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#Miner'sRespite – August 12, 2015
Skythix arrived at Miner's Respite by hoverbike after about twenty minutes of receiving a message. She was wearing her usual warm leather vest and tight black pants that showed her spurs. Instead of heading to the bar however, she walked up the steps to the many halls of doors where she once stayed a night. Her green eyes glinted in the dim light of the hallway as they searched for the
room number that Jason had given him. She hoped he was going to make due on that promise of buying her a drink since she didn't bring anything and they obviously couldn't share. After finding the correct door, she knocked on the door and tapped the red lock display on the door to notify the other side that she was waiting. She caught herself brushing the top of her head with a palm and
Jason can be heard rustling around a bit on the other side of the door. "Yeah." he shouts from inside, "Coming." A few more moments pass before the door slides open. He's dressed exactly the same as earlier- black fatigues, white t-shirt, black boots. His left hand is clasped around the neck of a beer and he takes a quick swig. "Hey. Thought you got lost or something. Where are you
Skythix looked over Jason's attire and couldn't help but grin. Yeah, it was definitely nothing special. It at least help put her mind slightly at ease. "I'm pretty sure I got here as fast as I could." She said, turning her chin up and away from him while waving a hand at him as she walked past. In truth she was wracking herself about the possibilities of what was going to happen. She
had never been alone with a human before and even though she was a hardened soldier, still made her feel awkward. "I'm in an apartment on one of the boulevards a buncha miles out. I can't remember the name of it." She said while looking around the room of the respite.
The room is, quite frankly, a mess. The desk with his terminal atop it has numerous thermal clips strewn about beside a dismantled Revenant with a few items used for maintenance. The terminal itself has a large crack in the screen. The bed is unmade and a small pile of unfolded clothes is lumped on the floor to the side of it. A couple of grenades are laying on the nightstand beside a tipped over photo of Jason with a wide (Jason_Wolfe)
Jason scrambles over to the desk and grabs the wheeled chair by the backrest. "Have a seat." he says, quickly lifting the datapad off the chair and tossing it onto the bed, "Housing out here is a bitch. I hear the homesteads outside of town are nice, though. You looked into those?"
Skythix couldn't say she was impressed with what she was looking at but then again she was used to spartan settings so the less the better. She walked over to the seat and sat down carefully as if she were afraid it were going to break at any moment. She sat tall and rigid with her hands on her thighs. "No, I haven't. I'd say it's over budget but that would be an understatement." It
didn't help when you had barely anything to work with. "My 'apartment' is barely more than an oversized closet but I'm fine with it. I'm used to less."
Jason takes another sip of his drink and plops down on the edge of the bed, right on top of the datapad. He cringes a bit, scoots off of it and uses the bottom of his bottle to push it aside. "Well, this place certainly ain't a mansion..." he says, glancing around, "But it'll do until the building is back up and operational." He leans forward slightly, resting his elbow against his
knee as his drink dangles loosely from his fingertips, "So... What's going on with you?" he asks frankly, "You having some reservations about all of this? Like I told you, if you want answers all ya gotta do is ask. Redrock is on the level."
Skythix lightly tapped her talons against her leg incessantly without realizing. She was staring at him while he talked and immediately looked away when he finished as if continuing to inspect her surroundings. "All of Redrock's people lived at the facility, right?" She asked but seeming to know the answer already. "It's not so much that I have reservations... It's just all vastly
different to me. It might just be me and Aite but it feels like there's no structure with an every turian for themselves attitude." She was used to being told what to do even if she occasionally disobeyed the directive, it gave her the right direction to go. "What is it about this place that drew you here?"
Jason gives a quick shake of his head. "Nah. The building was mostly unfinished even before the-... accident." he says, not particularly wanting to talk about the war Redrock nearly brought to Freedom Falls. "It was just me and Linda staying there..." he quickly spits out before moving right onto her second question without pause, "Like I said. We knew we needed to operate outside of
Council space when putting Redrock together. It gets around a lot of the paperwork and red tape." He smirks and gives a short shrug. He glances down at his drink and shakes his head slightly, "I suppose that's not entirely true. I mean, it was a factor. But there's just something about being out here. After spending all that time on Omega, going back to Council space just felt-..."
