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[ it's been a while since dutch last roughed it like this, little resources and meat sizzling over the fire. it's been a while, but she's been trained for this just as much as for a million other situations that could be life-threatening without the proper skills.
khlyen may have trained her to be a six, he may have turned her into a child assassin — but at least he trained her well. some moments, dutch finds solace in that more than in others.
point is: when john finds her, the meat is nearly done, and dutch has a knife in hand, twirling it around her fingers, waiting to cut off slices from the deer's leg. ]
Told you. [ john gets a smile, and she stops twirling the knife long enough to point toward an empty spot by the fire. ] Running yourself ragged? [ he seems the type. caring, like johnny. ]
khlyen may have trained her to be a six, he may have turned her into a child assassin — but at least he trained her well. some moments, dutch finds solace in that more than in others.
point is: when john finds her, the meat is nearly done, and dutch has a knife in hand, twirling it around her fingers, waiting to cut off slices from the deer's leg. ]
Told you. [ john gets a smile, and she stops twirling the knife long enough to point toward an empty spot by the fire. ] Running yourself ragged? [ he seems the type. caring, like johnny. ]
[ if he'd asked her to explain her sudden switch from asking about weapons to extolling the virtues of flashlights, dutch may have felt the need to excuse herself from the conversation and punch something. (that is only a slight exaggeration.)
fortunately, he gets it after a moment and dutch nods. ] If you ever run into a guy named Johnny Jaqobis, you should tell him all about your flashlight building. I think he'd get a kick out of it.
[ translation: she misses her best friend. ]
fortunately, he gets it after a moment and dutch nods. ] If you ever run into a guy named Johnny Jaqobis, you should tell him all about your flashlight building. I think he'd get a kick out of it.
[ translation: she misses her best friend. ]
[ it doesn't take long for dutch to connect the dots, and her eyebrows rise at the same time that a smile threatens to curl at the corners of her mouth. ]
You're a bounty hunter.
[ it's mostly a guess based on what he's saying, but —so's she, and it takes one to know one, doesn't it? though dutch isn't nearly as good with technical bits and bobs and building things as he seems to be. that's more johnny's turf. ]
You're a bounty hunter.
[ it's mostly a guess based on what he's saying, but —so's she, and it takes one to know one, doesn't it? though dutch isn't nearly as good with technical bits and bobs and building things as he seems to be. that's more johnny's turf. ]
[ she gives him a grin and an exaggerated "oohh"-ing noise when he activates the laser because it is easier to shoot the shit and keep it light right now than to admit that she's missed him, that she's felt adrift without him, that she knew he'd come back if she asked but not whether he'd come back if she didn't.
that things without him haven't been the same, but they haven't been all bad, either. ]
Impressive. [ she drawls, and takes a step back toward her little campsite and the fire, the expectation for him to follow unspoken but undeniably there. ] No cans here, but if you're still hungry after that rabbit, - [ she gestures toward the fire where deer is sizzling, feeling more awkward than she's felt around johnny in a long time.
a drink would be really great right now. ]
that things without him haven't been the same, but they haven't been all bad, either. ]
Impressive. [ she drawls, and takes a step back toward her little campsite and the fire, the expectation for him to follow unspoken but undeniably there. ] No cans here, but if you're still hungry after that rabbit, - [ she gestures toward the fire where deer is sizzling, feeling more awkward than she's felt around johnny in a long time.
a drink would be really great right now. ]
[ for what it's worth: dutch isn't her real name, either. it's the name she chose for herself when she'd run away from the harem and from khlyen, left it all behind in a wedding dress still splattered with the blood of her late husband. theirs hadn't been a long marriage.
at his remark, dutch's eyebrows lift. ]
Mobile suit?
at his remark, dutch's eyebrows lift. ]
Mobile suit?
...Johnny.
[It seems to take only a short moment for him to parse the name, but it takes a little longer for him to try and formulate an answer that gets his thoughts across: is it someone who woke up, someone who's still in the pods somewhere among the stars; is it someone who's fate is unknown, someone you haven't spotted among the living nor the half-dead; how do you express your hopes, wishes and dreams of survival into a single nigh-hopeless but no less fervent need?
In the end, however, he smirks a little, shaking the impromptu tool (it seems to be a piece of scrap twisted to a fine point, almost like a makeshift screwdriver) like he's wagging a finger.]
I think I'll have something on hand to give a demonstration by that point. He'd enjoy that more, don't you think?
[It seems to take only a short moment for him to parse the name, but it takes a little longer for him to try and formulate an answer that gets his thoughts across: is it someone who woke up, someone who's still in the pods somewhere among the stars; is it someone who's fate is unknown, someone you haven't spotted among the living nor the half-dead; how do you express your hopes, wishes and dreams of survival into a single nigh-hopeless but no less fervent need?
