totally a legitimate use of her brain powers, clearly. Well, she seems to be enthralled in it, anyway. Short and shirts and bare feet fiddling over the back of the couch where she's hooked in, she's definitely comfortable right now. Aw how sweet, she's playing with other people too, isn't that nice - ]

6U4RD14N4N631 LOSES.

VICTORY TO YOURMAMA11115.

[ Yeah, never mind. ]

That's bullsh- bull - something!

[ Her upside down face scrunches up in concentration, she doesn't like losing, well, she can handle it, but not at the one thing she's supposed to be the best at, at least. ]

YOURMAMA11115> @6U4RD14N4N631 srry u sukk
YOURMAMA11115> Guess I am just beetar
YOURMAMA11115> come bak wwhen ur up 2 my lvl

[ The words flash up brightly on the screen, flashing big and bold and her face scrunches up, head turning back to the screen to face it properly like she can't quite believe it. Frowning still, letters start typing back in reply without her even moving off the couch. Well maybe that's over with. ]

6U4RD14N4N631> @YOURMAMA11115 rematch or stfu

[ Or not. ]

how to train your lion

[ Up on the roof, Angel takes her lion out to really move around for the first time. After spend whenever she could first - learning how to pull it apart and then put it together just to make sure she knew how it worked, then changing the original wiring to something she preferred, then again to remove oh - certain things, like kill switches, uses of force, and then making sure that absolutely no one could activate it but herself. Then there'd been the pointless customising if only to do nothing but making it look pretty where her fiddling had ruined its paint job.

But it does have a name, now, written in black block printed letters on its side: ᴀɴᴅʀᴏᴄʟᴇs.

But it's done for now. Making sure the lion answers to her, and wordlessly. It's AI as is perfectly serviceable, adjusted bit by bit so her mind didn't destroy it just from a brush, rather, it's weaved with her own. The same bright glow in its eyes as in hers when she's up on the roof. Bright blue and white, shining brightly. Her markings as ever, glowing down her exposed arm. ]

Well, you did alright walking up here with me. [ Good start? Good start. ] Okay, let's see how you go with the basics first...

[ It's big enough beside her, easily come up to her chest height. Her fingers wave, calculated expression as she watches it move. Knitted together brows as it walks where she bids it. There's a strength to its movements. Timed right. Good, she hadn't messed up those calibrations either, the next breath comes easier.

Soundless, just a thought and intention, her fingers curl to gesture it forward as she steps back. Letting it walk one step, then another. It's metallic tail flicking back and forth around its legs. Not quite as smooth as a real one, the little metal plates sliding perfectly as they were designed to. She keeps walking back. Fingers still held up, but she keeps her normal sphere of white light out of it - didn't know who was watching, didn't want to risk anything.

It gets faster until she's moving in a long stride, backwards jog and Androcles is keeping up with her easily at a steady trot. It's long steps are easily keeping up with her shorter ones.

Riiiight up until she forgets that running backwards is a stupid idea, and she drips over an uneven crack in the floor and falls flat on her butt. The lion stops, and nervously, it begins to press in close with its nose into her hair, checking if she's alright. ]

smol tries to be somewhat less smol

[ After that, however, and at any point, she is attempting her best with her training outside of just Lexa and Ren's encouragement. Because if Parker's hitting had taught her anything, it was that she didn't like being caught off guard like that. She refused to just sulk over it, either.

Instead, she forced herself through the motions. The same repetitions: strikes, blocks, staff in hand and her lion sitting nearby, - she's growing attached to it - but just with its head in its pause in an idle pose for now. She just keeps pushing herself - clumsily, but still, consistently, through it. Inevitable that she messes up, of course, cursing to herself in a cut off kind of way. Motherducking skag sucking son of a - witch.

If she finds company however, she'd rather it be participating than just being watched be - not very good at it. So she smiles, waving hello: ] Hey, did you want to join? Promise it's impossible for me to hit you, trust me.