He sighs and trails off, giving a shrug as he fails to come up with the words to properly convey himself.
Skythix | "Loss of freedom?" She added in. Maybe it was just because of her upbringing but she couldn't imagine going anywhere near Omega, let alone setting foot on it for even a microsecond. It was hard for her to empathise but she could at least understand. "Yeah, I see what you mean." She pauses and looks down at his beer. "I suppose this is the part where I give the good girl speech
about how you should stay in council space and be another star in the system of galactic politics." She grinned before looking back up at him.
Jason lowers his gaze and gives a little chuckle. "No need. A few years ago, I would've been the one giving it. Never imagined I'd end up at a place like Omega." he says. "Or that I would've enjoyed it so much." he adds, sounding almost embarrassed about it, "I mean, don't get me wrong, that place is a piss bucket. But, for the armpit of the galaxy, I met a whole lot of good people
while I was there." He glances towards the photo on the nightstand instinctively, but quickly breaks away from it. "Besides," he continues, straightening up his posture a bit, "Back in council space they've got the council looking out for 'em. There's good people out here that need someone watching out for them, too. Maybe I'm overselling myself, but I'd like to think that Redrock does
Skythix caught Jason looking at something, maybe the picture on the night stand but couldn't help but snickering outright, placing a hand just over her mouth. "You did not just compare yourself to the council in terms of keeping peace." She put her hand down and followed up with a laugh. "Besides, you don't have nearly enough shadow agents and spectres working for you doing whatever in
the spirits name they want to do." She could feel herself warming up a bit after talking more. She'd feel better if she had a drink though. She stood up from her seat and walked over to the picture frame that was tipped over and picked it up. "Was she your mate?" she asked after examining the humans in the picture.
Jason frowns at the turian's snickering. "Well no! Maybe not exactly like-..." he interjects with a sigh, "I just mean these people need help and I want to do what I can." Once the turian picks up the frame, he just stares at the photograph from his seat on the bed. After a few moments pass, his gaze hardens and he takes a large swig of his drink, "Is." he says pointedly, his voice
Skythix widened her eyes and did a double take at the picture and him. "Oh!" The state of the picture either made her assume it was an old picture or a bitter memory and from his expression it seemed to be at least one of those. "Ah, sorry." She wasn't sure if it was right to ask more questions about her. Maybe another time. She set the frame back down right side up and turned to him,
hands on her hips with them cocked to the side as she looked down at him. "So! I hear there's drinks to be in my near future." She said with a toothy grin.
Jason continues to stare at the photo as Skythix sets it back in its place. He stands from the bed and heads over towards a small table against the wall. It's covered in clutter as well as a six pack, sans one bottle. He sets his own beer down and reaches for a fresh one before wincing. "Shit. Quarian, not quarian..." he repeats aloud, "Sorry-..." he rotates to face the turian as he
chews on the inside of his cheek and glances towards the door. "Uhhh-... Wait right here!" he instructs, holding up a finger, "One second!" He hurries over towards the door and taps the interface, causing it to slide open once more, "Always forget about the whole-... you know... dextro..." he mutters to her, "What's your poison?"
Skythix watched Jason skitter around the room looking for beer or something for her. "Spirits, you are very lucky this isn't a formal inspection." She crossed her arms and tutted at him with her hip still jutted out. "Messy room, no alcohol for your superior officer, and now you're just going to leave a girl alone?" She shook her head slowly with her eyes closed. The hint of a grin on
her face would give her away though even if it was just a flick of a mandible. "There's really not much option for me I'm afraid. At least that's what the last bartender told me. If they still have that nice brandy though I suppose it will be enough." If she was going to have only a few choice she could at least get a good one.
Jason raises an eyebrow as she speaks but gives a nod at her selection and disappears through the door. A moment later, his head pops back around the doorframe. "I'm the superior officer here!" he shouts with a grin, "And my room isn't messy, it's lived in!" The sound of his boots stomping off down the hall follows.