In the end, however, he smirks a little, shaking the impromptu tool (it seems to be a piece of scrap twisted to a fine point, almost like a makeshift screwdriver) like he's wagging a finger.]
I think I'll have something on hand to give a demonstration by that point. He'd enjoy that more, don't you think?
And the pods were made for this kind of thing.
[ as far as crash landings are concerned, dutch agrees: it could have gone a lot worse. the environment here isn't too hostile, either: it may be cold, but no one's frozen yet. there's food, both in their supplies and in terms of what they can hunt for. they have supplies, even if not all of them survived the descend. ]
Guess they were prepared for this eventuality up there.
[ as far as crash landings are concerned, dutch agrees: it could have gone a lot worse. the environment here isn't too hostile, either: it may be cold, but no one's frozen yet. there's food, both in their supplies and in terms of what they can hunt for. they have supplies, even if not all of them survived the descend. ]
Guess they were prepared for this eventuality up there.
[ dutch isn't sure what category johnny falls into. she hasn't found him in one of the pods, but whether that's because he's awake, because he's in another pod or because the part of the j he's in hasn't been hit by the storm yet is anyone's guess. she'd rather not think about it, but of course, she's thinking about it. ]
He probably would.
He probably would.
Looks like it. Which is way more than I can say for Hyperion... I'm pretty sure they purposely left their escape pods unstocked to cut costs.
[ HR would have a field day with that one if he hadn't accidentally vented them out into space. ]
I wonder what set them off though. You heard their leader, right? Darma? Sort of like a message inside your head.
[ HR would have a field day with that one if he hadn't accidentally vented them out into space. ]
I wonder what set them off though. You heard their leader, right? Darma? Sort of like a message inside your head.
Hyperion?
[ now he's got to elaborate. ]
Yeah, I think we all did. Unless it was some really shitty mass hallucination.
[ now he's got to elaborate. ]
Yeah, I think we all did. Unless it was some really shitty mass hallucination.
[ Okay, maybe he'd said a little too much, but this isn't home and it wasn't as if nobody there knew what he did or who he was, so what did it matter here if everyone was from different places? Do as your heart tells you, and all that jazz, and right now, his heart is saying there's no need to be so secretive about everything. Of course, if it told him to shoot himself in the foot, he'd probably do that too, so... ]
I'm a pilot. My suit was destroyed last Christmas, but if they can pluck people out of worlds, toss them into stasis pods, and dump them here with no casualties after how hard some of those pods hit, then they can rebuild a mobile suit.
[ There's no need to tell her the rest, so he'll leave it at that for now. ]
I'm a pilot. My suit was destroyed last Christmas, but if they can pluck people out of worlds, toss them into stasis pods, and dump them here with no casualties after how hard some of those pods hit, then they can rebuild a mobile suit.
[ There's no need to tell her the rest, so he'll leave it at that for now. ]
It's...this company I used to work for back home. Pretty major? Until it crashed into a planet.
[ Which was totally definitely because of him and a killer AI, whoops. And why he's experienced with this sort of thing. ]
Things were more about profit there than safety.
[ Which was totally definitely because of him and a killer AI, whoops. And why he's experienced with this sort of thing. ]
Things were more about profit there than safety.
Never heard of it.
[ which doesn't surprise dutch seeing how she doubts they're from the same world, or even the same universe. the idea of multiples of those doesn't bother her, though she hasn't considered its implications yet. she probably won't unless prompted. ]
[ which doesn't surprise dutch seeing how she doubts they're from the same world, or even the same universe. the idea of multiples of those doesn't bother her, though she hasn't considered its implications yet. she probably won't unless prompted. ]
Well we're probably not from the same place, uh, universally speaking. That makes sense.
[ It's alright, Rhys hasn't thought much about it either other than to nerd out a little over it. He finds it pretty weird? But also pretty nice since it's thanks to that existing in the first place that he's alive and all that.
Yay for cosmic entities? ]
[ It's alright, Rhys hasn't thought much about it either other than to nerd out a little over it. He finds it pretty weird? But also pretty nice since it's thanks to that existing in the first place that he's alive and all that.
Yay for cosmic entities? ]
Yep... Well, sort of. [He continues tinkering. This is significantly easier to talk about, than bitching about raw meat.] I guess it ain't called bounty hunting no more when it's more of a "save people for profit, 'cause being a hero don't mean our meals are paid for."
[ he won't give her ragged, he's doing alright thanks very much, but he will make a concession: ] Running on close to empty.
