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#RedrockAgency – December 11, 2015
Jason is seated behind the desk in his office. All that sits atop it is a single box that he's rifling through. A few more boxes line one side of the room in a heap of clutter. The door is wide open.
Vasquez approaches the Redrock Agency's new building on foot, walking along the road. Perhaps she decided some fresh air would do her good. The morning sun is dimmed by clouds, and the wind brings a chill that caused her to opt for a jacket borrowed from Halisi. Upon getting past the entrance in the chainlink fence and onto the asphalt parking lot she stops briefly to admire the building.
As her gaze rises to the roof a smile tries to break through her otherwise sour expression, but it fails to manifest, and she continues on towards the entrance, opening the door with a quick button-press and making her way inside.
Jason continues to rummage through the box, pushing his belongings around in circles without paying too much attention to the world around him. Dressed in a pair of loose fitting black pants, a white tanktop and his boots, he looks as though he just slogged his way downstairs right out of bed. The flat patch of hair on one side of his head all but confirms it. The building is silent,
Vasquez moves to the hallway after a quick glance at the reception. She makes her way down it, and, upon noticing Jason's door is open, heads over, stopping in the doorway and taking a look around at the progress, or lack thereof. The injury on the side of her head is still obvious despite the medi-gel seal, as her hair is unavoidably stuck in the gel.
Jason does a double-take as Vasquez steps into the doorway, obviously not expecting her to have returned so soon. He immediately puts on the boosters and begins to act as though he's rummaging with purpose, tongue dangling intensely out of the side of his mouth. After a few seconds feeling as though he has put on a sufficient enough show of work, he stands from his seat and gives a
glance around the room- of which absolutely nothing is unpacked- and places his hands on his hips while giving a seemingly pleased nod. "Yep." he says, "Coming along nicely." He gives an exasperated sigh, as if tired from all the work he's done, and rounds the desk to approach Vasquez, his eyes on her wound. "So.... What the fuck happened?"
Vasquez runs a hand over the medigel and lets out a frustrated grunt. "One of the new recruits, Teratus, had a biotic freakout... nearly cracked my skull against the floor." She says with distaste.
Jason furrows his brow, eyes still on the wound. "Skythix?" he asks, clearly confused, "A freakout? What do you-... why? How-..." His frown deepens. "Are you okay?" he asks, reaching out to put a hand on Vasquez' chin and attempt to turn her face to get a better look at the wound.
Vasquez brushes Jason's hand away with an annoyed look. "I'll be fine. Head's just a bit jumbled. Doc said I got a concussion. Could've been a lot worse."
Renala comes out of her office, carrying several boxes in a most unstable lazy (wo)man's burden. She walks towards the reception. "Morning, Boss," she says with a slight nod as she passes their door. The asari's dressed in simple pants and a plain loose-fitting gray-violet T-Shirt.
Jason scrunches up his nose as his hand is batted away. "Uh huh... Leave it to you to get injured visiting wounded teammates in the hospital. You know you've got just about the worst luck I've ever seen?" he says, somewhat teasing, although there's no denying the truth in it. He reaches up and wipes at his bedhead as Renala approaches, attempting to make himself look somewhat presentable
Vasquez is stuck somewhere between a smirk and a scowl as Renala makes her presence known, causing Linda's expression to turn neutral as she turns around to look at the asari. "T'Iavay." She says with a nod.
Renala chuckles. "I'm like a little girl on her birthday," she says. "A spoiled one at that." Her tone isn't all that serious. She proceeds to the reception to drop off the boxes, not knowing any better place to stow them away for now.
Jason snickers and shakes his head. "Uh huh.... All those... doodads to mess with. Just make sure it's done right. We need to be ready in case any more angry salarians decide to pay us a visit." he says with a sigh. Once Renala has headed on her way to the reception, he returns his attention to Vasquez. "So..." he says, raising his shoulders and allowing them to droop back down, "What
are we gonna do about this?" He gives a pointed glance towards the woman's headwound, "Why would she do something like this? Did she say anything?"
Vasquez shrugs while turning back to Jason. "I don't know... she just... had a complete meltdown. Started shouting nonsense, then her biotics flared. I pulled a gun to defend myself and the doctor, she flung me across the hall, hard. Then she tried to run off in a panic. Halisi managed to sedate her. The look in her eyes - I don't know what she was seeing. Nearly got me killed though,
Jason blinks a couple times. "So.... So she was- what- just like, 'Oh, hey boss. Guess what? I'm a thick-skinned-bird-wizard. Cacaw, motherfucker.'? And then attacked you? That doesn't make any sense. Look through her file. She has a whole helluva lot of combat experience. Dicey shit. Not to downplay what we did back there, but we didn't come across anything she hasn't already seen..."
I'm telling you, it was like she was seeing ghosts. Doc didn't have any real explanation, but she said Teratus had been acting strange since the mission.
Jason groans loudly and reaches up to his head. "Fuck... What are we thinking here? I mean, she was close to the artifact. No closer than the rest of us, though.... Not that it clears anything up. We have no idea how that thing even works.... Do you think....?" he trails off, searching Vasquez' face for some indication as to whether or not he may be on the right track, despite
Vasquez furrows her eyebrows. Her gaze falls to the floor for a moment as she considers this. After a little while she looks up at Jason and shakes her head. "I-... I doubt it. I was a lot closer to it, for a lot longer... and I feel-..." She trails off as she searches for an approrpiate word. It's been a long time since 'fine' ever applied. "...I don't think it... did anything to me.