Skythix let out a small sigh as Jason ran out. She wasn't actually sure of his old Alliance ranking but she liked to think that she was higher up than him. Even though in their current job he held the better position. She took another look around the room and frowned slightly at the mess. She took the moment to at least organize the room a bit, making the bed, kicking clothes together
in a slightly more organized pile on the ground, placing the grenades in a much safer location by themselves on the same table where the revenant sat. She could probably fixed that if given the moment, too. In her small but quick exertion, she realized she was still wearing her warm vest. She removed it and placed it on the back of the chair she was sitting on previously, leaving her
in a small and thin grey undershirt. She sat on the bed and waited for Jason to get back with whatever he was doing.
Skythix was staring at her feet waiting for time to pass when the sight of something from under the bed caught her eye. She hopped off and crouched down to pick up the crate, attempting to open it and view its contents.
It's fairly heavy. Once set atop the bed and opened, Skythix would find an undersuit and the blue and white plating of a hardsuit. It's suffered quite a bit of damage. Pieces of shrapnel are still forced into it, and the right arm of the undersuit is completely decimated. Blood and grime coat a large portion of the chest plate. (Jason_Wolfe)
Skythix whistled through her teeth as she gently picked up the pieces of armor. It took her a moment to realized why the right side was destroyed. "Spirits..." She muttered, turning it over in her hands to inspect it fully. A sad look came to her face when she realized she was holding the armor that Jason was wearing the day he received his grevious injury.
Jason returns after about ten minutes. The door slides open and Jason is standing just beyond it with a bottle tucked under his arm and a glass with ice in his hand. A lopsided smirk is smeared across his face as he steps inside, "So, I only have to pay for what you drink as long as I return the bottle. Perks of being a friend of the staff. Just don't go spitting in-..." he begins to
brag, but his smirk slowly disappears as he sees her going through his things. "The hell are you doing?"
Skythix jumped in fright when Jason opened the door again. She had become to engrossed in the armor that she didn't even notice his return. She returned her hands behind her and stood stark straight with her chin up, not meeting his eyes like an ensign being called out by the drill instructor. It was still such a hardwired response. "I, uh..." Her eyes flashed from him to the armor
crate before they rested back on the armor. She couldn't even bring herself to give an excuse. She'd seen so many armor hardsuits that were in much worse condition than that but rarely did she get to see the person still walking around that used to wear it. Her face grew sullen as her eyes half closed while they still stared at battered right side. "What happened that day?" She asked
Jason furrows his brow and glances between the nosey turian and his armor crate. "You just go through people's shit?" he asks, moving over to the table to set down the glass and bottle. It takes him a moment of leaning and awkwardly bending his arm to unwedge the bottle from his armpit without dropping it, but he somehow manages. "You can't-..." he groans, stepping towards the turian
with a sigh. He rolls his eyes and gives a slight shake of his head, but his expression softens. He looks back down at the armor inside of the crate. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." he sighs, "Suppose the short story is a shotgun blast at close range..." He reaches down and runs his hand over the chestplate, "...Gotta get her patches up." he mutters.
Skythix was about to run over and help him with the bottle when she remembered his handicap but he had managed without her. She stood where she was, moving from foot to foot awkwardly. "Yeah, I remember you telling me that when I first met you and Polner." She said, looking next to her at the human, comparing now the real missing limp with the decimated armor. "We'll have to get you a
new set. This thing is well past its usefulness. I mean, Its integrity is probably completely lost. You're better off melting it down for parts. You should--..." She stopped and realized she was rambling on about her military nonsense. She'd been shot before but had never had something so severe as a lost limb. "Sorry... For looking through your things. I just came across it when I was
tidying up." Now she was starting to feel like a child again who got caught doing something red handed.
Jason opens his mouth to object to the suggestion that he'd melt down his baby, but at the mention of her tidying up, he holds his tongue and glances around. With a raise of his eyebrows he lets out a deep breath. "You're a real piece of work, ya know that?" he asks, shaking his head from side to side. "Control issues? Obsessive compulsive disorder? What's your deal?" he asks, "Does
it really get under your skin that much that my room was a little out of order?" Little out of order may have been an understatement. "I like it that way." he continues, grabbing the edge of his bedsheet and tugging it loose, just to make a point, "I know where everything is!"
