station72 | mental link; after the riding events

[ Sam's mental presence is accompanied by the sweep of feathers and the rush of wind as he focuses in on his connection to the Nest, occassionally dotted with a faint hint of static or the glint of stars. ]

( There's more than a few of us going at this mission in our own way, so I figure it can't hurt to check in. I don't got a lot this early in the game, but if anyone wants what I've found out about our hosts or the other envoys or what I've been doing to get it, I'll pass it on. This ain't a trade kind of thing - I'll tell you whether or not you wanna let me know what you've been up to. But if you don't mind sharing, hell, I'll take it. )

[ They're a paranoid bunch here, Sam knows that. He'd rather get what little he's been able to find out to people who might be able to do something with it than insist on getting something back. ]

( If you'd rather do it in person, just tell me when or where. I'm pretty sure I heard something about Adra making us all dinner later, so that might not be a bad time either. )

[ On an OOC note, if you only want info sharing and would rather handwave the interaction or just want to know what Sam would share, hit me up on the first comment to this post! ]

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( Everything I got is yours, Shep, you don't even gotta ask. ) [ He's doing this mostly for those he doesn't know, because tracking down thirty or so odd people and updating them is time consuming at best, but he's gotta make the effort.

In any case, he'd tell her whether or not he was trying to make an attempt at kick starting information sharing on a wider level. ]

( Hell yeah I do. We talking general or something more specific? )

( The 'general' is spoken for, I hope. )

[Her tone has a laugh in it, quiet and dry.]

( I'm not even sure what we're looking for here, to be honest. What's the difference between a tell and 'Rabadoceans are weird'? It's not like someone's going to start a monologue--puny mortals now i have you )

[Not that Shepard would mind it, exactly. For all that Soveriegn had scared her shitless and evoked a persistent nausea, his Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh had been a clear and present threat. God, she wanted a target, so much more than whatever this is.]

( We don't even know for certain that the enemy is going to be one of Rabadoceans. For all we know, the fucking robot animals are secretly sentient synthetics. Or maybe there's something smart about one of the pets in camp, or the tech. Shit, for all we know, the senior hosts might've been flipped. I'm just a dumb jarhead, Sam; I'm meant to set off explosions and walk away. )

[ He listens as she talks - or thinks, whatever - not even bothering to try to shield his reactions. His mind is always more open with her than it was with the Nest in general; he's long past the time when he might have cared or tried to shield things anyway.

There's a frustrated huff of agreement when she says they don't even know what they're looking for - they don't know customs here, don't know what might be out of the ordinary. Sam's been doing research just to try to pass enough to make friends, it's irritating as hell.

But whatever he might have been about to say about planning and things they should attempt is sidetracked to hell, when his mind catches on the way she'd called herself a dumb jarhead. ]

( You're a hell of a lot more than a dumb jarhead, Commander. ) [ The way he says commander is closer to the way he calls Damon kitten or Bucky sunshine than any formal military rank, but there's a quiet sincerity to his mental tone that the sensation of his smile can't overtake. ] ( Don't tell me you can't see that, or we're gonna be here awhile with me pointing out how. )

( I swear to-- Sam, I appreciate your ability to pick the biggest, ugliest, meanest cat in the alley to fall in love with, but this isn't really the time for the "you're not just a soldier, you're a bloody icon" pep talk. )

[Her tone, if she can be said to have one, is sharp, punishing, and completely at odds with the fondness she feels. It's nice, to be appreciated. But focus.]

( I'm good at a lot of things. But I know my damn limits. And most of those limits come somewhere between the stock and muzzle, if you catch my drift. Find me something to shoot and I'm happy. )

( Oh, we are definitely talking about it, because I didn't mean the icon thing, either. )

[ She may be a soldier and a damn good one, she may be a symbol of something greater than any one person back home - maybe here, too - but she's so much more than all of that.

She's herself.

But all right, all right, point taken. Now's not the time, and there's the sense of sir yes sir across their connection. ]

( I'm not a spy, Shep. I don't usually get intel, I act on it. But all right - you need something a little more hands on than all this? )

( Sam, really? Really? )

[Where is this coming from? Compliments are always nice, but this... protective... thing he's doing is... Well, alright, it's nice. But also confusing. Maybe it's just the whiplash, the lack of activity and the frustration warring with emotions much softer, and more personal.]

( Oh good, so we're both a little screwed. I am open to suggestions. )

( Yeah, really. I probably won't make you uncomfortable with too many emotions. )

[ Probably. She can punch him if he does; they kind of have a tradition. But all right - he'll give her the whiplash. He just couldn't help it. ]

( Some of us have given our envoy kind of a violent reputation. Nothing saying you can't play off that. We could go poking around where we don't belong. ) [ There's a brief pause. ] ( Or grab a drink. )

[She makes a face, but doesn't say anything, not in words. Somewhere in the mix is a sneering tone, and You are a fucking therapist, as if that were some kind of insult, but she knows arguing will only encourage him.]

( Later, we can all laugh at Rahn setting us up as space nuns or whatever. ) [Though, to be fair, the last set of Space Nuns Shepard had met wore skin-tight armor with a neckline down to their bellybuttons and killed with total impunity, so... maybe it was all relative.] ( ...You asking me out, Mr. Wilson? That's classy of you, a little larceny and drinks. )

[ Wow Shepard, he's not a fucking therapist, thank you. He's a fucking peer support. The difference is - well, complicated and irritating, but mostly just that he's not the biggest fan of therapists in general, either. Just specific ones that he might have liked.

But that's all beside the point, considering the emotions he was talking about weren't exactly the kind that's usually therapeutic.

He gives little chuckle at that, and there's the impression of a playful smirk. ]

( What can I say, I'm a romantic. )

mental link; after the riding events

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