OTA | Those Left Behind

[duel_wielding]

WHO: Agent North Dakota
WHERE: Around South Village
WHEN: Feb 26 - Mar 4, March 16th
OPEN TO: Anyone Still In Town
WARNINGS: None

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All Along the Watchtower | OTA

When he'd asked Maine what it was he could do to help his friend, he hadn't had a problem with the suggestion, and frankly, sometimes you needed time alone. Or to watch out for what might be coming seeing as their 'hosts' had taken a lot of people away. Even though he hadn't had much practice with it yet, North still took one of the bows from storage, a collection of arrows, and put himself up a watch tower shortly after the news that people had disappeared comes in. Still, he's not sure what he's going to do now. Other than sit around. And then there's a sudden noise behind him, and North about jumps out of his skin.

"Someone there?"


Around Town | OTA

There's a lot to be done with a group of people out of town, isn't there? Other than, you know, worrying about people. Worrying about the people you can't be there for, worrying about the people who wouldn't want you to be there for them. But he goes about a pattern, trying to help everywhere he can. In the mornings he opens the dojo and lingers around while he makes his breakfast in the back kitchen. He promised that Nida kid to look over the place while he's gone, which includes offering his powers to pull pain away if someone injured themselves so they don't squirm as much while he deals with first aid. Afternoons have him checking in on animals owned by people out on walkabout, including the ones Vanille had been teaching him about as well as those in the jailhouse. He shuts the dojo down earlier in the day despite having lights now, mostly so he can go to the inn to help out with anything that needs cooked and to just seek company. Thing is, he used to be so social, and it's weird not to have people to see around all the time.


[OOC: Want a specific starter? Poke me. North needs to meet people.]

Comments

[vidal]

"Too bad I'm not sure what the punchline should be." But the shift of his expression shows that he still finds it oddly funny, too. Reyes is always searching for commonalities like that, and this is a pretty good one. It's almost enough to turn someone paranoid, hunting for conspiracies, for the dotted line between all the transplants on this island.

But North's mention of his old weapons piques Reyes' curiosity. "How in the world did you fire two at once? AI calculated the shots and fired one of them automatically?" A beat. "Also, he can hear me right now, right? Can he speak for himself or does it always have to be through your voice, your hands?"

Because asking questions about this sort of thing is far preferable to looking back at the cleaned-out village and addressing that particular can of worms, which neither of them can do shit about.

[duel_wielding]

"Theta calculated and helped me fire in time," North smiles. "Still my hands, and he's still integrated, so his thoughts, his reactions, can trigger my reflexes when I allow it. My knowledge, his math. Used it to shoot down multiple shots from a missile pod."

Which was a story for an other time. Of course now he's got the questions that make him just a touch sadder.

"If you want to talk to him directly, the network is easiest. If you see a different color text, that's him. I can let him handle my fingers on his own, so that's usually purely him. Once we figured out color coding it was easier. Plain color is me, violet is him. But I can't give enough of my own control up to give him my mouth. He used to have hologram emitters and speakers. He interacted with people on his own. Now he can't."

From the frown North's wearing, they're both a bit upset with that.

[vidal]

"Well, at least you're amenable enough to helping him out with what's missing. So: hello, Theta, regardless." Reyes flashes a smile at him and it's meant for both of them, for man and AI alike.

Because he remembers SAM's dry, unimpressed voice, and how important it had seemed to get on the AI's good side considering how it rode shotgun in Ryder's mind. It hadn't liked Reyes much, and he supposed he couldn't blame them. But her identity and that of the AI had been entangled and entwined, the lines between them hopelessly blurred until it couldn't be removed without killing her. Closer than family: more like a part of yourself.

So. Reyes knows to be polite.

"Anyone in particular you two are keeping an eye out for?"

[duel_wielding]

North offers a brief nod on Theta's behalf, a quiet acknowledgement of both the greeting and just what he does for his AI. Not like he doesn't get a benefit from it. But he'd definitely understand some of what Ryder had to go through, especially these days.

"My friends. Maine and Washington. Not that my relationship with them is so great these days."

His team had fallen apart and in ways he's part of why that is true.

[vidal]

"Duly noted. I think I've spoken to Maine on the network. What's wrong between you and your friends? But if you like, I can keep an eye out if you'll do the same for me." Because one hand washes the other, and one scratches each others' back. That sort of transactional allyship was the best way Reyes knew to relate with strangers.