Skythix made a sound of disgust at Jason and crossed her arms across her chest again. "I am not controlling!" she said indignantly. She was just used to cleanliness! Everyone in the military was expected to keep up a strict code of conduct and having a spotless living quarters was expected. "I was just occupying myself!" She looked down at the small corner that Jason pulled out and had
to resist the temptation to reach down and fix it again. She instead glared back at him without malice. "Yeah you really proved a point there. Good thing you know where that corner of the bed is." She said sarcastically.
Jason stares the turian down with a frown and, without ever taking his eyes off of hers, reaches down and tugs back the bedsheet a bit more. He stands up straight and goes to mimic her stance, but awkwardly hovers his remaining arm across his chest for a second before lowering it to his side. Finally, not knowing what to do with his hand, he just shoves it into his pocket. "How did
this become about me?" he asks with an exhausted sigh, "I thought you were here to talk, not run an investigation and give me a lecture on housekeeping."
Skythix shook her head at Jason, trying to keep up her stoic and hardened facade but couldn't hold it any longer as she watched him try and cross his arms while missing a key component to the feat. She couldn't help but laugh out loud as he finally stuck his hand in his pocket instead. "We are talking." She said with a light chuckle before walking over to the table where he brought up
the liquor bottle and glass for her. "This is just more fun than talking about feelings." She poured a small amount before tilting her head at the glass and pouring a more generous helping. "Besides, I did tell you I was going to need this first if we were going to get into those things." She raised to glass at Jason. "For those we lost but still hold today." She muttered to herself
Jason scrunches up his nose and quickly leans down to fix the bedsheet as Skythix turns her back to head over to the brandy, although her laughter does a good job of easing him back up a bit. Once the bed has been discretely made once more, he follows her over to the table. Aside from the glass, bottle of brandy and beer, there's a small opened box on the table as well with a bunch
of plaques in it. His holstered Phalanx sits beside it. He slides the pistol aside and puts his back to the table, lifting one leg to sit at the edge. As he overhears her words, he catches himself absently glancing back towards the photograph momentarily. "Sounds like there's a story there..." he says as he removes one of the bottles from the holder. Not one to be kept from drinking
because of one little ol' missing limb, he places the edge of the cap against the table and pulls hard on the bottle, causing the cap- and a small amount of beer- to fall to the floor. On closer inspection, the entire side of the table is littered with scrapes and damage from this technique.
Skythix let out a gentle cough and put the glass back on the table. She hadn't noticed the small box with plaques immediately but now glanced inside to see what was in it. "I suppose so." She said quietly, turning herself away from the table and Jason to look at the door where she came from. "A squad I was in charge of had a couple in it. I--..." She paused. She was not drunk enough
to relive this story. "I made a tough call and got one of them killed. It wasn't supposed to happen like that but I was an idiot and forgot to do part of my job." There was a twang of bitterness to her words. "For at least a week she set out a glass of ale for him whenever she went to bars. His name was Chenik Arctus." She reached behind herself and picked up the brandy glass without
looking, continuing to stare at the door. She never relived her days in the military with anyone except those who were there those days.
Inside the box are a stack of plaques. They're rectangular with a basic decorative border around the edge. The top one has the name 'Justus Tacitus' engraved in it. The rest are obscured by the top plaque. (Jason_Wolfe)
Jason lowers his gaze as Skythix speaks, tapping his fingertips softly against the side of his beer as he listens. Once she finishes, he bites his lower lip for a moment before responding, "And there's the downside to the sort of life we live." he sighs, "It's inevitable that people are going to die, and the longer you do it, the more likely it's going to happen. Right call. Wrong
call. Sometimes it doesn't even matter. Everything can play out perfectly and sometimes-..." his shoulders rise and drop in a half-hearted shrug, "...the deck was just stacked against you from the beginning. Gotta let go of that guilt, though. Can't carry it with you forever." He lifts his beer to his lips and takes a swig, "And when you figure out how to do that, pass it along my way."
Skythix shrugged her shoulders with her back still to him. "It's not so much a burden of guilt that I hold, just their memory. It's important to keep the spirit of the squad strong and that meant having everyone there with you, past and present." She spoke into her glass as she swirled the contents, not tempted to keep drinking it yet. "I regret my decision that day and the memory is
painful but I don't let it hold me back." She tried to make herself sound more confident even though she hated reliving these stories. Or maybe it was all just nonsense she told herself to feel better? It was the turian way after all, adapt and endure. "In this case no deck was stacked against me. It was my own mistake that got him killed but it's in the past now." At that, she tossed
back the rest of the drink. There was plenty more lives to drink to that were lost in her fifteen years of service. She turned enough to grab the bottle of brandy and poured herself another large glass. "What about you? Any Alliance heroics on your record?" She finally turned around to look at him, not comfortable feeling like she was talking to herself anymore.