Jason 's gaze lowers to the ground and he returns his hand to his side. "Sorry..." he says quietly, not wanting to stir up bad memories so soon, "I'm just not sure how to handle this. We can't have someone in a team environment that we can't trust. Even if it was just a 'breakdown'. There's no telling when she'll have another episode. It's a shame, too. Like I said, she has more
Vasquez nods faintly. "I wouldn't trust her in the field after that. But we need experienced personnel. Shit. No sign of any instability before? I don't know anything about turian biotics... I wonder if issues are as common as with humans..."
Jason gives a short shake of his head. "She seemed to have her shit together before the op. During the op. After the op. Trip home." He reaches up once more and scratches at the back of his neck before letting out another sigh, "Guess we'll just have to play this one by ear. See what the doc has to say. Once she's got more information for us to go on, I'll have a talk with Skythix.
I'd hate to lose her, but if she's putting the rest of our people in danger, there's no other choice."
Vasquez nods once more. "Yeah... sounds like a plan." She glances at the doorway as Renala passes by, but quickly turns back to Jason. "I still need to decide on the base VI. Any requests?"
Renala stops as she overhears talk of the VI, and turns around. "That one's far down the to-do list, but I'll hear your requests," she says. "Maybe I'll remember it."
Jason 's frown immediately returns. "Do we really need a VI?" he groans, "We've got Renala. She can operate the doodads when the doodads need operated... on. She seemed ecstatic to be working on that crap. She probably wouldn't even consider it work-..." he pauses as Renala rejoins the conversation, unable to see her from his position inside of the office.
Vasquez rolls her eyes at Jason. "Yes, for the last time, we need a VI." She turns to face Renala. "I'll be picking one out personally - hope that's not a problem. The installation won't be until everything else is up and running anway, right?"
Renala steps closer to the other two, though is still not visible from inside the office. "I'm not a salarian," she says. "Wish I was soemtimes, though, but the sad reality is that I can't watch all vid feeds and everything at once." She then nods. "I'd like to have everything the VI's going to plug into up and running first."
Jason shakes his head and mutters under his breath. "I'd just like to go on record as saying: I don't like it." he says, "And when that thing spazzes out and turns this whole building into a house-of-horrors, you know who you're going to apologize to? The liquified, jellied form of what used to be me." he continues, folding his arms across his chest smugly. After a few moments of
silence pass, he gains an uncomfortable look, "Uhh... Because... the VI will find a way to liquify me. That's... That's what I was trying to imply. Maybe some sort of super blender. I don't know. I haven't hammered out the details yet." he says quickly and his smug look returns once more.
Vasquez nods at Renala, and then turns her attention to Jason once more. When he starts to ramble she covers her face with her palm, muttering something under her breath.
Renala scratches her chin in an exaggerated gesture. "So that's what vat-of-acid-zero-one that suddenly appeared on the network is about," she mutters loudly.
Jason narrows his eyes. "You mock me now. But mark my words. A time will come when they decide they're done taking our shit. And when that happens, we'll be powerless to stop them." He stares intently at Vasquez for a few moments before giving a shrug, "But if I've got no say in this, my vote is on asari. There's a module doohickey for Alya T'Kantis! Lead the league in points last
season. If I'm going to bow to a digital overlord, I'd prefer if it was the best damn asajura player to ever take the field!" He gives a stern nod, "Write that down, Renala. Alya. T'Kantis. A. L. E..... Uhh... You'll figure it out."
Renala chuckles. "That's not how... nevermind. Suggestion noted," she says. "Not very nice to make a VI personality from someone that's still kicking. It's even illegal in some places."
Jason pokes his head out of the door so he can speak directly to Renala, placing a hand on the frame. "Also, when you get some time do you mind giving me a hand setting up my terminal?" he asks, "Would save me a lot of time." he continues. "Annnnnd I'll order us all some lunch in a couple hours....?" he adds, hoping the free food may convince the asari.
Renala gives a sloppy salute with the wrong hand. "Yes sir," she says. "Thanks, lunch does sound great."
Jason gives a nod. "Excellent. No rush. I've still got a couple things to unpack." He follows Vasquez' gaze to the boxes and gives her a shrug, "Just... you know. Few things."
Renala smiles. "I'll get back to work, then," she says. "My terminal is probably done spewing out angry red text by now."
Jason pulls his head back into his office and leans against the wall. "So... Yeah. Security. Unpacking. VI-..." he begins to rattle off, rolling his eyes as he mentions the VI, "...Talk to Skythix. Pick up my armor once it's finished getting patched up. Got a checklist starting up. There's a handful of possible contracts I left on the backburner, too, while everything was... hectic.
I'll forward 'em to your account so you can look them over. We should probably get some credits flowing as soon as we can field some people."
Vasquez nods a few more times. "Yeah... I know. Once everything's set up here I'll consider our options, start looking for work. I-... we'll figure it out. Somehow..."
Jason gives a nod in turn. "Absolutely. We'll be fine. Just something to consider. Leah, Vicky, Mendez, Jattic, and Tess are all capable of picking up odds and ends right now, so we're not out of options. Hopefully the others makes a quick recovery..."
Sounded like everyone's recovery was coming along when I visited. Halisi thinks they'll be ready for field work in a few weeks.
Guess we'll just have to take it slow until then. Suppose we could all use a bit of a break anyway. Seems like we've been knee deep in shit for far too long.
Vasquez smirks faintly. Her gaze distant for a moment before she walks up to Jason, planting a quick kiss on his lips. "I just want to get Redrock back on track. So I'm gonna get to work. Good luck with the unpacking..." At the last statement she slips away towards the door.