"If you see that Hawke's returned to the village, or a young pink-haired girl named Vanille, or a blonde woman named Anne, could you notify me? And I could return the favour. Hawke's about yea high, long brown hair." Reyes hold his hand level, isn't quite sure how else to describe her. "Has the best smirk you've ever seen."

[duel_wielding]

That's personal, and that much is clear from the look he gives Reyes. The scrunched brow, the narrowed eyes, the unamused flat line to his lips? Yeah, he's not talking about those details.

"I'm more than happy to keep an eye out for you and yours, but I'm not going into my history. But yeah, I'll keep an eye for them. I recognize Anne and Vanille is a friend, so I'll let you know. I'll try and remember that about Hawke. Maine is... large. Large, not too far off from Bull actually. Bald. Quiet and not amused by anything. Wash is..."

Tired. Broken. Full of anger.

"About yay high, messy hair, blond. Looks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Jumpy."

[vidal]

Can't blame a man for trying. Curiosity killed the cat, and it's always doing its very best with Reyes. A shrug of a shoulder; you brought it up first, buddy. But he's not prying or pushing hard, and not especially digging for that information either. Some people in this village will spill their life stories at the drop of a hat, and he'd have been content to file it away if it had happened: his ever-evolving mental web of people in the village and how they relate to each other, who knows whom, who's likely to strangle someone else if they're stuck in the same room.

"Thank you. And Maine and Wash -- got it, I can work with that," Reyes says. Then, a glance back at the partially-empty village. A thoughtful hum in the back of his throat.

"Do you ever wonder why some of us get whisked away while others don't? I've never been able to find a pattern for it. And I can't decide if it's an insult or some kind of twisted honour to be chosen."

[duel_wielding]

"Theta works that problem over quite a lot," North admits as he leans against a railing. "Figures we're needed for something. Because why go to the level of work needed to bring someone who died to a place like this?"

Pretty certain he had died. No chance his method wasn't completely instant.

[vidal]

A blink. That damned curiosity again, and really, you can't just drop a particularly juicy nugget like that and not expect someone to pick it up: "So you were dead?" Reyes repeats, shifting his gaze over to the blond man rather than the village.

Then, more quietly, "You're not the only one. Hawke was, too. I'm glad they made the choice to bring her back, whatever that choice was for, but..." An exhale. "I suppose that means you're even more wanting to find some kind of meaning in all this."

He knew how much it exhausted her; having given her life to save the world, then being dragged back into a mess all over again.

[duel_wielding]

"Yeah," North agrees. "Blade through the heart. It was quick, I can at least be grateful for that."

Though the fact left a bad taste in his mouth. Still, he knew he wasn't the only one. He'd heard it said, quietly, here and there. Mostly in Theta's binge of the network, and of course in Malik and Desmond's discussions with people.

"Meaning? Not as much I guess. I'm used to things happening for little to no good reason."

[vidal]

"Even being brought back from the dead? A second lease on life? I would've thought that'd be enough to make anyone mull a bit, even those not spiritually-inclined." Reyes wasn't; whatever Catholic sensibilities his family had, they'd left those behind long ago, on the overcrowded streets of Earth as they took to the stars.

But. But yet. Death was a strange wall to have gone through, to have seen the other side of and still lived to tell the tale.

[duel_wielding]

"When I'm from, Humanity was facing pretty certain extinction until a few years back. In the face of that, spiritual-inclination doesn't tend to last long."

He gets it, he really does. But when it comes down to it, if there was a deity out there, it wasn't in humanity's corner. And it definitely wasn't in his.

"I need to head down for a bit. Get some food in me. If you want to take over this tower, want me to bring you back something to eat?"

& closed?

[vidal]

"Might as well relieve you." Lookout isn't a role he's used to playing in the village, but it fits him fine; he can be alone, enjoy the solitude, but keep a weather eye on everything happening around them.

Reyes nods to the other man. "And that would be great, thank you. I'll eat anything." You learned to, when you were on the brink of starvation in an empty galaxy and life support was failing. He leans against the edge of the watchtower again, already settling into that half-meditative watchfulness as North's steps creak down the ladder, as he heads away.