[ empty enough that the smell is, he imagines, even better than it otherwise would be. his poor neglected stomach's giving warbles of approval anyway, a gargling he can't even be bothered to appear embarrassed over at this point in the day.
so he follows that knifepoint and takes a pew, watching the fire crackle at the meat that's making his mouth water. ]
But at least we can say dinner's the only lives lost today.
[ empty enough that the smell is, he imagines, even better than it otherwise would be. his poor neglected stomach's giving warbles of approval anyway, a gargling he can't even be bothered to appear embarrassed over at this point in the day.
so he follows that knifepoint and takes a pew, watching the fire crackle at the meat that's making his mouth water. ]
But at least we can say dinner's the only lives lost today.
[ close to empty isn't ragged, but it isn't exactly energetic either, and dutch doesn't try to hide a knowing smile at the rumbling of his stomach or the admission. ]
And those lives were lost quickly and painlessly.
[ she pulls one of the legs from the fire, cutting off two thick slabs of meat. ] Have at it.
And those lives were lost quickly and painlessly.
[ she pulls one of the legs from the fire, cutting off two thick slabs of meat. ] Have at it.
Hero, huh?
[ dutch's amusement deepens and there's something warm in it now. it reminds her of johnny's bragging sometimes, her own notion of saving the quad and the entire damn j, of winning a war against a woman wearing the same face as her. she isn't a hero and she's not doing it because it's the right thing, but she's doing it. that counts for something, or it should. ]
That's a big word to toss around.
[ dutch's amusement deepens and there's something warm in it now. it reminds her of johnny's bragging sometimes, her own notion of saving the quad and the entire damn j, of winning a war against a woman wearing the same face as her. she isn't a hero and she's not doing it because it's the right thing, but she's doing it. that counts for something, or it should. ]
That's a big word to toss around.
[ dutch knows a thing or two about hearts being treacherous and misleading, so she would have no ground to blame him, but in this case, there really is no reason for secrecy. besides, dutch is curious. ]
What kind of missions did you fly?
What kind of missions did you fly?
[ yay indeed, though dutch isn't really build for gratitude. still, they did save her, they saved johnny -- and everyone else who's still asleep. they'll wake up. ]
No shit. What happened after the crash?
No shit. What happened after the crash?
Yeah, but I figure once you've saved the galaxy twice- [once] - you can fling it around all you want.
[It's still a bitter word to swallow, honestly. Rocket has not embraced the idea of saving a world that's dropkicked him time and again, despite Quill's stirring speech about them choosing to "give a shit." He's still with the team, of course- a few stolen batteries be damned- but it's still a complicated thing.
Here, it's just bragging rights. What else does he have? He's three feet tall, shoots good, has a genius IQ, and is probably one of the best damn mechanical engineers around, but sometimes none of that impresses as much as good old-fashioned galaxy saving.]
[It's still a bitter word to swallow, honestly. Rocket has not embraced the idea of saving a world that's dropkicked him time and again, despite Quill's stirring speech about them choosing to "give a shit." He's still with the team, of course- a few stolen batteries be damned- but it's still a complicated thing.
Here, it's just bragging rights. What else does he have? He's three feet tall, shoots good, has a genius IQ, and is probably one of the best damn mechanical engineers around, but sometimes none of that impresses as much as good old-fashioned galaxy saving.]
[ Oh, now there's a question he really doesn't have a concrete answer for. ]
It depends what day of the week it was and which side you were on, but regardless of what the intent was, they were all suicide.
[ Not to say that his missions constantly changed, but the opinion of the Gundams most definitely had and they'd fallen in and out of favor so often that half the time they didn't know who the enemy was. ZERO had never given him a clear answer for that one. ]
The initial mission was supposed to be subjugation, but that was changed at the last minute, and I never received any more missions after self-detonating. None of us did. By that point, it was a free-for-all.
[ In other words, he honestly doesn't know what type they were because it wasn't his job to question things, just do as he was told. ]
It depends what day of the week it was and which side you were on, but regardless of what the intent was, they were all suicide.
[ Not to say that his missions constantly changed, but the opinion of the Gundams most definitely had and they'd fallen in and out of favor so often that half the time they didn't know who the enemy was. ZERO had never given him a clear answer for that one. ]
The initial mission was supposed to be subjugation, but that was changed at the last minute, and I never received any more missions after self-detonating. None of us did. By that point, it was a free-for-all.
[ In other words, he honestly doesn't know what type they were because it wasn't his job to question things, just do as he was told. ]
Thanks. [ an honest to god smile, easy and grateful - nothing settles the soul like food. no space for table manners, John dives straight in with fingers and a hearty chomp... and groans out appreciation. polite enough, at least, to swallow before he speaks. ] God, that's good.
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