Jason looks down modestly, his lopsided smirk returning to his face. "Like I said before, most of my time spent with the Alliance was on tours out in the Traverse. I don't know if 'heroics' is the word I'd use..." he says with a snicker, "...but I definitely saw enough activity for one career..." He takes another sip of his drink. "My company earned their fair share of accolades." he
continues, not wanting to take credit for things he never could've accomplished alone, "But boarding hostile ships is always touch-and-go. There's no surefire way to do it, so you're always taking a chance. But you know how that is. You start to feel like a family. You stop worrying about the danger, and you worry more about the person on your left and your right. Someone from your
'family' signs up for another tour and fuck if you're gonna let him go back out there on his own. Before long, that's your life. One tour after another, and each time you come back with a slightly smaller family."
Skythix sipped at her drink while Jason talked. She thought that perhaps getting to share her stories with someone who could empathise would be cathartic but it was proving to be anything but. The last thing she needed was to be felt sorry for. "I've had many families. After so many tours you get used to loving the new faces and watching them go a couple of years later. It was never
heartbreaking, just another part of the job." Maybe it hurt so badly now because she wasn't given a new family after giving up her old one and felt lonely. Wolfe claimed Redrock would be her new family but she had only met two other employees so far and it was hardly a family so far. "What do you do here to just forget about it all? I can't imagine drinking is a good long term fix."
She tried to make it sound like a job except she desperately wanted an actual answer to the question.
Jason glances down once more as he ponders the question. "Drinking just about covers it." he finally manages, glancing back up at her with that stupid smirk, "Truth is, I don't think I can just 'forget about it all'. Maybe that's why I keep doing what I do. Putting on the armor. Taking jobs." He glances over at the open crate on his bed, "Like I said, I gave it up for a while. I
didn't have much choice. And I felt like a fish out of water. After everything I had been through, how do you just go back to a normal life?" he asks, looking over at Skythix as if, for a moment, he actually expected an answer. "You lose the adreneline. You lose that feeling that you might actually be doing something worthwhile. Something that can actually make a change. But you still
have the nightmares. The cold sweats." He sighs and lifts his other leg up to fully sit on top of the table, "But it's lose/lose, isn't it? I came back out here knowing damn well how things are supposed to end for me. Just like that old beat-up suit of armor-..." he gestures towards the crate with his beer, "...in a box. And I was okay with that. Back doing what I love. What I'm good
at. The nightmares stopped. I was keeping busy again. Guess I didn't realize I might just end up living long enough to lose whatever was left of that 'family' of mine..."
Skythix looked stunned by the human's words. Spirits, she only meant a bit of reprieve from the day to day work not something to fight back nightmares with. Maybe she was too fresh from the military to have reoccuring nightmares or maybe it was just the way she was taught but it never hit her like that. He did bring up a good point though. She didn't want to go back to a normal life.
She would have been in the military still if she didn't have such problems with authority. That was why she always tried to move up in ranks so that she could be on top. "No one wants to end up in a box, Wolfe." She waved a hand in front of her with her palm facing him. "It doesn't matter if you've accepted it or how close you walk to line of death." Time would tell if she would change
but for now she was... mostly happy with how she was. "I hate to say it but I think I'm mostly just... lonely." She hugged her midsection and shrugged her shoulders, looking away from him. "It's weird being one of the few turians on an entire planet. It doesn't help that most people I talk to I end up antagonizing." Just a terrible clash of attitudes, military vs. mercenary. Those who
Jason smiles sadly and nods, "I didn't say I wanted it... Just willing to accept that it's the way of things." he admits. He seems somewhat confused by her admission of lonliness. Perhaps just caught off guard. "I know it may not be much, but I'm always up for a drink and a good talk. I'm probably not the best company, but at least I'm not Vicky." he offers with a chuckle, "Soon