Comments

[circumspector]

[ She watches him carefully as he speaks, every little movement on him like she expects him to draw a weapon. Maybe because that's what she would do in his position, she can't be sure. No one's threatened her broodmates in her hearing before. She doesn't think she'd be merciful. She never has been before, that way. ]

She's your broodmate, I had no right to say something like that to her. I know better, I've already had one of mine die.

[ Watching, watching, watching, a careful reproachful eye. Like she's gauging him for something more. She's too assessing, too mindful. The way she knows how she's useful to others is by learning how they'll be useful in turn. ]

Where I come from, they don't even discuss it, they just kill each other for that kind of threat.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ He watches her back, not necessarily wary, but still quietly assessing and automatically adjusting his body language to match. He knows exactly what it looks like when other people view him as a potential threat and are gauging him to see how much of one he's gonna be.

Sam moves slowly, palms out and arms spread a little so they're far from any weapon he could be carrying - he isn't, but working with vets means he knows it can't be assumed she knows that - as he rocks back a little, adjusting his balance and setting himself at an angle so his stance isn't challenging. 

She'd said that her world wasn’t a nice place, and he wonders what she's gone through that she expects him to want to kill her over what went down with her and Parker - but that's less important right now than making his intentions clear. ]

I don't kill people because they made threats to someone who punched them in the face. Parker-

[ He hesitates for a moment, but if Angel's being blunt with him, he'll return the favor. ]

She's a jackass. She may be right about some things and I could probably find some common ground with her and understand where she's coming from if I tried, but- [ He shrugs one shoulder. ] I've already used up all my patience dealing with self righteous assholes who think that believing they're right gives them the excuse to be an asshole.

[ There's more he could say, about how he doesn't feel the need to tolerate being cursed at and treated with disdain just because they share a broodlink, that she's cut herself off from it so much that he already feels her absence and is learning to ignore it rather than subject himself to more - but instead he just reaches out through the mental link to share the feelings with her wordlessly before he pulls back. ]

You two got in a fight. I don't like that she hurt you and I wouldn't be happy if the outcome was worse - for either of you - but from where I'm standing, that's it.

[circumspector]

[ If there's really something she can't quite figure out - it's that open honesty. The willingness to forgive that's so prevalent in the hive, amongst others - that she feels sick sometimes, wondering helplessly what their lives were like. They weren't perfect, she knew. There were some as bad as she was, Ren, Hux, Ilde, to start with. That expected the treachery, the misery, and let it shape them.

She'd perhaps been too far the other side to want to be like them anymore. Been under the restraint of someone worse than them all combined to her mind, because at least none of them justified it all on the account of love.

But she has a freedom in trusting, a soaring feeling to giving compassion to others, the benefit of the doubt. Not an idiot about it, by any means. So she - backs down a little, watching him in thought rather than out and out suspicion. ]

If you're... tricking me, just saying that? I'm just as capable of killing as anyone else... I don't need Petre or anyone else to my dirty work. I don't need anyone for that anymore.

[ Parker's focus apparently, had stung her. She's not that anymore. If she cares for others, and they care for her, it is because she has given them honest reason too. She'll never force someone else like that again. ( If she says it over and over to herself, then it will be true? ) ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Over the years, Sam's gotten good at not putting up a front - much of one, anyway - at being who he is, standing under scrutiny and letting people take or leave whatever they see. It means he doesn't have to fake being genuine or sincere, or even put extra emphasis on it when he is, but there's still something to be said for the mental link.

It'd be hard to lie when he's purposefully leaving himself open enough for her to read the feelings behind what he says, even if he wanted to. But he'd started considering Angel on her way to being a friend, and the idea of her thinking that he's just tricking her doesn't sit right with him. ]

I believe you. You didn't let Parker walk on you, that was a hell of a thing to see. But there's nothing wrong with having people who wanna stand by you when shit goes down. I've got people I'd do that for myself. [ The rest of his brood, Clint and Steve and Shiro, Aoba and even Angel herself - and his shields are down enough that the list flickers through along with his emotions. ]

[circumspector]

[ It's the list that gives her pause, more than anything - Steve, she might do anything for Steve. Latches onto it where perhaps its not alright to pry, but she uses the mental link like it was another hand on her better days, and she doesn't hesitate now as she tries to set herself on even ground. ]

Steve... you're from the same planet?

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ There's a brief flare of surprise at the shift, and Sam's brows furrow for a moment before smoothing out. All right, if she's satisfied that he's not going to kill her, he can roll with this. ]

Same planet, different times. He's my best friend.

[ Sam might not be Steve's, but that hasn't changed. ]

[circumspector]

[ Her eyes narrow in contemplation. Her fingers hovering with the light inside of them, ready to lash out, a confused animal - sometimes - just like Pandora makes the best of them. No trust, only survival. ]

He can vouch for you?

[ Nervousness is a pulsing thing, like treading water, keeping herself above the surface. ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

I'd like to think so, but... I don't know.

[ Sam keeps his conflicted feelings about Steve locked down tight. He has to, to keep from bleeding them all over Steve and making Steve feel worse about the things he can't help, and to keep Sam from focusing on them too much instead of enjoying the time he's got with Steve now. It's getting easier, the more time he spends with Steve and the more he gets to know him like this. But it also means there's no hint of just how much it hurts that he has to admit that he isn't sure if Steve would vouch for him. ]

But you can see for yourself if you want. Not a lot I got to hide, not about this.

[circumspector]

[ It's one minute of consideration before she creaks the door of her mind open, an invitation that's soft as wing beats, letting him in. ]

( Show me. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Honestly, even though Sam had made the offer, he had no idea how he was gonna vouch for himself. It's not something he's ever done before - except it is, really. It's something he'd done every day when he worked at the VA, when he stood up in front of more people than he could count and told them who he was, what he'd been through, and tried to remind them what hope was.

That's what he shows her now.

There's flashes of pararescue training, endless nights of no sleep and days of pushing physical and mental limits, watching his cohorts disappear one after the other and a steadfast determination that it was never gonna be him, that others may live, jumping out of helicopters and planes and the taste of salt water in his lungs, pulling someone along with him or shielding a body with his to the sound of gunfire and the scent of blood in the dust, strapping on his wings and Riley's voice in his ear, the heady peals of laughter and adrenaline and the cocky feeling of invincibility. The devastation of losing everything, adrift in a sea of nothing and clawing his way back out of it piece by piece, until the hope that things could be better and the determination to make them that way drowned out everything else. ]

[circumspector]

[ What was this place that they came from, she thinks as her eyes closed, that they all fought with belief in their mouth? Oh, she knows violence, and what she sees through his eyes is something paltry and yet completely the same to what she herself knows. Death was death was death.

And like the ones she watched over, what she saw sees in turn through her eyes, -- thinks Vault Hunter. Thinks, Roland. Just like Steve. It doesn't matter about being scared, it matters that someone has to do this, because better him than someone else and she feels it thud so sharp behind her own eyes in a need to draw in close to herself. Feels how his heart beats in his chest.

It's what she needs to see, exactly what she knows best that the edge goes dim. ] Alright... Alright I believe you.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ It feels a little strange to pull back, to disentangle himself from the mental connection after he'd passed so much over it. It's not the deepest he's explored it with someone else, but it's definitely the most he's given at once. And it's almost tempting to keep their connection open, to stay close enough to read her reactions to all of that, to feel how it resonates with her - but that's just another reason for him to start closing back off.

Sam hasn't intentionally used the mental link to pry so far, and he's not going to start now. ]

You don't gotta worry about calling someone on their bullshit around me, all right? I don't want you to feel like you have to censor yourself. [ There's a pause, then, ] What do you say, friends?